Ben's Movie Questionnaire! (Nov. 2025)
hello all!
thanks for your patience as work/life/Everything Else has bogged me down and kept me away from my usual casual Movie Coverage on here. I needed something to shake me back into writing, so I asked the general public (aka, my Instagram followers) to send me any questions they had about movies in 2025. here are my answers!
hope you enjoy!
what was your favorite moviegoing experience?
given the responsibilities of Parenthood, my actual theatergoing has dwindled quite a bit this year, but I've been grateful for the cinema experiences I have been able to find. seeing MULHOLLAND DRIVE in a sold-out Music Box crowd just a few months after David Lynch's passing felt really special, as did my yearly passage to the Music Box's 70mm Film fest to see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. speaking of the Music Box, a special screening of BOUND (followed by a Q&A with Lilly Wachowski!!!) was a feat, as was a 35mm screening of TANGERINE (followed by a Q&A with Sean Baker!!!). finally, seeing FRIENDSHIP and THE NAKED GUN in theaters reminded me of the joy that is laughing with strangers.
what are 2025 movies that will become instant classics, if any!
i think ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, WEAPONS, and SINNERS are the undeniable mainstream trio of films that will have a long and happy life in the history of the medium. i'm also going to (foolishly?) put some money on the indie film EEPHUS, a totemic work of Slow Cinema But Baseball that, with repeat viewings, could really break through and become one of the Great Sports Films of our time.
which movies/artists of '25 have made you feel hopeful for the future of cinema?
seeing new films from the likes of Jafar Panahi, Bi Gan, Rungano Nyoni, Mary Bronstein, Ryan Coogler, and Zach Cregger is inspiring enough, but I'm especially excited by works like Louise Weard's CASTRATION MOVIE and Siobhan McCarthy's SHE'S THE HE, two films that couldn't be more different from one another, but each a great example of the breadth and variety that trans cinema has to offer.
ten years on, what 2015 movie got raves at the time, but you would reevaluate as being bad, actually?
looking back at the work of that year, everything from 2015 feels, to me, like it was judged fairly appropriately, but two films that stick out are ones that inexplicably went on to win Oscars - THE DANISH GIRL and THE REVENANT - both of which feel terribly out of step with where the culture is right now. obviously THE DANISH GIRL and its horrifically outdated representation of trans identity onscreen (matched with Tom Hooper's decidedly garish visual style) is a no-brainer, but with hindsight, I think Alejandro González Iñárritu nabbing an Oscar for a chilly (pun intended), stale epic over the brilliance of George Miller's MAD MAX: FURY ROAD seems more foolish by the day.
five years on from lockdown, how do you view the State of Cinema today? Have we bounced back? have you noticed major shifts in the industry or audiences?
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what do you think are the best and worst trends in movie making right now?
i've combined these questions because they broach similar topics concerning How Things Are Going Right Now, which....I mean, not great, y'know? I think audiences want to bounce back, but the studios are pretty much bungling every opportunity they can to do so. there's an overreliance on IP Brand Management, on investing in AI, on those godawful live-action remakes of animated films (that MOANA 2026 teaser is a nightmare), on streaming services still dictating theatergoing habits, and especially on theatrical windows for films getting shorter and shorter. if audiences know that a movie is going to be available to digitally rent three weeks after release, then why bother prioritizing a trip to the cinema? in the broadest sense, I think studios need to be investing in artists more than IP, and investing in theatrical viewing over streaming. only then can we even attempt at getting back to a pre-2020 "bounce back" for Cinema.
as a cinefile parent, what 2025 movie are you excited to share with your child?
it's been a pretty middling year for children's films as a whole, but I'm sure there will come a time when Baby finds out about KPOP: DEMON HUNTERS and wants to give that a whirl. honestly, I'd be very excited to share both BOYS GO TO JUPITER and AJ GOES TO THE DOG PARK with him, two films with very singular Saturday-Morning-Cartoon-Adjacent aesthetics that offer creativity alongside their antics.
will Jimmy Cameron do it again???
girl, maybe! you know I'll be there hoping and praying.
hail Payakan.
the inaugural Oscar for Best Casting - predictions? preferences? general thoughts?
great questions! it's true; this year, the Academy Awards will be giving out their first Oscar for Best Casting. it's honestly really hard to say what direction this will go in, as I'm kinda clueless to the thought process behind the casting directors currently in the Academy. what are their criteria when it comes to "good casting"? will the booming work of the ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER cast come out on top? the relative unknowns of IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT? the ensemble magic of SINNERS? the eclectic theatrical universe of BLUE MOON? were I to give out this award, it would likely go to the brilliant stylized melange of actors in Wes Anderson's THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, but above all else, i'm just excited to see what "Good Casting" appears to be in the eyes of the Academy.
what do you think of the year in film?
top 5 2025 if you had to pick now from what you've enjoyed?
i think people are trying to convince themselves that 2025 was some kind of important bellwether year for the industry which, idk, time will be the best judge of that. for me, it was just another year filled with a few gems of moviemaking if you knew where to look.
as for my top 5, I'll be doing my full rankings later in December/early January, but to slightly give the game away, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, TRAIN DREAMS, PAVEMENTS, and RESURRECTION are currently the 5 films I can't stop thinking about. will that hold true come the end of the year? y'all will just have to wait and find out!
thanks as always, and more movie talk soon!
