The Interested Bystander's Top Films of 2025 (and 2024!)

Train Dreams (c) Netflix

Two Years in Films: Best of 2024 (definitive) & 2025 (preliminary) 

2025 was full of ups and downs in the political arena that eclipsed my enjoyment of a pretty good year of films. Looking at last year’s list to make my final 2024 ranking, I realized the films were good but not great. I would say my list of 20 films on my 2025 list are more diverse and of a better quality that 2024. 

Like last year, I will only list my favorite twenty films of 2025, in alphabetical order and not actually list them in order of my top ten favorites until the end of 2026, after a year of reflection and catching up on films I may have missed. In fact, at the time of this article, I have not seen Avatar Fire and Ash or The Testament of Ann Lee yet. 

Which means, after a year of reflection, my final Top Ten of films of 2024 is below. I am also pointing out some 2025 performances that haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve from award groups so far. So, enjoy my wrap up of 2025 and, as always, I hope you have a safe and cinematically rich 2026. 

The Interested Bystander’s Oscar Predictions: December 2025

Frankenstein (c) Netflix

'Twas the period before Christmas, when all through LA 
Many pre-Oscar awards were given, as is the way, 
So as Film twitter quiets for just a little rest 
Here are December’s Oscar nomination predictions, the best of the best. 

Enjoy! 

Film: Catching Up on Some of the Films Vying for International Feature at the Oscars Including Jordan’s Exceptional “All That’s Left of You” and South Korea’s Popular “No Other Choice”

The Secret Agent (c) NEON

The Oscars accept a single film submission from each foreign country. How the countries pick their film varies. This year, there are 92 films submitted and that list will be pared down to 15 when the shorts are announced next Tuesday, but here are my thoughts on six of the hopefuls. I did review Norway’s Sentimental Value earlier in the year. Also, I have been hearing good things about Belén from Argentina, Sound of Falling from Germany and Sirāt from Spain, all three I will surely review soon. Some of the films listed are currently in theaters or on streaming, if you want to catch up on some hopefuls. 

Theater: One Of My Favorite Plays of the 21st Century (“Majorie Prime”) and a Favorite Playwright’s Lesser Efforts (“Gruesome Playground Injuries”) Get Reassessed in Starry Revivals

Marjorie Prime (c) Joan Marcus

Broadway: Marjorie Prime 
2nd Stage Production at the Helen Hayes Theatre 

Memory is an elusive thing in Marjorie Prime, Jordan Harrison's 2015 exceptional play now making its debut on Broadway, and even when we have a portable encyclopedia and essentially our life’s timeline (via social media) in the palm of our hands, it doesn’t help. Somewhere in the near future, Majorie (Academy Award nominee June Squibb) is in a retirement home, and while the year is never specified, the eighty-something Majorie mindlessly sings Beyonce, which her daughter Tess (Cynthia Nixon) and her son-in-law Jon (Danny Burstein) don’t recognize (come on Harrison, Beyonce is timeless). One of the services that this retirement home provides is an AI avatar of someone in the resident’s life to help them with either loneliness or as a memory jog. For Marjorie, it’s her late-husband Walter (Christopher Lowell), but as he appeared in his 30s. Walter appears in what seems to be a hologram (as portrayed in the 2019 film version) and can be accessed by anyone who calls for him. Majorie knows she’s being manipulated by Walter’s Prime (as they are called), but she occasionally indulges in the nostalgia of their shared history when he recounts events uploaded to its Prime’s memory. Tess is suspicious of this service, but Jon thinks anything to help Marjorie in her final years is worth it. Where the play goes from there, I won’t spoil, but Harrison does a wonderful job giving us variations on his themes, which illuminates and beautifully humanizes the timeless sadness surrounding death and dementia. 

Reviews: Catching Up on Theater, Including an Enjoyable “Laowang,” the Emotional Nostalgia of “Gotta Dance,” Trying to Figure Out the Early Closing of “The Queen of Versailles,” an Affecting Family Drama in “Little Bear Ridge Road,” and “Oedipus” Is Quite the Motherfu--- Shut Yo Mouth!

Gotta Dance (c) Bjorn Bolinder

Theater: Gotta Dance 
At Theatre at St. Jean 

Revues are odd theater beasts. I don’t know why some are wildly successful (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Smokey Joe’s Café) and some don’t catch fire (Dancin’, Lennon). Gotta Dance, the new revue presented by The York Theatre and American Dance Machine, is a retrospective review like Jerome Robbins’ Broadway in which musical numbers from hit Broadway shows or Hollywood films are meticulously recreated and presented as close to the original as possible. As the title promises, most of the numbers, picked by directors Nikki Feirt Atkins and Randy Skinner, are dances from memorable shows/films, but they might not be the most famous. For example, Gotta Dance comes from the great 1952 film Singing in the Rain, but the directors didn’t choose that number (or the iconic title song), but “Moses Supposes” and “Broadway Melody.” Instead of “The Dance at the Gym” from West Side Story, “Magic to Do” from Pippin or “Rich Man’s Frug” from Sweet Charity, we get less splashier numbers like “Cool,” “Manson Trio” and “I’m a Brass Band,” respectively. (I wish they had chosen "The Rhythm of Life" from Sweet Charity, the movie version, which had a groovy happening vibe by Sammy Davis Jr.). But they do have some big hits, including “One” from A Chorus Line, “All I Need Is the Girl” from Gypsy and the most recent show on the roster: the Pas de Deux from Christopher Wheeldon’s An American in Paris. The biggest thrill for me was Susan Stroman’s Contact. I never thought I would ever experience her electrifying “Simply Irresistible” live again, but the minute the woman in the yellow dress appeared, I had goosebumps. Of course, all of this would not be half as enjoyable without a fantastic ensemble of singer/dancers, and each of the 14 members (a mixture of Broadway and ballet talents) get at least one number to shine. Without much introduction beyond the title of the show and the choreographer projected on the back screen, the numbers flow seamlessly. And as a holiday offering, Gotta Dance is perfect to enjoy with friends and family after a day of shopping and sightseeing.