Mike’s Top Ten of 2025

2025 feels like a year of isolation. I feel like everything that came out happened in its own little bubble and there’s no overarching trend for the year. Movies came out, some made money, some were noteworthy. This year, more than any other year from the past decade, I found a significant decrease in quality of the mainstream American studio output (that is to say, large scale studio releases). Which has been a growing trend in recent years.

I remember 10, 15 years ago, the summer had something coming out every weekend. And even if it was a weekend where you weren’t interested in the ‘big’ movie that weekend, there was a counter-programmed movie that weekend that was worth seeing. It’s to the point where people once again showed how starved they are for big budget, original filmmaking by making Sinners one of the extremely few films not based on any existing IP to be a top-ten grossing film for its year.

Outside of that, however, it feels like the majority of the great films from this year (outside of the usual films from established directors who routinely make great films) came from other countries or independent productions (or films that got no releases at all, which now means it’ll take years for anyone to even realize they exist, let alone grow a following). Which is great in one sense, but also feels like it’s part of the ‘content’-ification of movies and the slow decline of the theatrical experience, especially with a major historical studio about to be bought out by another.

It’ll be interesting to look back on this time and see what it means for the history of motion pictures.

Mike’s Top Ten of 2025

Black Bag

Blue Moon

Marty Supreme

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Nouvelle Vague

One Battle After Another

The Phoenician Scheme

Sentimental Value

Sinners

Train Dreams

11-20: Avatar: Fire and Ash, Frankenstein, Highest 2 Lowest, It Was Just an Accident, Left-Handed Girl, The Luckiest Man in America, The Naked Gun, Rental Family, The Running Man, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Tier Two: 28 Years Later, The Baltimorons, Bugonia, The Christophers, Die My Love, Eternity, F1, Fackham Hall, Hamnet, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Mickey 17, No Other Choice, Novocaine, The Plague, The Secret Agent, Sirât, The Smashing Machine, The Testament of Ann Lee, Weapons, Wicked: For Good

Tier Three: Ballad of a Small Player, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Caught Stealing, Drop, Dust Bunny, Eddington, The Gorge, A House of Dynamite, Is This Thing On?, Jay Kelly, The Long Walk, The Lost Bus, Magellan, The Mastermind, Relay, Roofman, Splitsville, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, The Threesome, Tron: Ares, The Ugly Stepsister

Tier Four: Anemone, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, Billy Joel: And So It Goes, The Chronology of Water, Eephus, Fight or Flight, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Good Boy, Honey Don’t!, The Life of Chuck, Megadoc, Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, Nuremberg, Predator: Badlands, Predator: Killer of Killers, Preparation for the Next Life, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), Song Sung Blue, The Surfer

1. One Battle After Another

While it’s not a stretch going into a year to presume that a Paul Thomas Anderson film has a high probability of being a top ten film for a year for me (see: 1997, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017), this one I knew pretty immediately in the theater it was going to be my #1 for the year. It’s the only film this year (and the only film in recent memory) that, after I left the theater and got home, I immediately wanted to go back and watch a few sequences again. I haven’t had that happen to me in a while.

There’s something special about the way Anderson structures his films — I don’t know how this film manages to be so immediate and driving but also relaxed at the same time. It feels like a series of vignettes at times, even though, after you get through that opening and into the present, the story is very linear. It’s a beautiful piece of work.

Leo is on another level with his performance. He taps into those incredible comedic instincts from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Wolf of Wall Street and is just so absolutely dialed in here. He’s one of those actors — he doesn’t give himself a ton of at-bats, and he works with top tier people, which makes it more likely that things will go well, but it seems like he hits a home run nearly every time he’s in something. Meanwhile, Anderson knows how to create rich characters and opportunities for his actors to stand out — Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro… my word. Steven J. Lockjaw is immediately one of the great villains in film history. And Benicio — that character immediately became, for me, the best single character on screen in 2026 within about five minutes of him being on screen. And Chase Infiniti — is there a better recent screen debut than this for an actor? Maybe as good, but certainly none better. She is a star. And Teyana Taylor — what an impression she leaves, to the point where she disappears from the screen after the first 30 minutes and still casts a presence throughout the rest of the film.

Like a lot of his other films, Anderson is a master of moments and set pieces… and movies that get funnier each time you watch them. That highway sequence at the end is one of the most thrilling car chases you’ll ever see, and there’s almost no actual action that occurs throughout it. It’s all spatial relation and editing, and the sum of all the character work that’s been done to that point in the film. And the sequence with Benicio — the ‘latino Harriet Tubman situation’, as it were. Which perfectly intertwines with Leo on the phone trying to get the coordinates. Each one of those its its own set piece, and Anderson just beautifully weaves it all together.

Now, I know some will say Anderson has made better films (most will say The Master or Magnolia), and while some may have a preferred film over this in his filmography (There Will Be Blood will always have a special place in my heart, and Phantom Thread is the other one for me), but I’d put this up there with anything he’s done. It is a perfect movie without an ounce of fat on it, while also somehow having so many different types of meat. I am awed at how good this man is at making movies.

2. The Phoenician Scheme

We’ve got an Anderson at #1 and an Anderson at #2. And Benicio del Toro in both movies (so happy for him that he got these).

Wes Anderson is pretty much a perennial for me in the top ten (2001, 2004, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2023). I feel like the mainstream has turned their attention from him in recent years. Post-Grand Budapest, it feels like people either haven’t bothered to watch or haven’t particularly liked his output. Meanwhile I thought The French Dispatch was one of the best pieces of direction in his entire filmography. And Asteroid City is perhaps the best COVID movie that’s been made so far. Wes is drilling so far down into that style he had with Grand Budapest that I think people are either looking at it as diminishing returns (kind of like a few of those Terrence Malick films in the post-Tree of Life run) or they’re looking at it as all style and no substance. Meanwhile I think these last few films of his are the most substance he’s had since maybe Royal Tenenbaums (though he’s always had a lot of substance to his films, if you’ve paid attention).

This film, on the surface, is an espionage adventure, but it’s Wes Anderson, so of course it’s a dark comedy with existentialism baked in. What I like about it is how it’s very structured. Which has been a thread in these past three films. Last Dispatch was of course very structured, since each story was meant to be a piece published in the magazine. This is sort of like that, since each section is built around who del Toro and his daughter are going to see next. And that allows you to compartmentalize your viewing experience.

But I’m down for anything Anderson wants to make, because his style is so specific and so rigid in the best way possible. And I love that he just keeps adding to his troupe of actors each film, and bringing most of them back, even in the smallest of bit parts, when he can. And somehow, each time he makes a film, he brings in someone new that makes you go, “I am so glad he’s discovered this person.” Because they’re always tailor made for his universe and the part is always tailor-made for them. Michael Cera is just so good here. Also, a great debut for Mia Threapleton as well.

I can’t wait to see what people think of these films in 15-20 years after the immediacy of an opinion matters and people can just experience the films on their own terms. We’re witnessing the output of a singular filmmaker and I just wish everyone could truly appreciate the work.

3. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Truly, how many franchises have we had that have gotten better with each film? Pound for pound, I’m not sure how many franchises can match this one in terms of how good each of its films are. What’s the worst you can say about the films? That II is the worst? Okay — II is really awesome.

What’s interesting about this film is how it’s a direct continuation of Dead Reckoning and also, in a weird way, kind of a standalone film. This franchise rarely continues a story from one film to the next, but this one is the culmination of everything. It ties all the stories and everything to this one mission. And it’s so good. I got worried that it was gonna rely too much on the references to earlier films, but because it’s Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie, everything ties together in a way that makes sense. We meet William Donloe again, from the first movie, but we meet him in Alaska, which is exactly where they transferred him after the break in at Langley (which they say very explicitly in the first film). And given the story of how the Entity is manipulating things, this one of the few times where the economy of characters actually does play to the story’s advantage. Where, even if it wasn’t planned, this is the exact type of coincidence that provides the one-in-a-million chance that the plan is going to work.

I loved the sequences in this — Dead Reckoning is much more action heavy while this one picks its spots and focuses on the overall ‘the fate of the world is hanging in the balance’ gravitas. But I loved how the film picks its spots. The submarine sequence(s) — terrific. The airplane at the end — chef’s kiss. I love how this builds up in a way that it reasonably can exist as the ‘final’ film in the series — because where do you go from here? While I’m not sure this will be the final film, it does provide a reasonable stopping point for a while.

The biggest compliment I can pay this film (and all the films in the series, honestly), is that it makes me want to watch more Mission: Impossible films. What more can you ask for?

4. Sinners

In many ways, this is the film of 2025. What a marvel. Ryan Coogler – may you get everything you ask for when approaching studios for the rest of your films.

Feel however you want about this — what’s undeniable is the fact that a man made a period piece with a mostly-black cast and it became one of the 15th highest-grossing films of all time (based on original ideas and not existing IP). It’s in the top ten if you don’t count animation. You know what other films are on that list? Avatar, Titanic, E.T., Passion of the Christ, Independence Day, The Sixth Sense, Inception, Home Alone and The Hangover. At minimum it’s the third most impressive film on that list based on genre/budget/etc. Everything about this movie should not have led to that outcome, based on everything that’s happened in cinema and box office to this point in time. And it did. And that, alone, is incredible.

That all said — I don’t think this is a perfect movie. In a sense, it’s kind of From Dusk Till Dawn. The themes aren’t really all that strong. It’s not saying anything particularly deep there (not that that matters). Some of the more interesting aspects of it are left unexplored (the Native American vampire bounty hunters? Why don’t they have their own movie? Give me the Searchers version of those guys). I think some of the reception to this movie, in certain places, was overblown (16 Oscar nominations? Michael B. Jordan winning Best Actor?). But, you know what? This movie is fun as hell, in a year without a lot at the top that I truly loved, and the cast has some amazing people in it doing amazing work (shout out to Delroy Lindo and Miles Caton). And there are parts of this movie (the “I Lied to You” sequence) that are just transcendent. And, again, that piece up there — impossible to ignore.

So all that being said, this is one of the best films of this year and it will be one of the signature films of the decade. Do I think this is going to go on the all time pantheon? No. Does it need to? Also no. But what’s perhaps most important about this film is that you will not be able to tell the story of cinema in 2025 without this film featuring prominently on that list. And that is a miracle in and of itself.

5. Marty Supreme

We got films from both Safdie brothers this year. Benny made The Smashing Machine (which will appear later on in the list) and branched out into something different. Josh just doubled down on the Good Time/Uncut Gems style of filmmaking, which is a film about a protagonist who continually makes the worst possible decision at all times. By all accounts, this should not have worked for me, since I know this playbook… but damn it… it did.

Timothy Chalamet continues his impressive run of terrific performances (at least, in movies that require them. Looking at you, Wonka…). This as the other side to the Bob Dylan coin in a two-year span (with the Dune series nestled around it) does show that he is one of, if not the actor of his generation.

What I like most about this film (and Safdie’s films in general) is how there are a lot of either unprofessional actors in them or unknown actors. And it makes everything feel really authentic. And it adds to the experience because it grounds you into everything he’s trying to tell. I also really love how, ultimately, the stakes are really low in the grand scheme of things, and yet, for the character, they couldn’t be higher. The climax of the film is an exhibition match. And yet — huge moment. And it’s great how the film manages interesting detours along the way (particularly the Abel Ferrara ‘let’s go get my dog’ sequence).

In another year, this wouldn’t be #5, but I can’t think of many other films this year that stuck with me like this one did.

6. Train Dreams

Coming up with these lists is fun because, when the dust settles, films end up on this list that I couldn’t have guessed a few months prior. And probably half of this top ten is full of those.

This film, on the surface, does seem like something I’d like — it’s basically doing Terrence Malick by way of The Assassination of Jesse James, with that western elegiac tone poem style. But I didn’t quite expect it to sit with me as much as it did. It’s based on a novella and really doesn’t overstay its welcome. It tells its story, it doesn’t over-embellish, and that’s it.

I think what I love most about it, more so than the visuals, or the random cameos (Clifton Collins for like, thirty seconds? Or William H. Macy popping up in what feels like the first time in a decade?), is that the film doesn’t care to expand on what happens. Events just happen and occur the way they would in life, the way one would remember them. Like you’d say, “Yeah, I was on a job in Oregon once and a bounty hunter showed up and killed one of the workers.” And that’s it. That’s the scene. No comment. Just happens. And that, to me, is what the core of this movie is. It’s actually the story of a life. It’s just this guy and his experiences.

I love this because I don’t ascribe to the notion that because this is doing Malick that it’s automatically not as worthy as Malick. I take this movie on its own terms, and on those terms, this is a brilliant meditation on life and a great mid-afternoon snack of a movie. This feels like a movie you watch at 2pm on a Sunday when you’re just hanging out. It’s not the main course, and it’ll never be listed among the greatest films ever made. But it’s one hell of an experience that, if you let it, will remain with you long after you finish it.

7. Black Bag

Steven fucking Soderbergh. The man is on an insane run since ‘returning’ to filmmaking.

He took four years off then came back with: Logan Lucky, Unsane, High Flying Bird, The Laundromat, Let Them All Talk, No Sudden Move, Kimi, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Presence, this and The Christophers.

I’d wager that the majority of people, if they’ve seen any of these films, probably have only seen a small number of them. And while some of them may not have fully worked for me, a lot of them – most of them – have, and even the ones I didn’t necessarily love I appreciated based on what they were trying to do (one of them was almost fully improvised by the cast, most of them were shot on iPhones, one is a ghost story told from the perspective of the ghost. There’s always something interesting there).

This one is a spy thriller that is so lean you can hardly believe how much meat there is on that bone. It’s about husband and wife spies who have to deal with the fact that there’s a mole, and he’s tasked with figuring out who it is (even though many signs point to her). The film takes place over a week, and basically is structured around two dinner parties. It’s like if you mixed Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Thin Man and had Steven Soderbergh direct it.

I watched this one early on in the year and was immediately elated by it — because it’s rare to get something of this caliber that early on in a year (I bet if you looked into all my top tens, on average most of them would have been released between September and December in their year, with a handful of summer films in there and then other smatterings of months. This came out in January. And it’s rare to get something great in January or February). I would never have suspected this would have made the Top Ten. But the more the year went on, the more I found myself thinking about this and going back to it. And it makes me happy to know that I can always count on Steven Soderbergh to make a great movie (and unfortunately for not enough people to actually watch that movie).

8. Nouvelle Vague

While my initial reaction is to say that there wasn’t a whole lot in 2025 that I outright loved, I’m sensing a theme in my list here — comfort. There’s a lot of reliability here. People I can count on. Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh… I mean, Tom Cruise, in a sense. And here’s Richard Linklater. Another person who, while his films don’t always make the Top Ten, they do always have a floor. The man’s never made anything less than fully watchable. And, like Soderbergh, has been on a run the past decade (post-Boyhood) that’s been both tremendous and somehow underappreciated. Since Boyhood, he’s made: Everybody Wants Some!! (incredible), Last Flag Flying (very good), Where’d You Go Bernadette (I loved it), Apollo 10½ (very fun), and Hit Man (incredible). And now here he is with the first of two films to make this list.

I’m curious how these two will shake out over time. Because the next film on this list is one I’ve watched more thus far, but this one made me more excited, and that’s why I split them the way I did. But still, the man has two Top Ten movies in one year, which is a feat that I’m pretty sure no one other than Steven Spielberg has pulled off for me in the past 50 years (and even then I don’t think it’s happened since 2002).

This is about the filming of Breathless. And I really appreciated Linklater’s commitment to authenticity — he shot in French, in black-and-white, and really tried to make the film feel like the film and era he’s paying homage to. And that makes all the difference. Linklater was always more of a writing-first filmmaker and was never one for flashy filmmaking. But when you make a movie about Godard, how can you not? The stuff he does here is just absolutely tremendous. This is one of the best looking and best directed films of this year. And great performances too. He got people that looked like the people they’re playing. And they all knock it out of the park.

I love that Linklater keeps trying to challenge himself by making new movies. And even when he does revisit other movies, he does so in a thoughtful way. In a way, it’s a shame that the culture has gone the way it has, because growing up, even if it wasn’t a monster hit or something, people who were into movies would fairly easily find a film like this (or any of Linklater’s films, for that matter). And now I worry that stuff like this is getting lost to the sands of time unless someone discovers one of his other films and then decides to do a deep dive in his filmography. Which is great, but it still is a bit sad. But at least Linklater came up in the indies, so he understands that struggle. I’m just glad he’s still making them.

9. Blue Moon

And here’s Linklater again. I do need to point out just how rare it is, in the post Studio Era, for a director to not only have two movies in a single year, but to have two films that both made my Top Ten list in a single year. Usually it’s one great one and the other is somewhere below. This is two in the Top Ten. Unless something has changed in my rankings from the time this was published (and it may have), only three directors have managed that since 1962 (which was still the Studio Era): Mel Brooks (1974), Francis Ford Coppola (also 1974) and Steven Spielberg (1993 and 2002). And now Linklater.

This one’s a chamber piece, very much the opposite of Nouvelle Vague. Takes place in one location, never leaves that location, and does not contain a lot of heavy ‘filmmaking’. Yet, just as enthralling, and possibly more, than Nouvelle Vague.

It’s about Lorenz Hart, half of the songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. He wrote songs like the title track, “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “My Funny Valentine.” The film takes place on opening night of Rodgers’ (who has moved on from working with him, to a fellow named Hammerstein) new show… Oklahoma! And it’s set in a bar, while Hart (brilliantly played by Ethan Hawke), an alcoholic, sits and shits on the show and desperately tries to relive his glory days while also plotting to try to get back to writing again with Rodgers.

This film could have debuted as a play, that’s how contained it is. Hart goes from sitting at the bar, to a table at one point, to other places within the bar as people start showing up at intermission and after the show, but otherwise the film is one location, all-dialogue. And it’s incredible. It’s a showcase for Hawke, obviously, but it also has great supporting work from Bobby Cannavale (as the bartender), Margaret Qualley (a young woman with whom Hart is infatuated) and Andrew Scott (as Rodgers).

This and Nouvelle Vague are a perfect double feature because they really show the two sides of filmmaking for Linklater — one film is ‘direction’ heavy and the other is writing heavy. And both are incredible pieces of work that show the range of Linklater as a filmmaker.

10. Sentimental Value

Did not expect this to make the Top Ten, but here we are.

Coming off The Worst Person in the World, we knew two things — Renate Reinsve is a goddamn star, and we were all really excited to see what Joachim Trier did next. And man, did he not disappoint.

In a film that’s almost impossible not to compare to Bergman, the film ends up (for me at least) having a lot more heart and emotion than Bergman does. It’s this incredibly layered portrait of a family just… dealing with their shit. Stellan Skarsgard is the patriarch, a famous director who’s looking for a comeback movie and is finally ready to tell the story he’s been holding in for all these years (about his mother, a member of the Norwegian resistance during World War II who eventually committed suicide when he was a child) and wants his daughter (Reinsve), a famous stage actress from whom he’s estranged, to play the part. Though when she doesn’t want to, he hires Elle Fanning, a famous American actress, to play the part.

While that is the nominal plot of the film, it’s about so much more — grief, trauma, memory, art and its ability to mediate, and just about how people keep trying to take the stuff that’s happened to them and figure out what to do with it.

The acting here is incredible. Skarsgard, Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas — my god, she’s so damn good here. Elle Fanning — also, I need to point out how good she is in this and how difficult a role she has — most movies would portray this character as an actress who’s only hired for her fame and isn’t actually very talented. But the thing here is that she’s not untalented — she’s a very good actress. She’s just horribly miscast, and she’s going up against a role that she really shouldn’t be playing. And it’s really difficult to portray someone who’s not good because they’re not right for something, rather than just not being good.

In a way, I’m happy a foreign film made the Top Ten this year, because foreign film has become an increasing presence throughout the American film landscape, and this year in particular had a lot of really good ones. So it’s nice to see that represented here in some form.

– – – – –

11-20:

Avatar: Fire and Ash — Way of Water felt like a huge deal, given that it was 13 years since the last Avatar movie came out. This one coming out 3 years later — the shine came off a bit. I wasn’t as excited for this one (and this is also how they killed Star Wars, FYI). Because it’s not like James Cameron is some master writer. The entire movie is tropes on tropes on tropes. The joy is the filmmaking, and the incredible CGI imagery that creates the world and the characters. So this one — while it was still an amazing experience, it does feel like it’s treading on similar ground as the other films. I don’t know what he has planned in the end (I presume the next movie is in the sky, for the fourth element, and the fifth somehow takes place on Earth), but I have to imagine the films will all largely be the same as this. Which is fine. They’re incredible pieces of filmmaking. I’m wondering if he finishes the other two himself or does what Lucas did on the original trilogy. Guess we’ll see.

Frankenstein — Guillermo del Toro finally gets to tell the story that’s defined his artistic life. It’s impossible not to see the influence of Frankenstein on everything he’s ever made, and so finally now he gets to tell his version of the tale. And, unsurprisingly, it’s a match made in heaven. While, among his filmography, one might more readily gravitate to his original stories, this feels like it’ll be one of the anchor films for him. It’s such a perfect example of the visual style he brings to his films, from the cinematography to the production and costume design — it’s so of a piece to his filmmaking while also being the epitome of the themes and types of stories he’s always told. It’s also a perfect next film in the lineage of Frankenstein, which has been told countless times, and often most memorably in 1931. So it’s nice that, every few years, someone else makes one to keep the story fresh for people.

Highest 2 Lowest — In case the spelling did not give you a hint, this is a Spike Lee joint. Spike’s had mixed luck remaking things (Oldboy), but this one thematically fits his style a bit more. So I’m not surprised the result was better. This is a remake of Kurosawa (though that itself was baed on an Ed McBain novel), and was updated to fit Spike’s style. Denzel plays a music mogul whose son is kidnapped (along with the son of his friend/chauffeur, Jeffrey Wright). And the film is just kinda that — what he decides to do to get him back, and then the follow up decision, which… is better for you to come across, if you haven’t seen the film(s) before. But it’s good stuff. I really enjoyed this. It’s not gonna go up among Spike’s best, but it’s fun.

It Was Just an Accident — An incredible film. It feels like every year, there are more and more foreign films at the top of these lists (and maybe that’s because the American studio output is getting less interesting and more generic). This one’s about an Iranian mechanic who, by chance, sees a guy who happens upon his shop after an accident and recognizes him as the sadistic prison guard from when he was in prison. So he sets out to kidnap the guy, kill him and bury his body in the desert. Only, he needs to be sure it’s him first. So he takes him around town, tied up in his van, to other people who were also imprisoned with him, to confirm the man’s identity. It’s… oh man, can I not say enough great things about this movie. Just riveting from beginning to end. Please see this.

Left-Handed Girl — This is a film directed by Shih-Ching Tsou, who co-directed Take Out with Sean Baker and has been a producer on his films since. She co-wrote this with him and directs it herself. It’s about a single mother and her two daughters who move to Taipei to work in the night market. And it’s this beautiful family movie that’s part coming of age, part… you know, it’s got a feel (and I don’t know how autobiographical it is) of something like Avalon. Which is a weird comparison, I know. But there’s something universal about it, being so incredibly specific. There’s something about it being so specific that gives it this lived-in kind of feel, and makes it easier for you to settle into it. The film just situates you with this family, and you can’t stop watching them. It’s really great. And because it’s co-written and edited by Baker, while it is a foreign film, there’s a lot of American sensibilities there, and I think that will make it more palatable to those who don’t watch a lot of foreign films. I would say, to keep this as surface level as I can — if you saw and liked The Farewell, I think you’ll really like this.

The Luckiest Man in America — The kind of hidden gem that I love finding. This reminds me of the Pinball movie from a few years ago. This one’s also based on real events — it stars Paul Walter Hauser as an ice cream truck driver who goes on the Press Your Luck show and starts winning… and winning… and winning. And the film takes place over the course of the taping as the producers try to figure out who he is, how he’s made it so he can’t lose, and what he’s really doing there. It’s… so good. I cannot explain this one except to say, watch it, and you will enjoy it.

The Naked Gun — A remake that is wholly unnecessary… but also kinda welcome. I needed to be sure they were gonna take it seriously (and by that I mean… ridiculously), and as soon as I knew that, I was all in on this. This a joke-per-minute type movie, where it just never stops. And the beauty of that is that, as long as the overall product is good, you only need to land a certain percentage of the jokes to make it work. And man… I had a good old time with this. You forget that sometimes films can be this ridiculous and this funny. Some of the jokes here are so stupid you can’t help but laugh. This is the kind of comedy you just don’t get anymore. And I’m so happy we got this. This is the kind of movie that brings me absurd joy, and there are so few of those anymore.

Rental Family — What a lovely little movie this is. Brendan Fraser plays an actor living in Tokyo struggling to find work. He gets hired at a company that provides stand-in family members for people. One job is to pose as a woman’s husband so they can think she’s getting married and moving away, even though she’s about to move away with her wife. Another job, he’s hired to pretend to be a reporter interviewing an aging actor so his family can make him feel like people remember him before he dies. It’s a film that’s not trying to do a lot, and in doing so creates great beauty. It’s a guy who was disconnected from the world who finds connection by pretending to be someone for others. And you watch as those connections become real. It’s quite a film. I really, really liked this, and I wish more people saw this.

The Running Man — Is movie that almost shouldn’t have been made by Edgar Wright. He’s just too talented for this. It kind of feels like when Guy Ritchie became director for hire and just started making whatever. If it weren’t for some of the really clever action sequences in this, you almost wouldn’t know Edgar Wright made this if someone didn’t tell you. This feels a bit like when Martin Scorsese made The Color of Money and Roger Ebert was like, “Yeah, it’s good, but what are you doing, man? You’re depriving the world of all the cool original stuff you could be doing instead.” So yeah — great action movie. Great action role for Glen Powell. Nice remake of the King novella. Much needed update of the film version (since the last one with Schwarzenegger is uncompromisingly 80s). It’s a very good and very entertaining movie on a lot of levels. But Edgar Wright can be doing better than this.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery — I love that Rian Johnson got to turn this into a trilogy. These movies are so much fun. What I love about this is that it’s the kind of series that he can just revisit in 5, 10 years, whenever he wants and has a good idea. What I like is that he resisted the urge to connect any of the films in this trilogy. They’re all their own thing. This one involves the murder of a priest. And it feels much more overtly funny than the first two, but maybe that was just my takeaway. They’re all funny movies. But you’ve got a nice cast around Craig here — Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Hayden Church, Cailee Spaeny, and of course, Jeffrey Wright. Here, the enjoyment is in the solving of the mystery, not the solution (since, if you’ve paid attention to how Johnson casts his killers, you’ll be able to pick out who it is pretty easily), and in the utter glee Craig has in playing this character. Just having these films in existence feels like a minor miracle, so I’m glad we have three of them now, before Johnson goes into whatever he’s going to do next.

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Tier Two:

• 28 Years Later
• The Baltimorons
• Bugonia
• The Christophers
• Die My Love
• Eternity
• F1
• Fackham Hall
• Hamnet
• If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
• Mickey 17
• No Other Choice
• Novocaine
• The Plague
• The Secret Agent
• Sirât
• The Smashing Machine
• The Testament of Ann Lee
• Weapons
• Wicked: For Good

The Testament of Ann Lee is one of those films that’s so incredible to watch that you can’t believe it got made. But when you realize it’s co-written by Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold (who brought us The Brutalist, another film that you can’t believe got made), you understand. It’s a film about the founder of the Shaker movement, who worship through song and dance. So imagine a movie about colonial settlers who go into a barn and sing and dance. It’s wild. And amazing. Amanda Seyfried gives yet another show-stopping performance (truly one of the best of 2025), and the film is one of the most unique things you’ll see. This is the kind of movie that you realize has such a limited audience, yet you wish more people saw. It’s so good. The Christophers is Soderbergh. Again. A second film for him on this list (mostly because they keep dumping his films in January of the following year. Kind of a chamber piece. It’s about an art forger who gets hired by the children of a famous artist to forge a final set of his most famous set of paintings before he dies. It’s a fun little movie. Most directors would turn this into some sort of mystery or thriller — Soderbergh doesn’t. What’s interesting is how it doesn’t do any of the things you’d expect it to do, and instead just becomes the story of two people. Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen are both terrific and Soderbergh has such an unpretentious way about the way he directs. Not enough people realize how lucky we are that he’s making these movies for us.

Novocaine is the kind of movie I long for — high concept, fun, smart action-comedy. Especially an idea I haven’t seen before. It’s rare nowadays to see a legitimately original premise. This one’s about a guy who has a condition that makes him insensitive to pain. He lives a rather boring life, working at a bank and pining for one of his coworkers. Though one day, the bank gets robbed and she gets taken hostage… and finally he realizes his condition can be used to his advantage. And oh boy, is it fun. The movie finds such great ways to have horrible things happen to this guy that he can withstand. So much damn fun. The Secret Agent is a terrific Brazilian film that’s somehow hyper stylized but also novelistic at the same time. The color and the style just pops off the screen, and yet the movie feels like it’s slower-paced for its genre, and much more focused on building smaller characters and taking detours rather than rushing to a resolution. And the result is this utterly engrossing story. It’s about a guy (impeccably played by Wagner Moura) who a coastal city to avoid political persecution. It’s not a film that ties everything up in a bow (or even tries to be fully coherent at times), but trust me when I say this one’s about the experience. It’s such an engrossing piece of work that I cannot recommend highly enough (especially if you’re looking to escape the confines of traditional American cinema and aren’t ready to go fully off the deep end just yet).

Eternity is such a wonderful concept film — an elderly couple who were married for 65  years die not long after one another and are now in the afterlife and have to decide where to spend the rest of eternity. The hook is that the husband (Miles Teller – the film smartly has their afterlife selves as the version they most remember from their life) dies and waits for his wife (Elizabeth Olsen) to die so they can go to the afterlife together. Only, when she gets there, she finds out that her first husband (who died in the war) has been waiting for her to arrive all this time. And now she has to decide, “Do I want to spend eternity with the guy I spent all that time with already or spend it with the guy I was madly in love with and didn’t get to know when we were together?” And a fun rom com ensues. You realize just how few smart, high-concept films get made on a level that actually reaches passable let alone good. So I’m thrilled when I see something like this, where the film actually matches the concept. The Smashing Machine is Benny Safdie’s first film without Josh. It’s a biopic. Dwayne Johnson doing his first proper dramatic performance in at least a dozen years, if not ever. He plays Mark Kerr, an MMA fighter with a painkiller addiction. It’s a hell of a performance. Emily Blunt is also terrific as his girlfriend. Safdie chooses not to follow in the same path as the films he made with his brother, and the result is a film that will probably not be as remembered as those, but still a very solid effort featuring standout performances that does deserve a proper audience.

No Other Choice is Park Chan-wook, and just a wonderful film. It’s actually based on a Donald Westlake novel (if you don’t recognize him, he wrote books that were adapted into films like Point Blank, The Hot Rock, The Outfit, The Grifters and Payback. This one’s about a guy who gets laid off after his company gets bought out and is unable to find another job. So, he decides he’s going to kill his competition so that way he’s the only one available to take an open position. Which — terrific. It’s reductive to try to compare this movie to Parasite (just because they’re both Korean, etc…), but I understand that not everyone watches non-American films. And I also recognize that Parasite is a point of comparison for a lot of people because it is one of the few foreign films that broke through that they might have seen. So I will say — if you loved Parasite, this is also a dark social satire with a similar type of dark comedy. It also happens to be directed by the same guy who made Oldboy and The Handmaiden, so there’s a lot of reasons to seek this out. Also, somewhat coincidentally, the director of Parasite, Bong Joon Ho, also has a film this year — Mickey 17. It’s his first purely English-language film, though it does bear a few similarities to his other ‘American’ style films, Snowpiercer and Okja. It’s about a loser of a guy (Robert Pattinson, who seems to be addicted to coming up with weird accents for his characters) who gets a job going to explore an ice planet as an ‘expendable’, which is essentially — they clone him and send him out on dangerous missions. Invariably, he gets killed and so they dump the body, make another clone and start over. The title refers to which number clone they’re up to. And that’s pretty much all you need to know about the film. It’s got social commentary and fun comedy throughout (Mark Ruffalo is basically doing a Trump impression for the whole movie). It’s never going to be listed among the top tier of Bong Joon Ho’s filmography, but I liken this to a ‘middle tier’ movie on any great director’s filmography. Something considered ‘lesser’ for them is still better than most people’s best stuff.

Fackham Hall — if you thought Naked Gun was the only spoof movie this year, you are mistaken. This is a style parody of Downton Abbey, and this is certainly one of those where thought and care were put into it, because even the tiniest of insert shots in this movie have sight gags. And detailed sight gags. I didn’t realize how starved I was for good, wacky comedy until I watched this because I forgot how good things can be when they really care and people actually put thought into the jokes. Spoof movies are a wonderful genre, and I hope they make a return. Also — I’ve never watched a minute of Downton Abbey the show (but admittedly I have seen all three movies, and I’ve seen Gosford Park, which is essentially what brought us that show). You don’t need to have seen any of it to understand what they’re making fun of. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. I love a movie title that’s its own full sentence. Especially one that has nothing to do with the actual content of the movie. Spiritually, it fits, but otherwise the title gives you zero chance at guessing what it’s actually about (which is terrific). I feel like this entire movie can be summed up in two words: Rose Byrne. That’s it. She’s the film. There’s a plot, there’s things happening, but mostly it’s just Rose Byrne commanding the screen and giving one of the best performances of the decade. It’s just 2 hours of her slowly losing her shit while trying to keep her shit together. And my word, is it spellbinding. What an incredible piece of acting, and an incredible film from Mary Bronstein (who clearly introduced some autobiographical elements there).

Weapons is Zach Cregger’s followup to Barbarian (which was great). This one’s different from Barbarian because it tells you the mystery up front and then slowly unravels it. One night, a bunch of kids suddenly run out of their houses and disappear. And the rest of the movie is about what happened (and happens). It’s awesome. Great performances by the cast, fun surprises and just a great all around experience at the movies. 28 Years Later is Danny Boyle (and Alex Garland) returning to the well. And, in a lot of circumstances, someone returning to the well is usually done because either they want money or they want a safety net. Here, everyone was at the well, begging them to come back to it for years. So them finally coming back is very welcome. They (meaning the studio) made 28 Weeks Later back in 2007, but Garland and Boyle weren’t involved, and the film sort of became more of a standard studio action movie and didn’t land quite the same. This one returns the franchise to its roots in a way (and you knew that the minute you saw the trailer for this, with the use of “Boots on the Ground”). The film, like the first one, doesn’t try to go too big, focusing more on the story of a boy becoming a man. That’s the film — boy lives in an island community protected from the infected, but his mother is very sick. So he sets out to get medicine to try to help her. So it’s a boy protecting his sick mother against zombies. Grounded. Terrific. Also a fantastic introduction of Ralph Fiennes in the middle-to-latter half of the film. The slow burn of us seeing him and then meeting him is absolutely fantastic. I really liked this as a film (and love that they immediately shot a sequel right after it, too, to expand on the side characters from this and wrap up the story without needing Boyle to do it, allowing him to focus on the overall story rather than the specific story). Very excited this franchise is back.

The Baltimorons is a Jay Duplass film (the first of those in 13 years!). And while, back in the day, I was not the hugest fan of the Duplass Brothers’ films and the mumblecore style, I was very excited to find out they’d made a film. Because I felt like, at core, mumblecore was a style designed for film students (who historically don’t really know what they’re doing enough to truly make great movies). And I think knowing that there was an extra 15 years of experience going into this one, I felt that there was gonna be something really worthwhile there. And I was very delighted to see I was correct. The film is about a newly-sober guy going to his fiancée’s family’s house for Christmas and ending up chipping his tooth, necessitating a trip to the dentist’s office. And the film becomes about him and the dentist having this sort of indie comedy version of Before Sunrise around Baltimore. It’s so unassuming yet packs quite the emotional punch if you let it do its thing. I really, really enjoyed this one. Hamnet is not a typo. The opening titles say that, at the time, Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable. But yeah, you get it. It’s the story of how William Shakespeare and his wife losing a child inspired one of his greatest plays. So, in a sense, the other drama mask with Shakespeare in Love. The film is… not very pleasant. It’s about grief. And the propelling incident of the story is a child dying. Not exactly a rip-roaring time. But Chloe Zhao really paints a delicate picture and gets terrific performances out of her actors (Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. Plus the kids — Jacobi Jupe is terrific as Hamnet). And the film, while it is a ‘bad’ time for a lot of it, ends with a very humanist and transcendent moment that the film builds toward. The ending is very beautiful and the film is a terrific meditation on grief more than it’s about the story of how Shakespeare wrote this play.

The Plague is one of the great gems of this year. Underseen by a factor of ten. The title makes you think it’s some sort of horror movie or something, but it’s not (well… not exactly). It’s about a socially anxious tween who goes to water polo camp, and it’s about the bullying and hazing that goes on there. It’s… the performances the film gets out of the kids in this are astounding. It’s also one of those movies that fills you with anxiety as you watch because it’s so difficult on the characters. Just incredible filmmaking and I really do hope people seek this one out. F1 is basically Top Gun: Maverick, but with race cars. Same director, same cinematographer, same basic story. And you know what? There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Brad Pitt plays a driver whose once-promising career burned out years ago and now hops around, driving in different races just because he loves driving. And he gets recruited by a former teammate who now owns a team to drive for them before he loses control of the company because they haven’t won. And so the film is Brad Pitt being the veteran driver with the old-school style that clashes with the new school analytics approach having to partner with the new hotshot driver with an ego. You know every beat of this movie before it happens, but it doesn’t change how satisfying it is to watch. It’s just a good time at the movies and it’s a movie that does everything well. This is one of those movies that’ll never be in the pantheon and never be ‘the favorite’, but it’s a movie that people will be able to put on and just watch a bunch because it’s so easy to have on.

Bugonia feels like when you try to talk about Burn After Reading next to Fargo and Barton Fink. It’s good Yorgos, it’s just not top tier Yorgos. And no matter what you do, it’s going to get compared to those other films. But once you get past that, this is a terrific movie. Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone are both terrific, as is Aidan Delbis. I do love the ambiguity for the majority of the film about what’s actually going on. Part of me wishes they left it at that, but I understand why they did what they did (and that ending montage is pure Yorgos). This is a very good movie. Die My Love is a film I can sell to people one of two ways. I can say, “It’s a movie where Jennifer Lawrence is a housewife who slowly loses her shit,” or I can say, “It’s a Lynne Ramsay movie with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.” It’s basically Lynne Ramsay doing her version of Woman Under the Influence. That’s really all you need to know. Lawrence’s character is slightly unstable to begin with and being married and having a kid and being stuck, bored, around the house, makes her slowly start to lose it. So her behavior becomes increasingly unhinged. It’s — the film’s certainly a showcase. Lawrence gets to tap into the unpredictability that makes her screen presence so good, and Ramsay gets to add her visual flair to what could otherwise have been a very mishandled movie by almost anyone else. It’s a very entertaining piece of work.

Sirât is an incredible experience. It feels almost like Antonioni mixed with the Wages of Fear. It’s about a guy traveling through the Moroccan desert with his son to look for his daughter, who went missing. The film starts with him going to a rave and asking people if they’ve found her. The two end up traveling with a group of ravers heading deeper into the desert to another rave in the hopes they find her. It’s such a captivating movie. Is This Thing On? is a wonderful and interesting departure from Bradley Cooper after A Star Is Born and Maestro. Will Arnett stars as a guy whose marriage is ending and, by chance, ends up doing an open mic night at a bar and discovers a passion (and talent) for stand up comedy. It’s an interesting, mature movie that, in the exact opposite of Maestro (which floods the screen with style and ‘moviemaking’) is very unassuming and underplayed. It’s basically a director with a studio and money behind him making an independent movie. Though I do think, because the film is playing humor and not comedy, and ultimately it is a more of a drama, it’s destined to go down as one of the ‘B sides’ of Cooper’s directing career. Which is a shame because it’s nice that he cleansed his palette after the shameless Oscar bait of Maestro. Wicked: For Good is the finale. I really liked the first one and I feel kinda cheated with this one because it’s clear they only did it for money. The second act is not as good as the first act and doesn’t work as well without the first act being right before it. Had this been one singular movie, it would’ve been great. Instead, we’ve got one very good first half and one — pretty good second half. Perhaps down the road we’ll get one singular film version (or can just watch it all as one thing. You know, like the show).

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Tier Three:

• Ballad of a Small Player
• The Ballad of Wallis Island
• Caught Stealing
• Drop
• Dust Bunny
• Eddington
• The Gorge
• A House of Dynamite
• Is This Thing On?
• Jay Kelly
• The Long Walk
• The Lost Bus
• Magellan
• The Mastermind
• Relay
• Roofman
• Splitsville
• Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
• The Threesome
• Tron: Ares

Dust Bunny is your classic premise: girl thinks there’s a monster under her bed that killed her step parents, so she hires her neighbor, Mads Mikkelsen, to kill it. I don’t think you need anything more than that premise, but trust me when I say, this movie is fun as hell. Written and directed by Bryan Fuller, who made Hannibal, in case that sways some of you. It’s basically Leon: The Professional but with a monster under the bed instead of Gary Oldman. A gem. A House of Dynamite is Karthryn Bigelow. It’s weird seeing directors of her stature just… making Netflix thrillers. Granted, this is an elevated Netflix thriller, but still. She waited eight years after Detroit and made a ticking clock movie that’s essentially been made a bunch already. It’s one of those real-time thrillers about a missile heading toward the US and what different analysts and people connected to the government do about it. It’s a thriller that thinks it was made in a different political climate, I feel. It’s well-made, but watching people do things like this, while realistic at times, we’re in different times now and it just doesn’t exist in the reality of today. Maybe in a few years it’ll work better than it does. But for now, it feels like an outlier of a film in a bad way. Plus, a variation of this theme has been made a number of times, and this doesn’t do anything all that unique with it outside of probably having done a ton of research to try to make things as realistic to what would actually happen as possible. So, overall, good, solid thriller with a unique narrative structure, but definitely a film that was probably better served being made 15 years ago.

Drop is a very fun thriller from the guy who made Happy Death Day. It’s about a woman who goes on a blind date and, during it, begins getting threatening airdrop messages that are coming from someone in the restaurant who is holding her daughter hostage. So she’s gotta figure out who it is while also not getting noticed so she can save her daughter. Remember the movie Nick of Time with Johnny Depp? This is that but in a restaurant. Very fun, very nice little gem that I feel not enough people know about. The Long Walk is based on a Stephen King novella about a bunch of guys who enter a contest where they have to walk a certain speed or else get shot, with only one of them destined to win. It’s a very solid movie. There’s so many King adaptations out there, but this, I think, cracks what I feel is the top ten. The top five is (in chronological order) Carrie, The Shining, Stand by Me, Misery and Shawshank. This is in that next tier, which I include with The Mist, Green Mile and It. I also have The Running Man in there (clearly). But I do think this is one of the better King adaptations that’s been made particularly because it grounds itself and finds humanity within the characters rather than overdoing the plot. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is not the Springsteen biopic I thought we’d get. You figured it would be a jukebox musical of some sort, with wall to wall hits. Instead, we get a biopic about the period where he eschewed hit songs and instead wrote an all acoustic album during a time when he was deeply depressed. Fucking glorious. Jeremy Allen White is actually a terrific choice in the lead, and Scott Cooper has never made anything less than a very solid movie. Overall, it’s not a grand slam, but it’s a solid piece of work.

Eddington is Ari Aster. And boy, do I appreciate his determination to alienate everyone who really loved Hereditary and Midsommar. I thought he did it with Beau Is Afraid, but turns out not enough people saw that one to make it happen. This one — he certainly likes to go niche, I’ll say that. I don’t know how to even explain this as a movie. But I will say — Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal. Covid western of sorts, about a sheriff and the mayor of a small town’s… feud. Let’s say. A lot of things going on here, not all of which work. But it’s certainly the experience. There are a decent amount of people who will hate this and a decent amount who will love this. I’m right in between, but I do appreciate this filmography that Aster is putting together. He is a singular voice, and we need more of those. Tron: Ares is a sequel that came about ten years too late. Not unwelcome, just unfortunate. Jared Leto — probably a better choice twelve years ago than now. Greta Lee, welcome, but underutilized. Tron feels like a franchise loaded with possibility that cannot get past its roots. It’s kind of like Terminator. Most Terminator sequels have failed for two reasons: 1) no James Cameron, and 2) they keep telling the same John Connor story. Once Tron can move past Jeff Bridges as its anchor, I think they can do some cool stuff there. But this — fine. Looks nice, perfectly entertaining. Just… for a 15 years later sequel, I figured they’d have come up with better ideas than this. Though props to them for getting Nine Inch Nails to do the soundtrack since Daft Punk isn’t together anymore. That was a terrific decision.

The Ballad of Wallis Island is a lovely British comedy. It’s about a folk singer who split from his former singing partner (and otherwise partner) who takes a gig singing for an eccentric, widowed lottery winner who lives on an island. And the concert is just going to be for this one guy. And after he gets there, he finds out that his ex partner was also hired for the gig. So now all the past gets stirred up again and all that. It’s a movie that you think is going to be one thing but then it wins you over on pure charm, particularly from the performance of Tim Key, who plays the widower. I remember 10-15 years ago, there would always be, at the Golden Globes, one British comedy that got nominated that most people didn’t know but was just a lovely, charming little movie. This would be that movie (if they nominated those anymore). I promise you that you will be entertained by this. Roofman is the movie where Channing Tatum hides out in a Toys R Us. He’s a robber who escapes from prison and hides in a Toys R Us for 30 days while the heat dies down and he can get documentation to skip town. Only, while there, he meets an employee and starts a relationship with her. It’s fun. Derek Cianfrance directs, and I’ve been waiting for him to make another movie for almost a decade. This is one of those good, watchable movies that’s never going to be anyone’s top ten but is always going to be a nice little gem.

The Threesome is such a wonderful rom com. Guy has a threesome with the woman he likes (who is afraid of commitment) and another woman and ends up getting them both pregnant. Lovely movie. Absolutely wonderful hidden gem from this year that I highly recommend seeing. Ballad of a Small Player is Edward Berger, and not the kind of movie I’d expect from the guy who’d just made All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave. This is a movie about a gambler in Macau, starring Colin Farrell. He’s presenting himself as a rich American, even though he’s down on his luck, not able to pay his hotel bills and very much in danger with the wrong people. It’s a very interesting movie. Offbeat. But you can probably figure that out from the fact that Farrell stars and Tilda Swinton is also in it. They’re no strangers to movies that don’t take traditional narrative paths. Not everyone is going to liek this, but I do think it’s entertaining enough and stylistic enough to qualify as a solid little gem of a movie and I’m curious how it’s going to grow in Berger’s filmography moving forward.

Caught Stealing is, oddly, Darren Aronofsky. What an interesting career for him. In between his giant ambitious swings (The Fountain, Noah, Mother!), he does these character pieces (The Wrestler, The Whale). But this one… kind of out of nowhere. It’s a movie that feels ripped straight out of the late 90s, with all those Tarantino ripoffs. What I like about it is that it knows how to be realistically grimy, which so few films are willing to do. This isn’t one of those films where the plot matters so much — bartender and former baseball player gets into some shit with the wrong people after his neighbor skips town and now a bunch of criminals are looking for something they think he has. It’s a fun time. Nice little part for Austin Butler’s resume. A great turn by Zoe Kravitz as well. It’s just a fun time at the movies, even if it’s going to be one of the forgotten aspects of Aronofsky’s resume. Jay Kelly is Noah Baumbach. Co-written by him and Emily Mortimer, of all people. It’s a George Clooney vehicle that’s really secretly an Adam Sandler vehicle and is about a famous movie actor who agrees to accept a lifetime achievement award just so he can go to Europe and follow his daughter (with whom he’d like to spend more time) as she goes on a trip with her friends. It’s a nice mediation on fame and the price of it. There’s an incredible sequence early on with Billy Crudup. Clooney also knows exactly what he’s supposed to do in this and plays it to a tee. And as I said, the film is secretly a Sandler vehicle, as he plays Clooney’s manager who has to jump through all the hoops for his meal ticket, who he considers a friend, given all their time together, but… you know… fame. It’s a very solid piece of work, and that’s coming from someone who has not historically been the biggest Baumbach fan.

Relay is legitimately a movie that could have been made in 1975. Directed by David Mackenzie (whose style would also have been perfect for that decade). It’s about a guy who brokers deals between companies and whistleblowers by using a relay system so no one can track him. He lives very much by those ‘samurai’ type rules, but of course breaks them when he starts becoming close to a new client. It’s very good. It’s a great B-side of a movie. You can tell it’s trying to follow in the footsteps of The Conversation, and I don’t think that’s ever a bad goal for a movie. The Lost Bus is a good old disaster movie. Directed by Paul Greengrass, who you realize mostly makes disaster movies. The Bourne movies are kind of the outlier. Otherwise… United 93, Captain Phillips, 22 July… he likes a good ‘incident’ movie. This one’s about a bus driver trying to save kids during California wildfires. McConaughey is the driver, and it’s just him driving a bus through flames to save some kids. Perfectly solid movie. In a sense you feel that Greengrass could be doing more than this, but on the other hand, he makes good movies. The Mastermind is Kelly Reichardt. And it’s so 70s coded you can’t help but love it. It’s so laid back. Josh O’Connor stars as a guy who robs a local art museum in broad daylight. And the film begins with the heist. The rest of the film is just him trying to hold onto the paintings and the fallout from stealing them. It’s such a casual movie. I love it. I’m usually tepid with Reichardt movies, but this one I quite liked.

The Gorge is the kind of movie I love. Low stakes, high entertainment, the kind of movie that you’ll randomly just watch when you’re hanging out and home and go, “Damn, that was fun.” It’s about a sniper/mercenary who gets hired to babysit a mysterious gorge for a year. All he knows is that he has to do certain things, check in at certain times, and have no contact with the tower on the other side of the gorge, which is run by another government. Of course, he then breaks this rule and begins contacting the person on the other side, who is of course a woman, and the plot continues from there. It’s a fun movie. Miles Teller, Anya-Taylor Joy. Scott Derrickson directs too. Currently my favorite movie of his to date. Sometimes a movie doesn’t need to be Shakespeare to be great. Magellan is a beautiful, slow (deliberately) film about Magellan and his men in the Philippines. The film is based around stunning imagery and long takes that play out over several minutes. I love how the film is not hurried at all. The camera doesn’t move, it’s not a Terrence Malick deal. It’s a film unhurried by plot or narrative conventions. It’s more contemplative and lets you live with the moments and images. and it’s a beautiful piece of work. Splitsville is a great comedy from the guys who did The Climb, which I loved. It’s hard to explain their brand of humor, but what I’d suggest is — put on the first five minutes of The Climb. If that’s not for you then don’t even bother with that or this. If you think they’re hilarious, then watch them both. It’s about a guy whose wife asks him for a divorce who goes to his friends who are happily married. And they impart their secret — they have an open marriage. So he, not wanting to have his marriage end, offers that up. And then… things take turns. Better to leave it there. It’s very fun.

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Tier Four:

• Anemone
• A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
• Billy Joel: And So It Goes
• The Chronology of Water
• Eephus
• Fight or Flight
• Final Destination: Bloodlines
• Good Boy
• Honey, Don’t!
• The Life of Chuck
• Megadoc
• Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie
• Nuremberg
• Predator: Badlands
• Predator: Killer of Killers
• Preparation for the Next Life
• Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
• Song Sung Blue
• The Surfer
• The Ugly Stepsister

Eephus is a film evoking its title — it’s such a slow burn of a film that you might not even realize you’re watching a film at all. It’s just such a casual hangout of a movie. It has no one you recognize, and everyone in it looks like someone you’d meet in real life. It’s about the last game on a baseball field before it gets torn down, as a bunch of men play in a rec league game. And that’s it. That’s the film. It’s not gonna be for everyone, but man, was this one of the more delightful films I saw this year. Anemone is Daniel Day-Lewis’ return to movies after 8 years. The film is directed by his son, in case you’re wondering what brought him back. He stars as a hermit living in the woods who gets visited by his brother, Sean Bean. And that alone is what sold me on the film. The film itself is not great — it’s meant to be a showcase for his son’s directing prowess, and winds up an uneven film trying to be more artistic than it needs to be. But Day-Lewis is such a force and him and Bean have such chemistry that the moments between the two of them transcend the limitations of the film itself and make the film at least worth a watch, even if it’s never going to be anyone’s favorite.

Megadoc is the spiritual sequel to Hearts of Darkness. It documents Francis Ford Coppola’s filming of the movie Megalopolis, and, a lot like Hearts of Darkness, provides glimpses of a master filmmaker in the middle of a troubled production. Though, while with Apocalypse Now, the issues were external — weather, health – these are the result of too much money and an artist whose style does not mesh with the way the filmmaking process happens nowadays. And so you get the making of a disaster in a different way. Absolutely fascinating to watch. You can literally see him in real time realize that he’s reached the age where only the vision matters to him and what it takes to achieve it just may not be worth it anymore. Final Destination: Bloodlines may be the best Final Destination movie that’s ever been made. And it’s the sixth one. Admittedly I’ve forgotten/overlooked the dark humor of this franchise and was very much reminded of it while watching this one. It’s directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, who made the movie Freaks a few years ago (which I loved), and is just so intelligently written and made. It starts with an extended opening sequence set in the 60s before moving to present day, as Death is chasing after those it didn’t get years prior. And the film is just a series of setting up gruesome deaths for some to pay off and some to not. And it’s so good at teasing one type of death, only to be building to way more of a Rube Goldberg machine version of death. It’s a lot of fun. And that’s coming from someone who doesn’t enjoy horror as a genre. So for me, this is a rave.

The Chronology of Water is Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut and an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s autobiography about a woman, sexually abused as a child, who finds her voice through writing (and swimming). It’s a bold debut from Stewart, who really creates a vivid and exciting picture with her shot choices and editing style. And the film is terrifically anchored by Imogen Poots, who’s been one of the most interesting and exciting actors from the past 15 years, who still has yet to find her star-making role. It’s a film that is too well-made and unique to ignore. Song Sung Blue is just your average movie about a Neil Diamond impersonator and his cover band. Somehow a perfect role for Hugh Jackman, who does a fantastic job with it. Also nice to see Kate Hudson in something visible (which has not happened often this past decade). It’s a story that I probably wouldn’t care about most of the time, but Craig Brewer does have a habit of bringing out the humanity in movies like this. Dead Man’s Wire is a fun little crime thriller directed by Gus Van Sant. It stars Bill Skarsgard as a guy (based on a real guy in the 70s) who shows up at a mortgage broker’s office and takes his son hostage with a shotgun equipped with a (insert title here). It’s just a solid piece of work all around and one of those movies destined to be a hidden gem.

Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie is a wonderful extension of the show and a beautiful legacy sequel. It brings everything great about the show back and introduces it to an entirely new generation that may not know the group and their humor. It’s a very funny movie. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is a Kogonada film, his third after Columbus and After Yang. With Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie starring (along with supporting performances from Kevin Kline and Phoebe-Waller Bridge), your expectations for this might be higher than they should. But in reality, the film is a nice little romantic fantasy. It feels very much from that latter-half of the 2000s era when a couple of movies like this were made. It’s the story of two strangers on (insert title here), where they both revisit moments from their pasts while also getting together in the present. There are really good moments in the film, and it’s a lovely little movie, even if part of me does wish it hit a little higher ceiling than it does. Honey, Don’t! is the second in Ethan Coen’s lesbian B movie series (which I believe he’s trying to make a trilogy), after Drive Away Dolls. This one has Margaret Qualley as a private detective investigating a series of murders tied to a church/cult. It’s… I think people don’t understand what a B movie is supposed to be. It’s completely schlocky and campy, and that’s the point. Of course it’s no masterpiece. Of course, comparing this to his and Joel’s films together (and even Joel’s films separate) is gonna lead to negative comparisons. But it’s a perfectly entertaining film and does exactly what it sets out to do.

Fight or Flight is the kind of action movie they just don’t make anymore. One that knows how to have fun. Josh Hartnett (so glad he’s back) as a disgraced former agent working as a mercenary tasked with tracking down a mysterious hacker on a plane and protecting them. Only, turns out, nearly everyone on the plane is an assassin trying to take them out. So it’s part contained thriller (a la The Narrow Margin on a plane, for those who know ball) as he tries to find the hacker, part Bullet Train, as there’s a lot of crazy action, and part Crank, where at a certain point we just forget reality altogether. It’s awesome. Some of the most fun I had with a movie this year. The Ugly Stepsister is a great twist on the Cinderella story, about beauty standards and the lengths women go to be perceived as beautiful by men, especially against other women. It focuses on one of the two stepsisters, who is in love with the prince and wants to marry him, but it seen as ‘ugly’ by her mother. So her mother puts her through some cosmetic surgeries (like a nose job) and other medieval ways of becoming ‘perfect’ (such as ingesting a tapeworm for weight loss). And it’s a full on body horror satire. A revisionist take on a classic story (and well-done with the body horror, to boot). Preparation for the Next Life is one of the most unpretentious romance films I’ve seen in a while. It’s so simple and unromantic, which is what makes it romantic. Two people on the fringes of society — an ex-soldier with PTSD and an immigrant struggling just to get by find each other and strike up a romance. And that’s it. Small scale, big pleasures. I loved this because it’s not trying to be anything other than the story of two people. Also fantastic work from Sebiye Behtiyar in her film debut.

Predator: Killer of Killers is a fun little Predator side project of sorts, in between the live action films of Prey and Badlands. It’s a full anime anthology film, telling the stories of people in multiple time periods (viking, samurai, World War II) who encounter predators. It’s fun as hell. There’s not an ounce of fat on it, it’s violent as hell and it’s just a great watch. Meanwhile, Predator: Badlands is a fun side film in this new Predator series. Told from the Predator’s point of view, as he has to go ‘prove’ himself among his clan by killing an unkillable beast on a distant planet. It’s fun. I didn’t like it as much as Prey, because Prey felt like its own contained thing, whereas this builds the universe with Alien a bit too much for me. But still, it’s a solid movie. Nuremberg is not a remake of Judgment at Nuremberg, which is what I thought it was going on (and was slightly disappointed to find out that it wasn’t). Instead it’s based on the true story of an army psychologist (Rami Malek) tasked with evaluating the mental states of the Nazis about to stand trial at Nuremberg. It mostly focuses on his relationship with Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and is just a solid movie. Probably something that could have been better, but for what it is, it’s perfectly adequate. Good Boy is one of the most unique angles on a horror film I’ve ever seen — it’s a horror movie told from the perspective of the dog. Which is just genius. Now, the film takes a very specific path to tell its story (when I heard about it, I was picturing a killer in the house and the dog having to help save the family) – it’s about the dog sensing supernatural forces in the house and doing what it can to save his owner. It manages to be really effective the way it tells its story. And even if it’s not a perfect movie, I think the uniqueness and effectiveness with which it tells its story is more than enough.

The Surfer is a delightfully surreal Nicolas Cage movie. He plays a guy returning to the beach of his childhood, looking to purchase his childhood home. However, a group of territorial local surfers on the beach refuse to let him on. Surreal is definitely the word for this, but that’s what I like about it. There’s a dreamlike quality to this movie that you don’t see very often. The Life of Chuck is the first Mike Flanagan Stephen King adaptation I liked. I think because it’s based on a novella, and for me, most of the King films I’ve liked (Shawshank, The Mist, Long Walk) are based on the short stories or novellas. It’s not a 1:1 ratio, but I just feel like the shorter stories tend to leave more room for the filmmakers to add their own elements to the story and keep King from going… too King. I wasn’t sure about the film in the first act, which is this morose, ‘world is ending’ first act, but then the film really picks up, with the wonderful sequence that’s just Tom Hiddleston dancing for like ten straight minutes, and then goes into the backstory of him the human. I really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t put it on the level of the best of the best King adaptations, but given that I’m largely indifferent toward most of them nowadays, the fact that I liked this one is a win. Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) is Questlove’s follow up to Summer of Soul, this time focusing on Sly and the Family Stone. It’s a great history of the band and a great music documentary. It’s worth it just to put on and… dance to the music (I feel no shame).

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