Wrapped Above: 2025 Movie Top Ten List!

Here we are, my old friends. The entire point of the year! We need to count down our top ten, we got to. I know my cinephilia is diminishing, I really didn't get to watch that many 2025 films and the ones I did I largely did not like. Efforts I was pysched for like Friendship and Sinners I thought kind of sucked. But there is still a pretty good crop so here we go!

KPOP: Demon Hunters

I haven't seen this on too many lists, I think folks just feel like they're too good for it. You're not. All the songs were bops and when was the last time a song from a movie became a genuine hit? But not only is the animation really intricate and enticing but the film establishes its deal really early on, while also carefully revealing bits about its characters that have great pay offs and enhance the experience, and is also a ton of fun. It is full of coherent and powerful themes, too, like accepting who you are, flaws and all, combating destiny, and maybe, just maybe not being so racist. What more could you want?

The Naked Gun

It's really important to boldly note that the original Naked Gun movies were not all that great. I re-watched them a few years ago and they rely on a shocking amount of racism and lazy jokes but get away with it because Leslie Nielsen is insanely good. They degrade as they go, mostly because Nielsen leaned into mugging rather than being an unreal straight actor, but that's that. I never totally go for these sort of parody movies because you can start to see the jokes coming like any turn of phrase is going to be some literal gag. Angie Tribeca did a lot of this and it became unwatchable. The Naked Gun pulls it off, though, with a ton of bits that genuinely work, really game performances, and a compelling contemporary commentary that isn't a sledgehammer. It's no surprise it was directed by the Lonely Island's Akiva Shaffer and has some heart and integrity to it. In an era where comedy is largely dead, it's a huge win.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Alright, here is my real pick for the year. This has such a jarring opening and then slowly confronts and unravels its themes throughout a meager run time, but it operates with such bold character it can't be ignored. It's more subtle than you'd think and doesn't spell everything out but you need to really read into what is happening for it to really hit you over the head with some powerful messages of how families and communities deal with abuse, in pain both shared and private, but also ignorance, willful or not. It is a phenomenally shot movie and it is not always easy to make the mundane look this compelling.

Predator: Killer of Killers

I am actually not a huge fan of what this does to the lore of Predator, like Arnold and that Indian chick should have beaten their predators fair and square. But I do really dig the ideas of Predators just showing up and fighting random warriors over the years. It's the kind of fantasy we always had in the 90s come to life on screen. Each story is well told, especially the initial Viking lady and the fighter pilot. There is a great efficiency in motivation, execution, and action. Dan Trachtenberg can have the reins to Predator forever, he is doing great after Prey (2022) and this. He just doesn't have a lot of fluff or pretention going on. I did not get a chance to see Badlands yet but I feel like it would find a spot on my list as well.

Train Dreams

I balled my eyes out watching this movie. It really hit me hard and I feel like it will be one that will stick with me for a long time, forever on this Top List. It is gorgeous to look at with a unique 3:2 aspect ratio, big shots of woods and prairie, and a fully immersive natural lighting. I really identified with Robert Grainier, who maintains this sadness throughout his life but keeps searching for meaning. It isn't full of false or understated hope, nor is it entirely bleak. It just is. It literally helps me be a better man, father, and husband. Joel Edgerton and William H. Macy stand out but this is really well cast film.

Weapons

I was really debating these two, ultimately I think I have to put the obvious pick first. I just think it will have more staying power and has quickly become 2025's definitive film. We'll talk more when we get there, but rarely do we see a film so hyped up actually earn and even go beyond its hype. Weapons is full of mystery and twists, but earns it in a natural way with a pay off that makes sense for the story. It's awesome. It plays with time and expectations with its character cards and absolutely nails the ending, which you just never see anymore. It is also a film you can actually see with rich contrasts, which is amazing.

One Battle After Another

Yep. You guessed it! This ought to be Paul Thomas Anderson's year, and as this is the third film I placed on my Top 25 films of the past 25 years list, it does deliver. PTA doesn't have a single Academy Award or Golden Globe to his name, only a single BAFTA for Original Screenplay for Licorice Pizza (2021). This ought to get him a well-deserved recognition. I do somewhat think VistaVision is doing some of the heavy lifting in making this film look so damn good, but there is quite a bit of substance here. You've got Leonardo DiCaprio fulfilling his idiot trilogy of Don't Look Up (2021), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), but really having a lot of heart in his doofiness. Sean Penn is unreal and unrecognizable, filling his character with all sorts of ticks and quirks. Teyana Taylor ends up not being in it for too long but is a fiery initiator. Benicio del Toro is chillin and Chase Infiniti is engaging of a presence to fit along all these legends and ought to have a good career on her own. It has a ton of narrative momentum, irony, a deft hand with themes, and a really thrilling climax. It's everything you want.

I had some interest in but didn't get a chance to see the following films, and they could all appear on future lists:

Eddington

Life of Chuck

Predator: Badlands

Honey Don't

The Long Walk

Black Bag

The Running Man

Not all these got spectacular reviews, but they all peaked my interest. As I said at the start, there were plenty that disappointed me this year so whatever.

2025 Wrapped up in it - Film MOMENTS, actors, you know the rest

There is so much more to the year than just the top films but I will admit my ever encroaching cynicism in that I straight up did not see aot of the big movies of the year like Minecraft or Superman. I'm just over it. I did see (and enjoy) Thunderbolts* but highlighting a moment felt too much like praising a token superhero film (and I'm not sure how many life-changing moments there were.)

However, there is one obvious winner and it is the Music Through the Ages Dance Jam from Sinners. I famously did not think Sinners was great at all, but I did really vibe with the first half and this scene obviously earns my respect. Even Sinners haters need to admit this scene rules.

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This doubles for musical moment of the year.

Runner up was "Frank Drebin" "Hey, me too!" from The Naked Gun. I busted up on that. Or the snowman scene.

Actor of the Year:

Is it possible to say Jack Black? Dude has had multiple big releases and maybe the line or song of the year with "Chicken jockey!" and "Lava Chicken." Pedro Pascal was in Fantastic Four, Eddington, The Last of Us, and Materialists, but it does feel like 2024 was more his year. Josh Brolin was in a ton of movies, too.

But I want to say Josh O'Connor. He was lauded in a mainstream gig, Wake Up Dead Man, had his indy credentials in The Mastermind, and is set to be in a Spielberg movie next year. Coming off great work in Challengers, it feels like he is a rising star and we're going to get him while he's hot!

Actress of the Year:

When you look at top movies, not a ton for the women this year. Superman, Minecraft, Captain America are all kind of male-focused. You have your Wicked, Lio & Stitch, Scarjo in Jurassic World: Rebirth, and Florence Pugh in Thunderbolts*, which does all give a nice balance, but none of these featured acresses that really dominated the year.

Except for Julia Garner! A very impressive run of Fantastic Four, Wolf Man, and Weapons make this clearly her year and deservedly so! These were all radically different roles, genres, and box office, and it's the kind of range we're looking for. 2025 was Julia Garner's more than anyone else!

What else?

Yeah, I was totally out of the loop on mainstream movies this year. I actually only saw one out of the Top Ten movies of the year (Sinners) and four out of the Top 20. I'm just largely over a lot of current blcokbuster filmmaking, things like Jurassic World aren't grabbing me like they used to. That's a fun slow decline. I watched all the original trilogy in theaters, came back for the 2015 movie (TEN YEARS AGO?) and at least caught the other two on streaming. Now I just have no desire at all for this nonsense. Disney and animated sequels are generally out for me, although I did hear that Zootopia 2 and Elio were good. But playing on my phone is better!

I probably shouldn't be running a film site anymore, right? I literally don't like movies. But hey, I really dug The Naked Gun (2015).

Wrapped Up in It: Music

This is going to be quick, because I hardly listen to music, or at least not in the snobby, obsessive way such an article would necessitate but here it goes!

Album of the Year: Free by Kid Cudi

According to Spotify I was in the Top 48,000 of Kid Cudi listeners, which was the top 0.04 percentile, so I may be biased. But after some duds Cudi dropped a remarkably uplifting and energetic album full of listenable bangers. This dropped two weeks after he got married, and you can tell after settling in to sobriety and healthy relationships he's in a better place, and amazingly, that has actually translated into evolution of his music as an artist. Finding positivity and hope didn't make his music shitty! It's surprising. I feel a lot of kinship in finding ways to finally be happy and I really dug this, especially when listening to his earlier depression and drug-fueled earlier works 

Song of the Year: "Archbishop Harold Holmes" by Jack White

I just like it. It's got such a pulsing rhythm and feels like the only good rock song we've gotten in the past ten years. I sincerely dog the video and John C. Reilly's commitment as well.

Video of the Year: "Manchild" by Sabrina Carpenter

We already named her the Summer Jam Queen but this video takes the cake as well! I am going to acknowledge however, that this is basically just A$AP Rocky's "Taylor Swif" which we named the top video of last year. I do like Sabrina's insane charisma and the purely unironic Americana on display here. There is a sense of throwing caution and pretension to the wind which is really refreshing.

2015 Movies Ten Years Gone

Just in time, we're here to review the top films of 2015!

I find more and more it seems trite to make year end lists, even if it's the backbone of our industry. For one, I struggle to see every film that comes out, and also there is a big shift in staying power that I think is fair to asses after a decade. There is assuredly merit in films that are of their moment and give great first impressions, though as well. Hence why we do still keep listing movies the same year they come out for time capsule purposes but the ten year list is the real deal.

I also really like the ten year list because I am less worried about throwing on movies that would be utterly laughable to really call the best of the year. So here we go:

#10: Ex Machina

I had rated this pretty high back in 2015 and I think it's still enjoyable, remarkably more for thematic prescience over craft. It holds up but is no longer mind-blowing.

#9: The Night Before

Yeah, I couldn't rank this at the moment. I just re-watched this because I was drunk, but I think it remains one of the last true "Seth Rogen" movies, which doubles for movies starring that Freaks and Geeks Apatow crowd. I might even call it the last funny movie ever made. It is remarkably solid, has some tight themes of growing up and moving on, but earns them, and is consistently funny.

#8: Bone Tomahawk

Let's go the other way. This is such a brutal grim movie that I mostly remember for Kurt Russell having the exact same hair as he did for The Hateful Eight. But this holds up as an unsparing smaller film that exists out of time and an unheralded S. Craig Zahler effort.

#7: Krampus

I recognize I'm putting two really off-beat Christmas movies on this list, so be it. I keep returning to Krampus, though! It has remarkable energy, a game cast, a really established atmosphere, and the perfect mix of holiday cynicism with a tiny glimmer of hope.

#6: Joy

I feel like I am the only one who liked Joy, but there just doesn't exist any other movie that quite shows female ambition like this. There is an insane amount of films from the male perspective. For whatever reason this persists for me.

#5: The Big Short

I don't totally love how this movie tends to blow past the minutiae with Margot Robbie in the tub and stuff but I get why, but it still seems to not dig into why all this stuff happened. It's still an amazing collection of scenes and a monumental kinetic narrative effort.

#4: Straight Outta Compton

There have been a ton of biopics over the years, including a lot more of rappers but not many as honest as this. I still think about it, especially has many have somehow gotten worse.

#3: Creed

As I'm going through this list, a lot seems to be movies that are just different enough within their genres to stand out. This may be one of the few, if not only legacy movies to truly stand on its own with fully fleshed out characters that are able to go on their own journeys, a feat not even its sequels achieved.

#2: The Hateful Eight

I still don't think this quite nails the ending but it feels like a bottle film that Tarantino challenged himself to do, but because he's Tarantino he nailed it. The cinematography is astounding, moreso because of the ultra wide aspect ratio for a movie that largely takes place in a single room lodge. It had grown on me for sure.

#1: Mad Max: Fury Road

What can I say, this movie is perfect. There you go.

There were a handful more on my shortlist and I can't believe I found myself giving them the boot, especially Inside Out. I think I have retroactive Pixar fatigue setting in, but I also struggle getting excited about Inside Out ten years out where I don't have that for everything else on this list.

The Duke of Burgundy

The Martian

Spotlight

Carol

Dope

Inside Out

2015 has a nice mix of great big and small movies, franchise efforts, indy efforts, and mid-size efforts. Hyper-masculine and hyper-feminine films. Looking back it does feel like it is far as we got as a culture before turning around and heading straight to hell. There is great, compelling energy to all these films, all clear visuals, and crisp film language. Again, probably the last stop on the trolley before cinema became all haves and have nots and digital mud replaced everything.

2025 Things?

Here we are, a day into 2025 and there are....really not that many movies to look forward to this year! There are a couple that have peaked my interest. Here they are!

The Day the Earth Blew Up

It has been a long, LONG time since we had a proper madcap Looney Tunes adventure. I can't believe we're even seeing this at all after chaos at Warner Bros to get this and the Wile E. Coyote movie out, but hey, I'll take it. It doesn't actually look all that great, but I'm pretty interested.

Mickey 17

I don't know what this is exactly about but it's got Robert Pattinson and directed by Bong Joon-ho and appears to be some kind of sci-fi something. We yearn for this! It looks like a great match-up and after some delays and hype, it might be the biggest mainstream movie (and by that I mean, not mainstream at all) that I'm looking forward to.

Life of Chuck

I need to do better, this also doesn't actually look all that great, but Tom Hiddleston is best applying his smarmy charm into really weird stuff and this is kind of a boffo Stephen King adaptation. But it's the Mike Flanagan direction that I'm most interested in. Actually I don't totally dig his movies, but he seems really good at TV! The episodic nature of this maybe fits that style better? We'll see.

Sinners

The Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are back together! The first image looks great, but I'm really just into this for the talent involved. It's really fun when a director / actor pair flex into a big budget blockbuster and then back down for something like this.

Death of a Unicorn

This looks pretty wild and I dug the trailer that just dropped. It seems whimsical, creepy, satirical maybe, and with an expansive cast of charismatic folk. It's nice to see just about everyone in this stretching out into weird horror and I'm totally down.

Trey Parker / Kendrick Lamar film

That's all you have to say. My #1 pick for 2025 is Untitled Trey Parker / Kendrick Lamar film! I know no other info but this is where it is. This is where life is headed in 2025. I can't even conceive of what this might exactly be, who knows. But as you can tell, the only things I really look forward to are the big swings, the interesting pairings, and new product from proven off-beat directors.

I can tell you, 2025 also feels like mainstream superhero Hollywood is going back to the well with the safest possible properties, but giving them some kind of spin to make them new or weird? I have a terrible feeling Superman is going to absolutely fall on its head. The trailer didn't really look engaging at all, but maybe we just need to know what kind of story they're telling? And it's a weird turn of events that Marvel's most iconic First Family feels real late to the gate, but I just don't care about the Fantastic Four. I will be there for the Beta Ray Bill movie. After a few years of multiverse nonsense, it seems like we are really grounding things but I wonder if that well has also run dry. I want another Kraven movie!

2024 Sharks: The MUSIC!

Listen, I don't really go through all the albums, I barely watch movies anymore. But there are always some fun things to highlight!

Artist of the Year: It is definitely just recency bias because I watched her terrible Christmas Special, but the real breakout is Sabrina Carpenter this year. I don't think she's actually a human being but she does have some catchy songs.

This is despite Kendrick clearly earning the Song of Summer and I might say the year, in "Not Like Us" which is just hilarious.

Video of the Year: "Taylor Swif" by A$AP Rocky

Dud of the Year: Lastly, I want to comment on how Katy Perry apparently dropped a comeback album that no one listened to and a feminist anthem co-written by Dr. Luke. Yay!