REEL | Top 10 Films of 2025

"No fear. Just like Tom f*cking Cruise!"

Warner Bros. Pictures / Ghoulardi Film Company

Click on each film title to read its corresponding review:

1) One Battle After Another ¹ (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

2) Sentimental Value ² * (Affeksjonsverdi, dir. Joachim Trier)

3) Sinners ³ (dir. Ryan Coogler)

4) Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie)

5) Train Dreams * (dir. Clint Bentley)

6) No Other Choice * (dir. Park Chan-wook)

7) The Secret Agent * (O Agente Secreto, dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)

8) Resurrection * (狂野时代, dir. Bi Gan)

9) Nouvelle Vague * (dir. Richard Linklater)

10) The Testament of Ann Lee (dir. Mona Fastvold)

Honourable mentions:

Hamnet (dir. Chloé Zhao)

Roofman (dir. Derek Cianfrance)

Neon / Elevation Pictures

¹ One Battle After Another is as an uproariously incendiary yet highly comedic act of cinematic countercultural rebellion. [...] Anderson's furiously relentless spectacle, told through [Leonardo] DiCaprio's washed-up, bathrobe-clad stoner dad tells a surprisingly relevant revolutionary family saga about oppressive totalitarian rule under the power of hidden white supremacist forces.

² Sentimental Value is so confidently and poignantly poetic as a devastating but moving portrait of a family's origins and dysfunction seen through long-held paternal issues of emotional avoidance.

³ Sinners is a blood-soaked cinematic allegory and tribute to post-WWI blues music and African-American culture in the South. [...] It's a purposely messy but righteously authentic and celebratory experience as it uses vampiric lore to twist its themes of freedom through America's embedded history of oppression.

Watch many of these films at the annual Best of 2025 series roundup at the VIFF Centre until January 5th. Read more film reviews here.

* films screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival


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