Movies I watched in 2025

At the start of this year, I decided I wanted to change my media consumption: watch some movies, read some books, engage with some significant cultural texts instead of frittering through an endless stream of short video "content".
My mission was partly successful: I watched 30 movies, which is well over 2 a month, but not close to 1 a week. Some were recent, some very much not. I joined the cinema streamer MUBI for a bit and enjoyed what they had to offer, but cancelled after a while because the rent is too damn high. I recommend them though.
Here is my personal awards list for the movies I saw this year.

Best film nominees:

(they all win)

The Last Showgirl

The Last Showgirl holds two contradictory views at the same time, and invites us not to judge.

It’s very good. It’s Pamela Anderson (!) playing a Vegas Showgirl who has sacrificed her relationship with her daughter, and to some degree, her whole life, to be a dancer in this traditional Vegas Showgirl show. It felt like a bit of a double feature with The Substance, which is much angrier, but is also about an aging female star chewed up and spat out by show business. The Substance has a lot of rage about the cruelty of that, and that’s valid. The Last Showgirl has something more fragile and poignant to say.

Her daughter at one point calls it a “stupid nudie show”, but to Anderson’s character it’s much more than that. Others may think the show is a tawdry thing, the outdated leftovers of another era. But to her, it’s a show with history, it’s something sophisticated and French. Being on stage makes her feel beautiful and that’s important to her, even if she also doubts herself and her life choices at times.

The film manages to hold both points of view: it is both a stupid nudie show and a thing of beauty and power.

And what it said to me, personally, is that whatever your thing is that’s so important to you now may turn out to be a stupid nudie show, or it may turn out to be the Real Thing, and it’s probably both and all you can do is try your best.

It’s a very moving film and I love it.

Babygirl

I've seen some mixed reviews for this one but they're all wrong: this is a flawless piece. Amazing work by Nicole Kidman.

The first time we see the intern outside of his office gear, in the hotel room in his white T-shirt and standard issue bro chain, I was like, girl, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Antonio is a reasonable man, he'll understand...

I Watched the TV Glow

A recommendation handed down to us by a trans-masc drag queen from the stage, this was a quiet gem of a movie.

It's about how much you loved and lived for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and also how you're living the wrong fucking life but it's not too late. There is still time.

The Holdovers

Watched this during the interfestum, just before the end of the year. It's a wonderful, quiet piece about three troubled souls left over in their boarding school during the Christmas period.

It feels really old-school, nothing wild happens, it's just these characters and their normal/remarkable situations. Mary's quiet dignity in the face of grief was beautiful, and made me cry.

The Substance

Absolute madness, love and rage. Demi Moore is SO SEXY. Enjoyed it a lot.

Holy Motors

This is a really weird one, it's French. The main character is and actor working out of a limousine. He transforms himself into different characters with make up, prosthetics, costumes and wigs, and gets out of the car to play his character in (what looks like) real life. So we get a series of emotionally intense scenes, some funny, some violent, some strange or scary, with the only connection being the actor.

The film doesn’t explain what the heck is going on, who this man is, how he came to do this work or what any of it means. It’s not about figuring out the mystery, it’s about going along for the ride. I had the feeling at one point that this is a kind of afterlife for our main character, but that doesn't seem to be a common take. Maybe it’s about acting, maybe it’s about identity. I don’t know, and I don’t need to know. It was funny and wild and dark and very compelling. I don’t regret a single minute I spent watching it, thinking about it, and trying to explain it to my partner. Hard recommend.

The actor playing all the different characters is played by Denis Lavant. Don’t think I’ve seen him before but he’s fantastic. And if you’re of a sensitive bent, you’ll want this teeny tiny spoiler: Eva Mendez (the model) is OK. She doesn’t get hurt, don’t worry. Also Kylie Minogue is in it. IKR?!

My favourite part was this musical intermezzo. You won’t need the context for this, because there isn’t any. Just enjoy it.

Paris is Burning

Remarkable that this exists at all. Heartbreaking. Funny. Fabulous. If you haven't seen it, seek it out. And if you are part of a bunch of people doing something unusual that really matters to them and that nobody else understands: maybe make a documentary about it. You never know.

Sinners

OMG, film of the year, am I right? I don't really follow the awards much but I'm going to assume that this wins/won big. Favourite bit: the old man in the car talking about how he lost his friend, and then singing to keep from crying.

Tangerine

Found this on Mubi: two trans sex workers set out to have a word with the cheating bastard boyfriend of one of them. The insane, marriage wrecking, druggy chaos that follows is bracing, but their friendship is a sad and beautiful anchor.

Metropolis

Absolutely horrifying scenes in the flooding lower city aside, this was pretty cool. Let's all agree it's not remembered for the story, which was incoherent, and enjoy the iconic costumes and visuals.

Nosferatu

Fantastic. Loved the atmospheric shots, the shadow play, the sexual subtext (does it count as sub-?). I did have a moment, when he fist approached the tomb, of wondering if I could really be expected to take this seriously post What We Do in the Shadows, but I got over myself and enjoyed it.

"I am nothing but an appetite."

The VVitch

Also great. I was solidly on the Eggers train until we watched The Lighthouse. Love the period-accurate language, the use of colour, everything involving Anya Taylor-Joy.

Frankenstein

Fun, lovely costumes and set design, interesting sort-of-twist for the ending. Ultimately a very familiar story, luckily both Frankenstein and the creature were mighty tasty.

Child's Play

Our foray into the classic slasher genre kind of began and ended here, because we didn't really enjoy it. Child's Play scared me s-less when I first saw it, now it was mostly kind of a annoying. Chucky is not a formidable opponent. I vividly remembered the scene where mom finds out there's no batteries in the doll, but it barely rased my pulse in 2025. Funny how we change. It features cute rats though, and regains a point for that.

Weapons

I dunno I liked it I guess but I felt like we finished a completely different movie than we started. Not complaining because the tension in the first act was actually a bit much for me and it relaxed a bit after the reveal. Loved the different character perspectives.

The Lighthouse

Ew.

A friend of mine really loved it, and I respect that, but ew. Apptly Pattinson said it was "100% a comedy" and I can kind of see that? There are some very funny bits, but the oppressive atmosphere and violence and drinking/self-poisoning of it all just made it so I barely dared to laugh at it.

This bit made me giggle in the shower the next morning though: "Fine, have it your way. I like your cooking!"

Cats

The creepy cg one, yes. OK, so this was a hate-watch basically, we watched a cool video essay on why this film fails from a musical perspective, and we wanted to see it in all its horrible glory.

And yes, truly amazing. Why? Why did you make that?

Queer

Didn't expect to hate this one. It's well made, good lead actor, and the subject matter is relevant to my interests, at least at first blush. But I turned it off midway.

Turns out that no, I would not like to watch Daniel Craig lounging around Mexico City, drinking, smoking and being miserable. Maybe I should have given it longer. The trailer made it look really good. The trailer makes me want to give it another shot, to be honest. But yea, I turned it off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Interstellar

Oh boy. I've got some notes on this one.

I think I may have put it on by accident, mistaking it for a completely different deep space movie. Man, this made me ranty. The world-building is sketchy: it's the future, and it's an agrarian society where "everyone" is a farmer, but the farms are huge monoculture megafarms with corn supposedly suffering from drought and blight even though they look green as hell. Who is eating all that corn if everybody is farmers?

This is worse when we come back 20 years later and the monoculture megafarms are still supposedly failing, with the same crop looking just as green. Hey, guys? If blight is a big issue for the crop you're growing, do you think it might help to grow more than one crop?!

And, yeah, the space stuff doesn't make any sense either, evil Matt Damon didn't convince, the emotional notes sound flat... ugh.

The Fountain

We watched this in a small cinema for our friend's birthday. It's another sci-fi one about a man obsessed with curing death. He's on a dealine because his wife is dying. The enjoyment we got from this was afterwards, as we picked holes in the plot together and yelled at Wolverine, who was too busy trying to defeat death to spend time with his wife.

She's DYING! All she wants is ten minutes of your time! BE with her you absolute FAILURE of a MAN!

Cool visuals though.

The Hypnosis

Found this through Mubi. It's a European film about a couple who are trying to pitch their start-up but she has been released from her need to conform to social norms by a hypnosis session. More cringe than comedy. I feel like I didn't get it.

After Yang

Haunting piece about memory, identity, and AI companions.

Elvis

Dragged Elvis up from laughable cliché into the sex symbol he really was. Gorgeous. Fun.

Reality+

Short from the maker of The Substance, covering some of the same themes. A little less gory.

Lucky Grandma

Hilarious, loved this so much. A grandmother wins and loses big at the casino, and gets in trouble with local gangs. Another remarkable performance by an experienced actress, they just kept on coming this year.

Her

Romance between man and AI assistant. Sweet and strange.

The Importance of Being Earnest

We saw an adaptation with Dame Judi Dench out of frustration that we missed the stage performance with Ncuti Gatwa. Entertaining enough but could have done with more Ncuti.

La la land

Eh.

Poor Things

Yeeeeeees!

Wallace and Gromit: Vengence most Fowl

Local heroes Wallace and Gromit do it again. Funny jokes, silly slapstick, and even tied into the theme of the year: AI. I loved the canal boat chase especially.

Mickey 17

Loved this too, made me want to watch more of Robert Pattinson's forays into the weird and wonderful. And then we saw The Lighthouse and went: that's enough Robert Pattinson now!