Past the half way point of the decade, writer Carter Smith looks back at what year has been the best for films this decade
We made it, boys and girls. After a tumultuous year, we have gotten to the end of 2025. The end of the year signals many things, and for me, most of them make me sick to the stomach. I’m heading into my final few months at university, I have to make a film magazine on my own, and I’ll be turning 22 in July. Good fun, not stressed at all. It also signifies the start of the usual end-of-the-year arbitrary lists people like me feel obliged to make for their three Substack readers (of which I appreciate).
To kick off these lists, why not look back at how this year stacks up to the rest of the decade? The 2020s have been a transformative decade for film. We have had writers’ strikes, COVID, the rise of AI and some great movies. Some real classics, dare I say. We have been treated to the best directors and actors giving some of their best work to date, and have had newcomers establish themselves as ones to watch. We have also had eight films starring Jared Leto, which has been a shame. Other than that, great start to the decade.
So let’s see, is 2025 the best year yet? Is it the worst? Let’s find out.
- 2020
It’s hardly a shock, but 2020 comes in at last. It’s no one’s fault, I don’t think anyone could have predicted a global pandemic halting life as we knew it. Despite being locked indoors, in the brief, fleeting moments we were allowed outside, we were treated to some great movies.
Christopher Nolan returned with his still to this day confusing sci-fi thriller Tenet, where we saw Robert Pattinson and John David Washington going forwards and backwards in time, saving the world. At least I think. As I said, I’m still not sure, but I know I enjoyed it. I’m happy to say I have been a Tenet truther from day one. Anthony Hopkins gave an Oscar-winning performance in The Father, a win, although deserved, which caused a lot of controversy as the Oscars made it seem they were giving it to the late great Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Other films, such as Lee Issac Chung’s Minari, were able to capture audiences along with Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, a movie which followed four high school teachers who test to see if a constant level of intoxication will improve their overall lives. A fitting time to release, considering drinking was what most people were doing.
Speaking of fitting times to release, my personal favourite of the year came with Pixar’s Soul. I remember watching it in the early hours of the morning after Christmas Day and feeling like my body had been cleansed after what was a horrific year all around. Still, to this day, one of Pixar’s best. Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti’s summer Groundhog Day Palm Springs is a close second place.
- 2021
Just edging out the previous year, 2021 was another mixed bag when it came to releases. Studios such as Marvel and Disney couldn’t decide if they wanted to release good films such as Encanto and Shang-Chi or if they wanted to keep up a streak of mediocrity such as Raya and the Last Dragon and Eternals. Marvel did eventually decide to lock in by bringing Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire back to end Tom Holland’s trilogy in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Franchises such as Space Jam, Ghostbusters, Saw and The Fast and Furious returned, which all flattered to deceive, and franchises ended, such as Daniel Craig’s last outing as James Bond in No Time to Die and The Matrix Resurrections, an ironic name all things considered. It was much more of a final nail in the coffin than it was a resurrection.
It wasn’t just franchises which returned as iconic directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg, who all returned with Liquorice Pizza, The French Dispatch and West Side Story, respectively. Denis Villeneuve kicked off the Dune craze with Timophée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, leaving me with the question of how people love these films the way they do. I will never understand it. Shoot me.
Despite all these legendary people returning, it was Mike Rianda’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines which impressed me the most. Watching this dysfunctional family try to stop the robot uprising in some stellar animation still puts a smile on my face every time I watch it. We might need the Mitchells again as AI continues to rise.
My favourite moment has to be Daniel Kaluuya putting in his Oscar-winning performance in Judas and the Black Messiah. Will Smith also put in an Oscar-winning performance in King Richard, but more on that in a second.
- 2022
When we look back on this decade in the future, it won’t be the countless masterpieces we will talk about; it will be Will Smith’s voice echoing around the Dolby Theatre as he asked Chris Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth. It was a slap which was heard across the globe, made even funnier by the fact that he went on to win an Oscar later on in the ceremony.
Amongst the GI: Jane joke, which didn’t go down well, Tom Cruise flew in on a fighter jet to save cinema with a sequel to Top Gun and a beach scene ingrained in everyone’s brain. We also had the long-awaited sequel to Avatar, another franchise about which I struggle to see the hype, despite my best efforts to enjoy it. Austin Butler also forever changed his voice after starring in the run-of-the-mill biopic Elvis, one of the funnier developments of the year.
It was a strong year for horror. Barbarian, Pearl, Talk to Me, X and Smile all released, butJordan Peele’s Nope would take the crown for best horror that year. Damien Chazelle ruined his career by dropping a great movie. Yes, you read that correctly. More surprising than that, Adam Sandler once again decided that he was going to put in a good performance in Hustle. As it goes, nothing made sense this year.
In a year full of great movies, it was The Batman and the multiversal Everything, Everywhere All at Once, which captured the world, with the latter winning seven Oscars, including one for the returning Ke Huy Quan. People may have turned their backs, but it is still one of my favourite films ever.
The biggest losers of the year, however, were not Will Smith, but my friend and I, who collectively spent £18 each to watch The Whale in the cinema. A decision which has traumatised us and continues to do so.
- 2024
It’s a testament to how strong the decade has been that last year only comes in third on this list. It had me testing my sanity at times as I wondered how Challengers, Nosfertuand Dune: Part Two were talked about as the best of the year, even though all of them were distinctly average at best.
It was monkeys that dominated our screens last year, pioneered by the return of the Planet of the Apes franchise and followed by Robbie Williams as a monkey in Better Man. See, a real test of your sanity this year. There were also monkeys in Wicked; Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s performances were the ones to steal all the headlines.
Despite a film about his atrocities, Sebastian Stan’s transformative work in The Apprentice didn’t stop America from voting in Donald Trump for a second term. Other dubious Americans got their chance in the spotlight as the inception of SNL and Chalamet starring in A Complete Unknown with him as Bob Dylan, were also put to the silver screen. Despite Timmy’s best efforts, he couldn’t stop Adrien Brody winning the Oscar for his performance in The Brutalist, which had a run time of 215 minutes and was only ten minutes longer than Brody’s acceptance speech.
Sean Baker was the big winner at the Oscars for his film Anora, which followed a sex worker getting roped into wacky hygienics by a childish Russian millionaire. Mikey Maddison would win the Oscar for her role, beating Demi Moore for her work in the twisted body horror The Substance, a story eerily similar to the film’s plot.
There was something for everyone this year. Marvel had a cameo fest with the third instalment of the Deadpool franchise, horror continued to dominate with Smile 2, Longlegs, and I Saw the TV Glow and Ryan Gosling looked dashing in The Fall Guy.
Regardless of all that, for me, it was Shadow being in Sonic 3 which I loved the most. Forget about Furiosa, a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, and the sequel to Gladiator; seeing Shadow in all his glory on the big screen is all I needed. You’re lucky I’m not putting this year first for the fact that Shadow rides a motorbike with a gun alone.
- 2025
We are leaving on a sour note thanks to Warner Brothers and Netflix, but we can’t forget just how brilliant this year has been for film. It is especially annoying because Warner Bros. has been responsible for some of the best films of the year.
Superman, A Minecraft Movie – which, admittedly, is terrible but you can’t deny the impact – Bong Joo Ho’s return with Mickey 17, the ending of the Conjuring franchise and the absolute epic which is Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another starring Leonardo DiCaprio were all released under them to financial and critical success.
We were then treated to a great interview for actors on actors where Jennifer Lawrence, who is on their for her amazing work in Die My Love, cracked joke after joke to an emotionless DiCaprio. It’s great fun to watch. Marketing campaigns have been stealing the show, largely part to Chalamet has gone insane on his promotion for his up coming movie Marty Supreme which has involved him being on a drill song, releasing a jacket which has people paying up to £200 for and walking around with people who have giant orange ping pong balls on their heads while he shouts ‘Marty Supreme,Christmas Day’. It’s weird, but I can’t help but love it.
Wicked: For Good fell victim to the same issues that the Broadway show endured, but Erivo and Grande are charismatic enough to make it still a good movie. We also returned to zombiefied England in 28 Years Later, which ended with a group of Power Rangers, Jimmy Saville-influenced ninjas. Don’t ask, I’m not sure either.
There has been a clear standout genre this year, and that’s horror. Barley a month has gone by without a great horror movie releasing. Weapons, the story about a group of school kids who disappear, has dominated the conversations, but Danny and Michael Phillippou’s sophomore release, Bring Her Back, has been my standout. I will never watch it again, but that’s all because of how effective it is at being horror.
Even though we have had great films like Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, there is no looking past Ryan Coogler’s instant classic Sinners. I’d argue it is a perfect movie. There is not a single part which isn’t performing at the highest level. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since its release. It is one of the best films of the century and would have been enough to put this year first if not for one global phenomenon.
- 2023
There’s no question. You can argue that the consistency of films released may not have been at such a high level, but you can’t deny the year which had Barbenheimer. What other films can have people dressing up in all pink, as well as dressing as the person who made the atomic bomb? Kudos to both Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig for letting us have two great films, although it did stop They Cloned Tyrone, which was released on the same day, getting the plaudits it deserved.
Yorgos Lanthimos started his run of films with Poor Things, which earned Emma Stone her second Oscar in a tightly contested battle with Lily Gladstone in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. People say she was robbed, but at least she was nominated. The same can’t be said for Zac Effron’s gut-wrenching performance in The Iron Claw.
There was a big omission from the Oscars that year. People are still not happy about the non-inclusion of Charles Melton for May December. At least it wasn’t Chalamet this time, even though he did put in a great performance as Willy Wonka in Wonka.
Two annoying trends have come from this year. One was being everyone trying to force a double feature like Barbenheimer. The other was everyone copying the poster for Pricilla. It made what was a great film tarnished in my head.
Cosy films for all seasons were released, like the heartwarming The Holdovers for Christmas time and the perfect summer rom-com in Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane. If you want a cry to start your Autumn, there were also Past Lives and All of us Strangers for you to weep at.
I struggle to find anything bad about this year. Even though it has After Everything, which is one of the worst movies to exist, it also signified the end of that god-awful franchise. Even its low points have positives. It really was the year that had everything.
Despite the rise in AI and the future seeming murky, there is still a lot to be excited about. Next year we have Dune Messiah, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day and a chance to see if Avengers: Doomsday manages to resemble at least some sort of a real movie. I, for one, can’t wait.
The rest of the end-of-year lists will come after I have watched Marty Supreme and Sentimental Value. Blame the UK not me.
