No, there's no Casablanca. Neither is there Citizen Kane, Gone with the Wind, The Seven Samurai, etc. Those are amazing films you should watch anyway. The movies I'm about to suggest to you aren't even necessarily my favorite, though I do really, really like them.

Remember that the 12 films listed here are just suggestions. I'm not trying to form a canon. I think AFI's top 100 films is a pretty good list for that if you're interested. What I'm offering you is a glimpse into my idiosyncratic list and hopefully reduce some cognitive load on "what do I watch?!" the next time you're trying to find a movie.

These films offer something rather unique to me. They lived in my mind in peculiar ways this past year and are actively shaping how I'm seeing the year 2025.

Each film will have a short description as to why I find it interesting along with a video, and where you can watch it. *Update: I got pretty sick and was unable to update every single film. Stay tuned.

P.S. Some films are picked because a movie is as much as a director's medium as an actor's. So, I quite a few of these movies were selected because of the brilliance of the acting. Enjoy.