At the beginning of 2025, I set a goal for myself: watch a total of 30 movies. I figured that I should be able to watch about 2 movies per month, and a few more during the summer. As the year comes to a close, I have looked over my Letterboxd diary for the year, and my total movies watched comes to 53 movies, both first time watches and rewatches. Admittedly, I do often forget to log movies, so the true total is probably closer to 60. Of these, some have stood out as better than others, so these are the noteworthy films I watched for the first time this year, for better or worse.
“Burlesque” (2010)
Rating: 10/10
Cher. Christina Aguilera. Alan Cumming. Stanley Tucci. Really, what more could a movie musical ask for? The star-studded cast of “Burlesque”combined with its unending visual appeal and expert scoring has made it one of my favorite watches not only of 2025, but of all time.
The film follows Ally, played by Aguilera, as she moves to New York City to pursue her dream of performing. At a burlesque club, she falls in love with the style of performance and sets her sights on the club’s stage. She ends up working as a bartender before she gets through to the club’s owner, Tess (played by Cher), and gets a job on the stage through an audition. In addition to the main storyline, Ally is involved in a love triangle between the club’s engaged bartender, Jack (played by Cam Gigandet), and one of the club’s regulars, Marcus (played by Eric Dane). Parallel to Ally’s story, Tess is also struggling to keep the club while Marcus guns for its ownership.
From the complex characters established throughout the film to the show-stopping costuming to the expertly established settings, “Burlesque” is an enjoyable watch the whole way through. The lighting used throughout makes an ambiance seen in movies such as Edgar Wright’s “Last Night in Soho,” combining emotional scenes and appropriately warm or cool tones lighting to instill a similar feeling in the audience. The settings are packed with familiarity despite being unvisited by the audience, a feeling not many directors can achieve, but director Steve Antin has mastered.
The cherry on top of this film are the songs, which both add to the plot while not being elements of the film that the storyline depends on. Aguilera’s stellar vocals combined with upbeat, glittery pop tracks result in a score I find myself listening to independently from the film.
I watched “Burlesque” on the grueling bus ride to Disney in April, and it made the hours-long bus ride much less excruciating than it could have been.
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009)
Rating: 9/10
Altogether, I am a sucker for animated films, especially those made techniques other than standard computer animation. From the claymation of Tim Burton’s films to the puppeteering of the Muppets, I feel drawn to the art of making a film. This, too, is the case for Wes Anderson’s stop-motion film “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Starring the likes of George Clooney, Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, Willem Dafoe and more, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is full of talent, making my enjoyment of the film entirely predictable.
Following the titular Mr. Fox as he seeks to establish a better life for his family, and realizing his mortality, Anderson’s 2009 release inspires a great deal of introspection into the fine line between animal instincts and human nature. Unable to help himself from one more endeavor to steal from local form tycoonists, Mr. Fox ends up endangering his wife, his son, his nephew, and eventually his whole community.
The complex characters of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” combined with its visual appeal, scoring, and thematic developments come together like no other film does. Audiences experience an array of emotion from the beginning of the film to the end, ultimately leaving them feeling more open to cooperation and compromise.
“Death Becomes Her” (1992)
Rating: 9/10
The only film I can think of that I would consider comparable to “Death Becomes Her” is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975). Both films have a very camp-y aesthetic rarely achieved in film, especially today. “Death Becomes Her” is over the top in all of the right ways, introducing something new to the movie scene while also employing a star-studded cast of actors.
“Death Becomes Her” features flawless performances from the likes of Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis and many more. Meryl Streep’s performance as the popularity-crazed Madeline Ashton is especially spectacular as she depicts a celebrity obsessed with preserving her youth. The film follows Madeline as she steals the husbands of her close friends and constantly seeks out new regimes to preserve her ever-escaping youth. When Botox and cleanses lose their effectiveness, however, Madeline is referred to the elusive Lislie Von Rhuman, played by Isabella Rossellini, who offers her an elixir to stay young forever. Her claims to youth are rivaled by her ex-bestfriend, Hawn’s Helen Sharp, who finds her way to the elixir before Madeline and rubs her young appearance in her estranged friend’s face.
This film combines the absurd and grotesque with humor in a way that lingers and begs for ponderance for weeks after its initial viewing.
“But I’m a Cheerleader” (1999)
Rating: 10/10
I watched “But I’m a Cheerleader” for the first time in June, and it was an immediate favorite of mine. The film introduced me to several songs that have found their rightful place in many of my playlists, and its visual appeal is unlike any other.
Head cheerleader Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is sent to a conversion therapy, where she is forced to confront the idea that she may be a lesbian. In the weeks she spends away from home, Megan is able to make a group of new friends and have new experiences she would not have had otherwise, while simultaneously exploring her identity. Though he plays a much smaller role, the performance of RuPaul in this film is nothing short of iconic, featuring several notable quotes that have made their way into my personal colloquial.
While I find myself typically drawn to more emotionally charged, introspective or suspenseful films, I also have a special adoration for coming of age films, and “But I’m a Cheerleader” has cemented itself as one of my favorites. As the year came to a close and I revisited my watching stats for the year, I was also informed by Letterboxd’s “Year in Review” that my most watched nanogenre of the year was, unsurprisingly, “cliche, teenager, boys.” Films of the genre adorned much of my summer, but the most standout of them was director Jamie Babbit’s.
“Poor Things” (2023)
Rating: 3/10
The thing I hate the most about “Poor Things” is how much I hate it. This film had so much potential, only for directorial ignorance to shroud the ultimate meaning of the film. If I were to reallocate the film to a different team of people, I would undoubtedly assure that it was directed by someone more in tune with patriarchal stereotyping and how it differs from the reality of womanhood.
The area “Poor Things” is strongest in is its acting, featuring the likes of Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Mark Ruffalo and so many more. The storyline follows Stone’s character, Bella Baxter, after she is brought back to life in a Frankenstein-esque way following her attempted suicide. With no memory of her life before, Bella relearns everything, and eventually her desire to learn more exceeds the liberties granted to her by her maker, Dafoe’s Godwin Baxter. She embarks on a voyage alongside Ruffalo’s Duncan Wedderburn, leaving behind the life she had known in her accessible memory.
“Poor Things” explores different aspects of self discovery, but is ultimately very reductionist. Bella’s independence is often undermined, and her pursuits of femininity and intelligence seemingly cannot coexist. Ultimately, the main takeaway of the film can be summed up to claiming that a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her own body is more than enough, and seeking any liberties beyond that would be selfish–and I wholeheartedly disagree.
That’s not to say that there aren’t other aspects of the film I enjoy, however. The grotesque depictions of human nature are very thought provoking, the settings are expertly designed, and the lighting and costuming departments gave this film their all. “Poor Things” is a visual and artistic masterpiece, but it would have been much better executed by a director with more insight into the struggles they were depicting. One other director who comes to mind is Emerald Fennell, whose 2023 film “Saltburn” brings many of the same grotesque aspects of human nature to the screen while provoking great retrospection from viewers and conveying themes in a very down-to-earth manner.
“Anora” (2024)
Rating: 2/10
After a night of great winning at the 2024 Oscars, I had really high expectations for “Anora,” which the film ultimately did not live up to. “Anora” follows the titular character, played by Mikey Madison, after she quits her job at a nightclub on a whim and marries the reckless son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn. When the news of his marriage reaches his parents, a frenzy ensues on their end to annul the marriage, and on Anora’s end to find her new husband, who disappeared at the sight of his parents in his New York home.
Admittedly, the film is beautiful. The use of lighting is done expertly for the majority of the film, and the different settings throughout are stunning. The other side to this coin, however, lies in the vast majority of the daytime outdoors-set scenes. It certainly captures the essence of the northeastern US, but in contrast to the nightclub, Las Vegas and other indoors-set scenes, these ones noticeably don’t instill the same awe. In addition, the wardrobing of this film is nothing short of interesting. The male characters have generally bland outfits, while the costuming of the women is puzzling. For a film set in the present day, the outfits seem very out of touch with this time period, or any, for that matter. The outfits seem very costumey and over-accessorized. Furthermore, I’ve never met any woman whose shoes wardrobe is exclusively heels, which even causes Anora’s character some headache in the film.
My main qualm with this film lies not in its general aesthetics, however, but it is the characters themselves. Not much is known of the male characters, as they all have very stern demeanors. This is fitting for the film, but it does make it hard to find relatability in them. Ultimately, Anora’s character is the one I take the greatest issue with. For a film which follows a female protagonist, she is rather one-dimensional. I find myself attributing this largely to writer/director Sean Baker, who like many male directors fails to capture any key aspects of womanhood. Anora’s life from the get-go of the film revolves entirely around men. The only issue she has outside of her relationship struggles is monetary, an issue ultimately solved by her new husband. Her character is not allowed self-sufficience, and she is reduced to a character whose sole role is subservience to male side characters.
