Not to compare watching movies to some sort of eternal Herculean struggle, but the weirdest thing about writing about cinema for a living is that I will never, ever be able to watch them all. In 2024, I watched 120-plus new releases, and not only failed to watch remotely all the new films that came out last year, but there are still hundreds upon thousands of pre-2024 films I’ve never seen. To mix metaphors, I will always be rolling the boulder up the hill since there will never be a moment where I pump my fist in the air and bellow to the heavens that I have watched the final film and, at long last, my watch has ended.
As soon as I wrap up with all the ones I’m excited to see in any given year, I then immediately turn my sights to what I’m hyped for coming up. It never stops and it never will — and I’m so very OK with that. With all that said: Here are 18 movies I’m looking forward to in 2025.
1/24: “Presence”
Steven Soderbergh directing a haunted house movie is all I wanted for Christmas, so here we are. Also, Julia Fox’s next starring role after “Uncut Gems.”
2/14: “Captain America: Brave New World”
Early word on this has it feeling like “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which, to me, is one of the finest action movies in the last 20 years. With Harrison Ford playing the Red Hulk, consider me cautiously optimistic for this being a return to form for the MCU.
2/21: “The Monkey”
Oz Perkins adapting a Stephen King story means I’m already there.
3/7: “Mickey 17”
This was on my most-hyped list last year when it was supposed to come out in March. Bong Joon-Ho is one of South Korea’s most exciting filmmakers, so consider me twice as hyped for this bonkers-looking sci-fi action comedy.
3/7: “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”
A Zambian/British black comedy from A24 about a funeral and the secrets we bury in life.
4/18: “Sinners”
A new Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther,” “Creed”) film starring Michael B. Jordan that sees the actor playing twin brothers in what looks like a disturbing, period horror thriller. Coogler doing a horror movie should be thoughtful and intense in all the best ways.
5/9: “Golden”
Director Michel Gondry hasn’t ever reached the heights of his masterpiece “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (so says my giant forearm tattoo of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet), so I’m genuinely hoping this coming-of-age musical about the life of Pharrell reminds us of his limitless talent.
6/6: “Ballerina”
A spinoff of “John Wick” starring Ana de Armas as a badass assassin looks ridiculously fun, and it also has the final on-screen performance of the great Lance Reddick. The “Wick” movies are a blast, so I’m hoping that exploring little pockets of the same universe yields some cool storytelling.
6/20: “28 Years Later”
Based on the strength of the amazing trailer and the iconic filmmaking duo of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland, consider me the most excited. There are half a dozen shots in the trailer that chilled me deeply and now I can’t wait to have a panic attack in the theater in six months!
7/11: “Superman”
I’m a fan of James Gunn and the brand of acerbic superheroes he patented with the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy so I’m abnormally excited for the launch of the new DC Universe under his leadership. I want to see his writing style put toward characters like Batman, Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing.
8/8: “The Battle of Baktan Cross”
A crime drama starring DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Alana Haim and Benicio del Toro from visionary auteur Paul Thomas Anderson? Shut up and take my money.
9/26: “The Bride!”
Maggie Gyllenhaal directed the hell out of 2021’s “The Lost Daughter,” so I can’t wait to see what she does with a retelling of “Bride of Frankenstein.” Set in 1930s Chicago and starring the great Jessie Buckley as the bride and Christian Bale as the monster, I hope this ends up being one of the best movies of the year.
11/7: “Bugonia”
A new Yorgos Lanthimos sci-fi comedy with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons? For me, Lanthimos has a lifetime pass after “Dogtooth” and “The Lobster,” so I’m sure I’ll be there opening night. I hope this is his darkest movie yet and inspires the entire world to feel weird and uncomfortable at the same time.
11/21: “Wicked: For Good”
The final 10 minutes of the 2024’s “Wicked” were the best minutes of the movie and, since I haven’t seen the musical or read the book, I’m genuinely excited to see where the hell this is going. Also, Cynthia Erivo is a force of nature.
12/25: “Marty Supreme”
A Josh Safdie-directed pingpong movie. That is all.
TBA: “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”
Yeah, I really like these movies (mostly I’m in love with Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc) so I’m hoping we get a limited theatrical run for his next adventure instead of a quiet drop on Netflix like the last one.
TBA: “Mother Mary”
David Lowery is one of my favorite filmmakers. (I have a fairly large tattoo of his movie “A Ghost Story” forever inscribed upon my person.) A new movie from him has me over the moon. Focusing on a pop star (Anne Hathaway) and fashion designer (Michaela Coel) and their difficult romance, this is already being hailed as the best queer film of 2025.
TBA: “Die, My Love”
Lynne Ramsay is one of the finest working directors, and with a cast featuring Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Lawrence, Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek and LaKeith Stanfield means that this is going to be a flawlessly acted mind-f*ck. If you haven’t seen Ramsay’s “Morvern Callar,” you really should. It’s one of the best movies ever made.
With undated new films coming from Shane Black, Kyle Edward Ball, Julia Ducournau, Romain Gavras, Na Hong-jin, Werner Herzog, Laika, Gregg Araki, Darren Aronofsky, Chloé Zhao, László Nemes, Peter Greenaway, Guillermo del Toro, Ethan Coen, Noah Baumbach, Boots Riley, Edgar Wright, Luca Guadagnino, Hal Hartley, Celine Song, Gore Verbinski, Sylvain Chomet, Kogonada, Radu Jude, Ari Aster, James Gray, Spike Lee, Benny Safdie, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson, Park Chan-wook, Kelly Reichardt and Terrence Malick… this might be one of the finest years for cinema in my lifetime.
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 2, 2025.
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