Best Movies of 2025: Best of the Genres
Continuing to look back at the best movies of 2025, I will now be looking at the best movies from each genre. I will be looking at my favorite foreign-language films, comedies, action movies, and a few other genres and categories. And like every year, each category will have five “nominees” (my personal top five) with my “winner” (my favorite) in bold, followed by short reasoning as to why I picked it as the best. Here are my picks for the best movies from each genre in 2025.
Best Horror/Thriller
The Housemaid
The Long Walk
- Ryan Coogler’s Sinners reinvented the vampire genre while also keeping close to its roots.
Best Comedy
The Naked Gun
The Phoenician Scheme
- Akiva Schaffer’s remake of the classic ’80s comedy is the funniest studio comedy of the decade.
Best Animated Movie
Arco
The Bad Guys 2
Dog Man
K-Pop Demon Hunters
Zootopia 2
- K-Pop Demon Hunters is a colorful and entertaining phenomenon in a relatively weak year for animated films.
Best Action Movie
Den of Thieves: Pantera
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Thunderbolts*
- Joseph Kosinski went from the skies of Top Gun: Maverick to the racetracks of Formula 1 for the most exciting racing movie in years.
Best Sci-Fi Movie
Bugonia
Predator: Badlands
The Toxic Avenger
Tron: Ares
- Bong Joon Ho returned to his genre roots with this amusing and beautifully crafted space epic starring Robert Pattinson.
Best International Film
It Was Just an Accident
My Father’s Shadow
No Other Choice
Resurrection
- It was a spectacular year for international films in 2025, but Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident was the best of the bunch and one of the best films from the world-renowned director.
Best Documentary
John Candy, I Like Me
Pavements
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
- Alex Ross Perry’s passionate and unique Pavements is unlike any musical documentary I’ve ever seen.
Five Movies I Liked More Than Most
Ash
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Heart Eyes
The Toxic Avenger
- These films were either critically panned or commercially flopped (or both), but I found something redeemable about them that made me appreciate them more than others.
Five Movies Everyone Liked More Than Me
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Hamnet
- These aren’t necessarily bad films, but I wasn’t as big a fan of these films as many others.
Five Underrated/Underseen Movies
The Baltimorons
Heart Eyes
Presence
Rebuilding
- These films came and went during 2025, but are all great.
Five Great Movies You May Not Have Heard Of
Eephus
My Father’s Shadow
Pavements
- You may not have heard of them, but these are excellent films from all around the world. Seek them out!
Five Worst Movies of the Year
Honey Don’t
Locked
Love Hurts
Riff Raff
Wolf Man
- These movies made me angry while I was watching them.
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