The Choral (2025)

I enjoyed it.

It’s the sort of movie that I’m surprised still gets made, a period drama with low stakes for the people in the movie. (They’ve got a show to put on, but it’s not necessarily spelled out why it’s important they do, or what happens if they don’t — it’s just something to give them joy and artistic release in a world that seems committed to ugliness. That’s the point of course, but I didn’t watch it on the edge of my seat or anything — a world with less art isn’t a world with no art — but that doesn’t mean it was dull.)

Ralph Fiennes is great. (His performance is more in line with The Menu or Conclave, but even if I have seen enough to spot his mannerisms, he’s still mesmerizing.) The other actors do well. Even if the stakes aren’t high, we still enjoy meeting and spending time with the characters, exploring their hopes and fears, their setbacks and how they cope with them.

6/10. People who enjoy period dramas set against a wartime background may enjoy it more. Reminded me of The Station Agent (a superior movie in which nothing has to happens but we enjoy spending time watching the world in which the characters lived)