Walter's Top Ten of 2025 (or so)
In three months, I’ll officially be a senior citizen. I accept this as justification for a curmudgeonly blend of losing any interest in justifying my choices and even less interest in what critics think. (I consider this year’s Oscar nominees, for example, a mess and mostly a waste of time; there, that’s my curmudgeon practice). But I’ll try not to impose too much of my curmudgeonly attitude on you all.
I also take my time before I see movies these days, usually in the comfort of my living room (and, so, several of these films are late 2024 films).
On a more positive note, for the first time in years, I had no trouble at all coming up with ten films I found worthy to celebrate in a top ten list, and I’m very happy to share them and recommend them. I will note at the outset that, as always, there are several films that I expect could have competed if I’d seen them in 2025. I’ll include among these: The Secret Agent, Sirat, Song Sung Blue, and Sorry, Baby.
Here are my top ten:
10. Eleanor the Great – This was a unique story that is well told and thought-provoking. I found the acting quite compelling.
9. We Live in Time – I hate Nicholas Sparks films. I just needed to clarify that before adding this to my list. I’m not entirely sure how this film, an emotionally engaging film about a young couple that deals with a cancer diagnosis, avoids what I hate about a Sparks film, but it does. Maybe it was the brilliant acting; maybe it was the early reveal.
7. Sentimental Value – This Joachim Trier film is deserving of all the praise that it’s getting, but there was just something that was missing in terms of moving it higher up my list.
6. Exhibiting Forgiveness – A story about an artist whose relationship with his abusive and addicted father is necessarily complex. We journey with him and feel the struggle to come to terms with what’s possible in the present. Well done and nuanced.
5. A Little Prayer – It would have been easy to overlook this quiet little drama about a family in North Carolina. In an intergenerational household with caring and imperfect parents, we see the complication of dysfunction when the in-law is the most likeable one with a tender strength. A great film told with compassion and care.
4. Bob Trevino Likes It – This was a surprisingly powerful film that I only saw because a friend’s daughter worked on the sets. Inspired by her own life story, writer/director, Tracie Laymon, stumbles into the wrong (or right?) Bob Trevino when searching for her absent father on social media – and goes with it. Look this one up if you can!
3. Wake Up Dead Man – After being a huge Knives Out fan, I was a bit disappointed in The Glass Onion, which was entertaining and clever but lacked some of the magic of the first. This third Benoit Blanc tale is still missing a touch of the plain whodunnit perfection of the first, but makes up for it with its brilliant depiction of the tension between a priest’s faith (that actually derives from Jesus) as opposed to the manipulated and distorted faith of power-hungry men. Occasionally a tad melodramatic for me, but it's a great, entertaining watch that also proves to give much food for thought.
2. Life of Chuck – After the opening “third” act, I was totally hooked. What seemed grimly apocalyptic (and unsettlingly close to home during these crazy days) was intriguingly calm, friendly and surreal. Eventually we find out why. Then, thoroughly drawn in, the middle act draws us up to the glory of the possibility of a moment. The final “first” act shows us the roots of that moment. The structure is genius (though I do wish that something about the way the first and third acts connected felt a tad more satisfying, and the supernatural touch of the attic turret helped little for me). In spite of those tiny disappointments, it’s beautiful and improves on repeat viewings.
1. The Ballad of Wallis Island – Perhaps it says more about me than the film, but this film just has everything for me: a quirky, meaningful comedy (with details that I keep picking up on both every time I watch, and I’ve seen it four times already). The cinematography is stunning (a gift one doesn’t usually get in a comedy). The music – from the folk songs written and sung by actor, Tom Basden (with help from Carey Mulligan) to the score by Adem Ilhan – is perfect for the film. I loved the acting not just for how they play the characters (all flawed yet loveable, eventually) but because they make each of the quirky relationships work. As the crowning bonus, the film’s main theme exemplifies the phrase that I’ve been writing on all year in my Substack – a “compassionate consent to reality.” A fun tale that includes how we unexpectedly save each other and the liminal need for an island visit before we can return to the mainland whole.
I usually pick at least one dud as the biggest disappointment, and this year that goes to Saturday Night (also 2024). As a teen who felt like it was edgy to stay up and watch SNL back in the 70s, I thought the nostalgia would appeal, but it left me cold and disconnected from my memories. Not even sure I finished watching.
I’ll grant the oddly popular One Battle after Another an honourable mention for inspiring resistance in some entertaining ways (though too gratuitously violent to make my list). And The Phoenician Scheme was among the better Wes Anderson films I’ve seen, and I could even make sense of it for a change.
And then there were some other slightly older 2024 films that I finally got around to that are worth honourable mentions: Goodrich, The Outrun, Juror #2, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Wicked Little Letters and Aberdeen. (The last won’t be for everyone’s taste, but it’s an interesting and very Winnipeg film about Indigenous life; you could probably only find it on Air Canada anyway.)
So that’s it for 2025 – hope this offers some new suggestions for you to look up!
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