The year 2025 was a generally excellent year for movies and my list has a bigger than usual runner-up list as proof. But to start I will state that the very best movie of the year, which wasn’t officially a “movie”, was the Netflix streaming hit, Adolescence. There is no doubt in my mind that if this riveting British masterpiece about a young boy accused of murdering a fellow student was released as a feature film, it would be sweeping the Oscars this year. But Adolescence has already received its awards from the Emmys (where it dominated), and that leaves the following list of my favorite films from last year:
A House of Dynamite: Kathryn Bigelow’s pulse-pounding thriller posits the question of “what if” when a nuclear warhead is heading to the United States. Hang on!
Blue Moon: Ethan Hawke, never better, plays the alcoholic composer Lorenz Hart in what is essentially a one-man play set over one very long evening in a bar. This bracing drama from director Richard Linklater is a love letter to talent on the downside.
Hamnet: Beautifully observed rendering of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestseller speculates on the marriage between William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife (Jessie Buckley) and the tragedy of losing their young son. Buckley is transcendent here and the last 20 minutes of this movie will leave you wrung out.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You: Rose Byrne, in a fearless, all-stops-out performance, is the mother of a seemingly disabled child in this tough-watch which looks at the role of mothers in contemporary society. Blistering.
Marty Supreme: Dominated by an Oscar-worthy performance yet again by Timothee Chalamet, this non-stop look at one of the best table tennis players who ever lived, is consistently entertaining.
One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson’s best film to date (which is saying a lot!) stars the always-reliable Leonardo DiCaprio as a burned-out revolutionary whose daughter is now carrying the torch. Chase Infiniti is a real find playing the daughter, with great turns also provided by Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro.
Sentimental Value: Acclaimed filmmaker Joachim Trier charts this potent family drama about a once-popular movie director (Stellan Skarsgard) and his relationship with daughters who resented his absence.
Sinners: Writer/director Ryan Coogler’s summer blockbuster is an original and deliciously vicious vampire tale, with a magnetic Michael B. Jordan at its center playing twins. The movie delivers on all levels.
Sorry Baby: Writer, director and star Eva Victor in a quiet character study about a young woman abused by her professor and her thoroughly original response. This is a little movie worth seeking out.
The Perfect Neighbor: Nightmarish documentary about a white woman who shoots the black mother in her neighborhood when she felt threatened. Desperately sad and consistently riveting.
Train Dreams: The Pacific Northwest is gorgeously captured in this adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella set during the early 20th century. It covers decades in the life of a working man (Joel Edgerton, very fine) as he experiences radical changes in the country.
Weapons: The year’s best horror film, about a classroom of school kids who go missing, was a twisted treat. The movie boasts great performances from Julia Garner and Josh Brolin and a revelatory one by Amy Madigan that should win this longtime actress her first Oscar.
Runners-Up:
28 Years Later
Black Bag
Companion
Fairyland
Final Destination Bloodlines
Frankenstein
Good Boy
Hallow Road
Hedda
Highest 2 Lowest
IHostage
Jay Kelly
The Mastermind
Mr. Scorsese
Predators
The Wedding Banquet
