This NERD's TOP TEN of 2025
- Chase Gifford
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
I am but one man. I love movies. I doth proclaim too much! Anyway, here are my top ten movies of 2025. But first, some honorable mentions.
Honorable Mentions
14. 28 Years Later
Long dormant, the 28 Days Later franchise made a triumphant return with the first chapter in an all new trilogy. 28 Years Later takes the mythos established twenty-two years ago and expands upon it with themes of fatherhood and motherhood. It explores themes of entering adulthood and accepting the fragility of life and the inherent tragedy of losing your parents. Add to this a maniacal virus that has plagued the UK for nearly three decades. More merciless than 28 Days. More thematically ambitious and more devastating with promise of unimaginable escalation with twisted sensibilities that will undoubtedly create shock and awe. It delivers on the horror aspects brilliantly without forgetting the elements of what makes humanity worth fighting for.
13. Train Dreams
Train Dreams is quietly devastating. For a film about an unremarkable man living an unremarkable life, it somehow captures the full weight of history, progress, and loss with startling force. The story drifts through Robert Grainier’s years as a railroad and logging worker, building its power not through plot but through fleeting moments that linger longer than expected. The performances are restrained yet deeply affecting, matching a visual style that leans heavily on vast landscapes and silence to emphasize isolation and endurance. There is a stillness here that can feel distant or even cold, but that distance is the point—this is a film about how life happens whether you’re ready for it or not. It’s somber, patient, and occasionally heartbreaking, turning a small, quiet existence into something profoundly resonant.
12. Superman
“The story is exciting, well-paced but knows when it’s important to slow things down and ground this hero we all know can fly. To watch him eat cereal while barefoot looking out at the farmland he grew up on is a real humanizing moment. It rounds out a character that will shortly thereafter fly impossibly into the sky at astounding speeds and perform extraordinary feats of strength and heroism. He is a human and an alien simultaneously. He is Clark Kent as he is Superman. From mild-mannered to god-like, James Gunn, David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Krypto and extended cast in the IMAX format all combine powers to make the best version of Superman we’ve seen since 1978.” - Superman Review
11. Frankenstein
“Visually, del Toro’s reimagining of Mary Shelley’s novel is quite astounding. It features lush, practical sets that are wonderfully detailed and immense in their size and creativeness. You can feel the chill of the unforgiving winter deep in your bones, the unbearable nature of the creature’s loneliness emphasized by the frozen tundra surrounding a godforsaken whaling ship. The violence adds to the unmerciful nature of man and the idea that no matter the compassion within a character, consequence comes all the same. It is the tragedy of inevitability. The inescapable reality of death, but the tragedy of not being able to die, something this story frames as a kind of gift, one the creature will never be given and is destined to wander the earth forever alone.
This may be in Guillermo del Toro’s wheelhouse, it doesn’t in any way negate the masterful quality of its storytelling through the visuals and atmospheric narrative. The performances, particularly Jacob Elordi as the Creature, is profound and hopelessly devastating. He emits hope only to lose it through unyielding violence and continuous loss. Frankenstein’s monster is one of the great tragic characters of literature and Elordi captures this flawlessly. He takes a character that is often depicted as a simpleton and mindless brute and brings to life a character of complexities and nuance that further highlights his creator’s cruelty.” - Frankenstein Review
TOP 10
10. Black Bag
“Blanchett and Fassbender are a power couple as Kathryn and George. They are elegant between them and conniving beyond them. They are endlessly watchable, delivering insatiable dialogue that is dripping with sophistication and intrigue. They deliver these words with an ultimate kind of panache that is deliriously engaging from the words themselves to their alarming implications, it’s all a salivating kind of word exchange, particularly between the two leads. Despite so much of the film being designated to conversation, it is no less mesmerizing. The innuendo of spy-talk is entrancing and complicated, tenacious and undeniably entertaining.” - Black Bag Review
9. Jay Kelly
“George Clooney is Jay Kelly, a famous actor finding himself at a crossroads. He looks back on past decisions that led him to where he is. By the measure of most, he’s made all the right decisions. But for Jay, while grateful for his long, storied career he also sees regret among the glory. He sees an estranged family, a plethora of superficial kindness, and a tendency to miss what is often right in front of him. He wonders if the success was worth it if he has no one to share it with, no one to celebrate it with. Even his closest friend takes 15% of his earnings as his manager. What is authentic in his life? Is he even real?” - Jay Kelly Review
“Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the franchise at its best. It is endlessly entertaining featuring breathtaking visual splendor from on location settings to unimaginable action sequences performed by the biggest star in the world. With impeccable direction and a fearless sense of fortitude, Cruise, McQuarrie and company join forces to create one of the best cinematic experiences of 2025. It is a concoction of thrilling, unprecedented cinematic history-in-the-making, go-for-broke perseverance with an unwillingness to sacrifice quality entertainment in the face of anything that might otherwise interfere with something so implausibly, so impossibly magnificent.” - M:I The Final Reckoning Review
“And as the same with the previous two films, Wake Up Dead Man has an amazing cast playing wonderfully entertaining characters. The cinematography is a character all its own creating gothic undertones and prophetic imagery casting both shadow and sunshine at the stories darkest and most uplifting moments. This is a symphony of entertainment melding with taut storytelling, whip-smart dialogue, and a brilliant finale that no one will see coming. Even those liars in your friend group that always say they knew what was going to happen the entire time. They’re full of shit. If it stumps Benoit Blanc like it does, your friend is no better. Sorry. As for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson is 3 for 3.” - Wake Up Dead Man Review
6. Weapons
Weapons is relentless. For a film built around a simple, terrifying mystery, it spirals outward into something far more unsettling, layering dread, grief, and paranoia until it becomes almost suffocating. The story fractures across perspectives, slowly revealing how one inexplicable event ripples through an entire community, and the tension never lets up. The performances are raw and committed, grounding the film’s increasingly disturbing turns in very real emotional damage. Cregger’s direction is confident and cruel, using restraint just as effectively as shock, and the sound design and imagery burrow under your skin long after scenes end. It’s bleak, punishing, and often deeply uncomfortable, but that discomfort feels purposeful. What starts as a genre exercise grows into something far more haunting, delivering a horror film that feels both vicious and emotionally devastating.
5. Eternity
“In Eternity, the end is merely the beginning of forever. You awaken on a train arriving at a way-station of the afterlife. There you have one week to decide your forever – what you want your reality to be for the rest of time. There is Eternity 365: QueerWorld. “No Straights Allowed.” Sort of self-explanatory. Eternity 666: World of Satanism. “Sinners welcome!” Ooh, sounds scary. Eternity 156: Workout World. “All of the PAIN, None of the GAIN.” Sounds awful. Eternity #520: Capitalist World. “What’s the point of being rich …if someone else isn’t poor?”
Eternity is one of my favorite, unexpected triumphs of the year. It’s intelligent, heartwarming, witty, romantic, and unceasingly charming. I hoped for the best and got something far better. From characters to story to setting, it just works. Such a wonderful surprise.” - Eternity Review
4. Hamnet
Hamnet is quietly shattering. For a film about grief that resists grand gestures, it finds its power in accumulation—small moments of love, routine, and sudden absence that slowly become unbearable. The story stays close to the interior lives of its characters, letting loss feel invasive rather than dramatic, and the restraint makes it all the more devastating. At the center of it all is Jessie Buckley, who delivers a performance of such raw, unguarded emotion that she feels like a definitive frontrunner for Best Actress come awards season; her grief is physical, consuming, and impossible to look away from. The film’s naturalistic visuals and hushed pacing mirror that inward collapse, creating a world that feels fragile even before tragedy strikes. It’s slow, somber, and deeply felt, turning historical distance into something painfully immediate and unforgettable.
3. Sinners
“Sinners is a tale of two parts. Part one is an establishment of characters, rules of the story, belief systems and seeding what’s to come. It is a metaphor for the physical representation looming in part two. In part two it is an all out call to arms kind of bloodbath dead set on shredding community, building new factions and ripping apart both flesh and ideologies in equal measure. It is an impending storm in the beginning fully realized in the second half complete with monsters of the night and mythical dangers mutating with true life horrors such as bigotry, betrayal, and murder.
Sinners is a masterful telling of life’s nightmares, real, mythic and otherwise. But it’s also a focus of that which gives the few moments their true freedom. Whether it is music, family or finding truth, there are the momentary escapes from a reality steeped in either fantastical horrors or very real, historically evident tragedies. It’s all a bit of a wash really…” - Sinners Review
“One Battle After Another is a masterful telling of chaotic revolution and moral ambiguity in the face of great, seemingly insurmountable odds. It faces timely issues such as immigration, racism, xenophobia and unchecked white supremacy. And despite its hyper-serious plot points and themes, it still manages to be quite funny, darkly so but still hilarious. It’s pessimistic, redemptive and sweeping across time, ideologies, and familial transgressions.
It features award worthy performances, unbelievably gorgeous and sometimes manic cinematography that puts you scarily in the middle of the mayhem. It is a vigorous, relentless action thrill ride that always keeps its characters and their desires at the forefront of the story. It’s guided by pristine editing allowing for a film that clocks in at nearly three hours to completely fly by effortlessly. The cast is brilliant in all facets and together they are unmatched. Paul Thomas Anderson once again proves why his name is mentioned among the greats. Without attempting to be grandiose or hyperbolic, simply put, One Battle After Another is one of the best films of the year.” - One Battle… Review
“Marty Supreme is extraordinary. For a story about ping pong, it sure provides a lot of backstory and sidequests adding up to one of the most stressful, manic, panic inducing and unbelievably enthralling sports dramas of the last decade. The acting is exceptional, with the Safdies’ ability to cast unknowns who deliver such memorable moments. The cinematography has a grittiness to it heightening the stakes, the turmoil, and the triumph of the human spirit. But this is a Safdie film so the caustic nature of people is prevalent throughout this story and at times it can be thoroughly deflating. All of this is scored by a perfectly built collection of songs, original and otherwise, making this small story feel gargantuan. I hoped for something great and it delivered tenfold.” - Marty Supreme Review
And that's it. That was the best of 2025 in my opinion. Marty Supreme really came out of nowhere. I knew what it was about, who starred in it, and who directed it but the premise left me wondering if it was going to be my kind of film. Needless to say I am pleasantly surprised. I knew One Battle After Another would be conversation worthy. It is PTA after all. But it is genuinely extraordinary. A definite powerhouse this coming awards season. What can I say about Sinners that hasn't aleady? It achieves so much under the guise of a vampire movie. It will stand the test of time I'm certaint of it.
Hamnet I never expected to like. It looked like pure Oscar bait and not the good or interesting kind. After numerous recommendations I had to give it a chance. It was one of the last movies I saw in 2025 and it immediately landed in my Top 5 of the year. Jessie Buckley is remarkable.
There were so many wonderful surprises in 2025. Eterntiy won me over immediately. I've seen it twice and it's already one of my favorite romantic comedies of all-time. Weapons proved that Barbarian wasn't a fluke. Zach Cregger is a force to be reckoned with. I can't wait to see what he does with Resident Evil.
Unsurprisingly, Rian Johnson put the finishing touches on a practically perfect trilogy with Wake Up Dead Man. Although it's likely there will be more coming, the Knives Out three is spectacular fun and whip smart across all three stories. Daniel Craig was born to play Bond but he was also destined to play Benoit Blanc.
The ultimate movie star, Tom Cruise and his longtime collaborator, director Christopher McQuarrie, band together to send off Ethan Hunt on one last amazing mission. One of the greatest action franchises in the histoy of cinema.
These last two I would label as "falling under the radar" - Jay Kelly and Black Bag. Black Bag had the misfortune of being an early 2025 release so many either forgot about it or outright never saw it which is awful. Steven Soderbergh directs a small, taut spy thriller? And people missed it? For shame! Jay Kelly got looked over because of people's prejudices. A lot of disdain towards Clooney and the story itself asking people to care about a rich person's mid-life crisis. Shortsighted if you ask me. Their loss. Black Bag is suave and sophisticated. It has whipsmart performances by Blanchett and Fassbender reciting delisiously lively dialogue. As for Jay Kelly, putting aside the differences in how this character lives from myself, he is a very human character and Clooney is poetically lonely and completely relatable in regards to the more abstract burdens of human life.
A lot of tremendous efforts this year. Now we must endure the slog of January. Please Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Nia DaCosta, save us! Here's to 2026! May it be a phenomenal year for cinema. Long live movie theaters! Long live physical media!
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