I Watched 166 New Releases In 2025, And These Are My 15 Favorite Movies

At the start of every January, I present myself with a fresh movie challenge. I look back at the past year, note how many new releases I watched, and I begin the effort to try and top that number. It’s worked out very well. In 2022, my total ended up being 128, with Everything Everywhere All At Once being my overall favorite (up from 107 in 2021). In 2023, I watched 138 new films, with Poor Things being the one that really blew me away. And in 2024, The Substance was the best of the 140 titles screened. As for this year, I ended up seeing 166 fresh features in 2025, counting both theatrical and streaming titles across all genres, and among them, I saw a lot of amazing stuff.

But what would I consider the best movie among everything I saw? That’s a tough question that I’ve been mulling for much of December, with new delights and surprises emerging every month and causing my rankings to shift… but now I’m out of time, and it’s time to make some calls. I won’t lie and say that the following order might change with a year or even possibly a month of reflection, but what I will say is that the following list represents my favorite 15 films I saw in 2025.

15. The Monkey

I am what could be described as a Stephen King devotee, so in a year when four new adaptations arrived on the big screen, it probably won’t be all that surprising to learn that a number of them made it on this list (spoiler alert: that number is three). It begins with Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, which is a bonkers and wonderful take on its short story source material and represents a terrific 180-degree turn from the filmmaker’s prior creation (Longlegs was number four on my list last year). Between its blunt sensibilities and gratuitous splatter, I’m 100 percent its target audience.

14. The Rule Of Jenny Pen

James Ashcroft’s The Rule Of Jenny Pen is not just a creepy nightmare; it’s a downright mean movie, and I can get behind that kind of cinematic effort when it’s done right. Geoffrey Rush’s Judge Stefan Mortensen is as unlikable a protagonist as could be found on the big screen in 2025, and he would be the despicable villain in any other story… if it weren’t for the unholy terror that is John Lithgow’s Dave Crealy. The character dynamics are fascinating, while Ashcroft’s direction keeps your fingernails embedded deep in your armrests.

13. Influencers

If it isn’t immediately clear from this list so far, I was particularly impressed with the output from the horror genre in 2025, and it’s a range that spans from major studio releases to indie sequels. Kurtis David Harder’s Influencers is from the latter camp, and if you haven’t yet seen it or its predecessor – 2022’s Influencer – yet, you would be well-served to remedy that. The new sequel has surprises from the jump that make it difficult to recommend without giving too much away, but it can be said that CW (the phenomenal Cassandra Naud) is back and hasn’t lost a step in deftly developing traps for spoiled and jaded internet stars.

12. Train Dreams

Given the sheer volume of movies I watch, I love it when a film can genuinely surprise me, and while that fact is well-represented in this ranking with movies full of twists and clever reveals, Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams is special because it doesn’t deal in big plot machinations or carefully guided arcs. Instead, it opts to be a simple depiction of a tough-but-ordinary 20th-century life, and it’s utterly beautiful. Joel Edgerton delivers one of the most soulful performances of the year as the humble Robert Grainier, and I love its philosophy regarding purpose.

11. No Other Choice

In grasping for silver linings in what are dark times for society, I suppose one is that now might be a burgeoning golden era for both horror and pitch black satire – with Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice being a tremendous entry in the latter genre. The power of desperation is not to be underestimated, and the journey of Lee Byung-hun’s Man-su to land a coveted job by murdering all of his potential competition is darkly hilarious (in part because Man-sun is not a particularly adept killer) and rich with valuable social commentary.

10. Superman

I think it’s fair to say that the landscape for superhero movies hasn’t been the same since 2020. That has only added to the tremendous challenge facing writer/director/DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn in building the developing DC Universe – but that also makes Superman all the more stunning an accomplishment. It’s a blockbuster properly developed in a post-origins culture in that it offers both what feels like a lived-in world full of colorful characters and a story that emerges from personality and emotion instead of forced plot developments.

9. Final Destination: Bloodlines

The Monkey scratched my itch for complex circumstances resulting in bloody mayhem when it arrived in theaters in February, but there is no true substitute for the Rube Goldberg-esque violence of the Final Destination franchise, and Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s Bloodlines has everything I want as I fan. The kills are extraordinary (there’s a new number one in my ranking of every death scene in the series), and the script does a clever job of both answering big picture questions and maintaining mysteries (keeping the door open for hopefully many, many, many more sequels to come).

8. The Life Of Chuck

Let’s pivot back to talking Stephen King adaptations, shall we? I have spent the majority of the last decade marveling at writer/director Mike Flanagan’s ability to adapt even the most complicated King stories as features (specifically with Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep), but The Life Of Chuck is a whole new level. Instead of trying to translate King’s complex novella – structured as three distinct parts that play out in reverse chronological order – Flanagan opts to just trust the source material, his emotional skills as a filmmaker and an outstanding ensemble cast. The result is a gorgeous movie about existence and the miracle of a life lived.

7. Bring Her Back

Is it strange to pivot from the extreme beauty of The Life Of Chuck to the unrelenting grimness of Danny and Michael Philippou’s Bring Her Back? Most definitely, but that’s not something that is really in consideration in constructing this ranking. As was the case with the Australian brothers’ feature debut Talk To Me, my great affection for the work principally comes from two things: the unflinching style that can make even the most seasoned genre veteran flinch and a skill for building lore that opts to trust the audience and doesn’t diminish the terror with an avalanche of exposition. Additionally, based on all of the end-of-year chatter I’ve seen, Sally Hawkins is not getting nearly enough love for her deeply unsettling turn.

6. The Long Walk

We’ve arrived at Stephen King movie #3, and between the extreme content and the logistics of the production, it’s a film that I never expected to get made. But director Francis Lawrence certainly knows a thing or two about big-screen dystopia, and his work on The Long Walk is staggering. The film makes a regular habit of socking you in the gut, both in its violent content and relatable themes, but the beauty within it is remarkable to behold, and the bond between Cooper Hoffman’s Ray Garraty and David Jonsson’s Peter McVries is easily one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in cinema in 2025.

5. Marty Supreme

Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme is an enigma, and it’s purely because of Timothée Chalamet’s turn as titular protagonist Marty Mauser. If we were to meet in real life, he’s a guy who I’d want nothing to do with, as arrogance and selfishness radiate so significantly they practically create an aura… and yet, his hustle and quest for glory is one of the most entrancing things I’ve seen in a theater this year. Hating a character but admiring the hell out of his hustle is a strange brew, but it’s an experience that is funny and thrilling in equal measure.

4. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

While watching Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, I couldn’t help but reflect on my experiences seeing Josh and Bennie Safdie’s Uncut Gems and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook: all three films share in common an overwhelming atmosphere that makes the audience want to curl up into a ball and die (and in case it’s not clear, I say that with great admiration). The awesome Rose Byrne makes you feel every ounce of her stress as life becomes evermore punishing, and Bronstein’s impressive and intense handheld style instantly makes her a talent to watch.

3. Weapons

Walking out of Zach Cregger’s Weapons this summer, I was euphoric. This was in large part because of the film’s diabolical and hellacious ending that had the entire theater hooting and hollering, but it was also a reflection of my love for the immaculately crafted experience. The complexity of each dark character is enthralling and wonderful (it’s legitimately hard to pick a favorite from the trio of Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Amy Madigan), and insistence on ending each chapter right as it hits its climax is cheeky, impish and perfectly earned.

2. Sinners

I knew that Sinners was going to end up toward the top of my end-of-year list when writer/director Ryan Coogler cited inspiration from the Coen brothers, John Carpenter, and Stephen King… and yet, I still found myself wholly bowled over by the experience that the movie delivers. The fantastical musical sequence in the juke joint alone will be remembered as one of the greatest contributions to 21st-century cinema, but every little thing about the film works – from its stunning and powerful ensemble (led by the genius of Michael B. Jordan in the year’s best dual role) to its compelling genre blend of crime and horror.

1. One Battle After Another

In anticipation of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, I spent part of my summer reading Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland (the book on which the film is partially based), and for the life of me, I couldn’t fathom how it was going to become a movie. The answer to that puzzle turned out to be “use all of the best stuff, ignore all the rest,” and it’s genius. It’s a perfect film for the moment in which our world currently finds itself – in that it’s both reflective and inspiring – but it’s also just a phenomenal crossbreed of revolutionary thriller and stoner comedy. Anderson adapting Pynchon topped my personal list 11 years ago when Inherent Vice was released, and such is the case again in 2025.

I’ve already started to wonder how many films I’ll see next year: will it be 175? Perhaps 190? Maybe there will be enough must-see material that I end up going over 200. I can’t wait to find out as we move past 2025 and start diving into the 2026 movie release calendar.