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Islands

Islands

Thriller · Drama · Crime · 2025

In this twisty thriller, a tennis coach at a tropical resort finds himself at the center of a missing persons mystery. Tom teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband disappears, and the police suspect Tom.

Movie details

Islands

2025 Thriller · Drama · Crime 2h 3m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.4 / 10

1.8K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

92 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

77 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In this twisty thriller, a tennis coach at a tropical resort finds himself at the center of a missing persons mystery. Tom teaches tennis during the day and parties at night. When an enigmatic tourist arrives, Tom is unable to shake the feeling he has met her before. Tension and attraction grow, until her husband disappears, and the police suspect Tom.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Islands?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Jan Ole Gerster

Written by

Jan Ole Gerster · Lawrie Doran · Blaž Kutin

Sam Riley

Sam Riley

Tom

Stacy Martin

Stacy Martin

Anne

Jack Farthing

Jack Farthing

Dave

Dylan Torrell

Dylan Torrell

Anton

Agnes Lindström Bolmgren

Agnes Lindström Bolmgren

Janis

Bruna Cusí

Bruna Cusí

María

Pep Ambròs

Pep Ambròs

Jorge

Court is in session

Put Islands on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Big-Idea Head

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.