2025

Honey Don’t! A movie that very clearly wasn’t finished… I wasn’t really that curious about what it would have looked like if it were though. Ethan Coen tries to make an edgy sexual thriller (and by Ethan Coen, I mean Ethan Coen’s wife, as we now know), similar to the one he (She) directed last year. At least we can finally separate for sure which Coen is the better one (Ethan’s wife is the bottom of the three). Just a really tough watch, as the kids say. Qualley is miscast, although I’m not sure who would have been more suitable for the cornball role. Not a good year for her, it seems.

Big Bold Beautiful Journey I wish this was hilariously bad but it was more boring than anything else. I was ordering twine from Amazon with twenty minutes left in the film. Margot and Farrell (Colin) are trying, at least, I think. The first part had me thinking it was going to be a quirked up early 00’s style romcom but yeah, just boring and hard to sit through, and weird. It actually says out loud “Big Bold Beautiful Journey” in the trailer, which was the first time I’ve seen that in a trailer in years. Funny enough it’s like the worst title of the year.

Riff Raff Dogshit that only barely survives the bottom two of the list. Far beyond tired of Bill Murray cameo-schtick and fatigued with Jennifer Coolidge lush characters too. I don’t remember too much beyond not wanting to see them on the screen, except that after the film there were even feelings of being relieved it was over and being pissed off that I went in the first place. Of course the bad stuff comes out in January, but it’s even worse when you know it’s going to float around the bottom of the list come December.

I Know What You Did Last Summer At least it’s hilariously bad, somewhat, although you’d hope there’d be even like one kill. None in here, which I guess is actually pretty on brand with it being a reboot of a late-90’s era slasher flick. The twist ending ruins the legacy of the original, which I’ll be honest, is already a pretty crummy flick, so that’s saying something. I’ll have to remember how I felt about this one when they reboot Urban Ledgends.

The Strangers Chapter 2 Probably fucked up in not seeing the first in this series of prequels (allegedly they filmed all three chapters ahead of time), kind of has a Halloween 2 vibe in that it starts where the prior left off. Don’t think I missed much though. There was a bear/boar (I forget) attack in here that was awesomely out of place, but that’s about what I remember. Even the originals are overrated, always felt like a slasher-fied version of Funny Games or something, which defeats the purpose, of course.

The Amateur This was going to be some 2009 type of bad, obviously, like Law Abiding Citizen type, but that had some decent kills and effects (I forget why but I ended up seeing that twice in theaters). I assume I’m the only person I know who saw this, and I’m more confident that I’m the only one who remembers it, and that’s not saying much!!!

Nobody 2 Incredibly pointless (and late!) sequel to a pretty decent 2021 action flick that didn’t warrant any kind of response. Love Bob O and I’m glad they wanted him in here and I love that he’s in good health but this feels like a spec script that accidentally happened. And the Sharon Stone role, good god, pure cornball.

Fight Or Flight The second best action movie I saw this year that takes place mostly on a plane (it’s the worst). Josh Hartnett tries as always and I can’t hate on him for that, and I also can’t say that I didn’t like this film, it’s certainly fun, and bare minimum, ambitious.

Him As I write this I feel compelled to put this further down on the list but I believe I’m feeling some kind of pressure from reading other people’s scathing reviews on it, but in retrospect I kind of liked this, it was good entertainment with an ending that reminds me of Evilspeak. I do think it was bullshit that they made it seem like Peele directed it (and I’m not alone here), but fuck it, that’s how you gotta get people to see such bullshit. But fun bullshit, at least.

28 Years Later I hated this when I saw it, but I do think I need to rewatch it again. I had just gotten off a flight and caught a midnight showing of this in a pretty much empty theater (and a shitty one, at that), and I could barely stay awake. I think I’ll try again before the next one comes out. It was ambitious, sure. Still incredibly disappointing to compare this one to the original, but obviously that wasn’t the purpose, I understand. Again, I’d like to try again.

Companion I feel like I’ve seen the twist of “Nice guy is actually the villain incel character” a dozen times now and this time it pissed me off enough to somewhat ruin the film for me. I don’t know, this shit just sucked to me and the like ten people I brought with me. I like Jack Quaid though, probably just because he appears on RedLetterMedia vids sometimes.

Heart Eyes Stupid ass Valentine’s Day horror movie but honestly a lot better than the 2001 “Valentine.” I was annoyed with the comedic tone until I realized that it’s more comedy than horror, and then I was able to relax my negative-ass self some. There were some good kills that came towards the end which was unexpected, and the twist was unexpected too, and dumb enough that it made the whole thing enjoyable.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps I saw this with some friends visiting from out of town so maybe my enjoyment of this is a little biased due to outside circumstances, I’m definitely no MCU head so there was no point for me to watch this but honestly any time I end up saying fuck it and seeing one of them in theaters I have a fun time. That’s all I can really say at this moment about it because I don’t remember it but I remembered I had a good time and I thought the universe was sleek and fun to take in.

Five Nights At Freddy’s Horrible audience aside, this was a pretty funny one to see. Similar to MCU, I’m no FNAF head, I know a fraction of the lore, and I haven’t seen the first… It is what it is, man. I liked the opening credits and some of the jokes. I like that it’s a kids movie that tonally is kind of a hard PG-13 (I’ve recently been watching the Dark Knight series, another franchise of hard PG-13’s… a genre I’m glad to see back with FNAF). Incredibly stupid, but hey, that’s the charm. And I like saying FNAF.

Until Dawn Know nothing about this game either, such a random movie to go see on a Saturday afternoon (I think half of these movies were seen on a Saturday afternoon) but it was fun. Some great kills, an especially great body explosion scene. This is how most of these lower-tier horrors have to be judged now tbh, and if they’re gonna be silly at least have some kind of edge.

Novocaine Another Jack Quaid joint! This one was okay, the pace and comedic tone reminds me of Nobody (the original, at least) and it was great entertainment for me alone on a Saturday afternoon. Feels like something adapted from a graphic novel, which can be taken either as a compliment or an insult, I really couldn’t give a shit. There’s fun action & violence, at least.

Nosferatu This came out 2024… I saw it beginning of the year but it is what it is. At least it gives me less motivation to say much about it, because I really don’t have much. The sets were cool, I’m sure of that.

Sinners I really liked the first half and throughout the second I had hoped something more interesting than a From Dusk Till Dawn remake would happen but it wasn’t able to do that. Also hate any ending that involves the hero getting a huge suitcase of money, what kind of moral is that supposed to be teaching me?! And I know everyone likes that weird scene in the middle where it shows different kinds of dancing up until the modern age but I felt it only helped to take me out of a movie that I had already begun to get bored of at that point.

Sorry, Baby I think there were a couple films out this year with similar subject matter, I probably saw the best version of them. Subtle, understated, maybe a little too much at times, but I thought it was decent. I really liked the main girl too man, love that quirked up girl energy sometimes.

Splitsville Lots of this dark comedy/romance things this year, the good news is that a good chunk of them surpassed my expectations, especially this one. Didn’t even break the top 20, LOL, but I still had a fun time watching this one, far less cynical of a film than I thought it would be. There’s a fight scene that feels similar length to the one in They Live, which makes sense for that film, because it’s an action movie. Feels surreal at times, at least a bit comically hyper-real.

Freakier Friday Stupidly awesome fun sequel to a movie that I didn’t even care that much about when it was a Blockbuster rental. I wish the Mean Girls reboot from last year could have been closer to this, honestly, but this is what we get. I get annoyed with Jamie Lee Curtis’ constant mugging all the time (note that I didn’t see Ella Mccay this year) but it’s a cute watch.

The Phoenician Scheme I remember leaving the theater happy, which is a different tone than the last three or four Wes Anderson movies I’ve seen in theaters (see: all of them). At this point in his career, it’s like, well he’s obviously not going to be changing the way he does this shit, so you either make a choice to be annoyed with it, or actively try to change the way you feel about it. I’m trying to be more open-minded, and I think it helped me to like this more. Cera was funny in this, which probably helped. I’d like to see them work together more. The basketball stuff was stupid though, Tiff only remembers that part from the movie, and being annoyed by it.

Christy Caught this on a Monday Mystery night at the Regal, and still I heard that this was one of the biggest bombs of the year. It was aight, I thought the first half was good and Sweeney was convincing, but tonally shifts and we never really come back from it. And it feels long. It was OK…

Silent Night, Deadly Night Cool to see them attempting to remake old horror flicks that are pretty bad instead of good, I mean I like the original but it fuckin sucks! It replaces the sleazy feel of the first with a Deadpool-like comedic pace and a main actor that I actually really liked. Corny at times, but for what it was, I was happy with it.

The Smashing Machine Was OK. This was my 50th theatrical release of the year, and I brought like 20 people with me to the movies to see it, and for it to be just kind of OK was a bummer. Rocky was good, and not entirely in a desperate way, but you can tell he wants to get a nomination of some kind… and like, man, you’re the best WWE wrestler ever, isn’t that enough? And Emily Blunt was kind of annoying here, miscast at worst… But it was enjoyable. Loved the last few minutes though. A total bro movie.

A Complete Unknown This was the most 2024 movie I saw in 2025, caught this kind of late but like Nosferatu it is what it is. Found the whole thing pleasant, at least. Was cool to see the era in which it takes place, with all the folky types being pissed to see him blow up and start playing electric guitars or something like that. I don’t remember, it was the first thing I saw this year.

Friendship Tim Robinson being Tim Robinson, if you like that then you’re going to enjoy him in his first starring role. I still enjoy him, just maybe a little less than I did during the best summer ever (2021). Still is cool to see him reach these heights, and he’s definitely the best part about the movie, but I don’t remember really what happens within the narrative.

Mickey 17 Crazy how much initial hype this film got in the months leading up to it’s release, I swear I haven’t heard a peep about this one since it left theaters. Love Robert P in general and especially in this, but the Ruffalo-as-Trump character is so cringe that I have such trouble listing this higher, it’s just so troubling, like makes me embarrassed for Ruffalo. Fun sci-fi though, a genre we will continue to get less and less of, it seems. Good trailers, too. The alien creatures are cool, too!

Secret Mall Apartment The only documentary I saw in theaters and probably the only documentary I’ve seen on the big screen since like 2015. I visited the mall before and was told there was a documentary coming out, so it was cool to get to see (this was the only film I saw at IFC as well this year, a great theater). Utilizes archival footage from early 2000’s Kodak Easyshares, which was great timing. I was a bit disappointed to find out all the people in the movie weren’t like actually squatting in the mall (a vibe I would get to enjoy later in the year with Roofman), and were just liberal arts students/professors. Still cute.

Materialists Swear I would have hated this movie but I think it’s an above-average New York romcom. Wish I had more to say about it but the fact that I unexpectedly liked it is enough for me!

Flight Risk Will be at the bottom of most people’s lists but anecdotally motivated here enough to put it up much higher, I just had a good ass time in the theater seeing this. Wahlberg acting his ass of in a movie that’s clearly not good is ALWAYS worth being excited about. As soon as the credits rolled the seven people in the theater stood up and cheered, it’s one of those kinds of vibes. I’m happy just thinking about it.

Caught Stealing This was such a low-ambition film for a director who more often seems confirmed with making things high-ambition that I kind of loved it. I didn’t think much of it when I watched it but out of the stuff I saw this year I’ve thought about it a lot. It’s such an average-good movie that it’s like something perfect to see on a summer night after dinner. Some of the running around Queens felt like Anora screenplay backwater but I just don’t feel mad about it. Fuckin hate that part where the dumbass bitch talks about the black and white cookie in B&H though.

Eddington Thought this was pretty good or at least an entertaining watch when I saw it but ever since I saw One Battle After Another I can’t remember a thing about it… I do like how it’s kind of a historical dramedy, though. I was wondering when we would get one about that time frame. Kind of typical A24 fare, but I think Phoenix is great in this. Although again, I keep remembering scenes from OBAA when I try to remember stuff from this.

The Long Walk Stephen King made so much bank this year on his old properties. It reminds me of the tagline for the 80’s slasher film, Pieces: “It’s exactly what you think it is!” If you like the trailer, then you will probably like the film. Some good King-like kills, and some silly but endearing King-like dialogue.

Lurker Pretty awesome semi-homoerotic thriller about parasocial relationships social media LA-centric fuckery etc. Main guy was a straight terror.

Together Was pleased to enjoy this. Another romantic comedy with horror-like elements (this time with some body-horror), was mostly enthralling but I never want to hear Dave Franco say “baby” again.

The Naked Gun I was keeled over in my seat laughing like ten minutes into this, just on the sheer thought that a film could even exist based entirely on schtick in theaters in 2025. Probably the shortest thing I saw which is complimentary, too, although I have no idea how it would have stretched the stupidity out any further. Fucking great.

Final Destination: Bloodlines With the exception of the first one (because it’s actually one of the only good horrors from that era), probably the best of the franchise. It’s dumb as shit but it’s crazy as fuck. Loved the fact that there was a cameo from the second one (spoiler alert: it’s a logging truck). The whole first scene is incredible, a child literally gets killed by a falling piano.

The Housemaid Pretty damn good! Sweeney’s best this year, probably, although Seyfried is the true star of this one. The twist itself is a bit dumb and kind of predictable (charming husband/boyfriend character will always be the bad guy in newer-style movies) but it was a fun date movie for the crowd to cheer to. Hell, that’s why I go to the movies in the first place.

The Toxic Avenger Not sure if I feel right ranking this so highly, but I actually really liked this. This and the Silent Night Deadly Night reboots had a similar motive to replace the sleaze with a certain post-Deadpool charm, and in both, it works. Dinklage is great here and it’s a bummer that he doesn’t really appear in the second half, but it’s really cool, especially if you’re a fan of the original or any of the Troma universe (tbh I’m really not).

Lilo & Stitch Good reboot/remake/re-envisioning type deal. I love the tropical vibe of the original and I was worried a modernization would remove some of that but I thought it was a proper upgrade. And mane, when I thought Stitch was a goner, I was choked the hell up!

The Minecraft Movie Nah, you aren’t bumping this any lower on the list. Thought this was on awesome springtime blockbuster. The Napoleon Dynamite dude killed this one, the whole universe is just fun to look at. Thought Momoa was so damn funny in it too. This isn’t just for kids, yo. This is for the PEOPLE, the WORLD.

Black Bag Soderbergh always brings the shit to the big screen, and this year he was able to do it twice in his style of high floor, low ceiling stakes. Black Bag feels bite-sized, like an espionage-soaked short story, I mean I think it’s like 90 minutes long, but it’s really fun, not the best Soderbergh I’ve seen but even most of his so-so stuff ends up more watchable than most of the year.

Bugonia Belongs in the category of newer-style movies, I thought the case brought it in this, Plemmons and Stone are an unlikely match against eachother but it makes for a pretty thrilling drama of this ilk. Good twist that almost by default puts it in the sci-fi genre, almost.

Eternity This feels like a movie that belongs in the 80’s, and it isn’t necessarily a spiritual film, but it reminds me a lot of Defending Your Life, a compliment. Charming and funny, it’s nice to see something like this in theaters.

Presence Love this style of Soderbergh. Low budget, quiet, those are the ones you can tell he had sort of passion for actually making. I saw a lot of people complaining about it not being scary, and I agree, although it’s pretty easy to tell that isn’t really a horror movie, but rather a family drama through the lens of a supernatural type, really well-paced and well-shot. I do want to see him do something again like Unsane, but I like his less frantic stuff like this and Bubble.

Is This Thing On? Kind of like Pete Holmes Crashing but we fortunately get to replace the pretty much charmless Pete Holmes with likable comedic guy Will Arnett, who is good as soft-spoken type like in here. It's less about stand-up and more about a quietly crumbling marriage, it's nuanced, and that's probably the first time I've ever used that word in any of these reviews. I guess marriage is nuanced, eh? It's a nice film, and Bradley Cooper shockingly directed (and acted!!!) in it well. Arnett and Dern are lovely in it.

Superman SuperMane! I’m so hyped to see this make it this far up on my own list! I had a fun time watching this and similar to the Fantastic Four movie I saw it has a well-imagined universe, but there’s enough going on in the real world stuff that makes it really enjoyable. Lex was funny as the charmless oaf of sorts, and there are some good scenes with Mr. Man and his lady, especially the one where she’s interviewing him. Makes me want to watch more of these movies in this universe, and most of them I’ve seen have been at least average, but this was above by quite a bit.

Bring Her Back Don’t expect horror movies to shock at this point unless it’s something silly like Terrifier but this one brings the pain in theme and violence. Could see this one become a bit of a cult classic of sorts because for the most part I didn’t hear many people talking about this one. The mom character was a wild hellride man, I’d hate if she were to adopt me.

The Monkey Another mf Stephen King joint! This one has a good amount of super entertaining violence and has that certain semi-cynical nature that shows up mostly in the dialogue, kind of like how characters have talked to eachother since It (2017) but I still kind of am a sucker for it. I thought the plot was silly but was entertained enough by it to let myself not think too much about it. It’s a parable for something or rather I don’t care I just want to enjoy the damn thing and I got to enjoy this one.

The Surfer Nic Cage acting crazy, something we are pretty used to every couple of years, but he hasn’t quite hit it this well since Mandy. This one is more like Point Break (there is surfing and that’s about where the comparison ends), it’s a thrilling twisty drama where we get to watch Cage lose his sanity and his cell phone, getting bullied by a cult of surfers. Really hyped I got to see this at 11AM on a Saturday.

Marty Supreme Barely cracking the top 10, but I do think it deserves a place on it, and I know there’s a bunch of naysaying It-Feels-Too-Much-Like-The-Other-Two-Movies, but check this out, I liked those movies too, and I like this one. I like Casino too and pacing and editing-wise, it’s pretty much the same thing of three or four of that guy’s movies. I really liked the score and the 80’s soundtrack, too. Some of it goes nowhere but that’s kind of how UG was too, just some shit about a dude who gets in way over his head, and he’s a fuckin’ dumbass. I remember when they were filming part of this at Seward and I heard it was a ping pong movie and I thought it would take place at the ping pong table there so I was a little disappointed, but the Abel Ferrara stuff was a fair enough replacement for that

Life Of Chuck I’m pissed at myself for falling for this kind of saccharine-y stuff and for the first 30 minutes I was feeling that this would be the worst thing I saw this year, but something in it was earnest enough to win me over somewhere in there. Cutesy to the point where I do get why it ranked so low for some people but I guess I’m just getting older or something.

Sentimental Value Thought this was really well made, and smart European films always make me get cagey when I’m talking about it because I feel dumb trying to articulate my feelings, so I’ll spare it this once and just show that I put it as # 7 on my list of 60 movies of 2026. The sister character was exceptionally good, though, and in a perfect world she would get at least a nomination for best supporting… I guess time will tell heh???

Roofman I’m a giant sucka for semi-biographical films about a weird crime—like I still think 30 Minutes Or Less is a good movie, and I may be one of the only ones—but I think this is an actually really good movie. Channing has been one of my favorites comedically since 22 Jump St. and although this isn’t a straight forward comedy, he just does a good job portraying this kind of lighthearted buffoons (but with mathematical analytical powers or something). I thought the Tatum/Dunst romance plot was good too.

F1 Moneyball is one of those movies that I feel inclined to watch every year, so to see Pitt in a realistic sports biopic again had me excited, and it exceeded my expectations. The sound design (something I have never commented on in movie reviews until this particular list) is incredible, and the last race is SUBLIME, one of the best race/car/driving scenes I’ve ever seen.

The Ballad Of Wallis Island Went into this thinking it looked like the cheesiest kind of 2012 indie comedy ever, and it even kind of is, but I thought it was just… Really nice. I think it played at Regal for like 3 days before they took it out, kind of a bummer because I recommended it to a lot of people and by the time they had the chance it was gone. Really warmhearted flick about love and all that fuckin’ shit, about aging as a 2012 indie type dude. It’s like a hipster-ed out update of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, somehow.

Warfare Incredibly thrilling hellride with a fucked sound design (I TOLD YA!!!), just a say in the life with some soldiers in Iraq, done in realtime… This was my top 1 for most of the year. Amazing intro credits sequence. Haven’t had a war movie stick with me like this since American Sniper (a film I still feel conflicted about whether I actually like or not, whereas Warfare is an easy Yes, I like it). Provocative without being propaganda. The IED scene is the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in the cinema to my knowledge.

Weapons This one checked off just about every box for me. The trailer itself was good, and considering the amount of times I’ve written in this list that I was surprised by something after being annoyed by the trailer, that’s a rarity (especially in 2025 where every trailer does the same thing). The editing, the Pulp-Fiction-y perspective shift, was enough to pretty much force me into putting this high up, but… Damn!!! This is just fucking great. I want to see this one again. I thought Barbarian was OK… Like I saw it in theaters and liked it, but I found it OK… Weapons was just all cylinders. I have heard the argument that this isn’t so much a horror movie, and I think that’s true, but I think it’s doing something to hopefully progress the genre that I love, but feel like it’s stagnated some—kind of like the Heavy Metal genre (music)—This should be a huge kick in the ass to those idiots at Hollywood who want to play it safe with reboots and boring IP updates. There’s enough fresh ideas out there, surely…???

One Battle After Another I found myself getting less cynical about the state of Hollywood in general though as 2025 progressed. I saw some shitty shit this year, sure, but the majority of what I saw this year was much of the time OK, at worst. By the time I got to One Battle After Another it just felt like I was on a streak of seeing some really good shit. Once the credits rolled on this, I was just thinking how crazy it was that Weapons was only my #1 on this list for a matter of weeks before this came out. I’m a pretty regular PTA fan, like I like Boogie Nights and Inherent Vice (I’m OK with There Will Be Blood, and I need to see the Master again). I saw the trailer for OBAA more than I saw like any trailer this year, and it didn’t come across as anything amazing minus the PTA name attached to it really—it looked more like that summer’s Eddington than anything original. This to me is an undebatable pick. It just has an energy to it, a vibe some mfs call it… It’s urgent and aggro, more than any of his other movies that I can recall, honestly… Is it his best film? Yeah, probably. Is it better than Licorice Pizza, I mean yes, of course!!! And theatrically it’s better than anything that came out this year, and probably even last year, and very possibly the year before. I feel more optimistic about Weapons actually changing the way the horror genre functions in a modern age, but for something like One Battle After Another, I just don’t think it can be duplicated… That’s just a master old dude who’s been making some of the best movies (bare minimum) for 25 years. Everyone here is at the top of their game, like they knew it was gonna be this explosive roller coaster. I don’t know how you could think of me putting anything else as first, really. It’s one of those movies that I almost have to hesitate to rewatch because I don’t think I could recapture the magic of getting to see it with Tiff in a fully packed theater 6–my favorite theater—at the Delancey Regal, in the very back left corner—my favorite seats. I’ve loved going to the cinema since I can remember, and of course in NYC, as is everything, it can be a bit pricy, but something like this is beyond worth the $25 a month. So yeah, if you’re keeping track, I’d say the Regal Unlimited pass is worth your money, because there’s quite a bit of good shit coming out anymore, can’t lie.