LOS ANGELES, Dec. 15 (UPI) — The overall connection between 2025’s best movies is that they use stories to say something deep. Well, Naked Gun is on the list too because sometimes you just need to laugh. The other nine use their genres to comment on society in ways that resonate whether horror, comedy or thriller.
In most years, the Sundance Film Festival launches a film or two that remains on the list until the end of the year. 2025 is no exception, with two Sundance movies. Links direct readers to UPI’s full reviews of the films wherever available.
10: ‘Sketch’
Great kids movies like this used to come out regularly but now Sketch is an oasis. Its tale of drawings come to life empowers kids to save the day and tells them their creativity has an impact. It also provides a vehicle for a family to work through grief, which may not sound like a romp but it adds a poignant, healthy layer to the colorful monsters.
9. ‘Weapons’
Barbarian director Zach Cregger’s follow-up is a wickedly clever epic tale that unfolds in chapters from each character’s perspective. Everyone in town is coping with the disappearance of a classroom of children in their own way, a father (Josh Brolin) obsessively, their teacher (Julia Garner) self-destructively. By the time Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan) appears on screen the mystery has engrossed to the point where it can afford to get weird. And boy, it does in perhaps the most satisfying payoff of the year.
8. ‘Companion’
Team Barbarian produced two winners this year. The team produced Drew Hancock’s twisty thriller that delights in changing the context and stakes every few scenes. Iris (Sophie Thatcher) reveals in the first scene she killed her boyfriend, Josh (Jack Quaid), and the circumstances are not just fun but poignant with regards to misogyny and ethical use of technology. The trailers also revealed that Iris is a robot companion but that too is only the beginning.
7. ‘Friendship’
Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave sketches have gone viral. Nothing in Friendship has been widely shared since its release but writer/director Andrew DeYoung captured Robinson’s cringe comedy in a feature film with a desperate plea for adult friendships and an indictment of maladjusted adults. It’s been a good year for Robinson expanding his horizons, too. His HBO series The Chair Company also makes his comedy work as an ongoing series.
6. ‘Naked Gun’
Of all the recent ’80s revivals, it would have hurt the most if The Naked Gun hadn’t worked. Thankfully, Akiva Schaffer got the structure and rhythm of Naked Gun comedy but also updated it with his Lonely Island style. The 85 minutes of ridiculous deadpan is easily the funniest movie of the year.
5. ‘Sinners’
Writer/director Ryan Coogler reinvented the vampire movie and the movie musical all at once. Sinners transports viewers into the Jim Crow South in the middle of a vampire siege and encompasses an entire millennium of music. By filming in IMAX and Ultra Panavision Coogler also blended historic and modern film technique. Sinners is still visceral at home, but it was really something special in IMAX theaters.
4. ‘Materialists’
Writer/director Celine Song’s second film holds Hollywood rom-coms and the real-life dating industry accountable for the social damage they do. A matchmaker (Dakota Johnson) finds herself in a love triangle between the ideal white knight (Pedro Pascal) and the lovable mess (Chris Evans). All three are slaves to what society has told them to value. Layered on top of that the matchmaking industry itself monetizes those dangerous messages. All that unfolds in a brilliant and scathing dramedy.
3. ‘Ick’
In another horror comedy apropos of this moment, a town lives with a mysterious substance for decades until the ick finally starts to take over. There’s only one adult (Brandon Routh) and a handful of kids (Malena Weisman, Taia Sophia, Zeke Jones) actually taking the ick seriously, so they become the heroes as the ick tears through the town and their neighbors. Joseph Kahn directs with nostalgic music and energy and the script by Dan Koontz and Samuel Laskey makes everyone who’s been screaming into the abyss for years feel seen.
2. ‘Sorry, Baby’
A comedy about sexual assault is either the worst idea or a brilliant one. Writer/director/star Eva Victor proves it can be the latter as she finds the absurdity in the world’s response to an all too common trauma. She has a magnanimous message, too, not just recovering from an attack but hoping the attacker also stops hurting people. In a world that will likely continue to force innocent people to persevere after unwarranted attacks, Victor provides a way forward and shows it can be funny and uplifting along the way.
1. ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You’