Over the next two weeks, I’ll offer up my top ten movies of 2025.

If you’ve been reading my posts from the last few weeks you probably have an idea of which films will show up here. But in these entries, I’ll spend a little more space explaining why.

Best Films of 2025
#10. Roofman

This movie stubbornly held on to the #10 spot on my year-end list even as more obvious options came and went. Sometimes you just want to see charismatic actors doing nuanced work in the service of a great yarn, and that is sadly in short supply these days.

Channing Tatum is one of the most versatile, yet under-appreciated, movie stars working today. He’s equally adept at comedy, drama, and action, and he’s a hell of a song-and-dance man. He and Hugh Jackman might be the only two actors who can check all those boxes.

Kirsten Dunst is a low-key icon in her own right, splitting her time between populist entertainment and auteur-driven art films and slowly building one of the most fascinating filmographies in the business.

Together, Tatum and Dunst bring charm and pathos to this true-life tale of a serial burglar who hid out for months in a Toys R Us while waiting for the cops to lose his scent.

Setting the intrigue aside, I was most invested in the couple’s relationship. And I was touched by the respectful way the movie treated religion, depicting Dunst’s character’s involvement in her church with subtlety you don’t often see in Hollywood movies.

I fully embraced Roofman during its closing credits, when a series of newsreels covered the events on which it was based. It turns out almost every detail of this crazy re-telling was authentic. I’m so used to movies “inspired by” true stories and I was thrilled to learn I had just watched a shockingly faithful one.

I’m famously averse to biopics, but I love movies that find real-life stories worthy of the big screen treatment and execute them with respect, style, and care. Roofman is the best example I’ve seen in some time.