By Joshua Tyler
| Published
After years of summer disappointments, summer 2025 will almost certainly go down as one of the best movie summers of the decade. Now that kids are heading back to school, it’s time to take stock of just how good it was.
If there was a consistent theme that made this summer’s crop of films so watchable, it was a dedication to getting back to basics. The best movies focused on telling simple stories and telling them perfectly.
These were the best movies of 2025’s golden summer.
1. F1 Was Summer 2025’s Best Movie
F1 is beautiful in its simplicity. It tells a straightforward story about a straightforward character, and does it perfectly, driven by a fantastic soundtrack, without wasting a single film frame.
It stars Brad Pitt as a washed-up race car driver named Sonny Hayes. He’s confident, smart, and right about everything. People mock him, attack him, and blame him for their problems. Sonny Hayes doesn’t care. He knows he’s right, so he smiles and keeps doing that. It works. He wins. That’s the movie.
2. The Naked Gun Is The Funniest Movie Of The Decade
The Naked Gun is the first big-budget comedy released since Daddy’s Home 2 in 2017. Laughter is back in a big way, and seeing this franchise revival in a big theater with a cackling audience was worth any cost.
Here’s my favorite bit: Frank is reading a criminal’s rap sheet and says, “It says here you’re doing 25 years for Man’s Laughter.” Insert dramatic Liam Neeson pause here. “It must have been one hell of a joke.”
The Naked Gun is one hell of a joke. It’s the funniest movie of the decade.
3. Superman Was The Summer’s Best Adventure
At its core, Superman is a back-to-basics approach to superhero storytelling. It’s been dressed up with some of director James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy idiosyncratic style, but a stripped-down core drives it.
Like F1, Superman is the story of a hero who knows he’s right and refuses to listen when everyone tells him he’s wrong. Eventually, his steadfastness pays off. Superman saves the lives of innocents, and his girlfriend respects him for sticking to his convictions.
Along the way, some things need punching; there’s a black hole and a flying dog. That’s a lot of fun. But the core of the movie, and what made it feel refreshing after years of bloated storytelling gone mad, was that straightforward, practical approach to standing up for what’s right.
4. The Life of Chuck Was The Summer’s Best Small Movie
Not everything released in summer is a big, noisy blockbuster, and this movie, based on a Stephen King story, was summer 2025’s best quieter entry.
The Life of Chuck was directed by Mike Flanagan, the mind behind the Netflix limited series Midnight Mass. No one watched Midnight Mass, but it’s still the best thing Netflix has ever produced.
The Life of Chuck tells three connected stories. In one, the world seems to be slowly running down, and no one is sure why. In another, a man dances. In the third, there’s a mysterious room.
I’ve probably said too much already. The less you know going in, the better. Just make it a point to watch The Life of Chuck with someone who won’t mind you crying.
5. The Bad Guys 2 Was Summer 2025’s Best Kids Movie
Bad Guys 2 is better than the first Bad Guys in nearly every way. It’s a wild animated adventure with its own sense of style and nonstop momentum, set to one of the best motion picture soundtracks of the year.
Every movie frame is packed with something exciting and fun. It never stops moving and creating. None of the audience’s time is wasted.
I’m not suggesting here that this is the kind of movie adults should seek out, without kids. You’d need someone under the age of 12 along with you to enjoy what The Bad Guys 2 has to offer. But if you saw it, no matter your age, you had to enjoy this turbo-charged cartoon ride.
6. The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is The Year’s Best Marvel Movie
Fantastic Four: First Steps was made by Marvel, but it is not a Marvel movie. It’s a Fantastic Four movie, and that seemingly minor distinction is the most important thing about it. Fantastic Four was a fresh approach to superhero movies, free from the usual Marvel formula.
One of the movie’s biggest pleasant surprises was how good the decision to gender swap the Silver Surfer was. It generated controversy, but it was a change made for smart story reasons, and not political ones.
Like the other great summer blockbusters on this list, First Steps made smart, common-sense narrative decisions and told a simple story as well as it could be told. The result was a fun, interesting superhero film with no fat left untrimmed.
What’s Missing From This List
I screened nearly every film released this summer, from Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to Elio to The Phoenician Scheme. Some, like F1 and The Naked Gun, I saw twice. In a shocking twist, nearly every movie released this summer, except the one with dinosaurs in it, was good.
The only 2025 summer film I missed that might have been a contender for this best-of-the-best ranking is Weapons, a horror movie released at Summer’s end. Most seem to agree it’s fantastic, including GFR’s own Drew Dietsch. It almost certainly belongs on this list as Summer 2025’s best horror movie. I hope to see it soon.
