My enthusiasm for the best movies of 2025 so far is admittedly a little less muted than in previous years, but there remain some bright pockets. Whether through blockbuster films from established voices or indies from first-time directors, the first half of the year has provided plenty of entertaining highlights worthy of celebrating.
Honorable Mentions
- Ballerina
- Black Bag
- Companion
- The Day the Earth Blew Up
- F1 the Movie
- The Life of Chuck
- Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Predator: Killer of Killers
- Thunderbolts*
- Warfare
My enthusiasm for professional sports has waned and waxed in my adult life, so a film like Eephus served as a welcome reminder of why sports are so important to so many people. It’s the camaraderie, the feeling of accomplishment, the thrill of victory, the nostalgia for days gone by. All of this comes into play in Carson Lund’s directorial debut, one of the breeziest hangout films of the year. Utilizing a true ensemble cast of no-name actors, the film centers around a group of teammates united in their love for baseball, hoping to capture one last grasp at glory before their beloved diamond is re-developed. But this is no Field of Dreams-esque story where the characters are reaching for one final shot at glory; rather, it’s a dry comedy where the stakes couldn’t matter less beyond having one last game at a sentimentally special ballpark. Maybe it’s because my viewing of coincided with my oldest son’s growing enthusiasm for baseball, and maybe it’s because I enjoy a simple hangout comedy made amongst friends. Regardless, Eephus is something special and deserves to be celebrated as a high point of the first half of the year.
Friendship
Yes, Friendship mostly feels like a feature-length I Think You Should Leave sketch, but Andrew DeYoung’s directorial debut never overstays its welcome – unlike its lead protagonist/antagonist. Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd explore the male loneliness epidemic as only they can, by leaning into their well-established comedic personas. It’s a simple premise, on its face: a man (Robinson) befriends his new neighbor (Rudd) and his pre-existing friend group but is quickly kicked out once his strange behavior comes out. 2025 has been sorely lacking in theatrical comedies, but Friendship provided plenty of laughs from unexpected, bizarre places. Whether it was the most mundane drug trip sequence in recent memory, or surrealistically specific production design, DeYoung’s film was filled to the brim with little flourishes that fleshed out this strange, but somehow relatable, world. Like so many of my favorite films – and my favorite comedies – I can see myself coming back to Friendship again and again throughout the years.
The Phoenician Scheme
Call me a Wes Anderson homer if you must, but I found The Phoenician Scheme to be yet another charming and comedic entry in his prolific filmography. Eschewing his nesting doll story format which he’s utilized in much of his recent films, Anderson opts for a mostly straightforward structure, which leads to more humor and character depth. Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, and Mia Threapleton lead the madcap adventure about family, faith, and commerce, and how the three often cancel each other out. Anderson has made a number of films centered around troubled parents, but his latest follows a father (del Toro) and his estranged daughter (Threapleton) as they try to find common ground and understand one another. Of course, The Phoenician Scheme still retains Anderson’s trademark production design, costuming, camera tricks, and sensibilities (plus his ever-expanding stable of character actors). The film may not rank amongst Anderson’s best, but it’s lingered with me in a way that few films in 2025 so far have.
Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners represents so much more than a rollicking genre mash-up with impeccable craft elements. 2025’s best box office story also happens to be the highest-grossing film not based on pre-existing IP in years. What begins as a thorough character piece featuring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twin brothers, slowly morphs into a vampire action-adventure and a meditation on Black freedom. Ludwig Göransson continues to outdo himself with the year’s best film score, and Sinners became appointment viewing in premium formats thanks to Coogler’s love of filmmaking (I still remember wanting to stand up and cheer when the aspect ratio changes on the precipice of an action sequence). After spending most of his career making blockbuster IP within the Creed franchise and the MCU, Coogler flexed his creative muscles with one of the best films of 2025 so far.
I knew next to nothing about Sister Midnight before pressing play the first time, but I found myself quickly sucked in to writer-director Karan Kandhari’s weird, wonderful world. Through an almost wordless opening, and an off-kilter soundtrack, Kandhari paints a portrait of newlyweds in strife, centered around Uma (Radhika Apte) and her arranged marriage to Gopal (Ashok Pathak). The film shares a bit of thematic similarity to last year’s All We Imagine as Light (my movie of the year of 2024), in that it concerns a version of womanhood and belonging within a bustling metropolis. But Kandhari has an iron-tight understanding of the characters and their circumstances, often leading to left-field swings and humorous developments. It would be an easy shortcut to compare the film to the style of Wes Anderson or Jim Jarmusch, and certainly there are surface-level similarities in its dry wit and use of stop-motion animation. But Kandhari has his own sensibilities and worldview, making Sister Midnight one of the most original and unique films of 2025 so far.
The Movie State 