Ranking the Last 10 Best Picture Winners

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is essentially a big club made up of many of the most prominent people of the movie industry (it was also founded as a way to undermine unionization efforts for Hollywood workers, but that's a story for a different day). Every year the Academy hosts the Oscars, the most prestigious award in the entire industry. 

People love to debate how seriously we should or shouldn't take the Oscars. My own take is this: we shouldn't view them as a measure of objective quality, but it's great excuse to talk about movies we love and give a spotlight to those that people might not otherwise hear about. I've found a lot of great movies by looking up winners and nominees from past ceremonies.

Of all the awards the Academy gives out during the Oscars, the most coveted is (obviously) the award for best picture. In the spirit of talking about movies and giving a spotlight to those that deserve attention, I figured I'd rank the best picture winners of the last decade. If you're friends with me on social media, feel free to angrily message me about how much you hate my ranking!

10. Nomadland

All I'm going to say here is that, while this movie was slow, I was letting myself go along with it and mostly enjoying the ride... until about the halfway point. There's a certain revelation which redefines what the story is about, and not for the better. All the stuff we've gone through with the main character in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession is basically rendered meaningless.

I could accept that if there was something else to grab onto here. A thematic fumble isn't a good thing, but it can be overcome if there's something else compelling to be found. Unfortunately, for me, all it had going was its thematic meditation. Once that evaporated, there wasn't much left for me. There are still things I appreciate- Francis McDormand's performance, the incorporate of authentic extras, and how beautifully shot everything is- but that isn't quite enough.

I can't imagine ever watching this one again.

 

9. Green Book

I came into this one ready to hate it. Having heard it was basically a "racist white guy gradually becomes less racist as he befriends a black guy while we all learn banal, safe lessons about racism being bad" type movie, I just wasn't at all excited. I braced myself when I started it.

After watching the movie, well... what I heard wasn't totally wrong. The racial politics of this movie are almost always as banal and safe as you would expect. When they're not, it's not because they're saying anything interesting, but because they're creeping toward offensive territory. There simply isn't anything thematically insightful here at all. It's just as bad as you'd expect.

But the characters? That's a different story. Viggo Mortenson as a charming Italian stereotype and Mahershala Ali as a self-important yet lonely concert pianist are such a great pair. The dynamic they have together is magnetic. There are scenes in this movie that shouldn't work at all, but they somehow do thanks pretty much entirely to Mortenson and Ali's chemistry together on screen. I would watch a full series dedicated to their exploits together as unlikely friends. It's just too bad it's attached to... well, everything else. Still, at least it's more fun than Nomadland!

 

8. Coda

Going into this one was similar to how I went into Green Book. I came into this movie thinking I knew exactly what it would be from the tagline. I expected a tedious coming of age story where the protagonist's person desires would conflict with her one dimensional deaf family, leading to arguments and dramatic tension you could already predict before even pressing play. Yawn.

Luckily, that's not really what this movie is! Or at least not fully. Yes, the main character's desires conflict with her family's situation. But her family members are so much more than their deafness. They all work together in the local fishing industry, doing what they can to earn a living despite both their deafness and the general difficulty inherent in fishing. A big source of tension is the main character wanting her own life because of the demands of the family business, rather than just their lack of hearing.

On top of that, her parents are fun, fully developed characters who are a delight to spend time with. They flirt, they joke, and they love acting affectionately toward each other specifically so they make their kids roll their eyes. Not only do these things make them so much more interesting to watch, but it also makes the dramatic tension that does stem from their situation and the protagonist's needs all the more heavy. 

Like with Green Book, this movie really transcends what it's about on paper. I wouldn't quite call it great, but it is probably the best version of the premise that could have been made, and overall a lovely time.

 

7. Anora

A movie with a good mix of humor, tension, and character. Mikey Madison is the star of the show as Anora, a stripper who lives a tough life and has a tough enough mouth to match. If you've grown up in a working class neighborhood, you knew girls like this at some point growing up. Madison really does bring this character to life in a way that is both compelling and completely believable.

The story is really about how even the toughest girls are taken advantage of, especially by men who are weak but surrounded by money and privilege. Every step of the way Anora has been used and sexualized by society- you get the impression she's become a stripper in order to reclaim and weaponize her own sexuality back at the world. She puts up a tough front, but by the end we can see how everything gets to her underneath.

Overall I thought this was a good watch, even if it started to drag in a couple places. In the pantheon of best picture winners, I'm putting this in the Very Good, But Not Fully My Thing category. Mikey Madison's Oscar win for best actress was totally deserved, though (even if I was rooting for Fernanda Torres from I'm Still Here to win that year).

 

6. The Shape of Water

I love how vibrant this movie is. Guillermo del Toro clearly loves these characters, or at least those characters who are outsiders just looking for love and acceptance. The fish guy is well-rendered as a character with depth and humanity, despite being a monster, and Sally Hawkins really holds it down as the mute woman who desperately needs connection. Then of course you have Michael Shannon as the villain, a straight-laced military man whose need for order borders on psychotic.

The color palette here is incredible. Green happens to be my favorite color, and wow is it used beautifully! I don't have enough of an artist background to comment on it in depth, but I really appreciate it and wanted to at least give it a shout out.

Overall, I think this is one of my favorite GdT movies. It's not up there with Pan's Labyrinth for me (very few movies are), but it's still pretty good. Even though I think Get Out should have won best picture this year, I still like this movie quite a bit.

 

5. Oppenheimer

If I were to put together a list of my favorite movies, this entry and the next one would be on the cusp of making that list. This one follows J. Robert Oppenheimer before, during, and after he helped make the atomic bomb for the United States government. Throughout the process, Oppenheimer questions if he's doing the right thing. Especially after he succeeds in making the bomb.

As the movie released, many people criticized the film before seeing it by saying it was letting Oppenheimer off the hook just because he felt uncomfortable with what he did. What impressed me with Nolan's work here, though, is precisely that it doesn't. His wife and other characters directly confront him about how his mopey sad guy energy doesn't actually accomplish anything. It also seems to imply that it's a form of cowardice- a similar type of cowardice that leads to him avoiding initial responsibility for how the bomb will be used when one of his colleagues asks him to sign a petition urging the government to use the weapon carefully and he avoids it.

There's a lot of layers here, but what strikes is that it's all delivered in a pretty engaging way. This movie is a three hour biopic about a nuclear scientist and yet it flies by. Sure, a part here and there drags, but again, for what it is, it's incredible that it's as engaging and fast-paced for the vast majority of the runtime while still being full of substance. This is probably my favorite work of Nolan's entire career.

 

4. Everything Everywhere All at Once

An existential, inter-dimensional kung fu dramedy that is, at its core, about healing the strained relationship between a stressed out immigrant mother and her queer daughter. How many movies have ever been this ambitious?

This movie juggles a lot. It has everything from serious intergenerational familial strife to cool Wong Kar-wai homages to a man jumping across a room to shove a trophy up his ass to activate his super powers. Somehow it all works, or at least most of it does. A few things don't, but when filmmakers take a swing this big and somehow manage to mostly pull it off, you gotta respect it even if there's an occasional fumble.

Extra points for being about an immigrant woman and giving her such a rich interior life in the story. You don't see that very often in film, unfortunately. And when you do, it's (as many of my Asian American friends have pointed out) frustratingly one dimensional. Every character here is approached with empathy, though, which really makes a difference. It's also why every layer on top of it works.

3. Parasite

What's remarkable about this one is how perfectly everything fits together. Every moment of tension, every laugh, every observation about how ruthless capitalist logic turns people against each other fuses together flawlessly. It is absurd how good Bong Joon-ho is at balancing tones, specifically in how quickly he can whip around from high tension to comedic relief and back again without feeling tonally confused or like the comedy is undercutting the drama. Every single thing he does in every single moment gets you feeling the way he wants you to feel.

Even in movies I otherwise love, I can think of minor improvements I would make to make it just a little bit better. Here, though, I can't think of a single thing I would change.

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It may not be my absolute favorite film on this list, but I do think the moment it won best picture at the Oscars is one of the coolest Oscar moments of all time. I mean, a Korean black comedy thriller about the evils of capitalism actually winning best picture? Rarely has the Academy gotten it so completely right.

 

2. One Battle After Another

 

What I love about Paul Thomas Anderson as a filmmaker is that he's so good at combining style and substance. In this movie, he's meditating on the kind of world we're leaving to the younger generation. A world of racism, classism, and militarism (the "three evils" that Martin Luther King Jr famously preached about toward the end of his life). At the center of this confusing, unjust world is a man completely out of his depth who just wants to protect his daughter.

That is the dramatic weight at the core of the story, but there is so much life and creativity built on top of it. This is not a grim, joyless movie. First of all, it's incredibly funny. Leonardo DiCaprio's protagonist Bob means well, but he's a stoner and a bit of an oaf, which helps bring levity at just the right times. There's also a certain charm to the villains. I mean, having an evil military guy named Colonel Lockjaw, and a gang of rich, evil white men called the Christmas Adventurers Club? That's incredible. 

I also have to give a special shout out to Benicio del Toro as Sensei Sergio. Frankly, Latino representation is pretty bad in Hollywood, even in comparison to other communities of color. Having a Latino karate instructor who also runs an 'underground railroad' operation for immigrants is such an incredible combination of meaningful and just straight up fucking cool that I don't think I can adequately put it into words. I am so glad Benicio del Toro was able to bring Sensei Sergio to life.

As a whole, I just love everything about OBAA. It's meaningful, it's funny, it's thrilling, it's the whole package. I also want to give a shout out to Sinners for also being so incredible. Had it won best picture last year instead, it would be in the same place on this list. We were pretty lucky to get two all-time great works in one year like that! 

 

1. Moonlight 

My favorite film of the 21st century so far. I think this is nothing short of a masterpiece. I've written about it already, so I won't say too much here. But seriously, it truly is one of the great works of the century so far. I don't rewatch it too often, as it's the one movie I know of that can make me sob no matter how many times I see it, but that only adds to how much I admire it.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey: A Confucian Tale

It's been a busy year for me, which is why I haven't written anything on here since my favorite 2025 movies list toward the beginning of this year. Like just about everyone else, though, I did make time to watch The Odyssey. I saw it the Tuesday after it opened with my wife, then in imax (or at least the best imitation of it available in San Diego) with a friend. Overall, I really liked it!

In the lead up to its release, many of the worst types of rightwing commentators tried to get their audience to skip the movie due to Nolan casting Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and Elliot Paige as... well, a pretty unimportant side character that they just couldn't help but whine about anyway. Their attempt to take momentum away from the movie failed spectacularly, of course, but it has created some discourse around what exactly the its story is communicating thematically. For some, this has meant trying to figure out where it stands politically.

For me, I'm not sure if The Odyssey fits anywhere neatly on the standard political spectrum. Since I started reflecting on what school of thought I could most clearly identify in the story and its themes, I just couldn't find a clean fit with liberalism, conservatism, socialism, or any other "-ism" that we usually think about. Instead, I thought of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. While I doubt it was intentional, I think Christopher Nolan ultimately made a film best understood through a Confucian lens.

The rest of this post will, of course, be dedicated to explaining what led me to this conclusion. That means THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. If you haven't seen the movie, I'd highly recommend watching it before reading this!

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S THE ODYSSEY

Matt Damon as Odysseus

What else can be said about that great epic poem The Odyssey? It's one of the oldest stories we have in recorded human history. It tells the tale of Odysseus, a brilliant general who served in the Trojan War, a war whose details (and perhaps even very existence) historians of the ancient world still debate to this day. It follows Odysseus as he makes his way home. Along the way goes through as many trials and hardships as one could possibly imagine. Fortunately for him, he's helped by many people and even some gods throughout his journey, who all help give him a fighting chance against everything he encounters. When he finally gets home, he then has to reclaim his household in a showdown against all the suitors for his wife that have taken advantage of his absence.

Nolan makes some interesting choices when telling his version of the story. First off, the gods are barely present. He sets the tone for this pretty quickly, beginning the movie with a text scroll that says this tale takes place "in a time of apparent magic." Note the word "apparent" there, casting doubt as to whether there is really any magic at all. There is, of course, at least a little bit in that world- there are giants and monsters, spells and prophecies, among other things- but gods? Only one god regularly shows up in the movie: Athena, played by Zendaya. We'll get to her in a minute.

As for Odysseus himself, this is a man who (like most Christopher Nolan protagonists) carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Whereas the traditional tale casts him in the light of glory, this movie places him in a shadow of responsibility and regret. We follow him on his journey home as the weight of this responsibility and regret bear down on him.

Like in the traditional tale, Odysseus is helped by people along the way. Unlike the traditional tale, Nolan emphasizes "Zeus's law", which tells people to help and trust others because you don't know who may be a god in disguise. Because Nolan loves slapping you in the face with ideas he wants to get across in his movies (I say that affectionately, I like him a lot as a director), we're regularly reminded of the importance of Zeus's law toward maintaining some sort of civilized society in the world.

 

I love you Chris, please keep making good movies where the characters explicitly tell us your ideas

What we find out at the end, though, is that Odysseus carries the regret that he does because he violated Zeus's law in a profound way. The Trojan horse ploy that is portrayed as a brilliant tactic earlier in the movie (and indeed in the entire original tale itself) is shown from a different angle here, and it's not a positive one. It makes sense when you think about it. After all, ultimately what the Greeks did by hiding in the horse and attacking Troy was violate social trust in order to go about slaughtering an entire city. It's a brilliant tactic, but also pretty messed up when you really think about it. And boy has Odysseus thought about it!

This takes us back to Athena. The Athena entity we've seen throughout the movie turns out to be the spitting image of a priestess the Greek forces slaughtered in part of their rampage against Troy. We don't know for sure if this entity who has followed Odysseus throughout the movie truly is Athena, or the ghost of the woman he killed, or perhaps even just a figment of his guilt-ridden imagination. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. What matters is that he betrayed Zeus's law, and the "Athena" that's followed him on his journey is a reminder of that betrayal. Because really it's a betrayal of humanity itself, gods or no gods.

From there, Odysseus goes about defeating the suitors who have taken advantage of Zeus's law by mooching off of his household in the years preceding his return. Taking on the suitors is itself an act that violates Zeus's law, though, which is why he fights the suitors alone and doesn't let his son Telemachus assist him in the main battle. He doesn't want Telemachus to have to carry the weight of the sins he has. So he fights the suitors himself. Eventually he triumphs and goes into exile with his wife Penelope to begin atoning for what he has done. The ending reflects on everything that has happened. We see the breakdown of society through the erosion of Zeus's law, but also a glimmer of hope in the possibility of renewal.

So what does this have to do with Confucianism? Before answering that question, let's have a quick crash course on Confucianism itself. 

 

A BRIEF CRASH COURSE ON CONFUCIAN ETHICS

The Warring States period in Ancient China 

Chinese civilization goes back to ancient times. Many dynasties have risen and fallen through Chinese history. Their longest lasting dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, technically lasted from around 1100 BCE to around 250 BCE. During the last two hundred years or so of the Dynasty, though, war and chaos engulfed the land. Historians call this tail end of the Zhou Dynasty the "Warring States" period for reasons you can probably guess from the name. It was in this era that Confucius, along with many other iconic ancient Chinese philosophers, emerged.

Confucianism is based in large part around social relations and maintaining societal harmony. One of its core tenants is the idea of the "five relations" that define society*, which are ruler/subject, parent/child, husband/wife, elder sibling/younger sibling, and friend/friend. The idea was that if everyone put proper effort into cultivating and maintaining these relationships, you would have social harmony. We are social creatures, after all, and our relationships with one another are key components of our lives both individually as people and collectively as a society. If we all had healthy relationships in our own lives, then, that would ripple outward to create a healthy society.

With that said, all of these relationships are hierarchical except for friend/friend. The subject is expected to obey the ruler, the child the parent, the wife the husband, and the younger sibling the elder sibling. In that way, there's something conservative about Confucianism. At the same time, though, Confucius made it explicitly clear that, while these relationships were hierarchical, there was mutual obligation on both sides. Rulers had to take care of their subjects, parents had to take care of their children, and so on. This takes us to the concept of "ren."

"Ren" (also translated as "jen") is a Chinese idea that can roughly be translated to "humanness" or "benevolence." For Confucius, ren is the crucial ingredient to make everything work. We all must be good to one another regardless of our place in any given hierarchy for society to function. If you're a ruler, for example, you need to treat your subjects well and look out for their well-being. Simply put, you need to fulfill your end of the bargain. This is a large part of why, during his own lifetime, Confucius was dismissed as too idealistic when he tried to become an advisor to a variety of local Zhou-era leaders. They wanted advisors that would tell them how to win wars and build a state, not someone preaching the importance of humanity toward your fellow human beings.

 
A status of Confucius in Shanghai, China 

So we have these five relationships and ren as two of the key underpinnings of Confucianism. But how does one actually act to try to achieve these things? There are many things Confucius would encourage, ranging from educating and refining yourself toward becoming a "gentleman" ("junzi" or "jun-tzu"**) to simply just being decent to your fellow human beings in the spirit of ren. But one particular thing that he placed a lot of emphasis on was ritual ("li"). He was very much in favor of people practicing ancient traditional Chinese rituals, such as those related to ancestor worship.

Interestingly enough, though, he did not necessarily believe in the divinity of these rituals. He did not write much about doing them so that you would get a good harvest or be able to literally communicate with your ancestors. Rather, he believed the act itself of participating sincerely in these rituals was what mattered, because it taught you to revere something greater than yourself- as he put it, to teach you to "live life as a reverential bow." It also put you into community with those around you, strengthening your social bonds with them. For Confucius, then, ritual wasn't necessarily about divine rewards, but about the personal and societal effects that such rituals cultivated.

There is, of course, much more that could be said about Confucianism, but these are some of its most important concepts, as well as some of those most relevant to Nolan's film. So lets get to showing how the two are connected. 

*I modernized these relationships (just like Christopher Nolan modernized The Odyssey!), because originally they were more gendered- parent/child was father/son, for example. Shit was super sexist back in the day, so women were not assumed to be an important part of philosophical thinking.

**Though "junzi" is the term more often used, "jun-tzu" is a much better phonetic translation of the term.  

 

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER 

Honestly I just Googled "Confucius Ancient Greece" hoping I'd find a suitable pic, and I did!

So why is Confucianism such a good lens through which to view Nolan's The Odyssey? Let's start by looking at the relationships in the movie. We saw almost all of Confucius's five relations play out. Odysseus is a king, and we see loyal subjects like Eumaeus, his old servant. We of course see his husband/wife dynamic with Penelope and his father/son dynamic with Telemachus, and we even see a bit of a friend/friend dynamic with his second in command, Eurylochus. The only one we don't see is elder sibling/younger sibling, though a bad example of that dynamic sort of plays out between Telemachus and Antinous, played in a delightfully villainous way by Robert Pattinson.

It's worth noting that Nolan doesn't really seem to question the fundamental inequalities of these relationships themselves. Eumaeus is basically a slave in the movie and is explicitly a slave in the original story, but Nolan doesn't really question the justness of that dynamic any more than the original tale does. Instead, we get the impression that Damon's Odysseus was a good king to Eumaeus and the rest of his subjects, hence Eumaeus's loyalty. Same with the care between Odysseus and Penelope. Penelope is devoted to her husband and anxiously awaits his return, even twenty years later. While she expresses frustration at how systemic misogyny has prevented her from being able to take the reigns in Odysseus's absence, she still mostly just wants him back as her king and husband (as she says explicitly in an argument with Telamachus).

In terms of Odysseus's relations with those around him, then, Confucius would approve of Odysseus. He would see that Odysseus had fulfilled his obligations as a good king to his subjects, and in turn had the enduring loyalty of the best among them. But that is not the whole story, of course.

 
Odysseus and some of the people closest to him, in some way or another

While Odysseus may have done a good job ruling justly, as a general he profoundly violated Zeus's law in what he did with the Trojan horse. The betrayal of trust he masterminded was not only a violation in and of itself, but led to the slaughter of an entire town.

Speaking in Confucian terms, Odysseus obviously violated the spirit of ren/humanness through his actions. It's not very humane to deceive your enemies with promises of peace and slaughter everyone, including civilians. But it was more than that. Because by breaking Zeus's law, he was also breaking a shared societal practice of social trust that helped create functioning societies in the Greek world. He not only defied the spirit of ren, then, but also li/ritual. In this case, the two were one and the same.

While his actions angered the gods, we don't actually see the gods themselves. What we do see, though, is how regression from Zeus's law of hospitality and trust is making the human worse a worse place. This takes us back to Confucius's outlook on rituals- how the personal and social effects of a ritual are what we should pay attention to. That's what Nolan is paying attention to in his version of The Odyssey. Without humanity and shared ritual to improve us as people and connect us with one another, all is lost. Or at least all that is worth preserving.

 

CLOSING THOUGHTS 

Nolan's story ends lamenting the descent from civilization to chaos and barbarity. Confucius and the other philosophers of his day cultivated their philosophy during the Warring States era, which itself was an era partially defined by the sort of chaos and barbarity Nolan's Odysseus helps unleash on the Greek world. In our own world, too, international law and cooperation are eroding at an alarming rate. Gaza is perhaps the ugliest example of that in recent years, but it is by no means the only example.

Yet we should neither idealize the past, nor give into despair. The post-World War 2 order that defined our world until the present had some good things about it, but it also had great acts of barbarity within it too. Even in the eight decades since World War 2 ended, we've seen plenty of atrocities, war crimes, and even genocides. Some of these happened by the very "protectors" of the international order, such as the United States and Great Britain. While things will likely only get worse as our international institutions of diplomacy erode, we're not leaving behind an innocent world order. In many ways, its legitimacy has eroded thanks in part to its own crimes, hypocrisies, and excesses. Much like with Odysseus and the erosion of Zeus's law.

As for not giving into despair, it was during the Warring States era that Confucius and his fellow philosophers came up with the schools of thought that they did, changing China forever. Many of these philosophers would inspired countless great acts, and beautiful forms of cultural and societal connection. In our world, we are ruled by some of the most malignant, barbaric, vile people who have ever held power. But there are good people fighting to make themselves heard, too. And as a historian I can confidently say that you never know what will happen next after a period like this- sometimes things do get worse, but other times the worst comes just before things get better. Or, to quote another Nolan classic, "the night is darkest just before the dawn."

I don't know what's next for us in this world. All I know is that we can, and should, try our best to make it better in whatever ways we can. Things are tough, but they've been tough for most people through human history. Better things have never come without struggle. Let's do what we can, while we can, and hope for a better tomorrow. 

My 10 Favorite Movies of 2025

I was lucky enough to see a lot of movies in 2025. Much more than I have in the past few years. As a whole, I think 2025 was a great year for cinema. While the industry is in a messy state and faces an uncertain future, we're at least still getting a lot of good stuff for now.

Here are my top ten movies of the year, plus a special (not honorable; it'll make sense when we get there) mention. This post will be briefer than usual, as I'm currently finishing up a book about the roots and rise of Nazism in Germany, but hopefully these short explanations for why I liked each movie will do them justice.

A few honorary mentions before we get to the list: Train Dreams, Jay Kelly, Bugonia, It Was Just an Accident, and Sorry, Baby. 

Happy reading! 

 

10. Marty Supreme

Timothée Chalamet really has been on a tear as an actor the last few years. With recent roles in movies like A Complete Unknown and the Dune series, he's been making a name for himself as a genuinely talented actor. His performance in Marty Supreme just may be his best, though. Taking place in 1950s New York, the story follows Marty Mauser, a twenty three year old shoe salesman, table tennis ace, and relentless hustler. Mauser's goal is to became a champion in the table tennis world despite not having the means or connections to be able to fully dedicate himself to the game. He makes up for those shortcomings through his constant scheming. Watching everything unfold can be extremely anxiety-inducing at times, but it is always gripping. While certain elements of the movie don't work for me, overall I found it an entertaining, pulse-pounding exploration of the scummy side of the US striver-hustler mentality.

 

9. Left-Handed Girl

Left-handed people of the world unite! Left-Handed Girl is a sweet little slice of life movie about a young Taiwanese girl and her family as they try to make ends meet in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan. The girl is quiet and observant, taking in the world around her as her family goes through a variety of trials and tribulations. There's something comforting about this movie, yet it also has enough drama and emotional stakes to pull you in. That drama culminates in an ending that will have you almost gasping despite the relatively low stakes, as those low stakes nonetheless feel momentum to those going through it all. This is not the most ambitious movie ever made, but it does what it's trying to do well and is a lovely experience as a whole.

 

8. Superman

Superman has been my favorite superhero ever since I was a kid. As a teenager I briefly went through a Batman phase around the time of The Dark Knight simply based on the Bat's more celebrated movie and comic output, but in recent years I've fully gone back to team Supes. While this year's Superman isn't my definitive favorite movie adaptation of the character, there's a lot I love about it. More than anything, I love how sincere it is, and how the love for the character shines so brightly through it. Its anti-war message felt unfortunately relevant, too.

For a more detailed breakdown of what did and didn't work for me in this movie, I wrote about it on here after seeing it back in July. 

 

7. Highest 2 Lowest

Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. He also happens to be my favorite director. When I saw that the great Spike Lee was remaking his classic High and Low, I was intrigued. I went in seeing it not quite knowing what to expect, since Lee called it more of a "re-imagining" than a remake. It turned out to be a great time. While not quite as strong as the original, Highest 2 Lowest is still entertaining while having a lot on its mind. It follows Denzel Washington as a music executive who, like many successful creatives, is caught in the struggle between art and profit. When his son is supposedly kidnapped, things get complicated quickly. Whether you've seen the original or not, this one is a great time.

 

6. The Secret Agent

During the Cold War, Latin America became a battleground between US-backed military dictatorships and popular leftwing liberation groups. In recent years, Latin American countries have made many movies about that era of tragedy and atrocity. Like I'm Still Here last year, The Secret Agent is Brazil's latest great movie about its own period of dictatorship. It's a political thriller that follows a professor played by Wagner Moura, who puts in my favorite leading performance of the year. It's a vibrant, well-crafted movie that does a great job establishing its sense of place. While certain aspects didn't work for me, this is still one of my favorite movies of the year.

 

5. Hamnet

William Shakespeare is one of the most celebrated storytellers in human history. In real life, there are records that he and his wife Agnes had a son named Hamnet, who died at age eleven. The movie Hamnet is an adaptation of a book by the same name that fictionalizes what that loss must have been like for the couple, and how it may have inspired William to write the play Hamlet. It is a devastating watch, but the ending is beautiful and life-affirming. While the movie took a little bit in the beginning to fully pull me in, I was completely absorbed by the middle and found myself crying at the end. In fact, the ending scene may be my favorite single scene of the year.

 

4. Sentimental Value

Just about everyone can relate to having a difficult family in some way or another. Sentimental Value is a heartfelt but understated family dramedy about a pair of sisters and their strained relationship with their father, a famous director. The main character is the older of the two sisters, Nora, who grapples with some serious mental health issues. The sisters remember and deal their childhood somewhat differently, but both agree things were tough with this father. What's interesting, though, is that as we see more of the father character, we learn he himself is a victim of fairly severe family traumas. He is only able to express himself through his art, which is part of why in the past he put it above everything else, including his own daughters. The movie makes no attempt to either forgive or condemn him, but instead just tries to understand him, his daughters, and their attempts to make sense of everything.

 

3. No Other Choice

We are in a tough stage of global capitalism where automation and outsourcing have taken a toll on job markets across the world, and therefore the ability of people to provide for themselves and their families. No Other Choice is a brilliant dark comedy about a Korean man whose company is bought off by a US company, which then lays off about 20% of the company's workforce. The protagonist is among those laid off. What unfolds is a dark and thoughtful, yet hilarious, quest for him to find some sort of employment. A lot of people have compared it to Parasite. Ultimately I'd say it doesn't hit quite as hard, but it is funnier and easier to rewatch. This and the next two movies are not only my favorite movies of the year, but already among my favorite all-time movies.

 

2. Sinners

Sometimes you're in the mood for a creepy vampire movie, sometimes you're in the mood for a gripping period drama, sometimes you're in the mood for a movie that celebrates music and culture. But what if you want all three- and not only that, but all three of them done well? That's where Sinners comes in. Like both the previous entry on this list and the one coming up next, it shows that you don't have to choose between artistic depth and popcorn entertainment. You can have both. Ryan Coogler really outdoes himself in this vampire movie set in the Mississippi Delta in the 1930s. It could have easily not had vampires and still been compelling, but the vampires come in both as entertainment and as a thoughtful metaphor about the commodification of cultures.

If you'd like a more thorough breakdown of why the movie is great, I wrote about it for the website Taste of Cinema. 

 

1. One Battle After Another 

Few movies do it all the way One Battle After Another does. It works in terms of the deeper stuff like character and theme, but it also works as a propulsive, perfectly paced piece of entertainment. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll remind you why we go to the movies in the first place. There's a lot packed in here, including some of the most memorable movie characters of the decade (Colonel Lockjaw is an instantly iconic villain, and Sensei Sergio is a new all-time favorite movie character of mine), but ultimately it's a movie about a father and a daughter, and how they can be there for each other despite everything that has come between them. The only question that remains for me is whether it will eventually dethrone There Will Be Blood as my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

 

Special Mention: The Voice of Hind Rajab

I really am not sure how to talk about The Voice of Hind Rajab, let alone how to rank it on a list like this as if it were a normal movie. It's isn't. Not only is it about the very real, very desperate call for help of a six year old Gazan child killed by Israel in January of 2024, but it actually uses the voice recordings of the child herself. It follows call center workers at the Palestinian Red Crescent (basically their version of the Red Cross) who receive a call from poor Hind and try to organize a rescue mission to save her while comforting her over the phone. It's extremely well-crafted. But it also just doesn't feel right ranking it on a list like this, as if it's just a piece of entertainment. It's not. It's a desperate plea for help from a people undergoing a genocide. With that said, though, it is also a damn good movie, hence why it gets a special mention here. See it and support it if you can.

Top Everything of 2025

Another year in the books. Like every year, there were too many worthwhile things for me to make a single list for only one category. So, also like every year, I'm dropping a list with my top picks for a variety of categories. With that said, though, expect an upcoming post or two about movies from 2025, since I did get the chance to watch more movies last year than usual.

A quick note: I am in the process of writing a book right now (an introductory guide to the roots and rise of the Nazis), so most entries will be shorter than they have been in past years. I was initially going to have less categories than usual, but none of them felt right to get rid of. So, brevity will be the key for much of this year's list.

Anyway, these are my picks for what stood out to me in 2025. Enjoy! 

 

Movie: One Battle After Another

This almost feels like a boring pick considering how much attention it has received, but sometimes a near-universally acclaimed movie gets that much praise for a reason. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, it follows Leonardo DiCaprio as a burnt out ex-revolutionary trying to protect his daughter as his and his baby mama's past come back to haunt them. The main villain, a goofy yet terrifying military officer played masterfully by Sean Penn, is an imposing foe.

Everything about One Battle After Another is incredible: the directing, the writing, the acting, the editing, the score, everything. It all comes together to make something special, something that perfectly balances style and substance. It's one of those rare movies that everyone from hardcore movie buffs to people who only watch movies once in a while can enjoy. I don't want to say too much more because it's one of those movies you don't want to know too much about beforehand, but if you haven't seen it, check it out!

 

Comedy Movie: No Other Choice

While this movie won't release widely until early 2026, it had a limited release in December. I was lucky enough to catch an early IMAX screening of it. It's directed by Park Chan-wook, who made Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave, among others. He's not only arguably South Korea's most celebrated filmmaker, but one of the best filmmakers working today of any country.

Getting to the movie itself, No Other Choice is a black comedy thriller about a man (played by the incredible Lee Byung-hun) who works as a senior employee at a paper company. When the company is bought out by a bigger US company, it lays off a huge chunk of the Korean employees, including the protagonist. He then has to try to find a new job, but that proves harder than expected considering the job market. This then pushes him to try more... drastic measures to get a new job.

The thematic focus of this dark comedy is the struggles created by modern capitalism. It's reminiscent of Parasite in a broad sense, though there are some key differences. I'd say, as a whole, Parasite is a better film in terms of how it executes tension and theme, but this movie is funnier. You'll very rarely go more than a minute or two without at least chuckling, and you'll be laughing often. There's one scene in the middle that had me and the audience I watched it with howling. It was easily the funniest scene I saw in 2025. While the subject matter of this film is actually pretty heavy when you think about it, it's told in such a funny, entertaining way that it all goes down smooth.

  

Animated Movie: K-Pop Demon Hunters 

Unless you spent 2025 in a Tibetan monastery, you probably heard about K-Pop Demon Hunters. The story follows a trio of Korean girls who live a double life: they are both world-famous K-pop stars and demon hunters. The two feed into each other, in fact. Their music helps them keep the world of demons at bay. The main character of the movie, Rumi, is one of these girls, but she has a secret. She herself is part demon. Not even her two squad mates know this. A central question of the movie is: should you hide a 'bad' part of yourself?

The answer, of course, is no. As things unfold, she learns to be herself and embrace that side of her, as you could imagine from a kid's movie. There is also a bad boy love interest who himself is part demon; also as you can probably guess, he's not as bad as you would initially think, and ultimately has a change of heart. The story of K-Pop Demon Hunters is good but predictable, and drops the ball with the demon metaphor. In fact, I've also heard Korean friends criticize the portrayal of Korean spirits and deities as villainous demons, but that's only a message I can pass along, not one I can meaningfully comment on. What works about the story is the dynamic between the main character and her two best friends, as well as her dynamic with the bad boy love interest. It may be relatively predictable, but there's a real sincerity to it.

The best part of this movie, though, is the music. That's what really elevated it above the competition for me this year. While I didn't like any of the Saja Boy songs that much, I like all of the main group's songs. Golden and This is What it Sounds Like in particular are two of my favorite songs of the year. Maybe even two of my favorite songs from a movie soundtrack this decade. 

 

Actor: Benicio del Toro  

This was an incredible year for acting, making this a difficult category to narrow down. Stellan Skarsgård was great in Sentimental Value and Andor, Lee Byung-hun was great in No Other Choice and Squid Game, and Michael B. Jordan (my choice for actor of the year in both 2018 and 2015) was great in Sinners and... well, Sinners again, since he played two roles. And those are just the actors who had multiple roles this year. Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent, Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, and Joel Edgerton in Train Dreams were all incredible in their singular roles this year.

Ultimately, though, I had to go with the actor who gave life to my favorite film character of the year. In One Battle After Another, Benicio del Toro plays Sensei Sergio, a Mexican-American karate instructor who is coolness personified. Though he is dragged into the mess that transpires around DiCaprio's character, he manages to always keep calm, despite certain things that he has going on himself that could get him in huge trouble if found out. He is easily not just my favorite movie character of the year, but one of my favorite movie characters of the decade.

In addition to that role, he also plays a ruthless yet perpetually calm businessman named Anatole Korda in Wes Anderon's The Phoenician Scheme (funny to think that del Toro played two stoic characters with lots of influence on the people around them in a movie directed by a guy with the last name Anderson this year). Korda is trying to form a relationship with his daughter, who makes his heir in an attempt to connect with her. Like with most Wes Anderson movies, there a lot of emotional distance between the characters and the viewers. By the end of the movie, though, you see that there's a lot more to Korda than you initially think. That is, in large part, thanks to del Toro breathing so much life into the role.

Benicio del Toro is one of the best actors working today, and great representation for Latinos. He's got a lot of range, but really seems to be most at home when he's playing calm, cool, collected characters. I'm glad we have him.

 

Actress: Jessie Buckley 

Like with best actor, this is another extremely stacked category. Unlike best actor there aren't as many actresses pulling strong double duty (or at least among the movies/shows I've seen), but quite a few actresses put in excellent singular performances. Eva Victor in Sorry, Baby, Tessa Thompson in Hedda, and pretty much all the women in One Battle After Another (Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall) and Sentimental Value (Renata Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning) really knocked it out of the park this year.

But, if I had to go with one actress/performance, I have to go with the one that moved me more than any other I saw this year. That would be Jessie Buckley as the protagonist in Hamnet. It stars Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare, the wife of William Shakespeare. The story follows the couple as they meet, fall in love, start a family, and have kids. Then tragedy strikes. It's a tragedy that actually did take place for the couple in real life, though the details around it aren't known. In fact, because there are no records about what actually happened during this tragedy, the story of the movie is based on a novel that simply speculates on what happened.

If the title sounds like his iconic work Hamlet, that's not a coincidence. According to this movie, it's William's grief channeled into his play. Agnes, though, is the protagonist. Initially, after the tragedy hits about halfway through, it creates distance between her and William. She blames him for seemingly caring more about his plays than his family. The rest of the story follows her on a really moving journey that I don't want to say more about in case you're reading this without having seen it.

What I will say, though, is that Buckley does an incredible job in her role. The way she carries the final scene in particular is one of the most emotionally affecting performances I've ever seen. She's been talked about as the favorite to win the Oscar this year for best actress, and I think she completely deserves it.

 

TV Show: Andor

While I don't watch that much TV, I do have series that I pay attention to. One series I really like, Righteous Gemstones, did a great job with its final season this year. In other years that could've been my pick for this category. Unfortunately for Danny McBride's hilarious dramedy series, however, Andor (which was also my TV show pick for 2022) really knocked it out of the park.

Like with the first season, this season does a great job of being a Star Wars show for adults (and smart teens). It's not just interested in lightsabers and Jedi (in fact, it's not interested in those things at all), it's interested in its themes, characters, and world-building. Rather than many other Star Wars spinoffs, which focus on what fans already like from the universe, Andor makes the universe more complicated and interesting by delving into exactly what it takes to spark a rebellion against an evil galactic empire.

If there's one different between this season and the first, it's about the role of the protagonist, Cassian Andor. In the first season, he goes from cynical rogue to dedicated revolutionary. In this season his character is already set. While he is still the main vantage character, there is more attention paid to the characters and world around him as the series moves toward its conclusion, which ends right where A New Hope begins. It's a fantastic season of television that really is the best sort of storytelling for an existing franchise. The Andor series is easily my favorite Star Wars saga next to the original trilogy. It may even be better.

 

Male MMA Fighters: Islam Makhachev

Islam Makhachev has come a long way in his MMA career. Starting as a one dimensional grappler, he has now beaten some worthy opponents and developed other aspects of his game, even if his wrestling is still by far his strong asset. Despite the worthy opponent's he's beat, though, his biggest issue is that he has yet to face enough of them. This has mostly not been his fault (he's had fights with good opponents fall through, plus the lightweight division in general has fallen off in recent years), but he does what he can in the position he's in.

In 2025, Islam first faced and defeated Renato Moicano. He had originally been scheduled to face Arman Tsarukyan, a more championship-caliber opponent, but Tsarukyan pulled out the day before due to injury. Moicano offered to step in. Islam accepted in order to save the event and beat him in the first round by submission. In doing so, he broke the record for UFC lightweight title defenses (4). 

Islam's next was far more impressive. He moved up in weight and fought the welterweight champion, Jack Della Maddalena. He won by a dominant decision, managing the incredibly difficult task of becoming the champion for the weight class above him. This is impressive on its own, but especially against Della Maddalena, one of the better fighters in the UFC today. He now has tied former middleweight champion Anderson Silva for longest winning streak (16).

Overall, Islam had an incredible 2025 for the records he set and the fact he became champion for the weight class above his own. While his quality of opposition isn't the strongest, it's not really his fault that he has had so many fights either fall through or end with last minute replacements. he has beaten just above everyone put in front of him, which is damn impressive.

 

Female MMA Fighter: Valentina Shevchenko

What more can be said about Shevchenko? She's one of the best women to ever compete in combat sports. She was my pick for 2020 female fighter of the year and, honestly, could've easily been my pick a couple other times. She's well-rounded, composed, and strategic.

In 2025, she beat Manon Fiorot and Zhang Weili. While Fiorot is a solid opponent, Zhang is a world-class one. While Zhang did move up in weight (and indeed looked much smaller than Valentina in their fight), she's still a tough, skilled opponent who is a difficult fight for anyone. Beating her is no small feat.

 

MMA Fighter I Hope Bounces Back: Zhang Weili

I love Zhang and what she brings to MMA. Aside from her skills as a fighter, it's clear that she is a true martial artist in spirit. All of her social media posts about training are a true celebration of martial arts, and by all accounts she always is nothing but respectful and attentive wherever and whenever she trains. She is a great ambassador for MMA and the true beauty of martial arts. I hope she is able to recover from her loss to Shevchenko and come back better than ever. The MMA world needs martial artists like her. 

 

MMA Fight: Lopes vs Silva

Sometimes a good old fashioned brawl is just what you need. While there was some good fight technique on display, ultimately this was mostly a fun barn-burner where both fighters put it all on the line. Diego Lopes remains one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC.

 

Scientific Discovery: Life On Another Planet?

I know it seems like I choose something involving possible life on another planet every other year on this list, but what can I say? I love astronomy, and I'm fascinated by the idea of life on other planets.

In April, the James Webb Space Telescope gave us data about the planet K2-18b. By looking at the light that filtered through the planet's atmosphere, scientists saw a sign of possible life. Specifically, they saw two gases (dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl disulfide) that, on our planet at least, are produced by living things like algae. What's extra interesting is that, even before this, K2-18b was already in the conversation as a planet that may contain life due to being an ocean-covered planet that may be temperate enough to host living organisms. This new discovery only adds to the tantalizing possibility that there may indeed be life on the planet.

 

Scientific Achievement: Pig Organ Transplants

Any scientific achievement that preserves human life is worth celebrating (assuming those achievements don't come at the expense of others, of course). In recent years, scientists have experimented with transplants using pig organs because their organs have similar traits to our own. Usually, however, transplants don't really work because our bodies reject the non-human organs.  

In this case, surgeons gave a gene-edited pig kidney to a man named Tim Andrews. This is the fourth such transplant that has happened, but this one is noteworthy because Andrews lived with the kidney for a record 271 days before it had to be removed. The gene-editing of the kidney and medicine schedule for Andrews worked incredibly well, considering the human body would never accept such an organ at all otherwise.

If this technology can be further developed, people will be able to live years with pig organs. Maybe even longer. It may not be sexy to think about people having pig organs inside them, but in a time where there is a shortage of donated organs for medical use, anything we can do to help others is worth doing.

 

Bullshit News Story: "Venezuelan Drug Traffickers"

In September 2025, the Trump regime began killing random fishermen in the Caribbean, accusing them of being cartel members. They did so without giving any sort of evidence that the individuals killed were involved in the drug trade. They also bizarrely accused them of smuggling fentanyl, rather than cocaine (you'd think they would at least try to lie better.

Later on in 2025, President Trump pardoned former conservative Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to forty five years in prison for conspiring to smuggle over four hundred tons of cocaine into the United States. And we're still supposed to believe that the murders of these fishermen in the Caribbean were able drug smuggling.

 It's a bit surreal writing this post in January after the Trump regime invaded Venezuela and kidnapped President Maduro. While Maduro is certainly not my favorite world leader, he is the sovereign leader of Venezuela. The US does not have the right to decide it can just invade a country for no real reason. These killings of random fishermen were the ugly pretext, an attempt to claim they were on a mission to fight drug cartels. But, again, the flimsy evidence alongside the pardoning of Orlando Hernández shows how little the truth matters in any of this.

 

Actual News Story: Continued Murder in Gaza

The genocide in Gaza started under Joe Biden. It was a genocide which he gave just about unconditional support to. Kamala tried to distance herself from the genocide in rhetoric, but gave no concrete policy explanations for exactly what she would do different. Donald Trump did something similar, except even more chaotically, stupidly, and dishonestly; sometimes he claimed he would bring peace between the two sides, other times he crudely referred to political opponents as "Palestinians" in a bizarre, gross case of 1800s-style racism.

Upon becoming president, Trump more or less continued Biden's policy of letting Israel to whatever it wanted. There were some differences in the details (he applied a bit more pressure on Israel than Biden had, yet also cracked down more on refugees coming from Palestine), but the broad outline was the same. Eventually, however, Trump did force Netanyahu to come to the table, leading to negotiations that created a ceasefire in October. That could have been a positive (if not way too late) development, if not for the fact that the ceasefire never really happened.

Yes, fighting between the two sides largely stopped. Mostly from the Palestinian side. Meanwhile, Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinians since the "ceasefire" went into effect. They may have slowed down the slaughter, but they're still consistently killing Gazans. Mostly civilians. The genocide has already been an incredible stain on humanity; unfortunately for the people of Gaza, there is still no real end in sight for the suffering.

 

Photo: Immigrant S.O.S. Call for Help

Another absurd aspect to everything the US is doing to Venezuelans (and Caribbean fishermen in general) is the fact they're pretending to do this out of concern for Venezuelans themselves. Meanwhile, Venezuelan migrants held in US detention centers formed an S.O.S. sign, signaling both the awful conditions they faced and their worry that they might get shipped off to one of the many shady super-prisons in El Salvador. It's a striking reflection of just how barbaric our immigration system is.

 

Badass: Gaza Aid Flotillas

Since the genocide in Gaza began, many around the world have tried to help in whatever small ways they can. Most of the time that meant demonstrations, donations to aid groups, and boycotting Israeli goods. In June of 2025, there was a group of particularly noble people who wanted to do more. They wanted to break the siege Israel imposed on Gaza and deliver aid directly.

Twelve brave souls rode aboard a boat called the Madleen through the Mediterranean to deliver vital aid to the people of Gaza. On the way, people who supported Israel's genocide harassed and even attacked the Madleen, but they rode on. On June 9th, however, the Israeli military seized the Madleen, imprisoned everyone aboard, and eventually deported them. The aid was not given to the people of Gaza.

This only inspired more action, with more people. More waves of flotillas departed, trying to get aid to the people of Gaza. An especially big wave of vessels set sail in October. Some governments, including Spain and Greece, claimed they would protect the flotillas. Unfortunately, while a few of these governments did follow through on sending escorts, they abandoned the flotilla vessels once they got close to Israel. None ever made it to the shores of Gaza.

It's a hard pill to swallow to know that the murders won. But, we can at least celebrate the courage of those on the vessels themselves. There have been more attempts since for flotillas to bring aid to Gaza. There are even more attempts being planned for 2026. Hopefully there will be a break and Gaza can get relief from the outside world that isn't controlled by the very people massacring them.