2015-2024
Part of me is thinking, ok, they get the idea by now, you like things. How much more of this does anyone need? What does me saying what my favourite albums of the last decade are (Hoodies All Summer by Kano, Fishbowl by Kate Davis, Cœur by Clara Luciani, and Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild by Merce Lemon) actually add at this point? If I give you a brief list of great films (let’s say, Bottoms, Girl Asleep, Avane Srimannarayana, RRR, and Aftersun) will you care any more or less about my opinion than you already did?
Have you seen Steve Camps’ whale paintings? Those are definitely worth seeing. Have you read Tillie Walden or Claire Dean or Mike Fox or Jessie Greengrass or Kevin Barry or Abi Hynes or Eleanor Davis or Cathy Sweeney? Have you played Breath of the Wild? Have you watched Vagrant Queen or She-Ra and the Princesses of Power? I recommend the flipping lot, pal. Go check them out.
That’s your lot, audition-wise. We’re either in this together now or we’re not. Honestly, the whole exercise was mostly just me retraining myself to keep to a schedule and write vaguely readable prose. 8/10 so far, I reckon.
We’re deep into December so now, so I’m going to spend the next few weeks doing end-of-year round-ups and the like, like everyone else on the internet. In order, I’ll tell you my favourite charity shops I visited this year, the best vinyl I bought while I was in them, the best TV I watched this year, and my favourite albums of 2025. Then I’ll do a sort of miscellaneous other stuff list, and a list of the best books I read this year (that were not necessarily published this year). I’ll keep them all pretty brief, pretty relaxed, because it’s just a bit of fun really. It’s just some recommendations. Nothing to get excited about.
Then we get to cinema. Every 2025 film I saw in 2025. That we’ll take seriously. Really seriously. Because I’ve seen a fair few, and if something’s worth doing…
Yes. We’re going to go deep on 2025 cinema. We will be approaching the comprehensive. We will be approaching the definitive. It’s going to be the best end-of-year list of the films of 2025 you will ever see or need or want. Something to look forward to.
Benjamin Judge's judgements 