The best movies of 2025 so far

The year started a little quietly, but come spring, the box office was in full swing with hits including A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, and Marvel’s introduction of the “new Avengers” in Thunderbolts*. Audiences have been treated to a few live-action remakes of animated favorites: Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, and Snow White. And AI technology has been at the center of movies including Companion, M3GAN 2.0, and Mission: Impossible —The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise’s eighth (and last?) in the franchise.

But what are the movies that have risen above all the others as the best of 2025 so far? Here are Entertainment Weekly‘s top 10, in alphabetical order.

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28 Years Later

28 Years Later, which reteams director Danny Boyle with screenwriter Alex Garland after both sidestepped to producer roles for the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, shows both men working at the peak of their powers — and in absolute sicko mode. This new chapter (starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and Alfie Williams) is strange, unpredictable, gloriously revolting, darkly funny, and, when you least expect it, rather touching. It’s a full package, and one of the richest horror movies in a very long time. —Jordan Hoffman

Read EW’s review of 28 Years Later.

The Ballad of Wallis Island

This little gem of a movie premiered at Sundance in January before landing quietly in theaters in March. Written by British comedy duo Tom Basden and Tim Key, it follows eccentric lottery winner Charles Heath (Key), who seeks to reunite beloved folk duo Herb McGwyer (Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan). What starts as a misguided attempt to bring the band back together only dredges up old wounds, but it turns out to be a beautiful way for Charles to process his grief and feel closer to his late wife. It’s a lilting, charmingly funny, touching meditation on love, loss, and finding our way back to ourselves. —Maureen Lee Lenker

Black Bag

Black Bag is a spy film unlike any other. When intelligence agent George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) learns his wife, Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), also a spy, is suspected of betraying the nation, he must decide between his country and his marriage. Despite its refreshingly short runtime (just over 90 minutes!), the film deftly packs a lot in. Gone are the usual prolonged, fiery action sequences, and in their place are talky — but no less fraught — games of cat-and-mouse at an elegant dinner table. And there are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, but the film’s true (dare we say?) secret weapon is that, at its heart, Black Bag is really about a marriage brought enchantingly to life by the mesmerizing hot, hot, hot chemistry between Fassbender and Blanchett, who go toe-to-toe in ways that make it impossible to look away. Go on, we dare you. —Lauren Huff

Companion

Genre storytelling has always been a ripe space for exploring potent social and political issues, and Companion is no exception, even if its message gets muddled at times. Drew Hancock’s feature directorial debut is a hell of an invigorating revenge fantasy, made all the more satisfying by its own winking self-awareness. Bathed in a pink-pop glow, its pastiche of romance and horror collide in a viciously mischievous parable of technology and control that speaks to these most anxious times. —Maureen Lee Lenker

Read EW’s review of Companion.

F1: The Movie

F1 literally just drove into theaters, and it already pushed, pushed, pushed its way onto this list — for good reason. Director Joseph Kosinski’s love letter to Formula One racing starring Brad Pitt isn’t just one of the best films of the year (so far), it’s also one of the best sports competition movies ever made. Despite the often-predictable limitations of the genre, Ehren Kruger’s script avoids feeling formulaic (sorry). The story, the action, and the editing are all crisp and pitch-perfect, set to an appropriately pulse-pounding soundtrack and score (created by the inimitable Hans Zimmer, of course). In short: It rules! The best part? It doesn’t matter whether you’re an F1 superfan who can name every single background cameo (of which there are many), or you have no idea what “box, box” means — this is the ultimate summer blockbuster for audiences looking for a breathtaking, globe-trotting, edge-of-your-seat drama. Buckle up … but watch your speed while driving home from the theater. —Sydney Bucksbaum

Read EW’s review of F1.

The Life of Chuck

With Life of Chuck, director Mike Flanagan steps away from horror — but not from Stephen King. The adaptation of King’s 2020 novella tells the story of Charles “Chuck” Krantz, an accountant whose life is cut heartbreakingly short at 39 from a brain tumor. But it’s far from a straightforward story. The movie’s three acts, told in reverse chronological order, weave in sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural elements that may have you scratching your head at the beginning and tearing up by the end. It’s hard to say much more about the film without giving away the twist — but we can tell you it’s worth watching for star Tom Hiddleston’s five-and-a-half-minute dance number alone. —Ashley Boucher

Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

Another Sundance darling, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore tells the story of deaf actress Marlee Matlin and her struggles as a child born to hearing parents to making history as the first deaf actor to win an Oscar and beyond. Director and producer Shoshannah Stern is also deaf, which allows her to tell Matlin’s story from the deaf perspective. Using American Sign Language and subtitles throughout, as well as her own onscreen conversations with Matlin, Stern foregrounds the deaf experience in her filmmaking, making it not just a compelling portrait of a groundbreaking artist but an innovative approach to documentary storytelling on the whole. —Maureen Lee Lenker

Sinners

The most talked-about movie of the year, and for good reason. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners sank its teeth into our necks in April and hasn’t let go since. Set in 1930s Mississippi, and loosely inspired by the director’s family’s real-life experiences in the Jim Crow South, the film is much more than your typical vampire story. In fact, the vamps don’t even show their real fangs until the third act, which culminates in a fiery, blood-soaked showdown of epic proportions. Instead, we spend most of our time with not one but two Michael B. Jordans, playing twins Smoke and Stack, two prodigal sons returned home from Chicago with plans to open a juke joint for the local community. Sexy, scary, and seductive, the film explores themes of race, ancestry, and violence, all set to the propulsive blues music that forms its beating heart. —Mike Miller

Sorry, Baby

Perhaps you’re one of the many who became a fan of Eva Victor over the last 10 years because of her satirical, deeply funny tweets and viral videos. Her feature directorial debut Sorry, Baby, in which she also stars and wrote, is rife with her sharp humor, all layered throughout a profound examination of a traumatic event that forever changes her character, Agnes. The laughs are a necessary tool — coping mechanism, even — to help Agnes move through life as she navigates a myriad emotions. It’s complicated and unassuming in the same beat, making this Sundance favorite one of the most thoughtful and unforgettable of the year. —Gerrad Hall

Thunderbolts*

We get it, “superhero fatigue” is a real thing. But superheroes, the Thunderbolts are not — and that is part of the reason Marvel’s latest is one of its best in years. Centered on Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, who we find lost, depressed, and ready to get out of the assassin business, she leads an unlikely new team of antiheroes to face down the person trying to take them out — while also facing their own inner demons. The unexpected emotional gut punch, along with huge laughs and exciting action, easily makes this one of the best trips to theaters this year. By now you hopefully know that the asterisk of the title is New Avengers, and we can’t wait to see Yelena, Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), U.S. Agent/John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) lead the franchise into its next phase. —Gerrad Hall

Read EW’s review of Thunderbolts*.