Film News: Top 28 Films of 2025

In 2025, cinema has found its teeth again. This year’s Top 28 list reflects a landscape where the gargantuan blockbuster and the quiet, suburban character study are no longer at odds, but are united by a common thread of high-concept risk-taking.

Top Film of 2025: One Battle After Another
At the summit sits Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. This isn’t just a film; it’s a hyperkinetic, VistaVision-soaked fever dream. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a career-high as “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun, a paranoid ex-revolutionary whose domestic life in a California sanctuary city is upended by a vengeful colonel (Sean Penn). The film’s best moments are its most chaotic: a frantic escape through a hidden tunnel where Pat forgets his own greeting code, and a final, hypnotic car chase across the Southwest’s undulating hills. PTA has crafted a “standalone masterwork” that is as much about the lonely heroism of dissent as it is about the American melting-pot.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears
The silver and bronze medals belong to films that trade in pure visceral intensity. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (Ranked #2) is a Southern Gothic triumph, using vampire lore to dissect the horrors of 1930s Mississippi. The standout moment? A transcendent blues performance by Michael B. Jordan that literally summons the spirits of the past. Close behind is The Smashing Machine (Ranked #3), where Dwayne Johnson sheds his “The Rock” persona for a prosthetic-heavy, vulnerable portrayal of MMA legend Mark Kerr. Benny Safdie’s documentary-style lens captures the crushing weight of opioid addiction with a sobering, unglamorous honesty.

The Art of the Anti-Genre
The middle of the list celebrates the deconstructionists. Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind (Ranked #4) subverts the heist thriller, focusing on the awkward, inept aftermath of a museum robbery rather than the crime itself. Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme (Ranked #5) similarly twists the espionage thriller into a sardonic family drama.

From the high-octane racing of F1 (#9) to the comedic revival of The Naked Gun (#10), 2025 has been a year where every battle, on-screen or off, was worth fighting.

The Top 28 Films of 2025
1 One Battle After Another
2 Sinners
3 The Smashing Machine
4 The Mastermind
5 The Phoenician Scheme
6 Weapons
7 Warfare
8 Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning
9 F1
10 The Naked Gun
11 Ballad of a Small Player
12 Blue Moon
13 Bugonia
14 Sirat
15 The Secret Agent High
16 It Was Just An Accident
17 Deaf President Now
18 Jay Kelly
19 Sorry, Baby
20 Dry Leaf
21 28 Years Later
22 Resurrection
23 The Long Walk
24 Caught Stealing
25 Eternity
26 Steve
27 The Lost Bus
28 Eddington