2025: Another Year of Phenomenal Film

Musings, Letterboxd stats, and a year spent watching 435 movies.

Now that 2025 is coming to an end, I wanted to write the obligatory wrap-up. While it’s tempting to dwell on the “sh**ty” parts—the L.A. fires, the government shutdown, immigration raids, and media censorship—I’d rather focus on what brought us together. For me, that includes Jimmy Kimmel’s reinstatement, my daughter’s school performance in Frozen Jr., a(nother) Dodgers World Series win, this very Substack(!) and, as always, MOVIES.

Since 2022, I’ve been logging and briefly reviewing every film I watch on Letterboxd. It’s been the densest period of movie viewing of my life. While 2025 wasn’t a record-breaker for me (435 vs. last year’s record 523), my understanding of movies has grown deeper than ever.

For the curious and the fellow film enthusiasts, here is my 2025 in data and favorites. (And if you’re looking for the perfect movie to ring in 2026, stay tuned for a special New Year/NYE recommendation at the bottom of this post.)

Below is a Letterboxd list of ALL the films I watched in 2025:

The 2025 Scorecard

A year of cinema by the numbers (as of 12/29).

• Total Films Watched: 435

• Average Frequency: 36.2 films/month (~8.4 per week)

• Total Time Spent: 753 Hours

• Rewatches: 42 (introductions to my kids and comfort watches)

• New 2025 Releases: 50 (plenty of blind spots here)

• The “Double Feature” Club: One Battle After Another & Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (The only two films I watched twice this year).

Some of my 2025 Letterbox’d stats so far (as of 12/29).

Star Distribution

I tend to seek out movies I think I’ll love, so my ratings (5 star Letterboxd scale) tend to weigh on the higher side.

• 5 Stars: 35 (New Favorites)

• 4.5 Stars: 58

• 4 Stars: 91

• 3.5 Stars: 133 (The solid/enjoyable sweet spot)

• 3 Stars and Below: 118

My Top 11 of 2025 - First Time Watches, Any Year

These aren’t necessarily 2025 releases, but the best films I experienced for the first time this year. I’m turning it up to 11 (it’s really 12 though)!

1. Yoyo (1965) dir. Pierre Etaix - This was probably the most revelatory film of the year for me. Discovering Etaix’s movies this year was a really special experience. It reminds me of when I first started watching Jerry Lewis. His comedies are so inventive, but with much more heart than Lewis. Yoyo is his best.

2. Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring (1986) dir. Claude Berri (I cheated adding two here, but since they were both filmed in 1985 and both released in 1986, I look at them as one film. And they’re incredible!)

3. Nouvelle Vague (2025) dir. Richard Linklater

4. The Taste of Things (2023) dir. Trần Anh Hùng

5. The Learning Tree (1969) dir. Gordon Parks

6. Local Hero (1983) dir. Bill Forsyth

7. Hobson’s Choice (1954) dir. David Lean

8. The Lion in Winter (1968) dir. Anthony Harvey

9. Yojimbo (1961) dir. Akira Kurosawa

10. Scarecrow (1973) dir. Jerry Schatzberg

11. La Haine (1995) dir. Mathieu Kassovitz

My favorite watches of 2025.

Below is a Letterbox list of all my favorites watched from 2025:

Top 10 of 2025 - New Releases

I don’t watch enough new releases. It’s obviously much more difficult to get to a theater than to watch at home. Plus, I tend to be more interested in older movies. Out of the 50 new releases I caught this year, these are the ones that stuck.

1. Nouvelle Vague dir. Richard Linklater - My favorite of the year! This was such a comfort watch for me. It may not hit everyone the same way—it’s a movie for film fanatics. You may need to watch the film it’s based on, Breathless (1960), in order to fully appreciate it.

2. One Battle After Another dir. Paul Thomas Anderson

3. The Baltimorons - dir. Jay Duplass

4. No Other Choice - dir. Park Chan-wook

5. Frankenstein - dir. Guillermo del Toro

6. Sinners - dir. Ryan Coogler

7. Weapons - dir. Zach Cregger

8. Bugonia - dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

9. The Ugly Stepsister - dir. Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt

10. Black Bag - dir. Steven Soderbergh

• Dishonorable Mention: Snow White, dir. Marc Webb. My least favorite watch of the year. Painfully difficult to get through. What a terrible blemish on the first animated feature film.

There are so many “in between” worthy of discussion, like Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Phoenician Scheme, F1, or Together that I enjoyed plenty. And others that had me scratching my head like Superman, Highest 2 Lowest, and Thunderbolts* (did I really just have to add an asterisk?) . . . but lines have to be drawn.

Films on my radar that are conspicuously missing from the list above: Marty Supreme, Resurrection, Sore: A Wife from the Future, Magellan, KPop Demon Hunters, Sorry, Baby, Is This Thing On?, and Hamnet.

My favorite releases of 2025 (that I’ve seen).

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Top 10 Non-Fiction

My favorite first time watched documentaries this year (released any year).

• Minding the Gap (2018)

• Hoop Dreams (1994)

• Mr. Scorsese (2025)

• Billy Joel: And So It Goes (2025)

• John Candy: I Like Me (2025)

• Along the Coast (1958)

• Night and Fog (1956)

• Jim Henson: Idea Man (2024)

• Crisis (1963)

• They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

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Top 10 of the 21st Century

Since the New York Times went viral with their 100 Best of the 21st Century, I thought I’d throw my hat in with my top 10 (ok, technically 11). In no particular order:

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

• There Will Be Blood (2007)

• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

• In the Mood for Love (2000)

• La La Land (2016)

• The Great Beauty (2013)

• The Taste of Things (2023)

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

• Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 (2003/2004)

• City of God (2002)

My picks for greatest films of the 21st Century

🎵 Bonus: The 2025 Soundtrack

While movies are a major focus in my life, I am also obsessive about seeking out new tracks and albums every New Music Friday. I cull together the albums that may be worth listening into one playlist, then narrow down the best tracks from them into another. The following playlist of 207 tracks (over 13 hours) represents the best of the best that helped get me through the year!

🥂 My Top New Year’s Eve Pick: The Hudsucker Proxy

If you’re looking for a way to close out the year, I can’t recommend the Coen Brothers’ comedy-noir The Hudsucker Proxy enough. I watch it nearly every year. It’s a stylized, fast-talking, beautifully designed fable of good versus evil that culminates in one of the most inventive New Year’s Eve sequences in cinema. It captures that specific feeling of “the clock striking midnight” perfectly (and literally)—blending chaos, hope, and the whimsical musing that things might just turn around for the better in the final second. It’s exactly the kind of energy I want to carry into 2026. “You know, for kids!”

For a deeper dive: You can find possible influences from 1948 film noirs The Naked City and The Big Clock and from the 1940 classic screwball comedy His Girl Friday. Also, see Bull Durham for earlier glimpses of Tim Robbins’ character, Norville Barnes.

The best New Year’s Eve movie ever.

A Final Thought

Movies are more than just data points. This year, they were an escape when things felt heavy, an opportunity for conversation, and a bridge to connect with family. Whether I was watching a French New Wave classic on my couch or a James Cameron blockbuster at AMC, the big screen always offered new perspectives.

What was your favorite watch of 2025? Let me know in the comments.

Happy New Year! See you at the movies in 2026!