The best movies of 2025 so far
Discover the best movies of 2025 released so far, ranked by Metacritic scores. From powerful documentaries to gripping dramas and animated gems, these are the must-watch films of the year.
By Amber ChenApril 23 2025, Published 12:56 p.m. ET
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, 2025 has the potential to do it.
The first few months of the year are generally slow in Hollywood, with most studios holding off on releasing the biggest titles until a bit later in the year. Looking ahead, 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 "Lilo & Stitch" remake in May 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 April 2, 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 to gripping foreign films, these are the 2025 films most deserving of your attention.
#20. Every Little Thing
- Director: Sally Aitken
- Metascore: 74
- IMDB user rating: 7.1
- 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.
#19. My Dead Friend Zoe
- Director: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
- Metascore: 75
- IMDB user rating: 6.7
- Run time: 1 hour 43 minutes
"My Dead Friend Zoe" follows an Afghanistan vet whose dead comrade is a constant presence in her life as she faces conflict with her therapist and her ailing Vietnam vet grandfather. Based in part on director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes' own military experiences, the film is an exploration of PTSD that includes appearances from real-life service members. But as the Willamette Week puts it, it isn't "a love letter to the armed forces" so much as a movie that "emphasizes the need for community and a space to share trauma."
#18. Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
- Director: Bruce David Klein
- Metascore: 76
- IMDB user rating: 7.8
- 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 an all-new perspective on the legendary performer. The film, broken into separate chapters looking at periods of her personal and professional life, feels intimate and affectionate, possessing what a RogerEbert.com critic 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.
#17. Presence
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Metascore: 77
- IMDB user rating: 6.1
- 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 a typical ghost movie—there are no jump scares, for one thing. Instead, "Presence" makes the viewer 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 others have praised director Steven Soderbergh's controlled style, noting that it makes the climax all the more effective.
#16. Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)
- Director: Questlove
- Metascore: 77
- IMDB user rating: 7.7
- Run time: 1 hour 52 minutes
"Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius)" looks at the life and legacy of funk musician Sly Stone. The documentary, filled with rich archival footage and interviews, has been described as "dazzling and definitive" by Variety and praised by NPR for its honesty in depicting the alienating aspects of Black excellence.
Even for folks who know little about Sly and the Family Stone—or who have minimal appreciation for funk music—the film is an excellent primer on the ups and downs of the entertainment industry.
#15. 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. As 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?
#14. The Ballad of Wallis Island
- Director: James Griffiths
- Metascore: 78
- IMDB user rating: 7.8
- Run time: 1 hour 39 minutes
In "The Ballad of Wallis Island," a reclusive lottery winner invites his favorite folk band to play a private concert for him on the remote island he calls home. It's a simple enough ask, but the fact that the band consists of two exes—including one who brings her new partner along for the ride—makes things much more complicated.
Starring Tim Key, Tom Basden, and Carey Mulligan, the quiet film is loosely based on a short film Basden and Key made with director James Griffiths nearly two decades ago. The Chicago Sun-Times called it "a gentle ode to moving on," and the kind of movie that won't "dominate any cultural conversations … but [will] touch your soul if you let it."
#13. An Unfinished Film
- Director: Ye Lou
- Metascore: 78
- IMDB user rating: 7.2
- Run time: 1 hour 45 minutes
"An Unfinished Film" is referred to as "docufiction," meaning it's a fictional movie inspired by real events and incorporating documentary elements. Set in January 2020, the movie follows a film crew reuniting near Wuhan, China, to finish a project they were forced to abandon a decade earlier. Their plans are, of course, foiled by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are forced into lockdown.
Interspersed with real smartphone footage from Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic, the movie perfectly encapsulates what it was like to live during that time, particularly at the epicenter. Variety writes, "Few films have so skillfully captured the way COVID caused such traumatic temporal disruptions in its early days, wherein sudden changes in physical and emotional routine caused time to both stretch and collapse."
#12. Grand Tour
- Director: Miguel Gomes
- Metascore: 80
- IMDB user rating: 6.6
- Run time: 2 hours 8 minutes
A historical drama set in 1918, "Grand Tour" is about a young man who abandons his fiancée on the eve of their wedding, only to have her set out in search of him. As they each traipse across East and Southeast Asia, fictional scenes of their story are interspersed with real documentary footage (some from the turn of the century, some more modern).
Director Miguel Gomes told Vulture the film was meant to evoke "the spectacle of the world," prompting audiences to look more closely at their own worlds. The visually intoxicating movie resists the audience's need to understand what's going on, choosing instead to inspire wonder and the sense that "reality is often magical and inscrutable."
#11. Grand Theft Hamlet
- Directors: Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls
- Metascore: 82
- IMDB user rating: 6.9
- 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."
#10. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
- Directors: Merlin Crossingham, Nick Park
- Metascore: 83
- IMDB user rating: 7.5
- 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 the 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" was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards.
#9. From Ground Zero
- Directors: Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, Basil Al-Maqousi, and others
- 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. Through true 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. A RogerEbert.com critic called it "a rare work for which superlatives are not only inadequate but useless," writing that the film "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."
#8. Jazzy
- Director: Morissa Maltz
- Metascore: 83
- IMDB user rating: 6.1
- Run time: 1 hour 26 minutes
Set in the same universe as director Morrisa Maltz's debut film "The Unknown Country," "Jazzy" is a coming-of-age drama that follows a young Oglala Lakota girl. The movie is based on the real-life experiences of Maltz's goddaughter, Jasmine Bearkiller Shangreaux, with the narrative following Jazzy and her best friend over six years as they navigate crushes, life's twists and turns, and the challenges of friendship. Called "scrappy," "loose-limbed," and "meditative" by Variety, the film beautifully encapsulates those messy adolescent years.
#7. Misericordia
- Director: Alain Guiraudie
- Metascore: 83
- IMDB user rating: 6.9
- Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes
At the start of "Misericordia," a man arrives at a village in rural France to attend the funeral of his former boss. The widow, vaguely aware of the man's affair with her late husband, invites him to stay, only to see tensions arise between her new houseguest and her son.
RogerEbert.com described the thriller as "a morbid comedy of errors" and "a metaphysical, character-driven drama about the mysteries and absurdities of human attraction." It's exactly the Hitchcockian sort of movie for which writer/director Alain Guiraudie, who made 2013's "Stranger by the Lake," has become known.
#6. Eephus
- Director: Carson Lund
- Metascore: 83
- IMDB user rating: 7.2
- Run time: 1 hour 39 minutes
Set in the '90s, "Eephus" centers on two amateur baseball teams playing one last game in their home stadium before it gets demolished. Subtle, slow-moving, and without the overtly emotional arc that's central to most sports films, the movie still manages to be a touching and funny tribute to the country's national pastime. WBUR called it "the best baseball movie since 'Bull Durham'—or maybe 'Bad Lieutenant'—because it explores this sport's peculiar ability to bend and distort time."
#5. Universal Language
- Director: Matthew Rankin
- Metascore: 84
- IMDB user rating: 7.1
- Run time: 1 hour 29 minutes
"Universal Language" is an absurdist comedy set in a reimagined Canada where Persian and French are the official languages. The film contains three separate narratives that are seemingly unconnected. Reminiscent of the Iranian New Wave cinematic movement, the movie may be too bizarre for some—the action is interspersed with asides, like a faux '80s-style commercial selling turkeys. But for those willing to get on its wavelength, the film delivers a story that is "familiar and strange to us, welcoming but odd, funny, and tender," per RogerEbert.com.
#4. I'm Still Here
- Director: Walter Salles
- Metascore: 85
- IMDB user rating: 8.3
- 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 Oscar nominee Fernanda Torres, the movie was also nominated for Best Picture and won the Academy Award for 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.
#3. Black Bag
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Metascore: 85
- IMDB user rating: 7.2
- Run time: 1 hour 33 minutes
Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, and Pierce Brosnan lead the cast of this spy thriller that follows a British intelligence officer who is tasked with investigating a list of possible traitors. One of the names on that list? The wife he's deeply devoted to.
"Black Bag" has tonal similarities to a James Bond movie, but with a subtler and more darkly comedic approach. RogerEbert.com called the Steven Soderbergh effort "absolutely delicious, a svelte piece of entertainment that feels like a vintage yarn yet very much represents our own current anxieties, questions of sustaining trust in relationships and high-stake careers."
#2. Viet and Nam
- Director: Minh Quy Truong
- Metascore: 85
- IMDB user rating: 6.4
- Run time: 2 hours 9 minutes
Two coal miners dream of a better future in this LGBTQ+ romantic drama. Banned in its home country of Vietnam for its "gloomy, deadlocked and negative" views of the nation and its people, the movie wrestles with the effects of the Vietnam War, the difficulties of immigration, and the realities of being in a same-sex relationship in a country where that is still widely regarded as taboo. The expressionist movie has been described by critics as "abstract" and "dreamlike."
#1. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
- Director: Rungano Nyoni
- Metascore: 87
- IMDB user rating: 7.2
- Run time: 1 hour 39 minutes
"On Becoming a Guinea Fowl" opens with the main character stumbling across the body of her dead uncle, lying on the road in the middle of the night. As her extended Zambian family prepares for Uncle Fred's funeral, long-held family secrets begin to come to light and force a reckoning. A mix of dark comedy and serious drama, the movie has plenty to say about the challenges of processing complex emotions and the temptation to live in denial.
Data reporting by Wade Zhou. Story editing by Louis Peitzman. Copy editing by Tim Bruns and Kristen Wegrzyn.
