Best Films of 2025 — Trends, Themes, and the State of Cinema
This is a multi‑film recap episode.
Primary Shared Films Discussed:
Weapons
Eddington
Hamnet
Sinners
One Battle After Another
Train Dreams
Universal Language
Frankenstein
Additional Films Referenced:
It Was Just an Accident
Ebony and Ivory
Sirât
The Zone of Interest
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Avatar: Fire and Ash
In this year‑end episode of Mindframes, Michael Cockerill and David Canfield look back on what they agree was one of the strongest years in cinema in recent memory. Rather than ranking films strictly by quality, the discussion centers on how 2025's movies reflected the emotional, cultural, and political realities of the moment. The hosts explore major technical trends—such as the return of controlled formalism, the renewed importance of sound design, and a more disciplined use of CGI—before turning to deeper thematic currents running through the year's films. Across genres, 2025 cinema repeatedly grappled with loss, systemic failure, alienation, and the fragile possibility of hope. The episode concludes with personal picks, shared favorites, and a defense of films that dared to resist cynicism through human connection and formal craft.
Many of the standout films of 2025 rejected frenetic camera work in favor of classical composition—locked‑off shots, wide frames, symmetry, and negative space. This stylistic restraint allowed emotion to emerge gradually rather than being chased by the camera. Films like Hamnet exemplified how formal discipline can deepen emotional resonance and restore cinematic patience.
Sound design emerged as a dominant expressive tool, often prioritizing diegetic and off‑screen audio over traditional sweeping scores. Silence itself became a source of tension, especially in horror, where absence of sound replaced musical cues. This trend reflects both creative evolution and the challenge of balancing theatrical sound design with home viewing habits.
Across genres, filmmakers returned obsessively to stories of missing or dead children, institutional collapse, and moral ambiguity. These narratives frame despair as a defining emotional condition of the era, while asking whether hope can survive systemic pressure. Some films embraced the darkness; others, like Universal Language, quietly resisted it through small acts of human connection.
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Episode introduction & format |
| 02:00 | Why 2025 was a great year for film |
| 03:00 | Controlled formalism & visual trends |
| 07:00 | Superhero films & genre reinvention |
| 10:00 | Sound design, silence, and scoring |
| 18:00 | CGI vs practical effects |
| 21:00 | Lighting: flat vs dynamic |
| 25:00 | Thematic trends: children, systems, despair |
| 32:00 | Criteria for personal picks |
| 35:00 | Dave's picks: Train Dreams & Ebony and Ivory |
| 42:00 | Michael's picks: It Was Just an Accident & Universal Language |
| 50:00 | Shared Top Films discussion |
| 1:18:00 | Final reflections on cinema & culture |
Michael Cockerill
David Canfield
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Mindframes is a sometimes half‑assed but always wholehearted conversation about film, culture, and the moments that shape us.
