By Jared Stanger
For the last few years I’ve been spending a decent amount of time planning and tracking my new movie release viewing. I have a running list all year of upcoming movies that I hear/read about that have interest to me, or that have awards buzz, or both. I track them before I see them with theater and streaming release dates, and rank them after they come out with both a national scoring system as well as my personal rankings.
So today I get to reveal my final thoughts. This is not a fully comprehensive listing. I still have roughly 30 movies on my list that I have not seen, but about 80 that I have. Some I’m simply not interested in seeing, ever. Some I would watch if they were free on a streamer, but don’t want to pay to rent. Some have just not been out very long, and I haven’t had a chance to see yet.
My taste in movies kind of mirrors what my taste in music used to be when I worked in radio years ago…I want high art(ists) that are making pop hits. I want Radiohead making “Creep” or “Fake Plastic Trees” not Radiohead making “Weird Fishes”. My radio mentor used to call me “Mr Mersh”…meaning “commercial”. In movies…I’m primarily interested in Oscar-caliber movies, but the ones that can do a decent box office and will become those endlessly rewatchable movies 5-10 years from now. I don’t have much interest in 90% of Marvel movies, nor most IP/franchise chains. But I’m equally likely to think some of the critical darling, cinephile favorite films are godawful boring. I found both Top Gun Maverick and The Brutalist were dogshit films in the last couple years.
I’m looking for the sweet spot between art and populism. Sometimes that isn’t obvious in the moment…sometimes a movie is just hard to market, and it will take a few years for things to be found by people. Maybe this list can help do that for those that read it.
Before getting to the positive of this year…let me get a few rants out of the way.
“It Was Just an Accident” – what are we doing here? After seeing this movie; I think the world is patronizing the shit out of this. It’s an Iranian movie with an interesting backstory in how it was shot in secret, stealing shots on location because of inherent governmental oppression. But this movie, if made in America, is an absolutely mediocre movie. Remember the movie “Two Days in the Valley” that came out sometime after “Pulp Fiction” and was kind of biting themes and non-linear storytelling from Pulp, but doing it in a totally average way. “It Was Just an Accident” is like that. There is no grounding in human motivation from any of the characters. They float from mood to mood from scene to scene simply to get from plot beat A to plot beat B. There is no through logic. The hype around this movie is entirely misgiven. Actually, you know what would be sort of a comparable quality of an American movie from this year? “The Long Walk”. Both are primarily movies about people talking while on a long journey with subplot of an impending sense of murder hovering around every action. Cool, but “The Long Walk” is not an Oscar contender.
“28 Years Later” – I really wanted to like this movie. I liked the original “28 Days Later”. I like much of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland’s work. But this movie really felt like an incomplete thought. And knowing that a quick-turnaround sequel, “Bone Temple” was coming directly on its heels kind of supports that for me.
“Wicked 2” & “Avatar 3” – I have not seen either of these and am not planning on seeing them with any urgency after being disappointed with the prequels to each. “Wicked” is the kind of movie musical I loathe, and James Cameron…getting a fucking editor.
Would see but haven’t had the chance: “The Secret Agent”, “No Other Choice”, “Rental Family”, “Song Sung Blue”, “Testament of Ann Lee”. I’m sure I end up seeing something from this list probably within days of publishing this article, but as of now I have not.
Honorable Mentions:
“Ballad of Wallis Island” – What a charming movie. I’m generally pretty allergic to movie musicals because I need more of them to work like this, where the characters are musicians, performing the songs they wrote. I’m also a huge fan recently of movies that subvert expectations. I’m already instinctively looking for where a plot is going, so when filmmakers can surprise me; I’m so pleased.
“Wake Up Dead Man” – the third in the detective series from writer/director Rian Johnson and star Daniel Craig; I said immediately after finishing this one that I think this might be my favorite of the three. Is there some underlying message about the role of religion in modern American culture? Maybe. But I just found the mystery entertaining and surprising.
“Roofman” – every once in a while Channing Tatum sort of steps into one. I felt similarly about this movie and Tatum’s 2017 movie “Logan Lucky”. It’s light, it’s funny, it’s got sneaky heart, and I enjoy seeing the machinations of a heist/crime come together.
“The Friend” – what an interesting, unexpected little film about Naomi Watts’ character taking on an adopted Great Dane dog after a friend passes away. Tonally, it kind of reminded me of “Lars and the Real Girl”, if you know that movie.
“Eddington” – this was a year of very strange, perhaps experimental, movies coming out. Many of them were very much of this time in recent history, building on themes of what has become life in the 2020’s. “Eddington” felt like the one that got the least respect, perhaps because it was the one that walks the line closest between reality and farce and the way our reality has become such a farce. I felt like the distance between this movie and “One Battle After Another” was not that huge.
“Weapons” – a very entertaining movie, but ultimately I had too big of a problem with an unresolved plot hole to put it in my top 10. First 90 minutes I really enjoyed; I just wish it had a more complete ending.
“40 Acres” – to me, this was sort of the better version of the post-apocalyptic, family in danger from an encroaching horde, movie that people are crediting “28 Years Later” with being. Super entertaining.
“Sketch” – kind of a dark, magical kids movie, but for kids over a certain age that won’t be too scared of some of the imagery. Cool, original concept with some very modern themes. People need to find this movie.
“Companion” – I’m not sure what to note about this movie that is sort of a given from the trailer, and what might be bordering on spoiler, but this is a pretty damn entertaining mix of movies like “Ex Machina” and “Strange Darling”.
My Top 10 Movies of 2025:
#10 – “Legend of Ochi”. This is a highly stylized, imaginative fable of an older kids movie that I really enjoyed. The world-building was so fully-formed and beautiful that it reminded me of a movie called “Vesper” from a few years ago. Vesper was more of a sci-fi story, while Ochi is like historical Romanian tall tale, but I really liked spending time in both worlds. Thematically, it may be a little derivative of, like, “E.T.” but instead of a little boy protagonist; here we have a little girl, and instead of alien we have a sort of mythical, baboon creature. A really gorgeous, well-executed film.
#9 – “Bugonia”. Historically, I have not been much of a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos. I find his work absurdist for the sake of absurdity most of the time. But in “Bugonia”, I find that he has constructed a movie that has so much grounding in real people having real conversations with (ironically) real human motivations, with the caveat that one of the lead characters happens to be himself kind of an absurd personality, but one that absolutely exists in the world today, that I found the overall impact of the movie and its two lead actors to be really impressive.
#8 – “Train Dreams”. I had a bit of mixed emotions about “Train Dreams” because it is SOOO blatantly ripping off Terrence Malick in its use of nature shots and voiceover, but at the same time…this is the best Terrence Malick movie since “Thin Red Line”. I constantly wish Malick would hire a writer, have an actual script, and recapture that magic again, so this was ultimately a welcome homage. There are a number of visually stunning movies this year, but “Train Dreams” is certainly at the top of that list. The plot is sort of inconsequential…this is just a beautiful, lyrical ode to the history of the American Northwest with meticulous attention to the details of the period.
#7 – “Frankenstein”. This movie was everything I wanted it to be. The monster design was fantastic. The production design was exceptional. It was unique in the history of re-tellings of Frankenstein, while also being familiar. In a year of some pretty incredible, original stories; it’s a mild negative on my list that this movie is such a well-known entity, but it was still very enjoyable.
#6 – “Sinners”. It’s a little funny that back-to-back entries on my list fall to a Frankenstein monster and a vampire, but here we are. “Sinners” lands the higher of the two due to its original story. And, like “Ballad of Wallis Island”, I love that Sinners incorporates music in a naturalistic way. And what music it is.
In a lot of movie descriptions; you can kind of encapsulate them into, “it’s like ‘Rounders’ meets ‘Field of Dreams'”, or whatever the movies are. In a lot of cases you can nail down two primary influences. In “Sinners”; I felt like there were six or seven influences that Ryan Coogler was melding together. This was from Tarantino…this was from Nolan…etc. And there were probably many I didn’t even clock. I like that about it. I like most things about it. But can we stop doing post-credit scenes? I missed that whole thing when I saw it in the theater, and didn’t see it until a couple weeks ago watching it second time at home.
#5 – “Warfare”. This was THEE most intense experience I had watching a movie this year. I love what Alex Garland, and his co-director Ray Mendoza, have crafted here in terms of re-creating what it is truly like in a modern theater of war. The language, the actions, the protocols, the training, the camaraderie, the bravery. This movie created an experience within my body that I’ve rarely, if ever, experienced from a movie. It was like an induced panic attack. And it does it for basically the entire 90 minutes of runtime. It is such a fully-engrossing portrait and experience. I feel like, in so many years; this might have been my #1 film of the year.
#4 – “Marty Supreme”. If there was any question who the auteur half of the Safdie brother filmmaking dynamic was; I think we have a clear answer from recent releases of Benny Safdie’s MMA biopic “The Smashing Machine” and Josh Safdie’s table tennis pseudo biopic “Marty Supreme”. Benny made pure action and violence seem kinda boring while Josh made ping pong so fucking entertaining.
This is a GREAT movie. I kind of have no notes. The movie takes place in part or in whole in roughly 1952. The music is coming straight out of 1982. Shouldn’t work, but it does. The cast includes two generations of nepo babies, a hip hop star, and a tech CEO turned TV host. Chalamet is still doing it. If “Complete Unknown” was Chalamet’s symbolic parallel to Dicaprio’s “The Aviator”…”Marty Supreme” is his “Catch Me if You Can”. And it all works. This is like Safdie took 90% of the pace and anxiety of “Uncut Gems” and dialed it back to splash in about 5% more heart and 5% more Hollywood ending, and those edits make this so much more of a pleasing, rewatchable movie. And I loved “Uncut Gems”, but that shit is hard to watch.
#3 – “Sentimental Value”. I actually had this and “Marty Supreme” reversed right up until typing “#4” moments ago. I saw “Marty Supreme” on Christmas Eve, and then I watched “Sentimental Value” for the second time two nights ago, and maybe it’s recency bias, but I think on second viewing the impact of the emotional wallop of SV pushed it ahead of the pure entertainment of MS, for me.
I am not super familiar with writer/director Joachim Trier. I know I tried to watch his 2021 film, also starring SV’s lead Renate Reinsve, “The Worst Person in the World” and I never finished it. Didn’t enjoy it. If I’m being honest I generally have trouble with foreign language films, and “Sentimental Value” is probably 80% in Norwegian. I find the lack of understanding a language detracts from my ability to recognize the sincerity of the acting and line deliveries etc. I had no such problem with this movie. In fact, whatever awards shows that give a group award for best ensemble acting; I kinda think “Sentimental Value” should win. Stellan Skarsgard is almost always great, but is perhaps at his career best in this. Reinsve is extraordinary doing the kind of quiet, understated acting that is sometimes less recognized than something big and show-y. But the revelation of the film for me was the discovery of Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as the sister to Reinsve and daughter to Skarsgard. Spellbinding work. I would give her the best supporting actress Oscar, but it probably goes to Amy Madigan.
#2 – “One Battle After Another”. I’m probably not a true Paul Thomas Anderson loyalist. I always try his movies, but I’m a strong fan of his movies only probably 50% of the time. I find I enjoy his movies set in present day more than something of a period piece. I don’t want PTA to write classical music…I want him to write fucking punk rock. “One Battle” is punk AF. This might be my new favorite film in the PTA catalogue.
I remember a few years ago, John Krasinski said that he made the movie “A Quiet Place” as a sort of love-letter to his daughters. This seems kind of an odd thought about, essentially, an alien invasion horror movie, but I lowkey wonder if this isn’t also a more personal movie expression for PTA than it might seem at first blush. I wonder if this isn’t also a love-letter from Anderson to his four kids (three of which are daughters) with Maya Rudolph.
“One Battle” kind of has a little bit of everything. There’s high action. There’s high comedy. There’s high suspense. There’s a high protagonist. There’s realism. There’s surrealism. There’s a pretty sentimental finale. There’s incredible performances from every star. There’s also incredible performances from people I’ve never heard of, or that have never even acted before, like the military interrogator or the native American bounty hunter.
I like this movie so much. I just liked one a bit better.
#1 – “Hamnet”. This. Movie. Fucked. Me. Up. The race for best picture this year sort of feels like a battle between divine masculine and divine feminine. Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is sooo masculine with all of its action and bombast…even the female characters are pretty macho. Chloe Zhao’s film is sooo feminine with all of its emotion and tenderness…even the male characters are pretty sensitive. Thinking about the contrast of these two films; I also thought of the films of Christopher Nolan. “One Battle” is “The Dark Knight”…”Hamnet” is “Interstellar”. I love both movies, but if put to the question; my favorite Nolan film is “Interstellar”. But the “Dark Knight” fucking slaps.
It’s become more and more common in recent years that movie fans use movie language like “set pieces” when they talk about movies. The standard usage is talking about ACTION set pieces like the oil well on fire in “There Will Be Blood”. I feel like “Hamnet” has these really powerful EMOTION set pieces running throughout the movie.
There’s Paul Mescal’s impassioned story he tells to woo Jesse Buckley’s Agnes at the beginning. There’s Mescal playing with his young son, Hamnet, and asking him if he will be brave. There’s Buckley acting the shit out of one of the all-time great woman-in-labor scenes ever. And then Buckley watching the debut performance of “Hamlet”. Oof. Good luck.
This movie is a singular movement. The visuals, the music, the story, the performances…they are all stunning. I can’t wait to see it again. I can’t wait to see other people see it for the first time.
I already know I’m in the minority in my rankings. “One Battle” is literally an example of what I described earlier as the kind of movies I’m looking for. It finished about #30 in 2025 box office with $71million. “Hamnet” isn’t even top 100 and has made under $11mill to date. But sometimes a “Shawshank Redemption” only makes $16mill in the theaters, but its true legacy is how the movie grows across its entire life. I think “Hamnet” has a chance to be really impactful in 5, 10, 20, 50 years.
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