The 2025 Wrap-Up: The 5 Best Movies Released In Theatres This Year

Ambitious blockbusters, moving dramas and future genre classics… 2025 was quite the year for movies across the board!

2025 has gifted us with a few knockout films that I’ll definitely be remembering for many years, with some practically destined to become classics of their genres.

Though I’ve not seen absolutely everything from this year (I’ve not been blessed to see Marty Supreme or Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident yet), these are my picks for the top 5 movies that I caught in theatres throughout this year!

#5: Weapons

Described as “Hereditary meets Magnolia” by its director, Zach Cregger’s Weapons is an absolutely sensational ensemble horror film. After all but one of the children in Justine Gandy’s class disappear mysteriously, it kicks off a sprawling tale told from the perspective of six different characters.

What makes Weapons such a remarkable horror experience is its control over tone. Cregger proves that directors with a background in comedy have a genuinely exceptional understanding of horror, considering both rely on the building and release of tension.

Cregger’s film is in the vein of a Jordan Peele film, given that it effortlessly switches between terror and humour while telling a genuinely intricate, well-performed story with a deliberate desire to entertain. An instant classic of its genre, Weapons encapsulates so much of what I love about horror movies in one package.

#4: Sentimental Value

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is an absolute achievement for the Norwegian director. Following up his terrific 2021 outing The Worst Person in the World, this film is a deeply human exploration of intergenerational trauma and how it can potentially be healed through the power of art.

Where Worst Person was focused on its main character, Sentimental Value feels comparatively grander in scale in its focus on a filmmaker and his family as they navigate complex emotional truths. Though it runs the risk of growing unwieldy, the film ultimately succeeds because of how intimate it feels: the writing is raw without ever feeling cruel, and every line of dialogue is laced with empathy.

Plus, when you have the terrific quartet of Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning and relatively unknown Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, you’re almost guaranteed to have a movie at least worth watching. Thankfully for us, it’s much more than that: Sentimental Value is one of the best, most impressively made films of the year.

#3: Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc

I’ve been heavily contemplating whether I should include Chainsaw Man: The Movie – Reze Arc in this article, given my previously self-admitted bias for this series. Alas, this is my list, and I’ve decided to include it to stay true to myself.

But even outside of my own affinity for Tatsuki Fujimoto’s incredible manga, I sincerely believe that Chainsaw Man’s first outing on the big screen is one of the most sensationally creative animated movies released this decade.

Although you might come to the Reze Arc for its bombastic fight scenes – which are absolutely incredible – what makes this movie so special is that it takes the time to beautifully tell its tale of young love in an equally detailed and beautiful way. There’s no denying this is some of the most fun I had at the movies this year, and it’s well worth a watch.

#2: One Battle After Another

A thunderous statement from one of our greatest living directors, every good thing you’ve heard about Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is true. It’s one of the most ambitious blockbusters to have ever been released by a major studio and feels genuinely incendiary in telling its tale of a fractured revolutionary group.

Even outside of that, One Battle After Another is a film firing on absolutely every cylinder. Anderson’s control over the cinematic form has rarely been so precise, and he brings out one of Leonardo DiCaprio’s best performances in years. The rest of the cast are great too, with  Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor and newcomer Chase Infiniti all stealing the show in their own ways.

Ultimately a tale about a father doing whatever it takes to find his daughter, Anderson showcases his supreme ability to make empathise with his characters, even as they’re thrown into situations far beyond what any of us could imagine. Bold, big and beautiful, One Battle After Another already feels destined for the history books.

#1: Sinners

On paper, Sinners feels like a movie that shouldn’t work. It’s a 1930s deep South-set gangster/vampire musical fundamentally about Black art and ownership, starring the ever-charismatic Michael B. Jordan as twins – it’s a sad truth that if anyone but box-office darling Ryan Coogler pitched this movie, it probably wouldn’t get made.

But am I ever glad that it did, because Sinners is an absolutely phenomenal film and my personal favourite movie of the year. Despite its seemingly impossible starting point, it works precisely because it believes in itself: Coogler is not at all ashamed of the world and film that he creates, allowing it to feel genuinely sincere in a way that most big-budget films these days just can’t.

With phenomenal music, gorgeous cinematography and a thoughtful script that knows when to get pulpy, the creativity on display in Sinners is genuinely infectious in how fun it is. It’s the kind of film I wish there were more of: fun, entertaining genre fare that’s also genuinely ambitious in both its themes and scope. If you’ve not seen it yet, I believe Sinners is the one film from 2025 that everybody should watch.

In conclusion…

Though I lament the fact I’ve not seen some of the year’s most hyped movies (curse you, Australian release dates), I still feel confident in saying that this was a genuinely great year at the movies. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have, and enjoy catching up on some of the best releases of the year this holiday season!