My Top 10 Movies of 2025

I've been revisiting my latest culture diary since I published it, thinking about all that I consumed. While I've tried to tally up a sort of numerical overview of the year, I thought I'd dig in and look at things qualitatively, not just quantitatively.

So, I present my favorite films I watched in the past year. On a given day, maybe I'd even argue with myself over whether I mean this list as the 1o best films I saw or whether I consider them simply my favorite. On another day, I'd insist they were the same list. But I'm choosing to describe the list as my top 10 favorite films of the past year because I think the ordering of that list felt easier.

1. One Battle After Another

What can I say that hasn’t been said about this one? The hype is real. I upped my own bar of fanatical viewing experiences by traveling five hours to Indianapolis to see this in one of 10 locations in the country showing this in 70MM IMAX, and it was amazing. I saw it two more times in the theater, and there was something new to enjoy each time. Some of my favorites (spoiler-free):

• Montage of French 75 operations
• Alleyway car-chase scene
• Our introduction to Bob and teenage Willa
• Bob grilling Willa’s friends on the way to the dance
• Bob’s road fit: Robe, beanie, sunglasses
• Comrade Josh on the phone
• All things Sensei
• The silhouetted shots of the teens on the rooftops
• Christmas Adventurer Club meeting
• Bob and Sensei in the car together
• THAT car chase and the score during it
• “A few small beers.”

2. Blue Moon

If it hadn’t been for PTA’s tour de force, this Richard Linklater-Ethan Hawke collaboration would have far and away been my favorite film of the year. I could have watched hours more of it: In short, I would have loved to simply be in the bar, listening to soft piano music and sipping drinks, and letting Larry Hart hold court. It’s a magnetic performance from Hawke, probably one of his best ever. But I mostly just loved the writing. I liked the way Larry wore his heart on his sleeve, the way he was simultaneously enamored with his own brilliance and unsure of it. My favorite element was simply how the characters talked about writing: I would have loved an entire film dedicated to just a single conversation between Larry and E.B. White. Magical stuff.

3. Marty Supreme

This was part of my Christmas Day double-feature, and what a gift it was. I thoroughly enjoyed the discomfort of watching this ping-pong huckster con his way through life, even if his actions made him hard to like. Timmy C. was absolutely sold out to this performance, and it was an all-timer. I’m so glad it exists; we need more of them. BUT I’m sad it’s going up against Leo at the Oscars because I’d love to see Leo recognized for OBAA, but this might just be young Timmy’s year. Another incredible score and soundtrack.

4. It Was Just an Accident

Best ending to any movie this year, I think. Such a heavy subject matter, but it also somehow plays like a roadtrip/unlikely-buddy comedy. Feels like a miracle that it exists at all, and everyone should see it, with a short primer about Panahi’s background and ongoing exile.

5. Sinners

An original blockbuster! Vampires. Blues music. What’s not to love? Such a fun movie, and such a deserving film of all the praise it’s sustained for months and months now. I’m SO glad I didn’t skip this when it was in theaters due to my usual aversion to horror films (even though it’s not really). An incredible cast, powerful performances, and absolutely the kind of projects I’d love to see greenlit in Hollywood going forward.

6. Sentimental Value

I admit it, fully and without reservation: I’m a sucker for Renate Reinsve. Paired with Joachim Trier, the director who introduced her to me in the first place in The Worst Person in the World, and just get outta here. I’ll follow them anywhere. This quiet drama of a father-daughter relationship hit me hard, as I still grapple with the loss of my dad almost three years later. The elements of what remains unsaid between them, all that bubbles underneath and just won’t come out because, for reasons big and mostly small, they simply can’t … well, let’s just say I saw myself in that and I felt it in my bones. Stellan Skarsgard is phenomenal as the father, and I loved seeing all he wished he could say come through in his scripts.

7. Train Dreams

One of my best movie-going experiences this year was seeing Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven on the big screen, and it was of Malick I thought as I watched this lovely adaptation of a Denis Johnson novella about a logger in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the 20th century.

8. The Mastermind

My first Kelly Reichardt film was Certain Women back in 2016 at Indie Memphis, my first film festival of any kind. When it ended, I wondered if I’d missed something, so quiet and still had it been. But I grew to love her eye and her style, and this film might be one of my favorites from her. I love the period. I love the cast. I love to concept. But most of all, I love every single one of Josh O’Connor’s outfits. I think I too could have thrived as an underemployed and pretty hapless art thief if I’d been dressed like that.

9. Black Bag

Steven Soderbergh is a national treasure. My culture diary owes much to him and his model. And this man delivered not one but two films to us in 2025. This was by far my favorite of the two, the tale of two married spies being gorgeous and duplicitious to one another. Stick it straight into my veins; I’d watch one of these every year until the day I die.

10. Bugonia

Plemons and Stone are out of this world good in this conspiracy-laden abduction thriller.