Amid scandals, boycotts and political turmoil, these standout films helped us keep perspective
Published
December 5, 2025 12:00PM (EST)
Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee in “The Testament of Ann Lee” (Searchlight Pictures)
In the heated climax of a confrontation between Alma Imhoff — Julia Roberts’ harried Yale professor in this year’s “After the Hunt” — and her one-time protégée, Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), Alma leans forward to cut through the bullsh*t. Despite waging this war between student and teacher, Maggie’s not prepared for battle, telling Alma she’s no longer comfortable with their conversation. Steadfast and pissed off, Alma smacks her lips and smirks, leaning forward with a cutting whisper: “Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable.”
There’s a whole world of truth inside Alma’s remark, no matter how unpleasant it may be to accept. We live in a uniquely uncomfortable time, and no matter how many years in a row it’s true, 2025 was unlike any other year. There were political assassinations, censorship scandals, back-alley knockoffs of a viral toy, stomach-churning developments in AI, jewel heists, gutting celebrity deaths, blue jean boycotts, and perhaps one of the longest, most exhausting first years of any American presidency on record. Some good stuff happened, too, but it’s already fading from memory. It’s easy to become weary when pigswill piles up faster than we can shovel it away. That’s exactly why a film like “After the Hunt” stands out from this year’s cinematic softballs: It’s just one of many 2025 releases that spoke to our distinctly modern discomfort and forced us to sit inside of it, if only to help viewers find a way out.
From genocidal aliens to aimless bromances, the best films of the year were audacious enough to reach a hand into the shadowy corners of our collective unrest, unafraid of what they might bring back with them after their survey was finished. In their efforts, they illuminated our reality for what it is: contradictory and confounding, as hopeless as it is brimming with love and community. This year, the standouts shattered our shared discontent, reminding viewers that there’s no better way to make sense of a world in collapse than submitting ourselves to the dark of a movie theater. Here, then, are 2025’s nine best films — funny, outrageous, awkward and beautiful; exactly how life should be, even among the wreckage.
(Courtesy of Janus Films ) Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in “The Shrouds”
9) “The Shrouds”
David Cronenberg’s latest may be a comedy, but “The Shrouds” is not exactly uproarious — unless the acute pain of grief and the creeping feeling that we’re all slowly being replaced by artificial intelligence is your idea of hysterical, then, by all means. But for a writer-director like Cronenberg, who has spent his career mining horror and humor alike from his viewers’ relationships with their bodies and realities, “The Shrouds” is an undeniably comedic take on death’s inevitability.