These are the movies we’ve gotten excited about this year – and where you can watch them.
Can’t decide what to watch? Well, look no further—there’s bound to be something on this list of our fave movies so far this year, whether you’re watching for the first time, or revisiting a recent highlight.
This post will be updated each month with new recommendations for viewing both in cinemas and at home. And, for the avoidance of any confusion, these are titles we covered in 2025—as opposed to what a formal release year might say. Look, we just want you to watch some good stuff, OK? In the unlikely event you don’t find something to watch below, I invite you to check out the Flicks countdown of our 20 favourite films of 2024.
To help keep up with movies and shows, our watchlist feature lets you keep track of them, and our notifications tell you when they land in cinemas or on streamers. Join Flicks (it’s free) to start using these features, and access exclusive rewards: ticket giveaways, discount offers and—from time to time—advanced screenings.
The Rule of Jenny Pen
John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush star in James Ashcroft’s sophomore outing, the Stephen King-recommended Aotearoa-set thriller The Rule of Jenny Pen. Seen from the perspective of Rush’s character Stefan Mortensen, a judge who’s suffering debilitating strokes, it’s a story that sees the inhabitants of a rest home tormented by bullies in their midst—the sadistic Crealy (Lithgow) and the puppet he wields (or is that vice versa?) Jenny Pen.
It’s a “complex, frightening film,” writes Tony Stamp in his feature We almost forgot how good John Lithgow is at being evil. Elsewhere on Flicks, you can read my in-depth chat with director James Ashcroft, which (among other things) includes conversation about the punitive side of New Zealand—and our punishing accent.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
A hit at Cannes this year, one of Iran’s most daringly political dramas seizes on the waves of protests that followed killings by the country’s “morality police”. Iman is an inspector of the Revolutionary Court who learns he’s expected to rubber-stamp the execution of protestors—with no consideration of evidence. Following the protests and violent state reprisals on social media, Iman’s daughters are horrified by events—the schisms within their family mirroring events outside, and carrying their own threat of harm.
As Liam Maguren observes in his feature on the film, shot in secret by a director standing up to his government: “It is about defiance and it is defiance, an exceedingly rare piece of cinema where both the film and the filmmaking are important works of art.”
Black Bag
Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star in Steven Soderbergh’s brisk spy pic as husband and wife operatives whose marriage is threatened when George (Fassbender) learns Kathryn (Blanchett) may have sold his country out. With the black bag of the title referring to how both secrets and a relationship can survive one another, Soderbergh unveils a network of romantic dysfunction and duplicity with delicious fervour.
The result is “the most exciting film of the year so far,” writes Rory Doherty. “Black Bag reels you in with simmering, ill-behaved characters and tightly-wound thriller mechanics.”
Tinā
A grieving Samoan mother finds unexpected senses of purpose and connection in this Aotearoa drama that’s been setting box office records since its release in New Zealand. In the wake of the Christchurch earthquake, Mareta Percival (Anapela Polataivao) takes on a substitute teacher role at an elite (racist) public school, and discovers students in need of guidance, inspiration and love.
The crowdpleaser runs the gamut of emotions from despair to triumph and anger—and is often more genuinely hilarious than you might expect. “With Tinā, Magasiva has poured his memories, his culture, and his heart into the big screen,” Laumata Volavola notes in her interview with the director: “And if early reactions are anything to go by, he may just have created a new classic that our people can call their own.”
Nickel Boys
Set in the 1960s and following two African-American boys sent to an abusive reform school in Florida, this dual Oscar nominee (for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay) takes a unique approach. Shot from a first person point of view, we spend the duration of the film experiencing it from the perspective of its characters.
As Liam Maguren observes in his feature on the film, “At its most brilliant, Ross’s visual approach solidifies Nickel Boys’ most profound reminder: all these boys’ experiences, memories, and lives mattered.”
The Order
Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult star in director Justin Kurzel’s 1980s-set thriller, the true story of the FBI’s pursuit of increasingly violent white supremacists led by Bob Mathews (Hoult). As his group The Order escalates from robbery to murder—and towards mass killing—and seek to ignite a racist revolution, this is enjoyable both as a superior cat-and-mouse thriller and to better understand the ideologies of hate.
As I wrote about the film and the racist ideology it explores: “Thinking about how these events of forty years ago have continued to ripple through the US—and into the White House in 2025—lends The Order a chilling quality.”
You’re Cordially Invited
This Will Ferrell/Reese Witherspoon comedy is determinedly old-fashioned, echoing the time when a couple of movie stars would team up and their charisma elevate a pretty generic premise. Here, the pair navigate the shock (shockingly bad?) contrivance of having both booked the same wedding venue on the same day—but the entertainment here comes more from their commitment and our existing goodwill to the pair than any storytelling beats.
That’s echoed in Dominic Corry’s piece on the film: “I’m sure you can see where this is going, but again, sometimes it’s nice when a movie tells you where it is going, and goes there. With gusto.”
The Brutalist
Lengthy, weighty and visually enormous, this epic period drama about a Holocaust survivor, an ambitious project and the American Dream is a big swing for the fences. Deserving its awards and accolades, the film is gorgeously lensed, something its patient pacing lets us soak in—when it’s not also winding up the emotional blows delivered by a uniformly impressive cast (Oscar winner Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn are all phenomenal).
Pearce shared insights on his character in a conversation with Rory Doherty: “I think he’s extremely self-conscious. But he’s cultivated and created this version of himself, which is what the American dream is apparently all about. You can be who you want to be. So he’s his own creation, as such.
Babygirl
Sexy, smart, gripping (and funny when it wants to be), Halina Reijn’s Babygirl is a provocative modern take on the classic sex thriller. Nicole Kidman’s successful CEO may have an outwardly perfect life, but it’s one she puts in jeopardy when she has an affair with young intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson), setting in motion an intriguing exploration of shame and rebirth.
Cat Wood’s feature on the film notes “how vital Reijn’s movie is in enforcing a woman’s perspective in all its contradictory, confounding nuances”. And as the filmmaker told me when we joined each other for an interview: “I always felt very lonely in my dark sexuality, and I thought as a woman that I wasn’t allowed to have masochistic fantasies, and I thought I was weak, and that was not feminist.”
Wolf Man
After the body transformation sci-fi of Upgrade and his intriguing update to The Invisible Man, director Leigh Whannell tackles a classic lycanthrope in Wolf Man. Christopher Abbott stars as a man trying to protect his family from a werewolf, only to find himself transforming into the deadly creature.
Luke Buckmaster’s piece on the film describes Wolf Man as “bold, very skillfully made, and profoundly disquieting”—adding “No other werewolf movie has put me in such a state of anguish and despair”.
