Another end of a year. Each seems to come faster than the one before, but it's always good to slow down and reflect on the closing year.
The world continues to be an endless roller coaster of what-the-hell-could-happen-next? but that's why escaping into a movie theater continues to be so important. There were plenty of success stories this year ("Sinners," particularly), some movies that worked well for others but not for me, and movies that didn't work for most but I found successful. It's what makes following movies and reflecting on them at the end of the year so interesting.
Even on a perceived down year, it's always impossible to narrow down the 10 best movies of a given year. How does one talk about the best movies of this year without spotlighting "The Mastermind" or "It Was Just an Accident"? How about the devastating documentary "The Perfect Neighbor" or the total charm of "Eternity"?
As always, there were hard decisions to make when boiling an entire movie year down to 10, but here is my annual countdown of the 10 best movies of the year...
10. Vulcanizadora
Writer-director Joel Portrykus' "Vulcanizadora" is one of the most surprising movies of the year for many reasons. It's a rare movie that, when I entered the theater, I had no idea what it was about or where it would lead, which is always a treat for someone who follows movies closely. Joshua Burge and Portrykus play two friends who take a trip through a forest in Michigan with the intention of carrying out a plan. For a while, Portrykus leaves the viewers in the dark as to what might be going on, which could make the film feel plodding, but what Portrykus brilliantly - and subtly - does is build unexpected tension leading to a shocking climax. "Vulcanizadora" then shifts into a morality tale, which will burrow under your skin and stay with you long after the credits have rolled.
9. Sinners
Whether you loved "Sinners" or it didn't work for you, it's easy to be thankful that Ryan Coogler's film exists. The gorgeously crafted picture is an original movie that went on to become a phenomenon in April of this year. Michael B. Jordan stars as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, whose attempt to start a new life in their hometown is thwarted when vampires start taking over. Coogler's film is thematically rich and took multiplexes by surprise when it became a hot ticket at a time when theaters needed people coming to the movies. "Sinners" is the breakout hit success story of the year.
8. Highest 2 Lowest
I say it every time a Spike Lee joint is on my top 10 list at the end of a given year: Only Lee can make a movie so messy and thrilling, all at the same time. "Highest 2 Lowest" is based on Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low," which itself is an adaptation of Evan Hunter's "King's Ransom." Lee has not remade "High and Low," but has taken the framework of the story and put his signature touches on this modernized version of a ransom plot involving a music mogul played by Denzel Washington. As with any Lee film, "Highest 2 Lowest" goes on tangents and not every creative decision is entirely successful, but the movie is thrilling and fun and it's great to see Washington and Lee pair up again for another great collaboration.
7. Die My Love
Lynne Ramsay's hallucinatory "Die My Love" aims to throw the viewer off balance. The movie is about a young couple, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, who inherit a home in Montana from a deceased family member of Pattinson's Jackson. When they first move in it's a home of their own, where they can come and go as they please and wrestle naked on the kitchen floor and have passionate sex without anyone bothering them. After their baby is born, Grace's behavior becomes increasingly erratic and she begins seeing Jackson in a different light. "Die My Love" is a journey into the world of postpartum depression and it's told with immense style and tension. The movie can be disorienting, but Lawrence gives one of her best performances as Grace, and the disorienting nature of the movie is a glimpse inside the character.
6. The Naked Gun
Akiva Schaffer's "The Naked Gun" is the best silly-stupid movie of the year. To call a movie stupid might seem like a criticism, but "The Naked Gun" is knowingly stupid and knowingly silly and offers some of the most consistent laughs I've seen in a mainstream comedy in quite some time. The reboot - based on the Leslie Nielsen series - stars Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin, Jr., who crosses paths with Pamela Anderson's Beth Davenport on a murder case. Neeson, whose final act of his career has been non-stop self-serious movies with a gun, changes things up a bit here by having the time of his life and delivering a great comedic performance (the gun is still in hand, however). Anderson, coming off a career re-defining performance in "The Last Showgirl" (which was my top movie from 2024), continues to rewrite her career trajectory with pratfalls and great comedic timing. At a brisk 85 minutes, "The Naked Gun" has entered the pantheon of immensely rewatchable comfort movies.
5. Sentimental Value
"Sentimental Value," directed by Joachim Trier, begins with a narrator telling us about a house. The house saw children play, saw a family grow up, and witnessed a family fall apart when the father (Stellan Skarsgård) left the house for good. When the mother of the family passes away, the grown daughters, Nora (Renate Reinsve, who starred in Trier's "The Worst Person in the World") and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) are forced to reconnect with their father when he comes back to the home. The three central performances in "Sentimental Value" are among the best of the year, along with Elle Fanning's performance as a famous American actress, but the delicate screenplay about memories, grief, art, and forgiveness is what gives "Sentimental Value" its lasting power.
4. Roofman
When I first saw "Roofman," I liked the film. I thought it was fun and entertaining, if a bit slight. One of the great powers movies possess is they can sneak up on you when you least expect it and alter your original thought. For weeks after seeing "Roofman," I continued thinking of individual scenes, the performances by Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, and how the movie about a nice-enough guy who does bad things really operates in a different register than I originally thought. Tatum stars as Jeffrey, who goes to prison for robbing several McDonalds by going through the roof. When he escapes prison, he ends up living in a Toys-R-Us, and tries his best to have a normal life and a relationship with Kirsten Dunst's Leigh. The movie, directed by Derek Cianfrance, was one of the most mis-marketed movies of the year. The film is fun and funny, but it's not the wacky comedy the poster suggests. This is a melancholic tale about a charismatic guy who feels backed into a corner, which results in him committing the string of burglaries.
3. Caught Stealing
The fact that "Caught Stealing" is the most fun and entertaining movie director Darren Aronofsky has ever made is saying something, because it's one of the most stressful and intense films of the year. Aronofsky loves to put his actors through the ringer and he does that with Austin Butler's Hank, a high school baseball star that never went professional due to an accident. Hank is a bartender in 1998 Manhattan who drinks too much and has a casual relationship with Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz). When his neighbor (Matt Smith) asks Hank to watch his cat while he goes back to England to see his ailing father, little does Hank know what he's getting himself into. "Caught Stealing" is a propulsive and pulpy thriller that didn't attract too many people to the theater in the final days of the summer. It's too bad because it was a great time at the movies.
2. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Rose Byrne has always been a reliable character actor, mastering drama (in TV's Damages) and stealing every scene in studio comedies ("Bridesmaids," "Spy" and "Neighbors"). In Mary Bronstein's tense, claustrophobic, and darkly funny "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," Byrne gets the role of a lifetime as Linda, a mother of a medically complex child, who is unraveling under the unique pressures of motherhood. What's great about Bronstein's film is how unjudgmental it is towards Linda, who doesn't always do the perceived right thing as a mother. The film and its ensemble are all great, but Bryne stands out in one of the top performancs of the year.
And the best movies of 2025 is...
1. Marty Supreme
There have been a handful of great movies this year, but at the last minute a much-needed jolt of energy got injected into the marketplace. Josh Safdie's fun, funny, thrilling, and lightning quick "Marty Supreme" is the best movie of the year because it's probably the most entertaining movie of the year. Timothée Chalamet stars as Marty Mauser, a cocky and obnoxious person who works at his uncle's shoe store to save money so he can travel the world playing ping pong. It's never clear if Marty is passionate about ping pong, or passionate about telling people he's great at something. Marty is insufferable, but the movie walks the fine line of showing us a deeply selfish and self-involved character while still making him compelling. Chalamet lights the screen on fire, delivering rapid dialogue and grabbing the camera and daring the audience to give in to Marty's irritating behavior and give up on the movie. It's often impossible to look away. Co-starring a great ensemble, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Fran Drescher, and Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary, "Marty Supreme" doesn't waste a minute of its 150-minute runtime.
As always, thank you for spending another year with us at Big Picture Big Sound. Here's to another year of great movies!
