There are 13 posts tagged 2025 (this is page 1 of 2).
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.
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.
Reader beware, this is my one annual opportunity to write about what I think is going on with music and I’m not gonna waste it! The main thing I’m thinking is: is everything going to shit or am I just getting older? Music tends to be a bellwether for where other media will end up going and 2025 was the first year that AI “musicians” started generating millions of streams on Spotify, which sure is discouraging. Except when you realize that millions of streams still isn’t that much money going to whoever uploaded that slop, especially relative to the enormous cost they probably spent to game the system and get into peoples’ feeds. Also we’ve seen that most of us, when given the choice, will loudly proclaim we prefer actual human artistry… which is admittedly a low bar for hope in our species. But at least it seems like, right now, we clear it?
On the other hand, the art of curation seems to be on the way out. It’s getting harder and harder to find good criticism as more and more iconic outlets are shuttered or left critically understaffed in the name of short-term profit maximization. When I was in college my dream was to write at a place like The AV Club. It was too hard for me to seriously try in 2011. Is it even a viable career path at all today? I mean hell, MTV went off the air a few days ago. And the record labels themselves? They are busy laying people off and turning to TikTok to find new artists. The algorithms, man! I’ve come to realize a lot of people now fully depend on their streaming apps to find new music. It makes me feel so old that those discover playlists just don’t click with me! I still rely on places like Paste, Pitchfork, KEXP, fuckin’ TV show and movie soundtracks, and, of course whatever Colin decides is worth writing about to add to my streaming music library.
Speaking of, here’s something: Paste’s #2 and Pitchfork’s #1 album of the year is not on Spotify or Apple (don’t worry, I haven’t heard it yet either, my bad). That’s a great reminder that the resurgence of physical media has continued; with vinyl, CD, and cassette sales growing again last year and seemingly a similar phenomena happening in film with Blu-rays. Look how big the Criterion Closet has gotten on social media! And don’t forget, the problem isn’t streaming — it’s that streaming is rigged against the artists. It used to be bands toured to support the album, now they release albums so they can tour (which has turned legacy acts like Oasis into the biggest shows but that’s a whole other thing). The music industry has never been more consolidated than it is right now, with a few people at the few remaining, gargantuan labels keeping almost all the money for themselves. At the same time, it’s never been easier to make music and share it with the world. Where we are right now is unsustainable. Again, I take solace that most people want to invest human artistry and share experiences with each other. I don’t know what will happen next, but maybe there is a glimmer of hope just over that horizon?
