Throwing back to the week of February 28, 1976, we find the ‘Theme from S.W.A.T.’ by Rhythm Heritage atop the Billboard Hot 100. I wrote about that song during a week about instrumental tracks that reached #1. Paul Simon drops to #2 with his ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.’
In the third spot, a week before its sole week at #1, was The Miracles’ ‘Love Machine Pt. 1.’ The full seven minute album track was split into two parts with ‘Part 2’ serving as the B-side (it’s basically an extended coda).
Counting down the movies from #15-11 on my 2025 year-end list, before getting to the top ten next week…
#15. Marty Supreme
A kinetic, confident rush of pure adrenaline that brings vivid life to 1950s New York and offers up a charismatic little shit for the ages in Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser.
#14. Train Dreams
A beautiful, meditative film that depicts a man’s entire life through poetic and often heartbreaking images, but manages to end on a note of breathtaking uplift.
Today and tomorrow I’ll list the movies at #11-20 on my 2025 year-end list, before getting to the top ten next week.
#20. Nouvelle Vague
Richard Linklater continues to cement his legacy as one of the most versatile and fascinating film directors. This loving recreation of the French New Wave movement is one of his most audaciously creative works yet.
#19. Rental Family
I just watched this film so it might benefit from recency bias, but nevertheless I found it incredibly sweet and heartwarming. Director Hikari does a beautiful job portraying modern Tokyo in ways both expected and unexpected.
Over the next two weeks I’ll count down my ten favorite movies of 2025, and tomorrow and Friday will be a quick recap of the films sitting at the 11-20 spots. So I figured I’d spend today listing some of the titles that surprisingly fell outside of my top 20.
I don’t dislike any of these films — I like some of them quite a bit — but for one reason or another they didn’t resonate with me as much as I expected based on their pedigree.
Only three of the 20 highest-grossing domestic releases of 2025 weren’t based on some sort of existing franchise, whether it was a previous film, a comic book, or (in the case of F1: The Movie) a popular motorsport league. That’s up from two in 2024, so I guess an optimist would call that progress.
The three outliers holding the torch for original cinema are Sinners, Weapons, and The Housemaid (which was based on a book, to be fair, but it’s not exactly The Fantastic Four). Let’s celebrate the horror genre for putting butts in seats for new material.
Meet Me In Montauk 