Here’s HE’s latest rundown of the 2025 films that really deliver the goods vs. the ones that shouldn’t in all fairness be regarded as even semi-heavyweight, because they’re not.
Let’s start…no, let’s finish with Gold Derby’s latest Best Picture rankings vs. HE’s cut-the-crap assessments.
The sturdy, real-deal films that certainly (or in two cases reportedly) deserve top rankings, in part because they deliver (or are said to deliver) serious emotion:
1. Joachim Trier‘s Sentimental Value (generates honest current, nails it, gets nothing wrong)
2. Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another (except it’s against the vibe shift and isn’t exactly stirring the pots of the red-state bumblefucks)
3. Chloe Zhao‘s Hamnet (except it was overpraised in Telluride, and I know at least one critic who’s sorta kinda frowning)
4. Bradley Cooper‘s Is This Thing On? (won’t see it for another week or so, but I have a gut feeling…)
5. Zach Cregger‘s Weapons
6. Kaouther Ben Hania‘s The Voice of Hind Rajib
7. Craig Brewer‘s Song Sung Blue (gut feeling)
8. Hasan Hadi‘s The President’s Cake (brilliant, transporting)
9. Kent Jones‘ Late Fame
10. Kathryn Bigelow‘s A House of Dynamite
11. Noah Baumbach‘s Jay Kelly.
12. (Special Feature Documentary Stand-Out) David Kittredge‘s Boorman and the Devil.
Complete Unknowns (haven’t seen ’em, totally clueless):
1. Mary Bronstein‘s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
2. Benny Safdie‘s Marty Supreme
3. Scott Cooper‘s Deliver Me From Nowhere
HE’s Takedown List (i.e., get outta town, don’t even ask to come back until mid ’26):
1. Sinners (ballgame’s over, nominations but no wins, overpraised by TikTokers…sorry, Coogler!)
2. Wicked: For Good (forget it, get outta here)
3. It Was Just An Accident (way overpraised in Cannes)
4. Avatar: Fire and Ash (not a chance)
5. Frankenstein (forget it)
6, No Other Choice (Park Chan Wook‘s best days are behind him)
7. The Secret Agent (way overpraised in Cannes)