Best Movies

Kicking off my coverage of the best movies of 2025, I’m starting with my favorite first-time watches in 2025. From filling in a blind spot to discovering hidden gems to catching a movie I had never heard of, I had a lot of new cinematic experiences in 2025, and I wanted to highlight my favorites. This is an unranked list of my ten favorite first-time watches of 2025 and why I liked them so much….

We are halfway through 2025, which means it is time to look at the best movies of 2025 so far. I have seen 55 new releases so far this year (97 total, including film festival movies and movies that will be released later this year). At this point in 2025, I would consider it a mixed year for movies. A lot of the movies I have liked have been smaller indie films or auteur-driven vehicles….

The Chicago Critics Film Festival returns to the historic Music Box Theater in Chicago for the 12th time to highlight some of the most exciting films making their rounds on the film festival circuit. Once again, the festival showcases an eclectic group of films, from indie sensations to midnight hits to anniversary screenings of beloved favorites. Here are some of the titles I am most excited about at this year’s festival. Film synopsis from IMDb….

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival is here! The Sundance Film Festival is my favorite film festival in the world. I have been attending the festival since 2011 and love it every year. I love the atmosphere, the focus and love of cinema throughout the festival, and of course, the movies. I love the diversity of films at the festival and being able to see a wide array of films from across the globe. I love…

2024 is officially over and now it is time for my picks for the best movies of 2024. 2024 was an interesting year for movies. While the box office was dominated by sequels like Inside Out 2, Dune: Part Two, and Twisters, the MCU took a backseat and only released Deadpool & Wolverine, which ended up being the second-highest-grossing movie of the year. It was a great year for horror movies with films like The First…

In my continued analysis of the best movies of 2024, here are my picks for the best performances of 2024. Every year this is the toughest list to make and every year I feel bad about leaving some performances off. While I loved performances by Angelina Jolie, Adam Pearson, Timothée Chalamet, Justice Smith, Amy Adams, Sebastian Stan, Lily-Rose Depp, Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Pierre, Kristen Stewart, and many others, I think the performances I chose are…

Continuing my look at the best movies of 2024, I am now going to make my pick for the best director of 2024. 2024 was an interesting year for film, which made it an interesting year for directors. While there were plenty of established directors who turned out excellent work this year like Denis Villeneuve, Richard Linklater, Luca Guadagnino, Tim Burton, George Miller, and M. Night Shyamalan, I was most impressed by the work from…

Continuing to look back at the best movies of 2024, 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” (a.k.a my personal top five) with my “winner” (my favorite) in bold, followed by short reasoning as to why I picked it the best….

The 2024 cinematic year is officially over; now, it is time to look back at the best movies, performances, and achievements of the year. I am going to start by looking at the best technical achievements of 2024. I will be looking at the best screenplays, cinematography, production design, score, and other technical categories. Like every year, each category will have five “nominees” (a.k.a my personal top five) with my “winner” (my favorite) in bold,…

Kicking off my coverage of the best movies of 2024, I’m starting with something a little different. I made it a goal of mine to watch more movies I had never seen before in 2024, and I want to highlight some of my favorite movies I saw for the first time. This unranked list highlights my ten favorite first-time watches of 2024 and why I liked them so much. Also, no movie from 2024 is…