It has become a tradition for me to put off writing these Annual Recaps approximately half the following year. Normally I use this header to pay tribute to the most Dan-core movie of the year, but nothing in particular stood out for 2025, so I selected a shot from Summer of 69 as a shoutout for my growing love of every corny-raunchy-sweet comedy produced by low/mid-budget New York production house American High.
2025 at the Movies
I’m less enthusiastic about 2025 than any of the three previous years I’ve covered for The Goods, though the release calendar was not completely absent achievement or flavor. For example, I fell head over heels for Twinless, the funky thriller-comedy-drama by emerging writer-director-star James Sweeney. Meanwhile, Omnes Films continue to bat 1.000 in vibes-based larks, here with Carson Lund’s baseball hangout Eephus.
The two awards seasons heavy hitters, Sinners and One Battle After Another, both made my personal Top 10, and the theme I choose to extract from them as a trend for all of 2025 is that many movies this year take daring mid-movie swings, transforming from one tone to another. It’s true in both those films (moreso in Sinners, but OBAA has a time jump and shift a half hour in), and also true of plenty of 2025’s other memorable outings; indies especially: Oh Hi, Borderline, Sorry Baby, and Twinless fit the description among movies I liked. Opus and Eddington fit movies I didn’t.
So, yeah: many good and interesting movies intermingled with gallons of mediocrity and a few dollops of real slop. Same as it ever was. But, through it all, not much made me want to sing from the rooftops, and it was the first year since 2022 I really struggled to come up with 20 movies I loved for my Top 10 and Next 10.
Here’s to a 2026 that remains unpredictable and dynamic but gives me a little bit more to cheer for.
2025 on the Site
In 2025, I launched indie shorts review journal The New Cinephile which I plan to pick up with more steam later in 2026. On The Goods, I continued my looks at both classic films (including a few entries in my interminable tour of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die) and new releases.
I started a look at Bong Joon Ho’s filmography, and I made a (misguided?) detour into Doctor Dolittle adaptations during the summer. In the fall, I spent some quality time with an unheralded director you probably haven’t heard of named Alfred Hitchcock, whom I officially inducted into my Director’s Index Tier 1 inner circle.
From guest writers front, A.N. Milne finished their terrific, in-depth, and very popular analysis of TV series Gangs of London. (Speaking of TV coverage, the world quakes with anticipation about whether I’ll write any more about Community.)
Podcast episodes now have a home page with extra context and links to referenced supplemental media. One last site improvement of 2025: my friend Isaac helped me build out an awards tracker for film review pages. Check out the bottom of The Woman in the Yard review for an example.
2025 on the Podcast
For a sixth year, The Goods: A Film Podcast continued its mostly-weekly coverage of films both beloved and forgotten. We passed 250 episodes before this writing. (As already mentioned, episodes now get dedicated pages on this site.)
Our theme months in 2025 were “Dad Month” in February when we discussed films about fatherhood, then “Maxi/Mini-Month” in August when we discussed movies featuring things significantly bigger or smaller than they are usually found.
During 2025, we had several returning guests join us, including the one-of-a-kind Gargus, Gavin from Sects, Lies, and Videotape, and my brother Will, plus a few fresh faces, including Mitch from The Movie Call Podcast and Colton, my raconteur high school buddy and former co-blogger.
2025 Films in Review
- Year in Film: 2025 – Main hub for 2025 coverage
- The B.A.D.S. by The Goods, 2025 – My “awards show” wrap-up
- The Top 10 Movies of 2025
Masterpieces Reviewed
Rankings and Lists
Site/Personal Milestones
- Overhaul of the Review Index
- Announcing a project: The New Cinephile
- My daughter and I wrote another book!
Some Numbers
- The Goods published 126 film reviews in 2025 (plus some TV episode reviews both by me and another author).
- The average “Is It Good?” rating for those reviews was a 5.04 (or a “Good”)
- The Goods had 86k readers in 2025 (almost 3x more than 2024). Thanks for stopping by!
- And those readers left 485 comments (including my own)
- Thanks especially to regular readers and commenters Hunter, ED, Mitch, Thrash, and Nate. A comment, even a small one or a disagreement, makes my day.
- The Goods: A Film Podcast released 47 episodes
- The Goods: A Film Podcast had its episodes downloaded in podcast apps 4.5k times
- We also picked up 6.7k listeners on YouTube, the first year that number surpassed podcast app downloads
- According to my Letterboxd, I watched 308 feature-length films, 28 short films, and 4 mini-series in 2025.
A Few Memorable Reviews
- Superbad (2007)
- “Gun to your head, what is the funniest film of your lifetime? … No comedy from my teen years and young adulthood has stood the test of time better than Superbad. It is a film that always has jokes I’ve forgotten about, and even the ones I remember still make me laugh.”
- Psycho (1960)
- “Psycho remains the ultimate gateway drug for horror-skeptic movie lovers and an enduring summit for the converted. It’s one of the cinema’s great arguments for how style, structure, and story can surface the things we’d rather not dredge up.”
- Beach Party (1963)
- “When Brian Wilson died last week, a couple of film fans I know turned to Love & Mercy, the biopic about the legendary musician. But my brain went straight to Beach Party.”
- The Great White Silence (1924)
- “Nanook of the North is the more famous of prototype documentaries of the era, and it’s an obvious comparison to this because both capture life in the intense cold. But The Great White Silence is the better film in every meaningful sense: richer, bolder, sadder, more visually striking, and more honest in tone.”
- Wish (2023)
- “A couple of months ago, I visited Disney World in Orlando. While we were at Epcot, I noticed a sign that said: ‘Meet Asha – Right Now!’ I looked up and there was just one person in line. My first thought was ‘who is Asha?'”
Looking Back
Looking Ahead
Dan is the founder and head critic of The Goods. Follow Dan on Letterboxd. Join the Discord for updates and discussion.
3 replies on “2025 Annual Recap”
Amazing. Hope site and pod continue to her more exposure. Truly a joy to follow
“Thanks especially to regular readers and commenters Hunter, ED, Mitch, Thrash, and Nate. A comment, even a small one or a disagreement, makes my day.”
I disagree!
To quote the great Robin Williams by way of Andrew Martin – “one is glad to be of service”.
…
On a less serious note, one can barely express my disappointment that this Uear has yet to produce the ‘DEATH OF STALIN, but Donald Trump’ screen comedy I keep hoping that the school of Mr Armando Ianucci will someday get around to.
Seriously, we need something to put into context how much less important Mr Trump is than he believes himself to be (Especially to his backers, as opposed to his supporters).
Given we know that hungry eyes are stalking this blog in pursuit of ideas – just look at your shortlist of Slasher movies! – I’m happy to drop off that idea for their consideration, but I’m holding onto the title that goes with that concept because I really, really like it.