In one of 2025’s best films, ‘Sentimental Value’ illuminates the unseen costs of creating art and the debt it owes to lived experience. At the same time, it reveals how much of what we hope to express is often suppressed, either in favor of grander gestures or in service of our fears. Some things are simply too difficult to talk about, let alone explain in different languages.

‘The Treasure Hunter’ is an out of touch documentary about a British man trying to live out his imperial fantasies in the Philippines. He wants to find Yamashita’s gold so he can ‘live the high life,’ suspiciously sounding like a 16th century conquistador.

‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ may not be a home run for Jarmusch’s return to feature films, but it still offers his own thoughtful take on estranged families from different parts of the world, even if it could have achieved more.

A surrealistic, twisty and humorous look on Thailand’s memory as a nation. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's ‘A Useful Ghost’ is a household task in introspect through the society’s past memories, the present society and the looming dystopian future.

While ‘Keeper’ isn’t a bad frightfest of a time at the cinema, containing a potent mix of intriguing visual ideas and commanding atmosphere, it’s also a signifier that Osgood Perkins has further ways to go in expanding the breadth of his elusivity in this more ‘pop’ framework.

‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ depicts the attempt to save the life of five-year-old child, Hind Rajab, from the bloodlust of the Israeli military in northern Gaza. It features at its center the actual audio recordings from that day: her voice crying for help.

‘Showgirls’ leans hard into Verhoeven’s excess, satire, and sharp camp. Its neon world runs on illusion, and that noise turns into a strange pulse. The film pushes forward, slipping between critique and absurdity, and still leaves a mark that sticks.

‘Meet, Greet & Bye’ genuinely adds up to the important discussions of morality, love, and our decisions. When we make the most difficult choices of our lives for our loved ones, it is important to ask, “Is this what they would want, or a personal bearing?”

Even with structural and pacing stumbles, ‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza’ deftly navigates both genre and filmic metanarratives. All to explore the performance of violence to reflect revenge on all oppressors to Palestine.

If you come to this movie expecting to be filled with emotions, it is guaranteed to deliver. If you can look past its flaws, you will surely have a wicked time. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are marvelous as always, and while their performances are not award-worthy as some people are saying in exaggeration, they all gave their very best in a lacklusterly directed film.

‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ may very well be made out of solidarity; its respectable effort to tackle humanity at the core of its subjects is even noteworthy. But solidarity does not erase power. And we cannot ignore the elephant in the room simply because the filmmaker’s intentions are noble.

‘Human Resource’ is a crushingly cold experience on how capitalism has utterly broken our humanity, where even the miracle of birth is more a financial investment than a human being.

‘Amoeba’s’ mere existence is a protest in itself. A bold artistic expression wherein the personal expresses the political. And the film only asks one question: What is the DNA of Singapore?

‘Predator: Badlands’ is a wholly different kind of film for the franchise, a brisk, Saturday-morning cartoon level action-packed adventure that’s all killer no filler, delivering on the promise of its title and then some.

If, like me, you’re an Edgar Wright fan, and you come to ‘The Running Man’ looking for the filmmaker that you know and love, you’ll probably walk away ready to file a missing person’s report.

‘Bugonia’ is a masterful dive into absurdity, with Yorgos Lanthimos’ signature style. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, even for the faithful, but it succeeds as a pseudo–alien invasion film that toys with viewers.

With ‘No Other Choice’, Park Chan-wook delivers a darkly hilarious, visually playful yet haunting requiem for the working man.

When the truth is put in the foreground, we have no choice but to reflect. From ‘General Admission’ to ‘Ang Duyan ng Magiting,’ ‘Habang Nilalamon ng Hydra ang Kasaysayan’ introduces to us a new age of Dustin Celestino films.

‘Now You See Me: Now You Don't’ continues and escalates more of the dumb, but fun series of conspiratorial, anti-capitalist capers with newer blood.

In ‘Shelby Oaks,’ Chris Stuckmann can put together a scary sequence, drawing tension from a pitch black hallway or from what may lie behind closed doors, but what actually comes out of the dark and what unfolds behind closed doors isn’t anything we haven’t already seen before.