This week, we’re looking back on the best art, music, food, movies and more from the year. See our entire Best of 2025 guide here .

The imperative of narrative films, indeed of all storytelling, is forward movement. Our insistent, perennial question is, “And then what happened?” But “what” only matters if we care about “who,” and how they react and respond to what happens.

The characters who stuck with me this year were on singular, propulsive journeys. They may have boarded a ship or hopped a train or ridden a spaceship, or stayed home and picked up a camera or a Ping-Pong paddle. They made unexpected and valuable discoveries, and I was glad to be along for the ride.

Conan O’Brien and Rose Byrne in ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.’ (Logan White/A24)

‘ If I Had Legs I’d Kick You ’

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