The theme this year was all about "anti"- anticonformist, antiauthoritarian, anticapitalist, antiwhatever.... Some better at making their points than others. I had no clear favorite until I watched Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value early November, a real standout. And it never happened to me this late. But I managed to pull in 20 2025 favorites here:
*Caught by the Tides, Grand Tour, The Shrouds and Afternoons of Solitudes all ended up in my Top 2024 List.
1. Sentimental Value - Trier
As usual, it being a Joachim Trier film, Sentimental Value is not about one thing, but about a lot of things, so not just the house or any inanimate objects that we have feelings towards - parents, siblings, history, art, gnerational trauma, loneliness and most importantly, love. Something that AI can never reproduce or emulate, at least not yet. It is yet again, a beautifully written (co- written by Trier's long time writing partner Eskil Vogt), nuanced film that you come to expect from one of the most literary filmmakers of our time.
2. Sirât - Laxe
Sirât is part Madmax, part Sorcerer, part Antonioni, contemplating where Cormac McCarthy's The Road left off. It's not making a grand statement about the hopelessness of the state of the world. It shows how random death stalks, that grief is universal, that we can't ignore the suffering of others because, again, we are all in this together.
3. The Secret Agent - Mendonça Filho
With Bolsonaro and the ultra rightwing factions of the Brazilian political spectrum being in charge not far from the collective memories, The Secret Agent is about rebuking anti-intellectualism by having university researchers both past and present the heroes of the film which is also very pertinent in our own political climate. Slow at revealing the plot and not spoon feeding the audience with all the information and backstory, the film beckons at your curiosity to find out more about the not too distant past of checkered Brazilian history.4. Resurrection - Bi
Bi, with Kaili Blue and Long Days Journey into Night, cultivated cinema as a waking dream with languorous filmic language with implausibly long takes and dreamlike atmosphere. Resurrection, its ironic title notwithstanding, is an elegy to the cinema and its history. It is a staggering work of an artist with means (backed by CG Cinema and Arte France) to go big or go broke. While the premise being thin, Resurrection is a towering artistic achievement above the sea of mediocre offerings in the state of world cinema right now.
5. Frankenstein - Del Toro
The story of a madman's obsession destroying everything he loves and blaming it on his own creation, their unbreakable bondage and finally forgiveness really moved me in the end. Del Toro, chasing after his childhood dreams of remaking Universal Monster films, created something classy and beautiful here.
6. Die My Love - Ramsay
Foreshadowing what's to come with Jennifer Lawrence roaming around the yard on all fours with a kitchen knife in her hand, Ramsay makes a point that the film is not about Grace suffering from depression, but how a young woman is perceived when she behaves outside societal norms.
7. Sinners - Coogler
Aside from being very uneven in tone and themes it tries to potray, Coogler's Sinners is a rousing popcorn flick and a crowd pleaser first and foremost. Coogler uses vampire genre to tell a tale of the cunniving, two faced white supremacy with their divide and conquer tactics. The movie relies on Michael B. Jordan's charisma to carry it through and he does it with grace.
8. One Battle After Another - Anderson
One Battle After Another is a fantasy, based on Thomas Pynchon's Vineland, which was published in 1990 in the throes of the Bush Sr. regime. If anything, it shows that nothing much has changed- the kidnapping and deportation of the undocumented and overarching racism of the country. I say fantasy because as much as I wish that there is a well connected and well equipped underground network of leftist resistance going on in the age of tiktok, but there isn't.
9. It Was Just an Accident - Fanahi
Panahi, in this slow-burn thriller, brings up the concept of morality and justice in Iran. And he reveals how the totalitarian regime inflicted upon political dissenters from all social strata, an unspeakable collective trauma. And he doesn't shy away from being bluntly critical about the totalitarian regime of his country, while showing ordinary people's humanity not being lost. It Was Just an Accident is a riveting and beautiful film.
10. Misericordia - Giuradie
Guiaudie's a master at absurdist humor that is still very much down to earth. Think Misericordia as stripped down, depoliticized, working class Teorema where one person seduces everyone around him willingly or unwillingly. Jérémie is not a Godot, or American Uncle or your ideal manifest in a human form. He is full flesh and blood with his own desires and people somehow love him back. The police is on his track because of his shaky alibi, but it's the local priest who gives him cover. Love works in stange ways. Misericordia is a delightful, absurdist comedy that says a lot about strange human desires and attractions.
11. Nouvelle Vague - Linklater
Breathless, a perennial French New Wave film that started everything and changed filmmaking forever, is closely reenacted and memorialized along with the movement and people involved. I got to admit, being a diehard Godard-head, I was very skeptical going into this film. But rest assured, Linklater, coming from the experimental indie filmmaking background, knows his history of cinema and understands how to pay homage without being nostalgic and sentimental about the New Wave and its influences that had on him as a filmmaker. And Linklater's assumption is right about his view on Breathless as a granddaddy of indie filmmaking.
12. No Other Choice - Park
No Other Choice touches upon a lot of modern society's illness with satirical humor- there's dying manufacturing industries, automation and A.I. taking over human labor, deforestation and autism. As usual, Park Chanwook is a first and foremost visual stylist. There's more visual ideas in No Other Choice than most Hollywood releases in a year combined.
13. Miroirs No. 3 - Petzold
The melodic piano composition of Miroirs No. 3 reflects the sound of the gentle waves. Whatever the circumstances of the people who are lost at sea in that scenario, the music is soothing and calm, reflecting on the comfort of a family. The white picket fence that Betty is painting also reflects the yearning for ideal family life. As the title suggests, everything is a reflection of what should have been. It's the idea of a perfect family that haunts Petzold's characters, even though they never had it in the first place. And it is this tragedy in the modern world that Petzold keeps stressing with his films: yearning for the ideal world that never has materialized under the capitalist system.
14. Universal Language - Rankin
Rankin and co, create a deadpan comedy that is not only an ode to Iranian cinema, but a unique cross-cultural netherworld that feels consciously dour and less hipsterly yet familiar. Universal Language is a truly unique comedy that will put a smile on your face.
15. 100,000,000,000,000 - Vernier
Taking place in glitzy Monaco near Christmas time, Virgil Vernier's new film focuses on Alfine, an escort who describes himself as having a nice ass, nice lips, nice cock but lacking initiative. A million, trillion, quadrillion- numbers so big they lose all meaning and don't contribute to anything to our lives. As usual, Vernier (Mercuriales, Sophia Antipolis), examines the seedy underbelly of our shallow modern society, urban isolation, loneliness, and human connection. Virgil Vernier remains to be one of the most interesting contemporary French directors working today.
16. The Sparrow in the Chimney - Zürcher
As with the Zurcher Bros' last two films, Strange Little Cat and The Girl with the Spider, The Sparrow presents Zürcher's unique visual style - a blocking to create a claustrophobic atmosphere where everyone's cramped in the kitchen corridors, squeaking by each other and going in and out of static frames, and in and out of windows. The Sparrow in the Chimney examines the familial trappings and yearning for freedom which might not be as ideal as it appears to be. Beautifully realized with sensuous visual details from inanimate objects to animals, the film cements the unique storytelling talents of the Zürchers.
17. Weapons - Cregger
The success of the horror genre over the last decades have been steady, not only at the box office and cost/profit margins, but also in its quality. Even though movie studios still doll out sequels and franchises to grab quick bucks, there have been many good original horror films in recent years that's been giving audiences something new, instead of following the same old fomular with predictable plotlines. Weapons, the new movie from Zach Cregger (Barbarians), understands the art of conceal. The slow build up of a mysterious disappearance of a group of school children, causing anguish and flinging accusations among adults in a small Pennsilvanian town, blows up to frenzied revelations in chapters seen from different character's point of views of the same event. It's an effective way to get maximum surprises out of the many twists and turns of this horror comedy. 18. The Fence - Denis
From her debut film Chocolat, Beau Travail to White Material, Denis examined the colonization and its aftermath of the African continent by white Europeans. Entitlement, guilt, violence and eroticism were all there. Then she made films depicting the African diaspora experience in No Fear, No Die, I can't Sleep and 35 Shots of Rum with her trademark grace and sensuality. With The Fence, the political message here is much more blunt.
19. Ice Tower - Hadžihalilović
Ice Tower, just like her previous films, Hadžihalilović aptly suggests the frightening grownup world where things are not as bright and exciting as one hopes to be, but decidedly dour, sad, full of pain and filled with ugliness. Her explorations might be seen as only scratching its shiny surface. But it's usually the negative space behind the façade that looms over all of her films, keeping all the mysteries intact and bewitching us to come back time and time again to see her dark and hypnotic artistry.
20. Rabbit Trap - Chainey
Moody and trippy, both cinematography (Dp, Andreas Johannessen) and sound design are terrific. Verging on magic realism, the moss and fungus invading the interior of the cottage as Davenports are put under the spell of the child is truly a wonder (thanks to production designer Lucie Red). Patel and McEwen are both fantastic as a couple who share an unspoken, probably some dark backstory, and have terrific chemistry together. But it's young Jade Croot who shines as a mysterious child who throws themselves in the lives of Davenport, and who might not be human at all. Croot's performance has the similar intensity as young Barry Keogan in Lanthimos's Killing of a Sacred Deer.
