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Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair might not be Tarantino’s masterpiece, but it’s a brilliant example of a filmmaker with a deep-seated love of movies fully embracing his inspirations and passions in grand fashion.

Song’s work here is incredible, as this story of the past and present, and what it means for the future is a carefully handled story told with love and heart. Greta Lee, Yoo Teo, and John Magaro make an incredible trio of performances, each of which hits on a unique and important perspective on this tale, in a film that you won’t want to leave, and will stick with you for long after.

With Petite Maman, Céline Sciamma crafts a staggeringly gorgeous fairy tale about the little things we don’t get to learn about the ones we love, the struggles of loss, and the loveliness of those that came from the path behind us.

Glazer’s latest fits within his distinct style, breaking down a genre and working with the skeleton that’s left over in order to get at the heart of what makes these stories so jarring.

The Secret Agent is a remarkable work from Mendonça Filho; a beautifully composed film that features some of the best directing, editing, and writing of the year, as well as an enthralling performance by Moura that deserves its accolades.

A tremendous work from Jafar Panahi that might go down as his masterpiece.

Ross has found an overwhelmingly perfect way to bring Whitehead’s story to the screen, one that feels like a step forward for how cinematic stories can be told. It’s beautiful, heart-wrenching, and refreshing in equal measure. Now, Nickel Boys is a masterpiece in two different formats.

In a career full of continuous surprises, The Boy and Heron’s biggest surprise might be just how magical and unique his work still feels after all these years.

Despite its occasional flaws, The Brutalist is one of the most remarkable films of the year, and proof that Corbet is a fascinating filmmaker to keep an eye on.

Oppenheimer is a towering achievement not just for Nolan, but for everyone involved. It is the kind of film that makes you appreciative of every aspect of filmmaking, blowing you away with how it all comes together in such a fitting fashion.

Sorry, Baby is a fantastic debut that has announced Victor as one of today's most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers.

It'll get your heart pumping from the very beginning, rarely giving you time to breathe, and boasts a lead performance from an actor who's truly in command of his greatness.

The way Leigh uses these characters to inform us of Pansy’s story is impeccably handled, a sign of a master storyteller that still has plenty to offer.

Train Dreams is without a doubt one of the most extraordinary films of this year, the type that will stick with you, deep in your mind and heart, long after the credits roll.

Poor Things is a staggering accomplishment of a movie, a film that feels so uniquely Lanthimos, and yet, with a heart and a shocking amount of joy and enthusiasm that shows the filmmaker pushing his style and boundaries as much as possible.

Napoleon is a grand film, both in terms of Scott creating a story with a size we’ve rarely seen from him, and the bold, large choices made by a completely game Phoenix.

Return to Seoul is a powerful and quietly staggering work, and one of the most engrossing films of the year.

Flow takes a fascinating and effective approach to animated stories and shows that the barrier between the two types should be broken down more often.

Despite its flaws, Bazawule’s strength behind the camera and an incredible cast down the line make The Color Purple a worthy adaptation.

Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, Queen Bey wants us to know that being at one of her concerts is a communal experience.

Across the Spider-Verse isn't just easily one of the best films of 2023 and one of the best animated films in years, it's also in the running for best superhero film ever, and arguably cements Miles Morales as the best Spider-Man we've seen on the screen so far.

I Saw the TV Glow is bold, unhinged, extremely unusual, and also kind of magnificent—a daring step forward for Schoenbrun as a filmmaker, and a film that will certainly divide audiences not sure what the hell to make of it.

Diwan’s reflective, quiet tone only highlights the sheer dread of this situation, and shows that restriction and taboos about such issues only makes this world a more cruel and terrifying place. With Happening, Diwan has crafted a horror story that is becoming a haunting and very real possibility.

Cronenberg still is one of the most intriguing horror filmmakers working today, and when Infinity Pool is working, it's unlike anything that you've ever seen. But when comparing Cronenberg's approaches in this to something like Possessor, it becomes clear that it's better when there's a method to Cronenberg’s madness.

A Little Prayer is often a fairly still story, but it all builds to a beautiful moment between Bill and Tammy, where we get to see the true impact of MacLachlan's tale hit the audience in full force.

Seydoux brings both parts of this story together with grace and charm, and an honesty that makes this one of her best performances so far. Hansen-Løve’s story is deceptively light, yet packs an emotional wallop as it explores the impact that love—and our separation from such love—can have on a person.

No Other Choice is yet another great film from Park, and one of the best dark comedies you'll see this year.

With a delectable cast and Soderbergh and Koepp knowing exactly how to twist this story with each new scene and reveal, Black Bag is yet another example that Soderbergh can basically make any genre his own, and thrive in it.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar feels like a project Anderson needed, a way to explore smaller storytelling in a manner that still allows him room to experiment, have fun, and utilize his very specific voice and talents.

The beauty of Decision to Leave is how Chan-wook can set his table with so many ideas, diversions, and elements, all making for an overly exquisite experience. Not only does Chan-wook blend detective mystery and romance, but Decision to Leave is weirdly funny, full of dark humor that fits in perfectly with everything else.

Spielberg has given us all so much magic over the course of our lives, and The Fabelmans becomes yet another Spielberg masterpiece, but this time, by showing us how this magic came to be in his own life.

By capturing Flipside in this way, Wilcha shows the weird, unbelievable nature of life and the surprises that make it such a beautiful mess.

In Earth Mama, Savanah Leaf gives us a towering reminder of the women who gave their all for us, their determination and power, the difficulties of staying afloat when you feel like you’re drowning, and how we can’t truly know what other people are struggling with, no matter how hard we try.

Hamnet captures the beautiful aching that makes up life in all its forms, and it makes for one of the most profound and staggering works you’ll see this year.

Kotevska isn’t just telling a story of a farmer in a foreign land; she’s constructing a story that we can all relate to in our current world, in one of the finest documentaries you’ll see all year.

It is a work of big emotions and heart in the middle of the worst time of a person’s life that is also one of the best films of the year.

Silver's vision doesn't always work, sometimes feeling like a mishmash of ideas and tones that don't always go well together. But when the film focuses on this central relationship, Between the Temples finds a lovely sweet spot that makes it all sing.

Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car worked so beautifully because of the smaller, quiet moments of life, the drives from one place to the next, and the undiscovered moments that we keep hidden. Evil Does Not Exist turns these moments into an entire feature-length film, and while it might seem slight at times, the approach is wonderful in its own right—a master filmmaker taking his time and embracing the silence.

With Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Hinton shows the legacy that films can have and how time can benefit films that don’t receive the recognition they deserve.

Like so many of Frears’ films, The Lost King works because of the compelling cast on hand.

In the end, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour isn’t just a demonstration of this mammoth undertaking, it’s also an undeniable proclamation that Swift is one of the most impressive musicians of the 21st century.

Hit Man is also simply one of the most thoroughly enjoyable films of Linklater’s career, an absolute delight to watch unfold and play out. He keeps the twists of the noir narrative fairly straightforward, leaving us to revel and admire in Powell’s comedic chops, the romantic entanglements, and the anticipation for when this relationship might go too far.

Grand Theft Hamlet shows how incredible it is to see how a new medium of storytelling can shift what we know of a beloved work and put it into an entirely new context after centuries.

Challengers is a wild love triangle story, punctuated by three excellent performances and tremendous talent behind the camera.

The Holdovers is a wonderful revelation from an excellent director who proves he’s still able to take us by surprise.

Yates makes Pain Hustlers part-rowdy dramedy, part-half-assed takedown, and entirely an underwhelming film that attempts to make apparent and bland points.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is, without a doubt, one of the best and most touching animated films to come out this year, a remarkable example of what this style of storytelling can do.

There are few filmmakers that can make the leap from smaller, insular stories into large-scale epics, but with The Northman, Eggers has proved that his style and substance can remain intact, regardless of the size of the story.

This Much I Know to Be True might not dig as deep into the lives of Cave and Ellis as one might hope for a film billed as a documentary, but the performances captured here more than make up for that.

If The History of Concrete proves anything, it’s that Wilson can make a movie about anything and make it absolutely brilliant.

Brian is an absolute blast and a hysterical coming-of-age story, centered on an impressive lead performance by Ben Wang, and an absolutely perfect handling of character and tone by Ropp and Scollins. Brian deserves to be amongst the great high school coming-of-age comedies that paved the way before it.

There are great ideas throughout Fingernails and strong filmmaker instincts, but it also feels like a film that should’ve gone just a bit deeper into this world, its love, and its ideas.

Cregger shows with Weapons how perfectly he can balance horror and comedy in equal measure, always walking the line between these two in a film that is both unsettling and deeply funny. Because of this, Cregger has made what might end up becoming the best horror film of 2025.

Daniels explores the hopelessness of depression, the little miracles that truly make life worthwhile, how acts of kindness can be an extraordinary asset, and—most fitting to this film—how it’s OK to be a mess.

Little Richard: I Am Everything has to do a lot in its relatively short runtime, from exploring the origins of the musician, explaining both sides of his personality, and also diving into Richard’s influence on the future of music. Thankfully, Cortés’ documentary handles all this beautifully, and will make the viewer want to immediately learn more about Richard, his extremely fun work, and the life that impacted so many around him.

Especially compared to the 2015 adaptation, A Man Called Otto is a clunky update that often feels like it's full of cartoonish characters, with poor music choices, and cloying sentimentality. But when Forster and Magee pull away from these eccentricities, the story of Otto and Marisol is often a thing of beauty, and wonderful friendship that is lovely to watch grow.

Come See Me in the Good Light is a shattering, yet lovely documentary that’s easily one of the best of the year.

It’s so much fun to watch Johnson in this mode, especially with a cast this relentlessly fun and playful. With Glass Onion, Johnson proves himself to be a film disruptor of the highest order.

Dead Reckoning Part One is plenty of fun, and one of the best action films of the summer by far, but coming five years after Fallout, it’s hard for this seventh film to not feel like a bit of a disappointment.

A stunning movie that continues to solidify the franchise's legacy as one of the best zombie stories to ever hit theaters.

Cameos and fan service are fine to have, but the story has to be there to back them up, and it’s not quite there with The Flash.

Three films in, Johnson continues to surprise and amaze with his ability to craft a masterful tale, one that hits everything we love about this series, while still finding new angles to approach in this world.

Fleischer-Camp and Slate are able to expand Marcel’s story in a way that doesn’t stretch out this concept, but rather, expands the possibilities of Marcel’s grandiose world and shows us our world from an entirely new perspective. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is a film with massive ambitions and an even larger heart.

Perfect Days is another masterwork from Wenders, a recognition of life’s curiosities, the small details that make it all worthwhile, and finding beauty in the overlooked things in life.

Sachs’ story comes to life thanks to these three excellent performances that aren't afraid to explore the selfishness and desires of passion, in a story that finds the power of shared pain and love.

Chumbawamba was clearly a band that wanted to do great things and fell short of that goal, and similarly, I Get Knocked Down is a curious concept to explore, but gets bogged down in its apparent attempts to be weird for the sake of being weird.

Stanton has done truly incredible, groundbreaking things in animation, and he’s almost certainly got a great live-action film in him, but In the Blink of an Eye makes one wonder if Stanton should go a bit smaller and work his way up to such grandiose concepts like this.

You Hurt My Feelings is the type of film that reminds us why Holofcener is one of the best writers of comedies today, and that her ability to write films with such small consequences can often feel like a massive achievement, as these are situations that feel honest and human and wholly earnest.

An intriguing formal experiment from Steven Soderbergh, focused on two solid performances by Sir Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel.

Gerwig has created a film that takes Barbie, praises its contribution as an idea to our world, but also criticizes its faults, while also making a film that celebrates being a woman and all the difficulties and beauty that includes.

In a career full of great performances, Swinton continues to do some of her finest work with Hogg, and Hogg once more proves that she’s one of the most remarkable personal storytellers in cinema today.

Gasoline Rainbow blurs the line between documentary and narrative filmmaking to create a road trip movie unlike you’ve ever seen before.

West has made an extraordinary tale of the personal universes we all inhabit, the strange messiness of life, and the beauty of how everything all shakes out in the end.

Not all of Arnold’s usual tricks work effectively in Cow, but for a first documentary, Cow is an engrossing and surprisingly emotional look at the farming industry through the eyes of a single bovine.

In this David vs. Goliath battle, the film gives hope that change on a large scale could be possible and does this in a charming, entertaining narrative with a great cast from top to bottom.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio shows that if you’re going to adapt this story yet again, it’s best to bring something exciting and new to it, as well as put some of your own personality into it.

Apollo 10½ can at times feel like the greatest hits of Linklater and what made him who he is, but that’s a welcome change, and a reminder of his strengths as a filmmaker.

Even if you’re not a fan of the music of Tucker or Carlile, The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile will have you hoping for the best for both of these incredible musicians.

Rosaline's shows its strengths when it focuses on the parallel story of Rosaline and Dario, but when the narrative crosses paths directly with Shakespeare’s story, Rosaline starts to fall apart, becoming a muddled mess of modern references, unusual characterizations, and ideas that don’t mix as well as they should.

With a great lead performance by Kravitz, a plot that—like the KIMI device itself—is persistently upgrading and shifting, and a shockingly optimistic story despite the fear of the technological world, KIMI is a shining example that Soderbergh is one of the best directors working today.

Macdonald and Rice-Edwards take us back to the 1970s to explore these two but also show that two of the most important figures in music history were just a pair of flawed individuals trying their best to use their position of power to make the world a better place.

The Best Summer takes the audience on a summer road trip with some of the biggest musicians of the '90s, and it's a blast to be along for the ride. Davis' collection of videotapes makes this feel like we're coming across a collection of private moments, rather than a concert documentary.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie can be a bit standard as far as biographical documentaries go, but when the subject is someone as much to watch as Fox is, it’s hard to care too much about the form when the content is so captivating.

Schimberg’s exploration of identity and representation has the best of intentions, but the more audacious aspects of A Different Man often overwhelm the interesting themes at the center of the film.

When talking about Top Gun: Maverick, it’s hard not to sound hyperbolic, but this is the rare case where it absolutely deserves all the massive praise. Top Gun: Maverick improves upon the original in every conceivable way (well, the soundtrack doesn’t have Berlin, so that’s one strike against it), and does so in a way that might make this one of the greatest sequels ever made. It’s also hard not to say this might have some of the most exciting action scenes to ever hit the skies, and gives Cruise one of his best performances by returning to the role that made him a star. Top Gun: Maverick is a marvel of a film, one that will truly take your breath away.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is a goofy, ridiculous, three-hours of fun that manages to not overstay its welcome. Stahelski continues to find ways to keep this series from getting stale, and Chapter 4 pushes the ambition to the brink.

Miroirs No. 3 is enthralling from beginning to end, a smart, often heartbreaking story that thrives in its simplicity.

The People's Joker is a bold vision, a mixture of a coming-of-age story and parody, infused with a transition story that is emotionally powerful and absolutely necessary.

Linklater reminds us that he's still able to make two people simply sitting around and talking fascinating. After all these years, the pair of Hawke and Linklater remains a winning combination.

Accepting the World’s Fair Challenge isn’t a way to experience a The Ring-like challenge that will probably lead to horrors beyond one’s wildest imagination, it’s a way to be part of something, damn the consequences. Schoenbrun’s impressive debut latches onto that idea of online communities, coming-of-age, and finding one’s own people through a genuinely uncomfortable and unique horror story unlike any other.

The combination of Byrne's haunting, brilliant performance, and Mary Bronstein's unrelenting handling of tone here makes If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You one of the first must-watch films of 2025.

Guillermo del Toro's passion project is beautifully crafted, but can be quite exhausting to get through.

The real beauty of Nope, however, is watching Peele explore this playground, continuing to prove that he’s a maestro at crafting stories that are extremely weird, yet engrossing and impressive to watch.

Longlegs takes a bit to get us settled into its brand of horror, but once it does, it’s hard not to be impressed by the place between here and there where we find ourselves.

Disenchanted posits that happily ever after isn’t always the ending of the story, but Disenchanted also proves that sometimes, maybe it should be.

Considering how electric Stone’s work and life are, SLY LIVES! more than makes up for its standard documentary style through Stone’s gripping story, and Questlove’s exploration of the revolutionary music.

After all these years, Left-Handed Girl is a terrific return to directing for Shih-Ching Tsou, who crafts a wonderful, often moving, and splendidly told story of three characters coming into their own.

Told from the perspective of a “presence” in a house, Soderbergh explores this type of horror story in a way that only he can, playing with the structure of similar films, screwing with our expectations for this type of film, and once more, testing himself while showing the untapped potential in the genre.