The 25 Best Movies Of The Year, Ranked

When we look back at 2025, we’ll likely think of it as a terrific year for the movies.

Maybe it’s because Marvel movies no longer dominated the cultural conversation. Or maybe it’s because box office worries have lead to a little more risk-taking by Hollywood producers. Whatever the reason, big screen releases haven’t had a such a variety of genres, styles, and stories like this since 1999: We had everything from music-driven vampiric period pieces to demon-driven animated musicals; pitch-black alien invasions to sunshine-y alien superheroes; paranoid revolutionary epics to retro-futuristic family affairs. In a politically and economically and globally chaotic year, unique stories broke through the noise to help make sense of it all.

In a year where there were multiple films lauded as masterpieces, and even more as instant classics, cinephiles were spoiled for riches in 2025. So spoiled that even a list of the top 25 movies of the year feels like it leaves out far too many incredible contenders.

The Inverse Entertainment team put our heads together to give you the best 25 movies of 2025. Here they are, ranked.

25. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

Even the weakest Mission: Impossible movie lands somewhere among the best action films of all time. Its last installment, The Final Reckoning, isn’t as ironclad as its predecessors, but it makes up for shaky pacing and shallow character work with jaw-dropping set pieces and stunts so deranged one can’t help but smile at the guts required to pull them off. If the franchise must end here, at least it does so pushing its limits. — Lyvie Scott

24. The Running Man

Somehow, this faithful adaptation of one of the darkest Stephen King works of all time is also one of the most upbeat action movies of the year. Edgar Wright balances a sadistic narrative with humor and excellent stakes. Glen Powell might have more hilarious sidekicks than he needs, but this Running Man beats the Arnie original with ease. — Ryan Britt

23. Predator: Badlands

Unlike the Alien or Blade Runner franchises, nobody has been really waiting for or demanding a Predator renaissance. But we got one anyway! Following his slam dunk with 2022’s Prey and this year’s exciting animated anthology movie, director Dan Trachtenberg gave us the buddy movie we didn’t know we needed. As a new kind of franchise-builder, Badlands could give other big IPs lessons. A whole new take on this universe starts right here. — Ryan Britt

22. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

A nerve-shredding descent into one woman’s fast-unraveling psyche, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is one of the most distressing movies of the year, and a revelatory showcase for Rose Byrne. As a mother having the worst week of her life, Byrne gives a raw, nervy performance. But it’s thanks to Mary Bronstein’s claustrophobic, surreal direction that If I Had Legs I’d Kick You rises above the rest. — Hoai-Tran Bui

21. The Ugly Stepsister

We’ve all heard the stories of how fairy tales were a lot darker originally, but The Ugly Stepsister is one of the first adaptations to embrace those elements instead of papering over them. This is a bedtime story for people who were really into The Substance last year, full of body horror, angst, and some intriguing commentary on how women look at their own bodies. — Dais Johnston

20. It Was Just An Accident

Jafar Panahi’s blistering revenge thriller is a tonal high-wire act. Following a group of former political prisoners in Iran who believe that they’ve found the man who tortured them, It Was Just an Accident is both a pitch-black comedy of errors and a searing political thriller that takes its audience down some truly dark and unexpected avenues. But just when it seems like things are about to get too bleak, It Was Just An Accident wisely swerves toward the absurd. It’s prone to give you whiplash, but hey, so does the current political state of the world. — Hoai-Tran Bui

19. 28 Years Later

28 Days Later was one of the first truly British horror movies, and with 28 Years Later, the much-anticipated threequel, it was surely tempting to make it a little more global. But this movie went the complete opposite way: Again, the zombie apocalypse is totally isolated to the United Kingdom, and again, British pop culture is dotted throughout. It’s the perfect maturation of the franchise, and it builds out its mythology in a way that feels fresh even while dealing with a classic subgenre. — Dais Johnston

18. Cloud

If there’s a movie this year that could be described as innately evil, it’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud. Not because it’s bad or even because it’s violent, but because it feels like a window into a kind of real maliciousness that penetrates every aspect of our world. A lean, mean thriller about an online reseller who finds himself hunted by the people he’s duped, Cloud may be the best contemporary movie to show what it’s like to live under the poisonous influence of the internet age. — Hoai-Tran Bui

17. KPop Demon Hunters

Disney, eat your heart out: After decades as the reigning ruler of animation, the House of Mouse has effectively been dethroned by Sony Pictures. KPop Demon Hunters is the latest in a handful of slam dunks for Sony’s animation house. Part musical, part supernatural coming of age, KPop Demon Hunters was inescapable in 2025. It taps into a market that’s already been not-so-quietly dominating the zeitgeist, crafting an instant, inclusive classic for a new era. — Lyvie Scott

16. Avatar: Fire and Ash

You could argue that Avatar: Fire & Ash is just a retread of its predecessor, The Way of Water. But does any of that really matter when James Cameron doubles down on the spectacular visuals that make this franchise so immersive? The Avatar films have moved from strength to strength, and Fire & Ash — the darkest, angstiest, most evocative chapter in this saga — might just be the best yet. — Lyvie Scott

15. Resurrection

There’s no movie this year like Bi Gan’s Resurrection. In a far future where humanity has lost the capacity to dream, those who still dream are hunted down and slain. Split into six separate chapters set across six separate time periods, Resurrection is a surreal, breathtakingly beautiful love letter to cinema history, and possibly the closest thing we can get to experiencing real, actual time travel. — Hoai-Tran Bui

14. The Phoenician Scheme

Perhaps the most Wes Anderson-y Wes Anderson movie of all time, The Phoenician Scheme is also a reminder that the director’s quirky style doesn’t always have to be funny. Yes, there are laugh-out-loud moments in this strange heist film, but Anderson is actually back in troubled father-figure territory, a niche he carved out well with The Royal Tenenbaums. But as Antole, Benicio del Toro is a darker, more realistic figure than any of Anderson’s previous patriarchs. If it all seems familiar, it’s best to remember that in a world of trickless ponies, Anderson’s one trick remains incredible. — Ryan Britt

13. The Long Walk

2025 was undoubtedly the year of Stephen King, with The Life of Chuck, It, and The Running Man all getting adaptations. But of all those films, The Long Walk is just pure, distilled King action. The performances by David Jonsson and Cooper Hoffman feel so grounded and lived-in that each breadcrumb of exposition laid along the winding road feels like a full meal. A dystopia doesn’t need glitzy sets and tons of fight scenes; sometimes it just needs good characters and a long walk. — Dais Johnston

12. Black Bag

Spy thrillers can be more than a bombastic Bond movie or stuffy retrospective, but Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is the first in a while to split the difference. Smart, seductive, and surprisingly understated, Black Bag is an oasis in a desert of dumbed-down blockbuster fare. It gets our hearts racing without raising its voice, delivering a lean, mean marriage story cleverly disguised as a whodunit. — Lyvie Scott

11. Thunderbolts

Marvel’s 2025 underdog movie has a heart of gold and a fairly simple premise. What if the true meaning of being a hero was the kooky friends we made along the way? Florence Pugh carries the majority of Thunderbolt’s kindhearted message, which she pulls off with impressive subtlety and humor. But Lewis Pullman’s “Bob” might be the true MVP of the movie. — Ryan Britt

10. Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos finally made another weird one. In The Favourite and Poor Things, he worked with The Great scribe Tony McNamara, but this film, a remake of the Korean movie Save the Green Planet!, goes right back to his roots. Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons anchor a story about the comfort of paranoia and the fragility of life with one of the most gut-punching endings in recent memory. It’s one of those movies you walk out of dazed but can’t stop thinking about days later. — Dais Johnston

9. The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Marvel fatigue no more! As a pseudo-standalone movie in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe pantheon, The Fantastic Four: First Steps reminds us why we love superhero movies at all. With a sweet, almost simple premise, director Matt Shakman’s take on some of the most foundational comic book heroes is sentimental and life-affirming. First Steps also remembers that it’s OK for comic book movies to look beautiful. — Ryan Britt

8. Marty Supreme

The cinematic equivalent of getting a shot of adrenaline straight to the chest, Marty Supreme is a propulsive odyssey about hubris gone awry. Timothée Chalamet gives the performance of a lifetime as Marty Mauser, a hustler and table tennis champion whose self-destructive spiral leads him down the darkest corners of New York City and beyond. Josh Safdie’s Herculean ode to the American Dream is like watching a train crash in real time: It’s hypnotic and horrifying, and you can’t look away. — Hoai-Tran Bui

7. Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro is a director who wears his heart on his sleeve, who dedicates each film to his love for monsters and misfits. Frankenstein brings that love back to the source, remixing Mary Shelley’s seminal work into an intensely personal fable about fathers and sons, the hubris of man, and the blessing-curse of life. It is del Toro at his most assured and indulgent: It can’t claim to be subtle, but it’s impossible to resist his sweeping take on the original sci-fi horror. — Lyvie Scott

6. Wake Up Dead Man

After the frothy fun of the second Knives Out installment, Rian Johnson elegantly brings the franchise back to basics with Wake Up Dead Man, the most spiritual Benoit Blanc outing yet. Josh O’Connor is the heart and soul of the twisty murder-mystery, and the first “culprit” to really challenge Daniel Craig’s Blanc in new and exciting ways. Coupled with Johnson’s striking direction, Wake Up Dead Man takes the Knives Out movies to new, stirring heights. — Hoai-Tran Bui

5. Superman

For too long, superhero movies have existed almost to spite their original medium, stripped of the color and life that make comic book stories so immersive. James Gunn’s Superman is not that kind of adaptation. Sure, it’s almost too eager to embrace an unreal comic book aesthetic, but at least it’s trying something new — and at least it’s not afraid to bring the genre back to earnest, rollicking fun. It’s a new dawn for the Man of Steel, and maybe for superhero movies across the board. — Lyvie Scott

4. No Other Choice

How does Park Chan-wook do it? The Korean director manages to one-up himself with each succeeding movie, and he delivers one of his best yet with the darkly comic social thriller No Other Choice. Lee Byung-hun is pitch-perfect as Man-su, an upper middle class family man who loses his job and is on the verge of losing his house and lifestyle… but not if he murders his competition for a new job. Razor sharp, impossibly stylish, and pitch black, No Other Choice is an unexpectedly zany hoot. — Hoai-Tran Bui

3. Weapons

Zach Cregger’s take on the Magnolia epic feels like watching a magic trick. The episodic, multiple-perspective storytelling, the unusual introduction of the central mystery, and the slow inching toward the supernatural all feel gradual enough that by the last act, every moment of gore and bloodshed feels earned. And, perhaps more importantly, it all feels weirdly believable. If we got an “instant classic” this year, this was it. — Dais Johnston

2. One Battle After Another

Much ink has been spilled about the political leanings of One Battle After Another, and even more about whether or not it’s a masterpiece. But no matter where you fall on that discourse, it’s undeniable that One Battle After Another is one of the movies of the year. Leonardo DiCaprio has never been better (or funnier) than in Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling action epic, and the result is a dizzying and profound movie that asks whether or not we can build a better world for our children. — Hoai-Tran Bui

1. Sinners

Ryan Coogler has a knack for making history, so it only makes sense that his first original project in years turns into an instant classic. Sinners is a marvel for so many reasons, as much a vampire movie as it is a stake through America’s bloody, blackened heart. It’s been a long time since a supernatural story dissected our real-world horrors so succinctly, but this genre-melding masterpiece makes that — and the rest of its juggling acts — look easy. — Lyvie Scott