January 23, 2026
After watching way too many films to count in 2025, I was finally able to see the few remaining new releases on my list and lock down my favorite movies of the year. I didn’t get to everything, but was able to see the ones I really cared about, especially those that will likely be in the hunt for this year’s Oscars. Speaking of which…
Yesterday the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards were announced and it went pretty much as expected. The headline for this year is clearly the 16 nominations for Sinners, which broke the previous record of 14 nominations held by All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land. Pretty good company and absolutely wild that a horror / musical / drama is now the record holder. That being said, Sinners is not the favorite for Best Picture. That distinction belongs to One Battle After Another, which had 13 nominations. The other big names announced yesterday were Frankenstein, Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value, which all had nine nominations, and Hamnet (which has an outside chance at Best Picture), with eight nods.
Overall, I was really happy with all of the nominations, especially for Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku of Sinners, and Elle Fanning of Sentimental Value, who were all acknowledged for supporting acting performances that weren’t sure things according to the prognosticators. Another big headline was the lack of any nominations for Wicked: For Good, after the first film had ten nods last year. I think there just wasn’t enough enthusiasm for the sequel this year, perhaps because it was only a year after the original, and also a recognition of the strong slate of 2025 films.
I will be sharing a full Oscars preview as we get closer to the ceremony, which is not until March 15th. No, I can’t explain it – for me, the Oscars should be the week after the Super Bowl every year. The good news is that you have plenty of time to catch up on some of the nominees you may have missed. Most of them are available to stream or rent at home, with some still in theaters. For now it’s time to share my favorite films of 2025. This week I will cover #20 – #11, and next week will be my top 10. If you missed my previous two posts about the year in film, you can find them here and here. Let’s get started.
#20 – Hamnet
Sometimes the early coverage of a new release that will be a sure-fire awards contender can influence my expectations going into a screening. Before I saw Hamnet at the Philadelphia Film Festival, I knew the premise of the movie and read that it is a heartbreaking story that will shatter you. So, I fully expected to be sobbing during parts of this movie. And while I was definitely moved during the heavy moments, I was kind of relieved that I wasn’t a blubbering mess when the credits rolled.
Oscar-winner director Chloé Zhao is back in the awards hunt with this adaptation of a best-selling historical fiction novel. Jessie Buckley (likely Best Actress winner) plays Agnes Shakespeare, wife of a playwright named William (heard of him?), portrayed by Paul Mescal in a great performance. The film explores the early days of their relationship, including the time with their three children. The couple suffers a devastating tragedy, which helps inspire William to write Hamlet. This movie is an incredible display of acting (with a capital “A”), beautiful costumes, and one of the best endings of the year. Hamnet is one of the contenders for Best Picture, so you might be surprised that it’s only #20 on my list. I do think it’s an excellent movie, but its ranking is probably a testament to my unique taste in film and the strength of 2025’s releases. You can read my further thoughts on Hamnet here. Hamnet is now playing in theaters and should be available to rent on demand in February.
#19 – F1
Just an old-fashioned Hollywood blockbuster with one of our biggest stars (Brad Pitt) behind the wheel (literally) in an action film directed by Joseph Kosinski, in his follow-up to 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. In F1, Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a veteran racecar driver who is convinced by an old friend (played by Javier Bardem) to join his fledgling race team in the hopes of showing enough progress to keep the team from folding.
Have we seen this story before? Washed up athlete chasing one last shot at glory? Sure, but what makes F1 such an incredible watch is the innovative filmmaking techniques from Kosinski and his technical team. Much like he put us in the cockpit with Maverick and his fellow pilots, here we are with Sonny and his teammate, young hotshot rival Joshua (played by Damon Idris), through every breathtaking twist and turn around the track. We follow the team through an F1 season, with the race scenes filmed alongside actual F1 events. Don’t worry, you don’t need to understand how this sport works (I don’t and still loved the movie), as we frequently hear the television announcers giving us enough exposition to follow the plot. We also get plenty of technical talk about the team’s obsession with chasing every tenth of a second to gain an edge on their competitors, led by the excellent Kerry Condon, who plays the team’s technical leader. Sure, there are clichés throughout F1, but if you want a great popcorn movie, look no further than this fun blockbuster, which just received a surprise Best Picture nomination. You can read more of my thoughts on F1 here and stream it now on Apple TV+.
#18 – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Now for something not as fun, but this isn’t a list of the most fun movies of 2025 – these are my favorites. When I got up from my seat after watching this intense, stressful, and exhausting story at the Philadelphia Film Festival, my immediate reaction was “I’d pick Rose Byrne over Jessie Buckley for Best Actress.” I had just seen Hamnet two nights earlier, so it was fresh on my mind, as was Buckley’s position as the early frontrunner in the Oscar race. But Byrne is magnificent in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You as a mother on the verge of losing her mind while dealing with a comical set of bad circumstances over the course of a few days. Not to say this movie is funny in the traditional sense. Despite Byrne’s Golden Globe win for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, most people wouldn’t call this a laugh riot.
Byrne plays Linda, the mother of a pre-teen daughter who has an illness that is not defined in the movie. We only know that she has a feeding tube due to malnourishment. Her daughter is extremely needy and it taxes her mom’s patience throughout the film. Linda must also deal with a flood in her apartment that causes the ceiling to collapse, leading them to temporarily move into a hotel. As a therapist, she must deal with her patients’ problems and when she commiserates with her own therapist, played to perfection by Conan O’Brien, he offers little sympathy.
This is a film that can be a tough watch, especially for a new parent. It highlights the frantic nature of parenthood, when you can’t seem to gain an inch of progress every single day. Byrne plays this role to an extreme degree, but always maintaining a realism in Linda’s struggles. It’s even more impressive when you consider how director Mary Bronstein (who also wrote the script) filmed this story with extreme close-ups on most of the characters. Bronstein also made the bold choice of never showing Linda’s daughter, so we are always focused on the mom reacting to every demand from her child. There is nowhere for Byrne to hide in portraying this character who is having a really shitty week. Every word, every facial tick, every emotion is right there on the big screen. A true acting showcase that earned Byrne a well-deserved Best Actress nomination, and an outside shot at a win in March. You can read more of my thoughts on If I Had Legs I’d Kick You here, and rent it on demand to watch at home.
#17 – Twinless
One of the more overlooked movies of 2025, but I really enjoyed this story of an unconventional friendship, highlighted by great performances from Dylan O’Brien in a dual role and James Sweeney, who also wrote and directed Twinless. When the film opens, we meet Roman (O’Brien) who joins a support group for people who lost a twin sibling. He meets Dennis (Sweeney), another member of the group and they bond over their shared loss. From there, we spend time with the two men as they create an unlikely friendship. They come from different backgrounds and seem to share nothing in common, except the trauma of their loss.
Twinless is the kind of film that is best not knowing much about (for instance, don’t read the plot summary on Wikipedia) before watching it, because there are some twists and turns that are best experienced seeing them unfold on the screen. I was really impressed with what Sweeney created with this movie and look forward to seeing what he does next. You can read more of my thoughts on Twinless here and stream it on Disney+ and Hulu now.
#16 – The Secret Agent
A breakout hit at the Cannes Film Festival last May, The Secret Agent has been slowly but surely racking up awards nominations and wins over the last several months. It was named Best International Film at the Golden Globes, where star Wagner Moura also won for Best Actor – Drama. It received four Oscar nominations yesterday, including Best Picture and Best Actor. I don’t think Moura will win (he can’t overcome the Leo vs. Timmy heavyweight match), but I’m glad to see he received the recognition of a nomination, because his performance is outstanding.
The setting is Brazil in the 1970s. The government is run by a dictator who governs by fear, including shutting down anyone who dares to protest or disagree with their policies. Sound familiar? Yeah, I know. Pretty fucking sad. Moura plays Armando, a former professor who is using an alias while traveling to visit his young son, who is staying with in-laws. He is being hunted for his political views and is also trying to obtain information about his mother’s background while she was living in the area.
The Secret Agent is a film that is best rewarded by giving it your full attention, which is easy to do since the majority of the movie is in Portuguese (so you’ll be reading the subtitles). The story jumps among a few timelines so we see the origins of Armando’s conflicts and time he spent with his wife before she died, along with the events of 1977. Director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who also wrote the script, crafted a film that is a brilliant character study, but also one with the tension you would expect for a story set during such a fraught time. Maura is magnificent in the role, and is surrounded by other strong performances throughout the movie. This is not always an easy watch, but there’s a reason The Secret Agent has been celebrated for the better part of the last year. The Secret Agent will be available to rent on demand on January 27th.
#15 – The Ballad of Wallis Island
Every year I seem to get lucky enough to take a chance on a movie and find myself grinning from ear to ear throughout the entire runtime. Such was the case with The Ballad of Wallis Island, a delightful romantic comedy featuring some wonderful music. Tom Basden stars as Herb, a struggling musician who was once part of a popular singing duo with his former girlfriend Nell, played by Carey Mulligan. Herb is summoned to a small island by quirky multi-millionaire Charles (Tim Key), a superfan of the duo’s work, to play a solo show for a hefty fee. Little does he know that Charles has also invited Nell, who shows up with her new husband. It seems Charles wants the performance to be a reunion of the duo. Let the hijinks begin.
Basden and Key did a terrific job in writing the screenplay for this film, crafting a story full of quirky characters, subtle jokes, and beautiful songs all set on a picturesque location off the coast of Wales. Too often a movie like this gets a small release and fades into obscurity because it gets lost with the hundreds of other new releases each year. I had such a fun time with this film, and was very glad to see it show up on the top ten lists of movie critics over the last few weeks. It gave me a little smile, just like the one I had in the theater that day. You can read more of my thoughts on The Ballad of Wallis Island here and stream it now on Prime Video.
#14 – Marty Supreme
Whenever there is a noisy film released late in the year that generates tremendous buzz (especially for the Oscar campaign), I try to temper my expectations. Recency bias always creeps in when doing a list like this at the end of the year. Is it realistic to compare a movie I saw ten months ago with one that I saw ten days ago? That’s what I try to guard against when finalizing my top twenty list.
I’ve been hearing about Marty Supreme for months and when it premiered to rapturous reviews after a surprise screening at the New York Film Festival in early October, my expectations went through the roof. “Best movie of the year – hands down” was a frequent phrase that I read over and over again from those who saw it. As it slowly made its way to other film critics before its wide release on Christmas Day, expectations kept going up, especially for the performance of Timothée Chalamet, who was crowned the surefire winner for Best Actor.
So, as I sat down in my theater to watch the “next great masterpiece,” I was expecting to be blown away. I was not. Now, to be fair, I think this is an excellent film and has earned its way onto my top twenty list, but I kind of feel like it’s been overhyped. Let’s get into the details.
Chalamet stars as Marty Mauser, an aspiring table tennis phenom, looking to become the world champion of the burgeoning sport. Marty believes in his talent and that he is destined to be the best in the world, and he will stop at nothing to achieve his dreams. That includes lying, cheating, stealing and conning everyone in his way. His family, his (sometimes) girlfriend, his best friends. Anyone who Marty can con into helping him along the way, he will take advantage of, and that was my biggest problem with this film. I just struggled to understand why so many characters were enraptured by this obvious con man.
Marty Supreme was directed by Josh Safdie, who co-directed 2019’s excellent (and spiritual sibling to this film) Uncut Gems with his brother Benny. Like that suspense drama with Adam Sandler, Marty Supreme is a fast-paced nonstop series of vignettes featuring Marty getting into all sorts of adventure and trouble as he pursues the next scheme, laboring through the film’s 2 ½ hour runtime. Some of the outcomes are hysterical, some are ridiculous, and some are poignant. And at the center of nearly every frame is Chalamet who makes the movie worth seeing.
After transforming into Bob Dylan a year ago for A Complete Unknown, the “next greatest actor of his generation” embodies the urgency and manic (and maniacal?) behavior of this character in a truly memorable performance. The speed at which he talks and interacts with so many characters, displaying a wide range of emotions demonstrates why he will likely win the Oscar this year. I am a big fan of Chalamet’s work and it was fun watching him in this performance. The cast assembled by Safdie around the star is also impressive. He balances up and coming actors like Adessa A’zion as Marty’s girlfriend (who happens to be married), with veterans like Gwenyth Paltrow, who is outstanding as a fading movie star that Marty pines for. And then there’s Kevin O’Leary (from TV’s Shark Tank) who is great as Paltrow’s slimy rich husband who Marty tries to con into helping him get to Japan for a big table tennis tournament. Rounding out the cast are dozens of character actors, famous non-actors, and first-time actors that Safdie brought in to create a picture-perfect group of people living in 1950s New York.
So, there is a lot I like about Marty Supreme. I found it very enjoyable, even if the breakneck pace and ridiculous plot developments seem to be overcooked at times. The casting, production design, fantastic needle drops (as well as the score), worked for me. I guess I just downgraded it a bit because the hype surrounding it for months was so insanely high. Perhaps if I watch it again in a few months, my opinion will improve. One word of caution – this movie will not be for everyone. The intensity might be too much for some people and they might find Chalamet’s character so unlikeable (let’s be clear – he’s an asshole conman) that the whole film will turn them off. But that’s ok – not every great movie has perfect people at the center of it. If they did, it wouldn’t be very fun to talk about them afterwards. Marty Supreme is now playing in theaters and will be available to rent on demand on February 3rd.
#13 – Black Bag
Not one, but two Steven Soderbergh movies graced our lives in 2025. The man just doesn’t stop working. He also has at least one more film coming in 2026, so we live in glorious times. His first entry from 2025 was Presence, a ghost story told from the viewpoint of the spirit. Just Soderbergh once again doing something unique behind the camera. I thought that movie was pretty good, but the gimmick outweighed the story, which was kind of subpar.
By contrast, I absolutely adored Black Bag, a zippy 90 minute spy story starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. They play married members of a British intelligence agency who (by necessity) must keep secrets from each other. He is tasked with investigating a mole in the agency and must take some unusual tasks to figure out who is guilty among the list of suspects. Oh yeah, one member of that group just happens to be his wife. This one is so fun and a reminder of just how talented Soderbergh is as a director, helped by a terrific script by master screenwriter David Koepp. You can read more of my thoughts on this film here and stream Black Bag now on Prime Video.
#12 – Rebuilding
It’s the year of Josh O’Connor and we should all celebrate that we are able to enjoy his magnificent acting skills on the big screen. Rebuilding was one of four films that O’Connor starred in this year. The History of Sound, a period-piece drama in which he co-starred with Paul Mescal was pretty good, but should have been better. He played a bumbling art thief in 1970s Massachusetts in The Mastermind, a very good character study directed by the talented Kelly Reichardt. He also played a man of the cloth in a film you will read about in my top ten next week. And then there is Rebuilding, a quiet story of a family man looking to put his life back together after a wildfire destroyed his family farm.
This film takes place in Colorado, where Dusty (O’Connor) is picking up the pieces after he lost everything. He has been relocated to a FEMA camp with other landowners in the same situation he faces. He has no idea what to do next. He has a young daughter with his ex-wife, who occasionally stays with him in his trailer. He desperately wants to build a new farm on the land, but soon learns that the fire has destroyed the viability of the soil. He won’t be able to grow crops there for years, if ever. He considers moving to another state where a relative can give him a job, but he’d have to leave his daughter and the family land.
O’Connor is magnificent in this performance, demonstrating a restraint in playing someone who has every right to feel like life should be a little easier. Whenever challenges arise, he gets creative to figure out a way forward, like when his daughter asks for the Wi-fi password in his trailer. The look he gives her makes it clear that he has no internet, so he takes her to the parking lot of the local library so she can finish her homework by accessing the closed library’s Wi-fi.
Eventually, the government support for the trailer “neighborhood” runs out and the group of survivors have to decide where to go. And that’s where Dusty really gets creative in an emotional sequence that pays off everything we’ve seen up to that point. This is a nice portrait of an ordinary person dealing with some extreme problems, but finding a way to persevere, inspiring every viewer who watches this story. It helps that director Max Walker-Silverman (who also wrote the script) filmed this picture on location in Colorado, so you have incredible landscapes to complement this wonderful story. Rebuilding is now available to rent on demand.
#11 – Eddington
Director Ari Aster is not afraid to make bold choices as a filmmaker and storyteller. From the day his batshit crazy horror movie Hereditary stunned audiences at its premiere during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, he made it clear that he doesn’t make boring movies. I liked Hereditary a lot, as well as Midsommar, his brilliant follow up with Florence Pugh. But his last picture, 2023’s Beau is Afraid, was a big misfire in my book. Thankfully, his new film Eddington was a return to form – keeping viewers uncomfortable, but with a great story and compelling characters.
The film is set in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico during the early days of COVID. At the center of the story is Joaquin Phoenix starring as a local sheriff fed up with COVID restrictions implemented by the mayor, played by Pedro Pascal. They make terrific foils as their petty squabble escalates into more extreme actions as the story unfolds. We also have a number of other characters we saw during those times – high-school activists, conspiracy lunatics, some people acting like idiots, and some wondering why people can’t just act like normal human beings. Like all of Aster’s movies, the third act of Eddington features some pretty crazy plot points. Now, Eddington is not for everyone, since some people may not want to see any sort of story set during COVID times. But if you are willing to go along for the ride and find humor in the absurdity of the most ridiculous aspects of that perilous time in our lives, then this (very) dark comedy-thriller might be for you. You can read more of my thoughts on the film here and stream Eddington now on HBO Max.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with my top ten favorite movies of 2025. Thanks for reading and if you would like to be notified about future posts, you can subscribe below.