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.
SZA holds both the 19th and 20th slots on the year-end Billboard Hot 100. Yesterday’s ‘Saturn’ is followed up by ‘Snooze,’ a hit from her album SOS that was so big it first showed up at #9 on the 2023 year-end list.
At #21 is the second Doja Cat song of the week. ‘Paint the Town Red,’ the lead single from her 2023 album Scarlet, also showed up on that 2023 list, at #52. It was Doja Cat’s first solo #1 hit late that year, and carried that success into 2024.
The next songs on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 are a pair of bangers: Billie Eilish’s ‘Birds of a Feather‘ at #15 and Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Please Please Please‘ at #16.
At #17 is the second single from Doja Cat’s 2023 album Scarlet. ‘Agora Hills’ is a sexy love song named for Agoura Hills, the city where Doja grew up. The intentional misspelling is a nod to agoraphilia, the love of public life and crowds, as the song references going public with a love affair.
What better way to celebrate American’s birthday than by posting a new song by Doja Cat? ‘Attention’ is the rapper/singer’s first new material since last year’s Elvis soundtrack song ‘Vegas.’
This track, the first single from upcoming album First of All (currently without a release date), signals a shift away from pop and toward hip-hip. Doja disparaged her first two albums on Twitter, writing “Planet her and hot pink were cash-grabs and yall fell for it” and promised to return to her rap roots on her next release. ‘Attention’ suggests she’s following through.
Post Malone has become quite the hitmaker since dropping his debut album six years ago. The rapper/singer has had four #1 hits in that time, and another seven in the top ten.
His latest is ‘I Like You (A Happier Song),’ the third single from his Twelve Carat Toothache album. This breezy track, a duet with Doja Cat, peaked at #9 and this week sits at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Meet Me In Montauk 