Find all of our “Best of 2025” lists here.
If you’re searching for what to watch over a long, home-bound holiday weekend, these critics have a few ideas of where to start.
Linda Holmes, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, and Mike Sargent, host of the Brown & Black podcast, as well as co-president of the Black Film Critics Circle, join Jeffrey Brown to share their favorite movies of the year.
“Sinners”
“To me, movie of the year, in a few ways, is ‘Sinners.'”
– Linda Holmes
“Superman”
“This is truer to who I think Superman is than some of the other recent efforts.”
– Linda Holmes
“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”
“This is actually, I think, maybe the best of the three [‘Knives Out’ movies]. It’s an interesting premise.”
– Mike Sargent
“Weapons”
“What this film reminds me, as a storyteller and a lover of stories, is: It’s not just the story, it’s how the story is told.”
– Mike Sargent
“Blue Moon”
“It’s very much about art and people who make art.”
– Linda Holmes
“The Secret Agent”
“You almost feel like you’re watching a documentary. It’s very little artifice. Things are dirty. It seems very real. Every single actor, you completely believe them in their role.”
– Mike Sargent
“The Perfect Neighbor”
“It’s a very upsetting film, I will say, out of the gate. It is about a white woman who lives near a Black woman and her kids and a lot of other people’s kids. And this woman just became very agitated by the kids and was harassing them. And ultimately it ends in this tragic, violent end.”
– Linda Holmes
My Mom Jayne”
“I’m so skeptical when famous people make documentaries about their families, but [Mariska Hargitay] absolutely redeems the whole project. It’s very honest, it’s very fair to everybody.”
– Linda Holmes
“SLY LIVES! aka The Burden of Black Genius”
“This goes beyond just the usual musical doc. It explores the emotional, cultural burden placed on Black genius in America.”
– Mike Sargent
“Orwell: 2+2=5”
“What you see [George Orwell] talking about, what he was writing about, what he’s saying is disturbingly prescient today.”
– Mike Sargent
“Zootopia 2”
“It’s visually inventive and a lot of fun.”
– Linda Holmes
“The Choral”
“Some people absolutely are gonna find it a little bit corny, but I found it beautiful and and really moving.”
– Linda Holmes
“Arco”
“It’s about a little boy who travels from the future into our future and meets a little girl, and their friendship. … And without saying much more, the animation is terrific.”
– Mike Sargent
“The Bad Guys 2”
“I think it sets the bar pretty high.”
– Mike Sargent