If 2024 felt transitional, 2025 felt reactionary. The industry is still figuring out where it’s future is heading, with streaming turbulence, downsized theatrical slates, and the lingering specter of automation hanging over the heads of everyone from below-the-line workers to A-list actors. With the recent news of the landmark WB acquisition, the future is very much in a state of alarming flux. But even with cinema at a crossroads, a number of films showed up with blood dripping from their teeth in 2025. 2025 didn’t just have good movies, it had some of the very best movies of the whole decade. And I put in the work to find that out for myself. This year, I watched 109 new releases and wrote 67 reviews. The top four films from this year (all which earned a grade-A) could duke it out with any other recent release for supremacy. Even though art is, I guess, subjective and all that. Read More