WATCH THIS SPACE: BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR

Starting from now, I will be doing blog posts that have recent videos of Watch This Space that also have the script I use written here. Mostly for people you might have issues with the audio on my webshow.

So we’re halfway through the year and I thought why not do a midpoint best of the year list. Mostly show what I’ve enjoyed throughout the year so far, inform you of films you might’ve missed during the year and give you time to catch up on them if you missed them. 

My rules are still the same as the last top ten list. Must’ve been released to an audience in 2025, films that had a festival release count last year, films that had a run in theatres the year before getting released in the UK don’t count. Anyway let’s start this list with.

1. Black Bag

A cool pared down John le Carre esque spy thriller, directed in a no nonsense, no thrills manner, but Steven Soderburgh adds a lot of style into it regardless. With a great cast makes this a fun watch. 

2. Bullet Train Explosion  

While I haven’t seen the original that this film is a sequel too, I found it a good time. Like most disaster movies like this, it has all the hallmarks, people in suits figuring out how to solve the problem, cast of different archetypes all stuck in one location and tense situations to go into. The film is a sequel to a Japanese film from 1975 and you don’t have to know watch that film to get the full picture, but towards the end it does connect itself with the original film where the uninitiated might get lost. The film is available on Netflix. 

3. Drop 

From Happy Death Day’s Christopher Landon, comes Drop a confident and fun thriller. Here Meghann Fahy goes on a date and is given sinister Dropbox messages. It’s a good time, the premise is used to full effect, the situation is tense and like Landon’s other films has a good mystery to it. 

4. Havoc

11 years ago Welsh director Gareth Evans made probably one of the best action movies of 2010’s in The Raid 2, a shining jem in a pretty good year for action movies in retrospect. This year he returns to the action genre in Havoc, a film that got delayed a bunch, but the end result is good. It’s not as transcendent as the Raid movies, but it’s a good time regardless, the action is great with viscously bloody style and close quarter gunfights. This film is streaming on Netflix.

5. Revelations

From Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho comes Revalations, an mystery film from South Korea about a priest who gets interested in one of his parishioners who might be involved in a police investigation and that’s all I’m going to say from here on in. It’s a good film, there’s a lot of moving parts, some don’t get as much attention as they should, but I was entertained. If you have seen Yeon Sang-ho’s other films you can see the attention he pays to themes like family and guilt. This film is, again, on Netflix.  

6. Sinners

Lots of things have been said by people who are smarter than me about this movie, and probably have better recording equipment than me as well. But it’s still true, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is both a great vampire movie and a loving piece on the communal power of music. Michael B. Jordan does a good double performance and Jack O’Connell is having a lot of fun as the main villain.  

7. The Monkey 

I liked the latest Final Destination just fine, but I found this latest Stephen King adaptation by Oz Perkins just slightly more than that film, not saying that’s it’s bad though. Here Perkins’ trades in the slow burning and disquieting horror of his previous film for straight up black comedy and it’s effective. The film goes straight into a gleeful over the topness with the deaths and their funny, making feel like it would’ve been a great fit for a Creepshow movie if the film was a bit shorter. With the recent drought of theatrical comedy films, I found The Monkey one of the best comedies I’ve seen so far. 

8. The Wedding Banquet

I haven’t seen the original Ang Lee Wedding Banquet, but I found this remake thoroughly enjoyable and a great feel good movie, probably my favourite of the year so far. A thoroughly modern look at a queer relationship with great performances all round from a cast working on all cylinders. It’s a delightful and funny movie as well. 

9. Thunderbolts*

While I still enjoy the post-Endgame movies, Thunderbolts* is probably the best of the recent bunch. The film is a great inversion of the superhero team up, where the cast this time are all wash outs with a different set of hang ups they all have to deal with and the actors who play them all work well together, Lewis Pullman’s Bob is one of this year’s best new characters and the film way of talking about mental health makes one of the best superhero movies of the year so far. 

10. 825 Forest Road 

This film sees Hell House LLC director Stephen Cognetti step away from his found footage franchise that concludes this year, with a completely different horror film, shot like a regular film, but still is a creepy and scary film nonetheless. The film is told Rashomon style with each act being told from a different perspective and he manages to craft some excellent and creepy scenes from this setup. I’m excited to see what he does next, especially as his next Hell House film seems to do away with the found footage as well. 

So these are my favourite films of the year so far. Will the list change at the end of year? Maybe, maybe not? Will I be reusing clips of these in my end of the year movie to save time? Probably. But I might have other things to say about these films down the line so who knows.