The Best Films of 2025 So Far…

By many accounts, 2025 has begun as a turbulent year away from the silver screens and multiplexes. When those kinds of times come around, the arts have always stepped forward as an oasis for social connection. Even with streaming in play where couches replace stadium seating and the full communal experience, the healing and motivating properties of escapism and empathy found in movies always shine through. The first half of 2025 has proven that with an array of beautiful work from a diverse group of filmmakers across many genres. Here are some of the best of 2025 so far, organized in alphabetical order, according to the fine writing staff here at Film Obsessive. Seek these 20 opportunities out and enjoy!

The Ballad of Wallis Island 

At its core, The Ballad of Wallis Island is a quiet film on what it means to move on. The Ballad of Wallis Island follows Charles (Tim Key), a quirky and reclusive lottery winner who has spent years in solitude on the remote isle. A passionate devotee of the once-iconic folk duo McGwyer & Mortimer, Charles hatches a plan to reunite them for a one-night-only performance. The pair are made of Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) who were former lovers and a musical duo. Key’s character, Charles, stole the show and my heart. His comedic timing was impeccable yet there was this loneliness and vulnerability to Charles that tugged on my heart strings.

The Ballad of Wallis Island is a film that centers around music and the power that it has to bring people together and even a little nostalgia for a time that has already passed. Music has an incredible power of acting like a time machine. It can transport us to a specific moment in our lives but it also has a way to evolve with us, offering new meaning. Wallis Island depicts music and all of its great unifying and healing power. It is a film that makes you cry but in a heartwarming, feel good way and sometimes that is all you need.  — Chelsea Alexandra

Black Bag

There seems to be two wings in the Steven Soderbergh hall of cinema. On one end, he’s a respected auteur unbound by the typical studio system, working in all sorts of genre with indie DIY spirit from production to distribution. The other wing is his “one for them” work of classy studio entertainment. Few things in cinema exemplify pure coolness than when Steven Soderbergh is cooking. When he’s on, he’s on. Thanks to an extremely talented cast and stylish accoutrements from top to bottom, Black Bag is latest reminder of his special power, which, in a way, is just half of how good he always seems to be.

Black Bag navigates a mindfield surrounding a potential leak at an international intelligence center in modern London. An unseen MacGuffin named “Severus” threatens the death of thousands in the wrong hands. Tasked by the big boss (Pierce Brosnan) with finding the mole is Michael Fassbender’s George Woodhouse, a meticulous man, through and through. His investigation centers on five people—two known romantic couples in his department (Tom Burke and Marisa Abela and Naomi Harris and Regé-Jean Page) and, the big kicker, his own wife Kathryn St. Jean, played by co-headlining Oscar winner Cate Blanchett. The chase begins from there.

Not a hair, thread, or plot twist is out of place in Black Bag. Soderbergh, fueled by a script from on-again/off-again hit-maker David Koepp, glides everyone along a labyrinth of dinner parties, office secrecy, and global duplicity. The dialogue is as buttery as the entrees and the sneakiness is as well-draped as the fashion. In a marketplace filled retreads reeking of creative bankruptcy, this sparkling, original spy thriller was a breath of fresh air.  — Don Shanahan

Caught by the Tides

Jia Zhangke’s main fascination has always been China and its growth into a global superpower in the 21st century. More specifically, his films detail how, on the surface level, China seems on top of the world, even as many of its billion citizens struggle and face harsh lives. Zhangke’s latest film, Caught by the Tides, feels like the director realizes that this cold reality has not changed in any meaningful way. 

This is evident as much in the fact that Zhangke uses old footage from his 2006 film, Still Life, in Caught by the Tides. The recycling doesn’t come off as self-aggrandizing. In fact, quite the opposite. Zhangke finds joy in playing with various cameras — digital cameras, cameras inside drones — and footage that he has compiled over the years. 

This fascination with differing technologies lines up with how the lead characters of the film go about their Zhangke’s characters, a man (Li Zhubin) and a woman (Zhao Tao) who are in a relationship that falls apart, are stuck in a constant state of unease. They both have to take on multiple jobs to make ends meet and they eventually separate before reuniting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their lives never get too high or too low. Rather, they are caught in between the tides, struggling to stay afloat. I think there’s no better way to describe the filmography of Jia Zhangke.  — Henry O’Brien

Companion

Companion is a film that should’ve been ruined by its marketing. The big twist that comes at the end of the first act is essentially spoiled by the trailer and poster of the film. Despite the twist being telegraphed, Companion remains an exciting, clever, and subversive horror flick. It starts as your typical cabin in the woods style horror plot then quickly evolves into a poignant social commentary about AI, incel culture and the objectification of women becoming normalized. 

Sophie Thatcher plays Iris, a ‘companion’ bot who has no idea she’s a robot. She accompanies Josh, whom she perceives as her longtime boyfriend, to a remote weekend with his friends. It gets dark quickly when Iris is entangled in a murder plot and finds herself at odds with the man she once swore her life to. The relationship dynamics in this movie are well done. Take away the AI of it all, and you have a great script about how weak men view women. They all want an Iris, someone with magazine-ready looks that they can turn off whenever they get annoyed. Josh presents as a typical ‘good guy’ but is revealed to be conniving and entitled. He wants control but isn’t strong enough mentally to even comprehend wielding it. 

Companion tackles some taboo subject matter but doesn’t forget to have some fun along the way. It’s got some witty dark humor that caught me off guard on first watch. There are cutaway gags that feel like Family Guy jokes, but they work well here. It’s nice to add levity to a concept that can get bogged down by the depressing reality of the subject matter. The performances also add a lot to the comedy. You can tell everyone had fun making this one. Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher are both funny in their unique ways. Quaid is almost too perfect at these ‘incel’ roles and Thatcher is great at playing up the social awkwardness between artificial intelligence and human beings. They have negative chemistry, but that works perfectly for the story being told. They help Companion find the perfect balance between camp and prestige.  — Matthew Percefull

Eephus

The frustrating aspect of most baseball movies is that they never truly capture the essence of America’s pastime. No matter if you love the sport or not, there’s one thing that’s undeniable about baseball: It feels like it takes forever. Carson Lund’s festival darling, Eephus, understands the slow nature of the game, but also the beautiful and ephemeral feeling that it engendered for millions of Americans in the 20th century. 

Eephus, named after the extremely unconventional curveball, details one last baseball game between a group of middle-aged men before their field gets torn down. What makes Lund’s film such a joy is that it’s just a baseball game. No more, no less. Each player tries to take in every last moment they can at their hallowed field, even as it involves a ton of sitting around, drinking, struggling to hustle, chewing sunflower seeds, etc. 

Lund fully grasps these details and more, even as he identifies the larger issues at play. He questions not only what compels these men to keep going with a game that, in the grand scheme of things, means nothing, but what will be lost when spaces like a baseball field go away. The film features no major names aside from former Red Sox pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione and Uncut Gems supporting star Keith William Richards. But its lack of star power paves the way in showing how baseball, and activities like it, create community. 

Eephus is the work of someone who loves baseball and reading about the decline in social capital. And that’s more than enough for me. — Henry O’Brien

Eric LaRue

Not every movie comes to a crisp conclusion. Based on a play of the same name, Eric LaRue delivers an intriguing look at all the people involved with the aftermath of a school shooting. There are no easy answers offered by the narrative. Very little is done cinematically, yet palpable conflicts and emotions live within the film. That’s because Eric LaRue is a prime example of the importance of performers. So many movies are awash in artificial entities alongside characters who are paper thin, it’s easy to forget the impact of quality acting amidst CGI cacophonies. This feature shows how profoundly important the right dialogue combined with an excellent cast can elevate a simple motion picture into something astonishingly complex. — Jay Rohr

KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters delivers stunning visuals at a breakneck pace. Part musical fantasy and part comedy adventure, this original Sony Pictures animated film, co-directed by Chris Appelhans (Wish Dragon) and written by Maggie Kang, follows Huntrix, a K-pop girl group destined to hunt demons. At the precipice of permanently closing the gap between the human and demon worlds alongside her friends Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo), leader Rumi (Arden Cho) must grapple with her conflicting identities: part-demon and demon hunter.

Inspired by traditional Korean mythology and demonology as well as the contemporary K-Pop industry, KPop Demon Hunters is unique not only in its breathtaking visuals but also in its culturally relevant story. Its catchy original songs from TWICE members Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung further ground this fantastical story in its K-pop roots. Finally, this is not just a tale of good versus evil: the part-demon characters Rumi and Jinu (leader of the rival demon boy-band Saja Boys and voiced by singer Ahn Hyo-seop) are given sympathetic roles as their identities act as poignant metaphors for mental health struggles. While its fast pace leaves little room for pause, this film is almost certainly destined for greatness during next year’s Oscars season. — Natalie DC

The Legend of Ochi

The 2025 box office has been dominated by family fare. PG-rated films comprise eight of the top 15 earners so far this year, led by A Minecraft Movie and Lilo & Stitch in the top two spots. Every single one of those eight (which includes How to Train Your Dragon, Dog Man, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Snow White, and the 2024 carryovers of Mufasa: The Lion King and Moana 2) are remakes, sequels, reboots, or born from some kind of established intellectual property. Originality has become rarer than blue diamonds. Leave it the arthouse of A24 to give audiences the best and most unique family film so far this year with The Legend of Ochi.

The Legend of Ochi features cherished cinema treasure Willem Dafoe as Maxim, a jaded father in a foreign land training the village teenagers to take up arms to defend their community against wild beasts that have attacked their people and poached their livestock for decades. What he’s after are the titular Ochi, long-tailed furry creatures with a signature chirping howl of communication. When Maxim own’s rebellious daughter Yuri (News of the World‘s discovery Helena Zengel) traps a young Ochi and learns they’re not as evil as legend has made them out to be, she runs away, setting off a bonding adventure through mossy woods, rugged slopes, and rustic landscapes of the Romanian filming locations.

Bursting with character-building majesty and boasting a rapturous musical score indie rocker David Longstreth, writer-director Isaiah Saxon crafted a burly and heartfelt winner on his debut feature try. The saddest thing is that virtually no one discovered or saw The Legend of Ochi. The film never made it to even 1200 theaters domestically and grossed only slightly more than $4 million worldwide. While it definitely isn’t as connected and glossy as the big family blockbusters, The Legend of Ochi is the precisely the kind of old school movie magic that our kids should get unplugged from the other noise to see and appreciate. There’s so much buried treasure here.  — Don Shanahan

Last Swim

For a film that takes for its center a young girl on the precipice of adulthood facing her own mortality, Sasha Nathwani’s debut feature film Last Swim is full of warmth and the joy of being young and free in London in the English summer. Set on A-Level results day, a group of eighteen-year-old friends set out on a day of simple pleasures—eating London’s best takeaway, skinny dipping in a pond, biking in the sunshine, smoking weed and drinking—all the while unbeknownst to them, Ziba (Deba Hekmat), the smartest of the group and the one most likely to succeed, has cancer and is planning to kill herself at the end of a last perfect day with her friends. It takes talent to successfully balance such trauma and poignancy with such an evocative sense of being young in the English summertime without one cancelling the other out, but Nathwani does it with aplomb, blending the two into a beautiful, bittersweet whole. Bonus points for reminding me of (the best points of) being a teenager growing up in England myself.  — Chris Flackett

The Life of Chuck

Even though the role of a critic is to put feelings about a movie into words, every once in a while, a film leaves you speechless. That was The Life of Chuck for me. The film premiered at TIFF in 2024 and despite award juggernauts like The Substance and Emilia Perez, it was Mike Flanagan’s heart-on-the-sleeve The Life of Chuck that walked away with the People’s Choice Award.

It’s taken almost a full year, but The Life of Chuck is getting the theatrical release it so rightfully deserves. We are living in a time of fear, pessimism, and hopelessness, but The Life of Chuck is a sincere balm for our weary world. It’s Stephen King by way of Mike Mills and still so distinctly Mike Flanagan. We contain multitudes, the depths of which we have one beautiful, forever-too-short life to explore. — Tina Kakadelis

Materialists

Dating has drastically changed in the last five years. Dating apps and social media have completely shifted the landscape. In some ways, this has led to positive change, but it’s mostly set some unrealistic, consumerist standards for culture at large. The endless scrolling and comparisons have seeped their way into everyday conversation. Talking with a friend about a date can sometimes sound like you’re listing off a bio section from a dating app. “Yeah, they’re 6’1, used to play football, works in marketing…”. Celine Song dissects this new dating culture with her polarizing sophomore film, Materialists.

Our main character, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), is a matchmaker in New York City. Lucy’s job is to view dating as something more analytical than emotional. At one point in the film, she compares the job to being a mortician or an insurance adjuster. Lucy has a cold, pragmatic view of romance that we come to find out is not true to her heart. This is put to the test when she stumbles into a love triangle with her burnout ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans) and a billionaire bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal). The choice may be obvious. There has been much online discourse about this upon release. But I think that’s Celine’s point. Harry is the perfect candidate in both society’s standards and Lucy’s distorted view of love. The dates are all in glamorous restaurants, he takes her on her dream vacation, and his house is something out of a Nancy Meyers film. This all attracts Lucy to Harry, but I don’t think she’s ever actually attracted to him as a person. 

John, on the other hand, truly understands her as a person. He doesn’t fit her checklist. She would never recommend him to any of her clients. Yet she feels compelled by him. She wants to spend time with him despite his inability to provide a luxury experience. Celine Song isn’t saying that Lucy’s choice is the correct one, or even a realistic one. The choice is truly a human one. The future might not be promising, but choosing John is what feels right to Lucy emotionally, which should count for something.

John and Harry are probably the weakest links in this film. I think they’re both miscast and that undercuts some of what Song is going for. Pascal is too sweet for the pragmatic billionaire and Evans is a bit too put together to be believable as a struggling actor with shitty roomates. Part of me feels like they would have fit better if they swapped roles. That being said, Lucy’s emotional journey and the way she softens up her view on love are done perfectly. This film is not perfect by any means. I do think this film is incredibly important right now. Materialists asks some pertinent questions, even if it stumbles at answering some of them. — Matthew Percefull

Mickey 17

Audiences were eagerly anticipating what director Bong Joon Ho would do next after his Oscar-winning hit Parasite. Would he do another weighty social satire, or would he dive back into the world of science fiction? In true Bong fashion, he was able to achieve both with Mickey 17, based on the novel Mickey 7. He doesn’t let genre weigh him down. Try as you might, there’s no real way to classify this film. Mickey 17 presents as Sci-fi, but it also features more jokes than most recent comedies. Mickey 17 is also able to pull off political satire, a mob subplot, a genuinely effective romance, and some pretty gnarly body horror. It can execute all these different cinematic tricks while never losing its satirical yet heartfelt tone. 

Mickey 17 is an actor’s showcase. Robert Pattinson is amazing as the titular Mickey. He has to play 18 different versions of himself, two of them at the same time. He beautifully conveys the different personalities and goes for it with some silly accent work. Naomi Ackie is mesmerizing as Nasha, Mickey’s love interest. She adds heart to the film and defies many tropes that female characters often face in these genres. Stephen Yuen is another standout as Timo, Mickey’s shady friend from Earth, who’s hilariously selfish throughout the film. Surrounding Mickey with a cast of memorable characters helps the film feel lived in.

Mickey 17 was delayed many times, but honestly came out at the perfect moment. Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) is the main antagonist of this film. He’s an obvious mirror for Trump and all of the similar politicians that have emerged with him. It’s one of the least subtle and serious plays on social satire, yet it feels the most realistic. Real life has gotten so utterly insane that something so over the top is a great way to reflect that on the big screen.  — Matthew Percefull

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning was one of the most anticipated franchise films of 2025 and it did not disappoint on spectacle. The 8th film in the franchise and 4th Cruise/McQuarrie collaboration, the narrative starts bloated in the first act of the film, catching audiences up on where the story left off in Dead Reckoning and tying up loose ends from the franchise. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt is the heart and soul of the franchise per usual, needing to complete impossible tasks with his merry band of misfits to save the world from the artificial intelligence antagonist: The Entity. After setting the table with the stakes the film follows standard MI formula, Cruise as Hunt taking on spectacular set pieces that push the actor, character, and audience to the limit. IMAX cameras capture impressively claustrophobic submarine/underwater scenes at the end of act two. It culminates with a death-defying bi-plane chase in the area that brings the audience along for a white-knuckle thrill ride to end the saga.  Although not a perfect film, few offered more thrills in the first half of 2035 like Mission: Impossible -0 The Final Reckoning.  — Seth Lamey

O’Dessa

O’Dessa is a genre-bending passion project. Part rock-opera musical and part post-apocalyptic science-fiction epic, this original film from Patti Cake$ director Geremy Jasper follows the titular O’Dessa Galloway (Sadie Sink), a sheltered farm girl who goes on a quest through the dystopian city of Satylite to recover her late father’s treasured guitar. It is at this broken edge of the world where she meets and falls in love with a fellow singer (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) who she must save from the city’s dangerous enforcer (Regina Hall) and hypnotic dictator (Murray Bartlett) through the power of song.

While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, O’Dessa is a colorful ode to music, love, and resistance against fascist rule. Award-winning cinematographer Rina Wang (known for The Fire Inside) gorgeously portrays the vibrant land of Satylite as a once-thriving metropolis now in ruin. Sadie Sink shines as fiery O’Dessa, her on-screen chemistry with the talented Kelvin Harrison, Jr. truly electrifying as the young couple must face off against an eccentric tyrant. Sure, its music isn’t totally memorable and its amalgamated romance, science-fiction, and drama genres is—to say the least—ambitious. But O’Dessa is ultimately a story full of color, heart, and, most of all, hope that is sure to enrapture audiences. — Natalie DC

Pavements

Pavements is one of the most unique music films I have ever seen. It’s an experimental exploration about the band Pavement, the indie rock band that became an important piece of the 1990s slacker rock movement. But this isn’t your typical music documentary. Perry mixes in footage of an on-stage musical about the band being made featuring songs from their discography, a musical biopic being made about the band starring the likes of Joe Keery, Nat Wolff, and Jason Schwartzman, and a museum opening showcasing key moments and memorabilia of the band’s career, all while showing us present-day Pavement getting prepared for their first concert in years and archival footage of the band.

Pavements is an entertaining and fascinating look at an under-appreciated 90s band and the process of filmmaking and creativity. It’s sort of impossible to pin down what exactly Pavements is. Is it a brilliant exploration of pop culture monetization? A parody of Hollywood’s obsession with musical biopics and the redundancy of them all while also giving us one of the year’s best performances from Joe Keery? Is it a love letter to bands of the 90s that people like Perry looked up to? Is it an unserious look at a band that itself was unserious? Is it all of the above? Or maybe none of the above? The fact that we can’t pin the film down to one thing is Perry’s point, but talking about what Pavements is or isn’t is all part of the fun. — Kevin Wozniak

The Phoenician Scheme

Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme follows a wealthy businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) who appoints his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton), a nun, as sole heir to his entire estate after he finds out someone is trying to kill him. This takes them on a globe-trotting mission that finds them dealing with tycoons, terrorists, and assassins as Zsa-zsa tries to get funding for his latest and greatest venture.

The Phoenician Scheme has all the visual hallmarks we’ve come to expect from Wes Anderson: the immaculate sets and costumes, the perfect color scheme, the gorgeous cinematography, the precise framing of every shot to the point where everything looks like a painting. It is an exciting adventure movie, compelling mystery, and fascinating portrait about a bad man trying to do good, coming to terms with death and attempting to right his wrongs, and how the world is run by greedy rich men who are seemingly invincible. It’s also funny as hell and features the most action we’ve ever seen in an Anderson movie as well as a basketball sequence that goes exactly how you’d expect a Wes Anderson sports scene to playout.

What elevates The Phoenician Scheme to be one of 2025’s best films is the beautiful central story about a father trying to form a bond with his estranged daughter. Del Toro gives a towering, masterful performance as Zsa-zsa, exuding empathy and comedy through a corrupt, shifty businessman. Threapleton gives the breakout performance of 2025 as Zsa-zsa’s daughter, and Michael Cera is a delight as a secret agent disguised as a math tutor on the road with Zsa-zsa. The three of them have infectious chemistry together and are accompanied by a stellar supporting cast featuring Tom Hanks, Brian Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johannson, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Phoenician Scheme is another gem from Anderson that’s wit and complexity will make a blast to rewatch. — Kevin Wozniak

Sinners

Ryan Coogler has bought us perhaps “the” film of 2025, something other releases are going to have to work very hard to beat. Using the vampire sub-genre of horror as a vehicle to explore issues of racism, revenge, religion, black music and culture, and an oppressed group of people trying to raise themselves up, Sinners offers visceral, Southern-gothic, violent thrills to make its deeper issues hit the audience hard. To be sure, the blood, as is fitting for a vampire tale, flows thick and fast, but this is not the only trick Sinners has up its sleeve.

The film blends music, magical realism and horror to great and pretty unique effect—I tend to dislike the term “elevated horror,” as I believe it functions as a kind of inverted snobbery against the genre, but the ambition and multi-layered nature of Sinners certainly does fit the bill. Michael B. Jordan is on top form playing not one but two characters, twin brothers, the charismatic, party-loving Stack Moore and the hard-headed, business-like Smoke Moore, while Wunmi Mosaku fires the character of Hoodoo practitioner Annie with earthiness and sensuality. Sinners is this year’s must-see film.  —  Chris Flackett

Sorry, Baby

Sorry, Baby has captured the loneliness of healing in a way that I haven’t felt seen in a film. Although we often hear phrases like “time heals all wounds,” and we are told to take all of the time we need, the reality is there is a pressure to “get over it”. There is no clear timeline on healing. Some days will feel lighter than others no matter if it is a week, two weeks or even three years from that moment. 

Sorry, Baby is a sharp, funny and incredibly raw debut from Eva Victor. Something horrible happens to Agnes (played by Victor). We watch how she tries to move on yet gets stuck frozen in time from this bad thing while her world continues to move on. The first viewing of Sorry, Baby knocked the wind out of my lungs with how incredibly honest and relatable it was. With each chapter telling Agnes’ story through non-linear vignettes, it allows us to see how non-linear her journey to healing actually is. Amid the grief and confusion that Agnes feels, Victor was able to weave in moments of softness and humor. Many of the posters feature an adorable kitten being held by Agnes, and the only spoiler I will say is: nothing bad happens to the cat.  — Chelsea Alexandra

Stolen Kingdom

My part time job in college was working at Walt Disney World in Florida. I had the glamorous job of selling turkey legs, so it’s safe to say that I don’t hold any warm and fuzzy feelings toward the Mouse. There are, however, many people in the world who do hold those fuzzy feelings and who would pay thousands and thousands of dollars to have a piece of a Disney theme park in their home. This demand effectively created the Disney Black Market which involves a stolen 300 lb. animatronic, an NBA player, and cast members willing to risk their job to supply the never-ending demand.

Stolen Kingdom is the best kind of documentary. Stakes are low in the grand scheme of things, but so unbelievably high for the people being interviewed. The film widely covers theft and urban exploring at Disney World, but ultimately places its focus on the missing animatronic named Buzzy who is rumored to be worth half a million dollars. Those whose jaws dropped at the revelation at the end of the HBO series The Jinx, will experience a similar sensation in Stolen Kingdom’s last shot.  — Tina Kakadelis

28 Years Later

Sinners will likely reign as this year’s horror masterpiece, and it deserves that spot at the top of the mountain. However, right behind it is 28 Years Later. The cinematic stylization of this fright flick is a lesson not simply for horror creators but moviemakers as well. Danny Boyle took a lot of risks composing visual collages blended with discomforting audio choices to make a film that looks and feels unsettling. This drives home certain emotional elements of the story in a way other movies don’t often achieve. It isn’t to say that every motion picture should follow the path taken by 28 Years Later, but it is a route well worth considering. Here is an example of film as a visual poem compelling the audience to experience a deeper meaning. — Jay Rohr