The Top Movies of 2025

In a world on fire, movies continue to provide solace and comfort as a realm for infinite fantasy.  Where the Christmas Adventurers Club can exist in the same year as Blues music fighting the KKK.  Where demons are hunted through the power of Kpop and a demonic snowman is destroyed by Liam Neeson.  It’s a realm that contains Denzel Washington rapping to A$ap Rocky, Tom Hanks impeccably playing basketball, and David Paymer putting challah bread on a corpse.  For me, movies continue to be eternal and the movie theatre holds a spiritual power.  Due to life circumstances, I watched far less current films than in previous years, but was wowed by what I did see.  Any film in my top five is better than the majority of films from 2024.  It was a good year.  

One glaring omission:  Sentimental Value.  I wasn’t able to see this in the theaters and haven’t made time to see it at home.  It’ll have to count as a 2026 film. 

Top Ten Films of 2025

10.  Weapons/All The Empty Rooms 

An unfortunate pairing due to subject matter here in the ten spot.  Weapons is a brilliantly-constructed horror movie about, among other things, the weaponization of our children within culture.  All the Empty Rooms is a short documentary about photographing the left empty rooms of children killed in school shootings.  Weapons is wonderfully acted filling the screen with vision and sound, while All the Empty Rooms is sparse, void of sound. 

9.  Kpop Demon Hunters 

Yes, I actually watched another animated movie.  My only one for the year and I was thoroughly entertained.  Great Kpop music with a somewhat simple and predictable story.  The movie is saved by great vocal acting and really charismatic leads.  It falls into the Moana trap of having silly animal sidekicks without much purpose, but I cannot deny that I’ve rewatched the final twenty minutes over ten times.  The perfect pick-me-up for our trying times.  We’re Golden! 

8.  F1 

My feel-good movie of the year.  Light on plot, heavy on filmmaking.  A great cinematic experience.  The final “flight” sequence is breathtaking in cinematic glory.  Enjoyable leads - give me Javier Bardem in this part ten times over.  Also Kerry Condon is phenomenal when she’s allowed to speak in her actual accent (see Train Dreams for when she isn’t).

7. Hamnet 

For me, Hamnet struggles under the weight of its two literary predecessors.  Unfortunately, I finished the Maggie O’Farrell book too close to the film and couldn’t remove my adoration for the novel from the adaptation to the screen.  The first hour of the film struggled under that weight.  However, once Jacobi Jupe appears as Hamnet, we’re off to the races.  The final thirty minutes are my favorite thing I’ve seen on film since 2023.  The idea that offstage could represent Heaven is equally powerful and brilliant.  Everything that happens inside The Globe Theatre is why we go to the movies.  Two films in one for me, with the latter being a masterpiece.  

6.  Come See Me in The Good Light 

A documentary on the end of life of Poet Laureate, Andrea Gibson.  I’m ashamed that it took until this film for me to read their poetry.  A stunningly beautiful film about the cycles we fight through as we fight for our lives.  Their struggles are felt, their love is so present, and their writing sings through the film clippings on screen.  I loved this movie and will plan to revisit it in the years to come.  Equally parts hopeful and tragic.  

5. It Was Just an Accident 

Jahfar Panahi’s groundbreaking work about torture and deception in Iran.  If you’ve ever seen Death and The Maiden this is the better version of that film.  Real and raw at all times.  The acting is less performed and more exorcised.  Despite its terrible subject matter, humor comes through the seams.  This goes down as one of the weirdest “friends on a roadtrip” films ever made.  Also the supporting performance by Mariam Afshari is one of my top five performances of the year.  This film will stick with you long after the credits roll.  

4.  Train Dreams 

In a movie this soft and atmospheric with our modern attention span dwindling, you have to grab me in the first 10 minutes. As we emerge out of a train tunnel into a wooded paradise we are met by Will Patton’s storied voice which both soothes and attracts. The camera mounted on a falling tree, the boots nailed into another. These are the images that will stick with me from the year. We’ve been invited into folklore and the phone goes away, the eyes focus.  Hauntingly beautiful, careful in storytelling and song, I loved Train Dreams.  It’s less of a film and more of a quiet meditation on a life.  Joel Edgerton is wonderful and the cameo of the year performance goes to William H Macy.  

3.  Black Bag 

A sleek, sexy modern spy thriller with a dinner party sequence to die for.  Fassbender and Blanchett are on fire together and it's one of Soderbergh’s best films in years.  A modern Agatha Christie level spy thriller, with the thriller elements coming from tension rather than from action.  To say more would give away the film - but even if these lines don’t sell you, Tom Burke’s supporting role will.  

2.  Sinners 

Brilliant genre masterpiece.  My favorite soundtrack and score of the year.  The I Lied To You sequence doesn’t work for everything but it sure as shit works for me.  One of the most inventive sequences captured on film in decades.  Eat your heart out, Ryan Coogler.  Generational trauma on top of historical bias with a whole heaping helping of brilliant blues music.  Michael B Jordan as both Smoke and Stack gives the performance of his career.  Same goes for Wunmi Mosaku who was first brilliant in Lovecraft Country and Miles Caton - where did they find this gem?  Coogler is in a category with just a handful of other modern masters.  Sinners is brilliance in action.  

1.  One Battle After Another

Sometimes the Academy gets it right.  Sinners and One Battle After Another aren’t just chalk picks, they’re the best movies of the year.  One Battle is one of the best movies of the century.  Quotable, heartbreaking, hilarious, and hard-hitting.  An utterly brilliant script, PTA has outdone himself in adapting this story.  The final “car chase” is unlike anything I’ve seen on film.  You feel your heart beat with every bump in the road.  It feels like a cross between the Nuclear Test in Oppenheimer, the ending of Past Lives, and Caravan in Whiplash.  The score is unnerving and perfectly misshapen.  I LOVED the experience of watching One Battle.  From the visual magic of skateboarders on rooftops to the cops chasing after Del Toro and DiCaprio.  In a movie filled with nihilism and despair, when that Tom Petty kicks in, you realize, you too might have hope for the future.  One Battle tackles the oncoming abyss head on.  

Best Movies of 2024

Last year, I wrote,“I’m actually releasing my top ten list in the same calendar year. I have finally broken the mental strife associated with the Academy Award schedule.  No longer will I bend to the standards of millionaire maniacs who release award films in the final days of the year.”  So that plan lasted a year.  We’re over sixty days into 2025, the awards season has come and gone, and I’m finally writing this article.  At first, I wanted to make sure I saw The Brutalist, but in the end, I live in Iowa and it’s hard to see many of these films until February.  C’est la vie.  

Many of my favorite critics have been critical about this year in film.  Whether it was the strikes or lasting affects from covid, many major companies held some of their best offerings in 2024.  And yes, a year after self-proclaiming 2023 as my “favorite year in film,” naturally a letdown was inevitable, but I found this to be an excellent year especially in independent cinema.  I think the systemic problems in the studio system have allowed me to broaden my movie-going lens.  I’m really proud that out of the 70 films I saw this year, 12 were documentaries, 12 were international films, and over 70% were independent.  This may not have been a year of masterpieces, but it was a year filled with worthy entries in cinematic history.  

I’ve broken this year’s list down into four categories: Best of 2023 Revisited, Honorable Mentions, Liked, and finally, Loved.  

Best of 2023 Revisited

Due to writing my list in 2023, I missed out on a few films that would’ve made my top ten.  These included American Fiction and The Zone of Interest.  American Fiction is a film of turns rather than twists.  The acting is pitch perfect led by the incomparable Jeffrey Wright and the always reliable John Ortiz.  Erika Alexander and the brief appearances by Sterling K Brown gave equal measures of levity and weight.  Cord Jefferson is a brilliant writer in his previous positions working on The Good Place and the limited series masterpiece, Watchmen, but Fiction puts him in a new echelon.  

The Zone of Interest is a genuine masterpiece.  The best sound design I’ve ever heard on screen, bringing life and death to this eerie slice of life drama about the commandant of Auschwitz and his family. Disturbing in its aftermath as much as its immediate viewing.  The Zone of Interest is the meeting point between social commentary and art house egotism.  A difficult watch; a needed narrative.  Had I seen them in 2023, American Fiction would’ve ranked at eight and The Zone of Interest at three.  

Honorable Mentions 

A long list broken into sub-categories.  Blockbusters: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Twisters, Mean Girls, Deadpool v Wolverine, The Fall Guy, and Wicked.  Documentaries: Sue Bird: In the Clutch, Apollo 13: Survival, Bitconned (A recommend not on style, but you won’t believe what these people are caught on camera saying), Sugarcane, Dahomey.  Award-Style: September 5, Blitz, Juror #2, Babygirl, and Hitman.  Pure Fun: It’s What’s Inside, Snack Shack, Am I Ok?, Carry-On.  Glad They Exist, but They Didn’t Work For Me: I Saw the TV Glow, Heretic, The Piano Lesson, Bikeriders, Monkey Man, The Substance.  And finally, The Rest of the Top Twenty: Turtles All the Way Down (20), Conclave (19), The Idea of You (18), Fancy Dance (17), The Only Girl in the Orchestra (16), Flow (15), Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (14), My Old Ass (13). 

The Top Twelve Movies of 2024 

Liked 

12.  The Brutalist 

A masterpiece of scale and scope that falters slightly on story.  How can we make films like The Brutalist for $12 Million when we’re wasting nearly $400 Million on Captain America: Brave New World. Brilliant cinematography, sound design, score, and acting.  Winner of my favorite moment on screen (The Christmas Party Conversation).  Unfortunately, I had serious issues with the second half of this movie (after the intermission), but the first half still earned its spot on the list.  

11. Rebel Ridge 

Rarely do genre films have such great acting.  Aaron Pierre is a star in the making.  He leads an exceptional cast of typically under seen players in a crime-action thriller about political corruption and racism in local police departments.  Made by the brilliant Jeremy Saulnier (His debut, Blue Ruin, made a previous top ten list), Ridge is a smarter version of a 90s action film with far better casting.  

10.  Kneecap 

One of two International films on this list, Kneecap is one of the most enjoyable movies of the year.  It’s a funny version of 8 Mile, telling the true story about the creation of Kneecap, the hip-hop trio supporting the revitalization of the Irish Language.  A drug-fueled mad dash of a film packing a punch in the heart, the head, and in the funny bone.  Well-acted considering the top three billed are playing outsized versions of themselves.  

9.  Red Rooms 

The second International film on this list and also the second year in a row with a horror movie at the number nine position.  Utterly disturbing, with a phenomenal central performance from Juliette Gariépy.  Her psychopathic tendencies lead into her self-destruction as her obsession with a serial murderer reaches unfathomable degrees.  Pascal Plante is a generational director with a contemplative lens on incredibly difficult subject matters.  The script weaves and flows through AI, modern media, obsession culture, and mental illness with ease.  A magnificent film that you won’t want to see twice.   

8.  Sing Sing 

A true blunder by A24 was failing to support Sing Sing for Best Picture.  Sing Sing offers a thru-line, but works better as a series of vignettes, a series of rehearsals leading up to a performance, the director bravely never shows us.  Based on the real life stories of the RTA prison theatre program and starring many of the former inmates from the program, Sing Sing offers a glimpse into the power of theatre bringing humanity back into the lives of those starved of the artistic limelight.  Led by the effervescent Colman Domingo, the film is a collection of acting powerhouses with Clarence Maclin stealing the show.  

7.  We Live in Time 

A John Crowley movie right out of the Richard Curtis playbook, We Live in Time, provides an out of time kaleidoscopic vision of life and love.  I found it utterly captivating.  A showcase for both Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh whose natural chemistry makes you fall in love with their love story.  Reminded me of a Curtis film, About Time, a personal favorite.  We Live in Time is light, but still plumbs the depths of a relationship complicated by life, compelled by love.   

6. A Complete Unknown 

This was my Wicked.  Everything my students loved about Wicked, I felt about A Complete Unknown.  One of the best ensemble films of the year with winning performances across the board.  This was my favorite theatre-going experience of the year.  I was enamored with every morsel of sound on the screen.  Is the film complex, dealing with the one-of-a-kind nature of Bob Dylan; not even remotely.  But some movies have the right to be celebrated because of how much you adored them.  

Loved 

5.  Dune Part II 

It took a full rewatch to truly appreciate this film as much as Part I.  At first, I struggled with the narrative structure and felt the second half of the movie sped the pace up without speeding up the story.  However, on rewatch, everything is clearly telegraphed from the start of the picture.  I think this was Timothée Chalamet’s year.  I’ve never found him as anything more than a pretty face, but felt both of his performances held nuance, vulnerability, and a different kind of beauty.  The same can be said for Zendaya.  Dune Part II is a brilliant film made by a modern day master behind the camera, Denis Villeneuve.  This year, no other blockbuster was even in the same ballpark; or rather sand wormed desert.     

4.  Challengers 

Incredibly funny, winning, and engaging.  Not even remotely the film I thought I was going to witness.  A film based entirely around sex, incredibly sexual in camera and performance, and yet, no sex to speak of.  Three dynamic performances with Josh O’Connor and Zendaya taking the lion share of the credit.  The best score of the year.  I’ve never been a fan of Luca Guadagnino’s, but I am after this film.  By far, the best ending of the year (which I have rewatched a dozen times).  The film never shies away from being inventive, even within its pop construction.  I plan to see this many more times in the future.  

3.  Anora 

Over the moon that Anora won Best Picture.  It takes a ton of guts to make a film like this and it lives entirely in Sean Baker’s camera and Mikey Madison’s unique, one-of-a-kind performance.  The second act of Anora had me rolling in the aisle with laughter.  Anora is the Uncut Gems of romantic comedy.  While the third act is the most difficult to watch, it’s also the act where this film shines brightest.  We need to witness the collapse, the breaking of the American Dream, to see the true despair inherent in every aspect of Anora.  Another film with a terrific ensemble, I was laughing and crying all in the span of about ten minutes.  

2.  Ghostlight 

The final movie I watched, made for less than $1 million.  This film needs to be taught in high schools around the country.  Currently available on Hulu, full free ad, you need to watch it.  A depressed, overweight construction worker with an unruly daughter stumbles into a community theatre rehearsal and ends up being in Romeo & Juliet, but as the film goes along, we see how real life intermixes with the play onstage and how the tendrils of grief are long and complicated.  Heartbreaking and hilarious, the family is portrayed by the real-life couple and their daughter.  One of the best scripts of the year, this film is going to have you in tears.  Ghostlight complicates resolution deepening each character.  There isn't a wasted moment in its runtime.  And, most importantly, it shows the dramatic impact of community theatre.    

1.  Civil War 

A controversial pick, but no other movie affected me quite like Civil War.  A masterpiece of genre filmmaking.  This was attacked for being anti-political, but this movie is anything but anti-political, it just isn’t about Republicans and Democrats.  It’s about all of us, our complicity in our own destruction and our awestruck need for it. I saw Civil War three times in theaters and another time at home.  The soundtrack is brilliant, the performances are masterful with Kirsten Dunst, pure chefs kiss.  For all of its horrors, this film is so beautiful in its ability to craft pictures, fitting for its focus on photo journalism.  The Jesse Plemmons scene is the best of the movie, but I’ll remember the cleaning of the blood out of the vehicle to the sound of helicopters for the rest of my cinematic life.  I predict this film will have a long and fruitful shelf life.  And it is my top film of 2024.  

The Best Movies of 2023

It’s official.  I’m actually releasing my top ten list in the same calendar year. I have finally broken the mental strife associated with the Academy Award schedule.  No longer will I bend to the standards of millionaire maniacs who release award films in the final days of the year.  Guess what - you will not see All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, The Taste of Things, & The Zone of Interest on this list.  Why?  They haven’t come to Iowa yet, therefore they are 2024 movies in my book.  It feels good to write that.  My OCD brain is finally at peace…for now.  

Hyperbole is the catch of the day for a reviewer.  We are prone to grandiose statements, over-the-top pronouncements that looking back a year later, we regret.  With that in mind, this was my favorite year in film.  Of the fifty-five releases I watched, only seven fell into the waste bin of regretful decisions.  I have a list of twenty-five movies that competed for the top ten spots.  That’s never happened before. If we look back at the last four years, there were never more than twelve films a year in competition for the coveted final ten.  What sets this year apart?  It was the inventiveness, the ingenuity, and the depth of work from all aspects of the industry.  Some of the best acting, directing, and writing was on display.  It was a year cemented in beauty.  From the production designs of Barbie, Poor Things, and Oppenheimer to the makeup and costumes of Maestro, Priscilla, and Ferrari.  This year had everything: the laughter of Barbie & Theatre Camp, the tears of Killers of the Flower Moon & Past Lives, and the warmth of Are You There God?  It’s me, Margaret.  In a year defined by the writer and actor’s strikes, audiences had the chance to see the majesties of their art. As for me, when I needed the comforts of the theater, the artistic landscape accepted my pleas.  Movies are back! 

Shoutout of the Year 

While it didn’t reach my top ten, I want to shout out Holding Back the Tide.  I have a biased connection to this film.  Trey Tetreault, a friend and husband to one of my close friends, Denver Crawford, is a producer on this film.  That being said, I found the film absolutely mesmerizing.  It’s much more than a film about oysters and NYC.  It’s about creation, artistic and ethereal.  If you’re interested, this article does a far better job describing the film:  Film Review 
Congratulations to the entire team behind an extraordinary piece of living art.  

Honorable Mentions:  Holding Back the Tide, The Holdovers, David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, Theatre Camp, Anatomy of a Fall, & Nimona 

Honorable Mention

11.  Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret.  

I never read Judy Blume as a kid, but I’m glad it found its way into my heart as an adult.  One of the most heartwarming films of the past five years.  Impeccably well-acted from the always wonderful Kathy Bates, to Rachel McAdams giving an Oscar-worthy turn, to Margaret herself, Abby Ryder Fortson.  A truthful adaptation of the original text; this is a must-see for the whole family.  

The Top Ten Movies of 2023 

10.  Barbie 

An imperfect movie that suffers under the yoke of being the best it can be under the circumstances.  Will Ferrell’s Mattel role is incredibly flimsy and poorly-written, the ghost of Ruth Handler doesn’t fit, and the now famous monologue, while wonderful and necessary, sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the film.  That being said Greta Gerwig is a perfect three for three as a director and under the pressure and constraints of the industry, she pulled off nothing short of a miracle.  Ryan Gosling is hilarious as Ken, but the true star of the film is Margot Robbie.  Robbie as Barbie is required to be funny, genuine, and distraught.  She accomplishes all of it while keeping her classy Barbie charm.  We laugh with Ken, but the movie succeeds on the strength of Barbie.  

9.  Talk to Me 

I believe this is only the third horror movie to ever make my top ten list (Get Out, Cabin in the Woods).  I’m so glad I braved my indifference toward the Horror genre and saw this in theaters.  What starts as a series of classic horror tropes quickly becomes a conversation on grief and addiction.  Despite the contemplative nature which deals with connection and truth, the movie sings when it dives deep into the horror.  Sophie Wilde is mesmerizing in the lead performance.  

8. Spiderman Across the Spiderverse 

Another genre I struggle with is animation, but this year both Nimona and Spiderverse made my top fifteen. In an animated lens, we talk about the opening of Up, but give me the opening of Spiderverse any day.  Gwen’s story is powerful and poignant.  The screen lights up like the inverse of a Rothko painting.  What transpires after is a film as much about Spiderman as it's about loss.  The two are intrinsically matched.  I laughed and I cried, but while there’s plenty of great action set pieces, the scene between Miles and his parents is why this series is one hundred times better than anything else Marvel has to offer.  

7.  Godzilla Minus One 

Uh, no notes? A monster movie masterpiece.  Made for a budget of under $15 million, Godzilla Minus One proves that all dumb American blockbusters really need to employ better writers.  Amazing storytelling that is equal parts uplifting and sorrowful.  The influences of Jaws and Miyazaki films are apparent without detracting.  If you stayed away because you don’t like monster movies, this isn’t that “type” of film.  

The Top Six 

*Writer’s Note:  I spent two days thinking about the rankings of these six films, in the end, this ranking is a momentary decision.  These six films are all stone-cold masterpieces and all six should be considered in a tie for the number one position.  

6.  Oppenheimer 

Getting to see Barbenheimer for my birthday is a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.  Subsequently, I sought out and watched Oppenheimer solo in IMAX.  Nolan sees the entire screen and creates the impossible in every frame.  The first two hours are dazzling, but the third hour makes this Shakespearean.  We see the idea, we see the creation, and then we watch the fallout, but rather than show the fallout of the bomb, we have to watch the fallout of the idea.  How government bureaucracies destroy the world (as we are watching today).  Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. give the best male acting performances of the year.  The fifteen minutes leading up to the Trinity test is one of the best cinematic scenes ever caught on film.  The only thing that brings this film down from perfection is Nolan’s inability to write female characters.  I hope he finally gets caught up in the fallout of those criticisms and hires a female writer's room to help with future projects.  

5.  The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar, The Swan, Poison, and The Ratcatcher 

In a world where Wes Anderson makes Asteroid City that should be enough, but of course, he one-ups himself by creating four direct-to-Netflix Roald Dahl shorts. I believe as a collection, these shorts are his best work since The Royal Tenenbaums.  These films interweave elements of theatre, animation, stage design, and physical art that have never been seen together on camera.  Henry Sugar was my favorite, but what happens in The Ratcatcher is my favorite moment of artistic expression in 2023.  In a five-minute stretch, he switches from animation to mime to pantomime to acting classroom to mime (again) to standup routine and film; an utterly astounding creation.  On top of that, his troupe of actors for these films are some of the best casted Anderson actors: Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend, Ben Kingsley, Benedict Cumberbatch, and my favorite reliable actor, Dev Patel.  

4.  Poor Things 

Yorgos Lanthimos is my favorite working director, in Poor Things, he matches willing actors with an outlandish Frankenstein rebirth fable (which tells the story of the original as much as the true story of Mary Shelley).  Mark Ruffalo is off-his-rocker funny and Emma Stone has catapulted herself into the stratosphere.  She shows no fear, no inhibition in connecting an impossible character to reality.  The production design looks like a cross between a fresco painting and a Tim Burton apocalypse.  Some may be turned off by the rampant sex in the film, but I see this as a story of rebirth and ownership.  As Bella goes through her new stages of development, she learns of self-control, self-satisfaction, and ultimately self-ownership without the chauvinistic opinions of men.  

3.  Killers of the Flower Moon 

Martin Scorsese is the GOAT.  At 81 years-old, he delivers one of the best films of his career.  A cinematic and storytelling masterpiece, that even Scorsese admits inside the film, isn’t his story to tell.  A masterwork in the how to create a full picture both on screen & on the page.  Heartbreaking and engaging, a captivating three and a half hours.  Brilliant casting work with De Niro giving his best performance in two decades, Leo completely in the bag, and Lily Gladstone taking the whole movie by storm.  Hands down the performance of the year.  She holds the audience’s grip in her eyes filled with weight, anger, and despair.  This is a movie that will be taught long after Scorsese has left this earth.  A genuine miracle.  

2. How to Blow Up a Pipeline 

The depressing Ocean’s Eleven for our generation.  One of the most political films to ever reach theaters, this movie doesn’t mince words and it’s entirely about the title.  A fascinating piece of writing about what we have done to our Earth and the lengths people are willing to go to do something about it.  Forrest Goodluck gives the breakout performance of the 2023, but the true star of the film is composer Gavin Brivik.  My favorite film score of the year; when you’re listening you’re shocked this isn’t Ludwig Göransson or Hans Zimmer.  It brings accusation to the characters and weight to a devilishly difficult film.  

1. Past Lives  

A movie about the transference of love and how characters hearts can speak two different languages, while simultaneously understanding a third entirely known only to themselves. Even in a year with The Trinity test, the final six minutes of the film is the scene of the year.  So much tension and desire packed into a sidewalk.  Greta Lee, Teo You, and John Magaro are magnificent and Celine Song is the best new director since Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird).  Past Lives holds the emotional heartstrings of the year and uses those strings to play music that is necessary without being overly-dramatic or superfluous.  Nostalgia is equally a weaponized emotion and a yearning love - Past Lives uses it pointedly and hits home the message square in the heart.  This film aches to be viewed.