MIke's 2025 Movie List

My relationship with movies has really evolved. I haven't been to a film festival in years, I go to the movies at least once or twice a month now compared with once or twice a week just a few years ago, and I'm also chasing a different movie experience than before as I'm often with my son now. I rarely get excited for new soul crushing dramatic features anymore but I'm still chasing the theater experience just at a much different pace.

I missed a lot this year and my top 10 is pretty weak overall but the top 4 are really spectacular.

One Battle After Another is super fun and one of PTA's best.

The Perfect Neighbor made me cry for a solid 3 minutes. I had to pause the movie to reflect before I could move on.

Sinners has so much social commentary and still so very fun.

Arco is a hand drawn animated film that will make me look at rainbows differently for the rest of my life.

1 One Battle After Another
2 The Perfect Neighbor
3 Sinners
4 Arco
5 The Naked Gun
6 Kpop Demon Hunters
7 Predator: Badlands
8 The Smashing Machine
9 Superman
10 Tron: Ares
11 Ne Zha 2
12 The Legend of Ochi
13 The Fantastic Four: First Steps
14 Avatar: Fire and Ash
15 The Electric State
16 Pee-wee as Himself
17 Zootopia 2
18 The Bad Guys 2
19 Karate Kid: Legends
20 John Candy: I Like Me
21 Paddington In Peru
22 A Minecraft Mov ie
23 Dog Man
24 The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
25 Lilo & Stitch
26 Thunderbolts
27 How to Train Your Dragon
28 Captain America: Brave New World
29 Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires
30 Shark Whisperer
31 Plankton: The Movie
32 Jurassic World: Rebirth
33 Anaconda

Eric's 2025 Movie List

I'm sad to say there are no must-sees this year. Train Dreams is about as close as it comes for me (and bonus points for being a compelling picture that you can watch with your kids), but it's not the kind of movie you have to drop everything for and see RIGHT. THIS. MINUTE. There are a LOT of really good films though, and in fact I would say my top fifteen or so meet that standard. The next ten or fifteen are very enjoyable and I recommend them, but as far as my finding that singular "can't miss" movie this year, I came up empty-handed. Marty Supreme is a typical fun and wild Safdie brothers ride, but the ending came up a little short to make my number one slot. Hell, I thought I could have written a better ending...and that's saying something because I obviously can't write for shit. The Springsteen film came out of nowhere and wowed me. You don't even have to be a huge fan of The Boss to engage with this captivating tale of the inspiration and production behind the Nebraska and Born in the U.S.A. albums. After a disappointing Asteroid City, I thought The Phoenician Scheme was a nice return to form for Wes Anderson, though it seems a lot of folks would not agree. Sinners...don't watch the trailer or read anything about it if you haven't already. Just watch it. The same goes for #9-#13 on my list. Go in blind if you can. Hamnet isn't for everyone, but I surprisingly found the examination of Shakespeare's home life quite fascinating and brilliantly acted to boot. I'm sure several people will take issue with my criticism of Eddington. I found it to be heavy-handed, over-the-top, and much too on-the-nose for my tastes. These are the same problems I had with another darling from a few years ago: Don't Look Up, which in my book is the ultimate "dumb person's idea of a smart movie". The ridiculous writing and portrayal of these characters in the politically divided town of Eddington, New Mexico, took me out of the movie right away and likely led to my reluctance to see One Battle After Another, which seemed to be just another version of the same movie, but set in a different reality.


1 Train Dreams
2 Marty Supreme
3 Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
4 Frankenstein
5 The Phoenician Scheme
6 Sinners
7 John Candy: I Like Me
8 Hamnet
9 Song Sung Blue
10 Weapons
11 Americana
12 Companion
13 Sentimental Value
14 When We Went MAD!
15 Blue Moon
16 The Mastermind
17 The Secret Agent
18 Elway
19 The Alabama Solution
20 Friendship
21 Black Bag
22 Honey Don't
23 Bugonia
24 My Father, the BTK Killer
25 Queen of the Ring
26 The Naked Gun
27 Roofman
28 It Was Just an Accident
29 Becoming Led Zeppelin
30 Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost
31 Breakdown: 1975
32 Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers
33 Novocaine
34 ABBA: Against All Odds
35 The Luckiest Man in America
36 Unknown Number: The High School Catfish
37 The New Yorker at 100
38 The Alto Knights
39 Nonnas
40 Mr. Polaroid
41 Chaos: The Manson Murders
42 Bring Her Back
43 Death of a Unicorn
44 Anemone
45 Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
46 The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo
47 The Baltimorons
48 Surviving Ohio State
49 Being Eddie
50 The Long Walk
51 The Idaho Student Murders
52 Final Destination Bloodlines
53 The Woman in Cabin 10
54 Shelby Oaks
55 Nobody 2
56 Murder in Monaco
57 Grenfell: Uncovered
58 Drop
59 Black Phone 2
60 The Ballad of Wallis Island
61 Hedda
62 Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster
63 The Twister: Caught in the Storm
64 The Perfect Neighbor
65 The Carman Family Deaths
66 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
67 If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
68 A Deadly American Marriage
69 Sorry, Baby
70 Jay Kelly
71 Eddington

Mike's 2024 Movie List

1 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
2 Dune: Part Two
3 Super / Man The Christopher Reeve Story
4 The Wild Robot
5 Robot Dreams
6 Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
7 Civil War
8 Sonic The Hedgehog 3
9 The Fall Guy
10 Transformers One
11 Flow
12 Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
13 Deadpool & Wolverine
14 Inside Out 2
15 Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
16 Piece by Piece
17 My Hero Academia: You're Next
18 The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
19 Red One
20 Despicable Me 4
21 Kung Fu Panda 4
22 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
23 Mufasa: The Lion King
24 Wicked
25 Moana 2
26 IF
27 Madame Web

Eric's 2024 Movie List

Quentin Tarantino said 2019 was the last year of movies. He may be right. I'll admit that I've found the last few years pretty underwhelming especially coming off the mini golden age we experienced a decade or two ago. There are certainly a lot of decent flicks out this year, but how many of these will I ever re-watch? Less than half of them. How many of those would I expect my kids to watch (when their older) as part of their film education? Maybe a third. How many of these films are great? Two or three (and they're not necessarily my top two or three favorites). But in the case of Nosteratu it was hands down my favorite picture this year AND it also happens to be a great film. The screenplay is outstanding, the performances are pitch pefect, the costumes and sets are on point, and the atmospheric cinematography is a character in an of itself. Please see this on the big screen while you can.

1 Nosferatu
2 The Substance
3 Green Border
4 The Brutalist
5 My Old Ass
6 His Three Daughters
7 Robot Dreams
8 Apollo 13: Survival
9 Sometimes I Think About Dying
10 Anora
11 Carry-on
12 Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley
13 The Last Stop in Yuma County
14 Speak No Evil
15 The Beach Boys
16 All We Imagine as Light
17 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
18 Saturday Night
19 The Apprentice
20 Unfrosted
21 Caddo Lake
22 Cuckoo
23 Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
24 Joy: The Birth of IVF
25 Nickel Boys
26 The Greatest Night In Pop
27 Inside Out 2
28 Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
29 Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
30 Drive Away Dolls
31 Juror #2
32 Heretic
33 A Different Man
34 Super-Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
35 Don't Move
36 Here
37 Lisa Frankenstein
38 Woman of the Hour
39 Nutcrackers
40 Ghostlight
41 Hundreds of Beavers
42 Challengers
43 Trap
44 Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
45 Hit Man
46 Civil War
47 A Real Pain
48 Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
49 Good One
50 Moana 2
51 Kinds of Kindness
52 The People's Joker
53 Will & Harper
54 Martha
55 Scoop
56 They Called Him Mostly Harmless
57 Brats
58 Joker: Folie à Deux
59 The Menendez Brothers
60 How to Rob a Bank
61 Bookworm
62 The Texas Cheerleader Murder Plot
63 Despicable Me 4
64 MaXXXine
65 Twisters
66 Gary
67 Dressing Up Halloween: The Story of Ben Cooper, Inc.

Mike's 2023 Movie List

I didn't see shit this year, but the top 7 are very good. The top 4 I think are as good as any other year. Iron Claw I'm nostalgic for and it works for me regardless of the inaccuracies.

1 Godzilla Minus One
2 Poor Things
3 Beau Is Afraid
4 The Boy and the Heron
5 The Iron Claw
6 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
7 Air
8 Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania
9 Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
10 Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
11 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
12 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
13 Migration
14 Wonka
15 Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
16 Blue Beetle
17 Shazam! Fury of the Gods
18 The Flash
19 The Super Mario Bros. Movie
20 Barbie
21 Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
22 Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken
23 Haunted Mansion
24 PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie
25 Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
26 Elemental
27 Wish"

Eric's 2023 Movie List

I've started thinking of these lists as "movies I want my kids to watch when they get older", and by that criterion there are quite a few classics on this year's list. The Holdovers was my favorite movie of the year, however I gave the edge to Oppenheimer for historical significance. As usual, I'm a sucker for Scorsese so Killers of the Flower Moon made my top 5 even though it's far from the top of my "Scorsese List". I think my top eight are very solid pictures, and beyond that, the top 25 or so are pretty decent as well. There are few gems to dig up that might not already be on your radar: TMNT-Mutant Mayhem is a perfect pre-teen action movie; Fool's Paradise is just straight-up funny and somehow poignant; A Thousand and One is an intruiging tale that won awards but didn't get a lot of audience attention, and 20 Days in Mariupol is a harrowing snapshot of the early days of the war in Ukraine that I feel a lot of people need to see. Anything below Barbie you don't need to watch unless you just happen to have a lot of time on your hands. Sadly, I missed The Taste of Things, Godzilla Minus One, The Teachers' Lounge, Beau is Afraid, Napoleon, and Four Daughters, but hope to catch up with them all soon.

1 Oppenheimer
2 The Holdovers
3 Killers of the Flower Moon
4 Poor Things
5 All of Us Strangers
6 Fair Play
7 Maestro
8 American Fiction
9 The Killer
10 Society of the Snow
11 A Haunting in Venice
12 The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (and Dahl shorts)
13 Priscilla
14 A Thousand and One
15 Past Lives
16 Fool's Paradise
17 Asteroid City
18 The Iron Claw
19 AIR
20 Blackberry
21 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
22 Boston Strangler
23 All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
24 Nowhere
25 20 Days in Mariupol
26 Wonka
27 Reinventing Elvis: The '68 Comeback
28 Take Care of Maya
29 The Saint of Second Chances
30 The Zone of Interest
31 Teeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
32 Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
33 The Jewel Thief
34 Being Mary Tyler Moore
35 Super Mario Brothers Movie
36 Big George Foreman
37 It Ain't Over
38 Last Stop Larrimah: Murder Down Under
39 Tetris
40 Nyad
41 Reality
42 Rustin
43 Anatomy of a Fall
44 Barbie
45 May December
46 Cocaine Bear
47 Sly
48 Silver Dollar Road
49 The Machine
50 Great Photo, Lovely Life
51 Big Mack: Gangsters and Gold
52 Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case
53 Leave the World Behind
54 David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived
55 Bank of Dave
56 Theater Camp
57 The Beanie Bubble
58 Victim/Suspect
59 Old Dads
60 South to Black Power
61 Pamela: A Love Story
62 Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
63 Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare
64 The Insurrectionist Next Door
65 Chowchilla
66 Time Bomb Y2K
67 The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker
68 Back to the Drive-In
69 The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring

Mike's 2022 Movie List

1 Everything Everywhere All At Once
2 Elvis
3 Banshees of Inisherin
4 RRR
5 Avatar: The Way of Water
6 The Batman
7 Top Gun: Maverick
8 The Northman
9 Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
10 The Triangle of Sadness
11 Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
12 The Woman King
13 Jackass Forever
14 Bullet Train
15 Prey
16 Puss 'N Boots: The Last Wish
17 Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness
18 Smile
19 The Fabelmans
20 Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
21 Thor: Love and Thunder
22 Our Father
23 Emily The Criminal
24 Amsterdam
25 Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank
26 Operation Mincemeat
27 The Bad Guys
28 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
29 The Sea Beast
30 Strange World
31 Minions: The Rise of Gru
32 DC League of Super-Pets
33 Clerks III
34 Slumberland
35 Black Adam
36 Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
37 Pinocchio (Disney)
38 Jurassic World Dominion
39 Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
40 Lightyear