#top films

[shodwithbootsofether]

As it's the very end of 2025, I think this is as good a time as any to post my top rated films of this year from my watch diary. It has been a year both for sentimental rewatches and stepping out of my comfort genres, I've allowed myself to be much more inspired by the cinematic ventures of others, and I'm very grateful for that as they've opened my eyes to many works that I otherwise would not have noticed. When I say these are all "5 stars" I mean within themselves and the film's intentions, not compared to each other. Rewatches are marked with an × and I've included the original titles.

Hell/Pōrgu (1983)

Blue Velvet (1986) ×

Lost Highway (1997)

Cremaster 1 (1996) ×

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) ×

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) ×

Cremaster 2 (1999)

Nosferatu (2024)

Cremaster 3 (2002) ×

Alice/Něco z Alenky (1988) ×

Food (1992) ×

Dimensions of Dialogue (1983) ×

Jabberwocky (1971)

Moving Parts (2024)

To The Brink (2023)

The Peanut Vendor (1933) ×

On The Silver Globe/Na Srebrnym Globie (1988)

God Save Malvina (2025)

Bobby Yeah (2011)

Dreams/夢 (1990)

Come And See/Иди и смотри (1985)

Throw Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets/書を捨てよ町へ出よう (1971)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Andrei Rublev/Андрей Рублёв (1966)

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne/Vynález Zkázy (1958)

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

Alone in the Dark (1982)

Mother Joan of the Angels/Makta Joanna od Aniołów (1961)

The Spirit of the Beehive/El Espíritu de la Colmena (1973)

The Seventh Curse/原振俠與衛斯理 (1986)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Golem (1980)

Jubilee (1978)

Blood Tea and Red String (2006)

The Third Part of the Night/Trzecia część nocy (1971)

The Bewitched House/La Maison Ensorcelée (1907)

Decalogue I/ Dekalog jeden (1989)

Animated Putty (1911)

Poor Pierrot/Pauvre Pierrot (1892)

Darkness, Light,Darkness/Tma, Světlo,Tma (1989) ×

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel/Hukkunud Alpinisti Hotell (1979)

Forbidden Zone (1980)

Ko-Ko (1988)

In Absentia (2000)

Bubble Bath/Habfürdö (1979)

The War of the Worlds: Next Century/Wojna światów – następne stulecie (1981)

O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization/O-Bi, O-Ba: Koniec Cywilizacji (1985)

Noblesse Oblige (1989)

The Pied Piper/Krysař (1986)

Bewitched/蠱 (1981)

Happy End (1967)

The Blood of a Poet/Le Sang d'un Poète (1932)

Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis (1990)

The Wages of Fear (1953)

A Visitor to a Museum/Посетитель музея (1989)

Miami Connection (1987)

I Am Cuba/Soy Cuba (1964)

The Waxing Book (1989)

Mon Oncle (1958)

Dim. (1992)

Pirate Tape (1983)

Garden of Luxor (1973)

964 Pinocchio/ピノキオ√964 (1991)×

The Adventures of Buratino/Приключения Буратино (1976)

Ran/乱 (1985)

Memories (1995)

Typhoid Sufferers/Tifusari (1963)

A Highly Committed Film/Ostry film 'zaangazowany' (1980)

Return to the Future/Întoarcerea în Viitor (1971)

Inland Empire (2006)

Rubbish (1982)

The Glass Marble/Kulička (1963)

The Ballad of a Jutland Girl (2025)

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

Fright-Muzzles/Страсті-мордасті (1991)

The Essence of Creation, Lost to the Night (2025)

The Motions of Fears Envy (2025)

White Zombie (1932) ×

House on Haunted Hill (1959) ×

Witch's Cradle (1944)

The Black Rider (1990)

Viy/Вий (1967) ×

Mare's Tale (1969)

Freaks (1932) ×

The Hand/Ruka (1965)

Rabbit's Moon (1950) ×

Eraserhead (1977) ×

Night of the Demon (1957)

M (1931) ×

Outer Space (1999)

Departure (2008)

No Place To Rest (2013)

The Fairy of the Black Rocks/La Feé des Roches Noires (1907)

Benny's Bathtub/Benny's Badekar (1971)

Grandfather's Clock (1934)

The Green Planet/La Planète Verte (1966)

Papa Carlo's Theatre/Theatre Papa Carlo (1988)

Labyrinth/Le Labyrinthe (1969)

An Ephemeral Mission/Une mission éphémère (1993)

Ko Ko's Haunted House (1928)

The Enchanted Island/Nōiutud saar (1985)

Halloween (1978) ×

Possession (1981) ×

The Dark Crystal (1982) ×

The Legend of the Stardust Brothers/星くず兄弟の伝説 (1985)

The Color of Pomegranates/Նռան գույնը (1969) ×

Dado Buffon (1987)

Magic Temple (1996)

[arysthaeniru]

Niru's Top 50 List

My favourite films are mostly foreign and animated, which is a big contrast to most other lists, so I'm curious how many you've all seen!

How many films on my list have you seen?

0

1-10

11-20

21-30

31-40

41-50

Voting ended onApr 3, 2025

[ciegeinc]

CIEGEINC’s TOP FILMS OF 2024

1. Furiosa A Mad Max Saga

2. The First Omen

3. Heretic

4. Rebel Ridge

5. Transformers One

6. The Ministry of Ungentlemenly Warfare

7. Shirley

[krumpkin]

This was a film by Shane Meadows ( 2004 ) . Paddy Considine takes the lead, he also co-wrote the film. Tony Kebbel puts in an excellent performance as his brother in this movie and the whole cast did a fantastic job. For Anyone who's not seen this film I'd highly recommend it.

Great acting, fantastic script, it really has everything. To describe this film as a typical revenge movie would be doing it a great injustice. I'd say it's a well scripted emotional thriller with an intelligent and well thought out storyline.

I won't say anymore as I wouldn't want to spoil it for those that haven't seen it. Apart from the film itself the music really sets the mood. I've added a few tracks from the movie below, enjoy 😉

[femmeboyfatale13]

My current top 12 favorite films:

[dalmiovisoquestapioggiadilacrime]

"Il rasoio fa male, il fiume è troppo basso, l'acido è bestiale, la droga dà il collasso, la corda si spezza, la pistola è proibita, il gas puzza... Allora, viva la vita!"

Cit. Ragazze Interrotte

[full-moon-films]

Akelarre (2020)

Director: Pablo Aguero

Writers: Pablo Aguero; Katell Guillou

Producers: Fred Premel; Iker Ganuza; Koldo Zuazua

Notable Cast: Amaia Aberasturi; Alex Brendermuhl; Daniel Fanego; Garazi Urkola

Run Time: 90 minutes

Languages: Spanish; Basque

Restrictions: 16 for sexual violence

Genre: Period drama

Akelarre pulled me in, ripped my heart out and put it back just to do it all over again. It is a story about six girls accused of witchcraft in 1609 and their bravery and cunning which they utilise to save themselves from being burned at the stake. But do they save their lives? 

The film ends on a very literal cliffhanger - the girls, lead by Ana (Amaia Aberasturi) leap off a cliff into the ocean after being chased and surrounded by the Spanish royal guard. 

I have so little words to say about this movie because nothing I write will have any chance of doing it justice. Never before have I been interested in films about witchcraft and the witch trials because they all seem too wrapped up in the mystical, spiritual darkness of it all to the point where most of the films forget the events happened. Real men and women were burned for their knowledge or physical appearance. What I equate Akelarre most to is Robert Egger’s 2015 film, ‘The VVitch”. With a 20 year gap of the period - Akelarre in 1609 and The VVitch in the 1630s - both still have very similar feelings about them. The camera direction, colour palette and tone are all so similar, but I think Akelarre deals with the events it portrays with far more empathy to the history.

Specifically with this, I want to draw attention to the rituals displayed in both. The VVitch draws a lot of attention to Satan as ‘Black Philip’ and at the end of the film there is a supernatural bonfire scene wherein a group of naked women elevate into the air. I’m not here to say that scene, or, indeed the whole film, is bad, but it is a good starting point in the discussion for Akelarre’s ‘ritual scene’.

Akelarre tells and shows its ritual while Ana is being interrogated by the judge Rostegui (Alex Brendermuhl). Hoping to save her sister and her friends, Ana weavers a story made of truths of a happy memory and embellished lies to give Rostegui what he wants. And I think the description is my second favourite scene in this film. The audience gets to see the memory Ana is drawing her story from and hear the tale she is recounting to Rostegui at the same time. The audience hears her claim she turned her sister Maria (Yune Nogueiras) into a lamb which is shown as her putting on a lambskin jerkin. She claims to create illusions with smoke, which is shown as her and the rest of the girls sharing a pipe in a clearing. The very description she gives of Lucifer she takes from Rostegui himself, adoring the devil with the judge’s beard and light eyes. During the whole account I was enraptured as Rostegui himself.

Rostegui is so, pardon the pun, bewitched by Ana’s account that he has to see it for himself. He goes so far as to postpone the executions of the girls... until he is informed that the full moon when the girls want to ‘perform the ritual’ is the same day all their fathers and brothers get back from sea and might cause issues for the men. So Rostegui takes matters into his own hands and, using the descriptions told to him by Ana, tries to recreate the Sabbath ritual she was so detailed about. Rostegui is suffering both from the witch mania and his desire for Ana and this culminates in a scene that is nothing short of epic.

Personally, this is made all the better by not having a singe supernatural event occur. It felt more like a traditional pagan high-energy ritual than the supernatural, fantastical display in The VVitch. Everything is dark outside the circle created and inside is bathed in a heavy orange glow from the fire. Even thought the girls have been shackled by the guards for added protection, the magic is still there. And this is a magic that exists in our world as we know it. The girls feast and sing and dance. They create an infectious energy around them through nothing but their joy. This infects Rostegui to the point where the girls are even able to leave the fray they’ve created and escape. 

This is the cliffside ending. The moon is full, the tide is meant to be high. The girls leap in the sea. Is the audience meant to hold out hope for them? Do the sailors save them? Do they die? My breath caught in my throat to witness it and it would not have had the same power if the ending was resolved.

I am still in shock from this film. Everything from the plot to the characters to the costumes. And every frame looks like a Baroque painting. The play of texture, of light and shadow, of colour and absence... my jaw was on the floor the entire time. My notes for this post were so spares because I couldn’t bring myself to look away from the screen. Very few films in my life have had the power to so subtly wrap me in their world. One cannot sit with Akelarre without being transported to the universe it depicts. The screen is a thin veil of speration between the viewer and the characters. When the girls are tortured for information, their pain is tangible. When they run and leap and dance through the forest, sunlight and salt air plays on your skin just as much as it does theirs. 

All of this is down to the sheer level of empathy to the plight of these women that I mentioned earlier. Perhaps it was a bit unfair comparing this period piece to a 2015 horror, but again, I also don’t think genre is a reason for a lack of empathy. This movie never made that mistake. Each actress was so chosen that they became the embodiment of all their character stood for. The gentleness of the acting and the masterful directing meant everything was played just enough for it to hit the audience in the gut like a freight train without allowing for any preparation. I am sure that this is a film which delivers some new, unique tidbit after each individual watch.

Akelarre is nothing short of a masterpiece that most certainly will have its place in the history of film for a long time coming. If not in all history, then at least in mine. As the credits rolled I had to forcibly crawl my way back to the real world and shake off the enchantment this left me with. 

This will be one of my highest recommended films of all time: 9/10.

[miss-vortex]

'Blonde': Sometimes films are meant to disturb us, but Netflix should have been more mindful

Netflix viewers weren't prepared well enough for the audacious NC-17 biopic

This review of Netflix's Marilyn Monroe biopic 'Blonde' examines the controversy surrounding the film and explains that whilst graphic scenes are sometimes essential in movies, Netflix should be held accountable for marketing the film in a somewhat sugar-coated way with no trigger warning