The time has arrived, I can put it off no longer. I figured if I could see Marty Supreme, I’d feel confident enough to assemble this list of the best movies of 2025. This even though there are a few well-regarded movies from this year that I’ve not been able to catch up to yet — including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, The Testament of Ann Lee, and No Other Choice, all of which are showing up on other critics best of the year list. Just gonna have to own that.
2025 was a year full of interesting, quality independent films but it was a terrible one for Hollywood blockbusters. Superheroes, supposedly the financial backbone of the industry, were overtaken by international animation and anime, including globally the biggest movie of the year, Ne Zha 2 , K-Pop Demon Hunters, and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle.
I was genuinely thrilled to see wholly original movies like Sinners and One Battle After Another do good business in cinemas — more about them below. Both were from Warner Brothers, a company that is about to get gobbled up by corporate monopolization (either Netflix or Paramount) despite those movies’ theatrical successes. These are not good times for Hollywood’s bigger studios, but it is a pleasure to be living in the era of the independents A24 and NEON.
Before I get to my final list, check out these excellent films that made it on this year’s Top 10 Under The Radar releases — a number of them could’ve jumped over here. I also assembled a list of the 10 Worst of the year, in case you’re curious.
Here are Honourable Mentions that almost made it onto my Top 10. (Click on the titles to read the original reviews.)
I didn’t see as many documentaries this year as last, where I had a whole list, but I want to give a shout out to a few: Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery was a surprisingly moving film about what Sarah MacLachlan and her musical colleagues were able to accomplish with their festival at the end of the 1990s. Secret Mall Apartment will resonate with fellow Haligonians in its story of public art and commerce in a small city, home to an art school and more than one mall. And the hard-to-find Oscar-winner, No Other Land, remains an important document in the ongoing war between Israelis and Palestinians and how it extends beyond Gaza, and it’s important to note it is a film made by representatives of both those people. I was able to see it in London last January, and then worked to secure it for Carbon Arc Cinema in Halifax because Cineplex wouldn’t show it. We sold out nine screenings. That says everything about the importance of the film and a desire for its message. I hope more people get a chance to see it.
Eddington was one of the movies that made a real effort to address the polarity in American culture happening right now — its provocations didn’t add up to an entirely satisfying conclusion, but it’s a terrific ride. Honey Don’t is the second of three Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke lesbian comedy noirs, and I’m very much here for them. A House of Dynamite frustrated some of my cinepanions with its ambiguous finale, but for the management of tension throughout, and as a reminder of the ongoing possibility of nuclear armageddon, it works.
Last Breath is a 93-minute exercise in suspense, made more vivid for being a true story. Marty Supreme might get Timothée Chalamet his Oscar, and I can’t say it isn’t deserved in this wiry, wild American tale. It wasn’t a spot on her previous film, but it was a lot of fun to see Celine Song work with a bigger palate and big stars in her clever New York romantic drama, The Materialists.
The critically acclaimed box office hit One Battle After Another is probably this year’s most timely, relevant feature, and only some tonal incoherence kept it from my main list. Speaking of relevance, Roofman tells a true American story where a charming, resourceful individual turns to crime because he can’t figure out another way to get ahead. Sinners is an original, ambitious and sexy musical/gangster/vampire movie containing maybe the scene of the year, showing how the spirit of music travels across time.
First time feature filmmaker Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby is a resonant story of a long road of recovery from trauma. Train Dreams is a quietly heartbreaking western. And The Voice of Hind Rajab, which will open in the new year, is an unforgettable mix of drama and documentary from the Gaza War.
Now, here’s my list of the Top 10 of 2025.
10. F1 The Movie
I saw this motor racing picture twice in cinemas, and it was easily the most fun summer blockbuster of this or many years. It’s from Joseph Kosinski, director of Top Gun: Maverick, with which F1 shares a lot of DNA, though the new movie is better. It delivers its particular brand of hokum with more fun, more terrific camerawork, sound editing, and music, and more of that intangible thing — escape — than any other popcorn movie this year. (VOD, Apple TV+)
I know I’m among the minority to prefer this allegory of the way the United States is slipping into a police state over Eddington or One Battle After Another — I acknowledge the latter has a lot more hope embedded into its vision — but I was grabbed and thrown to the ground by this one. There’s a refreshing simplicity to this movie that makes it feel like a 1970s science fiction thriller but one that’s talking to 2025, one that looks unblinkingly at a lost generation of young men. (VOD)
I’m the one who’s catching up with Tim Robinson’s brand of humour, but now that I’ve found him I’ll be watching more. Cringe comedy Friendship, from writer-director Andrew DeYoung, spears the insecurities of male friendships with a most barbed approach, and Robinson is superb. (VOD, Paramount+, Hoopla)
The horror movie of the year, one that delivers a genuinely new idea, mining the fear of commitment, intimacy, identity, and co-dependency, with a terrific two-hander performance from real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco. (VOD)
This is the picture many, if not most people, won’t have heard of. It had a brief theatrical release but next to no marketing, despite the presence of Pedro Pascal, one the year’s biggest stars, and a notable cameo from Tom Hanks. Filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck recreate Oakland in 1987 with a sprawling cast of characters in a multi-chapter ode to the era’s violent grindhouse thrills. (Crave, Prime Starz, VOD)
The relentlessly prolific filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who’s been making quality feature films for 35 years, delivered a couple of movies this year with screenwriter David Koepp, but this was the one to see — I’ve sat through it three times and enjoyed each viewing. It’s a romantic spy drama set in the bowels of British Intelligence, with an especially good- looking cast led by Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as a devoted couple whose passion for each other allows for a certain level of professional deceit. Good times. (Prime, VOD)
4. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Years from now, people will be dialling up the Knives Out movies, modern classics whether just three or if more are coming, and enjoy Rian Johnson’s humour and intricate twists as much as we do today. They’ll enjoy them as much as any Agatha Christie adaptation we’ve watched over the years, and hopefully they’ll also appreciate how these movies deftly satirized the current forces of wealth and power. (Netflix, VOD)
3. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
A fantastic tale of writing and romance, inspired by Austen but with a modern Gallic twist, offering up a star turn from the amazing Camille Rutherford providing a perfect bilingual balance, the anxious Parisienne hero shaking off a deep seated trauma while engaging in the world of English lit. (VOD, Hoopla)
Maggie O’Farrell’s source novel is unread by me, but I have it on good authority it’s an excellent book. O’Farrell and Chloé Zhao’s adaptation couldn’t be much better, with a heroic performance from Jessie Buckley, a wrenching story of love, family, the fundamentals of nature, grief, and the way storytelling can heal even the worst hurt when two people can’t communicate. It may be no surprise this potent theme also fuels my number one film for 2025…
Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier has delivered a moving story of the lives of a creative family in a gorgeous house in Oslo. It explores generational trauma, the challenges of communication despite past hurts, and the role storytelling, and being an artist, can provide toward healing. While we’re dealing with genuine pain here, and depression, the film has such a light touch it never feels like a hard watch — spiked with humour and multiple visual gifts for the cinephile. Hopefully Trier has many more features in him, but I suggest he will struggle to ever better this film.
So, that’s it for 2025. If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much — and thank you if you’ve stopped by over the past 15 years. Hope to see you at the movies!
