Bob Foster takes a look at his favorite films of 2025, plus honorable mentions.
The year 2025 has come to a close! What a year for film! I had a good one, and hope you all did too!
This year, Emilie has welcomed me to this website, and I thank anyone who has read any of my reviews since March. I hope you liked them! I wrote around 200 reviews, including new releases, festivals, TV episodes (one for each It: Welcome to Derry episode), full TV shows, physical media release for new and old flicks, and more. Thank you, Emilie, for lighting a fire under my butt to type up thoughts. I previously had my own site, CityofGeek.com, but writing was sparse. (Check out more there if you like my stuff, along with a few friends’ reviews.)
I was also accepted into the Seattle Film Critics Society, which excites me greatly to be part of the esteemed membership alongside great people. But I side-eye the fact they let ME in? Hrm…. damn that imposter syndrome. This, in addition to working with Crypticon Seattle Film Festival as a judge and programmer, is plenty to keep me busy filmwise! When do I have time to teach and be a dad to a 4-year-old!?!?!
As of this publication, based on my Letterboxd (click if you want to follow, I track everything), I watched 224 films from 2025 this year! Wowza. A few will ultimately be 2026 flicks, with festival releases becoming regular releases and all. But still, plenty! And honestly, I liked most of them.
But I can’t spend this writing telling you about all of them. So here’s my 10 favorite films of the year, a paragraph on each, and some honorable mentions or further musings. Well, let’s be honest: 10 favorites of the current moment. I’m forever reordering my tops, and for Letterboxd, the whole middle is a mess of general vibes. Well, the top 5 are pretty locked, after that might shuffle tomorrow. Anyway, let’s take a look at the current list, from 10 to 1.
- Predator: Badlands; written by Patrick Aison; Directed by Dan Trachtenberg
A prime example of setting out to make a specific film and delivering exceedingly well. Is it as prestigious as most year-end list flicks? Hell no. Is it boffo entertaining from start to finish? Hell yes. Astounding action, wonderful setups and payoffs, a fantastic team-up, unbelievably cool visuals (I’m still amazed the Predator face was CG… seamless), and a supporting dual role by Elle Fanning, Badlands is one of the few movies I saw multiple times in the theatre this year. If you want more Predator action, be sure to check out Predator: Killer of Killers on Hulu.
- Bring Her Back; written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman; Directed by Danny & Michael Philippou
The Philippou Brothers’ follow-up to Talk to Me was no sophomore slump with an utterly bleak, black-hearted story of obsession and loss. Sally Hawkins turns in a monstrous performance, one never expected from her, second in villain roles outside of Amy Madigan in Weapons (just off the top 10, but wonderful – Greylan’s review). This shook me to my soul. It takes a lot to truly disturb me; I’m a horror fan to my core, and this got there.
- Black Bag; written by David Koepp; Directed by Steven Soderbergh
David Koepp’s razor-sharp script is one of the smartest of the year, a brilliant exercise of smart people acting smartly, working multiple levels for themselves, their contemporaries, and the audience. It’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by way of John LeCarre. Brilliant. Full of the Soderbergh cool, it’s a hip, jazzy tune of deception and thrill. Fassbender and Blanchett are truly a pair, with lived-in chemistry. Need more Soderbergh & Koepp? The pair also made the ghost story turn of Presence (reviewed by K Bly here).
- One Battle After Another; Written & Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
This one won the Seattle Film Critics Society’s Best Picture (and a slew of others) and aptly deserves it, even if I put it a little further down personally. A madcap action-drama of so many forces moving about, One Battle After Another is a tense anxiety (akin to the also lengthy anxiety film Marty Supreme) of extremes, amazing camera use and editing, and a slew of amazing performances all pushed by the year’s best score. The climax had me more on the edge of my seat than anything else this year.
- Superman; Written & Directed by James Gunn
James Gunn’s reboot of the DC film universe perfectly understands the hero and why he works, stuffed full of goofy, cinematically perfect Silver Age wonder. The casting is perfect, the world-building astounding, and the film just made me feel like a kid. Interesting to release the same summer as Marvel’s The Fantastic Four, which also leans into the Silver Age to great effect. Maybe being a damned good popcorn movie is punk rock.
- Sorry, Baby; Written & Directed by Eva Victor
The closing film from SIFF was also the best, with Twinless coming close behind for SFCS. Eva Victor writes the best script of the year, a moving and deep exploration of the effects of a Bad Thing. Avoiding any sense of expected melodrama, it’s beautifully honest with oddities of truth and blisteringly funny in the strangest of ways. Not only does Victor write, but also stars and directs in a triple threat for a first film. Wow.
- Hamnet; Written by Chloe Zhou & Maggie O’Farrell; Directed by Chloe Zhou
Chloe Zhou’s beautifully understated film uses a known entity – here the family of Shakespeare through his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley in a performance that will justifiably bring in all the awards) to look at the universality of grief, family structures, histories, and how we work through it all. Powerful in a true method, building to several massive emotional releases. Jacobi Jupe as the titular character is astonishing. One of the most moving films of the year- it brought my most stoic friend to tears. (For another incredibly strong motherhood performance, see Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love)
- Sinners; Written & Directed by Ryan Coogler
I love it when something truly mindblowing connects to audiences and becomes a commercial and cultural smash as well (not unlike Rian Johnson creating a cultural icon in Benoit Blanc, whose third film hit this year as well). That was Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s Depression epic of racial tensions, music, assimilation, and so much more, especially a violent vampire film. Incredibly shot, a wonderful score, with the year’s Best Scene and a barnburning dual performance by Michael B. Jordan, it’s the real deal.
- Train Dreams; Written by Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar; Directed by Clint Bentley
It’s been two months since I saw Train Dreams, and I’m still gobsmacked by how much it affected me. I came in with no expectations and knowledge, and walked out utterly moved, deep into my heart. A remarkable tale of an unremarkable life, it’s quietly moving and simply told, but deeply resonant. Joel Edgerton is too good as logger Robert Granier (I also recommend his supporting role featured in The Plague review forthcoming), and it’s packed with amazing supporting performances from William H. Macy (if not for Sean Penn in One Battle, he’d be a shoo-in for an Oscar), Kerry Condon, Felicity Jones, and others. Not to mention, the sheer wonder of shooting in the Pacific Northwest, using the grandeur of my area to the best it can.
- Frankenstein; Written & Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Far and away my top film of the year. Maybe it was destined to be. Guillermo del Toro is my favorite director, and he has been working to adapt his favorite story his entire career. The most technically astounding film from the divine decadence of the production design, detailed costumes, Bernie Wrightson-based make-up, and sweeping cinematography of the year combined (Frankensteined?) with perfectly pitched performances (Jacob Elordi is eye-opening) and exquisitely told explorations of the themes of the novel in new ways that are still Frankstein to the stolen heart and brain. Frankenstein is everything del Toro ever wanted, and all I wanted as well.
Some shorter honorable mentions, not just “just under the line”, but other notes to check out
Just off the top ten are three Stephen King adaptations: the devastating The Long Walk, the gleefully insane The Monkey, and the uplifting (but sad) The Life of Chuck (speaking of King: Check out Welcome to Derry, skip The Running Man; shrug at The Institute). King is also a featured speaker in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre documentary Chain Reactions.
For other documentary love, check out the Rocky Horror love-letter Strange Journey, the ode to artistic expression Secret Mall Apartment, John Candy remembrance I Like Me, and the year’s best: the powerful protest program WTO/99 (no review).
Marty Supreme was another Saftie anxiety film, and let’s also mention If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (no review yet); another anxiety film from Mary Bronstein, the wife of Marty Supreme co-writer, and featuring a slam bang performance by Rose Bryne
Speaking of great performances, Ethan Hawke deserves it all for Blue Moon. See also Brendan Fraser in Rental Family, Lee Byung-hun in No Other Choice, and Laura Dern in Is This Thing On are some of the top of the year.
A few festival favorites of controlled insanity, still running the festival circuit: Fucktoys is a candy-colored grindhouse odyssey. Buffet Infinity and Dooba Dooba are both “found footage” wild rides of building oddity and scary. Check those out if they hit the regular airwaves in 2026.
Some fully released hilarious insanity of the best kind came from the far better than I ever expected new Naked Gun, Deathstalker, and Toxic Avenger flicks.
Finally (gotta stop now or I’ll go all day), as a horror junkie, I gotta talk genre. Companion is a continual surprise on a great premise. Black Phone 2 is a great sequel. Night of the Reaper reworked the Babysitter stalk subgenre in fantastic ways. Strange Harvest used the true crime TV format to perfection. The Ugly Stepsister reworked the “villain’s perspective,” and Final Destination Bloodlines reawakened a dormant franchise with so much fun.
That’s the year! Or a sliver of it! So many wonderful and amazing films. Keep reading, and I’ll keep watching!