Was 2025 a good year for movies and TV? I really think it was. We got quality releases year round, and best of all, the biggest hits were (for the most part at least) original releases. Of course franchise and IP- related films came out and made a LOT of money (see: The Minecraft Movie grossing almost $1Billion) but with only 2 Marvel movies and 1 DC movie, the year’s main tentpoles were original films by some of the biggest directors working today. Weirdly, this year was also the year of double performances. We got 2 Pattinsons in Mickey 17, two Michael B. Jordan’s in Sinners and 2 (sort of ) Emma Stone’s in Bugonia. Odd coincidence, but a fun one.  This article will take a look back at some of these hits, and maybe take a look into the future at 2026, which looks to be the biggest film year in a long time (franchise or original!)

 

The Review’s Top 5 Movies of 2025

 

  1. Wake Up Dead Man (Netflix) 

Rian Johnson’s third Benoit Blanc mystery is maybe the most emotionally satisfying of the three, starring Josh O’Connor as a young priest suspected of killing the bombastic Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin), with whom he’d repeatedly clashed. O’Connor and Daniel Craig, playing Blanc, are marvelous together, and while the film is funny, it’s also a respectful and deeply felt story about faith and how hard it can be to maintain. And, yes, there’s another great supporting cast, including Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington and Andrew Scott.

 

  1. Bugonia 

Bugonia, based on the South Korean sci-fi film Save the Green Planet!, stars Jesse Plemons as an aggrieved warehouse worker who kidnaps the CEO (Emma Stone) of his pharmaceutical employer, convinced that she’s secretly an alien plotting the destruction of Earth.

Plemons gives his most engrossing performance to date, embodying a familiar, pathological conspiracism that thrives in overly online isolation  and has taken root in a working class exploited by oligarchs and politicians alike. Stone is equally compelling as a shrewd CEO struggling to convince Plemons – and the audience – that she isn’t a cold, unfeeling extraterrestrial hellbent on destroying our planet, a tall order for the average human billionaire. Newcomer Aidan Delbis deserves a shout-out for his performance as Plemons’ cousin, a much-needed empathetic light in this dark, discomforting film.

 

  1. Weapons

This is ostensibly a horror movie about all but one child from a single elementary school class disappearing overnight. And while Weapons is certainly scary, that’s not all it is. Director and screenwriter Zach Cregger follows up Barbarian with a film that’s told in chapters. One, about the teacher of the missing children, is a drama; another, about a parent, unfolds like a suburban detective story; a chapter about a town vagrant feels like a comedy (P.S., this movie is so hilarious.). But when the actor Amy Madigan shows up as the creepy Aunt Gladys, the film reaches both terrifying and comedic levels of greatness. As an added bonus, Aunt Gladys will be an easy Halloween costume for years to come. 

 

  1. Sinners 

On paper, a history-heavy vampire flick shouldn’t work, but in the capable hands of Ryan Coogler, it became one of the biggest hits of the year. Coogler’s Sinners stars his muse, Michael B. Jordan, doing his typical top-notch work in dual roles as identical twins Smoke and Stack: one taciturn, the other a powder keg. The two want to open a juke joint in the Jim Crow South and, in the process, nab themselves a piece of the American dream. 

But as if racism weren’t enough, Smoke and Stack must contend with literal vampires, too. While Sinners presents as a horror flick, it’s rife with commentary about the intersectionality of race, class, and art in America. Beautifully illustrated by aspiring blues musician Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) and his ethereal, ancestor-calling musical performance in the juke joint. Like its subject matter, Sinners is actually an amalgam of genres, part scary movie, part period piece, part musical, blending to create something greater than the sum of the film’s very excellent parts. The result is an unexpected box office smash with something important to say about the culture and its many vultures. 

 

  1. One Battle After Another 

Paul Thomas Anderson’s propulsive film is truly a movie for and of our wild times. One Battle After Another examines the spirit of rebellion as well as the oppressive forces we must rebel against, capturing both with humour and honesty. A beer-drinking, robe-wearing Leonardo DiCaprio is unexpectedly hilarious as ex-revolutionary and consummate girl dad Bob Ferguson, while Sean Penn plays his old foe, Colonel Lockjaw, with a truly twisted rigidity. Their cat-and-mouse chase is as thrilling as it is compelling, holding attention throughout the film’s lengthy run time. One Battle After Another also cements not one, but two new movie stars: There’s multihyphenate Teyana Taylor, who commands the first half of the film with the sheer power of her presence as impulsive revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills. And then there’s Chase Infiniti, a true newcomer who more than holds her own opposite stalwarts like Penn and DiCaprio. Add in excellent supporting performances from Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, and Tony Goldwyn, and it seems Anderson has pulled off the seemingly impossible: directing the rare politically radical crowd-pleaser.

 

Bolu
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Boluwatife Adesina is a media writer and the helmer of the Downtown Review page. He’s probably in a cinema near you.