My Top 10 Films of 2025
- Louis Saddler
- 6 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Another year in the books, which means another year-end Top 10 film list from me, as well as another picture that requires some explanation.
Walk with and bear with me while I take you through the explanation: Love it or hate it, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners had an overwhelmingly positive impact on cinema in 2025. First and foremost, it put people in theaters, as its $368 million in box-office receipts clearly indicate, at a time when such a thing continues to trend downward. Culturally, it renewed interest in the blues and the history of the Mississippi Delta. It also led folks to start caring about film nerd things, like why the size of a theater screen matters (thanks to Coogler’s tutorial on aspect ratios). An all-around win for most folks…except those who wanted Sinners to fail.
Leading up to its opening weekend, numerous entertainment outlets projected Sinners would only make $30-$40 million in its first weekend, which would make it a box office failure as it wouldn’t be on track to recoup its $90-$100 million budget (a film must double its budget to be profitable). As Sinners beat those projections by making $101 million in its first 2 weekends alone on the way to making the aforementioned $368 million during its theatrical run, those same outlets refused to let Sinners have its win. They began pushing some forthcoming films as having the potential to equal or best Sinners’s critical and financial success.
So what does this have to do with the pic I created and used? The names on those doors are just some of the films (there’s a much longer list than I use) those outlets openly rooted for to beat Sinners. From a critical standpoint, all 3 are pretty good films. Heck, One Battle After Another made my top 10, and Hamnet would have made my top 20. None hit critics or the public like Sinners. Financially, the numbers speak for themselves: OBAA - $203 million against a $175 million budget, Hamnet - $11 million/$35 million, Marty Supreme - $28 million/$70 million. Even when Hamnet’s and Marty Supreme’s theater counts are considered, they still can’t touch Sinners.
So basically, the pic is a shoutout to Sinners, my best film of 2025, for still winning despite folks trying to market it into failure.
About the rest of my top 10, the films I have full reviews for are hyperlinked to those reviews, and the ones I haven’t reviewed have hyperlinks to their trailers. The only movie I haven’t seen that I think could have made the list is The Secret Agent, and I’ll fix that in a few days. Without further ado, here’s the list:
There’s plenty I could say about this one, but I think I said it all in the review. The only things I’ll add to that are 1) Now that I’ve seen more of the contending performances, Michael B. Jordan absolutely deserves an Oscar nom for Best Actor, as does Delroy Lindo. 2) I think Oscar Night will be better for Sinners than a lot of folks think.
Hate this one wasn’t talked about more outside cinephile circles because what Eva Victor pulls off as a writer, director, and actress here extends well beyond cinema. Sorry, Baby avoids exploiting its character’s traumatic experience and transforms it into one where its survivors can move forward without neglecting what happened or the care needed to navigate that journey. Impossible to walk away from this one without a heightened understanding and empathy towards a highly complex matter.
The title makes all the sense in the world once you get into this one. The beauty of Legs is its unflinching exploration of motherhood. While the circumstances in the film may not directly mirror your experience(s), Mary Bornstein’s script and Rose Byrne’s performance provide more than enough authenticity for one to consider whether they take mothers and what they do for granted.
It was more thriller than horror, but I loved every second of this one. Not only was it one of the better-written horror films of the year, Weapons might also be one of the best-written of the year, regardless of genre. Unpredictable and chilling, with just the right amount of humor to keep it self-aware. The ensemble cast’s performances were also elite, especially Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys and Austin Abrams as James.
One of the year’s more ambitious films, as it took on the polarizing politics and social movements of pandemic America. While I loved the critiques of both sides, I hated that Ari Aster got a little too self-indulgent and made the film run longer than it needed to. Still, the points made and another good Joaquin Phoenix turn overshadow that flaw to me.
I’ll leave the film’s subjects for you to watch and draw your own conclusions, because the watching experience for this one is everything you think and feel while viewing. I wouldn’t dare touch that or attempt to influence it. However, from a purely cinematic perspective, the fact that director Geeta Gandbhir told the story using solely police bodycam footage is something I’ve remained in awe of all year.
Just as timely and good as its 2016 predecessor. The earnest theme of seeing the humanity in each other shines through without all the jargon and heavy-handed preaching that usually accompany that type of messaging. Adding the importance of history to this entry makes it my favorite Zootopia, and what earned it a spot on this list.
Look, Paul Thomas Anderson made a heck of a movie with One Battle After Another. Acting? Three of the supporting actors (Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Teyana Taylor) all have a legitimate Oscar argument. Cinematography and editing? Easily among the top 3 of the year. Script? Arguably a frontrunner for best adapted screenplay. So if OBAA is so great, why is it so low on my list when others have it in their top 2? I found OBAA to be way more style than substance. Great watch, but I got nothing beyond how great it looked and sounded.
It’s well-acted, thanks to one of the better yet more subtle performances of the year from lead Joel Edgerton and one of the more slept-on supporting turns from William H. Macy, but the cinematography, editing, and script are the real stars. The cinematography and editing capture the Northwest Pacific wilderness as if it were a character in the film. The script, narrated mainly through Will Patton, features vivid, image-inducing language so good that you can close your eyes and still visualize what should be on the screen in conjunction with each read word.
Don’t let the subtitles and slow pace scare you from this one. It takes a while for this one to get going and maybe to keep up with the captions, but it gets special when the second act kicks off after Mohammad Ali Elyasmehr. The third act is where the film ascends to the top tier of 2025 films, and the questions surrounding justice and revenge really hit home. The ending is definitely something that will be a lecture/writing assignment in multiple college courses for years to come.
Just missed the cut
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