What a sneaky good, but not great, movie year. 2025 was full of major blockbuster disappointments (Mickey 17, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Tron: Ares, The Running Man, Wicked For Good) and a few five-star masterpieces. But there was a plethora of three-and-a-half to four-star fare, some good and some great, that made moviegoing a memorable experience. The honorable mentions will be many this year, but here’s my ranked list of the twenty best films of 2025:
20. FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES
The sixth film in a series is rarely, if ever, as good as, if not better, than all previous installments. Bloodlines refreshed the ‘90s horror franchise in inventive new ways, killing off a plethora of death-cheaters.
19. THE NAKED GUN
Pure comedies can still be good, and still make money! The reboot of The Naked Gun had some of the funniest lines of the year, and produced the rare pleasure of joining in raucous laughter with a moviegoing audience.
18. BLUE MOON
Filmed mostly like a one-act stage show, Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon features one of the finest performances of the year, Ethan Hawke as the Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart. Hawke performs Linklater’s wonderful script with utmost panache, imbuing the character with charm, wit, and widening cracks of insecurity.
17. WEAPONS
Weapons is the best “didn’t see that coming!” film of the year, and catapults writer/director Zach Cregger into elite horror filmmaker status. Whether it’s the unnerving images of children running with downward-pointed arms, or Amy Madigan’s popular Halloween costume character, Aunt Gladys, Weapons exploded in the zeitgeist for its gnarled violence and instant iconography.
16. BUGONIA
A few films this year capture the urgency and paranoia permeating through our globally tenuous tinderbox of a society, but few do so in the magnetically comical and surprising fashion of Bugonia, written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
15. THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
Wes Anderson returns to a (mostly) linear story structure in this adventurous romp. His usual ginormous cast and iconic color palette are present, as is his sense of grandiose fun and comical whimsy. It’s Anderson’s best since The Grand Budapest Hotel.
14. WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
Josh O’Connor steals the show in Rian Johnson’s third entry in the Knives Out series. More emotional and thematically rich than the previous two films, yet not missing a beat in terms of its sheer sense of whodunit fun, Wake Up Dead Man is proof that the series still has a lot of runway.
13. LEFT-HANDED GIRL
Flying under the radar but packing an emotional punch is this Taiwanese indie about a single mother trying to stay financially afloat after moving to Taipei with her two daughters. Produced by recently anointed multi-Oscar-winner Sean Baker, Tsou Shih-Ching’s focused drama explores the clash of generations against a traditionalist and economically fragile society.
12. 28 YEARS LATER
Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland re-teamed to execute on a legacy sequel to their genre-redefining post-apocalyptic zombie franchise. Little did we know that the new film’s core would be an emotional coming-of-age tale, punctuated by thrillingly staged set pieces.
11. WARFARE
Alex Garland was busy this year. Warfare, which Garland co-directed, may have been too severe for mainstream audiences, but its real-time depiction of visceral warzone combat is a masterful accomplishment of technical filmmaking.
10. BLACK BAG
Slick and sexy, thrilling and mysterious. Steven Soderbergh’s first of two films this year (Presence came close to making this list) is a solid spy thriller that deserves some admiration for its atmosphere of intrigue and its crowd-pleasing coolness.
9. SENTIMENTAL VALUE
A sincere and thoughtful exploration of generational values and family dynamics, held together by the glue of a sharp script and a talented cast. Joachim Trier’s tragicomedy is both delightfully and saddeningly relatable.
Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni brings audiences into a revealing sequence of events after a young woman, Shula, finds her uncle’s dead body in the road. Told with satirical precision, and at times surreal and disturbing, Nyoni constructs a story of funeral preparations and ceremonies that reveal secrets of Shula’s family and community.
7. TRAIN DREAMS
Perhaps the most devastatingly beautiful film of the year, Train Dreams overflows with inner and outer contemplation. Based on Denis Johnson’s novella about an early-1900s logger working on American railroad expansion in the Pacific Northwest, Train Dreams boasts visual splendor, terrific performances, and a genuine message about our evolving relationship with nature and progress.
Filmed in secret in Iran, It Was Just An Accident is another unflinching anti-authoritarian fable from filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Panahi explores the cyclical effects of trauma and violence that permeate throughout Iranian society, while delivering humor and hope through his well-written cast of characters.
A sports drama with a berserk final act and a propelling pace (and musical score). Timothee Chalamet is Oscar-worthy as the titular Marty, a restless 1950s table tennis player with an unimpeachable yearning for greatness.
4. NO OTHER CHOICE
Park Chan-wook’s dark comedy sets its sights on economic desperation. Filled with humor and tragedy, and always with a keen sense of societal criticism, Chan-wook and star Lee Byung-hun craft a thought-provoking masterpiece.
Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s surrealist political thriller features incredible production design filled with oversaturated colors and intricate sets, plus a tour de force lead performance from Wagner Moura.
2. SINNERS
The filmgoing sensation of the year is Ryan Coogler’s vampiric musical drama that oozes with sensuality and soul. Sinners features a sensational cast, highlighted by Michael B. Jordan’s dual roles. Sinners symbolizes the perfect blend of an auteur’s vision and a marketable genre blockbuster. Studios will hopefully take note.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterfully crafted, darkly comedic, and ambitious political thriller operates at the highest level of cinematic storytelling, from the acting to the editing to the music. The prescient story about passing the baton from one generation of rebels to the next is a timely and thoughtful statement about our current political climate. Look for One Battle After Another to take home numerous gold statuettes on Oscar night.
Ten honorable mentions that nearly cracked the list:
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- The Mastermind
- The President’s Cake
- Eddington
- Eephus
- The Voice of Hind Rajab
- If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
- Friendship
- Sirat
- Twinless
- Materialists
