There are objective measures for the quality of a film, but the only way to arrive at a critical rating is to apply subjective judgements to each criterion. For that reason, year-end, best-of lists are always personal affairs. Still, they serve a valuable purpose in the same manner as any quality criticism, by helping likeminded viewers find works they may have otherwise missed. With that in mind, here are the six films that most resonated with me in 2025.
- Eternity:
Writer-director David Freyne’s beautiful dramedy about love, memory, and the elements that make life worthwhile flew largely under the radar, making less than $30 million worldwide. Hopefully, that’s remedied now that the film is available to rent or purchase at home.
Elizabeth Olsen stars as Joan, a recently deceased woman forced to make an impossible choice: spend eternity with her second husband of 65 years (Miles Teller) or her first husband (Callum Turner), a wonderful man who died during the Korean War. Freyne and co-writer Patrick Cunnane keep the material from spinning too dark with lots of cute gags about the imagined afterlife, but heartfelt performances by Olsen, Teller, Turner and a solid supporting cast land the film among the most thoughtful and memorable of the year.
- Sinners:
Michael B. Jordan excels in a dual role, playing identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack, a pair of smalltime hustlers who open a juke joint in the Jim Crow South. Writer-director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed, Fruitvale Station) unspools his story methodically, so much so that its second-act shift into horror is as surprising as intense. Sinners is a horror movie, but it comments on familial bonds, race relations, the power of music, and the nature of evil. This is heady stuff wrapped in an easily digestible package, and it’s highly recommended if you don’t mind a particularly gory finale.
- Dead Man’s Wire:
In February 1977, Anthony “Tony” Kiritsis took Richard “Dick” Hall, the president of Meridian Mortgage Company, hostage at gunpoint in Indianapolis. Kiritsis demanded an apology from Hall’s father (the owner of the company), as well as compensation for perceived wrongdoing. This led to a three-day standoff that became a media sensation. Despite the decades that have passed, this story feels at home in a 21st-century world where Luigi Mangioni became a minor celebrity after assassinating an insurance company executive.
Director Gus Van Sant (Milk, Good Will Hunting) stops short of celebrating Kiritsis, but he tells the story with an irresistible intimacy that allows viewers to at least empathize with the character. Both Bill Skarsgård (as Kiritsis) and Dacre Montgomery (as Hall) deliver incredible performances in a movie that is sometimes funny, often sad, and always filled with tension. Credit also goes to the great Colman Domingo (portraying a fictionalized radio DJ swept into the case) and Al Pacino (as Hall’s father).
George Clooney dazzles as the title character, an aging actor who reexamines his life after a chance run-in with his college roommate (Billy Crudup). Kelly is a huge star who needs numerous handlers just to get through ridiculously demanding days. Most important is Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), a fastidious manager who makes sure Jay takes the right parts, shows up where he is supposed to, and stays out of trouble. When Jay realizes his relationship with his daughters is strained, he questions his life choices, leading to a beautiful meditation on the hidden cost of fame. Sandler, who is always strong in dramatic roles, is a nice counterpart to Clooney, and writer-director Noah Baumbach gets the best from his entire cast.
- F1: The Movie:
It’s not exactly highbrow to place an international brand in the title of your movie, but director Joseph Kosinski’s F1 is more than an advertisement for car racing. Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, an aging driver who makes a living bouncing from one small-time race to another. It seems cliché when his friend Ruben (Javier Bardem) convinces him to return to the extreme pressure of international F1 racing, and it’s more cliché that Sonny is facing demons from a past accident.
Add an adversarial relationship with the race team’s hotshot youngster (Damson Idris), and you have all the pieces for a commonplace sports drama. Somehow Kosinski, Pitt and Idris elevate this material far beyond expectations, delivering one of the best racing films I’ve seen. It is exciting, emotionally rewarding. and just plain entertaining.
My personal biases are displayed here. As a lifelong fan of the Man of Steel, I’ve seen plenty of bad-to-mediocre readings of the character. It’s a special movie that gets everything right, and writer-director James Gunn and star David Corenswet deliver. This is easily the best Superman movie since Christopher Reeves donned the cape in the late-1970s. Corenswet and Gunn make sure their title hero is as empathetic as he is powerful and as kind as he is quick, and that has always been the best reading.
Gunn realizes Superman’s unshakable optimism is more interesting than his ability to fly, so he designed a story with that quality upfront, and he executed flawlessly. It helps that all supporting characters are well developed as well.
Rachel Brosnahan is a sassy-but-lovable Lois Lane; Nicholas Hoult is diabolical as Lex Luthor; Nathan Fillion provides comic relief as a self-centered Green Lantern; and Edi Gathegi‘s Mr. Terrific steals nearly every scene he enters.
Superman is more than a great superhero picture. It’s a work of art.
Author Bio:
Forrest Hartman is the chief film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine