Matt Gillam’s Top 10 Movies of 2025

Another year in film has come and gone! While it may not have served up hits as consistently as 2024, there were enough treasures to go around if you knew where to look. With the future of the theatrical experience resting on tenuous ground, new layers have been added to the act of reminiscing on my 2025 movie-going experiences. How many of these films may not have even been greenlit in a consolidated distributor model? Which types of stories may no longer rise to prominence when a dwindling number of individuals control the narrative? Deep questions to ponder during the holiday season, but I remain hopeful that filmmakers will continue to be able to wow us with cinematic spectacle for years to come, even if the process of getting there may look different. Maybe that’s a topic to worry more about next year! For now, here are my top 10 favorite movies of 2025, along with some honorable mentions (because who can pick just 10?):

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Song Sung Blue Review

Song Sung Blue

  • Director: Craig Brewer
  • Writer: Craig Brewer
  • Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli, Ella Anderson, Fisher Stevens, Jim Belushi

Grade: C+

Craig Brewer is a filmmaker who seems particularly adept at making films of dreamers, people who have been kicked around by life, but reach for greatness by any means necessary. The Hustle & Flow and Dolemite is My Name director now adapts Song Sung Blue – from the 2008 documentary of the same name – into an often treacly but well acted character study. Brewer never shies away from the implicit darkness at the center of the story, but in trying to tell this story in a realistic, compelling way, the film too often feels unfocused to stand on its own.

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No Other Choice Review

No Other Choice

  • Director: Park Chan-wook
  • Writer: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Lee Ja-hye, Don McKellar
  • Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, Kimm Woo-seung

Grade: B

With his latest creation No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook takes his turn to adapt Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 horror novel The Ax. It is the second film adaptation of that source material, following The Axe, a film by director Costa-Gavras that was released 20 years ago. This interpretation follows Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), an everyday Korean family man who has lost his longtime job with a paper-making company due to an American takeover.  He identifies a new path for himself, and resorts to dangerous lengths to eliminate his competition in hopes of securing his family’s future. The story of a man turning to crime to better his life is a story we’ve probably all encountered in film before, so many of the story beats may be familiar to fans who enjoy a good thriller. As with most of his films, though, Park takes an eclectic approach to genre here—mixing dark comedy, horror, and satirical elements to give the film a unique flavor. There’s enough of that flair infused here to keep the film feeling fresh and interesting.

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Marty Supreme Review

Marty Supreme

  • Director: Josh Safdie
  • Writer: Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
  • Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Odessa A’zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Emory Cohen

Grade: A-

When accepting his Best Actor SAG award earlier in 2025, Timothée Chalamet boldly declared that he wanted to be remembered as one of the great actors, more than a handsome face or a flash in the pan. Looking back, it makes perfect sense that the 30-year old wunderkind’s next project would be Marty Supreme. But it’s not just Chalamet, or his character, who have something to prove; director Josh Safdie is staking it out on his own after a fruitful indie career as co-director with brother Benny (who had his own debut earlier this year with The Smashing Machine). The result is a perfect storm of ambition, and one of the most exhilarating films of 2025.

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Trevor Stucker’s Top 10 Movies of 2025

2025 has been an interesting year for the film industry. With every MCU film underperforming at the box office and Warner Bros. looking to sell to Netflix despite being the most successful film studio of the year, there aren’t many other years that turned out as unpredictable as 2025 was for films. Something that isn’t surprising is that there were a ton of excellent movies released in the calendar year. From blockbuster spectacle to indie dramas, so many films from this year are bound to make an impact on the future of filmmaking. There are some movies that could end up on this top ten list if I had seen them, including The Testament of Ann Lee, Resurrection, and The Voice of Hind Rajab. Out of the 200 movies I’ve seen in 2025, these ten made the biggest impact.

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Fallout Season 2 – TV Review

Fallout Season 2

  • Creators: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner
  • Starring: Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, Moisés Arias, Kyle MacLachlan, Sarita Choudhury, Kumail Nanjiani, Leslie Uggams, Macauley Culkin, Frances Turner, Dave Register, Zach Cherry, Johnny Pemberton
  • Eight episode season, six episodes watched for review

Grade: B

Nobody needed Fallout season 2 to hew closely to any of the pre-existing video games. In fact, the first season broke away almost entirely, telling a brand new story with brand new characters within the limitless sandbox that was available. Given the stinger at the end of season 1, it seemed that showrunners Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet were priming an adaptation of the “New Vegas” entry in the franchise. The magic of the series is that this new season is a faithful recreation of the game, for better and worse, while still trekking its own path.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash – Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash

  • Director: James Cameron
  • Writers: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
  • Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Oona Chaplin, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Jack Champion, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss

Grade: C

It’s a worldwide event when James Cameron releases a new film. Not only does he push for original storytelling for the big screen, but he provides a spectacle that very few modern films offer. Whether it’s his Avatar films or Titanic, his movies bring people to the box office unlike any other filmmaker. Avatar: Fire and Ash is Cameron’s latest entry into the franchise, hoping to recapture the grand scale and universal storytelling of the previous two films. 

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Is This Thing On? Review

Is This Thing On?

  • Director: Bradley Cooper
  • Writer: Bradley Cooper, Will Arnett, Mark Chappell
  • Starring: Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Bradley Cooper, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Sean Hayes, Amy Sedaris

Grade: A-

You don’t need me to tell you that tragedy plus time equals comedy. This is essentially the formula for Bradley Cooper’s third directorial effort, Is This Thing On?, and it continues the actor-director’s streak of simple but effective character studies. But, rather than leveling up his production budget, Cooper has chosen to scale back and create a more intimate, personal story that still caters to his sensibilities as a storyteller.

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Top 10 TV Shows of 2025

2025 has been the best year for me of TV watching as any year in recent memory. Besides watching the shows below which comprise the Best of television in 2025, I was able to catch up on some series which had previously eluded me. I crossed a major blind spot off and watched The Sopranos for the first time. I watched the delightful, underseen and underappreciated cartoon Craig of the Creek. I finally caught up with Emmy darling Hacks (and enjoyed it as much as I expected, even if season 4 wasn’t my favorite). Between all of that, I made time to rewatch many of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons.

Regardless, I have no doubt that 2025 will go down as one of the great years for television, with amazing seasons from returning series like The Rehearsal and Stranger Things, great limited series like Adolescence, and new shows from previously established voices like Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s Long Story Short and Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus. Of course there were disappointments from previous critical favorites, like The White Lotus season 3, The Last of Us season 2, the final installment of Squid Game, and The Bear season 4, but those lows were few and far between in a great year for TV. As I said, my time spent with the boob tube was at its peak, but there were inevitably shows that still slipped through the cracks. If you’re wondering why shows like The Righteous Gemstones, The Diplomat, Nobody Wants This, Daredevil: Born Again, Fallout (which wasn’t screened in time for publication) et cetera, aren’t on this list, now you know why.

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