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Criticker Newsletter - 11 August 2025
Published 12 Aug 2025

Criticker News

We're super excited to announce that Criticker has been chosen as the sponsor of the BASE Awards People's Choice: Hidden Gem Category! The British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) will be celebrating their 45th annual awards show on November 13th, in London's Camden Roundhouse.

We feel like it's a great fit, since the Criticker Community loves under-the-radar titles -- a look at any of our annual lists of "Twenty Most-Loved Films" will tell you that! In fact, the two previous winners of BASE's Hidden Gem Award were also both in our year-end lists: Past Lives in 2024, and Aftersun in 2022.

The majority of the BASE Awards are decided upon with hard metrics -- most streams, most successful campaign, etc. But the Hidden Gems Award is special, in that it's chosen by film fans. And anyone can vote! So if you have a moment, head over to their website and vote for your favorite hidden gem of the year. They have a list of hundreds of eligible films, but if you don't see your top pick, you can write it in. Just keep in mind that it must have had a transactional release in the UK between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025.

After preliminary voting has wrapped, a short-list will be prepared, and the audience will have another chance to vote on the eventual winner.

Check out our article or the press release from BASE if you want to read more about the awards or about Criticker's participation in them!

Collections You Might Want to Check Out

Not necessarily done well, just that it is there and I liked the movie reasonably well overall
Created on 22 Jul 2023 by tev
Includes Patton, Moonlight, La Haine, and Babel
Created on 13 Jun 2018 by DeadFox
Movies which have been reviewed on the Flop House Podcast
Created on 07 Oct 2015 by mucow
Includes Aeon Flux, Calamity Jane, Zero Woman: The Hunted, and Buccaneer's Girl
Created on 10 Feb 2014 by mattburgess
Includes Possession, Last Night, Stellar, and 4:44 Last Day on Earth
Created on 29 Nov 2012 by geohawk

Recent Mini-Reviews Getting Love

For a movie with a plot that's ninety percent about the end of the world, it manages not to elicit even the smallest sense of urgency. In fact, almost everything about it feels strangely tepid. I liked what it said about family, at least.
There's stuff to like here, such as the aesthetics and some of the cinematography, and especially Herb, but then there's the trite story, the underwritten characters, and the uninspiredness of it all. Disappointing after how surprisingly decent Thunderbolts was. It hinges heavily on its admittedly beautiful-looking world to mask how undercooked it ends up feeling: from the family dynamics (which didn't elicit any particular emotion in me), to the plot conveniences.
3 Stars for Paxton's review of Swallow
Following the movie I watched the trailer which had the audacity to claim that there would be evocations of Fincher, which is a tough pill to, well, you know.
3 Stars for Ytadel's review of Happy Gilmore 2
In all fairness this is better than most of the straight-to-Netflix Sandler movies of the last ten years (damning with faint praise), but it still insists on some "huh, really?" plot ideas (kind of reminded me of Clerks 3 a bit in that regard actually), ENDLESS flashbacks to the first movie, bad acting from various golfers and influencers, etc. Still though I did like Shooter McGavin's role, I was worried from the trailer he would be like some one scene cameo; not the case at all.
2 Stars for Scuffed's review of Free Willy
They should make a parody version that is the exact same, except every stunt they change the main kid out like Milo and Otis. The message of the film could have been done better if they didn't play it so safe. I compliment the movie for having good contrast, something missing in new movies.

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