{"id":2203996,"date":"2025-12-18T11:06:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2203996"},"modified":"2025-12-18T11:06:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T11:06:46","slug":"the-12-best-needle-drops-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-12-best-needle-drops-of-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The 12 best needle drops of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Tunes \u2014 well-chosen ones \u2014 turn normal movie scenes into electric ones. Needle drops, they\u2019re called in the film world. (And don\u2019t laugh: Several of the filmmakers below are, indeed, dropping turntable needles onto vinyl records.)<\/p>\n

What makes for a good needle drop? Sometimes it\u2019s comic irony. Elsewhere, it\u2019s trapping the sincerity of a moment in the amber glow of a perfect pop song, one you\u2019ll never think of in the same way again.<\/p>\n

We went through the entire year and grabbed a dozen of our favorites, listed below in no particular order \u2014 feel free to resequence them into your own personal playlist.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Best <\/picture> <\/a> <\/div>\n

Our picks for this year\u2019s best in arts and entertainment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

The Spice Girls, \u20182 Become 1,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Together\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Alison Brie and Dave Franco in the movie \u201cTogether.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Neon)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Dave Franco and Alison Brie are married in real life, but in the body horror romance \u201cTogether,\u201d<\/a> they play an engaged couple named Tim and Millie who might be happier breaking up. He\u2019s a frustrated, flunked-out rock star; she\u2019s a schoolteacher who loves the Spice Girls. Writer-director Michael Shanks plays their discordant musical taste like a minor joke among all the major reasons why their codependent relationship has hit the skids. As a hail Mary, Tim and Millie move from the city to the countryside for some miserable quality time \u2014 and there, deep in the woods, an eerie cave infects Tim\u2019s skin cells with the urge to merge with Millie permanently. It all climaxes in a slow dance to the 1996 grrrl-pop ballad that\u2019s never felt more sticky-sweet. \u2014 Amy Nicholson<\/i><\/p>\n

Jack O\u2019Connell, Lola Kirke and Peter Dreimanis, \u2018Pick Poor Robin Clean,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Sinners\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Four <\/picture>\n
\n

Peter Dreimanis, left, Jack O\u2019Connell, Hailee Steinfeld and Lola Kirke in the movie \u201cSinners.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

So much of Ryan Coogler\u2019s supercharged vampire movie<\/a> is saturated with blues music, both in its original score by Ludwig G\u00f6ransson<\/a> (itself an impressive piece of scholarship) and its careful selection of authentic period songs that both articulate and subvert the legend of going down to the crossroads to make a deal with the devil. So why is it this<\/i> one I\u2019m fixated on? It\u2019s the tune most loaded with subtext. A trio of white musicians shows up at the door of the juke joint. They play this traditional number in the hopes of getting through the door. But in their smiling, cleaned-up, sprightly version of it, you can hear the whole of white cultural appropriation to come. The music is ominous. What exactly is getting picked clean? The song has become an evil spell. And the fact that it doesn\u2019t work \u2014 they\u2019re turned away \u2014 is another credit to Coogler\u2019s instincts. It\u2019s music criticism smuggled into a Hollywood smash. \u2014 Joshua Rothkopf<\/i><\/p>\n

Steely Dan, \u2018Dirty Work,\u2019 as heard in \u2018One Battle After Another\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Chase Infiniti in the movie \u201cOne Battle After Another.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Warners Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Paul Thomas Anderson<\/a> has been deploying needle drops with precision since \u201cBoogie Nights\u201d and \u201cMagnolia,\u201d and 10 movies deep into his career, his ear remains sharp. In \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d<\/a> his darkly comic action-thriller, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary who has spent years in hiding, raising his teenage daughter and trying to keep his past at bay. But the movie\u2019s frenetic opening stretch loosens into something shaggier when Steely Dan\u2019s 1972 world-weary track \u201cDirty Work\u201d comes in. We see Bob parked outside his daughter\u2019s school, getting high before a parent-teacher conference, ducking the eyes of other parents and swinging the door to air out the smoke. When the chorus arrives \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m a fool to do your dirty work\u201d \u2014 it lands as recognition, not commentary. Bob knows he\u2019s a sucker. We all are sometimes. The song just says it out loud. \u2014 Josh Rottenberg<\/i><\/p>\n

George Harrison, \u2018Beware of Darkness,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Weapons\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

A scene from the movie \u201cWeapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Zach Cregger\u2019s viral horror hit<\/a> winds its way methodically to a climax of such hilarious savagery that you\u2019ll scare yourself with how hard you\u2019re laughing. Yet the movie opens with an almost unbearably poignant blend of picture and sound: a bunch of third-graders in their PJs running over dark, rain-slicked suburban streets \u2014 why? how? to what end? \u2014 against the aching psychedelic folk-rock of George Harrison\u2019s \u201cBeware of Darkness.\u201d The song, from Harrison\u2019s first solo album after the Beatles\u2019 breakup, urges the listener not to be swallowed by \u201cthe hopelessness around you in the dead of night.\u201d In \u201cWeapons,\u201d its eerie harmonic movement portends an innocence soon to be lost. \u2014 Mikael Wood<\/i><\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin, \u2018Whole Lotta Love,\u2019 as heard in \u2018F1\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Brad Pitt in the movie \u201cF1.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Warner Bros. Pictures)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Too on the nose? Sure. That\u2019s why it\u2019s such a thing of beauty. First with \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d<\/a> and now this year with \u201cF1,\u201d<\/a> director Joseph Kosinski has perfected Dad Cinema, creating movies centered on old(ish) guys who most definitely know best. There\u2019s no better soundtrack to this microgenre than classic rock music. And there\u2019s no better classic rock band than Led Zeppelin, a group famously resistant to licensing their songs until recently when the levee has apparently broken. Kosinski employs \u201cWhole Lotta Love\u201d when Brad Pitt\u2019s Sonny arrives at the track for his shift at the 24 Hours of Daytona. His team is languishing until Sonny gets behind the wheel and Robert Plant starts wailing and John Bonham begins bashing. Jimmy Page\u2019s guitar riff seemingly propels Sonny\u2019s car forward to the lead. Ramble on, baby. \u2014 Glenn Whipp<\/i><\/p>\n

John Prine and Iris DeMent, \u2018In Spite of Ourselves,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Die My Love\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in the movie \u201cDie My Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Mubi)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Lynne Ramsay<\/a>\u2019s film is an elliptical, claustrophobic portrait of postpartum delirium<\/a>. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson evoke the small-bore unraveling of new parenthood in the boonies, with Lawrence in particular throwing her whole body into a creeping alienation from one\u2019s spouse and oneself. But there is humor and tenderness shot throughout, moments where the lines of connection between them still hum. The pair singing along to Prine and DeMent\u2019s \u201cIn Spite of Ourselves,\u201d with its wincingly funny lovers trading jabs and devotions, is one moment of levity and self-awareness breaking through the desperation. The tune also memorably appeared in Celine Song\u2019s \u201cMaterialists,\u201d but here, it\u2019s arguably the heart of the movie. \u2014 August Brown<\/i><\/p>\n

Gil Scott-Heron, \u2018The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Dead Man\u2019s Wire,\u2019 \u2018One Battle After Another\u2019 and \u2018The Running Man\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Glen Powell, left, and Colman Domingo in the movie \u201cThe Running Man\u201d<\/p>\n

(Ross Ferguson \/ Paramount Pictures)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

If the same piece of music is used at the end of three different movies, it becomes song of the year by default, right? Gil Scott-Heron\u2019s 1971 \u201cThe Revolution Will Not Be Televised\u201d unexpectedly captured the mood of the moment, one of absurdity and anger with a clear-eyed view on the world. Edgar Wright\u2019s \u201cThe Running Man\u201d<\/a> used the song\u2019s looping, funky backing track underneath a bit of conspiracy-minded explainer video, adding an escalating urgency to the conclusion of the movie\u2019s action-packed satire of corporate media culture. Gus Van Sant\u2019s \u201cDead Man\u2019s Wire\u201d (in theaters Jan. 9) placed it in the end credits to sharpen focus on the film\u2019s growing sense that those stuck outside the system must make their own sense of justice. Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d<\/a> also deploys the song as part of the end credits, revealing that lines of his script\u2019s dialogue \u2014 repeated numerous times as a passcode among compatriot revolutionaries \u2014 come from the lyrics. To see three movies using this one song in particular is thrilling, giving expression to the confusion and discontent felt by so many. Moviemaking can often feel disconnected from the moment. To get three films so vibrant and relevant, in tune with the times and each other, is electrifying. \u2014 Mark Olsen<\/i><\/p>\n

Peter Gabriel, \u2018I Have the Touch,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Marty Supreme\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet in the movie \u201cMarty Supreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

(A24)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Let the era of Peter Gabriel\u2019s gentle movie contributions \u2014 \u201cIn Your Eyes,\u201d and \u201cSolsbury Hill\u201d most sweetly \u2014 come to an end. So much of his spikier music deserves attention. Take this cut off 1982\u2019s \u201cSecurity,\u201d which director Josh Safdie puts to vibrant use in \u201cMarty Supreme\u201d<\/a> (in theaters Dec. 25). How good is Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s Marty at table tennis? He\u2019s a machine. Aggressive \u201980s drums and processed electric guitars set the tone. Even as his opponents step up, there\u2019s no question about the outcome. \u201cI have the touch,\u201d Gabriel states, an alpha competitor in his element. Originally, the song was about establishing dominance while meeting strangers (ah, art rock). Safdie turns it into a referee\u2019s instructions: \u201cShake hands!\u201d the lyrics continue, as we train in on a match. Then, a few seconds later, we hear Gabriel\u2019s voice isolated in scary clarity: Shake hands<\/i>. \u2014 J<\/i>.<\/i> Rothkopf<\/i><\/p>\n

Donna Summer, \u2018Love to Love You Baby,\u2019 as heard in \u2018The Secret Agent\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Wagner Moura in the movie \u201cThe Secret Agent.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Victor Juca)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Between \u201cSir\u0101t\u201d<\/a> and \u201cThe Secret Agent,\u201d<\/a> 2025 was a good movie year for scenes featuring late-night drives along treacherous rural roads. \u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d finds a ruthless stepfather and stepson hit man team winding their way around S\u00e3o Paulo in the dead of night, skirting the S\u00e9rgio Motta Dam, their headlights barely illuminating the path ahead. The darkness is essential to the task at hand: dumping a corpse into the dam\u2019s reservoir. It\u2019s 1977 and the radio\u2019s on, so naturally the soundtrack to their drive is Donna Summer\u2019s disco anthem. It\u2019s a 17-minute song, punctuated by 23 orgasmic moans (per a BBC count). The hypnotic groove gives the sequence an eerie, otherworldly feel, giving it a place among cinema\u2019s great late-night body disposal scenes. \u2014 G<\/i>.W<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Katy Perry, \u2018Firework,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Eddington\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"Joaquin <\/picture>\n
\n

Two men argue on the street of a dusty town.<\/p>\n

(A24)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Katy Perry\u2019s \u201cFirework\u201d insists on optimism whether you\u2019re in the mood or not. Midway through \u201cEddington,\u201d<\/a> Ari Aster<\/a>\u2019s polarizing pandemic-era western, the glossy pop song becomes a pivot point as tensions rise between Joaquin Phoenix\u2019s sheriff and Pedro Pascal\u2019s mayor. At a COVID-masked backyard fundraiser, the sheriff shows up on a noise complaint and tries to turn the music down. The mayor turns it up. The sheriff cuts it again. The mayor cranks it louder still. When Pascal finally slaps Phoenix across the face, the joke is gone and what\u2019s left is a petty, pathetic standoff, scored to Perry\u2019s incongruously perky anthem. Aster has shown a taste for this kind of pop perversity before, most memorably using Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cAlways Be My Baby\u201d in an Oedipal sex scene in \u201cBeau Is Afraid.\u201d<\/a> For some filmmakers, a needle drop doesn\u2019t just score a moment. It pierces it. \u2014 J<\/i>. Rottenberg<\/i><\/p>\n

The Veronicas, \u2018Untouched,\u2019 as heard in \u2018Bring Her Back\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Sally Hawkins and Jonah Wren Phillips in the movie \u201cBring Her Back.\u201d<\/p>\n

(A24)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

In any other movie, the pop-punk confection of the Veronicas\u2019 \u201cUntouched\u201d would be a perfect cue to establish its setting in middle-class suburban Australia, as light and lucky a place as ever was. In this foster care cult-horror nightmare<\/a>, though, the song is the comic foil to one of the movie\u2019s most grotesque and intense moments, and you\u2019re left to watch the scene cackling through clenched hands as all the gore gets barely papered over by a frothy mid-aughts hit. It\u2019s played less for irony and more as context for the relatable world that the directing Philippou brothers built for Sally Hawkins\u2019 desperate pain. A completely sinister, bleakly hilarious bit of soundtrack work that the Veronicas must have found absolutely delicious. \u2014 A<\/i>.B<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n
\"A <\/picture>\n
\n

Pedro Pascal in the movie \u201cFreaky Tales.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Lionsgate)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cFreaky Tales\u201d<\/a> is a kooky love song to the Oakland of the 1980s by the filmmaking duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (\u201cHalf Nelson,\u201d \u201cCaptain Marvel\u201d). Fittingly, it\u2019s packed with fantastic tunes by local artists like Too Short, who narrates these retro misadventures and lets a younger version of himself lose a rap battle to a pair of ferocious female teenagers. Their lyrical spat is my favorite scene but the film\u2019s show-stopping sequence is Golden State Warriors point guard Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis) avenging himself upon a Nazi gang who murdered his girlfriend during a playoff game. (Here\u2019s where I should say \u201cFreaky Tales\u201d is very fictional.) At the first peals of Metallica\u2019s thrash classic, Floyd stuffs his pockets with knives, grabs a samurai sword and gets to slashing, offing so many goons that the movie eventually has to cue up another Bay Area banger, E-40\u2019s \u201cChoices (Yup).\u201d \u2014 A<\/i>.N<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tunes \u2014 well-chosen ones \u2014 turn normal movie scenes into electric ones. Needle drops, they\u2019re called in the film world. (And don\u2019t laugh: Several of the filmmakers below are, indeed, dropping turntable needles onto vinyl records.) What makes for a good needle drop? Sometimes it\u2019s comic irony. Elsewhere, it\u2019s trapping the sincerity of a moment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2203997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2203996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/The-12-best-needle-drops-of-2025.com2Fbc2Fe02Fa1b8e284429c9b100b3aad41.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2203996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203998,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203996\/revisions\/2203998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2203997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2203996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2203996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2203996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}