2025 was a “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” kind of year for movies.

For months, the box-office figures, especially for independents and smaller Hollywood films, have been apocalyptically bad. Amidst mass media consolidation, the remaining studios are making fewer films and taking fewer risks, like Colin Farrell’s wayward gambler from Ballad of a Small Player they seem to believe the only way out of a losing streak is by placing one big bet on one massive hand at the baccarat table. This may not be an age of wisdom; it’s certainly an age of foolishness.

But it’s still an age with so many great movies, both big and small, hits and flops, American and international. In some ways 2025 was unusual; a lot of the fall’s so-called “awards contenders” were massively dis

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