Today marks the final chapter of The Beat‘s biggest-ever Best Of, with the Best Movies of 2025.
Our staff and contributors compiled more than 20 of their favorite flicks from the last year, ranging from documentaries to horror to animation and more. While there are some titles here that will seem obvious based on media buzz and awards discussion, there are also some surprise gems—so hopefully, you can find something new to add to your watchlist before the year is out.
Without further ado, here are The Beat‘s Best Movies of 2025.
Blue Moon
Director: Richard Linklater
Script: Robert Kaplow
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
One of the great works of theater made for the big screen. A hang out movie that concludes with the main character dying alone in the streets from pneumonia. A love letter to Broadway written with empathy and warmth. Ethan Hawke’s best performance, period. A tour de force for everyone involved. — Sean Dillon
Boorman and the Devil
Director: David Kittredge
Studio: Triple Fire Productions
The Exorcist II: The Heretic, directed by John Boorman, is one of the most baffling horror sequels to ever have been put on the big screen. It’s the antithesis of the original William Friedkin classic, which is widely considered the best horror movie ever made. How could this happen, you ask?
Well, David Kittredge’s documentary on the making of it, Boorman and the Devil, offers a very entertaining answer. The film captures the director’s earnest intentions, especially as it pertains to the desire not to essentially remake The Exorcist. The journey is funny, confounding, and always fascinating. More importantly, it gives as complete a picture as we’re getting on how something like Heretic ever got the green light for distribution. — Ricardo Serrano
Bring Her Back
Director: Danny & Michael Phillipou
Script: Danny & Michael Phillipou, Billy Hinzman
Studio: Causeway Films
I was eager to see how Aussie twins the Phillipous would follow 2023’s teen ghost parable Talk to Me. Who knew it would be a disturbingly bleak domestic horror starring the brilliant Sally Hawkins as a desperate grieving mother, or that one table-biting scene would rival the car bit in Weapons for the biggest gasp-inducer of the year?
Bring Her Back might be yet another ‘elevated horror’ where grief is the real monster, but devastatingly touching performances from Hawkins and her unfortunate foster children, played by Billy Barrat and Sora Wong, not to mention Jonah Wren Phillips, who inspires heebie-jeebies with a mere muted, dead-eyed stare, make this a viewing experience that turning the lights back on afterwards won’t easily dispel. — Hannah Collins
Castration Movie Anthology II: The Best of Both Worlds
Director/Script: Louise Weard
Studio: Hentai Cop Films
The feel bad movie of the year. Quite literally spending five hours inside of a cult obsessed with AI, purity, and hot dogs. The back half’s exploration of detransition, decay, and freedom is quite possibly the most engrossing thing put to screen this year. And the final hour and a half is quite horrifying in ways that make one need to step back and hug the people they love. Absolutely bleak cinema where there is no comfort to be found, even in escaping the cruelty of confinement. One of the most engrossing films of the year and its sequel is surely to be a shot of acid in the eyestem. A must see. — Sean Dillon
Come See Me in the Good Light
Director: Ryan White
Studio: Amplify Pictures, Tripod Media
Eddington
Director/Script: Ari Aster
Studio: A24
Ari Aster’s take on the western should surprise no one. He turns the morality of westerns on their head with Joaquin Phoenix’s “good guy” sheriff Joe Cross trying to “clean up” his town during the pandemic from the “evil” of its mayor played to smarmy perfection by Pedro Pascal. No one is a hero here and the final scenes are filled with empty heroism. Its bleak and absurd look into the heart of American darkness feels more relevant the more I think back on it.
The brilliance of this film lies in Aster being willing to say that there is no single Joe Cross in America. This is a country filled with them. Other than maybe One Battle After Another, few films nail America’s current political climate. This story might be “too soon” for some, but honestly we’re still living in that moment. — D. Morris
Flow
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Script: Matīss Kaža, Gints Zilbalodis
Studio: Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five
With a staggered international release, this one sneaks into the 2025 Best Movies list. An absolutely stunning animation featuring a little cat trying to survive a great flood, and the adventure that unfolds. Wordless, beautiful—this Latvian/French/Belgian coproduction is an immersive and emotive treat. — Dean Simons
Frankenstein
Director/Script: Guillermo Del Toro
Adapted from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Studio: Double Dare You, Demilo Films, Bluegrass 7, Netflix
Guillermo Del Toro’s lifelong passion project finally comes to life. Frankenstein is the director indulging in every sense of the word. Beautiful and ornate in its production design, including stunning costumes, make-up and sets, Del Toro’s long-awaited adaptation of Mary Shelley’s legendary novel reinterprets it to be a story about fathers and sons, how generational trauma echoes through time, and how to find meaning without truly knowing how to love.
Led by Oscar Isaac’s brilliant and madcap performance as Victor Frankenstein, the real heart of the film is a pitch-perfect supporting performance from Jacob Elordi as The Creature, who infuses the film with a gentle heart and soul. It’s big, beautiful, messy and operatic, and I loved every minute of it. — Jared Bird
Good Fortune
Director/Script: Aziz Ansari
Studio: Lionsgate
One of the most surprising films I saw in the theater this year was Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune. A comedy that juggles supernatural forces, class wars, and romance all at the same time while always being consistently funny. Great performances by Ansari, Seth Rogan, and Keanu Reeves have some of the best jokes. Some Trading Places energy with Ansari and Rogan changing classes fits very much with the now of the gig economy, and the most cathartic rich guy being poor all of the sudden in a long time.
Reeves’s angel learning to be human and experience life—while being a screwup angel—is perfect for him. It’s great to see him get to be funny besides being a sad action guy or a longing romantic guy. Keke Palmer grounds the movie as Ansari’s love interest, along with being a good moral center. I don’t think many saw this film, but it’s one of my favorites of the year and one of my highest-rated on Rotten Tomatoes. I hope some of what I said can get as many to watch it as possible. — Julian Lytle
Hamnet
Director: Chloe Zhao
Script: Chloe Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell
Adapted from Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Studio: Hera Pictures, Neal Street Productions, Amblin Entertainment, Book of Shadows
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name, and who shared scripting duties with director Chloe Zhao, Hamnet uses the domestic life and parental loss of Shakespeare as a rough jumping-off point for a period slowburner of magnificent depth and lyrical detail.
As she did in the awards-sweeper Nomadland, Zhao nestles Paul Mescal’s William Shakespeare and Jesse Buckley’s Anne Hathaway, his wife, in enveloping, cinematic landscapes, enhanced by Max Richter’s delicate, emotive score. ‘Emotive’ is an understatement for how Hamnet burrows under your skin and wrings every last tear from you. I was hollowed out by Mescal and Buckley’s extraordinary performances, and enriched by Zhao’s humanistic storytelling. Get this woman another Oscar or two, please! — Hannah Collins
It Was Just an Accident
Director/Script: Jafar Panahi
Studio: Memento Distribution
It is extremely tempting to base the quality of the film on its importance. And, by all accounts, it is an extremely important film both with regards to Iranian cinema and the wider culture therein. But that would deny engaging with one of the most tense films of the year. A thriller about the nature and necessity of revenge featuring the single best final shot of 2025. A gut punch of a film. — Sean Dillon
Karmadonna
Director/Script: Aleksandar Radivojevic
Currently seeking U.S. distribution
From the co-writer of A Serbian Film, Karmadonna starts off as a case of “old man yelling at clouds.” But it quickly sheds the description, leading to a much larger focus on how bad people are and what should be done about them. It’s not subtle, but it’s a curious call to action pointed at consequence rather than indignation.
A pregnant woman receives a call from a man that claims to be God. He orders her to kill the people he wants or suffer a miscarriage. From there, it’s a senses-shattering experience that is relentless and uncompromising. Radivojevic wants something to change, so he made a movie that indulges in excess to get people off their butts to call bad things out. It’s violent and unpleasant. Then again, wake-up slaps to the face usually are. — Ricardo Serrano
KPop Demon Hunters
Director: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
Script: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan
Studio: Sony Pictures Animation
With a title that sounds like studio executive Madlibs for a surefire tween hit, KPop Demon Hunters is 2025’s Barbie, but with little—if any—of the 2023 cultural phenomenon’s marketing might pre-release; word of mouth hits these days are impressive rarities.
Three teen K-pop idols top the charts by day as Huntrix, and chop demons by night as the latest in a long line of musically-charged warriors. So far, so standard superhero stuff, but throw in a rival demonic boyband, an infectious soundtrack from bona fide industry talent, dynamic Spider-Verse animation, and hearty wit and warmth, and this is a film to rival modern Disney musical classics like Frozen and Encanto. — Hannah Collins
Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra
Director/Script: Dominic Arun
Studio: Wayfarer Films
A wholly original superhero interconnected universe emerges with no source material to predict what is going to happen next. And it is good. How often does that happen? The elusive Chandra (played by Kalyani Priyadarshan) arrives in Bengaluru, India in advance of a mission but trouble always finds her. Through her neighbour and his goofy friends we learn who and what she is, her ties to South Indian mythology, and that there is a pantheon of beings in the wings. For all its flaws, I have remained fascinated by the concepts, the action sequences, and the music of this out-of-the-blue Malayalam-language release. — Dean Simons
Marty Supreme
Director: Josh Safdie
Script: Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
Studio: A24
Finally, the return of the sports movie! Josh Safdie’s solo debut once again creates a piece of high stress, high tension, and high wire filmmaking. Timothée Chalamet gives what must be his most electrifying performance as Marty Mauser, the table tennis wunderkind. Well at least he’s a wunderkind in his own mind. If he’s anything, he’s a hustler trying to con his way to the top of the table tennis world stage. When he plays against a Japanese player who’s both his equal and his polar opposite, that’s when this film takes off. Just an incredible character study of a man who wants to make the American dream happen for himself while he commits self-sabotage at every turn. — D. Morris
No Other Choice
Director: Park Chan-wook
Script: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Lee, Ja-hye
Adapted from The Ax by Donald Westlake
Studio: Neon
This adaptation of Donald Westlake’s The Ax by Park Chan-wook sees the master director once again tackle his favorite subject: desperate people forced to commit terrible deeds due to circumstances. After getting fired in a corporate buy out, paper man Yoo Man-su (Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun in an incredible performance) must find work before his family is kicked out of their house. He comes up with a novel solution: murder his competition so the company is forced to rehire him.
Park makes a film part Hitchcock thriller and part Looney Tunes cartoon. Yoo’s plans to dispatch his competitors get increasingly absurd. Yet for all the wackiness in here, he never shies away from how dark this entire situation truly is for its protagonist. Few understand how easily men will embrace the darkness in their soul like Park does, and No Other Choice ranks among his best explorations. — D. Morris
One Battle After Another
Director/Script: Paul Thomas Anderson
Adapted from Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Studio: Warner Bros.
One Battle After Another is very much an absolute blast in the cinema. The kind of Dad Rock movie that used to air on TNT in the late ’90s and early 2000s that is simply not made any more in favor of bloated CGI nonsense involving Spider-Man and Bat-Man. And it’s absolutely hilarious, capturing the absurdist reality at the heart of Thomas Pynchon’s pen in a way few others can. — Sean Dillon
Sinners
Director/Script: Ryan Coogler
Studio: Warner Bros.
Ryan Coogler’s fifth feature film, Sinners, is a horror flick that’s more than a horror flick—it is a dynamic masterpiece. Yes, there are vampires, but that would be secondary to the story of twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan), Smoke and Stack, who returned to their Down South home of Clarksdale, Mississippi, to make a go of a juke joint. As dangerous as they are, the worst thing that they have to worry about isn’t the vampires, it’s the Jim Crow racism.
And again, horror is just the tip of the iceberg for Sinners. With its stellar cast of actors, it’s about love, found family, privilege, history, and economics. It’s also a musical. And through it all, this movie is exceptionally beautiful to just look at. Viewers could probably just watch Sinners on mute and be thoroughly engrossed and entertained by Coogler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s vision. If this movie isn’t nominated—hell, if it doesn’t win Oscars for best picture, screenplay, soundtrack, cinematography, and special effects—it would be a complete travesty. For a more in-depth review of this instant classic, read The Beat’s review here. — George Carmona 3rd
Superman
Director/Script: James Gunn
Studio: DC Studios, Warner Bros.
I think it’s safe to say that DC Studios gave Marvel Studios a run for its money this year with what was arguably the most successful superhero film of 2025. I’m usually hesitant to put any blockbuster and/or comic book movies on a best movies of the year list. While it may not be a game changer in the same way as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, filmmaker and DC Studios co-head James Gunn should be lauded for doing what Warner Bros. has struggled with for over two decades: make Superman resonate for modern audiences.
It’s by no means perfect, which the same could be said for the original ’78 Richard Donner film. But like the Donner film, this new Superman has a truth and sincerity that’s been lacking in previous iterations and comic book movies in general. At the end of the day, it’s a story full of humanity that gave me some much needed positive energy in these troubled times. — Taimur Dar
Train Dreams
Director: Clint Bentley
Script: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar
Adapted from Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Studio: Black Bear, Kamala Films, and Netflix
A beautifully gentle look at the life of a single, unimportant man, Train Dreams explores the rapid changes across the early 20th century and how time can leave stories forgotten that really ought not to be. Moving forward with a propulsive, consistent energy and never stopping for a moment, it’s filled with a quiet grace that infuses every shot with heart and emotion.
Joel Edgerton’s lead performance is utterly remarkable, tender and intimate, to the point where you feel like you’re watching someone you know in life, or maybe knew in another life. It’s a film about loss, love, and trying to hold on to something that’s gone forever, before you ever really even truly had it. Bring tissues. — Jared Bird
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Director/Script: Rian Johnson
Studio: T-Street Productions, Ram Bergman Productions, Netflix
Weapons
Director/Script: Zach Creggar
Studio: New Line Cinema, Subconscious, Vertigo Entertainment, Boulderlight Pictures, Warner Bros.
Zach Creggar swings for the fences with his second horror film and knocks it out of the park. Taking structural inspiration from films such as Magnolia, this interweaving horror epic about a town reconciling with the disappearance of a class full of school children is hilarious, creepy, and energetic at every turn, with one of the best and most satisfying endings I’ve ever seen in a big studio horror film.
With great performances from Amy Madigan, Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, and so many more, this ensemble horror is one of the most watchable and entertaining films of the year, an utterly delightful experience sure to please horror fans and newcomers alike. — Jared Bird
Don’t miss all of our Best of 2025 lists:
Anime | Comics & Graphic Novels | Kids Comics | Manga & Manhwa | Movies | TV Series | Video Games | Webtoons & Webcomics
