(This article also appeared at Midwestfilmjournal.com)

As in past years, I’m forgoing a “best films of the year” list in favor of a “most satisfying” list. No disrespect to other film journalists who take the traditional route. I’m just more comfortable sharing — and encouraging you to check out — those that felt to me the most complete once the final credits rolled. 

Oh, and I’m giving you 11 rather than the traditional 10. Because that’s how many films after which I exhaled and said, “Yes!”

The Life of Chuck

Instead of burying the lead, I’ll start with my favorite film of the year — and the only one I watched a second time just days later.

That’s The Life of Chuck, which slid right by my consciousness in its theatrical release. I even managed to dodge all summaries, reviews and trailers while also being ignorant of the Stephen King story on which it’s based.

Sincere without being naive and featuring comforting yet knowing narration (given voice by Nick Offerman), The Life of Chuck has, at its core, an understanding that the universal is more interesting and engaging when it’s told through specifics. 

The risk in writing about The Life of Chuck is in sharing too much and denying you the pleasure of having a similar discovery experience to the one I had. In this one, a part of the pleasure is in catching the connections between the “what’s going on here?” moments of its first third and the reverse-chronicled actions of the second and third sections. 

Rather than outline the plot, I’ll just say the cast is universally outstanding, from Tom Hiddleston and Benjamin Pajak at its center to brief but deeply human moments from Carl Lumbly, Matthew Lillard, Taylor Gordon, Kate Siegel and more. And later, there’s Mia Sara, radiant as the grandmother, and Mark Hamill, nearly unrecognizable as the grandfather.

This film glows both onscreen and in my memory. I feel lucky that it exists. And I’ll surely be watching it again.

Train Dreams

While I wait for Terrence Malick to finish editing The Way of the Wind (which finished filming in 2019), I’m perfectly content with the meditative, melancholic, Malick-like Train Dreams. Directed and co-written by Clint Bentley (who also co-wrote Sing Sing), Train Dreams is, like Malick’s best work, light on traditional storytelling but strong on visual beauty and emotional impact. Joel Edgerton plays an aimless, average guy who eventually finds purpose — and loss — while being haunted by memories of a vicious incident he witnessed. Although in a different manner than The Life of Chuck, it’s knowingly narrated and has big, universal issues in mind, delivering them in a unique, powerful way.

Splitsville

This hasn’t been a great year for screen comedies, which is just one of the many reasons why Splitsville proved to be an unexpected delight. The previous evening, I watched the frustrating and disappointing Materialists with a somnambulant Dakota Johnson in the lead, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sit through another Johnson vehicle.

Surprise! This time she’s well-cast as a spouse in an open marriage who has a fling with the couple’s recently jilted pal. What sounds like the beginning of a Cinemax movie of old or a silly formula comedy where everyone eventually realizes monogamy is the only way, Splitsville consistently takes unexpected twists, turning into a relationship farce that never undermines the honest desires of its characters. It also contains one of the funniest fight scenes I’ve ever seen.

Sorry, Baby

Humor is also key to Sorry, Baby, although it’s hardly a comedy. Actor / director / screenwriter Eva Victor’s film centers on a woman who, while a graduate student, was sexually assaulted by an instructor who then quickly resigned from the school. With no recourse within the university and choosing not to press charges, she’s left with unresolved — and impossible to resolve — issues. But Sorry, Baby is far from an issue-of-the-week flick. It’s a strong character study of a very specific, traumatized woman attempting to continue to grow, maintain relationships, keep her sense of humor and find hope. Here’s to more in the years ahead from a talented triple threat.

Blue Moon (2025)

Admittedly, as a musical-theater geek, I was predisposed to being interested in Blue Moon, a film that honors the Aristotelian dramatic unities of time, place and action. Set at the famed theater hangout Sardi’s on the night when Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! opened on Broadway, it focuses not on R or H but on Lorenz Hart, Rodgers’ former lyricist, and his near herculean but delusional efforts to rationalize and justify his diminished cultural status. 

I have at least a dozen books on my theater shelves that offer versions of the story, but director Richard Linklater’s film, while somewhat fictionalized, transcends the simply anecdotal to become a compelling, if uncomfortable, insider-becomes-outsider story. Ethan Hawke, who someday I hope will get the recognition he deserves as one of screen’s best actors, nails it as Hart.  

The Ballad of Wallis Island

A few films that won me over seem to have been completely overlooked by the awards chatter that fills this season. The Ballad of Wallis Island brought to mind quirky fish-out-of-water films such as Local Hero in its story of a down-and-almost-out curmudgeon / musician hired for an unusual gig on an isolated Welsh island. Tim Key is the eccentric employer. Tom Basden is the musician. Carey Mulligan plays his former partner, and Sian Clifford pops up as one of those supporting characters who causes smiles whenever she reappears.

The Baltimorons

Also in the realm of low-key charmers, The Baltimorons stayed near the bottom of my screening pile due in large part to a title that sounds like a rejected Will Ferrell vehicle. Bad on me for judging a wonderful film by its title.

Co-writer Michael Strassner plays a recovering alcoholic and former improv performer who needs a dentist on Christmas Eve. Liz Larson plays the world-weary tooth doc who ends up joining him for an eventful day. Olivia Luccardi provides wonderful support as the comic’s justifiably frustrated fiancée. Far from moronic, this is a comedy that respects its characters, thoughtfully anchors in its location and legitimately keeps its will-they / won’t they dynamic going to the end. Plus its onstage scenes are far more believable than those in the urgh-fest that is the higher-profile Is This Thing On? Bonus: It’s also a wonderful Christmas movie.  

Warfare

Warfare (2025)

There’s no romance, humor, traditional character development or cheap thrills in Warfare. Instead, the gritty you-are-there film offers an intense, real-time look at a Navy SEAL platoon’s attempt to dig itself out of a brutal situation. There’s no right or wrong judgment here. No political posturing. No break for air. It’s about the moment-to-moment decision-making required of the humans in uniform. This is a masterful war film pared to the bone.

Sinners (2025)

The market seemed flooded with horror films this year, and I dodged most of them since even the ones praised by others I respect — including Good Boy and Weapons — disappointed me after good build-ups. That wasn’t the case with Sinners, a fresh and furious take on the vampire genre. It underlined the value of setting up a world and inhabiting it with characters with distinct personalities in order to raise the stakes (and make us care who is getting stabbed with stakes). Oddly beautiful at times and, yes, scary, it proves there’s still life in the vampire genre.   

Predator: Badlands

It has not been a great year for science-fiction onscreen, with both franchise films and stand-alones failing to really stand out. But then along came Predator: Badlands, and what could have been just an Enemy Mine variant for the little-respected series turned into a smart, fun and exciting adventure with actual motivation for its world of characters. 

Sentimental Value (2025)

Elle Fanning, who does double duty in the Predator flick, also impressed in Sentimental Value, holding her own onscreen with top-of-their-game Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve, who plays the actress daughter of a film director (Skarsgård) who turns down the offer to star in his would-be comeback film. Fanning’s American actress is hired instead. In this thoughtfully detailed film, issues of identity, ownership, expectations of others and forgiveness all play a part. But it’s the detailed, nuanced characters that make it work, abetted by a just-right ending and some real insight of the personal challenges and toll of creating work for both stage and screen.