Best Films of 2025
Good things come to those who wait. My head is clear, I’ve seen what I need to see, and I can write clearly on the films I want to.
In no particular order, here are the 5 best films of 2025. Why not 10? I don’t have the spoons. Hamnet is somewhere up there. The rest I couldn’t tell you. I’d rather celebrate five than not celebrate at all and be like “didn’t I name this one of the best of the year” five years from now.
2025 was a great year for film and I’m thrilled that so many titles have passionate fans. I’m with it enough to start writing here again more frequently but not with it enough to battle the minutiae demons to whittle down another 20 contenders to the other half of a top 5.
Oh, sure, when Hollywood makes an all-star musical about vampires, it’s suddenly a great idea that everyone loves, but when we do vampires on Broadway, they always flop. Bitterness aside, Sinners is writer/director Ryan Coogler’s most brilliant work to date, elegantly weaving his knowledge of genre with his clear perspective on institutional racism in America. Setting the juke joint musical by way of vampire film in 1930s Jim Crow America is the perfect way to create a safety net of distance from the actual horror of society and the blood-thirsty Irish vampires. I love a big swing and Coogler pulled no punches here.
The Ugly Stepsister
Speaking of big swings, a body horror adaptation of Cinderella from the perspective of the ugly stepsister willing to do whatever it takes to be beautiful enough for a prince is a wild ride. Debut writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt weaponizes our understanding of fairy tales and societal beauty standards to create a bitter satire that is equally heartbreaking, disgusting, and darkly humorous. The hair and makeup are certainly worthy of the Oscar nomination, though, if I had a say, The Ugly Stepsister would come dangerously close to tying Sinners’ record-breaking nomination haul. No love for the costumes? Production design? Casting? Music? Editing? Direction? Writing? For shame.
Speaking of shame, Aunt Gladys is the hero we needed in 2025 and I will not see my witchy sister’s good name slandered any longer. Jokes aside, Weapons is the kind of film that makes me sit up and pay attention in the theater. I was hooked from the opening sequence and stayed for the ride even with the controversial serving size of hot dogs and that almost-slapstick c-plot of the cop and the drug addict running into each other again and again and again. Writer/director Zach Cregger made his mark on the horror genre with Barbarian, but he turned me into a lifelong fan with Weapons.
Keeper
Speaking of lifelong fans, writer/director Osgood Perkins arrested me again with Keeper. This far more intimate horror film from the auteur behind Longlegs feels more aligned with the unnerving fantasia that is Gretl & Hansel, which itself is another Perkins film I adore. He’s speaking my language. I get it.
Boys Go to Jupiter
Speaking of speaking my language, Boys Go to Jupiter is my favorite animated film of 2025. Easily the most inventive of the animated musicals, Boys Go to Jupiter has more in common with a Gasper Noe film than a Disney romance and I’m at peace with that. It’s an animated coming of age film centered around the gig economy, so past me feels it on a deep level.
My top pick? Sinners. Because when a film feels like it’s made for me, it’s made for me.