2025 in Film

I watched 83 films this year, as of December 21st. Now, I’ve never pretended my taste in film is good, and I watch quite a lot of trash. Trash is great when you’re on a plane, or hungover, or are ignoring the fact that you ought to go to bed.

There are some genuinely good films on this list. Most of those I can credit to my friend AJ (here is his letterboxd). Some I can credit to other people, including my partner. And a few I can credit to occasional positive aberrations in my own tastes.

I won’t write much about any of these films – if I have anything to say, I’ll drop it directly into the list below. I’ve only rarely tried to write about film in the past, as I largely feel I lack the vocabulary or knowledge to have much interesting to say, but the only way to change that would be to try. So who knows, maybe next year I’ll make a letterboxd account myself, and become one of those people. Or maybe I won’t! Not everything I do for pleasure needs to be somehow chewed up and extruded as content. We’ll see.

• Mimic
• The Relic
  • These two are hangover favourites. In January I treated myself to Bluray copies so I can stop watching the 720×320 pirate rips I’ve been watching for years, lmao. I’m also saving those old rips though as they have a charm to them that high-resolution versions of dated CGI cannot match
• Doctor Who 2024 Christmas Special
• Deadpool vs Wolverine
• Leave the World Behind
• Choose or Die
• Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
  • This was spectacularly awful and I really must stop watching this kind of thing
• Kreivi (aka. El Conde aka. The Count)
  • The concept of a vampiric Pinochet drew me into this and it has its moments, but sadly I don’t think it delivers
• Friday the 13th Part 2
• Easy Rider
• In Vitro (28m)
• In the Future They Ate From the Finest Porcelain (29m)
• Nation Estate (9m)
  • These three short films were from an art exhibition by Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour
• Damsel
• Deep Rising
• Family Pack
• Cargo
• Bloodshot
• Sinners
  • I really enjoyed this, although secretly I quite liked the film best before the vampires showed up. Amazing dance scene!
• MIB International
• Barbie
• Electric State
  • Everyone was right: astonishing that so much money was spent on something so instantly forgettable
• The Equalizer 3
• The Equalizer
• The Equalizer 2
• Aliens Expanded
  • This is a wonderful, and very lengthy, documentary for Aliens fans
• Fear Street: Prom Queen
• Wrong Turn
• Wrong Turn 2
• Monkey Man
• Alien: Covenant
• Alien: Romulus
  • This is much too slavish toward what came before, but I still think it shits all over the recent garbage from Ridley Scott
• Predator: Killer of Killers
• The Menu
  • This was a highlight of the year, recommended by my girlfriend – a great film for horror fans and foodies
• Fright Night
• Wrong Turn (2021)
  • It was worth watching the schlocky old Wrong Turn films in order to contextualise this much better film; thank you AJ
• Wrath of Becky
  • I also watched the original Becky after watching this, but seem to have missed it from my list. Both were fun. Ultra-gory movies wherein a highly capable teen girl slaughters violent neo-nazis
• Back in Action
• Super Mario Bros Movie
• Jurassic World: Dominion
  • Dumb as shit
• Code 8: Part 2
• Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars
  • Puppet show
• Ziam
• Children of Men
  • Astonishing how committed Britain seems to be toward growing into this fictional representation of itself
• Mean Streets
• Dream Scenario
  • The scene on the sofa made me laugh harder than anything else seen this year
• Blue Collar
• Brick
• Civil War
• Havoc
• Ballerina
  • I am very bored of action films where the protagonist just points at people and they fall over dead. The only good John Wick was the third one, and only because of the dog choreography
• Renfield
• Men In Black
• The Last Showgirl
  • The one film on the list I didn’t finish – I was on a plane! They made me leave! – but I have my eyes peeled for a copy of this
• Renfield
• American Graffiti
• Bubba Ho-Tep
• Mum & Dad
  • A deeply, deeply unpleasant movie, but one I strangely liked? Thanks Matt
• Blasted
• Willard (2003)
• Cemetary Man / Delamorte Delamore
  • They really don’t make ’em like this any more. Strange, funny, unsettling, visually striking, sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly
• Poltergeist
• Madame Web
• Longlegs
• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
  • For the love of everything, let go of the first two films
• The Old Guard 2
• Total Recall
• Thunderbolts
• Guardians of the Galaxy 3
• Ready or Not
• Dog Eat Dog
• Between Worlds
• The Surfer
• Frankenstein
• Hanna
• The Beekeeper
  • Possibly Statham’s second funniest film after Spy, if only because of the constant bee metaphors
• Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny
  • Actually, this is the second film I didn’t finish- because it was so shit and boring and weightless
• Perros
  • Watched at our local cinema, this Uraguayan inter-family drama was far outside my usual taste and was a great watch as a result
• Lisa Frankenstein
• Troll 2
  • What if Michael Bay was Norwegian?
• Only Lovers Left Alive
  • Possibly the best film I saw this year, moody and sombre with a great soundtrack and always wonderful to watch, even in its duller moments
• Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man
• A Quiet Place: Day One
  • I didn’t think this needed to exist, but in the end I enjoyed the quieter and closer story it tells between its three protagonists: a young woman with terminal cancer, her cat, and some English law school guy

No doubt we’ll be adding some Die Hard movies, Gremlins and – if I’m a lucky boy – Rare Exports to that list before the year is out. Merry Christmas!

Next year, I will try harder to watch fewer obviously rubbish films, and more films that are at least interesting, if not good.