10. The Fantastic 4: First Steps, Matt Shakman
9. One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson
8. Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh
7. Materialists, Celine Song
6. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Mary Bronstein
5. F1, Joseph Kosinski
4. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, Peter Browngardt
3. Warfare, Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza
2. Bugonia, Giorgos Lanthimos
1. The Testament of Ann Lee, or: The Woman Clothed by the Sun, with the Moon Beneath Her Feet, Mona Norvold
Lanthimos at play with his muses is my favorite Lanthimos. His relatively smaller scale stories closer to the “Dogtooth” filmmaker we fell in love with have become some of the surest things in current cinema. “Bugonia”, like a feature running time for what could have been a “Kinds of Kindness” chapter, is a blast. Its volatile chemical compound is deeply funny, searingly tense, and about as satisfying as one can ask a movie to be in qualities both formal and basal. Letterboxd.
2025’s greatest opening scene plays porter to as legitimate and involving an Iraq War movie you’re going to see. "Warfare" is a treat to civilians and veterans alike as Garland proves in swift follow-up that his track record-busting “Civil War” wasn’t just a fluke. Now who wants me to compare the film to “Beau travail”? Anyone? Anyone? Fine. Letterboxd.
Years of watchful protection cease as timeless entertainment icons find themselves held down by cynical new bosses even though their celebratory lunacy could literally save the world. Well, Mark Twain did say to write what you know. Delightfully goofy lark "The Day the Earth Blew Up" is made by animation fanatics for animation fanatics, chock with reverence for Porky Pig’s and Daffy Duck’s first appearances and pairings in the ‘30s as well as more modern icons of the medium like “Ren & Stimpy”. It’s relatively minor removed from the context of its scrappy moment, but satisfyingly rewatchable and crafted with a lot of love captained by Browngardt of the similarly-minded “Uncle Grandpa” and its Giant Realistic Flying Tiger. If the characters’ expressive mouths were isolated on blank backdrops there would still be something wild to watch, yet with that standard in place the creators are considerate enough to give us BBL Daffy twerking for likes and that gift cannot be taken for granted. I would warmly anticipate more of these as a new biennial tradition keeping a storied institution and beloved form alive on the big screen for young and for old. Letterboxd.
Kosinski logically follows his prior Tony Scott footsteps (complete with giants Jerry Bruckheimer and Hans Zimmer) with "F1", turning the dogfight cinematography innovations for “Top Gun” to a 360° action cam-infused “Rocky IV”-on-wheels mixed with every masculine movie to ever feature a romantic interest who’s 70% exposition and 30% just-pretend-the-lead-shifted-your-loins-into-first-gear-when-I-call-action. The Formula 1 movie may be definitively formulaic, but its exhilarating presentation of scrappy technical strategy makes “Days of Thunder” look so much more like the Elvis flick “Speedway” by comparison that it ought to win over even some stubborn NASCAR fans understandably put off by Javier Bardem's “best in the world” line. Honestly, this is some of the purest one-and-done summer fun to be had in a movie theatre. Letterboxd.
"If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" is devastatingly hilarious and hilariously devastating. Like “Daisy Diamond” driven into a head-on collision with “Eraserhead” by a practically Julianne Moore-esque turn from Rose Byrne. Letterboxd.
On the welcome promise of a cute trifle, “Materialists” over-delivers at cruising altitude after the turbulent takeoff of its useless framing device - a lone glaring blemish. With her bangs the slender Dakota Johnson is like Judy Greer cosplaying Anne Hathaway. And Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal bring enough Clark Gable and Cary Grant to the affair I ended up wishing it was all in black & white. Vastly improving upon her similarly promising but wholly mediocre “Past Lives”, Strong sees through the fresh yet classic-feeling angle of a stubbornly analytical woman un-learning the business of love in order to find her true heart. This theme unfolds through conversation that comes off calculated but says much more in the thoughts it guides us to between the words, and something so cynical on the surface becomes an emotional affirmation significantly surmounting even optimistic expectation. Letterboxd.
Spies Wide Shut! "Black Bag" is dry enough that there’s a lid on just how much it can truly be loved, but steadily gorgeous and as engrossing as any celebrated Golden Age thriller. Koepp and Soderbergh respect their trusting audience enough to let the readily attentive feel we may be ahead, until of course it’s time to leave us in the dust for just a moment before the signature recontextualization. If there’s any notable blemish, it’s that the casting tips the hand just enough to get you figuring before any real figuring is intended. But if you’re too confused or confounded to follow at all, as with “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” before it, this wickedly funny film does at least let you get by on pure sumptuous vibes. Letterboxd.
Yeah, "One Battle After Another" is pretty darn representative of what it’s like raising a teenage daughter. The ever-morphing PTA we’ve known does occasionally remain evident here if you really look for him, but he’s otherwise disappeared into a Nixon-era Friedkin-like the setting of which manages to be pressingly modern. What could be drearily punishing subject matter gets stirred with a steady breeze of levity, making overconfident buffoons of contemporarily realistic villains we are led to cathartically pump our fists at when they get one-upped. All the while this solidly constructed thing clips along swiftly with more piano plinks than any recent “Legend of Zelda” game (or “Sydney’s Loop”, for that matter), and if its climax had been part of a film from that early ‘70s era it evokes we would still be discussing its classic ingenuity alongside the likes of “Bullitt” and “The French Connection”. Letterboxd.
Excelsior! Following James Gunn’s exit with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” the MCU was in need of a new family unit for us to latch on to, and the iconic yet damaged Fantastic Four brand didn’t have to at last be done quite this right to have filled the void. “Fantastic 4: First Steps” is a piece so ingrained in modern mythos it is only possible at this point in a historic cinematic continuity that has over time become too easy to take for granted, its world so deeply imaginative we have no choice but to take it for granted in its moment to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Just in terms of dramatic storytelling, it is astounding how swift a pace the narrative maintains while utilizing pointedly broad characterization and the innate significance of anachronistic Americana to make even its exposition-heavy montage moments land with evocative heft. In a comparison that would be all too conveniently timed were it not so apt, like Gunn’s “Superman” the film gleefully gets away with being definitively geeky as it bypasses its characters’ overly familiar origin. Unlike with the new “Superman”, though, freshened takes on pop culture figures like Ben Grimm are effectively introduced a la Gunn’s Drax in the franchise’s best introductory entry since that first “Guardians”, all while leaving us wanting their collective arc’s second act. Also, add this next to “Shadow in the Cloud” in the motherhood-as-a-superpower canon. Letterboxd.
Complete 2025 rankings on Letterboxd (subject to change).
