The best movies of 2025 so far
The year 2024 ended with a bang for the movie business. Between the biggest Thanksgiving weekend on record, primarily thanks to "Moana 2," and the release of several box-office hits in a row—like "Wicked" and "A Complete Unknown"—those last few months might seem hard to top. Still, we think 2025 has the potential to do it.
The start of the year is always slow in Hollywood. With much of the focus on the major awards shows and the 2024 films that are contenders to take home trophies, most studios are holding off on releasing bigger titles until a bit later in the year. Thankfully, there are plenty of notable films on the horizon.
Moviegoers will be treated to a ton of hotly anticipated sequels over the next several months, including "Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning," "Jurassic World Rebirth," "Freakier Friday," and "Wicked: For Good." There are also several family-friendly movies scheduled for release, like Disney's live-action "Snow White" in March, "A Minecraft Movie" in April, and Pixar's "Elio" in June. And who could forget the slew of superhero movies (like James Gunn's long-awaited "Superman") and heart-pounding action films (like the Brad Pitt-led "F1") that audiences will undoubtedly flock to this summer?
There's so much to look forward to, but the gems that have already hit theaters should not be overlooked. Stacker rounded up the best movies of 2025 so far, ranked by Metacritic scores. In order to qualify for the list, these movies must have been released and distributed in the U.S. by Feb. 3, 2025, and have at least seven reviews by critics. Any ties were broken by Metacritic's internal weighting system. IMDb user ratings were provided for popular reception context.
From timely documentaries to animated comedies, these are the 2025 films most deserving of your attention.
#10. Timestalker
- Director: Alice Lowe
- Metascore: 72
- IMDb user rating: 5.5
- Run time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Alice Lowe wrote, directed, and stars in this black romantic comedy about a woman who falls in love with the same hapless man in lifetime after lifetime. "Timestalker" opens in 1680s Western Scotland, where Lowe is a maidservant and her beloved (Aneurin Barnard) is a heretical preacher, and ends in a post-apocalyptic 22nd century, with a handful of stops in other time periods along the way. The movie magazine Little White Lies called the film "bold, disarming, and innovative," while The Guardian praised its biting humor.
#9. Eternal You
- Directors: Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck
- Metascore: 74
- IMDb user rating: 6.3
- Run time: 1 hour 27 minutes
Called "world-tilting" by The Guardian, "Eternal You" is a documentary about startups that use artificial intelligence to create avatars of the recently deceased. While looking at the companies involved in the creation of the tech, the film also follows several people, including a man who lost his fiancée and a mother who uses the service to "meet" a version of her daughter. As absorbing as it is jaw-dropping, the movie explores the ethics of using AI in these circumstances, the frequent exploitation of the grieving by a capitalistic society, and the necessity of legislation to address the uncharted territory of AI.
#8. Every Little Thing
- Director: Sally Aitken
- Metascore: 74
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Run time: 1 hour 33 minutes
A nature documentary at its core, "Every Little Thing" follows Terry Masear, a hummingbird rehabilitation specialist, as she goes about the day-to-day business of saving these delicate birds. Though it may sound light-hearted and fluffy (and it certainly does have those moments), the film is as much about overcoming trauma—whether inflicted by nature or by other humans—as it is about the birds.
While some critics called the film stretched thin and monotonous, most found it dazzling, with The Hollywood Reporter's review gushing over how deftly the film manages to say something about humanity. After all, as Masear puts it, showing love and compassion when we aren't required to is a marker of one's greatness.
#7. Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
- Director: Bruce David Klein
- Metascore: 75
- IMDb user rating: 8.4
- Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes
A behind-the-scenes look at the life of Liza Minnelli, this documentary showcases interviews with Minnelli and several members of her inner circle, giving us an all-new perspective on the legendary performer. Broken into separate chapters that look at different periods of her personal and professional life, the film feels intimate and affectionate, possessing what RogerEbert.com calls a "lightness of style" that makes even the more difficult moments easy to watch. Described as "scintillating" by Variety, the documentary makes no effort to dodge those difficult moments, choosing instead to reveal how Minnelli found joy through it all.
#6. Presence
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Metascore: 77
- IMDb user rating: 6.7
- Run time: 1 hour 24 minutes
Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, and Callina Liang star in this supernatural thriller about a family who moves into a house haunted by a poltergeist. Though the movie is downright chilling, it's more subdued than your typical ghost movie—there are no jump scares, for one thing. Instead, "Presence" makes you wrestle with whether the spirit is evil or simply exposing the maliciousness inside us all. Some reviewers weren't keen on the film's approach, with audiences seeing everything from the ghost's perspective, but far more have praised director Steven Soderbergh's controlled style, noting that it makes the climax all the more effective.
#5. Riefenstahl
- Director: Andres Veiel
- Metascore: 78
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Run time: 1 hour 55 minutes
"Riefenstahl" looks at the life of famed German director Leni Riefenstahl, focusing specifically on the way her artistic legacy has been tainted by her connections to Nazis. One of Adolf Hitler's favorite filmmakers, Riefenstahl was considered a trailblazer on the wrong side of history. Director Andres Veiel is in no way an apologist for Riefenstahl, taking pains to point out just how complicit and destructive she was, as a review in The Guardian notes. Still, the documentary prompts viewers to think about a question that's been at the forefront of many minds lately—can an artist's life and beliefs be separated from their work, or not?
#4. Grand Theft Hamlet
- Directors: Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls
- Metascore: 82
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Run time: 1 hour 29 minutes
One of the quirkiest movies to make this list, "Grand Theft Hamlet" follows two out-of-work actors who attempt to stage a full-blown production of "Hamlet" in "Grand Theft Auto Online." Shot entirely in the video game, with all of the subjects portrayed by their digital avatars, the film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 SXSW festival. NPR called it "constantly surprising, breathtakingly imaginative, and a great introduction to Shakespeare."
#3. From Ground Zero
- Directors: Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, Basil Al-Maqousi, and more
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Run time: 1 hour 52 minutes
One of the most urgent watches on this list, "From Ground Zero" is a collection of 22 different short films, ranging in style from documentary to animation, shot by nearly two dozen Palestinian directors over the past year in Gaza. Telling real stories, the movie does a powerful job of humanizing the people of Gaza as they witness the destruction of their homes and the killing of their loved ones by the Israeli military.
"From Ground Zero" was shortlisted for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards, though it didn't make the final cut. RogerEbert.com called it "a rare work for which superlatives are not only inadequate but useless," writing that "[the movie] shows that, after a catastrophe, art is not only still possible but necessary—and that digital technology makes it possible for people to continue to preserve and share their stories even after they've lost almost everything else."
#2. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- Directors: Merlin Crossingham, Nick Park
- Metascore: 83
- IMDb user rating: 7.6
- Run time: 1 hour 22 minutes
In "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl," an old nemesis—Feathers McGraw, the penguin who first made his debut in the 1993 short "The Wrong Trousers"—returns to challenge our title pair with an assist from some AI-infused gnomes. While delightfully entertaining for younger audiences, with chase scenes and laugh-out-loud jokes galore, the film will keep older viewers engaged with its insightful criticisms of technology and its place in our consumer society.
Available to stream on Netflix, the movie nailed the "nostalgia sequel," according to Forbes, "keeping the spirit of the animated series alive while paying tribute to the claymation duo's best moments." "Vengeance Most Fowl" is a nominee for Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards.
#1. I'm Still Here
- Director: Walter Salles
- Metascore: 85
- IMDb user rating: 8.8
- Run time: 2 hours 17 minutes
Based on journalist Marcelo Rubens Paiva's memoir of the same name, "I'm Still Here" tells the story of a mother and activist trying to cope with the forced disappearance of her husband amid Brazil's military dictatorship. Starring newly christened Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres, the movie has also been nominated for Best Picture and Best International Film. The urgency of the story, as well as the quietly emotional performances, are among the driving factors behind the film's acclaim.
Data reporting by Wade Zhou. Story editing by Louis Peitzman. Copy editing by Tim Bruns.
