That is an version of The Surprise Reader, a e-newsletter wherein our editors advocate a set of tales to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Join right here to get it each Saturday morning.
The 12 months 2025 was laborious for the movie trade however good for films. “Wanting again at this turbulent 12 months, rife with the same old trade considerations over the viability of the theatrical expertise, younger folks’s slipping consideration spans, and Hollywood’s overreliance on franchises, reveals a various crop of gems,” my colleague David Sims wrote this week.
Spend time together with his record of the 12 months’s 10 finest movies, and once you’re finished reflecting on the 12 months that was, spare a second for a few of our critics’ different suggestions. Perhaps you’ll return to a beloved favourite or discover one thing new.
On Motion pictures
The ten Greatest Motion pictures of 2025
By David Sims
The standout movies that helped cinema survive one other turbulent 12 months
5 Motion pictures Value a Repeat Watch
By Stephanie Bai
Our writers and editors share which movies they will get pleasure from time and again.
25 Really feel-Good Movies You’ll Need to Watch Once more—And Once more
By David Sims
Anxious? Listed here are a number of the finest and most rewatch-friendly films to appease your thoughts. (From 2020)
Nonetheless Curious?
- The perfect albums of the 12 months: Though we could also be on the cusp of a serious shift in how music is made, attaining wonderful outcomes will all the time require a human method, our critic Spencer Kornhaber writes.
- Hopeful photographs from 2025: Images that acknowledge a number of the plentiful pleasure and kindness current on this planet round us
Different Diversions
- ‘Six-seven’ is six ft underneath.
- What do you consider Barry Bonds now?
- Why {couples} therapists are sick of ‘therapy-speak’
PS
I lately requested readers to share a photograph of one thing that sparks their sense of awe on this planet. C.B., age 68, despatched this picture of Vancouver, Canada.
I’ll proceed to function your responses within the coming weeks.
— Isabel
