2025 seems to be a transitional year in movies. Pundits have long-since predicted the death of the superhero genre, and while I still enjoy many of them you cannot deny their appeal is waning. In its wake are a bunch of truly interesting movies that are increasingly gaining traction with the moviegoing public. Movies like Bugonia, One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme and Sinners beat out any marvel movie if not financially, than certainly critically. It feels like the aftermath of the death of the Western in the late 60s where auteur-lead features like Bonnie and Clyde and The Godfather began to dominate. For all the doom and gloom in the real world, as well as the viability of cinemas in the age of streaming, I'm actually optimistic for the future of films. But for now, let's look back on the past as I dissect all the films I saw in 2025...
If there's another event that further supports my transitional thesis, it's Anora's incredible success at the Oscars. I always watch the ceremony regarding it as a discussion as opposed to the be-all and end-all of what makes good cinema. I predicted a lot of the wins, ultimately getting 17 right out of 23 but even I wasn't expecting the film to do as well as it did. And for a great low-budget independent movie like Anora, it was well deserved.
Every year, I do try to look for cinematic themes. In 2025, I noticed a distinct uptake in horror. There was so much good stuff that I had to make a conscious effort to not make my Top 10 consist entirely of it. Sure, there's never any drought of spooky pictures, but the amount of really good and entertaining ones surprised me. Even a lot of the popcorn fare like Final Destination: Bloodlines surprised me considering how banal some of the previous entries were. Elevated horror fans were catered for too, with Bring Her Back and Weapons reaching classic status in my mind but the true pattern that emerged was the resurgence of the Universal Monster movie. At the beginning of the year (the end of last year for you yanks), Robert Egger's gave us an update on the classic vampire tale Nosferatu. Later on, Luc Besson re-adapted that story's inspiration in Dracula: A Love Tale, and recently Netflix gave us Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. There's more coming next year with Eggers' own Werwulf and the Maggie Gyllenhaal directed and Jesse Buckley starring The Bride.
Every year, I do try to look for cinematic themes. In 2025, I noticed a distinct uptake in horror. There was so much good stuff that I had to make a conscious effort to not make my Top 10 consist entirely of it. Sure, there's never any drought of spooky pictures, but the amount of really good and entertaining ones surprised me. Even a lot of the popcorn fare like Final Destination: Bloodlines surprised me considering how banal some of the previous entries were. Elevated horror fans were catered for too, with Bring Her Back and Weapons reaching classic status in my mind but the true pattern that emerged was the resurgence of the Universal Monster movie. At the beginning of the year (the end of last year for you yanks), Robert Egger's gave us an update on the classic vampire tale Nosferatu. Later on, Luc Besson re-adapted that story's inspiration in Dracula: A Love Tale, and recently Netflix gave us Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. There's more coming next year with Eggers' own Werwulf and the Maggie Gyllenhaal directed and Jesse Buckley starring The Bride.
We also saw the box-office impact of Generation Alpha in a big way. Wearing a suit to see Minions 2 from a few years ago was just a taster. This year, we got pre-pubescent cries of "Chicken Jockey" and an unfathomable loyalty to Freddy Fazbear ushering each video-game movie into huge money-makers. The more reserved screenings of the former didn't see as much ruckus in the UK as the US, but the thought of being in one of those screenings sends shivers down my spine.
Going a bit left of field here so stay with me, but I did notice another small trend: twins. The same actor played both sides of a familial double-act in not one, not two, but three movies - Sinners, The Monkey and Twinless. Robert DeNiro's dual role in Alto Knights probably counts and I guess Mickeys 17 and 18 are a kind of twins too if you really think about it. Could Elle Fanning's robotic "sisters" from Predator Badlands be added to the list? We also have Holiday with the Twins, but I think the world would want to ignore that one just like I have. Still, it's all pretty weird.
But let's move onto what you came here for - my recommendations of the year. As always, click on the links within the review to head over to Justwatch.com to see where you can watch them were you are. Here's Top 10 Movies of 2025, starting with...
10
Way back when I was studying film in college, I got really into East Asian cinema; Ringu, Battle Royale, Oldboy, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... And Spring - every one that crossed my path were all classics in my view. I even wrote my dissertation on "The Fear of Technology in Contemporary Japanese Cinema" comparing the country's cultural significance in electronics with its traditional sensibilities that often butt heads in its movies. It was around this time that I discovered Jang Joon-hwan's South Korean oddity Save the Green Planet. This past year, it was remade by Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos as Bugonia (★★★★☆).
I mention this back story to explain why this film - one which fits right into my twisted tastes - is lower down on my list than most critics. Lanthimos is currently one of my favourite directors and Bugonia is a great film, but it's not as good as the original. Green Planet has a bunch of outcasts abduct a rich CEO claiming him to be an alien hellbent on destroying Earth. What follows is a surreal and violent critique on capitalism's inhumanity which doesn't quite translate to the remake.
Sometimes, less is more, and RocketJump's Matthew Arnold and Freddie Wong's sci-fi rom-com We're All Gonna Die is a great example of that. A 10,000 mile tentacle has appeared in the sky. Every so often, this "spike" teleports to another location taking with it anything that was in the vicinity like cars, trees and people. The story begins twelve years after the spike's first appearance, and humanity has learned to live with these movements as if it were just another natural disaster but it has cause great pain, particularly in beekeeper Thalia (veteran video game voice artist Ashley Birch). Years ago, the spike has taken her husband and young daughter and when a new event takes her precious bees, she goes on a road trip with Kai (a loveable Jordan Rodrigues) in the hope to salvage them in the new location. Essentially a road movie, the emotional sides to the story don't have the weight they could have, but I doubt the filmmakers wanted this to be a dour study of grief. Instead, what we're given is a breezy romance housed around an apocalyptic sci-fi with just enough depth and charm to keep you invested. A wonderful find that left me with a big smile on my face.
Few horror directors have made as big of a name in cinema this decade than Osgood Perkins and Zach Cregger. Son of Psycho Anthony Perkins, Osgood began the 20s with the spooky gothic fantasy Gretel & Hansel before hitting critical and commercial heights with Longlegs in 2024. Since then, he's been incredibly prolific directing two features this past year. I'll keep Keeper for later 'cos, in my opinion, the best of the two is the Stephen King adaptation The Monkey (★★★★☆). Starring Theo James in a dual role as twins Bill and Hal, their lives descend into chaos when they uncover a cursed wind-up monkey toy in their father's attic. Whenever the monkey plays its cymbals, someone nearby dies horrifically. It goes to some surreal places that are so extreme it borders on comedy. How can you not laugh at a bunch of teenage cheerleading waving pompoms out of the windows of a school bus, only for another vehicle to decapitate them all? Deceptively shallow and not particularly scary, it's an incredibly fun time.
Tim Key is something of a staple in the British comedy scene. He was first seen on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, appeared on pretty much all of the comedy panel shows and acts as "Task Consultant" to the hugely successful Taskmaster created by his long-time pal Alex Horne. And now, in 2025, he features in two of my favourite films of the year. His small but memorable role in Mickey 17 will be talked about a but later, but for now I want to sing the praises of The Ballad of Wallis Island (★★★★★).
I may have hinted at the death of the comic book movie, but if there was one to get excited about in 2025, it was Superman (★★★★★). As expected, the Snyder-bros came out in full force but I rank it higher than almost anything in that man's back catalogue. Director James Gunn seems to have a better understanding of who the man of steel truly is as a character, and expects us to be the same. He spends zero minutes on his origin story - we are all very familiar with that by now - and instead tells us a high-stakes slice-of-life movie of a superhero. This is Superman's first worst week, and by showing us the first time he's ever been defeated in the opening shot, it tells us exactly what we need to know.
Here comes my first movie on this list to feature my yearly asterisk - delayed UK release dates. Straume, or Flow (★★★★★) as we English speakers like to call it, won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars on 3rd of March, but wouldn't reach our cinema screens until a couple of weeks later on the 21st. As someone who aims to see all movies in time for the ceremony, this peeved me right off. Had I seen it in time, I would've surely placed my bets on this exceptional piece of independent Latvian animation instead of the still-good The Wild Robot. Not bad considering the low budget and minimal crew steered by director Gints Zilbalodis (Away) using the free animation tool Blender.
If Bong Joon Ho's blank cheque movie was environmentally conscious sci-fi, Ryan Cooglar's (Black Panther) was socially conscious horror. Sinners (★★★★★), on a superficial level, shares a lot in common with Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Til Dawn. It begins as a crime drama before doing a 180 halfway through when a bunch of vampires cause chaos. This time, it's set in the early 1930s prohibition era where twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore (Michael B Jordan) return to their small Mississippi town after making it big in the city. They bring with them some ideas to turn an abandoned sawmill into a coloureds only juke joint. Given the era, they draw the attention of the local Klansmen as well as something equally as sinister.
Much like last year, my favourite film of 2025 is actually a 2024 film. We Brits wouldn't get to see Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (★★★★★) until New Year's Day and it's remained in my headspace ever since.
I doubt Final Destination: Bloodlines (★★★☆☆) will have the staying power of the previous two, but I reckon it's the best the franchise has been since the original. It eschews all allusions of seriousness going all-out on the suspenseful Rube Goldberg kills and inventive gore. Final girl Stefani has a recurring dream of a tower collapsing in the 60s, and it turns out this actually happened to her grandmother. It robbed death from a number of lives, meaning their offspring should never have existed and are now marked for a spectacular end. It's all very silly, but the actors - including horror icon Tony Todd's last ever scene - give it there all.
Acting-wise, it's incredible which is to be expected. Emma Stone brings in the weird as the gender-swapped kidnapped businesswoman and with the kidnappers reduced to two men - Jesse Plemens and neurodivergent Aidan Delbis - it completely changes the overall meaning to something less original and impactful. Instead of a punky middle-finger to capitalism, the primary reading I get from it is a confused take on misogyny and conspiracy theorists. Still a good film, though.
After last year's excellent Talk to Me, Australian twin brothers Danny and Micheal Philippou cement their status as horror gurus with Bring Her Back (★★★★☆), which showcases another tale of messed-up grief. Sally Hawkins (eschewing the third Paddington movie for this) plays a mother who decides to take on foster children after the tragic death of her daughter. Teenage step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and blind Piper (Sora Wong) soon discover something is very wrong about this woman, and this other strange child living on the premises. What follows is a rare movie that actually scared and shocked me. Something the directors have done twice now. A tense and disturbing horror film that, like Talk to Me, is hard to shake.
9
After last year's excellent Talk to Me, Australian twin brothers Danny and Micheal Philippou cement their status as horror gurus with Bring Her Back (★★★★☆), which showcases another tale of messed-up grief. Sally Hawkins (eschewing the third Paddington movie for this) plays a mother who decides to take on foster children after the tragic death of her daughter. Teenage step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and blind Piper (Sora Wong) soon discover something is very wrong about this woman, and this other strange child living on the premises. What follows is a rare movie that actually scared and shocked me. Something the directors have done twice now. A tense and disturbing horror film that, like Talk to Me, is hard to shake.
8
Sometimes, less is more, and RocketJump's Matthew Arnold and Freddie Wong's sci-fi rom-com We're All Gonna Die is a great example of that. A 10,000 mile tentacle has appeared in the sky. Every so often, this "spike" teleports to another location taking with it anything that was in the vicinity like cars, trees and people. The story begins twelve years after the spike's first appearance, and humanity has learned to live with these movements as if it were just another natural disaster but it has cause great pain, particularly in beekeeper Thalia (veteran video game voice artist Ashley Birch). Years ago, the spike has taken her husband and young daughter and when a new event takes her precious bees, she goes on a road trip with Kai (a loveable Jordan Rodrigues) in the hope to salvage them in the new location. Essentially a road movie, the emotional sides to the story don't have the weight they could have, but I doubt the filmmakers wanted this to be a dour study of grief. Instead, what we're given is a breezy romance housed around an apocalyptic sci-fi with just enough depth and charm to keep you invested. A wonderful find that left me with a big smile on my face.
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7
Few horror directors have made as big of a name in cinema this decade than Osgood Perkins and Zach Cregger. Son of Psycho Anthony Perkins, Osgood began the 20s with the spooky gothic fantasy Gretel & Hansel before hitting critical and commercial heights with Longlegs in 2024. Since then, he's been incredibly prolific directing two features this past year. I'll keep Keeper for later 'cos, in my opinion, the best of the two is the Stephen King adaptation The Monkey (★★★★☆). Starring Theo James in a dual role as twins Bill and Hal, their lives descend into chaos when they uncover a cursed wind-up monkey toy in their father's attic. Whenever the monkey plays its cymbals, someone nearby dies horrifically. It goes to some surreal places that are so extreme it borders on comedy. How can you not laugh at a bunch of teenage cheerleading waving pompoms out of the windows of a school bus, only for another vehicle to decapitate them all? Deceptively shallow and not particularly scary, it's an incredibly fun time.
There's little shallowness - deceptive or otherwise - in Zach Cregger's Weapons (★★★★☆). It builds on the themes of parental and societal neglect that ran through the director's break out hit Barbarian (not to mention the metaphorical title), but his latest hits far closer to home. Cregger himself has stated that it's a metaphor for alcoholic parents, but with that title and premise, how could you not read into it allegories of school shootings and the normalisation of traumatising children. A teacher (Julia Garner) walks into class one day to find every single student bar one is missing at the same time the previous night. She is quickly singled out as suspect number one, being accused of witchcraft from the increasingly hysterical townsfolk. But this is not just her story. We witness the same events through a series of characters, including distraught father Archer (Josh Brolin), incompetent cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich) and last child standing Alex (Cary Christopher). The Rashomon-style narrative structure is perfectly used to highlight the horrors of the story while leading towards a satisfyingly bonkers conclusion. Amy Madigan as Gladys deserves all the accolades she will likely receive come awards season.
6
Tim Key is something of a staple in the British comedy scene. He was first seen on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, appeared on pretty much all of the comedy panel shows and acts as "Task Consultant" to the hugely successful Taskmaster created by his long-time pal Alex Horne. And now, in 2025, he features in two of my favourite films of the year. His small but memorable role in Mickey 17 will be talked about a but later, but for now I want to sing the praises of The Ballad of Wallis Island (★★★★★).
Written by Mr. Key himself, our boy Tim also stars as an isolated weirdo living alone in a large house on a barely-inhabited island on the British Isles. Having won the lottery, he pays for aging folk-singer Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) to play a private concert for an audience of one. Except, he didn't tell him that. Nor did he tell him he'd also invited his ex-lover and singing partner Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan - whose husband is folk-rock singer Marcus Mumford). What follows is a quietly tender comedy drama that will warm even the coldest of hearts.
5
I may have hinted at the death of the comic book movie, but if there was one to get excited about in 2025, it was Superman (★★★★★). As expected, the Snyder-bros came out in full force but I rank it higher than almost anything in that man's back catalogue. Director James Gunn seems to have a better understanding of who the man of steel truly is as a character, and expects us to be the same. He spends zero minutes on his origin story - we are all very familiar with that by now - and instead tells us a high-stakes slice-of-life movie of a superhero. This is Superman's first worst week, and by showing us the first time he's ever been defeated in the opening shot, it tells us exactly what we need to know.
To give the Synder-bros some credit, this David Corenswet's take on Superman is boyishly naïve in his optimism - a stark contrast to Henry Cavil's tortured take. To me, in the troubled times we live in (which the movie doesn't shy away from - the war in Boravia has parallels with a few concerning situations currently going on around the globe) makes the bright and breezy tone eminently appealing. Appealing enough for this to be my most watched movie the year. A fantastically fun un-furrowed brow of a movie.
4
Here comes my first movie on this list to feature my yearly asterisk - delayed UK release dates. Straume, or Flow (★★★★★) as we English speakers like to call it, won Best Animated Feature at the Oscars on 3rd of March, but wouldn't reach our cinema screens until a couple of weeks later on the 21st. As someone who aims to see all movies in time for the ceremony, this peeved me right off. Had I seen it in time, I would've surely placed my bets on this exceptional piece of independent Latvian animation instead of the still-good The Wild Robot. Not bad considering the low budget and minimal crew steered by director Gints Zilbalodis (Away) using the free animation tool Blender.
The wordless animation takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where Earth is flooded, humans are gone and the remaining animals struggle for survival. We follow a black cat as he stumbles through a fantastical odyssey to safety. Along the way, he befriends a yellow Labrador Retriever, a lazy capybara, a chaotic ring-tailed lemur and a majestic secretarybird on a pea-green (and red and white) boat. The visuals are stunning, even if it looks like it could run on a PlayStation 4 (and it probably could), and they fairytale fantasy offers up surprising poignancy. Surely a classic.
You can tell the vision of a great filmmaker by the quality of their blank cheque movies. Critical darling Damien Chazelle's Babylon had a ballooned budget thanks to the success of La La Land but was something of a mess. Christopher Nolan let loose with the classic brain-bending sci-fi Inception after The Dark Knight smashed the box office. After Bong Joon Ho's Parasite won all the awards, we got Mickey 17 (★★★★★), a bizarre science-fiction film with a big budget, low box-office returns and guaranteed cult status. If you've seen any of the director's previous genre films (Snowpiercer, Okja), this tale of cloning and re-cloning a member of the menial workforce is right up his wheelhouse.
Robbert Pattinson (ever proving himself as better than Twilight) is excellent as Mickey, a down-on-his-luck bum who attempts to escape evil loan sharks and the unfair drudgery of Earth by applying for a position on a space exploration ship. With his credentials, however, the only way he can be accepted is to sign up as an "expendable" employee. His memories and DNA is backed up so whenever he dies doing the very dangerous jobs required of him, he can simply be reprinted to be used again. When the ship finds a planet that could sustain human life, he unexpectedly finds himself as the lead defender of the ice-world's indigenous sentient life. It also has Tim Key dressed as a pigeon. If it passed you by, it's well worth a watch.
3
You can tell the vision of a great filmmaker by the quality of their blank cheque movies. Critical darling Damien Chazelle's Babylon had a ballooned budget thanks to the success of La La Land but was something of a mess. Christopher Nolan let loose with the classic brain-bending sci-fi Inception after The Dark Knight smashed the box office. After Bong Joon Ho's Parasite won all the awards, we got Mickey 17 (★★★★★), a bizarre science-fiction film with a big budget, low box-office returns and guaranteed cult status. If you've seen any of the director's previous genre films (Snowpiercer, Okja), this tale of cloning and re-cloning a member of the menial workforce is right up his wheelhouse.
Robbert Pattinson (ever proving himself as better than Twilight) is excellent as Mickey, a down-on-his-luck bum who attempts to escape evil loan sharks and the unfair drudgery of Earth by applying for a position on a space exploration ship. With his credentials, however, the only way he can be accepted is to sign up as an "expendable" employee. His memories and DNA is backed up so whenever he dies doing the very dangerous jobs required of him, he can simply be reprinted to be used again. When the ship finds a planet that could sustain human life, he unexpectedly finds himself as the lead defender of the ice-world's indigenous sentient life. It also has Tim Key dressed as a pigeon. If it passed you by, it's well worth a watch.
2
If Bong Joon Ho's blank cheque movie was environmentally conscious sci-fi, Ryan Cooglar's (Black Panther) was socially conscious horror. Sinners (★★★★★), on a superficial level, shares a lot in common with Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Til Dawn. It begins as a crime drama before doing a 180 halfway through when a bunch of vampires cause chaos. This time, it's set in the early 1930s prohibition era where twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore (Michael B Jordan) return to their small Mississippi town after making it big in the city. They bring with them some ideas to turn an abandoned sawmill into a coloureds only juke joint. Given the era, they draw the attention of the local Klansmen as well as something equally as sinister.
The first half, while beautifully shot and acted, lulls you into a cozy crime drama, but as soon as the supernatural elements appear on the opening night of the speakeasy, all hell breaks loose. Literally. Vampires descend onto the venue lead by a terrifying Jack O'Connell (Skins, Starred Up) who does his utmost to bring death and chaos no matter the victim. It's the same twist as Dawn, and is just as deliberately jarring but here it hits with added gravitas. Ryan Cooglar has delivered a crowd-pleasing horror flick just as much as he has a critical darling.
1
Much like last year, my favourite film of 2025 is actually a 2024 film. We Brits wouldn't get to see Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (★★★★★) until New Year's Day and it's remained in my headspace ever since.
Retelling Bram Stoker's Dracula by way of F.W. Murnau's legally distinct 1922 silent classic, Nosferatu follows the classic tale fairly closely. Real estate agent Thomas Hutter (a wide-eyed Nicholas Hoult) embarks on a journey to the Carpathian Alps under the premise of selling an isolated castled owned by Count Orlok. Hutter's newlywed wife Ellen (a dainty yet afflicted Lily Rose Depp) remains in Germany where she suffers fits of seizures after horrific nightmares. With her husband absent, it is up to his best friend Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) to aid Ellen in her illness while Orlok - Nosferatu himself - journeys ever closer.
Robert Eggers has become a dependable name in horror, marrying beautifully stark visuals with terrifying imagery around an often strange and uncannily abject storyline. The gothic sensibilities of Nosferatu fit right into his oeuvre making it one of the best - nay, the best - movies I've seen this past year.
It's been an incredible year for horror. Half of my top 10 is made up of them, but there are many others that could've competed. What's more, for a sequel-heavy genre most of the follow-ups - legacy or otherwise - were pretty decent too. Top of that list is 28 Years Later (★★★★☆), Danny Boyle's top-tier return to the post-apocalyptic zombie franchise. There are some neat ideas here; on an isolated island community where the virus hasn't reached, the teenage son of a terminally ill mother risks traveling to the mainland to search for a doctor who is rumoured to have survived among the undead. Peak performances from Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and an incredible Jodie Comer bring the heart just as much as the scares. A direct sequel subtitled The Bone Temple has been getting some good buzz and is out imminently.
Robert Eggers has become a dependable name in horror, marrying beautifully stark visuals with terrifying imagery around an often strange and uncannily abject storyline. The gothic sensibilities of Nosferatu fit right into his oeuvre making it one of the best - nay, the best - movies I've seen this past year.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
28 Years Later / The Black Phone 2 / Final Destination: Bloodlines / I Know What You Did Last Summer / Megan 2.0
It's been an incredible year for horror. Half of my top 10 is made up of them, but there are many others that could've competed. What's more, for a sequel-heavy genre most of the follow-ups - legacy or otherwise - were pretty decent too. Top of that list is 28 Years Later (★★★★☆), Danny Boyle's top-tier return to the post-apocalyptic zombie franchise. There are some neat ideas here; on an isolated island community where the virus hasn't reached, the teenage son of a terminally ill mother risks traveling to the mainland to search for a doctor who is rumoured to have survived among the undead. Peak performances from Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and an incredible Jodie Comer bring the heart just as much as the scares. A direct sequel subtitled The Bone Temple has been getting some good buzz and is out imminently.
The Black Phone was a surprisingly effective spook-fest from 2022, but what's more surprising is that the sequel is a very worthy follow up. The Black Phone 2 (★★★★☆) follows the same characters from the first - now teenagers - as prophetic nightmares continue to haunt them. This takes them down an investigative rabbit hole of masked killer known as the Grabber and his backstory at a snowed-in summer camp during winter. Some of the set-pieces may be over the top, but the scares are effective, the mystery intriguing and the plot rewarding. Coupled with a handsome cinematography that's all too rare nowadays and you have yet another classic horror for books.
While Final Destination: Bloodlines and 28 Years Later are legacy sequels done right, I Know What You Did Last Summer (★★☆☆☆) is the opposite. A bunch of self-entitled rich kids drunkenly cause an accident on a mountainous road and use their connections to cover it up. All of the living legacy characters (and a dead one) return to chastise and warn the youth of the seaside town's murderous history, but the big reveal is forced and downright insulting. There was room to build on the formula, but instead they repeated it almost verbatim with the added insult of a bad script and uninspired characters. The second star is reserved solely for Sarah Michelle Geller whose throwaway post-mortem cameo should've been the central thesis of the plot.
If you were a fan of all the killing in the the killer doll movie M3GAN, the M3GAN 2.0 (★★★☆☆) might seem like a disappointment. It goes the Terminator route by making the sequel a full-on action film. The AI technology used in the prototype doll is being used by the military to create a perfect humanoid weapon codenamed Amelia, and it seems to have gone rogue. After discovering that Megan has backed up her personality in her home's smart electronics system, original creator Gemma decides to resurrect her as the only person who could stop the ensuing rampage. Personally, I enjoyed this take quite a bit, perhaps more so than the decidedly horror-themed original.
I was hugely disappointed by Avatar: Fire and Ash (★★☆☆☆). I wanted to like it - there's the bones of a decent movie in there somewhere - but by the gods is it a slog to get through. It tells what is essentially a simple story in the most convoluted, over-stuffed way possible. What annoys me even more is that you can see the changes that need to be made to streamline the 200-minute movie. Or at least I could while trying to get to sleep after returning from the cinema.
First of all, I'd make Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldaña) children the leads of the movie, driving the A-plot with Spider's (Jack Champion) malfunctional oxygen mask as the primary inciting incident. I'd shuffle around the Ash Clan to be further entwined in the plot and lessen or even remove Stephen Lang's Colonel Miles role as shifting military antagonist. Reducing the screen time of the whales would reduce any repetition with the previous movie, perhaps using them in much the same way as the Ents or Rohirrim in the Battle of Helm's Deep.
First of all, I'd make Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldaña) children the leads of the movie, driving the A-plot with Spider's (Jack Champion) malfunctional oxygen mask as the primary inciting incident. I'd shuffle around the Ash Clan to be further entwined in the plot and lessen or even remove Stephen Lang's Colonel Miles role as shifting military antagonist. Reducing the screen time of the whales would reduce any repetition with the previous movie, perhaps using them in much the same way as the Ents or Rohirrim in the Battle of Helm's Deep.
I have many more thoughts that could take up an entire feature, but I'll leave at that for now. Ultimately, the biggest movie of the year was my biggest disappointment.
Apart from my fondness for Flow (see #4), animation has been a little lacklustre this year. Dreamworks released multiple movies, and while I have no interest in Dogman no matter what my nephew says, Bad Guys 2 (★★★☆☆) was a sequel I was quietly looking forward to. It's not a patch on the surprisingly entertaining original, but there is charm in the formulaic anthropomorphised heist film that sees our newly-labeled good guys tricked back into a life of crime thanks to an all-female team of bandits.
Disney's Zootropolis 2 (★★★★☆) (or Zootopia 2 to give it its original name) shares a lot of similarities with Dreamworks' animal movie. Less of a police procedural and more of a conspiracy thriller, detectives Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde team up with a misunderstood snake as the utopian ideals of this animal kingdom is revealed to not so nice for the reptilian populace. While themes of societal prejudice remain, the metaphor is a little more muddled this time round. Still, it's a fun adventure making it one of Disney Animation Studio's better films in their current run of stinkers (Moana, Wish).
Pixar are in a similar boat to Disney, with their animated movies mostly underperforming financially and critically (Lightyear, Elemental). The success of last year's Inside Out 2 was supposed to signal a return to form, but with Elio (★★★★☆) underperforming it could've been a fluke. It tells a very personal story by writer-director Adrian Molina who imagines his childhood growing up gay in the backdrop of a science-fiction adventure. But Disney can't do gay stuff, so all of this was removed and the talented Molina (who previously gave us one of Pixar's best in Coco) left the company. Elements of that original tale do remain in the still-entertaining story, but it's hidden behind the kind of hushed codes cinema utilised when Hays was still the moral arbiter in Hollywood. I would have liked to seen where Elio could've gone had its original intent stayed intact.
Netflix always tries to get in on the animation scene, and they're often hit-and-miss. When they do hit, though, they excel (see Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Wendell & Wild or Klaus). Unfortunately, there's a lot of guff. I steered clear of the generic-looking In Your Dreams, but coming from the mind of Roald Dahl, The Twits (★★☆☆☆) was always going to entice me. Unfortunately, its attempts to embellish the slight story into something more substantial falls flat. The titular siblings are a blight on the local government, but somehow still manage to wrangle their desires into the reality. And what they desire is their very own amusement park, but without those pesky health and safety rules. When two orphans appear at their door, they uncover the fantastical means to their grubby success - the tears of the Muggle-Wump - and they enact their rescue. In order to get them back, The Twits run for office, which would be funny if it weren't so on-the-nose in our current political climate. I respect the attempt, but it ultimately falls flat.
Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag (★★★★☆) is the kind of tense spy thriller we don't really get too often any more. It has major stars in Cate Blanchette and Michael Fassbender at the top of their game surrounded by an excellent supporting cast and an exceptional production. Our two leads are happily married, yet their undercover governmental vocation causes complication when Blanchette disappears, accused of stealing classified documents for the enemy. Torn between his loyalties to his wife and country, Fassbender searches for the truth and his spouse in a dense and intelligent action film. Not something to put on in the background, but eminently rewarding when you pay attention.
Two true stories from the annals of entertainment directed by Richard Linklater. Blue Moon (★★★★☆) recounts the opening night of of Rogers and Hammersteins Broadway musical Oklamhoma! in 1943 from the perspective of Lorenz Hart. The famed lyricist best known for Blue Moon was once a writing partner of Rogers and the films highlights his struggles with substance abuse and mental health as he sees his former friend catapulted into stardom. Ethan Hawke portrays Hart with tender complexity as he spends the after party - captured almost in real time - trying to reconnect with his friend (a great Andrew Scott). Surely a career-best performance that deserves awards buzz, even if I doubt he will get any. Like Hawke, Linklater is also underrated in his craft. He truly knows how to get to the core of a character.
A quartet of Oscar hopefuls that had a delayed UK release. Before seeing it, the hype around The Brutalist (★★★☆☆) made me think it was a shoe-in to win the big one at the Academy Awards. In truth, this tale of an immigrant architect pioneering in start concrete brutalism is a slog to sit through. It's overlong, pretentious and smothers characters and plot in an almost impenetrable layer of subtext. But that's not to say that there isn't something to be found here. It looks spectacular having been shot of film, with some of the best cinematography I've seen in quite a while. Guy Pierce has the stand out role as the complex financial backer of Adrian Brody's quiet architect, and I would've been okay with the latter's win for Best Actor if his acceptance speech hadn't garbled on for ten minutes. Still, I find it to be overrated.
A stalwart of Brazillian cinema since Central Station garnered worldwide acclaim in 1999 Walter Salles' newest movie I'm Still Here (★★★★☆) is just as impactful. Adapted from the memoire of Marcelo Rubens Paiva, it recounts a time in the 1970s when his father, the politician Rubens Paiva, was taken by Brazil's dictatorial military regime and his mother's desperate quest to uncover the truth over the coming decades. A powerful piece of cinema.
Nickel Boys (★★★★☆) is a film that plays with the language of moviemaking. It uses a 4:3 aspect ratio and almost every shot is from filmed from first-person point of view of of one of the main characters. We follow Elwood, an intelligent young black boy in the Jim Crow era, who finds himself in trouble with the law for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Due to his age, he is sent to a young offenders correctional facility where he befriends a boy named Turner and the two try to survive the brutality inflicted upon them. The juvenile detention centre and the neglect inflicted on the underage inmates are based on a real Florida location that existed for over 100 years which is frightening in itself, but placing you directly in the mind of a victim makes for a powerful piece of cinema.
A Real Pain (★★★★☆) is very different to the other films on this list. It is a comedy-drama directed with little flair by Jesse Eisenberg, but the surprisingly emotional tale of two cousins honouring their deceased grandmother by making a pilgrimage to the concentration camps of Poland makes it worthy of awards success. Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin are essentially playing versions of their tried and true persona, but with the roles written for these individuals in mind, they are natural fits for these characters. Culkin deservedly won Best Supporting Actor for his turn as a likeable yet unpredictable young man who doesn't know how to handle his grief. It reminds me of the type of bittersweet movie we might have got in the 70s. An entertaining watch.
After the relative lull of 2024, Marvel's cinematic universe returns with three movies this past year. While none of them are particularly extraordinary, they each have something going for them with perhaps the exception of Captain America: Brave New World (★★☆☆☆). Anthony Mackie is now fully entrenched into the role of the star-spangled man but his metal is soon tested when characters from 2008's The Incredible Hulk return to cause havoc. Harrison Ford does well taking over William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, now President of the United States, whose nervousness over superpowered beings causes his to make some truly bad decisions. Better than the Falcon and Winter Soldier TV show, but still a surprisingly dull and formulaic comic book movie.
Horror doesn't have to be all scares. Sometimes a touch of comedy sprinkled in goes a long way, and these more humorous only add to an incredible year for the genre. From the director of Tucker and Dale vs Evil comes Clown in a Cornfield (★★★★☆), a hugely entertaining teen slasher with generational angst. When Quinn Maybrook and her father moves to a rural mid-western town, she soon finds out that the adults have an unnerving contempt for the kids and teens. When some of them start disappearing thanks to a murderous clown, it's up to the town's youth to save themselves. A perfect Halloween flick.
The Parenting (★★★★☆) is also a well-worn premise. A couple rent out an old mansion to introduce each other to their parents, only to find the ancient abode is haunted by a violent poltergeist. We've seen this before, even in comedy form of which this very much is, but by having the couple be two gay men, it adds some little seen perspectives. The cast (which includes queer actors Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why) and Nick Dodani (Atypical) as well as famous faces like Brian Cox, Edie Falco and Lisa Kudrow) are all winningly weirded out by the bumps in the night. A hugely entertaining horror comedy.
Based on the video game, Until Dawn (★★★☆☆) has suffered a negative reaction since its release. This is entirely due to the fact that it's an adaptation in name only. Very little of the ski-lodge slashings witnessed in the PlayStation game travels over. Instead, we have a twisty supernatural horror that traps our protagonists in a Groundhog Day-style time loop. If you can divorce yourself from the source material, it's actually an okay teen horror with some great acting and set pieces, even if the plot goes wildly off the rails in the final act.
Three music biopics arrived this year. A Complete Unknown (★★★☆☆) and Springfield: Deliver Me From Nowhere (★★★☆☆) are your typical fare. The former stars Timothee Chalamet acting his ass off as the determined yet detached Bob Dylan during his rise to fame. The latter stars Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen while he writes his 1982 album Nebraska. White disappears into his role more than Chalamet who is dangerously close to being too famous to do such a thing, though I found Dylan's biopic to be the better movie.
Song Sung Blue (★★★☆☆) goes a different route. While Neil Diamond and his music are crucial to the plot, this isn't his biopic. Instead, it's about an unremarkable tribute band called Thunder and Lightning that somehow became locally famous in the 1980s. Played by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, they form a close yet tumultuous relationship. Both shine whenever they are on screen, but this very American movie - no, very Milwaukee movie - has very little going for anyone not entrenched in that culture.
Even if A24's horror output was a mixed bag this past year, at least you can say they're original. Death of a Unicorn (★★★☆☆) is perhaps the most Hollywood the company has ever come. Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as a widowed father and daughter who have been cajoled by the former's uber-rich boss (Richard E. Grant) to visit the remote mansion in the woods for some business talk. On the way, they accidentally run over a unicorn whose blood has healing powers. Seeing dollar signs, they set about to exploit the legendary creature with Ortega being the only naysayer. Even when it comes back to life and turns sadistically violent, they keep up their greed. There is a thinly veiled anti-capitalist metaphor here, but let's face it; the only reason you're watching is to see rich assholes get gutted but a rainbow-coloured horn. And in this instance, it absolutely delivers.
Opus (★★★☆☆) is a little more subtle and insidious. Several music journalists including Ayo Edebiri's (The Bear) Ariel travel to a remote commune to interview a reclusive pop icon that disappeared at the height of his fame. Creepily played by John Malkovich, it becomes clear that this musical genius has cultivated his very own cult, and those journalists have been invited for a very sinister reason. Its pacing is uneven at times, and the weirdness the characters witness make you wonder how stupid a character can be, but with themes of blind ideation and hero worship, it makes for an interesting comedy horror.
Two highly emotional relationship dramas that showcase the talents of their leads. In We Live in Time (★★★★☆), we see the burgeoning romance between Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield blossom and deepen over the years. Their chemistry is so palpable that you want to stay with them for as long as possible, so when the relationship encounters hardship, its all the more devastating. A ten-tissue movie.
Classic movie monsters are back with a vengeance. Universal monsters got their very own theme park land in Epic Universe's and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu remains one of the best movies I've seen in 2025 (see above), a feat he might repeat in 2026 when he releases his take on the Werwulf. Sticking to the past twelve months, we saw Leigh Whannell's follow up to the Invisible Man with Wolf Man (★★★☆☆). Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the same intensity of his previous reinvention which tackles domestic abuse and misogyny. Here, the wolfman represents degenerative illness and the disintegration of the family in a surprisingly uninventive home invasion film.
For something much better, you can always count on Guillermo del Toro. His take on Frankenstein (★★★★☆) takes some liberties with the source material, but in doing so says something new in a story that has been retold many times. Oscar Isaac's Frankenstein is far less sympathetic here, playing up his narcissistic ego as he plays with life itself. The new character of Christoph Waltz's benefactor plays up on the themes of what it takes to live a life with meaning, going some way to explain the almost superhuman changes to Jacob Elordi's Creature itself. We surely see some Oscar nods, and perhaps a few wins in the makeup, production and costume design categories.
Luc Besson's Dracula: A Love Tale (★★☆☆☆) also takes liberties with the source material. Caleb Landry Jones plays a decidedly camp Vlad that commendably retains the character's terror and foreboding presence. He now carries with him a scent that drives humans into a servile frenzy. It's a weird decision that, unlike Frankenstein (which shares a cast member in Christoph Waltz), doesn't really add anything to the tale. Beyond this, every scene just reminds me of Francis Ford Coppola's take, and it takes so much from that definitive version that I found myself wanting to watch that one instead.
Like 2023's Beau is Afraid, Ari Astor's Eddington (★★★☆☆) is a divisive movie. It's not quite as impenetrable as his previous effort, but it's just as dense with themes and metaphors. As Covid-19 forces a lockdown in a small New Mexican town, the mayor (Pedro Pascal) and sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) butt heads over the handling of the issues. Tensions rise, and dangerous conspiracy theories everyone's heard before take hold forcing the sheriff to take over the position of mayor by any means necessary. It escalates to insane levels that, since that time, seems ever more common. While still technically a quirky dark comedy, it hits a little too close home to be funny. Something I might enjoy more the further away we get from this era.
Wes Anderson's The Phoenican Scheme (★★★★☆) is a tried and true formula for the singular director. Benicio del Toro stars as Anatole "Zsa-Zsa" Korda, an entrepreneur and arms dealer with an uncanny ability to survive assassination attempts. It was during one of these attempts that he had a vision of heaven, and that he must change his ways to get in. So, he decides to change his will. Instead of leaving his entire fortune to one of his nine sons, he chooses entrust his only daughter, a novice nun named Sister Liesl, with it instead. What follows is a complex comedy of errors as Korda tries to survive an onslaught of badly thought out assassination attempts while trying to get to know his estranged daughter. I like the director quite a bit, but I feel that the Wes Andersonisms are so unrelenting here that it very nearly overtook the picture. It's perhaps the one movie of his where I will remember the style more than the substance. Not bad, but I hope for something a little more focussed for his next outing.
Multiplexes aren't the only place to watch high fantasy and big budget sci-fi. Streaming can do that too. Though, these three duds on offer, I wonder why anyone would. Having no knowledge of the graphic novel it's based on, I am perhaps a little more critically lenient on The Electric State (★★☆☆☆), but that doesn't stop me from noticing the dumbed-down storytelling techniques and haphazard visuals. It's the future, and AI robotics have lost a war forcing them to live in a desert that's a dangerous no-man's land for living humans. But, when her genius brother is kidnapped, a rebellious Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) teams up with a black market robotics reseller, Keats (Chris Pratt), to save him. Hugely expensive and filled with unnecessary CGI, this Netflix folly somehow comes off as cheap AI slop despite the only AI in the movie being the fictional kind.
Amazon doesn't fare much better with Guy Ritchie's The Fountain of Youth (★★☆☆☆). A blatant rip off of Indiana Jones, it stars John Krasinski and Nathalie Portman as estranged siblings teaming up to find the historical water feature of the title. Amazon Studios put a lot of money behind this stinker, and it shows on screen, but it's the banal script and illogical plot that lets the whole thing down. Apparently it's really hard to make a good treasure hunting adventure movie.
Sticking with Amazon, Red Sonja (★★☆☆☆) is a bit of an anomaly compared to the previous two. I can tell it's a bad movie - perhaps the worst of the three objectively speaking - but I think I might actually have enjoyed it the most. It's budget was miniscule compared to the previous two - $17 million. That's around ten times less than The Fountain of Youth and almost twenty times (yikes!) less than The Electric State. Barbarian Sonja (Matilda Lutz, Revenge) has grown up a skilled fighter in the forests, but when the brutal dictator Dragan the Magnificent (Umbrella Academy's Robert Sheehan camping it up magnificently) destroys her village and forces her to fight in the gladiatorial ring. But he drastically underestimated her, and much carnage ensues. The fight scenes might look cheap, but showcase some keen martial art talents and the set design and special effects creek around the edges like an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. However, there is a charming vibe and obvious enthusiasm from the creatives that the other two, more expensive features, just don't have. For that I'm almost tempted to give it another star, but I'm sticking to my gun. So bad it's good.
There's some more exceptional elevated horror to yap on about. I've already talked about Osgood Perkin's all-out gore-fest The Monkey, but he also gave us a lower key spookfest in the latter months. Keeper (★★★★☆) stars the always excellent Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, She Hulk) as Liz, who joins her boyfriend Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland, Three Pines, Murder in a Small Town) on a holiday to his isolated family home in the woods. All is not what it seems as the literal ghosts of girlfriends past begin to haunt her every move. It's a quieter, more thoughtful piece than Perkins' other movies, but it oozes with foreboding and Maslany gives a powerful performance. Almost made my Top 10.
For another powerful performance, check out Indy in Good Boy (★★★★☆). Every ounce of confused emotion is seen on the face of this canine lead. It helps that it's also an effective metaphorical horror with a truly heartbreaking meaning. When his terminally ill owner moves them both to his rural family home, spirits and night terrors begin to plague the increasingly anxious pup. The hauntings escalate as the sickness takes further hold, and the loyally good boy does everything he can to keep it all at boy. Not once does the movie leave Indy's point of view, bringing down the camera to the dog's level to let the audience truly connect with him. An exceptional piece of filmmaking.
Both HIM (★★☆☆☆) and The Home (★★☆☆☆) aimed for the highs of elevated horror but falls way short. HIM squandered the interesting premise of a toxic relationship between coach (Marlon Wyans giving it his all) and the potential star player of his American Football team (Tryriq Withers). It goes to some dark places, but thanks to the overly stylised editing and a screenplay devoid of character and subtlety, it is perhaps the most disappointing film of the year.
I didn't have high expectations for The Home and it lived up to them. Pete Davidson is as horribly miscast as ever (is there any role that suits him?) playing a troubled young man doing community service at a seniors care home. There are some sniggers of entertainment as spooky shenanigans escalate and the twist gets revealed, but it's suffocated by a well-worn premise, trite script and performances as puzzled as the audience. Avoid.
I didn't have high expectations for The Home and it lived up to them. Pete Davidson is as horribly miscast as ever (is there any role that suits him?) playing a troubled young man doing community service at a seniors care home. There are some sniggers of entertainment as spooky shenanigans escalate and the twist gets revealed, but it's suffocated by a well-worn premise, trite script and performances as puzzled as the audience. Avoid.
The Disney remake train continues, but this time Dreamworks joined the fold. The live-action How to Train Your Dragon (★★★☆☆) is perhaps the best of the three, but even this it not nothing to justify its existence. You've all seen it done better before in animated form, as have you with Lilo & Stitch (★★★☆☆). Having directed the excellent Marcel the Shell with Shoes On from a few years ago, I had a hope that Dean Fleischer Camp would bring the same heart to this adaptation, and in a lot of ways he did. Maia Kealoha as Lilo in warmly likable as a rambunctious child navigating the grief of her parents by acting out and causing trouble. Her relationship with Sydney Agudong's Nani is believable and earned. It trips up at the end which denies us of the action-packed climax and a bizarrely out-of-character choice from Nani but it's still one of the better Disney remakes out there.
Snow White (★★☆☆☆), on the other hand, is absolutely not. Rachel Zegler sings her heart out while trying to bring depth to an otherwise passive character and she does well with what she is given. You cannot say the same for Gal Gadot's take on the Evil Queen. There are attempts to add to what was essentially a barebones story, but the writers fumbled it spectacularly. The inclusion of the seven bandits - an obvious contractual holdover from when they were to replace the dwarfs - might as well not have been there, and the CGI dwarfs are as uncanny as they are annoying. It doesn't quite reach the lows of the butchering of Pinocchio, but it's close.
Blockbusters were all over the place in 2025. The absolute best of them was Superman (see above), but a close second has to be the surprising sixth entry into the Predator franchise; Predator: Badlands (★★★★☆). Directed by Dan Trachtenberg who quietly stunned with Prey, the second-best in the franchise, I'd happily place his latest right under it at third. He again plays with the formula, casting one of the vagina-faced fighters as the protagonist for the first time in the series. Labelled a run by his warrior family, Dec aims to prove his worth by killing one of the most dangerous creatures on one of the most dangerous planets. He soon comes across Elle Fanning's sparky droid Thia and the two form an unlikely friendship. For a movie rated 12A over here, it's remarkably violent (perhaps the fact that all the dismemberments are limited to robots and aliens helped), but it never skimps out on inventive action. Like Prey before it, a welcome surprise.
I had higher hopes for Edgar Wright's The Running Man (★★★☆☆) and while it is a movie I enjoyed and can easily recommend, there is something missing that I cannot put my finger on. Perhaps, in my head, the over-the-top Schwarzenegger vehicle seemed like a perfect fit for the humorous ADHD stylings of the man behind Scott Pilgrim. Alas, this was never intended to be a remake, but a truer adaptation of Stephen King's Richard Bachman source novel. The result is something grittier than I was expecting, and more overtly critical of the culture of capitalism. Those themes don't entirely resonate, but the action - and Glen Powell's turn as Ben Richards - really does.
While I was tempted to The Running Man an extra star for effort, I gave in for Tron: Ares (★★★☆☆). Each entry in the Tron series tickles something in my brain that keeps me hooked, even if the plots are wildly all over the place. Jared Leto plays Ares, a program gaining sentience, with all the charm and character of someone with none of those things. Hands down, he is the worst thing about this film (and I expect his controversial private life played a role in its poor box office performance), though he was the driving force in getting it made. Composer Trent Reznor has already secured himself as a real talent in this department, so it's a little surprising that he teamed up with his Nine Inch Nails band mates to contribute to this. It aims to do what Daft Punk did in the overall superior Tron: Legacy, and like that one, it's the best thing about this film.
Wicked For Good (★★★☆☆) may have captured the musical market this past year, but it wasn't the best cinematic sing song that sailed the silver screens. That goes to the massively overlooked, Jennifer Lopez-starring box office bomb Kiss of the Spider Woman (★★★★☆). Wicked was always going to have trouble translating the subdued second half of the musical to the big screen. The bitchy school comedy of the first film makes way for an less upbeat authoritarian war between Elphaba standing by the oppressed animals and the Wizard. None of the songs here are particularly memorable, mostly consisting of dour reprises, and the plot is less structured with little forward momentum. It also has the problem of running concurrently with the 1939 MGM movie - a story told in the background that's far more interesting and exciting than the one shown on screen. I understand the creative decisions behind this, but it is perhaps the biggest reason why many not familiar with the show felt left down. Personally, I felt the same coming out of the stage musical fifteen-odd years ago. I was baffled by the hype then, and after enjoying Wicked Part One I thought Part Two would help me make sense of it. Alas, it did not and Avenue Q deserved that Tony.
O'Dessa (★★★☆☆) also seemed to fly under the radar, exclusively airing on Disney Plus to little fanfare. Weirdly enough, it also deals with authoritarian regimes (which is hitting a little too close to home as of late). This time, Sadie Sink's titular O'Dessa wants nothing more than to sing her heart out in a dystopian future, and spread her songs as far as possible. This takes her to the dangerous city where she not only meets the love of her life, but resists the power of the oppressive state through music. Structurally, it's a little disjointed but the Stranger Things alum once again proves she has a strong career ahead of her.
Along with The Monkey, The Running Man and the fun TV show based in IT, Stephen King has had a fine run of late. The Life of Chuck (★★★★☆) and The Long Walk (★★★★☆) are two very different King adaptations that skew away from horror. The Life of Chuck, to begin with, isn't really about Chuck. It's about two randos (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillen) figuring out to spend their last day on Earth as the world ends. As they frantically scurry about, one phrase keeps repeating: "Thank you, Chuck, for 39 great years.". This is just the first chapter of a triptych of tales revolving around Tom Hiddleston's Charles Krantz that's as moving and thought-provoking as it is weird. Director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, Gerald's Game) knows how to do Stephen King well.
It seems like Francis Lawrence (Constantine, Red Sparrow) does too. Being more dystopian sci-fi than full-on horror, The Long Walk, like The Running Man was written under King's pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1979. At first, it might've seemed like a difficult book to adapt. The plot comprises of little more than a bunch of teenage boys walking and talking... and eventually dying. They've been coerced into a government-sponsored death march where they much continually walk at a consistent speed of 3 miles per hour for days on end or face death. And that's the fate of all but the first one to cross the finish line. Inconspicuous in its influence, The Long Walk was the progenitor for many a story like Battle Royale or - more notably - The Hunger Games, which is apt considering the same director game us most of the sequels. Smaller in scale, but bigger in heart, it's yet another welcome addition to stellar King adaptations.
The biggest comedy of the year was arguably the reboot of Naked Gun (★★★☆☆). Directed by Lonely Island's Akiva Scaffer, his anarchic energy is a good fit for the surrealist spoof series. The jokes come thick and fast, and are equally groanworthy as they are chucklesome, which is a good rate for a silly comedy such as this. Liam Neeson, not just cast 'cos his name is similar to Leslie Nielson, is so game with the deliberately embarrassing situations he's put in move past the cringe into something that's very much worthy of a watch.
Jason Retitman's Saturday Night (★★★★☆) is the most tense comedy I've ever seen. It retells the stresses and complexities leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in real time. In many ways, the production reminds me of classic Altman. There's a decidedly old-school ethos to it that could easily has sit alongside some of the greats that came out in the same era as the one its depicting. The camera swoops across the bustling show floor in a series of unbroken shots. Each of the chosen cast representing some of the most famous comedians of its time are pitch perfect, and they embody a chaotic script that left me smiling when leaving the cinema.
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another (★★★★☆) is sure to win Best Film when the Oscar ceremony comes around. The director has long since been a critical darling in Hollywood, with many stars clamouring to work with him. As good as it is - and it is good, go see it - it perhaps encapsulated a growing problem in movies; editing. The opening hour is an unfocused hodge-podge of scenes that detail Leonardo DiCaprio's past as a member of the militant revolutionary ground French 75. It is unfocused, overlong, and the information shown within could surely have been portrayed in a more elegant and streamlined way. It's an issue I found in a number of other lengthy films with an ego at the helm this past year, but unlike Avatar: Fire and Water or Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning, One Battle After Another saves itself at the hour mark when the inciting incident - DiCaprio's grown-up daughter gets kidnapped - turns it around. From here, the picture is nothing short of perfect with some incredibly thought-out scenes and a gripping plot as the stoned and washed-out father returns to the freedom-fighting fold to desperately save his child. While I do have some issues with it, there's no doubt in my mind that it's worthy of all the praise and awards.
With Heated Rivalry also making a splash on the small screen recently, I guess you could say that 2025 was the year of the queer. Three LGBTQ+ movies attempted to reach a wider mainstream audience with various success, but each of them, in my view, offer something great for any cinemagoer. After making a splash at Sundance, Twinless (★★★★☆) proved to be a winning tragi-comedy that would surely gain in reputation. Hapless Dennis (played by writer-director James Sweeney) falls for a man he just met at a gay bar, but when he suddenly dies in a car accident, he forms an unlikely friendship with his straight, grieving twin Roman (Dylan O'Brian in a dual role). But the little white lie - that he is also a surviving twin - begins to unravel their relationship. The liar revealed trope is here in full force, but the instability of Sweeney's character takes it to some darkly humorous places.
If you think that rom-com was wild, it has nothing on Pillion (★★★☆☆). Harry Melling (Harry Potter's Dudley Dursley) stars as Colin, a timid young gay man who meets Alexander Skarsgård's Ray at a pub over Christmas. Colin sings in a barbershop quartet, while Ray is a motorbike enthusiast. The two couldn't be more different, but they form a relationship - a kinky relationship; one of master and slave, or "dom" and "sub" as I'm reliably informed. While certainly not a movie to watch with your grandma, it is a film that mostly follows the narrative beats of a standard rom-com, and the Britishness of it all gives it a tone that surprisingly fits well next to Mike Leigh dramas or Richard Curtis comedies. But gay.
Netflix seems to be the premiere place to watch cosy murder mysteries. The decidedly British Thursday Murder Club (★★★☆☆) takes place in an impossibly nice old people's home where a group of senior citizens form the titular cold-case solving club. When a recent murder hits closer to home, they make it their mission to bypass the incompetent police force and solve it themselves. Written by British TV mainstay Richard Osman, the movie is stuffed with home-grown talent having a whale of a time; Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren and a less flatulent Celia Imrie. They elevate a somewhat twee plot from something you might watch on daytime ITV to something much more worthwhile.
Ryan Johnson is the modern king of the murder mystery, and his Benoit Blanc tales rival any detective stories from your Christies or Conan Doyles. The third in the series, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (★★★★☆) has a vastly different tone than the first two while still weaving a gripping narrative that plays host to some shocking twists and turns. Josh O'Connor plays Father Jud Duplenticy who is assigned to assist Monsignor Jefferson Wicks with his dwindling congregation. It turns out that Wicks is a nasty piece of work so when he is murdered in a seemingly impossible fashion, in come Blanc to fill in the blanks. Previously, the Knives Out movies felt very American; stories of wealthy people and their influence on others. Being set in a small religious community, this one seems so British, I kept expecting Glenn Close's church servant to offer tea and biscuits at every opportunity. Perhaps Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries were more of an inspiration here, or perhaps the UK filming locations being obviously older than the country it's supposed to be depicting play a role. Either way, it's not distracting enough for you to get absorbed in yet another excellent murder mystery that's arguably the best in the series.
Now that that's over, it's time to talk about the worst of the worst. Movies so bad
WORST 5 OF 2024
5
I'm probably being a sensationalist contrarian here, but I truly think that Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (★★☆☆☆) was one of the worst films of the year. No amount of jaw-dropping stunts can distract from a confused narrative. No callbacks to the first film in the franchise can ease a bloated script. And, according to the editor, no amount of post-production can fix a lack of pre-production. Like other overlong films of this year, it suffers from some terrible editing. I swear, the re-capped the previous film three times in the first hour, and none of them needed to be there. It's like all these lengthy extra scenes were added in to explained away one minutiae of a plot point that doesn't need explaining, and it's a detriment to the whole film. Being tied to the disappointment that was Dead Reckoning doesn't exactly help, but the Mission Impossible's one-lit fuse ends up as a damp squib.
4
However popular these video game adaptations have been, they've done nothing the sub-genre's reputation. Both A Minecraft Movie (★★☆☆☆) and Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (★☆☆☆☆) are sold on a meme and it shows. Instead of deep and intelligent characters, we have broad dumbasses. Instead of jokes or scares, we have lazy call backs to the games. Instead of a story, we have a stream of nonsensical consciousness. I guess if you're familiar with the games you will get pleasure when a chicken jockey or golden Freddy shows up on screen, but there's precious little else going on. I guess A Minecraft Move attempts to bring some depth by adding themes of belonging, and while it's know where near as thoughtful as what Greta Gerwig brought to Barbie.
3
For some reason, I watched a lot of crappy rom-coms in 2025 hoping I'd stumble on a hidden gems like Happiness for Beginners of Love at First Sight from a few years ago. Little did I know I'd have to wat 'til January of this year (2026) to get something similar with People we Meet on Vacation. Alas, the two UK centric movies ended up being two of the worst films I've seen all year. Amazon Prime's My Fault: London (★☆☆☆☆) is the pseudo remake/sequel to the Spanish-language My Fault though it shares little in common other than plot. The original has a teenage girl forced to move in with a hot guy after their parents get married and after hating each other, the step-siblings fall in love with each other in a really gross way. My Fault: London is the same, but the family now have to move from the states to a London that the writers have clearly never visited or have any understanding of. Dire.
Netflix isn't off the hook either. My Oxford Year (★☆☆☆☆) also completely misunderstands UK life and culture. Spoilt American Anna (Sofia Carston, Defendants) is studying abroad at the prestigious Oxford University where she forms an inappropriate relationship with teaching assistant Jamie (Corey Mylchreest, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). The two hate each other at first, have little chemistry yet bone constantly. A contrived tragic plot attempts to tug at the heart strings, but it comes out of nowhere with little narrative heft making you just feel manipulated instead. Terrible.
Netflix isn't off the hook either. My Oxford Year (★☆☆☆☆) also completely misunderstands UK life and culture. Spoilt American Anna (Sofia Carston, Defendants) is studying abroad at the prestigious Oxford University where she forms an inappropriate relationship with teaching assistant Jamie (Corey Mylchreest, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story). The two hate each other at first, have little chemistry yet bone constantly. A contrived tragic plot attempts to tug at the heart strings, but it comes out of nowhere with little narrative heft making you just feel manipulated instead. Terrible.
2
Sofia Carston destroys love again Netflix's The Life List (★☆☆☆☆). If you thought Anna was unlikable in My Oxford Year, just you wait until you meet Alex. After he mother (Connie Britton) passes away from a terminal illness, she is given a video will by her young lawyer. It says she will only receive her inheritance after she completes her bucket list written when she was just a little girl. Cruel and manipulative, yet presented as kind and altruistic, it makes Alex a passive character in her own story. It has to jump though major hoops to get from one plot point to the other, eventually making that impossibly young and hot lawyer the love interest in the most unbelievable way possible. Along with those I ranked my third worst, I put this on wanting to get the kind of feels only a good rom-com can give. Instead, I was left more angry at the world. Awful.
1
If you've seen the newest adaptation of War of the Worlds (★☆☆☆☆) on Amazon Prime, you know why it's top of any worst-of list. I understand its premise; replacing the faux-new broadcast or Orson Well's radio play with Ice Cube on a zoom call injects an element of realism to the sci-fi invasion story. Except, it's as false as an influencer selling protein shakes. Avoid like your life depended on it.
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