Top 10 Movies of 2025
2025 turned out to be a good year at the movies with some heavy-hitters topping my list. While my top ten may lack a couple of notable films such as Marty Supreme (which, while I quite enjoyed, never hit with me on an emotional level), it's an eclectic group across multiple genres including drama, a spy thriller, science fiction, horror, and even a comedy sneaking onto the list. Other honorable mentions include Weapons, A House of Dynamite, and Eephus. Now, on to our countdown...
10. It's All Coming Back to Me Now
An upexpected joy, I simply couldn't keep writer/director Jimmy Warden's dark comedy Borderline, with Samara Weaving as a celebrity held hostage by a mad man (Ray Nicholson), off my list. This movie is bonkers in all the right ways including an incredible sequence of events involving Weaving and Alba Baptista which I've gone back to rewatch over and over again. Currently available on streaming and home video.
9. If Music Be the Food of Love
Speaking of movies with a strong leading woman, Mala Emde is terrific here as teenage concert organizer Vera Brandes who, through sheer force of will, put together a concert which would become a seminal moment in Jazz history. Filled with great music, costumes, and cinematography recreating the early 1970s, Köln 75 is a delightful film celebrating both Brandes and the music she passionately championed. Currently available on streaming. Available on home video on January 6th.
8. Kneeling at the Altar of the Rational
It may be my third favorite of the Knives Out films, but Wake Up Dead Man still earns a spot here (which should tell you how much I adore Knives Out and enjoy the franchise writer/director Rian Johnson has created). The third film goes a bit more serious as Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) investigates the death of a hateful priest (Josh Brolin) with a stranglehold on a small community. Johnson delivers another fun mystery with a great ensemble cast led by Josh O'Connor. Give me one of these every couple of years and I'll be a happy, happy man. Currently available on Netflix.
7. The Truth is Out There
The Swedish sci-fi film is most likely going to be remembered for its use of AI to dub the film in English, but this film about an odd collection of UFO fanatics is so much more, exploring both the intellectual curiosity and emotional need of its characters as they search for the answer of what's really out there. Smart science fiction with heart, Watch the Skies is worth a look (whatever language you find it in). Currently available on both streaming and home video.
6. I Want a Home
Featuring terrific performances from Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value is a beautiful film that never gets too dark or maudlin while exploring difficult relationships among dysfunctional families and hard unspoken truths when a celebrated auteur filmmaker, who chose his career over his family years before, returns home with a project inspired by his family's history. Currently streaming. Available on home video in February.
5. Spies Like Us
Shoot this into my veins. Steven Soderbergh's slow burn spy thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a married couple of spies is an absolutely thrilling 93 minutes leading to the smartest people in the room working out what is really going on. Currently available on streaming and home video.
4. Time Doesn't Exist, Yet It Controls Us Anyway
Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another tackles revolution, government corruption, interracial couples and racism, and the generational divide between a father and a daughter. It's one of the director's best and likely to sweep up numerous awards. It may not be my #1 film of the year, but it's the likely front runner to take home Best Picture at the Oscars this year (as it did with the Kansas City Film Critics Circle). Currently available on streaming. Available on home video January 20th.
3. Making Music So True, It Can Pierce the Veil Between Life and Death
It's rare for a horror film to make my end of the year list, so Sinners being at the top for more than half of 2025 lets you know just how highly I think of Ryan Coogler's film. Ultimately it may have dropped a couple of spots, but it earns its ranking as the third best film of 2025. Part period drama and part vampire film, with a dual performance from Michael B. Jordan and a fun turn from Hailee Steinfeld, Sinners delivers a terrifically entertaining film on the complicated intertwined nature of music and sin. Currently available on streaming and home video.
2. If You Wrong Us, Shall We Not Revenge?
Iranian guerilla filmmaker Jafar Panahi delivers a taught thriller about a group of former Iranian political prisoners who believe they have found their man responsible for their torture during their captivity and now have to decide what to do. Filmed in secret, It Was Just an Accident is a great piece of filmmaking that cuts to the core examining revenge and humanity. Currently available on streaming.
1. The Best Film of 2025
Director Chloé Zhao's soul-crushing fictionalized telling of William Shakespeare's (Paul Mescal) family, based on the novel of the same name, hits hard with an emotional flurry of punches that will leave you in tears while still offering a cathartic release in the best ending of any film this year. More about his family than the playwright himself, Jessie Buckley is amazing as Shakespeare's wife delivering one of the year's best performances (and the kids are all perfectly cast as well!). I'd suggest, if possible, to go into the film knowing as little about the plot as possible and letting its joys and sorrows sweep over you like a wave. Don't forget the Kleenex. Still playing in theaters.
