My 10 Favorite Movies of 2025

I was lucky enough to see a lot of movies in 2025. Much more than I have in the past few years. As a whole, I think 2025 was a great year for cinema. While the industry is in a messy state and faces an uncertain future, we're at least still getting a lot of good stuff for now.

Here are my top ten movies of the year, plus a special (not honorable; it'll make sense when we get there) mention. This post will be briefer than usual, as I'm currently finishing up a book about the roots and rise of Nazism in Germany, but hopefully these short explanations for why I liked each movie will do them justice.

A few honorary mentions before we get to the list: Train Dreams, Jay Kelly, Bugonia, It Was Just an Accident, and Sorry, Baby. 

Happy reading! 

 

10. Marty Supreme

Timothée Chalamet really has been on a tear as an actor the last few years. With recent roles in movies like A Complete Unknown and the Dune series, he's been making a name for himself as a genuinely talented actor. His performance in Marty Supreme just may be his best, though. Taking place in 1950s New York, the story follows Marty Mauser, a twenty three year old shoe salesman, table tennis ace, and relentless hustler. Mauser's goal is to became a champion in the table tennis world despite not having the means or connections to be able to fully dedicate himself to the game. He makes up for those shortcomings through his constant scheming. Watching everything unfold can be extremely anxiety-inducing at times, but it is always gripping. While certain elements of the movie don't work for me, overall I found it an entertaining, pulse-pounding exploration of the scummy side of the US striver-hustler mentality.

 

9. Left-Handed Girl

Left-handed people of the world unite! Left-Handed Girl is a sweet little slice of life movie about a young Taiwanese girl and her family as they try to make ends meet in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. The girl is quiet and observant, taking in the world around her as her family goes through a variety of trials and tribulations. There's something comforting about this movie, yet it also has enough drama and emotional stakes to pull you in. That drama culminates in an ending that will have you almost gasping despite the relatively low stakes, as those low stakes nonetheless feel momentum to those going through it all. This is not the most ambitious movie ever made, but it does what it's trying to do well and is a lovely experience as a whole.

 

8. Superman

Superman has been my favorite superhero ever since I was a kid. As a teenager I briefly went through a Batman phase around the time of The Dark Knight simply based on the Bat's more celebrated movie and comic output, but in recent years I've fully gone back to team Supes. While this year's Superman isn't my definitive favorite movie adaptation of the character, there's a lot I love about it. More than anything, I love how sincere it is, and how the love for the character shines so brightly through it. Its anti-war message felt unfortunately relevant, too.

For a more detailed breakdown of what did and didn't work for me in this movie, I wrote about it on here after seeing it back in July. 

 

7. Highest 2 Lowest

Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. He also happens to be my favorite director. When I saw that the great Spike Lee was remaking his classic High and Low, I was intrigued. I went in seeing it not quite knowing what to expect, since Lee called it more of a "re-imagining" than a remake. It turned out to be a great time. While not quite as strong as the original, Highest 2 Lowest is still entertaining while having a lot on its mind. It follows Denzel Washington as a music executive who, like many successful creatives, is caught in the struggle between art and profit. When his son is supposedly kidnapped, things get complicated quickly. Whether you've seen the original or not, this one is a great time.

 

6. The Secret Agent

During the Cold War, Latin America became a battleground between US-backed military dictatorships and popular leftwing liberation groups. In recent years, Latin American countries have made many movies about that era of tragedy and atrocity. Like I'm Still Here last year, The Secret Agent is Brazil's latest great movie about its own period of dictatorship. It's a political thriller that follows a professor played by Wagner Moura, who puts in my favorite leading performance of the year. It's a vibrant, well-crafted movie that does a great job establishing its sense of place. While certain aspects didn't work for me, this is still one of my favorite movies of the year.

 

5. Hamnet

William Shakespeare is one of the most celebrated storytellers in human history. In real life, there are records that he and his wife Agnes had a son named Hamnet, who died at age eleven. The movie Hamnet is an adaptation of a book by the same name that fictionalizes what that loss must have been like for the couple, and how it may have inspired William to write the play Hamlet. It is a devastating watch, but the ending is beautiful and life-affirming. While the movie took a little bit in the beginning to fully pull me in, I was completely absorbed by the middle and found myself crying at the end. In fact, the ending scene may be my favorite single scene of the year.

 

4. Sentimental Value

Just about everyone can relate to having a difficult family in some way or another. Sentimental Value is a heartfelt but understated family dramedy about a pair of sisters and their strained relationship with their father, a famous director. The main character is the older of the two sisters, Nora, who grapples with some serious mental health issues. The sisters remember and deal their childhood somewhat differently, but both agree things were tough with this father. What's interesting, though, is that as we see more of the father character, we learn he himself is a victim of fairly severe family traumas. He is only able to express himself through his art, which is part of why in the past he put it above everything else, including his own daughters. The movie makes no attempt to either forgive or condemn him, but instead just tries to understand him, his daughters, and their attempts to make sense of everything.

 

3. No Other Choice

We are in a tough stage of global capitalism where automation and outsourcing have taken a toll on job markets across the world, and therefore the ability of people to provide for themselves and their families. No Other Choice is a brilliant dark comedy about a Korean man whose company is bought off by a US company, which then lays off about 20% of the company's workforce. The protagonist is among those laid off. What unfolds is a dark and thoughtful, yet hilarious, quest for him to find some sort of employment. A lot of people have compared it to Parasite. Ultimately I'd say it doesn't hit quite as hard, but it is funnier and easier to rewatch. This and the next two movies are not only my favorite movies of the year, but already among my favorite all-time movies.

 

2. Sinners

Sometimes you're in the mood for a creepy vampire movie, sometimes you're in the mood for a gripping period drama, sometimes you're in the mood for a movie that celebrates music and culture. But what if you want all three- and not only that, but all three of them done well? That's where Sinners comes in. Like both the previous entry on this list and the one coming up next, it shows that you don't have to choose between artistic depth and popcorn entertainment. You can have both. Ryan Coogler really outdoes himself in this vampire movie set in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. It could have easily not had vampires and still been compelling, but the vampires come in both as entertainment and as a thoughtful metaphor about the commodification of cultures.

If you'd like a more thorough breakdown of why the movie is great, I wrote about it for the website Taste of Cinema. 

 

1. One Battle After Another 

Few movies do it all the way One Battle After Another does. It works in terms of the deeper stuff like character and theme, but it also works as a propulsive, perfectly paced piece of entertainment. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll remind you why we go to the movies in the first place. There's a lot packed in here, including some of the most memorable movie characters of the decade (Colonel Lockjaw is an instantly iconic villain, and Sensei Sergio is a new all-time favorite movie character of mine), but ultimately it's a movie about a father and a daughter, and how they can be there for each other despite everything that has come between them. The only question that remains for me is whether it will eventually dethrone There Will Be Blood as my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

 

Special Mention: The Voice of Hind Rajab

I really am not sure how to talk about The Voice of Hind Rajab, let alone how to rank it on a list like this as if it were a normal movie. It's isn't. Not only is it about the very real, very desperate call for help of a six year old Gazan child killed by Israel in January of 2024, but it actually uses the voice recordings of the child herself. It follows call center workers at the Palestinian Red Crescent (basically their version of the Red Cross) who receive a call from poor Hind and try to organize a rescue mission to save her while comforting her over the phone. It's extremely well-crafted. But it also just doesn't feel right ranking it on a list like this, as if it's just a piece of entertainment. It's not. It's a desperate plea for help from a people undergoing a genocide. With that said, though, it is also a damn good movie, hence why it gets a special mention here. See it and support it if you can.

Top Everything of 2025

Another year in the books. Like every year, there were too many worthwhile things for me to make a single list for only one category. So, also like every year, I'm dropping a list with my top picks for a variety of categories. With that said, though, expect an upcoming post or two about movies from 2025, since I did get the chance to watch more movies last year than usual.

A quick note: I am in the process of writing a book right now (an introductory guide to the roots and rise of the Nazis), so most entries will be shorter than they have been in past years. I was initially going to have less categories than usual, but none of them felt right to get rid of. So, brevity will be the key for much of this year's list.

Anyway, these are my picks for what stood out to me in 2025. Enjoy! 

 

Movie: One Battle After Another

This almost feels like a boring pick considering how much attention it has received, but sometimes a near-universally acclaimed movie gets that much praise for a reason. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, it follows Leonardo DiCaprio as a burnt out ex-revolutionary trying to protect his daughter as his and his baby mama's past come back to haunt them. The main villain, a goofy yet terrifying military officer played masterfully by Sean Penn, is an imposing foe.

Everything about One Battle After Another is incredible: the directing, the writing, the acting, the editing, the score, everything. It all comes together to make something special, something that perfectly balances style and substance. It's one of those rare movies that everyone from hardcore movie buffs to people who only watch movies once in a while can enjoy. I don't want to say too much more because it's one of those movies you don't want to know too much about beforehand, but if you haven't seen it, check it out!

 

Comedy Movie: No Other Choice

While this movie won't release widely until early 2026, it had a limited release in December. I was lucky enough to catch an early IMAX screening of it. It's directed by Park Chan-wook, who made Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave, among others. He's not only arguably South Korea's most celebrated filmmaker, but one of the best filmmakers working today of any country.

Getting to the movie itself, No Other Choice is a black comedy thriller about a man (played by the incredible Lee Byung-hun) who works as a senior employee at a paper company. When the company is bought out by a bigger US company, it lays off a huge chunk of the Korean employees, including the protagonist. He then has to try to find a new job, but that proves harder than expected considering the job market. This then pushes him to try more... drastic measures to get a new job.

The thematic focus of this dark comedy is the struggles created by modern capitalism. It's reminiscent of Parasite in a broad sense, though there are some key differences. I'd say, as a whole, Parasite is a better film in terms of how it executes tension and theme, but this movie is funnier. You'll very rarely go more than a minute or two without at least chuckling, and you'll be laughing often. There's one scene in the middle that had me and the audience I watched it with howling. It was easily the funniest scene I saw in 2025. While the subject matter of this film is actually pretty heavy when you think about it, it's told in such a funny, entertaining way that it all goes down smooth.

  

Animated Movie: K-Pop Demon Hunters 

Unless you spent 2025 in a Tibetan monastery, you probably heard about K-Pop Demon Hunters. The story follows a trio of Korean girls who live a double life: they are both world-famous K-pop stars and demon hunters. The two feed into each other, in fact. Their music helps them keep the world of demons at bay. The main character of the movie, Rumi, is one of these girls, but she has a secret. She herself is part demon. Not even her two squad mates know this. A central question of the movie is: should you hide a 'bad' part of yourself?

The answer, of course, is no. As things unfold, she learns to be herself and embrace that side of her, as you could imagine from a kid's movie. There is also a bad boy love interest who himself is part demon; also as you can probably guess, he's not as bad as you would initially think, and ultimately has a change of heart. The story of K-Pop Demon Hunters is good but predictable, and drops the ball with the demon metaphor. In fact, I've also heard Korean friends criticize the portrayal of Korean spirits and deities as villainous demons, but that's only a message I can pass along, not one I can meaningfully comment on. What works about the story is the dynamic between the main character and her two best friends, as well as her dynamic with the bad boy love interest. It may be relatively predictable, but there's a real sincerity to it.

The best part of this movie, though, is the music. That's what really elevated it above the competition for me this year. While I didn't like any of the Saja Boy songs that much, I like all of the main group's songs. Golden and This is What it Sounds Like in particular are two of my favorite songs of the year. Maybe even two of my favorite songs from a movie soundtrack this decade. 

 

Actor: Benicio del Toro  

This was an incredible year for acting, making this a difficult category to narrow down. Stellan Skarsgård was great in Sentimental Value and Andor, Lee Byung-hun was great in No Other Choice and Squid Game, and Michael B. Jordan (my choice for actor of the year in both 2018 and 2015) was great in Sinners and... well, Sinners again, since he played two roles. And those are just the actors who had multiple roles this year. Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent, Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, and Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams were all incredible in their singular roles this year.

Ultimately, though, I had to go with the actor who gave life to my favorite film character of the year. In One Battle After Another, Benicio del Toro plays Sensei Sergio, a Mexican-American karate instructor who is coolness personified. Though he is dragged into the mess that transpires around DiCaprio's character, he manages to always keep calm, despite certain things that he has going on himself that could get him in huge trouble if found out. He is easily not just my favorite movie character of the year, but one of my favorite movie characters of the decade.

In addition to that role, he also plays a ruthless yet perpetually calm businessman named Anatole Korda in Wes Anderon's The Phoenician Scheme (funny to think that del Toro played two stoic characters with lots of influence on the people around them in a movie directed by a guy with the last name Anderson this year). Korda is trying to form a relationship with his daughter, who makes his heir in an attempt to connect with her. Like with most Wes Anderson movies, there a lot of emotional distance between the characters and the viewers. By the end of the movie, though, you see that there's a lot more to Korda than you initially think. That is, in large part, thanks to del Toro breathing so much life into the role.

Benicio del Toro is one of the best actors working today, and great representation for Latinos. He's got a lot of range, but really seems to be most at home when he's playing calm, cool, collected characters. I'm glad we have him.

 

Actress: Jessie Buckley 

Like with best actor, this is another extremely stacked category. Unlike best actor there aren't as many actresses pulling strong double duty (or at least among the movies/shows I've seen), but quite a few actresses put in excellent singular performances. Eva Victor in Sorry, Baby, Tessa Thompson in Hedda, and pretty much all the women in One Battle After Another (Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall) and Sentimental Value (Renata Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning) really knocked it out of the park this year.

But, if I had to go with one actress/performance, I have to go with the one that moved me more than any other I saw this year. That would be Jessie Buckley as the protagonist in Hamnet. It stars Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare, the wife of William Shakespeare. The story follows the couple as they meet, fall in love, start a family, and have kids. Then tragedy strikes. It's a tragedy that actually did take place for the couple in real life, though the details around it aren't known. In fact, because there are no records about what actually happened during this tragedy, the story of the movie is based on a novel that simply speculates on what happened.

If the title sounds like his iconic work Hamlet, that's not a coincidence. According to this movie, it's William's grief channeled into his play. Agnes, though, is the protagonist. Initially, after the tragedy hits about halfway through, it creates distance between her and William. She blames him for seemingly caring more about his plays than his family. The rest of the story follows her on a really moving journey that I don't want to say more about in case you're reading this without having seen it.

What I will say, though, is that Buckley does an incredible job in her role. The way she carries the final scene in particular is one of the most emotionally affecting performances I've ever seen. She's been talked about as the favorite to win the Oscar this year for best actress, and I think she completely deserves it.

 

TV Show: Andor

While I don't watch that much TV, I do have series that I pay attention to. One series I really like, Righteous Gemstones, did a great job with its final season this year. In other years that could've been my pick for this category. Unfortunately for Danny McBride's hilarious dramedy series, however, Andor (which was also my TV show pick for 2022) really knocked it out of the park.

Like with the first season, this season does a great job of being a Star Wars show for adults (and smart teens). It's not just interested in lightsabers and Jedi (in fact, it's not interested in those things at all), it's interested in its themes, characters, and world-building. Rather than many other Star Wars spinoffs, which focus on what fans already like from the universe, Andor makes the universe more complicated and interesting by delving into exactly what it takes to spark a rebellion against an evil galactic empire.

If there's one different between this season and the first, it's about the role of the protagonist, Cassian Andor. In the first season, he goes from cynical rogue to dedicated revolutionary. In this season his character is already set. While he is still the main vantage character, there is more attention paid to the characters and world around him as the series moves toward its conclusion, which ends right where A New Hope begins. It's a fantastic season of television that really is the best sort of storytelling for an existing franchise. The Andor series is easily my favorite Star Wars saga next to the original trilogy. It may even be better.

 

Male MMA Fighters: Islam Makhachev

Islam Makhachev has come a long way in his MMA career. Starting as a one dimensional grappler, he has now beaten some worthy opponents and developed other aspects of his game, even if his wrestling is still by far his strong asset. Despite the worthy opponent's he's beat, though, his biggest issue is that he has yet to face enough of them. This has mostly not been his fault (he's had fights with good opponents fall through, plus the lightweight division in general has fallen off in recent years), but he does what he can in the position he's in.

In 2025, Islam first faced and defeated Renato Moicano. He had originally been scheduled to face Arman Tsarukyan, a more championship-caliber opponent, but Tsarukyan pulled out the day before due to injury. Moicano offered to step in. Islam accepted in order to save the event and beat him in the first round by submission. In doing so, he broke the record for UFC lightweight title defenses (4). 

Islam's next was far more impressive. He moved up in weight and fought the welterweight champion, Jack Della Maddalena. He won by a dominant decision, managing the incredibly difficult task of becoming the champion for the weight class above him. This is impressive on its own, but especially against Della Maddalena, one of the better fighters in the UFC today. He now has tied former middleweight champion Anderson Silva for longest winning streak (16).

Overall, Islam had an incredible 2025 for the records he set and the fact he became champion for the weight class above his own. While his quality of opposition isn't the strongest, it's not really his fault that he has had so many fights either fall through or end with last minute replacements. he has beaten just above everyone put in front of him, which is damn impressive.

 

Female MMA Fighter: Valentina Shevchenko

What more can be said about Shevchenko? She's one of the best women to ever compete in combat sports. She was my pick for 2020 female fighter of the year and, honestly, could've easily been my pick a couple other times. She's well-rounded, composed, and strategic.

In 2025, she beat Manon Fiorot and Zhang Weili. While Fiorot is a solid opponent, Zhang is a world-class one. While Zhang did move up in weight (and indeed looked much smaller than Valentina in their fight), she's still a tough, skilled opponent who is a difficult fight for anyone. Beating her is no small feat.

 

MMA Fighter I Hope Bounces Back: Zhang Weili

I love Zhang and what she brings to MMA. Aside from her skills as a fighter, it's clear that she is a true martial artist in spirit. All of her social media posts about training are a true celebration of martial arts, and by all accounts she always is nothing but respectful and attentive wherever and whenever she trains. She is a great ambassador for MMA and the true beauty of martial arts. I hope she is able to recover from her loss to Shevchenko and come back better than ever. The MMA world needs martial artists like her. 

 

MMA Fight: Lopes vs Silva

Sometimes a good old fashioned brawl is just what you need. While there was some good fight technique on display, ultimately this was mostly a fun barn-burner where both fighters put it all on the line. Diego Lopes remains one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC.

 

Scientific Discovery: Life On Another Planet?

I know it seems like I choose something involving possible life on another planet every other year on this list, but what can I say? I love astronomy, and I'm fascinated by the idea of life on other planets.

In April, the James Webb Space Telescope gave us data about the planet K2-18b. By looking at the light that filtered through the planet's atmosphere, scientists saw a sign of possible life. Specifically, they saw two gases (dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide) that, on our planet at least, are produced by living things like algae. What's extra interesting is that, even before this, K2-18b was already in the conversation as a planet that may contain life due to being an ocean-covered planet that may be temperate enough to host living organisms. This new discovery only adds to the tantalizing possibility that there may indeed be life on the planet.

 

Scientific Achievement: Pig Organ Transplants

Any scientific achievement that preserves human life is worth celebrating (assuming those achievements don't come at the expense of others, of course). In recent years, scientists have experimented with transplants using pig organs because their organs have similar traits to our own. Usually, however, transplants don't really work because our bodies reject the non-human organs.  

In this case, surgeons gave a gene-edited pig kidney to a man named Tim Andrews. This is the fourth such transplant that has happened, but this one is noteworthy because Andrews lived with the kidney for a record 271 days before it had to be removed. The gene-editing of the kidney and medicine schedule for Andrews worked incredibly well, considering the human body would never accept such an organ at all otherwise.

If this technology can be further developed, people will be able to live years with pig organs. Maybe even longer. It may not be sexy to think about people having pig organs inside them, but in a time where there is a shortage of donated organs for medical use, anything we can do to help others is worth doing.

 

Bullshit News Story: "Venezuelan Drug Traffickers"

In September 2025, the Trump regime began killing random fishermen in the Caribbean, accusing them of being cartel members. They did so without giving any sort of evidence that the individuals killed were involved in the drug trade. They also bizarrely accused them of smuggling fentanyl, rather than cocaine (you'd think they would at least try to lie better.

Later on in 2025, President Trump pardoned former conservative Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to forty five years in prison for conspiring to smuggle over four hundred tons of cocaine into the United States. And we're still supposed to believe that the murders of these fishermen in the Caribbean were able drug smuggling.

 It's a bit surreal writing this post in January after the Trump regime invaded Venezuela and kidnapped President Maduro. While Maduro is certainly not my favorite world leader, he is the sovereign leader of Venezuela. The US does not have the right to decide it can just invade a country for no real reason. These killings of random fishermen were the ugly pretext, an attempt to claim they were on a mission to fight drug cartels. But, again, the flimsy evidence alongside the pardoning of Orlando Hernández shows how little the truth matters in any of this.

 

Actual News Story: Continued Murder in Gaza

The genocide in Gaza started under Joe Biden. It was a genocide which he gave just about unconditional support to. Kamala tried to distance herself from the genocide in rhetoric, but gave no concrete policy explanations for exactly what she would do different. Donald Trump did something similar, except even more chaotically, stupidly, and dishonestly; sometimes he claimed he would bring peace between the two sides, other times he crudely referred to political opponents as "Palestinians" in a bizarre, gross case of 1800s-style racism.

Upon becoming president, Trump more or less continued Biden's policy of letting Israel to whatever it wanted. There were some differences in the details (he applied a bit more pressure on Israel than Biden had, yet also cracked down more on refugees coming from Palestine), but the broad outline was the same. Eventually, however, Trump did force Netanyahu to come to the table, leading to negotiations that created a ceasefire in October. That could have been a positive (if not way too late) development, if not for the fact that the ceasefire never really happened.

Yes, fighting between the two sides largely stopped. Mostly from the Palestinian side. Meanwhile, Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinians since the "ceasefire" went into effect. They may have slowed down the slaughter, but they're still consistently killing Gazans. Mostly civilians. The genocide has already been an incredible stain on humanity; unfortunately for the people of Gaza, there is still no real end in sight for the suffering.

 

Photo: Immigrant S.O.S. Call for Help

Another absurd aspect to everything the US is doing to Venezuelans (and Caribbean fishermen in general) is the fact they're pretending to do this out of concern for Venezuelans themselves. Meanwhile, Venezuelan migrants held in US detention centers formed an S.O.S. sign, signaling both the awful conditions they faced and their worry that they might get shipped off to one of the many shady super-prisons in El Salvador. It's a striking reflection of just how barbaric our immigration system is.

 

Badass: Gaza Aid Flotillas

Since the genocide in Gaza began, many around the world have tried to help in whatever small ways they can. Most of the time that meant demonstrations, donations to aid groups, and boycotting Israeli goods. In June of 2025, there was a group of particularly noble people who wanted to do more. They wanted to break the siege Israel imposed on Gaza and deliver aid directly.

Twelve brave souls rode aboard a boat called the Madleen through the Mediterranean to deliver vital aid to the people of Gaza. On the way, people who supported Israel's genocide harassed and even attacked the Madleen, but they rode on. On June 9th, however, the Israeli military seized the Madleen, imprisoned everyone aboard, and eventually deported them. The aid was not given to the people of Gaza.

This only inspired more action, with more people. More waves of flotillas departed, trying to get aid to the people of Gaza. An especially big wave of vessels set sail in October. Some governments, including Spain and Greece, claimed they would protect the flotillas. Unfortunately, while a few of these governments did follow through on sending escorts, they abandoned the flotilla vessels once they got close to Israel. None ever made it to the shores of Gaza.

It's a hard pill to swallow to know that the murders won. But, we can at least celebrate the courage of those on the vessels themselves. There have been more attempts since for flotillas to bring aid to Gaza. There are even more attempts being planned for 2026. Hopefully there will be a break and Gaza can get relief from the outside world that isn't controlled by the very people massacring them. 

Top Everything of 2021

Sorry this is so late, everyone.  I had finished up about 2/3rd of this post toward the end of 2021 when, on the morning of December 30th, I found out my dad passed away in his sleep.  To go into detail about the complicated feelings that consumed me thereafter would be to write an entire post in and of itself, but suffice to say I wasn't in any condition to finish writing.

Since then, I've wanted to finish this post.  I had a lot of other things to keep me busy, though: my wife and I having a honeymoon in Paris (my first time ever leaving the western hemisphere), my wife and I moving to San Diego, my wife and I finding out we will be parents.  This was all in addition to my already busy normal schedule.  There were times I wanted to abandon this post completely.  But at the end of the day, writing this list every year is something of a tradition for me.  I enjoy writing, and I enjoy hearing what people have to say about it.

Anyway, here is my top everything of 2021.  Long time readers will notice this post is shorter than those of previous years.  There's no real objective reasons for which categories I left out vs kept this year.  Basically, of the categories I hadn't already completed before the news of my dad's death, I simply just decided in the moment which ones I wanted to finish for this post vs which I didn't.  My top everything of 2022 post will have every category I've used in past years.

As always, these picks are highly subjective.  I make no claims toward objectivity here, if such a thing even exists.  I hope y'all enjoy!

MOVIE: Judas and the Black Messiah

How the hell did this movie get made?

Let's back up.  The Black Panther Party was a political organization created in 1966 on the basis of socialism, black liberation, and solidarity with oppressed people all over the world.  The Black Panthers weren't just talk, either.  They went on armed patrols against police brutality, started free breakfast programs for children across the country, created coalitions with other groups to agitate for a better society, and also engaged in numerous rallies, protests, and marches.  Of course, being the threat they were to the status quo, they were vilified, infiltrated, sabotaged, arrested, and assassinated.

At only 21 years old, Fred Hampton was one of the Black Panthers set up for assassination by the FBI and police.  That's where this movie comes in, to tell the story.  Hampton was an incredible (and, to those in power, dangerous) combination of charismatic, dedicated, and insightful; Daniel Kaluuya of Get Out fame plays Hampton while Lakeith Stanfield plays the titular Judas, named William O'Neill, a car thief turned FBI informant.  We see O'Neill get caught, become an informant in order to avoid prison, and gradually gain the trust of Hampton.  The movie concludes with the police raid on Hampton's apartment that ended in his assassination.

The movie impressed me with how real they were about Hampton's politics.  We get direct quotes and speeches from Hampton and other Panthers showing their unique blend of Marxism, black nationalism, and internationalism.  The movie even shows shoot-outs with cops!  It's really not something I expected to see in a major Hollywood movie.  The fact it's a well-written, well-acted story on top of that makes it even more impressive.  Kaluuya clearly studied Hampton's mannerisms and speech quite well, whereas Stanfield does a great job playing a nervous yet steady informant who gets in over his head.  This is truly one of the most bold movies I've seen in years.

COMEDY: Don't Look Up

Climate change is a rapidly approaching disaster that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree on.  Because of how thoroughly the oil industry controls our government (or perhaps more accurately put, because of how much corporations and finance as a whole control our government, of which oil companies are a part of that web of corporate power), we are not doing nearly as much as we could.  This movie takes that idea and creates a thinly veiled metaphor through the story of a meteor hurling towards Earth.

The premise is straightforward, but it goes in fun places.  It's helped by the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence are both at the top of their game here, as is the rest of this surprisingly star-studded cast.  While I don't think the movie was perfect, and in fact there were some people who thoughtfully critiqued the movie in a way that I thought really fair, I still enjoyed it.  Just having a movie that created these kinds of discussions while also giving a good mix of laughs and memorable lines is pretty cool in my opinion.

I was only left with one question: why did that general charge them for the snacks?

ANIMATED: Belle

I've really come to like Mamoru Hosoda over the last few years.  I've seen almost every movie of his, and was excited to check out what people described as "his spin on Beauty and the Beast."  Of course, if you've seen this movie, you know that this movie isn't really like the beloved Disney classic beyond some surface level plot points.  But that's a good thing, because it's a completely different type of adventure.

The story follows Suzu Naito, who used to love to sing, but lost her mom as a young girl and hasn't been in the singing mood since.  She clearly suffers from depression, and also has a little bit of resentment toward her mom for always helping others at her own expense.  It was, after all, that noble part of her mom that led to her death.  For all that happens plot-wise in this movie, at the end of the day it's really about Naito coming to terms with her pain and learning to embrace both her voice and her mom's good nature.

This is probably the most ambitious Hosoda film I've seen.  It attempts to juggle a lot, both in terms of plot and theme.  It doesn't always succeed.  There are some moments where the focus of the story veers sharply in a way that seems a little out of nowhere.  On top of that, themes will get dropped and picked back up again.  The story feels less like a smooth tapestry of well-integrated, interlocking character and theme ideas, and more like a haphazard collection of ideas thrown into a mixing bowl, hoping everything will work out.

Two things save this movie for me, however.  One is its unflinching sincerity.  The movie truly cares about Naito and the ideas it's trying to juggle, even if it doesn't always handle these things gracefully.  The other is that it contains one of the most incredible endings I've ever seen of any movie.  There's a hilarious masterpiece of a scene at a train station toward the end, followed by the movie building toward an emotional climax that had me in tears.  While the ending doesn't perfectly resolve every weakness the movie had, it sends us off with such a grand finale that you forget about the parts that don't work.  To stick with the juggling metaphor, it's as if you were watching a juggler who dropped a couple pins here and there throughout their performance, but ended with a finale so grand and memorable that you don't even notice the pins on the ground.

While Wolf Children remains my favorite Hosoda film, Belle among my favorites of his because of how ambitious, sincere, and memorable it is, especially with its ending.  The music being great (at least in the Japanese version, I haven't watched the movie in English) doesn't hurt, either.

TV SHOW: Squid Game

It almost feels like a bit of a cop-out to choose this as my show of the year.  I mean, choosing the most-watched Netflix show of all time, the show that became a global phenomenon?  What a lazy choice!  What, am I gonna choose Nas as the best rapper of all time next, or Citizen Kane for my choice as best movie?

But some things are so good that they deserve the nod, even if it's ultimately a predictable pick.  And Squid Game really is that good.  Its characters, its themes, its pacing, its world-building, its ability to make you feel whatever it wants to make you feel in any given moment is remarkable.  It has the ability to pivot like a fleet-footed boxer between story beats and emotional tempos.  A lot of modern entertainment tries its best to balance comedy with drama, and often ends up executing in a way that undermines both.  Not this show, though.

A lot of things make Squid Game work, but one thing that comes to mind in particular is how everything here is in service of theme.  I think that's why so many of the jokes don't take away from the drama: you're never unaware of the stakes of the game or the ugliness of the world that brought them to that island.  Most of the jokes themselves are related to this fundamental threat, which makes the jokes less fun distractions and more gallows humor.  All of this also makes the genuine moments of sincerity and kindness in the show stand out all the more (RIP to my boy Ali).

The show isn't just fiction, either.  It's reflective of a real debt crisis that the people of South Korea face.  My friend Sam (who runs a podcast/community called Southpaw that everyone interested in the intersecton of martial arts, politics, and social commentary should check out) wrote a great article connecting Squid Game to Korean history and how that affects Korea in the present.  I'd highly, highly recommend it for anyone who wants to learn more about Korea.

MMA FIGHTER I'D LIKE TO SEE BOUNCE BACK: Weili Zhang

It was cool to see Zhang's combination of strength, attack volume, smart footwork, and clinch work bring her to the championship.  It's also always cool to see a fighter from a country that hasn't held a UFC championship before, in this case China, become champion.  On top of all that, she seems like a genuinely nice person with a willingness to learn- not just about martial arts, but about other cultures and people in general.

Rose Namajunas has always been a fan-favorite for her openness about her mental health struggles and general sense of well-meaning humility.  Leading to this fight, however, she began spouting off anti-Chinese and anti-communist talking points that made this fight seem like it was about more than just a contest between two worthy combatants.  It's not a huge surprise since the combat sports community is full of rightwing goofballs who spend their time blaming China for much of the US's problems, but it was a shame to see her help stoke the flames of racism that helped lead to waves of racist vitriol that Weili experienced in their two fights.

Ultimately, Rose scored an impressive knockout in their first fight.  Their rematch was an exciting, closely fought affair.  As much as I was rooting for Weili, the decision really could've gone either way.  Both fighters gave great accounts of themselves.  I just hope Rose can learn from her mistakes- which she probably won't, as she trains in a rightwing echo chamber where her beliefs will only be rooted in deeper and never challenged.  For Weili, I just wish her well in her fight career going forward. 

(2022 Note: as you can probably tell, this was one of the entries I wrote before this post was shelved.  It's nice to see that Weili has since gotten a win in 2022)

MMA MALE FIGHTER: Charles Oliveira

This spot could've gone to either Oliveira or Usman.  Since I went with Oliveira, I'll start by hyping up Usman as just as worthy for this spot.  He had three dominant title defenses, and has nearly cleaned out the welterweight division.  It seems pretty clear as of now that Colby Covington is the 2nd best welterweight in the world, and Usman has defeated him twice.  His wins against the well-rounded Gilbert Burns and crafty veteran Jorge Masvidal were also impressive.

Oliveira has, to put it midly, not cleared out the lightweight division.  It's a hard division to clear out considering how competitive it is.  What was amazing about Oliveira's wins, though, were how hard-fought, entertaining, and technical they were.  As a long time fan of the sport, it's wonderful to see a fighter with potential finally fully realize it and reach the top.  It doesn't hurt that his style is a great combination of technically sophisticated and exciting.

Oliveira always had good muay thai and jiu-jitsu, but he had serious weaknesses, too.  Wrestling was an obvious one, but even his striking had holes.  Though he had great technique when he attacked, he was also stiff and lacked fluidity.  He often didn't use any head movement at all, making it easy for him to get hit often even in fights where he was the "better" striker.  His grappling had always been great, but in modern MMA you need a good combination of striking and wrestling for that to really matter.

Oliveira has solved that puzzle.  He has become a much smoother striker while adding enough wrestling wrinkles to his game so that he can employ his elite jiu-jitsu skills.  After an incredibly thorough win against Tony Ferguson last year, this year he used his improved skill set to beat Michael Chandler for the lightweight belt and Dustin Poirier to earn his first defense.  Both fights were the right mix of exciting yet technical.  Either could've been my fight of the year choice if they had lasted a little longer.

I'm excited to see what he does in 2022.

MMA FEMALE FIGHTER: Julianna Peña

I was there when Amanda Nunes knocked out Cyborg in 2018.  Since then, Nunes had defended both the women's bantamweight and featherweight belts multiple times.  In doing so, she had defeated every former champion of both divisions.  She had become one of only three UFC champions to ever hold two championships at the same time, and the only one to ever defend both.  She is not only the greatest female fighter of all time in terms of accomplishments, but one of the best of all time regardless of gender.

Then Julianna beat her.

Since coming to the UFC, Julianna has only lost to two women, both of whom have been champion (former women's featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie and current women's flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko).  While Julianna only had one win after her fight with Germaine to get the title shot against Nunes, she made the most of the opportunity.  For beating the best female fighter of all time, she definitely deserves this spot in my eyes.

MMA FIGHT: Holloway vs Rodriguez

Who doesn't love a good MMA fight that has it all?  In this fight we saw punches, kicks, knees, elbows, takedowns, ground 'n pound, scrambles, and submission attempts.  This truly was a mixed martial arts fight.  It was made all the more impressive by the fact that few would have given Yair Rodriguez a chance against Max Holloway in normal circumstances, yet this wasn't even normal circumstances for him- it was after a two year layoff.  While Yair ended up losing, no one saw the fight being as competitive and impressive as it was.

Yair used his arsenal of smooth, quick kicks to help keep Max at bay, especially in the first round.  Most fighters are told by their coaches to put kicks at the end of their punching combinations.  You'll sometimes hear this referred to as "letting your hands open up your kicks [or legs]" as a way to tell fighters that throwing quick, precise punches can create openings for kicks with less risk of getting caught.  For Yair, however, his kicks are so good that he was doing the opposite: he was throwing wonderful kicks, and often using them to set up boxing combinations he would rarely throw otherwise.  While his punches aren't as polished as his kicks, throwing them after Max just finished dealing with his kicks allowed Yair to get off boxing combos that he wouldn't have been able to get off in a pure boxing match.

Yair also had some suprisingly good fight craft, too.  He was making good use of feints, footwork, head movement, and stance-switching.  What cost him the match, though, was that while he made good use of these things, Max made great use of them.  For example, with the stance-switching, Yair switched stances randomly throughout the bout.  Max, however, often switched stances in the middle of a striking combination, or after some other sort of movement that momentarily distracted from his stance-switch.  Switching stances is a great way to attack from different angles, but they work best when your opponent doesn't immediately realize what you've done.  Max incorporated his stance-switching with better finesse, making it so that it was harder to keep up with what he was doing.

This was true of the other aspects of fight craft I mentioned too, such as head movement.  Yair made a big show of dancing around punches as if trying to imitate a prime Anderson Silva or Pernell Whitaker, whereas Max moved his head just enough to get out of the way of incoming punches, allowing him to transition from dodging to offense more efficiently.  It's much easier to dodge and throw a punch when your head is only a little off-center, as opposed to swinging your head all over the place and ending up completely out of attack position.  It was the combination of all these nuances of Max's game and his unreal volume (which comes from his incredible cardio) that helped him win the fight.  The fact he also started mixing in takedowns was cool to see, too.  Yair, for his part, showed suprising ability off his back.  His submission attempts never seemed too serious, and he had an odd habit of giving his back to Max whenever Max got top side control, but he generally gave a good account of himself the way he moved.

Overall, this fight had it all- good fight craft, good entertainment value, and good attack variety.  While there were other good contenders for fight of the year (Gaethje vs Chandler and Ponzinibbio vs Baeza come to mind), this was the one that balanced all three of those things the best to me.  As a student of the game myself, there's nothing more I love to see in a fight.

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: Humans Shaping Global Ecosystems

Until incredibly recently the view of modern scientists, both physical and social, was that the natural world had been largely untouched before the rise of industrial society.  People who lived off the land cultivated their crops, of course, but otherwise generally left the natural world as it was.  For us in the present, it just seems like common sense.

That view has been brought into question in recent years, though.  Some scientists, once again both physical and social, have revealed that our previous assumptions were based on our modern biased view.  As people who live outside of nature thanks to the rise of cities, we think of "modifying" nature to mean replacing it with urban infrastructure, or at least using modern industrial equipment to modify it.  But that's not the only way to modify nature.

More and more literature has come out in the past decade or two about how humans have been modifying their ecosystems well before the rise of industrialization and mechanized cities.  The book "1491" by Charles Mann, for example, makes the argument that Indigenous societies were far more complex than we give them credit for since they were complex in ways European settlers didn't understand.  A large part of his argument rests on the then-new evidence that Indigenous people all over the Western Hemisphere had used sophisticated land management techniques to modify their environments to make them more bountiful.

A new paper this year, put forward by a combination of anthropologists, ecologists, and other such environmental scientists, showed this idea to not only be true, but apply on a much wider scale.  Long story short, it shows that humans have been shaping the majority of global ecosystems for at least the past 12,000 years.

The study not only is important for the sake of understanding the human story better.  It also gives us insight as to how we might better take care of the planet by showing us previous land management techniques that helped preserve the environment far better than mass industrial agriculture.  To quote one of the authors of the study, Dr Erle Ellis: "there is very little scientific basis for conservation and restoration that does not involve Indigenous or traditional management."

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT: James Webb Space Telescope

Yes, the vaccine rollout should be the story here.  The problem is that, if I talked about the impressive vaccine rollout, I'd also feel obligated to talk about how the refusal of the pharmaceutical companies to remove their patents so that other places around the world could begin mass production of the vaccine has helped lead to all the covid variants we're experiencing now.  My original vision for these science categories is to be more hopeful and positive, though, so I figured I'd go with this one.

MEME: Suez Canal Ship

Is it just me, or did this seem like the only time everyone on the internet was happy this year?

PHOTO: Haitian Refugees

It must be said: the way liberals have gone silent about our country's cruel treatment of immigrants and refugees now that President Biden is in office is truly unnerving.  This picture of a Border Patrol agent attacking Haitian refugees back in September contains some unpleasant visual echos to slavery, and in a more immediate sense gives a stark portrait of what our immigration system looks like.  It has looked this way under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

BADASS: Striking Workers & Labor Organziers

The last few years have been tough for workers.  Hell, the last few decades have.  Wages have stagnated while almost every workplace is short-staffed, and the stability that comes with a 9-5 is increasingly a thing of the past.  During that time, organized labor has been decimated- and often, sectors that are still unionized are led by unions that focus only on not rocking the boat and occasionally asking the Democratic Party for scraps.

But since the mid-10s, there has been a slow resurgence of worker activity.  It hasn't been much compared to other places, or even the US before the last few decades, but it was something.  Now those small whispers have become something of an ember.  Strikes are increasing, union drives are making a comeback, and public opinion of unions is ever-rising.  Even now, things still aren't even close to where they were during the heyday of US labor.  But trends are reversing thanks to the work of people on the ground who are sick of the bosses' greed and starting to discover their own power.  It is we who make the profits, after all.

One of the biggest stories of this last year is the victory of the Amazon Labor Union in unionizing an Amazon warehouse.  It was an incredible upset.  A real David vs Goliath story (I know it's become fashionable to talk about how "David vs Goliath wasn't actually that lopsided, but for now let's just pretend it was for the sake of making a point).  Such examples of workers defying the odds truly do give hope in an otherwise mostly bleak political landscape.  For that reason, workers are my choice for basass of the year.

If you're interested in further reading, here is a good write up about the 2021 labor movement as a whole, and here is a list of the 16 biggest strikes of 2021.