Master Rays Top Ten Films of 2025!

[Master Ray]

As you all know, I'm a huge film buff.  Some great movies this year (particularly in the horror genre), be interested to see what you thought were the best of the year. 

In case you're wondering what any of these films were about I'm gonna post a trailer beneath all of them... hope some of you discover a movie that I really liked!   

1 - One Battle After Another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQUPdVxZNPk

2 - Sinners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGxHflevuk

3 - The Life Of Chuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMUTCdsXD5A

4 - 28 Years Later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcvLKldPM08

5 - Caught Stealing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mIvD-GN-p4

6 - The Long Walk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAtUHeMQ1F8

7 - Weapons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpThntO9ixc

8 - Better Man *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVeH5T4wxkE

9 - All Of You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYEi3bDCcc

10 - Sisu - Road To Revenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmStqCXIgio



* - yes, that Robbie Williams biopic where he was played by a CGI monkey and a massive box office flop.  I can't say I'm a huge RW fan although I like a few of his tunes.  But it's funny as heck and the song and dance numbers are spectacular (as you would expect from the director of The Greatest Showman). Ignore the naysayers, this one is well worth a go, promise!.

[Guillaume]

In your list i really liked "Sinners", "Weapons" and "The long walk" was pretty good too. I haven't seen "Caught Stealing" but in 2001 I saw in theaters one of its director's (Darren Aronofky) previous film and at the time this film was one of the most visceral/sensory and depressing to see/expriment on the big screen: "Requiem for a Dream".

Others recent decent horror films i from 2025 i can recommend to you  are "Dangerous animals",  "Together", "Final destination bloodlines" and from a few years ago Dario Argento's last film "Dark glasses"! 


Others movies, this time "non horror movies" i liked in theaters, in 2025...:


foreign films:

"Sorry baby"
"We live in time"
"Islands"


French films:

 "A bicyclette!"
"Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes"
"L" attachement"
"'L' homme qui rétrécit" (the decent french remake of the 50's sci fi classic "The incredible shrinking man")
"La fille d'un grand amour"
"Le gang des amazones"
"Les braises"
"Mikado"
"Nino"
"On ira"
"Un monde merveilleux"
"Un ours dans le Jura"
"Vie privée"

[cthulhu]

I can say nothing about this list, i haven't seen any of those movies...yet..But holy moly, Master ray are you living in a Cinema? And you Guillaume, too? ;-)

As for you list MR, what came to my mind is that i enjoyed Rocketman, the biopic about Elton John and it was different than i expected and i liked it a lot. It's not that i don't like musicals, in fact i love them!, but it was more than i thought this is not a movie for me, thought it would be ..don't know how to say it..commercial or so. But i liked the performances, i liked the choreography, and yeah, i just liked it. So i think i will give this Better Man thing a try, how you described it it could be a funny watch.

And for your list Guillaume, tell more about those french movies. Are they just french releases or do they have international distribution? lowbudget arty thinglettes? I'm curious and especially the remake of the shrinking man one. When you say decent it sounds like..."uuuuhmm, ok. it's a movie.." ;-)

Maybe i'll open up a Musical thread...

[Guillaume]

Are they just french releases or do they have international distribution?

I don't know if these films have been released or will be released in others countries, perhaps on VOD/Blu-ray/DVD rather than in theaters? The last one on the list, "Vie privée" , you'll probably have a chance to see outside of France because the lead actress is Jodie Foster playing a therapist. I'd say most of them are mid-budget films, not really "arty" in my opinion, but films driven by the characters more than by pyrotechnics -car chases, explosions, gunfights, gore, etc!)- they are social,  family dramas, and comedies.
The remake of "The Incredible Shrinking Man," on the other hand, is a very big-budget film (for a french film) and is well-made and well-acted (by Jean Dujardin), serious and understated in its tone. I say "decent" because it's not as evocative or innovative as the 1950s film, but it's still respectable and didn't deserve its major commercial failure in France.

Yesterday I saw another good french comedy/drama in theaters, "L'incroyable femme des neiges", which I add to my top 10/20 2025.

But holy moly, Master ray are you living in a Cinema? And you Guillaume, too? ;-)

I've been a Pathé/Gaumont cinema subscriber since 2011. I pay around €20 a month, which allows me to see all the films I want in the Pathé/Gaumont theaters. If I didn't have a cinema subscription, I would pay €10 or more per ticket, so I would certainly see fewer films because cinema tickets are expensive in France. This year, I've seen about 80 films in french theaters. I find it hard to imagine depriving myself of movie theaters; I've been going to the theaters since I was a child When the theater/venue, the sound, picture quality and the audience are all good, it remains the best way to see a film.  3 years ago I saved up money to pay for the train ticket and hotel room to see the latest Argento film in a big Lyon theater/festival venue, because I had a feeling it wouldn't be released in french theaters but directly on VOD/Blu Ray/TV... I wanted the chance to experience it on a big, 13-meter screen with great sound!

[cthulhu]

That sounds fantastic. To have a monthly fee and be able to just watch whatever you feel like on the big screen. The tickets for movies are also expensive in Germany and when i was living in cologne there were at least two "Programmkinos" which showed movies in the original version and had a different programme with lesser known or old movies. And yeah, the big screen is very special, a different kind of experience. Last year i could watch for the first time RoboCop in a theater and it was a blast. As was seeing They Live for the first time in a cinema.

The Shrinking Man is now a must see for me, i also like Jean Dujardin, i love the OSS 117 series, just silly..and he was also in a Quentin Dupieux movie, i think the english title is Deer Skin, don't remember the original title and i would totally recommend not only this one but every movie by Quentin. Been collecting them since Rubber and recently i saw Daaaali!, a wonderful movie!

[Guillaume]

he was also in a Quentin Dupieux movie, i think the english title is Deer Skin, don't remember the original title and i would totally recommend not only this one but every movie by Quentin. Been collecting them since Rubber and recently i saw Daaaali!, a wonderful movie!

Dupieux's film with Dujardin is called "Le Daim" in french. I saw it when it came out and I didn't like it, even though Dujardin is pretty good in it (I also liked "The Artist" with Dujardin). I have very mixed feelings about Dupieux in general. I thought "Au Poste!" and "Steak" were pretty good and his latest, "L'Accident de Piano," released this year in France, is also interesting. I also like some of the actors in "Au poste!" and "Steak" so that helps: Eric & Ramzy, Benoit Poelvoorde. But too often Dupieux's screenplays are very thin. His films are sometimes funny and inventive, but can be repetitive and uneven. I think he would be more comfortable making short films. "Rubber" was the first film i saw of him in 2010, at the time i xas disappointed because the idea was fun and original but not enough "meat" in the screenplay for a "long" film. 

[cthulhu]

Did we discuss this already? I've got this strange feeling of déja-vu...
I get what you're thinking and i see it quite differently. Most of his movies are less than 80min, and for me that does compensate what you're saying, to me it feels that he is just taking the time he needs for the movie without wanting to serve the classical 90min. And though his screenplays may seem thin, i see them just as vehicles for another kind of storytelling. Mostly everything is absurd and playing with the fourth wall, being aware of the camera as an actor, of cliches and situations of filmmaking, but all his actors seem to be hyper-real and have the best and funniest dialogs. Well i just totally love his style and really like every movie he made. Have you seen "smoking causes coughing" ? I just recently got a copy of Steak and found it to be one of the funniest movies ever. I try to get his movies on bluray, but Steak seems to be to old for a release, so i bought finallly an expensive dvd. Ans the latest editions i got were only in french and some even without subtitles, but his mis en scene is so great and it's so cool to watch the actors that i didn't feel uncomfortable not understanding most of it. So i'm looking forward to see them again, maybe subtitled or dubbed.