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Favorite Films of 2025
28 Years Later Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s tragically beautiful sequel picks up where humanity and the rage virus left off. But viewing it from the perspective of a young boy navigating his new normal emotionally wrecked me. All the frenzied urgency of Boyle’s directing style remains, placing palpable anxiety behind every terrifying encounter with the new Alpha infected. And Garland’s incredible storytelling unravels around that dread, delivering an earnest, coming-of-age tale filled with loss, liberation and most of all, acceptance. –Amber Sampson
Bugonia I don’t love everything director Yorgos Lanthimos has done (ahem, Poor Things) but I must admit this darkly comical sci-fi thriller had me questioning reality—and loving it. Jesse Plemons as a paranoid conspiracy theorist is so uncomfortably believable; Emma Stone as a (bald) pharmaceutical CEO is disturbingly natural. The plot itself centers around Stone’s character possibly being a part of a secret alien species that’s destroying our planet. Sounds nuts, right? … Right? –AS
Bring Her Back This horror film directed by sibling duo Danny and Michael Philippou is about grief viewed through the lens of an unsettling, malevolent presence. The cast absolutely chews the scenery (if you know, you know), pushing the film into moments so intense they made me look away more than once. By the end, it feels less like a traditional horror film and more like a deeply sad story, one where no one truly wins, not even the surviving protagonist. –Gabriela Rodriguez
Frankenstein Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican GOAT of gothic horror, truly delivered with his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Jacob Elordi’s captivating performance moved me to feel a genuine kinship with the monster and a deep disdain for his creator. In short, this interpretation distinguishes itself through the exploration of man’s loneliness and the enduring human longing for connection. –GR
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley Music documentaries have a high threshold for success. This year, I saw music docs that thrilled me (Netflix’s DEVO, for one) and docs that kinda annoyed me (Pavements). But I came out of It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley feeling more feelings than I could process. I felt respect and admiration for Buckley’s talent and passion, regret that they were snuffed out so soon, and a loving, nearly painful nostalgia. Director Amy Berg more than cleared that high bar. –Geoff Carter
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair Quentin Tarantino combining both volumes of Kill Bill into a four-and-a-half-hour Snyder cut convinced me this was the only way to watch them. This special screening demanded minimal bathroom breaks and ultimate concentration. I witnessed far more gory and lengthy animated scenes from O-Ren’s origin story, the epic House of Blue Leaves fight in full color and Uma Thurman kicking so much ass that mine hurt by the end of it. –AS
One Battle After Another A three-hour-long panic attack courtesy of Paul Thomas Anderson, this is a tender tale of a father-daughter relationship, an assessment of underlying oppression, political paranoia and social unrest—all while remaining incredibly humorous, smart and backed by an unsurprisingly stellar cast. –GR
Sinners Ryan Coogler takes us to the Depression-era Mississippi Delta where a battle between good and evil brews over the course of a single, action-packed day. As twins Smoke and Stack (played by Michael B. Jordan) opened a new juke joint for the local sharecroppers, the power of the blues gripped me as it conjured the undead. You’ve never seen Irish step dancing vampires this terrifying. –Shannon Miller
Superman With his first major entry into the new DC Universe, writer/director James Gunn gave us the thing the superhero genre needed most—a movie that felt different even if its characters and story were beyond familiar. This reboot scored extra points with great casting, especially Nicholas Hoult as the truly evil, disturbingly relatable Lex Luthor. –Brock Radke
Thunderbolts* Anyone who’s written off Marvel as a storytelling studio needs to see this weirdly affecting ensemble piece. The script is tight, the movie looks great, and every one of its stars— Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus—puts in an engaged, nuanced performance. And it’s a blessing to see one of these movies end not with a CGI battle, but with an actual human moment. Vastly underrated. –GC
Wake Up Dead Man Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig give us another Benoit Blanc mystery for Christmas, and like Knives Out and Glass Onion before it, you couldn’t tell what was in this one beforehand by shaking the box. A moody, neo-gothic thriller with career-high performances from Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin and Glenn Close, the real mystery of Wake Up Dead Man is how director Johnson will top it next time out. –GC
Weapons Director Zach Cregger’s Weapons satisfied the requirements for horror, thriller and mystery genres, and introduced an iconic villain-turned-LGBTQ icon, Aunt Gladys. For those who had seen Barbarian, also directed by Cregger, telling a story from multiple perspectives wasn’t necessarily new, but the puzzle woven into Weapons’ plot turned up the intrigue and kept me guessing. –SM
Favorite Albums of 2025
Bad Bunny, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS I’ll never get enough of Bad Bunny. From his early days as a reggaeton papi to his more mature turn as a maestro blending chuwi textures with perreo-driven hooks, he’s only further embedded himself as one of this generation’s greatest treasures. His music resists dilution, instead insisting on Puerto Rico’s presence at the center of the conversation and DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS reads as a love letter to Benito’s home country, one that invites us to travel back with him. –GR
FKA Twigs, Eusexua After struggling to connect with FKA Twigs’ previous albums, Eusexua hit me like a revelation. At first blush, FKA Twigs’ delicate vocals simply dance over slick house beats and vibrant techno, but midway through, this club record melds into something pristine and transcendent. The euphoria of Eusexua is that it feels alive. Each melodious drop and experimental note tells a larger story about the freedom of baring your soul on the dance floor. –AS
Freak Slug, I Blow Out Big Candles This was a great year for indie music, and releases by Tennis, Viagra Boys, Billy Nomates, Lambrini Girls and Neggy Gemmy almost took this spot. But Freak Slug’s I Blow Out Big Candles—Xenya Genovese, in civilian life—just sticks in my ribs. The snaky “Spells” is a 21st century “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” and I will die on that hill. And while the quiet-to-load “Liquorice” may not be the romantic ballad we deserve in these crazed times, it’s the one we need. “F**k it, I still love you, yeah,” she sings cheerily. “Sometimes it’s hard, my love.” –GC
Freddie Gibbs, Alfredo 2 It’s a sure thing when Freddie Gibbs and legendary producer The Alchemist get together. Alfredo 2, the sequel to their 2020 collaboration, operates less as a surprise than a confirmation, of chemistry, of restraint, of craft honed over time. Gibbs’ sharp lyricism moves with veteran confidence over Alchemist’s jazz-laced, dust-worn production, creating a record that values precision over spectacle. This was one that had its grip on me for the better part of the year. –GR
Laura Itandehui, Si Me Ven Alegre Itandehui’s 2021 debut album showed that her soothing voice doesn’t need much accompaniment to tell a story. Si Me Ven Alegre (If They See Me Happy) ventures into joyful, robust arrangements for percussion and wind instruments, written by the album’s co-producer Gustavo Guerrero. Listening to the album’s variety of Latin styles is like being in a mercado—so many different tastes and textures. –SM
Lucy Dacus, Forever Is a Feeling I love hearing Lucy Dacus in love, and in her fourth studio album, she’s head over heels. Forever Is a Feeling is as sharp as it is tender, with flourishes of violin and swoon-worthy lyrics about Dacus building feelings for Boygenius bandmate Julien Baker. The flutter of attraction is evident on songs like “Ankles,” and the singer-songwriter’s at her most vulnerable on “Most Wanted Man” and “Big Deal.” It’s an album that almost feels too private to enjoy. I’m thankful Dacus chose to share it. –AS
Mon Laferte, Femme Fatale There’s a vulnerable side to every femme fatale, and Chilean singer-songwriter Mon Laferte balances that with all the seduction and tragedy the archetype is known for. The backdrop of jazz and other vintage sounds is the perfect setting for this character’s voice and story to play out. At times meek (“Mi Hombre”) and at other times—maybe within the same song—unhinged (“El Gran Señor”), Laferte wears her heart on her sleeve and leaves nothing on the table in this album. –SM
Natalia Lafourcade, Cancionera Lafourcade’s celebration of the golden age of Mexican cinema runs the gamut of emotions with riotous rollicking in “Cocos en la Playa” and “El Palomo y la Negra,” as well as dark and mysterious melancholy in “La Bruja,” “Luna Creciente.” At times, her lyric soprano voice joins with El David Aguilar’s and Israel Fernandez’s to heart-wrenching effect. Lucky for us, the Grammy-winning musician will bring her highly anticipated Cancionera tour to the Smith Center in June. –SM
Nine Inch Nails, Tron: Ares A not insignificant number of articles I wrote for the Weekly this year were composed under the influence of this darkly sweet and thrillingly propulsive soundtrack. YouTube Music informs me that I listened to the slamming electro of “As Alive as You Need Me to Be” more than any other track this year, with the gorgeous “Who Wants to Live Forever” not far behind it. And I dug the movie, too. –GC
PinkPantheress, Fancy That Technically, it’s a mixtape—only 20 minutes long. But whatever the dance music mastermind born Victoria Walker wants to call Fancy That, there’s no denying what it is: sexy, propulsive, audacious, melodic, thrilling. I may not have been able to take more than 20 minutes of “Illegal,” “Girl Like Me” and “Tonight.” Also: If you sample Underworld and interpolate Basement Jaxx, I’m just gonna like ya, few questions asked. –GC
The Beaches, No Hard Feelings Some might’ve expected the Beaches to fizzle out after buzz around the cheeky breakup hit “Blame Brett” died down. But this Canadian four-piece has proven their artistic depth goes beyond a crappy ex. No Hard Feelings delivers on everything you could want: It’s full of well-placed barbs, witty lyricism, and party anthems but it’s also honest about topics like embracing one’s queerness. Everytime I listen to this album, I’m either fist-pumping or falling face-first into my feelings, just the way I like it. –AS
Turnstile, Never Enough Before the official release of Never Enough, Turnstile premiered a companion visual album in theaters, a gesture that felt as ambitious as it was self-aware. Experiencing the 14-track project in this way framed the record as a whole summer mood rather than a collection of songs, one designed to linger, loop and blur together. The band’s continued push beyond hardcore results in a project that’s glossy and atmospheric, sometimes at the expense of its bite, yet still grounded enough to remain heavy and moshable. That tension carried through when I saw them in San Francisco in October, where the band revealed both its strengths and its softness in that live setting. –GR
Favorite TV shows of 2025
Alien: Earth In every Alien movie (and there are nine of them), fans eagerly await the chest-bursting scene. Noah Hawley’s new TV series Alien: Earth approaches this minimally—there is just one active chest-burster in eight episodes. And for that, that scene is all the more, shall I say er, sickly rewarding, due to the character development that occurs in place of the gratuitous gore we’ve all come to know and love. –SM
Andor (Season 2) Wow. Wow, wow, wow. The second season of Tony Gilroy’s Rogue One prequel series was even better than its first, dropping into our current political climate so neatly that it not only recontextualizes and deepens the Star Wars universe, but gets you looking at the real world with the eyes of a rebel. Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Genevieve O'Reilly, Elizabeth Dulau, Ben Mendelsohn … all perfect. Andor was perfect television, a readymade masterpiece right out of the gate. –GC
I Love LA This show, while being a nepo-baby bizarre, was a hilarious way to end the year. Rachel Sennott, who created and stars in the series, brilliantly showcases Gen Z’s optimistic nihilism and the absurdity of internet fame. Ultimately, it’s a sharp reflection of adolescent friendships and the performative nature of ambition in a town that’s obsessed with status. –GR
IT: Welcome to Derry It isn’t easy to adapt one of Stephen King’s most famous stories, let alone make a prequel out of it, but Welcome to Derry met the challenge head on. Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as Pennywise, and Andy and Barbara Muschietti return to develop the series, allowing Welcome to Derry to thrive at being just as gruesome and nightmarish as the films—if not more so. No one is ever truly safe in this screwed up little town. –AS
King of the Hill So much has changed about our world in terms of trends, politics and pop culture. Would a show about a conservative Texan family still work? Dang it, Bobby, of course. After a 15-year hiatus, King of the Hill’s time jump ingeniously brings the Hills into the modern era, allowing us to see epic moments like Hank confronting the manosphere and Bobby running a Japanese-German-American fusion restaurant. It was like comfort food for my soul. –AS
Murderbot A group of researchers on a remote planet is forced to accept a security android to meet their insurance requirements, unaware that their android, a terrifically dry Alexander Skarsgård, has hacked himself into not following orders—and is completely obsessed with a cheesy soap opera. If that sounds like a solid premise to you, you should watch Murderbot and maybe be my friend. –GC
Peacemaker (Season 2) John Cena’s hair rock-fueled antihero and his team of disgraced intelligence agents and superpowered misfits—including characters sharply acted by Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma and Robert Patrick—got a big budgetary boost this season as showrunner James Gunn became the head creative of the DC franchise. Not a penny is wasted: We get parallel universes, alien worlds, epic gross-outs and storytelling turns that are every bit as unexpected and tight as those Gunn got from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. –GC
Starting 5 (Season 2) Produced by companies founded by LeBron James, Peyton Manning and the Obamas, this basketball documentary series was already great in its 2024 debut. But the second season got us even closer to these superstar personalities, transcending the sports angle and revealing astonishing depth on the way to creating true must-see TV. It certainly didn’t hurt that two of the five charismatic athletes profiled, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton, led their teams to one of the most dramatic NBA Finals series in years. –BR
The Rehearsal (Season 2) Nathan Fielder’s deadpan awkwardness can be a tough pill for some viewers to swallow, but that’s part of the point. Once you get past it, the show’s meticulously orchestrated simulations, designed to help people rehearse real life situations, are equal parts unsettling and brilliant. This season, Fielder takes airline safety into his own hands by putting himself in the cockpit and completing the ultimate rehearsal. –GR
Favorite Podcasts of 2025
Good Hang with Amy Poehler That magical thing that happens when we connect with a podcast—when you feel like you know and maybe even become friends with the podcasters—has never developed easier or faster than with Good Hang, which seems like it’s been around a lot longer than nine months. We’re all Amy Poehler fans, whether you’re a Saturday Night Live devotee or a Parks and Recreation obsessive, and her sharp wit, infectious laughter and absolute appreciation of her guest-friends is the warm sonic hug we need every week. –BR
Jim and Them I don’t know if you’ve kept up with what’s happening with former child star Corey Feldman, but he’s kind of nuts. He’s awkwardly spiritual; he’s got a short fuse; he records unlistenable music; he makes up outlandish stories; he’s a Temu Hugh Hefner. The Jim and Them podcast simply points out what he’s doing, and it’s hilarious. It’s also publicity Feldman probably doesn’t deserve, but the hosts stand by him because Goonies never say die. –GC
One Song It’s as good as its name: In every episode, Diallo Riddle and Blake “Luxxury” Robin break a song down to its components—sometimes to examine them critically, but mostly to geek out about how cool they are. It’s a bit like Song Exploder but with real passion and humor. And it can make you fall in love with songs you’ve heard a million times, all over again. –GC
TCM Presents: The Plot Thickens I love Turner Classic Movies, and I sincerely hope it survives whatever happens to Warner Bros. in the coming year. In the meantime, I’m taking in as much of it as I can, including this Hollywood history podcast hosted by the channel’s Ben Mankiewicz. This year, he dissected the corpse of 1963’s Cleopatra, the Elizabeth Taylor epic that wrecked the career of his great uncle, director Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The host’s encyclopedic knowledge of Cleopatra, along with his personal feelings on the film, make for great listening. –GC
The Other Castle (Season 11) Tom McLaughlin and Andrea Carter, the couple dedicated to covering “the plot, lore and more" of your favorite video games, prove yet again why they’re one of the best storytelling duos around. Season 11 of The Other Castle saw the couple tackle the incredible mystery of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the adventurous tale of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle among others like the greatest audiobooks you ever heard. I learn so much from these episodic deep dives, and I know other gamers will too. –AS
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