2025 Year in Review: Movies

Happy still-pretty-new year! As promised, here I am with the movies edition of my 2025 year in review (and I’m only posting it a few days later than I said I would. Wonders never cease).

I didn’t watch many new films in the first half of the year, but then in August I became properly introduced to Fred Astaire and began binge-watching his movies in result. So when all was said and done, I did end up watching quite a few new movies this year after all.

But on a rather different note, let us begin with

1. The Lord of the Rings extended editions (2001-2003)

“I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.” 
“So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”
~

I’d seen the theatrical releases many years ago, but never the extended editions. The short version of my thoughts is that I liked things about them, but wasn’t satisfied on the whole. I reviewed the movies in full here, here, and here.

2. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

“You fools, this man is plotting our doom! We die at dawn! He is Caligari!”
~

Watched for school

I hate horror movies…and this is considered one of the pioneer films of the horror genre. So I was not looking forward to watching this. It wasn’t as bad as I feared; the kind of horror I hate the most and absolutely refuse to watch is when they pull supernatural stuff into it, and at least they didn’t really do that here. And it was very interesting to watch this in the context of seeing what the German mindset, culture, &c. was like at the time (which is why I had to watch it for school), and in the context of seeing what film-making techniques were like at this early stage. So while I would never have watched this if I didn’t have to and don’t have any intention of ever watching it again, it was interesting to see once.

3. Stuart Little 3 (2005)

“I can’t believe you lied to me!”
“I didn’t lie; I merely distorted the truth to fit the paradoxical reality of the situation I was faced with.”
“…at least you weren’t lying.”
~

…I’m realizing that this is an eclectic list.

From all I’d heard, I was expecting this to be Highly Cringe. In fact, I owned the DVD for about a year before I plucked up the courage to actually watch it. Honestly, though, I don’t think it was anywhere near as bad as was billed. I wouldn’t call it good, and it was definitely nowhere near as endearing as the first two Stuart Little movies, but it did retain a fair bit of the wholesome charm of the first two. And while a lot of the dialogue was Not the Best, there were a few genuinely funny bits. (I was also immensely impressed with the voice actor for Snowbell – I had heard beforehand that they had replaced the original voice actor for this one, but he did such a good job that when I first started watching I wondered if I had been mistaken.)

4. The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

“Truly, this Man was the Son of God.”
~

This was a strange mix of things that I liked and things I didn’t. The overall feel was very subdued and introspective and atmospheric, which I really liked and which I think lent a feeling of reverence to the movie throughout. The dialogue was not all great, though, and some of the changes that they made were frankly baffling. I understand that you’re going to have to condense some things and/or add material in sometimes when making a movie based on the Gospels, but just outright changing things is different – especially when there’s no clear reason why you would make such a change. They completely changed Herod’s motivations in murdering John the Baptist, for instance, and they most perplexingly did not show the fact of Jesus’s physical presence after His resurrection. If you want to watch a film about Christ’s life, I think that the 1977 Jesus of Nazareth is much better.

5. Tomorrowland (2015)

“Why now? Why her?”
“Because she hasn’t given up.”
~

This movie had a lot of potential (‘latent potentialities,’ as Lady Florence Craye would put it), but it felt messy and unfinished. I think that the basic message – that life is what we make it, we have the power to change things for the better if we only ‘feed the right wolf’ and don’t give into despair and apathy, &c. – was certainly a fine and good message (though some of the more specific messages that they included were rather clobber-you-over-the-head-ish). But far too much of the movie was focused on the external conflicts of getting to Tomorrowland and fighting off androids and whatnot. The conflict of the climax itself felt too external – after the climactic realization that the battle of change (for good or bad) is primarily fought inside, in the mind, it seemed rather anti-climactic that destroying a physical machine was the way to fix everything. I also didn’t feel like the villain was treated fairly…he was one of the most interesting and nuanced characters (though I’m not totally sure how much of that was due to scripting and how much just due to Hugh Laurie’s performance) and then he was given your stereotypical big-bad-villain-comeuppance. ‘Twas a bit of a letdown.

6. All Creatures Great and Small Series 5 (2025)

“I thought I’d start by talking about the emperor penguin.”
“That might be where you lose your audience.”
~

This show is always a lot of fun, though it can get pretty goofy at times. I think this season felt more cohesive and better put-together than last season, though it also features what I think must be the single weirdest episode from the show so far. (We call it ‘the fever dream episode,’ because watching it feels like a fever dream. Once you see Siegfried reciting Jabberwocky while standing on one leg on an upturned barrel, you don’t un-see it.) I was very surprised that they didn’t do something conclusive with Siegfried and Mrs. Hall, because it seemed like they were subtly pushing them as a Thing all season. I feel fairly certain they will next season…but time will tell, I suppose.

Oh yes, and just to make it clear, I’ve long since stopped considering this as connected to the actual James Herriot books at all. You have to view it as a completely separate entity if you want to enjoy it.

7. David Copperfield (1935)

“Why, bless my soul, you’re but a baby.”
“I’m old enough to be a widow – and a mother, if I live. I’m all in a tremble! I shall die, I’m sure!”
“Nonsense! Have some tea.”
~

I didn’t think this was either great or terrible. The pacing was a little strange – they really stretched out the part of the book where David is a child, then really sped through the part where he’s an adult – and the acting was a mixed bag. I liked Dora, Mr. Peggotty (played by Lionel Barrymore!), Uriah Heep, and child-David especially. Unfortunately – since he’s given a lot of screen time – one of my least favorites was W.C. Fields as Mr. Micawber; he just didn’t feel at all Micawber-y. You also didn’t get much of a sense of Agnes’s character, which made me sad, and Ham seemed really rather silly, which made me sad too.

8.

I’m only sort of giving this its own listing, since I’ve already seen many, many episodes from the show, but I saw two new-to-me Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes around this point in the year: S2E12 (“The Royale”), which had a fun premise but which I don’t think was very well-executed, and S7E21 (“Firstborn”), which provides a conclusive episode for Worf and his son and which I really liked a lot. It sort of got me In the Feels a bit, don’t you know.

9. Top Hat (1935)

“May I rescue you?”
“No, thank you. I prefer being in distress.”
~

This was something of a disappointment to me. The first half hour was pretty cute, but once the big misunderstanding starts it begins to get just frustrating, and by the time the movie is wrapping up, I don’t think there’s a single really likeable character left. Morality aside and just from a purely story-telling perspective, the plot doesn’t make sense: if throughout the movie the whole reason that Ginger Roger’s character is appalled at Fred Astaire’s character is because she thinks he’s pursuing her while already married, how does it make sense that when that misunderstanding is cleared up, neither of them seem to consider her being married to be the slightest hindrance? I know that the plot isn’t meant to be taken at all seriously – and let’s face it, the plot is really only there as an excuse for the dancing (which OF COURSE was amazing, that’s taken for granted) – but marriage being taken so lightly in movies Annoys me.

(This is when The Great Binge Watch began, by the way, so be warned that you’ll be seeing a fair bit of Mr. Astaire from here on out. I’ll try to keep my thoughts on his movies pretty short, since I have grand plans of writing a celebratory post for his birthday in May ranking all his movies that I’ve seen.)

(Also, to be clear, I was watching other things too. It’s just that the majority of them were re-watches or movies that I began but never finished.)

10. Royal Wedding (1951)

“She’s quiet, but she’s deep. At least, I hope she’s deep. Otherwise she’s just wasting her time being quiet.”
~

This was cute. Its biggest problem is that there’s almost no plot – I seem to remember saying in a sort of stunned disbelief after it finished “but…nothing HAPPENED!” – but hey, we can’t ask for everything. It does feature two of the most iconic Fred Astaire dance scenes (the one where he dances with a hat rack and the one where he dances on the ceiling) and that has to count for something.

11. North and South (1975)

“Since a choice has to be made, we have chosen this one. The aspect is squalid and dirty, but it is the best we can find.”
“With all respect, Miss Hale, the dirt and grime of our chimney stacks keeps the country’s industry forever flowing.”
~

This is one of those low-budget 1970s BBC classic literature adaptations. I wanted to see it because Patrick Stewart plays Thornton, and the idea of Captain Picard as Mr. Thornton was irresistible. I quite liked his portrayal, actually. He played a much less brooding and angsty version of the character than Richard Armitage did; he was more blunt and rough-around-the-edges in a frank, honest, open sort of way, which I think is more accurate to the book-character. I did not like the actress for Margaret, though…in fact, a lot of the acting really wasn’t amazing.

There were a couple of ways in which I actually preferred this to the 2004 adaptation, though. For one, I felt like Mr. Hale’s crisis of faith at the beginning of the story isn’t really given any respect in the ’04 version, which bugged me a little…and it is here. For another, Henry Lennox is finally given his due! It annoys me that they purposely make him unlikeable in the ’04. If anything he might be too likeable here, but that annoys me less than the alternative. And they don’t make Mr. Bell a creep in this version, which is another definite plus.

(Also, random cool tidbit: the actor who is Mr. Hale in the ’04 version is Frederick in this one!)

12. You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

“You want Maria to think that you’re a martyr? that you’ve been sacrificed on the altar of love?”
“Now, you know THAT idiotic statement didn’t come from your wife’s side of the family!”
~

I kind of fell head-over-heels in love with this one. You know how some movies just click with you and become an immediate comfort movie? This movie did that for me. While its plot is certainly light and implausible, it’s nevertheless engaging and not wholly unsubstantial. And just everything about the aesthetic, the glimmery Hollywood-ified Buenos Aires setting, the gorgeous songs and dances, the ditzy yet endearing side characters, of course the performances of the leads…I just love it. This was definitely one of my favorite new movies this year.

13. David Copperfield (1999)

“Let me see you ride a donkey over my green again, and I’ll knock your bonnet off. And tread upon it!”
~

(When one needs a quote from David Copperfield, Aunt Betsey is who one turns to. That’s just the way it is.)

I didn’t love this one either. Maggie Smith made a very good Aunt Betsey, and I liked this Dora too (some of her scenes hit hard, let me tell you)…in fact, there were numerous good casting decisions. But the story as a whole felt rather flat and lifeless, and David Copperfield is not a flat and lifeless story. (If anything, it may be one of Dickens’ vividest stories.) I think this was partly due to their decision to have an older-David narrating the story…the narration was just plain unnecessary, and it made everything feel more distant and less real. (It didn’t help that he narrated in a weird monotone voice that made it sound like he had absolutely no interest in what he was relating.)

It’s kind of funny, but after saying last year that I disliked the 2019 David Copperfield, it’s actually now my favorite DC adaptation…even though it’s kind of goofy in some ways and there are a couple character decisions I don’t like, I really have come to think it captures the spirit of the book pretty well, and on the whole I’ve grown very fond of it.

14. Second Chorus (1940)

“Oh now, Miss Miller, you’re being a bit unkind. After all, we’ve worked hard to stay in college this long.”
“He’s right. Now it’s not easy for a couple of bright guys like us to go on flunking year after year.”
~

I can’t truthfully say that this is a good movie. I think it knows that, though, and when a movie isn’t Fine Art, I appreciate its being aware of that fact. It just leans into the goofiness and screwball-ness without bothering to try to be good…and there’s something vaguely endearing about that. There was also a very abrupt and much-needed (if a bit implausible) character arc for our protagonist, which I was not expecting and which increased the endearing-ness factor as well.

15. High Noon (1952)

“Kane will be a dead man in half an hour and nobody’s gonna do anything about it. And when he dies, this town dies too. I can feel it.”
~

(There’s a funny story behind my watching both this and the next item on the list – I had been working on a Lord of the Rings dream cast, and Noddy was helping me. We had come to a standstill over Aragorn; after much deliberation I was pretty firmly settled on Gary Cooper, and Noddy was firmly settled on Patrick McGoohan. So we decided that we would sit down together and watch something with each of them in it to help us decide. It only helped somewhat, since neither of us has changed our minds…but both of us understand more where the other is coming from now, so I suppose something was gained.)

Regarding the actual movie itself, I think this marks the first Western I’ve seen (though I know it’s not really a typical Western in any case). It did a really good job of building up the tension; having the movie playing in ‘real time,’ so that when there’s an hour until noon we, the viewers, have to actually sit through that hour, was such a good decision. I honestly didn’t know how it was going to end, which always shows they’re doing something right. It did such a good job of the characterization, too, and of slowly showing us more and more of the characters’ motivations and why they’re acting the way they are as the movie unfolds. And of course all the acting was fantastic.

(Now, maybe this just shows I’m missing the point, but I felt like whats-his-name – you know, Uncle Billy from It’s a Wonderful Life – had a good point. If it was specifically Kane that they were after, wouldn’t the town in fact be better off if he just left and didn’t try to stay and face them? Am I missing something here?)

16. The Prisoner (1967-1968)

“Good day, Number Six.”
“Number what?”
“For official purposes, everyone has a number. Yours is number six.”
“I am not a number. I am a person.”
“Six of one, half a dozen of another.”
~

I only watched the first episode, but I would be interested in seeing more, because it was quite engaging. Vibe-wise, it reminds me of a mix of what I imagine the earlier seasons of Dr. Who to be like (though I haven’t actually watched any) and James Bond if James Bond weren’t an annoying jerk (not that I’ve watched any James Bond either). I really like its storytelling style; it doesn’t give you much information upfront, and it’s up to you to look and think and put things together and mull things over. It also has a cool, sleek 1960s aesthetic that’s very visually pleasing.

(And yes, Noddy, Patrick McGoohan was very good and I do see your point.)

17. Shall We Dance (1937)

“Isn’t it wonderful being here tonight like this, still on the same boat together?”
“Oh, I seldom change boats in mid-ocean.”
~

Again, I didn’t like the lightness with which marriage was treated in this…though I don’t think it was as bad as Top Hat, and here you can at least detect some subtle hints that maybe it’s a Bad Idea to treat marriage lightly. It wasn’t as well-structured as Top Hat, though; the plot felt very meander-y and half-baked. This movie does feature the dancing on roller skates scene, though, which is definitely worth watching….so do watch that scene. Actually, just watch all the songs and dances, because most of those are great. (The “Slap That Bass” scene is one of my top favorites.)

18. You’ll Never Get Rich (1942)

“And I tell you, borrowing a captain’s uniform isn’t healthy!”
“What’s health compared to romance?”
“Yeah? What’s romance compared to a court-martial?”
~

Like Second Chorus, this one is setting out to be goofy and not much else…but it’s just a better movie than Second Chorus. I probably still wouldn’t say it rises to the level of being actively good, but I’m rather fond of it regardless. I would like it even more if it weren’t for the Martin Courtland character, whose main character trait is chasing after pretty young dancers whilst being already married. The movie is very clearly presenting him as a jerk and our main characters clearly think he’s a jerk too…but his presence is nevertheless irritating and brought my overall enjoyment level down.

19. Swing Time (1936)

“Listen. No one could teach you to dance in a million years. Take my advice and save your money!”
~

At least in this one it was just engagements and not actual marriage which was being taken lightly…but again, no one was that likeable and the plot was all over the place. (And the last five or ten minutes were just an utter fever dream.) So sad to say, this wasn’t a favorite for me.

20. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)

“When success goes to a dancer’s feet, he’s all right…but when it goes to his head, he’s top-heavy.”
~

This one, on the other hand, I absolutely loved. It has an actual plot and actual characterization, and both plot and characters are in my opinion quite compelling. It’s a bit less goofy than many in the genre (though it still most certainly has its goofy moments), but it has a sort of optimism, or naivete almost, to it that I find very endearing.

And it co-stars Eleanor Powell, who was another one of the absolute best tap dancers, so all the dancing is utterly spectacular.

21. Roberta (1935)

“Is he insane?”
“Oh, no. He’s just trying to make her feel at home.”
~

…and we’re going with a nice back-and-forth pattern here, because this was one of my least favorites. It had a plot of sorts, but the plot and conflict again felt poorly structured and artificial. And while some of the dialogue was quite funny, there was also some that was more…I don’t want to say crass, because by today’s standards it was pretty tame…but it leaned more in that direction than I would have liked.

22. The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)

“There’s nothing to talk over, Josh. You’re doing very well without me, and I’m doing what I guess I’ve always wanted to do. And in the long run, we’ll be much happier apart. Don’t you think so?”
“Do you?”
~

I don’t enjoy this as much as some of the other classic dance musicals I watched this year, but I think objectively speaking it’s one of the best. It’s character-driven (something I always like in stories), and the characterization is done very very well. The characters are imperfect, but in very realistic and believable ways, and the conflicts that arise are likewise very realistic…and as a result, we actually care about what happens to the characters and are really rooting for them. The main characters are also already married to each other when the story starts, and I’ve mentioned before how I like stories which show us the characters after the wedding. As aforementioned I don’t subjectively enjoy this one as much as some of my other favorites, just because it’s a bit more serious and watching the main characters be dysfunctional idiots can make you want to pull your hair out at times, but I think it’s very very good.

23. Funny Face (1957)

“Duval, please! I can’t hear myself think, and I’m trying to think in French!”
~

For starters, this movie asks us to buy into the ludicrous premise that if you put Audrey Hepburn in shapeless drab clothes and cast her as a nerdy bookstore owner, that will make her funny-looking…which, spoiler alert, it doesn’t. It’s also strangely-paced – there are little spurts of plot, in between which we get long stretches of 1950s fashion and dancing and Paris looking pretty – and has some strange character decisions, which I can rant more about some other time. But despite its imperfections, I’m rather fond of this movie. There’s plenty of fun cinematography and fun dialogue, the characters are (for the most part) pretty endearing, and it’s just a lot of fun overall.

24. Holiday Inn (1942)

“My father was a lot like you. Just a man with a family, never amounted to much, didn’t care. But as long as he was alive, we always had plenty to eat and clothes to keep us warm.”
“Were you happy?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d say your father was a very successful man.”
~

I knew going into this that Fred Astaire would be playing a jerk, and I had braced myself for it. But honestly, though we’re supposed to like him better, I didn’t find Bing Crosby’s character to be much of an improvement. Both Jim and Ted used the same kind of manipulatory tactics; Ted just happened to be more skilled at it. The result was that I didn’t really like any of the characters (though Linda was marginally better than the rest), and therefore wasn’t that invested in what was going to happen. For the first half of the movie it felt like the characters were jerks in more of a clueless, semi-well-meaning way, and I preferred that…if the whole movie had continued with that feel I would have liked it better.

25. A Damsel in Distress (1937)

“I can’t go now. She needs me! She’s in trouble.”
“Oh Jerry, don’t be so pessimistic. Maybe she’ll still be in trouble when you get back.”
~

This is a Fred Astaire movie which is not just based on a P.G. Wodehouse book, but Wodehouse himself was one of the screenplay writers – so in other words, it’s two of my favorite things rolled into one movie. I had absurdly high expectations going in, and while it didn’t quite meet those expectations and I wouldn’t say it was perfect, there was lots of good stuff in it and was pretty doggone funny. It definitely does feel very Wodehousian, both script and plot-wise. (Oh yes, and George Burns and Gracie Allen are in it too, which is fun – although their humor was something of a mixed bag for me.)

26. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970)

“It wasn’t a hard decision to make. They chose, of course, the holiest night of the year, the night of profound love, which was the perfect night for giving.”
~

I grew up watching the Rudolph TV special, but I’d never seen Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town…and watching it for the first time as a bona fide adult, I thought it was very cute. I couldn’t help but compare it to Rudolph in my mind, and while Rudolph is probably better-made and has better music (though I liked a lot of the songs in this too, especially “Put One Foot in Front of the Other”), I think that in some ways it’s actually better than Rudolph. Santa is actually a good and likeable human being in this one, which is nice (and which is not the case in Rudolph), and there are also a few direct references to what Christmas is actually about, which is also nice. It’s made clear that we give presents because it’s Christmas, not that it’s Christmas because we give presents (which is also not the case in Rudolph).

Well, that’s that! I hope you – oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.

Since you’re awake now anyway, have you seen any of these? Any opinions on them if you have? What new movies did you watch in 2025?