Top Ten of 2025
Note: Click on the linked titles for full reviews of each film
Top ten lists come with a tension: post it in the rush of early-mid December discussions to be in the mix, but miss out on catching up on the many movies one’s inevitably not yet watched. Or hold off and see as many things as possible, but miss the wave. I felt like there were too many I hadn’t yet seen, and—since this list is just for my personal sharing purposes—decided to wait, making it a bit belated (it’s even January now!). But I believe it better captures the many great movies and great types of work that were released last year. Even though I still have more to catch up on.
Above all, I’d love for this to serve as my personal recommendations if there are any that intrigue you. And if you do have thoughts on any you watch for the first time or have already seen, I’d love to hear your thoughts. With that, here’s my top ten, plus a few extra “favorites” for good measure:
2025 was full of overtly political films, and (with apologies to Paul Thomas Anderson) no one is making political films like Jafar Panahi. Throughout the course of his career, the Iranian government has arrested Panahi, banned him from filmmaking, and restricted him from leaving the country. None of those deterred him from continuing to make movies, though, including his last two excellent features, No Bears and 2025’s It Was Just an Accident.
“So how does one stop the proliferation of evil? In a culture that prefers to move forward in willful ignorance, how does one seek justice? Panahi's characters are confronted with the possibility that the insistence of justice in such a world may require the fracturing of their own morality. There are no easy answers, there is no resolution. What we get from It Was Just an Accident, instead, is a film of fury and incendiary—if tentative—hope.”
“But we also need movies that feel, for lack of a better word, timeless. These are not distractions or escapes from the woes of contemporary life; instead, they allow us to step back and view life from a separate perspective. While they don’t provide a clarion call for this present moment, they nevertheless offer wisdom with a still, small voice.”
If my top film is overt and incendiary, my second favorite is a much-needed respite, a step back from the chaos of the now. Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams is beautiful, calm, and powerful, something like a ode to the quickly transforming landscape of the Pacific Northwest, as well as to the quickly transforming lives of those who wander there.
I love a good art heist. And a crafty Kelly Reichardt movie. And a sly Josh O’Connor performance. So the second that O’Connor’s JB Mooney lifted the latch on a museum case and Rob Mazurek’s jazzy drums kicked in? I was already having a great time. As with many of Reichardt’s films, The Mastermind opens up and slows down more than its premise might entice you to think. But if you’re ready to match its pace, there’s a lot of cozy enjoyment here along with plenty of indirect themes to chew on.
“The magic of the performance is O’Connor’s ability to exude charm in an otherwise listless and insincere character. For all his faults, I would still hang out with JB, even if I knew he would just end up asking me for money (again).”
The last movie I caught up with before publishing this list. Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is rich with emotional nuance and wisdom. Few contemporary directors are crafting emotional dramas filled with this much layered humanity (I’d throw Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Mia Hansen-Løve in).
“Sentimental Value is carefully attuned to those pains and the way they change over time. In fact the passage of time, itself, hurts. We hurt those we love, those we have failed so many times. History hurts, with its waves of injustice and tyranny. And how easy it is for the flourishing of others to feel like fresh wounds in the face of our envies and unfulfilled longings. Yet for all that, we still choose to hold so many things dear.”
Very much the film of 2025: the most discussed, the most of its moment, the loudest and boldest (at least with respect to its size and budget) call to action. But also another undeniably Paul Thomas Anderson film. It’s digressive, startling, humorous, dense, and substantial.
“All of the tangents, the humor, and the tension cohere to make the movie at once an excellent thriller and an impassioned jeremiad for the state of the world. One Battle After Another is a furious film for an unsubtle time. The revolution is never finished, but it is always regenerating.”
A sports movie. And also maybe the most arthouse movie on this list. A group of mostly middle aged men play one last rec league game of baseball before their local field is bulldozed to build a school. (The bastards.) That’s all there is to it. Yet it’s an inviting, melancholic, and humorous portrait of doing something you love in the dying of its last light.
“For anyone who enjoys baseball and can get on the wavelength of slow cinema, Eephus veers toward beauty and, yes, even transcendence. This isn’t to say Eephus is an ordeal, though—it’s a brief film with plenty of comedy and dialogue to keep things moving. It’s also consistently hilarious in ways that will slip lines into your subconscious for years to come. As with slow cinema, and as with baseball, this is all about the details: the inexplicable (but always necessary) stance of a pitcher before his windup; the erring sign from the third base coach; the guy keeping score, archiving, turning a vapor of an afternoon into history.”
A spy thriller that elides action for dinner parties, and loses none of its delight in the process. Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven, Contagion, Out of Sight) works with a script honed to a fine point to create a web of deceit and a handful of wickedly fun performances. And it’s one of the most intelligent movies on marriage, to boot.
That’s right: I’m cheating!
Blue Moon is not the best movie of the year, but I have no doubts that it houses the best performance. Ethan Hawke is so contorted in self-critical sadness here as Lorenz Hart. “‘Who’s ever been loved half enough?’ We’re all suckers for other people’s love and admiration and approval. Hart just no longer has the words to hide it.”
Blue Moon is pound for pound the better film, but it gives me a chance to sneak in Nouvelle Vague. I mean, Richard Linklater made two films this year looking back on a critical work of art and entertainment that transformed their respective genres—how could I not use that connection to share some love for his playful (and more fun) recreation of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless?
Equally a movie made for me and made to trouble me. While it has neither the most laughs or the best mystery of the Knives Out films (those would be Glass Onion and the original, respectively), Wake Up Dead Man has Rian Johnson’s most resonant and pointed critiques yet. Also, here I am yet again praising a Josh O’Connor performance from 2025 (and note that this best-of list does not include Rebuilding, where he’s the best part of an otherwise solid, familiar indie drama).
“Weighty matters aside, the setting of this story also affords a chance for Johnson to let some freakier influences shine through—as the story turns darker, Wake Up Dead Man briefly becomes an all-out gothic horror, replete with late night chases through forests and acid baths. It’s possible that Johnson has never had as much fun lighting a film as with this one.”
I watched this one on a whim, and how fitting for a film so full of whimsy. There’s no succinct way to describe the plot (what’s there, anyways) other than to say it takes place in an imagined version of Winnipeg where Persian is the dominant cultural language. Universal Language is wildly absurd and wholly sincere. One of my favorite unexpected discoveries, and one with quotes that will probably be stuck in my head for a long time. (“His gobbling breathed life into my soul.”) If you’re into bone-dry, quirky humor, please check this one out.
Honorable mentions: Sinners, Vulcanizadora, Cloud, Marty Supreme, 28 Years Later
Best lead performances: Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Josh O’Connor (The Mastermind), Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), Josh O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man), Michael B. Jordan (Sinners), Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
Best supporting performances: Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another), Michael Cera (The Phoenician Scheme), William H. Macy (Train Dreams), Miriam Afshari (It Was Just an Accident), Ralph Fiennes (28 Years Later), Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly), Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)
