Ahead of the new year, Cascadia Daily News staffers reflected on the standout albums, books and movies they came across in 2025. Some titles are new releases, whereas others were simply new to us. Across the board, however, every title made an impression.
Below are the best films staff members saw in 2025. Check back later this week for our top books and albums.
‘Eleanor the Great’
Comedy/drama | Reviewed by Audra Anderson
“Eleanor the Great” was Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, and a beautiful one at that. The plot follows 94-year-old Eleanor, who moves to New York City after the death of her best friend and roommate, Bessie. Shortly before her death, Bessie describes being a Holocaust survivor to Eleanor.
In an unfamiliar city and through a series of mishaps, Eleanor adopts Bessie’s survival story as her own. A student journalist begins spending time with Eleanor in the hopes of being able to write about her “experience” for a class project. The college-aged Nina recently had a devastating loss of her own: her mom.
The pair form an unlikely friendship. As the truth comes out, feelings of betrayal and confusion bubble up, but the undercurrent beneath all of it is grief.
Relatable and, at times, farcical, this film explores how grief can make you act out, drive a wedge between surviving relationships and fail to make logical sense. The acting is natural and subtle, powered by the great June Squibb (Eleanor) and the up-and-coming Erin Kellyman (Nina). Bring your tissues out for this one; it’s sure to pull at your heartstrings.
‘KPop Demon Hunters’
Action/animated | Reviewed by Isaac Stone Simonelli
I don’t particularly like K-Pop, aka Korean Pop Music. At least, I didn’t think I did until I watched “KPop Demon Hunters.” Do I rewatch movies that aren’t the 1950 film “Harvey” or the “Harry Potter” series? Of course not. Am I stoked to re-watch KPop Demon Hunters with its trio of musical superstars topping out the charts and slaying demons in their free time? Absolutely.
In a cinematic world filled to the brim with antiheroes, senseless violence and poorly oriented moral compasses, this film manages to rise to the top by reveling in the finer qualities of humanity and community. I’ve got nothing against gratuitous violence or a solid antihero story arc, but there is something inspiring and captivating in what directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans cowrote with Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan.
Oh, and do I regularly listen to the soundtrack of “KPop Demon Hunters,” despite not liking K-Pop? Yes, of course, I do — it’s golden.
(Photo courtesy of Pickford Film Center)
‘Love + War’
Documentary | Reviewed by Owen Racer
If you’re reading this story, it’s likely not a feat to convince you why a documentary about one of the most acclaimed photojournalists of our time is worth your time.
“Love + War,” Directed by Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo”), follows the life and career of photojournalist Lynsey Addario, a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner. By placing Addario before the lens rather than behind it, the importance of her work is magnified.
After watching the film, one is easily hooked by Addario, resulting in hunger for more but from the narrative control of the journalist herself. Fortunately, Addario delivers.
A collection of Addario’s photographs was published in a timeless 2018 book, “Of Love & War.” The photobook, along with her 2015 memoir, “It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War,” provides intimate access into her career and personal life from her perspective.
‘Sinners’
Thriller/horror | Reviewed by Cocoa Laney
I’ve spotted “Sinners” on numerous best-of lists this month, and I can’t say I’m surprised. I saw Ryan Coogler’s sweeping rollercoaster of a Southern Gothic on the Fourth of July and still think about it regularly.
“Sinners” tells the story of prodigal twins Smoke and Stack, who return to their hometown in Jim Crow Mississippi. In an attempt to start fresh, the brothers enlist their cousin, blues musician/“Preacher’s Boy” Sammie, to help them open a DIY juke joint. Unfortunately, Sammie’s powerful musicianship attracts unwanted, bloodsucking visitors who wish to seize his gift as their own.
As a lifelong horror fan, I appreciate when directors bend genre tropes to examine real-world issues. There’s also plenty to unpack around Coogler’s use of music — namely, the blues — to represent the soul of a culture.
That’s not to say “Sinners” is a perfect film: Coogler pulls on lots of threads throughout its 137 minutes, and not all are perfectly interwoven by the time the credits roll. But on a macro level, “Sinners” is a bombastic, undeniably original thriller, made even stronger by the care Coogler takes in developing its characters.
‘Vertigo’
Thriller | Reviewed by Annie Todd
Previous to this summer, the only memory I had of “Vertigo” is the scene at the end where Jimmy Stewart is climbing the infamous clock tower stairs. My dad turned it off before the climax.
In case you missed it, the Pickford Film Center ran an Alfred Hitchcock movie series this year.
“Vertigo” was the only movie out of the entire series that I came out of the theater thinking about just how twisted Hitchcock was. And that’s saying something, since I saw “Psycho,” too.
“Vertigo” follows private eye John Ferguson (Stewart) as he reels from losing his police job and the untimely death of the woman he’s slowly falling in love with, even though he’s supposed to be tailing her. What follows is dark and twisted. I wondered about the agency of Kim Novak’s characters, the lengths people go for toxic love and the impact of the lies we tell ourselves.
Coming next: Our favorite books of 2025.