When reviewing this annual list in its final form, I’m always amazed at how disparate each entry appears on the surface. In one corner is a wistful comedy about an aging movie star, while the other features a reexamination of history’s most famous monster. The connection between each film lies in its uncanny ability to tell a story that is both specific and universal, crafted by an artist working at the height of their powers. You may not be able to physically take the film home with you once you leave the theater, but a piece of it does become a part of you for the rest of time. And in a moment where the price of everything continues to climb, I’d say that’s money well spent. Here are my picks for the ten best films of 2025.

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order): Black Bag, Blue Moon, Materialists, One Battle After Another, Sinners, The Chronology of Water, The History of Sound, The Mastermind, The Phoenician Scheme, The Testament of Ann Lee

10. Jay Kelly

George Clooney is Jay Kelly, and Jay Kelly is George Clooney in Jay Kelly. By centering his film on the actor playing the character as much as it is about the character themselves, writer/director Noah Baumbach investigates the walls that have been built over decades to separate a person’s private and public selves. Clooney turns in one of his best performances, with the movie star wattage turned all the way up. But he’s also self-reflective and regretful, always asking if he can have one more chance, a luxury that can only be afforded on a movie set. The stacked supporting cast is led by Adam Sandler, who is reteaming with Baumbach to deliver another career-best performance. This was some of the most fun I had with a movie all year.

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9. No Other Choice

Director Park Chan-wook has been a lifelong fan of the novel The Ax by Donald E. Westlake, endlessly teasing an adaptation as his next project. Those decades of pent-up giddiness are evident in Park’s visuals, with crisp digital cinematography punctuated by fluid camera movements. Increasing financial pressures have twisted the titular phrase into a permission slip for Man-soo (a wonderfully tragicomic Lee Byung-hun) to kill the other applicants for the job he desperately needs. Park grants these men just as much compassion as he has for Man-soo, making the farce of these violent acts all the more tragic. The rich get richer, all while the poor literally kill each other for the ever-shrinking scraps.

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8. Is This Thing On?

Whether it was intentional or not, Bradley Cooper’s third outing as a director feels very much like a direct response to all the negative criticisms surrounding the extreme formalistic showmanship of his sophomore feature, Maestro. Unfair as those remarks were, Is This Thing On? is the right move at the right time, a strategic downshift into a less pressurized register, all while retaining an uncanny skill at producing respectful adult entertainment. Having done similarly cathartic work on television, Will Arnett is adept at finding the balance between innocent humor and flawed darkness as he bears it all with strangers on the comedy stage. Laura Dern is positively magnetic, rediscovering her character’s individuality with an endearing attitude. The production is light on its feet and heavy on emotions, with Cooper yet again proving that he can seemingly do no wrong once he has a man, a woman, and a camera.

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7. Resurrection

As beautiful as it is incomprehensible, Bi Gan’s magnum opus operates on a different plane of logic. In a future where humanity has lost the capacity to dream, a woman enters the six different dreams of a monster, representing one of the five senses and the mind. Each dream illustrates a piece of twentieth-century Chinese and cinematic history, told in the style of the time. The opening segment is reminiscent of silent German expressionistic monster movies, while the final chapter is captured in a single long take, telling the story of a vampiric romance on the last night of the millennium. How these puzzle pieces logically coalesce is nearly impossible to understand. But to focus on the science of dreams is the wrong way to experience them, as their unexplained majesty is what lures us into a deep sleep each and every night.

6. Train Dreams

Impressionistically swaying between the past, present, and future, director Clint Bentley captures the life of Robert Grainier, a humble lumberjack who lived and died in the Pacific Northwest throughout the early to mid-20th century. His existence is a drop in the ocean of time, with exponential growth in technology pushing the world past the point of recognition. Similar to how Terrence Malick was able to use A-listers to build characters who were both of this earth and larger-than-life, so does Bentley with Joel Edgerton, trusting him to carry the entire emotional scope of the film through somber gestures and weighty presence. Years go by in the blink of an eye, yet we understand what took place between then and now. Like life itself, this is a film that often sneaks up on you in its profundity. It may take days or weeks for you to realize just how much one image or piece of sound has stuck with you, offering a new outlook on the existence we carve out for ourselves.

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5. Sentimental Value

You will not find a more emotionally intelligent film this year than Sentimental Value. Writer/director Joachim Trier’s story about the reconciliation of an estranged family produces each tear, gasp, and laugh at exactly the right moment. Yet, it's never manipulative, always proudly wearing its heart on its sleeve. Each of the actors in the central quartet is an absolute delight to watch, buoying between the light and the dark. By the time the credits start rolling, you’ll have been on a journey with not just these characters, but also with yourself.

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4. Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro, the filmmaker most in love with monsters, finally gets the chance to adapt the story of the most famous one of all. Mary Shelley’s story has long suffered the plague of becoming a copy of a copy of a copy. Endless adaptations and inspirations have taken only the elements deemed the most commercially muscular, leaving out the heart and mind. Through handsome craftsmanship and a deep sense of sympathy, del Toro has picked up those discarded pieces and made it whole again, reminding us why stories like these have, and will, withstand the test of time.

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3. Marty Supreme

Marty Supreme is as exhausting as it is exhilarating, the kind of movie where you let out a huge sigh of relief once you leave the theater. With this film added to his oeuvre of Good Time and Uncut Gems, director Josh Safdie has become a master of depicting addiction, the agony and ecstasy of gambling everything for the chance to win anything. Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser is the John McEnroe of table tennis, his mouth moving as fast as his backhand volleys. In one moment, he’s riding high at The Ritz London. The next moment, he’s hiding in a dumpster to avoid the cops. Safdie controls this chaos at every turn, the tracks of this rollercoaster pushing the cart at the right speeds at the right time.

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2. April

The beauty of the cinema is not just in the sheer size of the speakers and screen, but the opportunity it gives us to break away from our world and be transported to a different one. Georgian writer/director Dea Kulumbegashvili crafted a film where absolute patience and concentration are a prerequisite. Between the unsettling abstract visuals and the brutal real-life truths about female bodily autonomy, this was one of the most bone-chilling films of the year. It was banned in its home country and barely released in the United States due to the dissolution of its distributor. It was a great shame, as one of the most important films of the year was kept hidden from the people who might need it the most.

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1. Hamnet

The story of how the death of William Shakespeare’s child inspired history’s greatest literary tragedy may be the year’s biggest tear-jerker, but there isn’t a single moment where it's cloying at those ducts. Director Chloé Zhao depicts an honest collision course of grief, featuring two of the best actors working today. Jessie Buckley is nothing short of transcendent, and Paul Mescal is heartbreakingly cathartic. A special mention should be given to the child actor Jacobi Jupe for his portrayal of the titular boy, as well as to composer Max Richter for aiding these characters’ journeys. There have been countless splendid adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, and now here is the masterpiece that unearths the roots from which they grew.

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