Laemmle Theatres

Calling All Laemmle Moviegoers! Submit Your Top 5 Films of 2025

December 31, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle 3 Comments

As another incredible movie year comes to a close, we want to hear from you. What were your five favorite films of 2025?

Critics everywhere are weighing in—from major outlets like Variety, IndieWire, Rolling Stone, TIME, the LA Times, and beyond—but now it’s your turn to have a say. Whether your list leans arthouse, international, documentary, studio spectacle, or something gloriously unclassifiable, we want to know what films moved, thrilled, challenged, and/or stuck with you long after the credits rolled.

Was it Josh Safdie’s ballsy sports dramedy Marty Supreme? Ryan Coogler’s vampiric period piece Sinners? Paul Thomas Anderson’s screwball adventure One Battle After Another? Richard Linklater’s cinephile dream Nouvelle Vague? Or something quieter, stranger, or more under-the-radar that critics missed but you didn’t? Consensus is optional—conviction is not.

Submit your personal ‘Top 5 Films of 2025’ by clicking here and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of three $25 Laemmle Gift Cards, perfect for future movie nights, concessions, or merch. One entry per person, open to everyone, and no wrong answers (we promise).

In addition to the contest, all submissions will be tallied and compiled into a Laemmle Patrons’ Top 10 Films of 2025: a collective snapshot of what our audience loved most this year, beyond critics’ lists and awards chatter.

Need inspiration? Feel free to browse the many year-end lists circulating from critics and publications, but don’t feel bound by consensus. This is about your year in movies: the films you championed, revisited, debated, or maybe even defended passionately in the lobby afterward.

We can’t wait to see what rises to the top. Lights down, pens up—Let’s make some lists. 🎬

Explore some sample lists from…

The Hollywood Reporter

Variety

IndieWire

Rolling Stone

RogerEbert.com

Time

NY Post

LA Times

And finally, from our very own Greg Laemmle.

Anniversary Classics Presents: Revisiting Henry & June With Philip Kaufman

December 31, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

First on the 2026 docket for Laemmle Theatres’ Anniversary Classics Series comes Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June, a film that helped redraw the boundaries around what American cinema could openly explore. Released in 1990, it was the first film to receive the NC-17 rating, a designation that became inseparable from its reputation, but which only partially explains its lasting appeal. More than a provocation, Henry & June is a lush, literary meditation on desire, authorship, and the porous line between lived experience and art.

Get your tickets today to see Henry & June on Sunday, January 11th, 2026 at the Laemmle Royal, kicked off by a pre-screening discussion with director Philip Kaufman moderated by Stephen Farber, ex-president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (which will be honoring Kaufman with their Career Achievement Award the day prior) and host of Reel Talk at Laemmle Theatres.

Set in 1930s Paris, the film draws from the diaries of Anaïs Nin, whose encounters with the fledgling writer Henry Miller (still working on his masterpiece-to-be Tropic of Cancer) and his enigmatic wife June catalyze both personal and creative awakenings. Kaufman treats this triangle less as a conventional erotic drama than as a shifting constellation of gazes and power. Anaïs, played with quiet intensity by Maria de Medeiros, begins as an observer—absorbing, recording, translating sensation into language—before gradually stepping into her own erotic and artistic agency. Fred Ward’s Henry is all swagger and verbal excess, while Uma Thurman’s June is an apparition, at once muse, manipulator, and mirror for the myriad desires projected onto her.

What distinguishes Henry & June is its attention to interiority. Kaufman visualizes thought and memory as tactile experiences: ink bleeding across paper, shadows pooling in lamplit rooms, bodies framed as if already being remembered. The film’s eroticism is inseparable from its interest in writing itself, in how confession, exaggeration, and performance shape identity. Sex here is never reduced to spectacle for its own sake, but a language through which the characters attempt to define themselves.

Following Henry & June’s release, the controversy surrounding its NC-17 rating often obscured how carefully crafted the film really is. Its sensuality is deliberate and measured, rooted in atmosphere rather than shock, while its emotional core lies in Anaïs’s struggle to reconcile intimacy with autonomy. Kaufman resists easy moralizing, allowing contradictions to coexist: freedom and dependency, inspiration and exploitation, love and self-invention.

Seen today, Henry & June feels less like a boundary-pushing outlier than a throwback to a brief moment in time when American studios were willing to support adult, intellectually curious filmmaking that trusted audiences to engage with such complexity. Its frankness remains striking, but so does its elegance, as well as its belief that erotic experience can be cinematic without being reductive or vulgar. More than three decades on, the film endures as a portrait of artists in formation and as a sensual inquiry into how stories—especially the ones we tell about ourselves—come into being.

Chlorinated Cruelty in Charlie Polinger’s The Plague

December 23, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle 1 Comment

In The Plague, writer-director Charlie Polinger delivers a bracing, tactile descent into adolescent cruelty and contagion, crafting a horror film that feels less interested in jump scares than in the slow seep of dread. Set within the pressure-cooker ecosystem of a boys’ water polo camp, the film uses genre as a prism, refracting familiar rites of passage into something diseased, hallucinatory, and quietly devastating. With its brutal group dynamics, The Plague often feels like a modern, chlorine-soaked Lord of the Flies, where social order erodes not on some remote desert island but in plain sight.

Tune into Inside the Arthouse to catch writer-director Charlie Polinger discussing his debut film with co-hosts Greg Laemmle and Raphael Sbarge ahead of its release on December 24th at the Laemmle Royal.

From its opening moments, The Plague announces its intentions through sound and image. Polinger’s approach is intensely sensory, and nowhere is that clearer than in his score, which pulses with a discordant, off-kilter rhythm. Rather than underlining emotions, the music destabilizes them, oscillating between menace and melancholy while subtly complementing the film’s meticulous sound design: splashes echo too loudly, breathing feels amplified, and the ordinary acoustics of locker rooms and pool decks take on an oppressive weight.

Visually, The Plague is just as unsettling. The cinematography leans into sickly color palettes and claustrophobic framing, transforming sunlit pools and suburban spaces into arenas of quiet menace. Polinger and his cinematographer repeatedly trap characters at the frame’s edge or obscure them behind bodies, water, or architecture, reinforcing the film’s fixation on hierarchy and exclusion.

The cast grounds the film’s escalating unease with remarkable precision. Joel Edgerton brings a coiled intensity to his role as an authority figure whose presence looms larger than his screen time, embodying the institutional blindness that has allowed such abuse to metastasize. The younger ensemble, led by Everett Blunck and Kayo Martin, delivers performances of unnerving authenticity, capturing the volatility of adolescents caught between bravado, fear, and complicity. Their interactions reveal how quickly cruelty can become currency in closed systems, and how survival often depends on knowing when to look away.

That cruelty manifests most explicitly through the film’s body horror, which Polinger deploys with remarkable restraint. The physical affliction at the center of The Plague is never treated as spectacle for its own sake; instead, it becomes a grotesque metaphor for how shame and violence spread when left unchecked, infecting bodies and communities alike.

By the time The Plague reaches its unsettling conclusion, it has established Polinger as a filmmaker with a precise command of mood and an unflinching eye for social rot. Anchored by its inventive score and unnerving cinematography, the film lingers long after its final frame, less like a scream than an infection you can’t quite shake.

“An eerie sense of unreality runs through The Plague… Polinger uses horror conventions to tease out the psychic terror and intimidation of pre-teen social codes.” – Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter

“A film that harnesses its many offbeat and potent powers in service of a unique strain of reassurance.” – Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire

Snapshots: This Year’s Shortlist for Best Documentary and International Feature

December 23, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Each year, the Academy’s documentary and international feature shortlists offer an early snapshot of the stories, styles, and concerns shaping global cinema. This season, 15 documentaries and 15 international features have advanced to the shortlist stage in their respective categories, from which just five nominees apiece will ultimately be selected. Reaching this point alone signals extraordinary distinction, marking these films as some of the most resonant and accomplished works released worldwide this year.

Documentary Features

Brandon Kramer’s Holding Liat follows the family of Liat Beinin Atzili after she is taken hostage from her kibbutz during the October 7th attacks, capturing the emotional toll of waiting while navigating grief, fear, and fragile hope. Kramer avoids sensationalism, allowing viewers to feel the weight of time as it stretches unbearably forward. Holding Liat returns to Laemmle Theatres on January 16th, with advance shows featuring Q&As with the filmmakers at Glendale on January 14th and the Royal on the 15th.

Brittany Shyne’s Seeds offers a lyrical portrait of Black farmers in the American South, tracing generations of agricultural knowledge passed down through land, labor, and memory. Shot in black-and-white, the film observes these farmers’ daily rituals (planting, harvesting, repairing equipment) with reverence and care while more broadly addressing the systemic forces that have threatened Black land ownership for decades. Shyne’s approach is contemplative rather than didactic, allowing the resilience, dignity, and perseverance of her subjects to speak for themselves. Seeds opens at Laemmle’s Glendale January 23rd.

International Features — Returning to Laemmle Theatres in early January 2026

Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice (South Korea), adapted from Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Axe, offers a bleakly comic portrait of economic precarity pushed to its logical extremes. The film centers on Man-su, a longtime paper company employee whose comfortable life unravels after a corporate buyout leaves him unemployed. As financial pressure threatens his home and family, Man-su’s desperation hardens into calculation, leading him on a methodical, morally chilling effort to ‘eliminate’ rival job candidates, reframing professional competition as literal survival.

In The President’s Cake (Iraq), Hasan Hadi offers a deceptively simple coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of authoritarian rule. Told through the eyes of a young girl tasked with baking a cake to honor Saddam Hussein, the film balances innocence and menace, revealing how political power infiltrates even the smallest rituals of childhood.

In Oliver Laxe’s Sirat (Spain), middle-aged dad Luis travels with his son Esteban to a rave in southern Morocco in search of his missing daughter, only to be swept into a nomadic convoy pushing deeper into an increasingly unstable landscape. As rumors of global conflict spread and the desert becomes increasingly militarized, the narrative shifts from communal drift to stark survival. When tragedy fractures the group, Sirat becomes a meditation on grief and forward motion, asking what it means to keep walking when meaning itself has collapsed.

Petra Volpe’s Late Shift (Switzerland) turns its attention to the pressures of contemporary labor, unfolding over the course of a single night in a Swiss hospital. With mounting urgency, the film observes a nurse pushed to her limits by understaffing and impossible demands. Volpe’s clear-eyed direction transforms everyday professional stress into a gripping ethical drama about care, responsibility, and systemic neglect.

Cherien Dabis’s All That’s Left of You (Jordan) centers on a Palestinian teenager swept into a protest in the Occupied West Bank, where a sudden act of violence sends shockwaves through his family. From that rupture, the narrative expands outward as his mother recounts the personal and political forces that shaped the critical moment, threading past and present together. Rather than offering a single perspective, the film unfolds as an act of bearing witness, honoring survival not as abstraction, but as something lived, remembered, and passed down.

Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36 (Palestine) revisits the 1936-39 Arab Revolt against British colonial rule, foregrounding the human cost of resistance and focusing on intimate relationships shaped by betrayal, loyalty, and survival. Jacir brings emotional depth and political clarity to a story rarely depicted on screen, offering a work that feels both historically grounded and urgently contemporary.

Together, these shortlisted films reflect a cinema attuned to moral complexity and the enduring consequences of power, memory, and choice. Catch them in theaters before awards season really takes off!

Happy Holidays!

To the loyal patrons of the Claremont 5 – Closing

December 20, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle 2 Comments

It is with a sense of reflective pride that we announce the sale of the Laemmle Claremont property to a new owner. Proud of all the wonderful independent, and award-winning films that we have brought to The City of Trees and PhDs since our opening in 2007. And proud to report that the new owner intends to continue operating a movie theater at this location, marking the beginning of an exciting new chapter for this venue.

“Of all the possible outcomes, we feel that this is truly the best option for Laemmle, the new owner, and the community,” according to Laemmle President Greg Laemmle. “It’s an overused term, but in this case, this really is a win-win situation.”

A handover will happen toward the end of January, 2026. Patrons can continue to use Premiere Card balances, gift certificates and Frequent Moviegoer Vouchers

“Thank you to the Claremont community for 18 years of patronage. It is sad to say goodbye, but we truly believe that we are leaving you in good hands,” said Greg Laemmle in closing

Groundbreaking ceremony: August 4th, 2005

From left to right: Jon Tolkin, the Manager of Claremont Village Expansion and Claremont Village Inn – Jay Reisbaum (VP of Laemmle Theatres) – Bob Laemmle (owner) – Bob Laemmle loved driving out to check on the progress of construction so that he could visit the Some Crust Bakery on Yale Ave

The Claremont 5 was built from the ground up by Laemmle Theatres and opened to the public on Friday July 27th, 2007. The first five films booked were Hairspray, My Best Friend, No Reservations, Sunshine and Sicko. The theater had 5 auditoriums with stadium seating and wall-to-wall screens. The houses ranged in size from 113 to 250 seats.

Finding Harmony in Wartime: The Choral and the Power of Collective Song

December 16, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

In The Choral, writer Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner reunite for a thoughtful period drama that finds grace, humor, and resilience in the unlikeliest of places: a Yorkshire choral society during the First World War. Anchored by a powerful performance from Ralph Fiennes as the enigmatic Dr. Henry Guthrie, the film offers a portrait of a community seeking harmony—at once musical and human—in the face of loss and disruption.

Catch The Choral in theaters beginning December 25th at the Laemmle Royal, with an expansion to other theaters coming in January.

Set in the fictional mill town of Ramsden in 1916, The Choral explores what happens when music becomes not just performance, but a cherished source of purpose. With most of the town’s men already enlisted on the Western Front, the local choral society finds its ranks dangerously thin. In response, it appoints Dr. Guthrie, a cultured and unconventional choirmaster recently returned from Germany and met with suspicion for his background and aesthetic sensibilities. Tasked with leading the group, he proposes an ambitious performance of Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, a spiritually rich oratorio that resonates deeply with a community acutely aware of its own mortality.

Fiennes embodies Guthrie with both gravitas and warmth, portraying a man whose intellect and devotion to music are inseparable from his own private sorrows. Around him, an ensemble cast—featuring Roger Allam as a grieving mill owner and Simon Russell Beale as Elgar himself—creates a tapestry of characters whose collective journey toward mounting a successful choral performance becomes a testament to the restorative power of art and beauty amid wartime disruption.

Alan Bennett’s screenplay is marked by his characteristic wit and emotional honesty. He balances the weight of loss with sharp dialogue and unexpected moments of levity, inviting audiences into a world where communal bonds are tested by war and yet strengthened by shared purpose. The film doesn’t shy away from the era’s anxieties—patriotism, class divisions, and suspicion of outsiders, etc.—but what emerges is a story less about the battlefield than the home front’s quiet courage.

The Choral may not be a rousing blockbuster in the conventional sense, but it’s precisely its reflective tone and ensemble performances that give it strength. It’s a film about how, in communities fractured by war and uncertainty, coming together in song can become a kind of salvation, a way to honor what was lost and to imagine something like grace.

“An unsentimental but deeply felt drama which subcontracts actual passion to the music of Elgar and leaves us with a heartbeat of wit, poignancy and common sense.” – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“A reminder that life goes on, just like a song, even when it seems like everything should stop in the face of so much horror.” – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

“The film is best when it chafes quietly against our expectations of gentle British comfort viewing…” – Guy Lodge, Variety

A Christmas Harmony: Why Song Sung Blue Is the Season’s Perfect Crowd-Pleaser

December 16, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

Arriving on Christmas Day, Song Sung Blue is the kind of theatrical experience that feels tailor-made for the holiday season: warm, generous, and powered by the simple pleasure of shared music. Directed by Craig Brewer, the film blends biography, romance, and performance into a story about second chances and the quiet triumphs that come from believing in yourself as well as one another.

Catch Song Sung Blue in theaters beginning Thursday, December 25th at the Laemmle Glendale, Newhall, Town Center, NoHo, and Claremont to see for yourself why it’s Tish Laemmle’s favorite movie of 2025, a fun fact made even funner by this ringing endorsement of both the film and Laemmle Theatres in general made by iconic filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.

Inspired by a true story, Song Sung Blue follows Mike and Claire Sardina, a Wisconsin couple whose dreams of musical success have dimmed with time. When they form a Neil Diamond tribute band called Lightning & Thunder, what began as a modest idea becomes a lifeline. Through local gigs, long drives, and moments of doubt, the couple reconnects not just with audiences, but with the reasons they fell in love with music—and with each other—in the first place.

Hugh Jackman brings warmth, vulnerability, and charm to Mike, a performer learning to reclaim his voice after years of disillusionment. Opposite him, Kate Hudson gives one of her more versatile performances to-date as Claire, infusing the role with optimism, humor, and emotional clarity. Together, they create a portrait of partnership that feels deeply human: messy, supportive, occasionally strained, but ultimately resilient. The supporting cast—highlighted by Michael Imperioli, Fisher Stevens, and Jim Belushi—adds texture and humor to the world surrounding the band.

Music, however, is the film’s connective tissue. Songs like “Sweet Caroline” and “Cherry, Cherry” are woven naturally into the narrative, not as spectacle but as compelling expressions of longing, joy, and perseverance. Brewer’s direction resists gloss in favor of sincerity, allowing the actors’ performances to unfold with intimacy and ease. Rather than chasing the highs of overnight success, Song Sung Blue finds its emotional payoff in the smaller victories: the applause of a local crowd, the harmony between two voices, and the triumph of simply being seen.

As a Christmas theater-going experience, Song Sung Blue hits a rare sweet spot. It’s uplifting without being sentimental, musical without being flashy, and rooted in the belief that it’s never too late to rediscover one’s purpose. Perfect for audiences looking to close out the year with something heartfelt and communal, the film reminds us that joy often arrives not with fireworks, but with a familiar song sung together and at just the right moment.

“A family movie in the best sense of the term, a crowd-pleaser with a ton of heart.” – David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

“Let-it-rip acting with the fussiness burned off.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“If the right Diamond song at the right time can turn you into mush, you’re likely to find that Brewer’s film is capable of tugging on the same heartstrings.” – Christian Zilko, IndieWire

Laemmle Holiday Gifts: Wear Your Love of Cinema (Literally)

December 10, 2025 by Lamb Laemmle Leave a Comment

As the year winds down and the hunt for the perfect gift ramps up, we’re delighted to remind you that you can always give the joy of movies, the comfort of good merch, and a slice of the Laemmle spirit you can wear, wrap, or swipe at the box office. Whether you’re shopping for a devoted cinephile(s) in your life or simply indulging in a little self-treating (highly encouraged), our 2025 line of Laemmle merchandise and gift cards is here just in time for the holidays.

Men’s T-Shirt If you’re afraid of subtitles, don’t even talk to us about film. If you’re not afraid, you belong both in a Laemmle auditorium and in this shirt! Soft, lightweight, and flattering, this tee is crafted from 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (with some polyester in the Heather colors) and has just the right amount of stretch to be comfortable enough for marathon screenings as well as stylish enough for post-film debates.	Women’s T-Shirt This just might be the softest, most comfortable women’s tee you’ll ever own! With a relaxed fit, smooth fabric, and multiple cotton-poly blends depending on color, it’s effortless to style: jeans for everyday, a blazer for business casual, anything for the movies. Pre-shrunk, side-seamed, and easy to love.

Laemmle Hoodie When the lights dim, the temperature drops. Our Laemmle hoodie offers warmth, coziness, and a minimalist cinema-kid aesthetic. Made with a 100% cotton face and a 65/35 ring-spun cotton/polyester blend, it features a front pouch pocket, matching drawstrings, a 3-panel hood, and a self-fabric patch on the back. One note: They do run small, so consider ordering one size up! They’re produced on demand to reduce overproduction, so order yours before you need it.	Laemmle Hat Low-profile, unstructured, and endlessly wearable, this hat is made from 100% chino cotton twill with six embroidered eyelets and an adjustable strap with antique buckle. It’s the perfect topping for any outfit, whether your style leans auteur-casual or projection-booth chic. Like our hoodies, it’s produced on demand, which means each one is made just for you.

Laemmle Gift Cards

A classic for a reason. Available from $25 to $100, Laemmle Gift Cards can be used for movie tickets, concessions, merchandise—anything we sell at our theaters or online at Laemmle.com. They’re a splendid present for anyone who loves arthouse cinema, eclectic programming, or the simple magic of the theatergoing experience.

The Premiere Card

If Gift Cards are lovely, the Premiere Card is almost suspiciously generous. Pre-loaded with $100 to spend at any Laemmle location or online, it’s the single best deal in cinema today. Cardholders get $3 off every ticket on all regular programming, 20% off concessions, and one free popcorn every Thursday. Think of it as buying a gift card for yourself—or as giving a friend the keys to the kingdom.

Let us know which items you are interested in! Whether you’re gifting, receiving, or simply treating yourself to a little cinematic flair, Laemmle merch and cards bring the theater experience into daily life. After all, loving movies isn’t just a pastime—It’s a lifestyle. And now, it can be a wardrobe, too.

Happy Holidays!

– Your friends at Laemmle Theatres

store.laemmle.com

#NotAfraidOfSubtitles