That time of year is finally here — it’s time to whittle down the list of 150 new movies I saw this year to my 20 favorites.
This is the third time I’ve done this for Rough Draft, and it might be the hardest time I’ve ever had finalizing my list. That’s not necessarily because I think the crop of movies as a whole are better than 2023 or 2024, but rather because the range of what we got this year makes comparison extra difficult. How does one compare a movie like “Sinners” to a movie like “Blue Moon,” or a movie like “Jay Kelly” to a movie like “Kiss of the Spider Woman?” 2025 gave us a lot of variety at the theater, and that always makes for a fun, if difficult, time sorting through everything at the end of the year.
But, even with all that variety, different themes emerged. Of the 20 movies on my list, eight (maybe 10, if you squint) have to do with terrors and/or joys of parenthood. Three deal with the complicated lives of artists. Seven (some, inadvertently) ruminate on the evils of capitalism. And one dares to ask: what if Jennifer Lopez dressed as a sexy spider and tried to kill you with a kiss?
I’ve submitted ballots for two critics groups this year, and since then the order of these films has changed as I’ve watched and rewatched more. But today, you’re seeing my final decision. Without further ado:
20. “Jay Kelly”
I had a pretty strong emotional reaction to “Jay Kelly,” a movie that has been fairly divisive among my fellow critics. For all of George Clooney’s charm, there’s a strand of anguish that runs throughout this film, one that moved me tremendously. This is a deeply sad film, far more about a life of regret than about the trivial trials of movie stardom.
19. “Splitsville”
When it comes to these end of year lists, I try to save a couple of spots for movies that represent something I want to see more of in the years to come. “Splitsville” is just that — a high concept romantic comedy made by tremendously funny people that, even when absurdity and idiocy abound, still manages to get at a little nugget of truth about the tribulations that come with navigating the ins and outs of romantic relationships. Plus, in a slight to action movies everywhere, it has some of the best fight choreography you’ll see all year.
18. “Kiss of the Spider Woman”
This pick has big “me” energy — as in, no one else I know seems to like this movie nearly as much as I do. Apparently, nobody but Bill Condon knows that the way to appeal to me as a moviegoer is to insert a sequence that’s an homage to George Cukor’s “Les Girls.” That’s it! That’s all you have to do. The sheer number of references to classic Hollywood musicals in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is one thing, but none of them are references for reference sake. Everything is done with such purpose, using color and costume and choreography to evoke feeling and theme. I ask once again, why did no one think to put Jennifer Lopez in a movie musical before now?
17. “Hamnet”
“Hamnet” is by no means an easy watch. I wouldn’t blame anyone for deciding to skip a movie that centers around the death of a child, especially a death rendered with such harrowing pain. But the power of “Hamnet” is not just in its sadness, but in its reverent treatment of the artistic process, and its considered meditation on art as both a singular and communal experience. As Hamnet’s mother Agnes, Jessie Buckley gives one of the best performances of the year, positively primal in her depiction of motherhood.
16. “Train Dreams”
“Train Dreams” was one of the biggest surprises for me this year. It represents a huge swing for director Clint Bentley and his co-writer Greg Kwedar, touching on the intersections between American expansion, the perils of progress, shattering loss, and the meaning of life. Other filmmakers, particularly ones still so early on in their careers, might have trouble juggling all of those themes. But Bentley and Kwedar seem to have a knack for boiling down complex ideas to their basic human components.
15. “Sorry, Baby”
There were quite a few exciting feature debuts this year, one of them being Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” a film I think captures the non-linear trajectory of healing better than most. Victor wrote and directed the film, and they also star as Agnes, a college professor struggling in the aftermath of a sexual assault. Despite its heavy subject matter, Victor finds a way to dramatize terrible events with the utmost sensitivity. It’s a searingly honest debut, and one that makes me excited for what Victor does next.
14. “Resurrection”
Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan’s fantastical epic “Resurrection” takes you on a journey through China’s 20th century, both historically and cinematically. In a future where humans have traded the ability to dream for immortality, those inhuman creatures who have retained the ability are hunted. After a prologue that plays out as a mini silent film, Bi takes us through different vignettes, each corresponding to a different genre and mode of filmmaking, ultimately coming together as a hypnotic, bittersweet ode to the medium itself.
13. “Eephus”
“How can you not be romantic about baseball?” This “Moneyball” quote is one I think about often, especially in connection with Carson Lund’s feature film debut about a New England baseball league during the last game in the final season before their field is demolished for good. “Eephus” is quietly profound, smartly focusing on a game that is so beautiful, and slow, and frustrating, and perfect. A game that is so synonymous with the passage of time is the perfect metaphor for a group of guys struggling to keep the magic alive as they come to the end of an era.
12. “Sentimental Value”
“Sentimental Value,” Joachim Trier’s follow up to his much-lauded “The Worst Person in the World,” is about the fractured relationship between a movie director father (Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd) and his actress daughter (Renate Reinsve). What I love most about “Sentimental Value” is that it has no easy answers, doesn’t sway completely one way as far as forgiving or forgetting go. Instead, it comes to a much more mature conclusion about acceptance and making the choice for yourself what you can choose to withstand.
11. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
If I were allowed to vote for the Oscars, my choice in the Best Actress category would be Rose Byrne with a bullet for her performance in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Mary Bronstein’s piercing portrait of a mother pushed to the brink. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is a completely subjective filmic experience. Bronstein puts you directly inside Linda’s mind, so that every shame and every failure become as much your own as they are hers. It’s one of those movies that so thoroughly accomplishes what it sets out to do that I’m not sure I could stand the anxiety attack that watching it again might give me.
10. “Sinners”
Watching it all these months later, “Sinners” is still just as riotous a film as it was the first time around. Ryan Coogler not only gave us a story that ruminates on complex ideas about oppression, liberation, and appropriation, but he did it all within an electrifyingly entertaining genre movie about vampires who prey as much on musical talent as they do on blood. “Sinners” still stands as one of the true cinematic achievements of 2025.
9. “Hedda”
There is nothing I love more than a beautiful, mean woman determined to make everyone else as miserable as she is. “Hedda,” Nia DaCosta’s excellent adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” takes that idea and pushes it to the extreme. DaCosta similarly takes the themes of Ibsen’s play and stretches them to include sexuality and race. Tessa Thompson brings those themes to glorious life with a powerhouse performance.
8. “Marty Supreme”
Out of all the movie theater experiences I’ve had this year, none has exhilarated me quite as much as “Marty Supreme.” Josh Safdie’s film exists in a long lineage of American movies about complicated, terrible, talented men, with all the excitement and tension that entails. It’s impeccably casted, held down by a truly thrilling performance from Timothée Chalamet as a man chasing the elusive American dream, no matter the cost.
7. “Weapons”
One of the greatest things about Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” is that while it can be enjoyed as a simple thrill ride on its own merits, it’s a movie that becomes richer the more you ruminate on it. It’s a horrifying, brutal, darkly funny treatise on the so-called safety of suburbia, one that keeps you on your toes until its satisfyingly nasty conclusion — a conclusion that had me pumping my fist in the air.
6. “It Was Just an Accident”
No movie this year has wrestled with the question of justice quite as thoroughly as director Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident.” As our main characters debate whether or not to murder the man (or at least, they think he’s the man) who tortured them in prison, we are confronted with the fact that revenge and humanity rarely go hand in hand. Panahi, who was forced to make this film in secret in his home country of Iran, understands authoritarianism’s evils better than most.
5. “28 Years Later”
In addition to being one of the best looking movies of the year (cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle is in his bag), “28 Years Later” is one of the year’s most focused explorations of isolationism, particularly when it comes to the dangers of nostalgia and traditionalism. But it’s also just a movie about a boy who is terrified that his mother will die, about the beautiful and mysterious nature of loss, and humanity, and grief. Alfie Williams turns in one of the best child performances of the year, and Danny Boyle and Alex Garland prove once again that their sensibilities are, somehow, perfectly suited for one another.
4. “No Other Choice”
Park Chan-wook is always upping his game. With “No Other Choice,” his film about an upper middle class man (Lee Byung-hun) who loses his job and, when he can’t find another, decides to violently take out all of his job market competition, he delivers perhaps one of the most technically proficient films of the year. “No Other Choice” is a delicious satire that fully eviscerates corporate culture and the capitalistic rat race that consumes us all.
3. “The Mastermind”
Another Kelly Reichardt movie, another perfect encapsulation of the trials of a down-and-out drifter! “The Mastermind” is one of the many films to star Josh O’Connor this year, the feather in his cap in an array of diverse, introspective performances. He is a worthy muse for Reichardt, who delivers a funny, caustic exploration of American discontent.
2. “Blue Moon”
Richard Linklater made two movies about artists this year — one about a man at the beginning of his artistic prowess (“Nouvelle Vague”), and one about a man at the end of his life and career — “Blue Moon.” Along with screenwriter Robert Kaplow and star Ethan Hawke, Linklater beautifully captures the contradictions and melancholy of lyricist Lorenz Hart, which reflect those of the human condition itself: our self-destructiveness, our complexity, and our desire to be loved.Â
1. “One Battle After Another”
There was a tendency for filmmakers this year to try and say something about the condition of “America” today. But no one succeeded quite as well as Paul Thomas Anderson with “One Battle After Another.” The success of this film comes not only from Anderson’s technical prowess as a filmmaker, but from the specificity of the point of view. “One Battle After Another” is clear-eyed in its view of the insidious nature of the this country, but also clear in its ideas about where hope comes from. Whereas so many movies this year projected anxiety about the younger generation, “One Battle After Another” is self-aware enough to realize that older generations failed them first — the least we can do is hope they take the right lessons from that failure.