John Waters Crowns His 2025 Favorites — From Eddington to Final Destination: Bloodlines

John Waters still hasn't made a new movie since 2004's A Dirty Shame, not for lack of trying. He's been hustling to get Liarmouth off the ground and just hasn't landed the financing. But even without a fresh Waters film, the man reliably gives us something to talk about every year: his deeply chaotic, taste-challenging top 10 list. Vulture just ran his picks for 2025, and the top two are exactly the kind of curveballs you expect from him: Ari Aster's Eddington at No. 1 and Final Destination: Bloodlines right behind it.

Waters on Eddington: hostile, hilarious, and a dare

Waters calls Aster's latest his favorite of the year, basically because it's a movie full of people you don't want to root for, yet he finds it brutally funny and perversely restrained. He says it leaves you feeling scrambled and smug-cultured in the best way. And then he drops the hammer:

"If you don't like this film, I hate you."

For what it's worth, JoBlo critic Chris Bumbray gave Eddington a 5/10, so… good luck if he runs into Waters in a lobby.

And yes, he put Final Destination: Bloodlines at No. 2

Waters calls the new Final Destination the best sequel to the "coolest cinematic franchise ever," praising directors Adam B. Stein and Zach Lipovsky for going mean, messy, and surprise-heavy. His closer is peak Waters:

"This picture goes beyond trash into a new realm of exploitation art."

That tonal whiplash from Aster to a studio horror sequel? That's the Waters of it all. The man lives for the movies people side-eye.

The rest of his 2025 top 10

It's a very Waters spread: some ultra-arthouse, some barely screened, all unapologetically niche. He even notes that New York City might be the only place you could realistically have seen the whole set this year.

• Oslo Trilogy (Dag Johan Haugerud)
• Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)
• Sauna (Mathias Broe)
• Room Temperature (Dennis Cooper, Zac Farley)
• Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
• When Fall Is Coming (François Ozon)
• My Mom Jayne (Mariska Hargitay)
• The Empire (Bruno Dumont)

And in case you forgot how much he enjoys poking the bear, last year he singled out Joker: Folie a Deux and told the detractors, "Die, dumbbells, die!" Subtlety is not the brand.

So, where do you land on Waters crowning Eddington and Final Destination: Bloodlines as the year's best? Inspired picks or chaos for chaos' sake?