My ranking of all the movies I saw in 2025 is here on Letterboxd. I find myself rather apathetic about writing up most of that list here, since John already covered a lot of my top 10 and Colin’s list is basically my remaining watchlist from the last year. So, in honor of the Mildly Pleased Awards which are probably not happening this year, here’s a write-up of my favorite movies from last year that aren’t those eighteen.
2025 was a pretty good year at the movies for me, even if it didn’t seem like that great of a year for the industry as a whole. It probably speaks to that fact that I saw like 3 movies that I would’ve considered mainstream blockbusters over the course of the year. But as far as the types of smaller, more thoughtful films I like to seek out, there was plenty of good stuff to go around. I truly don’t know what to think of the increasingly bleak state of the theater industry, because this year I saw probably 75% of the movies I saw last year in theaters, and I’m not really sure what the point of movies are if not for the theatrical experience. Well, here are the movies that made me happy to go get lost in the dark of a half-empty theater.
The children are our future. At least, that’s what the 2025 box office would lead me to believe. Because when I think of 2025, the first thing that comes to mind is kids’ movies. I don’t know if there were more movies for the chillins this year, or if they just performed better than last year’s crop (the 2025 box office was a slight uptick overall), but I swear kids’ movies, and horror, are the only sure things these days.
Zootopia 2, A Minecraft Movie, Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, KPop Demon Hunters, whatever the hell Ne Zha 2 is supposed to be, these are the films filling seats in today’s theaters. Oh, and Avatar, but that one’s for the child in all of us.
Now, there were two box-office breakthroughs this year (spoiler alert: they’re my number one and number three) that were original films and actually performed well. Yet I get the sense studios weren’t thrilled about that. Why else would they make such a concerted effort to downplay those successes? Studios want to pull the strings, so it makes sense they’d bristle at directors who claim full ownership of their art. The struggle is real.
I guess what I’m saying is the corporate fuckification of the movie industry feels more noticeable than ever, and it’s hard not to wonder what that means for theatergoing, if theatergoing will even exist in the coming years.
With that existential dread out of the way, let’s get into it!
That’s right. Once again, I did not watch that much TV over the course of the last year, so I’m keeping it to a top 5 again. I came close to watching 10 shows this year, but couldn’t quite muster up the will to marathon Andor after putting off watching it for nearly half the year. Which isn’t to say there weren’t TV shows I enjoyed in 2025, since I feel good about the 5 I’ve chosen. I just think I ended up making a concerted effort to spend more time on hobbies that forced me to stop looking at screens in 2025, and it was hard for TV to not feel like just another distraction that could be easily interrupted by another distracting screen. Anyways, here are the shows I couldn’t turn away from. Continue reading
After last year, when I cobbled together a paltry five shows, I’m back in 2025 with a vengeance. Do I believe there is an underlying reason it went down this way? No. TV is weird now. Shows happen when they happen. There is little to no urgency to watch them unless it’s a buzzy show like Stranger Things. Even then, I haven’t watched the new season of Stranger Things. Why? I can always watch it later.
TV is what I put on when I eat dinner, or in the case of Heated Rivalry a cocktail. 😉 It’s background noise. But I’ll tell ya, there was good background noise this year. A few shows I would even consider for the foreground. Key word: consider. Let’s not go nuts.
Fuck it. Let’s do this.
When I think back to TV in 2025, the thing I’ll most likely remember are the Seattle Mariners. I love to have M’s games on during the half of the year that baseball exists and this most recent team was actually worth watching all the way into October. Mostly that’s because they won the division and Cal Raleigh was the best player in baseball, set a bunch of home run records for catchers and switch hitters and American Leaguers who aren’t Yankees, and won over much of the nation with his prodigious dumper. I managed to go to a whole bunch of games and saw some iconic moments in-person, including Naylor’s playoff clinching double and Geno’s grand slam, but I’ll remember just as many amazing moments watched in the comfort of my own home. Except that one playoff game I decided to watch at my parents’ house…
Other than live sports? I dunno. There are always lots of good stuff to watch and I feel like I’m never in sync with anybody anymore. Oh well. Here are some shows I thought were pretty good.
Most of my year in music was spent paying tribute (via my ears) to my fallen rock and roll heroes. Ozzy, Brian Wilson, Ace Frehley, Sly Stone, Rick Davies–OH HOLD ON GARTH HUDSON DIED?!? WHAT THE FUCK? All the way back in January too. How did I not hear about this? Damn dude, all the members of The Band are dead.
Anyways, this means I didn’t devote a lot of time to new music. At least not a lot of new music. I listened to my number one album on this list like fifty bajillion times. Which is why it’s number one.
I didn’t see any trends worth following this year. It feels like pop music is back in hibernation after having a banner year in 2024. Everyone’s back to hating Taylor Swift like the old days. Let’s see… KPop Demon Hunters. That was cool right? This list goes out to the demons!–I mean, the demon hunters. Fuck. I’m still so mad about Garth Hudson.
