I liked the first half of 2025’s movie slate way better than the back half. It’s Fizzle Fall and Wimpy Winter. In descending order of interest: 

 

Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier, 2025): 4/5

Sensitive and literate script that slowly reveals itself, becoming increasingly richer and more layered. Stand-out moments are several scenes that seem to be happening to the main character but are revealed to be within performances—a way to take a step back and examine the moment while also highlighting the judgement that she feels from the “director watching” and the “shame for her own inadequacy” as the father-as-director says when describing… The crux of the drama, outlined beautifully in a monologue that eventually gets played out three times in three different ways. The dramas that are played out in the house stay in the house like trauma—just as the urge to suicide is passed from the grandmother to the father (surely) and then to daughter—and the “room where it all happened” gains great dramatic weight. Best ending of the year?

 

Good Boy (Ben Leonberg, 2025): 3.5/5

The horror elements are muddled. But the central conceit – that the protagonist is a dog – is exceptionally well executed and a good idea. There is some CGI and anthropomorphism. But overall, there’s a lot of great dog acting, and real dog behavior, which is new-feeling and fun to watch. Comparable to last year’s Flow.

 

Souleymane’s Story (Boris Lojkine, 2025): 3/5

On the minus side, it’s heavily indebted to the Dardennes. On the plus side, it’s heavily indebted to the Dardennes.

 

Rental Family (Hikari, 2025): 3/5

A bizarrely gormless performance from Brendan Frazier—he has “innocent sincerity” turned up to 11. On the minus side, it’s heavily indebted to the Hirokazu Kore-eda. On the plus side, it’s heavily indebted to the Hirokazu Kore-eda.

 

Wicked: For Good (Jon M. Chu, 2025): 3/5

I took a gummy, and watched this—and ended up liking it. No one is more surprised than me (having abhorred the experience of the second act when I saw the play the Pantages). Colorful, fun, and more coherent that part one.

 

* Anaconda (Tom Gormican, 2025): 3/5

Paper thin, and the comic timing is somewhat off—but swift and a fine night at the movies for the whole family. At this point, Jack Black is certainly Jack’s favorite actor. Black’s star has risen so far that here he somewhat convincingly plays the alpha to Paul Rudd’s (!) beta. 

 

Steve (Tim Mielants, 2025): 2.5/5

Cillian Murphy is terrific, but this anxiously empathetic story of a school for emotionally challenged teens too often feels like a senior thesis play at The London School for Overacting. Thank God it was only 90 minutes.

 

Jane Austin Wrecked My Life (Laura Piani, 2025): 2.5/5

A mid romance with a slightly annoying protagonist. Cliches abound, but it’s about someone who adores Jane Austen novels, so I guess it’s meta? Thank God it was only 90 minutes.

 

Megadoc (Mike Figgis, 2025): 2/5

Whatever you think about Megapolis, at least it’s eccentric—a quality that this documentary could use more of. Instead, there’s nothing that sets this above the average DVD extra feature. 

 

Dangerous Animals (Sean Byrne, 2025): 2/5

The characters and kills are colorful, but this is mostly a brutal and uninteresting woman-taken-captive-in-a-cage movie. The third act couldn’t (and didn’t) come fast enough. Would be into to seeing the protagonist and antagonist in a better movie.

 

Sinners, rw (Ryan Coogler, 2025): 2/5

I’m sweeping back the tide here, but this movie continues to not work for me. Broadly cartoonish Southern accents. Self-righteous contrast of “good” blues music (yuk!) with “bad” Irish jig music (also yuk). That scene where they interrogate at great length a guy who has been wandering around outside as to why he needs to be invited in AFTER they have seen a vampire munch up one of the twins and run away. Then they all just die anyway. AND after all the vampires and other characters are dead, the surviving twin deliberately manufactures a suicide mission to kill clan members (??) with a machine gun (???).

 

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (Ruben Fleischer, 2025): 1.5/5

Every decision seems to have been made to play optimally in China—incredibly broad in terms of plot, characters, use of CGI, and acting/mugging. Jack liked it a lot—and for the same reason I liked The Sting when I saw it when I was his age: It’s fun to be tricked by a movie. As in The Sting, they are fooling a character on screen, but also the audience. When all is revealed, it feels like magic. Unfortunately, this one is more like The Stink.

 

Match (Danishka Esterhazy, 2025): 1.5/5

Some of the reveals are amusing, but this is mostly broad and uninteresting woman-taken-captive-in-a-cage movie. The third act couldn’t (and didn’t) come fast enough.

 

The Friend (David Siegel, Scott McGehee, 2025): 1.5/5

This one’s a real dog (yuk yuk). Plods along and lacks spark. Many, many cuts to the dog’s droll reaction to things.

 

The Rip (Joe Carnahan, 2026): 3/5

A well-told story about shifting loyalties among good cops and bad ones. Has some similarities to (slight spoiler) the above-mentioned The Sting. I have come to like (and to a certain extent respect) Matt Damon, but I was surprised how much I liked Affleck here. Are these guys getting better at acting after all these years?

 

Terms of Endearment, rw (James L. Brooks, 1983): 5/5

Absolutely expert middlebrow. Debra Winger was never better—she’s wonderfully relaxed and charming. Perhaps heresy, but is this MacLaine’s best performance? The only possible alternatives are The Apartment and Some Came Running. (Although I’ve never seen The Children’s Hour).

 

Great Expectations (Alfonso Cuarón, 1998): 3/5

Unconvincingly updates Dicken’s plot to the contemporary NYC art scene (but couldn’t they have gotten a semi-decent artist to create Ethan Hawke’s supposed canvases—what’s here is ludicrous). Leaves out some of my favorite bits from the book (like when Ms. Dinsmore and her rotting wedding dress goes up in flames), but it retains the book’s young-adult-ish naivete (not a compliment). Patrow is perfectly cast as someone so remote and poised that she could come from a box (compliment).

The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania, 2025): 4/5

I braced myself to see this film and thought I would cry: a film that features genuine recordings of the desperate cries of a six-year-old girl about to be murdered by Israel. Instead of crying, though, I wanted to puke. What a world we live in. What horrors we are forced, like the medics of the Palestine Red Crescent, to witness. Luckily, we also witness courage and decency and morality, in people like director Kaouther Ben Hania.

Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach, 2025): 2/5

As America and the entertainment industry implodes… what better time to sympathize with a handsome, healthy, and universally beloved movie star with hundreds of millions of dollars who is also sad due to minor personal problems that he caused!

Blue Moon (Richard Linklater, 2025): 3/5

If ever we find ourselves in a world where our best filmmakers aren’t making films about bitter old queens staving off irrelevance with bitchy quips, I hope I’m not around anymore.

Amazing work by Ethan Hawke; he plays the bravado and the desperation equally well and shows us how interconnected they are. Slow clap for Andrew Scott.

Train Dreams (Clint Bentley, 2025): 3/5

Never quite transcends its stylistic affectations, but it spins a moving story, full of tender moments and strong performances. 20TH CENTURY WOMEN for the Jesse James set.

Shelby Oaks (Chris Stuckmann, 2024): 2/5

Was not ready for that MySpace jump scare.

 My Favorite Films | First Quarter of the 21st Century

Requiem for a Dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000)

Code Unknown (Michael Haneke, 2000) 

In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000)

Training Day (Antoine Fuqua, 2001)

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)

Amelie (Jean Pierre Jeaunet, 2001) 

Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, 2002)

Birth (Johnathan Glazer, 2004)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)

Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005) 

Grizzly Man (Werner Herzog, 2005)

The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005) 

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006) 

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (Quentin Tarantino, 2006)

Sicko (Michael Moore, 2007) 

There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Julian, Schnabel, 2007)

Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009)

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy, 2010)

The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011) 

House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello, 2011)

Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013) 

Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014)

Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015)

The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)

OJ: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, 2016)

Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Celine Sciamma, 2019)

The Father (Florian Zeller, 2020) 

Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) 

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Dean Fleischer Camp, 2021) 

Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball, 2022)

Anora (Sean Baker, 2024) 

 Favorite 36 Films of the First Quarter of the 21^st Century

 

The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001)
Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (Thom Andersen, 2003)
I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, 2004)
Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
Still Life (Jia Zhangke, 2006)
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
Secret Sunshine (Lee Chang-dong, 2007)
Hot Rod (Akiva Schaffer, 2007)
Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009)
Sweetgrass (Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2009)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
The Kid with a Bike (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, 2011)
House of Tolerance (Bertrand Bonello, 2011)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

Kaili Blues (Bi Gan, 2015)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
Sing Street (John Carney, 2016)
A Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017)
First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2017)
The Rider (Chloé Zhao, 2017)
Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)
Midsommar (Ari Aster, 2019)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019)
Small Axe (Steve McQueen, 2020)
No Bears (Jafar Panahi, 2022)
Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023)
Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2023)

Challengers (Luca Guadagnino, 2024)

 A “Mid” Winter

 

It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi, 2025): 4/5

I’m amazed at the tone for such as story: relaxed and funny, yet so clearly addressing ultimate things. Fascinating to see what normal life in Tehran is like. It’s pretty there—tree-lined streets not unlike Paris or the Valley. The final showdown could have been on dirt Mulholland. Typical of Pahani’s characteristic depth that his revenge movie is mostly about doubt and empathy. I also appreciate all the scenes in a car, which is very much a tradition of Iranian film from Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry to Pahani’s own very humanistic Taxi from 2015. Shots in a car are so glide-y, and provide a rare sense of private space and source of identity in this regulated city. Not my favorite Pahani (See: No Bears, Crimson Gold, Taxi), but as with PTA, if everyone wants to get behind a good film by one of my favorite directors, I’m here for it. 

 

Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro, 2025): 3/5

There are some disastrous decisions: lots of CGI slop, and really the whole first 20 minutes, with its unkillable The Thing-like monster. But overall, I could appreciate the film’s old-fashioned high drama and set design. It’s crazy that GDT makes a movie about killing your father/killing God/ killing your Idols to live—and he made it an homage to his artistic forefathers and idols (Universal, Whale, and Karloff). The guy has no grasp on irony at all. It also suffers from the fact that Oscar Isaac already played a more interesting Victor Frankenstein character in Ex Machina.

 

Blue Moon (Richard Linklater, 2025): 3/5

A beautiful, literate and sad script. And it’s a good thing, since that’s pretty much all there is here. I bow to no one in my appreciation for Ethan Hawke (once upon a time, I even read his goddamn book (not bad!)), but is he really the right person to play this gay Jewish dwarf?

 

Train Dreams (Clint Bentley, 2025): 3/5

Beautiful and sad sad sad, but it’s hard to love this film in a world where Malick himself is, in fact, alive and well. 

 

* Avatar: Fire and Ash (James Cameron, 2025): 3/5

I still remember the feeling of something very fresh and new while watching the first Avatar. In contrast, there’s almost nothing new here. Still, Cameron still knows how to assemble an action sequence, and I guess I just like immersive, world-building sci-fi. 

 

Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson, 2025): 3/5

I have little interest in the cleverness that powers these films, but Josh O’Conner makes this one the most watchable of the three. Who could possibly give a shit about the solution to random puzzles like these?

 

The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir, 2025): 2.5/5

I take no pleasure in a documentary like this. To me, there’s a big difference between this and a movie where emotions (no matter how horrific) are simulated and the people who are shot stand up and go back home at the end of the day. A movie like that is allowed to mean nothing or anything. Movies like this have to justify their exhibition of real suffering through relevance, which I’m not sure this movie does.

 

Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach, 2025): 2.5/5

it’s a pleasure to watch Clooney (who is reliably good here), but the style and tone distractingly derivative of Fellini’s 8 1/2. Disappointingly, I didn’t relate at all to Kelly’s desire to cling to his daughters. 

 

Eternity (David Freyne, 2025): 2.5/5

Someone on Letterboxd commented that if Luca Guadagnino had made this, he would have had the boys kissing by the 20 minute mark, and yes that’s exactly what this premise demanded.

 

Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay, 2025): 2/5

That title promises an undelivered intensity and mayhem. This is mere depression with the occasional self-harm. Of course, I like these actors, but neither really bring the goods. It’s also unfortunate that the film comes on the heels of a much better one about postpartum depression, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Upon reflection, I don’t care much for any of Ramsay’s five features. 

 

The Lowdown, Season One (Sterlin Harjo, 2025): 3.5/5

Hawke is much better here than in Blue Moon, and the series is admirably wooly—filled with rich asides and side characters. A nice sense of place, and good performances from Dinklage and Kyle MacLachlan. 

 

Pluribus, Season One (Vince Gilligan, 2025): 3/5

The first two episodes are exceptional, but next 7 hours could have been summed up in an email. The central question is a good one: would you rather be happy or yourself? We are really going to have to know more about the “weirdos” to be able to answer this question. Like: Is the end of art? 

 

Rewatch December

 

Buster Scruggs (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2016): 3/5

The Coen’s last movie, to date. I like the short-story nature of it, and there is a likable interested in adventure and death. But it’s plagued with the same broad performances and tone that can plague the Coens’ weaker films, (Hudsucker, O Brother, Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, Hail Caesar,)

 

Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013): 5/5

My favorite of Glazier’s films, an exceptional mix of realism and high art. Unnerving, full of ambiguity, and oh so sexy until it isn’t. Johansen has never been so beautiful. The seduction scenes in the flat black room offer something startling and new—with a perfect use of music. The turn toward self-discovery in the third half is as welcome as it is sad and grotesque.

 

Kaili Blues (Bi Gan, 2015): 5/5

The 40-minute long one-er is the purest of cinematic pleasures and one of my favorite sequences of the 21st century. A dreamy you-are-there trip by scooter and on foot, into a beautiful unknown down the valley, across the river, and around. 

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein, 2025): 4/5

Despite its unpleasantness (and certainly because I can relate to our protagonist’s feelings of guilt, shame and being overwhelmed) the drama captured and held me. Repulsion and Eraserhead are comps. 

 

Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2025): 4/5

A wild ride. I liked the fact that Plemons’ character is both a stupid on-line fuckhead and also completely correct. Stone’s character is both a monster and a victim. (Her line about ‘Everyone is able leave at 5:30, uh, unless they have work to do or a quota to reach’ is perfect corporate speak). It’s pretty true that everyone (speaking in general) is half-right. The various tableaux during the last two minutes are funny and ghastly at the same time.

 

* Predator: Badlands (Dan Trachtenberg, 2025): 4/5

Surprisingly fun. Jack and I have seen quite a few of the big action movies this year, and this is my favorite (setting One Battle After Another and anime aside). Action packed and filled with cool CGI creatures and deadly landscapes.

 

The Chair Company (Tim Robinson, Zach Kanin, 2025): 3.5/5

All over the place in terms of plot and meaning, but consistently funny on a scene-by-scene basis. “Please don't tell them my wheelbarrow is outside!” “I just think that HR should know you saw up my skirt. On my birthday.”

 

* Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (Tatsuya Yoshihara, 2025): 3.5/5

I’m liking these in-theater anime releases that Jack keeps taking me to. Here, our protagonist is torn between his love for two different girls, but luckily one turns out to be very powerful devil, the villains of this universe. Oh, also our protagonist’s arms and face can turn into chainsaws. The last hour is a long fight sequence, but this description belies how original the storytelling is. Even during the romance sequences, what the audience is shown is unusual, and the fights are downright abstract and pointillist. You just have to watch what you are shown without judgement and try to piece everything together as you go and afterwards. If the success of these films influences mainstream cinema, this crazy and kinetic artiness might be a tremendous breakthrough. 

 

Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke, 2025): 3/5

Blithely wanders through eras, locations, styles and tones—but the most impactful and emotional special effect is Zhao Tao aging before our eyes. The leaps in time strip away personal narrative and demonstrate that people’s behavior is dictated by their place and time. Each community sings their songs, dances their dances, behaves in the prescribed manner. Lots of it feels like a documentary, but then there are fantasy sequences and scenes that are written and acted. I love this observation from Will Sloan “What does Jia think of the COVID protocols? The Beijing Olympic bid? Tour boats on the Yangtze? Robot waiters? Like a good therapist, he just finds them all interesting.” (And tangentially I highly recommend Sloan’s wide-ranging film podcast, The Important Cinema Club.)

 

Invader, 68m (Mickey Keating, 2025): 2/5

A low-budget horror film with a spooky Joe Swanberg hanging out in people’s homes when they’re away. I admire its ambition, but a lot of it doesn’t work.

 

Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2025); 2/5

A group of disgruntled customers gang up with murderous intent on the equivalent of ticket scalper. If that sounds dumb, it is. 

 

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, 14m (Nebojša Slijepčević, 2024): 3.5/5

An unusual drama and one that directly addresses the precariousness of today’s reality. Unchecked authority and power permits everything. 

 

Mars Express (Jérémie Périn, 2023): 3.5/5

Overflows with invention and world-building. The narrative is always a couple steps ahead of the audience, but what seems incoherent is just a result of the audience not yet knowing all the rules and technologies of the world. Exciting action sequences, and fun play with what robots will be like in the future. 

 

Lips of Blood (Jean Rollin, 1975): 3.5/5

Like Vertigo (or Rollin’s own Fascination, four years later), this follows a character who considers himself quite in control yet who can’t resist pursuing the path that will lead to his own downfall. The characters seem mesmerized, as is the audience.

 

Being John Smith, 27m (John Smith, 2024): 3.5/5

A droll portrait of what it means to have such a common name and yet strive to be unique. Indeed, we all wish to stand out—yet are in fact leading lives that follow a common and well-worn trajectory, among many. 

 

Sunshine for Scoundrels, 58m (Alain Guiraudie, 2001): 2/5

Talk talk talk. It’s all very droll but quite purposefully nonsensical—or rather comically serious about silly things. Watching this I’m reminded that Guiraudie makes not only sex-soaked semi-thrillers like Stranger by the Lakeand this year’s Misericordia (which I like) but also absurdist comedies like Staying Upright (which I don’t). I haven’t seen it, but his Nobody’s Hero is also supposed to be in this vein. I’ll never find out!

 

Signs of Life (Werner Herzog, 1968): 3/5

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Herzog’s first feature is rambling and searching, on the hunt for mystery, beauty, and quirky little puzzles of human emotion—much like the career to come. 

 

The Criminal Code (Howard Hawks, 1930): 3/5

Moves from crime scene to court room to prison, exploring the gaps between law and justice. Sometimes justice is on the side of the guards and other times on the side of the prisoners. Walter Huston plays not so much our protagonist as the tough and godly arbiter. Like many Hawks films, it doesn’t have much of a plot, but rather presents a group of characters in a milieu with its own ethical system. 

Black Phone 2 (Scott Derrickson, 2025): 2/5

one star for filming on super 8, one star for the axe murderer on ice skates

Hedda (Nia DaCosta, 2025): 3/5

Everybody loves a dinner party until it’s hosted by a chaotic bisexual who knows all your secrets.

Keeper (Oz Perkins, 2025): 3/5

I’ve got so many questions.

Like who, what, when, how, present, future, witch, monsters, cousin, eyes, cake?

Frankenstein (GDT, 2025): 3/5

“The miracle is not that I should speak, but that you should ever listen.”

Thank god for Elordi stepping in instead of Garfield that would’ve been a disaster instead of a revelation. Looks great and all the performances are affecting in a tragic way. I am pretty sure GDT claims he has made the definitive version of this story. And I'm OK with that.

Roofman (Derek Cianfrance, 2025): 1.5/5

Roof man? More like, ima jump OFF the roof, man!

Dracula: A Love Tale (Luc Besson, 2025): 2/5

Temu version of Coppola's Dracula. It's giving wish dot com gothic.

The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie, 2025): 2/5

More like The Snoring Machine amirite??? (I am rite.)

Guess we just found out which Safdie brother had the talent all along.

The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus, 2025): 2.5/5

Two hours of Paul and Josh walking around singing folk songs so shitty they sound straight outta one of the Hobbit movies, it’s Awards Bait Season once again baby!

Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2025): 3.5/5

Amazing how many films this season feel like they all came out of the same weekend retreat. So much of the same despair, disillusionment. And so much ACAB. Also, Emma Stone has literally never had a better male scene partner than Jesse Plemons.

Anemone (Ronan Day-Lewis, 2025): 2.5/5

Gorgeous visuals and a great performance from Daniel Day-Lewis but goddamn this is the prettiest pile of nothing I’ve ever seen. Every character is a hollow skeleton held up by tentpoles of garbled trauma and clunky monologues.

Millers in Marriage (Ed Burns, 2025): 2.5/5

Gen X problems include having extramarital affairs and being bored by their gorgeous homes in upstate New York

A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow, 2025): 2.5/5

It’s cool how these professionals spent their whole lives preparing for a nuclear attack and then when one happens they’re like “wait what”

Bone Lake (Mercedes Bryce Morgan, 2024): 2/5

if you're making an erotic horror movie called Bone Lake and zero out of four leads will do frontal nudity what are you even doing? you have failed. just call in sick until they fire you