In past installments of this post (2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020), I have titled my round up of each year’s top films ‘The Best Movies of ….’
I have changed the title of this year’s summation to reflect the times and the way critics see films and vote during award season. What do I mean?
Let me begin with a preamble that, upon reviewing my past, year-end write-ups, is approaching rote.
I started reviewing movies for Blast Magazine.com in 2011. In 2020, I joined the Boston Online Film Critics Association (BOFCA.com).
Each year, in late October, the members of BOFCA begin to receive films to view. The various distributors and studios hope their movies will earn our votes for best of the year in a variety of categories. The trickle of films becomes a flood by late November with ballots due before Christmas.
Of course, Covid changed the way we go to the movies, but even as the virus recedes farther from everyday life, audiences have not returned to the theater. People still go to the movies, but the crawl toward streaming that existed pre-Covid accelerated to gallop after the pandemic.
In 2025, I only saw two movies in-person. Prior to Covid, film critics probably saw two movies per week, if not more, in theaters.
For the critic, however, there is something more remarkable going on than being present in theaters.
First, there are very few full-time, in print film critics anymore. I have never been paid to write a review. I have never had a review published in print. As noted, my reviewing group is named the ‘online film critics association.’ It was founded in 2012, and several of the members are critics I grew up reading in print. But, of the almost 40 members of the group, the vast majority publish digital reviews only.
Though the prestige of the film critic is nearly non-existent now, the job is tougher. Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael and Rex Reed were household names 40 years ago, but these reviewers had far less material to contend with when assessing the best movies of the year.
Decades ago, critics could generally agree, most likely, on 30 or so films that would be in the mix for best of the year competition, and they, most likely, saw them in the theater.
Now, given the way we view movies, as well as the ease of delivery, critics are inundated with films to see during awards season. In my case, I received around 150 titles, either DVDs or links to streaming—mostly the latter.
And since I had seen none of these movies in the theater, and since I have other full-time work and pursuits, I was only able to view about 25 titles.
Traditional studios such as Universal, Warner Brothers and Paramount still exist, but when you add onto that distributors such as Neon, A 24, Magnolia, Kino-Lorber, et al, in addition to streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, knowing what to consider –and having the time to do it— is impossible.
That is why the title of this post is “The Best Movies I Saw,” because I undoubtedly missed many deserving films. In years past, I don’t believe any critic would not have seen a good percentage of the best films of the year.
If you compare my top ten films to the BOFCA top ten (see lists below) there is some overlap, but what is most striking to me is that of the BOFCA top ten I have not seen four of them, including placements one, two and three.
Of the 25 films I did view during award season, 5-10 won’t even sniff nomination status, but how was I to know? Since there is little consensus on what to view for the top films of the year, selecting what to give your time to is a stab in the dark. Sometimes you hit the mark and others miss completely.
It is not as if I saw dozens of great films and struggled with which should or should not be in my top ten. I barely saw ten films I would even consider superior.
Of those, Train Dreams and Nouvelle Vague, both Netflix films, stood out. The streamers pump out a lot of dross but also some gold, and these two are worth your time. If you are not a fan or even know what French New Wave films are, Nouvelle Vague might not connect, but Train Dreams is stirring and forlorn and should impact any viewer.
A24’s Warfare is the best on its slate (that I saw) and the best war movie of the year. With neither the stars or fanfare of Netflix’s nuclear holocaust drama —A House of Dynamite– Warfare is a tense military picture that captures the harrowing moments of action and inaction that battle can be.
The next seven movies on my top ten list are a mix of foreign and independent-style films. In years past, movies such as these have been my first and second choices, but it seems there has been a reversal this year, and American, studio-level films may be improving.
Whatever the case, in some ways I do feel it is a privilege to have so many titles to choose from. Yet the other side of that coin is digital delivery of films has made it too easy for studios, distributors and producers to throw as much material at the critic as possible in the hopes that something will stick.
The upshot is this: I can no longer say what the best movies of the year are. I can no longer agree with any list’s authority. What you vote for is a function of what you have time to see, and given the amount of movies vying for awards and clogging inboxes with links, we are all on our own islands.
Had I been a film critic decades ago, I am confident I would say the best movies I saw in any given year would, for the most part, be the consensus award winners.
In 2025, this situation does not exist. I saw several good films (and some lousy ones), but I have no idea if these will be widely viewed, liked or awarded with anything other than my lonely praise.
But without further ado and comment, may I have the envelope please…
Randy Steinberg Top Ten Films
- TRAIN DREAMS
- WARFARE
- NOUVELLE VAGUE
- IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
- THE PLAGUE
- DEAD MAN’S WIRE
- SENTIMENTAL VALUE
- NO OTHER CHOICE
- BUGONIA
- THE SECRET AGENT
BOFCA Top Ten Films
- ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
- SINNERS
- MARTY SUPREME
- NO OTHER CHOICE
- IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
- SENTIMENTAL VALUE
- WEAPONS
- HAMNET
- THE SECRET AGENT
- TRAIN DREAMS