2025 Films

Favorite Films of 2025

Chris KriofskeLeave a comment

A pretty good year for cinema! As always, a film is eligible if it’s first available in my area for theatrical or streaming release during the calendar year.

1. UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

“What if Canada and in particular, that unloved inland metropolis of Winnipeg was colonized by Iran?” is the jumping-off point for writer/director/actor Matthew Rankin’s second feature, a considerable advance over his first, Twentieth Century while barely resembling it. A deadpan mashup of quirks learned from both Abbas Kiarostami and Guy Maddin, it’s the funniest movie I’ve seen in ages (or at least since Hundreds of Beavers). Also, one of the most original and unexpectedly moving, creating an outrageous mirror world from scratch and unspooling a narrative that concludes with the wisdom and epiphany of, well, a Kiarostami film.

2. RESURRECTION

To craft an ode to cinema itself traversing the entire 20th Century through five different genre-specific segments is a level of ambition all too rare in the streaming age. I knew director Bi Gan was one to watch after 2018’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night and this exceeded even those expectations. Like seeing both The Wizard of Oz and 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time (if each film were superimposed over the other, perhaps), Resurrection is Gan shooting for the stars and brilliantly firing on all cylinders.

3. DEAF PRESIDENT NOW!

I wasn’t familiar with the 1988 eight-day, student-led protest at Gallaudet University, a Washington DC liberal arts college for the deaf against the appointment of a non-deaf president in lieu of two other deaf candidates. This documentary similarly feels like a bridge constructed to represent the deaf community and educate everyone else.  Threading an excess of archival footage with modern day interviews, it emerges a portrait of a mobilized community pushing for change, genuinely inspiring without coming off as cloying. It’s hard not to get caught up in the sheer goodwill it exudes.

4. THE SECRET AGENT

Long worthy of such recent widespread attention, Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s latest draws from some the best parts of Aquarius and Bacurau (along with his great companion doc Pictures of Ghosts) and alchemizes them into a period thriller in love with movies and life itself. Additionally, Wagner Moura’s lead performance nearly transports the film in how he communicates and embodies the ambiguities and slipperiness of Filho’s zig-zagging narrative. Although set in a specific time and place, strong parallels to the here and now make this an essential example of art reflecting life.

5. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

Jafar Panahi has an enviable filmography (The White Balloon, Offside, No Bears, etc.) but it feels like everything he’s previously done has been building to this, his funniest and also most cathartic effort. Involving a ragtag group of people who believe they’ve stumbled upon their interrogator/torturer when they were imprisoned, It Was Just An Accident is something of a serious farce, carefully balancing its intentions while allowing for a heady, messy convergence of emotions and actions, considering both revenge and forgiveness and whether there’s justification for both.

6. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

Nearly an ideal of contemporary, auteur-driven studio-made cinema. Of course, one could say the same for many of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films (but not all.) So, what makes this preferable to Licorice Pizza (or his previous Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice) is tricky to parse; in this case, it comes down to how in tune it is with the current moment (it helps this is his first present-set piece since Punch-Drunk Love), though a sparking ensemble (Leo, Teyana and Benicio at their best with newcomer Chase Infiniti effortlessly commanding the screen) should not be underestimated.

7. CAUGHT BY THE TIDES

Jia Zhangke will never run out of ways to explore rapid change in 21st Century China or roles for his muse Zhao Tao to excel in, thank god. This one literally goes back to some of them, nimbly incorporating scenes and outtakes from his past filmography along with newly-shot footage to track how much China and, in particular, the Northern city of Datong has reconstructed itself between then and now. Also, an immersive, collage-like soundtrack spanning copious genres and traditions vividly amplifies a sense of a world forever in flux.

8. ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL

On my first festival viewing of this 15 months ago, I thought it drifted somewhat while finding authenticity in its portrait of an ultra-specific community; after a second watch last summer, I fully gleaned its durability and playful but profound dissection of family and how a secret can fester and explode but ultimately not change a mindset that refuses to accept or even see the truth. As with Bi Gan a few years ago, I can’t wait to see what Zambian director Rungano Nyoni (or her captivating lead Susan Chardy) does next.

9. REBUILDING

Between this and A Love Song, Max Walker-Silverman has become one of best American indie directors for how he focuses on such low-stakes but high-yielding stories about the human condition. Inspired by the Spring Creek Fire in southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Rebuilding is a mostly unsentimental study of loss and the struggle to recenter and focus on what matters and how to move forward. Maybe the best Josh O’Connor performance (out of 100?) this year but newcomer Lily LaTorre and veteran Amy Madigan both match him. (Speaking of which…)

10. WEAPONS

An Oscar for an unrecognizable Amy Madigan’s inspired, demented work would nearly make me as happy as the Emmy for Jeff Hiller last year but the beauty of Zach Cregger’s film extends far beyond his ringer cast member. I’m not all that into horror, but this was my favorite of that genre since Late Night With The Devil and possibly Get Out. With its powerful use of George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness”, a high-concept narrative skillfully developed and deployed and its invigorating conclusion, it shows there’s hope for studio-made entertainment yet.

11. THE MASTERMIND

A less warm-and-fuzzy companion to the similarly-set The Holdovers; fortunately, Josh O’Connor and Kelly Reichardt are an ideal star/director pair for such a proposition; the period design and percussive-heavy jazz score also complement rather than detract from the film’s socio-economical critique.

12. NO OTHER LAND

Finally widely available to view, this Academy Award-winning doc about a displaced Palestinian village embodies what Roger Ebert said about film serving as an “empathy machine”, its urgency heightened by humanity struggling to persevere in the face of brutality.

13. NEXT SOHEE

The first half of this South Korean drama is almost excruciating to watch but it’s necessary in order for the second half to be effective; Bae Doona’s masterful, almost minimalist performance in the latter is also essential. As our surrogate, we discover the same infuriating hard truths as she does—an understanding of a broken system with no easy fixes.

14. IF I HAD LEGS, I’D KICK YOU

Filmmaker Mary Bronstein knows how to ramp up tension to the breaking point but crucially she also allows for some release without letting her lead off the hook. As much as I generally love Jessie Buckley (she’s no slouch in the uneven Hamnet), this is Rose Byrne’s moment.

15. TRAIN DREAMS

I haven’t read the book but as a film, this was gorgeously shot and edited with agility to the point where I was rarely bored or distracted. Perhaps as close to capturing the essence of a lifetime a single feature can likely reach. Joel Edgerton disappears into another role but enables us to see, feel and fully comprehend the part he plays.

16. TWINLESS

James Sweeney’s latest vindicates the promise of Straight Up, taking a fairly outlandish premise and making a meal out of it. Dylan O’Brien and Aisling Franciosi are both great (esp. the former in a dual role) but it’s Sweeney’s unique voice that powers this messy, yearning, accomplished character study.

17. PLAINCLOTHES

An impressive debut from director Carmen Emmi. Really develops a palpable sense of time and place to give viewers a context for what the characters struggle with and how they seek release; it also has great work from Tom Blyth, Russell Tovey and Maria Dizzia.

18. OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS

Gives one such a complete sense of what it’s like to actually be in the backwater of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba (black-and-white cinematography, slow-cinema rhythms and all) with its minuscule, ultra-specific focus. Plus, you get an extraordinary puppet show near the end.

19. APRIL

An absorbing if curious blend of Tarkovsky-style mysticism and Mungiu-like kitchen-sink realism. The static camera, creepily effective sound design and stark, darkly gorgeous landscapes all evoke a feeling of discomfort and the feminist POV hits its targets without coming off as obvious or sanctimonious.

20. DEAD MAIL

Smart enough to transcend its low-budget limitations, this curiosity blends a Sam Raimi-derived 80s aesthetic with stalker-horror tropes and rabbit-hole like narrative developments to arrive at an unexpected tonal place, a singularity of the sort reminding me why I occasionally seek out movies I know nothing about.

21. MISERICORDIA

22. MY MOM JAYNE

23. WE STRANGERS

24. THE PLAGUE

25. GRAND TOUR

26. FAMILIAR TOUCH

27. PAVEMENTS

28. HEDDA

29. SECRET MALL APARTMENT

30. EEPHUS

31. THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

32. EVERY LITTLE THING

33. VIET AND NAM

34. THANK YOU VERY MUCH

35. BLUE SUN PALACE

36. COME SEE ME IN THE GOOD LIGHT

37. GRIFFIN IN SUMMER

38. LEFT-HANDED GIRL

39. THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND

40. THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR

No Other Choice

ALSO RECOMMENDED:

A Nice Indian Boy, A Traveler’s Needs, Bob Trevino Likes It, Julie Keeps Quiet, No Other Choice, Nouvelle Vague, On Swift Horses, Peter Hujar’s Day, Sharp Corner, Sinners, Souleymane’s Story, The Assessment, The History of Sound, The Piano Accident, The Wedding Banquet, Who By Fire

ON MY WATCHLIST:

Blue Moon, Cloud, East of Wall, Eternity, Father Mother Sister Brother, Porcelain War, Splitsville, Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, The Baltimorons, The Queen of My Dreams, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Wake Up Dead Man

Halfway Through 2025

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Universal Language

Taking assessment of my favorite films and albums so far at a year’s midpoint might seem like an irrelevant if not entirely futile exercise, although I’ve done so annually for as long as I can remember. While often interesting and occasionally amusing to look back and see what did or did not eventually make the cut at year’s end six months later, this is above all an opportunity to take stock (and an excuse for another blog post.)

I usually see a few films at local (and sometimes international) festivals that make this cut: I’ve already written on three from this spring’s IFF Boston (see links below); On Becoming A Guinea Fowl I viewed at IFF’s Fall Focus last November and I appreciated it more after a second viewing earlier this month. Thank You Very Much is an underrated Andy Kaufman documentary that could have benefited from a wider release; Grand Tour and Universal Language are both admirably unique concoctions that I won’t forget about come year-end.

As for albums, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that at 50, many of my current faves are from artists my age or older (British jangle-pop quartet The Tubs are the youngest here by a considerable margin.) I would argue that most of these “legacy” acts are churning out some of their best work, a few of which I alluded to in the mix I posted last week. I’ll add that Doves’ Constellations For The Lonely might end up my favorite single new album since my number one of 2023. Even though following their debut Haim has made a stronger case as a singles than albums act, after two full spins, I Quit is cohering better than I anticipated it to.

Favorite Films of 2025 so far (alphabetical by title):

Favorite Albums of 2025 so far (alphabetical by artist):

  • Destroyer, Dan’s Boogie
  • Doves, Constellations For The Lonely
  • Haim, I Quit
  • Mekons, Horror
  • Perfume Genius, Glory
  • Pulp, More
  • Robert Forster, Strawberries
  • Stereolab, Instant Holograms On Metal Film
  • Suzanne Vega, Flying With Angels
  • The Tubs, Cotton Crown

IFFBoston 2025: Part One

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Another IFFBoston, another eight movies seen. My reviews of the first four.

CAUGHT BY THE TIDES

Jia Zhangke (MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART) will never run out of ways to explore rapid change in 21st Century China or roles for his muse Zhao Tao to excel in, thank god. His latest partially distinguishes itself from previous efforts by literally going back to them, incorporating scenes and outtakes from UNKNOWN PLEASURES (2002) and STILL LIFE (2006) along with newly-shot footage to track how much China and, in particular, the Northern city of Datong has reconstructed itself between then and now in part due to the Three Gorges Dam project that the 2006 film centered on.

Using the same actors (Tao and Zhublin Li) and reediting the earlier footage (with help of some intertitles that refashion the earlier stories to relate to the current one), CAUGHT BY THE TIDES is stitched together in a way that often brings attention to its manipulation of time and space for those familiar with the earlier work, although those new to the director’s oeuvre may not even pick up on this. It’s an approach that risks confusion, but that actually might have been Zhangke’s intention. After all, time rarely travels in a straight line; the immersive, collage-like soundtrack which spans copious genres and traditions (East and West) amplifies this sense of impermanence and might be the director’s most ambitious and striking use of music to date. I now want to go back to revisit his strange, rich filmography to see how he arrived here and ponder where he might go next in detailing this world forever in flux. Rating: 4.5/5

PAVEMENTS

Where to begin with PAVEMENTS? Is it a vehicle meant to document the famed 1990s indie-rock quintet Pavement as they reunite and rehearse for a 2022 tour? A biopic of the band casting the likes of Joe Keery and Nat Wolff to play lead singer/songwriter Stephen “S.M.” Malkmus and guitarist Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, respectively? A behind-the-scenes account of the making of said biopic? A look at a stage musical about the group from its conception to its premiere? Footage of the opening of a halfway-reverent museum exhibit of copious artifacts/detritus related to the band?

Of course, the resultant ambitious collage is all of these things and many more. Supposedly, when director Alex Ross Perry (with his first feature since 2018’s HER SMELL) signed on to make a movie about the band, he was given carte blanche to do what he wanted and encouraged not to make anything resembling a traditional overview. He certainly understood the assignment as the final product is equal parts THIS IS SPINAL TAP and SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK, but that dual-comparison only scratches the surface of everything going on here.

This isn’t an approach one could use for every musical act but it is the exact right one for Pavement, who arguably never became household names because they were just too sardonic, too drenched in irony, too much willing to be a shambles rather than a dependable, accessible outfit (all of this in the long run benefiting them artistically if not commercially.) There’s footage of Malkmus referring to the band as “the slacker Rolling Stones of the ’90s” at that time, which ends up more apt a description than I could ever come up with. Appropriately, as a genre-bend, PAVEMENTS is a bit of a shambles and ideally for those-in-the-know. Still, there’s so much that’s inventive and exciting about it (especially in how it captures the band’s time and more importantly, how it shows their impact reverberating over time) that it at least gives off the impression it’s willing to reach for the unconverted in spite of itself. 4/5

COME SEE ME IN THE GOOD LIGHT

Documentaries where the subject is terminally ill are always a tough sell; the people behind this one, chiefly director Ryan White (ASK DR. RUTH) seemingly go out of their way to dispel this impression, highlighting the film’s humor in the face of impending tragedy. Of course, with a subject like poet/activist Andrea Gibson, it would be disingenuous to oversee or even ignore how funny they are in day-to-day life, an intriguing counterpart to archival footage of them intensely performing in poetry slams and one-person shows onstage. It’s not a disconnect but more of a revelation as to how our public and private personae inevitably contrast with and also complement each other.

Gibson’s ovarian cancer diagnosis in their late 40s provides the premise for White following them and their partner, Megan Falley, mostly in and around their cozy Colorado home. Laugh-out-loud conversations about such not-profound activities as fingering and obscure word choices (“octopoidal”?) are given the same weight as the spectre of death that can’t help but color everything; to do so with such intimacy and candidness endears Andrea and Megan to us considerably. Their portrait is one of life not as a series of big moments but as something given inspiration and meaning by all the random, casual ones that naturally occur in the act of simply living. While a little slick for my taste at times (particularly the score and some editing choices), I can’t deny how genuinely effective and moving this is as a whole. 4/5

THE KINGDOM

Opening with a scene so shocking and visceral that you’re best off not expecting the filmmakers to even try topping it (and they don’t), this story of a Corsican crime family set in 1995 is business-as-usual as these things go–lotsa scenes of attacks, retaliation and hiding out from both the enemy and the police. At the center is 15-year-old Lesia (Ghjuvanna Benedetti) who has mostly been shielded from the action until she’s reunited with her crime boss father, Pierre-Paul (Santucci). This relationship is the only interesting facet here and the film’s second half is better for devoting more focus to it (particularly in some tender, nuanced exchanges between Benedetti and Santucci.) Alas, the rest is mostly unmemorable, though I did note that when Benedetti cut and bleached her hair to disguise herself, she suddenly, uncannily resembled a young Aimee Mann (but without the braid.) 3/5

Mix: The Edge Of The World

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I won’t ever stop making annual playlists but going forward, I’m hoping to curate one of newish songs every three months or so (if I were more ambitious, perhaps this could end up a monthly thing.)

Looking at 2025 thus far, it’s not entirely coincidental that two of my most played new tracks have titles that contain the words giving this playlist its title: newcomer Brooke Combe’s sharp retro-soul and the latest from Destroyer which in the tradition of 2022’s ”June” smashes together a ridiculously catchy hook with near-stream of consciousness lyrics (“My life’s a giant lid closing on an eye”, okay, Dan.) Elsewhere, fellow weirdo Bartees Strange folds something approaching Yacht Rock into his ever-unclassifiable genre-blend, FKA Twigs agreeably harkens back to the moodier stuff off of Madonna’s Ray of Light and nearly 50-year-old postpunk collective Mekons is still kicking with the anthemic “Mudcrawlers” (whose quality bodes well for their forthcoming LP Horror.)

The Tubs’ effortless jangle-pop and Perfume Genius’ venerable art-pop also make welcome returns, each previewing solid albums that may make my year-end top ten; so does Doves, who follow their 2020 reunion with an even better dive into psychedelic textures and sonics on Constellations For The Lonely, here represented by the expansive lead track “Renegade”. Empire of the Sun and Lindsey Buckingham make for natural compadres as much as Robert Forster and wife Karin Bäumler do on the uncommonly jaunty, Lovin’ Spoonful-esque “Strawberries”. 

I’m still tickled that even in this cynical age, a great novelty like Joshua Idehen’s cheeky, spoken-word “Mum Does The Washing” can still emerge from the seemingly endless interchangeable dross one has to wade through (algorithms be damned) in uncovering refreshing new music. It nearly lends credence to the relief that this playlist’s title contains the word “edge” and not “end”.

The Edge of the World:

  1. Japanese Breakfast, “Orlando In Love”
  2. Brooke Combe, “Dancing At The Edge of the World”
  3. Bartees Strange, “Sober”
  4. The Tubs, “Narcissist”
  5. FKA Twigs, “Girl Feels Good”
  6. Perfume Genius, “It’s A Mirror”
  7. Twin Shadow, “Good Times”
  8. Lucy Dacus, “Ankles”
  9. Morcheeba, “Call For Love”
  10. Doves, “Renegade”
  11. Sam Fender, “Arm’s Length”
  12. Empire Of The Sun & Lindsey Buckingham, “Somebody’s Son”
  13. Mekons, “Mudcrawlers”
  14. Hurray For The Riff Raff, “Pyramid Scheme”
  15. The Weather Station, “Mirror”
  16. Beirut, “Guericke’s Unicorn”
  17. Sharon Van Etten, “Trouble”
  18. Robert Forster, “Strawberries”
  19. Joshua Idehen, “Mum Does The Washing”
  20. Destroyer, “Hydroplaning Off The Edge Of The World”

MISERICORDIA

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Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) clearly belongs to an extended lineage of Alain Guiraudie protagonists: craggily handsome, somewhat sexually ambiguous, a laconic wanderer, an irritant to many who come into contact with him. However, unlike the others, he’s not as passive or seemingly befuddled—rather than letting everything happen to him, he takes a decisive action that carries real consequences for his surrounding community even if the person most deeply affected by it ends up being himself.

Returning from the city of Toulouse to an isolated forest village for the funeral of a baker he once worked with, Jérémie’s invited to stay on by the baker’s wife, Martine (Catherine Frot), much to the consternation of her married son, Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand) and something approaching indifference (but not entirely) from neighbor Walter (David Ayala). It takes time to figure out how everyone knows each other with only traces of what their past dynamics were. About a half-hour in, Jérémie takes that decisive action; from there, the film turns into essentially a dark comedy as he repeatedly makes up stories about what happened, only for other characters to do the same including an older priest (Jacques Develay) whose motives to protect Jérémie are, shall we say, less than pure. It all becomes a sort of “Looney Tunes RASHOMON”, to borrow a phrase from Errol Morris’ 2010 documentary TABLOID.

As usual with Guiraudie, the environment influences the tone (in this case, the autumnal hues of a forest that manages to seem both inviting and quietly menacing.) The film’s rhythms also develop organically with a heightened focus that looks like a course-corrective to the everything-and-kitchen-sink approach of his inferior last feature, NOBODY’S HERO (2022). While not as ingenuous as STAYING VERTICAL (2016), this is funny and surprising enough to render any claims of Hitchcockian influence irrelevant (if anything, it’s closest to an atypical film from that director like THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY.) In the end, it’s less important whether Jérémie gets away with what he’s done and more how it shifts our perceptions of those around him. Also, look up the meaning of the film’s Latin title and ponder whether or not it’s meant to be ironic. Rating: 4 (out of 5)