# The best movies of 2025. And a few of the worst

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-of-2025-and-a-few-of-the-worst/1026185>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** movies\
**Created:** [December 31, 2025, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-of-2025-and-a-few-of-the-worst/1026185 "2025-12-31T01:58:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2025, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-of-2025-and-a-few-of-the-worst/1026185/4 "2025-12-31T04:28:08Z")

</div>

I saw 155 movies in the theater in 2025. Of those, I’d estimate about 20-25 were not 2025 releases (I don’t keep track of the release dates, just a list of what I’ve seen each week. For instance, around Oscar time, I catch up on a lot of the nominees). I’ve covered most of the movies below in the [Movies I’ve Seen](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-youve-seen-recently-part-2/1006288/4206) thread, so I’ll just add only little bits of teaser phrasing.

My Top 12 (not in any particular order).

**She Rides Shotgun** “gut punch ending that rivals _Shoplifters_”  
**East of Wall** “Based on and acted by the true life characters”  
**A Little Prayer** “A profound depiction of family love”  
**One Battle After Another** “Definitely a movie for and of our time”  
**Frankenstein** “Sumptuous gothic”  
**Sentimental Value** “A movie about movies and the people who make them”  
**Sinners** “Race and Vampires”  
**If I Had Legs I’d Kick You** “Claustrophobic and harrowing depiction of motherhood”  
**Jane Austen Wrecked My Life** “A Hallmark movie done right”  
**Hamnet** “Another masterpiece and potential second Oscar for Chloé Zhao”  
**Little Amélie or the Character of Rain**"“A beautiful depiction of a toddler’s life”  
**Weapons** “A masterful mix of horror, mystery, and black humor”

For the “what about” questions, here are my next dozen “best of the rest”.

_Guns & Moses_ “A sun baked noir about a crime fighting rabbi”  
_Anniversary_ “Another film of and for our time”  
_Is This Thing On_ “Great performances and heartfelt narrative”  
_Cloud_ “Mystery/suspense/yakuza/mental breakdown”  
_Bugonia_ “A Yorgos Lanthimos comedy/scifi/crime thriller”  
_Marty Supreme_ “_Uncut Gem_s with a happier ending”  
_Sketch_ “A child’s drawings come to life. What could go wrong?”  
_Mickey 17_ “Bong Joon Ho Sci-Fi film!”  
_Left Handed Girl_ "A child’s experiences in a Taipei “night market”  
_Dust Bunny_ “A children’s tale that is not at all suitable for children.”  
_Bad Shabbos_ “An unfortunate occurrence threatens the families Shabbos dinner”  
_The Life of Chuck_ “Worth it for the dance sequence alone”  
_The Shadows Edge_ “Jackie Chan!”

Finally, the dregs in my cup.

_Riff Raff_  
_In the Lost Lands_  
_The Actor_  
_Grand Tour_  
_Run_  
_Deathstalker_

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-movies-of-2025-and-a-few-of-the-worst/1026185)._