2025's best movies (so far) include 'Sinners,' 'Sorry Baby' and 'One of Them Days'

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

Often the best movies of the second half of the year come almost preordained as the Oscars Industrial Complex revs into high gear. The first half, though, can offer more of a thrill of discovery.
The first six months of 2025 have offered plenty of that, including indie gems, comedy breakouts and sensational filmmaking debuts. Here are our 10 favorites from the year's first half.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
'The Ballad of Wallis Island' is the kind of charming gem that's easy to recommend to any kind of movie lover. It is goofy and friendly, has an armful of lovely folk songs, an all-timer of a rambling character, in Tim Key's eccentric and completely lovable Charles, Tom Basden's grumpy, too-cool straight man, and the always delightful Carey Mulligan. 'Wallis Island' is a film about letting go and moving on told with humor, wit and a big heart. Also hailing from the British Isles is the equally delightful 'Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl." (streaming on Peacock) —Bahr
One of Them Days
The big-screen comedy has been an almost extinct creature in recent years, but Lawrence Lamont's 'One of Them Days' gives me hope. Not only was this buddy comedy a surprise box-office hit, it is probably the exhibit A in the case of Keke Palmer Should Be in Everything. She and SZA, in her film debut, play Los Angeles housemates in a madcap race to make rent. (Streaming on Netflix) —Coyle
Sorry, Baby
There's a sequence in Eva Victor's delicate, considered and disarmingly funny directorial debut, 'Sorry, Baby' that kind of took my breath away. You know something bad is going to happen to Agnes, it's literally the logline of the film. You sense that her charismatic thesis adviser is a bit too fixated on her. The incident itself isn't seen, Victor places their camera outside of his home. Agnes goes inside, the day turns to evening and the evening turns to night, and Agnes comes out, changed. But we stay with her as she finds her way to her car, to her home and, most importantly to her friend, Lydie (Naomi Ackie). This is a film about what happens after the bad thing. And it's a stunner. (In theaters) —Bahr
Black Bag
Arguably the best director-screenwriter tandem this decade has been Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp. They were behind the pandemic thriller 'Kimi' and another standout of 2025, the ghost-POV 'Presence.' But their spy thriller-marital drama 'Black Bag,' starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as married British intelligence agents, may be their best collaboration yet. It's certainly the one with the most delicious dialogue. How has it taken the movies this long to make a dinner scene with spies dosed with truth serum? (Streaming on Peacock) —Coyle
Materialists
Celine Song's 'Materialists ' might not be the film people wanted it to be, but it's the film they need in this land of high-end dating apps, designer dupes and everyone pretending to live like minor socialites on Instagram. A thoughtful meditation on money, worth, love and companionship, this is a film that upends everything we've come to think we want from the so-called romantic comedy (the idea of prince charming, the inexplicable wealth that's supposed to coexist with middle class mores). Lifestyle porn will always have a place in the rom-com machine, but this is a populist film, both modern and timeless, that reminds us that love should be easy. It should feel like coming home. 'Materialists' is simply the most purely romantic film of the year. (In theaters) — Bahr
Sinners
Not only does the wait go on for Ryan Coogler to make a bad movie, he seems to be still realizing his considerable talents. There are six months to go, still, in 2025, but I doubt we'll have a big scale movie that so thrillingly doubles (see what I did there) as a personal expression for its filmmaker as 'Sinners.' This exhilarating vampire saga is ambitiously packed with deep questions about community, Black entertainment, Christianity and, of course, Irish dancing. (Streaming on Max) —Coyle
Pavements
In a world of woefully straightforward documentaries and biopics about musicians, Alex Ross Perry decided to creatively, and a little chaotically, upend the form with his impossible-to-categorize film about the 90s indie band Pavement. Blending fact, fiction, archive, performance, this winkingly rebellious piece is wholly original and captivating, and, not unlike Todd Haynes's 'I'm Not There,' the kind of movie to turn someone who's maybe enjoyed a few Pavement and Stephen Malkmus songs into a fan. (In theaters, streaming on MUBI July 11) —Bahr
April
A rare and exquisite precision guides Dea Kulumbegashvili's rigorous and despairing second feature. Beneath stormy spring skies in the European country of Georgia, a leading local obstetrician (Ia Sukhitashvili) pitilessly works to help women who are otherwise disregarded, vilified or worse. This is a movie coursing with dread, but its expression of a deep-down pain is piercing and unforgettable. (Not currently available) —Coyle
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
A visually, and thematically arresting marvel, Rungano Nyoni's darkly comedic, stylish and hauntingly bizarre film about unspoken generational trauma takes audiences to a place, I'm guessing, many have never been: A Zambian family funeral. And yet its truths ring universal, as the elder generation turns their heads from the awful truth that the dead man, Fred, was a predator and pedophile, while the younger wonders if things must stay as they are. (Streaming on HBO Max on July 4) --Bahr
Friendship
On TV, Tim Robinson and Nathan Fielder have been doing genius-level comedy. Fielder hasn't yet jumped into his own films, but, then again, it's hard to get an epic of cringe comedy and aviation safety like season two of 'The Rehearsal' into a feature-length movie. But in 'Friendship,' writer and director Andrew DeYoung brings Robinson, star of 'I Think You Should Leave," into well-tailored, very funny and dementedly perceptive movie scenario. He plays a man who awkwardly befriends a cool neighbor (Paul Rudd). While their differences make for most of the comedy in the movie, 'Friendship' — which culminates in a telling wink — is really about their similarities. (Available for digital rental) — Coyle