2025 was a tumultuous year in the world of movies. The industry-shaking news of Netflix’s bid to purchase Warner Bros. has raised fresh concerns for the future of movie theaters, as at-home streaming continues to proliferate.
Last year, we also lost far too many icons of the silver screen. The deaths of David Lynch, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford and Diane Keaton, just to name a few, still sting. And the grisly death of beloved filmmaker Rob Reiner remains unspeakably shocking and, frankly, unfathomable.
If there was any light in this darkness, it came, as it so often does, from the movies. We saw films that entertained us, thrilled us and challenged our perceptions of the world. Although the future of the industry seems as unpredictable as ever, one thing’s for sure: good movies will always endure.
10. Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon (tie)
With his understated style and slice-of-life storytelling, Richard Linklater has always been somewhat of an outsider. That’s why it was so gratifying to see the often overlooked director release not one but two new movies this year, each focusing on artists at odds with mainstream gatekeepers. The first of these, Nouvelle Vague, centers on the legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as he helms the chaotic production of his acclaimed first movie, Breathless.
Nouvelle Vague, much like the film that inspired it, possesses a kind of youthful, barely-contained energy. Shot in sparkling black and white, Linklater plunges us into late-'50s Paris, recreating both the look and feel of the French New Wave with a true cinephile’s attention to detail. Even the casting is spot-on. Guillaume Marbeck bears a striking resemblance to the sunglasses-sporting Godard, while Zoey Deutch effortlessly taps into the irrepressible charm of Breathless star (and Iowa native) Jean Seberg.
Scurrying us along Godard’s many shooting locations, Linklater provides a front-row seat to the turmoil behind the camera and the magic that was created in spite of it (or, more likely, because of it). By the time we reach the final scene, it becomes clear that Nouvelle Vague is about more than the making of a movie. It’s about an outsider who dared to dream — to keep making art — no matter the cost.
If Nouvelle Vague is about the rise of an artist, then Blue Moon is about the fall. The year is 1943, and the once-revered lyricist Lorenz Hart has slipped away from the opening night performance of Oklahoma!, the soon-to-be smash penned by his former songwriting partner Richard Rodgers. Holed up in Sardi’s, the famed Manhattan restaurant adorned with caricatures of Broadway icons, Hart enjoys a drink or two (or eight) and waxes poetic about his life’s work before reconnecting with Rodgers that night.
In contrast to the bustling energy of Richard Linklater’s Godardian love letter, Blue Moon finds the director in a much more contemplative mood. The film is almost entirely set in a single location, but nevertheless crackles with ideas thanks to Ethan Hawke’s endlessly captivating portrayal of Hart. Hawke, a regular Linklater collaborator, transforms himself into the diminutive and loquacious songwriter, delivering bitingly funny soliloquies before later undercutting his hardened exterior in vulnerable moments with Rodgers, played by Andrew Scott, and an unrequited love interest played by Margaret Qualley.
Forming the second half of a double feature with Nouvelle Vague, Blue Moon shows us how one great artist might have reckoned with professional and personal failure — with bitterness, humor and a little grace. It’s an illuminating portrait of Lorenz Hart that, unlike the pictures at Sardi’s, is anything but a caricature.
9. Sentimental Value
Art has a special way of revealing things about ourselves when we least expect it. That’s especially true for Gustav and Nora Borg, the estranged father and daughter at the center of the family drama Sentimental Value. Gustav, played by Stellan Skarsgård, is an acclaimed film director with a not-so-great track record as a father. So, when he returns to offer a film role to his daughter Nora, a stage actress played by Renate Reinsve, the road to reconciliation proves to be more than a little bumpy.
Reuniting with the Norwegian director Joachim Trier after previously starring in The Worst Person in the World, Reinsve anchors Sentimental Value with a deeply moving, subtly expressive performance. Throughout the film, Reinsve beautifully conveys the complex swirl of emotions her character feels, not only with her father but also with her sister Agnes, played by an equally superb Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas.
Sentimental Value is a quiet and understated movie, but the silences between characters can be deafening. Directed with a delicate touch by Trier, the film often feels like a direct descendant of the emotionally raw cinema of Ingmar Bergman. Its ending, like the endings of many of Bergman’s best movies, is bound to stay with you for a long time to come, serving as a powerful reminder of art’s ability to transform and heal us.
8. Mickey 17
To say that there were sky-high expectations for Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to Parasite would be an understatement. What better way, then, to subvert those expectations than with an unabashedly goofy outer space satire?
Set in the year 2054, Mickey 17 tells the story of Mickey Barnes, an “Expendable” who carries out dangerous work for a space colony and is cloned every time he dies. Played by a raspy-voiced Robert Pattinson, Mickey has a close encounter with an alien during his 17th life, which, incidentally, breaks his seemingly endless death cycle. From there, Bong launches us into a wonderfully weird sci-fi caper that touches on serious themes of environmentalism and authoritarianism without ever losing its zany, madcap energy.
That’s largely thanks to Pattinson’s personality-splitting performance, as well as off-the-wall turns from Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette and a hilariously hammy Mark Ruffalo. Like Bong’s best films, Mickey 17 is a perfect blend of dark humor and incisive social commentary, offering both a reflection of our current moment and a fantasy of what it might become. Whereas Parasite plumbed the depths of human nature, Mickey 17 looks outward, venturing beyond our planet to explore how we might best co-exist with ourselves.
7. Sinners
The transcendent, transformative power of music is on full display in Sinners, director Ryan Coogler’s boldly original vision of life-draining vampires and soul-stirring blues. The film, set in 1932, stars Coogler’s long-time collaborator Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as Smoke and Stack, identical twins who return to the Mississippi Delta to open a juke joint for the Black community, only to attract some unwanted supernatural visitors.
Stepping out from the constraints of franchise filmmaking, Coogler eclipses his work on Creed and Black Panther, delivering his most accomplished and personal film yet. The story, penned by Coogler himself, is effusively steeped in Black history and, more specifically, the rich tradition of Black music. Stylistically, Sinners is also reflective of the predominant film genres of its 1930s setting: the musical, the gangster picture, the Western and, above all, the monster movie.
It’s a testament to Coogler’s ability as a filmmaker that these disparate genres gel so seamlessly, resulting in a movie that feels familiar yet fresh, nostalgic yet new, indebted to the past yet uninhibited to explore its own voice. Set to a breathtaking blues score by Ludwig Göransson and featuring an immensely talented ensemble (Miles Caton, Wunmi Mosaku and Delroy Lindo, along with Jordan, are particular standouts), Sinners is about more than bloodsucking vampires; it’s about the lifeblood of a community that spans cultures, generations and even time itself.
6. Jay Kelly
Much has been written about the death of the movie star. In an era when old Hollywood glamour is being squeezed out to make room for mind-numbing franchises and never-ending reboots, who better to explore the meaning of stardom than one of the industry’s most enduring icons?
Of course, I’m talking about George Clooney. Everyone’s (or at least my wife’s) favorite silver fox delivers what can only be described as the performance of his lifetime in Jay Kelly. The movie, directed by Noah Baumbach, centers on the titular A-list actor, played by Clooney, at the tail end of his career. Embarking on a European trip to reconnect with his daughter, Jay is confronted with the ripple effects of his life choices as he prepares to accept an award alongside his ever-loyal manager, played by Adam Sandler.
If Clooney is the heart of Jay Kelly, then Sandler is the soul, offering an emotional vulnerability that underscores Jay’s unchanging public persona. That decades-long facade starts to crumble away, however, as Jay’s memories puncture through the present day. The result is often poignant, sometimes funny and above all magical. Whether or not we are really witnessing the death of the movie star, Jay Kelly, for all its evocations of a bygone era, serves as a perfectly fitting last will and testament.
5. Bugonia
Have you ever noticed that corporate America talks like they’re from a different planet? Yorgos Lanthimos certainly has, as evidenced by the iconoclastic director’s latest satirical mind-bender Bugonia. Reteaming with Emma Stone for their fourth feature film in a row, Lanthimos takes aim at America’s conspiracy-obsessed present, using the 2003 Korean comedy Save the Green Planet! as inspiration.
The plot follows a high-powered CEO, played by Stone, who’s targeted by a pair of kidnappers, believing her to be an alien sent to destroy Earth. Jesse Plemons, who previously starred alongside Stone in Lanthimos’ triptych fable Kinds of Kindness, plays the paranoid loner who arranges the kidnapping, bringing a disquieting mix of sympathy and unease to the character. Stone, as the corporate captive, is surprisingly cool and collected under the circumstances, hilariously resorting to conference room buzzwords to appeal to her tormentors.
It may sound like a strange scenario, but then again Bugonia is a strange and often indescribable experience (don’t be surprised if you find yourself laughing and then gasping from shock within the same scene!). Like The Favourite and Poor Things before it, Bugonia effortlessly blends surrealism and satire, with Lanthimos holding a funhouse mirror up to ourselves as a society, as a species and, yes, as a planet.
4. Frankenstein
It’s no secret that Frankenstein has been Guillermo del Toro’s dream project for decades. In fact, Mary Shelley’s classic tale has loomed large over the Oscar-winning director’s work for quite some time, from the Gothic horror of The Devil’s Backbone to the humanoid creature in The Shape of Water.
What a relief it was, then, to finally see del Toro bring his vision of Frankenstein to life — a vision that hews closely to Shelley’s source material while also unearthing new layers of humanity. The film, in typical del Toro fashion, is drop-dead gorgeous in its visual design, but it’s the performances that really elevate this adaptation above others before it. Oscar Isaac, as Victor Frankenstein, brings a scenery-chewing theatricality that reflects the mad scientist’s hubristic excesses, while Mia Goth mesmerizes in a dual role as both Victor’s deceased mother and a love interest for Victor’s creation.
Speaking of which, Jacob Elordi is the film's real standout as the Creature, his 6-foot-6 frame cutting an imposing yet sympathetic figure. Like Boris Karloff’s iconic portrayal nearly a century ago, Elordi’s tender interpretation of the so-called “monster” once again raises the question that has haunted Shelley’s readers and propelled del Toro throughout his career: what, in the end, really makes us human?
3. No Other Choice
The films of Park Chan-wook have often been described as “Hitchcockian” — and for good reason. The South Korean director has been pushing the cinematic envelope for well over two decades, mixing macabre subject matter and labyrinthine plotting to create some of the most shocking thrillers this side of Psycho. Now, with No Other Choice, Park has pushed the envelope even further.
Based on a novel by Donald Westlake, No Other Choice focuses on Yoo Man-su, a model employee in the papermaking industry, whose position is sacrificed at the altars of automation and efficiency. Faced with an increasingly hopeless job hunt, the devoted family man decides to take matters into his own hands and eliminate his competition, once and for all.
If you’ve seen Park’s other movies, such as Oldboy, you won’t be surprised to learn that No Other Choice doesn’t skimp in the gore department. What is different this time is how genuinely (and morbidly) funny it all is. Played with bumbling charm by Lee Byung-hun, Man-su repeatedly finds himself in over his head as he tries to comport himself as a serious assassin. Under Park’s masterful direction, the film teeters between moments of absurdity and brutality, doubling as both a comedy of errors and a cutthroat thriller — not to mention a cautionary tale about the dehumanizing dangers of automation.
2. Marty Supreme
Timothée Chalemet has spent several years now solidifying his status as one of the greatest actors of his generation. With Marty Supreme, he may have finally claimed that title for good, serving up his best performance to date, in a role that feels like it was tailor-made for him.
Set in the 1950s but propelled by a nervy ‘80s-inspired soundtrack, Marty Supreme can best be described as a globe-trotting ping-pong epic. It tells the story of Marty Mauser, an up-and-coming table tennis player with big dreams and an even bigger ego. Played by Chalamet with fast-talking intensity and beguiling charm, Marty goes to extreme lengths to make his dreams a reality, bringing him into contact with high-society elites and underworld mobsters alike.
Josh Safdie, directing without his brother Benny, channels the edge-of-your-seat anxiety of previous thrillers Good Time and Uncut Gems, while also adding a surprising layer of empathy to the story. It’s all brought to life by a star-studded ensemble that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, newcomer Odessa A’zion and out-of-left-field cameos from the worlds of finance (Kevin O’Leary), music (Tyler, the Creator) and even magic (Penn Jillette). And yet, despite all that star power, Chalamet continually steals the show in Marty Supreme, delivering a career-defining performance that’s as bold, brash and undeniable as Marty Mauser himself.
1. One Battle After Another
Appearing on more critics’ lists than any other movie in 2025, One Battle After Another may just be the crowning achievement of Paul Thomas Anderson’s career. At once the director’s most action-packed and politically charged work, the film is a loose adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, which, despite its 35-year-old source material, plays out like a story ripped from today’s headlines.
That story, spanning 16 years in the lives of several characters, centers on an ex-revolutionary named Bob, played by a scruffy, pot-smoking Leonardo DiCaprio. Now in hiding with his daughter Willa, Bob’s former life unexpectedly comes back to haunt him, setting off a desperate rescue mission that reignites his long-extinguished role as a freedom fighter.
DiCaprio’s high-strung, self-defeating performance is a pretty big departure for the usually debonair actor, but it works. That’s largely thanks to Anderson’s screenplay, which foregrounds Bob’s love for Willa as the film’s emotional core and the plot’s driving force. It also helps that One Battle After Another boasts what’s probably Anderson’s strongest ensemble since Magnolia, including scene-stealing turns from Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor and a particularly demented Sean Penn.
Bolstered by some of Anderson’s most striking imagery ever (not to mention a relentlessly pulse-pounding score by Jonny Greenwood), One Battle After Another is a total cinematic achievement. It’s easily the best movie of 2025, as well as one of the best American movies ever made — a statement that’s sure to be proven true one year after another.
