4th Quarter of 2025: Top 10/Bottom 2

 4th Quarter of 2025: Top 10/Bottom 2

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host, David, and 2025 has come to an end! Hard to believe it, but another year is over and it’s once again “Amateur Night.”

Please be careful if you need to be out tonight.

With the year coming to an end, we have one more of our quarterly Top and Bottom reports; this one covering the months of October, November, and December.

The good news is that I don’t have too much dreck to talk about. We did end up screening some bombs during this time period, but our recent “WWW#10” eliminated quite a few from today’s contention, so we only have TWO bombs to trash before getting to the good stuff (and there’s some REALLY good stuff this month!)

We also have one movie to discuss that I still can’t figure out. Don’t know if I liked it, it was meh, or I disliked it, so I need your help in making up my mind in case you’re feeling adventurous early in 2026.

Maybe part of your resolutions.

But, before we get to that, let’s start where we always do, and that’s at the bottom.

 

Aggro Dr1ft (2023)

NR/80 min/IMDb: 5.6/directed by Harmony Korine

IMDb: “In this sensual experimental elegy by Harmony Korine, spellbinding infrared photography evokes a dreamlike portrait of a tormented assassin.”

First of all, beware of film titles with numbers masquerading as letters. 

Never a good sign. 

I’m a fan of experimental films, and have taken in quite a few over the years.

Like real scientific experiments, experimental films are wildly hit or miss.

Un Chien Andalou, La Jetee, Dogville, and Koyaanisqatsi are all experimental films I enjoyed.

I even liked Richard Linklater’s Heads I Win/Tails You Lose which is literally four hours of film countdowns and tail leaders submitted to the Austin Film Society from 1987 to 1990.

Then there’s Eraserhead, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, and Aggro Dr1ft.

If you’re wondering what infrared photography looks like, think Predator, but you’re watching that infrared view for the entire film.

Aggro Dr1ft received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

I’m guessing the standing O was given by the people who DIDN’T walk out since I read there were many walk outs at film festivals and premieres.

No such thing as a “walkout” in the world of Cinema Wellman, but I came very close to shutting it off to give my brain a rest.

The infrared view for the entirety of the film was a bit too much for me. The style gave me a headache after a while, and I didn’t really find the plot that interesting.

But we ALWAYS finish what we start here at Cinema Wellman.

You never know when a character is going to make a meatloaf.

Grizzly Man (2005)

R/103 min/IMDb: 7.7/directed by Werner Herzog

Anytime you’re dealing with “directed by Werner Herzog,” you are in for something.

In 1982, to make a film about a man building an opera house in the middle of a jungle, Herzog moved a real 365-ton steamship over a mountain. 

That was 1982, so if you wanted that effect, you did it for real and shot it.

They made a documentary about the making of that movie, which is always a red flag. 

Herzog was also featured in Les Blank’s 1980 short Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe.

So Werner’s a little different than the other kids.

IMDb: “A devastating and heart-rending take on grizzly bear activists Timothy Treadwell and Amie Hugeunard, who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzly bears in Alaska.”

When you choose to live among grizzly bears in Alaska and end up being killed and eaten by said bears…well, you’re not going to get much sympathy from me.

Kind of like that volcano couple and that rich kid who thought he could live in the wilderness.

I’m sorry, all of that is on you, and it’s difficult for me to feel sorry for you when you die doing such things that seem extremely dangerous.

But the reason why I disliked this movie so much had nothing to do with Herzog, or the bears!

The guy who was living among the bears was pretty much an asshole from where I sat. 

He came off as obnoxious and arrogant, and when the time came for the bears to do their work, I really didn’t feel much at all.

When humans embed themselves in places ruled by nature where humans don’t belong, this is what you get.

Let’s move on to what impressed us this past quarter and talk about some movies you may actually want to see.

We’ll begin with a documentary featuring one of our favorite directors. 

Sangre Del Toro (2025) U.K.

NR/86 min/IMDb: 7.1/directed by Yves Montmayeur

IMDb: “Director Guillermo Del Toro seamlessly merges his Mexican roots with cultural elements from Hollywood, Paris, and Guadalajara in his creative work.”

Oscar winner Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favorite directors, so the fact that this documentary about him and his films is no surprise.

Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio are some of my favorites of his movies and there’s another one on this very list.

This documentary delves into the mind of one of the most visionary directors working today and explains where some of his otherworldly ideas come from.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a film by Del Toro, this documentary is a must see.

Talk about someone I’d love to sit and have cocktails with.

Next up is one of FOUR films on today’s list that qualifies as a sequel, part of a series, or a reboot which is certainly news here at Cinema Wellman!

Freakier Friday (2025)

PG/110 min/IMDb: 6.3/directed by Nisha Ganatra

IMDb: “22 years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover that lightning might strike twice.”

If you’ve been here before, you’ve heard me complain about sequels, remakes, and reboots as lazy, unimaginative filmmaking money grabs.

I stand by those comments, but I also am the first to admit when I’m wrong.

It certainly happens, and since Freakier Friday ended up on this list, I am wrong once again.

One of my major gripes about sequels is how often they don’t even wait until the body is cold before pushing out that second one.

But when you actually wait 22 years and bring just about everybody back from the original (or the 1st remake?), that’s a different story.

If this is a con, it’s a long con. And I’m a huge fan of the long con. 

It doesn’t hurt that I root for Lindsay Lohan and I’ve been in love with Jamie Lee Curtis since I was in high school.

So there’s that. 

Bad Shabbos (2024)

NR/84 min/IMDb: 6.4/directed by Daniel Robbins

IMDb: “An engaged interfaith couple are about to have their parents meet for the first time over a Shabbat dinner when an accidental death gets in the way.”

I watched this on a total whim and really enjoyed it, and I love when that happens.

I also love those family gatherings that are impacted by an accidental death which I’m sure happens all the time. 

Kyra Sedgwick and David Paymer are tremendous in this dark comedy where the person who dies the accidental death is SUCH an asshole that it’s all good.

Milana Vayntrub was also excellent and the only time I had ever seen her before was as Lily Adams in those AT&T commercials.

This was a fun way to spend a Friday Night Dinner.

KPop Demon Hunters (2025)

PG/95 min/IMDb: 7.5/directed by Chris Appelhans/Maggie King

IMDb: “A world-renowned K-Pop girl group balances their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as demon hunters.”

I love talking about movies I enjoyed for which I was NOT the intended demographic, and this is one of them.

I realize how popular this movie and its music currently are, and I also realize the target audience for this was not 63 year old straight white guys.

I did watch this with a definite member of that target audience, my great-niece Brynn.

I was happy to have her along to answer all of my questions.

And a quick shout out to my favorite characters in the movie Derpy and Sussie the six-eyed magpie with a plague doctor vibe.

This was all good fun. The story, the music, the characters…give this a shot, especially if you’re not sure what all the hype is about. 

JAWS @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (2025)

NR/88 min/IMDb: 7.6/directed by Laurent Bouzereau

IMDb: “A tribute to JAWS, the movie that sparked a lasting fascination with the ocean’s most misunderstood predator.”

Doesn’t it make sense that this last episode of 2025 has yet ANOTHER JAWS related movie to talk about?!?

I watched this with my JAWS partner, Dakota, and we both enjoyed this documentary even though we already knew a lot of the information covered.

This film details not only the film’s troubled shoot, but its lasting impact on the movie industry.

Hearing Cameron Crowe, J.J. Abrams, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Soderbergh, George Lucas, and Jordan Peele all talk about how this film impacted them as filmmakers was amazing.

Even though they’re all accomplished directors on their own, when it comes to JAWS, they’re just like me, big time fan boys.

Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

R/110 min/IMDb: 6.7/directed by Zach Lipovsky/Adam B. Stein

IMDb: “Plagued by a recurring violent nightmare, a college student returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them.”

We here at Cinema Wellman are huge fans of this series, as you may already know. 

“Final Destination, Please!” (feat. Hannah) S3: E19 is one of my favorite episodes in which Janey and I chose our best & worst deaths of each of the series’ other installments.

Hannah and I screened this (possibly?) final Final Destination over Thanksgiving as Dakota and Vanessa enjoyed our audible reactions from the safety of the kitchen.

We are unapologetic here at Cinema Wellman when it comes to our FD love, and this one did not disappoint and had some seriously messy deaths.

Never too young to be hit by a falling piano.

Keep that in mind. 

Troll 2 (2025) Norway

NR/105 min/IMDb: 5.3/directed by Roar Uthaug

IMDb: “Nora, Andreas, and Captain Kris leap back into action when a dangerous new troll awakes - and this time they’ll need more help to take it down.”

When I want to watch a good Troll movie, I look to the Norwegians.

I thoroughly enjoyed 2022’s Troll, and was excited to see there was a sequel.

What has happened to me?

The special effects in both Troll movies are quite excellent and the filmmakers were very loyal to Norwegian troll lore. 

This is, at heart, a kaiju movie, and everybody knows how I feel about kaiju movies!

Sew Torn (2024) Switzerland

NR/100 min/IMDb: 6.0/directed by Freddy Macdonald

IMDb: “A seamstress gets tangled in her own thread after stealing a briefcase from a drug deal gone bad. In an escalating game of cat and mouse, her different choices lead to drastically different outcomes along the way.”

When I’m in the mood for a good comedy thriller, I look to the Swiss.

Well, at least in the case of Sew Torn that works.

Since this film has different outcomes and we are privy to them all, this is kind of like a Swiss Run, Lola, Run.

Eve Connolly’s seamstress Barbara is someone we’re rooting for from the start even though she makes some questionable decisions along the way, that’s for sure.

Barbara’s thread wizardry comes into play more than once to thwart the bad guys, and it’s a joy to watch.

My mom was a seamstress, and I think she would have gotten a kick out of this. 

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) France

R/122 min/IMDb: 8.0/directed by Celine Sciamma

IMDb: “On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the 18th century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.”

I missed this film totally when it came out six years ago, so I was delighted to see it featured on the NYT Top 100 Films of the 21st Century because I knew I’d watch everything I had missed.

I’d like to share the Times blurb since it’s way better than anything I could write and it perfectly captures the film.

“In Celine Sciamma’s quietly piercing historical drama, two 18th-century women, the aristocrat Heloise and the artist Marianne, fall secretly in love along the coast of France. But this isn’t a typical saga of forbidden desire, and these women suffer no illusions, though with a deadline hanging over them like a noose, they certainly do suffer: Heloise is promised to a Milanese nobleman. And the closing scene, long after they’ve parted, is an unshakable, eviscerating display of the aftershocks of social subordination and self-abandonment.”

Now THAT’S film analysis! Well done, NYT!

And that closing scene was so beautiful, and yet so heartbreaking.

This was truly an amazing film. 

Frankenstein (2025)

R/149 min/IMDb: 7.5/directed by Guillermo del Toro

IMDb: “Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.”

So we begin with a documentary about friend of Cinema Wellman Guillermo del Toro and we end with a film directed by Guillermo del Toro.

I realize Mary Shelly’s 1818 Gothic novel has been made into an astronomically large number of films over the years. 

If you count remakes, reboots, core adaptations, loose adaptations, international movies, and parodies, we’re talking easily over 100 movies, and that’s being conservative.

So this is not new territory.

Until Guillermo Del Toro gets a hold of it.

Then it becomes magical.

I certainly haven’t seen 100 Frankenstein adjacent movies, but I’ve seen enough to know how amazing this film is.

I’ve seen Frankenstein movies before, and yet this was like the very first one.

Everything about this production was top notch from the acting (Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi as the Dr. and The Creature), the script, the production design, the effects…this was so enjoyable.

“I cannot die. And I cannot live…alone.” The creature is treated quite differently in this version, and that sets it apart from the rest. 

I can see why Cate Blanchett once said she’d play a pencil in a Guillermo Del Toro film.

And I’d watch that. That’s for sure.

So that’s our Top 10 for the last quarter of 2025, but we still have another film to discuss, and we’d like your help with it since we can’t really decide how we feel about it. 

Influencer (2022)

R/92 min/IMDb: 6.2/directed by Kurtis David Harder

IMDb: “While struggling on a solo backpacking trip in Thailand, social media influencer Madison meets CW, who travels with ease and shows her a more uninhibited way of living, but CW’s interest in her takes a darker turn.”

So since I can’t make up my mind about this one and encourage you to watch it if you enjoy a mystery/thriller and have 92 minutes to kill.

If you do screen it, let me know what you think. I may need to see it again and tack on the sequel which they titled Influencers.

I hope they didn’t pay too much to come up with that title.

Well, that is a wrap for this episode, Season 4 of Cinema Wellman, AND 2025!

We wish you happiness, good health, and enjoyable movies in 2026.

I’m not sure what we'll have next for you, but we’ll be back soon with whatever it is.

Until then, take care.