Hi friends! I’m excited to announce the 2025 Blind Spot picks! This will be my 10th year doing monthly blind spot reviews but will be my 2nd year with the podcast component with my friend Manda. What a joy it has been talking about these films with her each month and it was so much fun to make our selections for 2025 together (and gratifying that she enjoyed the experience enough to want to continue.)

The announcement for next years films starts at around 29 min mark after the ad.

As is usually the case we tried to have a variety in our Blind Spot picks with some classics, cult classics, critical darlings, and commercial hits in a variety of genres and styles. Here’s what we came up with for 2025:

Jan- DR NO by director Terence Young

James Bond is a franchise I have a lot of blind spots for. I have seen the recent Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan films but that’s about it. With this gap it only makes sense to start with the first film and watch Dr No starring Sean Connery as our suave Agent 007

Feb- PUNCH DRUNK LOVE by director Paul Thomas Anderson

As a comedian I must admit I am not a big fan of Adam Sandler. Most of his comedies have been miserable experiences and it caused me to not take him seriously as an actor especially before I became a critic. I know he has been highly praised in more serious roles including his turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love. I know it has some quirky attributes so I’m looking forward to seeing it.

March- XANADU by director Robert Greenwald

Of course you all know I am very forgiving of musicals- even bad musicals. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to finally watch the cult classic much-maligned musical from 1980 Xanadu. I know my friend Stanford thinks it’s one of the worst movies ever made so that has me intrigued!

April- A ROOM IN TOWN by director Jacques Demy

By this point I have seen the high profile movies by Jacques Demy so I thought it would be fun to dive a little deeper into his filmography with A Room in Town. We may also do Umbrellas of Cherbourg to introduce Manda to that one. I’ve heard this one described as a “cinematic cousin” to Cherbourg so that’s promising. Either way it’s sure to be beautiful.

May- HEATHERS by director Michael Lehmann

Heathers is an interesting blind spot because it’s a rare case where I have actually seen the musical adaptation twice before seeing the movie. I’ve seen the proshot from 2022 and saw a live production of it this year. It should be very interesting to see the differences with the musical and what makes this very dark horror comedy work as a movie and 1989 cult classic.

June- RUSH by director Ron Howard

One of the reasons I love doing this Blind Spot series is it helps me find time to see movies I missed that I’ve heard good things about. Such an example is Rush, which I didn’t see back in 2013 but heard is really entertaining. It should be a fun star-studded movie to start off the summer months.

July- BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE by director Richard Quine

I’ve heard a lot about Bell, Book and Candle over the years. Particularly as it was the name of Cassie’s shop in the show Good Witch which I covered for Hallmarkies Podcast. I’ve heard about it but just never had the chance to see it so this should be a lot of fun to check off my list.

Aug- FIGHT CLUB, PANIC ROOM directed by David Fincher

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Because his movies are so violent I actually have a lot of David Fincher blind spots. In August we are going to double up (Manda had seen Fight Club) and cover Fight Club and Panic Room. I know especially Fight Club is quite iconic so it should be fun to talk about both films with my friend.

 Sept- WUTHERING HEIGHTS directed by William Wyler

I must admit I am not the biggest fan of Wuthering Heights as a novel so I haven’t been that motivated to see all the film adaptations over the years. There have been so many and I’ve seen several of them but I have never seen the iconic 1939 version by director William Wyler. 1939 was one of the most amazing years for film so will be interesting to see how this stands up to other movies like The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and Gone with the Wind.

Oct- POLTERGEIST directed by Tobe Hooper

One of the blessings of this Blind Spot series is I’ve been able to check off a lot of horror classics off of my list usually in October. Next year it will be Poltergeist which I know some people think Steven Spielberg actually directed but he was a writer and producer of the film and given a story credit. I’ve heard it’s not too scary so hopefully won’t be too much for me.

Nov- I AM LOVE directed by Luca Guadagnino

Director Luca Guadagnino has become one of the most highly praised and significant directors of our age and I Am Love is one of his earlier films I still haven’t seen. I love Tilda Swinton and the premise sounds intriguing. She learned to speak Russian and Italian for the movie so that’s impressive.

Dec- KISS KISS, BANG BANG directed by Shane Black

Given my work with Hallmarkies Podcast it’s getting increasingly difficult to find holiday blind spots I do have. One director who almost always sets his movies at Christmas is Shane Black so our 2025 final pick is his comedy crime movie Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of Black’s style (for example, reviewed Lethal Weapon for this series which he wrote, and I didn’t love.) However, I am excited to see a young Robert Downey Jr in Kiss Kiss and it will hopefully be a nice break from the rom-coms I typically watch in December.

So there you have it! Our 2025 Blind Spot picks! What do you think of these picks? Do you think we have a good variety? Are they favorites of yours? Let us know! I’m so happy to be doing this series with my friend so please subscribe and keep an eye out each month for our episodes as well as my monthly posts. Enjoy!

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