Continuing my look at the movies of 2025, this week I’ll offer up my own nominations in the four Oscar acting categories as well as Best Director.
As a new twist, I’m going to set aside the actual Oscar nominees and offer up five new names in each category. In some cases, my true top five would include one or more of the people recognized by the Academy, and I’ll point those out as I go. But I wanted to shine a light on some less than usual suspects.
Throwing back to the week of February 15, 1986, we find Whitney Houston atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘How Will I Know,’ in the first of its two weeks at #1.
In the second spot was Billy Ocean with (deep breath) ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going.’ Like yesterday’s featured artist, Hot Chocolate, Ocean is a British artist I didn’t realize was British (at least not until I wrote about ‘Caribbean Queen’ in late 2024).
America was in a horny mood the week of February 14, 1976. The #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 that week was Paul Simon’s ‘50 Ways to Leave Your Lover‘ (his only solo chart-topper) while Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love You Baby‘ sat at #2.
And in the #3 spot, its peak position, was British soul band Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing.’
Concluding a look at my favorite movie music scenes of 2025…
Before I get to my final musical selection, I want to shout out a few honorable mentions.
One is the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra performing during a South Bronx Puerto Rican Day celebration in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest. The vibrant parade is cross-cut with the delivery of ransom money on an overhead subway train in one of that film’s best scenes (here’s a small taste).
Another is the anachronistic use of 80s music in the 50s-set Marty Supreme. I particularly liked a montage set to The Korgis’ ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime.’
Continuing a look at my favorite movie music scenes of 2025…
Today’s clip was an easy choice for this series, another one of those moments that I mentally pencilled in as soon as I saw it in the theater.
The scene comes about halfway through Ari Aster’s Eddington, a bracing and darkly funny portrait of America during Covid. This was one of last year’s best films, and one I think hit too close to home for a lot of people and ended up outside of the awards conversation as a result.
Meet Me In Montauk 