The year turned over, a thick 6 flopped clack on top of the spindly 5 on the big flip clock of the concept we call time, and I duplicated my movie-viewing spreadsheet, updated the number in the title, and cleared out the cells.
Now, before I close the former spreadsheet for good, here’s what titles it contained in chronological order. Bold are theatrical screenings, italics are rewatches. Dates are included if they’re older releases, in other words from years previous to 2025 or 2024:
Santosh
Bloody Axe Wound
Nightbitch
Woman of the Hour
Alice, Darling
Wicked Little Letters
The Last Showgirl
Candyman (2021)
The Watchers
Babygirl
Babes
Hard Times
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
Coffee & Cigarettes (2003)
Myth of Man
A Real Pain
Flight Risk
Hatching
Flow
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
The Brutalist
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Grand Theft Hamlet
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
The Wild Robot
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone (en español)(2001)
Mickey 17
Black Bag
Novocaine
Él (This Strange Passion)(1953)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Nightshift (1981)
Submarine (2011)
Blink Twice
Death of a Unicorn
Wicked (Part 1)
Party Girl (1995)
El Planeta (2021)
Secret Mall Apartment
A Working Man
Catch and Release (2006)
Conclave
The Shrouds
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Arizona Dream (US cut, 1993)
Sinners
Saint Maud (2020)
Bonjour Tristesse
Cry-Baby (1990)
Billy Madison (1995)
Clown in a Cornfield
In & Out (1997)
Summer of 69
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
Fresh Kills (2023)
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Jane Austen a gâché ma vie)
Final Destination (2000)
Final Destination 2 (2003)
Look Who’s Talking (1989)
Final Destination 3 (2006)
The Phoenician Scheme
The Beach (2000)
Magic Farm
Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)
Materialists
Zola (2001)
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant)
Sing Street (2016)
Dogtooth (2009)
Bunker (2021)
I am Not a Witch (2017)
You Were Never Really Here (2018)
Familiar Touch
Actual People (2021)
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (en español)(2002)
F1
Better Man
Sorry, Baby
This Closeness (2023)
Eddington
Superman
Glass Onion (en español)(2022)
Oh, Hi!
Harvest
She-Devil (1989)
Weapons
Together
Phantom of the Paradise (1974)
Strange Days (1995)
The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Boys Go to Jupiter
The Final Destination (FD4) (2009)
Chances Are (1989)
Honey Don’t!
Blue Steel (1990)
Kick-Ass (2010)
Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass
Bob Trevino Likes It
Help! (1965)
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (en español)(2004)
Caught Stealing
White Material (2009)
Freeland (2020)
Josie & the Pussycats (2001)
Sugar & Spice (2001)
Him
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021)
I Saw the TV Glow
One Battle After Another
Heat (1995)
The Sting (1973)
East of Wall
Witness (1985)
Love the Coopers (2015)
Something’s Gotta Give (2003)
The Mastermind
Tower Heist (2011)
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Barbarian (2022)
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
A House of Dynamite
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
Hollywood 90028 (The Hollywood Hillside Strangler) (1973)
Psycho Beach Party (2000)
Frankenstein
Idiocracy (2006)
The Loveless (1981)
Die My Love
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1982)
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Sentimental Value
In the Loop (2009)
Sasquatch Sunset
Left-Handed Girl
Elio
The Night Before (2015)
Train Dreams
Wake Up Dead Man
Hamnet
Metropolitan (1990)
Marty Supreme
Night of the Comet (1984)
Science of Sleep (2006)
Gremlins (1984)
Bugonia
Analysis
I wrote extremely few Movie Recommendations this year; some of that was about not having the time, but the rest was about not having a lot of movies really hit me that hard. I enjoyed most of what I watched this year, but I think the number of movies I want to remember (watch again, own on BluRay, keep in the Discourse) is less than in 2024 despite seeing more films:
Él
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Nightshift
Arizona Dream
Sinners
Fresh Kills
Sorry, Baby
Eddington
Oh, Hi!
Phantom of the Paradise
Strange Days
Boys Go to Jupiter
Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass
Bob Trevino Likes It
Him
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (I actually bought this blind on BluRay)
One Battle after Another
East of Wall
The Mastermind
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
A House of Dynamite
Hollywood 90028
Frankenstein
The Loveless
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains
Sasquatch Sunset
Left-Handed Girl
Train Dreams
Hamnet
Marty Supreme
That’s 32 of 146, which is 21.9% — a higher percentage than last year and above the 20ish I thought might be the cap of movies a person could take inspiration from per year in my 2024 roundup:
That comes to 21 movies or a little more than 1/6th of the movies I watched. Not bad. Also that’s about how many movies I listed as wanting to remember in 2023, when I watched far more movies, so maybe a person can only take about 20 feature films’ worth of inspiration a year.
What’s funny though is that I feel less inspired this year from the movies I watched overall. Whereas Sinners, Eddington, One Battle After Another, and Marty Supreme were great theatrical experiences, nothing made me want to advocate for it as much as I Saw the TV Glow did in 2024. The Shrouds and Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass accidentally felt like a repeat of the Crimes of the Future and Mad God pairing that happened around when I started this Substack, and that unjustly deflated the sense of NEW CRONENBERG! and NEW HORROR STOP MOTION! that my brain says they deserve, but that my emotions aren’t matching in internal passion.
Which brings me to:
I do think I watched too many movies in 2025.
In 2024 I had intended only to watch 100, and ended up watching 115 features. This year I let go and watched 146 features (plus a ton more if you count submissions I screened for a festival).
In comparison, on Substack people are sharing Letterboxd Wrapped graphics showing 200, 250, even sometimes 300 movies a year. That’s too much, man. Or that is to say, to each their own, but unless you’re very active in the festival circuit or a paid film reviewer, I think overconsumption begins somewhere around the 175 mark, or a movie every other day. Movies are better if you take them slow and take them in. Otherwise they become a ‘feed of content’ even if you’re intellectually and politically opposed to that framing of cinema by the streaming services.1
It seems counterintuitive for a filmmaker to want major film buffs to watch less movies, and in fact I wish the general population went to see more movies, particularly in cinemas; but I like movies to be memorable and be remembered. The more movies you watch, the less individual movies stick with you no matter how good they are.
In that sense maybe the reason why 2025 feels more ‘mid’ than 2024 despite looking back over the list and remembering 50% more good movies, is BECAUSE the same amount of attention (my own) is split between 30 instead of 20 movies.
Something to consider for the film buffs out there.
On the obverse side of that logic is the idea that many titles may represent not so much trying to find individual good movies, but watching entire franchises or filmographies or delving into a period of history or whatever. That’s probably where a lot of massive lists can come from, where it’s less “I watched Winter Light finally!” and more “I watched every Bergman film available to me this year.”
One of my ‘projects’ in this regard has been trying to make sure 50% of the movies I watch are directed by women. From the 2024 round-up:
After a surge of improving numbers from 2016 to 2021 to roughly about 20%, there was a retraction to roughly about 12%. Historically the numbers hovered between about 2.5 and 5%.
I don’t personally see any substantial reason why women aren’t given the opportunity to direct movies as often as men except historical and embedded sexism. If there’s any industry where clearly women and men are on equal footing in terms of skill, ability, and merit, telling visual stories through the production of motion pictures seems like it should be a pretty even playing field.
I failed in 2025 as well as 2024. 42% of the features I watched were directed or co-directed by women.
I will keep tracking next year, but I think next year that number is going to be far lower, because I want to shift my focus toward my 100 Original Concept Features lists.
When I made that list the first time in 2024, I found myself wishing I had caught quite a few titles I had missed, as well as curious about a lot of titles I hadn’t even heard of. I’m also, frankly, wanting to do a deep dive into Angel and other faith-based distributors and get a sense of what they’re up to. I figured I could roll some of those 2024 originals into my other stuff, but it was hard to balance that with my 50% female objective.
This year I really want to explore that 2025 originals list. That means sacrificing one sort of demographic for another.
The interesting thing there is that the 2025 list is still weighted more female than average:
this list has 22 female directors composing about 18.8% of the 118 directors included.
Whereas only 8% of top 100 grossing films had women directors according to USC Annenberg (pdf alert):
That means the top 100 grossing original films had 3x as many female directors than the top 100 grossing films overall.
It turns out there’s a higher correlation between original concept films than high grossing films in terms of demographic diversity. The fact that faith-based films are solid and dependable independent sellers but never reach blockbuster status2 shows the originals list has a lot more ideological diversity as well.
All in all if you want unique stories from more idiosyncratic filmmakers, the originals list is the way to go.
For more of my writing on film:
For some of my own film work:
Venmo me some beer money? Jk, you know I’ll blow it on movie tickets:
I have similar feelings about the number of books people read per year and the amount of television watched, not to mention the amount of time spent on video clip apps.
Except Passion of the Christ, maybe? We’ll see how the next two make out.
Nothing compares to I Saw the TV Glow. I didn’t fully understand it at first, but after reading the reviews, I haven’t stopped thinking about it.