That time of year is finally here — it’s time to whittle down the list of 150 new movies I saw this year to my 20 favorites.
This is the third time I’ve done this for Rough Draft, and it might be the hardest time I’ve ever had finalizing my list. That’s not necessarily because I think the crop of movies as a whole are better than 2023 or 2024, but rather because the range of what we got this year makes comparison extra difficult. How does one compare a movie like “Sinners” to a movie like “Blue Moon,” or a movie like “Jay Kelly” to a movie like “Kiss of the Spider Woman?” 2025 gave us a lot of variety at the theater, and that always makes for a fun, if difficult, time sorting through everything at the end of the year.
But, even with all that variety, different themes emerged. Of the 20 movies on my list, eight (maybe 10, if you squint) have to do with terrors and/or joys of parenthood. Three deal with the complicated lives of artists. Seven (some, inadvertently) ruminate on the evils of capitalism. And one dares to ask: what if Jennifer Lopez dressed as a sexy spider and tried to kill you with a kiss?
Read Sammie’s full list on Rough Draft
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