USA 2025
Opening November 6, 2025
Directed by: Jan Komasa
Writing credits: Lori Rosene-Gambino, Jan Komasa
Principal actors: Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Phoebe Dynevor, Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien
Ellen (Diane Lane) and Paul (Kyle Chandler) Taylor live an idealistic upper-middle class life with a large, beautifully appointed home with three daughters and a son. Ellen is a famous professor, Paul a restauranteur, daughters Anna (Madeline Brewer) and Cynthia (Zoey Deutch) are both high achieving, one as a comedian and the other a lawyer. Younger daughter Birdie (Mckenna Grace) while just a teenager, is gifted in biology. Only the son Josh (Dylan O’Brien) is still struggling to find his place in the world as his literary career has failed to take off. On the occasion of Ellen and Paul’s twentieth wedding anniversary, the family and their many friends gather to celebrate. Dylan has brought a new girlfriend, Liz (Phoebe Dynevor) with him to the party and much to Ellen’s dismay; she is a former student whom she remembers due to her deeply undemocratic dissertation. Warning her son about Liz’s alarming political views does nothing more than push him closer to his girlfriend. As Liz becomes more entrenched in the family, she also publishes her book The Change and becomes the figurehead of a national movement to “put ‘united’ back in these States of America”. As the movement grows throughout the country, tensions rise within the Taylor family threatening to upend everything they hold dear.
In a time of rising political division within the United States, The Change certainly speaks to liberal middle-class American fears. An All-American family besieged by the illiberal views of a rapidly changing country and also one of their own is a poster child for a 2025 current affairs thriller. While this may be thrilling for some audiences to spend time watching their worst political fears become actualized on screen, from an artistic perspective The Change feels devoid of any real message beyond being wary of the threats of encroaching authoritarianism. Whatever you are imagining is likely to happen over the course of the film, probably does happen exactly how you expect with very few surprises. To the film’s credit, this predictability does little to impact the pace and entertainment value of the production and the whole cast does an admirable job with the material. So, if you’re looking for a modern thriller with a predictable ending that fills you full of existential dread about the current state of affairs in America, this might be the right choice. For anyone looking for something with a little more depth, diversity, and creativity, it is probably best to look elsewhere. (Rose F.)