Editorial: The Best of 2025

Written by Grady Fiorio Original Publishing Date: Feburary 15th, 2026

The best of the best for 2025

Hello world. It has been some time. Turns out developing an entire TV show doesn’t allow for much entertainment journalism as I’d like. Who knew?! But I’m back, for now. And while I’m here, I’d love to tell you all about what great stories we got this year. And what a year it was. 2025 started to feel like a “normal year” for the movies. While not completely rehabilitated from strikes, mergers (new and old), and box office bombs, this year proved a notable shift to a healthier business model from streamers, studios, and indies alike. Warner Bros was the king of the box office, horror had arguably its best year in history, and we got an embarrassment of riches from the world of television. Even in my long game of catch-up to see and experience everything 2025 had to offer, I find my list ever-expanding, and decisions hard to make. Still, the chopping block has to cut somewhere, and somewhere it shall.

If you’ve been reading my site for a while now, you know the drill. Just like my "Best of 2024", I'll be covering movies, tv, games, and just about anything else I can find to blab about into the ether. Flipside Reviews is where I cram all my ADHD thoughts about entertainment so I don’t send my friends and family far off a cliff. I can tell you that nobody was asking for a (genius) 45-minute dissertation on Megalopolis, but damnit, I still gave it to ‘em. Short Version: My website. My Rules. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Unlike many other yearly recaps that most media outlets do, I've waited until the full end of the calendar year to do my ranking. This way, I can squeeze in as much as possible, while not cutting out anything that comes in at the tail end of the year. With that being said, there were still some things I missed out on. No Other Choice marks the second year that I’ve missed a Park Chan-wook film. Wake Up Dead Man is a result of my laziness to watch Netflix (or revenge for The Last Jedi, dealer’s choice). And Hamnet… Okay, I have no excuse for not watching Hamnet. I only have so much time in the year before I meld into a literal couch potato. Not all of these are top 10s or top 5s, but just what I really enjoyed this year. The rankings aren't perfect, and I still find them constantly changing. Still, I can wholeheartedly recommend everything here and give it my "I got 3 likes on Letterboxd" seal of approval.

Much of the media I talk about in this list I've written about at length in individual reviews. Click on any titles that are underlined to check out their review and get more of my thoughts.

The Best of TV

Honorable Mentions: Daredevil: Born Again & Andor

2025 was a pretty bang-up year for TV. The Pitt, Adolescence, Task, and IT: Welcome to Derry. Unfortunately, my 2025 was pretty preoccupied, and I wasn’t able to make it to any of these series (yet!). However, out of my top three series, two additional shows felt worth mentioning, even if they weren’t exactly perfect.

Starting off is the much-maligned Daredevil: Born Again. After an incredible run on Netflix, a string of cancellations, weird legal battles, and months of reshoots, the man without fear popped his horns back up again. This time on Disney+ under a new title, Daredevil: Born Again. This creative shift would take Matt Murdock away from (the now-defunct) Marvel Television’s Jeph Loeb and put him under the watch of Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige. It’s hard to state just how much pressure was riding on this show. The production faced several very public issues that ultimately led to a complete creative overhaul. Originally announced as an 18-episode run, Born Again would have production halted during the 2023 actor and writers’ strike. Marvel used this break to work on post-production for the series, leading to six episodes being completed. After a number of studio leaks, word around the campfire was that Born Again should’ve stayed dead. Major off-screen character deaths, ignored canon, and watered-down maturity left a series that felt untrue to what precluded it, and another drop in the bucket to failed Marvel projects. This led to a creative overhaul, led by trio Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Dario Scardapane. They’d redesign the series into something befitting of the original Netflix run, while still serving as a soft reboot that could take a new direction. The catch? The season would be cut from 18 episodes to nine, and the six produced episodes couldn’t be tossed.

What resulted was a sort of Frankenstein’d TV series. Benson and Moorhead would direct three new episodes. A new pilot, plus episodes eight and nine. Additional reshoots would then add new material to be intercut with the original six episodes, creating a new narrative throughline, showrun by Scardapane. So how did it fare? To be blunt, the seams were clear. Benson and Moorhead have a specific directorial style, and it doesn’t match what was shot previously. To be fair, their directing style is way more fitting for Daredevil, but you can pretty clearly see the difference in style once a fight scene starts and new character moments are spliced in. The three episodes they did direct in full are the clear standouts and give a taste of what Season Two can become. The issue here is that this isn’t Season Two, it’s a hybrid Season One.

Despite the shifts in style and tone, what’s left is pretty solid. The storylines for The Punisher and Bullseye are outstanding, and the relationship between Matt and Fisk is given new depths with the added layer of political corruption and the (unfortunately relevant) Mayor Fisk subplot. There’s a lot to chew on here, even if you do get a bit of fat along the way. The fights are brutal, and The Punisher gets unleashed in ways I never thought I’d see in a Disney production. I’m still skeptical of Season Two, given the promises of Season One, but Benson, Moorhead, and Scardapane have put in enough legwork for me to tune in come March 24th.

Lastly (and controversially), we have Andor Season Two. If you remember my Best of 2022 list, Andor Season One was also an honorable mention. I felt that the series was a breath of fresh air for Star Wars, but it struggled with pacing. If anything, both these elements have been amplified with Season Two. Many of the story lines are stronger, but the pacing is duller. Each season is split into four, three-episode arcs. Each arc felt one episode too long (sans the perfect prison arc). While Season Two leads to one of Star Wars’ greatest finales and boldly political statements, the narrative can feel stretched thin, deflating great moments as it constantly has to interrupt the story for more Ghorman. Still, I find myself in awe that a Disney+ Star Wars show isn’t afraid to tackle fascism, rape, and terrorism head-on. The best compliment I can give Andor is that it ruined Rogue One for me. That movie has the complexity of a wet dog, and for all its faults, Andor runs circles around it. This is much closer to an HBO production than it is Disney, giving us a taste of a new direction this franchise has been begging to explore. Whether or not Disney will allow that to happen is anybody’s guess, but it goes without saying that Andor is something special.

6. South Park

What do you do when your world starts turning into a fascist hellscape where the rule of law becomes more flexible than silly putty? Well, I don’t know... but neither does South Park. They sure as shit get me to laugh about it. Presidential satanic butt babies, puppy hunting, and Jesus giving a sermon on corporate mergers, nothing is off limits for Seasons 27 & 28 of this Comedy Central Classic. And for a world stranger than fiction, how could it? Yes, Matt and Trey are back to South Park. After a notable slump in the series, South Park yanked the rip cord this season and absolutely chainsawed their way back into the public consciousness with some of their most brutal satire yet. Season opener, Sermon on the Mount, cemented its place as a top ten South Park episode, diving headfirst into Trump, Epstein, and fascism, all culminating in a scene where Jesus condemns South Park’s parent company, Paramount, for their sucking fat presidential dick during the corporate merger of Paramount and Skydance. It was one hell of a way to kick off a season, and a reminder that when our world gets rough, comedy has got to get rougher. Thankfully, South Park is no stranger to this and shone like a bright beacon of hope during one of the most chaotic periods of American history. Never losing its relevance, South Park’s rapid production cycle allowed it to actively respond to criticism and controversy as the season continued. While not every episode was a slam dunk, there was enough gas in the tank to give South Park its best seasons in years. Where 2026 will take them is anybody’s guess, but I know the world will be watching.

5. Smiling Friends

Adult Swim seems to have this trend of every five or so years, where a quirky pilot becomes a viral internet sensation. The Boondocks, The Eric Andre Show, Rick and Morty, and now Smiling Friends. Blessing us now with its third season, this little pilot that could captured the internet zeitgeist and rolled it up into another absurdist humor hit. The series follows the adventures of Pim and Charlie as they work at Smiling Friends, a corporation designed to help those feeling sad, to smile once again. This Saturday morning cartoon format plays like an R-rated Regular Show, where each new client of the Smiling Friends brings Pim and Charlie further and further into the depths of insanity. It’s funny, it’s wacky, and plain fucking weird. There certainly is a niche for this kind of humor, and it’s not going to land for everyone, but if this strikes that same neuron that it does for me, Smiling Friends is a cocaine dopamine hit of ridiculous comedy, packaged in a sweet ten-minute tin. Season three packs some of its best moments yet, especially episode 2’s absurdly heartfelt exploration of Mr. Frog. It’s the kind of show that constantly keeps you on your toes, with unpredictable gags and big laughs. It’s a comedy for the modern age, and it could fizzle out as fast as it came, but if the series continues on its track, I think it’s here to stay. Smile a little longer, friends.

4. Pluribus

There are few TV shows that are worth a “blind watch”. Truly going in with zero knowledge or expectations of what’s to come. Unsurprisingly, Vince Gilligan has done it with his brand new Apple+ series, Pluribus. While the less said the better, Pluribus is a notable and refreshing departure from the world of Breaking Bad, giving audiences something that feels wholey originally, while staying very much rooted in genre classics. The series raises huge questions about conformity, complacency, technology, and morality, giving you just enough food for thought, but never a distinct answer. The mark of good writing has you changing your thoughts and expectations in each new episode, and Pluribus delivers. Despite its deliberately slow pace, Pluribus is a must-watch TV that’ll keep your thumb firmly placed on the next episode button. While I recommend you learn nothing else before jumping in, I’ll leave you with the series official logline. “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.”

3. The Studio

There are few cheat codes to my heart, but stories about filmmaking are basically my Konami code. 2024 gave us The Franchise (RIP). 2025 gave us The Studio. Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg take us to the heart of Hollywood by placing us in the hot seat of Rogan’s Matt Remick, the new head of film production company Continental Studios. By using my nightmares as a writing bible, The Studio satirizes the life and times of our current Hollywood climate to understand just how movies got where they are. Everyone comes to the dream factory to make all their wishes come true, but they leave at the bottom of a bottle, working on the Kool-Aid movie. It might not be as inside baseball as The Franchise, but The Studio uses a mixed cast of actors and real Hollywood directors, producers, and celebrities to bring the stories of our industry to life. It’s funny, cathartic, terrifying, and more accurate than I’d like to admit. At the core is a story about people who make movies because they love them, and no amount of fame, drugs, or box office points can change that… but maybe a little bit of Kool-Aid can.

2. Mr. Scorsese

To believe. To create. To be. I’m not going to sit here and try to convince you I’m the next Scorsese. It’s a fools erand, and I don’t have enough ego to self-fellate myself like that in front of the world, on my own website, no less. However, there’s a very narrow space in the Venn diagram of Italian-American Catholic filmmakers that we both occupy. At a young age, we’re called to faith in God. In adolescence, we are called to faith in our art. In adulthood, we are called to faith in ourselves. It’s in that mere act of believing where we are tested, we create, and our true selves are found. This journey of self-discovery that Marty goes through is where I found myself really connecting with this documentary series. I might be a lapsed Catholic, but I still struggle with the ideas ingrained in me at such a young age. I’ve always said that Catholicism is something you’re born into and stays with you for life. You could become an Atheist, but you’d be a Catholic Atheist. Scorsese’s films often meet at the cross-section of hedonism and faith, allowing him to address the inner struggles of his own past addictions and anger. The story of his films is the story of his life. Near the end of the miniseries, Marty’s discussion of his 2017 film Silence nearly put me in tears. This constant asking of “How?” and “Why?”, all wrapped in a ball of guilt, is at the forefront of Scorcess’s exploration of self through film. That moment was like looking in a mirror. Through film, we can search, but no answer will ever quench the mystery. This is so much more than a breakdown of a filmmaker, but an exploration of what it means to create when doubt hovers above your head at night. My only complaint is that it wasn’t longer. I could’ve sat here for another five hours.

1. The Rehearsal

How can I describe The Rehearsal? I could tell you that it’s bold, innovative, or some kind of TV revolution. While all those statements are true, they pale in comparison to the cinematic achievement in bullshit that this series is. I mean that with all sincerity and compliment. Nathan Fielder has somehow convinced HBO to give him millions of dollars to fly hundreds of commercial planes, masturbate in a flight sim, and turn Paramount into literal Nazis, all on public television. What’s even more bizarre is how heart warming on poignant the whole thing is. Fielder uses absurdist comedy and wild social antics to explore what it means to be human, seek connection, and understand why planes keep crashing. This is one of the only comedy series that attempts to make acutal legislation change to one of our most important institutions. The Rehearsal has to be seen to be believed, and even then, I doubt my sight.

Games I Played

With GTA 6 getting delayed (again), and Crimson Desert missing its presumed 2025 window, I didn’t play as many new games as I expected this year. I also spent way more time than I expected finishing FF7 Rebirth (92 Hours!), so this small handful is what I was able to make time for. Truth be told, not all of these are brand new to 2025, but I think they’re all worth talking about. While some of these are certainly better than others, consider this less of a ranking and more of a general discussion. Thankfully, I finished all my veggies before going to dessert. So every game you see here, I rolled credits on.

Silent Hill 2

Konami and remakes. It seems like they’re trying to give Capcom a run for their money. And run they shall, because the town of Silent Hill is fucked up! After many years of wanting to experience this classic, I finally got to make a trip to Silent Hill. While I did play the original Silent Hill 1 ten years ago, I never finished the game, and bounced off it fairly quickly. However, I’ve always been pulled in by the allure of Silent Hill 2. A legendary story, Pyramid Head, and enough internet lore & fan theories to make a FNAF fan blush. I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I finally got to playing Bloober Team’s remake, and I gotta say, it was a wild ride. Silent Hill takes a much different approach than its more popular brother, Resident Evil, by focusing on a smaller and quieter style of gameplay. The focus here is on the puzzles and mazes, with only a select amount of combat. What surprised me the most was the storytelling. While a lot of people praise the story here, I thought its actual writing and performances were quite awkward. Where the narrative really shines is in its environmental storytelling. Every element of this game, from the puzzles to the enemy types, is used as an analogy for the mental state of the characters and their various guilts and traumas. It’s not the newest form of storytelling, but this is a remake of a 20-year-old game, and Silent Hill nails the format. I unfortunately had the story spoiled for me, and I ran into a significant amount of performance issues. Despite this, Silent Hill 2 offers just enough surprises and scares to make the experience worthwhile.

Schedule 1

In the war on drugs, I’d like to once again congratulate drugs for being the undefeated champ. Now bringing high times to the realm of video games, you too can cosplay as your favorite chicken restaurant and RV enthusiasts. This little indie game blew up on social media in early 2025, due to a viral demo that allowed you to make and sell your own custom marijuana strains, cut with gasoline and horse semen. Kicking off the new “friend slop” era of gaming, Schedule 1 became one of Steam’s best-selling games, outclassing and outgrossing some of the highest-profile AAA games of the year. No doubt due to its fittingly addictive gameplay and wild sense of humor. The loop is simple. Make drugs, sell them, build your empire. Things begin to spiral as production ramps up, dealers get into the mix, and law enforcement tries to crack down on the fun. It’s a classic style of tycoon gameplay that’s had a chokehold on gaming for years, and Schedule 1 maximizes for addiction. However, like most tycoon games, the endgame has little to offer as your empire becomes fully automated. A few updates have worked their way into the game, adding cartels and new drugs, but I haven’t had much incentive to stay after getting my initial hit. Schedule 1 is still great fun and will be worth checking out once the gameplay has further evolved. This is the type of game that would have had Fox News shitting bricks back in 2005. Now in 2025, we’re pressing bricks and selling them. Go Figure.

Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Does whatever a PlayStation can! To be honest with you, I was a little let down with Spider-Man 2. It’s not a terrible game, but it’s an incremental upgrade on its 2018 predecessor (which was not exactly mindblowing). If anything, I thought Spider-Man 2018 was a great story supported by serviceable gameplay and saved by its addictive web swinging. Spider-Man 2 gives us a similar formula, but with a much weaker story. Taking inspiration from the 2007 film Spider-Man 3, this game adds Venom, Sand Man, and Harry Osborne into the mix. Unfortunately, it also brings that film’s unfocused web of bloated storylines and unnecessary characters. The writing ranges from decent to cringe-inducing as the all too common “corrupted by venom” trope turns every character into an edgelord. There are still exciting set pieces and character moments, but nothing connected with me on an emotional level, which feels like a core betrayal of the Spider-Man character. He’s a reflection of that everyday kid, trying to survive in a world much more chaotic than he can ever handle on his own. If he doesn’t connect, then he just doesn’t feel like Spider-Man, and that’s a disappointment. I still had fun with my time, but the experience just came off half-baked. Everything here you’ve seen done before and arguably better. Spider-Man 2 is far from bad, but it is also far from memorable, which is the greatest sin a piece of art can commit.

Death Stranding 2

Death Stranding 2 was a game of expectations. Mixed expectations. As a massive Hideo Kojima fan, I didn’t love the original Death Stranding. While I enjoyed elements of it, I thought the gameplay was half-baked, the writing was awkward, and the combat was awful, especially compared to the monumental achievement that was Metal Gear Solid V. I didn’t hate it either. Once I found the flow of its gameplay loop and got stuck in a trance of package delivery and highway building, I was having a fun, if flawed, time. I could see the vision. It just wasn’t there… yet. But hey, the poor guy was going through a massive breakup with Konami, was rebuilding a studio, and doing his first non-Metal Gear project in over 20 years. There were going to be growing pains. So, after six years, where does the sequel put us? In a much better position. While still not perfect, Death Stranding 2 fulfills the promise of the series, giving a much more streamlined and refined version of the mountain climbing, package delivery simulator we all know and love. While this is a series built on creating friction between the player and the environment, the first instalment didn’t get that balance right, creating an experience that was often more frustrating than satisfying. While I’d argue DS2 swings the pendulum a bit too far in the other direction, feeling more like a truck driving simulator, the experience is significantly less frustrating, embracing more of the gameplay freedom found in Kojima’s previous MGSV. Looking at Kojima’s direction, some of the set pieces are just fucking astounding. A giant robot kaiju fight, a musical number, a battle with guitar axes. It’s some truly bonkers shit, and a great time when it works. But DS2 doesn’t always work. The story is slimmed down significantly, but it can still be awkward as hell. The exposition dumps are gone, but the majority of this world still doesn’t make sense. Characters like Neil Vana and Tomorrow are underbaked and predictable, getting all their character depth dumped at the very end of the game. Still, it’s hard to deny that DS2 has aura like it’s nobody’s fucking business, and its world is a joy to just live in for a few hours. I’m pretty sure I beat some personal gaming marathon records couch-locked in package delivery mode. I don’t know what Koji Pro’s future holds, but if Death Stranding 2 is an indication, bold experimentation will always be its noth star.

METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER

Kojimbo strikes again! Nationalism, betrayal, espionage, crotch grabbing. These are just a few of the words that can describe Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. But this isn’t Metal Gear Solid 3. This is Metal Gear Solid… Triangle? Delta? I don’t know. Dumb naming conventions aside, MGS Δ is a remake of MGS: 3, and the long-awaited return to the Metal Gear Solid franchise, after a nasty split between Hideo Kojima and Konami 10 years ago. So after much anticipation, fan scrutiny, and Unreal Engine 5 traversal stutters, how does MGS Δ hold up? It’s the best damn game of 2025. In all honesty, that’s not too exciting to say. While MGS Δ is a triumph of the gaming format, it’s also a beat-for-beat remake of one of the greatest games ever made. Of course it’s good. Every level, cutscene, and even guard positions are the same as they were 21 years ago. What’s new are the graphics, modernized gameplay, and controls. MGS Δ plays phenomenally, meshing the strengths of modern and classic gaming to create an immersive hybrid experience that Metal Gear fans have been dreaming about ever since Konami baited us with their Fox Engine pachinko machine. While this is great for purists, other gaming remakes like Final Fantasy 7 and the Resident Evil series have shown that a healthy amount of reimagining can bring new life into old games. It feels like a missed opportunity, but MGS: 3 is the crown jewel of the franchise, and fucking that up would have cemented the grave Snake had only just begun to crawl out of. Despite that, MGS Δ is lovingly crafted with the utmost respect for the franchise and the legacy created by Hideo Kojima. While some of the new character models come off a bit jank, and not every beat holds up to modern scrutiny, Metal Gear Solid 3 is still one of the greatest stories gaming has ever told. The story of how the boss became big in his journey to avenge his country is still as heartbreaking as it was 21 years later. The ending is still a rocket punch to the gut, which had me fending off the tears like I was playing it for the first time as a 15-year-old. It might just be a beat-for-beat remake of a 20-year-old video game, but I can’t help it if that just so happens to be one of the greatest video games of all time. I also can’t help if that also just so happens to be another Kojima game.

The Best of Movies

Honorable Mentions: A lot...

To blab. To yap. To never shut up. Such is the life of a man with unrestricted access to an entertainment blog. But you’re still reading this, so I must be doing something right? Speaking of doing something right, we got ten great films this year that aced that part of the filmmaking exam. Don’t take my ranking too seriously, I’m only saving my best for last. But before the main event, it wouldn’t be a “best of” list without an egregious amount of honorable mentions, now would it?

During Sundance 2025, I unfortunately missed out on James Sweeney’s Twinless, which happened to go viral when its festival screener leaked on Twitter. However, it did not go viral in the theater, which is a shame, because Twinless is a bold and outrageous comedy that feels like the proper evolution of social satire that theatrical comedy never got. Sweeny shows up as an incredibly confident director, tackling heavy subject matter with humor both in front of and behind the screen, starring as one of the co-leads. It’s funny, shocking, poignant, and not a film you want to miss.

Dust Bunny was another sleeper hit this year, asking “What happens when a little girl hires a hitman to kill the monster under her bed?” Bryan Fuller’s unique brand of horror-comedy is on full display, creating a hyper-real world that’s somewhere between cyberpunk and a child’s fairytale. This story pulls quite a bit from Jaws’ formula, feeling like a great entry point into horror for younger audiences, while still entertaining the masses.

Continuing with comedy, The Naked Gun was a nice return to form for slapstick satire and Zucker brothers’ parody. Thunderbolts also had a surprising amount of laughs this year, while maintaining an equal amount of surprising character depth. David Harbour’s Red Guardian got some of the biggest laughs out of me, as the team’s bewildering limo taxi driver, and Captain America knock-off. Caught Stealing was Aronofsky’s dramatic heel turn of a passion project, focusing more on offbeat comedy than existential dread. Austin Butler gets caught up in a web of New York crime while avoiding certain death and miraculously landing on his feet. It very much retains Aronofsky’s darkness but serves as a fresh tonal shift for the director. Continuing with surprising tone shifts, Materialists was Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives. This sophomore feature played into dry humor, creating characters that were equally compelling as they were repulsive. It’s a love story for the modern age, employing just enough self-loathing to feel relatable. Last of the comedies, The Running Man felt aptly relevant and very Edgar Wright in a time when consumerism in Hollywood has hit an all-time high. It’s quite ironic that Paramount produced this film when they did, but I guess they joined Wright with their impeccable comedic timing.

Ne Zha 2 became this year’s hidden foreign phenomenon when it made (a very dubious and unconfirmed) $2 billion at the Chinese box office. While it didn’t make the same waves as K-Pop Demon Hunters, director Jiao Zi brings an overwhelming Eastern influence to the West with one of the most astounding animated films I have ever seen. The set pieces are massive, with the ending battle featuring 200 million characters on screen at once. The story is a bit bloated and has its hits and misses, but this is a film you don’t want to miss for its technical prowess alone. Its story is a marked improvement on the first film, and has me quite excited for just how Zi can top himself with Ne Zha 3.

Fan favorite directors Steven Soderbergh and Guillermo del Toro returned to the silver screen with Black Bag and Frankenstein. Like many of these films, Black Blag snuck under the radar (thematically appropriate) with an old school, mid-budget, spy thriller, that brings a grounded take to the Mr. & Mrs. Smith concept. It’s compact, but lots of fun for 94 minutes. Frankenstein goes in the opposite direction with an operatic take on Mary Shelly’s often-adapted, rarely landed, tale of a dead man built to life. The production design and costumes are immaculate, giving us one of GDT’s most ambitious passion projects. I am still wondering where the third act went, but I did enjoy my time with it thoroughly.

This year, I fell down the Tron rabbit hole, watching the 80’s classic for the first time, rewatching Legacy for the first time in 15 years, and experiencing Tron Ares in IMAX 3D. While this one got mixed reactions at release, I thought this was a hell of a time. It followed in the classic Tron tradition of being a technical marvel, having a killer soundtrack, and not knowing what to do with its loaded themes, instead trading them in for light cycles. Still, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t have a huge smile on my face as programs pulled off a cyber heist in 3D, while doing backflips off light blades to the sounds of Nine Inch Nails. If that loses you, then I sure don’t know what the hell will keep you.

For the niche film fans among you, Megadoc was Mike Figgis’ take on Hearts of Darkness, following the production of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis. Just like its counterpart, this documentary is as chaotic as it is grand, putting us front and center of the ever-changing madness that was Megalopolis. Even if you didn’t enjoy Francis’ 2024 epic, this is still a widely entertaining look at one of cinema’s most complex minds. Bonus points for Mike giving a 45-minute-long Q&A after my screening, then sticking around for an extra hour to sign my Blu-ray and talk shop about the movie. Expect a review of this one, alongside the Megalopolis graphic novel.

While 2025 didn’t jam pack us with nearly as many rereleases as 2024, we did get Baahubali 1 and 2 recut into one four-hour-long film. Even with 90 minutes chopped out of the runtime, this was still one hell of an epic to see on the big screen. If you haven’t seen S.S. Rajamouli’s Lord of the Rings meets Aladdin, do yourself a favor and watch it now! Varanasi can’t come soon enough! Tarantino also followed suit by combining his two-part epic, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. While I didn’t see the new cut with added footage, I did see the original 4-hour Cannes cut at The Vista. Like Baahubali, this was glorious to see on the big screen. It’s cliché to say now, but this really does feel like the intended viewing experience. If Tarantino hadn’t made Pulp Fiction, I just might have considered this his masterpiece.

Now for the main event…

10. The Smashing Machine

While most everybody ranted and raved about Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, I found myself fascinated with Benny’s The Smashing Machine. After a string of flops and misaligned career moves, The Rock takes us back to square one, with a much smaller and engrossing biopic. Following the life of MMA champ Mark Kerr, The Smashing Machine is a look at the vulnerabilities of a seemingly invincible man. The story details his rise in the Japanese PRIDE fighting ring as his opiate addiction and tumultuous love life come crashing down all at once. As a slice of life story, it works surprisingly well. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are electric on screen together, giving us two of the strongest performances of the year. Whenever they were on screen together, I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Their relationship is the star of the show. What really pulled me into this film was the subtleties of Johnson’s characterization of Mark Kerr. There’s something hypnotic about Mark Kerr as this gentle giant, who still has the fury to bring down Babel with the flick of his wrist. He has immense power and chooses not to use it. He’s not the typical macho wife-beater aggressor. Instead, he struggles with internal destruction, which brings down the rest of the world around him. It makes Kerr a relatable and honest portrayal of the struggles men face while not creating a caricature. As somebody who doesn’t even remotely care about sports, I felt sucked into this moment in sports history. It’s not perfect. It’s not mind-blowing. But I felt it. What more can you ask?

9. Superman

Right now, our world kind of sucks. You don’t have to look far to see just how bad shit has gotten recently, and it feels like everywhere you go, all you can do is be reminded of it. Not only does everything seem hopeless, but it feels like there is nothing to believe in. But that’s where art comes in. To save the day when our world has failed. In the midst of the American rubble rises Kal-El, or… Superman. Using hope, love, humor, and the indomitable human spirit, James Gunn brings Superman back to his roots to tell an underdog story of a man trying to do the right thing in a world that seems to revel in a good man’s failure. While Superman might be stuffed with action, monsters, and CGI, this battle between Clark Kent and Pessimism really is the hero of the show. It’s a much lighter take than Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, but it packs a punch no less. While I won’t tell you that this is a revolutionary film, David Corenswet brings an undying optimism to DC’s tride and true hero, that shines like a beacon in the dark of one of history’s most hopeless times.

8. 28 Years Later

While I went into 28 Years Later with open expectations, I really didn’t expect to find this film so emotionally charged. When it comes to zombie stories about families, I really should know better by now. Alex Garland and Danny Boyle team up once again to take on the British apocalypse of bad skin care, because the 28 Days Later franchise is back. While this newest installment doesn’t have some new forward-thinking approach to zombies as a concept, it does use zombies as a way to tell a story about the unbreakable bonds between family and the process of letting go in an environment where everything could be gone in an instant. Alfie Williams plays Spike, a young boy leading his sickly mother, Isla, to the heart of zombified England, where a mad doctor may hold the cure to her illness. What starts as stylish zombie slaughter slowly becomes more and more experimental, cutting together archival footage, wild filming techniques, and weird needle drops to create one of the most unique and experimental blockbusters of the modern era. As we slowly descend into Danny Boyle’s funhouse of madness, the full scope of the relationship between Spike and Isla becomes apparent. Once Ralph Fiennes’ complex Dr. Ian Kellson is introduced, the film fully engages in an incredibly emotional third act. We are left to question the meaning of life and death in a world overrun by the undead. However, 28 Years later inspires with a final message of hope in the darkness, a much-needed spirit for our cirppled modern age.

Don’t be surprised if you see 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple appearing on another one of these lists sometime soon.

7. Eddington

Hope in the darkness can get absolutely fucked in Eddington. Ari Aster’s No Country for Old Men is a bold and transgressive take on the downfall of the world post-COVID. Conspiracy theories, political extremism, social media clout. It’s all here in Eddington. While a handful of films have tried to tackle the COVID era and the mistakes made in its wake, none have fully embraced them the way Eddington has. Here Ari Aster holds up one giant mirror to all of America, and it quite clearly says, “We fucked up.” It doesn’t matter what side you were on. It doesn’t matter if your heart was in the right place. Nobody approached this thing correctly, and we are all duly paying the price for it. While Eddington isn’t “both sidsing” the conversation, it’s asking the audience to acknowledge mistakes made in the hopes that we can move beyond them. Unfortunately, this film has only become more relevant in the wake of more political violence, ICE raids, and social media-fueled misinformation. It’s an unnerving, uncomfortable film, but that’s the intent. If you don’t feel a bit disturbed after watching this, it probably says something more about your own self-awareness. Clearly, this film pissed off quite a lot of people, but I just don’t think most people are ready to have this conversation yet.

6. Weapons

At 2:17 A.M., a class of third-graders all simultaneously walk out their front doors, never to be seen again. Only one student and teacher remain. This is the mystery proposed by director Zach Creggor in Weapons. This Whitest Kids You Know alum follows up 2022’s Barbarian with an equally bizarre horror-mystery film designed to constantly keep you guessing. Taking place from multiple perspectives, Rashomon style, Weapons uses its mystery to explore how communities process tragedy and the pursuit to create a villain in order to find “justice”. As someone whose small hometown faced a mass shooting some years ago, I saw a lot of my community in this film. Tragedy generates grief and anger, often leading to bad decisions, big mistakes, and long-lasting ramifications in an attempt to close an unhealable wound. By placing the audience in different perspectives, we not only get new slices of the mystery but also get deeper insight into how each character processes this tragedy, peeling back the myth of the “innocent small town.” Despite how heavy this all sounds, Weapons is shockingly funny. In fact, I’d say that Weapons is both the scariest and funniest movie I’ve seen all year. Embracing the same tone that made Barbarian such a standout film, Cregger multiplies it tenfold, truly letting his comedic roots shine, without ever taking away from the impact of each scare. Sometimes I’d find myself alternating laughs and shrieks in the same scene. It’s this brand of directing that makes Cregger such a standout director and the next prominent face of horror. We’ll see how his 2026 reboot of Resident Evil turns out, but for now, keep an eye out. Cregger is here to stay.

5. Andre is an Idiot

I’ve talked about this one extensively in both my Sundance 2025 breakdown as well as my The Best of 2025 So Far, so I’ll keep my thoughts brief and succinct. Andre is an Idiot is what happens when unbridled creativity and love of life meet the reality of certain death. A beautiful bond is made. This is the reality that André Ricciardi faces after missing his colonoscopy and getting diagnosed with cancer. Andre’s wild antics, viral marketing stunts, and loving family make an oddly compelling bunch that you can’t help but root for. Director Anthony Benna weaves in Andre’s naturally chaotic personality into something both hysterical and meditative, when we are forced to stare the end of life directly in the eyes. A shocking crowdpleaser of a documentary, Andre is an Idiot proves that humor can be embedded into any part of life, even in its last moment.

4. Predators

While Andre is an Idiot might be a crowd-pleasing tearjerker of a documentary, Predators is not. Also covered extensively in my Sundance 2025 breakdown and The Best of 2025 So Far, Predators is a radical documentary that asks its audience to reconsider everything they know about empathy when faced with absolute disgust. Easily one of the hardest to watch documentaries I’ve seen, Predators tracks the rise and fall of NBC’s To Catch a Predator, and host Chris Hansen. Audiences are challenged to ask where their empathy lies when it’s revealed that not all predators were in front of the camera, but also behind it. Lives ruined, evidence nullified in court, and a Texas Assistant DA committing suicide on set. It’s one of the most radical documentaries I have ever seen. Nothing is left on the table, but no hard answers are given either. Director David Osit asks where the line is between journalism, ethics, and entertainment in the most unmissable documentary of 2025.

3. Sinners

I gotta commend Ryan Coogler. As a filmmaker, he has truly defied the odds. Not only has he shaken the studio system with a revolutionary deal that gives him ownership rights to his own film, but he has turned a vampire-slaying modern classic into a world record Oscar contender. I don’t think anybody saw it coming, but I also don’t think there’s anybody who will tell you it’s undeserved. Sinners is so much more than a From Dusk Till Dawn clone. It’s a cinematic statement that blends horror, action, period pieces, and the blues to tell a time-traveling narrative that reclaims the power of art. Yes, Sinners really does all that. Set in 1932, Sinners follows former bootlegger brothers, Smoke and Stack, as they return to their Mississippi hometown to invest their newfound wealth into a club for their community, hiding from the KKK. Things take a turn when the ferocious fangs of vampires attempt to destroy and assimilate what little their community has left. Sinners is Ryan Coogler completely unrestrained, by budget, by IP, or any outside circumstances. This is an artist at work, and it clearly shows. Somehow, the film’s two distinctly separate halves never feel out of place or unearned. Instead, Coogler contrasts Jim Crow America, Vampires, and Southern Black Culture to demonstrate how vampiric capitalism can be in its pursuit to destroy artists and their communities. Shot in glorious IMAX, Sinners features one of cinema’s most stunning musical sequences that transcends time to show what true power looks like in the hands of an artist. While unbeknownst to Coogler, Sinners places him in the echelon of such artists.

2. One Battle After Another

There’s not much to be said here that hasn’t been said elsewhere about One Battle After Another. PTA’s political Mad Max chase through Central California is genius, wacky, and poignant. That all being said, walking out of my first screening, I had a hard time putting a finger on it. I loved the movie, but it had this abstract quality that was so alluring, yet undefinable. On a second watch (now in VistaVision!) I had my breakthrough moment. For as thrilling and politically relevant as this movie is, it’s really about the characters. I’ve always said good writing is good characters, and you see that clearly here. Whether it’s Bob stoned and stumbling past law enforcement, Sensi Sergio being the most calculated drunk there is, or Colonel Lockjaw’s contrast between goofy and hateable twat, I feel like these characters could entertain me in any situation. Everybody embodies this explosive energy that goes off like a Ghetto Pat bomb. There’s a careful balancing act of the wackiness of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland novel and real-life political theater. It’s not as outright “political” as Eddington, but you sense a realness to the whole thing, especially with the mix of non-actors in the bunch. James Raterman, in particular, has a ferocity that makes you question whether the border between fiction and reality was even there to begin with. Even the wacky elements feel authentic, with real-life douchebag Gregory Bovino being an almost exact match for Sean Penn’s Lockjaw, even sporting the same cunty haircut. But no matter how many beers Sensi throws back, or American Citizen shot by ICE, One Battle After Another shows that government failure has led to a lack of belief in American institutions. People are quite literally dying for something to believe in, and the French 75 is a direct reflection of that. They may not be heroes, but in a system of villains, the definition of right and wrong becomes eroded. I hope that our society can find a new sense of normal without resorting to a full-scale revolution, but if that does happen, you can be sure as hell it’ll be on more than a screen.

1. Bring Her Back

Horror movies. 90% of them suck, but that last 10%… some of the greatest cinema has to offer. Talk to Me directors, Danny and Michael Philippou, follow up their 2022 hit with an even stronger horror flick, completely leapfrogging any fears of a sophomore slump. Bring Her Back is one of the must gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, and emotionally complex horror movies I have ever seen. The film puts us in the position of stepsiblings Andy and Piper, as they are taken into foster care after the untimely death of their father. However, their new foster mother, Laura, is grieving a death of her own and sees these new children as an unorthodox cure to her loss. The film explores the unmistakable heartbreak of death and the unimaginable places grief can drive us to in an attempt to escape. Sally Hawkins goes all in as Laura, crafting a performance that generates both empathy and hate alike. It guides the film as both a horrifying experience and a meditative exploration of death from the perspective of child and parent alike. The Philippou brothers’ direction is a genuine rollercoaster ride that will take you everywhere from grief, laughter, horror, and empathetic tears. At one point, I physically jumped out of my seat inside a crowded theater. The ending left me incredibly affected, rotating through triumph, tragedy, and catharsis. If that is not the essence of cinema, then I don’t know what is.

0. The Chunk

Another year, another plug. But now we have a TV pilot! Well, not yet. But we’re working on it! Yes, ladies and gents, Flipside Studios is now officially in pre-production for The Chunk, our first-ever TV series. The show follows Jeye Ellsworth, AKA The Chunk, who is a superhero who refuses to be super unless someone pays him. With a rotating set of uncontrollable powers, each episode throws him against problems that always clash with his abilities. Starring R.J. Wayne (Birds of Prey), Shawn Harrison (Family Matters), and Carlos Mendoza (The Laughing Woo Woo), The Chunk is a social satire that flips the superhero story on its head, paying homage to visionary filmmakers like Robert Townsend, Vince Gilligan, and Aaron McGruder. The Chunk asks how empathy can not only survive but thrive in a world that feeds off apathy. The series is currently being crowd-funded on Indiegogo, with over $10,000 raised so far! You can join by clicking here.

While you wait, you can watch our mini-episodes, Car Guys and Auction Block!