Summer’s here, which can only mean one thing. Yes, it’s time for NME’s annual report into the fifteen best films released in cinemas in the first half of 2025. Listed in alphabetical order, so we’re not favouring anyone just yet, it’s pure movie gold. But how many have you seen?
Words: James Mottram
28 Years Later
Director: Danny Boyle
The infected are all the Rage again. Boyle’s folk-horror-tinged sequel, written again by Alex Garland, chillingly shows us Britain almost three decades into a zombie apocalypse. In the first of a proposed trilogy, newcomer Alfie Williams truly delivers as a young boy who has grown up in this world. But what about that controversial ending with Jack O’Connell? A twisted take on how evil lurks in plain sight.
For fans of: 28 Days Later (2002), The Wicker Man (1973)
A Complete Unknown
Director: James Mangold
Arguably his finest performance to date, Oscar-nominated Timothée Chalamet is uncanny as Bob Dylan, taking us through the troubadour’s time in the 1960s as he becomes the voice of a generation. Director Mangold, who did much the same for Johnny Cash in Walk The Line, recreates the era with aplomb. There’s an excellent performance from Edward Norton as folk singer Pete Seeger, but it’s Timmy that dominates. Deserved the Academy Award, arguably.
For fans of: Nowhere Boy (2009), Walk The Line (2005)
A Real Pain
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Actor-writer-director Jesse Eisenberg brought all his skills to the table for this unassuming but utterly compelling study of two cousins (Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin) who join a tour party that ventures through Poland as a way of reconnecting with their Holocaust-afflicted heritage. Culkin’s Oscar-winning turn as the verbose Benji is a high-wire act every bit as memorable as his character in Succession, but he’s just one puzzle piece in this deft character study.
For fans of: Juno (2006), Treasure (2024)
Babygirl
Director: Halina Reijn
In this erotic but never trashy look at male-female sexual dynamics, Harris Dickinson’s intern enjoys an S&M-tinged relationship with his boss (Nicole Kidman). Among the highlights, a meme-worthy milk scene (not since Alex from A Clockwork Orange raised his glass has the white stuff been so popular on screen) and Dickinson grooving to George Michael’s ‘Father Figure’ with his shirt unbuttoned, a moment that doubtless swelled the British actor’s fanbase tenfold.
For fans of: 9 1/2 Weeks (1986), Closer (2004)
Becoming Led Zeppelin
Director: Bernard MacMahon
The first official Zeppelin doc ever made, MacMahon’s look at the band covers the first two albums only, showing how Plant, Page, Bonham and Jones arrived fully formed to bang out classics like ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Interviews with the three remaining band members, plus previously unheard audio from Bonham, brought the insight, but it’s the early concert footage that truly stuns for those of us unlucky enough never to see Zepp live.
For fans of: The Song Remains The Same (1976), Celebration Day (2012)
Black Bag
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Soderbergh’s been on double duty this year with the also-excellent ghost story Presence released in January before this sublime London-set espionage tale. Starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as married spies, this tale of internal treachery comes on like the anti-Mission: Impossible (scribe David Koepp, intriguingly, wrote the 1996 original of the Tom Cruise-starring franchise). Dominated by two brilliantly directed dinner party scenes, this is a dialogue-driven delight.
For fans of: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011), Tenet (2020)
Final Destination: Bloodlines
Director: Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein
After years of laying dormant, the Final Destination franchise came back with a bang, as Death once more wielded his malicious scythe. Wisely not trying to reinvent the formula, this tale of a family who are being hunted down by the Grim Reaper features some stunningly inventive ways to meet your maker. None more so than the poor sod who gets sucked by a giant magnet into an MRI scanner. Ouchy.
For fans of: Final Destination (2000), Saw (2004)
Hard Truths
Director: Mike Leigh
Excruciating to watch at times but superbly executed, veteran Leigh delivers another masterclass in British social realism in this quietly devastating story about two London sisters. BAFTA nominee Marianne Jean-Baptiste knocked it out the park as Pansy, the perma-angry mother-of-one who believes the entire world is against her. After a trio of historical films, it was heartening to see Leigh back doing what he does best – modern-day micro-dramas.
For fans of: Secrets & Lies (1996), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
Nickel Boys
Director: RaMell Ross
Colson Whitehead’s novel was vividly brought to life with this fiercely original Civil Rights-era drama. Shot from a first-person point-of-view, it immediately lands the viewer in Jim Crow ’60s Florida as Ethan Herisse’s Elwood goes from promising student to reform school kid following a miscarriage of justice. Featuring a mighty turn by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Elwood’s grandmother, rarely has the Black experience been so poetically and potently captured.
For fans of: Moonlight (2016), The Tree Of Life (2011)
Nosferatu
Director: Robert Eggers
The classic vampire tale came back to cinemas, with a beautiful makeover from Eggers ( director of The Lighthouse and The Northman). Bill Skarsgård disappears completely under prosthetics as Count Orlok, the Transylvanian nobleman who must feast on the blood of others. But around him, it’s the atmosphere that really strikes. Four Oscar noms (cinematography, costumes, production design, makeup/hair) were the least it deserved.
For fans of: Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror (1922), Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979)
Sinners
Director: Ryan Coogler
Coogler (Creed, Black Panther) is no stranger to major box office, but here was an original horror story that surprised everyone, becoming one of the biggest hits of the year so far. The director’s lucky charm Michael B. Jordan jumped on the twins bandwagon (see also The Monkey) but pulled it off as Prohibition-era siblings returning to their hometown. An intoxicating mix of blues music and gothic chills, this was all the evidence Hollywood needs to bankroll fresh ideas.
For fans of: Let The Right One In (2008), Get Out (2017)
The Ballad Of Wallis Island
Director: James Griffiths
Expanded from a short, Tim Key and Tom Basden’s story is a true British gem. Key is glorious as Charles, an eccentric lottery winner who decides to reunite his favourite folk duo (Basden, Carey Mulligan) for a private concert, despite the fact they’ve long since separated. Fans of Key (best known as Alan Partridge’s sometime cohort Sidekick Simon) were in their element, but this has so much more. Funny, charming, and heartfelt.
For fans of: Frank (2014), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
While its star Adrian Brody took Best Actor, Corbet’s monumental epic about a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor was beaten to the Oscar punch by Anora. But there’s no doubt, Corbet’s look at creativity in post-war America is a towering achievement. Shot on old-school format VistaVision, this practically begs you to see it on the big screen. Oh, and Guy Pearce, as the tycoon employing Brody’s visionary to build his folly, totally rocks.
For fans of: Citizen Kane (1941), The Pianist (2002)
The Monkey
Director: Osgood Perkins
Hot off the back of his surprise hit Longlegs, Osgood Perkins delivered this twisty, bloody, darkly funny take on a Stephen King short. From the moment Severance’s Adam Scott enters as a pilot carrying a cursed toy monkey, you just know this film is gonna push the grounds of good taste. Theo James also kills it as two brothers caught up with this drum-beating mechanical simian, in a story stacked with sick laughs.
For fans of: Longlegs (2024), It (2017)
The Phoenician Scheme
Director: Wes Anderson
A typically eccentric, perfectly crafted and exquisitely acted film from Anderson. Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton headlined the all-star cast (Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Cera and more) in this 1950s story of a tycoon embroiled in an espionage plot. Basketball, Bill Murray (as God) and Benedict Cumberbatch (with a beard and eyebrows that deserved awards) all flash before your eyes in this visual feast.
For fans of: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Asteroid City (2023)