Top 25 Films of 2025

Like wine, appreciation of film is a matter of taste. While my viewing isn't as broad as my wine sampling, after catching almost 150 new releases last year there are at least 50-odd worth a look. Like wine, not every film will please every palate, but I pride myself on recommending the right one once I know your taste.

#25 — One of Them Days

BEST COMEDY — BEST DEBUT PERFORMANCE (SZA) — BEST CARTOON PHYSICS

First-time feature filmmaker Lawrence Lamont directed the most consistently funny film of the year (props to the new The Naked Gun and The Day the Earth Blew Up for joke density tho). This buddy comedy is my preferred everyday-folks-in-need-of-fast-cash journey over Mr. Mauser’s misadventures for likability of our protagonist alone; Keke Palmer has been a welcome screen presence for years and plays a solid straight man to SZA’s head-in-the-clouds roomie whose hierarchy of needs placed their rent money in the hands of a trifling but hung dreamer/schemer boyfriend. Sgulp! There’s light social commentary here and there, amusingly delivered most often as the pair interact with Katt Williams playing a wise man of the streets, always a joy. Maude Apatow is also put to great use here as an affable if fairly clueless gentrifier. Tee + Hee!

#24 — Eephus

RUNNER-UP FOR MOST “AM I DREAMING OR…” — BEST DUDES STANDING AROUND — BEST BEER MOVIE

The polar opposite of a one-crazy-night adventure, Carson Lund’s drawn-out yawn of a baseball flick captures the lethargy of watching a baseball game live, of slow mornings when one drifts in and out of dream. Watching it recalled a Yankees game I attended years ago with a UK pal who had yet to witness a full game, and wouldn’t you know, there were no points scored by either team until the bottom of the ninth, but overpriced beers and snacks were had over forgettable breezy conversation. A perfect afternoon. The stakes couldn’t be lower here, but if you’ve any affection for stopping to watch a few minutes of a game while wandering through a neighborhood or public park, this one will warm the soul, its asides to observers reflecting a community of all ages more interested in their own chat and philosophising than the game. As it should be.

#23 — Superman

BEST DOG — BEST ‘DO (NATHAN FILLION) — BEST COUPLE (LOIS & CLARK)

James Gunn understands Superman’s place in a wider universe, from fleshing out the staff and feel of the Daily Planet to the importance of levity when plotting challenges for a character lesser writers get wrong all too often. As I understand it, Gunn mined the tone of Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman, one of both Supes and Morrison’s strongest showings (much as his earlier Vertigo-era psychedelia like Seaman or The Invisibles touch on ~our~ world more interestingly). He’s man and myth but Gunn’s Clark will always stop to make sure no innocent bystanders are crushed by the mundane visits of intergalactic interlopers but will also take time to engage in a tête-à-tête with his better half. Love to not be forced to endure another will they won’t they with a foregone conclusion. Nic Hoult as a snivelling Elon Lex also rocks.

#22 — Highest 2 Lowest

BEST NEEDLEDROPS — BEST NEW YORK CITY, BABY — BEST RECOVERY

What they’ve said is true! After a euphoric opening sequence in which the city couldn’t look more beautiful, Lee’s narrative spends too many long scenes with characters irrelevant to the plot’s more interesting machinations such that I ~did~ question briefly where this train was headed. Folks! Lemme tell ya those worries were assuaged by the thrill ride second act and forgotten by the third. Denzel gets to cook here, a different kind of king than his delightful turn in the otherwise odd Gladiator 2 last year. A juicy steak of a performance which also features the first of two great supporting turns from A$AP Rocky on the side, this one less loveable. NGL Wendell Pierce and Dean Winters (yes, there is a Mayhem reference) playing cops is extremely to my taste so I was on board as soon as they showed up and appreciated how much screen time they were allotted as the central kidnapping develops. Flawed but ever so fun!

#21 — The Shadow’s Edge

BEST ACTION — HOTTEST BADDIES — MOST OLD-TIMERS STILL GOT IT

In a middling year for action flicks, Larry Yang’s is my favorite. It blends gunplay, hand-to-fist-to-foot-to-face combat, hidden identities and ludicrous stunts that were consistently more tense and fun than either old and new domestic standbys like Mission: Impossible or Ballerina feat. John Wick (but shout out to Fight or Flight, the silly Hartnett on a plane flick that ~did~ work wonders beyond its budget). This one pits the reluctant pair of retired cop Jackie Chan and hyper-competent younger cop Zhang Zifeng (😍) against Tony Leung Ka-fai as a master criminal who has lived for ages in the shadows as secret daddy to a group of Hot Boys Who Heist. The film’s only crime is mild overlength if anything, but it’s a blast from beginning to its inevitable end. The film also features a memorable blooper reel, which, where did those go?

#20 — If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

RUNNER-UP FOR MOST NAUSEATING (COMPLEMENTARY) — BEST WEED MOVIE — MOST ANTICIPATED OSCAR BITS

Sometimes there's a hole in the ceiling no one is doing anything about and you're stuck in a shithole hotel and your daughter is sick and your husband is out of town and wouldn't a walk into the depths of the ocean be nice actually... A joint will do. The film highlights a societal concerns, when employees side with the institution rather than the customer. Operating a public-facing business, I will ~always~ let a stranger in need use our restroom and will ~always~ make change for them. Punishing customers for arriving at ~not quite~ the right hour and being refused service is maddening. I wish Rose Byrne had chosen violence 🍷

#19 — Materialists

BEAUTIFULLY SHOT — MOST NEW YORK CITY, BABY — WORST DATES

Dakota Johnson is employed perfectly here, her charismatic lack a pretty pained face that mirrors the people of this city’s vacant stares as they walk insulated in headphones from the world around them. She’s not asked to be Meg Ryan and the movie isn’t trying to be a romcom, but shows off one of the sadder sides of coupling, matchmakers! People poo-poo Pascal, but he too is playing putty precisely, a vacant man floating from his purposeless position to character-free environs for both living and dining. Gag! Celine Song’s latest may have been more bitter a pill to swallow than its ad campaign indicated, but I appreciate its critiqueing a particular metropolitan worldview. More biting than the silly Splitsville, my favorite proper romcom of the year with the best fight choreography behind The Shadow’s Edge!

#18 — 28 Years Later

PRETTIEST FILM SHOT ON IPHONE — BEST HORROR — SEX POSITIVITY MEANS DICKS TOO

A banger of a horror film, tense, gory and thrilling. Among the most heart-pounding sequences this year is an early set piece that makes use of mother nature’s rhythms as the both stunning backdrop and bomb timer counting down to doom. At its core a coming-of-age story featuring an excellent performance by Alfie Williams as a boy looking out for his ailing mother, Jodie Comer, who are surviving in an isolated community decades after a virus wrecked the United Kingdom. Danny Boyle directs a visually inventive take on an Alex Garland script that hits familiar beats until it doesn’t. Seems a future not so far away, frighteningly. Ralph Fiennes and Chi Lewis-Perry are also standout supporting characters who feature more prominently in Nia DaCosta’s The Bone Temple, a follow-up also written by Garland that’s great in its way, if grimmer by a few degrees.

#17 — The Mastermind

BEST JAZZY SCORE — BEST HEIST — RUNNER–UP FOR WORST DAD

Josh O’Connor continues to be one of the most welcoming screen presences of the last half-decade, even when he’s playing a head-in-the-clouds loser who puts his responsibilities aside for a taste of thrill, here the minor heist of an inconsequential piece of art from a regional museum. The look and tone Reichhardt’s films are never really flashy, even a hostage situation in an earlier work has the intensity of a sleepy elder raising up from their chair, slow and creaking, but the lively score here makes for one of the snappiest entries in her ouvre.

#16 — Sorry, Baby

2ND BEST SHOW DON’T TELL — BEST OUT-OF-SEQUENCE STORYTELLING — BEST FEATURED ACTOR (JCL)

Both Eva Victor’s debut feature and another in the top ten feature small spotlight performances that are two of my favorite balms for the soul of the year. John Carroll Lynch gives one of the two beautiful, small performances that acts as a warm light in an otherwise dark hallway of the soul of an experience. It also features among the most memorable shots of the year, a still time lapse of some hours featuring the exterior of a house shot from across the street, a character leaving and then driving away. Woof! Naomi Ackie plays Victor’s closest pal in this very funny if heavy look at academia and friendship. Does a better job that that ~other~ university film with we all hoped better from with a great score and a confused conclusion.

#15 — Eddington

BEST WORST CONTEMPORARY TECH USE — BEST FACIAL HAIR — MOST MISUNDERSTOOD BY MORONS

Joaquin Phoenix commits to playing earnestly a character we all know, the flabbergasted other who cannot or will not share a lived reality with the neighbours he has sworn to protect. Ari Aster’s new nightmare rings truer as time passes and I only hope that we can collectively lift from the national nosedive towards ever worse prospects in the coming years. [under construction: imagine some little truck and crane emojis here or something]

#14 — Resurrection

MOST “AM I DREAMING OR…” — BEST ONER — BEST ‘ANTHOLOGY’

An extremely moving work that plays with the senses and the history of cinema to a degree that is so close to being masturbatory without quite crossing that boundary. Like Bi Gan’s last film, there is a pretty magnificent single shot or “oner” that is ~technically~ even longer (a technique in the ether this year with The Studio abusing the form amusingly). I expect this to be the film on the list most likely to be turned off within the first ten minutes, but also the most surprising to those who stick with it through its various acts, not quite an anthology but not not one. Also, move over Elordi (whose performance ~was~ the highlight of that odd misfire of a film), Jackson Yee’s transformations across the eras explored were even more wild.

#13 — Cloud

MOST UNEXPECTED TURNS — WORST GIRLFRIEND — BEST ‘MAYBE TOUCH GRASS’ MORALITY PLAY

The film that, paired with Eddington, best presents the deluded and the delusions that arise as the wrong sides of the internet infect and numb. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s crime film that crescendos spectacularly after a placid start, Masaki Suda’s reseller's peace only interrupted by the desires and eventual demands of his girlfriend Kotone Furukawa. As his business expands, the volume of work requires assistance, provided by local punk Daiken Okudaira, among my favorite supporting turns of the year. I’ll say no more and avoid spoiling the great fun had in this underseen thriller.

#12 — The Secret Agent

BEST FOUND FAMILY — BEST SHOW DON’T TELL — WORST ROAD TRIP

My father was born and raised in the country of Panama and resides there once again, retired from captaining oil tankers to captaining tugboats protecting those larger vessels as they pass through the canal. An interesting point of comparison to see first-hand the state of the nation since the Carter administration ended the little communist utopia of full employment, military and civil, at least for a couple miles east or west of the canal. I’ve experienced almost as many stops by police for bribes as visits to the nation, encountering checkpoints along the highway and hearing worse stories. A time of only a little mischief blessedly, but an interesting point of comparison to the masked goons now haunting our streets. At least in Panama and Brazil they’ve the decency to show their faces, with some confidence at least, reciprocation be damned. Such cowardice abounds here.

#11 — Sinners

BEST MUSICAL NUMBER — BEST BLUES — SEXIEST FILM

I LOVE IT when actors SING and DANCE in addition to playing their little comic or dramatic roles. There’s music flowing through most moments here but I woulda taken another dance number or three. A great goddamn time at the movies, the highlight of IMAX-style cinema-going of the first half of the year, surpassed only by my top film of the year. This one is hot and sweaty like a southern summer, more a film of place and music than a vampire flick, much as it is also one of those. Can’t wait to see what Coogler does next!

#10 — No Other Choice

BEST SCORE — MOST INVENTIVE MURDERS — BEST DOGS

The newest from director Park reunites him with Lee Byung-hun to chronicle the trials and travails of a desperate man who plows forward to an unavoidable conclusion when faced with a straightforward if challenging set of circumstances. He needs a new job and ain’t the best candidate. He knows enough to know his betters and sets out to eliminate the competition. Like The Mastermind, the score feels like another player in the tale, never overwhelming but it plays like a commentary track as much as background vibes. The loony tunes bring a little lightness to dark affairs, but music played distressingly loud is amusingly featured here and in my #4 favorite.

#9 — The Baltimorons

BEST ONE CRAZY NIGHT — BEST NO FAME-OS — MOST LIVED IN

Please file this one away next to The Holdovers as an essential part of our new Christmas canon. This undershown, underseen comedy from Jay Duplass features Michael Strainer, struggling through sobriety in a dead-end relationship after alcohol abuse derailed his improv comedy career. His path crosses with a luminous Lis Larsen, as perfect a partner in crime as one could imagine for a whirlwind of misadventures and some of the most simple, rich, open-hearted conversations. I’d rather not spoil the directions this takes, but if you liked what Ghostlight did with Shakespeare, you’ll love what fun is had with the stage here.

#8 — The Chronology of Water

BEST DEBUT FEATURE — WORST DAD — BEST EDUCATOR

Kristen Stewart’s first feature is among the most visually inventive films of the year and features a stellar lead performance from Imogen Poots, always a pleasure but particularly captivating here, playing many eras in the life of Lidia Yuknavitch, whose memoir of the same name is the basis of the work. This one features a brief but warm episode in which Jim Belushi plays Ken Kessey in educator mode, supporting Poots’s Lidia as she finds her footing in the writing world. Very curious to see where Stewart goes from here.

#7 — The Ice Tower

MOST WHERE IS MY JACKET — BEST BACKSTAGE HIJINKS — BEST WET STREETS

Lucille Hadžihalilović’s latest combines cruel winter, movies about movies, longing and coming-of-age elements, ticking many boxes on my list of elements that never fail to tickle. Clara Pacini, a runaway, makes her way down from a small mountain village and finds refuge in a what appears to be an abandoned warehouse turned film set, a backstage home, and increasing connection to and role in the film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen in production. The film feels sometimes like a dream and often timeless, as does Cotillard’s presence as the queen on and offstage.

#6 — Weapons

MOST ACCURATE MODERN WITCH HUNT — BEST ACT BREAKS — BIGGEST HELL YEAH

Vibes and playful structure are sometimes all it takes to tickle me the most; I appreciate emotional impact and carrying the weight of watching a heavy film but do so adore being manipulated towards laughter, fear and that hell yeah sensation. Zach Cregger’s film does what I’m looking for in all three of those directions, TO THE MAX! I feel like Julia Garner is a couple roles away from being a star but seems like a great customer here. Like Cregger’s first film, please go in blind and enjoy the ride! I’ve taken it twice and would again.

#5 — The Shrouds

BEST DUNKING ON AI — MOST IMPACTFUL OPENING MOMENTS — BEST CHAT/FUCK

I’m as big a fan of late Cronenberg as the rest, enjoying the odd digital look and tone that’s as often humorous as distressing. [under construction: imagine some little truck and crane emojis here or something]

#4 — Die My Love

MOST NAUSEATING — MOST PATIENCE — BEST SOUND DESIGN

Have you wandered the city looking for a place to settle down and pass time with a drink only to face music a few decibels too high and walk out immediately? Have you been enjoying fine conversation and ~that~ song that reminds you of ~that~ ex starts playing and pulls you out of the present? The funniest drama of the year stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson as new parents, recently moved to a new home, and the experience is turned up to 11. I’m very lucky to have finally escaped a career path where anyone is telling me what to do and can only begin to imagine the frustrations of mothers (women in general) being lectured by their friends and family, the nightmare media environment and, the indignity, men.

#3 — It Was Just an Accident

CAST I MOST WANT TO SEE GOING ON ANOTHER QUEST — BEST VILLAIN? — MOST RURAL PLACES ARE SCARY

Without spoiling anything beyond the premise, a mechanic at a rural automotive shop pauses to hide, hearing an unforgettable sound, the odd pace of a man wandering the shop who has stopped to have his car repaired, a sound he believes to belong to his former torturer. He follows the man to his home, kidnaps him to the desert to bury him alive, but is convinced ~just~ enough to take the man around to others who suffered under this Schrodinger’s torturer. Jafar Panahi’s latest is a straightforward and satisfying narrative whose conclusion is among the most impactful of the year (and whose conclusions have most impacted concerns about abuse of authority abroad and at home).

#2 — Caught by the Tides

MOST YEARS GONE BY — BEST WHAT IS ROMANCE ANYWAY? — BEST DECADES-LONG PROJECT

The film that both most saddened and most inspired ennui. A decades-long scope reminds of times gone by and loves lost, cities changing, waters rising, connection diminished. Jia Zhangke is new to me, but I’m excited to revisit moments from this film borrowed from/recontextualized into this film’s narrative. [under construction: imagine some little truck and crane emojis here or something]

#1 — One Battle After Another

BEST PICTURE — A+ — MOST REWATCHABLE

Talk about no other choice! I caught this film in Dolby with a big Modelo and a cool visitor to the shop, next at the biggest IMAX on the east coast, our very now Lincoln Center AMC, and finally with my step-mom on a standard screen down in the East Village. EVERY TIME A DREAM! Leonardo DiCaprio won’t give up no matter how rough the going gets. Teyana Taylor may only be on screen for the film’s prologue, but her presence is felt throughout. Sean Penn smells a photograph trying to catch a whiff of affection. Chase Infiniti does some of my favorite eye acting of the year. Benicio del Toro has the role of the year, and collaboration made it so (listen to interviews about the production to learn the story)! Tony Goldwyn and Jim Downey play the best purely villainous villains, the worst of them all, white boomers. Get with it!

Les Runners Ups: 26–50

Avatar: Fire & Ash, Sentimental Value, Blue Moon, Wake Up Dead Man, Splitsville, The Testament of Anne Lee, Keeper, The Naked Gun, Marty Supreme, Endless Cookie, Black Bag, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Bugonia, Friendship, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Vulcanizadora, The Phoenician Scheme, Train Dreams, After the Hunt, Rosemead, Sisu: Road to Revenge, Eden, Sister Midnight, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Parthenope.

Published: January 22, 2026 - Kaare Bivin-Pederson