Film Technica: Our top picks for the best films of 2025

Ballerina has all the eye-popping visuals, lavish sets, and spectacularly inventive stuntwork one would expect from a film set in the John Wick universe. It’s more tightly plotted than recent entries in the franchise, and the globe-trotting locations make narrative sense; it’s not just an excuse for staging a spectacle. As always, the fight choreography is perfection. Eve is smaller than most of the men she takes on, but that doesn’t make her any less deadly, particularly when she’s more than willing to fight dirty. A fight scene with dueling flame throwers is one for the ages. Despite a few minor quibbles, Ballerina is an immensely entertaining and action-packed addition to the franchise.

—Jennifer Ouellette

The Baltimorons

The Baltimorons is a quirky holiday love story about an unlikely pair who find each other by happenstance over the holidays. Didi (Liz Larsen) is a divorced middle-aged dentist whose ex-husband has just gotten married to his much-younger girlfriend—on Christmas eve, no less, so the wedding reception pre-empts Didi’s planned time with her daughter. So she’s on call when a bumbling former improv comedian and recovering alcoholic named Cliff (Michael Strassner) has a dental emergency.

Cliff’s car is towed while she treats him—apparently, this is a regular occurrence—and Didi offers to drive him to the impound lot. They end up going on a quixotic journey around Baltimore, including crashing the family wedding reception and performing at a pop-up improv show, and find themselves drawn together despite their significant age difference.

Director Jay Duplass has a knack for this kind of idiosyncratic fare featuring deeply imperfect yet likable characters, having either written, directed, and/or produced such gems as Safety Not Guaranteed, Horse Girl, Table 19, and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. It falls on Strassner—a Baltimore native who co-wrote the script—and Larsen to carry the film, which they do with considerable charm. You get why Didi and Cliff forge such a bond, even if one questions how long it’s likely to last. The film is also kind of a love letter to Baltimore, aka “Charm City”; if all you know about Baltimore comes from watching The Wire, The Baltimorons will give you a glimpse of the city’s many other neighborhoods and sights.