He’s back! Well, at least for now. OK, at least just for this one post. I had an incredible time at the movies this year, with some truly high highs, and less fortunately some low-lows (I am looking at you, Highest 2 Lowest). I like to look back and reflect on the year and think about the movie moments that really stuck out to me. While this list does include many of my favorite movies of the year, this isn’t a favorite movies list. It is a favorite movie moments list. The idea is to capture the moments that stuck with me, that I still think about during my idle thoughts. That I still try to wrestle over in my mind. Some are big, some are small, some are spoiler-y. But I will do my best to talk about why I love them and not spoil the moment for you, my dear reader.
Sinners – Dancing at the Juke Joint
Do you ever have those moments while watching a movie where you feel like you are levitating above the ground? Like your spirit has left your body, and you are seeing into another universe? That is how I felt watching the juke joint dance scene in Sinners, all three times I watched it in theaters. If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what moment I am talking about. It does everything I want when I go to the movies – I temporarily escaped from my reality and was transported to a different time and place, seeing through the eyes of another person or culture. The movie comes to a crescendo, with the influence of generations of black artists coming together to celebrate that one moment of joy, no matter how fleeting. The music swells. Sammy’s voice roars through the crowd. The roof is on fire. And in that moment, you truly understand the stakes of the movie. What would you do to capture that moment again? What evils would you conjure to feel that feeling one more time? Ryan Coogler is a generational talent that understands how to craft worlds with meaning and purpose that also please a crowd. We need to protect him at all costs.
One Battle After Another – Shit Just Got Real
There is a very small moment in One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s propulsive epic about family, duty, parenthood, and revolution, that took my breath away. Blink, and you might miss it. About half way through the movie, Chase Infiniti’s character is playing outside with her dog. She is seemingly living a semi-normal teenage life with her paranoid stoner dad played by Leonardo DiCaprio. She takes a second to look up into the sky and sees a vulture circling through the trees high above. The camera pans back down again to only have her look up a few seconds later to see a helicopter passing through town in the exact spot the vulture was. This is the moment the movie turns on its head and you realize shit is about to get real. This sets off the entire frenetic second half of the movie. The vultures have come to town. Are you ready?
Weapons – The Crab Shuffle
Zach Cregger had a lot to live up to in my eyes in his follow-up to Barbarian, which was one of my favorite movies of 2022. Could he capture the same level of tension, dread, and “what the actual fuck is going on” vibes that he so expertly crafted in his first feature film? In the immortal words of Hulk Hogan – HELL YEAH BROTHER! There are a million moments that I could pick from this movie all the way from absurd to hilarious to scary as hell, but one scene in particular stands out above the rest. Julia Garner’s character Justine is sitting outside of her students house trying to get to the bottom of what exactly happened that night when all of her students disappeared. All of a sudden the front door opens. Initially, all you see is pitch black. But then something emerges from the house. A woman. No, a ghost? A zombie? It’s hard to initially tell. And Justine is in frame asleep at the wheel (literally). I won’t spoil what happens next, as it drew a large gasp from the audience in my theater, but suffice to say it leaves you scratching your head and begging to know more.
Hamnet – The Globe Theater
Do you want to have your whole day absolutely fucked? Go see Hamnet. Chloe Zhao’s film follows the life of William Shakespeare and his family all the way through the creation of his magnum opus, Hamlet. But the movie isn’t really about Shakespeare but rather his wife Agnes, played by Jesse Buckley (just hand this woman the Oscar now. Holy smokes). It is a story about grief, family, passion, and how art can serve as a universal language of the human experience. The last 20 minutes of this movie will absolutely fuck your shit up. If you aren’t swelled to emotion, I don’t know what to tell you. The beauty of Shakespeare is that you don’t need to understand every word or phrase to appreciate it. You just need to understand the feeling that is being conveyed. The second Agnes steps into the globe theater, seeing Hamlet for the first time, I could barely breath. As she reaches out, yells for the ghost on stage to turn back, I was an emotional wreck. That moment will stick with me forever.
It Was Just an Accident – The Final Squeak
Jafar Panahi is a badass. There is no other way to say it. For those who don’t know, he is an acclaimed Iranian filmmaker who makes his movies in secrecy in Iran based on charges of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” He was sentenced to 6 years in prison for his movie The Circle in 2000. After finishing It Was Just an Accident, a thriller set in modern day Iran, he was sentenced to another year in prison. The man is the walking definition of speaking truth to power. This movie has an incredible set up – what would you do if you found the man who tortured you while in prison, but you weren’t 100% sure it was him? All you had to go on was the squeak and shuffle of his gait. With the set up in place, Panahi explores revenge, forgiveness, grief, the cycle of violence, and how corruption erodes our societal fabric. I won’t specifically spoil anything here, as I think this movie is 100% worth seeking out. The moment that sticks out to me is the final scene and the final squeak. For my money, this is maybe the best ending in movies this year.
Sentimental Value – Needles on the Couch
Nobody knows how to needle you better than your family. They understand your nooks and crannies better than anyone, and where they can stick something to inflict the most pain. Sentimental Value helps us better understand that principle. What can families give us, and what can they take away? What power do we give them to influence our lives? The movie is a subtle exploration of depression, estrangement, and family trauma. There is a scene about halfway through the movie where the father figure is sitting with his semi-estranged daughters after they’ve shared a cordial dinner. And that is when the needles come out. The father, played by Stellan Skarsgard, drives in one after another to his two daughters. Everything plays out on their faces – the anger, the sadness, the pain. How dare this man come back into their lives while they are full of grief to tell them how to live? It is a masterclass in showing and not telling the audience the history between these characters.
Sorry, Baby – That Time She Apologizes to the Baby
Eva Victor’s directorial debut Sorry, Baby was a revelation. Deeply funny, tragic, and wanting, this movie really swept me off my feet. I think this movie is best experienced fresh. Not because it is super plot driven, or has some crazy twist at the end, but because it slowly unwraps itself like an onion revealing its layers. When Eva’s character Agnes (what is with Agnes’ this year!?) finally has a moment of clarity and honesty with herself, the only one she can talk to is a baby. It is sad and poignant, but also strangely hopeful. We have always seen our best selves in children. The promise and hope that the future will be better. But will it?
Marty Supreme – The Bowling Alley Grift
I am a sucker for a good grift in a movie. And boy, is Marty Hauser a grifter. It is the only way he knows how to survive. He is a relentless pursuit of a singular goal – to become the world’s greatest table tennis player. The only problem? He has pissed off everyone in his path and doesn’t have the money to compete in the World Championship. The movie is relentless, moving at a break neck pace with scene after scene or anxiety educing action. My favorite scene involves Marty, played masterfully by Timothée Chalamet, and his buddy Wally (Tyler the Creator) trying to con a few schmucks down at the bowling alley. It’s a classic set up – the two pretend they don’t know each other, one a down on his luck cab driver and the other an arrogant asshole, until all the money hits the table. You almost forget that they are doing a bit, falling into the grift yourself as the scene plays out, and you so desperately want them to succeed, even though they are assholes. This is the basic tension of the entire movie. Marty Hauser is a charming asshole, one that you want to see succeed but also taken down a few pegs. I won’t spoil what ensues, but it involves a gas station, a dog, and dancing outside of a car. Not many actors or directors could pull off what they did in Marty Supreme, but Chalamet and Josh Safdie stuck the landing.
28 Years Later – Memento Mori
Remember, you must die. This is a central theme of 28 Years Later, which forces us to look at our own mortality in the face and ask what we would do to survive or protect the ones that we love. At the heart of it, this movie is about our relationship to our parents. The first time we learn that our dad is a liar. Or that our mom might be beyond help. The movie takes a ton of twists and turns, but it really goes into another gear when Ralph Fiennes shows up as Dr. Ian Kelson at his Bone Temple. Visually stunning, poetic, and emotional, the entire sequence when Spike and his mother are visiting Dr. Kelson is magic. But when the music swells, the lights dance, and Spike places a skull amongst the temple at a place of honor, my breath was truly taken away.
No Other Choice – The First Kill
Nobody else in the business does style with substance quite like Park Chan-wook. His ability to capture an image with double, and sometimes even triple, meaning is unparalleled. No Other Choice is no exception. Even the title itself is used throughout the movie cleverly highlighting its many meanings. My favorite moment is when the main character, Yoo Man-soo, finally decides it’s time to pull the trigger for the first time. Except he can’t quite do it. He sees himself too much in the man he is meant to kill. He turns the music up to flood out the sound of the gun shot. He and his victim scream at the top of their lungs at each other, just to be heard. And Yoo Man-soo seems to be talking to himself, while yelling at the other man. “You should have just listened to your wife! Sell your house, go work a retail job moving boxes. It all would have been OK!” He knows its the truth, but he has already come too far. He has no other choice. What ensues is a hilarious combination of Three Stooges meets Quentin Tarantino. Go see this movie in theaters while you have the chance.
Well that’s it folks! Those are my favorite movie moments of 2025. I will be back again to check on the Academy Awards with my annual picks. Until then, Happy New Year, and see you at the movies!
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