Hello beloveds,
I have yet again commenced writing this round-up post on the last day of the month at a relatively late hour--but at least two months ahead of last year and WELL ahead of the previous year's multi-part round-up--so I will dispense with a lengthy preamble. It's time for the:
2025 Edition
In reviewing last year's list of films after the second year in a row of a reduced movie-watching goal, I'm starting to feel the consequences of having less time, and even more so less emotional energy, for movies. While I definitely saw a range of movies in 2025, including some that were really excellent, I would estimate a good third of the movies I watched last year were kind of filler-y. It's hard feeling somewhat underwhelmed by movies, especially knowing my capacity to be deeply entranced and moved by them.
That said, my reduced movies resolution certainly has a few silver linings, not the least of which is that it is accomplishable. Another is that I only watched three movies I utterly hated. That ignominious trio is:
For attempting to update "A Christmas Story" (1983), a movie I don't have any particular affection for anyway, and doing a very bad job:
8-Bit Christmas (2021)
For being a terrible movie, but is it really fair to judge it for being a terrible movie when clearly its whole raison d'être is being a terrible movie?:
Falling for Christmas (2022)
I genuinely don't think it's fair to choose this particular abysmal Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie (because apparently that's a mini subgenre now??) as the worst movie of the year because it's clearly just trying to feed the apparently insatiable public appetite for embarrassingly bad Christmas movies, so "Falling for Christmas" is off the hook.
Between our remaining two offenders, I have to go with the movie I've now watched dozens of times against my will because Disney has managed, despite my best intentions, to get its hooks into the brain of one of my precious babies who only recently has been liberated from his OBSESSION with this movie. The only benefit of my forced multiple re-watchings of this movie is that it has prepared me to write an epic and fine-tooth-comb-level take down of this movie which I am dying to write if I ever get the time.
All that said, the worst movie of 2025 is:
And now, let's talk about the best movies of last year. They were:
Nosferatu (2024)
Moana (2016)
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (2021)
28 Years Later (2025)
Small Things Like These (2024)
Weapons (2025)
KPop Demon Hunters (2025)
As usual, my highest-rated movies cover a lot of ground. There's the moody, faithful yet enriched horror remake "Nosferatu" and the more novel yet still spooky and extremely well-executed "Weapons". There are the classic and new kids' movies, "Moana" and "KPop Demon Hunters", both of which feature excellent music and beautiful animation, as well as the inspiring kids' media-related documentary "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street". "Small Things Like These" may be the most emotionally difficult movie I watched last year, but we all know I love Cillian Murphy and the film is a grippingly told story of a chapter in Irish history that demands to be known.
All that said, as I choose my favorite movie of 2025, I've got to go with the movie that skillfully continued the legacy of the film that inspired my love of horror as a genre that, at its best, examines humanity at its ugliest and darkest and sometimes still manages to give us hope. This movie reminded me, powerfully and humblingly, how much movies have the capacity to drop me into another life, into an emotional world I don't usually dwell in--in this case, their capacity to utterly scare the living crap out of me. My favorite movie of 2025 was:
Thank you so much for being here, friends. I'm looking forward to more movies in this new year, and to sharing them with you.
{Heart}
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