Zane's take at the Cinema's

My favorite time of the year is upon us. The Academy Awards are the one day of the year where I get the most excited for anything in the realm of entertainment. I almost equate it to my version of the Super Bowl. Having now seen all the Best Picture nominations, it’s time to give my definitive take on all movies, ranked from worst to best. Let’s begin!

#10 THE SECRET AGENT

This one might be a little different because I’m very fresh off watching this, and after finally getting around to it, I can confidently tell you that The Secret Agent is my least favorite of all the Best Picture nominees. Granted, there’s inherently nothing wrong with it. It’s an extremely well-made movie with terrific performances (mainly from Wagner Moura). In terms of the acting and writing, it deserves the attention in that regard. It also does a remarkable job of immersing you into this world of political tension and a really grand and phenomenal production design. Considering where we’re at in today’s political spectrum, it’s an effective demonstration of this idea. Maybe my biggest problem with The Secret Agent is it might be a bit too dry for my taste. It’s also far too long for its own good and could have easily been trimmed down a bit. Aside from Wagner Moura’s performance, this didn’t quite live up to the heights that some others are proposing.

#9 SENTIMENTAL VALUE

I think Joachim Trier‘s previous film, The Worst Person in the World, is a bit of a stronger movie. Partially, because it was a refreshing take on the ideas of modern romance and the existential crisis within the millennial generation. That being said, Sentimental Value is worthy of all the hype and awards buzz that circles around it, specifically with the performances from the entire ensemble. Of all the Best Picture nominations, it’s kind of wild that Sentimental Value isn’t recognized for Best Casting (even though I’m not the biggest fan of that particular nomination). But going against my own judgment, this really excels at utilizing its ensemble more than most of the other nominees. It’s the film’s greatest strength, and that strength is elevated by how great the performances are. It’s my personal pick for Best Picture, but for its acting and maybe the international feature nomination, I’d have no complaints.

#8 TRAIN DREAMS

Netflix really came to play this year with some great original movies, and Train Dreams is one of their movies to date. It’s not only one of the better movies of 2025, but the ending might be the year’s absolute best, knowing how hard it pulls on those emotional strings. It acts as a drama but in the shape of a period piece western set in an era of American expansion. It’s visually striking on every single aspect, and it’s easily the best Joel Edgerton performance in a very long time. It’s almost a crime that Joel Edgerton isn’t in the running for Best Actor because this movie reminds us how good he is. The same is to be said about Felicity Jones, who absolutely kills it in this. I do think that Train Dreams might be the best-looking movie of all the Best Picture nominees. It manages to capture such a beautiful scope of American landscapes that you can’t take your eyes away from it. Aside from it being a Netflix movie, this movie enriches your soul with deep American traditions.

#7 F1

This was one that definitely caught me by surprise because as good as F1 is, I didn’t think this was going to get anywhere near Best Picture because the buzz never seemed to be there. It is the same team, essentially, who made Top Gun: Maverick so there was no doubt that the quality wasn’t going to be there. But like Top Gun: Maverick, F1 is the most crowd-pleasing of all the Best Picture nominations. Aside from the technical achievements in this, from the sound work, editing and visceral race sequences, this is a star-driven old-school Hollywood blockbuster that we rarely get nowadays. F1 could be viewed as a copycat to Top Gun: Maverick by focusing on cars instead of jets, and while it does tread on similar themes, Joseph Kosinski knew how to execute an original sports movie that stood on its own and didn’t have to rely on nostalgia. Having two heavy hitters with Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem was great but it was Damson Idris who might have been the real show stopper. Even as someone who knows nothing about the sport Formula One, this movie soars under you like a magical carpet.

#6 BUGONIA

You’re a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos or you’re not. Maybe diehard film fans will eat up anything he makes but casual audiences might find it difficult to resonate with. Yorgos Lanthimos has already made a name for himself with a career of unique and surreal projects and he’s certainly a heavy favorite when Oscar season comes around. I was a little dubious on Bugonia’s Oscar chances for Best Picture, but having Lanthimos working with Emma Stone again it kind of makes sense why it would score a nomination. While I adored Poor Things, Bugonia is a far more compelling and surreal experience that was almost in the vein of Lanthimos’ best movie The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It’s got the absurdist level of tone that Yorgos Lanthimos is famously known for but it paints a sinister and horrific reflection with where our society is currently at. Emma Stone fully deserves the Best Actress nomination and Jesse Plemons, while not nominated, gives an exceptional performance. It’s been reported that Yorgos Lanthimos is going to take a “little break” for awhile. Hopefully it isn’t too long cause he needs to continue to make more movies.

#5 ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

This is one of those rare instances where a movie lives up to the hype but surpasses any expectation you could have. One Battle After Another might not be Paul Thomas Anderson’s best movie, but it certainly is one of his all-time greats. It plays like a greatest hits album but allows PTA to creatively go down a different genre, one that he has yet to cover over the span of his career. By going wider in scope, having topical messages but making it feel organic and having some of the best pacing for a nearly three-hour movie, One Battle After Another is another home run from PTA. It’s unfortunate that the movie couldn’t churn out a bigger box office result because almost everyone who saw it loved it, but for some inexplicable reason no one went to see it. PTA has never made a monstrous hit, so it makes sense why it turned out to be this way, but it in no way speaks to the quality of how good this movie is.

#4 MARTY SUPREME

Marty Supreme not only was one of the best movies of the year but also the best sports movie in a very long time. Why? Because it made ping pong cool. It’s easy to make a movie about Formula One racing cool because cars are cool by their nature. It’s cool to make a sports movie about football cool. Outside of Forrest Gump (which wasn’t really a ping pong movie per se), it’s hard to fathom even a decent ping pong movie. Marty Supreme is such a monumental sports movie that it almost feels kind of epic. Both the Safdie brothers had two sports movies in 2025. Josh had Marty Supreme and Ben had The Smashing Machine. Both are worthy sports movies because both are totally different in style and execution. And while I very much was in favor of what Josh Safdie did with The Smashing Machine, Marty Supreme is the better one in my estimation. Timothée Chalamet is in a completely different new league with the best performance that he’s given in his career thus far. The years’ Oscar race has been neck and neck with Timothée Chalamet and Michael B. Jordan. Either way, Chalamet is remarkable in this and deserves all the credit.

#3 HAMNET

For those who know me, you know that I’m an absolute sucker for anything William Shakespeare. Whether they’re good or not is irrelevant; I will be at the theater on day one when a new movie of Shakespeare’s work is being adapted. Hamnet made my love for Shakespeare grow but it also made me appreciate the arts far more than I ever have. Instead of hiding away the pain of grieving, Hamnet allows those feelings to flourish but without flattening them. It’s a movie that shows you that the arts of performing on stage can help with dealing with the struggles of grief. Knowing what we now know of William Shakespeare, Hamnet gives us a glimpse of what he was like not only as a storyteller but also as a father figure. While the movie packs an emotional punch, it also speaks to the kind of stories Shakespeare created. Jessie Buckley is so good in this movie that it would be shocking if she didn’t win the Oscar come this Sunday night.

#2 FRANKENSTEIN

There will never be a better Frankenstein than Guillermo del Toro’s version. Knowing how long he’s been wanting to make it, the passion he had was all over the screen when watching the movie. This is the adaptation that Mary Shelley would be so proud of. No disrespect to the various adaptations of her novel, but this one is the real deal. Even just on paper, Guillermo del Toro doing his version of Frankenstein felt like an automatic no-brainer. Nothing should be taken away from Boris Karloff‘s work as The Creature, but Jacob Elordi is an entirely different ball game as the Creature. He’s my personal pick for Best Supporting Actor, simply because I had no idea that Elordi had this kind of talent built into him. It’s one of the years finest and emotionally layered performances that I can’t wait to see what Jacob Elordi does next. Frankenstein is not a horror movie. It’s a gothic drama that utilizes horror as a visual palette. With the sets, colors, and costumes, it enhances that experience to elicit a horror feel. But the story and how characters are expressed are rich and deep and it gives the movie a much stronger layer of depth and rawness. Again, Guillermo del Toro was the PERFECT person to tell this story. 

#1 SINNERS

Sinners was the best movie I saw in 2025, and knowing it came out so early in the year makes me overjoyed that the word of mouth continued to grow with each passing month. While it definitely delivers on vampire goodness, it’s the first 45 minutes or hour of the movie where it doesn’t introduce the vampires and establishes so much of the milieu and characters. Ryan Coogler will always be a director to be excited about, and Sinners is the most audacious and fun he’s had in the director’s chair. Sinners is operating on so many levels that never take away its true meaning. It’s a movie about music, inclusivity, religious morality, and it just so happens to have vampires sprinkled in there. It does a fantastic job of blending different genres; the movie looks visually incredible, and it doesn’t shy away from saying important things about culture that people might take for granted. In a perfect world, Sinners should sweep up the whole night because it’s not only the best movie of the Best Picture nominations but also the best movie of 2025.