Favorite Films 2025

I love the movies. I go my local theater once a week. Sometimes I see great films and sometimes I see terrible ones. It can always be a bit of a gamble, but all in all, I can’t stay away from the popcorn.

I’ve decided to make a list of some of my favorite films of 2025. I’ll also be including films that may have premiered a year or two previously at film festivals, but didn’t get a wide release until 2025. I will also be including short films. Keep in mind that I am not a professional movie critic. I’m just listing my personal favorites. Given that I also live in Japan, many of the films listed are Japanese. It also takes a long time for foreign films to come to Japan (sometimes up to three years), so if there’s a foreign film that I haven’t listed yet, it likely hasn’t come to my corner of Japan. There will be some minor spoilers scattered throughout.

Now, without any further ado, onto the list:

Short Films

Rovina’s Choice puts a face on the cruel cuts to USAID by the Donald Trump administration. I wonder if most MAGA cultists even care that millions will die and suffer for no reason. Rovina is a mother living in a refugee camp in Kenya. Her life was rough before, but with the cuts, she has to make difficult decisions for her children at the risk of her own health. If we should remember Trump for anything. It is this.

My Dinner With Skinner a.k.a Steamed Hams but it’s A Critically Acclaimed Feature Film is the magnum opus of the Steamed Hams parodies. If you don’t already know, “Steamed Hams” is a section of a Simpsons episode where Principal Skinner invites Superintendent Chalmers over to his house for lunch. It’s been parodied numerous times, but this short plays it as if it were a serious art film, basing its structure on My Dinner With Andre. Not only does this parody work as an involving drama, but it’s also insanely funny. Much of the dialogue between Skinner and Chalmers references actual Simpsons episodes which gain a renewed humor when played straight. I can’t respect enough the dedication of not only the actors, but also the production crew who recreated Skinner’s home down to the TekWar volume.

Baan is a fantasy anime by YouTuber Gigguk. After years of reviewing animes, he decided to make one himself. It’s a well-drawn, cozy work that's worth your time.

Through The Window is a cute little short by Wong-Fu about the little things we do in the morning and how much they mean to us.

Niccolo is an animated short about the violinist Niccolo Paganini. It chronicles his journey from child prodigy into acclaimed master. Its style appears to be influenced by Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and is hauntingly rich.

Terrible Lizards is an animated short about how Megalosaurus and Igaunadon have been depicted by paleontologists throughout history. We don’t have any real photos or paintings of dinosaurs. Only their bones. So we’ve had to guess as to what they looked like, and as the science has advanced, so as the accuracy of their depictions. The short is remarkable for showing how radically our perceptions of dinosaurs have changed. Who knows what these dinosaurs will look like further into the future?

Only The Lonely is a short adaptation of documentary film The Dating Game, about the struggles of single men in China. These men are impoverished, overworked, and have received little education in the ways of talking to women. To make matters worse, China’s former one-child policy and has resulted in gender gap of millions more men than women. The short follows three of these men as they seek the help of a pickup artist, whose advice is about as shitty as you might imagine. He tells them, for instance, to start asking random girls on the street for their social media contacts. Yikes. Nevertheless, this is not a China-only issue, and I think that many men (and women, too) will see their own loneliness reflected in this short.

The Oath is a documentary that follows Dr. Lina Qasem-Hasan, a Palestinian mother working within Israel’s healthcare system. As you might imagine, the situation very complicated for her. There are many Palestinians like her out there. Those who try to work respectably within Israeli society while the government persecutes their people.

Honorable Mentions

Mononoke: The Fire Rat is the second part of the Mononoke trilogy based on the anime series of the same name (not to be confused with Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke). Fire Rat more or less follows the same formula as the previous film. A monster is a afoot and our medicine seller has to stop it. The movie is a visual feast, with a woodblock art style, fast-paced cuts, and an epic final battle.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is the first in a trilogy to complete the final arc of the Demon Slayer anime. Tanjiro and the Hashira confront Muzan and his demon horde in a labyrinthine castle modeled after M.C. Escher's paintings. As to be expected from ufotable, the action is bloody and the animation sparkles like a firework. It’s a fun ride, but it relies way too much on flashbacks to provide needed character development. I get that this is a cliche in the shonen genre, but there’s a point where it gets to be a crutch. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such an issue if this arc were spaced out over episodes and not edited together into a film.

I Shot the Voice of Freedom is a documentary about the struggles of Afghan women after the Taliban regained control of the country in 2021. I was in complete awe of their courage in continuing to insist on education when the consequences for doing so are so terribly dire. The film shows the degrading, human toll of misogyny, and how deeply violating it is to be denied an education.

Weapons is a horror film about seventeen elementary school children who go missing in a single night. The reason for their vanishing is weirder than you can imagine. The film has some genuine scares, but it is also a laugh-out-loud comedy. So it goes with most great horror films (e.g. The Shining). The best performance belongs to Amy Madigan as the aunt from Hell, who reminded me a lot of Ruth Gordon’s nosy neighbor from Rosemary’s Baby.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is basically a by-the-numbers re-hash of the first two films, but James Cameron's action scenes and visual escapism are always worth the price of admission. What’s frustrating about the Avatar movies are that while the setting is fantastical and unique, the plots are stereotypical and trite. The best thing about this film was the villain Varang, the latest in Cameron's collection of sexy Navi women. I almost wish that Cameron would transition to erotic Avatar films with cosmic sex scenes. They'd probably make more money, too.

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is one of the weaker MI films, but it still packs a powerful punch. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is on his last mission, which involves neutralizing a rogue AI known as “The Entity.” I’m still in awe of how fit Cruise is despite of his age. He also performs in two worthwhile action stunts. One stress-inducing set piece inside of a submarine and one spectacular biplane battle over several thousand feet. One starts to wonder how Cruise is still alive.

Superman was a good movie, but a very weird one. I didn’t like it as much as James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy or The Suicide Squad, but it was fun blockbuster fare. David Corenswet does a good job in the role of Supes, capturing the character’s good heart and corny idealism. While Nicholas Hoult also does a perfect job of making Lex Luthor a menacing asshole. More than any other previous Superman film, this one leans into the bizarre. So much so that I began to wonder if I was still watching a Superman film. I had worried that the side-heroes would overcrowd the story, but they added to it. I did find the pacing to be a little messy, with one reveal about Superman’s origins coming in too early in the film for my taste. That said, I’m curious to see where Gunn takes this character next.

Fantastic Four: First Steps comes in at one of the low points of the MCU, but Marvel Studios managed to finally give us a great Fantastic Four film. As a fan of the original comics, First Steps perfectly captures the amusing family dynamic of the Fantastic Four, from The Thing's grumblings to Johnny Storm's hot-shot boasts. In some respects, it reminded me of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, insofar that watching the character stuff was just as fun (if not more fun) than watching the superhero stuff. It's also set in a colorful, retrofuturistic world that echoes the classic 1960's setting of the original comics. The special effects were, for the most part, leagues ahead of most MCU films (though there is some questionable Baby Franklin CGI). The most refreshing thing about this film is the lack of homework. I didn't have to watch 30 or so MCU films beforehand. More of this!

Five Centimeters Per Second is a live action remake of one of my favorite films. So I came into it with a lot of trepidation. While I didn't find the film to be as good as the anime version, I thought it was still a moving and respectful take on the story. The cinematography, for one, was gorgeous. The early childhood scenes have bright nostalgic colors, and there's another immaculately shot scene, with a lone tree that glows white with snow. I also liked that some of the characters are given more space to breathe than in the original. I was particularly interested in the bespectacled girlfriend from the office who only appeared for like two frames in the original film. Five Centimeter's themes of loneliness, nostalgia, and the transience of life are just relevant now as they were in 2006.

One Battle After Another made me feel the same way that a lot of Paul Thomas Anderson films do: I didn't entirely get it, but I liked what I saw. The film is set in a near-future America that's a lot like our own. Racist blackshirts raid our cities, herding up black and brown immigrants for arbitrary detention. Our heroes are a band of leftist revolutionaries committing acts of, well, "terrorism", against the fascist system to free its victims. Of course, these revolutionaries are far from perfect. They're just as human as anyone else. Teyana Taylor's "Perfidia" is a sex addict (and offender, just sayin') who starts as a badass Pam Grier style rebel, but ends up an absent mother and a compromised radical. Leonardo DiCaprio's "Rocketman" retired from the revolution once he became a single dad, but must get back into action when his daughter is kidnapped by the vicious border cop Col. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). What follows is a relentless chase across the country that never seems to stop. What I think resonated the most about this movie were the hidden networks of resistance that continued to thrive amongst the government's continual oppression. It's all about ordinary people finding little ways to do the right thing. It may not end in a grand victory, but every little bit helps.

10. F1: The Movie

This might be the best racing movie I’ve ever seen. It's kind of like a live-action version of Pixar's Cars, but I like Cars, so this was hardly an issue for me. Brad Pitt may be into his 60s, but like Tom Cruise, he's still smooth as hell. The racing is a sheer delight to watch. A pure popcorn flick like Top Gun: Maverick. I'm glad I saw it in a theater. My only complaint is that we don’t see Pitt eat in this film. There’s something magical, almost hypnotic about watching Pitt eat. Seriously.

9. Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro has still got it. This is definitely in the upper tier of Frankenstein adaptations, alongside James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). I appreciate that Netflix allowed this film a theatrical release and gave del Toro free reign to direct it as he pleased. (I suspect that this film was quid pro quo for del Toro's inexplicable praise for Emilia Perez). Much like Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005), this a film is all about sympathy with the monster. Book purists might hate the changes to the original text, but I saw this film as more of a conversation with the book than an outright adaptation of it. Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, and Jacob Elordi all give great performances, though it is Elordi's curious, loving, and vengeful take on the Monster that is the standout. The film makes full use of color with its elaborate costumes and sets. It's so nice to see a director who still understands the value of practical effects. That said, the CG wolves could've used some work.

8. Marty Supreme

In many ways, Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is a remake of his (and his brother's) earlier film, Uncut Gems. Like Adam Sandler's Howard Ratner from Uncut Gems, Marty Supreme is about a troubled Jewish man who is used to skirting the rules and acting selfishly--consequences be damned. Timothee Chamalet's Marty Mauser shares in Howard Ratner's vices, but while Ratner had a delusional belief in his own luck, Mauser has a delusional belief in his own greatness. His unshakable devotion to the "American Dream" borders on religious. Mauser believes that if he tries hard enough, all his dreams will be achieved and all that he had done along the way will be justified. Mauser's dream is to be the world's best ping-pong player. As such, he deserves the best. This means staying in the most expensive hotel rooms and enjoying affairs with the most beautiful women. Mauser is a craven, deceitful, and unlikable man, but you can't help but get caught up in supporting his ambitions. Like Uncut Gems, much of Marty Supreme's runtime is a thrill ride that cascades from one self-inflicted crisis to the next. You start to marvel at Marty's luck and you almost come to believe that his success is written in the stars.

7. Kokuho (National Treasure)

Kokuho is about kabuki theater’s “onnagata”, or the men who play women’s roles. We follow two young men, Kikuo and Shunsuke, as they strive to become the best onnagata in Japan. We get an intimate look at the hardships that must be endured in order to master the craft, as well as the abuse that the actors may receive from their teachers and the public. The performances themselves are absolutely luxurious to behold, with the costumes, makeup, and sets showing us the lavish and emotional beauty of kabuki. The personal troubles of Kikuo and Shunsuke also add another layer of depth to their performances on stage. Layers which may become more evident after repeated viewings.

6. Exit 8

I never played the Exit 8 game and unlike most video game movies, the film is easily accessible to those who haven’t played it. The premise is simple. A man is trapped in a subway that loops into endless hallways. The only way out is to spot the anomalies. If you see one, you turn back. If you don't, you keep going forward. A neat concept that could've easily turned into a cheap gimmick, but director Genki Kawamura and screenwriter Kentaro Hirase lace the film with a quasi-religious subtext that reminds one of purgatory in Christianity and reincarnation in Hinduism and Buddhism. Like The Exorcist before it, Exit 8 elevates itself above the horror genre, becoming a poignant spiritual fable for the modern era.

5. No Other Choice

The great Park Chan Wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) has crafted another masterpiece. This time about the horrors of capitalism. No Other Choice stars Squid Game's Lee Byung-hun as Man-su, a paper company worker who is suddenly laid off and desperate to find a job so as not to lose his middle class lifestyle. When doing things the conventional way doesn't work out for him, Man-su opts for a more violent solution. There are echoes of Tarantino and the Coen Brothers in the brutal black comedy on display, but Man-su reminded me most of Breaking Bad's Walter White: A man who breaks his moral codes in order to preserve his family's financial security. Though Walter White grows into a fearsome sociopath over the course of his arc, the same cannot be said for Man-su. Whenever, he attempts to kill those who stand in his way, things go terribly wrong, but it is his constant stumbles which keep the film tense. No Other Choice reminds us of the fragility of our class. That the ground beneath our feet can be taken away in a single swipe. That even if we recover what we've lost, it won't ever be the same again.

4. Rental Family

I see this film as part of a genre of Japanese cinema which I’m not sure what to call yet. Perhaps unusual job is the right term. A worker is employed at a strange or stigmatized occupation, but comes to see the humanity behind it and the deeper meaning it offers to people. Departures is about a man who becomes a mortician. Call Boy is about a man who becomes a male prostitute. Rental Family is about a man who joins Japan's rental family services, in which you are hired to play a role (usually a family member or a romantic partner). Since the film stars Brendan Fraser, it also highlights the foreigner experience in Japan. Rental Family's director, Hikari, is Japanese, but has spent a great deal of her life in the United States, so she can show, with some authority, the nuances of Japanese society from the both the foreigner and native perspectives.

Rental Family could've easily devolved into a number of tired cliches about Japan. Fraser's character could've turned into a white savior, or the focus on the admittedly strange rental family services could've turned into another "Weird Japan" spectacle. Instead, the rental family business is used as a device to delve into the loneliness which ails modern Japan (and increasingly the rest of the world). The people there are so starved for genuine human connections, that they are willing to pay hefty amounts to pretend to have it. Though it's only play, real feelings inevitably start to leak in, and Fraser's character grows a little more attached to his clients than he should. Humans are still human, after all, and you can only fake so much in this business.

A Japanese friend of mine didn't enjoy Rental Family as much as I did, which is entirely fair. The film is more for foreigners than for Japanese people, though it seemed to get a positive reception in the theater I attended. I'd recommend this film to anyone who wants to know what it's like to live as a foreigner in Japan. All the little details that you wouldn't know about unless you've lived here for a while. I'll never forget the scene of Fraser coming home to his messy, one room apartment, having some cheap sushi and beer for dinner. That hit pretty close to home.

3. Sinners

Sinners was the horror-action-musical of the summer. It captivates you from beginning to end, with several twists and turns along the way. Although it is Ryan Coogler's original story, it reminded me a lot of P. Djèlí Clark's novel Ring Shout. Both stories are set in the rural American South at the turn of the 20th century. They also feature black protagonists who must cross paths with the supernatural and white supremacy. Ring Shout was primarily about the power of film and how easily it could be used to indoctrinate people with racist propaganda. Sinners is more about the power of music, and how it connects people across barriers of race and time. As such, the film is greatly indebted to the bluesy score by Ludwig Goransson, which not only evokes the time period, but also isn't afraid to go into its own direction. Both Sinners and Ring Shout also revel the delights, both musical and sexual, of juke joints. Isles of joy for black people within a sea of race hate. There are so many stand-out performances here, from Michael B. Jordan in a convincing dual role, Delroy Lindo, Miles Canton, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O'Connell, Hailee Stanfield, Li Jin Li, and Jayme Lawson. It is handily the best-acted film of 2025. Like Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Coogler's Sinners made vampires scary again, and it learned that the secret to this is to make us care not only about who may be killed by the vampires, but also about who might turn into one.

2. K-Pop Demon Hunters

It’s a damn shame that K-Pop Demon Hunters wasn’t widely released in theaters. This is a grand concert film that deserved the big screen treatment. It’s also a shame that, were it not for the Criterion Collection, it would be permanently locked behind a Netflix subscription. Given the international popularity of K-pop and Sony Animation’s high reputation with Spider-Verse, I refuse to believe that this film wouldn’t have made a killing at the box office. I was lucky enough to see a special theatrical screening of the film in Japan, and as expected, the experience was incomparable to my computer screen. There's nothing quite like seeing Rumi swinging through the air in a theater.

K-Pop Demon Hunters is also yet another reminder that Disney is no longer the top dog in Western animation. Although it is computer-animated, its unique style evokes both stop-motion and Japanese anime. Unlike so many of the dark, bland, and colorless movies of the modern age, K-Pop Demon Hunters stands out like a bursting rainbow. At a time when AI slop is filling every corner of the Internet with mediocrity, this film is a reminder that hand-crafted animation is the superior medium of the imagination.

The story is about a Korean girl group called Huntrix, which has three girls as members: the bubbly Zoey, the sullen Mira, and the courageous Rumi. In addition to being great singers, they also fight off the demons that threaten Korea. Their music has the power to lift people's hearts, and this spiritual energy creates a mystic barrier which keeps the demons at bay. To counter this, the demons form their own pop group called the Saja Boys, whose infectious hit, "Soda Pop" threatens to steal away Huntrix's fans and permanently rupture the barrier. The only way that Rumi and the gang can overcome this threat is by being honest with each other, however much that might hurt.

The songs of K-Pop Demon Hunters will stay in your brain long after the credits roll. They're addictive and infectiously bouncy. This is thanks in no small part to the incredible singing talents of Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami, and Andrew Choi. "Golden" will be with me for a long time. The movie is also a pointed critique of the toxic need to fake being perfect. This is particularly prescient for Korea, where plastic surgery and overwork are common, but also anywhere else, especially with the glamorous social media profiles that populate our phones. I suspect that the film will be a sexual awakening for, well, everyone really: the straights, the gays, and of course, the hentai-curious.

As much as I loved this film, it had a few glaring flaws. I felt that it left a lot of questions unresolved regarding Rumi's parents. Questions that don't bother you at the time, but when you're sitting at home thinking back on the film. The movie also has a mixed message on whether or not demons are ultimately redeemable. The movie suggests that it is wrong for Huntrix to blindly hate demons without first trying to understand them, and yet 99% of the demons they encounter are about as evil as their first impression implies. The film has a good message about self-acceptance and being open about your flaws, and yet the only demons worthy of forgiveness are the hot ones. Figure that.

1. Chainsaw Man: The Movie — Reze Arc

Chainsaw Man follows in Demon Slayer’s footsteps by doing a story arc in film as opposed to a TV season. The final result is far better than Demon Slayer Infinity Castle. If K-Pop Demon Hunters tried to capture the pressure to appear perfect in modern society, Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc wants to capture the difficulty of finding love in modern society.

Denji, the titular "Chainsaw Man", has one major goal in life, and that's to make the mysterious and chilling Makima his girlfriend. He's so obsessed with this goal that he's willing to be her servant in her war against the Devils. The first season of Chainsaw Man was littered with bizarre humor, ultraviolent fights, and unbelievably sexy women. This film has all of that, too, but with the added bonus of giving Denji his first proper romance. Denji has a token date with Makima at first, but it feels more like a pretend date than anything real. This becomes more apparent once he meets Reze.

Denji's first act to impress Reze is eating a daisy and then spitting it back out--perfectly restored. She is not grossed by this in the slightest, which is a hint that, like him, she's not quite human. It's also a sign that Denji can be himself around her. His true, quirky self. Their quiet moments at the coffee shop are cute, but the highlight of their romance is the night at the swimming pool. The fact that they're both naked laces it with eros, but there's also the delightful intimacy of letting go in the water. Of forgetting the world's problems for a while, and just enjoying the moment. Reze, sadly, is still a Devil, so Denji has no choice but to fight her, throwing into doubt whether or not her feelings for him were ever real.

The level of detail in every frame of this film almost made me feel bad for the animators. Maybe they worked themselves a little too hard. The attention to the rain effects, in particular, brings to mind Makoto Shinkai's Garden of Words. The film is as action-packed as it is beautiful. The fights go to an absurd level which could only be achieved in animation. The climactic final battle is literally an anime version of Sharknado. While it is questionable if Chainsaw Man's extreme content makes it appropriate for the shonen label, it at least accomplishes what the shonen genre does best by appealing to the teenager in all of us.