As we go through this a couple of thoughts.
First, I did order this list as the year went on so I suppose, especially, in the top 10 that you should consider that numbered from the movie I liked best on down.
But also, the order does not actually mean all that much. Either on my list or anyone else’s list. Some of these movies are five star, perfect movies and I will never watch them again. They are brilliant and brilliantly executed and I doubt I will want to live through those emotions anymore. Hamnet is one of the great movies of 2025 and I think it’s beautiful and tragic and everything some movies should aspire to become.
But that was a one time date for me. I doubt I will feel the need to cry for two hours again anytime soon.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is not even on this list, but there is a decent chance I’m going to catch it two or three or four more times over the next few years. I think I will be rewarded on the rewatches.
Also, if you know me you know I’m constantly pointing out that Big Jim films always feel lacking to me in the dialogue department.
But I’m betting for the next few years I’m going to randomly yell, “You can’t live like this, baby, in hate!”
For me, it’s the new, “You were the chosen one!”
Movies, books, comics, music, these are the things that make life worth living. The things that those money people, those masters of politics, the ones who think they hold the strings of our lives will never understand.
Great art changes minds, soothes the soul and, in more than one case, ignites revolutions.
I will admit that’s a high minded sentence for a guy who picked these particular films out of the 2025 barrel. But it’s what I believe and it’s why I love the movies.
Simply the best movie of the year.
There are few things in life better than watching a confident filmmaker do his or her thing.
When I got to the song that took us to the past and the future of music I was struck by joy. There wasn’t anything more daring than that this year.
One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson has one of the best if not the best bodies of work of any director. So I judged this not by how good it was but how good it was compared to Anderson’s filmography. And while it’s not the best film he’s ever made (either There Will Be Blood or Phantom Thread) it’s in the conversation.
I was a bundle of nerves walking into this. I am unapologetically a comic book guy and Hollywood hasn’t gotten Superman right since Superman: The Movie. And that’s the last time they got it right.
Go see the Richard Donner Cut of 1 and 2 and realize how great those films are and how much better the second one could have been.
Anyway, I walked out of this and said, “Oh Thank God.” Or if you prefer, “Oh thank Rao.”
If you didn’t cry when Superman tells Lois why he’s going to turn himself in then you don’t understand how great a real Superman story can be.
This had the best opening and closing scenes of any movie this year. And when Odessa A’zion starts cooking this whole enterprise climbs to another level.
I was completely done with zombies as a genre. But, a coming of age zombie movie? Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland? Oh my. This was the stuff.
Weapons
Small spoiler here. I always say I don’t like horror. But that’s not exactly true. What I don’t like is when evil wins. I want the evil person, creature, or thought defeated in the end. And I was so completely satisfied with the end of this. The best comeuppance of the year.
A slinky smooth spy movie. And a spy movie for adults who like spy movies.
Train Dreams
There were a lot of movies about trauma this year. And this was the best one.
Hamnet
The best movie about grief this year. Maybe the best movie about grief this decade. If you need to cry for two hours this is the one.
Spike Lee keeps the first half of this movie in a low boil. Then he plays his ace. A kinetic sequence involving a street festival, a money drop, and genuine hatred of the Boston Red Sox. I hate the Yankees and I still loved this.
Eephus
“Is there anything more beautiful than the sun setting on a fat man stealing second base.”
I have seen baseball movies about winning it all, and baseball movies about childhood, and baseball movies about noble knights fighting corruption and more than a few about a buncha losers who keep on playing just cause they love the game.
This is the first one I’ve seen that was explicitly about death.
Nevermind, turn on the headlights and keep playing till the end comes.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
If you count this as a 2025 film then it’s actually number 1. I don’t see it that way. But I do think this is the superior way to see this now four-hour motion picture.
Here’s 10 more I really liked
It Was Just an Accident
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
The Phoenician Scheme
Sorry Baby
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Dark Highways 
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