Yesterday, in unveiling my list of my favorite movies of 2025, I bemoaned the future of Warner Bros.—how it was likely to be acquired by either Netflix (which would be bad) or Paramount (which would also be bad). Well, later that day, Netflix announced that it was refusing to match Paramount’s latest bid, meaning David Zaslav and Larry Ellison will soon meet in the moonlight and lock horns and drink each other’s blood or perform whatever rituals are required when demonic billionaires finalize a disastrous sale. It’s a terrible outcome that bodes poorly for the fate of cinema.
But that’s for the future; right now, we’re still focusing on the (very recent) past. I perform this exercise annually, “ranking” all of each year’s new movies but really just dividing them into discrete tiers. It’s partly designed as a personal recordkeeping mechanism, but it might also serve those of you who are interested in checking out recent releases and want to know where to find them (I append streaming data next to each title, along with the director’s name).
And so, here are MovieManifesto’s rankings (sort of) of the 166 movies I saw that came out in 2025 (click on each linked title to be taken to my review):
Tier 1: The Top 20
This is the lone tier that isn’t listed alphabetically. If you missed our deep dive on the 20 best movies of 2025, you can find it here.
1. One Battle After Another (directed by Paul Thomas Anderson; streaming on HBO Max)
2. Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier; available to rent)
3. On Swift Horses (Daniel Minahan; Netflix)
4. Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor, HBO Max)
5. The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson, Prime)
6. Sinners (Ryan Coogler, HBO Max and Prime)
7. Twinless (James Sweeney, Hulu)
8. It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi, available to rent)
9. Weapons (Zach Cregger; HBO Max)
10. Hamnet (Chloé Zhao; available to rent)
11. Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson; Netflix)
12. Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie; available to rent)
13. Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou; Netflix)
14. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater; Netflix)
15. 100 Nights of Hero (Julia Jackman; available to rent)
16. No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook; available to rent)
17. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh; Prime)
18. Relay (David MacKenzie; Netflix)
19. Lurker (Alex Russell; MUBI)
20. Mickey 17 (Bong Joon-ho; HBO Max and Prime)
Tier 2: Honorable Mention
It broke my heart to leave a few of these 8 movies off of my top 20. Excellent motion pictures, all!
Companion (directed by Drew Hancock; streaming on HBO Max and Prime)
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie; Paramount+)
Roofman (Derek Cianfrance; Paramount+)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho; available to rent)
Souleymane’s Story (Boris Lojkine; Kanopy)
The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold; in theaters)
Train Dreams (Clint Bentley; Netflix)
Universal Language (Matthew Rankin; Kanopy)
Tier 3: Good Movies!
Not quite as strong as the films in the prior tier (see how this works?), these 9 movies remain heartily recommended.
Americana (directed by Tony Tost; streaming on Starz via Apple)
Avatar: Fire and Ash (James Cameron; in theaters)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos; Peacock)
Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Criterion)
Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro; Netflix)
Influencers (Kurtis David Harder; AMC+)
The Life of Chuck (Mike Flanagan; Hulu)
Splitsville (Michael Angelo Covino; Hulu)
Warfare (Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza; HBO Max)
Tier 4: Pretty Good Movies
And now things start getting… populated. There are 37 movies in this tier; they’re all worth seeing, even if they’re also flawed.
Caught by the Tides (directed by Jia Zhangke; streaming on Criterion)
Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky; Netflix)
Dead Talents Society (John Hsu; Netflix)
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Embeth Davidtz; Netflix)
Drop (Christopher Landon; Prime)
Eddington (Ari Aster; HBO Max)
Eephus (Carson Lund; MUBI)
Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland; MUBI)
Grand Theft Hamlet (Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane; MUBI)
Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee; Apple)
The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus; MUBI)
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow; Netflix)
The Housemaid (Paul Feig; available to rent)
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein; HBO Max)
Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper; available to rent)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach; Netflix)
KPOP Demon Hunters (Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang; Netflix)
A Little Prayer (Angus MacLachlan; available to rent)
The Long Walk (Francis Lawrence; Starz)
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt; MUBI)
Materialists (Celine Song; HBO Max)
The Naked Gun (Akiva Schaffer; Prime and Paramount+)
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater; Netflix)
Oh, Hi! (Sophie Brooks; Netflix)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni; HBO Max)
Paddington in Peru (Dougal Wilson; Netflix)
The Plague (Charlie Polinger; available to rent)
Predator: Badlands (Dan Trachtenberg; Hulu)
Predator: Killer of Killers (Dan Trachtenberg; Hulu)
Presence (Steven Soderbergh; Hulu)
She Rides Shotgun (Nick Rowland; MGM+)
Song Sung Blue (Craig Brewer; Peacock)
Superman (James Gunn; HBO Max)
The Threesome (Chad Hartigan; Netflix)
Thunderbolts (Jake Schreier; Disney+)
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle; Netflix)
The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt; Hulu)
Tier 5: Not Bad, But…
This matches the prior tier in terms of quantity, if not quality. I found these 39 movies worth watching but struggled to fully embrace them.
After the Hunt (directed by Luca Guadagnino; streaming on Prime)
Anemone (Ronan Day-Lewis; Peacock)
Armand (Halfdan Olav Ullmann Tøndel; Hulu)
The Assessment (Fleur Fortuné; Hulu)
The Ballad of Wallis Island (James Griffiths; Prime)
Ballerina (Len Wiseman; Starz)
The Baltimorons (Jay Duplass; AMC+)
Being Maria (Jessica Palud; Kanopy)
Bob Trevino Likes It (Tracie Laymon; Hulu)
Bring Them Down (Christopher Andrews; MUBI)
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay; MUBI)
Dust Bunny (Bryan Fuller; available to rent)
Echo Valley (Michael Pearce; Apple)
Eden (Ron Howard; Netflix)
Elio (Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian, and Domee Shi; Disney+)
Eternity (David Freyne; Apple)
Fantastic Four: The First Steps (Matt Shakman; Disney+)
Final Destination Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein; HBO Max and Prime)
Freaky Tales (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck; HBO Max)
The Friend (Scott McGehee and David Siegel; Paramount+)
Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes; MUBI)
Hedda (Nia DaCosta; Prime)
Keeper (Osgood Perkins; available to rent)
Last Breath (Alex Parkinson; Prime)
The Lost Bus (Paul Greengrass; Apple)
Love Me (Andrew and Sam Zuchero; Paramount+)
Magazine Dreams (Elijah Bynum; available to rent)
A Minecraft Movie (Jared Hess; HBO Max and Prime)
Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie; Criterion)
Novocaine (Dan Berk and Robert Olsen; Prime)
Nuremberg (James Vanderbilt; available to rent)
Rental Family (Hikari; Hulu)
The Roses (Jay Roach; Hulu)
The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie; HBO Max)
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (Scott Cooper; Hulu)
Together (Michael Shanks; Hulu)
Urchin (Harris Dickinson; Hulu)
Who by Fire (Philippe Lesage; Kanopy)
Zootopia 2 (Jared Bush and Byron Howard; available to rent)
Tier 6: Critics are jerks!
Aside from the top 20, this is probably the most meaningful tier, in that it embodies 12 movies I liked considerably more than the critical consensus (as I’ve formulated that consensus in my brain). Some of them are really good, others are just intriguing, but all of them are more worthwhile than you’ve likely heard.
The Amateur (directed by James Hawes; streaming on Hulu)
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Kogonada; Netflix)
Christy (David Michôd; available to rent)
Ella McCay (James L. Brooks; Hulu)
Good Fortune (Aziz Ansari; Starz)
The Gorge (Scott Derrickson; Apple)
Honey Don’t! (Ethan Coen; Netflix)
Hurry Up Tomorrow (Trey Edward Shults; Starz)
M3gan 2.0 (Gerard Johnstone; Netflix)
Tron: Ares (Joachim Rønning; Disney+)
The Wedding Banquet (Andrew Ahn; Paramount+)
Wolf Man (Leigh Whannell; Prime)
Tier 7: Critics are dopes!
And here we have my least favorite tier, and the flip side of the prior one. Most critics liked these 9 movies, but I am not most critics.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: a Looney Tunes Movie (directed by Peter Browngardt; streaming on HBO Max)
F1 (Joseph Kosinski; Apple)
Friendship (Andrew DeYoung; HBO Max)
Havoc (Gareth Evans; Netflix)
One of Them Days (Lawrence Lamont; Netflix)
Peter Hujar’s Day (Ira Sachs; Criterion)
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani; AMC+)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg; Criterion)
Sister Midnight (Karan Kandhari; Hulu)
Tier 8: Could be worse
I wasn’t a fan of these 24 movies, but they weren’t a complete waste of time.
The Accountant 2 (directed by Gavin O’Connor; streaming on Prime)
The Alto Knights (Barry Levinson; HBO Max and Prime)
Ballad of a Small Player (Edward Berger; Netflix)
Bring Her Back (Michael and Danny Philippou; HBO Max)
Captain America: Brave New World (Julius Onah; Disney+)
The Choral (Nicholas Hytner; available to rent)
Cleaner (Martin Campbell; HBO Max)
Death of a Unicorn (Alex Scharfman; HBO Max)
Flight Risk (Mel Gibson; HBO Max)
Fountain of Youth (Guy Ritchie; Apple)
Freakier Friday (Nisha Ganatra; Disney+)
Heart Eyes (Josh Ruben; Netflix)
In the Lost Lands (Paul W.S. Anderson; Hulu)
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (Laura Piani; Netflix)
Jurassic World Rebirth (Gareth Edwards; Peacock)
The Monkey (Osgood Perkins; Hulu)
Mountainhead (Jesse Armstrong; HBO Max)
Ne Zha 2 (Yang Yu; HBO Max)
The Rule of Jenny Pen (James Ashcroft; Hulu)
The Running Man (Edgar Wright; Paramount+)
The Surfer (Lorcan Finnegan; Hulu)
Wicked: For Good (Jon M. Chu; available to rent)
The Woman in Cabin 10 (Simon Stone; Netflix)
The Woman in the Yard (Jaume Collet-Serra; Prime)
Tier 9: Bad!
I don’t actively dislike many movies, but these 8 are stayaways.
Another Simple Favor (directed by Paul Feig; streaming on Prime)
Ash (Flying Lotus; Hulu)
Him (Justin Tipping; Peacock)
Love Hurts (Jonathan Eusebio; Prime)
Nobody 2 (Timo Tjahjanto; Peacock)
Regretting You (Josh Boone; Paramount+)
Until Dawn (David F. Sandberg; Netflix)
A Working Man (David Ayer; Prime)
Jeremy Beck is the editor-in-chief of MovieManifesto. He watches more movies and television than he probably should.
You are my favorite film critic.