Adam takes stock of the films of 2025.
Well, 2025 happened. I could say onto the next one. We know how that’s going. So, why don’t we talk about the films of 2025? It was an odd year in film. An odd but fruitful year. Big swings, some that actually connected. A year where the Documentaries Bugonia and Eddington captured the hearts and minds of eight people, the Snyderverse Bros had strokes over James Gunn’s Superman, where the biggest of big screen epics were originals like Sinners, One Battle After Another, and F1, and the best horror was just a little out there.
I managed to watch 237 films released in 2025 during 2025. You can find the list here on Letterboxd. If I wrote a review of the film for the site, I would link to it in this article.
Yes, it was a good year in film. One that reminded you that original films still had the power to draw people to the cinema and forget their ills, whatever they may be, for an hour or two. This year, the soda was a bit poppier, the popcorn a bit more buttery, because the best films were just a bit more filmier. Even the ones that weren’t filmed on film (I see you, Avatar: Fire and Ash).
Without further ado, here’s my top 20 films of 2025…
The Honorable Mentions
Avatar: Fire and Ash, Black Bag, The Forbidden City, KPop Demon Hunters, The Long Walk, The Monkey, Nouvelle Vague, Rental Family, Sisu: Road to Revenge, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Chrome Alone 2 – Lost in New Jersey
The Top Films of 2025
10. Weapons [dir. Zach Cregger]
Zach Cregger took all the right lessons from Pulp Fiction and the original script for True Romance when he was writing this film. Structure makes the film. This is definitely a step up from Barbarian, which is a fun, wild ride. Amy Madigan is next-level fucking good in this one.
9. Wake Up Dead Man [dir. Rian Johnson]
Another crowd-pleasing Benoit Blanc mystery. What a magnificent movie written and directed by Rian Johnson. This may be the best of the Knives Out mysteries yet. It’s wonderfully astute in its humanity and its critiques. I can’t wait to revisit this one again and again and again. If only I could have this and its predecessor on 4K or even Blu-ray. If only…
8. Superman [dir. James Gunn]
It’s now an undeniable fact. James Gunn can do whatever he wants. The writer/director has gone five for five in his big-budget event films. The short review is Superman (2025) is a big, silly, fun, funny, thrilling, and beautifully made event film that gives us all the hope and goodwill one could want. Different from Richard Donner’s 1978 classic in all the right ways and so good a film it will make you forget there was a 2015 film (wait, there was a 2015 film?).
7. Marty Supreme [dir. Josh Safdie]
Timothée Chalamet (a huge screw-up aside) is going to be a giant movie star. Yes, a giant movie star. He’s well on his way. Marty Supreme is the proof. It is also proof that he will test the boundaries of his image as a star.
6. Bugonia [dir. Yorgos Lanthimos]
Yorgos doing Yorgos things. The result is another weirdo freaky deaky comedy.
5. The Phoenician Scheme [dir. Wes Anderson]
I welled with emotions as the film, toward its end, reminded me of my grandfather (long story) once Korda finds his true purpose. Michael Cera continues to prove that, when deployed properly is an unmatched vortex of charisma and strange comedic energy unlike anyone working currently.
4. Dust Bunny [dir. Bryan Fuller]
Writer/director Bryan Fuller has made big swing television. Wonderfalls. Pushing Daisies. Hannibal. It should surprise no one familiar with his unique vision that his debut feature film, Dust Bunny, is as big a swing as anything he did on television. The film starring Mads Mikkelson and Sigourney Weaver is the kind of debut film in the same visually impressive genre-bending vein as the work of Jean Pierre Jeunet or Guillermo Del Toro. Part action. Part comedy. Part dark fairy tale. All Bryan Fuller.
3. One Battle After Another [dir. Paul Thomas Anderson]
How a studio financed this is beyond me. It’s radical filmmaking in the way that PTA’s mentor and favorite filmmaker, Robert Downey Sr., was. In fact, this feels like Downey Sr. would have made if he were given $150 million and a major star. It’s ironic that Bob (DiCaprio) gets stoned while watching The Battle for Algiers … because this is essentially a stoner Algiers. There is imagery that’s as searing as anything you’ll see this year or any year. This action-comedy thriller is a revolutionary text without being a revolutionary text. Somehow it feels unbearably tense but lighter than air at the same time. It hits you in the face as it makes you laugh and smile at the humanity of it all.
2. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You [dir. Mary Bronstein]
Mary Bronstein went hard for the moms. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You like motherhood is an assault on the senses that doesn’t relent. A horror film that never gives its central protagonist an out. Just constant pecking. Peck-peck-peck-peck-peck. Many may be turned off by the tidal wave of discomfort, but that’s the point. If one can bear it, and you should, one will be privy to an amazing film and a revelatory performance by Rose Byrne. Harrowing at times, but also darkly hilarious in the way that it understands not just the plight of Bryne’s Linda but every character she comes in contact with. If there is justice in the world, Bronstein will already be working on her next project. This should be required viewing for every dude that wants to have a kid because they are most certainly the Christian Slater in this film.
Film of 2025
Sinners [dir. Ryan Coogler]
Ryan Coogler is the future. Sinners is the proof. Like Spielberg and Nolan before him, the director is able to make any film he touches a commercial endeavor that demands to be seen. The films are not just about the culture… they are the culture. Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are all his films, but Sinners feels elevated beyond his signature, even from the cultural impact of Black Panther. There isn’t much I can say about Sinners that hasn’t been said by much more intelligent and well-versed critics. I can say that it stands as not just one of the best Horror Films of the last decade, but one of the best Films. I have no doubt rise the ranks and sit among the truly great films of the 21st Century and beyond.