For the last few years, I have kept a list of my 4 favorite first-time watches for every month of the year, and end up with a great way of seeing my favorite 48 movies of that year. This will be a recurring series on Anatomy of a Film, where I break down my favorite discoveries for the year. Let the 2025 recap begin with our four favorites from January 2025! You can view the full list by clicking the image below.
1. Dragon Inn (1967)
King Hu’s Dragon Inn is one of my all time favorite kung-fu movies. Though my understanding of wuxia films (Chinese historical fantasy) still needs to grow, from what I have seen thus far this is one of the most fully realized and fleshed out films I have seen in the genre. My first exposure to Dragon Inn came via the Criterion Channel 24/7 stream. I got home late one night from a grueling shift at Mattress Firm, and had left the channel on for my cat to watch. I was just starting to get into kung-fu at the time and had really only seen movies like Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and was stunned by the final 20 minutes of Dragon Inn. I was entranced by the mystical soundtrack and vast, serene landscapes. It felt daunting to try and approach the rest of the movie after that, so I put it off until I could get some more kung-fu movies under my belt. Catching the end of this movie truly fostered the love I have for the genre now, and I was not disappointed in the slightest by the full film. It is definitely more of a slow burn with bursts of energy here and there, but it is never a boring film. The action really leans into the martial arts fantasy aspect of wuxia films, and is always such a joy to watch. Though I went on my own self-imposed martial arts journey before attempting to approach this absolute beast of a film, that wouldn’t be necessary for someone just getting into the genre.
2. Rear Window (1954)
What more needs to be said about Hitchcock’s Rear Window? My wife and I sat down to watch this on a freezing Sunday morning, and it immediately became one of our favorite mystery movies. We had both fallen in love with James Stewart after having seen It’s A Wonderful Life for the first time in the theater a month prior to this, and as mystery genre fans, we went in with extremely high expectations. We were certainly not disappointed. Hitchcock’s restraint when it comes to violence throughout the film is what stood out to me the most in this movie, because when the violent act of throwing Jeffries out of the finally window comes, it chilled me to the bone. That sickening feeling that hit as he was being dangled out of the window immediately cemented this as one of the best movies I have seen. Also, Grace Kelly delivers an excellent performance as Lisa Fremont and was an excellent foil to Stewart’s no-nonsense Jeffries. This one is an all-timer.
3. The Brutalist (2024)
When The Brutalist was finally hitting theaters, my wife and I were in a rush to see this before the Oscars. It didn’t hit our area until 2025 unfortunately, but are we grateful to have seen this in the theater! Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist landed at number 6 in the top 10 of my favorite movies from 2024. This is my favorite Adrien Brody performance, but Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce also put on masterclass performances as well. Everything about the film feels monumental, coming in at 215 minutes with an in-theater intermission, but it is certainly difficult to watch at times, including a truly shocking rape scene. This is a movie full of complicated and broken characters who struggle with vices such as drug addiction and PTSD. My favorite moments of the movie include the Statue of Liberty intro, the library reveal, the monologue from Orazio (portrayed by Salvatore Sansone) in the Italian marble quarry, the showcase of the community center after its completion, and the final scene. Orazio’s monologue specifically has stayed in my head since that viewing.
“I will never leave this place. I have left only once in 20 years to go to Giulino, Azzano, to beat the corpse of Mussolini with my own hands. Those of us here, my colleagues, we are anarchists. We were part of the Resistance. No one knows the quarries like us. We fought and captured many members of the National Republican Army. We trapped them in these caves. And we dropped these very same stones on them.”
4. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
I am a sucker for a good old heartstring tugging rom-com. Upon a first time viewing, Nora Ephron’s Sleepless In Seattle quickly became one of my favorites in the genre. The journey you go on between Meg Ryan and Tom Hank’s characters is such a wild and fun ride. To me, this movie contains some of the best dialogue I have seen in a romance film. Standout moments of dialogue for me include Tom Hanks asking Rob Reiner for dating advice over lunch, and Meg Ryan’s conversation with Dennis Hyde Pierce about subconscious attraction and cold-feet before a wedding. The unconventional approach of this movie is part of why I find it so compelling. Our two leads barely interact with each other until the final shot of the movie, which dramatically takes place on the top of the Empire State Building. Of the other movies listed above, this is definitely the feel-good film of the bunch. Now I want to re-watch it after writing about it!
And that caps off our first day of Recapsmas! Stay tuned for the February recap!
You can see my Letterboxd reviews for the following movies here:
Anatomy of a Film 
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