2025 – Year In Review – Film

~ philthebearblog

Welcome to my review of film in 2025.

This year I hope you had a better viewing experience with my site following my decision to pay for my own domain. Hopefully you will have been enjoying it advert free and getting a cleaner view.

This year has been rather hectic for me in both good and bad ways. The major hiccups in the road being an unplanned job change and requiring knee surgery that has rather curtailed my ability to enjoy as much cycling as I am used to. On the flip side I have been able to enjoy some spectacular holidays with my family and most importantly see Radiohead again. In fact I am certain that 2025 is the year I have seen more live gigs than ever before. All of which is to say that perhaps there were less articles for you to read than in previous years.

Anyway, let’s get to it. As ever scroll down for my best of the year list, but first of all I am going to talk about some other bits of info first.

The Stats

This is the part of the article that is probably more for me than you but I do like to think it is worth giving you an idea of the sample size I pick my favourite films from. Looking at the numbers I am almost tempted to come up with a line diagram with a year by year! But I shall leave that for now.

In terms of a direct comparison to last year I have watched 22 less films in total, 15 less “new to me” films but have seen 4 more at the cinema this year than last year. Which kind of ties in with what I mentioned earlier that I have been a bit busier than last year meaning less films at home.

I definitely feel like this might be a more balanced lifestyle approach even if I would love to be in the cinema twice a week like in my younger years.

Feature Articles This Year

There were fewer “big” articles this year. But I have to say one of these is one of the most fun things that I have done for this site.

My first feature of the year was to have a bit of fun trying to predict this year’s Oscar winners. My success rate was a little under 50% but it was a lot of fun that I might try and do better on next year! More importantly though I included what I thought should have won.

Next up was the article that I alluded to in my intro and one of my favourite things I have done on this site. Previously I have focused on my favourite film directors reviewing their entire bodies of work. But I have never done this with actors. The plan originally was to look at reviewing and talking about a top ten list by a specific actor because the idea of reviewing everything was quite daunting. However as I was enjoying myself I ended up watching and writing reviews for every single Ryan Gosling film before writing a top ten. Hopefully I can do this again for other actors I love.

Next up I ranked all of the Bridget Jones movies whilst finding out that the books were actually released in a different sequence.

And finally, in June I reviewed and ranked all of the Jason Bourne movies. This was mostly because I was anticipating the arrival of another Mission: Impossible film but it meant I got to experience the brilliance of this super spy action franchise.

One thing I changed for each of these articles was to separate the specific film reviews into separate articles so that you can find individual film reviews easier than having to find them within larger articles. Hopefully that works better for you all. You can find those articles via the search function or embedded in the larger articles.

As ever my other end of year articles where I round up what I am looking forward to next year and my favourite small screen programs can be found here:

Most Popular Articles

So this is the bit where I tell you what articles you clicked on the most that I wrote this year…

  1. Lars And The Real Girl
  2. Superman
  3. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
  4. Jurassic World: Rebirth
  5. Little Shop Of Horrors – Director’s Cut

This list is rather intriguing to me. Firstly it is great to see a film from my Ryan Gosling collection make it to number one… but I suspect Lars and the Real Girl has twice as many clicks as the next article on the list for reasons other than film. At the time of writing the other four films in the top five were separated by only one click each so could easily have swapped round many times over at this point. The fact that the middle three are the biggest blockbusters of the summer makes sense, but it is great to see an interest in Little Shop of Horrors. This was the first time I had seen the Director’s Cut version of the film and perhaps that is what interested those of you who clicked.

After nine full years of blogging my most popular articles ever are:

  1. Arrival (Extended Version)
  2. Land of Bad
  3. Beverly Hills Cop – Ranked
  4. Last Breath
  5. The Planet of the Apes Original Films Review (1968-1973)

The most interesting facet of this list for me is that three of these were published last year and have made it to my most clicked articles across nine years of articles!

My Films Of The Year

Here we go then… If you want to read my original reviews just click the film title to be taken directly to it.

  1. One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson has always been a favourite writer/director of mine and this film still exceeded all expectations. It really should sweep every award at the Oscars. Everyone involved is superb and a near three hour film flies by.
  2. Train Dreams – A film that came in under the radar on Netflix late in the year, Train Dreams is rather profound. I watched it twice in a week and could not recommend it more strongly.
  3. Caught Stealing – Writer/Director Darren Aronofsky’s caper movie sees him having more fun whilst maintaining a hard edge. It also features another brilliant performance from Austin Butler and a soundtrack from Idles that featured on my playlist for some time.
  4. The Phoenician Scheme – Another Wes Anderson gem. I will never apologise for loving his films almost unconditionally. This one means Benicio Del Toro appears in two out of my top four favourite films this year.
  5. Nosferatu – Robert Eggers continues his phenomenal run of movies with his remake of a horror classic. Every frame is a work of art and its entire cast is superb at delivering tension and melodrama.
  6. Sinners – In terms of technical achievement this is probably my number one or two film this year. Michael B. Jordan is stunning as twin brothers who find themselves fighting vampires as Ryan Coogler weaves magic around how music shapes our lives.
  7. 28 Years Later – Alex Garland and Danny Boyle re-teamed for this superb horror sequel that is as much a statement on current events as it is a heart thumping thriller and thought provoking character piece.
  8. Black Bag – Director Steven Soderbergh and writer David Koepp released two movies in 2025 that ran at roughly ninety minutes. The first was a horror movie from the point of view of the ghost. The second was this utterly brilliant spy movie starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett.
  9. A Complete Unknown – Timothee Chalamet is superb as Bob Dylan in this biopic that resulted in me listening to both Dylan and Chalamet for around a month. Monica Barbaro and Elle Fanning are also superb.
  10. Warfare – Alex Garland teamed up with ex-Navy Seal Ray Mendoza to portray the realities of war in a film that shows the camaraderie, boredom and horrific damage it instils.
  11. The Brutalist – An American epic running for 214 minutes that charts a Hungarian immigrant’s life in America. I thought it would sweep Oscars but was overlooked. Adrian Brody was rewarded for his towering performance only for him to prove that he really does better with a script by delivering an awful six minute acceptance speech.
  12. Eddington – Horror director Ari Aster delivers a film about division that will divide its audience. I thought this was a masterclass in taking complex ideas and portraying them in thought provoking ways.
  13. Babygirl – A deeply erotic film with a brave performance from Nicole Kidman as a woman exploring her deeper desires. Writer/director Halina Reijn is able to produce mainstream movies with deeper meaning.
  14. The Long Walk – Stephen King adaptations were plentiful this year and this was easily the best. With two superb leading performances from up and coming actors Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson this was a dark affair that pulled no punches. Almost every time I have gone for a walk since watching it I have decided I would not last more than a few hours!
  15. The Ballad Of Wallis Island – A delightful slice of British humour that really lands its folk music themes, ideas of love and longing and quirky humour.
  16. Bring Her Back – This was the best out and out horror movie that I saw this year with a startling performance from Sally Hawkins.
  17. Weapons – An expertly crafted horror movie that comes together exceptionally well. It also features one of the most memorable and creepy villains I have seen for some time.
  18. Predator: Badlands – Dan Trachtenberg’s third Predator movie and second of this year is a lot of fun and features a great performance from Elle Fanning who also features in two of my best films of this year.
  19. F1 – The easy description is of course Top Gun in Formula 1 cars. But regardless of that backhanded compliment this was the best summer blockbuster of the year.
  20. The Order – Justin Kurzel delivers another belter of a move based on a hard hitting true story. Jude Law is fantastic as the grizzled FBI agent chasing down an extreme group.
  21. Companion – A black comedy movie that you need to go into knowing as little as possible. Jack Quaid is perfectly cast and this should make Sophie Thatcher a big star.
  22. Hard Truths – Hard Truths can occasionally be a hard watch, but a superb central performance from Marianne Jean-Baptiste and a sensitive screenplay from writer/director Mike Leigh allows you to engage with this story about a woman railing against everything.
  23. Flow – Best Animated Feature Film at this year’s Oscars this is a completely wordless story about a cat surviving a flood. It is pretty magical stuff.
  24. Anora – Winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Editing at this year’s Oscars… but number 24 on my list. This is still a great watch, I just preferred 23 other films this year!
  25. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – To some extent, as someone who is a huge fan of this franchise, this possible final film in the series was a minor disappointment. But it still featured some amazing stunts.
  26. Bugonia – This film just gets crazier as it goes on and I was very much here for it. Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos seem to be perfect for each other with this being their fourth feature together.
  27. Roofman – I would have loved for Derek Cianfrance to hit the highs of The Place Beyond The Pines with his return to feature films after nine years. But this is still a really great feature with lots of comedy and drama.
  28. Avatar: Fire And Ash – James Cameron really does know how to do blockbuster scale and I would not be surprised if this is his fourth feature in a row to break $1 Billion at the Box Office. I highly recommend IMAX 3D for your watch.
  29. Superman – I have to say that whilst my thoughts are still mixed on this one that the fact I keep thinking about its themes and choices mean that it’s an interesting film. There are some great action beats and the new Superman and Lois are great.
  30. Mickey 17 – Robert Pattinson is superb in his dual role in this film that has so many ideas it struggles to make it all coherent. But as with my last pick, sometimes taking a big swing can make things more worthwhile and interesting than being one note.

Looking back at my Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2025 I seem to have had a pretty good idea of what I would like this year. My number one anticipated film became my number one favourite film of the year, it just had a different title by the time it was released. Whilst a total of seven of my top ten landed in my favourites list, three of them in my top ten.

My most anticipated films of next year can be found here:

Also, just one final list that I felt the need to include! I saw five films with actors in dual roles this year so here they are in order of enjoyment…

  1. Sinners – Michael B. Jordan is phenomenal as the Smoke and Stack twins. Two characters who are very different personalities with very different character arcs but still totally believable as twins with a very important bond.
  2. Predator: Badlands – Elle Fanning gets to play two very different synthetics as the Alien and Predator franchises are bonded together perfectly.
  3. Mickey 17 – Robert Pattinson gets to play clones of himself in a rather slapstick but also heroic manner.
  4. The Alto Knights – Robert De Niro playing two best friends with rather different outlooks on how to be a mob boss. De Niro is actually wonderful here as the two different characters and it makes sense in the context of the film.
  5. The Monkey – Theo James struggles to live up to the actors above in terms of the dual role facet but it does not help that he is in a horror movie that struggles to up the ante in terms of scares.

Thanks for reading and here is to 2026.

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