It’s the end of the year, a time when we writers pretend to be gatekeepers and tastemakers, deciding which art deserves preservation, stealing easy engagement with end-of-year wrap-ups.
My turn.
(Check out my newsletter to read My Top 50 Albums of 2025)
Okay, let’s get into it. Here are my 1o favorite films of 2025:
10. A House of Dynamite
Director: Katheryn Bigelow
Writer: Noah Oppenheim
Starring: Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, Angel Reese
Synopsis:
A nuclear missile has been launched towards the United States. Its origins? Unknown. Death toll? Unknown. Retiliation? I don’t know, probably? Watch Rebecca Ferguson deal with an impending nuclear bomb and then watch Tracy Letts deal with that very same impending nuclear bomb—and then, finally, watch Idris Elba, yup, deal with an impending nuclear bomb.
Katheryn Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite” is an Overindulgent Self-Suck
9. Phoenician Scheme
Director: Wes Anderson
Writer: Wes Anderson (And Roman Coppola, kinda)
Starring: Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz MC, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch
Synopsis:
Benecio del Toro is an infamous robber baron passing his estate down to his estranged daughter—a nun with no interest in money—while dodging assassination attempts, beating Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston on the basketball court—all while suffering out-of-body, pearly gates hallucinations, as one does.
Everything Kate Winslet creates turns to gold, including Mia Threapleton.
8. Sorry, Baby
Director: Eva Victor
Writer: Eva Victor
Starring: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, Louis Cancelmi, John Caroll Lynch
Synopsis:
The woooooorst thing ever happened.
7. Bugonia
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Will Tracy
Starring: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavvy Baby, Alicia Silverstone
Synopsis:
A devout conspiracy theorist and his lowlit cousin kidnap a Fortune 500 CEO, hoping she brings them onto her alien spaceship, because she is an alien, of course.
6 Borderline
Director: Jimmy Warden
Writer: Jimmy Warden
Starring: Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, Jimme Fails, Eric dane
Synopsis:
1998 Dennis Rodman/Carmen Electra fan fic.
5. Frankenstein
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Writer: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz
Synopsis:
Victor Frankenstein poetically whines to a sailor about bringing the dead back to life to impress his weird dad and then Victor Frankenstein (The Monster), poetically whines about not wanting to be born.
4. Sinners
Director: Ryan Coogler
Writer: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Delroy Lindo
Synopsis:
Twin brothers try to build a juke joint for the black community in the middle of KKK country. Surprisingly, it does not go well.
3. One Battle After Another
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Regina Hall, Teyanna Taylor, Wood Harris
Synopsis:
A group of young revolutionaries blow up a bunch of shit, die or go into hiding, only to be forced back into action when an immigration officer wants to impress a club of elite white supremacists.
2. Eddington
Director: Ari Aster
Writer: Ari Aster
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell,
Synopsis:
COVID-10 broke all of our brains and allowed us to be swept away by conspiracies, performative activism, cults, militarism and mental illness—all while corporations put smiling faces behind their further exploitation of our working class and environment.
1. Black Bag
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: David Koepp
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan.
Synopsis:
Marriage is hard, especially when you’re an intelligence agent tasked with investigating a list of suspected traitors, one of whom being your wife.
Fast-paced, slick, cool, Cate Blanchett with abs at age 56 for some reason, give me any spy movie with a mole inside the operation and you have my attention. Have Michael Fassbender hunting that mole, directed by Steven Soderbergh, you have the number one spot on my list of favorite films of the year.
“Shut the fuck up when you’re talking to people, Freddy” has been in my head for 10 months.
Thanks for reading. Let me know what your favorite films of 2025 are. Or even better, reach out and send your personal Top 10 and I’ll tap in and write about it. Hit up ya boy on social media: Facebook. Twitter. Bluesky. Instagram.
Or shoot me an email (I refresh that thing no less than a million times a day) Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com.
Next up to read: Former Harvard President, Larry Summers Sure Loved Jeffrey Epstein
Comment 1
Sal
December 15, 2025Sinners is becoming the most underrated movie of all time