So you’re stuck in scrolling purgatory again, huh? Endlessly thumbing through Peacock, hoping something jumps out. We’ve been there. That’s why we pulled together the Top 10 Movies you would actually want to watch this week—no fluff, no filler. Whether you’re into thrillers, rom-coms, or indie gems, there’s something worth hitting play on. Here’s your movie cheat sheet for May 25–31, 2025—because your time is too valuable for another “meh” movie night.
The Bad Guys (2022)
Imagine if Ocean’s Eleven starred a wolf, a snake, a shark, a tarantula, and a piranha—and they were animated, but like, cool animated. That’s basically what you’re getting with The Bad Guys, DreamWorks‘ slick, kinetic heist comedy that feels like it was ripped straight out of a comic book (and it kinda was—based on a graphic novel series). The animation style blends that Spider-Verse flair with classic Saturday morning cartoon vibes, and the result is just insanely fun to look at.
The crew—led by Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell, oozing charm)—gets busted and has to fake being reformed good guys. But plot twist: Wolf starts to actually like not being a villain. The others? Not so much. What follows is a fast-paced, surprisingly heartfelt story about identity, redemption, and whether people (or animals, I guess) can really change. Think Zootopia, but a little cooler and more criminal.
The voice cast is stacked: Rockwell, Awkwafina, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos. And the pacing? Zips. Even if you’re not usually an animation person, this one’s got enough wit and heart to win you over. Plus, it’s just nice to watch a “kids movie” that isn’t afraid to be stylish and clever without dumbing things down. A total crowd-pleaser.
Black Christmas (1974)
This isn’t just a slasher movie—it’s the slasher movie. Before Halloween, before Scream, there was Black Christmas, a chilly, unnerving horror classic that still knows how to get under your skin. It’s set during the holidays, but don’t expect warm fuzzy vibes. A group of sorority sisters starts getting creepy phone calls, and before long, people start disappearing. It’s tense. It’s mean. It’s iconic.
What makes this one so disturbing is how quiet and patient it is. There’s no masked killer running around with a chainsaw—just shadows, whispers, and the feeling that something awful is always just out of frame. And the killer? Still one of the creepiest ever put on film, mostly because you barely see him. It’s the ambiguity that really haunts you.
There’ve been remakes, sure, but none of them capture the icy dread of the 1974 original. The cast (including a fantastic Margot Kidder) sells every moment, and the ending? Let’s just say it doesn’t wrap things up in a neat little bow. If you’re into horror that’s more psychological than gory—and doesn’t treat its characters like idiots—this is a must-watch. And yeah, it might ruin “Silent Night” for you forever.
Dead Ringers (1988)
Okay, this one’s a trip. Dead Ringers is David Cronenberg at his most unsettling, which is really saying something. Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists—yes, you read that right—who run a high-end fertility clinic. One’s confident and charming, the other’s shy and anxious, but they both cross some serious ethical and emotional lines… and things spiral fast.
The twins have a weird system going: one seduces patients, the other takes over without them knowing. It’s already shady, but it gets way darker when the shy one falls in love and starts to unravel. Irons plays both brothers, and he’s so good you forget it’s just one actor. He shifts between them with little more than a posture change or a voice tweak—it’s wild.
This movie isn’t jump-scare scary—it’s the kind of horror that crawls under your skin and sits there. It’s about obsession, identity, and the terrifying idea of losing yourself—literally and metaphorically. If you like your thrillers smart, stylish, and deeply messed up, this one will absolutely wreck you. Bonus: it’s got that dreamy ’80s Cronenberg sheen, so even the gross stuff looks kind of beautiful.
Django (1966)
This is one of those movies where you can feel its influence in every Western that came after it. Sergio Corbucci’s Django is gritty, violent, and way ahead of its time. Franco Nero plays the titular gunslinger dragging a coffin behind him through the mud (literally)—and what’s inside that coffin? Not what you think. Okay, maybe exactly what you think, but it’s still awesome.
Django rolls into a town torn apart by two gangs—the Klan on one side, Mexican revolutionaries on the other—and he’s not exactly on anybody’s team. He’s out for revenge, and the movie doesn’t hold back. It’s brutal, even by today’s standards, but it’s also got this weird beauty to it—like a painting that’s been splattered with blood and gunpowder.
If you’ve seen Django Unchained, you’ll catch the homage instantly (Tarantino even gave Nero a cameo). But the original stands on its own as a bold, dirty, morally complex Western that helped redefine the genre. It’s the kind of film where everyone’s bad, but some are just worse—and Django? He’s the baddest of them all.
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Michael Moore does not play nice in Fahrenheit 9/11, and that’s kind of the point. This is him in full bulldog mode, tearing into the Bush administration’s handling of the 9/11 aftermath, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the weird blend of fear, media, and profit that followed. Love him or hate him, Moore knows how to stir the pot—and this one boiled over.
It’s part documentary, part rant, part horror show of real-world policy gone sideways. Moore uses his signature style—wry narration, ambush interviews, brutal archival footage—to lay out his case, and while some parts feel like a punch to the gut, others are surprisingly emotional. There’s a moment with a grieving mother from Flint, Michigan that’ll knock the wind out of you.
The film made waves when it premiered at Cannes (it won the Palme d’Or), and it became the highest-grossing doc of all time. That’s no accident—it’s messy, angry, and personal in a way most documentaries aren’t. Even if you don’t agree with all of it, it’s impossible not to feel something. It’s a time capsule of post-9/11 America, and yeah, it still hits hard.
Half Nelson (2006)
If you only know Ryan Gosling from his dreamy rom-coms or stoic action roles, Half Nelson is going to knock you sideways. He plays Dan, a middle-school history teacher who seems like the kind of guy who’s changing lives in the classroom… until you see him getting high in a bathroom stall between classes. He’s brilliant, yes, but also addicted, broken, and unraveling in real time.
When one of his students, Drey, catches him mid-relapse, it sets off this unexpected connection between them. She’s a smart kid caught in the middle of a rough home life and a drug-dealing older brother, and somehow, this messed-up teacher becomes her weird anchor. It sounds bleak—and it is, kinda—but it’s also weirdly warm, especially in the quiet moments between them.
This isn’t a movie that tries to fix its characters or wrap things up in a bow. It just shows them, in all their messiness, and lets you sit with that. Gosling’s performance is raw and unfiltered (he got an Oscar nom for it, and yeah, he deserved it), and Shareeka Epps is just as good. If you like character studies that leave you emotionally wrecked in the best way, this is one to watch.
The Holdovers (2023)
Settle in with a blanket and a mug of something warm, because The Holdovers feels like a hug and a heartbreak rolled into one. It takes place in 1970 at a snowy New England boarding school where Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti, perfectly grumpy) is stuck babysitting the handful of students with nowhere to go for Christmas break. He’s not thrilled about it. Neither are they.
But slowly, a strange little trio forms: Paul, an angry and isolated student named Angus, and Mary, the school’s cook who’s grieving her son lost in Vietnam. The movie doesn’t rush the bond—it lets it simmer, full of awkward silences, shared cigarettes, and the kind of late-night talks that only happen when the rest of the world is far away. It’s funny, it’s sad, and it’s quietly beautiful.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph won an Oscar for this role, and honestly? She earned every second of that screen time. The whole thing has that retro feel—not just in setting, but in style. Think Dead Poets Society meets The Last Detail. If you’re into stories about broken people figuring out how to survive each other (and themselves), The Holdovers is a soft stunner.
Meet the Patels (2014)
Meet the Patels is one of those documentaries that sneaks up on you. It starts as a funny, low-key look at arranged marriage through the eyes of Ravi Patel, a first-gen Indian American actor whose parents really want him to marry a nice Indian girl. But it ends up being something way deeper about family, identity, and figuring out what love even means when you’re stuck between two cultures.
The best part? Ravi’s parents. They’re hilarious, lovable, and terrifyingly relatable for anyone who’s ever had a family that’s a little too involved in their dating life. Ravi lets them run wild with matchmaking—biodata sheets, weddings, blind dates, the whole thing—while his sister Geeta documents everything, often from behind the camera, laughing and cringing right along with him.
What makes this one special is how open and honest it is. It’s a real dude, having real doubts, trying to live up to real expectations. You’ll laugh a lot, maybe cry a little, and probably want to call your mom afterward (even if she is trying to set you up). It’s light and heartfelt, but with a real emotional core. Basically: a rom-com, but real life.
Memento (2000)
Let’s just say it—Memento is a brain-bender. It’s Christopher Nolan’s breakout hit, and if you’ve never seen it, go in blind. Seriously. But since you’re here, okay, here’s the gist: Guy Pearce plays Leonard, a guy with short-term memory loss trying to solve his wife’s murder. The catch? He can’t make new memories. So he tattoos clues on himself and takes Polaroids to piece things together.
Now, the real kicker? The story’s told backwards. Like, literally. Each scene jumps back a few minutes in time, so you feel just as disoriented as Leonard does. It’s confusing at first, but that’s the point—you’re supposed to feel the same panic, the same paranoia, the same creeping dread that maybe, just maybe, he’s not the hero of this story after all.
It’s dark, tense, and kind of genius. Pearce is magnetic in that “am I the villain?” kind of way, and Nolan plays with time like it’s a puzzle he wants you to almost solve. If you’re into thrillers that mess with your head and don’t spoon-feed answers, Memento will leave you thinking (and rethinking) long after the credits roll. Just… maybe watch it twice.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Let’s give it up for the OG zombie apocalypse. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead didn’t just invent the modern zombie movie—it redefined horror. Shot on a shoestring budget in black and white, it’s simple: strangers barricade themselves in a farmhouse while the dead rise outside. But the real horror? The way people inside the house fall apart.
This movie still hits because it’s not just about monsters. It’s about fear, distrust, and what happens when people are pushed to the edge. Duane Jones leads the cast as Ben—calm, capable, and a total game-changer as one of the first Black leads in horror. The ending? Brutal. Unforgettable. Completely un-Hollywood.
You’ll see the DNA of Night of the Living Dead in everything from The Walking Dead to 28 Days Later—but this one still feels fresh. It’s creepy, claustrophobic, and weirdly political in a way that sneaks up on you. Don’t let the 1968 release date fool you. This is horror with teeth, and it still bites hard.
Wrap Up
So there you have it—ten films that’ll hit you in the brain, the heart, or possibly both at the same time. Whether you’re vibing with a smooth-talking animated wolf (The Bad Guys), diving into Cronenberg’s psychological spiral (Dead Ringers), or watching the world fall apart in grainy black-and-white (Night of the Living Dead), there’s something here that’ll absolutely stick with you.
These aren’t just background-watch kind of movies. They’re the kind you think about days later. The ones that make you pause, rewind, or maybe even Google “what did that ending mean?” halfway through. From twisty thrillers to cozy character studies, brutally honest docs to absolute genre-defining classics—this list covers a little of everything, and none of it’s boring.
So, what’s calling your name? You gonna cry with The Holdovers? Lose time with Memento? Feel deeply weird about twins thanks to Dead Ringers? Whatever you pick, clear your schedule, silence your phone, and settle in. These films deserve your full attention—and honestly, you deserve a good movie night.
