海角大神

Exquisite indies help make 2025 a marquee year at the movies

The biggest news coming out of Hollywood in 2025 was less about the movies themselves than about the future of the business. Just this month, the pending purchase of the legacy studio Warner Bros. by the streamer Netflix set the town abuzz. (Paramount Studios later launched a competing $108 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. directly from shareholders, without approval from its management.)听

Artificial intelligence continues to cast its long shadow on the filmmaking process 鈥� from acting to screenwriting to everything in between. Boon or blight? Too soon to say.

But the movie business is not monolithic. Hollywood may be relying more than ever on sequels and formulas, but the indie realm is looking particularly good these days. An impressive number of films by young, often first-time, directors came out this past year. The range of performances, even in iffy movies, was equally impressive. If you know where to look, the art of movies, and the deep pleasures they can provide, is alive and well.

Before I roll out my Top 10 鈥� OK, I cheated, it鈥檚 really 11! 鈥� here are a few celebrated films you won鈥檛 see on that list.听

The abundantly gifted Paul Thomas Anderson鈥檚 knockabout 鈥淥ne Battle After Another,鈥� about a frazzled ex-revolutionary played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is being touted as the movie for our politically polarized times. Despite some brilliant stretches, it seemed more like a mildewed blast from the past 鈥� a mostly contemporary-set movie with a 1960s-era Boomerized mindset. I found Ryan Coogler鈥檚 鈥淪inners,鈥� set mostly in a juke joint in 1932 Mississippi, flagrantly impressive until the gory vampirism took over. 鈥淗amnet,鈥� the high-art tearjerker of the year about the death of Shakespeare鈥檚 son, left me, if not cold, then lukewarm. I recognize that this movie affects some people on a very deep level. But its most sorrowful moments felt unduly coercive to me, despite wrenching work from Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare鈥檚 wife. In any case, I don鈥檛 buy the assumption that any film that moves us to tears is by definition great. If this was true, 鈥淥ld Yeller鈥� would be the greatest film ever made.

Now that I鈥檝e gotten that off my chest, here, in alphabetical order, are my best picks of the year.

A Little Prayer 鈥� In Angus MacLachlan鈥檚 immensely touching drama, David Strathairn plays a church-going Vietnam vet and Jane Levy plays his daughter-in-law, with whom he shares a deep emotional bond. Both performers are extraordinary. The final scene between them, about the love one human being can have for another, is the finest moment of any movie I saw this year. (Rated R) Read the full review here.

Blue Moon 鈥� Richard Linklater is having quite a run. 鈥淣ouvelle Vague,鈥� about the making of Jean-Luc Godard鈥檚 鈥淏reathless,鈥� was an exhilarating ode to moviemaking. 鈥淏lue Moon鈥� 鈥� set mostly in 1943 in the famous Broadway hangout Sardi鈥檚 and starring a terrific Ethan Hawke as the legendary, dissolute Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart 鈥� is even better. I don鈥檛 mind a movie with this much talking if the dialogue (by Robert Kaplow) is this good. In supporting roles, Margaret Qualley, and Andrew Scott, as Richard Rodgers, are standouts. (R) Read the full review here.听

It Was Just an Accident 鈥� Jafar Panahi鈥檚 mordant black comedy is about a group of former Iranian political prisoners holding hostage a man they believe was their torturer. Based in part on Panahi鈥檚 own experiences as a former prisoner, the film deservedly won the Palme d鈥橭r at Cannes, that festival鈥檚 highest honor. A parallel drama is currently being played out in Panahi鈥檚 own life, as the Islamic Republic of Iran has sentenced him in absentia to a year in prison for 鈥減ropaganda activities.鈥� (PG-13; with subtitles) Read the full review here.听

Left-Handed Girl 鈥� With her two daughters, a single mother relocates to Taipei to open a food stand in the Taiwanese capital鈥檚 night market. Their interlocking lives, a portrait of disarray, are beautifully balanced by first-time solo director Shih-Ching Tsou 鈥� a longtime associate of Sean Baker (鈥淎nora鈥�), with whom she co-wrote the script. As the older daughter, Shih-Yuan Ma gives one of the year鈥檚 most vibrant performances. (R; with subtitles)

Little Am茅lie or the Character of Rain 鈥� This first feature from the animators Ma茂lys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, adapted from an autobiographical novel by Am茅lie Nothomb, nestles us inside the mindscape of a very young Belgian girl living with her parents in postwar Japan. The bond she shares with her Japanese housekeeper and surrogate mother is a rich testament to the restorative power of loving-kindness. Little Am茅lie is both astonished by the beauty of the natural world and increasingly aware of its transience. The animation is digital but looks handcrafted. (PG; with subtitles)

Preparation for the Next Life 鈥� In his first dramatic feature, the documentarian Bing Liu, and his screenwriter Martyna Majok, have done a smashing job of adapting Atticus Lish鈥檚 novel about two New York itinerants living on the margins of society. Fred Hechinger movingly plays a troubled, recently discharged vet and the extraordinary Sebiye Behtiyar, who has never acted in a feature film before, is an unauthorized Uyghur immigrant. Their vicissitudes are both timely and for all time. (R) Read the full review here.听

Sorry, Baby 鈥� This first feature from听director-writer-star Eva Victor is one of the most honest and authentic portrayals of recovery from trauma I鈥檝e ever seen. Victor鈥檚 Agnes is sexually assaulted 鈥� we never see the assault 鈥� but the film is about restoration, not victimization. As I wrote in my review at the time, the movie is 鈥渁 diary of personal reclamation.鈥� (R) Read the full review here.听

The Ballad of Wallis Island 鈥� The most sheerly enjoyable movie of the year. Tom Basden, who co-wrote the script with Tim Key, plays an over-the-hill rock star who unknowingly is paired with his bitter ex-partner, played by Carey Mulligan, for a private concert on a remote Welsh island. The eccentric millionaire who arranges the pairing is played, most eccentrically, by Key. Directed by James Griffiths, it鈥檚 a charmer. (PG-13) Read the full review here.听

The Choral 鈥� Directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Alan Bennett 鈥� the same dream team that gave us 鈥淭he Madness of King George鈥� 鈥� it鈥檚 old-fashioned in the best sense. Beautifully structured and acted, it鈥檚 about a beleaguered choirmaster in a Yorkshire town that鈥檚 losing all its men to the Great War. Ralph Fiennes plays the choirmaster. That鈥檚 all ye need to know. (R; in theaters Dec. 25)

The President鈥檚 Cake 鈥� This remarkable debut feature from writer-director Hasan Hadi is set in a remote Iraqi village in the 1990s during Saddam Hussein鈥檚 brutal reign. Young Lamia, played by the amazing child actor Baneen Ahmed Nayyef, is required to bake a cake for the dictator鈥檚 mandatory nationwide birthday celebration. Seen through a child鈥檚 eyes, the film is an allegory that never loses its grounding in stark reality. (PG-13; with subtitles; in theaters February 2026) Read festival review here.

Train Dreams 鈥� Clint Bentley鈥檚 adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella looks at a vanishing way of life with such immediacy that we never think of it as a 鈥減eriod鈥� film. Joel Edgerton, in his best performance to date, plays a logger in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the 20th century. Replete with joy and heartbreak, it鈥檚 a film about what ultimately makes life worth living. (PG-13) Read the full review here.听

Some other worthies: 鈥淓ephus,鈥� 鈥淭he Life of Chuck,鈥� 鈥淢errily We Roll Along,鈥� 鈥淪tiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost,鈥� 鈥淭he Alabama Solution,鈥� 鈥淛ane Austen Wrecked My Life,鈥� 鈥淜iss of the Spider Woman,鈥� 鈥淭he Musicians,鈥� 鈥淭atami,鈥� and 鈥淲ake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.鈥澨�

Peter Rainer is the Monitor's film critic.听