This year, I was going to skip my usual movie marathon. However, my daughter came to visit in February, and she expected to get in on the usually movie marathon. So we began.
Why do I watch so many movies ever year?
I think Hollywood and other filmmakers need to do a much better job in the movies they produce. Although there are some great movies among the Academy Award nominees shown in 2025, way too many are violent and mediocre.
For many years, I’ve written about how violence in the media is harmful to children.
Researchers have found there’s a significant association between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physiologic arousal. The American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, recommends the elimination of gratuitous portrayals of interpersonal violence and hateful, racist, misogynistic, or homophobic language or situations in the media.
Despite these research findings and AAP recommendations, moviemakers continue to produce violent movies, and, the violence seems to get worse every year.
For movies shown in 2025, several of the animated feature movies for kids were less violent, which is an improvement.
However, “KPop Demon Hunters” is an awful movie for kids. Not only is it a horror movie, with demons and violence, it’s a sexist movie. The girl band is shown as stuffing themselves with food like mindless airheads and going goo-goo eyes over the boy band. A disappointment since the movie industry, remarkably, has moved away from sexist movies in recent years.
But, the biggest disappointment this year is the inclusion of so many horror movies in the nominations. In the past, the Academy has excluded them.
I don’t watch horror movies. I didn’t watch “Sinners.” It received 16 nominations this year.
A nice surprise was several well-done documentaries: “The Alabama Solution,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” and “The Perfect Neighbor” are all worth seeing.
In this list of the Oscar contenders, my picks are shown in bold. At the end of the article, you’ll find my recommendations listed, along with those I suggest readers don’t miss.
Best picture
“Bugonia” – Another strange Emma Stone movie. Hopefully, it doesn’t win best picture like “Poor Things” in 2023.
“F1” – Refreshing to watch after so many violent films. However, it had a tired theme – loner comes back to triumph, then leaves again.
“Frankenstein” – Why? This movie has been done so many times. Violent and gory. However, the ending was different.
✓ “Hamnet” – Well written. Another made up story about Shakespeare, but a non-violent movie was appreciated.
“Marty Supreme” – I expected to like this one, but wondered when I read that it was “intense.” The guy kept making poor choices, like he accused his girlfriend of doing.
“One Battle After Another” – I liked this one more than I thought I would.
“The Secret Agent” – Very violent and slow.
“Sentimental Value” – Slow with a tired theme. An absent father and the mess he made by not having a better relationship with his daughters. Additionally tired, he’s a movie director, another tired theme.
“Sinners” – I didn’t see it. I don’t watch horror movies.
“Train Dreams” – The first movie I watch of those nominated, I liked it, although it was sad and slow at times.
Best director
✓ Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”
Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”
Josh Safdie, “Marty Supreme”
Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”
Chloé Zhao, “Hamnet”
Best actor
Timothée Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”
✓ Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another” – DiCaprio did a good job playing this flawed but an often well-meaning character.
Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon” – A sad movie. I wish they would have made a movie about some of the best parts of Lorenz Hart’s life rather than his worst day.
Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”
Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”
Best actress
✓ Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
Rose Byrne, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” – A low-quality movie about a women, a psychotherapist, who is extremely stressed taking care of her disabled child while her Navy captain husband is often away.
Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue” – I liked the movie. It was nice to enjoy the music rather than watching violence.
Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”
Emma Stone, “Bugonia”
Best supporting actor
Benicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”
Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”
Delroy Lindo, “Sinners”
✓ Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another” – Not much to choose from in this category. Penn did a good job playing awful person.
Stellan Skarsgard, “Sentimental Value”
Best supporting actress
Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”
Amy Madigan, “Weapons”
Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”
✓ Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”
I didn’t see “Weapons,” another horror film.
Original screenplay
“Blue Moon”
“It Was Just an Accident” – This movie was so disturbing I looked up the ending before the movie was over so I could get through it.
“Marty Supreme”
“Sentimental Value”
“Sinners”
Adapted screenplay
“Bugonia”
“Frankenstein”
✓ “Hamnet”
“One Battle After Another”
“Train Dreams”
Casting
✓ “Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
“The Secret Agent”
Original song
✓ “Dear Me” (“Diane Warren: Relentless”) – I really liked the documentary about Diane Warren. What a woman. What a terrific song writer.
“Golden” (“KPop Demon Hunters”) — “KPop Demon Hunters” is a terrible movie. Violent and sexist, it’s a throwback kids movies of an earlier day.
“I Lied to You” (“Sinners”)
“Sweet Dreams of Joy” (“Viva Verdi!”)
“Train Dreams” (“Train Dreams”)
I didn’t see “Viva Verdi!”.
Original score
“Bugonia”
“Frankenstein”
✓ “Hamnet”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
Cinematography
“Frankenstein”
“Marty Supreme”
✓ “One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
✓ “Train Dreams” –Wonderful to see Washington state, my home, in a film.
Production design
“Frankenstein”
“Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
Costume design
“Avatar: Fire and Ash”
“Frankenstein”
“Hamnet”
“Marty Supreme”
“Sinners”
I didn’t see “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
Makeup and hairstyling
“Frankenstein”
“Kokuho”
“Sinners”
“The Smashing Machine”
“The Ugly Stepsister”
I didn’t see “The Smashing Machine,” “The Ugly Stepsister,” or “Kokuho.”
Editing
“F1”
“Marty Supreme”
✓ “One Battle After Another”
“Sentimental Value”
“Sinners”
Sound
✓ “F1”
“Frankenstein”
“One Battle After Another”
“Sinners”
“Sirat”
I didn’t see “Sirat.”
Visual effects
“Avatar: Fire and Ash”
✓ “F1”
“Jurassic World Rebirth”
“The Lost Bus”
“Sinners”
I didn’t see “The Lost Bus.”
International feature
“The Secret Agent,” Brazil
“It Was Just an Accident,” France
“Sentimental Value,” Norway
“Sirat,” Spain
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Tunisia – Very difficult to watch. About a call center that was trying to get an ambulance to a Palestinian child, 8 minutes away, who was trapped in a car with dead adults after an Israeli tank attack. The child’s actual voice is used in the film.
I didn’t see “Sirat.”
Documentary feature
✓ “The Alabama Solution” – Difficult to watch the report on the terrible conditions in Alabama prisons, including reports of murder, yet Alabama officials do nothing. The filmmakers also report paroles are continually denied so the prison system can continue to exploit convicts as workers.
“Come See Me in the Good Light”
“Cutting Through Rocks”
✓ “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” – A videographer, whose job is being an event coordinator at a school in Russia, reports on the propaganda in schools about Russia’s war on Ukraine.
✓ “The Perfect Neighbor” – This difficult to watch movie uses mostly police footage to show a White woman’s disputes with her Black neighbors, which ends with the woman shooting one of her neighbors through a locked door.
I didn’t see “Come See Me in the Good Light” and “Cutting Through Rocks.”
Animated feature
✓ “Arco” – A nonviolent movie about a time traveler. A welcome change from the typical violent Disney movie.
“Elio” – A boy wants to get abducted by aliens after his parents die and he goes to live with his aunt. When he meets the aliens, war is threatened and he helps thwart it.
“KPop Demon Hunters” – An awful movie for kids. Not only is it a horror movie, with demons and violence, it’s a sexist movie, with the girl band shown as stuffing themselves with food like mindless airheads and going goo-goo eyes over the boy band.
✓ “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” – A great nonviolent movie about a small child from Belgium growing up in Japan and the things she learns.
“Zootopia 2” – A typical violent movie for kids. However, the theme, snakes have been wrongfully excluded from Zootopia and the rabbit and fox police team save the city again, is good.
Animated short
I didn’t see any of these.
Documentary short
✓ “All the Empty Rooms” – A must see movie about the empty rooms left behind by children who were killed in school shootings.
“Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”
“Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
“The Devil Is Busy”
“Perfectly a Strangeness”
I only saw the first one.
Live-action short
“Butcher’s Stain”
“A Friend of Dorothy”
✓ “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” – This is a light movie you can watch on YouTube. It was a nice brake from all the drama in my movie watching marathon.
“The Singers” – This was a good short about guys in tavern singing. However, there were no women, no people of color.
“Two People Exchanging Saliva”
I didn’t see “Butcher’s Stain,” “A Friend of Dorothy,” and “Two People Exchanging Saliva.”
Movies I recommend
“Hamnet,” “Train Dreams,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Diane Warren: Relentless,” “The Alabama Solution,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” “The Perfect Neighbor,” “Arco,” “Elio,” “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain,” “All the Empty Rooms,” and “Jane Austen’s Period Drama.”
My don’t miss list for adults
“Hamnet,” “Train Dreams,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Diane Warren: Relentless,” “The Alabama Solution,” “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” “The Perfect Neighbor,” and “All the Empty Rooms.”
