The Best Films of 2025

Introduction

As I just published my first review of a 2026 film, I figured now is the right time to commit to that time honored tradition for anybody who seeks to write about movies: a list of the best films of 2025.

Yes, yes, I’m aware that most people who write such lists published these at some point in December. Ya know, when it was still 2025.

Part of the reason for my delay is, frankly, I haven’t seen all of the movies I feel like could be in consideration for such a list. Try as I might, there are only so many films I can fit into a given year, so for various reasons I have missed many movies that I’ve seen acclaimed by myriad critics who I generally trust. These blind spots include Mona Fastvold’s Shaker musical drama ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’, Kelly Reichardt’s languid heist caper ‘The Mastermind’, and the Spanish adventure drama ‘Sirât’.

Hell, I haven’t even seen the billion-dollar blockbuster ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ yet.

All of this to say, the following is not a definitive list of the greatest movies from the year 2025. In five years if you ask me about 2025, I may instead recall movies I haven’t even seen yet.

And, as is often forgotten during film awards season, cinema is not a sport, where one movie scores more points than another and is an undisputed victor. How does one compare a beautiful period piece like ‘Hamnet’ with a gruesome franchise thrill ride like ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’? It’s like comparing Sweetgreen with Shake Shack. Sure, Sweetgreen is good for me and if I eat too much Shake Shack my heart will explode, but have you tried a Shack Stack?

If you find yourself disagreeing with this list, that’s totally fine, as the conversation is more important to me than simply being right. Having seen so many movies this year, there are several just outside the top ten that could easily jump onto the list with just the slightest nudge.

2025 was a strong year for movies, with major Hollywood studio releases, low budget independents, and international cinema all delivering memorable, powerful works that merit your consideration.

So without further ado …

The List

10. 28 Years Later

Danny Boyle returned to his world of zombies with ‘28 Years Later’, a remarkable thriller with a deeply felt humanity powering the horror and drama throughout. Over the past several decades, zombie movies had become quite stale, so the success of ‘28 Years Later’ was a pleasant surprise, serving both as a continuation of its franchise, deepening the world-building, and a standalone story of a son trying to make the best life possible for himself and his parents in a world that has fallen apart.

Read full review here.

9. Blue Moon

A movie that is just people talking in a room is always a risky bet, but with the right filmmakers and actors the result can be absolutely intoxicating. Ethan Hawke carries the show, broaching so many interesting conversations with his fellow barflies as he lives out the worst night of his professional and personal life. Andrew Scott, Bobby Cannavale, Margaret Qualley and Patrick Kennedy all add color to Richard Linklater’s brilliant drama that feels like a stageplay, and should have a long life in acting classes from here to eternity.

Read full review here.

8. Hamnet

‘Hamnet’ is an emotionally devastating period piece, depicting the domestic tragedies of William and Agnes Shakespeare that inspired ‘Hamlet’. A biopic about The Bard always runs the risk of being pretentious and ponderous, yet Chloe Zhao creates beautiful landscapes, a pre-modern world with artistic spirits trying to avoid being stifled by the day-to-day limitations of a normal life. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal deliver powerhouse performances, portraying authentic love and companionship that makes the tragedy to come all the more heartbreaking.

Read full review here.

7. Eddington

It will take a lot for any movie to surpass ‘Eddington’ as the definitive take on pandemic era America. While some people will undoubtedly be reluctant to grapple with this subject anytime soon, Ari Aster delivers a wonderfully off kilter genre mashup, that is funny and thrilling without losing any poignancy, maintaining that the sociopolitical issues that felt so visceral during COVID persist to this day, with no end in sight.

Read full review here.

6. Marty Supreme

Branching off for his first solo directorial feature, Josh Safdie delivers an energetic sports drama with a superstar performance from Timothée Chalamet, a highlight in a career filled with superlative work. ‘Marty Supreme’ is a sports drama, yes, that knows how to deliver and subvert the genre’s expectations in ways that are surprising and gratifying, but it’s also a period piece, a comedy, a crime thriller and so much more.

Read full review here.

5. Weapons

I called it at the time, and as 2025 has concluded I can re-state confidently that ‘Weapons’ was the most fun I had at the theater all year. Zach Cregger’s horror mystery proves that horror and comedy share much of the same DNA, with Cregger a maestro at building scenes to the utmost tension only to release them shocking ways, sometimes with a scare, sometimes with a laugh, and often with an uncomfortable mix of the two.

Read full review here.

4. The Secret Agent

Wagner Moura is a master of subtlety in ‘The Secret Agent’, the Brazilian conspiracy thriller from director Kleber Mendonça Filho. ‘The Secret Agent’ is vibrant and confounding, exploring so many ideas about independence in the face of oppressive corruption while remaining grounded by Moura’s indelible main character – a man on the run from forces he can only begin to understand.

Read full review here.

3. One Battle After Another

P.T. Anderson, working from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, delivers an epic action comedy that speaks to revolutionary idealism across generations and deftly addresses topical issues specific to our current divisive society – brutal immigration enforcement, white nationalists in positions of power, left wing “lunatics” being viewed as bigger threats than avowed killers. ‘One Battle After Another’ explores all of this dense thematic material without losing focus on its core story of a single father desperately trying to save his daughter and give her the better future he has given up for himself.

Read full review here.

2. Sentimental Value

While so many films this year dealt with timely sociopolitical realities, Joachim Trier opted to pursue the timeless with ‘Sentimental Value’, his exploration of a family pulling apart and coming back together again over and over as they all deal with their personal and shared traumas in ways both constructive and destructive. Trier’s fable of estrangement needles deep into these characters’ psychology and allows for truly stunning performances from its central trio of Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as well as a powerful turn from Elle Fanning as an American actress looking to penetrate this family’s complex history in the name of producing truly great art.

Read full review here.

1. It Was Just An Accident

As Iran falls deeper into civil unrest, with a beleaguered populace unleashing years of pent up anger over injustice after injustice revolting to tear down the authoritarian theocracy, ‘It Was Just An Accident’ feels like the perfect portal to understand the deep pain and grievances of the average Iranian. Jafar Panahi’s magnificent thriller pushes you to the edge of your seat in the opening scene and keeps a persistent, thrumming tension sustained until the jaw-dropping end credits in a masterclass of suspense filmmaking that delivers as a mystery, but is made into a masterpiece by its exploration of how everyday men and women are forever changed when a state willfully wields violence against its own people.

Read full review here.