2025 has been a difficult year. Our society seems to be so volatile, social media sucks, and it seems that each day has brought some new and unexpected twist. At the cinema, though, 2025 has been one of the best years on record, with a bevy of terrific films, some very big surprises, and more than a handful of successful original films.

We continue to mourn the losing (but never truly lost) battle for physical media and the theatrical experience, but we strive on…

Enough about all that, though, as it is the end of the year, and we’re here to discuss the best films of 2025!

Now, media literacy and the subjectivity of film is hard for some, so before we begin, a few regular caveats must be mentioned because someone out there needs the reminder:

• I did not see every single movie released in 2025. I did see close to 200 films, but there will always be films missed. If you are wondering where your favorite film is or why it didn’t make the list, it’s possible that I just didn’t see it. It’s also possible that it just didn’t hit me the way it hit you. Or, it could be in my Top 20 or 30 but just not close enough to clinch that Top Ten spot. That’s okay, you can comment your favorite films below and if I missed them, I’ll try to catch them. I love seeing your favorites and you may just have a recommendation I missed!
• On that note, this is my personal list of the Best Movies of 2025. It’s not a list of your favorites. It’s not an objective list of the best movies of the year (objective lists don’t exist and anyone thinking theirs is THE correct list is wrong). These are merely the films that connected with me the most in the past year. This may not include films that you deem “better made” or more important, but that’s not what this list is.
• Lastly, I crave discussion, dissection, and (respectful) disagreements, so keep the “hate” out of this place. There’s enough of that on the internet already.

Alright, with all that out of the way, let’s get on with it.

NOTE: This year, I’m including 11 films in my Top Ten, as one of the releases that I saw still hasn’t seen national distribution (and currently has no wide release date), so I’ll be giving a Top 11 films to adjust for it.

11. Marty Supreme

• Marty Mauser has a dream, and no one is going to stand in his way as he steps over everyone in his life to achieve his goal of being a legendary table tennis player. When the Safdie brothers took on separate character studies for 2025, I was curious to see what the strengths of each director would be, given the wildly intense films they made together. Josh’s Marty Supreme feels most closely-aligned with films like Good Time and Uncut Gems, with an unlikable degenerate, a pathetic dreamer who can talk a good talk and hustle a good hustle, but his journey to reach Japan and beat his rival is riddled with people who can offer up help, and Marty will take anything he can get. Timothee Chalamet is electrifying in his scumbag hero role, and the film is loaded with unexpectedly fascinating performances from both veterans and newcomers in the industry. The Safdies have always had interesting casts of performance that surprise, and Marty Supreme is no different, with Kevin O’Leary and Tyler the Creator filling out a stacked cast that also finds use for Penn Jillette and Abel Ferrara in memorable roles.

10. Bad Shabbos

• A newly engaged couple, David and Meg, are about to have their parents meet at his family’s Shabbat dinner. Meg’s family already doesn’t exactly approve, but things complicate further when a little accidental manslaughter gums up the evening. I caught this one at MSPIFF, one of the first films of the festival, and this was an elegant and expertly put together little dark comedy. This cast is pitch-perfect, with special attention given to Method Man (I never thought a movie about Shabbos to feature an excellent performance from Method Man, but here we are), who plays the doorman of the building who desperately wants to be included. David Paymer and Kyra Sedgwick have great chemistry as David’s parents, and the family is convincingly universal without feeling like stock characters. The main death occurs early, and watching this somewhat Hitchcockian dead body comedy is full of laughs and heart. I kept wondering how things could get any worse, and I kept trying to glean how this family would survive this situation, but writer/director Daniel Robbins keeps things moving quite comfortably. It’s a good movie to watch with your dysfunctional family, one that deserves more eyes.

9. It Was Just an Accident

• I’d been hearing whispers about this film for many months now, and I’m so thankful I had a chance to see it before the end of the year. The film follows Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), a mechanic previously incarcerated by Iranian authorities who tortured and interrogated him. When Eqbal comes into his shop, he recognizes the voice as belonging to one of his torturers. Vahid devises a plan for vengeance, but as he gets closer to exacting revenge, he begins to doubt his ears, and he searches for someone else who can confirm his belief. This film runs at such a clip that I was never able to catch my breath. From its opening, I immediately clued into Vahid’s journey and his doubts, aided by a terrific lead performance, and every twist and turn, along with every potential mistake and complication made by Vahid and his cohorts, made for an excellent thriller with a perfectly executed final few minutes. It Was Just an Accident is a truly unforgettable piece of movie-making that hits hard and never lets up, but it’s also directed in a way to notate the ludicrous nature of the story unfolding. The tone of this movie is an unusual amalgam that works seemingly effortlessly.

8. Wake Up Dead Man

• I’m a bona fide fan of murder mysteries, especially ones on the scale of Rian Johnson’s Benoit Blanc and the Knives Out series. The newest film, Wake Up Dead Man, about an impossible murder made impossible-er at a rundown church with a congregation of possible killers, is Johnson and star Daniel Craig at their most philosophical. Craig is brilliant as Blanc, and his ability to break down the mystery with his peculiar wit is what makes these films so special, but I love that he chases the impossible murder angle all the way through. This is also the Knives Out mystery that I was most uncertain of when trying to guess the killer, and something happens about halfway through that completely blew me away. Wake Up Dead Man is the best Benoit Blanc mystery yet. This series of films has been altogether wonderful, and I hope that Johnson and Craig keep making these films until they’re 90 or until they’ve run out of big names to fill out that cast of characters, which should take a while at the very least.

7. The Testament of Ann Lee

• I’d chalk this one up to the most unlikely story to end up on my Top Ten this year. A film about the woman who created and popularized the Shaker, or Shaking Quaker, movement is not something that inherently appeals to me, but I embrace the film medium and all the wonders it has, and films like The Testament of Ann Lee are so unique and powerful that they work their way in. I was experiencing the story of Ann Lee, brought gloriously to life by director Mona Fastvold and star Amanda Seyfriend, and I came to realize that I’ve never seen a movie quite like this one. Seyfriend is transcendent in a career-defining performance, and I can’t wait to experience the film again. Take my recommendation and give this film a try. Experience something you might normally ignore. Let the non-musical-but-kind-of-musical energy of The Testament of Ann Lee do its thing. If movies are experiential, then this one is an experience unlike any other, and that should count for something.

6. 28 Years Later

• I’d argue this is one of bigger surprises of the year, for me personally. I haven’t been the biggest film of 28 Days Later or its sequel, but this legacy sequel absolutely won me over. The film, set 28 years following the release of the rage virus, follows Spike, a young man who has only lived in the aftermath of this new world, as he goes through the rites and rituals of his society to become a man, but the journey he takes after returning is far more transformative, as he looks to cure his mother of her mysterious illness. Alfie Williams turns in one of the best performances of the year as Spike, and Ralph Fiennes has crafted one of the best characters of the decade as Dr. Ian Kelson, a side player who will have much more to do in the follow-up releasing early in 2026. I’d never expected to be so moved by a zombie sequel, but director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have crafted the most unusual coming-of-age story in some time, and they use the world that they’ve created to fuel these character changes. The jury is still out on that ending tease, which is pretty wild and sets up a far different sequel, but I’m along for the ride now.

5. Sinners

• Having been released in the first few months of 2025, I think Sinners has become the most talked-about movie of the year. Audiences finally understood that great original films are always being released, but we need to support them. The movie follows two twin brothers (in two terrific and nuanced performances from Michael B. Jordan) who return home with enough money to open a juke joint in 1930s Mississippi, but their inaugural night of jubilation is cut short by a group of vampires looking to feed off their culture…and bodies. Every little bit of Sinners has Ryan Coogler’s stamp on it, and as I pointed out in my review, I’d have been fine with an entire movie of music and dancing with this group of lively characters; The vampire stuff is just the icing on the cake. Featuring one of the best all-around ensembles of the year with strong work from genre veterans like Delroy Lindo and a surprisingly powerful debut from Miles Caton, Sinners would be a winner even without the horror…but I’m so glad one of the Oscar frontrunners this year is a genre classic-in-the-making.

4. Friendship

• This dark comedy is not for everyone. I recognize that above all else, but Tim Robinson’s Friendship is one of the funniest and most absurd movies in years. I’m so glad we got this movie and a new Naked Gun in the same year; both films are the most extreme of their particular comedic stylings, and both work way more than they should. This movie, a darker take on male friendship, features Tim Robinson narratively working in the same vein of his sketch comedy series I Think You Should Leave. The film, directed by Andrew DeYoung, plays off the stress of male friendship and the need to “be cool” so well that I actually think there’s a message within the zaniness. Pair Friendship with Robinson’s new HBO series The Chair Company, and this has been a terrific year for this unusual style of comedy, with hopefully many more years of absolute lunacy for this long-deserving comedic mind.

3. Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo

• This has been a movie I’ve shepherded all year, informing just about anyone who will listen about the power of Khaled Mansour’s masterful tale of Hassan and the love he shares for his pet, Rambo. When his landlord is threatening his family, Rambo attacks to keep his owners safe. Now, the landlord wants to kill the dog out of vengeance, so Hassan travels all across Cairo to find safety and protection for his beloved pet. This is the ultimate boy-and-his-dog film, showcasing the lengths that many pet owners are willing to go through to keep their fur babies safe and secure in an uncertain world. Let by an inspired leading performance from Essam Omar, Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo is a thrilling and often emotional story of friendship that deserves to be more seen. Sadly, the film has not received a wide theatrical release in America, but I’m hoping that 2026 proves to be the year for Mansour’s film, and if you see a festival screening or streaming release for this film, don’t wait to experience it for yourself.

2. One Battle After Another

• Simply put, this is Paul Thomas Anderson’s best work since Magnolia. Playing with the idea of young revolutionaries becoming middle-aged yuppies, Anderson’s film features the best performances of the year, with Leonardo DiCaprio excelling as a pathetic former revolutionary who must rediscover his roots when his child is endangered. Chase Infiniti is deserving of more praise as his daughter, Sean Penn somehow finds a line between idiocy and psychopathy as a Colonel out for vengeance, and Benicio del Toro is clearly having the time of his life as a Sensei with plenty of rebel within, but Teyana Taylor should be celebrated for making the most from a small amount of screen time. Anderson juggles the tone perfectly here, able to make it funny, thrilling, dark, and serious in equal measure as he moves the chess pieces around, and I just don’t have any faults with One Battle After Another.

1. The Long Walk

• You might be able to chalk this one up to the Stephen King fan in me, but there is something special about the adaptation of his book, The Long Walk. While the concept King wrote about decades ago has been mined for film often with Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, something about the simplicity of his novel, adapted by JT Mollner and directed by Francis Lawrence, makes the impact all the more jarring and heartbreaking. Fifty teenage boys set out for a year walking contest, but fall behind more than a few times, and they’ll “punch your ticket” with a bullet, and the last man standing gets to have one wish be granted. The notion of brotherhood at play amongst a bunch of youths who know only one can live makes for a depressingly beautiful depiction of friendship in the hardest of times, and the way the novel was adapted makes plot changes but keeps the spirit exactly as I had envisioned in when last reading the book. With a tremendous cast, led by great chemistry between Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, is all wonderfully in step. Ben Wang is a revelation as Olson, one of the four lead character, and Roman Griffin Davis does a lot with his supporting role. I can’t praise The Long Walk enough as the perfect film for our times, as bleak as they idea may be.

So there you have it. These are my favorite movies of 2025. Now you know mine, so share yours in the comments below, and let’s discuss the tremendous year in film that was 2025. Thanks for joining me, and Happy New Year.

-Kyle A. Goethe