Every movie year inevitably invites comparisons to previous years. I’m a little more lukewarm overall on this year, even if I did ultimately have trouble narrowing down my top 10 films of 2025. Part of the year was marked by middling disappointments, and while there were good films to find since the beginning, I didn’t find myself as passionately enthusiastic about most of them. Nevertheless, 2025 found great movies across all genres, new and exciting voices, and returns from celebrated auteurs.
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?):
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Jacobi Jupe, Noah Jupe, Joe Alwyn
Grade: A-
Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel Hamnet took a new approach to exploring the world of Shakespeare. Instead of focusing solely on the Bard of Avon himself, O’Farrell shone a light on his family—namely, his wife Agnes and his youngest son, Hamnet. The book explores the grief that befalls Hamnet’s family when he dies suddenly during a plague, and how that experience led to the crafting of one of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays, Hamlet. In the film adaptation, Academy Award winning director Chloé Zhao employs her signature naturalistic brand of filmmaking to add even more emotional depth to this fictional tale grounded in the history of one of our greatest storytellers. The film is an excellent complement to the book, staying faithful to the roots but branching out on its own artistically.
Starring: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Ke Huy Quan, Fortune Feimster, Andy Samberg, David Strathairn, Idris Elba, Shakira, Patrick Warburton, Quinta Brunson
Grade: B+
Zootopia was easily one of Disney’s biggest hits of the 2010s. Grossing over a billion dollars at the box office and winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature over critically acclaimed films such as Moana and Kubo and the Two Strings (with both earning more Oscar nominations than Zootopia), it’s hard to find a bigger success than the 2016 Disney crime film. Because of that, Zootopia 2 had a lot of pressure on it to succeed, but somehow, the film manages to live up to expectations.
The Movie State 