Smith's Verdict

By Tanner Smith

Well, it’s my first time back on this blog in a year–and I suppose what I’ve been saying for some time now is true: I am not a critic anymore and I am barely a reviewer anymore. But I still love movies, and I still love making year-end lists; and I have seen many great ones in 2025, so I’ll make this list!

However, I will disclaim that I have yet to see Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, the film that has gained a lot of affection from cinephiles. I also missed Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On, which I really wanted to see this holiday season but sadly missed due to contracting covid. And I missed a few other films this year–but I’m still very proud of my list, although I’ll acknowledge as I do every year that these year-end lists are subject to change and this is just how I feel in the moment.

For example, Sinners, Weapons, and One Battle After Another, 3 films that I see on every critic’s top-10 list (it’s almost as if they copy each other’s homework sometimes), are on my top-20 list right now–for all I know, 2 or all 3 of them could bump up to my top-10. Lists aren’t definitive; they’re just fun to celebrate in the moment.

So, let’s begin with the Honorable Mentions:

Wake Up Dead Man, Blue Moon, The Night is Young, K-Pop Demon Hunters, John Candy: I Like Me, My Dead Friend Zoe, Sorry Baby, Black Phone 2, Pee-Wee as Himself, The Lost Bus, Roofman, The Monkey, Companion, Shelby Oaks, Nonnas, and The Family McMullen. (Quick word about Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon: this film has my favorite performance of the year, from Andrew Scott as famous composer Richard Rodgers, who is trying to soak in the glory of “Oklahoma!” on opening night and trying his best to remain polite around Ethan Hawke’s Lorenz Hart at the after-party–and at the same time wants him to just shut up and go away. There’s a lot of subtlety in this performance, and I hope it doesn’t go unnoticed.)

And now, my list of my Top 20 Favorite Films of 2025!

20. Good Bad Things
19. One Battle After Another
18. Train Dreams
17. The Ballad of Wallis Island
16. A House of Dynamite
15. Weapons
14. The Baltimorons
13. Jay Kelly
12. Sinners
11. The Long Walk

10. Together–my favorite horror film in a year that was full of excellent horror films. This intense body-horror thriller is a great feature debut from filmmaker Michael Shanks, delivers shocking imagery I won’t forget anytime soon, and acknowledges the harsh truths about commitment that most films ignore (and let’s be honest, most real-life people ignore them too). And it was both fun and tense to know that once that electric carver was introduced, it was coming back later… Available on-demand.

9. Thunderbolts–I don’t like to be cynical, but like a lot of people, I was losing faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, meaning I had absolutely no interest in seeing this new entry in the franchise. It turned out to be the most pleasant surprise for me this year and one of my absolute favorites in the MCU; not just because the humor and action blended well again, not just because I cared about characters I initially wasn’t excited seeing together per se, or even because it raised more hope for the quality of future MCU films–but because it actually managed to execute depression in an original, compelling, and even exciting way. And for a mainstream blockbuster to do that, that counts as something extra in my book. Available on Disney+.

8. a tie between American Parent and Matt and Mara–I’m putting these two wonderful indies together because they share a lot in common: they’re both improvised, they both focus predominantly on two interesting lead characters, and they’re both beautiful and observant slices of life. Emily Railsback’s American Parent is about two parents struggling in a post-pandemic setting and trying to adjust to “the new normal” (easier said than done, for anybody). If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was a documentary. It conveys simple truths, but it also makes room for gentle comedy as well. And that’s also true for Kazik Radwanski’s Matt and Mara, about two friends who have known each other since college, reconnect for the first time in years, and find not much has either changed or been tested in their relationship–until now. I’m so invested in both Matt and Mara that I’m hopeful for a sequel in which they reconnect yet again. It was also wonderful to see one of my favorite current working talents, Matt Johnson (playing “Matt”), co-star in a film he didn’t make himself while I sadly missed his recent film at festivals (“Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie”–coming to theaters February 2026). American Parent is available on Roku and Matt and Mara is available on Mubi.

7. Sketch–upon first glance, Seth Worley’s Sketch looks like a cute, fun fantasy-adventure flick. But it’s more than that. It’s a unique and effective metaphor for how children and even their parents process grief, depression, and the overwhelming emotions that follow both. And that’s all I’ll say about that. Come for the imagination of the story, stay for the heart within the story. Available on Angel.

6. F1–I’m calling it now: Joseph Kosinski is the action director for the 2020s (maybe even the 2030s; it’s possible!). Between his executions of the flight scenes in Top Gun: Maverick and now the Formula-One racing sequences in F1, I am seeing the most exciting and riveting and intense action sequences in a long time. I had a freaking ball with this movie, guys. Available on Apple TV.

5. Nouvelle Vague–Richard Linklater, one of my favorite filmmakers, had two terrific films out in 2025. (And I was almost tempted to include Blue Moon as a tie here, but I decided to save that extra tie for…well, you’ll see at #3.) This film, a dramatization of the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary Breathless, is as exciting, droll, and complex as any of the FNW films I saw in cinema-history class. Zoey Deutch is a standout as late American actress Jean Seberg, and my favorite parts of the film involve her battle of wits against Godard (played very well by Guillaume Marbeck). Linklater knows how to show a good time among friends and/or colleagues, and this one ranks alongside his previous films such as School of Rock and Me and Orson Welles that display pure celebration of craftsmanship…even if sometimes it seems Godard is the only one celebrating it. Available on Netflix.

4. Come See Me in the Good Light–“You’re going to look at all your options and choose conviction.” -Andrea Gibson, “Your Life.” As chronicled in Ryan White’s excellent documentary, poet/activist Gibson ultimately chose love and art over despair and aimlessness in the face of terminal cancer–right to the end. An inspirational triumph. Available on Apple TV.

3. a tie between Presence and Black Bag–What I said above about how lists change over time? Here’s another example: I wish I put Kimi on my 2022 list (it was instead an honorable mention). I’ve seen it at least 10 more times since then; it’s one of my favorite thrillers of the decade, and it made me excited to see another pairing of prolific director Steven Soderbergh and reliable writer David Koepp. This year, they gave us two new films–and they’re both highly skillful and unforgettable. Presence is a unique haunted-house story, told entirely from the perspective of the ghost. It sounds like it’d wholly gimmicky, but Soderbergh & Koepp knew how to keep it compelling throughout, from interactions of the characters we witness to subtle motions to surprising revelations (as well as the scariest character of the whole year–and not the ghost), this is a Soderbergh experiment that works remarkably well. And I loved the ending. Even better was Black Bag, a spy thriller slicker and subtler than most. Now, I won’t pretend I understood everything that was being laid about in the talks of espionage and conspiracy–but that’s not what Soderbergh, Koepp, and the cast want us to focus on; they want us to focus on which of these complicated characters is the most ruthless and amoralistic as well as what will happen when all of their wits are tested greatly. It’s a delightfully verbal game of cat-and-mouse, and God help those who mess with the only loyal (in more ways than one) members of this spy organization. Both films, available on-demand, prove that Kimi was no fluke.

2. The Life of Chuck–the most life-affirming film I’ve seen in a long time. There’s something very special about seeing a beautiful movie that reminds me of the value of life. Especially in a time when everyone is afraid of the future, a life-affirming film is what we need to be reminded of how precarious it all is–enjoy what you can when you can. Based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, The Life of Chuck is the latest from one of my favorite filmmakers, Mike Flanagan. I love his work in the horror genre because of the amount of heart and care that he puts into it all (story, characters, atmosphere, etc.). Stepping outside the horror genre (though there are some sinister undertones here), he amps the heartbeat to full volume. A genuinely beautiful film. Available on-demand.

And my absolute favorite film of 2025 is…also my favorite film of the entire decade so far. It’s a film I’ve loved for two years, and now that it’s finally been released in 2025, I can finally top a year-end list with it. It is…

1. Shudderbugs–I love, love, LOVE this film with all of my heart! This beautiful film, written & directed by and starring Johanna Putnam, is about a woman named Sam who goes to her rural childhood home after her mother has passed away. Because her mother died under mysterious circumstances, this sends Sam on a journey of confusion and discovery, which also brings about denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and ultimately acceptance. Yes, those are also the five stages of grief–this is the perfect film about grieving that I will turn to when I myself am grieving. It uses a dramatic-thriller basis and structure to keep viewers invested from beginning to end. Add in a brilliant performance from Putnam, striking cinematography from Brennan Brooks (who also co-stars as a shady neighbor), and some much-needed levity to balance out the heavier emotional moments…and in the end, it’s a rewarding experience that I love to return to. I must have seen it about 10 or 15 times since I first saw it at the Bare Bones festival in Muskogee two years ago, and now, I’m extremely happy that more people can check it out now. So, I implore you: go to Amazon or Apple or Tubi, rent it, buy it, watch it, rate it, and tell your friends and family about this beautiful film called Shudderbugs. It is my favorite film of the 2020s, and it will take something very special to knock it off the top spot in my decade-end list.

Is this the most enthusiastic I’ve felt about my #1 year-end choice? Perhaps. But that’s not to knock my #1 choices of the two previous years (BlackBerry and My Old Ass)–and I wouldn’t have minded placing The Life of Chuck as #1 if Shudderbugs was pushed back another year for release. But, as much as I love those other films, I adore Shudderbugs. That’s the long and the short of it.

See you next year (whether I write another review soon or wait until the 2026 list)!