Robert Horton is a Scarecrow board member and a longtime film critic. This series of "critic's notes" is chance to highlight worthy films playing locally and connect them to the riches of Scarecrow's collection.
From my seat in the room, here are some of the best movies of 2025. I did not see as many films as I usually do, but these demand registering as worthies.
Seeing most of 2025's titles in a five-week period at the end of the year, one doesn't have much of a chance for things to settle. And this was a weird year because there are a bunch of films that contained great excitement or significant beauties, but struck me as having something seriously awry—the last five minutes of Marty Supreme, for instance, or the wild shifts in Die My Love. Still, I include them on my list, for the sheer heft of their accomplishments.
It might be that Sinners could be one of those movies, but that assessment will have to wait for a future viewing; I didn't connect with it, for reasons explained in a previous Seasoned Ticket.
Missed a few crucial titles, too, notably Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind. So, provisionally:
First Tier
Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
It Was Just an Accident (Jafar Panahi)
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendoça Filho)
Second Tier
Sirat (Oliver Laxe)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
When Fall Is Coming (Francois Ozon)
Marty Supreme (Josh Safdie)
Weapons (Zach Cregger)
Sound of Falling (Mascha Schiliniski)
Hamnet (Chloé Zhao)
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
Not-Inconsiderable-Pleasure Tier
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)
Ballad of Wallis Island (James Griffiths)
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
January 8, 2026
