2025 has come to a close, and while it wound up being a pretty great year for the movies, there were a lot of films that sadly disappointed audiences. This year marked the return of some big names and promising debuts that ultimately left a lot to be desired. I'll follow this list up with my more positive ones, with my top surprises and top films of the year, but for now let's look at the films of 2025 that I was most excited for but didn't wind up getting what I wanted out of. Before we begin, I have some honourable mentions. There were a handful of films that I liked still but really wanted to love, so sorry to A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Captain America: Brave New World, The Gorge, The History of Sound, The Shrouds, and Wolf Man. I wanted to love you all but there was just something missing. As for some that I straight up didn't like but didn't quite make this list: Anemone, Fountain of Youth, Happy Gilmore 2, M3gan 2.0, Snow White, Tron: Ares, and The Woman in Cabin 10. Now let's get on to the top 10 biggest disappointments of the year.
#10 - Presence
Sadly it seems that I'm just not on the right wavelength for this stage of Steven Soderbergh's career. I did enjoy Black Bag, but despite my excitement for Presence it wound up being just another Soderbergh effort that left me feeling next to nothing. The central premise of a film told from a ghost's point of view is pretty fascinating, but aside from some cool cinematography I didn't feel that the film itself lived up to the premise. The acting is all pretty staged and stilted, and narratively the film's twists and turns came across more corny than interesting. All in all, a film I was very excited for especially as a lover of ghost stories, but one that just didn't quite hit the mark for me.
#9 - Holland
In 2022 one of the best directorial debuts in my opinion, was Mimi Cave's Fresh. The rom/com turned cannibal thriller was one of the most exciting films of the year and seemed to be the announcement of a great new female voice in the horror genre. While Holland wasn't a terrible movie by any means, I had sky high hopes for Cave's follow up especially with Nicole Kidman in the lead role. There's enough style to still have me excited for Cave as a filmmaker, but the film as a whole felt like an all too familiar Stepford Wives with Kidman and Matthew Macfadyen both falling into similar roles to what we've seen from them before. I gave this a 5/10 so by no means did I hate it, but I was beyond excited for Cave's sophomore effort and was sadly let down.
#8 - Him - FULL REVIEW
This is simply a movie I wanted to be great that completely missed the mark. The premise of a football focused horror movie produced by Jordan Peele was simply too intriguing to me, but that premise is fumbled (hehe) brutally. Tyriq Withers is solid in the lead role, and Marlon Wayans is fantastic, but this is a case of a movie trying way too hard to be cool that it winds up feeling forced and cringey. By the end this is a movie that says next to nothing, all while coming across as annoying with the clear attempt at being out there visually. I truly had such high hopes for this, but it's one that just failed to make it to the end-zone.
#7 - Honey Don't!
I think it's time that my excitement for a Coen brother(s) movie will hinge on whether Joel is at least one of the Coen's involved. While I didn't mind Drive Away Dolls, Honey Don't! honestly just felt like a waste of time. Its quirkiness feels inauthentic and despite having a great cast with Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, and Aubrey Plaza, pretty much all of their talents are wasted. I don't have much more to say, if I see the Coen name on something I'll automatically be excited, but sadly it seems Ethan doesn't quite have the same skill as a solo filmmaker.
#6 - Eddington - FULL REVIEW
Ari Aster is one of the filmmakers I'll always get excited for the latest film from. Midsommar is one of my all time favourites, and while Beau is Afraid didn't quite reach the heights of it and Hereditary I still very much appreciated how wild it was. Eddington is a pandemic-set western that sadly didn't work for me. There are plenty of highlight moments throughout, but the end result is a mixed bag of contrasting tones and ideas that wind up feeling almost exhausting to watch. Some plot lines, especially the one with Emma Stone and Austin Butler don't get nearly enough room to breathe despite the long runtime. There are enough elements that I found strong to keep it from the top 5 here, but as an Aster fan it was a bummer to not like his latest.
#5 - Keeper
While not on the same level as Ari Aster, Osgood Perkins is a director in the horror sphere that I am always excited for the latest from. The Monkey was released earlier in the year, and despite many being divided on it I thought it was a blast. Sadly the prospect of multiple Perkins films in one year was too good to be true, as Keeper was a massive miss. This was one of my most anticipated films for the fall movie season, but I only wound up watching it this week due to a busy schedule and the universally poor reviews. Keeper has some cool visual moments towards the end, but sadly offers little more than a bland isolation horror that bores more often than it thrills. I'll still see whatever Perkins makes, but this was definitely a big letdown.
#4 - The Smashing Machine - FULL REVIEW
After the success of Good Time and Uncut Gems, the Safdie brothers split up this year to each direct a film on their own. Josh Safdie recently gave up Marty Supreme which I'll be discussing in my top 25 list, and Benny delivered The Smashing Machine to much lesser success. With Safdie behind the camera and Dwayne Johnson in one of his first dramatic roles, I was already excited. Then came the news that Safdie won the best director award at the Venice Film Festival, making this a must see of the fall season. The filmmaking here is solid and the performances are strong, but this story just isn't all that interesting and Safdie fails to make anything more interesting out of it. Mark Kerr seems like a cool guy, but as a film I just don't think there's enough here to make something compelling.
#3 - Ballad of a Small Player - TIFF REVIEW
Despite enjoying Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front, I wasn't overly interested in Conclave last year. Then I saw it and was completely hooked by his Vatican-set political thriller. Going into the fall movie season I was all in on the hype for Berger, especially with his latest starring Colin Farrell as a gambler. Sadly this was a case of all style but little substance, a film full of craft and glamour but painfully hollow emotionally. Volker Bertlmann's score is phenomenal, and the film looks great, but it all adds up to a final product that fails to resonate on any front and as time went on, Ballad of a Small Player only soured on me.
#2 - A House of Dynamite - FULL REVIEW
This is one that just makes me sad, as this maybe had the most promise of any film on this list. Kathryn Bigelow is one of the all time greats, and the first female director to take home the best director Oscar. A House of Dynamite is her first film since 2017's Detroit, making this a much anticipated return to cinemas. For the first third of the film I was honestly loving it, this is an intense and pulse pounding work with some incredible sound design and expertly directed tension. The issue: when we get to the end of the first act we wind up just getting to see the same events play out again twice over. I'm typically one to enjoy a film tackling an event from multiple points of view in a non-linear way, but A House of Dynamite bewilderingly recounts the exact same event from only minimally different points of view adding hardly anything each time we see everything unfold. The performances are solid all around but not a single character has any room to show any kind of development or even depth, and the film's climax feels more like a cop out than a remotely interesting conclusion. The technical prowess on display still makes this perfectly watchable, but it's a film all the more frustrating thanks to how rich in potential it was.
#1 - Hurry Up Tomorrow - FULL REVIEW
Obviously all of the films on this list disappointed me, but there's only one that I would say is genuinely terrible, and sadly that's Hurry Up Tomorrow. Trey Edward Shults previously directed films like Krisha, It Comes at Night, and one of my favourites of the past decade Waves. I had sky high excitement for his return to the director's chair over half a decade after his last film, and an interesting premise featuring Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd), Barry Keoghan, and Jenna Ortega made this something I couldn't wait for. As is the case with most filmmakers on this list, I'll still be excited for the next thing Shults makes, but Hurry Up Tomorrow is a disaster. This is a visual mess that feels more like an obnoxiously long music video than an actual film. Abel ranges from being solid in front of the camera to some of the worst acting I've seen in a long time, and Jenna Ortega can only do so much with the brutal script she's given. Similar to Him, the style feels like it's trying too hard to be cool and in turn comes off as inauthentic. For a film I was this excited for to wind up delivering a final product that had me counting down the minutes until it ended, there wasn't anything else I could put in the top spot.
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