By ACRN’s Editorial Team
Marty Supreme feels like it drank three espressos, stole your lunch money, and then challenged you to ping-pong for it.
Ah yes, the resurgence of Timothee Chalamet in the year 2025. Before this movie hit the theatres, the social media feeds were flooded with “Marty Supreme Christmas Day,” the color orange, and everyone’s sudden admiration for ping-pong. With all the hype around this movie, expectations were high walking into the theatre, only to be greeted by an interesting opening scene of something I can’t describe on this website. But, the movie being weird, and unsettling, and Marty Mauser being annoying is what makes it so damn good. Josh Safdie is no stranger to unhinged films and it makes perfect sense this movie was made in his hands. Marty Supreme isn’t here to teach you about ping-pong, it’s here to teach you about obsession, ego and the American dream as filtered through a slightly unwell brain. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and you’ll never look at a paddle the same way again.
- Kate Tocke, PR Director
One Battle After Another — Paul Thomas Anderson
Paul Thomas Anderson’s political everything of a movie turned out to be a hilarious, thrilling, and thoughtful crowd pleaser. It’s not shocking that this has turned out to be one of the year’s best, but it’s far and away one of the most relevant movies to the times we live in. It’d be difficult to find a better, more cohesive cast than this. Every single performer brings out the best in each other. The most impressive case is Chase Infiniti’s fervorous debut film performance, going toe-to-toe with Leonardo Dicaprio. Even though Teyana Taylor doesn’t share the same amount of screentime as the aforementioned stars, hers is clearly a standout performance, haunting the narrative in ways only her performance could allow. There’s not much that isn’t a standout here: for instance, Johnny Greenwood’s beating score holds the same level of star power as Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro. Anderson adapts the drab Vineland story perfectly for 2025, portraying a beautiful story about community and parenthood.
- Cody Englander, Managing Editor
The Long Walk — Francis Lawrence
Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk is an adaptation of the Stephen King novel, and it is a brilliant, innovative take on the genre of psychological horror. The film follows Ray Garraty who has enlisted in the annual Long Walk, a competition in which 100 men are challenged to walk without stopping in pursuit of any prize they wish for, otherwise they are killed by soldiers for halting under the watchful eye of The Major. Ray competes to be the last man standing, forming bonds with the men around him, such as Peter McVries. The film reveals the extent people are willing to go to when they are vulnerable and how corrupt governments, such as the one in this dystopia, take advantage of their inhabitants. While the terror and tension is palpable, the surprisingly humorous and reflective conversations between characters as they march down a desolate road is what makes this film. The Long Walk is one of the best thrillers of the year.
- Sage Spirk, Contributor
This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Eddington is a black comedy scathing critique of everyone, revisiting the era of Covid and the escalation of insanity upon the world in which we live. The movie makes a conscious decision to address the issues on a small level, showing the paranoia that has seemingly come to the forefront of society. Ari Aster has perfected his own direction, capturing a thrilling, anxiety-driven world where not a single person has the capacity to be right in anyone else’s mind’s eye. Joaquin Phoenix is cast as a sheriff of a small town with confusing politics, secluded from the rest of the world while being influenced by the greater world. Incredible actors that have led other works are complimentary pieces here, from Emma Stone to Pedro Pascal. A series of Aster’s observations of today make up this movie almost entirely. Whether or not a single man is able to encapsulate an era is debatable, though I’d felt and noticed far too much for this to not make the list.
- Cody Englander, Managing Editor
Who doesn’t love a good vampire period drama? Ryan Coogler’s film, Sinners, brings to life the hardships of what it was like to be black in 1930s Mississippi, along with the centuries-old folklore of vampires. Almost everything about this film was breathtaking. A sequence at the juke joint brings to life the ancestors and future tales of those in the room, which holds a cinematic quality that is hard to find in films these days. The music throughout the film immerses the viewer into its world, which makes one feel like they are in 1930s Mississippi. Miles Caton plays the son of a sharecropper preacher, which complicates his talents as a blues musician. The performance of Caton during the film is unforgettable. On the surface, this may be a film about vampires, but it encapsulates much more, tackling the racism and inequality of that time.
- Eileen Fortner, News Editor
In a bleak year with outcomes that can’t fully be understood, Superman is as bright as it can get. It’s flawed and imperfect, the editing is odd, it’s not paced incredibly well and some performances are off. However, there’s a substantial amount of care and craft at play. From teeth bouncing off of the camera to Superman’s theme shouldering a greater meaning as an anthem for hope, James Gunn has yet again redefined a year for superhero movies. David Corenswet is a gem as Superman, with a cast of supporting characters that prop him up, helping him to give one of the best recent performances in a superhero movie. The oddness of the world also helps to differentiate Superman from its peers. While it is traditional in the typical storytelling sense, it uses the outer-lore of the greater DC Universe to expand into previously unexplored corners of the universe. It’s a movie that leaves the audience smiling, which may be one of very, very few on this list.
- Cody Englander, Managing Editor
Tim Robinson ran a bit of a victory lap in 2025, proving to the world that, yes, you can in fact entangle Robinson’s signature surrealist, awkward comedic scenarios into a longform paranoid drama — which as it turns out, especially after his HBO run of The Chair Company, was actually right in his Q-Zone this whole time. I saw the movie by myself in a theater lightly accompanied by those on the precipice of old age. So, when the opening scene arrived and I was the only one to burst out laughing and just as quickly suck it back in when, surely enough, no one else thought Tim Robinson’s face just being on the screen was deserving of anything more than having your eyes open. Never more have I ever truly felt like Tim Robinson.
- Rocco Prioletti, Editorial Director
There are demons in this world that are drop shippers. At least, this is the thesis for the movie Cloud, written and directed by the Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This absurdist world Kurosawa creates is a nightmare anyone who’s ever been online is familiar with. The horrible disconnect between the online world and reality is a very thin line, which Kurosawa’s characters break. While the movie plays this to comical extents, the movie uses its thriller exterior to deliver a fast-paced commentary, yet again, on the world we live in and the horrors societally used to hold power over one another. Every character is incompetent in their own right, and somehow has lived this long without stumbling into a rake on the ground. Movies like One Battle After Another proposes we can make the world better, Cloud suggests we already live in hell – with the internet to blame. While both can be true, if living in internet hell can allow for incredible art like Cloud to exist, it doesn’t sound too bad.
- Cody Englander, Managing Editor
What’s the American dream, and is it the same dream when America has changed? Train Dreams isn’t a loud movie by any means. There’s mainly a single character a Clint Bentley movie follows, portrayed by the often stoic Joel Edgerton. The movie borrows a lot from old classics, opting for a more traditionally paced movie about what the American dream truly means. Edgerton gives a career-best performance, as he stumbles through tragedy and triumph. America’s beautiful vistas are front and center throughout, polluted by treacherous early 20th-century criminals and loggers. The movie is wordless for long stretches, only using narration or dialogue when absolutely needed. Composer Bryce Dessner gives Train Dreams a stringy sense of identity it wouldn’t otherwise have. As our world transforms wherever it may, so does Edgerton’s. Train Dreams is a beguiling commentary on America, and if Netflix believed in movie theaters, it’d be perfect to see theatrically.
- Cody Englander, Managing Editor
Emma Stone absolutely nails another role yet again. Bugonia is a beautiful, yet extremely dark film with twists and turns nobody could have ever expected. I could talk about the cinematography of this film for hours. The colors are bright and bold, yet realistic and gross. The film centers around the CEO of a large company who gets kidnapped (not without a fight, that’s for sure). The scene where she was attacked is probably one of the best kidnapping scenes ever; there was no ignorance on her end… almost like she was preparing for it. Just when you think you have the plot figured out, another twist is yet to come. Bugonia had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
- Eileen Fortner, News Editor
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