The Oscars don’t happen till March, making now a great time to go back and check out the best overlooked films of last year, starting with ‘The Penguin Lessons’

Any list of “Best Films of 2025” must be qualified by the essential words “that I’ve seen.” No two moviegoers’ pool of candidates is the same. It’s all so terribly subjective and necessarily dictated by volume and personal tastes.

Box office is no help, unless your list of the best films of 2025 starts with “Ne Zha 2,” “Zootopia 2: ” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” (Mine does not.)

In the end, any list of any filmgoer’s “best films” is more accurately a list of that person’s “favorite films” – and that’s exactly what this one is, with a qualifier: “My favorite films of 2025 that I’ve seen but maybe you haven’t yet heard of (but should still see). You’ll be the better for it.”

Let’s just call it a roundup of hidden gems for you to maybe check out.

And as is often the case, my No. 1 involves an animal. Specifically, a flightless bird.

Great, if not great big movies

“The Penguin Lessons,” starring a curmudgeonly Steve Coogan, is based on the true story of an English teacher in Argentina during the 1976 military coup there. After he rescues a penguin from an oil slick, the bird refuses to leave him. This story is at once heartwarming and heartbreaking – and if you want it to be about more than that, it can also be seen as a pretty powerful metaphor for life under a fascist regime.

The consensus: “The penguin acts as a silent therapist, bringing out nurturing qualities in a cynical teacher and offering hope amidst oppression.”  The Observer called the film “a waddling delight.”

I completely bonded with the oil-slicked penguin, who is given the name Juan Salvador. And not only because when I was stuck for days in an L.A. intensive-care unit, my Central American nurse nicknamed me “Juan Colorado.”

And because we can’t have nice things, yes, I’ve just come across the news reports that Mike Thompson, who wrote the source book under the name Tom Michell, now stands accused of sexually abusing former pupils at British schools in Cornwall and Dorset. (He has issued denials.) Sigh.

You can find “Penguin Lessons” on Netflix, YouTube, Apple and Prime.

2. “Sorry, Baby” is the acclaimed feature-film debut for writer, director and star Eva Victor (who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award). It’s the deeply personal and occasionally funny retelling of a sexual assault Victor experienced as a college student. And in the end, along comes Denver actor John Carroll Lynch to help bring it all home with a key scene of reclamation. Stream it on HBO Max.

3. Maybe the most “fun” hidden gem of the year was Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire.” It’s based on the unreal true story of a 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis that captured the world’s attention for three days. It’s about Tony Kiritsis, who snaps after his bank calls in a predatory loan. When he takes the son of the mortgage company’s boss hostage, he turns into an unlikely folk hero to some of those watching along on the news. Kiritsis’ unhinged act tapped into widespread modern-day anxieties about economic injustice. He came out of it looking like both a nut job … and a sex symbol. The film is a tense, chaotic and at times uproariously funny story with career-making turns from Bill Skarsgård as Kiritsis and Dacre Montgomery (Billy Hargrove on “Stranger Things”) as the hostage.

4-5. “Train Dreams” and “The Plague”: Joel Edgerton was pretty much “the face” of the 2025 Denver Film Festival, with appearances in two films that belong on this list. 

Stories about the toxic behavior of pre-pubescent boys certainly had their moment in 2025. “The Plague” is an intense psychological thriller that has been favorably compared to the global Netflix phenomenon “Adolescence.” In “The Plague,” set in 2003, young Jake is the cruel ringleader of a group of thugs bullying a boy named Eli, whose body is covered with a strange rash at a summer water-polo camp. Edgerton plays a small role as the kids’ coach, but to writer-director Charlie Polinger, he’s the hero of the film.

“I think these themes of young boys and bullying really connected with (Edgerton’s) own experiences as a 12-year-old boy in Australia,” Polinger said in Denver. “He basically just said, ‘Look, I’m happy to produce the film or act in it. I’ll do anything I can to help get this made.’ And that really was our pathway to finding financing.”

“The Plague” deserves a wider audience. It can be rented on Prime or Apple TV.

In “‘Train Dreams,” based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, Edgerton plays a simple logger who leads a life of unexpected depth in the rapidly changing America of the early 20th century. Edgerton is being talked up as a strong contender for a Best Actor Oscars nomination for how he portrays the rich inner world “of a man who absorbs life’s blows rather than fighting them.” Critics are calling his powerful and nuanced performance career-defining. It’s on Netflix.

6. One of the most surprisingly tender films of 2025 was the Bradley Cooper-directed “Is This Thing On?” a hybrid “feel-good divorce comedy.” It’s about a middle-aged dad (Will Arnett) who is cast adrift after a mutual decision to divorce his still-supportive wife (Laura Dern) lands him in the most unlikely of safe spaces: On stage at an open-mic comedy club. It’s gentle, thoughtful, and a wonderful showcase for Arnett, Dern and even Peyton Manning, who delivers a small but solid performance as a man wanting to date the divorced Dern. And finally: A movie on our list that you can actually see in a theater. In Denver, it’s at the Harkins, Alamo, Pavilions and many more. 

7. I was surprised “Blue Moon” didn’t make more of a mark on critics or audiences, given its rich subject matter and deep creative pedigree. Even passing Broadway fans have heard of the hitmaking powerhouse duo Rodgers and Hammerstein. Fewer know that earlier, Hammerstein’s primary collaborator was Lorenz Hart. That’s where Ethan Hawke comes in – with a phenomenal performance as a spiraling Hart circa 1942. The film, which has been called not so much a traditional biopic as a poignant character study, is a hit among hardcore Broadway buffs. It’s available on Apple, Amazon and YouTube.

8. The timely Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent,” another huge talker at the 2025 Denver Film Festival, is getting even more attention now that star Wagner Maniçoba de Moura has won the top acting award at the Golden Globes. The film, which tells the story of people resisting tyranny in 1970s Brazil, is tapping into current global anxieties about oppressive regimes with its parallels to present-day political turbulence. “The Secret Agent” found on Netflix or Prime, but be careful when clicking, as there have been at least two earlier films of the same title.

9. Yet another treasure from the 2025 Denver Film Festival was “Rosemead,” starring Lucy Liu in the true story of a terminally ill Taiwanese immigrant mother who faces some horrifying decisions regarding her teenage son’s schizophrenia. It’s a dream role for Lucy Liu, who championed the film for addressing the issue of mental-health in the Asian American community. You can rent it on Fandango at Home, Apple and Prime, and it’s expected to be coming to Netflix soon.

10. “Riff Raff” is a largely overlooked “modern mobster” dark comedy that came and went in February without much fanfare, which is crazy when you consider the ensemble cast included Ed Harris, Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray and Pete Davidson. The film centers on a former criminal (Harris) whose quiet life is disrupted on New Year’s Eve when his ex-wife (Coolidge) and estranged son (Lewis Pullman) arrive at their remote cabin with the son’s pregnant girlfriend. A violent family reunion ensues. It’s available on Hulu, Apple, YouTube and Prime.

11. “The Alto Knights” is a mob drama that was reviled by the critics, “but it’s seriously good!” So says Variety’s Owen Gleiberman. What seemed to push everyone’s buttons, he explained, was Robert De Niro playing two (more) mobsters … at once. It’s the true story of “lifelong frenemies” Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. One reviewer called it “Goodfellas” meets “The Patty Duke Show,” but, counters Gleiberman: “De Niro creates a master class in the nuances of mob psychology.” And it’s directed by Barry Levinson. How can you NOT give it a chance?

12. The dark comedy “Twinless” is being celebrated as one of the most thought-provoking indie films of the year, and it is. But at its core, this deep emotional exploration of grief and identity is seriously creepy. It’s about a man named Roman who joins a support group after his identical twin’s death and befriends Dennis (played by the writer, James Sweeney), a manipulative gay man who lies about also having lost a twin (among other things) as a ploy to get closer to Roman. It’s on Hulu, Prime, Apple and others.

John Moore’s favorite movies of the year:

• 1. “Hamnet”
• 2. “Sinners”
• 3. “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues”
• 4. “Song Sung Blue”
• 5. “Penguin Lessons”

Favorite documentaries of the year:

• 1. “Come See Me in the Good Light”
• 2, “We Will Dance Again”
• “Match in a Haystack”
• “Creede USA”
• “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story”

Worst movies of the year:

• “Opus”
• “Friendship”
• “Honey Don’t”
• “The Long Walk”

(And, side note, in full transparency: Among the many films not seen include “Weapons,” “28 Years Later,” “Frankenstein,” “Begonia.” I regret nothing.)

John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at john.moore@denvergazette.com.