Best of 2025 - End of Year Report

Hi folks. 2025, eh? Bit of a prick, all things considered, but I reckon it was a pretty good year for films. My list was down from last year, I actually went 6 weeks without seeing a single film! Still time to see some great ones though, and here they are, from 10 down to 1.

[Click on the titles for links to full reviews]

10. Hard Truths (2024)

Mike Leigh is still punching them out, and this scathing drama reunites him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste (from Secrets and Lies). She stars as a miserable, lonely wife and mother, constantly verballing those around her. Her sister is the only one who can put up with her. A tough watch but utterly engaging and though-provoking.

9. Of Caravan and the Dogs (2024)

This was one of a few gems from the Revelation Film Festival in July. It's a documentary about Vladimir Putin's attacks on press freedom in Russia and how media groups tried to handle the situation. It's depressing but also filled with hope that there are still folks fighting the good fight. One such outlet is Novaya Gazeta - their boss is the nominal 'star' of the film.

8. Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024)

Another doco, this one delving into the overthrow of Patrice Lumumba in 1961. It's all found footage, set to a cracking jazz soundtrack, and it's completely fascinating. The big guns get a run out - Castro, Khrushchev, Eisenhower, X, as well as the musos, Simone, Gillespie, Armstrong, et al. This should really be shown in high schools.

7. Conclave (2024)

Performance heavy papal drama about the voting in of a new pope. Ralph Fiennes rips it up but isn't alone - John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, Sergio Castellitto and Isabella Rossellini all have fun with their roles. Superbly written by Peter Straughan and well directed by Edward Berger. Tense and clever.

6. Sinners (2025)

Very nearly made the top 5, this. Ryan Coogler's tight, edgy supernatural horror/thriller, starring a super-charged Michael B. Jordan as twin gangsters is a real rush of a film. I've tried to dance around the central conceit so I won't go and spoil it (though I guess everyone knows what it is by now). Chase it down if you haven't seen it yet - it may be the most accessible film on my list.

5. The Ballad of Wallis Island (2025)

A quiet British three-hander about a reclusive millionaire forking out to reunite a folk duo. Those three hands are Tim Key, Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan, and all are brilliantly naturalistic in their roles. It's a film that balances grief and humour really well and the pace is spot on. Key and Basden adapted this from their earlier short film, so they know the story and characters well. A warm cup of Bovril of a film.

4. The Secret Agent (2025)

Kleber Mendonça Filho has some previous with this type of provocative film. This is set in late 1970s Brazil, just before the end of the military regime(s), and follows an ex-academic (Wagner Moura) who's on the run for some reason. He arrives in Recife during Carnival and encounters all manner of benign and malevolent folk. Hard to shake the feel of this film, it could have even been higher on the list.

3. Zodiac Killer Project (2025)

A fantastic novelty film, where Charlie Shakleton made a film about not being able to make a film. The rights to a Zodiac Killer book were promised to him, then taken back while he was scouting locations in California. Rather than return to England empty-handed, he decided to make a 'what if?' documentary. And it's an absolute corker - inventive, smart, analytical and very funny to boot. It was a Rev screening so it might be hard to track down, but don't pass it up if you get a chance.

2. It Was Just an Accident (2025)

Here's a brilliant Iranian film about past trauma and the differing ways to handle it. Jafar Panahi has suffered a fair bit to bring his version of Iran to the screen and even now, on the back of the film, he's been charged in absentia. It seems that if or when he returns home, he'll be arrested. Fair play to the bloke. This is an amazing study of people and the decisions they make. It's gripping, uncomfortable, endearing and oddly funny, all in one film.

1. One Battle After Another (2025)

Here it is. A staggering achievement from Paul Thomas Anderson. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as an bong-addled, ex-revolutionary, trying to communicate with his teenage daughter when events from the past come to bite him on the arse. Sean Penn is sensational as the oncoming storm, Benicio del Toro and Chase Infiniti are also outstanding, but it's the package that seems near perfect. It's part satire, part thriller, part protest cinema, all put together with the confidence and pacing of an auteur at his peak. Not just the best of the year, but also one of the best of the century so far.

Some extra musings...

Best kids' films: The Wild Robot, Coco.

Feelgood films: All We Imagine as Light, Two to One.

Feelbad films (but still good): The Story of Souleymane, The Order, I'm Still Here, The Correspondent, Longlegs, The Tasters, 28 Years Later, Boiling Point, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Rolling Thunder.

Weirdest films: Bugonia, Eraserhead, The Surfer, Love Lies Bleeding, The Shrouds, Eight Postcards from Utopia.

Best shits and giggles: Splitsville, Friendship.

Best scenes: The music hall number in Sinners; the mirror maze inside Bob's head in Thunderbolts*; the water bridge in 28 Years Later; the toad scene in Friendship; the street protest in One Battle After Another; the attempted hit in The Secret Agent; the confrontation (with very loud music) in No Other Choice.

Best performances: Sean Penn, Leo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro in One Battle After Another; Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths; Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld in Sinners; Carey Mulligan in The Ballad of Wallis Island; Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship; Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent; Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet.

Best music: Hard to pick actual songs this year, so I'm going with soundtracks - starting with Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat; The Ballad of Wallis Island; Shaft; One Battle After Another; The Secret Agent.

Comments

The Magic Faraway Tree (Me) (Kids)

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Franz: Becoming Kafka

In this fractured, somewhat unconventional biopic, various characters take on the role of narrator, breaking the fourth wall within the story. As curious as the method of delivery here is, the bones of the film itself still function to paint the picture of one of the 20th century's most lauded writers. We witness Kafka's less than perfect childhood with unloving father and powerless mother; his possible spectrum hovering; his near-crippling insecurities; his tricky relationships with women; and eventually the illness that brought on his early death. Director Agnieszka Holland is still firing at 77 years old, she's quite happy to lean towards experimentation and, along with her co-writer, Marek Epstein, she imbues the film with a surrealism similar to Kafka's work. Aside from the 'to camera' narration, the timeline jumps around, even bringing in elements of 21st century Kafka tourism with French, Japanese and American tour guides, who may or may not be on the lev...

The Monkey

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Case 137

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The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

Hesitation Wound

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Head-On

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Arco (Me) (Kid)

This is the first feature length film from French writer/director Ugo Bienvenu. It tells the story of futuristic kid, Arco, voiced by Juliano Crue Valdi in the English dub, and Oscar Tresanini in the French original - here I'll explain that I saw the preview of this with the English voice cast, so I'll mention them from now, unless I spy a notable Frenchy. Anyway, Arco is too young to fly to the past like his family do, but like any young ding-a-ling, he decides to chance his arm, and ends up in 2075. This is a more recognisable future for us than Arco's time, as we see climate change writ large on society. In this time-zone, Arco meets Iris (Margot Ringard Oldra) and her domestic robot, Mikki (voiced by a strange combination of Iris's parents, Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo). Iris wants to help Arco return to his time, but they're thwarted by a missing jewel that he needs in order to travel, as well as a trio of bumbling goons (Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and Flea...

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