I built a database to track every movie and show I've watched since 2025. I know how that sounds. But it means when someone asks me what's actually been good this year, I don't have to scroll through my brain trying to remember. I just check the database.
This isn't really a recommendation post. I'm not telling you what to watch or building a themed list around a mood. This is just me pulling up my own ratings and counting down the ten movies that scored highest for me so far this year. No spoilers, just my honest read on how much I enjoyed each one. Some of these are new, some are old, none of them are ranked by anything other than how much they got their hooks into me.
10. Dhurandhar (2025) - My rating: 7.7
I saw a tweet about this one and figured I'd give it a shot. Dhurandhar is a Bollywood spy thriller from Aditya Dhar, starring Ranveer Singh as an undercover Indian intelligence agent who infiltrates Karachi's criminal underworld. It's a big, loud, ambitious movie and it does not feel like a typical Bollywood outing.
The ending caught me off guard because it just sort of stops. Turns out that's because the story splits into two parts, and the sequel already dropped earlier this year (I haven't gotten to it yet). Fair warning: this thing runs long, over three and a half hours long. But it's the kind of long where you settle into it rather than fight it. Take your time, don't rush it, and you'll be fine.
09. End of Watch (2012) - My rating: 7.9
My brother put me onto this one. He just said "watch it" and didn't elaborate, so I did. End of Watch follows two LAPD partners, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, patrolling one of the roughest divisions in South Central LA. It's not a movie I'm rushing back to rewatch, but it did exactly what it set out to do.
The found footage style takes a minute to adjust to, but once it clicks, the friendship between these two carries the whole thing. Gyllenhaal and Pena have the kind of chemistry that makes their banter feel completely unscripted, and that's what sticks with you more than the action does.
08. The Gift (2015) - My rating: 8.3
I'd heard about this one for years and never got around to it. Watched it this year and holy shit. The Gift is unnerving from the first scene to the last. Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall play a married couple who run into an old acquaintance from Bateman's character's past, played by Joel Edgerton (who also wrote and directed this, which I didn't know going in).
What starts as an awkward reunion slowly turns into something much darker, and the film never rushes it. The tension builds so gradually you don't notice how uncomfortable you've gotten until the ending hits, and that ending will sit with you in a way you don't see coming.
07. Marty Supreme (2025) - My rating: 8.6
This one gave me Uncut Gems vibes immediately, and it turns out that's not a coincidence: it's directed by Josh Safdie, solo this time without his brother Benny. Not that it's operating on the exact same level, but the anxiety it creates is the same kind. Timothee Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a hustler in 1950s New York obsessed with becoming a table tennis champion nobody respects.
It's noisy. There is so much happening on screen at once that my own anxiety spiked watching it. It took me two days to finish because I needed breaks between sittings. That's not a complaint, that's just what this movie does to you.
06. No Other Choice (2025) - My rating: 8.8
This one starts out as soft workplace comedy. A man loses his job. His family starts struggling to keep up with bills. And then everything switches up so fast you start questioning what you're even watching anymore. No Other Choice is directed by Park Chan-wook, and once you know that, the shift makes a lot more sense.
Lee Byung-hun plays a paper industry veteran who gets laid off after 25 years and decides the only way to secure a new job is to eliminate the competition, literally. It's so fucking good. The runtime is a little long, but every minute of it earns its place once the back half kicks in.
05. Transformers One (2024) - My rating: 8.9
This is the best Transformers movie ever made, and once you watch it, you'll realize I'm not exaggerating. It's an animated prequel that tells the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, back when they were coworkers named Orion Pax and D-16 working in the mines of Cybertron.
It got absolutely brutal marketing, the kind that made it look like a kids' movie and tanked it at the box office despite great reviews. The story is layered, the friendship at the center of it is the actual emotional core, and the betrayal hits harder than anything in the live action films. I loved it. I just hope we eventually get the sequel this story deserves.
04. John Wick (2014) - My rating: 9.0
This was a rewatch, and according to my database it's sitting near the top of my ratings for the entire year so far. That should tell you something. John Wick is so stylish, so confident in what it is. The action choreography still holds up over a decade later, and Keanu Reeves brings a level of physical commitment that elevates the whole thing.
No disrespect to him, but I say this with love: I didn't expect him to actually act in this one, and he does. What started as a simple revenge movie about a man and his dog ended up kicking off one of the most beloved action franchises of the last decade, and watching the first one again reminds you exactly why.
03. Hoppers (2026) - My rating: 9.0
I only watched this because of a TikTok edit, which feels like a very 2026 way to discover a Pixar movie. Hoppers follows Mabel, a college student who transfers her consciousness into a robotic beaver to communicate with animals and protect their habitat from a mayor's development plans.
I had an absolute blast from start to finish. The story gets genuinely chaotic about halfway through and just never lets up after that. The voice cast, especially Piper Curda and Bobby Moynihan, fully commits to the insanity of the premise, and the movie is better for it.
02. Predator: Killer of Killers (2025) - My rating: 9.4
I'd never seen the original Predator movies. The first one I actually watched was Prey, and I liked it well enough. So when I heard there was a new animated Predator anthology coming out, I went in with low expectations. I came out with my mind blown.
Killer of Killers tells three separate stories across three different eras, a Viking raid, a feudal Japan duel between brothers, and a WWII dogfight, all building toward something bigger. The art style is gorgeous. Slick, brutal, and confident in a way that animated action rarely is. I need more of this.
01. The Handmaiden (2016) - My rating: 9.4
I'm a little late getting to this one, but I'm glad I finally did. The Handmaiden is told from multiple perspectives, and without spoiling anything, it's a queer love story that actually gets to have a good ending. That alone makes it worth the watch.
The way the story keeps recontextualizing itself as it unfolds is what makes it unforgettable. I love this movie so much. It's the kind of film that rewards a rewatch almost immediately because you start noticing what was hiding in plain sight the whole time.
Have you watched any of these? And more importantly, what's been the best thing you've watched so far this year?
Drop it in the comments. I'm always looking for the next thing to add to the database.
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