My favorite first-time watches of 2025

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973)

I watched about 125 movies in 2025, topping the previous year by about 25%. The year started with 2017's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and concluded with the 1948 Japanese film Taifuken no onna (The Woman in the Typhoon Area), which is basically Key Largo but with Setsuko Hara.  

I think 1982's Missing by Costa-Gavras was the best and most shattering first-time watch for me, but the top seven or eight were all pretty brilliant and interchangeable, and it would be a fool's errand to try to rank them. It was a year in which I finally caught up with a number of classic or iconic films I should have seen years ago. Following on the heels of the 2024, 2023 and 2022 lists, here, in chronological order by release year, are my 25 favorite first-time watches of 2025:

• The Immigrant (1917, directed by Charlie Chaplin)
• Yuwaka, aka Temptation (1948, Kôzaburô Yoshimura)
• Othello (1951, Orson Welles)
• Tokyo Sweetheart (1952, Yasuki Chiba)
• Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, John Sturges)
• The Curse of Frankenstein (1957, Terence Fisher)
• A Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960, Mikio Naruse)
• High and Low (1963, Akira Kurosawa)
• Blow-Up (1966, Michelangelo Antonioni)
• Daisies (1966, Věra Chytilová)
• The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973, Ivan Dixon)
• Enter the Dragon (1973, Robert Clouse)
• Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural (1973, Richard Blackburn)
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, Jim Sharman)
• The Ninth Configuration (1980, William Peter Blatty)
• Missing (1982, Costa-Gavras)
• Fanny and Alexander (312-minute TV version, 1982, Ingmar Bergman)
• Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
• Parasite (2019, Bong Joon Ho)
• Godzilla Minus One (2023, Takashi Yamazaki)
• The Vourdalak (2023, Adrien Beau)
• Riddle of Fire (2023, Weston Razooli)
• The Life of Chuck (2024, Mike Flanagan)
• Weapons (2025, Zach Cregger)
• One Battle After Another (2025, Paul Thomas Anderson)

One Battle After Another is the only one of the 10 nominees for Best Picture that I've seen so far, so don't consider the exclusion of the other nine to be a criticism or dismissal! I'll catch up with most of them eventually.

Special high honorable mention: Tokyo Godfathers (2003, Satoshi Kon) was a rewatch for me. But it had been 20+ years since I had seen it and I remembered nothing other than it involved a lost baby. So it felt like a first-time watch! If I were including it in the rankings, it would have made the Top 10.

Honorable mention: Murder by Decree (1979), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), Paperhouse (1988), La Jetée (1962), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), Leptirica (1973), Lake of Dracula (1971), The Vampire Doll (1970), The Damned (1962), Detour (1945), Cisco Pike (1972), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), Corridors of Blood (1958), Creature from the Black Lake (1976), Easy Street (1917), The Celluloid Closet (1995).

Vincent Price Is Always Good honorable mentions: Theater of Blood (1973), Diary of a Madman (1963), The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

Bizarre but mostly entertaining: Psychomania (1973), The Amusement Park (1975), Don't Look in the Basement (1973), Nothing But the Night (1973).

Bizarre and only entertaining while Roddy McDowall is in it: Arnold (1973).

Best movies that I just didn't vibe with (aka The Asteroid City Award): Giants and Toys (1958), Carmen Comes Home (1951), Invaders from Mars (1953). The two 1950s Japanese films, in particular, I think will hit much better on a rewatch. In the case of Invaders from Mars, I'm not sure if it works if you didn't first watch it as a kid, through the eyes of childhood.

Surprisingly fun family Christmas films: Holiday in Handcuffs (2007), Spirited (2022).

Historically important horror but not great films: The Cat and the Canary (1939), The Raven (1935), King of the Zombies (1941), Frankenstein (1910).

Dreadful films with good casts: Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996) and Puppet Master (1989).

Best rewatches: Popeye (1980), The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), Seems Like Old Times (1980), Trafic (1971), Boogie Nights (1997), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Ed Wood (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Fright Night (1985), Casablanca (1942), Cat People (1942), Amadeus (1984), The Long Goodbye (1973), Nashville (1975), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), The Exorcist (1973), Spirited Away (2001), Trick 'r Treat (2007), Midnight Mass (2021), The Godfather (1972), King Kong (1933), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Superman (1978), The Godfather Part II (1974), Black Christmas (1974), Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka (1961).

Most fascinating rewatch of a train-wreck film: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), featuring St. Elsewhere's Kim Miyori in a small role.

Rewatch I truly didn't need to rewatch: Hot Stuff (1979). But at least it has Ossie Davis.

WTF did I just watch: Italian Spiderman (2007)

Watching and listening...   

High and Low (1963), with Tatsuya Nakadai on the right.

Mulholland Drive (2001)

Parasite (2019)