Is it just me, or has 2025 had a bit of a slow start? It’s not like there haven’t been movies, but the peaks (and even the troughs) have felt further apart. Maybe we’re still feeling the lingering effects of the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Or maybe it says more about the way I’m personally consuming films this year.
Yet, to answer a long-dead gladiator: we are entertained. Steven Soderbergh, Kelly Reichardt, Richard Linklater, Mike Flanagan, Wes Anderson, Danny Boyle, Jafar Panahi, and Ryan Coogler have all given us reasons to keep buying tickets.
Looking ahead, there are plenty of heavy hitters still to come, but that’s a conversation for a few months down the track. For now, let’s celebrate the first half of 2025 with my personal favourites. I’ll plan to revisit this list later in the year as awards season heats up. In the meantime, feel free to sound off on the socials about what I might have missed!
My favourite films of 2025 so far
Black Bag
A taut, stylish espionage thriller, Steven Soderbergh’s precise direction and David Koepp’s sharp writing weave a gripping game of trust and deception, elevated by a stellar cast. To say much more would be criminal—it’s best left sealed in the titular black bag. From its quiet moments to its nerve-shredding climax, Black Bag is a slick, sophisticated thriller that knows exactly how long to stick around. By the time you finish this sentence, Steven Soderbergh may have released another film. Check out the full review.
Blue Moon
Before Rodgers and Hammerstein became Broadway legends, there was Rodgers and Hart, the duo behind classics like “Blue Moon,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon zeroes in on the pivotal moment when that first great partnership conclusively dissolved, and a new era in American musical theatre began. Ethan Hawke mesmerises in this intimate, elegantly staged portrait of a genius fading on the margins of Broadway history. Read the full review from the Sydney Film Festival screening.
The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt’s minimalist, observational style might not seem an obvious fit for a 1970s heist film. Yet in her inimitable way, Reichardt quietly reworks the genre into a laser-focused character study of a family man coming undone. Here’s a slow-burn portrait of delusion and decline, with Josh O’Connor compelling as a man out of his depth. Crack open my full review.
The Life of Chuck
It’s no secret that Stephen King has a special place around here. Director Mike Flanagan just gets Stephen King. He understands that King’s work isn’t about the horror, it’s about the people experiencing it. The Life of Chuck is an ode to the fleeting, beautiful nature of existence. It’s a quietly stunning film, and like Chuck himself, it contains multitudes. Read my gushing review.
The Phoenician Scheme
Thirteen feature films into Wes Anderson’s filmography, you probably know what to expect: cinematic dollhouses, picture postcards, familial issues, and whimsy. Anderson’s latest may look like business as usual, but beneath its symmetrical surfaces lies a surprising meditation on mortality, redemption, and the cost of one man’s schemes. See what I mean in my full review.
Sentimental Value
Following the monumental success of The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier reunites with actress Renate Reinsve for a different kind of exploration of life’s ripple effects. A delicately observed, emotionally layered drama that showcases Joachim Trier’s gift for capturing life’s quiet, complicated truths, anchored by an outstanding cast. Read more from my longer review.
28 Years Later
Danny Boyle didn’t just come back with a sequel a quarter of a century in the making: he and writer Alex Garland took some big chances. It’s a a bold, sensory assault that elevates its genre roots into something far more visceral and unexpectedly reflective. Run like you’re escaping the infected in the direction of my review.
It Was Just an Accident
Winner of the Palme d’Or, this incredibly timely film sees Jafar Panahi return in defiant form, turning a taut mistaken-identity thriller into a sharp, darkly funny reckoning with trauma and justice. Panahi is a filmmaker who repeated redefines the definition of bravery in cinema. I was lucky enough to see the film at Sydney Film Festival this year, and you can read my thoughts on that.
Sinners
It’s safe to say that few films have so completely enveloped audiences this year, nor offered as many surprises, as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. The more I reflect on this film, the more I find in it. Like the blues music that runs through the film’s core, it’s unhurried, soulful, steeped in history, and digs deep into the roots to find something resonant in every lingering note. It’s a rare thing to be genuinely caught off guard by a film, and Coogler deserves real credit for making such bold, uncompromising choices. You can check out the rest of my thoughts in my review.
Sirât
Few films this year match the sheer intensity of the first ten minutes of Óliver Laxe’s Sirât, its speaker-rattling bass pounding over a desolate desert landscape. EDM thunders beneath close-up shots of dancers. Bodies move in sync with the relentless rhythm. There’s almost no dialogue, just sound and motion. A thunderous, hallucinatory odyssey that channels grief, rage and ecstasy into something raw and unforgettable. Dance your way over to my review.
Thunderbolts*
A scrappy, character-driven ensemble piece that trades blockbuster bloat and world-ending stakes for bruised hearts, offering proof that the MCU still has some surprises left. Read the review of the film that is definitely not the New Avengers*.
(*It is).
The best of the rest
Just before we lost Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone) in June this year, Questlove’s excellent SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) documentary gave a terrific career overview of his life and music. Speaking of documentaries, in the warm and whimsical The Golden Spurtle, director Constantine Costi turns a quirky culinary contest into a heartfelt celebration of community, eccentricity, and oats.
Indie gem Rocky’s is a thoughtful and unforced hangout film, capturing the ebb and flow of old friendships with humour, heart, and an understated authenticity. Osgood Perkins expanded Stephen King’s macabre short story The Monkey into an unhinged, darkly humorous ride, blending horror with absurdity for a bloody good time.
A sharp, fast-paced comedy with a keen eye for everyday struggles, One of Them Days thrives on Keke Palmer and SZA’s effortless chemistry. Then there’s Mickey 17, which isn’t always successful but it’s still a gleefully unhinged sci-fi satire that sees Bong Joon-ho at his sharpest, balancing absurdity, social critique, and existential crisis with chaos.
Most popular articles this year…so far
So, I’ve been doing all this writing but what have you been reading?
Stephen King in 2025: new books, screen adaptations and what’s next
This was me trying to wrap my head around all the King adaptations, films, series and books coming out this year. Turns out you were wondering the same thing.
Captain America: Brave New World review
Audiences didn’t love this one, my review was fair-to-middlin’, but you read it in the thousands.
iHostage review
I’m not sure how many people saw this Dutch thriller, which plays things pretty safe, but y’all flocked to this review.
Étoile – Season 1 review
By the time this article goes live, this show has already been cancelled. This ambitious ballet series danced between brilliance and comedic chaos.
You’re Cordially Invited review
One of my least favourite films of the year became one of my most read reviews of the year so far.
Revelations and Bullet Train Explosion reviews
Showing our Asia in Focus audience is still going strong, I was thrilled to see these two reviews find their core viewers.
Pieces on Oscars 2025: Best Animated Feature, Reacher: Season 3, Doctor Who: Season Two (aka Series 15) and our Sydney Film Festival 2025 coverage rounded out the Top 10 so far this year. Which works out well, because I’ve loved writing about all of these things. With any luck, we’ll add this article to that list at the end of the year.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025: upcoming films to watch
We’re publishing this list in the middle of the US summer, which means we haven’t even hit the tail end of blockbuster season. Still to come: Jurassic World: Rebirth, James Gunn’s Superman, and Fantastic Four: First Steps. Later in the year, there’s the long-awaited Tron: Ares and the sure-fire megahit Wicked: For Good. And yes, I’ll be there for Avatar: Fire and Ash too.
Award season also promises some heavy hitters: Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is due out, with Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme not far behind. I’m still holding out hope that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 gets a proper wide release.
I’m also keen for Zootopia 2; The Roses, Jay Roach’s reimagining of 1989’s The War of the Roses; Francis Lawrence’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Long Walk; and Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare biopic Hamnet. Sam Raimi returns to the director’s chair with Send Help, and you better believe Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia is high on my list.