Films Watched (and Rated) in 2025

Reflections on the films we watched this year (spoiler: a lot of strong female characters!)

First of all, I hope you have a wondrous, light-filled transition to the new year! For me, I can’t close out 2025 without offering my favorite list of the year: the movies we watched, loved, and rated. Read to the end for lists from several years’ prior, and please let me know if you’ve seen any of these, or what you watched this year and loved (or hated).

Movies Rated from Best to Worst (2025)

This year, David and I continued our journey through classic, contemporary, and international cinema. It takes a lot for us to rate a film a “10” or even a “9,” but a few managed to make the cut. A rating of “8” is high for us, but don’t overlook films we rate “7.” While not perfect, they’re still solid and worth watching.

South Korean and Polish Cinema

Continuing our love of South Korean cinema, evident in last year’s list, we started off 2025 with a viewing of 12:12, fast becoming a favorite film and still the best one we saw all year! We returned again and again to films grappling with political reckoning, state violence, moral compromise, and the lingering effects of authoritarianism. We also spent a significant amount of time with Polish cinema, especially the work of Wojciech Smarzowski. Several of his films appear on this list (Hatred, Rose, Wesele, The Dark House), and taken together they form a bracing, unsentimental examination of nationalism, cruelty, and moral collapse.

Women, Power, and Survival

One thing that stood out as I looked back over this list was how many of our favorites center strong, complicated female characters. From Hatred, The Official Story, I’m Still Here, The Peasants, and Rose to Hamnet, Master of the House, The Quick and the Dead, and even The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, these films are anchored by women navigating violence, jealousy, grief, and circumstances far outside their control and with little or no protection. Many are victims—of war, of patriarchy, of cruelty or chance—but they endure, adapt, and keep going. Really unforgettable characters in all of these films.

Moral Reckoning and Conflict

Looking back at the films we rated highest this year, what stands out isn’t genre or era, but a shared focus on moral reckoning—how people behave when systems fail and they’re forced to choose whether to act or look away. Many of our favorites are rooted in political and historical reality, but they resist easy narratives—because nothing in our short human lives is ever that simple. Films like Hatred, 12.12: The Day, The Official Story, City of God, and I’m Still Here show what ordinary people do under pressure, and what it costs—personally and collectively—when violence or authoritarianism becomes normalized.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (9.0)

12.12: The Day (2023, South Korea)— Dir. Kim Sung-soo
A tense political thriller depicting the violent military coup that reshaped South Korea in 1979. Absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Hatred (2016, Poland) — Dir. Wojciech Smarzowski
A brutal portrayal of love and survival amid ethnic cleansing and wartime violence in Eastern Europe. The opening wedding celebration is unforgettable, especially as the tragic events unfold.

Who’s Singin’ Over There? (1980, Yugoslavia / Serbia) — Dir. Slobodan Šijan
A group of ordinary people ride a bus toward Belgrade on the eve of war, unaware that history is about to overtake them. Delightful, quirky, and full of heart.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (8.0)

Hamnet (2025, United Kingdom / United States) — Dir. Chloé Zhao
Grief, motherhood, and loss after the death of Shakespeare’s young son. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are always mesmerizing to watch.

Pêcheur d’Islande (1959, France) — Dir. Pierre Schoendoerffer
Romance and jealousy unfold aboard a fishing vessel shadowed by fate. Was part of the SF Silent Film Festival, so it might be hard to find if you’re interested.

Master of the House (1925, Denmark)— Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
A domestic tyrant is quietly confronted by the women he dominates. Also part of the SF Silent Film Festival. Very contemporary-feeling.

Son of the Bride (2001, Argentina) — Dir. Juan José Campanella
A man reevaluates his life when his elderly parents decide to remarry. Really delightful. We always love watching Ricardo Darin, and this film may have put him on the map.

The Quack (Znachor) (1982, Poland) — Dir. Jerzy Hoffman
A disgraced surgeon loses his memory and unknowingly returns to medicine as a village healer.

City of God (Cidade de Deus) (2002, Brazil) — Dir. Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Two boys grow up on opposite sides of violence in Rio’s favelas. I know it’s crazy it took us this long to watch this amazing film.

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari) (2013, Japan) — Dir. Isao Takahata
A luminous folktale about beauty, freedom, and impermanence.

I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) (2024, Brazil) — Dir. Walter Salles
A woman rebuilds her life after political violence shatters her family. Devastating.

A Taxi Driver (Taeksi Woonjeonsa) (2017, South Korea) — Dir. Jang Hoon
An ordinary cab driver becomes an accidental witness to state brutality. Brilliant.

New World (Sinsegye) (2013, South Korea) — Dir. Park Hoon-jung
An undercover cop is consumed by the criminal world he infiltrates. Epic crime film.

The Official Story (La historia oficial) (1985, Argentina) — Dir. Luis Puenzo
A woman questions whether her adopted child was stolen during dictatorship.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016, United States / Australia) — Dir. Mel Gibson
A pacifist medic saves lives in war without firing a weapon. The beginning is a little schlocky, but once it got its legs, it was surprisingly good.

Night Train (Pociąg) (1959, Poland) — Dir. Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Two strangers share a train compartment heavy with suspicion.

Porco Rosso (Kurenai no Buta) (1992, Japan) — Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
A cursed pilot drifts through adventure and regret in prewar Europe.

Sword of the Stranger (2007, Japan) — Dir. Masahiro Ando
A reluctant swordsman protects a child while confronting his past.

The Peasants (Chłopi) (2023, Poland) — Dir. DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
A young woman resists patriarchal constraints in a Polish village. This film is unique in that it was filmed as live action, but then each frame was painstakingly hand-painted, making the film visually stunning. It’s a devastating look at the jealousy, pettiness, and mob mentality— that seem sadly entrenched in the human condition.

Battle of Britain (1969, United Kingdom) — Dir. Guy Hamilton
A large-scale historical recreation of the 1940 air campaign between the RAF and the German Luftwaffe. I watched this just after finishing the We Have Ways of Making You Talk series on the Battle of Britain, and it was a brilliant follow-up with incredible flying scenes. Loved also that it humanized the Germans as well as the Brits.

The Attorney (Byeonhoin) (2013, South Korea) — Dir. Yang Woo-seok
A tax lawyer becomes a champion for political prisoners. Loosely inspired by the early career of Roh Moo-hyun, who later became president of South Korea.

Rose (Róża) (2011, Poland) — Dir. Wojciech Smarzowski
A woman struggles to survive postwar brutality and displacement.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (7.0)

Moy syn (1928, Soviet Union) — Dir. Yevgeni Chervyakov
A restrained silent-era drama focused on inner conflict. Also part of The SF Silent Film Festival. Beautifully shot and acted.

Frankenstein (2025, United States) — Dir. Guillermo del Toro
Another adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel about creation, responsibility, and compassion. While I was annoyed by del Toro’s need to explain Frankenstein’s obsession through an overdrawn father narrative, the film is beautifully shot and features a truly lovely, humane portrayal of the creature.

Triangle of Sadness (2022, Sweden / United Kingdom / France) — Dir. Ruben Östlund
Class hierarchies collapse aboard a luxury cruise. Watched this again with our travelers on our superyacht in Croatia. Just so good.

The Quiet Family (1998, South Korea) — Dir. Kim Jee-woon
A dark, offbeat comedy about a well-meaning family whose attempt to run a remote mountain lodge spirals into a series of accidental deaths. Was fun to watch Song Kang-ho in one of his earliest films. You can already see the instincts that would later define his career: the physical comedy, the unease, the ability to be funny and unsettling at the same time.

The Dark House (Dom zły) (2009, Poland) — Dir. Wojciech Smarzowski
A murder investigation in rural Poland unfolds across two timelines, slowly revealing how corruption, alcoholism, and state violence permeate everyday life under—and after—communism. Less a whodunit than an autopsy of moral decay, the film shows how brutality becomes normalized when institutions exist only to protect themselves.

Wesele (2004, Poland) — Dir. Wojciech Smarzowski
Set almost entirely during a wedding reception, the film uses celebration as a trapdoor into greed, misogyny, antisemitism, and casual cruelty. A lot of the same cast of actors from other Smarzowski films.

The Deluge (Potop) (1974, Poland) — Dir. Jerzy Hoffman
Epic war, loyalty, and national identity under siege. Based on the 1886 novel of the same name by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

Passenger (Pasażerka) (1963, Poland) — Dir. Andrzej Munk
Set largely through flashbacks to Auschwitz, the film follows a former camp guard who believes she recognizes one of her past victims aboard an ocean liner. As memory intrudes, the film exposes the self-serving narratives perpetrators construct to survive their own guilt.

Man on the Tracks (Człowiek na torze) (1957, Poland) — Dir. Andrzej Munk
A posthumous investigation reconstructs a railway engineer’s life through biased testimonies, revealing how political systems distort truth and assign blame.

Marshland (La isla mínima) (2014, Spain) — Dir. Alberto Rodríguez
Two detectives hunt a killer in a morally decayed landscape. Often compared to — and widely seen as an influence on True Detective — with its brooding detectives, corrosive landscape, and sense of moral decay. Speaking of which, while it’s not a movie…we watched True Detective for the first time this year.

True Detective (2014) — Created by Nic Pizzolatto
We loved the first season with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson (and the final scene made me cry), and while we tried to a few of the other seasons, we just didn’t finish any of them.

The Green Butchers (De Grønne Slagtere) (2003, Denmark) — Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
Dark comedy built on accidental cannibalism. Starring my favorite…Mads Mikkelsen. Silly but poignant.

Broker (2022, South Korea) — Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
A baby-selling scheme collides with conscience as a group of damaged, well-meaning people form an uneasy family around an abandoned child.

The Man Standing Next (Namsan ui Bujangdeul) (2020, South Korea) — Dir. Woo Min-ho
Set in the days leading up to the 1979 assassination of South Korea’s president, the film follows the head of the KCIA as loyalty, paranoia, and ambition collide inside an authoritarian regime.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (6.0)

Alien 3 (1992, United States) — Dir. David Fincher
Ripley crash-lands on a bleak, all-male prison planet run like a religious cult, where violence, guilt, and containment define daily life. While David like it, I hated it. I would have given it a 4 if I had my druthers.

Prime Cut (1972, United States) — Dir. Michael Ritchie
A Chicago enforcer is sent to Kansas City to settle a dispute with a sadistic slaughterhouse-owning crime boss. The film’s shock comes not just from violence, but from its unsettling parallel between organized crime and industrialized animal slaughter. You know I love that theme!

Battle of Okinawa (1971, Japan) — Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
An epic war film told largely from the Japanese side, emphasizing civilian suffering, military futility, and the catastrophic cost of obedience. Less heroic than harrowing, it refuses spectacle in favor of moral exhaustion.

The Quick and the Dead (1995, United States) — Dir. Sam Raimi
A hyper-stylized Western built around a deadly dueling tournament, with a woman gunslinger returning to settle an old score. I love me a Western, and Sharon Stone was surprisingly good. Really liked this one.

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