Best and Worst Films of 2025

What a year in movies! Is the kind of thing I would say if it had been a good year in movies. Not that it was an especially bad year unless you paid money to see Bride Hard, which starred Rebel Wilson so you only have yourself to blame there.

It's not exactly new news to point out that all taste is subjective, and it only takes a handful of films you really connect with to turn an average year in movies into a great one. Would I have been hailing 2025 as a triumphant return to form on the silver screen if I'd enjoyed The Order, a film seemingly tailor-made for my tastes but which I found generic and uninspired? I'm going to go with "perhaps". 

(to be fair, Sovereign covered much of the same ground in a more thoughtful fashion, so it wasn't exactly a bad year for fans of US rural nutcases coming up with wackjob beliefs to justify messing around with lethal weapons. Which also kind of describes Wicked: For Good if you think about it)

Then again, what do I know? Four of my best films of the year were sequels or installments in a series, which isn't usually seen as a sign of quality. And a few of the best were more like "best of" in various categories; I saw a lot of dirtbag noir out of the US, often with female leads, and Night Always Comes was easily the best of a relatively bad bunch; at least Scott Adkins' Diablo was a return to arse-kicking form.

One way in which 2025 was undeniably sub-par was in the world of criticism, as once again the already tiny number of paid outlets for Australian reviews and film writing shrank. RIP the review pages in The Big Issue, though as they refused to put any reviews online they kind of cut their own throat there.

The result of all these cutbacks is that if you want any kind of status (let alone money) as a reviewer these days then you basically have to write as much as possible for as many outlets as possible. It's a requirement that doesn't automatically lend itself to sharp insight and thoughtful discussion.

The dwindling market for local film coverage, combined with increasingly patchy distribution for anything that's not a mainstream blockbuster - let's not even get started on Netflix putting a random few of their films in cinemas for a few weeks - made it difficult to even know when a lot of decent films became available to watch out here. Some of the best films I saw this year I stumbled across by accident; some of the worst ones were heavily promoted (and sometimes heavily praised).

There's also a number of supposedly decent films coming up that I haven't yet seen, whether through laziness or lack of opportunity. Am I ready for Marty Supreme? Are any of us? All I can say was that I was not ready for Hamnet, and not in a good way.

 

In no particular order, here's twenty films from 2025 I liked:

*Conclave

*The Brutalist

*Companion

*Sinners

*Dangerous Animals

*Ballerina: From the World of John Wick

*28 Years Later

*One Battle After Another

*Sisu 2

*Happyend

*Lurker

*The Lost Bus

*Night Always Comes

*Sovereign

*K-Pop Demon Hunters

*Friendship

*Julie Keeps Quiet

*Last Bullet 3 (it’s titled Last Bullet 3!)

*Tornado

*Diablo

And here's ten films I did not:

*Mickey 17

*Snow White

*Bride Hard

*Ella McCay

*Ice Road: Vengeance

*A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

*Spinal Tap 2

*The Electric State

*The Gorge

*Play Dirty

 

 

Review: The Housemaid

Making quality trash requires commitment. If you don't hold your nerve, you'll either slide into overt parody, or start thinking your audience wants you to get serious - both of which are usually fatal. Keep the story moving, play it straight, don't worry about any of it making sense, and you'll have a decent chance of coming up with a winner.

If would-be housemaid Millie (Sydney Sweeney) seems too good to be true, that's because she is. Her application for a job as a live-in servant is a work of fiction, leaving out such vital details as "currently lives in car" and "is on parole for murder". At least she got $20 travel money for turning up for the interview... oh, and then she gets a call: she's got the job.

As bosses go, Nina Winchester (Amanda Seyfried) seems pretty much perfect too. She's charming and approachable, the house is massive and spotless, and while her daughter isn't exactly a bundle of joy, who cares when you can use the massive TV room any time you like? Millie has finally landed on her feet, roll credits, well done everyone.

Then Nina turns out to be a complete psycho, with moods that come and go on a whim, demands that are way over the top, and orders she later pretends she never gave, seemingly just to make Millie look bad. Millie can't afford to lose this job, but the conditions are pushing her out the door - only Nina's husband, the hunky and cashed up Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) provides any relief from the abuse.

Meanwhile, there's a brooding gardener (Michele Morrone) who seems to know more than he's letting on, Nina's "friends" are all backstabbing bitches badmouthing her the second she's out of the room - supposedly she's got a history of mental illness and Andrew's a living saint for not kicking her broke ass to the curb - and Andrew's interest in Millie seems to be moving beyond the professional. And what's the deal with the tiny soundproof upstairs bedroom Millie sleeps in that only locks from the outside?

It's no spoiler to reveal that things are Not What They Seem, though this does do a decent job of scattering red herrings around so it's never all that clear what twist is coming next. And the big twist is a little wobbly; while clearing one character of bitchiness in one direction, they turn out to still be pretty nasty in another way, though eventually they get around to righting that wrong as well.

Sweeney is fine, though she struggles a little with a character who's required to be fairly passive for long stretches early on - the less she's doing, the less interesting she is. Seyfried does a lot of the work here, chewing the scenery hard early on before having to dial it down a bit later on to give a slightly more subtle but still interesting performance. Basically, there's always someone worth watching here, with Sklenar doing a good job as the fantasy stud who turns out to have a little more going on than it first seems.

Director Paul Feig (A Simple Plan) plays this adaptation of Freida McFadden's novel pretty much note-perfect, slowly ramping up the campy thrills and taking this from a relatively straight thriller - aided by Seyfried's at times unhinged performance - to something a lot wilder and smarter. There's even some legit sexiness mixed in as well, which is not something you expect to see in a mainstream US film in 2025.

Special shout-out to Elizabeth Perkins, in the small but pivotal role of Biggest Bitch Alive, aka Andrew's mother. This kind of story doesn't have to have an awful mother who's horrible for no reason lurking around somewhere, but it's always a sign of quality when they do. Generational trauma can be murder - but then again, so can pretty much everything else.

- Anthony Morris 

 

Review: Avatar: Fire and Ash

The third of James Cameron's Avatar movies is pretty much the story of Spider (Jack Champion), the sole human member of the Sully family currently on the run on the planet of Pandora. Other characters are often in the spotlight: some, like Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Nash), reincarnated in a Pandorian body but still firmly committed to the human military and his need for revenge against Jake (Sam Worthington), even get some character development. 

But it's Spider who's story is being told here. Which is a problem, because who really cares about Spider?

After their big victory at the end of the last movie, the Sully family is still grieving the loss of eldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters). Neytiri (Zoe Salanda) follows the old rituals; Jake is more of a "stoic silence" guy. Both agree that now Quaritch knows that Spider is his son he'll be back, and they decide to send Spider back to the rebel human base in high country (a floating rock) for his safety. 

Spider, sensing this is more about them wanting to ditch an unwanted "pink skin" human, protests, and his adopted siblings - brother Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), younger sister Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss), and clone of Sigourney Weaver's character from the first film played by Sigourney Weaver Kiri - demand the family stick together. Okay then, they'll all go.

Their trip back on a living blimp boat is quickly cut short when they're attacked by Mangkwan raiders. The blimp is shot down, Neytiri is wounded, the family is scattered, and Spider - who's been slack about making sure he's got a spare mask with him, which is important because humans can't breathe Pandorian air - soon finds himself gasping for air with no supplies at hand. Kiri calls on the planet's spirit Eywa for help, then sorts it out herself with a kind of symbiotic growth that fills his lungs.

One problem solved, but now there's a bigger one. If humans find a way to breathe the air, they'll see Pandora as more than just a source of the space whale juice that makes people immortal. Now Spider is the most valuable item on the planet, and his father - that'd be Quaritch - has just teamed up with the Mangkwan raiders and their witchy leader Varang (Oona Chaplin) to get him back.

They're the only new element here, and unlike previous depictions of Na'vi they've turned their back on Eywa thanks to a volcano trashing their homeland a generation ago. They're mostly just creepy and murderous rather than a new way of living, and there's a sense that Cameron - who previously seemed obsessed with every tiny aspect of life on his fantasy planet - just needed some new bad guys to spice things up.

(which they definitely do for Quaritch: his exploration of the possibilities of a closer bond with the dominating Varang, combined with what seems to be actual concern and admiration for his human son, rapidly makes him easily the most nuanced and interesting character in the film)

There's a lot more going on here, most notably Lo'ak and his mates swimming around with the space whales trying to help whale Payakan on his mission of vengeance against the humans (his culture is a pacifist one, so his kill-crazy rampage has him on the outs). Unfortunately, this stuff largely feels like a retread of the events of the previous film; where the first stood alone, and the second built on that with Cameron's underwater obsession, this mostly circles back to revisit old territory while the characters struggle to deal with what's already happened.

All the virtues of the previous Avatar films are still present, though the originally ground breaking CGI visuals are maybe a little more mainstream these days. Cameron is still strong when it comes to action; the story might hit many of the same beats but it still moves fast, and there's plenty of lingering around to take in the wonders of Pandora (though ironically, it's mostly when the action shifts to the human's industrial plant base that things pick up).

Focusing the story on a nothing character like Spider would be more of a weak point if not for the fact that strong compelling characters aren't really this franchise's strength. As someone situated between both worlds / sides (Jake picked his side a long time ago), Spider is both macguffin to be fought over and the big hope as far as bringing the two cultures together - only the humans are almost all bad (the scientists are largely sidelined this time around), so dumping them in the bin is the popular choice.

The only serious problem, which will probably seem like less of one in the future when audiences are watching these films back-to-back, is that for the first time an Avatar movie isn't a parade of new situations and wonders. It's the kind of story that escalates rather than innovates.

For once, Pandora doesn't seem like a place where there's something new around every corner. Even the most magical getaway eventually loses its luster.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Ella McCay

There's a long-ish scene towards the end of Ella McCay that doesn't really have anything to do with what the film is about - though to be fair, as it's pretty hard to figure out exactly what Ella McCay actually is about, it's not quite as disruptive as it might have been.

It involves Casey McCay (Spike Fearn), socially awkward brother of Ella (Emma Mackey), trying to win back a girlfriend he semi-accidentally dumped months ago (he wanted to take the relationship to the next level, she was cautious, he took her caution as an outright refusal and only now has realised that maybe they could have just kept on going).

What makes this scene watchable is that we have no idea why it's here or where it's going. Casey is not the central character of this film, and as far as we know his relationship is not essential to the plot. "What's going to happen next?" is a pretty good way to keep people watching, especially when you have no idea how the scene will end or how it will tie into the main events.

How it ends is like this: a character gives a long and convincing argument for behaving in one way, then they immediately act in the opposite way and say something like "I really didn't think I was going to do that". Not exactly a satisfying turn of events, especially as this is basically the final appearance of both of them. It turns out this scene does not tie into the main story in any way shape or form; keep that confused expression, you'll need it for later. 

Set in 2008, Ella McCay is a screwball comedy set against a backdrop of American (state) politics, which is why it's set in 2008 as we're told that was a time before Americans hated each other. Presumably the target audience doesn't remember 9/11 or the War on Terror; writer / director James L Brooks, who is in his mid 80s, has less of an excuse.

McCay is a 34 year old who just loves extremely boring policy, which is why she's only the Lieutenant Governor and the far more charming and personable Governor Bill (Albert Brooks) is the Governor. Only he's off to take up an appointment in Obama's cabinet, which means she'll be running the state for the next few years. Uh oh.

Here's hoping her administration doesn't almost instantly implode thanks to an amazingly minor sex scandal (she was having lunchtime hook-ups with her husband in an abandoned but still government-owned apartment) and the fact the aforementioned loving husband Ryan (Jack Lowden) suddenly decides he should be seen as more of a, you know, co-governor, and is willing to blow up his marriage in a clumsy power-grab.

McCay also has a sleazy father (Woody Harrelson), a high-strung aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis), and the aforementioned brother, all of whom add stress to her life without actually having much to do with the story. But as the story is - and this can't be stressed enough - extremely all over the place, it's not until the final few scenes that it becomes clear that they aren't suddenly going to become relevant.

So what is relevant here? The whole thing is pitched at a level where it's difficult to know what to focus on, which is possibly a strength as nothing here is worth your full attention. 

Major twists come out of nowhere: Ryan turning into a dick, almost everything involving Casey. Seemingly major characters just fade away: see Ella's driver Trooper Nash (Kumail Nanjiani). There are a few funny jokes, but not enough to make this worthwhile as a comedy.

Pretty much the only thing for sure here is that we should pay attention to Ella McCay. And that's mostly because the movie is named after her.

- Anthony Morris 

 

 

Review: Eternity

While the idea of the afterlife as a bureaucratic nightmare is one that keeps on giving, Eternity's riff is a uniquely individualistic one: after you die, you get seven days in a kind of beyond-the-grave convention center to pick the ideal afterlife for you. Once you choose, that's it: no going back.

For a romantic comedy, it's kind of a grim set-up. Unless your loved one dies at the same time - good news for car crash fatalities, presumably - there's pretty much zero chance of spending eternity together. Maybe whoever designed it (in this afterlife it's a bureaucracy all the way up) figured that, as no love could last forever, it was better to pull the band-aid off right at the start. Shame they didn't tell Luke (Callum Turner) that.

For Larry and Joan, living out a slow-driving retirement, Luke is just a faded sepia photograph of someone who died in the war (multiple jokes are made about how the Korean War is not really "the war"). But when Larry chokes on a pretzel at a gender reveal party, he wakes up dead, forty years younger (now Miles Teller), and in an afterlife where his "AC" (afterlife counselor) Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) is pointing him at an exit.

He learns a few things - yes, you can stick around if you're willing to take on a menial gig; no, you can't leave a message behind for your loved one - and with the deadline looming he's got no choice but to cross his fingers and hope Joan can just guess where he's gone and follow... until she (now Elizabeth Olsen) also turns up. Chalk up a win for cancer.

Just one catch: friendly bartender Luke is also the Luke that Joan loved and married way, way back... before he died in the war. He waited for her, and now they can finally have the life together they dreamed of. Bad news for Larry, but he'll get over 65 years of marriage soon enough, right?

The backdrop here is fine for a bunch of throwaway jokes about the various eternities, but it's obviously constructed nature is a little distracting. The various rules largely seem designed to throw obstacles in the way of this particular trio; there doesn't need to be a good reason why you're stuck in the afterlife you choose for all eternity, there just needs to be a reason.

Fortunately the central dilemma plays out well, despite a slow stretch in the middle where Joan gets to try out a future with one then the other. Fun performances from all three don't exactly hurt; it's the kind of story where there's no bad guys, just someone destined to miss out. 

Teller is the standout, constantly channeling an old man while retaining (regaining?) his youth, while Turner's dreamboat facade constantly cracks to reveal little humanising details. Olsen has strong chemistry with both - though that chemistry takes different forms, which is kind of the point of the whole thing.

Attractive people struggling with love is pretty much always a winner so long as you don't screw it up; despite always taking its ridiculous premise seriously, Eternity has a bubbly sense of humour that manages to breath a little life into love after death.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Zootopia 2

The first Zootopia was a pretty funny buddy comedy that also happened to be set in a society where the citizens were largely expected to act in species-specific ways. Which makes sense for animals, but when it's an animated film where "animals" sort of maps onto "ethnic stereotypes"... well, you can kind of see the problem.

Fortunately Zootopia went on to say this kind of thing was bad - it was a story about a hero rabbit (a prey animal) succeeding at being a cop (a predator job), after all - so all good, the coast is clear for a sequel that's a bit less politically fraught, right? And not at all about, say, a conspiracy by one kind of animal to dispossess another species and cast them out of their homeland to live in the desert for a hundred years while they claim the cast out species are murderers who deserve their exile? Hang on, I'm getting an update...

Back at the beginning, Officer Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and former street hustler turned partner Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are in a bit of a bind. Their fellow officers see them as chumps who got lucky with their last big case; Hopps is determined to prove them wrong, while Wilde is (as usual) a bit more laid-back about the whole thing.

Adding to the problem, they're a mixed team (she's a rabbit, he's a fox), which has people thinking they'll never be on the same page. And maybe they're right: their next attempt at a big bust goes wrong big time, embarrassing the new Mayor - a former action movie actor horse with flowing locks named Brian Winddancer (Patrick Warburton) - and sending them off to couples therapy.

Undeterred, Hopps doubles down. With evidence a snake was at the scene of the failed bust, she figures out the reptile is in town to attack the Zootenial Gala. It's an event celebrating 100 years since the founding of Zootopia (the creation of the various climate-controlled zones, to be specific), which also saw reptiles largely exiled from the city after a terrorist attack.

If you've ever seen a buddy cop movie before, you have a pretty good idea of what comes next. Our heroes are soon on the trail of what really happened, while the rich and powerful are out to crush them and the system has them marked as criminals. Worse, the rift between Hopps and Wilde seems to be growing: what's even the point of solving the big mystery if it tears the two of them apart?

It's a mystery that's nice and twisty, and a great excuse to propel our leads through all manner of situations and settings. Most of which are at least partially played for laughs, though this isn't afraid to get serious when it's time to crank up the stakes, and the action scenes are possibly a little much for very young viewers.

The jokes are pretty solid too, ranging from pop culture references to silly sight gags to physical comedy to the return of the Sloth, everyone's favourite character from the first film. Speaking of pop culture, there's one shock development that makes more sense if you get the reference the bad guys are based on, but it works even if you (like most kids) don't pick up on it. 

The "partnership" (it's a relationship in everything but name) between Hopps and Wilde is also well handled. Hopps is always right, of course - she's the one driving the story - but Wilde's side of things makes enough sense that he's not dead weight. Pretty much everyone else just gets off a gag or two, but conspiracy theorist / guide to the bad part of town Nibbles Maplestick (Fortune Feimster) does stand out.

The result is a surprisingly entertaining adventure of a kind Hollywood doesn't make anywhere often enough. You wouldn't say it's a kids version of One Battle After Another, but there's a similar commitment to old-fashioned story-driven running-around action. Which is fun to watch! Who knew.

- Anthony Morris 

Review: Wicked For Good

Prequels can take two paths. In one, they fit relatively seamlessly with what lies ahead - events often build to a finale that's just a rehash of the next film's opening. In the other, all bets are off; you might get a bunch of superficial similarities, but the goal isn't just to provide backstory, it's to recontexualise what we think we know. Even by the end of the first Wicked it was clear we were wandering far from the yellow brick road, and the second half of the story just keeps on going.

When we last left Oz, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) had decided to embrace the whole "Wicked Witch of the West" thing. Enough time has passed (the official version is five years, but the film keeps it vague) that she's now an official symbol of terror in the Emerald City, whereas former bestie Glinda (Ariana Grande) is now Glinda the Good... they're working on the witch side of things, as she still displays no magical abilities.

Behind the scenes, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) is pulling the strings, while the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is the slightly more well-meaning front man. Talking animals are fleeing the new repressive regime, while Munchkins are next in line. Elphaba's sister Nessarose (Marrisa Bode) is now governor of Munchkinland, and everyone else is trapped in a web of doomed relationships, which are as follows (deep breath) - 

Nessarose loves munchkin Boq (Ethan Slater), who loves Glinda, who loves former classmate turned Captain of the Guard Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), who is hunting Elphaba because he secretly loves her, and she loves... well, him, which would set her up for a happy ending if we didn't already know where things were heading. 

As musicals go, this is good but not great. There's no real standout song or dance sequence here, and by its very nature the story doesn't build to a big musical climax. It's almost easy to forget this is a musical for long stretches, as the plot becomes too complex and the storytelling too brisk for there to be time to stop everything for a musical number to clarify things. 

Dramatically, this makes up for it by cranking up the stakes. The talking animal subplot comes up just enough to make it clear that things are rotten in Oz; the munchkin repression (Nessarose doesn't want Boq to leave her, so she locks down Munchkinland) only makes things worse. When an attempt to lure out Elphaba brings a familiar Kansas house crashing down, it's clear things are going to change. But which way?

Grande and Erivo are pretty much carrying this, and they're easily the strongest elements here (aside from the set design, which remains gorgeous). Both wring every drop of emotion out of characters drawn in broad strokes, justifying the film's reliance on sentiment to sell a drama where much of the late-stage storytelling is about moving characters into their familiar settings. 

Even then, some of that storytelling is a bit too pat. If you ever wanted origins for The Scarecrow and The Tin Man beyond "Oz is full of weird stuff", you'll find them here, though they mostly just make Oz feel like it only contains maybe half a dozen actual people. The flying monkeys get redeemed too, which is certainly a choice for one of movie's more iconic threats.

But the fact this is actually about something rather than simply an excuse to play with some much-loved toys carries it over the line. The politics have their heart in the right place, and if a few of the classic characters are done dirty - Tin Man fans may not look kindly on the revisionism, though the Scarecrow definitely levels up - for the most part the new angles revealed here make things more interesting. 

Though if you end up watching this before you see The Wizard of Oz - something that it's now and forever possible for people to do - you're going to have a pretty wild ride.

- Anthony Morris