Sunday Special: The Best Movies of 2025

About this episode

<p>As 2025 comes to an end, The Sunday Special is looking back on the year in culture.</p><p>This week, on our final episode of the podcast, we’re talking about movies. The potential acquisition of Warner Brothers by Netflix has dominated entertainment news in recent weeks, but the year in movies has been about a lot more than corporate mergers. Alissa Wilkinson, a movie critic for The New York Times, and Nicole Sperling, a culture reporter based in Los Angeles, join Gilbert Cruz to talk about what really matters: the movies we loved this year.</p><p><strong>Movies discussed in this episode include:</strong></p><p>“One Battle After Another”<br />“Sinners”<br />“A Minecraft Movie”<br />“Superman”<br />“Weapons”<br />“Wicked: For Good”<br />“Zootopia 2”<br />“Avatar: Fire and Ash”<br />“Marty Supreme”<br />“It Was Just an Accident”<br />“The Testament of Ann Lee”<br />“Come and See Me In the Good Light”<br />“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning”</p><p> </p><p><strong>On Today’s Episode:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/alissa-wilkinson" target="_blank"><strong>Alissa Wilkinson</strong></a><strong> </strong>is a movie critic at The Times.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicole-sperling" target="_blank"><strong>Nicole Sperling</strong></a><strong> </strong>is a reporter covering Hollywood for The Times.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Background Reading:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/podcasts/the-daily/netflix-paramount-warner-brothers.html" target="_blank">Netflix vs. Paramount: Inside the Epic Battle Over Warner Brothers</a></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/movies/best-movies-2025-kpop-demon-hunters-roofman.html" target="_blank">The 25 Most Notable Movies of 2025</a></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/movies/best-movies-2025.html" target="_blank">Best Movies of 2025</a></p><p> </p><p>Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures; 20th Century Studios; Disney</p> <p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p><p> </p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>