Honorable Mentions:
Sirat, Weapons, The Life of Chuck, and The Voice of Hind Rajab
12. The Plague
Set at a summer water polo camp, The Plague follows Ben (Everett Blunck) as he endures a nightmare fueled by bullying and anxiety. What really impressed me here is how writer/director Charlie Polinger pulls you right into that uncomfortable headspace. The tension isn’t just on the kids—it’s everywhere, and you feel it. Even more impressive, though, is how the film finds empathy for everyone, even the kids doing the damage. That’s not easy, and it really stuck with me.
11. The Ugly Stepsister
This movie takes a hammer and chisel to one of the most familiar fairy tales we have. Writer/director Emilie Blichfeldt holds absolutely nothing back, telling the story of Elvira (Lea Myren) and her brutal competition with her beautiful stepsister. This is a body-horror fairy tale through and through, and it gets bloody. There are plenty of scenes that will stay with you, but none more so than the nose-job sequence—which is unforgettable in the most uncomfortable way.
10. It Was Just an Accident
When a man and his family accidentally hit and kill a dog while driving at night, a visit to an auto mechanic—and one specific sound—sets a chain of events in motion. Filmed secretly and without permits, It Was Just an Accident is one of the most direct and unflinching political films of the year. Writer/director Jafar Panahi delivers a gripping thriller while delivering a sharp rebuke of authoritarianism. At this point, Panahi proving he’s one of the great filmmakers working today almost feels like a given.
9. F1: The Movie
Sometimes a movie just grabs you and refuses to let go. F1: The Movie did that for me. Joseph Kosinski puts you right in the driver’s seat, and Brad Pitt gives you every reason to stay there. It’s a familiar sports-movie setup—a down-on-his-luck guy gets one last shot—but the experience is everything. Proof that sometimes the destination doesn’t matter at all, as long as the journey rules. This was one of my favorite theatrical rides of the year.
8. Black Bag
What happens when you combine writer David Koepp, director Steven Soderbergh, and stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett? You get one slick, cool-as-hell spy thriller. I could watch Fassbender hunt traitors all day—especially when his wife (Blanchett) might be one of them. The movie has all the Soderbergh polish you’d expect, along with sharp wit and confidence. It’s a classy espionage caper that lets its stars shine.
7. Nouvelle Vague
If you want to get my attention instantly, make a movie about making a movie. Richard Linklater absolutely gets me here, recreating the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. While it doesn’t reinvent cinema the way Godard did, it doesn’t need to. What it does instead is celebrate filmmaking with infectious admiration. If you love movies, this one just makes that love grow stronger.
6. Hamnet
If you’ve ever thought, “I want to watch something beautiful and cry my eyes out,” then Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet is for you. The film follows William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley) as they grapple with the death of their eleven-year-old son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), and how that loss shaped Hamlet. The performances are incredible, and the film somehow manages to completely break your heart—and then gently put it back together. It also contains one of the most powerful 20-minute stretches I saw all year.
5. Marty Supreme
I definitely didn’t have “a movie loosely inspired by American table tennis legend Marty Reisman” on my best-of-the-year bingo card—but here we are. That’s what happens when Josh Safdie teams up with Timothée Chalamet, who is infectiously charismatic here. The movie follows Marty’s sky-high ambition while also calling out how toxic that drive can be. Marty isn’t a particularly likable character, but that’s kind of the point. This is a wild ride that will probably divide audiences, but it’s impossible not to be impressed by Chalamet’s performance.
4. One Battle After Another
I’m honestly as surprised as anyone that a Paul Thomas Anderson film didn’t crack my top three—but life’s full of surprises. That said, One Battle After Another is still phenomenal. We follow an ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) forced back into his old life when he and his daughter are pursued by a corrupt military officer (Sean Penn). Packed with jaw-dropping action, incredible craft, and powerhouse performances, this is Anderson operating at a very high level. Even when he “misses” my top three, he’s still delivering one of the year’s best films.
3. No Other Choice
Like Anderson, Park Chan-wook is simply one of the best filmmakers alive. With No Other Choice, he delivers one of his most humane—and darkly funny—films yet. Based on Donald Westlake’s novel The Ax, the movie follows Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), a desperate paper-industry expert who decides the only way to get a job is to eliminate the competition. Directed with pristine precision, it’s a sharp takedown of corporate life and ambition. Calling this one of Chan-wook’s best films says a lot—especially considering he made The Handmaiden.
2. Sinners
This is one of those movies where I remember exactly where I was and who I was with when I saw it. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners left that kind of mark. Set in 1932 Mississippi, the film follows two criminal “cousins” (both played by Michael B. Jordan) returning to their hometown, only to face a supernatural evil that turns the night into pure chaos. The visuals are stunning, the music is infectious, and the storytelling is powerful. Coogler is still just getting started, and after this, whatever he does next is an instant must-watch.
1. Sentimental Value
Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt deliver a deeply moving story about the tension between personal connection and artistic expression. The film centers on sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as they deal with their mother’s death, which brings their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), back into their lives. Gustav is a celebrated filmmaker who’s written a deeply personal script specifically for Nora, an actress. Trier takes us into some uncomfortable emotional territory, but the payoff is enormous. The performances here are among the very best of the year, making Sentimental Value my favorite film of the year.
