After 2023, I wasn't sure what the future of my role in "film criticism" would look like or if it would look like anything at all. After the dissolution of my YouTube channel that year and trying to find my footing so far as how often I would go long in writing about films here it all felt a little forced. So, I let what happen happen organically and it has become that of trying to designate at least one film a month that I plan on writing more in depth about. Sometimes nothing sparks the need one month, other times there are multiple films in the same month and many times it simply comes down to not having enough time to go long on every film I'd like to. Would I have liked to write a full review for Sinners? Of course. Did I ever get around to it? No. The further I got from my viewing experience with no chance of a second screening in sight the less I felt like I could do the film justice. I still log everything on Letterboxd which tells me I have seen 217 films this year with my count for films actually released in 2025 likely being about half that which would be down from the 172 I saw last year. Given my wife and I welcomed our fourth child back in January I knew my weekly theater visits wouldn't necessarily be "weekly" and that our home viewing time might either be severely impacted or see an increase. Turns out all I wanted to do while the baby slept on me was watch comfort movies and documentaries, so that didn't help much when it came to catching up on the early theatrical releases I missed during their initial runs. That said, I still saw about fifty movies in theaters this year, caught up with plenty on streaming and via screeners as well as all the original Netflix, Prime, and Hulu films that went straight to those services. Not my best showing, but I still believe I saw enough to make an informed decision when it comes to what are some of the best and, of course, what are my favorites of the year. I expect 2026 will look very similar to this year but also know it could look very different given the direction one or two things decide to go in life. That is for the future to decide though, for now...here are my ten favorite films of 2025:
10. Marty Supreme - Have to imagine it was much easier to be as cocky as the titular character is in 1952, especially when feeling like you're at the center of a particular universe. That Timothy Chalamet seemingly possesses the same level of confidence as his on-screen counterpart in 2025 - when the internet can make you feel like little more than another pebble on the beach in less than an instant - is what sells us on the promise of Marty Mauser's skill and charisma even as he continually digs himself out of holes only to step in bigger piles of shit on his way up. In true Safdie fashion, Marty's world is a stage - the soundtrack and score choices being deployed at the most magnificent of times is *chef's kiss* - where both ours and the character's expectations are rarely met as anticipated; disappointedly so often only for the characters while we, the audience, become enraptured in this tornado of intense fear, anxiety, and tension. The pattern can become slightly predictable, and the pacing can't always sustain the bloated runtime, but much like the titular character himself it is the ambition that endears us despite any and all obvious faults. The magnetism, the aura, the personality exuded in both the central performance and in the construction of the film are what take Marty Supreme to the extreme. Now playing in theaters.
9. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - It was only a matter of time before Rian Johnson used the church and religion as a means for one of his Knives Out vehicles and as someone who can both very much relate to Mr. Benoit Blanc's position in this film (love the hair btw) while keeping my balances in check enough to understand and more critically - empathize with - Josh O'Connor's Father Jud, Wake Up Dead Man is everything one might hope for from Johnson's exploration of faith while not necessarily meeting the expectations he has set for us with his first two whodunits (albeit by a very small margin). As a result, Kniv3s Out feels like an expertly concocted film where the genre serves the themes but the subject matter doesn't always allow the murder mystery aspects to excel; serving them well but not necessarily surpassing what Johnson has done in the past even as one can feel the writer/director pushing himself, invoking the classics in hopes they lead him to fresh deviations on these types of stories. Now streaming on Netflix.
8. Materialists - The power of love. It’s a curious thing, yeah? I think to understand a person’s reaction to Celine Song’s Materialists one has to state their opinion on and experiences with love as the film itself, presented as something of a Woody Allen-esque dramedy analyzing and deconstructing the modernity of the ever mystifying subject, isn’t necessarily open for interpretation but does seemingly welcome a conversation. Whether dominated by optimism or pessimism one’s outlook on love - or at least their most recent romantic experiences - will undoubtedly shade their opinion of what Song is attempting to do with her sophomore feature. Personally, I’m lucky enough to be able to say love did walk into my life one day and that it’s been relatively easy ever since. Maybe we were too young and naive to realize the business aspect of marriage or care about whether or not we were statistically a good match for one another, but it’s worked because love has been on the table from moment one. My personal experiences don’t necessarily reiterate Song’s points as they play out in the movie but our ideas are similar enough for me to comfortably support the thesis. On the contrary, it’s not hard to see why someone with different experiences might come to the end of Materialists with a more frustrated, less tidy retort. Now available on Physical Media and streaming on HBO Max.
7. Weapons - The weight the image of these children running out of their houses in the middle of the night carries while their parents lay asleep, oblivious to what is happening outside their rooms is so stressful. It will go down as a classic. Josh Brolin's character sleeping in his missing son's bed night after night clutching the sheets is heartbreaking and almost every moment we get with the tender-natured Alex during what is essentially an "explanation montage" is so cold and psychologically damaging that the film becomes even more disturbing than initially expected. And sure, Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, and Austin Abrams - all good - are the stars here but it is Cary Christopher delivering one hell of a child performance with Amy Madigan absolutely nailing what writer/director Zach Cregger so clearly had in his mind for a character that was nowhere to be found in the marketing that balances the film's organic humor and willful dread, elevating it to something more; something hauntingly sublime. I'm also glad Cregger finally got to utilize the potato peeler because you just know he's been sitting on that idea/image for a long ass time. Now available on Physical Media and streaming on HBO Max.
6. F1: The Movie - My sense is present day criticism might be too quick to dismiss F1: The Movie as too formulaic (pun intended) for its own good, but I cannot help but think the formula will work in favor of the film eventually. Despite the predictability, despite audiences knowing where this road will take them as they pass all the recognizable milestones of the genre along the way, none of it means it’s *not* what people want to see. Audiences are aware of how archetypal these characters are, but Brad Pitt and co. offer enough acuity to alleviate the clichés while easily being the best summer blockbuster-esque theater experience of the year. It checks all the boxes, sure, but it sustains itself and successfully uses said formula to deliver a familiar yet satisfying experience in the present thanks to its handsome mounting and carving out of enough distinguishing facets in its otherwise boilerplate set of story and character beats that will inevitably serve as comfort when revisited down the road. Now available on Physical Media and streaming on Apple TV+.
5. Bring Her Back - The hook may not be as catchy as the one in Talk to Me, but the textures around many of the same themes resonate more deeply. As a parent I can’t imagine losing one of my children and would admittedly do whatever I could to save their life. I don't know that I could ever cop to the supernatural enough to try anything remotely close to what is happening in Bring Her Back, but especially doing so at the cost of robbing others of what was taken from me is incomprehensible. Each of the children in this film have stories so heartbreaking and tragic, and it's how the Philippou brothers match the barbarity of the violence depicted with the depth and authenticity of the characterizations and their relationships with one another that make their films not necessarily scary, but legitimately disturbing. I was gasping for air by the third act. Now available on Physical Media and streaming on HBO Max.
4. The Secret Agent - A fascinating array of ideas, characters, and circumstances set against the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship, Wagner Moura (Civil War), turns in a S-T-A-R making performance as a former professor caught in the political turmoil who is attempting to flee the deceitful, authoritarian regime with his son who has been in the care of his in-laws since the death of their daughter. What separates writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s genre exploration/history lesson is that the film goes beyond this plain synopsis in so many ways. After a single viewing there's no way to fully comprehend everything the film itself is attempting to do much less conceive a thorough reaction, but what is clear and what does cut through the mishmash of tones, the assortment of refugees and their individual experiences, as well as the love of cinema that each of these equally bewitching facets possesses is the fact there's something major at play here. Now playing in limited release.
3. Sinners - A movie of contrasts seemingly intended to explore the differences and halves that make us whole in all the fascinating ways our inspirations and innovations contrive; how the old informs the new and how the past is used by those in power to construct the future. Sinners feasts on the ideas of how time is the greatest ghost that doesn’t stop haunting us until the peace death brings and how for some, even that remains elusive. This type of deconstruction and exploration ultimately eliciting the kind of genuine magic only the movies can conjure in that no matter the vast difference of moral codes that sit in a theater, when you view the world from that cinema seat the lines between who to root for and who to vilify become one. I also just love that the movie is largely about and emphasizes the power of music and how it can change your life. Now available on Physical Media and streaming on HBO Max.
2. Train Dreams - A real wow of a film. Every line William H. Macy mutters is poetry. Every line on Joel Edgerton's face tells a story. Every line made by every tree trunk that points toward the sky is a life - same as ours - similar in builds with different shades based on how the light hits them. When the trees fall or are brought down some land with a crash that causes pain in those closest while others might not have otherwise made a sound given the lack of life or love surrounding them. That is life, after all. A line drawn from birth to death: deviations, devastations, difficulties, and all. Easily the film I was moved most by this year. Now streaming on Netflix.
1. One Battle After Another - Based loosely on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland”, is a movie all about how power works; about how much of civilization is built on the whims and desires of power-hungry men who both seek to shape the world in accordance with their own concepts of truth as well as eradicate any reminders of their own shame. This is true for characters on both sides of history in Anderson’s film and the writer/director, despite making it clear who he believes are the good guys and who are the villains, does not let any one character off the hook. One Battle After Another could just as easily be seen as a cynical takedown of those in power as it can a hopeful rallying cry for change in a world gone awry but whatever lens one chooses to view it through, there’s no denying the big, broad, bombastic, and most importantly - bizarrely beguiling - entertainment value Anderson is able to deliver alongside his countless ideas. Now streaming on HBO Max and available on Physical Media 1/20/26.
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