The end of another year of movies and so it is time for our annual look at the best and worst 2025 films. And inevitably we’ll have left out ones that you might you love whilst other films that we like you might hate. Either way please do let us know in the comments below. What we would emphasize that these are the films that we enjoyed most even if they not obvious critical darlings.
So let’s start with the best…….
I swear
We were lucky enough to have been invited to a ‘months in advance’ preview of this and didn’t really know what to expect. But the film’s opening scene with the Queen handing out medals only for the lead character to blurt out obscenities due to his Tourette’s Syndrome we knew we’d love it. Based on the true story of John Davidson, who developed Tourette’s Syndrome a hitherto unknown condition, he raised awareness. It is at times heart breaking yet often hilarious ( a scene with John and another sufferer sitting in a car trying to have a conversation which quickly degenerates into an all out abuse-fest is one of the films many highlights). It’s a wonderfully sensitive performance by Robert Aramayo as Davidson that’s given excellent support by Peter Mullan & Maxine Peake that makes this arguably the best British film of the year
Memoir of a snail
As proved so many times over the decades animation can tug at the heart strings as effectively as any actor’s performance and memoir of a Snail is another testament to that. Rightly Oscar nominated as Best Animated Feature the film is the latest from writer –director Adam Elliot that’s an achingly melancholy tearjerker yet has enough funny moments to lighten the load. A bittersweet film it follows a grown woman having been separated from her brother after the death of their widower father and each are farmed out to various foster parents with varying results. A stop motion animated film this is superb and well worth searching out if you missed it first time round.
One battle after another
Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has an impressive back catalogue of films that includes Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There will be Blood and several more. One Battle After Another is his latest that sees Leonardo DeCaprio as an ex-revolutionary resurfacing after 16 years to reunite with his former compadres to rescue his daughter. Like so many of PTA’s films this is another magnificent epic and having been Oscar nominated three times previously as Best Director and also for Best Film. Like Scorsese he has long been overlooked for Oscar recognition and this really should be his year.
Sisu : Road to revenge
So every year we get a whole load of action films and Sisu Road to Revenge is a sequel to 2022’s ‘Sisu’ and it is as deliriously, gloriously over the top. The sequel sees the seemingly indestructible Finnish WWII soldier Aatami dismantle his log house to relocate it away from the Russian border. The Russian’s have other ideas and soldiers, bikers, tanks and aircraft go after him and utter carnage ensues in the most spectacularly bloody and often deliriously ludicrous action fest of the year. For action fans this is an absolute must see
Weapons
2025 was an excellent year for horror so it was quite some feat to stand out but Weapons did it in exemplary style. Written and directed by Zach Creeger, he had already made an indelible impression with ‘Barbarian’ with its three separate but interlocking chapters and he pulls the same trick here with a story that sees a class room of children disappear overnight. An intriguing trailer gave nothing away and heightened expectations and audiences were not disappointed as the films layers were slowly peeled back to devastating effect. Brilliantly structured the film did huge business earning a massive $269m off a modest budget and was arguably the best film of the summer.
So to counter the very best of the year there is obviously a flipside and consequently we offer up what were arguably the worst films of 2025 starting with…..
Mickey 17
From writer –director Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) expectations were high for his follow up where Robert Pattinson plays the title character, a cloned expendable employee ( there had been 16 previous Mickey’s) sent to explore an ice planet. High concept and effects heavy the film was seen as an Oscar contender but when its release date was pushed from the normal season where such films are released to the wilderness of the early new year winter months its raised eyebrows that something was amiss. But after watching it it was easy to see why. Bloated and muddled it grew weary and frankly boring very quickly.
Smurfs
A big screen version of the blue cartoon characters had been hugely lucrative but the 2025 film was very much centred around Rihanna who voiced Smurfette. What became clear is the film was far more of cynical piece of product placement for her back catalogue. That it earned only $124m at the box office compared to the previous three films $563n, $347m and $197m says it all
The woman in the yard
2025 was a very good year for horror but that did not include Blumhouse’s The Woman in the Yard from the normally reliable director Jaume Collet-Serra known more for his action films than horror. The film saw an anonymous woman in a yard of a remote farmhouse and dressed head to toe in black delivering warnings to the mother and two children inside. Neither chilling, unsettling or intriguing the film bombed earning a paltry $23m
Emmanuelle
Now there are some of us who have memories of the 1974 film of the same title that starred Sylvia Kristel in a soft porn epic that did sterling business and spawned several ever more lurid, tawdry sequels. This 50 years later reboot continued that tradition with all the sultry eroticism of lard. In an era where every type of desire can be found with the click of a button ….um, or so a friend told us….a reboot of Emmanuelle seemed out of its time. It earned $712,413 at the worldwide box office with audiences presumably spending the ticket price on Only fans instead
Him
The trailer hinted at this being an indictment of the urge to exceed at sport at any expense and often to detrimental effect to the athletes. What we got was a bloody, brutal, confused and confusing film that was overlong and increasingly made less and less sense with nods to Christian iconography for no obvious reason. Produced by Jordan Peele it was rumoured that his company had turned down, ‘Weapons’ and instead optioned the script for, ‘Him’. Sumptuously shot the story collapsed under its own aspirations looking like a glossy rap video and at 97 minutes duration it was 97 minutes too long making this probably one of the worst films of the year
Do you agree with out best and worst 2025 list? Let us know below
related feature : Best and Worst 2024
related feature : ‘Memoir of a Snail – Oscar winning stop motion director Adam Elliot takes us BTS of his fab new film
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