October 2025 — Reviews Roundup

Gone are the days of awards contenders being packed like sardines into December’s release calendar. Instead, in recent years October has become the prime launching pad for awards hopefuls and Hollywood prestige cinema. That trend remains much the same in 2025, with films from the likes of Benny Safdie, Kelly Reichardt, Luca Guadagnino, Kathryn Bigelow, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Richard Linklater (who had two new releases land within a fortnight of each other) hitting theaters. That’s before even mentioning international auteurs like Julia Ducournou, Radu Jude, and Jafar Panahi who saw their most recent projects likewise release over the past few weeks. And then there’s the Baahubali of it all. Which is to broadly say, for cinephiles of various flavors, October was packed with big-ticket titles.

Now, the relative success of said efforts was far more variable, which is to be expected. But you probably know all of this, and have already seen a number of these films. So this month, we’re going to dedicate a few sentences to instead shouting out some of the month’s highlights that are flying more under-the-radar, or at least playing to more niche audiences. A pair of anime titles (100 Meters, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc) laid their claim for the title of best animated film of the year, easily outclassing lesser efforts like Elio and, yes, KPop Demon Hunters. Films like Bogancloch and Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 made strong arguments for top 2025 documentary status, besting more superficially charged October releases The Perfect Neighbor or Orwell: 2+2=5. And then there was Good Boy, which is among the most astute surveys of animal psychology put to fiction filmmaking, this while being slickly packaged as a haunted house horror flick. (If there were any justice in the world, Indy the dog would be nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.)

So by all means, catch up with The Smashing Machine and Bugonia and Blue Moon — we obviously did, and some of them are quite good! But don’t do so at the expense of small-scaled October viewings, which is where the most bang for your buck can be found this year. Further viewing guidance can be found in our October writing gathered below, which includes over 50 new release reviews, on top of all of our interviews, essays, and more.