“May you live in interesting times” is supposedly an ancient Chinese curse. Well, 2025 has unquestionably been an interesting year. A curse that may be in real life, but this was also an interesting year in movies, and that’s less accursed.
So, let’s get ’25, and the first quarter of the 21st century, in the rear view with that traditional annual movie-critic indulgence, the Top 10 List. Here are the 10 movies that I think I most enjoyed this year:
One Battle After Another
Hard to argue with this mix of Paul Thomas Anderson’s bravura filmmaking with anger, weird comedy and superb acting.
Marty Supreme
Same goes for Josh Safdie’s madcap yet moving midcentury chronicle of table tennis and Jewish-American hustling.
Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s period vampire musical, set in Mississippi, is scary, funny, sexy and ultimately thrilling. It’s a worthy addition to the folklore of the blues.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Rungano Nyoni’s surreally tinged comedy-drama set in Zambia takes on the patriarchy, and the women enforcers who maintain that status quo, with freaky wit and passion.
Sorry, Baby
Eva Victor makes a pretty spectacular feature debut as a writer-director with this restrained yet painful drama about sexual assault. She gives a pretty fine performance as the lead, too.
Eephus
Two teams of middle-aged guys in a beer league take the field one last time at a slated-for-demolition ballpark in small-town Massachusetts in the ’90s. Not enough people saw this wry elegy from Carson Lund, but it could take its place among the great baseball movies.
Song Sung Blue
Based on a real-life Neil Diamond tribute act from Milwaukee, this feel-good tale has the unapologetic emotion and warmth of a Diamond ballad. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are beguiling.
Highest 2 Lowest
Spike Lee’s redo of Kurosawa’s 1963 High and Low has its own cool, masterly sting, and great performances by Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright.
The Baltimorons
Another overlooked gem. Directed by Jay Duplass, it’s about the unlikely bond between a depressive improv comic and divorced dentist in the great city of the title.
The Family McMullen
This 30-years-belated sequel to the 1995 Edward Burns indie The Brothers McMullen is as mild and undemanding a movie as you’re likely to find, but that’s part of its charm; Burns confidently and sweetly evokes real life.
And here are a few problematic, uneven but still worthwhile also-rans: Bugonia, Hamnet, Weapons, The Long Walk, Eddington, Roofman, The Alto Knights, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and James Gunn’s agreeable new version of Superman.
(By the way, I’m aware that because of festival debuts, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl and Eephus are technically 2024 releases. I include them here because their American theatrical releases were in ’25. Also because, well, they’re great.)
OK, Happy New Year everybody! Let’s hope less interesting days are ahead.
