The State of the Art: Movies 2025

Well. That's better. Last year, the slate of movies I saw wasn't bad, but nothing really captured my attention in a super-special way. Pop culture across the board left me in a sad state of sluggish ennui, but pretty much every category stepped up this year, which I'm immensely relieved by. Movies are no exception, because my favorite one of the year was incredible.

It'd be so easy for Sinners to just be another vampire movie. I almost just let it slip by, even as it was getting a tidal wave of positive word-of-mouth. It took some convincing from my husband and friends that 1) I could handle the gore level, and 2) I really, really needed to see this. They were right. Michael B. Jordan plays a set of twins who blow back into their small town after years away to open a juke joint with the help of their blues-playing cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) and other local friends. The twins reconnect with old flames (Wunmi Mosaku and Hailee Steinfeld), and while their opening night is wildly successful, their success draws negative attention of more than one kind. Sinners is fun and scary and beautiful and enchanting and unpredictable and sad. It's about love and music and racism and found family. It makes you root both for and against the villains (well, some of them). It's outstanding in every respect, right down to the shifting aspect ratios.

Let's get to the full 2025 list!

Sinners (A)
Twinless (A-)
The Naked Gun (B+)
Superman (B+)
Black Bag (B+)
Thunderbolts* (B+)
Wake Up Dead Man (B+)
Eternity (B+)
Drop (B+)
KPop Demon Hunters (B)
Materialists (B)
Fantastic Four: First Steps (B-)
Megan 2.0 (B-)
You're Cordially Invited (B-)
Merv (C+)
The Parenting (C+) 
Kinda Pregnant (C+)

As usual, though, a lot of the year was spent catching up on movies from previous years. It bears a reminder that grades reflect how much I enjoyed watching these, weighed against how successful it was at achieving the level of quality it was going for. Long story, short: No, Tammy and the T-Rex wasn't angling for any Oscars, but it was a blast. Also, I'm not listing A Goofy Movie because while it was shown on a screen that my eyes were pointed towards, I was sleepy and...in a bit of an altered state, so I don't remember a single frame of it. Without further ado, here's the pre-2025 ranking!

Flow (2024) (A)

Promising Young Woman (2020) (A-)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) (A-)

My Old Ass (2024) (A-)

A Nice Indian Boy (2024) (A-)

Bound (1996) (B+)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024) (B+)
Conclave (2024) (B)

Dark City (1998) (B)

The Marvels (2023) (B)

Orion and the Dark (2024) (B)

North Avenue Irregulars (1979) (B)

Tammy and the T-Rex (1994) (B)

Hedda (2025) (B-)

Twisters (2024) (B-)

Shag (1989) (B-)

The Commitments (1991) (B-)

Bagdad Cafe (1987) (B-)

The Assassination Bureau (1969) (C+)

Hair (1979) (C+)

White Chicks (2004) (C+)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) (C)

Superman III (1983) (D+) 

Highlander (1986) (D)

Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle (2020) (D)