Looking back on a year full of disappointments and heartbreak, both for movies and the wider world itself, it can be difficult to focus on what made it tolerable instead of fixating on our despair, but no year can be perfect, and no year is without great movies to talk about. As we head into an already challenging 2025, let’s remind ourselves of the good that’s still out there and why we go out of our way to see movies in the first place. Let’s get started!
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HONORABLE MENTIONS: Kraven the Hunter & Sonic the Hedgehog 3
I’m sure giving these movies any spot on my list will raise a few eyebrows; especially when films like Anora and Challengers didn’t make the cut. I suppose when it comes to Honorable Mentions, I’m far more interested in making a point than just simply listing my eleven and twelve spots. See, everyone has a theory about what’s wrong with Hollywood movies these days, and the two most common answers are unasked for superhero movies as well as banal nostalgic shlock. Sure, Sonic has a built-in audience who will give this decent reviews and solid box office returns, but no one was expecting the movie to be anything more than what you see on the poster, and it’s doubly worse for Kraven which was mocked from its announcement all the way up to release date. For me, both of these exceeded the low expectations put on them; not in an exceptional way, but enough to refute the perceived wisdom of many armchair studio heads. You can’t simply write down a list of rules to follow or tropes to avoid and say that it’s the formula for success, as any competent filmmaker with the passion, the talent, and the faith of the producers can make something that’s genuinely entertaining. Sure, it doesn’t always make you money as Kraven tanked at the box office, but a good movie is always a net positive in the world; even if it means we have an old sounding Shadow the Hedgehog or Aaron Taylor Johnson running around like an awkward cheetah.
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10. Road House
Speaking of exceeding expectations, who knew that a big eighties-Swayze remake wouldn’t be a total disaster? Admittedly, the presence of Jake Gyllenhaal should have assuaged a few concerns as the guy is always a delight to watch onscreen, but this is one of the few remakes that captures the spirit of the film it’s based on while making something entirely original. Action films were kind of a mixed bag this year with some notable picks like Monkey Man and The Fall Guy not quite hitting the mark for me, but I guess I was spoiled right up front with this movie that isn’t necessarily outdoing those films as far as the set pieces and the amount of punching, but still manages to shine brighter with some interesting camera work, beautiful cinematography, and a sharp wit that would make the one-liner legends from the eighties proud. Even so, it’s not just another meathead remake trying to look back at the glory days of the genre. It certainly has some nostalgia for those days of big beefy dudes fighting bad guys without a hint of self-awareness, but there’s a solid story here that imbues the characters with a lot more nuance than your typical tank-top wearing muscle head. It’s genuinely funny all the way through, with a great performance from Gyllenhaal and a supporting cast of Movie Thugs who are more than happy to get outsmarted and humiliated for the sake of a laugh. The plot is needlessly convoluted and the presence of one of the world’s biggest a-holes does dampen my enthusiasm and is why this barely made the cut it on the list, but few movies were as fun to watch this entire year, even if we didn’t have the chance to see it on the big screen where it most definitely belonged.
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9. The Bikeriders
The Bikeriders is owned by Focus Features
Directed by Jeff Nichols
I see a lot of movies throughout the year that I simply don’t have time to give a proper review, which is a shame as many of them are worth celebrating and a few almost made this list. What ultimately won out in what I like to call my Wild Card pick, ended up being Sons of Anarchy without the cheese, which you’d think would be a recipe for disaster, but I found the movie surprisingly compelling. It doesn’t have the exciting bike chases, tense shootouts, or even a police investigation in the background to anchor the narrative, and yet the movie doesn’t end up needing any of that. It’s a straightforward account of the rise and ultimate fall, at least philosophically, of a biker gang in a society far too complex for their simplistic view of the world, and the restraint with which it tells the story is what makes it work as a character piece. It’s not so much about the individual actions or the tall tales that go on throughout the decades during which the movie takes place, it’s the slow and inevitable fall into chaos as the ideals of the first generation start butting up against the realities of the changing world. In some sense, it is regressive in its view as the future ended up being very bleak for everyone involved; especially for Austin Butler, who is perfect casting as someone meant to personify the ideal of the biker lifestyle and whose fall from grace mirrors that of the dream they all once shared. Even so, the movie is more than happy to judge them for their faults and show the pathetic underpinnings of the culture while also giving them room to feel human and to see their side of things, especially when it all starts coming down. It’s not a particularly exciting movie and I wouldn’t even say it’s all that original as Scorsese has hammered this point home in several of his mob movies, but a sharp cast coupled with some fantastic production design give this a strong identity of its own which I suppose is as good an epitaph as these guys were ever gonna get.
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8. Nosferatu
I went into this hoping to see the movie that would hit the number one spot on this list, so the fact that it’s only at number eight is a disappointment to me. That disappointment, however, should not in any way deter you from seeing this movie or for me to give it any less credit than it deserves. Yes, I enjoyed the previous two adaptations more than this, but it’s still filled to the brim with fantastic performances, beautiful cinematography, and a sharp script that layers on the dread in a way that Eggers has perfected over his career. It even has some genuine laughs with Willem Dafoe’s wonderfully hammy professor, as he cuts through the tension without ever undercutting the drama. I suppose a less biased criticism that can be levied against this is that it doesn’t have quite the same flair as we’ve come to expect from Eggers as the cinematography, while beautiful, never truly goes off into flights of fancy despite the presence of a supernatural being giving him more than enough opportunities to go wild and instead relies a little too heavily on the cast to kick things up to eleven; especially Lily-Rose Depp who is carrying even more of this movie than Count Orlok. It’s not my favorite version of Nosferatu, but it will be for a lot of people, and I’m glad that such a talented filmmaker was willing to take a swing at it.
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7. Trap
I went back just to make sure, and this is indeed M Night’s third straight movie to show up on my yearly lists. Not even Eggers can boast that as The Northman didn’t quite make the cut in 2022, and perhaps I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but it is still remarkable to me that one of the biggest jokes in Hollywood ended up having one of the all-time great career resurgences. Unlike the plotting of his earlier films, the reasons that is one succeeds are not all that complicated. We’ve got a great lead performance from Josh Hartnett who walks a fine line between relatable dad energy and murderous intent, and he’s put in a well-crafted environment where we watch him scheme, stew, and panic over the sword of Damocles that’s hanging by a thread. What I think sets it apart, however, is how it confronts the tropes we associate with Serial Killers who have been a popular character type to mythologize. Beginning this story at the end of the character’s arc, after he’s already had his fun, robs us of the vicarious thrills that often sell us on this kind of media, and yet the writing is strong enough that we don’t miss it as we focus on the family drama and Hartnett’s brilliant performance. The ending is a bit disappointing with a tacked on To Be Continued in case Warner Bros drives a dump truck of money to M Night’s door, but that’s sadly the case with far too many movies these days, so I won’t hold it against him too much. I guess that’s one point we can give to Eggers as he has yet to make a franchise-able movie, but give Disney some time to write a big enough check, and we may live to see the day that he helms Greedo: A Star Wars Story.
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6. Wicked: Part I
Last year, I put the new Spider-Verse movie in the Honorable Mentions because I was just sick to death of movies being broken in half and for audiences to wait a year or more for any sort of closure. I didn’t like it when The Avengers did it, I certainly didn’t like it when Mission Impossible did it, and I didn’t like it when they did with this movie. Having said that, it still managed to stay in my good graces because, for the most part at least, I got the movie I wanted and whatever they want to sell me on for the next one feels like a bonus. Solid songs from the Broadway show, a great cast putting in fantastic performances, and musical numbers to rival any action set piece this year; it’s truly a Blockbuster Musical and connected with the audience who has been dying to see this on the big screen for more than a decade. The plot starts to waver at the end as it focuses more on the mechanics of Oz but for the most part it keeps the focus where it needs to be which is Elphaba’s relationships with the people in her life, and it’s no easy task to come up with another movie this year that ended on a higher note. As far as I’m concerned, the story of Wicked has been told in this movie with any gaps needing to be filled better left to my imagination, though given the phenomenal production of this one, I’m still looking forward to seeing what’s next.
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5. Dune: Part Two
Way too many broken movies, I swear. The first Dune may have ended on an awkward note as the book doesn’t divide neatly into two halves, but this sequel still had a very tough act to follow as I’ve always liked the first part of the story more than the second. That ended up being the case here, as Paul’s messiah quest doesn’t hit as strongly for me as the betrayal of House Atreides, but there’s still a lot to love about this movie and the way that Villeneuve tells it. Taking one of the most notoriously difficult novels to adapt and knocking it out of the park twice is quite an achievement, and I appreciate the liberties he takes with the materials to pair it down to its core ides and rebuild it in a way that still manages to appeal to general audiences. Keeping the focus on the cast of characters who struggle with the implications of the larger plot brings a lot of humanity to the story, which I feel was most important to get everyone onboard with magic potions, space politics, and the new Jesus riding a giant worm. He struck an impressive balance between all these wildly fantastical elements, and while the ending left me a little cold in its execution, it’s hard to imagine a better way of bringing this story to the big screen. Well, except in one regard. Seriously, why couldn’t we have Baron Harkonnen eaten by a sand worm? That alone might just nudge me back into saying the Lynch version is the superior adaptation!
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4. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Of the two sand based epics that are follow-ups to slightly better movies from a few years ago, this one gets the edge over Timothée Chalamet’s adventures with giant worms, and not just because it has more visceral thrills and a wilder sense of abandon. George Miller has been exploring the world of Mad Max in his mind for over forty years, and while the other films in the series gave us glimpses into the wasteland, this is the one that truly immerses us in the setting and tells us a tale large enough to encompass it. It just goes to show what a true artist that George Miller is as I’m sure Hollywood was champing at the bit to get him to make Fury Road 2: Fury Harder, but he not only took his time in giving us the next movie, he made it without as much of the bombast and energy that people associated with it. The action and chases are still there, particularly one standout scene right in the middle, but it’s not where is mind is at with this movie, and I think it’s all the better for it. There’s no reason to try and outdo Fury Road, especially when the world offers so many opportunities to tell different stories. While the cast is great across the board, the standout is definitely Chris Hemsworth as the villainous Lord Dementus who is perhaps a better icon of the wasteland than even Max himself. A man who buries his heartache and despair under vice and cruelty; hoping that being the biggest bully around and squashing all hope for anything better will somehow justify his own surrender to barbarism when faced with a dying world. Another Fury Road would have been fun and may have even eked out a spot on this list, but someone like Miller shouldn’t be jogging in place when he still has so much more to show us, and if this is the last chance he’ll have to let us into this world, then he ended it on as high a note as anyone could have hoped for.
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3. Deadpool & Wolverine
Comic book movies are not the be-all and end-all of cinema, but they are the defining genre of our generation, and I think the Deadpool series has only gotten more vital as it’s gone along, with this third entry making its strongest statement yet. The thing about Deadpool is that, despite his reputation of being a troll or the embodiment of anarchic excess, he’s actually got a bigger heart than just about anyone in the MCU that isn’t named Steve Rogers, so when the film points its ire towards the current state of comic book movies, it resonates a lot more than the more obnoxious and self-serious jabs that the DCEU were throwing out before it crashed and burned. It’s nothing short of remarkable that this movie managed to make everyone feel something for a series of movies that, at the best of times, were slightly above mediocre, but that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Marvel Studios have proven itself to be the far superior alternative to the Fox films, but there were people who have fondness for that era, and this movie gives voice to those feelings in the wake of the merger. Beyond its capacity to tug at your heartstrings over your lost DVD collection, it’s also a necessary shot in the arm for the MCU with a hilarious script and solid action that never numbs or overwhelms the senses as too many recent Marvel movies have done. Reynolds is still phenomenal fit for the role, Jackman takes what could have been an embarrassing return to the claws into yet another fitting epithet for a character that’s been put to bed at least once already, and it does an even more remarkable thing by giving us a memorable and engaging villain whose plans may be a bit on the goofy side but exudes a level of menace that the MCU has had trouble achieving with many of its other one-off bad guys. It’s perhaps a bit naïve to call a movie with the Mouse House’s money a genuine critique of the genre, but it was still nice to see it stick up for the little guy, which was… another billion dollar franchise. Okay, maybe the meta-narrative falls a bit flat when under a microscope, but it’s hard to argue that a movie this good that audiences genuinely connected with is not worthy of some respect; at least until Deadpool starts hocking Disney Plus subscriptions. Oh wait, he’s already doing that? Eh. The movie’s still good.
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2. Conclave
Alright, now that we’ve got the superhero and post-apocalyptic movies out of the way, it’s time for some real cinema for the big brained film fans out there! In all seriousness, while my tastes do tend to lean towards action, comedy, and shlock, I can recognize a phenomenally well-made movie set in otherwise mundane settings. I’m actually surprised this movie has done as well as it has given that it’s not based on some pre-existing property, unless you count the Catholic Church as a media franchise, and it’s rather modest in its scope and storytelling. Perhaps word of mouth is still worth something these days, as the deceptively simple setup hides dizzying depths of emotion as these dudes are faced with a monumental decision that brings out the best in some and the worst in most. As intriguing as the infighting is to watch and as compelling as Ralph Fiennes performance is as the one trying to hold everything together, what really put it over the top for me is the ending, which I still won’t spoil here, but feels extremely appropriate for the times we’re living in. Even if you decouple the specific cultural and political implications of this and how it will no doubt annoy the absolute worst people, it’s a genuinely heartfelt moment where someone’s humanity is inescapably laid bare in a way that rightfully challenges the world around them. I don’t know if this has enough unique energy to stay in the cultural zeitgeist, even with its brilliant ending, but it’s a great movie that I hope will always have a spot in film history, even if that spot is a permanent fixture on Peacock and a bunch of glowing Letterboxd recommendations.
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1. Hundreds of Beavers
The thing about these lists is that they’re more aspirational than anything else. You’re not only giving a list of good movies for some nebulous public record, you want to highlight movies that may have been overlooked or have been unfairly maligned in the hopes of convincing people that they are worth seeking out. Some of my more offbeat picks like The Happytime Murders and Jupiter Ascending may not have gotten the critical reevaluation I’ve been hoping for, but I think we have a shot of Hundreds of Beavers becoming an all-time comedy classic in the years to come. The limited release means that general audiences have yet to weigh in on it, but it’s just too fun of a movie to be ignored for much longer. I knew as soon as the credits started rolling that it would be the best film of the year, and I saw this thing back in April, which was plenty of time for something to come along and dethrone it, but nothing even came close. It’s neigh impossible to adequately describe just how hilarious and exciting it was to see in the theater with no idea of what I was getting myself into, but even if all of us critics gushing about it has set the bar incredibly high, it will still exceed any expectations you could possibly have. From start to end, the movie is everything that Hollywood wants while defying all of its conventional wisdom, and if I were to compare it to anything other than the silent comedies it most closely resembles in terms of tone and aesthetics, it would be the original Star Wars in how it elevates the oft dismissed genres from which it takes its inspiration by finding enough common ground between them. It’s surprising how well silent era slapstick, retro video games, and low-budget internet sketch humor meshes together to make something the finest example of all three, and while it’s too early to say if it will be a generational touchstone as it’s still relatively obscure for most people, it does feel like one of those game changers that will have a ripple effect throughout the industry. Perhaps I’m overstating the case as my interests fit neatly into all three categories, and I do know some people who simply did not connect with it; possibly not helped by its one flaw, which is an overindulgent first act. Still, it stands apart from everything else that I saw this year and for its target audience, there is nothing that will bring them quite as much joy as this outlandish comedy masterpiece.
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I’m writing this little wrap up the day after David Lynch died, which means that I’m also writing it on my birthday, and wow has 2025 gotten off to a rough start. We’ve lost one of the greatest legends in cinema as Lynch’s name will be remembered among the greatest of all time, and frankly it feels like a bad joke that he would leave us at a time of such uncertainty and cruelty in the world. I suppose the only way out of the bad times is through them, and for my little piece of the world, I can still point to amazing movies as a reason to keep my spirits up when times get tough. These movies made 2024 a little bit brighter and I hope that recommending them here will put a little bit of good out into the world, but we can’t wallow in sadness or keep looking to the past. With this yearly ritual complete, it’s time to look forward to 2025 and hope that movies can only get better from here!
The Reviewers Unite 