2025 Recap
Cinema rages against the machine
When 2025 is looked back on, it’s likely it will be thought of as the year of Warner Bros. Not just because it released some of the year’s biggest IP hits (Minecraft, Superman) but also because it took on significant risk with several original properties, most of which panned out spectacularly (One Battle After Another, Sinners, Weapons). Only a precious few did not (The Alto Knights, Mickey 17).
But I imagine it won’t be those films — all director-driven, all seemingly made with the type of creative control that major studios rarely grant anymore — that will be the year’s front-page headline. Instead, it will be the potential sale of Warner to Netflix. Or could it be sold to Paramount, its hostile takeover bid augmented by money from Saudi Arabia and presented with a decided emphasis on billionaire David Ellison’s connections to Donald Trump? Neither option would be great, in my opinion, though the former would be the lesser of two unappealing evils. Either way, this could be the last hurrah for one of Hollywood’s founding studios, which would be a massive shame.
The other big theme of this past year involved issues relating to social, political, racial, and economic inequality, and not only in phenomenal documentaries like The Alabama Solution or WTO/99. Several notable independent productions and non-English imports were in this vein, including No Other Choice, 40 Acres, Nuremberg, The Ugly Stepsister, Death of a Unicorn, Cloud, and The Plague.
However, it was the big-budget releases that subtly (and, in some notable cases, not so subtly) explored these concepts — mixing in warnings regarding fascist takeovers of democratic institutions for good measure — that hit me the hardest. Films like One Battle After Another, Superman, Sinners, The Long Walk, 28 Years Later, Wake Up Dead Man, The Housemaid, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and even Zootopia 2 were just a few that got in on the action in one way or another, each wearing their “woke” patch as a badge of honor.
There were also the adrenaline-filled surprise sensations of all shapes and sizes, including genre hits Predator: Badlands, Companion, The Accountant 2, and Heart Eyes, while indie wonders like Eephus, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Dangerous Animals, Materialists, Clown in a Cornfield, and Sorry, Baby made strong inroads with audiences and critics alike.
Other films I enjoyed, like the viciously unsettling Die My Love, the fabulously claustrophobic WWII shark survival tale Beast of War, and the based-on-a-true-story Channing Tatum dramedy Roofman, sadly came and went all too quickly. Here’s hoping they find their audience once they’re available for home consumption.
Then you have the strange case of KPop Demon Hunters. The year’s most widely talked-about animated feature was sold by parent studio Sony to Netflix, because studio heads believed releasing it to theaters was a waste of time and money. All that happened next was that the film took over the world, becoming the streamer’s biggest viral sensation since the first season of Stranger Things back in 2016. After sold-out singalong screenings, a best-selling soundtrack, and becoming the Oscar frontrunner in two categories (Animated Feature and Best Original Song), it’s clear that Sony would probably walk that decision back if it could. Talk about your billion-dollar-plus mistakes.
As far as LGBTQIA+ representation was concerned, it was a mixed bag. Plenty of Queer-themed and Queer-coded features received a theatrical release, but many had those elements downplayed or minimized, especially if they were bigger-budgeted productions like Companion, Wicked: For Good, The Long Walk, or Mickey 17.
Still, films like Peter Hujar’s Day, Queens of the Dead, The Wedding Banquet, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Honey Don’t!, My Dead Friend Zoe, Clown in a Cornfield, Red Sonja, 100 Nights of Hero, After the Hunt, and Blue Moon were thankfully loud and proud as far as their Queer elements were concerned, while documentaries like Heightened Scrutiny and Come See Me in the Good Light rank up there with some of the best 2025 had to offer.
One major personal disappointment? No studio has stepped up to release film festival darling She’s the He. Considering how uproariously hilarious this Trans-centered comedy is, that’s a depressing shame. However, given its high school setting, ribald content, and the current political climate, it’s also not altogether shocking. Still, the moment that writer-director Siobhan McCarthy’s Transgender Superbad variant becomes available for viewers everywhere, I’ll be front and center, singing its hysterical praises.
That wasn’t the only thing about 2025 that left me underwhelmed, but we’ll leave discussions about the year’s more frustrating misfires for another day. It’s time to celebrate the positive. The following pages contain my personal picks for the ten best motion pictures of 2025, coupled with several other titles, tidbits, favorite performances, and additional cinematic tidbits I’d love for people to consider as they look back on 2025. Read on for more.
– Portions of this feature reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle
[Page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
