Did I see a huge amount of new releases in 2025? Not as much as I would have liked. Did I see enough to get the gist that 2025 was a really solid year at worst (with the usual outliers for me) and especially a damn good year for horror? Hell yes, I did. I saw a lot to love in 2025. And so, my list of the 2025 releases I saw from least favorite to best. All opinions are mine. No refunds. Please hold all your questions until the end. No outside food allowed. Share And Enoy.
#49: War of The Worlds - Maybe one of the laziest movies I’ve ever seen, an absolute waste of everyone’s time. It’s not even a good Amazon Prime commercial.
#48: The Old Guard 2 - Where the original movie was charming and fun and a little bit goofy to go along with some good action, this is dour and full and made me all the angrier by having one conversation where everyone is shooting the shit. Blech.
#47: Captain America: Brave New World - I know I grade the MCU on a curve but even on that curve, this movie is a goddamn mess. And months later, I’m honestly not sure I could tell you most of what happened and how it fits into the MCU and I don’t much care.
#46: Until Dawn - Sadly, kind of a slog despite the best efforts of a game young cast. The main highlight is Ji-young Yoo, who will show up again in this list and is darn good here.
#45: V/H/S Halloween - It’s perfectly fine; the Alex Ross Perry segment was my favorite (the kid actors are great) and the costumes for “Fun Size” are amazing. Very middle of the road for the series.
#44: Havoc - Could we please have a side of plot to go with my action?
#43: Heads Of State - Completely by the books elevated by Cena, Elba and Chopra Jones having a blast together. But hugely better than Ilya Naishuller’s previous Hardcore Henry. And hey, Jack Quaid!
#42: Drop - I’m a sucker for this sort of Sunday afternoon on the couch thriller. Ludicrous as hell, everyone’s game, the production design is pretty sweet and a supposed Chicago that is so obviously Dublin that it delighted me. And full credit to Jefferey Self as a waiter who keeps trying to be sly about promoting his improv troupe.
#41: House Of Dynamite - Sadly not top Bigelow, but I thought it was quite solid of a nightmare about how no one is really ready for a nuclear attack. I know the timeline structure turned some people off but I thought it was rather well done.
#40: La guerre des étoiles - Coralie Fargeat, when she was 17, made a Star Wars film with her family and friends on a camcorder and edited on a VHS deck. It’s charming and a lot of fun. Great Ewoks.
#39: The Occupant of the Room - I’ve been getting into the British tradition of reading ghost stories for Christmas (the line “we’ll tell scary ghost stories” from “Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” isn’t there just for show) and this is a darn good little Shudder entry in that genre.
#38: The Fantastic Four: First Steps - I enjoyed this quite a bit; it’s obviously setting a few things up but it’s also not being just a set up movie. Plus it has adults actually having adult conversations and Johnny isn’t just a horn dog. Bonus points for Julia Garner, who will show up again here.
#37: Mickey 17 - It’s weird, it’s willing to be more than a little goofy, it has Patsy Ferran stealing every scene she’s in and Naomi Ackie is pretty great. And Lordy, I love Pattinson going odd.
#36: Bone Lake - We’ve had a few “this all could have been avoided if you had just gone to a real hotel” movies these last few years as air B&Bs have infected the travel industry and this is a really solid entry. Also, prime “people fucking with other people for no real reason” stuff here.
#35: The Colors Within - It’s lovely and kind and doesn’t have a villain in its Catholic school setting and that’s worth noting. A beautifully drawn piece of a young girl with synesthesia.
#34: The Monkey - Osgood Perkins continues his excellent run of making horror films that just bring the heat, this time going very Looney Toons with a possessed monkey toy. Absolutely messed up in the right way and a great combo of Theo James as twin brothers, Tatiana Maslany showing off some great sadness and Osgood giving himself an absolutely plum role as an uncle who delivers a monologue that had me cackling in the theater. There’s a thread of grief in this that I’m not quite sure fits the rest of the movie but I appreciate the swing.
#33: Match - Man, I’m so glad I got married just before dating apps really became a thing. Always meet in public, people! (Oh and this is a quite good nasty piece of work; Tubi is moving into originals and this should be their bread and butter.)
#32: Black Bag - Everyone has their own agendas and those agenda apparently include incredibly stylish outfits. Worth seeing if only for how in a movie where Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender are at the top of their game in married spy shenanigans, Marisa Abela walks into the movie and bam, it’s almost her movie now. Really one of my favorite supporting performances of the year.
#31: We Were The Scenery - The directors parents watch a VHS of Apocalypse Now and reminisce. Oh, but the deal is they fled Vietnam to the Philippines in 1975 and they ended up along with fellow refugees as extras in the movie. It’s both fascinating and also weirdly funny as they point out fellow extras and gossip about them. There’s a LB review that says “This should be included in every physical release of Apocalyse Now from now on.” and I absolutely agree.
#30: Superman - What can I say? I was really affected by this and I’m so happy we got a dorky and hopeful Superman again. And man, Corenswet and Brosnahan are just lovely together onscreen; who knew that 12 minutes of them actually talking and arguing and debating would be this great?
#29: Predator: Badlands - Dan Trachtenberg, you just keep making Predator movies as long as you like. I said after this that Elle Fanning was 100% going to get an Oscar nod some day and I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so soon; she’s terrific in this.
#28: Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music - It’s a document of entertainment history but also, it’s just damn entertaining. And it doesn’t ignore at all the issues over the years, be it Lorne Michaels being a prima donna or Kanye West being an asshat. And man, it’s cool to see evolving music tastes over 50 years. Questlove absolutely killing it again as a documentarian.
#27: The Life Of Chuck - I just like seeing Mike Flanagan improve on a King story a lot of people like more than I do and with a lot of the Flanagan crew. Good lord, that dance scene made me happy…and then we get Mia Sara, goodness.
#26: Frankenstein - I liked it a lot but boy does it need more Mia Goth. It feels like she gets sidelined.
#25: A Bear Remembers - Hey, you want some fascinating, odd Welsh fantasy? Well here you go.
#24: Freaky Tales - Ji-young You is back! Boden & Fleck are back with four tales in 1987 Oakland and this movie is a damn blast, including somehow a player from the Golden State Warriors pulling out kung-fu on skinheads. And oh look, Ji-young Yoo for the second time!
#23: Lesbian Space Princess - More animation needs to be this unabashedly funky and weird. There’s a scene with incels explaining the rules of Magic The Gathering to a woman that was one of my best laughs of the year.
#22: Father Mother SisterBrother - Jarmusch being Jarmusch and I’m absolutely here for that. The last segment is a masterpiece but it’s all worth your time.
#21: Companion - A movie that artfully dodges the “Oh, you know the twist from the trailers” because oh my no, no you do not. It looks perfect, Sophie Thatcher is a star and it’s a great use of Jack Quaid. A great example of a movie you think is one thing but it is definitely not. Also, it’s very funny at times.
#20: Pee-Wee As Himself - One of the things that makes this fascinating is how prickly Paul Reubens is about the whole project. He wants to make the thing, it’s obvious, but he’s also still intensely private. But wow, he’s thoughtful about his life and he has the archives to show off. And wow does this have more than the usual complement of talking heads; Natasha Lyonne has one of the best moments in film of the year when she shows up.
#19: Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted - Hey, do you want to watch a documentary about a musician getting his pool in LA painted? Yes, yes you do because it’s about so much more than that and man, Swamp Dogg is interesting and the life he’s built with his housemates and fellow musicians is wonderful. And there’s a story involving Evil Knievel’s grave site that I’m not sure I believe still.
#18: One Battle After Another - Way further down my list than a lot of my fellow reviewers, I know. But I think this movie has some issues with fethisisation that reviewers of color have written about and once I saw it, that knocked the movie down a bit (and of course the non-binary kid is shown as the weak one in the interrogation scene). But overall, it’s quite good, just not the best of the year. (But Chase Infinit rules.)
#17: Presence - The second Soderbergh on the list and the better movie, a sad and contemplative family drama that of course made me think of The Haunting. Callina Liang hasn’t done much yet (she’s in the upcoming, insane-looking Street Fighter) and she’s very much the heart of this movie. More ghost stories should have this level of soul.
#16: Good Boy - A gimmick is only as good as the execution and this movie shows that off in spades. A movie shot from the perspective of a loyal dog whose owner is obviously ill with…something and they’re alone in a rural and things start getting weird. The paranormal aspect of the movie is almost besides the point; this movie is all about Buddy caring for his human and god, Buddy really is a Good Boy.
#15: Wake Up Dead Man - Benoit Blanc is back and this time we’re talking religion and faith and hooooooo Nelly, I didn’t know Rian Johnson would have things to say about that. Darker and more contemplative that the previous Blanc movies and that’s a good thing here. Blanc isn’t even really the hero this time around; that’s Josh O’Connor in a performance that made me want to watch everything else he’s been in (I’ve apparently only seen him in Emma and Cinderella and lord knows how far down the cast list he is in the latter).
#14: Queens Of The Dead - Why yes, I do have a movie involving a drag queen club fighting a zombie outbreak this high on my list. Because damn it, Tina Romero knows exactly what she’s doing here and how to use a really, really good cast (Margaret Cho’s entrance is an all timer, and Jack Haven has a singing moment alone in the club that is weirdly gorely hilarious). I’m all for great genre and this, wow, this is a perfect example.
#13: Reflection in a Dead Diamond - Hey, do you like the very fun OSS 117 movies that Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin made? Would you like a more serious version of this where an old man reflects on his days as a French super spy, except he might be remembering the days when he was an actor playing a French super spy? And THEN shit gets weird? Yes, yes you do. Because wow this movie is a great examination of art and aging and sex/violence (they’re so intermingled here) and made by people who know how to use visuals amazingly. Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani are a French wife and husband team who specialize in this sort of effected, crazy saturated work and this is their best work by far for me.
#12: Bugonia - Is this the movie for our conspiracy nut times? Perhaps not. Perhaps so. But it’s also a great use of paranoia and rage against corporate malfeasance, anchored by an amazing Jesse Plemons performance as someone who’s very probably insane but maybe not in the way you would think. (And as usual, Emma Stone.) Yorgos Lanthimos is so not everyone’s speed but this is a good example of why he works for a lot of us.
#11: The Perfect Neighbor - How to make a documentary with no talking heads, almost no narration and absolutely nail your point about neighbors, about cops and about the insanity of stand your ground laws.
#10: KPop Demon Hunters - Should I be surprised that Sony Animation is still killing it a few years in? Perhaps, but I don’t care when they deliver this smart and enjoyable piece of demon fighting and demon being and really, really good songs. “Golden” is of course really good but I’m very particular to “How It’s Done.” (And welcome back, Ji-young Yoo for the third time. She really did pop up a lot this year and always for the better.)
#9: 28 Years Later - Well, I was expecting a good infected movie, of course. What I wasn’t expecting was a rumination of sorts on isolationism and how nostalgia can be a drug, full of half-remembrances and twisting of memories. (And that’s even before the last moments of the film, where that nostalgia gets just plain nasty.) Stand alone, it’s still damn great. Combined with DaCosta’s sequel, the two films as one are a masterpiece.
#8: The Testament Of Ann Lee - Why yes, I needed a beautiful and tragic musical about the origins of the Shakers. I only knew the bare bones of their story and damn if this isn’t effective. (And it has some of the best cinematography of the year.)
#7: The Ugly Stepsister - I’m as bored of the “let’s take old stories and give them a dark turn” trope as anyone else. But this movie has much more to say about things than that trope would suggest; the ugly stepsister is not who you might think and this movie, the feature debut of Emilie Blichfeldt, has a lot of things on its mind about family, staying alive in a patriarchal world and oh yes, pure body horror. Let’s just say Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg earned every bit of that Oscar nomination.
#6: Weapons - Now here’s a movie where I’m glad I went in almost entirely blind because good god, it’s full of nasty surprises. And it’s one I’m sure to revisit in the future much as a bunch of it hits closer to home than I might like. (And I really was not expecting June Diane Raphael, a good comedic actress, to have two absolutely striking moments in this.) And as always, Julia Garner, absolutely killing it in her grief and self-destruction.
#5: The Shrouds - David Cronenberg processing grief in a sublime and beautiful fashion. It’s weird, it’s gross, it’s affectionate…it’s Cronenberg. We all should have guessed he could deliver a fastball this so late in his career.
#4: Johanne Sacreblu - Hey, remember Emilia Perez, that piece of shit French movie about Mexico and trans people that managed to get some weird critical acclaim despite, again, being a piece of shit? Well, the Mexican theater kids got angry and this is their response, a musical about a war in France between baguette and croissant families that uses every bad cliche possible but satirically as hell and also being funny as hell. Mimes, rat puppets on people so many berets and bad painted on mustaches and unlike in Emilia Perez, the songs are good! The theater kids came for Emilia Perez and left it for dead.
#3: Train Dreams - It’s worth going in blind on this and also partnering it with First Cow, because Clint Bentley and Kelly Reichardt have a conservation as filmmakers. And absolutely this is my pick for cinematography this year.
#2: No Other Choice - Park Chan-wook really does know how to combine pitch-black humor with absolutely searing social commentary. How this wasn’t getting award attention is beyond me; if you liked The Handmaiden, this is for you.
#1: Sinners - Really, I’m not sure how much more I or anyone else could say about the brilliance of this. The music, the performances, the story, the music again, and just the sheer beauty of it. Coogler et al at the top of their game. (Also hot damn is this movie sexy. Even Jack O’Connell is sexy.)
