Hello to all my Wonderful World Outside Our Windows Subscribers.
Last week, I published my personal picks for the best movies of 2025. I had a lot of fun with that piece, and thought my list reflected not just my personal taste, but a diverse selection of films from across the globe. Hopefully, I was able to convince just one person to take a shot on a movie they would not normally watch.
Upon posting my list, however, I received feedback from my vast and varied readership (Fortune 500 CEOs, three of the Sharks on Shark Tank — not the ones you'd think, by the way — my mom's college friends (who are admittedly very nice and supportive), etc.) telling me that I had erred in only choosing movies “no one has heard of.” While I am somewhat puzzled by this idea — the theater was packed for all but two of the screenings — in my haste to get the list out before the year’s end, I suppose it is possible that I forgot the cardinal rule of film criticism: movies should be judged by their popularity, not any qualitative concerns like form or aesthetics. Perhaps, as is so often the case, I got wrapped up in my own taste for film and forgot to factor in the general population’s needs and desires, not to mention deeply important quantitative metrics, such as box-office success, or streams. So now, without any further ado, I‘d like to present a revised roundup of 2025’s best film. Once again, this list will be unranked and unordered.
A Minecraft Movie (Jared Hess)
Rejoice! The game that launched thousands of soon-to-be-failed careers in architecture finally has a film of its own. In development since the early 2010s, Jared Hess’ A Minecraft Movie took the world by storm last April, grossing just under a billion dollars at the global box office. The film looks so bad that one assumes nine-year-old Minecraft players could have animated better creatures, and the jokes are so mind-bogglingly crude and humorless that they aged like milk in just six months. However, think of all the money that was made! Everyone knows about Minecraft, so the box office isn’t surprising, but no one is talking about all the toys sold, the number of plushies or posters, and of course the Minecraft Movie McDonald’s Meal. As Martin Scorsese is so fond of saying, A Minecraft Movie is simply “absolute cinema.”
Wicked: For Good (Jon M. Chu)
A good best-of list wouldn’t be complete without Wicked: For Good. Although just about everyone hated it, and fans of the play likely walked out shocked that they chose to make Act Two even…longer…think of all the money that was made! Everyone knows Wicked — after all, it’s a golden IP. Who hasn’t seen The Wizard of Oz? Plus, unlike A Minecraft Movie, the story for Wicked was already done; all the filmmakers had to do was film it, really increasing efficiency. Still, they went above and beyond, garbling not only the themes but presenting a movie that looks so bad one can at least be comforted knowing that no AI was used — it is simply inconceivable that a machine would invent such a nothing aesthetic. And don’t worry, Wicked won’t stop generating revenue anytime soon, with Universal executives already on the record that they have — and this is a quote — ”a responsibility to figure out how we can continue in this universe.” Once again, a certified populist flick.
A Minecraft Movie (Jared Hess)
That’s right folks! When it comes to films that people have heard of, there is really nothing better than A Minecraft Movie. Its massive portfolio of plushies, McDonald’s meals, and Jack Black Pez dispensers make it a must-have on any Best Films list, so much so that I put it on twice. It may seem like I’m cheating, skimping out on a critic’s responsibility to be decisive and so forth, but I beg to differ: a critic writes about what’s popular, and boy am I doing that!
Welp, that’s about all I have for you today. If the films on this list don’t tickle your fancy, you could consider just go to the trending tab on YouTube instead.
Signing off,
Max Bolen
Always focused on The Grind
