What Happened to Me in the Dark
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Let's keep this short, shall we? It was an apocalyptic year on just about every front. The news just grew worse and worse each day. The situation is so bad that it makes me wonder if we aren't living in the worst time in all of American history. The movies seem to be in the same boat. A few brave movies dared to take on this mood, but were ignored. Instead, the focus was on an increasingly cynical parade of sequels, remakes, and franchises, more blatantly product than storytelling. And streaming continues to dominate the conversation as a glut of mediocre product overwhelms and nothing stands out. (Rather than wanting to see movies, people are struggling with what to watch.) Yet I still consider myself lucky, and when I'm not worried or terrified, still find reasons for hope and gratitude, these ten movies among them. Here's hoping 2026 bring better tidings. Let's get on with the list.
- The Top Ten -
10. Nouvelle Vague
I downgraded this because of its exclusivity. Seeing Jean-Luc Godard's
Breathless was a necessity, and knowing it was a bonus. But newcomers
were not invited. Even so, for me personally, Richard Linklater's film
was a gift from the cinema gods, a fictional yet realistic look behind
the scenes of one of the most groundbreaking films in history, in a way
that also pays homage to the style, which is more of a rarity than you'd
think. Maybe it'll be required viewing in film classes from now on.
(Note: I'm also a fan of Linklater's other 2025 film, Blue Moon, and I
considered declaring a tie. But for now, see my runners-up.)
9. Eephus
I almost didn't watch Carson Lund's film because of its strange title, but I'm glad I did. Very glad. It may now be my new all-time favorite baseball movie. The title refers to a specific pitch that appears that arcs high and appears to hover in the air, messing with the timing of the batter. But the nearly plotless and starless movie, about the final game of a middle-aged team of New England locals, is a remarkable tale about an unremarkable game. It's a grand slam by the Bad News Bears.
8. The Secret Agent
Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (
Bacurau) went all-out with this lengthy political thriller set in a "time of great mischief," i.e. Brazil of the 1970s under a military dictatorship. It has many sections and subplots, and it can definitely be a muddle, but it has an anarchic feel to it, rather than pompousness. It's rhythmic and alive, filled with striking imagery and stinging sequences. This is not normally my genre, at all, but I'm excited by the prospect of seeing this one again.
7. Train Dreams
The late, reclusive author Denis Johnson built a passionate cult following with his books, and now filmmaker Clint Bentley gives us a movie worthy of the same kind of adoration. As I was watching it I thought that it was a "remarkable movie about an unremarkable man," looking at a life marked by regret and pain, as well as many moments of beauty, perhaps unrecognized. It's a meditative film, in tune with life's rhythms, and aware of how all those ups and downs tend to flow together from one moment to the other, adding up to an existence.
6. The Shrouds
David Cronenberg returned with one of his best and most personal films in a while. He was working through the death of his wife Carolyn while crafting this story of a businessman who invents a way in which people can monitor their deceased loved ones' decomposition thanks to special shrouds, cameras, and monitors. When the graveyard is ransacked, the movie tumbles into a gray-area mix of conspiracy theories, AI garbage, and paranoia. As in this year's other great films, the actual answers are difficult, if not impossible, to pin down.
5. One Battle After Another
The most acclaimed movie of 2025, by a good mile. As with last year's Anora, I was knocked off balance to see this turn into a comedy when it looked for all the world like it was going to be a story of self-important freedom fighters. Leonardo DiCaprio holds this thing together with his loopy, wired performance, a combination of fuzzy and frantic. But that's not to undermine the rest of the cast, especially the powerful Teyana Taylor and the ultra-cool Benicio del Toro. And that chase scene needs to be ranked among the greatest in cinema history.
4. Sinners
Just as Jordan Peele's Get Out showed up in the first months of the first Trump
presidency, underlining his brand of hateful racism, Ryan Coogler's
Sinners showed up in the first months of the horrific second Trump
presidency, doing much the same, but in a wildly different way. Its
story of vampires attacking a 1930s Mississippi juke joint was used to
explore Black identity through prisms of community and exclusion. The
scene in which Sammie plays so perfectly that he pierces the veil
between the living and the dead is one of the most intoxicating pieces
of filmmaking, ever.
3. It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi gave us yet another outlaw masterpiece about how, when it comes to violence and revenge, there are, once again, no easy answers. A group of ex-prisoners believe they have found a guard that tormented them during their incarceration. At first they try to identify him beyond the shadow of a doubt, but doubt remains. Then, what kind of punishment does he deserve, if any? The film takes a brilliantly humanistic turn before its wallop of an ending.
2. A House of Dynamite
The mighty Kathryn Bigelow also offered a possible look at end times with this tightly-constructed, brilliantly edited thriller. A nuclear missile is fired on America. No one knows where it came from or who launched it. In three segments, we see many different people, government officials, military, the President, etc., attempting to handle the situation from all different angles. It demonstrated that, even with that amount of coverage, that amount of detail, some questions have no answers.
1. The Life of Chuck
Since it was the year that it was, Mike Flanagan's adaptation of a 2020 Stephen King story, was just what we needed. It's a movie about death, about end times. It offered a portrait of what the last day on Earth might actually feel like. But it also found beauty in that, and in music, dancing, conversation, forgiveness. It moved me tremendously, and even more so the second time I saw it. There may have been better movies released in 2025, but there was no movie I loved as much as this one.
Runners-Up
Great Performances
- Benicio Del Toro (One Battle After Another)
- Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
- Cynthia Erivo (Wicked: For Good)
- Brendan Fraser (Rental Family)
- Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good)
- Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
- Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another)
- Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
- Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)
- Delroy Lindo (Sinners)
- William H. Macy (Train Dreams)
- Amy Madigan (Weapons)
- Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)
- Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)
- Guy Pearce (The Shrouds)
- Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)
- Tessa Thompson (Hedda)
- Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby)
Favorite Horor Films
Physical Media
(Note: I haven't made the jump to 4K just yet, so these are all Blu-ray releases)
The Year's Worst Films
Thanks for reading. I appreciate you all. May the future bring peace and joy to each and every one of you. -- JMA
