18 Underrated and Overlooked Films from 2025

Afternoons of Solitude

Dir. Albert Serra

Documenting the rituals and routines of matador Andres Roca Rey, from his fawning entourage to the high camp savagery of his work, Albert Serra's latest is unlike anything else this year. While Afternoons of Solitude has provoked discomfort in its brutality and its reticence to overtly comment on its subject, as a sensuous examination of masculinity and death, it's utterly electrifying. [Joe Creely]

Released by ICA; currently unavailable for home viewing in the UK

The Ballad of Wallis Island

Dir. James Griffiths

Tim Key and Tom Basden bounce off each other perfectly in this wholesome (b)romance set on a fictional Welsh island and inspired by their 2007 short. Elevated by the duo’s delightful banter and Basden’s original songs, the film sees a folk duo’s reunion gig turn into a reflection on nostalgia, art and love, with Carey Mulligan joining to hit the high notes. [Stefania Sarrubba]

Released by Universal; available to rent on VOD

Bring Her Back

Dir. Michael Philippou, Danny Philippou

This is Sally Hawkins as you’ve never seen her before, unleashing one of this year’s most affecting performances as a foster mother with a sinister plan. It’d be a shame to sleep on this one, though you’ll have a hard time dozing off to dreamland after the nightmarish flashes and screeches the Philippous have summoned here. [SS]

Released by Sony; available to watch on VOD

Caught by the Tides

Dir. Jia Zhangke

Jia Zhangke’s decades-spanning reflection on the changing social-political structures of China is somehow pieced together from detritus picked off the cutting room floor of his previous films. It’s an important historical document that’s both engaging and moving, and Zhao Tao’s near-wordless performance is the best of the year. [Tony Inglis]

Released by ICA; not currently available for home viewing in the UK

Caught Stealing

Dir. Darren Aronofsky

Anyone going into Darren Aronofsky’s latest in search of psychological melodrama will be disappointed; Caught Stealing’s pleasures are more visceral. It's a violent, darkly comic thriller set in the New York underworld that offers something oddly satisfying: watching Austin Butler’s pretty-boy bartender get beaten to a pulp for most of the runtime. [Nathaniel Ashley]

Released by Sony; available to rent on VOD

Cloud

Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's cult hero status is already firmly established, but his continued combination of productivity and excellence really is remarkable. Those who caught Cloud's depressingly small UK cinema run found a blend of steely satire, chaotic farce, and shambolic action that makes for a despairingly funny look at the repercussions of the online mindset. [JC]

Released by Blue Finch Film Releasing; available to rent on VOD

The Colors Within

Dir. Naoko Yamada

In this delightful anime, high schooler Totsuko possesses a synaesthesia that allows her to see people as colours. Her condition draws her into the orbit of fellow misfits Kimi and Rui, and when they start a band, the film takes flight. Rarely has the act of songwriting and creativity been so excitingly depicted – and the songs are straight-up bangers. [TI]

Released by Anime Ltd

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

Dir. Christian Gudegast

It's been a rewarding year for Gerard Butler, with the Scotsman revisiting his two most celebrated projects from the past decade: How to Train Your Dragon and cops-and-robbers thriller Den of Thieves. This sequel to the latter is another Michael Mann-flavoured heist flick, relocating from LA to the French Riviera for a diamond job driven by process and bullish personalities. [Rory Doherty]

Available to stream on Prime Video

Eephus

Dir. Carson Lund

Like the time-defying baseball pitch it’s named after, Eephus moves at such a gentle pace that you find yourself losing all track of time. Which is ironic because that’s really what this quietly melancholy movie is about – the way we mark time over the course of a game, a day, a life. [Ross McIndoe]

Awaiting UK distribution

Final Destination: Bloodlines

Dir. Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein

How glorious to see a sequel reboot whose only concessions to nostalgia are one poignant cameo and the reappearance of certain lethal logs? Otherwise, the sixth Final Destination film is not interested in anything except the most creative, blood-soaked kills, setting up each trip down Death’s list with delicious malice. [Carmen Paddock]

Released by Warner Bros; available to rent on VOD

Hedda

Dir. Nia DaCosta

Nia DaCosta’s savvy Ibsen update succeeds through impeccable production design and powerhouse performances. Tessa Thompson’s Hedda relishes her Machiavellian impulses, with just enough despair behind the eyes to suggest her boredom may have darker roots. As her former lover, Nina Hoss is her equal in this toxic battle of wills. [CP]

Released by MetFilm Distribution; available to stream on Prime Video

Here

Dir. Robert Zemeckis

Robert Zemeckis’s investigation of family and place, reuniting him with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, moved back and forth through millions of years while keeping the camera locked in a single location. If you can accept its contrived superstructure, Here is an astonishingly moving contemplation of historical and spiritual concerns, playing like a raw B-side to the pop grandiosity of Forrest Gump. [Ian Mantgani]

Released by Curzon; available to stream on Prime Video

Highest 2 Lowest

Dir. Spike Lee

Cinema audiences were short-changed when this cracking thriller was quickly dumped onto streaming. Lee’s typically idiosyncratic Kurosawa remake takes a while to ignite, but everything from the train switcheroo onwards is tremendously involving. Denzel Washington is unsurprisingly mesmerising as the beleaguered mogul, and A$AP Rocky holds his own in the film's superbly staged climactic face-off. [Philip Concannon]

Released by Apple; available to stream on Apple TV

Islands

Dir. Jan-Ole Gerster

Jan-Ole Gerster’s Islands brings us Sam Riley on top form as a washed-up tennis coach embroiled in a missing persons case. What begins akin to a Highsmith-style mystery unfolds in a more understated fashion, which might be why it flew somewhat under the radar. Nevertheless, it’s well worth seeking out. [Louis Cammell]

Released by BFI; available to stream on BFI Player

Kontinental '25

Dir. Radu Jude

While UK audiences have to wait longer for Radu Jude's epic-length, AI-fuelled Dracula, his subdued but no less bitter Kontinental '25 should suffice for now. In this story of a Romanian bailiff wracked with guilt, Jude satirises how efficiently we can compartmentalise our negative feelings in a cold, collapsing society. [RD]

Released by Sovereign Films; currently in cinemas

Palestine 36

Dir. Annemarie Jacir

Freedom fighters take centre stage in Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, an urgent cinematic feat, somehow filmed on location, that dramatises the events of the uprising against British colonial rule in Palestine in the 1930s. Everyone should see this film, not least for some much-needed context to the atrocities of today. [LC]

Released by Curzon Film; available to rent on VOD

Seven Veils

Dir. Atom Egoyan

Building on his own production of Salome for the Canadian Opera, Atom Egoyan develops a layered narrative that touches on his recurring obsessions: memory, trauma, technology and family. Amanda Seyfried is superb as the unravelling theatre director; Egoyan is undeniably an erratic filmmaker, but this is his most elegant, accomplished work in years. [PC]

Released by XYZ Films; available to rent via Prime Video

The Threesome

Dir. Chad Hartigan

“A guy goes home with two women and ends up getting both of them pregnant” might sound like the tagline to a sub-par rom-com from the early 2000s, but Chad Hartigan’s film takes that premise and turns it into something infinitely smarter, savvier and funnier than you’re expecting. [RM]

Released by Vertical; available to stream on Prime Video