10 Best Films of 2025

Ellen looking to the heavens

In a year packed with 1990s revivalism, noir resuscitation and franchise exhaustion, these are the films I liked the most in 2025. I’ve attempted to avoid the obvious but not be wilfully obscure and have probably succeeded at neither. Without further ado, with links to full reviews, here goes – in 1-10 order. Dying (dir: Matthias Glasner) A German black comedy so bleak you might laugh out of desperation, following a pair of oldsters as they reach the end of the road, and their two appalling adult children. Superbly underplayed by a top-notch cast, it’s a novelistic, dense, all-enveloping wallow in human misery, three hours long and worth every minute of the grief. … Read more

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Tom Cruise hanging of a biplane

Almost three hours of Tom Cruise running around and hanging off things, doing stunts a man in his mid-60s probably shouldn’t do. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is madly over-indulgent and yet, after playing a blinder in seven straight movies, can’t we allow Cruise and co a victory lap? It is a greatest-hits package in many respects, a Dad Rock arena tour of the highlights. As Cruise’s Ethan Hunt (though aren’t they really the same person?) and his M:I team embark on a mission to stop AI taking over the whole world, we are fed reminders of past glories in little “previously on M:I” flashbacks. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jon Voight and Léa Seydoux … Read more