They say 2025 was a very good year for movies, and we agree. In terms of artistic quality, the domestic box office will be about $500 million lower than last year, but this year offered audiences a variety of films based on strong concepts, captivating performances, and compelling visions of our busy modern times.
If there’s a quality that these cinematic gems have in common, it’s the kind of relentlessness that characterizes life today. In 2025, we may see our fair share of quiet, contemplative dramas such as: history of sound and train dreamBut the films that dominate this top 10 tend to reflect the deeply disturbing atmosphere of our current moment.
This thread also applies to the 10 movies that didn’t make this list, but most of them could have made it into the top 10 because this year was so good.
10. War
Directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza don’t miss a second in this harrowing combat thriller, based on Mendoza’s experiences and “told through the memories” of his platoon of Navy SEALs sent on a desperate rescue mission in Iraq in 2006. These young soldiers are portrayed by a talented up-and-coming cinematography crew including Pharaoh Una Tai, Joseph Quinn, Will Poulter and Kit Connor. Fighting real enemy combatants, facing death and seppuku, and in the chaos there was no time to think about politics or the power struggles of self-interested leaders. All you have to make it through is your brothers and your bullets.
9. Twinless
Audiences may expect a big twist in this bizarre drama from actor, writer, and director James Sweeney, but it’s a gift that keeps on giving. There are a lot of fun surprises in this movie besides the plot twists, the biggest of which is Dylan O’Brien playing the dual roles of twin brothers Rocky and Roman. The sudden death of one twin leads the deeply suffering other to a support group for twins who have lost their other half, setting off this season’s most moving depiction of loss and, yes, a quirky love story full of twists and turns.
8. Bugonia
Director Yorgos Lanthimos has stuck to his fish-eye vision of gorgeous madness starring Emma Stone, casting his Oscar-winning muse in this witty remake directed by Zhang Jun-hwan. Save the green planet! Stone plays a grim-faced wonder as a pharmaceutical company CEO kidnapped by a disturbing duo who believe she is one of the aliens controlling life on Earth. Aidan Delvis and Jesse Plemons play bravely detached characters, and the bumbling conspiracy theorists are no match for Stone’s strong performers, but their clash of wits and other weapons develops into a fascinating confrontation, with a thrilling finale that mixes both shocking violence and laugh-out-loud humor.
7. It was just an accident
This compact thriller by personally troubled Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the top prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for its gripping tale of pain and retribution. With tense editing and cinematography, the film focuses on a dynamic ensemble. Vahid Mobaseli, who plays Vahid, a car mechanic, believes that the unassuming father who pulls up to his shop is the same man who tortured him in an Iraqi prison. Vahid acts impulsively to exact revenge, but as the film contemplates what to do with a war criminal who was “just following orders,” he wonders if he’s the right person.
6. Weapons
Zach Creger’s moody and mischievous character weaponsjust like his previous work savagedives into the deep, dark crevices of humanity and keeps digging until it reaches its darkest parts, but the eerie events surrounding the missing children’s classroom, the ensuing community witch hunt, and the real houseguest from hell, Aunt Gladys, a clown-faced freak so indelibly portrayed by Amy Madigan, somehow manage to make us laugh. We might actually see an actor get an Oscar for horror. Change.
5. The perfect neighbor
Told almost entirely through police body camera footage of police calls to a working-class Florida neighborhood perpetually disrupted by disputes caused by or involving a mean neighbor, Gita Gundbile’s true crime documentary is both riveting and infuriating, ultimately offering a moving and poignant look into a community of mostly black and Latino families who coexist peacefully until one woman takes on the mission of destroying that peace. Lives are lost and stolen, but admirably, the film doesn’t ignore this imperfect neighbor’s perspective, while at the same time clearly charging the case against her.
4. Silat
French director Oliver Lux and producers Pedro and Agustín Almodovar turn a corner in a quick, jaw-dropping moment that visually transports a Spanish road movie drama from a rambling missing person adventure to a haunting existential journey through the Moroccan desert taken by father Luis (Sergi López) and pre-teen son Esteban (Bruno Nuñez). She is desperately searching for her missing daughter at a rave with her husband (Arjona). Encountering an eccentric party who just want to get lost, Luis may be lucky to find what he’s looking for, or even come out of the desert alive.
3. If I had legs, I would kick them.
Presented by Rose Byrne of A heart-wrenching comedy full of mistakes from writer-director Mary Bronstein, her film performance of the year saw her play Linda, a hard-working mother of a child who is going through a very trying time and carries a burden that pulses with anger rather than calm. Bouncing around the film’s eccentric ensemble, including Conan O’Brien, A$AP Rocky, and an off-screen Christian Slater, Byrne’s Linda earns our sympathy, yet is always messed up, ready to crumble into a million pieces on the spot or smash someone else’s head in because her life is tough and no one is there to help her. If “no one is coming to save you” is one of the main mantras of this crazy year, then Linda is the patron saint.
2. sinner
Director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan are working together for the fifth time, cementing their place as one of the greatest director-actor duos in film history. This blues-infused Depression-era musical horror story is so steeped in culture, history, beauty, and texture that you could spend days parsing its political, racial, and social commentary, examining every aspect of its fusion of folklore, African and African-American spirituality, and old Southern legends. It reenacts vampire stories and deconstructs how the central scenes of the musical era live and breathe in harmony. Or we can simply revel in Coogler’s incredible cast lineup, triumphant period design, and heart-wrenching blues, and drink this Southern Gothic like it’s gravy, just as audiences enjoyed its roughly $280 million box office gross.
1. Battle after battle
Jonny Greenwood’s propulsive, piano-filled score begins before the first frame of Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s masterpiece begins. Vineland We become embroiled in a daring revolutionary assault on an immigrant detention center on the US-Mexico border. The film virtually never lets up, stretching out over 16 years to find six main characters playing in the mine-strewn sandbox of this divided nation. Masterfully condensing the loud, angry, and dissonant zeitgeist in a tenderly comic tale of Leo DiCaprio’s lovable single father and Chase Infinity’s innocent daughter caught in a gruesome rivalry with evil, Anderson’s work vividly captures the spirit of resistance that sustains revolutionaries and the nation through its darkest days.
In addition, 10 more came to our attention.
- librarian
- lurker
- Marty Supreme
- Misericordia
- there is no other choice
- One of Them Days
- private clothes
- sentimental value
- train dream
- 28 years later
Zack Schoenfeld’s 10 Best Movies of 2025
1. Battle after battle
2. Bugonia
3. Weapons
4. Secret agent
5. It was just an accident
6. sinner
7. Emotional value
8. Mastermind
9. Sly Lives!
10. Sorry, Baby
Read reviews by Andre Hereford and Zach Schoenfeld metro weekly magazine. Subscribe for free at www.metroweekly.com/subscribe.
Follow Andre on X @here4andre. Follow Zack on X @zzzzaaacccch.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
