I watched 37 films in 2025, with 14 of these being at the cinema; from my first visit on the 6th January right through to my last film of the year on New Year’s Eve.
While not the biggest sample size in the world, I thought it would be a nice idea to share some thoughts on a few of my favourites.
The films on the list don’t have to have been released in 2025 to qualify, I just need to have watched them at the cinema that year.
Anora
At the start of 2025, I decided that I wanted to visit the cinema at least once a month. After managing four visits across January and February, I was well on track but then in March, there was nothing really tickling my fancy.
Then, on 2nd March, Anora won Best Picture at the Oscars; exactly a week later, Mrs Molloy and I were at the cinema watching it.
The synopsis of the film hadn’t really captured my imagination but it proved a fantastic lesson in never judging a book by its cover.
From the first second of the film (and an extremely unexpected remix of ‘Greatest Day’ by Take That) to the emotional gut-punch of the final scene, Anora is a captivating – and genuinely hilarious in places – 139-minute rollercoaster that is so much more than a rom-com about a sex worker and an oligarch.
Better Man
Of the 14 films I watched at the cinema in 2025, Better Man was the very first.
Robbie Williams’ music is something that I’ve grown up with – be it watching his music videos on The Hits or TMF after getting home from school or listening to his CDs in my mum’s car.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate just how great of a performer he is and have seen him a couple of times live myself.
That being said, I was surprised to see a biopic made about him, as I know that he’s a relative unknown in the United States and I was even more surprised to find out that in the film, Robbie would be a CGI monkey.
Anyone who’s followed Robbie’s career will know that he’s had his demons and the film really hones in on this. It’s really dark and actually a tough watch in places but as a piece of art, it’s beautiful and incredibly powerful.
Even if you’re not a fan, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.
The Running Man
I’ve never seen the original Arnold Schwarzenegger movie but I usually enjoy adaptations of Stephen King novels so as soon as I saw the trailer for this I was pretty intrigued.
The trailer gave me Black Mirror sort of vibes – one of my favourite TV shows – and upon learning that it was directed by Edgar Wright, quickly became one of my most anticipated cinema releases of the year.
When it eventually did come out, reviews that I came across seemed mixed to poor, but I had great fun. Yes, the final act was a little contrived but I was still thoroughly entertained for pretty much its entire 132-minute runtime.
Weapons
This film was nothing like I imagined from the trailers.
I think Julia Garner is great, but aside from that it just seemed to me like it would be a pretty run-of-the-mill horror film. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Without giving too much away about it (as I think part of the joy was not having much idea what was going to happen) I really enjoyed fragments of the story being told through different people’s perspectives, Pulp Fiction style, including following one really unexpected character.
Although disturbing, it is darkly funny in places and the final act is absurdly hilarious.
Companion
There were a few films that could have taken this final spot but ignoring recency bias, I’ve chosen one that I watched right back at the start of February.
Another Black Mirror-esque movie and – unlike Weapons – one I wanted to watch as soon as I saw the trailer.
I do think the trailer, poster and synopsis could have done a better job of concealing its premise as it could be argued that it makes the first section and the subsequent ‘reveal’ a bit redundant’.
But I thought it was really fun, didn’t outstay its welcome and was a timely and effective commentary on incel culture and the dangers of AI.
What were your favourite films of 2025? Let me know in the comments.