all the movies that I watched on 2025 | Movies Talk

Hello, everyone! And welcome back to another Movie Talk. It's August the time I'm writing this, and the reason that I start to write in August is because I watched A LOT of movies this year, due to stress and I tend to overconsume media when I'm stressed and here we are.  So to make my work easier and lighter, I'm only gonna talk about the movies that I watched for the first time this year. Also apologies if I don't go as deep as I usually am in this post, because, as I said earlier, I overconsumed media, so some of the movies blurred into one in my head but I'll try to give as detailed informations as I can. Without further ado, let's go to the first movie.

DISCLAIMER : Spoiler alert for all of the movies mentioned in this post.

1. You've Got Mail

Okay, I cheated. I did say that I'm only gonna talk about the movies that I watched for the first time yet it was a rewatch for this one but it's fine since it's one of my all-time favorite romcoms, it's been a while since I last watched it, and it's my blog so, I vetoed my rule for this one. You've Got Mail is a classic enemies-to-lovers story set in New York between Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan), the owner of an independent children bookstore "Shop Around the Corner" and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), the son of the owner of a book retail store "Fox Books" with some internet love involved with the rising of AOL at the time. I love this movie, a lot, as I said earlier, it's a favorite of mine. But before we're talking about the storyline and the characters, I'm gonna talk about the setting of the movie, which is late 90s New York in late autumn. The aesthetic of New York in this movie is the New York of my dreams, like if someone asked me to imagine "New York", I'll always imagine New York in You've Got Mail. It's cool and warm at the same time. I love the interior look of the buildings in the movie, especially Kathleen's store and her townhouse apartment. I've always wanted to live in a New York townhouse apartment, and yes I know it seems ridiculous and too far away but it's always been a dream of mine (also I feel like, You've Got Mail is the exact reason why I have that dream in the first place). The layout of her apartment is a bit questionable for me, but it's fine, it's still a perfect apartment layout for someone who lives alone, also in this economy and housing market? I'll take it honestly, gladly. Now for the story, as I said earlier this is one of my all-time favorite romcoms so it's always a delight to go back and look at Kathleen and Joe's story. The combination of enemies-to-lovers and secret identities made the story even more exciting. Also what I love about the enemies-to-lovers aspect in this story is that they both DESPISED each other and not just a one-sided hate, at least before Joe found out that Kathleen is the person he's been chatting on AOL, though the fact that he stood her up because he's scared of what's gonna happen after the date when he found out who she was, is still not good. At the start of the movie, both Kathleen and Joe are in their own relationships and most of the time the break-up part was the hardest part to watch for me especially if their previous partners were loving and caring, but with You've Got Mail, it wasn't hard for me to watch because both Joe's girlfriend and Kathleen's boyfriend weren't emotionally fulfilling to Joe and Kathleen and I felt like Joe and Kathleen also didn't like them as much. And kudos for minimalizing cheating in the story and had Joe and Kathleen's story progressed after they both broke up with their respective partners. The progress from enemies-to-lovers was so smooth that you didn't realize Joe was making a "what if" scenario between them, like what if they weren't feuding over their bookstores, the fight and argument that they had would only be about what dinner they'll be having or what movie they're watching on the evening. And then come the scene of Kathleen finding out that Joe was the man she's been chatting on AOL was so beautiful. "I wanted it so bad to be you" feeds generations, and I'm serious about it. This movie still held its place in my top 3 favorite romcoms of all time and it's also kind of similar to another movie that I'll be mentioning here or in another post.

Letterboxd rating : 4.5/5

2. Two Weeks Notice

So underrated, yet so fucking good. Imagine a movie with the king of 90s-2000s romcoms, Hugh Grant and the queen of romcoms from the same era, Sandra Bullock with New York setting and it's an office romance??? My mind was blown by how underrated this movie is. Sandra Bullock played a lawyer represented by a legal aid, specialized in historic preservation, environmental law, named Lucy Kelson seeked for help so that the recreation center that she frequented often ever since she was a kid from the enemy aka the millionaire real estate agent, George Wade (played by Hugh Grant ofc) who wanted to demolish that rec center by influencing him how important that rec center is for the community around them. But since George was basically a himbo Nepo baby, he thought Lucy was applying for a job in his company, and Lucy thought that maybe she should accept the job as a corporate lawyer in George's company to influence him even more in the job but in the end, she was more of a PA for George than a corporate lawyer for a little over a year. Feeling like she started losing her idealist self in the corporate rhythm, she decided to resign and it disrupted George because the man truly could not function without Lucy, down to which tie he should be wearing on a night out. George didn't want to let her go at first but Lucy promised to find a replacement for her in the two weeks period from her resign notice to her offically resigning. Lucy did find a replacement but during her training period, she slowly realized she also didn't want to let George go. I feel like this movie hit all the checklist of what I deemed as a perfect romcoms and it pisses me off so much that not a lot of people are talking about this movie. NYC setting? Himbo x Intelligent female lead? Great acting? Playful banter? Confession turned to jealousy and heartbreak? A sweet redemption and confession from the male lead? They got it all. Though I was jump scared by a cameo from a certain man who was indicted yet still became the president of a certain country so maybe that's why a lot of people don't talk about this movie. But if we put that aside, still a very enjoyable movie to watch. My favorite scene is of course when Lucy and George was stuck in a traffic jam but Lucy had to go to the bathroom so George carried her, no, not in a bridal style, but how you would carry a sack of something, to the nearest mobile home in the traffic. Like that scene honestly summed up their dynamic. Of course as a certified angst, hurt/comfort enjoyer, I also like the scene of Lucy visiting George's apartment after a function they attended together to confess her feelings but only to find her replacement and junior in college, June, also there with George in a state of undress.To me, Lucy in that scene, was disappointed because she thought June wouldn't gonna be George's previous employees but she was also heartbroken and I think felt stupid because she thought she had a chance with George. This was also kind of confirmed with the fact that Lucy's best friend mentioned that this was the second time she saw Lucy crying. Like, I get her, I can see myself in her in that scene, I would also be crying if I were in that situation. But of course the movie was wrapped up with a redemption scene of George cancelling the demolition of the rec center and him visiting Lucy at work (she's already back working at the legal aid office), wanting to say he's sorry and confessing his feelings for her through a written speech, with Lucy just standing there and then started to correct his speech grammatically the way she used to do with his speeches, and they kissed in the middle of a sidewalk in NYC. This section of the post is basically me telling you to watch the movie.

Letterboxd rating : 4.5/5

3. Sleepless in Seattle

I watched this movie because I really liked Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail, also because I've heard great things about this movie. But then it left me a little bit disappointed after finishing it. Because I feel like You've Got Mail is the better Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan collab in my opinion. The story just makes more sense to me. But of course, this romcom is one of the most legendary one and I can see why. The story was Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks)'s son, Jonah called a radio and told the announcer how his dad had been feeling miserable because his mom (Sam's wife) passed away and then Sam told the story himself on the radio and it caught the attention of Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) who was listening to the radio and the rest of the movie is basically Annie reaching out to Sam and Jonah trying to make them get together. Then there's a whole plot where Annie went to Seattle to try to meet Sam and Jonah, that got me like, "uh this is borderline stalker behavior" but maybe I'm that one friend who's too woke. I do like the graphic? frame? scenes? in the movie when it showed where the characters are. I think that's really smart. Also I didn't expect for them to meet at the very end of the movie, but I feel like it's better that way. I don't wanna know what happened after. It's a sweet movie, good premise, but I don't really feel the chemistry between Sam and Annie.

Letterboxd rating : 4/5

4. Sense and Sensibility

This is gonna be one of those movies in this post that I don't remember a lot happening, but I know I was having a miserable time watching it. Okay, let me try to write what I can remember about the story, so the main characters of the movie are The Dashwood Sisters, Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet), who I think each of them represented the two words in the title when it came to love. Marianne, the younger sister, represented the "Sense" part of the title, because she approached love with a lot of, well, sense, she's all about the feels, she wanted that dramatic, whirlwind, grand gesture romance. I think in the beginning of the movie, she was all about, "if he doesn't love me so greatly, then I don't want it". Then we have Elinor, who represented the sensibility part of the title when it comes to love. She only thought of love as a form of safety, she didn't need those romantic gestures. She was like, "if this relationship doesn't bring security, settlement for me and everyone else around me, then I don't want it". It showed when they both began their romantic arc. Marianne was out in the what about to be a storm, and when she was about to run home (I think), she fell and sprained her ankle and a gentleman riding a horse was the one who saved her and brought her home. Then after that, this man (who I genuinely forgot the name of) started to sort of courting Marianne and Marianne thought they were gonna get married and all, and this thing didn't sit right with Elinor who was all about being sensible. Elinor, on the other hand, began talking romantically with Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant, yes, he's back). It was a very calm and quiet, romance compared to Marianne's. Elinor and Edward were literally just going on walks, meeting in somewhat public yet also pretty secluded places, but there was no talks about marriage. In fact, I think Edward was about to go study in London and he parted with Elinor. And not long after that Elinor found out that Edward's been engaged for five years with another woman, though secretly and apparently one-sided(?). But during the time Elinor was already heartbroken and her way of showing how hurt she was, was not showing it? No one knew why Elinor was a bit sad and she didn't tell anyone about it. Meanwhile, when Marianne found out the man that he was courting was already married to someone else, impregnated this woman, left her to die during childbirth, and now already married again with someone else for their fortune, she had a fever that almost killed her. But then again, I feel like the level of Marianne and Elinor's respective problems were very different. So made sense that they had very drastically different reactions. But during this climax, we also can see how Marianne got more sensible with love, and how Elinor got to use her senses for love. During this time, Elinor made a friend in Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), this was also how she found out about the man that courted Marianne. I really thought they were gonna be endgame, but alas, Colonel Brandon fell in love with Marianne along the way and nursed her until she was healthy. While Elinor? Edward came to her house and told everything about his engagement being one-sided and  how he already dissolved the engagement and how much he would like to marry Elinor, all that in front of her mother. So at the end of the day, Elinor got her "Sense" kind of romance and Marianne got her "Sensible" kind of romance. Though what I don't like about this movie is THE MEN. The bad one is just, well bad, and the rest of them didn't know how to communicate, yes I'm looking at you Edward Ferrars. Don't treat women as your lover when you have no intention to make her one, especially if you're already in a relationship. Like, end your previous relationship first, then pursue another girl. Can't believe a book written in 1811, is still relevant today to reflect the current state of relaionships. Oh wow, watch me lying to myself, saying that I didn't remember anything about the movie yet I still yap about it.

Letterboxd rating : 3.5/5

Okay, I have to tell you. I've tried to write this post for at least three times and it's hard for me because I watched soooooo many movies this year and most of them are in the first half of the year and I barely remember the story because some of them I watched it almost a year ago. So what I'm gonna do, is I will just write the Letterboxd rating for the movies that I don't remember much about, and for the movies that I remember the story and why I like/dislike it, I will give as best of an explanation as I can toward the end of the post.

5. The Silence of the Lambs

Letterboxd Rating : 4.5/5

6. The Conjuring : The Devil Made Me Do It

Letterboxd rating : 3/5

7. Made of Honour

I don't remember a lot of this movie but I remember frowning at some specific scenes because of how bad it was.

Letterboxd rating : 2.5/5

8. The Da Vinci Code

Letterboxd rating : 3.5/5

9. The Monkey

Weird. WEIRD movie, but Theo James is always a good time.

Letterboxd rating : 3.5/5

10. Resident Evil : Death Island

Cleon forever!!!!

Letterboxd rating: 3/5

11. Clueless

Finally watched this movie, and I gotta say, not my favorite.

Letterboxd rating : 3.5/5

12. Stardust

Letterboxd rating : 3.5/5

13. While You Were Sleeping

Letterboxd rating : 4/5

14. Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning

The movie itself was good, it was a delight to watch at the cinema. I mean, if you know Tom Cruise and his work, you would've known that he produces movies that is for the theatrical experience. But the romance subplot was so unnecessary. 

Letterboxd rating : 4/5

15. Beauty and the Beast (The French Version)

Beautiful costume, beautiful world aesthetic, but where did the pacing go? 

Letterboxd rating : 3/5

16. X-Men : Dark Phoenix

Charles didn't die here but with his character being ASSASINATED, I kinda wish he were instead.

Letterboxd rating : 2.5/5

17. Weapons

This was a campy horror movie that I feel like best enjoyed when you go in blind, because that's what I did, and I really enjoyed my experience watching this in the cinema

Letterboxd rating : 4.5/5

Now let's go to the movie where I will yap about, and the latest one that's here was released on December 2025 but I have a lot to say about that one so I will include it here.

Identity

To keep it short, this movie tells the story of a group of people who you would never thought would have met in the same place, got stuck in a motel during a storm when they realized that there's a murderer between them and they have to guess who it was. This movie was, holy crap, it was plot twist after plot twist. When I realized what the plot twist was, I felt like my mind was blown and I needed to pause the movie for a bit and let it sink in. But I knew it was coming because I did look up "movies with plot twists" on Letterboxd last year but the form of the plot twists themselves were insane. This movie is more on the underrated side, so I feel like you need to give it a watch if you want to watch a psychological thriller with waves of plot twists.

Letterboxd rating : 4.5/5

Nosferatu (2024)

Nosferatu tells the story of a woman named Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) who prayed to "anyone else" out there to bring someone to accompany her because she was lonely, but who came to her was a vampire named Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) instead, so he always came to her in the raunchiest, most vulgar dreams that would follow her even more intensely when she got married to a, what I would assume 19th century real estate agent, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), who got a really weird client that he had to attend to. I don't know if I managed to describe the movie well but I feel like you'd now the gist of it once you start the movie, which I feel like, the opening was the best part of the movie but I couldn't help but think of Lilo & Stitch when I watched it. This movie was one of my top anticipated movie of the year because the cast lineup was insane. I was getting more and more excited the more they announced the actor who'd joined the movie. I knew what the premise was coming into the movie but I didn't really know the ending so for the movie to end that way, I was a bit surprised. Like, the whole last act of the movie was just gothic body horror trope after another gothic body horror trope. As someone who enjoyed the gothic horror genre in the form of Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak, I have to say that Crimson Peak is more for me than Nosferatu was. But I do appreciate Nosferatu as a movie in the genre and the stylistic choices that the director always does in the movie he creates. 

Letterboxd rating : 4/5

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I watched this movie because one of my friends were like, "Seriously? You haven't watched it yet?", so I was like, "Okay, I'll watch it," not knowing I will be watching one of the most "me" movies subconsciously. I'm gonna google the synopsis of this movie because I feel like I  won't be able to  thread carefully with explaining the movie. The movie is about Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet), a couple whose tumultuous relationship ends with Clementine erasing Joel from her memory using a special procedure from Lacuna Inc. Heartbroken and angry, Joel decides to have the same procedure done, but as his own memories of Clementine fade, he realizes he still loves her and desperately trying to hide her within his subconscious, leading to a surreal journey through his mind as he fights to keep her, ultimately learning that painful memories are essential to love and growth. To describe the movie with one word, I would've said "surreal" because it perfectly encapsulated the vibes, aesthetics, and the way that the movie tells and shows the memory erasure procedure. You felt like you were in a liminal space most of the duration of the movie and had a little unsettling feeling of where Joel's mind is gonna take you to hide Clementine next. But what was heartbreaking for me was when Joel realized that he couldn't run to hide Clementine from being erased from his memory and let her go, but eventually, still meeting her the exact next morning with no recollection about her, and vice versa for Clementine. Then it was just, sad, when both Joel and Clementine realized that they've been in this situation before that ended terrible and had to live with the fact that they had to let each other go after trying to erase each other from their memories. The movie also has a bittersweet way of showing how erasing someone from your memory can mess you up and how you need those painful memories of the person you once loved to move on with your life and feel better. Like, the premise was so good in the beginning, "Memory erasure for people who messed me up? Just take my money!" but then you see how it will mess with you with how it left the people who already got the procedure done. You need the past in order to move on with your life, you can't just delete it from your mind. Let's move on to the world building and the aesthetics of the movie because oh my god, this movie was truly so "me" especially with the surreal vibes of Joel's memories of Clementine getting erased. And the house by the beach that both Joel and Clementine liked to look at being slowly destroyed when Joel realized he had to let Clementine go, it was cathartic, and to show Clementine who you thought was a textbook manic pixie dream girl in the beginning of the relationship and then you see how that stereotype slowly corrupted into a burn out. I mean, yes, this movie gives you the lesson of how you need the past to grow and you can feel it when the movie ends and if you haven't watched this movie yet, you should give it a go. 

Letterboxd rating : 4.5/5

Anora

This movie was just "huh?" to me. Because I was just so confused, in a bad way too, after I finished the movie. The story was about a prostitute named Ani (Mikey Madison) who met a super rich boy who was an heir of Russian socialites (Mark Eydelshteyn)  then she fell in love with him, or at least that's what she thought, and eloped with him in Vegas, but the dream had come to an end when the boy's parents found out and she realized how much of a coward the boy was also how too good to be true was this short part of her life was. I have some issue with this movie and it's not with the acting because I feel like Mikey did a great job and deserved the Oscar win but my issue was with the message that the movie was trying to convey. It was very white feminist in the way that they always promote how sex work is empowering women and it's not something that should be looked down upon, which I do agree in Ani's case, like this is something she wants to do. But they also need to highlight the fact that some or most women who are prostitutes got into sex work by human trafficking but I do get that they want to make a case by case situation and hardly ever touch the reason why Ani became a prostitute but I feel like they also needed to mention how this is not romanticizing sex work, that they're aware of how miserable it is for some women. The story itself, I mean it was definitely an interesting story. A modern and darker twist of the classic Cinderella story but I have to say, it was too "meh" to even be nominated in the Best Picture category let alone to win the award. But this year's award season was already a mess in itself so I do see this movie as a quick escape of the circus that was the 2025 award season. Though my initial thought after I watched this movie was "Huh? This is the movie that won Best Picture?", I just felt like it was a good story, but there were much more deserving movie in the category.

Letterboxd rating : 4/5

Before Sunrise

This movie is very simple and grounded in its premise, two people, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) who met on a train ride in Europe, decided to take a detour in Vienna for one night but that decision will change their lives forever. That's it, that's the whole synopsis of the movie. The movie itself, is literally just two strangers walking through Vienna and having conversations, exchanging ideas about everything in life but they realized that they got a connection, both platonic and romantic eventually and that they will remember in the years to come (I haven't watched Before Sunset and Before Midnight). Compared to all the movies mentioned in this post, this one is the most simple yet it's the one that stayed with me the most, and I feel like that's what they intended to do with the movie. Like that's the message, emotion wise, that they wanted the viewers to feel initially after finishing the movie. I can not recommend this movie more, it's my favorite movie that I experienced for the first time this year. It did live up to the hype.

Letterboxd rating : 5/5

Sore : Istri dari Masa Depan

I normally don't really watch Indonesian movies but this one was, wow, I was speechless leaving the cinema. This movie tells the story about Jonathan (Dion Wiyoko), a single Indonesian man living in Croatia, who was surprised to find a mysterious woman who introduced herself as "Sore", his wife from the future (Sheila Dara). Of course, any normal person would be scared and think that Sore was a bad person, that's what Jonathan thought at first as well. He tried to get Sore away from him but in the end he gave up and believed Sore. She then started a whole healthier life regiment for Jonathan by having him workout everyday, eating healthier, and stop smoking. But when she found out that Jonathan sneaking out to smoke, Sore was like "It's fine, we can start again" and then she passed out and woke up in the bed next to him again. That's when the viewers realized that Sore had been stuck in a time loop as a way to not let herself grief due to the death of Jonathan in the future and fight Time to get Jonathan back and lived longer with her. As a viewer, you'd feel exhausted because you'll see how Sore experienced the time loop over and over again just for it to always end the same way and every time she got closer and closer to resolve Jonathan's past issues, it's like Time was mad at her for trying to change what's already in set in stone. But Time was also mad when Sore tried to get away from Jonathan and lived a different life in a different city because in the end, she met Jonathan again. Because the movie wanted you to feel how exhausting it was for Sore to try to change what eventually we discovered cannot be changed. The movie had three different acts and each act showed the arc of the three main characters Jonathan, Sore, and Time as a concept was also a character. During Jonathan's act, we found out about his life in Croatia, his work as a photographer, and his confusion when he met Sore. In Sore's act we found out about the time loop and her trying to change the future by changing the past. When we get to Time's act, we discovered how it all came to be, how Time has been actively trying to stop Sore in her quest. There were two scenes in the movie that gave me chills, it was the last time loop where Sore outsmarted Time and got herself out of the time loop and the very last of the movie, and I realized why those two scenes gave me chills and made me cry instantly too, the soundtrack. The score and soundtrack were the star of the movie. The way that they picked what song would suit the message they're trying to deliver in the movie and when they also just not use any score in a scene, they decided it very neatly. I feel like just the whole final act of the movie was a masterpiece and you need to give the movie a watch.

Letterboxd rating : 5/5

10DANCE

This was the last movie that I finished watching this year. I found out about this movie I believe through my twitter feed when the trailer came up and I thought the concept was very fresh, rivals to lovers told through ballroom dancing and I've watched a little bit of Strictly and Dancing with the Stars in my own time so I know a thing or two about ballroom dancing to know that it was gonna be interesting for the movie. The movie tells the story about Suzuki Shinya (Takeuchi Ryoma), a professional ballroom dancer who specialized in Latin style dances (so Cha Cha Cha, Salsa, Rumba, etc.) whose path met with Sugiki Shinya (Machida Keita) (both named Shinya, so after this I'm gonna refer to them with their last names), a professional ballroom dancer as well, but he specialized in the traditional ballroom dance (so Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep, etc.). To be fair, they always kept tabs on each other from afar. Suzuki always watched videos of Sugiki whenever he competed internationally and Sugiki also often saw whenever Suzuki competed. But they met each other even more when Sugiki proposed to do 10Dance with him. So 10Dance is when a pair of ballroom dancers did all 10 of ballroom dancing styles (so I think that would be Viennese Waltz, Argentinian Tango, Waltz, Quickstep, Slow Foxtrot, Cha Cha Cha, Salsa, Paso Doble, Rumba, Jive) in one whole performance (correct me if I'm wrong, this is what I got from the movie) and that's where they got the title from. Obviously both need to learn how to do the other's dance styles so they met each other pretty often and that's when all the tension unraveled and came undone into the most fulfilling kiss. But of course, since they're both two very different people, Sugiki with how he tend to control everything and Suzuki with his free spirited self, it was hard for them to be together. My heart was breaking for Suzuki as well when Sugiki left him, stating "I will ruin myself if I stayed with you any longer" and the whole sub plot of Suzuki finding himself again after the breakup, man, how could a sound of train break my heart. During the last part of the movie, Suzuki had came to terms with not meeting Sugiki again outside of competitions but then on a competition where Suzuki competed and Sugiki was invited as a guest, Sugiki asked him to do what I'd say as unofficial 10Dance but also leaving Suzuki again by saying "See you at 10Dance", then the movie just ended there, how do you want me to feel with an abrupt ending after a scene full of sexual and romantic tension??? Of course, I'll scream. But before I end this, I gotta give props to Ryoma for having a full on yearning, puppy eyes. Every single scene with him showing those eyes, I was like, "Damn", it's like he was ripping my heart out. Also the scene when Sugiki saw Suzuki for the first time at a dance competition and he cried??? because he saw a way and felt hope of winning the international championship after losing it for so many times??? Just shoot me, shoot me. I need to have the sequel in my hand yesterday, Netflix Japan, don't disappoint me. 

Letterboxd rating : 4.5/5

And there you have it, a project that I started in January, started writing in August, is finally finished in the last minutes of 2025. This was a year of so many movie watching but I wouldn't take it for granted because I found so many gems and enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you and See you in another post!