Marty Supreme & Train Dreams Are Among The Best Movies Of 2025

2025 ended up being a pretty decent year for movies. It's not at the same level at the all-time great years like 1999, 2007 or 2019 but I think it's the best movie year of the decade thus far. There were good crowd pleasers like Superman, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Final Destination: Bloodlines and Fantastic Four. You also had some quality smaller movies like The Life Of Chuck, The Long Walk, The Ballad Of Wallis Island, Black Bag and Presence.

But what the year in film will be most remembered for will be it's 6 great movies: Sinners, Weapons, One Battle After Another, Sentimental Value and two movies reviewed here: Marty Supreme and Train Dreams.

I also have reviews of some other top movies of this year like Song Sung Blue, Is This Thing On? and No Other Choice as well as my list of all the 2025 movies ranked.

Marty Supreme is the best movie I’ve seen in 2025. It’s exciting, funny and makes you think not just about ambition but what the cost is for it. It also has a performance by Timothee Chalamet that you have to see to believe. 

This takes the panic attack urgency from Uncut Gems (which I also loved) and somehow improves on it by smoothing the edges a bit and giving you characters you care a little more about. It now enters the class of the greatest New York City movies that allows you to love the city but also rubs your face in the dirt of it all.

It’s not just Chalamet that is incredible here. Kevin O’Leary is fantastic. So is Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion. You can make a case that all should get Oscar nominations.

This is now right up there with the best sports movies of all time with one of the great performances of the entire decade by Chalamet. Josh Safdie has directed a masterpiece that doesn’t just ask if dreams are worth it, but whether we are even dreaming of the right thing.

Marty Supreme: A

Train Dreams may be the most poignant, heartbreaking and human movie to come out this year. It also shows how the simplest stories can often be so much more powerful than those with giant stakes.

This is a beautiful film by Clint Bentley (who also directed the very good Jockey). The Washington wilderness shown here is stunning. You feel like you are in the early days of the 20th century with these people. Joel Edgerton gives a brilliant performance as Robert Grainier, a logger who is a kind man living in a harsh time. This is also such a beautiful love story.

I left this movie feeling like a richer person for seeing this story. Train Dreams does what art achieves to be, but rarely can capture.

Train Dreams: A-

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Song Sung Blue is one of the kindest and sweetest movies to come out all year. But what makes it really good is that it doesn’t take any easy ways out. 

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson (she’s so good, she deserves a serious Oscar look) do a fantastic job playing people that feel real. They have real struggles and life doesn’t come easy to them. But, they work hard and do the best they can. What is more relatable than that? This isn’t a holiday movie but it’s perfect for this time of year. This is something you can go see with parents, siblings and even grandparents. There is something for everyone in this. 

Oh yeah, you also get great Neil Diamond songs throughout. This gets a heavy recommendation from me.

Song Sung Blue: B+

I loved the first half of Is This Thing On more than the second. The initial hour of the movie does a great job showing how painful divorce can be but also how having a passion in something can be such a big help when everything else in your life is difficult.

The second half is weighed down by contrived coincidences and forced issues. This is still a movie I greatly recommend but it falls short of greatness because of the back half.

What is incredible is Will Arnett’s performance. He’s authentic, vulnerable and honest throughout. It’s an interesting character that you’re not just rooting for but you’re also completely understanding. I should mention that Laura Dern is also very good throughout in a tough role.

Bradley Cooper has become a director that I’m more and more impressed by. I really liked A Star Is Born but then to make something very different here is quite an accomplishment. This didn’t quite live up to the first hour but I still am very happy I saw this.

Is This Thing On?: B+

No Other Choice is a skillful look at employment and work along with the pressures of having a family. Park Chan-wook is a brilliant director and can make standard shots pop off the screen. Despite all that, this isn’t a great movie for me. It’s simply very good. And that’s totally fine.

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We live in a time where everything has to be great or awful. Lots of critics have this as one of, if not the best movie of 2025. It just falls a little short for me. The third act just takes too long to resolve itself. 

I still liked this movie very much and people hopefully won’t let subtitles get in the way. The performances are very good. Sometimes the tension was just too stretched out for me.

I didn’t think it was amazing but it’s still worth seeing. And if you agree with many other people, you may end up loving it more than I did.

No Other Choice: B

2025
1)MARTY SUPREME
2)Sinners
3)Weapons
4)One Battle After Another
5)Sentimental Value
6)TRAIN DREAMS
7)Caught Stealing
8)The Long Walk
9)Presence
10)The Life Of Chuck
11)Black Bag
12)The Ballad Of Wallis Island
13)Warfare
14)Friendship
15)Bugonia
16)Superman
17)SONG SUNG BLUE
18)IS THIS THING ON?
19)Mission Impossible 8
20)Nuremberg
21)28 Years Later
22)Novocaine
23)Fantastic Four
24)Roofman
25)The Naked Gun
26)Blue Moon
27)NO OTHER CHOICE
28)Eternity
29)Final Destination 6
30)Frankenstein
31)The Amateur
32)Drop
33)Dangerous Animals
34)Predator: Badlands
35)Together
36)Black Phone 2
37)Death Of A Unicorn
38)The Accountant 2
39)The Damned
40)One Of Them Days
41)Materialists
42)Lilo & Stitch
43)Paddington 3
44)Thunderbolts
45)F1
46)The Housemaid
47)Zootopia 2
48)The Smashing Machine
49)Clown In A Cornfield
50)Bring Her Back
51)Truth & Treason
52)Knives Out 3
53)Hell Of A Summer
54)Karate Kid 6
55)Avatar 3
56)Good Boy
57)Downton Abbey 3
58)Silent Night, Deadly Night
59)The Running Man
60)Fackham Hall
61)Fight Or Flight
62)Valiant One
63)Sisu 2
64)Sketch
65)The Roses
66)How To Train Your Dragon
67)Elio
68)Rule Breakers
69)If I Had Legs
70)Heart Eyes
71)The Conjuring 4
72)Mickey17
73)The Surfer
74)Relay
75)Rental Family
76)Hamnet
77)Tron 3
78)Last Breath
79)Flight Risk
80)Springsteen
81)Minecraft
82)Den Of Thieves 2
83)Dogman
84)Companion
85)Eddington
86)Good Fortune
87)Jurassic World Rebirth
88)Christy
89)The Senior
90)KPop Demon Hunters
91)Die My Love
92)Now You 3 Me
93)Spinal Tap 2
94)Merrily We Roll Along
95)Bone Lake
96)The Toxic Avenger
97)Wicked 2
98)Ballerina
99)A Working Man
100)The Last Rodeo
101)Taylor Swift: Showgirl
102)David
103)Shadow Force
104)The Alto Knights
105)Honey Don’t
106)The Bad Guys 2
107)The Penguin Lessons
108)The Chosen Part 2
109)Looney Tunes
110)Opus
111)Anaconda
112)M3GAN 2
113)SpongeBob SquarePants 4
114)A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey
115)Becoming Led Zeppelin
116)Captain America: BNW
117)Jay Kelly
118)I Know What You Did Last Summer
119)Until Dawn
120)Soul On Fire
121)After The Hunt
122)Ne Zha 2
123)The Chosen Part 1
124)Riff Raff
125)The Home
126)Stitch Head
127)Kiss Of The Spider Woman
128)Freakier Friday
129)Inheritance
130)Nobody 2
131)The Chosen Part 3
132)The Wedding Banquet
133)Regretting You
134)Smurfs
135)The Legend Of Ochi
136)Night Of The Zoopocalypse
137)Chainsaw Man
138)Pets On A Train
139)Demon Slayer
140)The Phoenician Scheme
141)Sarah’s Oil
142)Sneaks
143)Ash
144)Jujutsu Kaiden 2
145)Ella McCay
146)The King Of Kings
147)The Friend
148)The Christmas Ring
149)Jujutsu Kaiden 3
150)Dan Da Dan 2
151)Light Of The World
152)Snow White
153)The Unbreakable Boy
154)Keeper
155)Night’s At Freddy’s
156)Gabby’s Dollhouse
157)Brave The Dark
158)Wolf Man
159)Hurry Up Tomorrow
160)The Monkey
161)Love Hurts
162)Him
163)The Strangers 2
164)The Last Supper
165)Woman In The Yard
166)Bride Hard
167)Shelby Oaks
168)Juliet & Romeo
169)In The Lost Lands