My picks for the best and worst movies of 2025
It’s the waning days of December, time to look back at the year in film that was 2025, a time when world leaders would be wise to follow the same yellow brick road that improbably led a good witch and a wicked one toward a musically inspired detente. Sadly, such a joyous display of harmony can, as they say, only happen in the movies. But even then, getting cowardly lions to lie down with tin men and scarecrows was well-nigh impossible, given the evil intent of the man propagating fear and intimidation from behind the curtain.
That didn’t stop filmmakers from attempting to appeal to our better angels with fantasies in which humans could get along with one another. And, in some cases, with aliens, zombies and vampires. But don’t hold your breath waiting for fantasy to become reality. Americans remain deeply divided, even over movies, with us critics cast as the villains in a never-ending battle over what constitutes a “good flick.” For example, I can say with certainty that my 10 favorite films of 2025 will vary vastly from your best-of lists, assuming you even saw 10 movies in 2025. Waning box office returns suggest you didn’t.
All I ask is that you meet me halfway. I begrudgingly sat through many of your favorites, such as “Sinners,” “Superman,” “F1: The Movie,” and, yes, “Wicked: For Good.” So, I think it’s only fair that you return the favor by at least considering some of my favorites and perhaps taking a chance on one or two. Or, in a perfect world, all 10 (actually 11). And if you do, feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree with my highly calibrated selections.
As you may be aware, I no longer rank my top 10, mostly because I’m too fickle to make such written-in-stone determinations. Heck, it was a chore narrowing the field down to 10 (actually 11). Even now, I might wish tomorrow that I had switched out a select one or two for any of the “honorable mentions.” In the world at large, death and taxes are fixed concepts, but judging movies is always a fluid process. Therefore, I reserve the right to change my mind. So, without further ado, in alphabetical order, are “today’s picks” for what I deem the best cinema had to offer in 2025:
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
Actress Embeth Davidtz revealed herself to be an exciting new filmmaker with this semi-autobiographical tale about a white 7-year-old tomboy (impressive newcomer Lexi Venter) witnessing the fall of British imperialism in the 1980s in what is today Zimbabwe. Despite their 50-plus-year age difference, Davidtz and Venter seemed to share one psyche, a symbiosis that thrived both in front of and behind the camera. It was unsettling at times, but there was much joy, too. Most of it courtesy of Venter’s all-in portrayal of a non-girly girl, with dirty hair, a smudged face, and a propensity for dropping the F-bomb while posing inappropriate questions to dumbfounded adults. Sic ’em, girl! Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/07/16/dont-lets-go-to-the-dogs-tonight/
Eephus
From $50-million-per-year superstars like Juan Soto to weekend hackers like the motley crew on display in Carson Lund’s indispensable “Eephus,” baseball – like Soylent Green – is people. We don’t know these nondescript weekend warriors assembled for a last hurrah on a dusty New England diamond about to be razed. Heck, we’re not even sure if they’re actors or genuine articles. All that matters is that the kid in us vicariously lives through the kid in them. And that’s what makes “Eephus” so endearing. You’re as much a part of the game as they are in observing the nuts and bolts of a sport that’s become an essential escape from the drudgery of everyday life. Is that spit or a tear in your eye? You’re never really sure, which is the beauty of this ode to America’s pastime. In touching them all, it touched us all. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/03/13/eephus-2025/
It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi deftly employed absurdist comedy to make deathly serious observations about the spirit-crushing effects of fascism in his native Iran. If you know Panahi’s history, it’s easy to assume the emotions originate from a place deep within. And through his protagonist, the ex-political prisoner, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), he intriguingly explored the moral implications of a vengeful auto mechanic and a handful of his former inmates plotting to kidnap and murder the man they “think” was their brutal captor. What ensued was profound, yet darkly funny, as Panahi thoughtfully weighed the ramifications of lawless bloodlust. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/10/15/it-was-just-an-accident-2025/
The Mastermind
Writer-director Kelly Reichardt once again reminded us of her low-key brilliance with this 1970s-set character study of a great mind so wracked by ennui that he seeks to inject a modicum of excitement by becoming a clumsy amateur art thief. Unfolding mostly in the sleepy Boston suburb of Framingham, the film was not just an ideal showcase for its perfectly cast star, Josh O’Connor, but also a deep dive into the discombobulated soul of a man so consumed by boredom that he mindlessly sacrifices his family for a life of crime. I particularly admired the look of the film, from the costumes to the set decoration and the unruly beards and haircuts. At times, I could swear I was watching footage unearthed from a time capsule. That’s how authentic Reichardt rendered it. But it was the humanity that sucked you in and kept you glued. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/10/16/the-mastermind-2025/
No Other Choice
If you aspired to be wowed by a film emblematic of these uncertain times, there was no other choice than Park Chan-wook’s phenomenal satire about the evil a man can stoop to when AI shoves him out of the job market. That man is Man-su (“Squid Game’s” Lee Byung-hun), a laid-off, mid-level paper executive growing desperate after a fruitless months-long job search. With his creditors closing in, he takes drastic steps to secure one of the few employment opportunities remaining. How he executes that lethal plan is the catalyst for Park’s darkly funny chronicle of how far a wealthy man will go to retain his family’s cushy lifestyle. It was all tongue-in-cheek, but the sly social commentary was no less stinging. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/12/23/no-other-choice-2025/
Nouvelle Vague/Blue Moon
Richard Linklater not only directed one Top-10 movie, he delivered two, each a period gem celebrating landmark 20th-century artists – one on the rise in assured French New Wave visionary Jean-Luc Godard and one on the descent with insecure but renowned Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart. Linklater’s films featured career-best performances from Guillaume Marbeck as Godard and Ethan Hawke as Hart. But what set them apart from the typical formulaic biopic was a meticulous attention to detail. Each tapped a treasure trove of personalities and ideas to nostalgically whisk us back to a time and place when audacity and creativity ingeniously walked hand in hand. Read my reviews: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/10/23/blue-moon-2025/ and https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/11/12/nouvelle-vague-2025/
Sentimental Value
Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier followed up his acclaimed “The Worst Person in the World” with another sparkler examining the destructive implications of folks embracing narcissism and self-exile. It also marked the triumphant return of his muse, Renate Reinsve, to play the estranged daughter of a famed filmmaker (a never better Stellan Skarsgård) seeking to mend their rift before the Grim Reaper comes calling for him. It proved not just a seriocomic meditation on mortality, but also an invigorating celebration of art’s unique ability to heal wounds and bridge divides. Although it failed to reach the heights of “Worst Person,” it nonetheless dazzled, abetted by brilliant camera work by Kasper Tuxen, and strong supporting turns by Inga Ibsdotter Lillieaas and Elle Fanning. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/11/24/sentimental-value-2025/
The Ugly Stepsister
The story of Cinderella underwent a literal makeover in this fractured fairy tale, which sprang from the ingeniously warped mind of first-time filmmaker Emilie Blichfeldt. Bold, clever and more than just a little bit aggrieved, Blichfeldt had a blast satirizing the ridiculous extremes a group of women is willing to go to attract the attention of a wealthy, feckless Prince Charming. Fellow rookie Lea Myren proved game for every embarrassment and indignity as Elvira, a gangly teenager with braces, an irregular nose, sparse eyelashes and enormous feet. Not only did Blichfeldt and Myren lead us into a body-horror hell, but they also made us confront society’s impossible standards of beauty. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/04/16/the-ugly-stepsister-2025/
The Voice of Hind Rajab
I can’t recall a film that stirred anger, empathy, and utter helplessness quite like Kaouther Ben Hania’s emotionally devastating recreation of the events of January 29, 2024, in war-torn Gaza. In less than 90 minutes, she not only put a human face on the Palestinian people in the person of 6-year-old Hind Rajab Hamada, but she also enabled us to grasp how two years of genocide have left Gaza in ruins and sent thousands of innocents, like her film’s namesake, to an early grave. Intensified by the chilling real-life voice recordings of Hind’s pleas for the Palestine Red Crescent Society to come to her rescue, Ben Hania made an impactful and heartbreaking appeal for peace by building a compelling case against the obscenity and absurdity of war. And making it impossible to shake. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/12/16/the-voice-of-hind-rajab-2025/
Wake Up Dead Man
The third entry in the “Knives Out” series was yet another immaculate conception on the part of writer-director Rian Johnson. With Daniel Craig once again filling the gumshoes of Benoit Blanc, Johnson delivered a divine religious experience in which his Southern-fried sleuth encountered a flock of sinful suspects in the “locked-door” slaying of a fire-and-brimstone monsignor. It was arguably the best yet from both Craig and Johnson, kindred souls shrouded in a heavenly aura of charm and cleverness. What a blessing it was to have them back, along with series newcomers Glenn Close and Josh O’Connor, for yet another tantalizing mystery that offered not just a compelling whodunit but also dared to explore the essence of faith and God’s place in an increasingly violent and divided world. Read my review: https://moviesthruthespectrum.com/2025/12/11/wake-up-dead-man-2025/
Fifteen more that just missed the cut, in order:
“Bugonia,” “The Baltimorons”; “The Secret Agent”; “Sister Midnight”; “Sorry, Baby”; “Good Boy”; “Sketch”; “Weapons”; “One Battle After Another”; “Cloud”; “Lurker”; “Predators”; “Bob Trevino Likes It”; “A Nice Indian Boy”; “and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”
The 10 worst films of 2025, in no particular order:
Into the Deep: There are movies with ravenous man-eating sharks and movies with ruthless pirates, but I don’t believe there ever was one that dared to combine the two. Well, not until I endured this laughably misguided flick, notable only because it features Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist specializing in the behavior patterns of great whites. Yes, it’s the same character he famously portrayed 50 years ago in “Jaws.” Only this time, you were tempted to root for the sharks. And the pirates!
Juliet & Romeo: The titular lovers in Timothy Scott Bogart’s Shakespeare redo weren’t just star-crossed, they were stilted and boring, occupying a musical so wrongheaded it’s hard to know where to begin citing its bona fides for worst picture of the year.
The Electric State: If there’s one thing this Spielbergian wannabe taught us, it’s that $320 million doesn’t buy you much anymore. It was a harsh lesson, sending a chill through the corporate offices of Netflix, aka the saps who forked over that sizable fortune for 128 minutes of clanking robots interrupted occasionally by clunky dialogue, much of it spouted by alleged humans.
Hot Milk: It boldly flaunted its clichéd trappings, from its exotic locations to its ennui-filled, repressed protagonist (vapid Emma Mackey) aimlessly roaming picturesque backdrops in search of herself and her future. But what director Rebecca Lenkiewicz delivered was the equivalent of a picture postcard filled with wooden figures masquerading as humans.
Borderline: This truly awful 1990s-set stalker “comedy,” produced by Margot Robbie, marked the inauspicious directorial debut of “Cocaine Bear” writer Jimmy Warden and starred Ray Nicholson (son of Jack) as a psychotic filled with grandiose delusions of wedding a blonde pop star (Warden’s wife Samara Weaving) – at gunpoint. It was just gratuitous violence for the sake of being gratuitous. It was also stupid to the max.
Trail of Vengeance: With a stilted Rumer Willis portraying an aggrieved wife on the hunt for the varmints who murdered her husband, director Johnny Remo “treated” us to one of the more woeful Westerns in recent years. It brimmed with subpar writing, hammy acting and a plot so convoluted it set your head spinning.
The Woman in Cabin 10: This cheesy knockoff of Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” sank in an ocean of preposterousness, as a renowned journalist (Keira Knightley) made waves after swearing she witnessed a woman tossed overboard during a charity cruise. The script was full of holes, but the acting was even worse. At least the yacht looked fabulous.
The Short Game: True to its title, this schmaltz-fest came up short in every way imaginable, from Frank Sanza’s flat direction to the cliched writing to the stunted acting. Nothing about it connected, despite what should have been an affecting tale of a high school golfer being cheered on to glory by his autistic brother. All Sanza and his quartet of writers could summon was a succession of genre truisms culminating in the “big match.”
The Unbreakable Boy: Pandering and cloying, this “inspiring” true story starring Zach Levi proved counterproductive by portraying autism as something that needs fixing, divides families and triggers violence. Not only was it dangerous hearsay, but it was also insulting to folks like me who are on the spectrum.
The Unholy Trinity: I don’t think it’s what the title meant to convey, but this wrongheaded Western starring Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson certainly hit the trifecta of poor writing, mediocre direction and emotive acting. And those were its assets. The rest was just, well, pathetic; a generic Western about a son avenging his thieving father’s murder.
The 10 most overrated films of 2025, in no particular order:
“Sinners,” “Frankenstein,” “Marty Supreme,” “F1: The Movie,” “Train Dreams,” “Jay Kelly,” “Highest 2 Lowest,” “The Long Walk,” “Zootopia 2” and “A House of Dynamite.”
The 10 best foreign language films of 2025, in no particular order:
“Sentimental Value,” “The Secret Agent,” “It Was Just an Accident,” No Other Choice,” “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” “Sister Midnight,” “Cloud,” “The Ugly Stepsister,” “Nouvelle Vague” and “There’s Still Tomorrow.”
The 10 best documentaries of 2025, in no particular order:
“The Perfect Neighbor,” The Alabama Solution,” “Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5,” “John & Yoko: One on One,” “Predators,” “Deaf President Now,” “Prime Minister,” “Marlee Matlin: No Longer Alone,” “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” and “Checkpoint Zoo.”
