2025 was kid of a lackluster year to me. A lot of the ones that I thought I would really like at the start of the year turned out to be meh. Looking at you, Tron. Still, it wasn’t all bad. Chicago was fun again in October, and while I saw less films during the festival this year, at one point 4 of the 6 were in the Top 10, so I guess it was quality over quantity this year. By the end of the year, I reached 189 films watched which is a lot, I know. That is a new high after 2024’s 164. It might also stay the record, as I’m not sure I will get close to that number in 2026. I only have 89 on the schedule as of me typing this, but I imagine once films get their release date, that number with get up around 150. In the end for 2025, there were winners, losers, and a whole lot in the middle somewhere. Let’s get into it.

Presence was the 10th film I saw in 2025 way back in January, and the Soderbergh ghost film survived the next 12 months to stay in the Top 10. Since the Third Quarter update in October, I had the Chicago International Film Festival, and that is where I saw Wake Up Dead Man and Frankenstein, two films I appear to be higher on that most people. Of my Top 10, 1 was a Best Picture nominee in 2025, and 7 are in the discussion for 2026. It is nice that there isn’t a repeat of last year where I seemed to be on an island thinking Anora was just ok. Top 3 in odds fir Best Picture are my 1, 2, and 4. Maybe that makes me a homer, or maybe I am just like everyone else. I guess it might make for a boring Top 10. I’ll try to love a weirder choice next year.

Only two 5/5 films for me this year, which is the same amount I had in 2024. I did have fewer 4.5’s than 2024 though. On the flip side, I had fewer 1/5’s in 2025, and the same amount of 0.5’s. As you can see the majority of films got a 3.5 or 3 from me, and that is because so many were just ok. It could also be a set the bar too high in my mind. I also seem to be too forgiving on bad films. Snow White is good example of that.

My Box Office predictions were pretty good, but that really isn’t a hard 10 to guess. Kind of whiffed on Minecraft though. As for the Anticipated list, well, two of them lived up to my hopes at least. Lot of disappointment though. Ideally the 2026 Anticipated list will look a little happier next year.

Of the bottom 10, only 5 of them were truly terrible in my opinion. At one point I thought Hurry Up Tomorrow would be the worst film I would watch this year, but War of the Worlds said hold my beer. Who thought turning a sci-fi classic into a glorified Amazon commercial would be a good idea. Instead, it turned in the laughingstock film of 2025 for so many people. Also, it must be said how “impressive” it was that not a single joke in Kinda Pregnant, a comedy, worked to me. Bravo. For quite awhile the Bottom 10 was just sitting untouched, but the December duo of Ella McCay and Anaconda cannonballed right into the middle of the list. McCay was just terminally boring for quite a few stretches of the runtime, and I was willing the snake to eat everyone 20 minutes into Anaconda. How do you waste that cast on a comedy with only a few jokes that worked for me?

So that is what I thought on 2025. Again, a boring Top 10, and a kind of predictable Bottom 10. Not every year can be wacky in my rankings. It just shakes out as it does. I have only seen one film so far in 2026 and that was The Plague. I will spoil this now and you will just have to see if I was right in a year: The Plague will not be on either side of the rankings. It will be in the unseen mob of films in the middle. Or, maybe it will be the worst film I see this year (I gave it a 3.5). That is a nice thought, but Primate is Monday and I have the lowest of expectations for that one.