The Top 10 of 2025
A gift guide for the cinephile in your life, the yearly box office recap, and best films of 2025.
Top 24 of ‘24 (recap)
The Film Buff’s Gift Guide
As the holidays come and go, you can’t help but wonder: what makes a great gift for the film buff in your life? You appreciate that they’ve acquired a respectable, low-key, timeless hobby that won’t annoy you as much as say pickleball. However, deep underneath the surface, a cinephile is always percolating. Secret purchases of 4K SteelBooks, playing hooky to hit a Tuesday afternoon doubleheader before dinner, and hours spent combing Reddit for leaked photos of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey are just the tip of the iceberg.
If it hasn’t happened already, it will soon. So let’s prepare. We need to move past the A24 tote bags and generic alternative posters to provide something more functional. The thing to remember about cinephiles is that they love to hoard, so we should focus on consumption. These five gifts will keep on giving for an entire year—and might even quell your loved one’s urge to take up more expensive hobbies like online sports betting.
The Criterion Channel - The perfect gift for the movie fan who loves curated genres, deep indie cuts, and classic films. There are hundreds of options that constantly rotate out. Special attention is given to legendary directors or quirky themes that put greater context of the film industry over its century plus history. It’s the ultimate antidote to “streaming slop”.
The AMC Popcorn Pass - For $29.99 (plus tax) you receive HALF OFF every large popcorn purchased for the entire calendar year. For this gift you need to have an inner knowledge of the eating habits and gut enzymes of your partner. This would go wasted on my wife who prefers sweets, but for me it will literally save our household income hundreds of dollars for the upcoming year. Note: Requires a free AMC Stubs membership.
Letterboxd Subscription - You may not be aware of this app but all the real heads know this is the only game in town to satisfy your list making needs. Not only can you personally curate your own personal film history, but it allows you to interact with other film buffs to check the temperature on every new release. The “Pro” subscription gives you lots of customization options that will allow full access to build up a profile. I’ve logged over 3,300 films from my entire watching history with ratings so I can compare eras, favorite directors, and see which key grip I’ve encountered most in my forty-one years. For the real sickos out there, the “Patron” subscription which gives you access to alternative backgrounds and poster options that suit your own style.
AMC A-List or Regal Unlimited - Once upon a time I was a Regal Unlimited member but after closings at The Regal Manor Twin (RIP), Phillips Place, and Ballantyne Village I switched over full time to AMC. For $23.99 I can see up to four movies per week in ANY FORMAT. No on-line booking fees and if something pops up I can cancel for no charge. Seeing one IMAX film for the month essentially pays for the membership. You have access to early screenings, free upgrades on concessions, and zero upcharge on my favorite viewing format of Dolby. Combine this with the Popcorn Pass and all your favorite blockbuster wide release films can be enjoyed whatever time you’d like.
Independent Picture House Membership - If you are a true film fan and in the Charlotte area then there is only option that could be #1 on this list. There is no place I would rather catch a new indie release, foreign film, or short window streamer on the big screen than IPH. They organize talkback sessions, special series, and topical events that engage the local community through film. You can select from several tiers which give access to concession and merchandise perks. Tickets are discounted as well as a members only screening each month for free. Also students with valid IDs can obtain a membership for FREE.
For the patrons of the arts you can join in the “Cinema Circle” plans that not only have amazing extras like film festival access or special screening but knowing that each dollar will be used to enhance the experience of cinema for the greater Charlotte area. The team at IPH are amazing hardworking folks that truly love cinema. If you love the arts scene here in our city there is no better way to help contribute.
Box Office Recap
The 2025 box office just eclipsed 2024’s numbers, hitting north of $8.5 billion and nearly matching the 2023 “Barbenheimer” peak. Three films reached the billion-dollar threshold, including the Chinese animated hit Ne Zha 2, which crushed records with $2.1 billion (though 95% of those sales stayed within China). Zootopia 2 and the Lilo & Stitch live-action remake also cleared a billion, with A Minecraft Movie trailing just behind at $958 million. Only two films in the top twenty were original, non-IP stories: the breakout horror hits Sinners and Weapons. So what trends did we see pop up before getting into our final exercise?
Asian inspired animation were huge hitters this year. We already mentioned the number one grossing film of the year but also K-Pop Demon Hunters and the newest entry from the Demon Slayer series crushed both at the box office and online. Demon Hunter is the front runner for multiple Oscars, including best animated feature and song. We’ve come a long way from bootleg copies of Akira or Dragonball Z.
Parental meltdowns were another source of excellent acting performances this year. Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, and Teyana Taylor all suffered various levels of mental breaks post childbirth on screen this year. Some went on to continue the revolution while others walked into the ocean or literal seas of fire. Each showed the very real and often overlooked side of motherhood from wildly different perspectives. All three have been nominated for a Golden Globe this year.
Finally, actors playing multiple characters often in sets of twins were back with a vengeance this year. Robert Pattinson kicked things off with Mickey 17 while Michael B. Jordan portrays the Moore twins (Smoke & Stack) in Sinners. Robert De Niro played two different mob bosses in the honestly terrible Barry Levinson directed The Alto Knights which bombed at the box office. Elle Fanning even got into the fun playing android twins and fighting several enemy doppelgängers (think Jango Fett clones for the Star Wars heads out there) in Predator: Badlands. Not sure any of these trends will move into 2026 but it’s always fun to see what storyline breaks out in a given year.
Under-the-Radar Honorable Mentions
Many films received major studio publicity and were excellent including Eddington, Train Dreams, Predator Badlands, Weapons, Frankenstein, Warfare, and Roofman to name just a few favorites. I wanted to take a quick moment to shout out some hidden gems that are well worth the time to view and may have gone unnoticed during their release windows. Here are ten under-the-radar honorable mentions:
The History of Sound - The hardest cut from my top 10 features wonderful performances from Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor as young musicians turned lovers in the early 20th century.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl - A brilliant look at trauma and social rituals in Zambia that manages to be both funny and heartbreaking.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You - Rose Byrne juggles a full time job as a therapist, a sick daughter with specific needs, and an apartment literally falling apart as her husband is away on military deployment. She suffers from alcoholism, insomnia, and bouts of psychosis that are seeming to spiral further each day. Byrne hopefully will be rewarded with an Oscar nomination for her work.
The Ballad of Wallis Island - A heartfelt, dryly funny British tale about an eccentric millionaire and a broken-up folk band.
40 Acres - This post-apocalyptic action film set in Canada rips from the opening scene and doesn’t look back. Daniel Deadwyler pulls no punches as the bad ass matriarch protects her flock from nefarious roving bandits in the countryside.
Sorry, Baby - Eva Victor wrote, directed, and starred in her black comedy debut film about a literature professor in a small New England town dealing with the fallout of a sexual assault.
The Secret Agent - Wagner Moura absolutely shines in this film about a former professor on the run from the Brazilian military coup that took over the country. Moura could be the dark horse for best actor in this year’s academy awards. [Currently playing at the Independent Picture House]
Dust Bunny - Part fairytale, part horror, and plenty of Mads Mikkelsen ass kicking action. This was oddly one of the more fun experiences I’ve had in a theater this whole year.
Eephus - A small New England baseball field is being plowed over to make way for a new school. Old timers come together for one last ballgame on their hallowed ground with lots of trash talk and memories to reflect on.
Die My Love - Jennifer Lawrence goes full primal as a new mother cooped up in a remote Montana house with her seemingly worthless husband played by Robert Pattinson nowhere to be found. Director Lynne Ramsey created an acid trip postpartum fever dream and J-Law shines as its lead.
Overall it was a more top heavy but solid year with many films to come in the next few weeks. I know that No Other Choice would be here, but end of year lists simply cannot wait until January 15th. As always this list is subjective and only representative of the seventy new releases I caught this year. Without further ado, I have the pleasure of presenting our Matt at the Movies top 10 films of 2025.
Matt at the Movies: Top 10 of 2025
#10 - Cloud (Streaming on Criterion)
Toronto film critic and professor Adam Nayman always curates a curious end-of-year list, and this was his #4. He surprised me with Red Rooms last year, so I decided to give this Kiyoshi Kurosawa film a play on the Criterion Channel. Nayman did it again; Cloud is incredibly propulsive, pulling the rug out from under the viewer multiple times.
We meet Yoshii, a factory worker who runs a lucrative side gig as an online “reseller.” The reselling game is shady, requiring equal parts luck and market manipulation. Yoshii eventually moves to the countryside with his girlfriend to pursue the hustle full-time, only to discover that no one in his life—from bosses and mentors to employees and even his partner—is quite what they seem. As his schemes grow increasingly shrewd, his deeds catch the attention of the internet’s dark underbelly.
As the chickens come home to roost, we witness the trail of destruction Yoshii unknowingly created in his pursuit of wealth. Kurosawa crafts a thrilling narrative that proves if you keep your head in the sand for too long, the unforeseen consequences will eventually find you.
#9 - Marty Supreme (In Theaters)
The Safdie brothers are masters of gritty, high-intensity drama. This year, A24 gave them the green light to direct separate sports-themed stories. Younger brother Benny delivered The Smashing Machine, a subdued and beautiful mixed martial arts drama starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. While it underperformed at the box office, it remains a powerful work. Older brother Josh focused on table tennis, casting Timothée Chalamet in his first leading role in a non-IP (intellectual property) film—a gamble that paid off immensely.
Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a rabble-rousing, shit-talking ping-pong prodigy in 1950s New York City. Mauser is determined to become a world champion, employing every con and marketing ploy imaginable to fund his trip to London. Though things don’t go as planned, Marty relishes ruffling feathers with his vulgar outbursts and using his over-the-top charm to seduce former Hollywood starlets. Eventually blackballed from the sport, he returns home with his tail between his legs and—in a recurring theme—seemingly zero personal growth.
Josh Safdie infuses the film with a kinetic energy that works the audience up to the point of exhaustion (reminiscent of Uncut Gems). What starts as a Bloodsport-style tournament set to an 80s soundtrack evolves into a dark hybrid of The Hustler and The Sting. Chalamet is the film’s heartbeat, grounding the story in his character’s narcissism. You may leave the theater unsure if you even like Marty, but the journey is undeniable. Buckle up; this is a frontrunner for Best Actor at this year’s Oscars.
#8 - 28 Years Later (Streaming on Netflix)
This story has lingered with me through multiple viewings. What begins as a father-son thriller turns on a dime into a poignant coming-of-age story for our hero, Spike. The final act is stunning, both emotionally and technically (many scenes shot on an iPhone). The next installment, The Bone Temple, releases on January 16th to further the madness. [Read my mid-year Top 10 thoughts here.]
#7 - Sentimental Value (At IPH & PVOD)
The reunion of Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve (following their 2021 hit The Worst Person in the World) explores how generational trauma impacts both creative output and adult relationships. Stellan Skarsgård delivers one of his career-best performances. [Read my in-depth review here.]
#6 - Bugonia (Streaming on Peacock & PVOD)
When you pair multi-Oscar-nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, you’re guaranteed a gloriously weird time. This absurd dark comedy features invasive big tech, amateur kidnapping, and alien interrogation. While the story feels intimate, it carries massive implications that make the third-act action truly pop. It is a joy to watch master actors play in Lanthimos’s strange, satirical playground. [Click here for the full review.]
#5 - Sinners (Streaming on HBO Max)
Sinners premiered just a month after the Academy Awards and remains just as resonant eight months later. Whether you prefer the “gathering the gang” vibe of the first act in the Jim Crow South or the introduction of an Irish folk-singer vampire in the second, it’s an undeniably fun night at the movies. Director Ryan Coogler works again with his muse, Michael B. Jordan—who plays dual roles—in the year’s most successful original film. [Read more here.]
#4 - Hamnet (In Theaters at IPH)
In my September Oscar bait piece I felt that this film had the most juice going into awards season. An Oscar winning director adapting a New York Times best seller about the Shakespeare family starring two of the best current working actors all under the producing umbrella of Stephen Spielberg. I was not disappointed at all and the execution only confirmed my love for this story.
In this very dramatized version of actual events we see the courtship of a young Agnes Hathaway and William Shakespeare. As they struggle for acceptance with each other’s families each character has their own story to tell. Jessie Buckley steals the show playing Agnes as a somewhat woodland enchantress who seems to have a sixth sense about her future. Buckley’s output over the last five years has been incredible and showed off the Irish actresses range that always seems to have a twinge of mirth behind her wry smile. Her fellow Irish co-star Paul Mescal, who plays William, is given an almost impossible task to match her scene for scene but he does it convincingly.
While this is not a perfect film as some pacing issues and director Chloé Zhao’s insistence to hit you over the head with THEME from time to time, it is nonetheless beautifully shot with some tremendously set pieces that tie together the emotional ending where both parents must process their grief of their child’s death. Yes you will cry. Yes it is worth it. Yes this was a fantastic film.
#3 - Black Bag (Streaming on Prime Video)
Hot take this is Steven Soderbergh’s best film in the last decade. The prolific director brings us a tight ninety-three minute spy drama that is both funny and sexy. It has some of the best production design setting and intense conversations all to the tune of a funky jazz background score. It was the most fun I had at the movies this year and is endlessly rewatchable. Read more about the film by clicking here.
#2 - It Was Just an Accident (Theaters & PVOD)
Iranian director Jafar Panahi delivers his most mainstream and tense film yet. It follows a group of former political prisoners who encounter their “possible” former torturer in the real world. Filmed in secret, Panahi explores the nature of vengeance and how the mind plays tricks on us. I walked out of the Independent Picture House with chills down my spine. [Read more on 2025’s best foreign feature here.]
#1 - One Battle After Another (HBO Max)
Paul Thomas Anderson was able to make his first big budget film about domestic terrorists, underground right wing holiday themed cabals, and a beautiful father/daughter story covered in a blanket of The Big Lebowski sentimentality for all to enjoy. There are no less than six immaculate performances sprinkled throughout the American Southwest backdrop with beautiful on location set pieces placed to the needle drop scores to keep the film propelling for almost three hours.
Leonard DiCaprio has mastered playing the dolt shithead with a heart of gold and the women in this film (Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Regina Hall) bring a spectrum of intensity to match Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw’s (Sean Penn) sociopathic search for acceptance. Hop in the car with Sensei (Benecio del Toro) for a couple small beers and enjoy the best film of 2026. Click to read my full review of the front runner for multiple Oscars on Sunday March 15th.
Enjoy the new year and don’t forget to check out some of the hidden gems to tide you over. I cannot wait until No Other Choice hits the screens at IPH on January 16th in my most anticipated film of the early new year. Happy holidays and thanks for reading Matt at the Movies over at Y’all Weekly.
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