"The week before Christmas is always a flurry of holiday activity - last-minute gift purchases, travel, maybe a few batches of cookies waiting to be baked - but it's also when publications start scrambling to get all their year-in-review columns out the door. The best albums, the best movies, the best TV shows, even the best memes - as someone who's spent a good chunk of her life compiling such lists, I can tell you that there are typically a few clear front-runners or consensus favorites that emerge."
"It was a year without a definitive "song of the summer" - no omnipresent, undeniable bops a la "Espresso" in 2024 - and one in which Hollywood experienced some of the worst box office misfires in recent memory, despite churning out a slew of expensive movies full of A-list actors delivering Oscar-worthy (or at the very least, Oscar- baity) performances. It was even a year that saw devoted Swifties turning on Taylor Swift after The Life of a Showgirl."
Year-end cultural roundups usually produce clear consensus favorites across music, film, and television. 2025 lacked a definitive song of the summer and showed no omnipresent pop bops. Hollywood produced many expensive, awards-capable films but suffered widespread box office failures and mixed critical responses. Some films reached critical acclaim while underperforming financially. Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another received acclaim as a generation-defining masterpiece and an awards frontrunner, yet was projected to lose about $100 million because of its massive budget. Other movies experienced similarly poor returns and failed to connect with critics. Cultural success in 2025 therefore hinges on whether artistic merit or commercial performance is prioritized.
Read at InsideHook
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