Diane Lane and Kyle Chandler fight to keep their family together as a rising authoritarian movement takes over America.
Anniversary
Starring Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Zoey Deutch, Mckenna Grace, Dylan O’Brien, Daryl McCormack, Madeline Brewer, Phoebe Dynevor
Directed by Jan Komasa
Runtime: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Synopsis
On their 25th wedding anniversary, Ellen and Paul (Lane & Chandler) Taylor welcome their 4 children, Cynthia (Deutch), Anna (Brewer), Josh (O’Brien), and Birdie (Grace) back home to celebrate. They are introduced to Josh’s girlfriend, Liz (Dynevor), a former student of Ellen’s who was kicked out of school for having radical ideas, and they slowly recognize a dramatic shift happening with their son and across the nation as a result of Liz’s ideas.
Anniversary Mechanic
Director Jan Komasa settles quickly into an effective, year-jumping format to show how America and the Taylor family home change over the years. Each jump lands us with another birthday, Thanksgiving scene, or anniversary throughout the film, giving us plenty of space to wonder what happened through the years. I’ll explain why some of this doesn’t work when it comes to messaging, but the format isn’t bad and it cuts plenty of fat from the movie. We don’t waste time establishing other locales or building out side characters as the film wisely keeps its focus on the Taylors’ reaction to what’s going on.
It also astutely leans into a classic family movie dynamic that reflects real-life: the dining table is a champion when it comes to generating conversation and debate. Where you place your characters, the dynamics before and after they sit down, the well-written dialogue, can all weave together to generate plenty of action that doesn’t require a fight sequence.
Komasa builds the best moments of the film at the dinner table, as Josh and Liz – the two family members responsible for “The Change” movement in America – are falling further and further into the totalitarian nightmare. Each time they return home marks a tonal slide in the Taylor house, and how the siblings react to them, resulting in great sparring matches over Thanksgiving dinner or drinks after a birthday.
While both Paul and Ellen are determined to keep their family together through the changes, they both take this goal on differently: Paul is more reserved and neutral until he’s finally forced to make more declarative decisions, whereas Ellen starts off more fiery and defiant, combating every bad idea that is presented in her house until she’s forced to censor herself for self-preservation. The daughters – unlike Josh – reflect their mom’s ideology the most, though even that is challenged by film’s end as they each have to make critical choices on their future, which are usually more radical and dangerous than their parents’ standards.
Lofty Undefined Messages
Where the movie fails is largely due to specifics … or rather the lack thereof. There’s plenty of ways to dissect this, but let’s focus on Liz since her arrival and ideology signals the Taylors’ downfall.
We know Liz went to college at Georgetown and was kicked out for pushing totalitarian ideas that Ellen publicly countered. Liz eventually publishes those ideas as her thesis into a book called “The Change” under the Cumberland Corporation. We know it calls for a one-party system, but outside of that, we don’t get much more information.
If I read into the subtext, Liz being a manufactured corporate shill (which Ellen warns her is why Cumberland even published her work to begin with) matches too many conservative grifters to make a comprehensive list. For my money, I’m picking her as a corollary to Tomi Lahren or Erika Kirk, working for thinktank organizations like Turning Point. Their stated beliefs, whatever few we hear about, don’t match those organizations, however. It’s possible director Jan Komasa wanted to avoid creating an American left-versus-right caricature, but the resulting indecisiveness leaves you with nothing to chew on.
I had a similar critique of recent Oscar darling One Battle After Another (2025), where the narrative refuses to be specific about their factions. Whether it’s done to avoid caricature, offense, or some other problem, the result leaves a dissatisfying taste if you care about depth. The characters may be interesting enough to make the narrative enjoyable, but I am quite certain rewatches will leave you wanting.
Too Many Taylors
Given the time-skipping element that works well to advance the story and hit particular milestones, the ensemble cast unfortunately starts to strain every time we skip ahead. While it’s not hard to remember character motivation or their individual trajectories, it can be hard to be invested with this many characters across several gaps in time. This particularly hurts the adversarial dynamic between matriarch Ellen and future daughter-in-law Liz. Ellen gets more screen time than Liz, so we get to witness her reaction to a myriad of problems, but Liz’s potential ulterior motives are left pretty thin. Combined with the lack of specifics on Liz’s book and political affiliation, Ellen’s attacks can feel alien and bizarre, making you feel empathy for Liz, the potential monster.
As the story progresses, the four Taylor children and their characterizations become more strained with each time skip. While each child represents different approaches to growing government overreach, these traits could have been woven into a smaller family unit, providing us with more time with each sibling and/or family member, so the impact of their changing environment hits harder. While Lane and Chandler are amazing in their roles as the elder Taylors, their quite understandable parental reaction to their children’s plight would have been enough to process without also following 4 children’s stories (and by extension, their in-laws). It doesn’t ruin the experience per se, but it does hold back the narrative from being exceptional.
Conclusion / Recommendation
Anniversary brings together a great cast, headlined by Lane and Chandler, to debate current political fires, however, the resulting film is so non-specific that you can’t actually chew on anything of substance.
Despite the shortcomings, I think most audiences will enjoy taking a look at this when it heads to streaming in the U.S., while thinking about the authoritarian slide – though again, repeat viewings may really showcase the narrative problems.
Score: 7 out of 10
- Staying Off Message- 6
- If you wanted a film that would delve deep into modern political leanings, you’ll have to search for that elsewhere.
- An Overly Abundant Cast- 6
- While Chandler and Lane do a great jobs as the elder Taylors and their supporting cast is strong, the family dynamics are just too many to truly invest in.
- Time Skipping- 9
- Despite the film’s bloated cast and meandering political direction, the time changes move the story along well and never makes the plot drag on.
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