No Other Choice and The Testament of Ann Lee
2025
There are few things as exciting as having your year-end best-of lists (I call mine The Posties, and they’re coming soon!) thrown into absolute chaos in the last two weeks of awards season! But, thanks to the Dietrich Theatre in Tunkhannock, PA, that’s just what I experienced last night. The Dietrich is almost exactly an hour from my house, and I had never been there until it was the only place showing Wake Up Dead Man a couple months ago. Turns out, they have a film festival the last few weeks of awards season, showing indie and international films that people in the area had not had a chance to see. Last night, I watched a list-shattering double feature of No Other Choice and The Testament of Ann Lee!
No Other Choice is the latest from Korean superstar director Park Chan-wook. I have never really enjoyed his films before (such as 2022’s Decision to Leave or his hyper-violent Oldboy and Lady Vengeance), but I got to watch two-thirds of his miniseries version of le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl with Florence Pugh, and I loved it. (I’m still looking for a way to watch those last two episodes, though…😬) His new film stars Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game fame and covers much of the same thematic territory as that excellent TV show: South Korea’s unemployment crisis and the cutthroat culture of desperate capitalism that has resulted.
While actually based on a book by Donald E. Westlake, the movie is basically a twist on the famous British comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which an unscrupulous, penniless nobleman sets out to kill the six people (all played by Alec Guinness) who stand between him and a huge family inheritance. (Yes, an American remake called How To Make a Killing is in theatres now.) In No Other Choice, family money is replaced by a rare job opportunity. Lee’s paper engineer, Man-su, is fired by the typical Korean movie American bad guys. Suddenly, his perfect life is in danger, as his ancestral home goes up for sale. Eventually, one job emerges in Man-su’s field. He’s perfect for it. But he knows that competition will be fierce. So, he rounds up information on every Korean paper engineer who is more qualified than he is. There is no other choice: those three men must be killed so that the job goes to Man-su.
Yes, it’s a very black comedy, and it becomes increasingly disturbing, but it never ceases being truly funny. This is the funniest film of the year, hands down. Watching the inexperienced assassin attempt his work in between terribly-timed FaceTime calls from his wife is a riot. Man-su’s evolving desperation mounts along with his empathy for his would-be victims. When his wife accuses him of infidelity because he’s away at job interviews at all hours of the night with strange objects in his car, there is no pretense in his tearful reply, “Honey, these interviews have been very hard!” Of course, Man-su’s schemes go hilariously off the tracks, leading to some even crazier cover-ups. All this time, separate dramas are going on at home with his wife, his son, and his daughter (who only speaks by echoing others).
Filled with innovative editing, a slick soundtrack, and beautiful cinematography, No Other Choice is unavoidably one of 2025’s very best films.
The Testament of Ann Lee really is “like nothing I’ve ever seen before” (as the trailer quotes one reviewer as saying). From the very first scene, my brain was racing to decide what kind of film this was and, therefore, what the rules of its world were. Written by romantic partners Brady Corbet (whose The Brutalist almost broke Anora’s stranglehold on last year’s Oscars) and Mona Fastvold (who directs this time), the script tells the story of the Shakers through their leader, Mother Ann Lee. As there are no first-hand accounts of Lee’s life, the highly-researched film is assembled by books written years after her death, when she had already become a folk legend. The movie acknowledges this, as Thomasin McKenzie’s narration is filled with terms like “some say” and “legend has it.” It’s a wonderful way to approach the tale of such a singular female religious leader. (If you want to explore some of the possible divergences from “the truth,” start in the natural place, Teen Vogue.)
What makes the film so wonderful and immersive is that it is a musical—but not like any musical you might be thinking of. Adapted from Shaker hymns, the songs are simple and repetitive, building and layering their few phrases into excellent approximations of the Shakers’ exuberant, charismatic worship.
Is that not what you picture at a Shaker church service? Check your history. The name Shakers is a third-party derogatory term describing that sect’s convulsions in the Spirit and endless Dionysian celebrations. The lines of diagetic and nondiagetic music blur as these elaborately choreographed dances help tell the story and create a wild, hypnotic state of mind in the viewer. I loved every second of these gorgeous musical frenzies.
I also enjoyed learning about Shaker history and the central myth of their leader, Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried, burning down the house). Mother Ann made her faith’s central behavioral tenet complete celibacy for married and unmarried alike. At times, she or her followers claim that she is the second coming of Christ. She has ecstatic visions through extreme physical deprivation and claims to have grown downy fur and shed it in her spiritual rebirth. The film—working from the writings of later believers as it is—shows multiple sides of the woman. Sometimes, we are sure that she is intentionally deceiving and manipulating those around her. Other times, we see her revelations as the result of illness and malnutrition. At still other times, we believe that she is touched by God and simply following a mysterious divine plan. And through it all, the incredible Amanda Seyfried is singing, chanting, writhing, and whirling like the most charismatic of Pentecostals, as her followers convulse and spin around her, forming masses of clinging bodies that are clearly meant to suggest where the Shakers’ unreleased sexual energy is being channeled.
Of course, a religion that forbids sex forbids procreation and dooms itself to literally die out. Never mind the confusion that your literal messiah's dying would cause in such a community. From a highpoint of 6,000 members, the religion has dwindled to a grand total of three Shakers worldwide. And I have a feeling that they would be moved and inspired by this portrayal of their Mother.
Unfortunately, the film’s fault is that it becomes tedious around the end of the second act. The momentum of the delirious musical numbers is left to droop briefly, but this is a fatal flaw. Whenever your audience thinks, “Man, this seems to be going on for a long time,” you’ve got a structural problem on your hands. Otherwise, this unorthodox telling of the life of an unorthodox woman is all kinds of wonderful. I applaud Fastvold’s bold creative vision and ability to (almost) pull it off gloriously.