METROLAND STAFF’S Top Ten Films of 2025
At its core, art in any form, is about creating something out of an idea that is burning a hole deep in the sinews of your being. It gnaws at every fiber until you create something out of it and put it out into the world. With that idea created, you move on to the next one and repeat the cycle all over again. You create, because you have to.
The point, and I promise there is a point to these philosophical musings, is that these end of year articles that every single arts publication in the world puts out there stand diametrically opposed to the entire purpose of art. We obsessively rearrange lists and try to objectively rank something that is purely subjective. But, at the end of the day, we are human beings. And human beings have a biological imperative to group and rank things. It brings order to the chaos. And it’s also kind of fun.
All of those artists who create these things are also human beings. As much as they will deny that they created the art for anyone besides themselves, they all want their art to be seen and responded to and appreciated. They don’t necessarily want to vanquish their opponents into oblivion (they might need to collaborate with those people in the future) but they damn sure want the people to like what they put out there just a tiny bit more than what somebody else put out there.
Anyway, let’s rank some fucking movies!
— View the full staff list here! —
The Process
Every Metroland contributor, from editors to writers to photographers, were asked to submit a top 10 list of films. While we are not all professional film critics, we are professional purveyors of culture who have impeccable taste (except the ones that put Wicked: For Good on their list; seriously?!?).
One important thing to note is that we're all just regular folks who write about art for the love of the game. We don’t get advance screenings or go to film festivals. We trudge our way to the theatre or fire up the streaming apps just like everyone else. This is a list by the people, for the people.
If a contributor put a film in their number one spot, it received 10 points. If a contributor put a film in their number two spot, it received 9 points. If a contributor put….Okay, hopefully you get the picture. The points were tallied and the film with the most points (49, in case you were wondering) was awarded first place. That’s how we did this thing and now that we’ve been transparent about it, let’s get to the rankings.
10. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Written and Directed by: Rungano Nyoni
Starring: Susan Chardy, Elizabeth Chisela and Henry B.J. Phiri
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
This film hit close to home for me, in both painful and affirming ways. With half of my lineage hailing from Liberia, much of what director Rungano Nyoni captures rang deeply familiar. The rituals, the routines, and the quiet expectation that women endure, serve, and stay silent for the sake of family cohesion.
Nyoni’s film approaches this material with restraint and care, never sensationalizing trauma, but letting grief surface through exhaustion, routine, and moments too heavy to name. Incredibly unsettling and incredibly tender, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl asks whether breaking silence is an act of betrayal or survival, and offers a rare, necessary portrayal of African womanhood with honesty and grace. [Adem Jones]
9. Frankenstein
Written and Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz
Where You Can Watch: Netfilx
It took decades for Guillermo del Toro to greenlight Frankenstein, and time has certainly paid off. Del Toro re-centers the narrative in the Victorian era, following Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac), the driven scientist whose experiment to create life unleashes consequences far more complex than he ever anticipated. When Frankenstein’s Creature (Jacob Elordi) gains consciousness, the film becomes more than a tale of science and terror. It becomes a meditation on isolation and the deep yearning for belonging in a complex world.
Del Toro’s visual imagination is in full bloom. His interpretation does not simply retell Shelley’s story, it expands it into something uniquely his own, mixing horror, romance, and philosophical depth in a way that only Del Toro can conjure up. The film explores what it means to be born, to suffer, and to seek connection in a world that fears difference. Reaffirming the enduring power of this familiar tragic tale of ambition and empathy, Del Toro does the impossible by making the old feel new and invigorating again. [Chris Clemente]
8. 28 Years Later
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Written by: Alex Garland
Starring: Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes
Where You Can Watch: Netflix
If I learned anything from 2023’s Top Gun: Maverick, it’s that you should always wait an inordinate amount of time before releasing a sequel to a beloved original (if 28 Years Later is okay with retconning 2007’s 28 Weeks Later then I can also ignore it, okay?).
Danny Boyle’s follow-up to his apocalyptic zombie classic is an exercise in shifting tonality as each act of the film plays out as its own unique story with its own distinct mood going from father-son action film towards solemn meditation on death and grief. Each act works on its own while building towards an emotionally devastating climax. And if that wasn’t enough, Boyle tacks-on an unforgettable Teletubbies-coded coda ((IYKYK) that leaves the audience asking ‘what in the actual fuck?’ [Corey Dempsey]
7. Marty Supreme
Directed by: Josh Safdie
Written by: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
Starring: Timothee Chalamet, Gwenyth Paltrow, Odessa A’Zion, Tyler the Creator
Where You Can Watch: In theatres
With the full-court press Timothee Chalamet has been employing to get asses in seats for his latest outing, I’m sure many people are wondering “Is this ping pong movie worth the hype?”
That would be your first mistake: assuming this is a movie about table tennis. While protagonist Marty Mauser (loosely based on real-life champion Marty Reisman) is obsessed with becoming the best to ever play and popularizing the sport in the US, table tennis is only the vehicle that Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein have utilized to deliver a case study on the perils of chasing an impossible dream at all costs for Marty and almost everyone who comes into his orbit.
Chalamet is on top of his game in this role embodying both competitive passion and borderline psychopathic narcissism. Marty Mauser is at times both admirable and downright unlikeable as he chases greatness. [James Mullen]
6. Mickey 17
Written and Directed by: Bong Joon Ho
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max and Prime Video
Set during a distant space colonization mission, the film centers on Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), an expendable worker whose job requires him to die repeatedly so his consciousness can be reprinted into a new body. Pattinson leans fully into the absurdity and quiet despair of the role, giving Mickey a fragile humanity that makes each death feel both darkly comic and deeply disjointed. When one version of Mickey survives unexpectedly and collides with his replacement, the film pivots into a clever meditation on identity, self worth, and the uneasy ethics of treating human life as renewable material.
Through biting critique of corporate and authoritarian exploitation, the film tackles issues of dehumanization and the human cost of ambition in ways that feel real and stand out. Ultimately, Mickey 17 sticks because it refuses easy answers and invites us to reflect when everything around us seems set on erasing our past. It challenges us to slow down, entertains us to think outside the box, and for many that combination defines the best cinema this year. [CC]
5. Eddington
Written and Directed by: Ari Aster
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Luke Grimes
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
Ari Aster’s Eddington is in conversation with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another (stay tuned for more about this masterpiece). Each is about the uncertainty and paranoia of living in Trump’s post-COVID America. While One Battle centers around washed-up revolutionaries living in secrecy, Aster turns his focus towards big tech interests encroaching upon rural America.
Joaquin Phoenix’s Sheriff Joe Cross is poisoned by his mother-in-law’s doomscrolling delusions and slowly descends into madness over the course of the 140 minute runtime. In typical Aster fashion, the first two acts are an exercise in slow-burn tension building until the final act powder keg explodes with a truly outrageous and grotesquely satisfying action-sequence on the streets of this small New Mexico town. [CD]
4. Superman
Written and Directed by: James Gunn
Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult and Isabela Merced
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
The simplicity of James Gunn’s Superman is what makes it rise above the “superhero fatigue” that even the most die-hard of comic book fans is surely feeling. By trusting the audience to know the backstory, Gunn was able to get right into the action. In fact, the movie begins mid-fight with Superman getting his kryptonian ass handed to him.
Gunn instead delivers a comic book movie that actually feels like a comic book. There is humor throughout, and most of it lands surprisingly well. Seeing Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern manifest a huge green middle-finger that he beats the bad guys with should not have worked, but it really did.
A lot of people said this film gave them “hope,” and while I am not sure it lit that much of a fire in me, I can say it’s a near-perfect comic book movie and it at least gives me hope that we may be headed in the right direction. At least, when it comes to comic book movies. The rest of the world, I’m not so sure. [Andy Scullin]
3. One Battle After Another
Written and Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
The story that’s been making the rounds in the One Battle After Another press cycle is how Paul Thomas Anderson dropped out of film school after a professor derided the greatness of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Appropriate, because this is PTA’s action epic centered around a breathless, 35 minute sequence in act two.
The other big talking point is that this is PTAs first film that isn’t looking backwards. One Battle is firmly about the current moment as the action sequences take place amid refugee camps and ICE-style raids featuring nefarious crisis actors, while at its core remaining a deeply personal film about dads and their daughters. The single most emotionally affecting scene is when DiCaprio’s character regretfully admits to not knowing how to do his own daughter’s hair, a scene taken from his wife’s (Maya Rudolph) own relationship with her father. [CD]
2. Weapons
Written and Directed by: Zach Cregger
Starring: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Amy Madigan, Benedict Wong and Austin Abrams
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
Zach Cregger’s Weapons refuses to act like any other horror movie released this year, blending eerie mystery and nonlinear storytelling into something that feels alive and lingers throughout the rest of the year. Weapons begins in the small Pennsylvania town of Maybrook, a third-grade class has vanished without a trace, all eighteen children stepping out of their homes at 2:17 a.m. and disappearing into the night, except for one boy. From that singularly odd hook, Cregger constructs a sprawling tale of grief and paranoia, along with the strange ways a community tries to make sense of tragedy while pointing fingers at one another.
At times unsettling, at times darkly funny, Weapons mixes visceral horror with sharp observations about how fear, blame, and grief ripple through a community. This synthesis of genre thrills with deeper psychological insight explains why Weapons connected so deeply with audiences, earning critical acclaim and solid box office success in a year crowded with high-profile releases. Like many of the greats — Night of the Living Dead and John Carpenter’s The Thing come to mind — Weapons draws its horror from the people around the monsters and demons. In a world where people are the true monsters. [CC]
1. Sinners
Written and Directed by: Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell and Delroy Lindo
Where You Can Watch: HBO Max
Led by a bravura dual performance from the always outstanding Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a difficult movie to define. Is it horror? Is it a musical? Is it a historical relationship drama? Is it about race? The answer is yes, it’s all of those things. In less capable hands, this film would be an unmitigated disaster, but Coogler expertly weaves each thread together to form a rich tapestry that rewards multiple viewings.
After his feature length debut, Fruitvale Station, I feared we had lost Coogler to the Hollywood studio machine of franchises and sequels. Creed and Black Panther were both excellent in their own rite, but I’m thrilled to have Coogler back telling original stories. [CD]