2025 in 50 Films - Part Five

Finally. Time to wrap this up.

We’ve covered a lot of ground over the first few parts of this series, and we've got a lot of ground left to cover today. If you want to look back at the earlier entries...

#50 - #41 are here.

#40 - #31 are here.

#30 - #21 are here.

And then you've got #20 - #11 right here.

Now we're down to my personal favorite ten films from the past year. Some of these are movies that are in the conversation for year-end awards. Some of them are not. Some of these were huge hits. At least one of them was not. I don’t care. These are the films I’ll carry closest to me moving forward, the ones I am most likely to rewatch, or to keep rewatching. I’ve seen all of these more than once already and the only reason I haven’t seen them more times is because I’m always making time for new things.

These are the films that feel like the most successfully do whatever it is they’re doing, the films that feel like the most singular expressions of voices, the films that made me happiest we still have movie theaters. When I say these are my very favorites of my favorites, we’re talking about a matter of degrees. In the end, I have to go with the films that surprised me and delighted me and moved me the most. I saw almost 300 new films this year to narrow it down to these 50. Figuring out the degrees of affections that separate many of the titles on this list is an impossible game that we all play every year when we make these lists. I can only tell you that I think of 2025, and I cannot imagine what the year would have looked like if these films had not been part of it. There are a few pieces here that are adapted from earlier newsletters. For the most part, I never got to review any of these, so this entire list is a way of nailing down my feelings about all of these films, and I'm incorporating a few earlier pieces to make this the final record.

There are a few 2025 films I still haven’t seen. And maybe a few of them might have even found a spot on the list. All I know is, I watched 246 films that qualified for this list, and in the end, when I think of the year, this is what I will always think of first. Animated films, live-action films, and stuff that lands somewhere in the middle. Old familiar faces and first-time feature directors alike, this is a list that I am delighted by, a list of films I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

10. K-Pop Demon Hunters

I spent many years as a critic being the first to see things, the first to report on the things, the first to discover things. I was in a lot of rooms the first time films were screened, and I genuinely feel like for over a decade, I helped put things on the map. There is a shelf-life to how long you can effectively do that, though, and part of the reason is because tastes change, and many critics are unable to shift with the zeitgeist. That’s fine. It’s natural. Audiences change. The ways we digest things change. There are huge chunks of pop culture that critics don’t engage with at all, and that’s just part of the job. There’s so much now, and it reaches audiences in so many different ways that all you can do is focus in on the things you’re reviewing and let the rest of it go. In my case, I’m not on assignment from anyone. I’m watching and reading and writing about whatever I’m interested in, and I am not obligated to watch anything I don’t want to. I watch things when I want to, and I watch things on my timetable. Not being first, and not even worrying about being first, makes a huge difference. I enjoy things far more now, and one of the things I enjoy most is when I am late to the party and other people have already planted a flag declaring something worthwhile.

Case in point this year: KPop Demon Hunters. I did not care about it when it dropped on Netflix. It just didn’t seem like it was aimed at me, and I always have a “to be watched” list 50 titles deep anyway, so it was easy to just skip it. Then people started watching it. And watching it. And watching it. And after a while, it seemed unavoidable. It was a genuine organic hit, a movie that was growing because people were telling each other to see it. This is the thing no studio can manufacture or buy, and when it happens, if you’re lucky, you can find a way to lean into it. Seeing them take this to theaters after it had already been a global streaming hit gave me some kind of hope that the theatrical experience is not only not going away, but is in fact still seen as a special and worthwhile thing that cannot be replicated. Having a film like this film a young audience and then using that to show them how much more fun it is to see a film you love with other people who love it feels like a net win for everyone. If this was just a hit that I could point at as a nice example of a younger audience feeling well-served, that would be fine. It wouldn’t land it a place on my list, but it would be worth acknowledging in some way. The thing is, when I finally watched KPop Demon Hunters, almost begrudgingly, I found it enormously entertaining from start to finish, with an animation style that feels like it takes permission from the success of the Spider-Verse films while also leaning on anime language to an extent that few American movies have ever attempted. It is a giddy film experience, and what takes it over the top is the spectacular soundtrack. Again… K-Pop is not my thing. It’s just not on my radar. I have nothing against it, but I’m an old man. My music tastes ossified somewhere in the mid-‘90s and I’m okay with that. This is a film that works as a film first, and the music is perfect for the story they’re telling. Each new song adds to our understanding of the characters and how they relate to one another, and the genre of the song is unimportant. It’s a film that transcends because of the almost outrageous amount of joy that is invested in every part of the filmmaking.

In a moment as chaotic and unpleasant as 2025, a film like KPop Demon Hunters feels almost medicinal. It made me so happy I had to show it to someone else as soon as I’d seen it, and based on the way the film’s popularity spread, I was not alone. I’m not sure I want to see this turn into a giant franchise, but that feels unavoidable at this point. Part of what made this so charming was that it came out of nowhere. It wasn’t based on existing IP. It wasn’t a remake of a retread of a reboot of a sequel of a reimagining. It’s this giddy, celebratory thing that stands on its own, and it should serve as a lesson to studios and producers that the original swing is still important, or even essential. There’s an irony to the fact that Sony could have easily released this as a theatrical film. It started life as a Sony Pictures Animation project, and it was over a year later that Netflix got involved as part of a larger co-production deal between Sony and Netflix. The film was such a hit on streaming that Netflix has now done a few different theatrical releases, including a sing-along version, and I would not be surprised if the sequel ends up getting a theatrical-first window from Sony and Netflix. It made more sense on paper to push this to the streaming platform, but if they’d had this in theaters from the start, and on the right number of screens, this could have been one of the year’s biggest hits.

The film posits a mythology made up of demons and humans, with demon hunters as a constant presence standing between the two. In each generation, there are three women who work together, using the harmonic power of their voices to create a magical barrier that keeps the demons at bay. Each generation adds their voices to the Honmoon, the name of the barrier, with the idea being that eventually, there will be a tipping point, and they’ll create the Golden Honmoon, which will be permanent. Our generation’s demon hunters have formed a K-pop girl group called Huntrix, and together, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey have built a massive fanbase. They’re convinced that their new single, “Golden,” is about to finally complete the Golden Honmoon, but before that can happen, the ruler of the demon world, Gwi-Ma, takes one last shot at stopping them via a five-demon boy band called the Saja Boys. One of the things I enjoy about the film is the way it takes full advantage of the language of animation. So much of how the film communicates is through exaggeration and stylization, and it has zero regard for the laws of physics. This is not just an action movie with music in it. It is a full-blown musical, with the various songs pushing both story and character forward. The film moves at a relentless pace, and it is dense with information. If anything, it could have been longer, giving some of the character beats time to breathe. But that’s a small complaint, and the film rewards a repeat viewing. Or two. No film this year planted its score more deeply into my brain, and no one was more happy to be surprised about it than I was. A perfect indicator of just how much fun the film is: my favorite character is one who technically doesn't even really need to be in the film, but every time that big blue kitty with the psychedelic eyes shows up, I'm so happy to see him. It is a film that positively overflows with delights.