00:00So we're halfway through the year and I thought why not do a midpoint best films of the year list?
00:04Mostly to show what I've enjoyed throughout the year so far, inform you the audience of films you
00:10might have missed during the year, and give you time to catch up on them if you missed them.
00:15My rules are still the same as the best of 2024 list, must have been released to an audience in
00:202025. Films that had a festival release count. Films that had a run in theatres the year before
00:25getting released in the UK do not count. Anyway, let's start this list with
00:31Number 1. Black Bag. A cool John Le Carrier-esque spy thriller directed in a no-nonsense,
00:37no-frills manner, but Steven Soderbergh still adds a lot of style into it.
00:44Number 2. Bullet Train Explosion. While I haven't seen the original that this film is a sequel to,
00:49I found it a good time. Like most disaster movies like this, it has all the same hallmarks of the
00:54genre. People in suits, figuring out how to solve the problem, cast of different character
00:58archetypes all stuck in one location, and tense situations to go into. The film is a sequel to
01:03a Japanese film from 1975, and you don't have to watch that film to get the full picture for this
01:08film, but towards the end it does connect itself with the original film where the uninitiated might
01:12get lost. The film is available on Netflix. Number 3. Drop. From Happy Death Days Christopher Landon
01:19comes Drop. A confident and fun thriller. Here, Megan Fahey goes on a date and is giving
01:24sinister Dropbox messages. It's a good time, the premise is used to full effect, the situation
01:29is tense, and like Landon's other films, has a good mystery to it.
01:33Number 4. Havoc. Eleven years ago, Welsh director Gareth Evans made probably one of the best action
01:37movies of the 2010s in The Raid 2. A shining gem and a pretty good year for action movies in
01:41retrospect. This year, he returns to the action genre in Havoc. A film that got delayed a bunch,
01:46but the end result is good. It's not as transcendent as the Raid movies, but it's a good time
01:50regardless. The action is great with viciously bloody style and close-quarter gunfights. This
01:56film is also streaming on Netflix. Number 5. Revelations. From Train to Busan director
02:03Yeong Sang-ho comes Revelations, a mystery film from South Korea about a priest who gets interested
02:09in one of his parishioners who might be involved in a police investigation, and that's all I'm
02:14going to say from here on in. It's a good film. There's a lot of moving parts, some don't get
02:19as
02:19much attention as they should, but I was entertained by it, especially with the performances. If you
02:24have seen Yeong Sang-ho's other films, you can see the attention he pays to themes like family and
02:28guilt. This film is, yet again, on Netflix. Number 6. Sinners. Lots of things have been said by people
02:36who are smarter than me about this movie, and probably have better recording equipment than me as well.
02:41But it's still true. Ryan Coogler's cinema is both a great vampire movie and a loving piece on the
02:46communal power of music. Michael B. Jordan does a good double performance, and Jack O'Connell is
02:51having a lot of fun as the main villain. Number 7. The Monkey. I liked the latest Final Destination
02:57just fine, but I found this latest Stephen King adaptation by Oz Perkins just slightly more than that
03:03film. Not saying it's bad, though. It's actually pretty good as well. Here, Perkins trades in the slow-burning and
03:10disquieting horror of his previous film, Long Legs, for a straight-up black comedy, and it's effective.
03:15The film goes straight into a gleeful and over-the-topness with the deaths, and they're
03:20funny, making it feel like it would have been a great fit for a creep shell movie if the film
03:24was
03:24a bit shorter. With the recent drought of theatrical comedy films, I found The Monkey one of the best
03:28comedies I've seen so far this year. Number 8. The Wedding Banquet. I haven't seen the original
03:36Ang Lee Wedding Banquet, but I found this remake thoroughly enjoyable and a great feel-good movie,
03:41probably my favourite of the year so far. A thoroughly modern look at queer relationships
03:45with great performances all around, from a cast working on all cylinders. It's a delightful
03:50and funny movie as well. Number 9. Thunderbolts. While I still enjoyed the post-Endgame movies,
03:58Thunderbolts is probably the best of the recent bunch. The film is great in version of the superhero
04:02team-up, where the cast this time all wash-outs with different sets of hang-ups that they all
04:06have to deal with, and the actors who play them all work well together. Lewis Pullman's Bob is one
04:10of the year's best new characters, and the film's way of talking about mental health makes this one
04:14of the best experimental movies of the year so far. Number 10. 825 Forest Road. This film sees
04:21Hell House LLC director Steven Cognetti step away from his Found Fridge franchise that concludes this
04:26year with a completely different horror film. Shot like a regular film, but is still a creepy and scary
04:31film nonetheless. The film is told in a Rashomon style, with each act being told from a different
04:35perspective, and he manages to craft some excellent and creepy scenes from this setup. I'm excited to
04:40see what he does next, especially as his next Hell House film seems to be doing in a way with
04:44Found Fridge style as well. So these are my favourite films of the year so far.
04:51Uh, just adding this here saying that, uh, I just watched the Phoenician Scheme yesterday, I was in the
04:56middle of editing this, and, uh, that's also a good film I also enjoyed, and probably one of my favourites
05:01of the year
05:01so far, and I just put it on here because, well, don't know where else I'm going to talk about
05:06it.
05:06Will this change at the end of the year? Maybe. Maybe not. Will I be reusing clips of these in
05:11my
05:11end of year video this year to save time? Probably. But I might have other things to say about these
05:17films down the line, so who knows. Now what's the best film of the year you've seen so far? Please
05:22comment below, and don't forget to like, share, and subscribe. Hey, do you like movies? Do you like
05:28stuff like that? There's Watch This Space, my film view show, where I view recent films,
05:32and I also make short films, like correspondence, which is very unique. If you'd like to see stuff
05:36like this, then please subscribe to stay updated on my work. I also follow my social media channels
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