It was a tumultuous year, and the best movies of 2025 helped us fight back — against depression, grief, authoritarianism and against trauma in our own minds and history.
I crafted this list after watching more than 160 movies in 2025 — an average of three a week.
I made a point of seeing each film that became a part of last year’s cultural conversation. And my count includes 18 movies that debuted in Utah at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, three of which made it into my top 10.
Here’s my list, counting down to No. 1:
(Agata Grzybowska | Focus Features) Agnes (Jessie Buckley, center) — aka Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare — attends a production of “Hamlet,” in a scene from director Chloé Zhao’s drama “Hamnet.”
10. “Hamnet”
This luminous, thoughtful adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel depicts William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway as lovers and parents, joined by family and separated by distance — rural England, where Anne cares for their children, and London, where Will builds his career as a playwright and theater producer.
A family tragedy draws Anne, aka Agnes (Jessie Buckley), into her grief and inspires Will (Paul Mescal) to consider death within one of literature’s greatest works, “Hamlet.”
Director Chloe Zhao lets the story unfold naturally, like a rose, revealing its true beauty in a shattering climax that beautifully showcases Buckley and celebrates the healing power of art. (Still in theaters; on streaming early in 2026.)
(Music Box Films) An image from Charlie Shackleton’s documentary “Zodiac Killer Project.”
9. “Zodiac Killer Project”
Director Charlie Shackleton had a plan to make a documentary about the Zodiac Killer, the infamous serial murderer who terrorized the Bay Area in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. The problem came when the family of a former California Highway Patrol officer withdrew the rights to use a memoir that included the cop’s theory on who committed the murders.
Instead of making a standard true-crime documentary, Shackleton made a movie that deconstructs the entire genre. He picks apart the tropes that have become the foundation for dozens of true-crime films and criticizes the audience, other filmmakers and himself for gravitating toward easy answers to complicated crimes. (Home video release date pending.)
(Warner Bros. Pictures) Michael B. Jordan plays dual roles, as twins Smoke, left, and Stack, in writer-director Ryan Coogler’s drama/thriller “Sinners.”
8. “Sinners”
An improbable mix of genres — historical drama, gangster thriller and vampire horror — combines into one of the most electric movies of the year.
Michael B. Jordan plays twins, Smoke and Stack, who return home to Mississippi in 1932 to open a juke joint. There, they must confront old loves (Wunmi Mosaku and Hailie Steinfield, respectively), get the music and bootleg liquor flowing, and fend off a horde of vampires trying to get inside.
Director Ryan Coogler skillfully toggles through these themes like a DJ, seamlessly layering music, terror and history, reminding us that the horrors of our past are the scariest and most illuminating thoughts we can have. (HBO Max.)
(Murray Close | Lionsgate) Garraty (Cooper Hoffman, foreground) takes part in a post-apocalyptic contest — along with, from left, Joshua Odjick, Jordan Gonzalez, David Jonsson and Charlie Plummer, in director Francis Lawrence’s thriller “The Long Walk.”
7. “The Long Walk”
Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic fable tells of a fascist America ruled by The Major (Mark Hamill), where the masses are distracted by a competition where young men walk nonstop. The winner gets riches; the others get shot dead when they falter.
At the center of this year’s walk is Raymond (Cooper Hoffman), who has a different game plan: Revenge against The Major and the system that supports him.
Director Francis Lawrence helmed most of “The Hunger Games” franchise, so he knows about dystopian competitions and the authoritarian analogies that drive them.
What keeps this walk on its feet are Hoffman (a ringer for his late father, Philip Seymour Hoffman) and David Jonssen as competitors who become friends, demonstrating the sacrifices needed to strike a blow for freedom. (Video on demand; streams on Starz starting Jan. 10.)
(A24) Lucy (Dakota Johnson, left), a New York matchmaker, finds herself attracted to a potential client, Harry (Pedro Pascal), in writer-director Celine Song’s “Materialists.”
6. “Materialists”
Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a New York matchmaker adept at pairing eligible singles, even when they themselves don’t see the connection. She thinks she’s found a perfect client in Harry (Pedro Pascal), a suave tech millionaire — if she doesn’t fall for him herself. Complicating matters is the return of Lucy’s ex, John (Chris Evans), an unemployed actor.
Not everyone grooved to writer-director Celine Song’s follow-up to her sterling debut, “Past Lives,” but I enjoyed this smart spin on the modern rom-com.
Song and Johnson conspire to explore whether people have intellectualized themselves out of love — or if they can see, to paraphrase an old song, that the fundamental things apply. (HBO Max.)
(20th Century Studios) Jeremy Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen in director Scott Cooper’s musical biography “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.”
5. “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere”
This sturdy profile of Bruce Springsteen centers on a snippet of his career — the early 1980s, when he finished “The River” tour as a rock god and opted to write and record an entire album by himself, eventually called “Nebraska.”
Jeremy Allen White channels Springsteen’s pain and self-doubt, while Jeremy Strong is powerful as Springsteen’s manager, Jon Landau, defending his client’s right to be uncommercial.
Through the musical-biopic cliches, director Scott Cooper digs into something deeper: A rare examination of the effects of depression on one’s soul and on Springsteen’s creative process. (Video on demand; likely to stream on Hulu and Disney+ in early 2026.)
(Adolpho Veloso | Netflix) Joel Edgerton, bottom, and Felicity Jones star in director Clint Bentley’s drama “Train Dreams.”
4. “Train Dreams”
A logger (Joel Edgerton) travels across the Pacific Northwest during the Great Depression, accumulating encounters in logging camps and railroad construction sites that inspire and haunt him. It’s all to earn money to get back to his wife (Felicity Jones) and baby, until a tragedy strikes that changes him profoundly.
Director Clint Bentley and co-writer Greg Kwedar (who together collaborated on last year’s prison drama “Sing Sing”) adapt Denis Johnson’s novella into a lyrical view of the promise and heartbreak across decades.
It’s easily the best depiction of the changing 20th century West since Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It.” (Netflix.)
(Warner Bros. Pictures) Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a former revolutionary brought back into the fight, in writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.”
3. “One Battle After Another”
After a ‘60s radical group disbands following a government crackdown, one of its members (Leonardo DiCaprio) retreats into the Oregon woods with a steady supply of marijuana, content to raise his rebellious daughter (Chase Infiniti) while the law (Sean Penn) finally catches up to him.
Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s absurdist comedy-drama (loosely based on a Thomas Pynchon novel) shows DiCaprio’s character as someone who thinks he’s behind the times, only to realize that American authoritarianism is cyclical and is catching back up with him.
Supporting turns by Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor illuminate a darkly funny story that argues that revolutionaries never went away, because the power they were revolting against didn’t leave, either. (HBO Max.)
(Neon) A garage worker (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, left) and a wedding couple (Majid Panahi, center, and Hadis Pakbaten) in Iran discover a man who they think was their prison torturer, in writer-director Jafar Panahi’s drama “It Was Just an Accident.”
2. “It Was Just an Accident”
After a decade of making digital “non-films” to circumvent the Iranian regime that barred him from working, director Jafar Panahi returns with a moving story of revenge and doubt.
A garage worker (Vahid Mobasseri) hears the squeak of a man’s prosthetic leg — and is sure the man (Ebrahim Azizi) is the Iranian prison guard who once tortured him.
The garage worker gathers friends and others who were in the same prison, including a wedding photographer (Mariam Afshari) — with a bride and groom along for the ride — to track their ex-jailer and exact their revenge.
Panahi, who won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, draws upon his own prison experiences to inform the painful memories of his characters as they question their memories and motivations. The result is a movie that reminds us that oppression leaves lasting scars. (Video on demand; likely to stream in early 2026.)
1. “Sorry, Baby”
Writer-director-actor Eva Victor plays Agnes, a literature professor at a small college in the Northeast.
She feels stuck, living in the same house where she and her best friend (Naomi Ackie) were grad students at the same school, and the reason is soon clear: She’s coping with the aftermath of a sexual assault by her mentor (Louis Cancelmi).
Victor, on both sides of the camera, deftly navigates several emotions at once: Fear, sadness, guilt and the occasional lusting after a hunky neighbor (Lucas Hedges). She reveals a dry humor, an empathy for her characters and a patience to let Agnes work around and through her trauma at her own pace. (HBO Max, Hulu, Apple TV+.)
Honorable mentions
(Sony Pictures Classics) Tabatha Zimiga plays a rebellious horse trainer in writer-director Kate Beecroft’s drama “East of Wall.”
Here are 10 more movies that nearly found a home in that list:
• Zach Cregger’s weirdly funny horror movie, “Weapons.” (HBO Max.)
• Joachim Trier’s heartbreaking father-daughter drama, “Sentimental Value.” (Video on demand.)
• Mona Fastvold’s ecstatic depiction of religious fervor, “The Testament of Ann Lee.” (In theaters Jan. 23.)
• Rian Johnson’s theology-tinged murder mystery, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.” (Netflix.)
• Josh Safdie’s manic sports comedy, “Marty Supreme.” (Now in theaters.)
• Kate Beecroft’s Western family drama, “East of Wall.” (Video on demand.)
• Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic horror reboot, “Frankenstein.” (Netflix.)
• Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han’s animated memory play, “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.” (Video on demand.)
• Raoul Peck’s timely documentary “Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5.” (Video on demand.)
• Bong Joon-Ho’s crazy science-fiction comedy “Mickey 17.” (HBO Max.)