The movie Anniversary is less interested in shocking you than in making you deeply, quietly uncomfortable — which is a harder thing to pull off and, when it works, more unsettling than any jump scare. Polish director Jan Komasa, whose Corpus Christi was Oscar-nominated and whose Suicide Room is still underseen, brings the same attentiveness to social pressure here. A couple celebrating a milestone anniversary meets their adult son’s new partner, and what begins as mild unease about her escalates into something that touches politics, loyalty, and who gets to define a family’s values.
The film is structured almost like a pressure cooker — confined spaces, long meals, conversations that carry subtext about ideology and power. Komasa isn’t subtle about the political allegory, but he’s smart enough to keep the personal stakes feeling real rather than symbolic. This is the kind of film that will land differently depending on where you sit politically, which is probably the point. Currently streaming on Netflix.