December 2025 – The Film Ramble

Top 20 films of 2025

December 28, 2025December 28, 2025Posted in ReviewTagged Cinema, Film, Horror, Movie, Movies2 Comments

This is the seventh year of me writing my top 20(/18/30 depending on the year, but usually 20). For those whom have found this because AI scours my cheap London cinema tickets page, welcome. For those who found it because it’s the only thing I talked about, welcome back. As always, the rules are movies with general release in the UK between Boxing Day 2024-Christmas 2025. This means Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme aren’t eligible. If your favourite film of the year isn’t hear, it means I haven’t watched it or your film taste is rubbish. Full 2025 ranking is available here if you want to check which of the two it is.

As always, I’m pretty happy with the variety of films here, and would recommend if you were to watch one, read what I write and base it on what you think is the most interesting instead of picking just #1 which is admittedly pretty good. This is a pretty cool list with multiple genres including horror, animation, drama, world cinema, thriller, documentaries. Some great films didn’t make it in, but these twenty are the ones I believe to have been head and shoulders above. Most are available on streaming services, so no excuses.

20) Steve

George from work always has a slightly wild but never uninteresting film of the year. Following Ama Gloria last year, his pick was the not undeserving Steve. The titular Steve is played brilliantly by sad man Cillian Murphy who runs a school for children with complex behavioural needs. One of the kids, Shy, is spiralling, the future of the school is uncertain, an MP is coming to visit and Steve is pretty well addicted to drugs. Constantly tense, with phenomenal performances, script and cinematography, Steve is a phenomenal piece of film making.

Steve is available on Netflix

19) Dying

Yeah, I promise there are some happy movies on here, but a three hour German epic about a father with dementia, a mother sturggling, a depressed son conducting and a daughter on the booze every night isn’t a relaxing three hours, but my word it’s certainly engrossing. Split into three parts, the daughter’s part is especially phenomenal, as is the mother’s, while the son’s parts, not quite as high, never feel condescending. A brilliant piece of German cinema.

Dying is streaming on BFI Player and is available to rent online

18) La Cocina

Kind of similar to The Bear, La Cocina is about an undocumented chef in a rubbish New York restaurant and everything going wrong throughout the day in his job and relationships. Very stage play-esque, the lead performance from Raul Briones and some great editing really bring this movie to life, as the tension ramps up throughout.

La Cocina is streaming on MUBI and is available to rent online

17) Hallow Road

The first (but not only) “Horror” on this list, but far more psychological thriller with exactly zero jump scares (and I’m a guy who jump scares easily). Two parents get a call from their daughter who has apparently ran someone over in their car. They then rush into their car to get over there, and that’s the whole film. It involves discussion of the family, their relationships as well as tension over this victim who was hit and whether they can save her, and save the daughter before anyone shows up. Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys both bring top performances in this small setting, as 90% of the movie takes place while they’re driving. A different, exciting small scale movie.

Hallow Road is streaming on Now/Sky Cinema or available to rent digitally

16) A House of Dynamite

Kathryn Bigelow loves a war film, and brings nuclear war back into fashion with this story where an unknown country has launched a nuclear weapon at the United States. We see the story from three different perspectives, starting in the war room. Again, providing a tension as each time we get closer to imminent disaster, the first third is the strongest. While the other two don’t quite catch up to it, the first part is some of the most riveting scenes of the year.

House of Dynamite is streaming on Netflix

15) Friendship

Finally, a happy film, it has to be, right? RIGHT? Well, if you’re familiar with Tim Robinson (hotdog/zipline guy) and his work on “I Think You Should Leave”, then you know where this is going. He plays a lovable loser who doesn’t have many friends and is content watching the new Marvel movie (It’s supposed to be nuts). When he meets his neighbour played by Paul Rudd, they hit it off immediately, with Rudd’s character being this cool guy who plays in a band. After some things go wrong however, Rudd wants the friendship to end, but Robinson’s character doesn’t take that well, wanting to recover the friendship. Naturally this leads his life to go wrong in increasingly zany ways as he obsesses over his former friend. Cleverly written and showing Tim Robinson in one of the best performances of the year, if you’re going to watch one dark comedy, make it this one.

Friendship is available to rent digitally.

14) Flow

Actually a nice film finally. The winner of the best animated feature Oscar (and former ASBO winner for the same category), Gints Zibalodis provided one of the best animated movies of 2025 with Flow, a dialogue free movie about a cat who finds itself in a boat following an unexplained flood with other animals. They all need to learn to work well together. A phenomenally smart piece where each animal feels realistic (the cat moves likes a cat), this quiet, meditative effort is phenomenal to behold, and is a huge step forward in independent animation.

Flow is streaming on MUBI or available to rent digitally

13) Sinners

Probably the most famous movie on this list, and only on here as need to appease the masses, Sinners is a very good vampire blues movie. Brilliantly acted, with a great sstoryline to boot, it shows a different time in history and how Black communities came together. The one reason to watch this is the music. There is one scene about halfway through this movie which is the best scene of any film this year. You’ll know it when you see it. I couldn’t stop smiling throughout. Absolute cinema.

Sinners is streaming on Now/Sky Cinema

12) Ocean with David Attenborough

Look, DA is cool alright. He fights for nature, but I find his gentle messaging and lack of viewer accountability ultimately underwhelming. It’s the one complaint I have about this documentary. The movie is so cool and I learnt so much about the sea. There is a scene where they show the impact of deep sea trawling, and that’s scarier than the two horror movies I’ve listed so far. The ocean is cool and comes across as this snazzy organism, as Attenborough shows the problem and solution, even if the latter is done gently.

Ocean with David Attenborough is streaming on Disney+

11) Lollipop

Something I didn’t notice about Lollipop when I watched it is that almost all characters are women. Mainly because I was busy enjoying the plot and don’t see gender. A British independent movie, Lollipop is about a mother being released from prison and trying to regain custody of her kids. However, she ends up in a frustrating cycle of not being able to get housing because she’s not living with her kids, and not being able to get her kids until she has her housing sorted. A film with a big heart and plenty of empathy, it’s a really sweet movie and one of the best British movies of the year.

10) Train Dreams

Into the top 10 and we begin with probably the best looking movie of the year, so of course you’re stuck watching it on Netflix. Based on a short story, Robert spends his life cutting down trees in the early 20th century (Why not concrete, I don’t know). The movie is about love and loss and change as he meets characters throughout the whole film and sees his life change, as well as the earth throughout the years. It’s a beautifully shot movie with a phenomenal Joel Edgerton performance to boot in what feels like an epic fight between man and earth.

Train Dreams is streaming on Netflix.

9) The Brutalist

A four hour epic about the life of a Jewish immigrant architect after world war 2, where the whole plot is about him building a community centre? Sign me up. Stunning to watch with a brilliant script, score and lead performance from Oscars narcissist Adrien Brody, I know you won’t watch this film because it’s too long, but the greatest compliment I can give it is that I wanted it to carry on for another hour. The only thing I didn’t get was his love of Brutalist architecture and concrete (Who is he, Mike Graham?).

8) Urchin

Harris Dickinson has been acting well on the British indy scene for years. Turns out he might actually be an even better director. A homeless drug addict is sent to jail in the first 10 minutes of the movie. The rest is a sobering portrayal of him coming out, trying to secure a job and accommodation and stay off drugs. A deeply humanist and empathetic movie which is full of hope and heartbreak, Urchin strikes the balance between narrative and symbolism beautifully.

Urchin is streaming on BFI player from December 31st 2025 or to download digitally.

7) I’m Still Here

The winner of the best international movie at the Oscars, I’m Still Here is such an interesting movie based on a true story set in 1970’s Brazil under a dictatorship. When her husband is taken by the army, Eunice looks to balance looking after her family with finding out what happened to her husband. It’s not a film about getting a tidy conclusion, but celebrating Eunice’s steely determination. Not a laugh a minute, I’m Still Here has plenty of warmth and characters you really want to support, particularly with a strong performance from Fernanda Torres.

I’m Still Here is streaming on BFI Player or available to rent digitally.

6) It Was Just An Accident

Farsi cinema has had a phenomenal year, and when Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi won the top award at Cannes for this movie, it was a perfect celebration of all his work so far. Vahid discovers his torturer based on the sound of his prosthetic. He abducts him in his van and plans to bury him alive, but when he has doubts, he then finds more people tortured by peg-leg to check if this is him (He was blindfolded when tortured so the doubt lingers). We have a dark comedy where this group have their torturer in the van for a day and are going around trying to work out what to do and deal with various obstacles. Very bleak, very engrossing, It Was Just An Accident is a brilliant movie with the single best conclusion to a movie of this year.

It Was Just An Accident is finishing its cinema run

5) Sorry, Baby

Sorry Baby is written, directed by and starred in by Eva Victor, and is the sort of movie to leave you wondering what she’ll make next. A very personal movie with a small scope, this time jumping movie starts with the lead character Agnes having friends around, but something being off. We then see her before her trauma and in the days and years afterwards. It’s a biting comedy, with an anger similar to that of Promising Young Women a few years ago, but far more grounded and realistic instead of pushing for a shock value. Full of hurt and full of heart, it’s a tender movie which is undeniably one of the best of the year.

Sorry, Baby is streaming on MUBI or available to rent digitally.

4) Seed of the Sacred Fig

The second of the Iranian films on this list, SotSF is a tense psychological thriller about a family in which the father works for the regime, stamping people to die regardless of evidence. His daughters are involved in protests, causing a generational divide between parents and kids. When the father’s gun goes missing, the family turn on one another, and following a threat towards them, everything really goes awry. A smart metaphor for Iran which is brilliantly made and acted.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is streaming on BFI player and available to download digitally

3) I Swear

The British film of the year, I swear is the true story of John Davidson, a young boy, then a man who spent his life dealing with, then spreading awareness of Tourette’s syndrome. While I feared this would be a generic easy laugh brit-flick, it was very tender and honest. Of course some muggles may laugh in the wrong places, but the director and actors knew which moments were amusing and which weren’t. This lead to a heartfelt drama which never felt lazy. It also never felt a need to resolve things where they weren’t resolved in reality. This created an honest movie which moved me far more than I thought it would.

I Swear is available to rent digitally

2) Little Trouble Girls

For the best foreign language movie of the year we go to Slovenia where we get Black Swan meeting an Alice Rohrwacher movie (La Chimera or Happy as Lazzaro). Lucija is part of a choir who hates to sing loudly and is generally shielded from the outside world. Her choir master is pretty mean, however she finds a budding friendship with Ana-Marija, the slovakian choir girl equivalent of Mila Kunis’ Black Swan (Yeah, the films are similar). When they go to a choir retreat in Italy, Lucija also gets the hots for a local construction worker causing quite the tension. Magical moments of fantasy balance with realism to create an effective dreamy movie which totally caught me off guard. One of the rare occassions I agree with my film writing rival boring Peter Bradshaw in happily giving it 5 stars.

Little Trouble Girls is streaming on BFI player and available to rent digitally.

and the film of the year is…

When I choose a film of the year, it has to be one that’s interested me and made me feel something. There are very few films which have made me cry this year. Goodbye June, Bridget Jones 4 and maybe a couple of others? And the best films aren’t all melodrama. They need something good about them and the way they’re made. They need to have a vision behind them.

This year’s film of the year didn’t cause much of a splash on its release, however it received a quiet respect from most who liked it, as well as the top film at the London Film Festival (The second time this award has overlapped with my film of the year). The exciting first on this blog this year is that it’s an animated movie.

With a claymation rough and ready aesthetic and a sweet story about breaking down your own cages, my film of the year is Memoir of a Snail.

Memoir of a Snail focuses on the life of Grace Puddle, an Australian child who lives with her brother Gilbert and her father. Following the fathers death, they are sent to foster homes on different sides of the country and we see the following years of Gracie’s life as she struggles into adulthood. An animated film, Memoir of a Snail isn’t made for children though. While it is sad, it also puts you back together and is a wonderful story of self-empowerment Stylish and sleek, Memoir of a Snail is the film ramble’s film of the year.

Memoir of a Snail is available to stream on BFI player and rent digitally

And that’s a wrap. With about 5 blog posts, I definitely haven’t kept up with this blog as much as I’d like. But who cares, happy new year to everyone except the deep sea trawlers.

2025 Scraps

December 22, 2025Posted in ReviewTagged Film, Horror, movie-review, Movies, reviewsLeave a comment

Every year I half write a few posts and never finish them. Here is a set of unfinished, unchecked reviews.

September Movies (Unfinished because I go in reverse order you get to see the boring films)

It has been disaster down my street I tell you. As the writer of South West London’s fourth best film blog (according to all known sources), I am in a huge turf war. I went to sleep on a Thursday night, and when I awoke on Friday, my street lamposts were adorned with flags of Jared Leto. Immediately, I went to take down these monstrositys, but then 10 Downing Street Fans of Leto came out and claimed it was just patriotism to their favourite actor/30STM band member/alleged sex cult leaders, but I thought it was an attempt to intimidate people who don’t like bad method actors/band members/alleged sex cult leaders. Anyway, let’s move on from this weird phase of americanised patriotism and go and do what we do best, pretend that people give a shit about my movie opinions.

Let’s start with the suprise hit of the summer: K-pop Demon Hunters, the Korean film which is all in English. A band of K-pop stars need to bring down demons. However, when a group of demon boys come along, the lead girl whom is part demon needs to defeat them while concealing her identity. How do you defeat demons? Well, the power of MMA and song of course.

The animation here is actually really well made. Inspired by the more action focussed excitement we’ve seen across Sony and Dreamworks, it’s an exciting well paced film. However, at the same time it is a film for young K-pop fans, so you know what’s going to happen. Your enjoyment of the film will depend exclusively on your opinion on the songs. Hate K-Pop? This film will be awful for you. Indifferent? It will be fine, but you’ll be bored by the end. Know one band more than BTS? Yeah, you’re giving this 5 stars.

I didn’t hate it at all. The songs were okay, and it was better than the title suggested. An average solid movie.

The Life of Chuck is a somewhat frustrating film in that it’s pretty difficult to describe. I went in almost blind as the trailer didn’t give much away. A three part story which really stretches out a Stephen King short, the first third is the most interesting. We see the world ending, with a mysterious message out there thanking Chuck for 39 great years. it feels like the time is up and is really helpless. We then go through Chuck’s life over the next 2 chapters, explaining the story a bit more. However, from 5 mins into the second act you can tell what happens

Act one is fantastic. An apocalypse full of mystery and intellegence shot beautifully. I’m there, it’s exciting. What a film. Act two is the only one with Tom Hiddlestone. Oh yeah, he’s the main advertised guy and is barely in the film. Act three is young Tom and it’s a fairly standard coming of age drama. The lack of time with Hiddlestone is probably this film’s biggest weakness. It means we get three acts with innterlinking easter eggs, but a lack of decent narrative. In the end you finish and can’t help but wonder what the point of it all was. It’s just a nice movie but really fails to be some sort of earth shattering revolution.

Caught Stealing is the latest film by Darren Aronofsky, a man who has only made one great film (I won’t say which). Austin Butler is asked to look after his neigbour’s cat. However, when a bunch of gangsters come along he’s in trouble.

It’s high octane easy action fun. Your usual popcorn jam. It’s predictable as heck. Twist villains, moments which will come back, everything. There is a moment where he needs to crash his car on purpose to get over killing his friend in a car crash. That’s weird. However, the cat was nice. I don’t have much more to say. I went to this with Liam which is the only reason it’s getting any page time in this blog. Watch it if you want an easy action movie.

Big Boys is a charming coming of age comedy about a boy called Jamie who goes on a camping trip with his brother, older cousin and her boyfriend Dan. Jamie is a shy boy with no esteem, however he soon finds himself falling for Dan, whom he wants to impress. Meanwhile, his brother is trying to get him to hook up with a girl in the camp. Of course, the hijinks ensue.

Another film which is pretty predictable, the awkward coming of age has been done many times before, and the awkward Heartstopper energy is hardly anything new. Despite that, this film did make me chuckle a number of times. It had its heart in the right place, and is a nice enough easy movie which those in my viewing all seemed to really enjoy. It wore its heart on its sleeve throughout. It was often cringy and awkward, so if you can’t stand that humour it’s a big avoid. But for a standard heart-warming romp this is probably worth looking for.

I Went to the UK’s Oldest Film Festival – October 2025

This blog will be a little different to usual. It will be a bit more rambly as I try and pain a picture. However, it will still talk about the three films I watched, including one which is a top 10 of the year contender.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking? What was the UK’s first film festival? London? Glasgow? Something obscurus. Well, that’s not even the question my click bait title is discussing. By “oldest”, I of course mean oldest average audience. I spent the weekend with the geriatrics, the infirm, those who if they were born the other side of the Atlantic would be in the running for President. I was at the Purbeck film festival. A festival in deepest darkest Dorset, one where despite the proven fraud, the Salt Path was still a sell out. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a live Q&A with Moth or Raynor otherwise I would have been first in line.

Day 1:

I got to the sleepy town of Swanage, Dorset around Friday lunchtime. An agonising journey on the number 50 bus was required from Bournemouth, and all the taffy chewers were using their mobility aides to walk on. Not a bad thing, but after 10 minutes of ambling onto the bus and up to the second level (Why, if you can’t walk quick sit downstairs), they’d stand there for 20 seconds picking where to sit, despite the bus being 20% full. Naturally, the driver would wait for them to sit down, and thus my 1 hour bus ride was much closer to 2. Maybe in peak season, I would’ve been smart to download the Brutalist for a re-watch.

Finally in Swanage, I got to Aunt Claire’s and to spend the weekend with her and her cats Flow and Flow. After a quiet afternoon of reading my book in a café (Pachinko if anyone’s curious. A very good read), we set off for our first film The Mastermind.

This was to take place at the Lighthouse, Poole. Not an actual lighthouse, but an art centre with pretty poor parking. Upon our cheeky parking in the carpark opposite in which we joined 5 other cars in parking on a double yellow, despite the single bay of cars parked opposite (Hopefully that wouldn’t come back to bite us later), we made our way in to the small cinema which reminded me of Curzon Wimbledon before its recent redecoration. My low and uncomfy seat was sat in, the local seniors were all set and after some adverts about Purbeck’s nature and the Salt Pig, an establishment which provides underwhelming food (these would be the adverts before every screening). We then got an introduction from a lady with a name which we weren’t told. She started off by saying seeing those trailers show how “Cool” it is to live in Dorset because of the Salt Pig. Never has Dorset felt less cool than in that moment. She then said the film is leaves you with the question “who is the real mastermind?” On the basis that there is only one character in the film, it feels as obvious as asking “Who’s the boss in Who’s the Boss?” (Angela, obviously).

Very aptly timed, The Mastermind is the new film from Kelly Reichardt (First Cow) about a man who leads a very simple and incompetently done art heist, stealing four pieces of value from the local museum. However, things very quickly go south with the police after him, and others. The film was very slow, and with the title cards being vertical certainly wanky. Reichardt is a slow film maker, and that’s fine. I was particularly tired, and by the end interested in where it was going (The conclusion is abrupt). Josh O’Connor is naturally charismatic and able to do a slow film well (La Chimera for example). However, what I found tougher to connect with in this than First Cow was that the character isn’t particularly likable. He’s not unlikable, but he’s a lone wolf and none of his relationships are particularly engaging. His wife is in one scene, and his kids are very American and very annoying. Unlike First Cow where it’s about the friendship between the leads, this one just meanders and you really don’t care. It has a couple of amusing scenes, but the slow pace leads to nothing, and no real sense of danger or urgency. The music was pretty cool mind. One for the art-house nerds? Not especially. One for the heist movie lovers absolutely not.

The real drama came when we got out and got the car park, as despite paying the ringo fee, our double yellow parking got us a ticket which wasn’t quite golden. A £25 fine not worth the film, and to make it worse we had a spiteful bus driver blocking us in for 10 minutes. He was pretty much gloating when he asked if we had a fine, and wasn’t prepared to move despite there being an acre of empty space. Should we have parked where we did? No. Was there another option? No. Did he need to be such a prick? Well, it’s the Dorset small town vigilante mindset. Thankfully, the satanic popcorn munchers sat next to me during the film were also trapped in.

Unrelatedly, I have a long standing theory that 50% of bus drivers are nonces, and the one on the number 50 bus I took earlier that day wasn’t giving nonce vibes, so whatever. Make up what you want.

Day 2:

Day 2 started with a volunteering shift at an unnamed Dorset Charity shop with Aunt. I got to hear about one of the staff member’s swollen tongue and a whole bunch of double entendres (Apparently, a Swanage Charity Shop is a hotbed of Sexual Misconduct/Harassment). We also had the second most memeable former premier league manager come in, a Mr Neil Warnock. Unfortunately, as an Exeter Uni alumnus, I didn’t get to tell him that “I also want to beat Plymouth so fucking much”. A solid 12 months for me, having also come across the most memeable a Mr Mick McCarthy in Charing Cross last December. One month to meet Mourinho in a pub and I’ve got the holy trinity. After an afternoon with cousin, aunt and I headed to the old Swanage cinema of the Mowlem to watch a preview of the Cannes Palme D’or Winner It Was Just An Accident.

This cinema which had a lot of charm. It’s a theatre/cinema and again was full of old people. The average age was certainly over 60, however there was one behaviour which I couldn’t endorse. One which should remain in Benidorm. People putting their coats on unreserved seats early and going to the bar for a couple of drinks. Poor poor form Sheila. Sat next to one of these people, I had taken my coat off and was sorting myself out. She asked me to make sure the arm of my coat wasn’t touching her, as it was touching her leg while I was just getting settled. I moved it. It happened to flick back on her leg while I was still sorting it out, unaware. She very quickly got the huff, tutted and moved to a shit seat. Anyway, that’s good Sheila. I’m happy you were miserable, you pathetic seat reseving cow. Old man Terry and old lady Beatrice sat next to me instead, and had much better vibes, despite Terry snoring for a couple of minutes mid film.

The film this time was introduced by an older Gentleman called Woody, whom I’d heard had a penchant for reading out the plot. However, this time his opening was really good. Not too much plot given away, but vital context and a few filming methods to look out for, and the context is actually really important for this movie.

Director Jaraf Pahani is probably the most famous Iranian film maker in the world. His films, often critical of Iran’s regime have always been done with small casts, one camera and very much in secret. This film, which is most bluntly critical of the regime was inspired by stories he’d heard from fellow inmates, as he’s often been banned from film-making and imprisoned for doing so. Therefore, you know his style is going to be pretty bare-bones.

This movie is about a mechanic called Vahid who hears a man with a prosphetic leg who he thinks tortured him in prison, called Peg-Leg or Eghbal. He spends the day finding others also tortured to work out whether it is Eghbal and what to do with him. Naturally, as amateurs it all goes wrong and Vahid, a fundamentally good man has many moral decisions to make throughout the day which could put him and his motley crew in danger.

At times really tense, at other times funny, this film brims with an anger felt by all the characters. They all deal with it differently, but the theme carries through well. The sound is great in this movie, there are subtle moments which work really well. Likewise, the way it’s shot is very good. You never see Vahid or “Eghbal” on the same shot. One is usually blindfolded, so they’ve never made eye contact. It’s a smart engaging film, and the climax is phenomenally acted by Vahid Mobasseri (Vahid), Ebrahim Azizi (Eghbal) and Marian Afshari (Shiva). The particular highlight of this movie was the final scene, which I won’t spoil, but it’s the damn best final shot of any movie I’ve seen this year.

It Was Just an Accident is essential viewing from one of cinema’s most exciting voices.