The Top 25 Movies of 2025, From 'Pillion' and 'Presence' to 'Sketch' and 'Dangerous Animals'

Happy Monday, folks, and more importantly, Happy New Year!

Yesterday bore witness to the all-important Critics’ Choice Awards, aka the Selfie Awards, and I had a blast seeing which celebrities looked the most like well-dressed hostages in “one photo after another” on social media.

I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the world’s greatest actors, but even he couldn’t hide his contempt for this bizarre ritual of pointless ass-kissing.

While there are plenty of fine people — including many of my friends — who are members of the CCA, I simply have no desire to join any of these critic organizations, as I find them easily manipulated and susceptible to groupthink.

There’s a lot of “go along to get along,” and that’s not my style.

Much like NFL insider Peter Schrager, who just said on The Bill Simmons Podcast that he’d rather not have a vote for NFL MVP so that he can talk about the race openly and without being accused of trying to influence the outcome, I prefer to maintain my fierce editorial independence.

Because when you’re a member of a group, you’re expected to behave like a member of the group, something I have no inclination to do, as the most boring thing I could imagine is being quote-unquote “normal.” Thanks, Angus!

I would’ve bet my niece (the younger one, of course) that One Battle After Another would win Best Picture, and not just because it’s a thin year, but because most critics think the same way. That sameness is why they’re not particularly helpful, nor is the CCA show itself. It’s just another stop on the Precursor Express, one that I don’t put much stock in, since the last time I checked, there aren’t any critics who belong to the Academy.

Nonetheless, both groups are going to go nuts for One Battle After Another, which was messy — and not necessarily in a good way like Marty Supreme or Sinners. Frankly, I don’t think any of those movies are entirely successful, and it kind of drives me nuts to see what gets positioned as The Best of the Year, and by whom.

Critics grade on a completely different scale than I do, and they value completely different things from movies. I mean, yes, film is a visual medium, but it’s one where the script should still be king. But I went to the world’s finest screenwriting school, and that’s the burden I carry. Most people, including many executives, couldn't care less about the script, which is why so many blockbusters go into production without a third act, leaving fans to pay the price.

Yeah, Train Dreams is gorgeous, but it’s also terribly boring. How long was the script, 40 pages? Hardly anything happens, just like in The Mastermind and several other “acclaimed” movies that critics raved about this year for no good reason.

Critics these days have no appreciation for good writing. Not just that, but many have become afraid of their own shadows, knowing they could lose their jobs if a studio wants them gone, or an online mob grows loud enough. That’s why many of them toe the line rather than rock the boat — they’d lose their junket access, their premiere ticket, their swag package, etc.

They write reviews for peers and publicists — not you, the reader.

It’s all a big game, one I refused to play years ago so that I could look at myself in the mirror and sleep at night.

So no, you won’t find presumed Best Picture winner One Battle After Another, a mid-tier Paul Thomas Anderson movie, or Ryan Coogler’s vampire musical Sinners, on my Best of 2025 list below, nor do they even appear among the Honorable Mentions despite it being a relatively weak year. I liked them both — top 50, sure — but not worthy of this list, sorry!

However, just because there weren’t any truly great movies doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of very, very good ones, though, so here’s the list of my Top 25 Movies of 2025, which features a handful of movies you’ve heard of, and maybe a few that you haven’t. The same can be said for my upcoming list of the Top 26 Most Anticipated Movies of 2026, which drops later this week. Stay tuned!

There’s also a list of the Worst Movies of the Year and the films I most regret missing, since it’s impossible to see everything.

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