As 2025 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our eyes on titles that may have slipped through the cracks or simply gone unseen, so—as we do each year—we’re sharing a rundown of the best titles available to watch at home.
Curated from the Best Films of 2025 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some with which we’ve recently caught up. While our year-end coverage is still to come, including our staff’s top 50 films of 2025, this streaming guide will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to find notable––perhaps underseen––titles of late.
Note that we’re going by 2025 U.S. releases and that streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with new titles being made available, check out our weekly column. In the meantime, see our rundown below, which will be updated as new titles hit streaming services, so make sure to bookmark. And be sure to catch up on recommended theatrical releases here.
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)
Armed with a bevy of iPhones, 28 Years Later is definitely an “I’ve still got the moves” gesture from Boyle. It’s a case where his frenetic energy, paired with returning writer Alex Garland’s structurally odd screenplay, creates a film that one never feels a step ahead of––a deep compliment for something about to be unleashed on multiplexes. Even if that doesn’t necessarily result in a great film, per se. – Ethan V. (full review)
Afternoons of Solitude (Albert Serra)
Albert Serra’s new film Afternoons of Solitude is more akin to two hours of Sky Sports than you’d expect from the guy who once made Story of My Death. Following the rules, if not the spirit, of ever-festival-fashionable observational and direct cinema, we spend most of its runtime in long takes observing Spanish bullfighting rings, our eyes focused on Andrés Roca Rey, a Peruvian “exemplar” of the sport engaged in utmost, ritualized savagery. We’re very sensitized to the constructed and artificial nature of documentary now, but Serra’s prime achievement here is to achieve an objectivity of perspective. Commanded by DP Arthur Tort, it’s not a leering camera, and the editing patterns don’t cut to close-ups coercing us into disapproval, to achieve a a rapport where we can agree “this is awful, isn’t it.” It suggests an anthropological record of a pastime deserving our deference and grudging respect, yet equally an indictment of something barbaric and finally absurd. Roca, shown in power stance with his eyes focused and vulnerable like the poor bull’s, seems both hero and villain of the piece, but those categories also fail to apply here. Framed sculpturally and monumentally, as a body in cinematic space, he merely is. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Apocalypse in the Tropics (Petra Costa)
Five years, the closest presidential election in Brazilian history, and one insurrection after her last examination of Brazil’s tumultuous socio-political sphere, Petra Costa––the brilliant documentarian behind Elena and The Edge of Democracy––hones in on Jair Bolsonaro, the radical evangelical right that won him the presidency in 2018, and the theocracy they collectively fight to instate. With Costa’s nearly unfettered access to the main characters of modern Brazilian politics, the events of Apocalypse in the Tropics practically unfold in real time––a thrilling, profound documentary horror. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)
If a James Bond or Mission: Impossible film excised all its action scenes––save a stray explosion or gunshot––while employing a script with a pop John le Carré sensibility, it might resemble something like Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag. A hyper-slick, suave spy thriller, it’s mainly relegated to dinner tables and office rooms as stages for rapid-fire, gleefully barbed verbal sparring scripted by David Koepp, returning to the genre after Ethan Hunt’s first outing. Primarily focusing on a trio of couples working in British intelligence, Koepp’s script poses the question: it is possible to have a healthy relationship when there’s no such thing as separating work from life, particularly when your job description is one of a professional liar? – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Prime Video, VOD
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)
Jia Zhangke’s is often a cinema of déjà vu: “We’re again in the northern Chinese city of Datong,” Giovanni Marchini Camia wrote for Sight and Sound back in 2019, “it’s again the start of the new millennium, Qiao is again dating a mobster, yet no one else makes a reappearance and there are enough differences to signal that this isn’t a sequel or remake.” Camia was writing about Ash Is Purest White yet much of the same could be said for Caught by the Tides, the director’s latest experiment in plundering his archive––indeed his memories––and spinning what he finds into something new. The protagonist of Tides is again named Qiao and is again played by Zhao Tao, appearing here in more than 20 years of the director’s footage and allowing the viewer to watch that singular creative partnership evolve in real time––one of the great treasures of contemporary cinema. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel, VOD
Cloud (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
We might not be quite into late-period Kurosawa just yet, but after four decades behind the camera there are already signs of that same lack of fuss to his filmmaking. Just watch the opening sequence of Cloud, which delivers a full psychological profile of the film’s protagonist before even a title card appears. This sequence sees our dubiously motivated reseller flip a haul of medical equipment: ruthlessly haggling the seller down; meticulously setting up the listing; and then the anxious wait, first as he hovers over the sale price and then watching from afar as the products get snapped up, one by one; letting out a small, haunting sigh of ecstasy as the final item turns from white to red. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel, VOD
Eddington (Ari Aster)
In Eddington, Ari Aster’s latest doom spiral, the proposed building of a data center in nowhere New Mexico provides the catalyst for a long-overdue psychological breakdown. The man in question is Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), whose perceived list of ills includes a worryingly online mother-in-law (Deirdre O’Connell), a disinterested, catatonic wife (Emma Stone), a woke mayor (Pedro Pascal) with plans to build a state of the art data centre, and the familiar inconveniences of COVID-19. Should even reading that word cause discomfort, it’s nothing if not intended: since rewiring the horror genre with A24, Aster has been repositioning himself as cinema’s patron saint of debilitating anxiety. Hereditary is probably best-remembered for its brutal decapitation but, all these years later, one suspects the scariest thing for Aster was whether or not his protagonist, an artist with an imminent exhibition and a nervy benefactor, will make her deadline. – Rory O. (full review)
Eephus (Carson Lund)
If the perfect sports movie illuminates the fundamentals that make one fall in love with the game, there may be no better movie about baseball than Carson Lund’s Eephus. Structured solely around a single round of America’s national pastime, Lund’s debut feature beautifully, humorously articulates the particular nuances, rhythms, and details of an amateur men’s league game. By subverting tropes of the standard sports movie––which often captures peak physical performance in front of legions of adoring fans––Lund has crafted something far more singularly compelling. Rather than grand slams and no-hitters, there are errors aplenty and no shortage of beer guts and weathered muscles amongst the motley crew. Lund is more interested in examining the peculiar set of social codes that only apply when one is on the field, unimpeded by life’s responsibilities and entirely focused on the rules of the game. – Jordan R. (full review)
Familiar Touch (Sarah Friedland)
In a sunny kitchen in California, Ruth prepares a sandwich with the muscle memory that only a lifetime allows. Bread is toasted and left to cool; dill is picked and chopped efficiently; sour cream, radish, and salmon are arranged to resemble a blooming flower. After going to get ready, she serves it to a man named Steve (H. Jon Benjamin) who she doesn’t seem to recognize. When he tells her he’s an architect, she responds, “My father builds homes. Maybe you’ll meet him one day.” Caught off-guard, her son can only offer a loving smile and say “I’d like that.” This uncertain space––part clarity, part blur––is the subject of Sarah Friedland’s moving debut feature Familiar Touch. – Rory O. (full review)
Friendship (Andrew DeYoung)
The level of enjoyment audience members will have with Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship is tied directly to their tolerance for the humor of Tim Robinson. The star of the meme-inspiring Netflix series I Think You Should Leave has cultivated a devoted following by creating situations of embarrassment and characters who veer wildly from absurdist rage to complete self-delusion. (See the infamous “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this” meme.) In my mind, I Think You Should Leave is the funniest series of the last decade or so. While Robinson’s full-length feature as star does not reach his show’s highs, it’s still a hysterically funny, pitch-black comedy. – Christopher S. (full review)
Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
If Chris Marker and Preston Sturges ever made a film together, it might have looked something like Grand Tour, a sweeping tale that moves from Rangoon to Manila, via Bangkok, Saigon and Osaka, as it weaves the stories of two disparate lovers towards a fateful reunion. The stowaways could scarcely be more Sturgian: he the urbane man on the run, she the intrepid woman trying to track him down. Their scenes are set in 1917 and shot in a classical studio style, yet they’re delivered within a contemporary travelogue––as if we are not only following their epic romance but a director’s own wanderings. – Rory O. (full review)
Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee)
Spike Lee’s first narrative feature in five years, Highest 2 Lowest brings Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low to the modern era in a place the filmmaker has spent his life capturing in every detail. The NYC-set crime drama, also marking a fifth teaming with Denzel Washington after Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, He Got Game, and Inside Man, is a wonderful showcase for the endlessly charismatic actor. While the narrative may take some time to heat up, once it gets going, it’s one of the director’s most purely pleasurable outings in some time. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Apple TV
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein)
Many films, from the classic melodrama Mildred Pierce to last year’s playful dramedy Nightbitch, have tried to depict the unique struggles of motherhood with a focus on the special intimacy of child-rearing. Mothers have long borne the brunt and most of the blame for how their children behave in the world. Fatherhood is considered more optional, and the bar to clear for being good at it is much lower. These may seem like obvious statements, but they bear repeating in an American society that villainizes birth control and abortion. America wants women to bear children and then provide them with none of the emotional or monetary support for them to thrive and have their own personal lives. In recent years, filmmakers have tried to illustrate the darker side of motherhood, with films like Tully getting at the exhaustion and loss of self that can happen therein. In the aforementioned Nightbitch, Amy Adams plays a woman who realizes how lost and hopeless she feels as a stay-at-home mother, having given up her career to spend more time with her son. No matter how often they cry out for help, our patriarchal society pressures them to push themselves all the way to the edge. – Jourdain S. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
MEGADOC (Mike Figgis)
A risky filmmaking project with Francis Ford Coppola––what could go wrong? Or more accurately: imagine what might go legendarily right. Not all of his films have had troubled, turbulent productions, but the essential chaos of creativity he tries to harness––and the necessary friction that results with his collaborators––is how he ultimately thrives. Subtract all of these factors, and the result probably turns out like Jack. – David K. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
In a career spanning four decades and eight features, Alain Guiraudie has cemented himself as one of our most astute chroniclers of desire. If there’s any leitmotif to his libidinous body of work, that’s not homosexuality (prevalent as same-sex encounters might be across his films) but a force that transcends all manner of labels and categories. His is a cinema of liberty: of vast, enchanted spaces and solitary wanderers who wrestle with their passions, and in acting them out, change the way they carry themselves into the world. Desire becomes an exercise in self-sovereignty, a way of reasserting one’s independence––a rebirth. It is often said that cinema is an inescapably scopophilic realm, where the act of looking is itself a source of pleasure, but Guiraudie has a way of making that dynamic feel egalitarian, as thrilling for those watching as it is for those being watched. – Leo G. (full review)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel, VOD
Mr. Scorsese (Rebecca Miller)
The only flaw of Rebecca Miller’s riveting documentary on the legendary Martin Scorsese is that it would work even better if it expanded from five hours to, say, 27, devoting a full episode to each narrative feature he’s made. Instead we get a breathlessly-paced tour through the director’s work, featuring new anecdotes from the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Thelma Schoonmaker, Steven Spielberg, and the director himself. While there’s unfortunately not a frame on his only family film, Hugo (a curious omission considering how much of the film is spent on Scorsese’s family), there’s a treasure trove of insights when it comes to the making and impact of the rest of his towering body of work. Here’s hoping other living legends will sit down for similar projects while there’s still time for such a priceless gift. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Apple TV
The Naked Gun (Akiva Schaffer)
The funniest movie of the year, and a welcome success at the box office, Akiva Schaffer’s remake is spoof done very right. Starring Liam Neeson as Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. and Pamela Anderson as would-be femme fatale Beth Davenport, The Naked Gun does not rest on the laurels of the Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker films to which it is paying homage. There is a joke every ten seconds and nearly every one of them hits. Neeson plays it straight as a razor, while Anderson has a stand-out moment: scatting at a jazz club. Danny Huston sends up his own villain persona and Dave Bautista tags in for a hysterical cameo. Hyperbole is a crutch, but The Naked Gun gives me hope in the world. – Dan M.
Where to Stream: Paramount+, VOD
ouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
Shot on black-and-white film with the same Cameflex model used by Jean-Luc Godard for Breathless––the film it portrays and embodies the making of––Nouvelle Vague is not merely an imitation of Godard. It’s a theft of Godard for a creation all its own, which is a strange thing to say about a movie that looks and feels so much like the one that inspired it. Richard Linklater’s newest, despite suggesting no form of his past work, rings much like Linklater. – Luke H. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson)
Like all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, his tenth feature One Battle After Another is a rich text. A deeply-layered narrative that’s as funny as it is moving, the movie jumps from the U.S.-Mexican border to Baktan Cross—and from drama to comedy and back again—with breakneck speed. The story itself is fairly straightforward, especially compared with the other entries in Anderson’s filmography: Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, an ex-revolutionary who must protect his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) after an old nemesis (Sean Penn) reappears. Read Cory Everett’s full feature.
Where to Stream: VOD
The Perfect Neighbor (Geeta Gandbhir)
First coming under wider scrutiny in 2005 when passed in Florida, the stand-your-ground law allows property owners to use deadly force to defend their home from trespassers. The foreseeable result has been an uptick in homicides and a proven racial bias when it comes to the number of white shooters and Black victims. While there’s an overwhelming amount of data and cases a documentary could explore on the issue, Geeta Gandbhir’s gripping, infuriating The Perfect Neighbor takes an objectively narrow, focused approach, exploring a single case in Florida primarily through police bodycam and CCTV interrogation footage. Initial police calls involving a neighbor upset at the children trespassing on her property shockingly escalates in a single moment; Gandbhir lets the footage speak for itself, creating a documentary far more upsetting and impactful than any number of talking heads could provide. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)
We begin with music that’s uncharacteristically tense for a Wes Anderson film––chugging cellos leading a full orchestra that’s more Mission: Impossible than Moonrise Kingdom––and opener à la Nolan blockbusters: an assassination attempt. It’s an exhilarating launch into a story that starts petering out soon after. Renowned criminal mastermind Zsa Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) sits before a gorgeously designed train car much like the off-white, wooden, burgundy, and plaid train car that will take him and his associates around Phoenicia for the rest of the movie. An unfortunate associate is crammed into the back corner. Without warning, a bomb obliterates any semblance of said corner, and we launch into The Phoenician Scheme, never to take a breath. – Luke H. (full review)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
David Cronenberg has only grown sharper and more devastating in reckonings with the body. After his long-awaited return with Crimes of the Future, Cronenberg quickly followed it up with The Shrouds, a darkly funny, mournful conspiracy thriller led by Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, and newly minted Oscar nominee Guy Pearce. Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “David Cronenberg’s films have often imagined a future where technology would find a way into our collective id. 55 years into the director’s incomparable career, might that future have finally caught up with him? In Cronenberg’s new film––the slick, scrambled The Shrouds––there are two barely speculative conceits: that an AI chatbot could be designed to look like a recently deceased love one; and primarily, that a company might have the bright idea to wrap a blanket of HD cameras around our nearest and dearest before they’re sent six-feet-under, allowing us to check in on their decaying corpse, all with the click of an app.”
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel, VOD
Sorry, Baby (Eva Victor)
Agnes’ (Eva Victor) life is defined by a sense of stagnancy. Four years after completing grad school in rural New England, she’s living in the same house and going to the same building, only now as a professor. Whatever true joy she seems to experience is infrequent visits from her best friend and former roommate Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who has moved on, starting a family in New York City. As Victor assiduously peels back the layers of her sharp, unnerving, witty feature debut Sorry, Baby, the reason for being stuck in time becomes clear: in her final days of grad school she was raped by her advisor, who quickly deserted the town, leaving no culpability and even less sense of justice or closure. – Jordan R. (full review)
Sinners (Ryan Coogler)
Yet Sinners mainly feels so refreshing when this richness of text can easily be overlooked for enjoyment of an unholy hybrid of period drama and horror freakout, Coogler showing as much reverence for the genre as he does the centuries of music which guide this story (and Ludwig Göransson’s excellent score). Most importantly, he remembers that the archetypal vampire tale is an inherently horny one, and he pulls some tricks from Luca Guadagnino’s book for making sexually explicit stories which play even more erotically from what they withhold. Every sex scene features fully clothed actors, but all contain dialogue, or specific kinky details, which serve to remind us that, Dracula onwards, the best vampire stories are carnal ones where characters’ lust is baked into the premise. – Alistair R. (full review)
The Sparrow in the Chimney (Ramon Zürcher)
There’s something electrifying about watching a filmmaker break free from well-worn formulas and push themselves into new, uncharted territory. The Sparrow in the Chimney, Ramon Zürcher’s third feature, is the final installment in a trilogy of highly flammable chamber dramas. Anyone familiar with the previous two, 2013’s The Strange Little Cat and 2021’s The Girl and the Spider––the latter written and directed with twin brother Silvan, who’s produced all his sibling’s projects––will likely remember the clash between their austere mise-en-scène and the tempestuous conflicts that coursed through them. Captured in largely static shots among contained locales (an apartment, a house) and timeframes (Cat spanned a day, Spider two), the films suggest exercises in geometry whose immaculate compositions are always on the verge of collapsing. Pushing against their steely facades are family feuds, acts of wanton cruelty, and violence; watching them, the tension at times is so unbearable you’re left crouching in anticipation for the frame to burst. – Leo G. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Splitsville (Michael Angelo Covino)
Six years after their breakout feature The Climb, Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin have returned, with stars in tow, for Splitsville, a rom-com as unexpected as it his hilarious. After a Cannes premiere, it’s now in theaters. Luke Hicks said in his review, “Marvin and Covino have certainly carved a distinct path in this early phase of their careers. Apart, Covino caught the acting bug a bit more than Marvin, picking up roles in Oscar contender News of the World and starry ensemble dud Riff Raff, while Marvin won a significant supporting role in the Apple TV+ miniseries WeCrashed and launched his feature directing career with, of all things, 80 for Brady. Together they write whip-smart, Sorkin-quick buddy comedies that tee up the duo’s inimitable comedic chemistry and timing. Their relatable, down-to-earth brand of foolhardy, dipshit-driven, erratic comedy feels like the arrival of a style that could catch fire––a fresh comedic voice that harkens back to the emergence of Wes Anderson’s playfully dry indie tone in the ‘90s.”
Where to Stream: VOD
Train Dreams (Clint Bentley)
There is a moment in Train Dreams, directed by Clint Bentley, where a tree gracefully falls to the earth, surrounded by lush green. Particles explode from the impact, the sunlight illuminating these small, insignificant specs. As the frame holds for an extra few seconds, these particles gleam as beautiful as anything else in the image. It’s a powerful exclamation that underlines the larger theme of the film: there are wonders both big and small. Tragedy, too, and who will remember any of it? And, perhaps more importantly, does it matter if anybody does? – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Việt and Nam (Trương Minh Quý)
The opening shot of Việt and Nam, writer-director Trương Minh Quý’s sophomore film, is a feat of cinematic restraint. Nearly imperceivable white specs of dust begin to appear, few and far between, drifting from the top of a pitch-black screen to the bottom, where the faintest trace of something can be made out in the swallowing darkness. The sound design is cavernous and close, heaving with breath and trickling with the noise of running water. A boy incrementally appears, walking gradually from one corner of the screen to the other. He has another boy on his back. A dream is gently relayed in voiceover. Then, without the frame ever having truly revealed itself, it’s gone. – Luke H. (full review)
Vulcanizadora (Joel Potrykus)
Like the punk-rock cousin of Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, Joel Potrykus’ Vulcanizadora also concerns a voyage in the woods that pinpoints the exact moment an old friendship abruptly dies. The film also represents a maturing-of-sorts for the Michigan-based provocateur, revisiting characters first introduced in his 2014 film Buzzard and a few themes explored in his lesser-known 2016 feature The Alchemist Cookbook. Like many artists shifting from early to mid-career, Potrykus explores themes of having a family––or, in this case, abandoning it––while still retaining the edge present in his nascent works. It suggests a conundrum of sorts, but while other indie filmmakers start small and work towards scaling-up, this filmmaker refreshingly hasn’t. (His 2018 masterpiece Relaxer took place in the corner of an apartment, rather than expanding his slacker universe). – John F. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
Who by Fire (Philippe Lesage)
After his revelatory coming-of-age film Genesis, Quebecois filmmaker Philippe Lesage has expanded his canvas with Who by Fire, a lush, intimate, psychologically riveting drama following two families on a secluded getaway in a remote cabin as they contend with career and romantic jealousies. David Katz said in his Berlinale review, “It’s a truly unrequited, anti-love triangle, and like in his previous work, Lesage sensitively reflects on but never sentimentalizes adolescent behavior: what we observe is raw, tentative, sometimes inexplicable, and put before us as if in a clinical setting, under laboratory conditions and stark lights.”
Where to Stream: VOD
More Films to See
Apple TV+
Deaf President Now!
The Criterion Channel
Milisuthando
Hulu
Presence
Sister Midnight
HBO MAX
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Materialists
Mickey 17
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
One to One: John & Yoko
Weapons
Kino Film Collection
Riefenstahl
MUBI
Blue Sun Palace
Drowning Dry
Eight Postcards from Utopia
Grand Theft Hamlet
Harvest
The History of Sound
Invention
Pavements
Pepe
Tendaberry
Toxic
Netflix
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera
Frankenstein
A House of Dynamite
One of Them Days
Peacock
The Woman in the Yard
Prime Video
After the Hunt
Broken Rage
Hedda
The Woman in the Yard
Shudder
The Ugly Stepsister
VOD
The Baltimorons
Boys Go to Jupiter
East of Wall
F1
The Heirloom
The Ice Tower
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley
Kiss of the Spider Woman
A Little Prayer
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Orwell: 2+2=5
Plainclothes
Roofman
Secret Mall Apartment
The Smashing Machine
Souleymane’s Story
Sunfish (& Other Stories On Green Lake)
Suspended Time
Twinless
Watermelon+
The Encampments
To a Land Unknown