The Best Films of 2025

Luke Safely
Dec 20, 2025
8 min read

While the difficulty of artistic interpretation and allegory is on the rise in cinema, the message of the film is so loud and clear it hits square on the spectator's nose like the fists of Superman telling us that many of us are immigrants but that isn't a deciding factor of whether we are good or not, how dispensable we are to the capitalist machine in its advancement like that of Bugonia, and its okay to pass the torch to the next generation because we have left a path for them to begin to forge ahead in their own way in One Battler after Another. The rising documentaries are built around social justice and geopolitical conflicts, a la The Perfect Neighbor, My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Last Air in Moscow, or Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, for these are the loudest issues of our time. While these messages are important it seems that many filmmakers have gotten so tied up in screeching a message that they have forgotten how to build a world, tell a story, and create interesting characters. 2025 is the cinematic year of the message and how being right about it is a higher order than anything else. One may even dare say this has become more important than the art of cinema itself—a desperation of self affirmation. With that being said there are still a handful of films telling the story of the human/world condition that have spoken to me this year and I hope they have as well for you or will in the near future.

Luke's Top 10 of 2025

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

On her way back from a party, Shula discovers her uncle Fred's body in the road outside of a brothel. The central mystery of the film is not Fred's death but the atrocities he committed upon his family in his life and how they still hold an effect on them after his death. This family drama addresses the issue of grief within a family and the secrets that they would prefer buried with their loved one instead of being brought to light. What is most tragic about this family drama is how dismissive your own family can be when it comes to protecting people even if it means ignoring the cries of help from their own family as the lion devours them one by one.

The Alabama Solution

As we all know the United States incarceration system is not about correcting or rehabilitating its inmates but to simply punish through means of human rights violations and forced labor. The Alabama Solution is a documentary that is made primarily of footage taken by prisoners within the Alabama prison system who are reporting the abuses they witness and the corruption to cover it all up. The abuses themselves are not what's troubling in this film because if you have paid attention to the news and testimonies of prisoners and their family members we know well enough of these things but what is shocking is the heartbreak of all the danger these men expose themselves by speaking up and immediately being shut down by naysayers within and outside of the government who try to reason how they are criminals and thus don't have rights or a say in their own lives anymore. The solution is much more difficult when people become so bitter towards others that you can't even reason through the most basic form of empathy.

Bring Them Down

After discovering one of his missing rams was stolen by the neighbors, Michael begins a slow spiraling descent of never returning revenge. Bring Them Down is bringing forth the rising return of an eye for an eye vigilante justice in our society and how the lack of even basic communication can lead to the breakdown of a family. The time jumping in the telling of both sides of this story is what makes this film compelling. As you learn what is really happening instead of what the characters believe has happened, all while being filled with dread of what is about to happen. History, pride, regret, silence, and revenge are a deadly combination that brings us down an all too familiar path.

Eddington

Sheriff Joe has had enough of the world he is living in; COVID mandates, condescending mother-in-law, loveless marriage, cocky Mayor Ted, neighbors at each others throats, big tech threatening to change his community forever, and social media screaming at him continuously. Joe decides its up to him to rise above it all and save everything by running for Mayor. Eddington is the perfect social commentary film of these last several years not because of its message but because of its willingness to not take a side. Instead it holds up a mirror and says look at all of you lunatics and how inconsolable you are about having to be right. Deputy Michael being coerced by BLM protesters because he should just completely drop his life and dreams because look at him he's black he has to agree with the white people about the things that happen to him. Joe's wife Louise who is so lost that she turns to social media cult leader to try to find answers to the abuses she has faced in her life. Sheriff Joe who has to have someone else besides himself to blame for his failing marriage so tries to falsely cancel Mayor Ted with rape accusations. Mayor Ted who is selling the community piece by piece under the guise of advancement. A schizophrenic vagrant is the only person who can really see it all for what it is at the beginning of the film and warns of the self perpetuating doom we have anchored ourselves to prove that we can't be wrong.

It Was Just an Accident

Vahid, an ex political prisoner who's life was ruined by Iranian regime torturer named Eghbal, believes he may have finally found his torturer recognizing the squeak of a man's prosthetic leg. Vahid kidnaps the man and is about to kill him but the man claims that he does not know of this Eghbal and pleads his innocence. Vahid unsure due to being blindfolded around Eghbal must find other victims to try confirm this man's identity before going further. It Was Just an Accident is a beautiful film about what would you do if given the opportunity of revenge even if you may be unsure of the perpetrator. What really makes this film interesting is the central mystery of who is this man and even if he does confess was it under duress of the very torture Vahid experienced? The journey to finding these answers is almost to the point of satirical silliness but touches at the understanding of a person through discoveries made about their life and whether you commit atrocities against someone you now know.

The Baltimorons

Recently sober ex-comedian Cliff finds himself in a dental emergency on Christmas Eve which leads him to Didi the dentist who is now spending the holiday alone because her ex-husband has remarried. Cliff decides to invite Didi out in her time of loneliness, rejection after rejection isn't enough to stop them from being together. This offbeat romantic comedy really goes to some dark places but shines a light on how sometimes we are in need of someone to be there for us so bad that we have no other choice but to open up and reach out. To have an adventure by embracing the improv standard of "Yes and..." and how that can lead us to new exciting places and people who understand us and how that may just have us finally saying, "Still really, really thrilled to be here.".

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

Lidia a young child raised in a small Chile mining town at Mama Boa's brothel must come to terms to what is happening to her mother Flamingo and the local legend of the disease she is carrying. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is a charming magical realism tale that takes on coming of age and the rise of homophobia in small communities. The world that is being built is filled to the brim with a unique community of enthralling characters and a supernatural premise of a deadly disease being transmitted simply through the gaze between two people. The idea of your community becoming your family is the driving piece of the film that will hook your heart strings and pull you into a long warm hug that you hope will never let go even though you know sooner or later that time will have to come.

Sorry, Baby

Agnes has her dream job as a professor, a home, and a new boyfriend but can't seem to feel like she's not even alive. This is made especially prominent when her best friend Lydie comes to visit and reveals that her and her wife are having a baby. Sorry, Baby is walking a tight rope of the destruction of sexual assault and somehow finding humor in trying to carry on after it. As the film unfolds we learn what happened to Agnes and how she has been treated in result of the incident. What's interesting about this film is that it really doesn't have the answer of how Agnes can get better or the right way to address it. Agnes never wished to be a victim and doesn't want to be treated like a victim constantly, she just simply wants to live and to finally have trust again.

The Ice Tower

Its 1960s France, Jeanne runs away from her foster home and stows away on the soundstage of a film production of The Ice Queen. Here Jeanne becomes obsessed with the Ice Queen played by prima donna actress Cristina who can't help but see herself in Jeanne. This all leads to Jeanne becoming more and more involved in the film production and Cristina's mysterious life. The Ice Tower is an art film with a capital A, a maddening piece that blends reality and fairy tale to the point you can't tell which is which anymore. All while still holding the important message of the dangers of enthrallment and the cyclical nature of trauma. Grief being the driving force behind the desire of being wanted for these characters and loss that comes from abuse and rejection from the powers that be. Truly a dazzling piece reflecting like fragile snow caught in production lights.

Afternoons of Solitude

Roca Rey is the current King of the Ring when it comes to modern bullfighting. His intense performances as a matador has put him in the spotlight and his name mentioned along with past greats such as Joselito, Belmonte, and so on. This documentary follows Roca Rey through several fights and there aftermath. What makes this film so powerful is the cinema verite approach, there are no talking heads, voice over narration, no moral compass to tell us whether these fights are fit for a modern society. No, instead we just get Roca Rey and the bulls. After the fight there is a follow up in a van back to the hotel of Roca Rey being reassured by his entourage the size of his testicles and the greatness of his skill which you can tell by the frozen expression on Roca Rey's face he is unsure of himself at times and the pressure of audience expectations is getting to him. As soon as Roca Rey leaves the van the entourage quickly turns into doubt themselves about how close Roca Rey was to dying or at least being seriously hurt. When we get to the hotel room we see Roca Rey's rituals of his Christian faith that he clings to as a small gesture of any possible protection in these fights. Finally the most eye opening scene is how helpless Roca Rey can really be when he is man handled by his staff as they pick him up tugging on his suit of lights— depicting his helplessness in even getting dressed. Afternoons of Solitude is about blood at its most base level and how we as an audience can easily be swept up along in it all through the tension of each fight. No matter our opinion of it being wrong or right, there will be a life lost and we won't know until the end of the fight.

Honorable Mentions

Twinless

Misericordia

Lost in Starlight