I’m not going to sugar-coat this: 2025 may have been the single worst year for movies that I’ve ever experienced. The near-complete lack of exciting films, even in the arthouse/independent sphere (my most anticipated 2025 release was ASH—nobody’s idea of a tentpole), stands as an especially damning indictment of modern Hollywood. Politics? The economy? The pandemic? Whatever the reason for filmdom’s downturn, it needs to be fixed, and fast.

Not that I’m holding out much hope for that fixing to occur. The 2026 upcoming release slate isn’t especially promising (drawing up the “Looking Forward” portion of this article was quite the challenge) and the Warner Bros.-Netflix drama currently embroiling the industry isn’t exactly inspiring optimism.

On that downbeat note, here’s the latest installment of my Year in Bedlam overview. As always, the focus is on the film releases of the previous year: theatrical, home video and streaming (film festival releases don’t count). Included is every film of this sorry lot that I was able to see, along with recommended Blu-ray releases (which for me constituted the year’s only real bright spot). MIA, you’ll find, are the Marvel products (amid which I don’t think I missed anything worthwhile), THE LONG WALK, NO OTHER CHOICE and the year’s many crappy Sydney Sweeney movies (of which EDEN was more than enough for me).

Onto the Year in Bedlam. Thankfully there were some legitimately good films to be found in 2025, and here they are…

THE BEST

1. SELF DRIVER

The debut feature of Michael Pierro, SELF DRIVER functions as both a cunning psychological thriller and an eccentric horror fest. The focus is on D (Nathanael Chadwick), a cash-strapped young man who signs on to an underground rideshare outfit for a very wild night (the particulars of which I won’t spoil here). Pierro makes excellent use of his Toronto locations, which as seen from the vantage point of D’s car assume the status of nocturnal alien landscapes, just as the interior of said car is made into a deeply menacing and oppressive universe. Keeping all this madness grounded is the performance of Chadwick, who projects a genuine everyman quality that renders his character’s at-times questionable actions believable, and begs a troubling question: would any of us act differently?

2. REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND

A jaw-dropping exercise in artful dissociation that contains everything a fan of the Belgian filmmaking duo Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet (of AMER and THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY’S TEARS) could possible desire, and has the further benefit of arriving at a time when daring and imaginative cinema hasn’t been too widespread. The focus is on a spy who exists in two guises: an old man (Fabio Testi) thinking back over his past exploits and his younger self (Yannick Renier). Among the antagonists confronted by these two are an Irma Vep-like murderess with ultra-sharp fingernails and a Fantomas-like individual who constantly changes guises. Horror filmmaking wasn’t Forzani and Cattet’s stated objective, yet gore and shock effects tend to predominate, and clash with the colorful spy movie spoof/tribute that was intended. Ultimately Forzani and Cattet have, as in their earlier features, created a sui generis concoction bearing more in common with the delirious late 1960s provocations of Japan’s Seijun Suzuki (such as TOKYO DRIFTER and BRANDED TO KILL) than any European horror or spy films from the same era.

3. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

This isn’t Paul Thomas Anderson’s finest film, but it is his most memorable effort in some time. As with many Hollywood releases these days, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER involves a broken-down middle-aged man (Leonardo Di Caprio) whose legacy is furthered by a plucky young woman (Chase Infiniti, playing his mixed race daughter). Another modern cinematic trope utilized by Anderson is the evil white guy antagonist (Sean Penn), a racist, sexist, homophobic military figure who harbors a black woman fetish, resulting in him siring Di Caprio’s daughter and pursuing her across an alternate universe California. The film is kinetic and exciting, with superbly choreographed car chases and shootouts, but suffers from a lack of world building. This is essentially a science fiction movie, yet (outside the sight of a bizarrely incongruous 1940s trolly) the characters and décor are all present-day coded, complete with iPhones, gender nonconforming individuals and arguments about pronouns. The film, in other words, may not actually be set in the here-and-now, but it’s very easy to believe it does, a misunderstanding that’s responsible for many of the criticisms (about it being a pro-Antifa statement, etc.) leveled against it.

4. SANATORIUM UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS

This may well be the magnum opus of Stephen and Timothy Quay, amply showcasing their career-long obsessions, which include beautifully rendered stop motion animation, dream-based storytelling and the fiction of Poland’s Bruno Schulz. Incorporating “motifs and threads” from Schulz’s similarly titled 1937 novella, SANATORIUM UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS is set in a netherworld of animated puppet figures that include the top hat wearing Joseph, who’s visiting his dying father in a decaying structure packed with self-playing piano keys, a plethora of dimly glimpsed creatures and dead folk who don’t stay that way for long. The imagery, as we’ve come to expect from the Quays, is dazzling in its technical proficiency and surreal detail (the sight of a clock topped by a wall mounted severed hand is about as odd as any you’ll see), with a suitably dreamy and discordant score by Timothy Nelson holding it all together. No, this isn’t an especially viewer-friendly viewing experience, but the film’s artistry is undeniable.

5.THE LOST BUS

Another hard-hitting exercise in reality-based calamity from director Paul Greengrass (following UNITED 93, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS and 22 JULY). The subject is the 2018 wildfire in Paradise, CA, and the hapless bus driver (Matthew McConaughey) who was tasked with driving 20 schoolchildren and their teacher (America Ferrera) out of the burn zone. The LOST BUS often plays like a school bus SORCERER, with McConaughey facing various dramatic contrivances in his odyssey, all of them extremely well staged by Greengrass. On the downside, the sentimentality is lathered on a bit thickly (with McConaughey contending with possibly charred family members in addition to the school kids) and the copious CGI fire effects aren’t always convincing (BACKDRAFT this film isn’t).

6. AN OFFICER AND A SPY (J’ACCUSE)

It took six years, but this 2019 Roman Polanski directed historical saga has finally screened in America. AN OFFICER AND A SPY, adapted (like Polanski’s 2010 film THE GHOST WRITER) from a novel by Robert Harris, is far and away the best of Polanski’s recent films, with a robust and naturalistic recreation of France in the late-1800s, the time of the Dreyfuss Affair. The focus is on Georges Picquart (Jean Dujardin), the Army officer who uncovered evidence suggesting that Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Louis Garrel) was unjustly convicted for spying on the Germans. This leads to a great deal of persecution and intrigue, presented in a heavily plot-driven, long-view manner that tends to gloss over important details (such as Picquart’s year-long incarceration and his romance with a woman played by Emmanuelle Seigner). I say a more intimate and immersive take would have worked better, but what’s here isn’t at all bad.

7. NOUVELLE VAGUE

I enjoyed the Hell out of this Richard Linklater directed depiction of the Paris-based filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal BREATHLESS (À bout de souffle; 1960). If you’re a film nerd you’ll likely share my enthusiasm, but if not you probably won’t be too enamored with NOUVELLE VAGUE, which with its black-and-white visuals and subtitled French dialogue has a genuinely archaic 1950s feel. It also contains winning performances by Guillaume Marbeck as Godard and Zoe Deutch as the Hollywood actress Jean Seberg, who co-starred in BREATHLESS, and found herself increasingly flummoxed by Godard’s highly unorthodox methodology.

8. JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME

A profile of the late John Candy that’s a lot like its subject: engaging, sweet natured and bearing a voracious appetite. Director Colin Hanks insists on exploring his subject’s every facet, resulting in a film that feels schizophrenic; we learn that Candy was deeply insecure and supremely confident, an irrepressible social butterfly and a stay-at-home family man, a generous acting partner and a shameless scene stealer. Several competing rationales for Candy’s weight issues are offered, including the disturbing possibility that Hollywood wanted him to be morbidly obese—a possibility Hanks doesn’t follow through on. Fun movie, though.

9. NO TEARS IN HELL

It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a film as nasty as NO TEARS IN HELL. A stark dramatization of the crimes of the “Siberian Ripper” Alexander Spesivtsev, the story has been relocated to Whittier, Alaska—specifically the Begich Towers, where Whittier’s entire population lives—with Spesivtsev taking the form of Alex (Luke Baines), a young man residing in the Towers. His elderly mother (Gwen van Dam) assists him in killing people from a nearby homeless encampment, with Alex using the flesh to make exotic meat-based delicacies while Ma cleans up the mess. This twisted maternal dynamic is presented without any narrative trickery (PSYCHO it isn’t), while the chilly majesty of the Alaskan scenery is superbly captured and Baines’ portrayal of Alex, a psychopath with no redeeming qualities, is blunt and unsparing. A rough ride, to be sure, but for those willing to stomach it, NO TEARS IN HELL stands as a powerful portrayal of absolute evil and its far reaching tendrils.

10. GOOD BOY

There’s never been a dog movie quite like this horror fest related from a canine’s point of view. Said dog, Indy, is owned by Todd (Shane Jensen), who moves into a secluded abode that, as recognized by Indy’s highly observant gaze, happens to be infested with supernatural entities that cause Todd to vomit blood and behave in an increasingly irrational manner; it’s up to Indy to find out what’s causing the unrest and rescue his owner from it. As in previous animal POV films like THE BEAR (L’ours; 1988) and EO (2022), GOOD BOY is forced to make do with a non-speaking protagonist whose role is almost entirely reactive. Within those perimeters, however, Indy’s performance, painstakingly achieved over a three year period by director Ben Leonberg, is damned impressive. It’s impossible not to root for him, even when the filmmaking (which tries for a SKINAMARINK-like haunted atmosphere) falters.

11. THE SHROUDS

David Cronenberg’s latest is an intriguing but decidedly dull affair, inspired by his wife Carolyn Zeifman’s 2017 demise. Vincent Cassel (outfitted and made up to resemble his writer-director) plays Karsh, a physician turned entrepreneur who, severely traumatized by the death of his spouse Becca (Diane Krugar), creates a cemetery whose rotting corpses can be viewed on high resolution monitors set into the gravestones. The succeeding intrigue involves Becca’s inquisitive sister-in-law (Krugar), her jealous ex-husband (Guy Pearce), a Hungarian tech titan (Vieslav Krystyan) and his sexy wife (Sandrine Holt). Cronenberg’s wisest move was to continually circle back to the subject of Karsh’s grief, with Becca appearing in periodic flashback-hallucinations that show her in various stages of amputation.

12. BUGONIA

This film is heavily flawed, and no surprise: it’s based on the K-horror fest SAVE THE GREEN PLANET! (Jigureul jikyeora!; 2003), which was (and remains) a highly scatterbrained and disjointed concoction. Featured is a miscast Emma Stone as a high-powered CEO kidnapped by two suit-wearing weirdoes (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis), who believe she’s an alien looking to destroy the Earth. They subject her to confinement and torture, with the viewer kept guessing as to Stone’s true nature, which takes until the final third to be revealed. All the while director Yorgos Lanthimos toys with the medium via a highly quirky visual style and a bombastic score that denotes an aloof and sarcastic attitude. I prefer a more sincere approach, even (or especially?) with a narrative as outrageous as this one.

13. THE GORGE

An action-horror fest that’s nearly done in by substandard CGI, hard-to-follow fight scenes and a narrative that’s rarely plausible. What THE GORGE has in its favor is, unexpectedly enough, a core romance that actually works. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy play two extremely photogenic soldiers stationed on either side of a vast gorge that’s home to all sorts of dangerous critters. The two start a flirtation involving signals to each other from across the gorge, and an eventual face-to-face encounter that proves fateful in many respects. Again: I have a number of complaints, but the mere fact that I found myself rooting for these characters and their relationship negates many (but not all!) of them.

14. WEAPONS

A film that narratively speaking delivered exactly what I was expecting: a riveting set-up topped with a crummy payoff. Said premise involves several children, all enrolled in the elementary school class of Justine (Julia Garner), mysteriously vanishing from their homes one night. Writer-director Zach Gregger deserves credit for making Justine such a multi-faceted character (complex characterizations aren’t especially prevalent in modern Hollywood, especially when it comes to women), and that complexity extends to the rest of the cast, whose least interesting member is ironically the one who’s been getting the most attention: the Amy Madigan played Aunt Gladys, a clownish figure who comes to dominate a narrative that grows increasingly outlandish.

15. BLACK BAG

Director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp are to be commended for mining the sophisticated grown-up thriller model of old (as displayed in classics like THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR and THE RUSSIA HOUSE), even though BLACK BAG has its issues. Foremost among them is the fact that the protagonists are antisocial assholes with whom I had trouble emphasizing. That’s a shame, as Koepp’s story, involving a secret service agent (Michael Fassbender) whose wife (Cate Blanchett) is accused of leaking classified software, is a grabber, and Soderbergh’s filmmaking impressively sleek and assured.

16. THIS IS THE TOM GREEN DOCUMENTARY

Canada’s Tom Green may be an afterthought these days, but 20 years ago he was all the rage, having headlined a popular MTV comedy show, enjoyed a high-profile romance with Drew Barrymore, underwent a widely publicized cancer treatment and pioneered what are now known as podcasts. This docu-memoir, directed by Green himself, is well rounded and informative, but I’d have liked a bit more info on the skateboarding subculture that inspired Green (as it did Spike Jonze and Harmony Korine) and the “unsettled” sentiment he claims drove him away from LA and back to his secluded Ottawa hometown.

17. THE LAST SPARK OF HOPE (W nich cala nadzieja)

A Polish sci-fier that takes place in the only portion of a future Earth where toxic pollution hasn’t run riot: a solar-powered settlement whose inhabitants include Eva (Magdalena Wieczorek), the Earth’s last surviving human, and a military robot that’s very bullish about security. The plot may be wafer-thin, but the visual design is skilled and atmospheric. Director Piotr Biedron made his budgetary limitations work for him by keeping things simple: the minimalistic set design is accomplished with a dearth of clutter, and the camerawork is dynamic and imaginative without ever seeming self-conscious.

18. THE TWISTER: CAUGHT IN THE STORM

A no-nonsense documentary depiction of the massive tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri in May 2011. The film consists, simply, of a handful of survivors telling their stories. Director Alexandra Lacey’s visualizations of those recollections leave something to be desired, with indistinct camera phone footage mixed with repetitive shots of roiling storm clouds and attempts at impressionistic correlation (such as a description of the eye of the twister accompanied by an extreme close-up of somebody’s pupil), but the horror and upset on the interviewees’ faces are compensation enough.

19. SINNERS

There are many things wrong with this film, but it is nonetheless the type of visionary horror I say we need more of. The writer-director was Ryan Coogler, who appears to have been following the lead of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996) in a film that begins as a crime thriller, only to abruptly morph into a supernatural horror fest in its second half. The setting is 1930s Mississippi, where two mob-affiliated black siblings (both played by Michael B. Jordan) open a juke joint that gets waylaid by white vampires. Coogler uses this grade-Z material to make an overarching statement on race relations in America, with Ku Kluxers joining the vampires and Jordan functioning as both an everyman and a Black Avenger. Whatever issues the film may have, Coogler knows how to make movies, and provides a number of striking set-pieces that nearly offset all the indulgence.

20. TRON: ARES

This, the second (and, it seems, final) sequel to TRON (1982), isn’t much, being overly consumed with eighties nostalgia and harboring a half-baked narrative that hinges on a scramble for a dimly described code through the here-and-now and the virtual reality “game grid.” Those things aside, TRON: ARES is diverting and enjoyable, with stylish visuals, innovative staging and top notch special effects. It certainly helped matters that the pre-release hype was universally negative, meaning I was pleasantly surprised to find my rock-bottom expectations surpassed.

21. TOGETHER

A hipster couple (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) imbibe water in a wildness cave, which causes them to become inexorably drawn to each other and eventually fuse together. Pretty flimsy material for a feature film (TOGETHER would likely work best as an animated short), but there’s enough diverting grossness on display to make for a memorable viewing experience. As with last year’s THE SUBSTANCE, TOGETHER utilizes old school practical effects, which I say gives all the morphing and mutation a definite edge. The FX bravura also helps paper over the more annoying elements, including grating characterizations by Franco and Brie, and cinematography that seems better suited to a Kotex commercial.

22. HIGHEST 2 LOWEST

Spike Lee remakes Akira Kurosawa’s classic HIGH AND LOW (Tengoku to jigoku; 1963) with Denzel Washington as a music mogul forced into a moral quandary when a wannabe rapper (A$AP Rocky) tries to kidnap Washington’s teenage son (Aubrey Joseph), only to snatch the son of his limo driver (Jeffrey Wright) by mistake. As is his custom, Lee insists on making us aware of whatever happens to be on his mind at any given moment (manifested in gratuitous music video interludes, extraneous subplots and political sloganeering), which greatly lessens the suspense. What (nearly) saves the film is the work of Mr. Washington, who when fully engaged with a role, as he was here, is a megaforce to be reckoned with.

RECOMMENDED Blu-Ray Releases

THE BIG HEAT (Seng fat dak ging)

One of the squishier products of the late 1980s Hong Kong action movie boom, now available in superlative digital form from Shout! Factory.

THE BLOODY LADY (Krvavá pani)

This altogether odd 1980 animated feature, about the “Blood Countess” Elisabeth Bathory, is something I never thought I’d see on home video in America, but here it is.

BULLET IN THE HEAD (Dip huet gai tau)

Another Hong Kong classic released on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory, a 1990 John Woo kill-a-thon that benefits mightily from a 4K digitization.

THE CAT (Die Katze)

One of the finest German crime films of the 1980s, brought to Blu-ray by Radiance Films. Needless to say: I approve.

THE FILMS OF HISAYU SATO

A two volume (with a third on the way) set devoted to the 1980s-era Japanese Pinku (adults-only) films of one of the genre’s most noteworthy practitioners.

HARD BOILED (Lat sau san taam)

One of John Woo’s greatest action fests, released on Blu-ray by (once again) Shout! Factory.

THE KILLER (Dip huet seung hung)

Yet another John Woo shoot-‘em-up that’s finally been given its just due on Blu-ray by (yes) the indefatigable Shout! Factory.

MAD FOXES (Los violadores)

This legendary Eurotrash outrage from 1981 was given an excellent digitization by Cauldron Films, and extra features that attempt to illuminate its very mysterious inception.

MALPERTUIS

A Blu-ray edition of this 1971 Jean Ray adaptation (formerly available only via a long out of print DVD) with all-new extra features.

NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER

It doesn’t involve a juggler and takes place largely in daylight, but NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER (1980) is a sleaze classic, and this long-in-coming Kino Lorber Blu-ray does it justice.

PEKING OPERA BLUES

Grady Hendrix, speaking on an extra feature of this release, calls this Tsui Hark masterwork “The perfect Hong Kong movie,” and I’ll have to agree.

PERFORMANCE

Criterion worked their magic quite memorably with this digitization of Nicholas Roeg and Donald Cammell’s PERFORMANCE (1970), a key product of Swinging London.

RAMPAGE

It’s no classic, but William Friedkin’s serial killer thriller RAMPAGE is worth seeing, and this Kino Lorber release includes both the original 1987 version and the 1992 recut.

SHAW SCARES VOLUME 1

From Vinegar Syndrome, a box set containing the Shaw Brothers horror fests HAUNTED TALES (1981), HELL HAS NO BOUNDARY (1982) and SEX BEYOND THE GRAVE (1984). A must!

SORCERER

More William Friedkin goodness: a Criterionized release of Friedkin’s 1977 masterwork SORCERER, with lots of well-chosen extras.

THEMROC

Claude Faraldo’s anarchic 1973 French-made satire of modern life finally makes it to home video in the US, and I say it’s about goddamn time.

THE WOMAN CHASER

This sought-after 1999 Charles Willeford adaptation has taken forever to be digitized (its only previous home video appearance was a long out of print VHS), but here it is at long last.

THE WORST

1. DISNEY’S SNOW WHITE

No surprise here: this live action reimagining of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) was the worst film of 2025. Its problems include a script that insisted on horrendously overcomplicating a simple story, the casting of the obnoxious Rachel Zegler in the title role and the presence of creepy CGI dwarfs. Zegler, in all fairness, has real charisma, and almost succeeds in making a severely misconceived character sympathetic, while Gal Gadot offers a high school play worthy rendition of the Evil Queen. Ultimately, DISNEY’S SNOW WHITE fails because of its sheer inertness; it has a highly impersonal, corporate feel, suggesting its makers didn’t much care about the film—why, then, should we?

2. HONEY DON’T

I went into this pic believing it couldn’t possibly be any worse than its director Ethan Coen’s previous effort DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS. Turns out I was wrong, as HONEY DON’T, which replicates the subject matter and lead actress of the earlier film, is several times more insufferable. Margaret Qualley plays a Bakersfield, CA based PI who (as the script makes sure to constantly remind us) “likes girls.” Her detective skills are called into question by the fact that it takes her until near the end of the film to look into the background of her current squeeze (Aubrey Plaza) and the perpetually puzzled look on her face, which may denote concern or confusion (there’s even a thinking montage to make absolutely sure we understand her pensive nature). The story involves a scummy preacher (Chris Evans) who becomes embroiled in a violent succession of events, in what was apparently supposed to pass for a whodunnit.

3. CUTTER’S CLUB

The final film to feature Tony Todd (1954-2024), an hour long Charles Band production that was lensed back in the aughts but for some reason took until 2025 to be pieced together. It’s not much, being a cheap and trashy depiction of a renegade doctor played by Todd; calling this guy “mad” would be far too mild a designation, as he’s a histrionic loon who leads a band of renegade surgeons in the creation of a two-headed critter that, as you might guess, has severe behavioral issues. The film suffers from an obnoxiously open-ended fade-out (a great deal clearly went unfilmed), but an overacting Tony Todd is quite something to behold.

4. WAKE UP DEAD MAN

The latest in the Rian Johnson masterminded KNIVES OUT franchise, featuring the Daniel Craig played detective Benoit Blanc. The formula by this point has become quite predictable, with Blanc summoned to a contained setting, a secluded church in this case, where a group of very recognizable stars (including Josh Brolin, Glenn Close and Kerry Washington) become caught up in a murder. As usual, the haves (i.e. the white people) all turn out to be selfish and evil, while the have-nots (the non-whites) come out smelling like roses, and the true villain (a severely unpleasant priest played by Brolin) is evident from the start, regardless of whodunnit.

5. ASH

ASH (2025) Trailer

For me the biggest disappointment of the year was this, the second feature directed by Flying Lotus, a.k.a. the Hip Hop David Cronenberg. I remain a big fan of FL’s debut feature, the defiantly grotesque KUSO (2017), and a hint of that fecund brilliance is evident in ASH. It’s a science fiction parable about a cosmonaut (Eiza González) finding herself alone in a neon-tinged space station, with much of the first half consisting of protracted scenes of her traversing this overlit psycho-scape. It takes until the final third for the gruesome business, involving insectoid aliens that burrow into peoples’ skulls, to make itself apparent, but the substandard CGI greatly lessens the impact.

6. SUPERMAN

The idea of a Superman movie directed by James Gunn never sat too well with me, and my apprehensions were confirmed by the finished film. Gunn’s snarky sensibilities (bequeathed by his writing for Troma) are a poor fit for the Man of Steel, who (as played by David Corenset) comes off as whiny and fragile, while his antagonists, which include a goofy looking kaiju critter and a very effeminate Nicholas Hoult played Lex Luthor, aren’t too imposing. The borderline-comedic tone never gels, and the script, which doesn’t bother hiding Superman’s Clark Kent alter ego and has him constantly having to be rescued, is a nonstarter. Another problem is Krypto the Super Dog, whose goofy looking CGI incarnation demonstrates why the character wasn’t part of the earlier SUPERMAN films.

7. JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH

Outside the presence of Scarlett Johansson as a boss babe and Hispanic American protagonists, this Gareth Edwards directed JURASSIC PARK installment offers absolutely nothing that hasn’t been done before. If anything, REBIRTH reminded me of THE LOST WORLD (1997), the universally hated second film of the franchise; it, like THE LOST WORLD, contains slick direction and dinosaur effects that are about as strong as they could possibly be, but, also like THE LOST WORLD, has a curiously distant air. Edwards, in other words, clearly wasn’t too interested in the material’s dramatic aspects, and that disinterest communicates itself quite vividly to the viewer.

8. CHAOS: THE MANSON MURDERS

I’ll admit to having been excited by the existence of an Errol Morris Manson family doco, but the film is a disappointment. Its focus is on the theories of Tom O’Neill, who believes the CIA-perpetrated MK-Ultra project was behind the Tate-LaBianca killings, and offers up a number of unsubstantiated allegations (re: conspiracy theories). Having been subjected to more than my share of “alternate takes” on the Manson murders, I’d place O’Neill’s claims on the same level as those about Susan Atkins being the actual ringleader of Charles Manson’s family (and the man himself a patsy): provocative but unconvincing. As for the film overall, it contains very little hard info about the case that can’t be gleaned through other, better sources (such as the book THE GARBAGE PEOPLE by John Gilmore and the documentary MANSON).

9. THE MONKEY

In which writer-director Osgood Perkins, following the enormous success (financial and artistic) of last year’s LONGLEGS, turned out a chunk of unalloyed hackwork. The Stephen King adapted MONKEY is precisely the type of fare that up-and-coming directors cut their teeth on, whereas Perkins for whatever reason reversed the dynamic. THE MONKEY exists on the high end of the hack movie spectrum, being impressively visualized and bearing a full awareness of the goofiness of its conception, about a toy monkey whose presence causes people to meet horrific deaths. The problem is that outside the many outrageous death scenes (which include a decapitation at Benihana, a swimming pool electrocution and a swarm of bees flying into a guy’s mouth) there’s very little of interest.

10. THE RUNNING MAN

It’s hard to pinpoint what precisely went wrong with this film, but something is seriously off. A remake of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle, this RUNNING MAN hews closer to the Stephen King source novella, with Glenn Powell as a penniless family man (as opposed to the original film’s disgraced cop protagonist) who elects to appear on a reality TV program in which he’s hunted by specially trained killers. Director Edgar Wright’s skill with kinetic action is palpable, but he fails to fully draw the viewer in. The problem may be with Powell, who never seems terribly put out by his ordeal, or perhaps the candy-colored cinematography, or possibly the final ten minutes, in which the film ties itself into endless knots trying to fashion a happy ending from King’s bleak coda.

11. WAR OF THE WORLDS

This, the latest cinematic iteration of H.G. Wells’ immortal WAR OF THE WORLDS (1898), has already attained legendary status—and not because it’s good. As was the case with many post-pandemic films, this WAR OF THE WORLDS takes the form of a console set thriller in which the performers, including Ice Cube as a Homeland Security agent and Eva Longoria as a NASA scientist, interact on a computer screen. This gambit is no longer as innovative as it once was, and nor is the use of real documentary footage to depict the destruction wrought by the Martian invaders, but the proceedings work surprisingly well in an action-suspense context. It’s when the film switches to a techno thriller in the final scenes that it falls apart. The pacing is too frantic, and the storytelling too perfunctory and implausible; it’s entirely too convenient that the invading aliens halt their destruction so the heroes can figure out a way to do their attackers in.

12. CAUGHT STEALING

Miscast directors were quite prevalent in 2025. This Tarantinoesque concoction suffers from that very affliction, having been helmed by Darren Aronofsky, who provides a great deal of unadorned big city grit and shocking brutality, but has trouble with what was supposed to be a darkly comedic tone; quite simply, the film is never very funny. The lead actor Austin Butler was likewise miscast; Butler, like Aronofsky, isn’t known for his comedic chops, and turns what was supposed to be a PULP FICTION-esque yuck-fest, about a punk getting targeted by a contingent of quirky killers after cat sitting for a friend, into a dreary and unpleasant dirge.

13. JAY KELLY

A bantamweight reverie from writer-director Noah Baumbach and George Clooney. He plays the title character, an aging movie star taking stock of his existence during a train ride through a variety of tourist-friendly European locales. It concludes with a film festival tribute to Kelly, in which Baumbach pushes the meta angle by playing clips from actual George Clooney movies—and so proving that the man’s cinematic legacy isn’t all that impressive. It seems to me that Clooney would have been better off switching roles with Adam Sandler as his manager, as Sandler has arguably had the more varied career.

14. EDEN

A most atypical offering from director Ron Howard: an unashamedly dark, fact-based historical saga about several Europeans, fleeing the devastation of WWI, who wind up ensconced on a secluded island, where the group is done in by tension, mistrust and bloodlust. The cast includes Jude Law as a renowned scientist and Ana de Armas as a wealthy baroness, but the majority of the media’s attention has been focused on the fifth-billed Sydney Sweeney as a German accented refugee. I wanted to like this film, but it’s so-so at best, being emotionally remote and blandly performed (although it contains some winsome violence).

15. FLIGHT RISK

Why Mel Gibson chose this silly movie as his sixth directorial effort I’ll never understand. It’s a single setting claustrophopbia fest a la BURIED, BRAKE and INSIDE, with the majority of the action occurring in the confines of a tiny plane transporting a fugitive accountant (Topher Grace) through Alaska. Along for the ride are a U.S. Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and a redneck pilot (Mark Wahlberg, sporting what may be the least convincing hairpiece in film history) who, as is made clear from the start, happens to be a complete loon. This leads to a variety of contrivances, few of them believable—an aspect furthered by inexcusably poor CGI and scenery that’s chewed up and spat out by the irrepressible Mr. Wahlberg.

16. EDDINGTON

Another example of laudable ambition and underwhelming results. EDDINGTON’s writer and director was Ari Aster, who tries to satirize the early days of the pandemic in his depiction of a befuddled sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) trying to make peace in a New Mexico town, only to wind up inflaming the populace and starting a war. Phoenix’s character is never very sympathetic or compelling (quite simply: he’s a wimp), and EDDINGTON overall is similarly misconceived. As satire it doesn’t work, never going far enough in its depiction of the war of words that occurred in 2020. Aster, in fact, veers away from the pandemic in the final third, turning the film into a western pastiche with indifferently choreographed gun play.

17. MICKEY 17

This sci-fi parody, the first American production by PARASITE’s Bong Joon Ho, deserves credit for trying to do something different, but it simply doesn’t work. The major problem lies not with the script or Bong’s direction, but with the lead performances of Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo. Pattinson plays an “expendable,” i.e. a drudge on an interstellar expedition charged with performing dangerous tasks in the knowledge that he’ll be cloned if he dies; the 17^th such clone is presumed dead, and winds up having a complex interplay with Mickey 18. Ruffalo plays the expedition’s slimy leader, who’s supposed to be dangerously charismatic; in truth he’s arch and cartoony, while Pattinson is plain annoying, speaking in a ridiculous high register American accent. The fact that he’s tasked with narrating the film only compounds the annoyance.

18. A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE

There are around thirty really good minutes to be found in this FAIL SAFE (1964) like drama from director Kathryn Bigelow. The subject is an unidentified nuclear missile fired at Chicago, with a variety of government functionaries, played by Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Idris Elba and others, attempting to deal with the situation. The opening scenes are tense and deeply alarming, with a depiction of the inner workings of the US government that’s horrifyingly convincing (horrifying because a lot of mistakes are made), but then the events are repeated twice more from different points of view. No dramatic rationale is offered for the repetition, which fails to enhance our understanding of the narrative but succeeds in deflating the suspense, and calls unwanted attention to the fact that very little actually happens.

19. FRANKENSTEIN

A lovingly mounted take on Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic by Guillermo del Toro, who has apparently been wanting to make the film for decades. I say del Toro would have been better off lavishing his efforts on a long-simmering passion project like THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS or AT THE MONTAINS OF MADNESS, as FRANKENSTEIN has many drawbacks, starting with the fact that it’s been done before. Of the story’s previous incarnations, this FRANKENSTEIN most closely resembles Kenneth Branagh’s wildly baroque and operatic, and ultimately unsuccessful, 1994 interpretation. As with Branagh, excess appears to have been del Toro’s guiding principle; from the outrageously ornate design of Frankenstein’s domicile to the teeming extras-packed depictions of 19th Century London, the film is quite sweeping in both design and execution. On the downside, Oscar Isaac is seriously miscast in the title role, while Jacob Elordi endows Frankenstein’s monster with a poignancy and menace that help offset a shockingly nondescript physical appearance.

20. 28 YEARS LATER

This, the latest 28…LATER installment, is certainly ambitious, with writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle, who created the initial 28 DAYS LATER back in 2002, trying to outdo that film in every conceivable aspect. What they emerged with is a disjointed mess with some strong elements and many that fail to coalesce. There’s an overriding story involving a father and son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams), residing on a Britain adjacent island 28 years after the “rage virus” decimated the UK, who decide to break quarantine and make their way to the mainland, but Garland and Boyle fail to maintain their focus. Even the latter scenes suffer from that sense of filmic ADD, adding a whole new set of characters in the final minutes who are given nothing to do.

21. F1: THE MOVIE

A racecar movie that amply demonstrates why this particular genre is so notoriously difficult to crack. The best example of the format is probably DAYS OF THUNDER (1990), which kept things simple and clocked in under two hours. F1, by contrast, vastly overcomplicates its none-too-complex depiction of the comeback of a retired Formula 1 driver (Brad Pitt) with an overabundance of supporting characters and a punishing 2½ hour runtime. Thus, in spite of competent work from several DAYS OF THUNDER alumni, F1 ranks with bummers like STROKER ACE, SIX PACK and DRIVEN, being meandering and repetitive (with the constant spinning wheel, feet stomping on gas pedals and racetrack POV shots growing increasingly monotonous).

22. BREAKDOWN: 1975

Here we go with another “Greatest Year Ever” for cinema (arguments have already been made for 1939, 1971 and 1999 being the Greatest Ever years) in a hectoring documentary by MAN ON THE RUN’s Morgan Neville. To be sure, 1975 releases like JAWS, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN, NASHVILLE, DOG DAY AFTERNOON and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST are indeed great, and you could certainly do worse than to track them down. Alas, not all the films profiled here emerged from 1975 (with THE GODFATHER PART II hailing from 1974 and TAXI DRIVER from ‘76), and Neville doesn’t bother with any of the year’s notable non-American films (such as the Indian SHOLAY, the Russian MIRROR and the Australian PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK), nor the American-made crap that appeared in ‘75 (such as AT LONG LAST LOVE, THE DEVIL’S RAIN and MANDINGO). BREAKDOWN: 1975, in short, tells a compelling story, but it should have told more.

23. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH

This latest installment in James Cameron’s AVATAR franchise contains everything one could expect, which is a large part of why FIRE AND ASH didn’t resonate with me: having experienced the two previous AVATAR films, I was hoping for something unexpected. Once again we have Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family of blue-skinned Na’vi trying to abide on the tropical planet Pandora, and having their harmony disrupted by bands of warmongering humans led by Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), in concert with an evil Na’vi woman (Oona Chaplin). From a physical standpoint this is all quite impressive, achieved with a precision and technical know-how that are nearly superhuman. The problem is that, again, it’s nothing new, being so familiar in conception and execution that I often wondered if I was re-watching portions of the earlier AVATARS. I’m fine with Cameron continuing this saga for the remainder of his existence, but he really needs to find a new direction, because the current iteration is growing a bit stale.

LOOKING FORWARD

THE ADVENTURES OF CLIFF BOOTH

Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher? I’m sold. When is this Tarantino scripted, Fincher helmed Netflixer coming out?

BUCKING FASTARD

A long-in-the-works Werner Herzog film with Kate and Rooney Mara playing twin sisters who dig through a mountain, in search of an imaginary land “where true love is possible.”

DISCLOSURE DAY

In which Steven Spielberg returns to his favorite subject: extraterrestrials, in an Emily Blunt headlined film whose particulars have been kept under wraps.

DRACULA

Luc Besson’s take on Bram Stoker’s classic has been described as “a dark romantic epic that reimagines the Dracula legend through a poetic and psychological lens.”

FLOWERVALE STREET

A sci-fi mystery from IT FOLLOWS’ David Robert Mitchell, starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway.

GODZILLA MINUS ZERO

The follow-up to GODZILLA MINUS ONE, with that film’s writer-director Takashi Yamazaki repeating those duties.

MOTHER OF FLIES

A Shudder made product that won big at last year’s Fantasia fest, this indie is said to be queasy and poetic in equal measure.

OBSSESSION

Another buzzy festival favorite, a horrorfest that takes the “Be careful what you wish for…” trope to its most nightmarish extremes.

THE ODYSSEY

I’m quite skeptical of this Christopher Nolan take on Homer, but I’ll certainly be seeing it.

A USEFUL GHOST

The first and only possessed vacuum cleaner movie, a Thai import that made quite a splash at Cannes.

2025: The Year in Bedlam