Jesse's Top Five Films Of 2025

I run down my favorite films that I watched in 2025! I would love to hear what your favorite movies are, let me know!

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Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser

Chapters

• 0:05 Solo Setup And Format
• 0:48 Honorable Mentions Begin
• 2:48 Wake Up Dead Man Breakdown
• 4:48 Weapons And Its Fairy-Tale Darkness
• 8:16 28 Years Later Impressions
• 10:19 Number Five: Begonia
• 15:08 Begonia Themes And Plot Beats
• 19:39 Number Four: Friendship
• 23:41 Number Three: Eddington

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:05

Hello and welcome to a special episode of the We Recommend Podcast, a movie podcast where every week we recommend a movie for you to watch, and then come back here and listen to us discuss. And I'm Jesse, and today I'll be doing my top five movies of 2025. So I wanted we were gonna take a break for a week, but I still wanted to release an episode. And this was supposed to be me and Dakota doing this, but he was not able to make it because of issues in his apartment and maintenance coming over, and he couldn't get away from his house. So it would just be me doing my top five movies of 2025. Let's get started. Alright, so first we're gonna start off with my honorable mentions, movies that just didn't make my top five list. So first I got Wake Up Dead Man, and honestly, it was my number five spot until the very last day of 2025 before I watched the movie that will be my number five movie. Um, Wake Up Dead Man, we've talked about Knives Out. You know I love it. I love Ryan Johnson, he's a great director. I love the Who Done It's and I think Wake Up Dead Man is a great addition, is probably it's better than Glass Onion, but not quite there as much as Knives Out. But man, I just watching it. Um, the two top actors, you know, Daniel Craig and and Josh O'Connor, they both uh freaking crush it, you know what I mean? Um, and then also Josh Brolin, who's just like angry the whole time. I will say it does have like an uh ensemble cast, but I think it this might be the least used of the ensemble cast of the three knives outs. Um and you know, I think it it kind of shows, like whenever you're going through it, that doesn't really dive deep enough into or maybe it's just like they're not as likable, or it just I don't know. We don't get to spend as much time with the ensemble cast as I would like to. Um, you mainly just spend it with Daniel Craig and Josh O'Connor and then kind of Josh Berlin and Glenn Close the most. I mean, you have Mila Kunis who's kind of always there, but she's not really a character. She's just kind of like, hey, I it's kind of like the Lakeith Stanfield character in Knives Out. It doesn't really have much to do. But I mean, everybody kind of has like their little moments, but it's nothing really that special. And I think that kind of holds back the movie a little bit, but um, well written, well directed, well acted. Ugh, it's just like whenever I was watching it, I was just like, man, this the these movies are just like warm blankets on a cold day, you know. I don't know. Whatever, right? It's just, I don't know. I really enjoy them. And so I have three honorable mentions. My second one is weapons, Zach Craig's second feature. Um, I love this. It's kind of like a dark fairy tale. It's uh just from the opening. Um, and if you've seen the movie, the opening is fantastic where with all the kids running out, and it's kind of like this almost like storybook narration by this little kid. Um, I think this movie is great. It's uh very well directed, very well acted. Um, Josh Brolin, and oh man, like honestly, this is kind of like the ensemble and cast on this is kind of how I wish that Wake Up Dead Man went a little bit. Um, because like Julia Gardner, Josh Brolin, Alden Aaron Reich. I can't believe I messed up that name. His name is so easy to do. Um, who, by the way, it's like, come on, we need a resurgence of him because solo kind of ruined his career, and he's a really great actor. Just go back and watch uh Hell Caesar. He's so good in that movie, and he's really good in this. But really, I think like Austin Abrams, who plays James, like the junkie, uh, really stands out in this movie the most. But I just think it's like a fun, like mystery. It's almost feels like it feels like a book adaptation almost. And um, but yeah, just kind of like the uh, you know, like the town kind of turning on this teacher and then it spiraling out into being, um, I guess I really won't go into too much, but I thought it was really well, spoiler. It turns out it's a witch situation, which is great. Who doesn't love a witch situation, right? Um, but I I just love the way that he like, you know, rolls out the story. It's it's very interesting to me. It's very exciting for me as I was going, and I could not wait for it to get to the end, which has a great, hilarious, awesome ending. It was, I mean, it was it's like you laugh at the end, and it's great. It's just so funny. Um, but also kind of terrifying, but and also kind of everything that you want. I love it. And then for my third honorable mention, I actually went out, went with 28 years later. 28 Days Later is one of my favorite zombie movies, obviously. Um, it that the very first one is a masterpiece of horror filmmaking. And I thought, this isn't quite the same, but damn, it was weird, it was great. The visually, like I, you know, you wanted to use an iPhone. Everybody's just like, hey, we have to figure out how to make cinematic movies with iPhones, and that's just the era we're in. We're in. Danny Boyle loves to do it, apparently. And honestly, it worked. There are a lot of visuals that were really great in this movie. Um, the weird kind of like I don't even know exactly what you call it, like the kind of pan, which I'm sure they it was kind of probably done like they did The Matrix, where you had like cameras all around and it's like kind of went frame to frame around the cameras. But I there's just a part in this movie that I did not expect, and I think it absolutely was so smart. It's like, you know, it's a movie about violence, you got the rage virus, everybody's coming down on these people. Um, but then there's like this moment of just like dealing with death and grief and honoring the people that we lose. And it's kind of beautiful as fuck, dude. It's insane, it gets very emotional. Ugh. And just I don't know. It's just Aaron Taylor Johnson's great, Ralph Fines is great. Little kid was I don't know. Usually I was kind of it was honestly one of the first things that um as soon as I saw that it was gonna be like, oh no, we're we're doing it, we're doing where we're just hanging out with a kid. I was uh yeah, not really looking forward to that, but I don't know. By the end it sold me. And then also it's got such a wacky little ending, and I can't wait for like the next two movies that they're doing. And yeah, that's gonna round out my my honorable mentions. All right, so let's hop into the top 25. My number five movie of the year is begonia, baby. So I this was one that I watched literally December 31st, right before the new year. Wanted to get it in because I love Yorgos Lath the most. Um, and it was kind of wild. Um, it honestly might be my favorite visual movie, or not visually, because I think that goes to another one. But the camera work in this movie is, I think, is probably my favorite of all of it. It's just his I don't know, the way he used the pan, the wide angle lenses, just like all the bicycle rides. Like, I don't know. When I watched it, it doesn't seem any different from more like I live in Tennessee, you know, just some like country backroads and shit. But I don't know, the way he filmed it was so beautiful. I love it, like had a more realistic like color like correction and stuff like that. Um, but kind of had everything I love in a movie, conspiracy, but it kind of had a deeper meaning, a fun and exciting twist. It's also just so damn weird, man. It might be my and might be my favorite ending. I don't know. The ending is so weird. I love it. It's hilarious. And it kind of goes with like a lot of things where everything kind of ends perfectly this year. I don't know. I think like everything this year had a perfect ending uh out of the movies that I watched that I really liked. I think that was something like with these movies that really got to me is that all these endings are great. Um, but yeah, and I just begonia has like it's so funny, but it's a thriller and it's kind of intense, and you're very worried for Emma Stone's character because Jesse Plemens, who seems like a perfectly nice guy in the real world, um, absolutely scares the shit out of me in movies, and it's wild. But I don't know. It had the perfect mix of I don't know, um, suspense and comedy, and then just you Yorgos just did a weird ass thing that he just he does in all his movies, and it's just weird, and it's just good, and weird and good is good. But yeah, I don't I don't know really how I wanted to talk about all this because it would be spoiler. But yeah, like I don't want to spoil really the movies, but I will give you like a small like plot synopsis. So Bagoni is two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company convinced that she's an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. Um, and I will say, with where it goes, it maybe kind of towards the end, like one before we're getting to like the big twist, it really just kind of bang, bang, bang, bang, like happens really fast and maybe a little too fast. Otherwise, it would be like kind of uh higher on my list, potentially. There was this kind of a part where I'm like, so why is why is Jesse Plummon's character just going full throttle and believing everything Immastone's character says all of a sudden? But actually, now thinking about it, I kind of totally understand. So I don't know, you'll just have to watch the movie and let me know what you think by going in the link of the description and letting me know what you think of begonia and what your top 25, top five to 2025 movies are. Jesus Christ. All right, um, Yoros Lathamos. Holy shit, he's a great director. We did a movie of his before it was The Killing of a Sacred Deer. I love my weird ass little director guy. Um, so yeah, Begonia, number five. And my number four movie we've already covered on the podcast, it's Friendship, baby. It's kind of wild. Wouldn't think that a movie like Friendship would be like one of my favorite movies of the year because it's just kind of like a simple little weird, cringy, just like buddy movie that's not really a buddy movie. It's kind of just like just a socially awkward guy, just cannot make friends. But um, Tim Robinson, he gets me. Uh, don't know what he does, don't know how to explain it. All I know is he makes me laugh, and it's great. And there's like some moments in this movie where it actually makes you feel something, which is kind of wild if you think, watch, I think you should leave. It's you wouldn't really think that Tim Robinson's would be able to convey stuff like that, but somehow his weird, wacky comedy also can lead me to feel pain and sadness. Um, and Andrew DeYoung is the director and writer. Um, definitely gonna have to keep an eye on this guy because uh he's also doing the chair company, which I think is very funny. Still have not finished it, but I eventually will. But I mean, just like in the same year of having like friendship in uh the chair company, I mean, holy shit, like please keep doing stuff, my guy. And yeah, Tim Robinson is king, and everything he does cracks me up. So that is friendship. If you want a little bit more on it, you can go to our episode that we did a couple months ago. All right, so our third move, my third movie. Um, so you know I'm a big Ari Astor guy. Kind of love everything that he does so far, and Eddington is no different. It is my third favorite movie of the year. It's kind of a weird, wacky one, of course. Um very much so it's like a movie set during, you know, kind of pandemic times when everybody was wearing masks and everybody has like this social unrest. So it's kind of about the political things we were going through then, and then also how like the internet was shaping our brains around the time, and how we kind of all disbelieved everything that we read, and we feel like things are being taken away from us that honestly really weren't. Um, you know, we just had to like get through something, and then it'd all been fine again. And this is kind of a movie about that, but except, you know, someone goes insane a little bit during it and is being completely manipulated the whole time, and the entire town gets manipulated. Um, because it's about uh Walking Phoenix, fantastic, one of my favorite performances of the year. Walking Phoenix is one of my favorite actors ever, of course, because he's just so damn good at it. And he's like a sheriff who's just tired of putting up with this one mayor that he doesn't like, uh, played by Pedro Pascal, who does a great job, doesn't have as much to do as Walking Phoenix. Walking Phoenix is the sheriff, he's tired of Pedro Pascal's shit, and just kind of loses it. Um there's a lot of action in it, and it's really great. Aryaster is becoming really good at doing action, just from going from Bo is Afraid to now doing like straight up gunfights in this movie. Um, also just kind of love the messaging towards the end. Um, a little bit of spoilers, but it's just like it's essentially a movie about us being torn apart by the internet and uh, you know, um mysterious powers that we don't really understand because, you know, we're just normal ass fucking people. And of course, there's like rich people or whatever uh just trying to make AI buildings and stuff so that they can continue misinformation, right? It's kind of the whole point of the movie. Um, and it's absolutely fantastic. Um, but yeah, it's very fun and it kind of holds a mirror to society, and you have to discern it, and I don't know, you have to find out if you like it or not. It's like hope that maybe you're not one of the characters in the movie because they're not really good characters to be. But yeah, Eddington, my number three movie of the year. These the next two are very difficult, right? It could be any day of the week, and I could flip the two. But really, what came down to was what movie had a scene that just absolutely made me ecstatic, right? So that's where I put my number one. But this one could have been my number one, and it might be. It's tough to pick. But um one battle after another, holy shit. Watched it a couple weeks ago. You know, I heard it was probably the best movie of the year, you know, kind of even going in with all that hype on the movie. It's just like by the end of the movie, I turned to my wife and I was like, Did you like the movie? And she said, Yeah. And it's like, did you? And I was like, it was electric. Like, I don't know really how to explain it. I mean, it's Paul Thomas Anderson. He did There Will Be Blood. Have you heard of it? Um, Punch Dunk Love, and Geez, Licorice Pizza Pizza. I can never say just pizza, Phantom Thread. Still haven't seen Phantom Thread. I need to. Um, and I recommended a movie that actually would kind of pair well with one battle after another. It's called Inherent Vice, and it was a Thomas Pynchon novel, and he kind of based one battle after another off a Thomas Pynchon novel, which is kind of great, and I can't wait to listen or read that Thomas Pynchon novel. But um, so it's kind of about a movie where you have some uh Leonardo DiCaprio's character, 16 years before the main story of this movie takes place, was a revolutionist, right? Who's fighting, you know, freedom is mainly it's just seemed more about immigration. He was just letting people out of cages, which is great. Um, and then, you know, like his girl at the time just kind of rats on people and stuff, and it's just like that kind of leads for the whole plot of it. Um, but Leo, this actually might be my it's tough. It's never been like the biggest Leonardo DiCapri fan. I've never just been like, oh yeah, I mean, he's amazing. It's just I've always been like, he's good, but like I just don't really see him. Kind of does mostly the same stuff all the time. But here lately completely changed my opinion on him, especially it kind of started with once upon a time in Hollywood. I was just like, oh shit, he's hilarious. And he kind of like I his Wayne range widened a little bit, right? He didn't, he doesn't feel like he's always just trying so hard now. Um, and one battle after another might be my favorite um role of his. He's hilarious through it, he's believable as a dad. He's kind of hitting that era where it's like, oh, he's not just like overly handsome and now he can play more than just like I have to comb my hair back and be charming. Like that's usually what most of his roles were. And now he's kind of hit that point where he can do multiple things very well. He can still be handsome, he can also be a stoner and whatever. But he's he's hilarious in this movie. Um, Sean Penn. Wow. Absolutely crushed it. Honestly, probably the best performance of the entire movie. He is insane and hilarious. Um Nincio del Toro crushes it and Chase Infinite Infinity? Chase Infinity Um is kind of like the person that's getting uh chased after because it's about how a someone from their past is trying to catch up to him and will essentially eliminate uh Willa and Bob. Yeah, so it's about Bob and Willa, a father and his child running from Sean Penn is essentially what the movie is. Um the movie's hilarious. I think it probably is the best written and directed movie of the year. Um, it was just kind of for me the reason why it's not number one is it's kind of missing that a scene or two that just like you know gave me the chills and tingles. But as a whole, I think it's probably the best movie, one of the best movies of the year. It's just tough. It's really hard. You know, top five is supposed to be just like, hey, here's five really good movies, right? Um, and well, here's five good movies, and my one and two are just both really good movies that should be one or two, and you could switch them day to day. Um, but yeah. You know, I think it w it's fun, it's tense, and it's overall a blast. And I think like if it if a movie about revolution kind of makes you want to revolt, then I think it's a successful movie. Um, it just I don't know, just shot a bolt of lightning in my butt. I don't know. All right, so shot a bolt of lightning right through me. So we're gonna hit up our next movie, and we just recently covered it. It's probably no surprise. I picked Ryan Kugler's, I don't know, masterpiece. Nah, I use masterpiece too long too much. It it's not a masterpiece, but it's fantastic. I pick centers. It's just it's a tough one between centers in one battle battle at another, but for me, there the two scene this the two scenes, you know, with Preacher Boy in there uh summoning his ancestors and then Rocky Road to Dublin. I mean, those two scenes for me it they were the scenes of the year, and uh I just don't uh and the movie kind of moved me in a lot of ways. And I don't know, it kind of makes you think about stuff, right? And because of that, I had to put it number one. I just like out of all movies this year, whenever I think about my theater experience, and I didn't really go watch a lot of movies in theaters. And maybe if I watch one battle after another, maybe these two would be switched. But yeah, like watching centers in theater, the sound, uh, the bass, just the music in it, it's fantastic. I d we just kind of just discussed it. So if you want to listen to me, Dakota, Jason, and Devin talk about centers, we got a two-hour fucking podcast for you, baby, and it's great and it's hilarious. Um and honestly, like it has probably it's tough. It's probably my favorite villain of the year. Um, with Jack O'Connell playing Rimic Semi uh is now something that me and my wife say constantly, and it's fantastic. So that is my top five movies of the year. I know it's just gonna be a short podcast, but I just wanted to kind of get something out. Just celebrating movies for the end of the year. Um but yeah, those are my top 25 movies of the year. I kind of think a lot of the movies had like were obviously kind of pointing toward something. I think a lot of the movies this year were about like social unrest and like kind of a search for our happiness. Like sinners, they just want to be free from all the bullshit, like the bullshit world outside. Bagonia kind of gives you the idea that we can force the world to be a happy place by taking out the evil, but maybe we're the problem. Kind of see where this is going. One battle after another, we're just gonna like change. Like, we just want to change the world from like rage, racist and rich people who sit in rooms and think of shitty ways to make everybody's life miserable. And eventually it's gonna come for you, right? She kind of got a theme here. Eddington's kind of about a team with two people's ideas of what they think their town should be, but really it's just being torn apart in social media by social media and you know, a mysterious figure from outside of where you're from that just has so much sway on your town or your life. Do you know where we're going here? Friendship's a little different because friendship's just about a guy who just needs a friend, but can't get out of his own way. And his life is miserable because he doesn't have a friend and someone to talk to. And, you know, just like sharing company, which is, you know, if we all had that, maybe we wouldn't have to worry about a lot of different things, right? I don't know. This is kind of what I guess I kind of saw from the movies this year. What did you see from the movies? What do you think the point of movies of 2025 is? I would absolutely love to hear from you. So if you're watching on YouTube, leave a link, leave a comment at the bottom. Also like and subscribe if we don't mind. Um, we actually recently had something from I shouldn't decide. I don't know. We had her one recently. I can't read. I'm sorry, I don't know what it is. But uh they're commenting about how you know Jason said that the before sunset trilogy is a um fucking Hallmark movie. Well, the person said on YouTube, uh before sunset trilogy are a dialogue-driven series. It's not a chick flick. The Ethan Hawk character has a lot going on. Also, the two actors collaborated with Link later on the script. So there's so much more natural banter happening. Definitely not a Hallmark movie. Love the second one in Paris. Um, and then I replied to them. Yeah, I don't know why Jason said that. I've only seen clips from the movies, and they are definitely not Hallmark movies. Next criterion, Sil. I'm definitely picking up the trilogy. Thank you for listening. Um, so yeah, if you want us to shout you out and read your comments on the podcast, uh, I promise I will. But yeah, uh, and if you are listening on our like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, there's a link at the top of the description. If you're on a platform that'll allow you to click it, you can just text us from your own phone. And uh just let me know what your top five movies of the year are. I'd love to hear it and uh give me your reason why. And maybe on the next episode, I'll uh read them out loud. Um, but yeah, so like and subscribe. Make sure you join us next week. It'll be me and Jason back in the podcast lab. I hate that I said that. Um, where we'll be doing Dante's Peak. I'm so excited to do it because we're it's our month. We're doing four straight weeks of movies that are like other movies. So we're doing Dante's Peak and then Volcano, released the same year, because studios just are like, hey, that's a good idea. We're also gonna do it real quick. And then we're gonna do Armageddon, Deep Impact. So excited to do it. It's gonna be fun comparing the two of the movies that are the same to each other. It's gonna be very fun. So join us next week for Dante's Peak. I absolutely love that movie. Watched it for the first time last year. It was great. Um, so yeah, join us for that. I'd like to thank Joey Prosser for our intro and outro music. You can follow on X at Mr. Joey Prosser. And this has been the We Recommend Podcast solo episode. I've been Jesse. And remember, something out there is coming for us. Bye.