At its heart, Anniversary is a family drama about a mother’s love, intuition, and the fear of watching her son walk into what she believes is a life-ruining marriage. The film stars Phoebe Dynevor, Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Madeline Brewer, Dylan O’Brien, McKenna Grace, and Zoey Deutch.
When Josh Taylor (O’Brien) introduces his fiancée, Liz (Dynevor), to his parents, Ellen and Paul Taylor, during their 25th wedding anniversary garden party, it quickly becomes clear that this is more than a tense first meeting. Ellen (Lane), a university professor, immediately senses danger—not out of possessiveness, but instinct. She recognises Liz as a former student whose radical political views she once openly challenged and strongly opposed.
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| More than a tense first meeting when Josh (O'Brien) introduces fiancee, Liz (Dynevor), to parents, Ellen (Lane) and Paul (Chandler), at a garden party |
To Ellen, Liz’s beliefs feel extreme, calculated, and deeply unsettling. More importantly, she suspects they are tied to motives far beyond love. While Paul (Chandler) attempts to keep the peace, Ellen can’t shake the feeling that Liz’s presence will ultimately destroy her son’s future. As events unfold, her fears prove painfully accurate.
After the marriage, Josh begins to change—growing distant from his parents and increasingly influenced by Liz’s ideology and ambition. What starts as confidence slowly turns into control, with Josh becoming the first real casualty of Liz’s larger agenda. Her actions soon ripple outward, affecting everyone connected to the family.
The damage reaches Liz’s children as well. Anna Taylor (Brewer) struggles publicly after getting into trouble during a stand-up comedy performance, while Cynthia Taylor (Deutch), an environmental lawyer firmly opposed to having children, finds her marriage collapsing under the weight of Liz’s influence.
Meanwhile, the youngest Taylor, Birdie (McKenna Grace), a gifted and passionate aspiring scientist, becomes the final and most troubling piece in Liz’s long game—proof that her motives reach far beyond one marriage and toward the complete reshaping of an entire family.
Co-written and directed by Jon Komasa, the film quietly builds tension through emotional conflict rather than spectacle. It’s a grounded and unsettling look at how manipulation, ideology, and unchecked ambition can fracture families—and how a mother’s warnings, when ignored, can come true in the worst possible ways.
A Must-See on Netflix