The Movie Journal: June 2025

vampyr

I watched 47 movies in June. 34 of them were new to me. 13 of them were made before I was born. The theme was War Movies in June, and I did a pretty bad job of it. I only watched four films that fit that category (technically I watched Flying Leathernecks in May so that would bring the total up to five).

Like last year, the theme for July will be Sci-Fi in July. I did pretty well with that last year, so hopefully I’ll watch lots of science fiction films this month.

We just finished the sixth month of 2025, which is the halfway point, so I like to spend a little time talking about my movie watching so far.

I’ve definitely slowed my movie watching down a little bit this year. I’ve only watched 209 movies so far (for comparison, I had watched 238 by this point last year). I’ve been catching up on a lot more television, which has been rewarding in its own right. That still comes out to an average of 29.9 movies per month or 8 per week.

Thrillers are my most-watched genre, coming in at 77 films watched. This is followed by Drama (72), Action (56), Horror (52), and Comedy (50). Naturally, I’ve watched the most films from the United States (138), with the UK coming in a distant second (37). After that, we have Japan (19), France (19), Italy (12), and Hong Kong (8).

I’ve watched 10 movies from 2025. 153 of the movies I’ve watched have been new to me. 73.2% of the films I’ve watched have been new to me which is just below where I like to be (I try to keep my ratio at 75%).

Favorite new to me movies I’ve watched in 2025 are Vampyr (1932), Smooth Talk (1985), Mad Detective (2007), and Midnight (2021).

My most watched actors list has changed quite a bit, mostly do to death and Doctor Who. Gene Hackman’s recent passing had me watching several films with him in them. I continue to watch films by David Lynch (and Twin Peaks, which counts as a film according to Letterboxd), and he was a big fan of using the same actors over and over, so Grace Zabriskie and Harry Dean Stanton have entered the charts. Then I watched an entire season of Colin Baker’s version of Doctor Who, which put him and his companion Nicola Bryant on the chart. I just really like Willem Dafoe so he’s made it to the lead without any extra help.

The Criterion Channel is showing a bunch of films from Hong Kong director Johnnie To. I’d never seen any of his films so I gave one of them a shot, and then another and then…well, now he’s tied with David Lynch on the most watched Directors List with four films.

Predator 2 (1990) **1/2
Smooth Talk (1985) ****1/2
Jaws (1975) *****
The Sky Crawlers (2008) ***1/2
Nosferatu (2024) ***
The Phantom of 42nd Street (1945) **1/2
House of Wax (2005) **
Look Back (2024) ****
Dante’s Peak (1997) ***
28 Years Later (2025) ****
Big Bad Mama II (1987) **1/2
Big Bad Mama (1974) **
Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) ***1/2
Mad Detective (2007) ****
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks (1985) ***1/2
Gamera, the Giant Monster (1965) ***1/2
The Big Night (1951) ***1/2
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) ****1/2
Doctor Who: Timelash (1985) ***
Vampyr (1932) *****
The Loveless (1981) ***1/2
Another Simple Favor (2025) ***
Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (1985) ***
28 Weeks Later (2007) ***1/2
28 Days Later (2002) ***1/2
Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani (1985) ***
Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen (1985) ***
The Breaking Point (1950) ****
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) *****
Wild at Heart (1990) ****
Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos (1985) ***1/2
Army of Shadows (1969) *****
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) ****1/2
Port of Shadows (1938) ****
Friday Foster (1975) ****
Baron Blood (1972) ***1/2
The Ghoul (1975) **
The Heroic Trio (1993) ***
Drug War (2012) ****
Breaking News (2004) ***1/2
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) *****
The Thin Red Line (1998) ****
No Way Out (1987) ****
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) ****
Dracula (1979) ****
Blacula (1972) ***1/2
The Wild Geese (1978) *

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