Movies 2025: What we liked ('Sinners,' 'The Naked Gun') and what we didn't ('The Running Man,' 'Tron Ares')

This has been a scary year for the movies. Studio execs must be seasick from watching the box office go up ("A Minecraft Movie") and down (the summer as a whole). And lately, it seems, all the stars in Hollywood can’t steady the ship: Dwayne Johnson, Julia Roberts, Sydney Sweeney and many other A-listers opened films that tanked in the second half this year. And all this came before Netflix purchased Warner Bros. Discovery in early December, sending further shock waves through Hollywood.

Even when the movies seem imperiled, however — and that’s pretty often — you can still find things to love. As the major studios keep cutting back their output, smaller studios step in with smart, character-driven stories aimed at grown-ups. Superhero movies like "Thunderbolts*" and "Superman" performed well — as opposed to insanely well — suggesting that viewers’ standards might be rising. And many filmmakers, notably Ryan Coogler, Zach Cregger and Ari Aster, are following their personal muses and coming up with original new work.

HERE ARE 15 FILMS THAT WE LIKED (AND WHICH HELPED 2025 STAY AFLOAT)

A PRIVATE LIFE Rebecca Zlotowski’s genre-scrambling comedy-mystery-thriller arrives in local theaters Jan. 30, so mark the date. You’ll be rewarded with a fine turn from Jodie Foster as a Paris-based psychiatrist trying to solve two puzzles: One is about a dead patient, the other is in her mind. Fun, smart and strange.

CHRISTY

Sydney Sweeney plays a closeted female boxer who marries her abusive male trainer (Ben Foster) in David Michôd’s biopic. Sweeney and her movie are both rock solid — yet the film fared so poorly that the actress turned to Instagram to insist, "we don’t always just make art for numbers."

EDDINGTON The first truly funny film about the pandemic features Joaquin Phoenix as a small-town sheriff grappling with condescending mask wearers, self-loathing white rioters, overeducated teenagers and other modern-day plagues. Ari Aster’s satire is far from perfect, but it’s sharp, daring and dead-on.

ETERNITY A dead woman (Elizabeth Olsen) must choose a partner for the afterlife: Her husband of 65 years (Miles Teller) or her long lost love (Callum Turner). Yes, NBC’s "The Good Place" did this better. But what a great premise — and the fine cast handles it beautifully.

FRANKENSTEIN

Thank Netflix for putting Guillermo del Toro’s high Gothic masterpiece into theaters, even if briefly — it was the best way to experience Oscar Isaac as the mad doc and Jacob Elordi as his orphaned Creature. Drawing from Mary Shelley’s histrionic 1818 novel, del Toro makes an old story feel new again.

GOOD FORTUNE In his directorial debut, Aziz Ansari plays a gig worker whose guardian angel (Keanu Reeves) helps him swap lives with a wealthy tech-bro (Seth Rogen). It’s a featherweight comedy that unexpectedly touches a nerve in its depiction of subsistence-level wages, debt and homelessness.

HAMNET

Budding playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley, in a fictionalized role), grapple with the death of their son in Chloe Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel. Buckley’s half-feral performance feels like an Oscar shoo-in; the whole film is a testament to the healing power of drama.

HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Denzel Washington plays a record mogul asked to pay the ransom for another man’s kidnapped son in Spike Lee’s latest joint. Needless to say, it’s eccentric, a little flawed, vivid (thanks partly to A$AP Rocky as the heavy) and thought-provoking. It’s inspired by Kurosawa’s 1963 drama, "High and Low."

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT In Iran, a former political prisoner kidnaps his torturer — then begins to doubt it’s the right guy. This is a tense, grim comedy, but the Islamic Republic was not amused. Writer-director Jafar Panahi, while traveling, recently received a 1-year prison sentence for "propaganda against the system," according to the BBC.

MARTY SUPREME Another terrific performance from Timothee Chalamet, this time as a visionary but unhinged Ping-Pong champion. His is a wild ride that bounces from New York’s tenements to Tokyo’s amphitheaters, fueled by ambition, sex, money and orange-colored balls. Josh Safdie ("Uncut Gems") directs.

MATERIALISTS Celine Song’s tale of a high-end matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) torn between a handsome millionaire (Pedro Pascal) and a penniless actor (Chris Evans) is a romcom you can take seriously. Underneath the Hollywood gloss are real questions about how a wealth-obsessed society squeezes both wallets and hearts.

SENTIMENTAL VALUE Joachim Trier’s newest follows an aging filmmaker (Stellan Skarsgård) who tries to coax his actress-daughter (Renate Reinsve) into an emotionally triggering role. Add Elle Fanning as the American star he hires instead, and you’ve got one terrific ensemble in this subtle and sophisticated meta-movie.

SINNERS

A Depression-era vampire movie would be unusual enough — but as an allegory for white America siphoning off Black culture, it’s something truly original. For the actor-director team of Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler ("Fruitvale Station," "Black Panther"), this splattery critique is another triumph.

THE NAKED GUN

Surely we could all use a dumb comedy this year, so let’s give thanks to Liam Neeson for taking over the crime-spoof franchise once led by the late Leslie Nielsen. Is this reboot as funny as the original? Well, no — but I await the sequel.

WEAPONS After 17 children go missing in a small town, a grieving father (Josh Brolin), a schoolteacher (Julia Garner) and a cop (Alden Ehrenreich) begin unraveling the mystery. Writer-director Zach Cregger envisioned this as a horror version of Paul Thomas Anderson’s "Magnolia" — and against all odds, it works.

AND HERE ARE THE MOVIES WE DIDN'T LIKE, WHICH DIDN’T WORK SO WELL THIS YEAR:

AFTER THE HUNT

Julia Roberts plays a Yale professor caught up in a #MeToo scandal. Director Luca Guadagnino ("Call Me By Your Name") wants to take an intellectual scalpel to political correctness, but Nora Garrett’s script just splutters with rage at coddled millennials. Understandable — but not a good look.

ANEMONE What first-time director could convince the mercurial acting legend Daniel Day-Lewis to come out of retirement? Answer: Ronan Day-Lewis, his son. Results: Art Film 101, with moody cinematography, long monologues and even longer stretches of silence.

HAPPY GILMORE 2 Adam Sandler’s original golfing comedy, from 1996, is the closest he’s come to brilliance. The follow-up finds Sandler returning to form: uneven, lazy and padded out with celebrity cameos. It was a smash hit for Netflix, though, so Movie No. 3 should be here soon.

HIM A horror movie about football? Great idea! There’s this guy, and he hits people with a football. But like, really hard. O.K., maybe this wasn’t a great idea.

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Hit Broadway musical, J-Lo in the title role, Diego Luna beside her, Oscar nominee Bill Condon directing and a daringly queer role for rising newcomer Tonatiuh. Yet Lionsgate barely marketed the film and released it onto just 1,300 screens. Was it that bad? Yes, it was.

MICKEY 17 Bong Joon-Ho’s follow-up to 2019’s Oscar-winning "Parasite" was a class-conscious but clumsy comedy featuring Robert Pattinson as an endlessly re-cloned laborer. It raises the possibility of sleeping with multiple Pattinsons, which must have some appeal; the movie reached a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

THE ACCOUNTANT 2 Ben Affleck plays a sexy, handsome, socially inept, quasi-autistic genius who’s also a military-grade sharpshooter and self-defense expert sitting on a vast personal fortune. Boy, these movies really take the cake. Why not make him a wisecracking space-pirate, too?

THE AMATEUR Rami Malek plays a deskbound CIA agent who ventures into the field to find his wife’s killers. I love a good revenge thriller, but not when the hero sneak-attacks his victims at vulnerable moments (like almost literally with their pants down). Give me Mel Gibson or Charles Bronson any day.

THE RUNNING MAN

Rising A-lister Glen Powell and ultratalented director Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead") have somehow made one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s crummiest films (from 1987) even crummier! At least the original had hilariously chintzy sets and an opera-singing assassin. This one has Michael Cera.

TRON: ARES What will artificial intelligence look like when it takes human form? If you said "Jared Leto," then this sci-fi sequel is just your ticket. You might also enjoy Jeff Bridges as a cyberguru who pads around cyberspace in his bare cyber-feet. Mockery aside for a moment: The Nine Inch Nails soundtrack is pretty good.