I feel like I’ve grown accustomed to saying I miss writing at every opportunity I’ve had to do so, but I’ve been slowly pushing myself to try and do so again. One way to do this is to continue the streak of talking about some of the things I loved this past year. So, let’s start, shall we?
In past years, I’ve talked about many films on my best of list. Often, because of so many films I love and want to discuss. The same goes for 2025, and even more than before, due to the lack of writing I’ve already mentioned. But the truth is, I know I’m more likely to tap out if I were to try to write about the best 25 of 2025, which I wanted to try to do. So instead, we’ll try the top ten.
Without further ado, for now, as always, in alphabetical order, I’m going to write about my favourite films of the year. I’ll list out many other favourites of the year, but here are my top 10 of 2025.
Bugonia
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Admittedly, it may have taken some time for me to acclimate to and understand Yorgos’ style and humour. Some of my friends got to see The Lobster at TIFF and praised it highly as one of their favourites of the year. To date, I have only seen The Lobster once and didn’t “get it.” I wanted to, so I went to see Killing of a Sacred Deer the following year. I was slowly getting on his wavelength. And with each of his releases since, I’ve slowly felt as though I’ve started to understand him more and more.
While I was a fan of many of the individual stories from Kinds of Kindness, it didn’t reach the same highs as Poor Things had for me. That didn’t lessen my excitement for Bugonia. While I had heard it’s an adaptation, I wasn’t familiar with the film, but I have only heard of it. Bugonia continues the streak of some of the most stunning, but sometimes disorientating cinematography. There’s a fish-eye lens aspect to the perspective of his characters and his blocking; it often reminds me of some of Kubrick’s films. It’s meant to alienate us as we question what we’re seeing and what may or may not be real.
Just as I was getting into his rhythm of a film per year, he decided to take a break. That’ll be fine, we’ll be here and just as excited for his next film (with or without Emma Stone).
Hamnet
Dir. Chloe Zhao
I’ll be here trying to say something new and different about each of the films on my list, and I can’t promise or guarantee how good a job I’d do on that, or even across the rest of the films on my list. Hamnet knocked the wind out of me. I know that it won’t be the first or last film on this list that not only made me cry during the film, but even long after the credits have finished rolling.
Moments of the film have stuck with me, and I’m sure many others. It’s a film that, kind of by the plot alone, you know what you’re in for and that the film wouldn’t necessarily be an “easy watch.” At one moment in the film, Jessie Buckley has a scream that rivals Florence Pugh’s at the beginning of Midsommar. You have to be somewhat aware going into the film, and more so, what you’ll experience. Paul Mescal does what he does best, emotes and feels his emotions that are both hidden and being shown to everyone.
I saw Hamnet during TIFF, the day before my partner and I had gone to a funeral for her cousin. Some of the similar questions the film asks us are what kind of questions we ask ourselves during the day. After the loss, how does one keep going? Maybe art can be the answer for some; it’s the way we can see our loved ones elsewhere, and others can connect to that same pain and love.
The Life of Chuck
Dir. Mike Flanagan
I was lucky enough to see Flanagan’s film twice during TIFF in 2024. During my first watch, I knew I was watching the film through my own biases, reacting to seeing one of my favourite filmmakers premiere his latest at the festival. I was floored, but I almost thought it was my response to just seeing a new film of his at the festival.
The movie has only gotten better with every watch and viewing. It lives in an odd-type of magic that can be found in a lot of Flanagan’s work. This other world he can create, and we all would have an understanding of how it works over time. The dance sequence in the film makes everyone want to lean forward as it all comes together, briefly, even if Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) doesn’t understand it yet, and we don’t either, but on a rewatch, the film sings, and everything falls into place. This isn’t to say the film needs a rewatch to work, but a lot of Flanagan’s work is almost cyclical. On the rewatches, you can see how it all does connect, and see the tiny pieces of the puzzle slowly come together.
The Life of Chuck reminds us that life can be precious and that we all can contain multitudes. The different lives and stories we all create, and how scary it can be to lose it all in a moment before able to tell the person you love a response to them telling you. It’s a film that was on my best of list last year, but still falls on it this year. It’s another project of Flanagan that I can see myself revisiting often.
One Battle After Another
Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
On my second watch, I thought of my parents and my grandparents and their time in Chile. I thought of their attempt to make the world better. Sometimes their attempts need to be put aside to raise a family or to live. The film is a clear apology and love letter to PTA’s own children, and it tries to make the world a better place, but it’s just as fucked up, if not in a potentially worse place at times. We’re seeing how, in a way, history repeats itself, but more so, the things we somewhat pass on to our family.
“We come from a long line of revolutionaries” is a line I’ve thought about maybe more than most of the other lines in other films this year. During the course of the film, it feels small and minor in the course of the never-ending events of the film. But my great-grandfather, my grandfather, and my mother, at different times, have all been taken by the Chilean government and imprisoned for the way they tried to fight back.
Not that his films aren’t accessible, but I feel One Battle After Another, even with its long runtime, is a film that most audiences can appreciate and makes them want to fight back as well. An adaptation of a book from the early 90s, about the 80s, but it takes place today and feels just as important. It might be the first time Anderson has wanted to do a contemporary film in some time, and thinking about the needle drops from the school dance sequence had me cackling because I never would have thought I’d hear “Shut up and Dance” in a PTA film.
The cast is impeccable. DiCaprio is always great, but Chase Infiniti steals the film from the moment she pops up on screen. Alongside Sensei Sergio, played by Benicio Del Toro, who also continues to improve the film every time he’s on screen. His presence in the film is warm and welcoming.
There’s much to discuss about One Battle, and every time I think I’m done, I remember a new piece I want to mention.
Sentimental Value
Dir. Joachim Trier
I’ve thought about this film often since I’ve seen it. Which is the case with most of these films, and then some, which is why they’re on this list. But Trier’s films really do find a way under your skin. I don’t mean that as a way that frustrates you, but rather something that keeps you itching for more. This has been the case with every film of Trier I’ve seen, and he is a filmmaker I’d like to watch more of moving forward. I haven’t seen much of his past work, only two films, Thelma and The Worst Person in the World, were some of my favourite movies of those years.
The film tells the story of two daughters and their father, who was away often as a filmmaker. He was more invested in his art than his family, and partially an attempt at trying to join their lives while also making a film that would be about their home and lives. Watching the film at Varsity meant that many other members of the audience laughed when Stellan Skarsgård gifted the Gasper Noé and Michael Haneke’s DVDs to his grandson. Renate Reinsve continues her streak of incredible performances as one of the daughters, but her sister Agnes, played by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, is spectacular. Someone who was reserved due to pain in her childhood, but had someone there to protect them. It’s a feeling that I can easily tap into and understand.
I really do need to go back and see more of his past work, and that’s something I will plan to do in the future.
The Shrouds
Dir. David Cronenberg
Many films on this list are very much about grief, but I feel Cronenberg’s The Shrouds carries and shows it in spades. It’s a film extremely inspired by the loss of his wife. Admittedly, Croneberg is a filmmaker I haven’t watched enough of, but I have been slowly chipping away at some of his other films that I haven’t had a chance to watch yet.
I began this piece talking about repeating myself, and may do so again before it’s over, or have done so. I write these out of order, in bits and pieces, to try to sum up my thoughts as I revisit the films briefly. Either in my thoughts, actually viewing them, discussing them, or frankly, watching others react to them. That wasn’t necessarily the case with The Shrouds; there wasn’t a reaction video I found, but more so, sometimes we need a second viewing, or a thought other than yours, to help solidify some thoughts. As spoken in The Life of Chuck, I knew I loved the film when it ended. I just thought I was the only one who had done so. I felt the same with The Shrouds. I saw it at Varsity in Toronto, and the reaction from the audience was muted. They didn’t know how to respond to the film, and a movie this open about grief is also hard to swallow.
It is comical, sexy, and morbid. It’s a Cronenberg film, and I’m always going to love a director being kind of honest with themselves and their feelings. Vincent Cassel is spectacular in the film as a stand-in for Cronenberg. Croneberg has discussed how he drives a Tesla and even tries to look like him.
Sinners
Dir. Ryan Coogler
I’ve been lucky enough to see all of Coogler’s films theatrically during each of their initial releases. I would like to say that we’re all lucky to have his films in general.
On the one hand, I would love my list to stand out from other best-of lists, or to discuss something different from what those other critics would say. I can’t imagine I’d be saying anything new that other better critics haven’t discussed about Sinners. Whether it’s Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance, Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s cinematography, Göransson’s score, Coogler’s script or direction. It’s an all-timer blockbuster that we never get to see. Sinners is one of my best movie-going experiences of the year, bar none. Maybe the explosive nature of One Battle After Another might be a close second place, but it’s Sinners that, truthfully, I’ll remember the theatre experience first. The second time I saw it, I got to see my friend realize that it was a movie about vampires in real time, and it just made the film expand on another level. Everyone I’ve seen the film with and have spoken to about it is always all-in before the vampire aspect is thrown into the film. And for some, that may be a disservice to the film, but I think it makes it stronger.
Wake Up Dead Man
Dir. Rian Johnson
Okay, sorry Marty Surpreme cause you’re technically number eleven, and this slid in at the last moment, but Wake Up Dead Man is remarkable. It’s a true joy that on the third outing, Johnson can rejuvenate and change up the formula again. The original Knives Out film is one I can put back on often. It’s easy and simple to fall back into that film, but Glass Onion is a little tougher to watch. Maybe it’s the COVID aspect, or the Elon Musk-coded Edward Norton, but unfortunately, it doesn’t have the same magic that the first did.
With Wake Up Dead Man, I was happily surprised by the twists and turns that often had me a bit confused about what was happening next, even in an admittedly surprisingly longer runtime than I had expected. That’s partially because these films rarely feel like their over two-hour runtime; they do feel shorter than that. This is a testament to the pace of the film.
The supporting cast of suspects is all great, but if we’re all honest here, everyone is most excited/ecstatic about two recent Guadagnino favourites, Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig. Their chemistry is incredible, and Craig does feel more like a drop-in character in the world. With O’Connor, the film finds a way to make you invested in his journey of becoming what he may have been born to do: become a priest. I’ve never really been invested in the outcome of a church, but thank you, Rian Johnson & Josh O’Connor, for that.
Weapons
Dir. Zach Cregger
I used to watch Cregger’s show, Whitest Kids U Know. I believe a friend of my cousin told me about the show. We were excited, and a few of us ended up meeting to see his first film, Miss March, which he co-directed with Trevor Moore in theatres. We were 16, and I don’t remember any of us being fans of the film. I was very surprised at my screening of Barbarian when I slowly realized he was the director moments before seeing it for the first time.
Ever since it came out, of course, all people could think and wonder about is “what’s next?” To be told it was a film that can be compared to Magnolia, which, in retrospect, is accurate and takes the grief about his friend Moore and gives us Weapons as a way to process it. Some may ask “How?” but Cregger is more interested in having fun and letting shit be crazy as it slowly falls into place for us to watch in horror. Cregger can continue to experiment with narrative structure to keep us on our toes, as we’re never truly aware of what may happen next. I also hope that we stop visiting basements in his films because I just start to get scared about what we might encounter next.
I rewatched the film with Alyssa, and somehow she called it about twenty minutes into the movie, “it’s a voodoo doll curse.” Give it to Cregger to have some fun with his films, while also making it his way of trying to grieve.
Train Dreams
Dir. Clint Bentley
One of the reasons I write these in alphabetical order is that ranking these films against each other can be ridiculous, and any of these films could fall in a different spot on the list. Some of the “honourable mentions” could be on this list at any time, and this is just where they have fallen while making the list. And then we get to films like Train Dreams, and early into it, I knew this was my favourite, and it has remained my favourite. The day it was released on Netflix, I watched it and contemplated putting it on again later in the evening. It flew by, and before I knew it, I was sobbing as it ended. And I did so on my third watch as well.
I’ve been thinking of moments of this film since the movie ended. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the film and these characters. There is such life and joy for life so early in the film. It all clicks into place for him. Train Dreams is a magical film. It has the foresight to tell the story from its natural conclusion and all the knowledge of what his work and his life would become and turn to, but understanding every moment of it. His reason for waiting and staying. All these events happened by and around Grenier, and he is nothing but a witness to it all.
I will follow Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar on any project.
Those were the films that I loved enough to say a few words about. I already mentioned that Marty Supreme almost made my list, but here are also the other films that I loved that I almost discussed.
Heart Eyes, 28 Years Later, Frankenstein, Paddington In Peru, Clown in a Cornfield, Eddington, and The Phoenician Scheme. Poetic License and Bad Apples are both films I saw at TIFF that have a 2026 release date, so we’ll see if they return and make an appearance on next year’s list.
Soon, I plan to be back with some of the films I’m looking forward to seeing this year and why.
The UnderSCENE 