My top 9 movies of 2025
Jan. 5th, 2026 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI went to see 18 movies in the cinema last year, which is only two fewer than 2024, which isn’t bad, considering I had a three-month hiatus from cinema-going. Click the ‘films’ tag below to see what I thought of them closer to when I saw them, the ones that made this list and the ones that I didn’t. The list is in the order that I saw them.
Wicked Part 1 – both a revisionist musical and what you think of when you hear ‘movie musical’, with plenty going on metatextually, a lot to say about oppression, lying leaders, popularity, friendship etc. Big song and dance numbers, with big voices from the leads.
Companion – black comedy sci-fi set five minutes into the future with a really sympathetic heroine, and a jaundiced view of relationships and human nature. Strong script, try to go to see it knowing as little as possible about it.
The End – out-there musical (but not in the Wicked sense) about a family of rich survivors living in a bunker after the end of the world as we know it, which Father, at least, had a role in, their servants and the newcomer who bursts into their sealed world.
Mr. Burton – fictionalised account of the complicated relationship between the schoolteacher who helped the young Richard Burton become an actor and star and ‘Ritchie’. Will admit I could be biased because it was about Welsh people made by (some) Welsh people.
Thunderbolts* - depressed Yelena Belova ends up with a team of surviving anti-heroes – wait, it’s better than The Suicide Squad - who have to save the world, but do so in a refreshing way for a comic book superhero movie. I liked it more than Fantastic Four: First Steps. (I had more to say about it
here.)
Mission Impossible: (The) Final Reckoning – this has two big setpieces that live up to the standard set by this series and justify going to see this on a big screen. Didn’t quite live up to Dead Reckoning (or undo its TERRIBLE MISTAKE) as Ethan Hunt becomes the Chosen One.
The Ballad of Wallis Island – a passion project that is laugh-out-loud funny and specifically British about grief, what we do with it, and music. Great script and lots of heart.
Sorry, Baby – another personal film about a female friendship in the face of growing pains, from university to adulthood and all that comes with it, which includes some very funny bits, and surviving something awful. Could be trigger-y for some, but is disarmingly well done, and Eva Victor, who plays the lead, wrote and directed it, is really impressive.
Wicked: For Good – or Wicked part 2. Gives us the ending of the story, which is more complicated than it seemed it might be. Has more to do with The Wizard of Oz, Elphaba’s arc is a tough one, but maybe Glinda’s is the one to give hope. It still looks fabulous, and the good singers sing their hearts out, even if the songs can’t quite match those in the first film.
Previous end-of-year film posts here.
Wicked Part 1 – both a revisionist musical and what you think of when you hear ‘movie musical’, with plenty going on metatextually, a lot to say about oppression, lying leaders, popularity, friendship etc. Big song and dance numbers, with big voices from the leads.
Companion – black comedy sci-fi set five minutes into the future with a really sympathetic heroine, and a jaundiced view of relationships and human nature. Strong script, try to go to see it knowing as little as possible about it.
The End – out-there musical (but not in the Wicked sense) about a family of rich survivors living in a bunker after the end of the world as we know it, which Father, at least, had a role in, their servants and the newcomer who bursts into their sealed world.
Mr. Burton – fictionalised account of the complicated relationship between the schoolteacher who helped the young Richard Burton become an actor and star and ‘Ritchie’. Will admit I could be biased because it was about Welsh people made by (some) Welsh people.
Thunderbolts* - depressed Yelena Belova ends up with a team of surviving anti-heroes – wait, it’s better than The Suicide Squad - who have to save the world, but do so in a refreshing way for a comic book superhero movie. I liked it more than Fantastic Four: First Steps. (I had more to say about it
here.)
Mission Impossible: (The) Final Reckoning – this has two big setpieces that live up to the standard set by this series and justify going to see this on a big screen. Didn’t quite live up to Dead Reckoning (or undo its TERRIBLE MISTAKE) as Ethan Hunt becomes the Chosen One.
The Ballad of Wallis Island – a passion project that is laugh-out-loud funny and specifically British about grief, what we do with it, and music. Great script and lots of heart.
Sorry, Baby – another personal film about a female friendship in the face of growing pains, from university to adulthood and all that comes with it, which includes some very funny bits, and surviving something awful. Could be trigger-y for some, but is disarmingly well done, and Eva Victor, who plays the lead, wrote and directed it, is really impressive.
Wicked: For Good – or Wicked part 2. Gives us the ending of the story, which is more complicated than it seemed it might be. Has more to do with The Wizard of Oz, Elphaba’s arc is a tough one, but maybe Glinda’s is the one to give hope. It still looks fabulous, and the good singers sing their hearts out, even if the songs can’t quite match those in the first film.
Previous end-of-year film posts here.
