culture
This is the year of deeper attention. On our Culture page, we curate what’s worth watching, reading, and listening to in 2025—from films that linger long after the credits to books that shift your thinking and albums that score your season. For those who crave meaning over momentum, here is culture selected with care—for stylish, smart women who want to stay curious.
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after summer films
There’s a certain stretch at the end of summer where time feels suspended — golden evenings linger, yet the air has already begun to cool. In that in-between, we find ourselves curating a set of films that hold on to the season, just a little longer before autumn arrives.
What film best captures the hazy transition from summer into autumn?
The Virgin Suicides (1999, directed by Sofia Coppola, starring Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods) — Coppola’s debut is drenched in golden light and suburban ennui, its dreamy tone evoking the last glow of summer before the fall. Praised for its lyrical atmosphere and Coppola’s assured visual storytelling, the film remains a defining exploration of adolescence and melancholy.
Which film shows how heat and desire can turn into tension?
A Bigger Splash (2015, directed by Luca Guadagnino, starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson) — set on the sun-soaked island of Pantelleria, this film unravels idyllic leisure into a simmering clash of desire, ego, and control. Celebrated for its sensual cinematography and raw performances, it’s a study of how summer’s intensity can quickly splinter into chaos.
Is there a film about fleeting summer nights and time passing?
Before Sunrise (1995, directed by Richard Linklater, starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) — a single night in Vienna becomes a meditation on love, chance, and transience. Acclaimed for its naturalistic dialogue and intimate direction, the film redefined the romantic drama, showing how one night can feel like an entire lifetime.
What classic captures summer love through the lens of memory?
Summer Interlude (1951, directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Maj-Britt Nilsson) — Bergman’s poetic early work weaves together past and present, as a ballerina recalls her youthful romance. Hailed for its psychological depth and elegiac tone, the film is often seen as the beginning of Bergman’s exploration of memory, mortality, and art as reflection.
What film balances summer nostalgia with a sense of endings?
Moonrise Kingdom (2012, directed by Wes Anderson, starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand) — Anderson’s pastel-tinted tale of runaway young lovers captures the whimsy of childhood summers while quietly mourning their passing. Critics praised its precise style, heartfelt performances, and delicate balance of irony and sincerity — a nostalgic farewell to innocence.
Published on 28 Aug 2025
by Team Currant
5 Aug 2025
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rental family
What is Rental Family about?
Set in Tokyo, Rental Family follows a washed-up American actor—played by Brendan Fraser—who takes on a strange but lucrative job: impersonating missing family members for clients who hire intimacy on demand. One day a father, another a long-lost son. With each performance, the line between fiction and emotional truth begins to blur.
Is this based on reality?
Loosely, yes. The film draws from Japan’s real rent-a-family services—businesses where actors are paid to fill emotional roles in people’s lives. It’s a surreal premise, but the trailer suggests something deeply human: a meditation on loneliness, connection, and the transactional ways we try to feel less alone.
Is Brendan Fraser back?
He never really left—but yes, this marks his return to a leading role post-The Whale. In the trailer, Fraser’s performance looks quiet, subdued, and quietly devastating—playing a man who’s both actor and imposter, slowly absorbing the grief of strangers as his own.
What’s the tone?
Subtle and melancholic. From what we’ve seen, Rental Family doesn’t lean into drama—it leans away from it. There’s restraint in the lighting, the dialogue, the pacing. It’s less about what’s said, more about what’s missing.
Why does it feel timely?
Because we live in an age of curated connection—where even our relationships can feel performed. Rental Family explores what happens when that performance becomes livelihood. And more provocatively: what happens when it starts to feel real.
When can I watch it?
The film premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, with a theatrical release set in November for the US and Europe.
written by: team Currant
date: 5 Aug 2025
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after the hunt
What is After the Hunt?
It’s Luca Guadagnino’s latest film, set to premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Described as a slow-burn academic thriller with emotional undercurrents, it stars Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri—a casting choice as unexpected as it is intriguing.
What’s it about?
The story centers around a university professor whose quiet, structured life begins to unravel when past secrets resurface. There’s intellectual tension, interpersonal conflict, and the signature Guadagnino pacing: slow, sensual, just slightly disorienting.
Is it visually beautiful?
It’s Guadagnino. That’s a given. The cinematography is reportedly crisp and restrained, more The Power of the Dog than Call Me By Your Name. Interiors are heavy with meaning; wardrobe is quietly intellectual. You’ll want to buy loafers and take up philosophy.
Why Julia Roberts?
That’s part of the interest. This isn’t the Julia of wide smiles and rom-coms. It’s a more contained, complex performance—think of it as her Tár moment. Guadagnino is known for pushing actors into new emotional terrain, and early word suggests Roberts delivers something precise and simmering.
And Andrew Garfield?
He plays against her, possibly not as the romantic lead—but as something messier. Details are intentionally scarce, but he reportedly leans into ambiguity, fragility, and contradiction. Which is to say: he’s very good at it.
What makes it a ‘Currant’ film?
It’s stylish without excess. It’s cerebral without coldness. It speaks to the emotional lives of people who read, reflect, and regret. A film where meaning lives in silences as much as dialogue. And where wardrobe, lighting, and tone are as sharp as the script.
Should I watch it?
If you liked Tár, Past Lives, or The Lost Daughter, then yes. It’s not made for fast consumption. It’s made for sitting with. The kind of film you think about the next morning. Possibly while drinking black coffee in a linen shirt.