There are Academy Award nominated flicks. There are two films for 1995. There’s table tennis. Here are the best movies we saw in theatres in 2025.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

Seeing Warren Oates grime his way through Mexico on a grisly mission outlined in the title of the film? Pretty great. Seeing it on the big screen as part of George Pelecanos’ film series of his favorite crime films? Even better. Pelecanos, a local guy, introducing the movie, then sticking around to shoot the breeze about it after the movie? Priceless. -Jason Dick

Before Sunrise (1995)

We were lucky enough to catch a screening of Before Sunrise at Chicago’s Music Box Theater back in March, there’s nothing better than that movie, except maybe Before Sunset. -Matt Byrne

A Goofy Movie (1995)

It’s not a good movie, but I’m including it here because the experience of seeing a film with your kid is one of the best things. I’ve taken my kids to AFI Silver three times over the last three years for daytime flicks of ‘classic’ movies and cartoons. Unfortunately, these screenings are rare. HEY MOVIE THEATER BOOKERS, BOOK SOME MORE GOD DAMN KIDS FILMS ON DAYS KIDS ARE OFF SCHOOL! YOU ARE LEAVING SO MUCH MONEY ON THE TABLE!!! YOU DO NOT NEED TO OBTAIN THE BEST LOOKING VERSION OF THESE FLICKS EITHER! THIS IS TO INDOCTRINATE CHILDREN, NOT PLEASE FILM BUFFS! -Brandon Wetherbee

Marty Supreme (2025)

A well-deserved Best Picture nomination, an even more deserved Best Director nomination and absolutely warranted Best Actor nomination. Whoever had to figure out how to market this movie had a hell of a job. -Brandon Wetherbee

One Battle After Another (2025)

This movie is just great. Its source material, Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, gets an update from Paul Thomas Anderson that takes all the zaniness of Pynchon’s prose about the political fallout of the Vietnam War and the War on Drugs and places it in a contemporary setting we all recognize with the biggest movie stars around. Andreson makes the material his own, and flashes action movie bona fides with a car chase that ranks up there with the ones in “The French Connection,” “Bullitt,” and “To Live and Die in LA.” Seeing it on a big screen, projected from a 70mm film print made it all the better. -Jason Dick

Sinners (2025)

New York Times, NPR, The Hollywood Reporter, and President Barack Obama have all listed Sinners in their best movie roundups of 2025 for good reason. It is a fantastic film. That was not the reason why it was the best movie I saw in theaters this year, though. I realized this film could serve as a dating litmus test. I saw the movie in theaters for the first time with someone I had been dating for a few months. After the movie was over, he said he liked it but did not get the hype. He did not get why people were going crazy for a vampire thriller movie set in 1930s Mississippi. He had also missed the larger story about the music industry’s exploitation of Black artists. It was our last date. -Nicole Schaller 

Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

During its perfunctory theatrical run, one day before Netflix announced a WB takeover bid.  -Tony Beasley

Weapons (2025)

Like The Substance last year, this is the movie of the year for going a second (or third) time for audience watching. It’s funny, it’s scary, often in the same scene and on a couple occasions the same shot. What a picture! -Joe McAdam

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