Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Top 10 Favorite Movies Of 2025
What if one of your favorite films of the year is the one everyone else swears is terrible? My feelings drive this countdown of the 10 movies I watched in theaters that defined my 2025. I kept the scope tight: only films I watched on the big screen, tracked on my AMC app, so each pick reflects not just craft, but the vibes, the audience reactions, and the afterglow that lingered on the subway ride home.
I move from the spectacle of Wicked for Good and a surprisingly propulsive Predator Badlands to The Fire Inside, a Claressa Shields biopic that dares to ask what happens after winning the gold medal fades. A refreshed Superman wins on character chemistry and warmth over grit, while Mickey 17 turns high-concept sci-fi into a playful, precise performance showcase. Pattinson really makes multiple iterations feel distinct and alive. I also defend The Woman in the Yard, a misunderstood genre piece I read as an unflinching portrait of depression, anchored by Danielle Deadwyler’s quiet intensity.
Animation shines twice: Elio, a tender Pixar story buried by weak marketing but rich in heart, and Zootopia 2, a sequel that earns its stripes with smart social storytelling, fast jokes, and genuine growth for Judy and Nick. Horror fans get a gripping entry with Weapons, a lesson in dread over cheap shocks. And topping the list, Sinners delivers a daring new spin on vampire lore. It includes lush cinematography, musical sequences that soar, and performances from Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld that pulse with soul, guided by Ryan Coogler’s sure hand.
Hit play to hear why these movies rose above the rest, where they surprised me, and how they’ll stick in my mind. Then tell me your own top picks from 2025. What did I miss, and where do we agree? If you enjoyed this episode, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more movie lovers can find us.
All episodes of the podcast can be found on our website: https://booksvsmovies.buzzsprout.com/share
Connect with me: Instagram | Threads | Bookshop | Goodreads | Blog
Welcome to Books vs. Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question: Is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Juvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be counting down my top 10 favorite films of 2025 that I saw in theaters. Yes, I so last year I my top 10 list of 2024. Definitely I did that because I didn't have any other way of keeping track of all the films that I saw throughout the year. And in 2025, I actually got a letterboxed account with the intention of keeping track of everything that I saw that year and making a top 10 list of the top 10 least favorite and most favorite films that I saw in the entire year. And then I ended up watching 26 films in theaters. One of them I'm not including because it was a re-watch for me. It was a re-release of The Grinch that I watched on my birthday, so it didn't feel appropriate to include that one. So 25 new films in theaters, which is not that much, admittedly, but it's what I saw. And I was look I was looking at my letterbox, and I guess I I I don't know. I'll think about how I want to do this next year, just because there's 140 films that I saw last year, and it's I mean, I I guess I can I guess I can make my way through it. But I don't know, I decided to just stick with the films I saw in theaters just because it's easier to uh keep a track of, keep track of, I guess. Um yeah, it's it uh yeah, I'm just gonna stick to theaters for now and then I don't know, maybe next year I'll I'll do like full on what films are the best and worst that I saw in the year. But just like looking at this, it's a little overwhelming just looking at it. Um just looking at my letterboxed and and and seeing everything. And yeah, despite the ratings of some of the things that I gave, I don't know. I and I yeah, so I'm just gonna stick to what I saw in theaters. Anyway, let's go ahead and get started. So, yes, I saw 26, but only including 25. Like I said, one of them was a re-release of the animated Gringe film, and I saw that on my birthday. So there are I just went through my AMC app, and I well, I guess I technically saw, now that I remember, I saw I did see 27 films in theaters. One of them I saw back home in El Paso with a friend of mine, and then another one was The Long Walk, which I got free tickets for. So I didn't include those just because they were not on my AMC app. I don't think having those on would change my top 10 and top least favorite films, honestly. So I'm just gonna include those in my honorable mentions. So the five films that just kind of sat in between and did not make either of the list, I'll include the two that I saw. So, in no particular order, as I said, I saw The Long Walk, Thunderbolts was in her basel, and then the other list, the other five that are officially on my list that of movies that I saw are The Bad Guys 2, Freaker Friday, Downton Abbey the Grand Finale, Last Breath, and Fantastic Four First Steps. So those seven did not make either one of my lists. But let's go ahead and get started. So number 10, we have Wicked for Good. Yes, that is part two of the big wicked extravaganza. I am no I'm not gonna offend Boshi this time around for not putting it at number one. I think he understands this is this seems like huge musical theater lovers all agree that the second half of the wicked musical is the weaker half. And it what helps the musical is that the the momentum of the first half keeps it going through to the second half. But to make another two and a half hour long film, yeah, this was definitely not people's favorite. Uh, even hardcore musical lovers did not love Wicked for Good as much as they loved Wicked part one. So I know I'm not gonna offend him, but yeah, so Wicked for Good, second half of Wicked. Um, Alphabet is fully in her Wicked Witch era, and we get the introduction of Dorothy and the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow, and two new songs, No Place Like Home and The Girl in the Bubble, which is an awful song. Shout out to Moshi. So, um, yeah, just just it it I personally did not dislike it as much as I feel like a lot of people disliked it. Did it need to be two and a half hours long? No, but I still feel that the first half didn't need to be two and a half hours long. I like that we got some more character development in certain aspects. I will say this the second half didn't make me feel as antsy as the first half, which is apparently very controversial, but it's the truth. And yeah, so that is number 10. Number nine, we have Predator Badlands. This is my first Predator film of any kind. I've never seen the original Predator films, I never saw Prey. So this is my first time watching any kind of Predator films. And I was surprised by how much I liked it. I had a really good time. This was kind of just a uh there was nothing really else to watch, and I love going to the movies, and sometimes I'll just watch things because it sounds like the best thing to watch out of everything that's currently out, and that's kind of what happened with this one. But I'm glad I watched it. I mean, it's now in my top 10 favorite films of 20 that I saw in 2025. So yeah, I really, really liked it, and I had a good time with it. Number eight, we have The Fire Inside, which is a biopic about Clarissa Shields, who was the first American woman to win a gold medal um at the Olympics for boxing. I I believe it was boxing. Um, but what I really liked about this biopic is that it didn't like she wins the gold medal and then it didn't just end there. We got to see this her struggle that a lot of Olympic athletes face after they win the gold medal, which is what now? Like, I won one of the most prestigious awards in sports that you can get, and my life hasn't changed at all. So, you know, Clarissa was expecting she won a gold medal, she was expecting to be on cereal boxes, she was expecting to get brand deals, she was expecting her life to change for the better. She lives in or lived in Flint, Michigan. I don't know if she still lives there. And she grew up very, very poor. So she really was expecting, and a lot of people gave her the hope that her life would change drastically once she won this gold medal. And the fact of the matter is that it didn't. And that's something that happens to a lot of athletes that win gold medals, especially if it's not a more well-known sport, or they are a female in a more what's recognized more as like a male sport. So yeah, so I I really like that we saw her win the gold medal, and we saw the struggles that came after winning the gold medal, and kind of just feeling like, what was the point of me going to Olympic the Olympics if my life hasn't changed significantly? Um, and then we see the choices she has to make. Like, does she want to continue pursuing this sport uh professionally? Uh, like, does she want to, or does she just want to give it up because nothing changed? So I really liked it. And I I had never heard of Clarissa before. So I was happy to learn about someone I'd never heard about before. Number seven, we have Superman. So yeah, it's a little shocking for me to have a superhero film on my top 10 favorite films, but it's true. I really did like the Superman film. How much of that had to do with crypto? Probably a lot, but I I really liked it. And I have superhero fatigue, y'all. Like, I'm over all the superhero films. I keep watching them because Orlando loves them and I love Orlando and I want to spend time with him. There's some that I'm just like, you gotta watch them your own buddy. But there are still a few that I'm like, okay, like I'll drag myself to go watch it with you. Again, Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts were other ones on that list. They didn't make my least favorite films, at least, but they were just in my they didn't make it category. But Superman, yeah, I actually really, really liked this iteration of Superman. I will say I hated the Zack Snyder, Henry Cabill Superman. I watched like that series, yeah, just hated that one. Hated it, hated it, hated it. So, and I haven't really seen any of like I know the Brandon Routh one from the 2000s, that one's known to be terrible. Never saw that one. I've never seen the Christopher Reeve Supermans either. So my only impression of Superman was the Henry Cavill Zack Snyder ones. Absolutely hated that with an absolute passion. Orlando got an earful, because I saw that one when I was at the Masterworks Festival in 2013. And so I watched it without him. And I just like as soon as the movie was, I was the only one that didn't like it, and everyone else was talking about how good it was, and I was like, I need to talk to someone. I knew Orlando wouldn't judge me, and I knew it wouldn't affect his opinion of the film if I ranted to him about it. So I just like called him immediately and was like, this movie was so dumb, and here's why. And yeah, so yeah, I I there was really nowhere for this film to go but up. So, and I I I really, really enjoyed it, and I a lot of it did have to do with crypto. But more than I think it also helped that this Lois Lois Lane was not the Amy Adams Lois Lane. I do not blame Amy Adams at all for her performance. The way her character was written was absolutely useless. Like that is the most whatever. She thinks she's more important than she is to the plot line. You could have written her out and wouldn't change the story. So hated the Amy Adams Lois Lane. Nothing to do with Lois, uh, nothing to do with Amy Adams, all to do with the writing and the direction of that character. Poor Amy Adams, she deserves so much better. Anyway, so it really helped that we have Rachel Brosnahan was such a good Lois Lane, and she was like feisty and sarcastic and just really delightful in that role. And I thought she had a really nice balance with David Corn Sweat, and I know that their chemistry was off the charts, and that's one of the things that people talked about a lot with this film. But yeah, so Superman is my my number seven pick. Number six is Mickey 17. Yeah, so the Mickey 7 book is part of my least favorite reads of 2025, but Mickey 17 is one of my favorite films of 2025. I really, really enjoyed this one. And you can hear more of my thoughts about it on the actual episode of comparing Mickey 7 and Mickey 17, but I knew nothing about this film going in, and I kind of just chose it, and I I was pleasantly surprised, and Robert Pattinson just he's such a good actor, and like just the way he could differentiate between all the Mickeys in existence, while keeping like you can tell they're the same character, but the way he found to make them different at the same time. So even though you were watching Robert Pattinson on screen at the same time as essentially the same character, just a different iteration, the way you never got confused about who is who, like that is such an accomplishment. Like, I'm just such an awe of what he was able to do with that character. And the supporting cast, I mean, Mark Ruffalo and Tony Collette are hilarious. Naomiaki as the love interest, she was great. Stevie Steve Yoon. Um, it's a really, really great supporting cast, and it's actually a really fun, really great film. And again, the things that Wang Tun ho can make make you feel for creatures that are just CGI, like the way he the way he can do that, it's just, it's just it's fantastic. Nothing but good things to say about the film. Number five, and I know this one's gonna be controversial because this film was critically panned. It universally panned, actually. Audiences didn't really like it either. But I really liked it, and it really spoke to me. And you know what? I don't care what anyone has to say, that's what films are supposed to do. My number five pick, and the fact that it's in the top five, I'm getting really nervous about the film bros coming at me. But number five is The Woman in the Yard. So, yes, this film was pretty much universally panned. It got awful critics reviews, and you know, sometimes awful critics reviews, but good audience reviews. No audiences didn't like it either. And a lot of people I wonder if a lot of people just the way Orlando and I interpreted it, it ended up speaking to us a lot. And uh I will say minor spoilers, I'm not gonna give away completely what happens at the end, but I'm I am gonna hint at the possibility. Um, I'm gonna hint at what happens at the end. So if this is a film you're interested in watching, then skip on to the next film on this list. But I have to give this minor spoiler in order to talk about why it meant so much to me. So I don't know if critics as a whole or audiences as a whole were expecting this to be more of a horror film, like with scares and and all of that, and and just audience reactions that we heard, not just on the day that we watched it, but on other days we we went to go watch other films, and we knew exactly what film people were talking about when when uh we were exiting a film and someone was ranting about what they had just seen, and it was obvious from what they were saying that they had just watched the woman in the yard. So I'm wondering if people were just expecting more scares and it wasn't really scary because it wasn't. I'm wondering if people just it wasn't too cut and dry for them. I think this is a film that is open to a lot of interpretation, and the way Orlando and I interpreted this film was that the woman in the yard represents depression. At least that's how I interpreted it. I think Orlando interpreted it the same way. Or I don't know if his was more like just general mental health struggles, but I thought the woman in the art represented depression, and the ending I thought was pretty clear the way you're supposed to interpret it, or I thought the ending was was clear as to what the outcome was. And I just a lot of people coming out were like, what the heck was that ending? blah blah blah. So maybe they just didn't interpret it that way, but I don't know. And I I thought the woman in the yard represented depression and having gone through a very difficult period in my life, mental health-wise, in 2023 it really spoke to me and it really it just the way that I reacted to it was just yeah, it it it just spoke to me. Um and I mean Danielle Dadweiler as as the lead in that film was absolutely fantastic. Um I thought everyone in that film was fantastic, but yeah, the the way it ended and everything, it just it just about broke me and just it just really spoke to me having gone through that period in my life that I'm grateful I made it out of. Um, so that that's why this film spoke so much to me and people hated on it. Like I said, it was universally panned. Everyone thought that this was a really awful horror film, but it spoke to me, and that's what films are supposed to do. So do not come at me. Number four is Elio. So Elio was this year's Disney Pixar release, and it follows a little boy who lives with his aunt. He is an orphan and he lives with his aunt, and they're just having a hard time adjusting to the fact that she is now his legal guardian. He's having a hard time adjusting to the fact that his aunt is now his his primary caregiver. And he feels like she doesn't really like him very much or that he's burdening her too much. And he dreams of going to to of traveling to outer space and living with aliens and and and yeah, it's it's a really, really I thought it was a really, really sweet film. It didn't do well in the box office. It was actually kind of a box office flop. Most people didn't even know that it had come out. So I so when when I had TikTok, I used to follow a creator called Dapper Manatee, and he used to work in Disney back in the day. So a lot of his content is Disney-based, and so he has a theory that I think makes absolutely make sense, and his conspiracy theory as to why Disney isn't really promoting their films anymore. Because if you think it there are like some select films that they promote really, really like hardcore, and it's obvious they want that one to be like the number one box office film, and then there's others that they kind of just ignore, Elio being one of them. And so his conspiracy theory is that Disney doesn't really care if their films make money at the box office. They probably would rather not make that their they probably rather not their uh they would probably rather prefer that they would rather that their film not make money at the box office. I don't know why that was so hard to say, because if they if they have to make, unless they're like guaranteed a box office smash hit, they have to share part of those proceeds with the movie theaters. So if it's not a box office success, they don't have to share as much money with the movie theaters, and then once it releases in in Disney Plus, they all the streams they get from those films goes to just them. And if you think about it, a lot of the past few like last few films that have been Disney or Pixar have not been marketed well at all. But if you look at their streaming numbers, they do great on Disney Plus. So his conspiracy theory is that Disney's not really promoting their films anymore. They don't really care if they're a box office success because word of mouth will get those numbers, will give them great streaming numbers. And if their streaming numbers are up, then all the money goes to them exclusively. They don't need to share anything with the box office. So I think that conspiracy theory makes absolute sense. If you haven't watched Elio, check it out on streaming because it is worth streaming. It's a really, really sweet film, and I I it made me really sad that it was not a box office hit, but once I watched his video, I was like, mm-hmm, that makes sense for Disney, honestly. Number three, we have Zootopia 2. I absolutely loved this film. I saw it twice in theaters, almost saw it a third time when I was in Ed Vasco visiting my family, but it was always sold out. So we went or close to selling out, so we were never able to go. My mom really wanted to go watch it, so and I was like, I don't mind watching it a third time, but I actually, really liked this film. I saw it the first time by myself, and then I ended up taking Orlando to go watch it because I was like, you need to watch this. And this is a sequel that definitely deserves existing. It added onto the story. It's different enough where it doesn't feel like what's the point of this existing, other than giving me box numbers, whatever. Um, so I really, really, this was such a good film. This was so good. I have nothing but good things to say about it. It continues on with the tradition of the first one, in which it has an important political message without feeling like you're watching an important political message. It's it's it's done in a way where kids can understand it. And yeah, it's one of those things where it's like it's sad that a kid's film has more compassion than you know what's actually going on in the world. But that's not the point. And if you're like, uh, well, if it's a political message, I don't want to watch it, just watch it. Like I said, it's not over, it's not slamming you on the head with it. But it's there. So it's and it's really, really good. It's so funny. The little Easter eggs, the nods, not just to other Disney films, but to just other like films. It's so funny. And there's there's there's just like two speeches given by Nick and Judy when they're trying to work out some of their the issues they've been butting heads about. And I'm just like, yup, I can relate to those speeches as well. But I highly recommend Zoopia 2. So good. Number two is weapons. This film was so scary. I we went to go watch this as uh an apartment family, so Orlando, my roommate, and I all went to go watch together, and I was sitting in the middle, so I I had the nice seat because like my roommate was leaning on me for comfort, and then Orlando was like also leaning to me because it was it was scary. Like, there was like it wasn't like um jump scare, scary. I I hate that kind of horror movie, honestly. Like this was like just the tension of like, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? Okay, okay. We're okay for now. We're okay. And then just like some like but I mean, if you've seen the film, you know which character is the absolute scariest character to see. Ooh, she's scary. Yeah. So it's it's I thought it was really well done, really well made, intelligent in in in terms of like, like I said, I hate when characters do dumb decisions just because they're in a horror movie. Kind of like the parody of that Geico commercial. I hate that. This was not like that. This is just so tense, so scary. There is blood and gore, so I do wanna like if you can't handle it, I can't handle it. It wasn't like to the point where it was like, I don't want to look at all, but it is kind of like one scene in one or two scenes in particular. It's like, okay, gotta close my eyes for a little bit. This is this is a little too gross. But overall, really good, really well made, really spooky, really scary. The acting from everyone, just so good. And my number one film that I saw in theaters in 2025 was Sinners. Sinners with Michael B. Jordan, Haley Steinfeld. Um, so good. It's it's such a unique take on the vampire genre. I mean, come on, like the acting was incredible. The just like oh my goodness, the the the sequences in which there's like musical, it's not a musical, but there are like a few musical sequences, and it's just they're just so beautifully shot. I mean, it's it's wow, like Ryan Kugler did such a good job writing and directing this film. Like it's I'm I'm just still so in awe of like those those musical moments. Um yeah, like you, you just this film wasn't scary, and I don't think it necessarily had to be, but yeah, it's just a a complete it's a new interpretation of the vampire genre that I hadn't seen before, but I really liked it. It's just so good, and like I said, the the cinematography, the the way the things were shot, like it's just beautiful to look at. And the way they incorporated like the traditional Irish music with like the traditional blues music, and it's it's like just such a really cool contrast. Um, I don't know, it it's it's so good, and the acting is fantastic, the direction, the writing, the cinematography, everything is fantastic. I have nothing but good things to say about sinners, and that I mean, I think it's very worthy of being the number one film on my list. But let me know what you think. Let me know what were your favorite films that you saw in theaters. If you don't see that many films in theaters, let me know what your favorite films that you saw overall were. And stay tuned because next week I will be counting down my top 10 least favorite films that I saw in theaters in 2025. Bye.