2025: The Best and the Rest

For a movie lover like myself, some years we eat good and some years we eat...less good. Last year, the trifecta of Challengers, The Substance, and I Saw the TV Glow blew my friggin' socks off. Challengers and The Substance in particular had my jaw practically hitting the floor by the end of each film. And in addition to those films, Strange Darling, Oddity, Dune: Part Two, Red Rooms, Love Lies Bleeding, and Late Night With the Devil were on my best of list and I still think about those movies a year later and probably will continue to think of them (and revisit them) for years to come. 2024 was simply an excellent year for movies that I personally jibed with.

2025? Not so much.

While I certainly did watch some good films this year, none of the films on my best of list made me feel anywhere close to how Challengers made me feel. And the list as a whole pales in comparison to last year's list. But that's ok! This is a pattern I've come to expect and I did see some really amazing movies (and TV) this year. In fact, I think this "Best and the Rest" blog post will be my longest one yet, with my top 12 from 2025, my favorite first-time watches not released in 2025, a couple notable rewatches, favorite TV, favorite books, and worst media of the year. 

So with all that said, let's dive in!

Top films released in 2025:

12. Eddington (3rd review down) -- This one almost didn't make the list, but despite being a chaotic mess, Ari Aster's social nightmare film is hard to forget. It's an interesting and, at times, very funny mess. I have to praise the audacity of Aster, a director who has never not entertained me. 

11. The Long Walk -- Remarkably, director Francis Lawrence was able to make a very compelling and heartbreaking film about a bunch of young men just...walking. Walking until they die. This Stephen King adaptation is brutal, but the performances by Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Charlie Plummer, Tut Nyuot, and Ben Wang keep it from feeling completely nihilistic. This gang of young men find friendship and meaning in a senseless, suicidal ritual. 

10. Frankenstein -- Guillermo del Toro's sumptuous, gothic adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel certainly isn't perfect, but between a moving performance by Jacob Elordi as the Creature, eye-popping visuals, and--of course--Oscar Isaac's slutty little gloves (which I couldn't stop mentioning in my review), the film has a lot going for it. I was lucky enough to catch the film in IMAX, which was the best possible way to watch it. 

9. Together -- I saw Together during the hottest part of summer, which feels appropriate because the movie just feels...sweaty. You know, the Bible says that God intended for man and wife to become "one flesh", but this is just ridiculous! With great performances by real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco, Together is simultaneously gross, funny, and kind of sweet. But mostly gross. 

8. Companion -- Even with the perfect girlfriend, some men are never satisfied. Companion is about Josh (Jack Quaid) and his lovely, if a bit shy, girlfriend Iris (Sophie Thatcher). Josh brings Iris to a weekend getaway with his friends, but they all kind of subtly keep Iris at arm's length...and we find out why soon enough. As we continue to fuck ourselves as a species with less human interaction and more late-stage capitalism, films like Companion feel more relevant by the day.

7. 28 Years Later -- Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, 28 Years Later is the long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later (we're just going to pretend 28 Weeks Later doesn't exist). And it was worth the wait. The film follows a group of survivors 28 years after the initial outbreak of the "rage virus" that turned so many people in the United Kingdom into mindless, violent monsters. A young kid, Spike (Alfie Williams), is just old enough to learn how to hunt the remaining monsters living just outside his isolated island. With one of the most tear-jerking scenes of the year, 28 Years Later was a wonderful surprise.

6. Weapons -- I'll be controversial right off the bat and say that I did not like Weapons as much as Zach Creggers' previous film, Barbarian. People went absolutely nuts about Weapons, but I still think Barbarian is the stronger film. However, Weapons is pretty damn entertaining. It's funny, it's surprising, and it's genuinely unsettling. Amy Madigan's performance as Aunt Gladys is one of the best performances of the year. Please, Zach Cregger--keep making batshit insane horror movies! 

5. Bugonia -- Speaking of batshit insane...Yorgos Lathimos does not miss. He is one of the most interesting directors working today and he makes movies that feel like field trips to Hell. Bugonia is a difficult watch, but damn is it good. It has the best cast of the year. The three central actors--Emma Stone, Jesse Plemmons, and newcomer Aidan Delbis--are all excellent individually. But together? Whew. The way they play off of each other was unreal. 

4. Sinners -- You didn't think I'd leave Ryan Coogler's magnum opus off the list, did you? Sinners has the curse of being an extremely well-liked, popular film which means that it's officially cool to hate on it. I kind of empathize with the haters because I didn't particularly like Barbie, which was the extremely popular and well-liked film of 2023. But Sinners is a different story because it really is that good. In particular, the music. Even my dad, who hates vampire movies, watched Sinners and agreed that the music kicked ass. Sinners is just a fucking fun movie. Is it my personal favorite of the year? No. But I've already watched it 3 times this year, which is more than I can say for any other movie on this list. This is the other movie besides Frankenstein that I saw in IMAX and it was absolutely worth it. The scene where Sammie sings "I Lied to You" is my pick for scene of the year and I felt absolutely goosebumpy watching it in a IMAX theatre. 

3. Hamnet -- These top three films could almost go in any order and I do feel a bit guilty putting the one directed by a women and about the female experience in third place. Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another are definitely more "fun" movies, and I tend to be very biased in favor of movies that leave me energetic and laughing. But Hamnet is something special. It's a beautifully shot, painfully earnest and raw film about motherhood, loss, and art. Jessie Buckley, in an astounding lead performance as Agnes, conveys love, grief, anger, and strength so precisely and without over-acting. I've seen criticism saying that Hamnet is "emotionally manipulative", but I didn't find anything about Hamnet to be manipulative--quite the opposite. I found it to be a sincere and simple film about grief and how we can process trauma through art.

2. Marty Supreme -- This one came in under the wire, but I figured it would make the list. Directed by Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme is as laugh-out-loud funny as it is nail-bitingly stressful. Starring Timothee Chalamet as Marty Mauser, an arrogant little twerp who believes that he is the greatest table tennis player in the world and is going to prove it, the movie is about 20% actual table tennis scenes and 80% Marty trying to lie, cheat, steal, and beg his way into enough money to travel to table tennis championships. It's a movie about a hustler--a very compelling one, who fucks married women and makes Holocaust jokes (he can do that--he's Jewish!). Obviously, many viewers will hate the film because they hate Marty, but if you simply accept this man's audacity, you're in for an outrageous and wildly entertaining ride. 

1. One Battle After Another -- This was the year of Paul Thomas Anderson for me. I rewatched Magnolia and Phantom Thread and PTA's immense talent really hit me in a new way. His latest, One Battle After Another, is one of his more "accessible" films in the sense that it's more conventionally funny (compared to the extremely dry humor of Phantom Thread) and the characters are easier to root for (compared to the psychopaths that inhabit There Will Be Blood and The Master). The film is about Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio, in a "funny" role--his star shines the brightest when he's playing funny characters), a former leftist revolutionary who went into hiding with his infant daughter after his partner and daughter's mother, Perfida Beverly Hill (Teyana Taylor), informs on the leftist group The French 75 in order to avoid prison. 16 years after these events, Bob and his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti in a powerful breakout role), must go on the run when an enemy from the past comes back to hunt both of them down. Watching One Battle After Another was the most electrifying experience I had in theatres this year. I was vibrating with energy while watching it and the film stayed with me long after seeing it. At its heart, it's a film about fatherhood and the lengths even a pot-smoking, lazy ex-revolutionary will go to protect his daughter. 

Honorable mention: Bring Her Back, The Rule of Jenny Pen

***

All following lists are ranked in no particular order!

Best films I watched in 2025 that were released before 2025:

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (3rd review down) -- I finally saw the ultimate "Dad movie" and I loved it! This is just a rollicking good adventure set on the high seas. "Oceans are now battlefields". 

Janet Planet -- A quiet film about an 11 year old girl and her weird, hippie mom, with whom she has a loving, but codependent relationship. 

The Best Years of Our Lives (5th review down) -- This film, which won Best Picture for the 1946, feels extremely progressive and empathetic for its time. It follows three veterans of WWII as they readjust to civilian life.

A Real Pain -- This film came out in 2024 and Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for it--and boy did he deserve it! The movie is about a pair of cousins who go on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland after their grandmother dies. A very funny and very emotionally honest film.

The Brutalist -- This film came out in 2024 and Adrien Brody won Best Actor for it--and I'm ok with that choice! Love him or hate him, Brody is a really powerful actor (although the real MVP of The Brutalist is Guy Pearce, in my humble opinion) and does a wonderful job in this sweeping epic and indictment of America's attitude towards immigrants. 

Past Lives -- A deeply empathetic exploration of what it means to take one path and leave another behind. Past Lives is bittersweet and handles the idea that we have many possible loves throughout our lives with a deft and gentle hand. 

Ghostlight -- Another bittersweet and empathetic film about the power of art (specifically, theatre) to heal. A man dealing with a crushing loss joins a community theatre group and learns how to forgive and let go. This movie would be an excellent pairing with Hamnet.

Gosford Park (2nd review down) -- Sparkling dialogue, intriguing drama, gorgeous costumes, and Britain's finest actors. Written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Robert Altman, Gosford Park is just delightful. Take the best episode of Downton Abbey and make it even better under Altman's excellent direction and you have this witty and wonderful film.

Honorable mentions: Babylon, The Girl with the Needle, First Cow, Queer, Strangers on a Train 

***

Most satisfying rewatches:

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair -- While *technically* this was a first time watch for me since it is treated as its own separate thing from Kill Bill vol. 1 and Kill Bill vol. 2 (and it also has at least one additional scene that wasn't in the original films), I still count it as a rewatch because I've seen the Kill Bills. The Whole Bloody Affair combines the films into one 4.5 hour epic and boy was it worth the time and neck cramp from sitting in the front row of the theatre. I've never particularly liked Kill Bill vol. 2, but seeing the entire film at once gave me a greater appreciation of the emotional depth of the scenes where The Bride is reunited with her daughter. This film absolutely fucking slaps on every level.

LOTR trilogy -- Similarly to what I said above, this was a new experience for me since this was my first time watching the extended cuts of the trilogy, but whatever, I'm counting it as a rewatch. A much, much more deeply satisfying rewatch compared to my original viewing of the films in the theatre when they first came out. That's because I had to grow into LOTR. My immature young mind wasn't ready for them in the early aughts, but now that I've seen some shit...I get it. LOTR is the piece of media to watch during troubling times. The story is on another spiritual plane and it manages to convey the importance of fellowship, courage, integrity, and embracing your unique gifts without being cheesy or overly sentimental. The fact that Peter Jackson (and all involved) could take literature that means so much to so many people and make films worthy of that love is nothing short of a miracle. 

Best TV I watched this year

The Pitt, season 1 (5th review down) -- The new show that kicked off 2025 and that people who work in hospitals couldn't watch either because it wasn't accurate enough or because it was too accurate and, thus, panic attack inducing. A bounty of riveting TV for the rest of us!

Severance, season 2 -- Though not quite reaching the highs of season 1, the second season of Severance had its moments, particularly from actor Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick and from actress Dichen Lachman as Ms. Casey. Season 2 gave us new insights into just what is going on in the basement of Lumon Industries.

The Gilded Age, seasons 1-3 -- I hate reality TV, especially of the "housewife" variety...but that doesn't mean I'm immune to the power of gossipy, rich women serving cunt from noon to midnight. Julian Fellowes didn't get me to stick with Downton Abbey, but The Gilded Age is a different story. I devoured all three seasons as fast as I could.

The White Lotus, season 3 (4th review down) -- This was honestly my favorite season of The White Lotus yet. Something about the mix of spirituality (and the limits of spiritual commitment by rich people in particular) and wild-ass shit (the, uh, journey the Ratliff brothers experience as well as Sam Rockwell's incredibly compelling monologue) really hit the spot for me. Season 1 didn't have enough depth for me and season 2 felt boring. Season 3 had both genuine depth and was never boring. 

***

Best books I read this year:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Mother Horse Eyes by some guy on Reddit

***

Worst media of the year

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw -- There is nothing to say except that this is the worst book I have ever read. Now, I know some people like it and that's fine, but I hated this slim novel with the fire of a thousand suns. I found its prose laughable and its plot stupid. The one thing going for it is that it's only 125 pages long. Hey, I guess we all have to have the worst book we've ever read, so in a weird way, you are triumphant Cassandra Khaw.

The Handmaid's Tale, season 6 (10th review down) -- A terrible end to a show that long overstayed its welcome. It was sad to see a show where the first season was so strong and true to the novel become an absurd parody of itself. How many close-ups of Elisabeth Moss's face do we need? Over its run of 6 seasons, the show couldn't commit to its own internal logic. It also asks us to forgive characters who deserve to spend life in prison for war crimes. 

The Human Centipede (5th review down) -- Roger Ebert reviewed The Human Centipede when the film came out in 2010 and the final sentence of his review is this: "I am required to award stars to the movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine." And to be honest, after seeing the movie myself, that review gives it too much credit. It implies that there is something different or special about The Human Centipede even if it's different or special in a bad way. Having seen the movie myself I can report that it's not special at all. It's boring. Very, very boring. The film is 92 minutes long and at least an hour of that runtime involves nothing or very little happening. There is very little violence. There is very little gore. There is very little action. The Human Centipede is a nothingburger and exists as little more than a meme.