Here are Cinephile Corner’s picks for the 50 best movies of 2025, ranked:
50. Nouvelle Vague
Nouvelle Vague may not feel strictly necessary, yet it is frequently absorbing and occasionally electric. It is a reminder that Richard Linklater keeps making movies because he likes to look closely, whether the subject is a barroom confession or the jittery birth of a classic. This one will not inspire a movement, and it does not try to, but it earns its place as a smart, modest riff on a seismic moment. By the time Breathless finally clicks into focus, you understand why the chaos mattered and why the gamble was worth it, even if the film around it plays as a minor, affectionate gloss.
49. Dog Man
Dog Man is quick, goofy, and genuinely entertaining – a rare kids movie that doesn’t insult its audience’s intelligence. For viewers expecting a hollow, IP-driven cash grab, this ends up being a pleasant surprise. It’s a mid-tier animated film that punches a little above its weight, and for families looking for something fast, funny, and a little off-kilter, it more than delivers.
48. September 5
September 5 is a gripping and thoughtfully constructed film that succeeds in bringing an authentic and engrossing drama to life. It manages to walk the fine line between suspense and introspection, solidifying its place as a standout entry in the journalistic drama genre. The movie is bolstered by a strong ensemble cast that includes John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Peter Sarsgaard, and Leonie Benesch.
47. Lost in Starlight
46. Heart Eyes
Heart Eyes delivers a clever and blood-soaked twist on the slasher genre, taking a cue from classics like Scream while putting a Valentine’s Day spin on the formula. Directed with a knowing wink and just enough bite, this seasonal horror-thriller finds a solid rhythm early on – thanks in large part to its lead duo – and mostly rides that momentum until the final act falters under the weight of an undercooked reveal.
45. Hard Truths
Hard Truths is an intimate, quietly devastating character study from Mike Leigh, a filmmaker known for his deeply human, observational storytelling. While I haven’t spent much time immersed in Leigh’s filmography, this latest effort – anchored by an Oscar-worthy performance from Marianne Jean-Baptiste – proved to be an absorbing introduction to his distinct, unvarnished style.
44. Ballad of a Small Player
Edward Berger trades battlefield thunder and papal intrigue for the neon haze of Macau in Ballad of a Small Player, and the downsizing mostly helps. Where All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave felt airless in their importance, this Netflix noir drifts on smaller, grubbier currents. Colin Farrell plays the magnificently named Lord Doyle, a con man hiding in five-star purgatory, burning through stolen money while chasing baccarat streaks that never come. He wears “lucky” gloves, talks to himself like a man trying to will fortune into existence, and keeps sinking. Farrell leans into the hangdog glamour of a loser who still orders champagne. It is one of his better sad-cad turns.
43. Black Bag
Black Bag is good – clean, confident, and technically sound – but it doesn’t quite rise to the level of Soderbergh’s best recent work. What plays out in the film is less Mission: Impossible and more an anxious domestic drama cloaked in the sharp suits and icy exteriors of the spy genre. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star as a couple with their relationship put to the ultimate stress test.
42. M3GAN 2.0
M3GAN 2.0 swings for a full-on tonal reboot, the way The Terminator gave way to the splashier Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Where the first M3GAN flirted with straight-faced tech horror, this sequel leans into gonzo slapstick and meme-ready absurdity. It’s not remotely on T2’s level, but the embrace of outlandish fun suits this IP better than pretending it’s solemn. The result: a breezier, dumber, intermittently very entertaining sequel.
41. Bugonia
Whether Bugonia “counts” as an alien film is part of the gag, and I will not spoil that. What matters is that Yorgos Lanthimos uses the premise to pry at paranoia, credulity, and the way hurt curdles into certainty. The first half plays a little too straight, the second half finally swings. I liked this space for him more than his recent detours, even if the result lands in the middle of the pack.
40. The Woman in the Yard
In a time when many horror films try to be either thinkpieces or thrill rides and fail to be either, The Woman in the Yard hits a rare sweet spot. It’s a horror film that’s genuinely tense, emotionally grounded, and smartly contained. It may not be a game-changer, but it’s a solid, satisfying entry in the modern horror canon – and a reminder that even filmmakers with inconsistent track records like Jaume Collet-Serra can deliver when the right material lands in the right hands.
39. One of Them Days
Keke Palmer is undeniably magnetic, and One of Them Days serves as another showcase for her effortless charm and comedic timing. Directed by Lawrence Lamont, the film largely exists to let Palmer shine, and she doesn’t disappoint, carrying the movie’s 97-minute runtime with infectious energy.
38. Die My Love
The highs in Die My Love are undeniable, and the lows are confusing. Lynne Ramsay adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel with a bold, fevered intensity, centering Jennifer Lawrence as Grace, a new mother sliding from postpartum depression into psychosis. Robert Pattinson plays Jackson, the husband whose growing absence turns their home into a pressure cooker. The two leads meet the film at its temperature, and Lawrence gives one of her sharpest performances in years.
37. No Other Choice
No Other Choice finds Park Chan-wook in a sharper comedic register than usual, a black comedy that keeps tipping toward farce while tracking a middle class collapse. I like the switch of gears. I also felt the hype machine pull a little harder than the movie earns. It is lively, cleverly staged, and often very funny, yet it lands as a thoughtful middle entry for Park rather than a top tier picture beside The Handmaiden, Oldboy or Decision to Leave.
36. The Smashing Machine
35. Warfare
Warfare is the kind of war film that forgoes grandiosity in favor of raw, boots-on-the-ground immediacy, and the result is a lean, harrowing experience that feels startlingly real. Co-directed by Alex Garland and former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, the film comes just a year after Garland’s more polarizing and thematically ambiguous Civil War – a movie that aspired to be a socio-political reckoning but often buckled under the weight of its own ideas. In contrast, Warfare is stripped down and visceral in a way that’s much more effective.
34. Influencers
Influencers threads a tricky needle: it pokes at the attention economy with a knowing grin while mostly dodging the smugness that sinks a lot of social satire. Director Kurtis David Harder returns to the world of Influencer and finds an agile way to keep the story going after that first film’s seemingly final grace note. The sequel opens the aperture without losing the clean, nasty pleasures of watching a shapeshifter navigate vapid luxury ecosystems and weaponize them against their owners.
33. Sorry, Baby
32. Dangerous Animals
Dangerous Animals is an effective piece of genre filmmaking that doesn’t overreach and knows exactly what it wants to be. It’s scary, sharply made, and full of small, clever choices that elevate it above its straightforward premise. It’s the kind of late-night horror flick that benefits from a pitch-black room and a strong stomach, and one that knows how to get under your skin without overstaying its welcome.
31. Sentimental Value
30. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
29. Hamnet
Hamnet is uneven, sometimes too tidy and sometimes too hushed, yet it closes with a knockout. Jessie Buckley gives a performance that reframes everything around it, and Paul Mescal matches her once the material lets him. The last act is worth the price of admission on its own, a clean and crushing argument for how art can hold the unsayable.
28. The Baltimorons
If studios want to keep funding mid budget, actor driven, Christmastime hangouts like this, starring working character actors instead of IP, I will happily line up every year. The Baltimorons may not be The Holdovers, but it is good company and a cozy watch, and it makes Baltimore in winter feel like exactly where you want to be for 100 minutes.
27. The Perfect Neighbor
What lingers most about The Perfect Neighbor is not only what it says about Stand Your Ground laws, prejudice, and the line between fear and hate, but how cleanly it builds those ideas from the ground up. Geeta Gandbhir designs the first hour almost entirely from police bodycam footage, and the choice is razor sharp. You learn the street’s geography in real time, you witness the tone and language of each call, and you feel the temperature rising as officers shuttle between a cluster of homes, a chorus of complaints, and a neighborly cold war that keeps renewing itself. The verité form is not a gimmick, it is the argument.
26. Rebuilding
25. The Shrouds
David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds isn’t a genre masterpiece like The Fly or Dead Ringers, and it’s less refined than Eastern Promises. But it’s haunting in a different way. It’s the kind of film you think about more after it ends. And that might be the point. It’s a slow-burning elegy from a filmmaker who’s spent decades exploring transformation, now confronting the one transformation that awaits us all.
24. 28 Years Later
28 Years Later doesn’t quite reach the heights of the original, and it sometimes struggles to maintain steam while setting so much up, but it’s a worthy continuation that opens the door to more compelling stories. It’s a film that leaves you wanting more rather than feeling exhausted by the premise – a promising sign for a trilogy that already has its next chapter, The Bone Temple (directed by Nia DaCosta), on the way. For now, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have reminded us that this franchise still has plenty of life, even if this installment feels a bit modest.
23. Urchin
Urchin plays like an extension of the drifter persona Harris Dickinson has been honing on screen, only this time he is behind the camera shaping it into a patient, street level character study. The focus is Mike, played by Frank Dillane, a man whose addiction and relapses strip away the basics of living. Housing goes, work goes, the next hit keeps him moving.
22. Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* may not feature the most iconic names in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it finds unexpected strength in its emotional core and character-driven storytelling. Directed by Jake Schreier, making his MCU debut after co-directing the acclaimed series Beef, Thunderbolts* brings together a group of misfit characters from previous MCU movies and television series like Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ant-Man and the Wasp to form a surprisingly effective and introspective superhero team-up.
21. F1 The Movie
F1 The Movie is not in the same league as Top Gun: Maverick or Only the Brave, but it’s a clear step above Joseph Kosinski’s more uneven efforts like Tron: Legacy or Oblivion. It’s a little formulaic, a bit heavy-handed with its exposition, and sometimes hampered by one-note supporting characters. But when it’s in motion – when the cars are screaming down straights, weaving through chicanes, and risking it all on the final lap – it’s exactly the kind of summer movie spectacle we don’t get enough of anymore. Not a podium finish, but definitely worthy of a strong showing in the points.
20. Roofman
Roofman is the kind of “they don’t make them like this anymore” adult caper that suits Channing Tatum better than almost anything. He dials down the movie-star wattage and leans into hangdog charm as Jeffrey Manchester, a serial McDonald’s robber who perfects the art of dropping through rooftops, then graduates to a more audacious escape-and-hide scheme after he is finally caught. Derek Cianfrance treats the true story with a straight face and a curious heart, finding room for procedure, romance, and the melancholy of a guy who is always one step from being found out.
19. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You takes a familiar subject, motherhood under pressure, and finds a form that makes it feel newly tense and strangely intimate. Recent entries like Nightbitch and Die My Love circle similar themes, but this one trusts a single performance and a strict point of view. It keeps the ideas grounded in behavior, and it lets the anxiety build without leaning on overt allegory.
18. Eephus
Eephus isn’t flashy, and it won’t be for everyone. Its drama is muted, its pacing deliberate. But for those tuned into its frequency, it’s a poignant, beautifully observed story about time, tradition, and the people we share it with. Whether you’re a baseball fan or not, the themes are universal.
17. Ick
Ick is a glossy, campy B-movie made with A-level command, the rare nostalgia-soaked horror comedy that understands timing as well as it understands vibes. It may be too hopped-up for some, yet it delivers enough invention and attitude to sit among 2025’s livelier genre offerings.
16. Highest 2 Lowest
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, his reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, proves how easily one of cinema’s greatest stories can be adapted to the modern era. The update doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but with Lee behind the camera and Denzel Washington in the lead, it’s both stylish and engrossing—one of the stronger Spike Lee movies of the century and one of the best Apple TV+ originals to date.
15. Friendship
Friendship is one of the more unique comedies of 2025 – a weird, squirm-inducing, unexpectedly affecting film that feels true to its title in all the worst (and best) ways. It’s another feather in A24’s cap for championing daring, off-kilter voices in comedy. If you’re in tune with Tim Robinson’s specific wavelength, it’s a must-watch.
14. It Was Just an Accident
It Was Just an Accident premiered at Cannes and won the Palme d’Or, placing Jafar Panahi alongside recent laureates whose films crossed over to wider awards attention, from Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite to Sean Baker’s Anora, with Anatomy of a Fall and Triangle of Sadness also turning festival triumphs into global conversations. Whether or not this film repeats that path, it deserves the same staying power. It is a taut genre piece, an act of witness, and a personal reckoning, all at once.
13. Train Dreams
Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar keep their hot streak going with Train Dreams, a frontier drama that does not chase incident so much as it chases mood. Their collaboration on Sing Sing showed how closely they can align image and feeling, and that carries over here. The new film is not a thematic follow up, but tonally and visually it feels of a piece, quiet and attentive, full of shots that guide emotion rather than announce themselves.
12. The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt continues to be one of the most observant American filmmakers, and The Mastermind is a perfect fit for her patient, detail-driven gaze. Where Showing Up tracked an artist circling her own potential and Night Moves watched activists fumble toward consequence, this new film follows another of her quietly blinkered strivers. Josh O’Connor plays James Blaine “JB” Mooney, a small-town amateur who has mapped out an “easy” art-gallery heist, convinced meticulous lists can substitute for competence. He forgets the one variable he cannot control, the people he brings along, and the plan collapses in slow motion as his frequent gallery visits and affection for art make him an obvious suspect.
11. Sinners
Ryan Coogler has made something rare with Sinners: a horror film with bite, brains, and soul. It’s a film that’s as entertaining as it is thoughtful, never content to just scare its audience without giving them something to chew on. Michael B. Jordan gives a career-high performance as twin gangsters returning to their former lives in the South.
10. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning may be Tom Cruise’s last run as Ethan Hunt, and while it’s far from perfect, it’s also everything that makes this franchise so enduring. Yes, the criticisms are fair: it’s unevenly paced, leans heavily on callbacks, and opens with more exposition and flashbacks than momentum. But once it locks into gear, this is another exhilarating entry in a series that has consistently redefined blockbuster action for nearly 30 years. For all its flaws, The Final Reckoning still delivers the kind of spectacle only Mission: Impossible can.
Read our full review of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
9. Wick Is Pain
8. Final Destination Bloodlines
Final Destination Bloodlines is the rare horror legacy sequel that understands exactly what it is—and more importantly, what its fans want. Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, this blood-soaked revival of the Final Destination franchise doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it absolutely fine-tunes it, delivering gory set pieces, a slickly paced plot, and just enough lore expansion to make it feel like more than a rehash. It’s self-aware without being snarky, brutal without being mean-spirited, and surprisingly clever in how it weaves its mythology into something new.
7. Weapons
Weapons opens with one of the most chilling hooks you’ll hear in any movie this year: at exactly 2:17 a.m., every child from Mrs. Gandy’s class woke up, walked downstairs, opened the front door, stepped into the dark… and never came back. It’s the kind of premise that immediately grabs you, the kind of logline that sells itself in a trailer and sticks in your head for days. Writer-director Zach Cregger, who burst onto the horror scene with 2022’s Barbarian, proves once again that he knows how to start a story with an irresistible, terrifying question.
6. Marty Supreme
Marty Supreme is Josh Safdie working at his widest canvas, a 1950s period piece about a showman who can sell anything until he sells himself short. Marty Mauser, played by Timothée Chalamet, is a ping pong phenom, a sneaker salesman for his uncle, a serial charmer who glides from city to city on other people’s dimes. The world fits neatly in his palm until it does not. Safdie’s favorite subject has always been appetite colliding with reality, and this time the arc is bookended by matches that frame a life lived at match point.
5. Wake Up Dead Man
Wake Up Dead Man is the darkest and most layered entry in Rian Johnson’s series, a knotty whodunit that swaps glass palaces for a small town parish and finds real charge in the pivot. The film opens on Jud Duplenticy, a young priest played by Josh O’Connor, whose past mistake in the boxing ring rerouted his life toward faith. Johnson is interested less in the institution than in individual mercy and failure, and O’Connor makes that tension visible in every choice.
4. Cloud
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud is a taut, unnerving slow-burn thriller that reminds us just how masterfully he captures the quiet dread of modern life. Known for his foundational work in J-horror like Cure and Pulse, Kurosawa has always operated in a unique tonal register – where isolation, societal rot, and moral ambiguity simmer just beneath the surface. With Cloud, he’s returned to that sensibility in striking form, offering something that isn’t quite horror, not quite crime, but unmistakably Kurosawa: eerie, deliberate, and steeped in existential tension.
3. Eddington
Ari Aster’s Eddington is a jagged political mirror – scattershot with ideas, audacious in tone – and somehow plays like a slow-burn powder-keg farce that detonates exactly when it means to. Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival to chilly early notices, the film was quickly read as opportunistic, a movie “profiting” off COVID lockdowns and the George Floyd protests rather than meaningfully engaging with them. But taken on its own terms, Eddington is a bracingly self-reflective work: an American fever dream about paranoia, doomscrolling, and the grifters who materialize when anxiety becomes a commodity.
2. The Phoenician Scheme
The Phoenician Scheme finds Wes Anderson at perhaps his most emotionally direct since The Grand Budapest Hotel, yet without sacrificing the signature aesthetic and structural quirks that define his work. Where recent efforts like Asteroid City and The French Dispatch relied heavily on narrative framing devices, nested storytelling, and dense, text-heavy scripts, The Phoenician Scheme plays more like an emotional adventure story – a film that hits hardest on first viewing, even as it leaves behind layers to explore on rewatches.
1. One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a movie of firsts that never feels tentative. It is his first modern-set feature since Punch-Drunk Love, his first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, and his first film of this scale, reportedly in the $130 to $175 million range. What is not new is the command. From the first explosion to the last chase, this is PTA in full control, turning a feverish political thriller into one of 2025’s most purely thrilling big-screen experiences.
Read our full review of One Battle After Another
READ MORE: The Best Horror Movies of 2025, The Best A24 Movies of 2025
