Tag: TOP 10 FILMS OF 2025

MICHAEL B. JORDAN as Stack in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SINNERS,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. © 2025 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved

“All my memories are movies. That’s what movies are for us. Pieces of time.” – JAY KELLY

The 2025 film year has been defined by a “renaissance of originality” and a shift toward deep, emotionally resonant storytelling even within major franchises. Here are some of the filmmaking trends in 2025. 

It was the beginning of the industry split between AI-driven innovation and a growing demand for authenticity. AI was all anyone could talk about – even A24’s film Heretic (2024) ends with the line in its credits “No Generative AI was used in the making of this film.”

Superheroes movies are no longer the cash cow at the box office, while video games are the big thing now. Gen Alpha is deciding what gets greenlit and the studios are paying attention. Minecraft, Sonic and Super Mario were a huge draw at the cinemas. GA is the group that have been weaned on YouTube, Tik-Tok, Roblox – talk to a youngling about Skibidi Toilet.

Horror movies were once again the big crowd-pleasers – zombies, vampires, and supernatural creatures. The global market shifted away from Hollywood centrism. International hits like China’s Ne Zha 2 and Japan’s Demon Slayer outperformed many Western blockbusters.

For those craving nostalgia and communal celebrations, 2025 provided re-releases of some great films, especially the 50th anniversary of JAWS, showing how terrific cinema really is. Even if we could stream it or had a physical copy, many of us went to see Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (20th Anniversary),  The Goonies (40th Anniversary) and Toy Story (30th Anniversary), Pixar’s ground-breaking first feature film.

Speaking of physical copies, the comeback, and glorious return of DVDs, VHS tapes, box sets, and vintage deluxe editions was welcomed by film fans all over the globe.

As we do every year, below are videos of the year in movies – 2025 edition.

2025 was such a great year for going to the movies and WAMG’s Cate Marquis, Jim Batts and Michelle McCue had a time of it assembling the annual Top 10 – even deciding on one honorable mention was tough, so we went with three. First, James Gunn’s brilliant SUPERMAN. A cornerstone of the new DC Universe, this film focuses on Clark Kent reconciling his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing in a world already populated by superheroes. Second is Steven Soderbergh’s drama BLACK BAG. A high-stakes spy thriller featuring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as married intelligence officers whose loyalties are tested by a leak within their agency. Lastly, Zach Cregger’s WEAPONS asks why did one classroom of kids mysteriously vanish one night and features a host of bizarre characters, including the scary Aunt Gladys played by Amy Madigan.

The films on WAMG’s list had us laughing with the characters, terrified by the villains, weaping at their sad moments, and rooting for the heroes.

10. FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

This Summer saw a classic superhero “showdown” as the “kid from Krypton” flew into the multiplex a couple of weeks before the “cosmic quartet.” This group had lots of baggage, from an unreleased Roger Corman 1994 “fizzle”, to a couple of mediocre early 2000’s flicks (the big G is a cloud shadow), to a 2015 fiasco dissed by its director days before the opening (and hasty closing). And Marvel Studios had become a media “punching bag” for being too successful, too long (but then they followed up the all-time epic AVENGERS: ENDGAME with stuff like ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA..yeesh). Now that Fiege and friends finally got their hands (after the Fox purchase) on the “first family,” they didn’t “phone it in”. They even addressed some complaints about having to do “homework” (I need to see that before seeing this to know what’s going on) by setting this on an alternate Earth (number 828), which harkened back to a time in which the title character was the only enhanced hero (like Sam Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN and Richard Donner’s SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE). Oh, and Marvel also made this planet all “sci-fi retro” with the NYC looking like what folks in the 1960s thought the year 2000 would look like (lots of flying cars and “Jetsons” gizmos and cityscapes). But director Matt Shakman (the creative force behind the best Marvel/ Disney+ show “Wandavsion”) didn’t forget the humanity of the heroes in blue. Vanessa Kirby and Pedro Pascal are quite engaging as the “parents” of the squabbling sibs, Joseph Quinn is a very cool” Human Torch,” and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is the soulful. strong, and big-hearted Ben “the Thing” Grimm (with some spiffy CGI making every brick of his body seem real). And we finally got a great take on Marvel’s biggest “baddie”, Galactus, given the proper guttural growl by Ralph Ineson aided by a Julia Garner as a shiny lady Silver Surfer. The real “icing” on this tasty cake is the effervescant ebulliant music score (think the Sherman Brothers’ World’s Fair tune meets THE RIGHT STUFF) from Michael Giacchino. Hey Sue, Reed, Ben, and Johnny, can’t wait to see you add some family fun to the MCU!

Review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/07/the-fantastic-four-first-steps-review/

9.  IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

Writer/director Jafar Panahi is one of Iran’s leading filmmakers and has been pushing the boundaries of Iranian censors for years, for which he has been arrested and imprisoned several times. Sentenced again by Iran, in absentia, to serve a one-year jail term while traveling outside his home country, Panahi’s latest is a psychological thriller, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and is a top contender for the Oscar for Best International Film. This gripping thriller focuses on an Iranian ex-political prisoner, a mechanic, who encounters a man he believes is his former jailer and torturer. Unsure it is really him, since he was blindfolded during their encounters, the mechanic kidnaps the man and then gathers together his fellow ex-prisoners, to help identify him and to decide what to do with him. Gripping, tense but with hints of dark comedy and full of twists, IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT explores feelings of revenge, trauma and uncertainity, and deals with issues of morality at a personal, human level. The film ends with a striking scene, and the whole thriller once again confirms Panahi’s genius as a filmmaker who creates engrossing films that explore complex issues at a deeply human level.

8. A MAGNIFICENT LIFE

And here’s the other big “show biz bio” on our list, one that delves into the life of a celebrated French playwright/filmmaker, Marcel Pangol, as told in animation from the incredibly talented Sylvain Chomet. Fans of his previous animated features, THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE and THE ILLUSIONIST, fear not, as Chomet hasn’t replaced his pen and pencil with a mouse and cursor. This decades-spanning lifestory is told in classic hand-drawn (2-D), though with some CG assists with backdrops and vehicles. This is a feast for the eyes with superb caricature work on all the real-life characters through the decades (1900 to 1974). And there’s even a bit of live-action, as we view scenes from Pangol’s classic films. It does begin near the end of his life, as he’s committed to writing his memoirs and is creatively “stuck” until Marcel is visited by the “ghost” of his younger self. Here’s hoping that Sony Classics (the US distributor) gives this a major theatrical release, so that movie audiences can be swept away by Pangol’s rich story, and the, well, magnificent artistry of Chomet, extolling the lasting wonders of classic animation.

7. TRAIN DREAMS

Clint Bentley’s TRAIN DREAMS has emerged as one of the frontrunners for the 2026 Academy Awards, anchored by a career-defining performance from Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, alongside a stellar supporting cast including Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, and William H. Macy. It received a Producers Guild Nomination on January 9. The film’s visual language, crafted by cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, captures the rugged, mythic beauty of the American West with a painterly intimacy that has already secured a win for Best Cinematography at the Critics Choice Awards. Complementing this is a haunting, evocative score by Bryce Dessner, which underscores the novella’s lyrical themes of loss and industrial transformation. With the film currently shortlisted for the 98th Oscars and appearing consistently in Best Picture and Best Actor predictions, it enters the final stretch of the awards season as a quiet, powerful masterpiece of modern Americana.

Review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/11/train-dreams-review/

6. FRANKENSTEIN

An icon of horror lumbers back onto the screen in a fresh new spin by returning to the tale’s literary roots. But “It’s alive!” and very lively due to the modern-day “mad doctor of the movies” Guillermo del Toro, finally living out his childhood dreams (and a few nightmares) by crafting the closest adaptation of Mary Shelly’s gothic masterpiece ever on film. But what truly makes del Toro’s “take” so spectacular is the dazzling visuals, from the elaborately constructed sets (no green drapes behind the players) to the elegantly designed costuming, complemented by Alexandre Desplat’s sweeping, swirling score and the meticulous practical make-up effects (no CGI or even AI on that set). This “eye candy” doesn’t detract from the excellent performance by Oscar Isaac as the swaggering, obsessive Victor F, Mia Goth as the sympathetic Elizabeth, Christoph Waltz as the quirky secretive investor, and especially the surprisingly effective Jacob Elordi as the sometimes savage but still soulful creature, much less of a monster than the “normals” that hunt and taunt him. Actually, the greatest “horror” here is the fact that most audiences were denied a chance to experience this in a movie theatre. Now that you’re “branching out”, how about a big screen re-release Netflix?

Review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/10/frankenstein-review/

5. A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE

There are plenty of horror and thriller films about imaginary threats like zombies, or just very far-fetched dangers, but director Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping, ticking-clock thriller A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE focuses on a real threat that is much closer than we realize, a threat hardly anyone thinks about but which looms above us constantly: nuclear weapons. The Cold War left the world full of these lethal threats, which require constant vigilance to guard against everything from accidental detonation to theft by terrorists, and also require delicate diplomacy to keep in check those nations who also also have nukes, including places like North Korea.

Bigelow’s excellent, intelligent thriller looks at what happens if something does to go wrong, a higher risk than we might imagine. Bigelow explores that possibility by focusing on the people on the ground, at three levels, who have to deal with it most directly: the front-line military and specialists who first detect the threat; the analysts, generals, and policy experts who advise those at the top; and the President and senior advisors who make the decisions. What we see at each level is chilling. Bigelow uses a ticking-clock and Rashomon-like structure, retelling and overlapping events at each of three level, as we ascend the chain of command and the minutes tick down, with a result we deduce for ourselves that is both shocking and terrifying. Featuring an outstanding ensemble cast that includes Tracy Letts, Rebecca Ferguson and Idris Elba, this smart, real-world horror film is something everyone should see, and might wake up some to the risks of living in a house built of dynamite.

Review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/10/a-house-of-dynamite-review/

4. 28 YEARS LATER

This sequel was lauded for resisting zombie clichés, instead focusing on a heartfelt mother-son relationship, turning a horror premise into a moving coming-of-age story. How the rest of the world moved on as if nothing had happened and left the British Isles isolated is horrifying. Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland achieved the unthinkable by focusing on Britain being re-quarantined by an international force while setting up a new trilogy. The relationship between Isla (Jodie Comer) and Spike (new-comer Alfie Williams) was sweet and we were left gutted, and sobbing, as they shared their last moments together after Isla accepted her fate.

The other brilliant piece was the clever marketing for the film. An unique trailer released in December 2024 was accompanied with the 1903 poem “Boots” by Rudyard Kipling, recited by American actor Taylor Holmes in 1915. The trailer became #1 trending on YouTube, and in 48 hours had over 10 million views.

Review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/06/28-years-later-review/

3. BLUE MOON

In the first of two “show biz” bios on our list, a lauded director/actor duo (this is their ninth) join forces for an inside look at a Broadway musical classic, the start of an iconic collaboration, and the quiet finale for another. The fellow on the outs is Lorenz Hart, brought to glorious life by a remarkable performance from Ethan Hawke, who’s still full of surprises after nearly 40 years on screen. The film’s main backdrop (about 90% of the runtime) is one setting, so many have said that it’s basically an intimate filmed play. Ah, but what a play, penned by Robert Kaplow, lovingly crafted by actual letters from Hart and his unrequited love/muse Elizabeth Weiland, full of wit and drama brought to life by the superb direction of Richard Linklater, who makes use of every inch of the waiting area bar at Sardi’s restaurant (it’s never claustrophobic). It’s all set on a historic night in 1943, as Hart waits for the after-party for the premiere of “Oklahoma” to begin. He’s parted ways with his former collaborator, tunesmith Richard Rodgers (a terrific Andrew Scott), but Hart hopes to break up the new partnership with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Lorenz is charming and a bit pathetic as he attempts to “woo” Rodgers, who will not be drawn into his self-loathing, destructive spiral. With wonderful supporting work from Margaret Qualley as Weiland and Bobby Cannavale as the “seen and heard it all” bartender Eddie, this is a thoroughly engaging “what if” gem that’s a feast for theater “geeks” and a superb showcase for the truly gifted Hawke (who makes us believe he’s the “diminutive” Lorenz via some clever cinema trickery) in perhaps the most verbose (Hart is catty and chatty) role of any 2025 film.

Review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2025/10/blue-moon-2025-review/

2.  ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is near or at the top of many critics’ Top Ten lists, and WAMG’s is no exception. Paul Thomas Anderson’s propulsive comedy thriller is brilliantly made from a technical viewpoint but also highly entertaining and unexpectedly moving, built around a dad-and-daughter tale that is surprisingly tender while the action is wildly exciting and often hilarious. Very loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland,” Leonardo DiCaprio plays a one-time eco-warrior, Bob, who gives all that up to go into hiding to raise his baby daughter. Fifteen years later, he finds he has to brush off his own “special set of skills” when his now-teenaged daughter (Chase Infiniti) is targeted for kidnapping by a long-ago nemesis, Col. Lockjaw (a marvelously mad menace played by Sean Penn). Now if only Dad can remember the password, after 15 years of pot smoking.

Dark humor, satire, and electrifying action combine with a twisty plot and an strong ensemble cast. The action is breathless, some scenes are played for hilarious satiric or physical comedy, and others for suspense, and the whole thing is brought to vibrating life by outstanding acting, masterful editing and brilliant direction. There is one twist or chase after another, and you never know what’s next, including in a jaw-dropping, dizzying car chase over very hilly terrain near the film’s end. The director, actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro (as DiCaprio’s daughter’s resourceful martial arts teacher) and young Chase Infiniti as the very resourceful daughter, are all top contenders for Oscar nominations, and even front-runners. Like several of the films on this list, this is a film made to be seen on a big screen in a theater, to best appreciate it’s visual artistry.

1. SINNERS

WAMG’s number one film of 2025 is SINNERS and the biggest surprise of the year. Everyone was talking about it when it was released and was the one movie you wanted to go into without knowing the twist. Ryan Coogler’s period piece set in the Jim Crow-era South, blends Southern Gothic atmosphere with visceral vampire horror. Michael B. Jordan brilliantly plays both twin leads, which critics praised as a technical and acting highlight, while SINNERS features many of Coogler’s BLACK PANTHER collaborators, including Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson and and Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter.

Meant to be seen on the big screen, especially IMAX, the standout musical moments are the surreal Juke Joint “Séance” sequence where Sammie’s music “pierces the veil,” causing spirits from the past and future (including B-boys and 70s rock guitarists) to appear in a single continuous shot and the terrifying “Irish Dance” where Remmick performs a spirited, blood-soaked version of “Rocky Road to Dublin” after converting the juke joint patrons.

Check out our contributors individual picks for the year that was 2025.

Jim Batts

1. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
2. BLUE MOON
3. A MAGNIFICENT LIFE
4. FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
5. FRIENDSHIP
6. SINNERS
7. RELAY
8. 28 YEARS LATER
9. A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE
10. FREAKY TALES

Honorable Mentions: THUNDERBOLTS, PREDATOR double feature: KILLER OF KILLERS and BADLANDS, FRANKENSTEIN, JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME, MY MOM, JAYNE, STILLER & MEARA: NOTHING IS LOST, WEAPONS, BLACK BAG

Cate Marquis

1. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
2. SINNERS
3. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
4. HOUSE OF DYNAMITE
5. ORWELL: 2+2=5
6. BLUE MOON
7. FRANKENSTEIN
8. BLACK BAG
9. WAKE UP DEAD MAN
10. THE UGLY STEPSISTER

Honorable Mentions: WEAPONS, WARFARE, SECRET AGENT, NO OTHER CHOICE. HAMNET. TRAIN DREAMS, SUPERMAN, TALE OF SILYAN, WTO/99, RENTAL FAMILY

Michelle McCue

1. TRAIN DREAMS
2. SINNERS
3. FRANKENSTEIN
4. CAUGHT STEALING
5. WEAPONS
6. 28 YEARS LATER
7. F1
8. SUPERMAN
9. KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
10. BLACK PHONE 2

HONORABLE MENTION – PRIMITIVE WAR, PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS, SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE, HEART EYES, THE GORGE AND GOOD BOY.