Damian Writes About Stuff

Listening to Dirty Work by Steely Dan

This year, I’m breaking away from the rigid structure of a Top 10 Movie list, both to keep things fresh and as a protest against conformity. Instead, I will be highlighting films using my own arbitrary categories! In 2025, I watched around 50 of the year’s finest new releases: some bad, a lot of mid, and even a couple of good ones. Every year, there seems to be recurring themes between the movies, and like the purple Connections category, I’m gonna try and link them at the end. In no particular order here we go:

Best Superhero-Slop Pick: Superman

At a time when superhero movies seem to get worse every year, this film bucks the trend with a wholesome portrayal of Superman. The song Punkrocker perfectly fits the vibe of this incarnation, and it’s crazy how hard the movie hits you over the head with its not-so-subtle politics.

Let’s Check in on the British Pick: 28 Years Later

What an insane movie. The shitty filmed on iPhone aesthetic works really well here. I still don’t know what it’s really about (Healthcare? Immigration? Brexit??) or where it’s going, but I’m going to be seated for Bone Temple and am ready to leave even more bewildered and confused.

Bay Area Pick: Freaky Tales

I slept on this for too long and just watched it. I wish I’d seen it at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland for a fully immersive experience. It takes place in ’80s Oakland and features a set of interlocking surreal stories, including punks vs. Nazis and a Warriors player astral-projecting to fight even more Nazis.

James Cameron Legacy Pick: Avatar Way of the Water Fire and Ash

I thought about re-watching the second movie before this but Box Office Jim did me a solid and just replayed it in the middle of this one. Is this a good movie? Hard to say. Was it fun to go to Pandora for three hours and hang out with my boys Lo’ak and Payakan, absolutely.

Wholesome Pick: Rental Family

Highlighting this film to try to balance the scales with all the other crazy stuff on here. Brendan Fraser playing a down-on-his-luck actor feels fitting, and he’s filmed in a way that always makes him seem out of place in the frame. All of the establishing shots of Tokyo are beautifully done and make me want to go back and take even more pictures.

People Taking Photos of a Character During Movie (tie): Bugonia and Chainsawman The Movie: Reze Arc

In both cases people took out their phones in front of me to take pictures when a certain sex symbol person showed up, I won’t say who.

Yorgos more often hits than misses for me, and I wished Bugonia did more, I really wanted to like it more. The premise was something right down my alley: “internet-radicalized conspiracy theorists kidnap a CEO thinking she is an alien.” It had some great moments, was visually interesting, and the performances were good all around. The ending was goofy, but it felt like it was missing a larger meaning, which kept me from rating it higher.

A highlight of seeing the Reze movie in theaters was overhearing a guy afterward trying to explain to his girlfriend, who hadn’t watched the show before, what had happened over the last two hours. I outed myself as a Fujimoto enjoyer last year with Look Back, and I’m even more excited for its upcoming live-action adaptation directed by Kore-da.

The Slow Pick: The Mastermind

A pretty quiet and reserved movie compared to some of the other stuff on here, but very memorable for me. There are themes of masculinity and denial, portrayed by Josh O’Connor, with Vietnam ever-present in the background.

Wild Tonal Shift(non derogatory) Pick: Weapons

Play some Benny Hill over the last sequence and you’d probably have the funniest thing on film all year. An incredibly solid movie, and am excited to see what Zach Cregger does next.

Transcendental Pick: Train Dreams

This is getting added to the Pantheon of movies that feature stoic guys with blue-collar jobs who like to look at trees, along with Paterson and Perfect Days. Something about these kinds of movies really work for me, where the slow, monotonous pace is used as a device to help you appreciate the little things in life. Also at one point William H. Macy says : “… except for Kansas. That state is a collection of savage lunatics.”

Korean Movie Denigrating Capitalism Pick: No Other Choice

Park Chan-wook brings us another late-stage capitalism hit, closer to double than a home run, but still solid. He’s made some incredible movies, and while this one is different, its subject matter invites comparisons to Parasite, so expectations were high. The cinematography was wild; usually when I see phones show on screen it takes me out but this movie does such a good job making a text exchange or phone call visually interesting. Final thought: this movie would probably hit so much harder if you were unemployed.

Better than you for Liking the Book More Pick: Hamnet

I read the book a couple years ago based off a friend’s recommendation and really enjoyed it. So when I heard that Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley were going to be the leads in the movie, I was sold immediately. Ive seen this labeled as “grief porn” but that’s reductive. This worked pretty well in my opinion except for some bits towards the very end of the movie. The Hamlet monologue and Globe Theater performance were out of key I started laughing. “I’m looking for my husband, William Shakespeare!!!”

European People Talking Pick: Sentimental Value

Rachel Kemp is the greatest actress of our generation! Everyone acts their butts off in this, and the humor breaking up all the heavy emotional stuff was effective. Still thinking about Stellan using the paper towel roll and giving a child a Piano Teacher blue ray for his birthday.

New York City Pick, Striving for Greatness Pick, Destructive Behavior Pick, (and Honorable Japan Mention): Marty Supreme

After Hours walked so Good Times could run, so that Uncut Gem could frantically hustle, so that Marty could also run. They are always running in these stress-core movies. Another high-expectations film that would have been devastating to the terminally online film discourse community if it had sucked. Of all the movies I’ve listed so far this is the one that I’m fiending to re-watch the most.

Damn That Was Crazy, I Love Movies Pick: Sinners

This is really two movies in one, and like Michael B. Jordan’s Smoke and Stack, the Southern horror and vampire elements work well together. It’s been funny hearing people polarized over which half is better. The dream music sequence alone made this a top movie for me this year literal chills in the theater watching it. The performances were great, and holy cow, this was amazing to watch on an IMAX screen

Wow Movies Can be so Good Pick: It Was Just An Accident

From the moment the credits rolled, I knew it was going to be one of my top movies of the year, and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves. Jafar Panahi had to film this in secret, and despite that, he captured something truly great.

Performative Politics Pick: One Battle After Another and Eddington

There are always movies released around the same time with similar themes but wildly different approaches to portraying them. These two feel like two sides of the same coin: Eddington’s ending is a cynical acceptance that things are going to get worse, while OBAA is naïvely optimistic that things can get better, despite showing that the revolution we admired was largely ineffective and performative.

In Eddington, they are not subtle about the performativeness of demonstrations, showing both BLM activists and anti-mask people, and just how mind-broken everyone was during 2020. Its a movie I’ve warmed up to the longer I’ve sat with it, especially as more of the events it portrays have started to become reality more and more. Ari Aster’s prescience is kinda terrifying.

Seeing the OBAA chase scene in IMAX was insane; it made three cars driving in a straight line absolutely thrilling. Sensi Bencio was obviously a highlight, his character serving as an actual role model in a sea of maladjusted people. There are so many moments from this movie that are going to stick in the public zeitgeist.

Finally some of the recurring themes and tropes I saw in movies this Year:

Striving for Greatness No matter How Destructive: Marty, Hamnet, Sinners, Smashing Machine, The Mastermind

Fighting Back Against Authoritarianism: OBAA, Avatar Fire and Ash, Eddington, Mickey 17, Superman, It Was Just an Accident

Conspiracy: Bugonia, OBAA, Eddington, Weapons, No Other Choice

IMAX Spectacle: OBAA, Sinners, Avatar Fire & Ash, F1

And as always, movies I didn’t see yet but want to: The Testament of Ann Lee, a musical about the Shakers founder and The Secret Agent .

Bonus Movie Experience: Watching La La Land in the park and midway through a deorbiting Starlink satellite streamed across the sky, magical!

Up next a Sundance Film Festival Trip Report from the final Park City iteration? Follow along here: Letterboxd