I’ve been writing reviews of the films of the year for several years now (you can read my reviews for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 on my film blog). Here are my 20 favourite films of the past year (normal rules apply—all were released recently and I first saw them in the year 2025).
Good
- Favourite film of the year: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État
Remarkable documentary about the decolonisation of Africa, militant music, and the Black Power movement in the USA. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Ètat tells us what happened when, and why the half-hearted departure of Western powers led to their ongoing dominance of the Global South. It manages all this in a mood which is neither sombre nor hectoring. The film takes on the syncopated rhythms of the jazz music which features prominently. A revolutionary film in both form and content.
The year’s best ghost-music-romance-history-gangster-race-vampire film. Sinners tells many stories simultaneously, but it’s at its strongest when telling the Black experience in early Twentieth Century US America. One of those rare films in which the soundtrack is not just a set of cool songs which the director got the rights for, but an intrinsic part of the plot. I didn’t get on with director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, which makes it all the more reassuring that Sinners is both artistically and politically sensational.
Many of his best fans will acknowledge, firstly, that Paul Thomas Anderson’s films are of differing quality, and secondly, that he has tended to stay away from politics. So the idea of him as director of a counter-cultural, anti-capitalist fable did not inspire. But what can I say? Anderson is sensational, Leonardo di Caprio is sensational (but not as sensational as any number of the superlative supporting actors). Funny, politically astute, with a highly memorable car chase towards the end. And it all ends on a note of optimism.
There have been a heap of female-directed, socially conscious horror films lately, of which this is one of the best. Ostensibly a retelling of the Cinderella story from the point of view of her stepsisters, this takes on beauty myths and the extent to which women, and their mothers, will go in order to remain within accepted norms. And just in case that sounds too worthy, it is also hilarious. By the end, the film has also subverted the myth that any normal young woman’s ambition would seriously be to marry a prince, charming or otherwise.
My favourite German film of the year, is a low-budget film about troubled young women in care. Which (we’re seeing a trend here for the films I really liked this year) is also very funny. There are more laughs than in any other film you’ve seen which contains suicide attempts, trauma, and existential angst. This is a female-led film about the joy and pain of being young and irresponsible. Look out for first-time director Stella Marie Markert, and all the actors, but especially Zoe Stein, who plays the largely mute Malou.
A simple enough concept—a day in the life of an overworked nurse, where missing staff members is part of the usual routine. Leonie Benesch, who’s in everything nowadays, is typically efficient, but here she’s even better than usual in a film which shows the struggles of an individual nurse at the same time as making it clear that the problem is systemic. Relatives are (justifiably) frustrated and the private patient is typically entitled, but Heldin never descends into cliché. Instead, it’s an effective intervention in an ongoing debate.
There is one look from Stellan Skarsgård in the trailer which assures you that this is going to be good. Skarsgård plays an arrogant film maker who is aware of his greatness even though no-one goes to see his films any more. But one word from his daughter Nora criticising his parenting provokes a look of absolute disdain. Skarsgård is only the second best actor in this film about absent fathers and broken families. Renate Reinsve who plays Nora is even better. This is a grown-up film which is never too pompous.
Epic film which is officially from 9 different countries, but that’s only because of the ongoing occupation of Palestine. Cherien Dabis, who also plays the mother, tells the story of one Palestinian family from the Nakba till the present day. Several good documentaries about Palestine have been released in recent years, but few dramas, particularly one as comprehensive as this one (and for once, comprehensive here is not a synonym for “too long”). Tragic and highly informative about why Palestinians resist.
From the sublime to the supremely silly. Hundreds of Beavers is basically a cartoon starring real life actors, some of whom are in animal costumes. Trapper John Kayak is trapped in a cycle of killing beavers to trade for produce, in particular a gun with which he can kill beavers. The scale of the story gets larger and increasingly ridiculous. Anyone who goes to see Hundreds of Beavers and hates it has my full understanding, but if you’re prepared to go with it and accept the silliness, it can be uproarious fun.
Who’d have predicted that 2025 would be Kneecap’s year? (before they got slightly overtaken by Bob Vylan). This film, released at the beginning of the year, helped to bring many of us on-message. Ostensibly an “origins” film, whose biggest draw was a cameo by Michael Fassbender, this turned out to be a heap of fun with a decent soundtrack. The politics are a bit splattergun, if generally on the right side. It’s everything you’d expect from a band, two-thirds of whom were in their twenties (and looked even younger).
What is it about Winnipeg which produces such weird films? (I give you everything which Guy Maddin produced, especially My Winnipeg). This film is very much in Maddin’s tradition. Some reviewers tried to read too much into Universal Language, and in doing so removed most of its fun. This is a simple story about a search for some glasses, the retrieval of a 500 Rial note, and the tourist guide who has the least to show, all told in English, French, and Farsi. Don’t try and understand it, just sit back and enjoy the fun.
Post-First World War Poland was grim, if this story of evictions, disfigurement, and attempted abortion is anything to go by. There are few jokes and the film is shot in a menacing monochrome but it is a captivating story about the desperate lives of working class women. Seen in the wrong mood, this could be seen as arduous misery porn, but we do feel for the main characters and share their pain. Behind all the degradation, it’s a compelling story of surviving the worst misfortunes. May not be a great date movie.
A quirky story about a young woman who has not quite got the hang of adulting, especially after her best friend leaves for New York. All while she is struggling to cope with a Bad Thing. Extremely well-orchestrated mixture of youthful silliness and Serious Issues, this film could have quite easily been too exploitative, the camera could have lingered too long, or the tone could have just been too trivial to match the serious content. Instead it manages to be both fun and make very important points about women’s oppression.
50 years after Franco’s death, thousands of the people whose deaths he ordered still lie in unmarked graves. This film shows the opportunities opened up by Spain’s 1936 Popular Front government, but also the repression which followed. The history lesson is mixed with a contemporary story of one of the many families trying to locate its forebears. This is a film which could have very easily been worthy but dull, but the fighting spirit and thirst for more engages the audience. It’s a story which is still very relevant.
After Trainspotting became a phenomenon, and Danny Boyle was given increasingly large budgets, he didn’t always use them well. 28 Years Later combines Boyle’s Indie sensibility with some astounding set pieces. Throughout the film, we are unsettled by a sense of eerie unease, built on the wreckage of post-Brexit England. This is all leading up to a final 5 minutes in a quite different tone which ruined everything for some viewers. Then there are others, like me, who just can’t wait for the coming sequel.
Guillermo del Toro was never going to make an understated Ken Loach-like Frankenstein. This film stays largely to the book, much to the disappointment of fans of neck bolts. We are shown a tale of hubris, told from the perspective of both an enlightenment scientist and his creation. There are plenty of metaphors hanging down for anyone who chooses to make something of them—about loneliness, the dangers of unfettered science, and of men being men. But the film also works as a spectacular action-packed yarn.
What initially looks like a superficial comedy about a neurotic Jew from New York, actually contains more depth than you’d first think. The withdrawn David and his brash cousin Benji are on a heritage tour of Poland, trying to find out what happened to their dead relatives who died in the Holocaust. The film manages to address the immensity of what happened without falling into trite sentimentality. And, however superficial Benji first appears to be, it is he who possesses the film’s heart and soul.
If you read a description of Companion, it feels like it’s going to be one of those single-concept Science Fiction Issue Movies, which is worth a single viewing but has little new to tell us. And yes, it is about consumerism, gender role expectations, and the commodification of love. But then it gets batshit crazy and a load more fun. Come for the comfortable feeling that the film is on the right side politically. Stay for some astute political analysis, over-the-top mayhem, and jokes which are way too funny for this sort of film.
A new Andrea Arnold film is always to be welcomed, even the ones which are not an easy watch. You can be sure from the start that this is not going to be set in some Gosford Park / Friends, alternative yuppie universe. Bird is a story with parallel plots, some of which are more effective than others. It stars Franz Rogowski and Barry Keoghan, neither of whom is ever uninteresting. They are more than matched by Nykiya Adams as the mixed-race hero Bailey, trying to negotiate a difficult world despite her irresponsible father.
Bruce Springsteen’s mental breakdown: the movie. A film about the making of Nebraska—one of Springsteen’s least successful (and best) albums, was always going to be polarising, but I never expected it to be so introspective. This is the anti-Bohemian Rhapsody / Rocket Man (which is meant in a good way). None of the bombast of most recent biopics, and an honest account of the artistic process when things are not going well. Not at all what I was expecting—a very nuanced film which has something to say.
Less Good
And here are my 5 least favourite films of the year:
5. The End
The End found its way onto some critics’ Best-Of lists, and to be fair, it is not an offensive film, just very, very boring. It’s a post-apocalyptic world, and a couple is living with their servants and son in a bunker full of paintings which were once extremely expensive (some Important Points are obviously being made). And then, for no obvious reason, everyone starts singing. This is an overlong musical whose characters show no emotion, and even the songs are uninspiring. Tilda Swinton, you are so much better than this.
4. Parthenope
Parthenope is beautiful and intelligent. Of course she is. This is not the sort of film which is interested in the ugly, little people. She spends most of her time hanging around the beach in a bikini and doing her best to hide the intelligence which other characters assure us that she has. Everybody but a hammy Gary Oldman is in awe of Parthenope’s captivating beauty. The film, made in collaboration with Yves Saint Laurent, is little more than an extended advert. Like Parthenope, it is very pretty but has nothing to say.
The Helsinki Effect is not a bad film as such. It presents a case, which it backs up with documentary footage. But its main argument is based on such flimsy logic that it just does not work. Apparently, a 1975 meeting in FInland between Western and Soviet Bloc countries indirectly led to the downfall of the USSR. Except that there is no convincing argument that this is what happened. The real time coverage of boring meetings, the adulation of “Western democracy,” and Henry Kissinger. Nothing in this film is remotely credible.
2. Loyal Friend
Never work with animals or late period Bill Murray. Loyal Friend is a sentimental mush fest about a woman inheriting her late friend’s dog. She hates the dog at first (but still accepts it for no obvious reason), but can you guess if she gets to love it by the end of the film? This is a film about the obnoxiously wealthy whose arrogant behaviour we are expected to admire. It states that its characters are intelligent without any of them saying anything of any intelligence. It is not just predictable. It is dull.
I saw a number of films in 2025 which were a waste of my time. After the Hunt was the only one which truly offended me. It is Luca Guadagnino’s take on #MeToo. And guess what? Guadagnino has nothing of interest to say of the systematic exclusion of women from academia. At best he’s saying “it’s complicated,” at worst it’s the women’s fault. This is the sort of film which some critics will laud for being daring, when it has an implausible and clichéd plot which just parrots the prejudices of the right wing media.
