2025 has shaped up to be a terrific film year and thank you thank you, because after 2024 I needed this. Around this time a year ago, we were trying to convince ourselves that The Brutalist was a triumph. I adored the first half, then spent the second half wondering if I had wandered into the worst movie of the year by accident. Anora gave us the most trite entry in an auteur director’s collection and Emilia Pérez left me indiferente. I mean, The Substance made the top ten nominees for film that year.
This year, the energy is different. It's a director year. We get to cheer an auteur director delivering one of his finest works with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Chloé Zhao doth dropped a gutting masterwork in Hamnet. Joachim Trier gifts us an emotionally rich family drama with Sentimental Value. And then there is the unforgettable Train Dreams, which you just have to see right now.
Even stranger, the monster corner of cinema has come to play at an A+ level in a genre I don't usually bother with. Ryan Coogler pulled off a vampire film with Sinners, and Guillermo del Toro brought Frankenstein to life. Meanwhile, Weapons came in screaming as a well-scripted zombie movie to complete the trifecta.
Extra exciting, we still have heavy hitters coming to theaters soon, from Marty Supreme to It Was Just an Accident to The Secret Agent. If last year’s nominee, A Complete Unknown, tried to sneak into this year’s top ten, it wouldn’t stand a chance. Sorry to Deliver Me From Nowhere, tough year for a rock biopic.
There were some big misses. Kathryn Bigelow’s House of Dynamite fizzled on a finale, Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt got schooled and Coppola’s Megalopolis wandered. Still, this is unmistakably a top director year. Also did I mention there is another Avatar coming? Never ever count out James Cameron.
The Golden Globes announce their nominees tomorrow. It’s a new voting body, not your father’s Globes, but here are the films I expect to see on their list, in alphabetical order.
Best Picture, Drama (6)
Frankenstein (Netflix)
Hamnet (Focus Features)
It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
The Secret Agent (Neon)
Sentimental Value (Neon)
Sinners (Warner Bros.)
Fingers crossed: Train Dreams
Spoiler: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Surprise: Is This Thing On?
If you're missing some top dranas, it's because they are running as comedies. I hope you see the humor in that too.
Best Picture, Comedy or Musical (6)
Jay Kelly (Netflix)
Marty Supreme (A24)
No Other Choice (Neon)
One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
Wake Up Dead Man (Netflix)
Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)
Fingers crossed: If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You
Spoiler: Bugonia
Surprise: Song Sung Blue
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