We’re already halfway through the year, which has somehow felt like it’s lasted somewhere between two weeks and 500,000 years. I suppose this is as good a time as any to do a brief check-in of the best and worst movies and shows of 2025… so far.
Even though some of these will probably still make my year-end lists, with new movies still to come from filmmakers like Ari Aster, Chloé Zhao, James Gunn, Darren Aronofsky, Edgar Wright, Zach Cregger, Ethan Coen, Ron Howard, Kogonada, Paul Thomas Anderson, James Cameron, Benny Safdie, Derek Cianfrance, Luca Guadagnino, Scott Cooper, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lynne Ramsay, James Cameron, and Josh Safdie, the back half of the year promises to be filled with some of the most talented filmmakers working.
Unless that massive list of geniuses completely blows it, I’m hoping that by January, we will look back at 2025 as one of the best years for cinema this century. Let’s chat about some of the highs and lows of the year so far.
Best American: Sinners
It’s an easy choice for the best movie of the year so far with Sinners, which feels like an integral part of the history of film even while you’re watching it for the first time. The way that director Ryan Coogler layers in a contemporary rage-fueled scream at institutional racism with a love letter to Delta Blues, horror movies, and great sex with bad people, Sinners doesn’t reinvent the vampire story as much as it just tells a perfect one. While some people will be turned off by the late-film swerve into horror, the entire point of Sinners is to show how monsters with fangs and capes could never be as scary as the ones with white sheets and hate. (Now available on HBO MAX.) Credit: Warner Bros. PicturesBest International: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Set in modern Zambia and almost exclusively focused on how modern culture clashes with outdated cultural custom and patriarchal conservatism, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl has more to say about misogyny, late-stage capitalism, and generational guilt than a dozen lesser films. With a star-making performance from Susan Chardy, potent and eternal filmmaking from Rungano Nyoni, and an unforgettable score from Lucrecia Dalt, Guinea Fowl has lived rent-free in my head since I saw it six months ago. (Now available on HBO MAX.) Credit: A24Biggest Disappointment: Jurassic World Rebirth
While there are definitely worse movies this year than the new Jurassic World (Minecraft, Snow White, and The Electric State to name a few), none managed to disappoint me more. With a cast featuring actors I genuinely enjoy, like Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey — plus with Gareth Edwards, a director equally capable of crafting intimate character moments and epic, sci-fi adventure — I thought this would be something special. Instead, Rebirth is a soulless and artless rebootquel more interested in franchise expansion than telling a coherent and memorable story. (Now in theaters.) Credit: Courtesy photoThere are plenty of other fantastic movies from which to choose until some of the heavy hitters from the back half of the year arrive, so here are just a couple more to check out:
Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is an insanely charming and romantic spy thriller that somehow manages to be sexy, intense, unpredictable and beautifully structured all in 93 fleet-footed minutes. Credit: Claudette BariusThe Day the Earth Blew Up is the Looney Tunes cartoon I’ve been waiting for since I was a kid. Starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, this hit all the right nostalgia buttons while still being an energetic and imaginative instant classic for children and their parents. Credit: Ketchup EntertainmentEven if you’re not a fan of Wes Anderson, The Phoenician Scheme is a breezy and charming caper that uses the bottomless cast in delightful ways, including scene-stealing turns by Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, and Riz Ahmed. If you hate Anderson’s unique brand of whimsy, this won’t change your mind, but it’s still a hell of a movie. Credit: Courtesy of FocusNow on television
While movies are still my primary means of entertainment, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that television is having a hell of a year as well. Here are just a few shows that I’m still currently obsessed with:
Sure, The Bear probably isn’t as strong as it was back in the first two seasons, but it still has the best ensemble cast on television and is filled from top to bottom with characters that I’m deeply invested in seeing them secure their happy endings. From Carmy to Syd to Sugar to Richie and all the Fak’s, I love this world and still feel lucky I get to spend time in it. Credit: HuluThere’s the unbroken intensity of Adolescence, the heartbreaking prescience of Andor, the mind-expanding Common Side Effects, the insane escalation of Paradise, the profoundly moving empathy of The Pitt, the insanely unpredictable Severance… television is still in a peak golden-age era. Credit: NetflixOne thing I’m tired of at this point is the “rich and powerful people being horrible human beings” genre, which not only feels played out after Succession stuck the landing, but is completely redundant when the news is still right there! I will admit that The Studio is a funny and well-crafted show, but in comparison to politicians slinging merch for Alligator Alcatraz, it sorta plays like Mr. Bean.
Pop culture is a nice refuge for those who feel we’re in the ugliest period of American history — or at least recent history — a period where entire swaths of our country treat empathy like a weakness, arrogance as a virtue, and ignorance as a point of pride. I’m not sure whether Hollywood should lean into this and start telling stories about this particularly nasty period in time or if no one wants that anymore.
The culture war we’re enmeshed in isn’t going away any time soon. Movies like On Becoming a Guinea Fowl and shows like The Pitt are sober reflections on what that does to a society and its people. Do people want more of these sorts of movies? Or would they prefer to just be gently entertained? I don’t have the answer. The only thing I know for certain is I’ll be here…watching. Credit: Apple TV+
