America Sings the Blues

Well, we’re already halfway through the year, which has somehow felt like it’s lasted somewhere between two weeks and five hundred thousand years. I suppose this is as good a time as any to do a brief check-in of the best and worst movies and shows of 2025…so far. Even though some of these will probably still be on my end of the year lists, with new movies from filmmakers like Ari Aster, Chloé Zhao, James Gunn, Darren Aronofsky, Edgar Wright, Zach Cregger, Ethan Coen, Ron Howard, Kogonada, Paul Thomas Anderson, James Cameron, Benny Safdie, Derek Cianfrance, Luca Guadagnino, Scott Cooper, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lynne Ramsay, James Cameron and Josh Safdie, we’re looking at a back half of the year filled with some of the most talented filmmakers working.

As heralded as “Sinners” has been this year, I still think it’s underrated. Credit: Warner Bros

Unless that massive list of geniuses completely blows it, I’m hoping that by January, we will look back at 2025 as one of the best years for cinema of the century.

Best American: “Sinners.”

It’s an easy choice for the best movie of the year so far with “Sinners,” a film that feels like an integral part of the history of film even while you’re watching it for the first time. The way that Ryan Coogler layers in a contemporary rage-fueled scream at institutional racism with a love letter to Delta Blues, horror movies and great sex with bad people, “Sinners” doesn’t reinvent the vampire story as much as it just tells a perfect one. While some people will be turned off by the late-film swerve into horror, the entire point of “Sinners” is to show how monsters with fangs and capes could never be as scary as the ones with white sheets and hate.

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Best International: “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.”

Set in modern Zambia and almost exclusively focused on how modern culture clashes with outdated cultural custom and patriarchal conservatism, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” has more to say about misogyny, late-stage capitalism and generational guilt than a dozen lesser films. With a star-making performance from Susan Chardy, potent and eternal filmmaking from Rungano Nyoni and an unforgettable score from Lucrecia Dalt, “Guinea Fowl” has lived rent-free in my head since I saw it six months ago.

Now Available on HBO MAX

Biggest Disappointment: “Jurassic World: Rebirth.

While there are definitely worse movies this year than the new “Jurassic World” (“Minecraft,” “Snow White” and “The Electric State” to name a few), none managed to disappoint me more. With a cast featuring actors I genuinely enjoy like Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey, plus with Gareth Edwards, a director equally capable of crafting intimate character moments and epic, sci-fi adventure, I thought we would have something special. Instead, “Rebirth” is a soulless and artless rebootquel more interested in franchise expansion than telling a coherent and memorable story.

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There are plenty of other fantastic movies to choose from: Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” is an insanely charming and romantic spy thriller that somehow manages to be sexy, intense, unpredictable and beautifully structured, all in 93 fleet-footed minutes.

“The Day the Earth Blew Up” is the Looney Tunes cartoon I’ve been waiting for since I was a kid. Starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, this hit all the right nostalgia buttons while still being an energetic and imaginative instant classic for children and their parents.

Even if you’re not a fan of Wes Anderson, “The Phoenician Scheme” is a breezy and charming caper that uses the bottomless cast in delightful ways, including scene-stealing turns by Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston and Riz Ahmed.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we’re having one hell of a year when it comes to television.

“The Bear” probably isn’t as strong as it was back in the first two seasons, but it still has the best ensemble cast on television and is filled from top to bottom with characters that I’m deeply invested in securing their happy endings. From Carmy to Syd to Sugar to Richie and all the Faks, I love this world and still feel lucky I get to spend time in it.

There’s the unbroken intensity of “Adolescence,” the heartbreaking prescience of “Andor,” the mind-expanding “Common Side Effects,” the insane escalation of “Paradise,” the profoundly moving empathy of “The Pitt,” the insanely unpredictable “Severance”… television is still in peak Golden Age era.

One thing I’m tired of at this point is the “rich and powerful people being horrible human beings” genre, which not only feels played out after “Succession” stuck the landing, but is completely redundant when the news is still right there! Like, yes, I will admit that “The Studio” is a funny and well-crafted show, but in comparison to politicians slinging merch for Alligator Alcatraz, it sorta plays like Mr. Bean.

Pop culture is a nice refuge as we’re sitting in what feels like the ugliest period of American history of at least my lifetime. A period where entire swaths of our country treat empathy like a weakness, arrogance as a virtue and ignorance as a point of pride. I’m not sure whether Hollywood should lean into this and start telling stories about this particularly nasty period in time or if no one even wants that anymore.

The culture war we’re enmeshed in isn’t going away, ever again. Movies like “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” and shows like “The Pitt” are sober reflections on what that does to a society and its people. Would people just rather be gently entertained? Is it just preaching to an already exhausted choir? I don’t have any answers as I look ahead to a much diminished future. The only thing I know for certain is that I’ll be here…watching.

This article appears in Source Weekly July 10, 2025.