For most of the last 12 months, I thought of 2025 as a very weird year for film. There were a lot of high-profile flops including one what’s being considered a front runner for the Best Picture Oscar, ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, but also movies like the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and TRON sequels, and the SNOW WHITE and THE RUNNING MAN remakes, while flicks that looked like they might be soulless, cash-grabbing reboots like SUPERMAN, and THE NAKED GUN turned out to be decent crowd-pleasers.
But when it came to the last few months while catching up with many of the year’s releases, which were way less mainstream than those mentioned above, I started thinking of 2025 as a very good, and challenging year for film. There were great political thrillers, moving dramas whether personal or historical (or both), and three films that made my list that had characters named Agnes.
While there are still a number of films I haven’t seen (there always are; you can’t see everything), it’s time to post my personal Top 10 of the year, six of which are Best Picture nominees. So here goes the countdown:
10. NO OTHER CHOICE (Dir. Park Chan-wook)
Nominated for the Best International Film Oscar, this South Korean black comedy, which I've seen some online commentator liken to a mash-up of PARASITE and A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM is as compelling as it is wickedly amusing from start to finish.
9. SORRY, BABY (Dir. Eva Victor)
Eva Victor’s impressive directorial debut, which she wrote and stars in, delivers a darkly quirky take on trauma. Victor as a New England graduate student Agnes, who is sexually assaulted by a professor, puts in a genuine, lived-in performance, and her scenes with her best friend Lydie (an also appealing Naomi Ackie) have an affecting warmth. It’s a shame Academy voters didn’t give SORRY, BABY some love.
8. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Dir. Jafar Panahi)
7. SINNERS (Dir. Ryan Coogler)
Receiving a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations, Ryan Cooglar’s supernatural thriller SINNERS made for a better, more thoughtful, though equally twisted, take on the FROM DUSK TO DAWN scenario mixed with the CROSSROADS deal with the devil deal to great impact. As it was a big office hit with great critical acclaim, it’s due to take home quite a bit of gold on March 15. He has some stiff competition (DiCaprio, Chalamet) in the Best Acting category, but for his killer double turn as the Smokestack Twins, Michael B. Jordan could pull off an upset.
This thoroughly engaging political thriller - yes, another political thriller - got four Academy Award noms last week, for both Best Picture, and Best International Feature Film then Best Actor for Wagner Moura, and in the new category of Best Casting. Set in 1977 during the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, the film features Moura as a research scientist on the run from hitman as he attempts to flee the country with his son.
5. HAMNET (Dir. Chloé Zhao)
The absolute antithesis of John Madden’s 1998 historical rom com SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (which won seven Oscars!), this emotionally-driven adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name is a haunting experience, especially in its heart-wrenching last third. Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley star as William and Agnes Shakespeare, with the film focusing on the birth of their children, and subsequent death of their son Hamnet at age 11. The channeling of this tragedy into art, as seen through Agnes’ reaction is stirringly transcendent, and I believe Buckley should be handed the Best Actress statue for her performance. HAMNET got eight Oscar noms (including Best Picture) so here's hoping that happens.
4. TIE: BLUE MOON / NOUVELLE VAGUE (Dir. Richard Linklater)
This may seem like a cheat, but I truly equally enjoyed Richard Linklater's two period piece offerings this last year, and am especially glad that Ethan Hawke got nominated for his terrific turn as famed lyricist/songwriter Lorenz Hart though I doubt he'll win. The Broadway BLUE MOON concerns Hart on the opening night of his former writing partner Richard Rodgers’ musical Oklahoma! in 1943, while NOUVELLE VAGUE is about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic BREATHLESS in 1959. Both films are loving, and ultra charming tributes to innovative artists, and their eras, and both should not be missed.
3. SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Dir. Joachim Trier)
Joachim Trier’s touching drama about an acclaimed filmmaker portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård hoping to reconnect with his daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve), and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) via a new film project that he wants Nora to star in. Elle Fanning, who got one of the film’s nine nominations, appears as an American actress who takes on the role when Nora refuses. Like HAMNET it explores handling tragic loss through artistic expression, but in a vastly different manner. Trier's work has artsy elements but handles them unpretentiously, and with an absorbing elegance.
2. TRAIN DREAMS (Dir. Clint Bentley)
This is absolutely the best film I’ve ever seen about grief, which, I have to admit, I really didn’t understand until losing my father last April. In Clint Bentley’s adaptation of Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, Joel Edgerton plays Idaho logger and railroad worker Robert Grainier, who loses his wife (Felicity Jones), and child in a forest fire and has to navigate through a lonely existence. Evocatively ghosty, with unforgettable vivid imagery, TRAIN DREAMS definitely got to me, and here's hoping more folks seek it out on Netflix.
(Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
While it underperformed at the box office, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1oth feature is one of the most acclaimed movies of 2025, and I’m among the many who have praised it as I voted for it for Best Picture in the year-end poll for the North Carolina Film Critics Association (NCFCA). Leonardo DiCaprio as a burned-out ex revolutionary heads the strong cast including Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, and a crusty AF Sean Penn as the scary Col. Steven J. Lockjaw in this twisted chaotic and comic action thriller that finds Anderson at the top of its game. With 13 noms, it's second in nominations to SINNERS, but I’m pulling for it to take home the big ones. With nearly a dozen noms but no wins, it really feels with this extraordinary piece of work like it’s finally PTA’s time.
Now, I’ll leave you with this hilarious commercial parody, featuring host Teyana Taylor, from last weekend's Saturday Night Live for a line of ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER action figures new from Mattel:
More later...
