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<\/a><\/p>\n10. Die My Love<\/p>\n
The performance of the year. Jennifer Lawrence gives herself fully over to director Lynne Ramsey in a tale of what happens to you when the \u201chappily-ever-after\u201d life isn\u2019t going the way you had hoped. Lawrence gives a career-best performance of feral magnetism with a complete lack of inhibition or self-consciousness. Robert Pattinson does fine work as her clueless husband, while Sissy Spacek shows she can still deliver the goods as her mother-in-law, the only person who might actually understand what she is going through. It might not be for everyone, but it was certainly for me.<\/p>\n
9. No Other Choice<\/p>\n To say Park Chan-wook knows what he\u2019s doing is an understatement. Time and time again, the veteran director takes a difficult premise filled with unlikeable characters, and turns it into one of the most entertaining and funniest films of the year. It also helps when the premise has whip-smart political and social commentary. It also helps when Lee Byung-Hung and Son Ye-jin deliver some of the best performances of the year. It might not be the most accessible of films, but it is more than rewarding in today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n 8. Sinners<\/p>\n Just in case you weren\u2019t aware, director Ryan Coogler does not miss. Whether it\u2019s indie character dramas, legacy sequels, or big-budget comic book films, the guy has a complete handle on what the audience wants to see. Never before has it been so apparent with this film, delivering complex themes to go with top-notch craft across the board, but in a film about vampires. Michael B. Jordan once again proves to be the De Niro to Coogler\u2019s Scorsese, delivering a monumental performance as twin brothers searching for a dream at the wrong time. Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O\u2019Connell, Li Jun Li, Hailee Steinfeld, and newcomer Miles Caton bring the whole thing to glorious, music-filled life. Don\u2019t miss the mid-film performance from Caton of the song \u201cI Lied to You\u201d that transcends musical performance on film.<\/p>\n 7. Train Dreams<\/p>\n What direction do you take in life when the world never has much special use for you? Solitude is your saving grace until you realize how much you are alone. Once the world lets you in, you are shown how uncaring and unjust the world can be. It doesn\u2019t make it any less perfect in that time you had. It\u2019s not sad because you lost it. It\u2019s perfect because you had it. It\u2019s a special kind of film that can manufacture that much substance out of an incredibly sad narrative, but director Clint Bentley makes it sing with the most beautifully lensed and marvelously acted films. Joel Edgerton delivers a career-best performance with Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, Kerry Condon, and Nathaniel Arcand rounding out the pitch-perfect ensemble. It might not be the most important film, but it\u2019s one of the best.<\/p>\n 6. It Was Just an Accident<\/p>\n All the paranoia, anger, and fear of living in a country that doesn\u2019t like you must be awful. Director Jafar Panahi directs all his criticism of the Iranian regime into his film of eternal conflicts between justice and truth. Featuring the ensemble cast of the year, there is a constant tension of consequences coinciding with humor and paranoia. It also features the absolute best ending of the year, bar none.<\/p>\n 5. Sentimental Value<\/p>\n Director Joachim Trier and star Renate Reinsve teamed up for my favorite film of 2021, only to deliver another knockout for 2025. While a completely different experience from The Worst Person in the World, this film works as a good sister film, a good deadbeat-dad film, a good film about making films, a good film about being lonely, and a good film about unhealed trauma. There\u2019s a lot to cling to, whatever it is that you can grasp. All of that comes together in suitably dramatic ways, but without the melodrama. Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, Elle Fanning, and especially Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas all dial in pitch-perfect performances.<\/p>\n 4. Sorry, Baby<\/p>\n First-time director and star Eva Victor decides to make their first film and manages this perfect balance between dramatics without the draining, comedy without the cringe, and poignancy without pretentiousness. How they are able to balance it all without coming across as an amateur, I\u2019ll never know. They also deliver a stellar lead performance as a woman who can\u2019t reconcile the worst thing in her life. An exceptional piece of art from an exceptional artist. I can\u2019t wait to see what they do next. Make sure not to miss John Carroll Lynch in a one-scene powerhouse as a kind mind who gives Victor a sandwich.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n