Anniversary (2025) Review: Incredible performances, great writing carries this sharp family thriller

Jan Komasa’s Anniversary is one of 2025’s most unsettling and accomplished films, a political drama that transforms domestic conflict into a mirror of national unrest. Though written before President Donald Trump’s second term, the film resonates as a pointed commentary on contemporary America. Anchored by a commanding ensemble and a script honed with surgical precision, Komasa traces how one family’s fractures reflect a country consumed by ideology.

The deliberate pacing of the first act requires patience, but the mounting tension and devastating finale make it worth the wait. What emerges is a searing portrait of belief, fear, and manipulation in a nation teetering between conviction and collapse.

Anniversary Overview

Set over five turbulent years, Anniversary charts the slow collapse of an American family as a rising political movement consumes the nation. What begins as Ellen and Paul Taylor’s 25th wedding anniversary turns into an annual series of gatherings that expose shifting loyalties, power struggles, and private betrayals.

Diane Lane plays Ellen, a Georgetown political science professor who believes in the two-party system but fears its disintegration. Kyle Chandler’s Paul, a successful restaurateur, tries to keep the peace as their family fractures around them. Their children reflect America’s generational divide: Anna (Madeline Brewer), a liberal stand-up comic; Cynthia (Zoey Deutch), an environmental lawyer married to Rob (Daryl McCormack); and Josh (Dylan O’Brien), whose new girlfriend Liz (Phoebe Dynevor) brings chaos to the table.

Ellen once failed Liz’s Georgetown thesis promoting a one-party state — a grudge that resurfaces when Liz’s book, The Change, becomes a national sensation. Backed by the shadowy Cumberland Corporation, Liz’s movement transforms America into a communist regime where dissent is forbidden. Komasa filters that transformation through the Taylors’ disintegration, turning domestic disputes into a political allegory.

Lane delivers one of the year’s most commanding performances, with Chandler offering his best work since Friday Night Lights. O’Brien’s descent into fanaticism is chilling, while Brewer evolves from comic relief to quiet defiance. Deutch channels weary frustration, and McKenna Grace shines as Birdie, the family’s withdrawn observer with a scientist’s clarity.

The first act drags, but once Cumberland’s influence tightens, Anniversary becomes riveting. McCormack’s emotional outburst feels overwrought, yet the film’s intensity rarely falters. With its mix of political dread and familial decay, Anniversary stands as 2025’s sharpest thriller — outpacing Weapons and The Long Walk, and second only to Sinners among the year’s best.

The Change

At the heart of Anniversary is Liz’s political movement, known simply as “The Change.” What begins as a failed thesis gradually evolves into a nationwide ideological force, demonstrating how ideas can spread rapidly when charisma intersects with grievance. Liz’s speeches, social media activity, and growing circle of followers are depicted in intimate domestic settings, highlighting the inseparability of the personal and the political.

Komasa and screenwriter Lori Rosene-Gambino treat “The Change” not merely as a backdrop but as a driving presence within the story. Its influence reshapes the dynamics of the Taylor household, from subtle tensions to extreme choices. Cynthia’s drastic decisions regarding family planning are a stark example. The film’s cinematography reinforces this duality: close, almost claustrophobic framing inside the home contrasts with expansive, impersonal shots of rallies and public discourse, underscoring the movement’s simultaneous intimacy and societal reach.

In many ways, “The Change” functions as a character itself. Following Liz’s progression from student to ideological leader, the film examines the seductive pull of certainty, the dangers of rigid thinking, and the risks of conflating loyalty to ideas with loyalty to people.

How Ellen and Paul Change in Anniversary

Over five years, Ellen and Paul Taylor’s marriage becomes the emotional core of Anniversary—a mirror of how ideology corrodes intimacy and erodes trust.

Ellen begins as a composed Georgetown professor, confident that reason and bipartisanship can preserve democracy. But as Liz’s doctrine gains momentum, Ellen’s authority collapses. What once made her admirable—her intellect, her conviction—now isolates her. By the final gathering, she’s no longer the poised academic commanding a room, but a mother clinging to her family and her fading sense of control.

Paul’s transformation is quieter but just as devastating. At first, he’s the peacemaker—steady, humorous, eager to diffuse the growing ideological tension around him. Yet as politics invades every corner of their lives, his diplomacy hardens into denial.

The turning point comes when one of their children disappears after speaking against The Change. A chilling encounter with two census agents—who are using the registry to locate dissidents—lays bare the new power dynamic. When Paul refuses to sign their document, Ellen does, choosing Birdie’s safety over principle.

In that moment, Komasa distills the film’s tragedy: a marriage built on shared ideals undone by survival instincts. Ellen adapts; Paul resists. Both lose the very things that once defined them.

Josh’s Transformation

Josh Taylor’s evolution becomes Anniversary’s most haunting thread—a portrait of how ideology seduces the disillusioned. When he first appears, Josh is the family’s middle child, quietly insecure and eager to prove himself. His introduction of Liz at the anniversary dinner feels like an act of rebellion wrapped in charm, a son challenging his mother’s authority by falling for her former student

At first, Josh echoes Liz’s rhetoric without conviction, parroting her vision of unity under The Change more to impress than to believe. But as Liz’s movement grows and society begins to fracture, that imitation hardens into devotion. He starts dressing like her supporters, quoting her book, and policing dissent within his own family. Dylan O’Brien plays the turn with unnerving restraint—his smile fading scene by scene until a cold, penetrating stare replaces it.

By the third gathering, Josh has become both believer and enforcer. A chilling sit-down with his father illustrates how despicable Josh has become. Josh confronts his father by revealing he knows Paul’s restaurant empire is crumbling. He offers to invest as a silent partner. Paul shows the intellect of a man who can choose to fit into Ellen’s political world. He sees through this offer. Not only does he silently recognize the ego blast Josh is launching, but he also outwardly deduces that Josh is fishing for information on his missing sibling’s whereabouts.

Through Josh, Komasa captures the danger of intellectual surrender. The moment when ideology offers identity to those desperate for purpose.

Anniversary Final Thoughts

Anniversary is more than a political drama; it is a dissection of human vulnerability under the weight of ideology. Komasa takes what could have been a conventional family story and transforms it into a chilling meditation on power, loyalty, and belief. The Taylors’ household becomes a microcosm of a nation unraveling, where intimate betrayals mirror public ones, and survival often demands moral compromise.

The film’s most significant achievement lies in its characters. Lane anchors the narrative with quiet ferocity, embodying the slow erosion of authority and trust. Chandler provides a nuanced counterpoint, portraying a man whose good intentions collide tragically with the world’s harsh realities. O’Brien’s Josh is a revelation. His descent into zealotry is subtle, terrifying, and heartbreakingly believable, illustrating how personal insecurity can be exploited by political fervor.

Supporting performances, from Brewer to Grace, deepen the emotional resonance, reminding us that even minor players carry the weight of conscience and complicity.

Komasa’s direction balances patience with inevitability. While the first act requires endurance, the payoff is a relentless escalation of tension and dread. Cinematography and score amplify the claustrophobia, turning family spaces into arenas of ideological warfare. By the final scene, Anniversary leaves viewers with more than shock; it provokes reflection on the fragility of intimacy, the seduction of certainty, and the cost of compromise.

In 2025, Anniversary stands as a haunting, meticulously crafted examination of both personal and national fracture. A film that lingers long after the credits roll.

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