The Beat concluded its Best Of 2025 nominations with Best Movies of 2025 on Monday, and both KPop Demon Hunters and No Other Choice made the list.
These two films join documentaries, horror, comedies, dramas, and more on a list of 20+ titles named by The Beat staff and contributors as peak releases from the last 12 months. See what they had to say about KPop Demon Hunters and No Other Choice below.
KPop Demon Hunters
Director: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
Script: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Danya Jimenez, Hannah McMechan
Studio: Sony Pictures Animation
With a title that sounds like studio executive Madlibs for a surefire tween hit, KPop Demon Hunters is 2025’s Barbie, but with little—if any—of the 2023 cultural phenomenon’s marketing might pre-release; word of mouth hits these days are impressive rarities.
Three teen K-pop idols top the charts by day as Huntrix, and chop demons by night as the latest in a long line of musically-charged warriors. So far, so standard superhero stuff, but throw in a rival demonic boyband, an infectious soundtrack from bona fide industry talent, dynamic Spider-Verse animation, and hearty wit and warmth, and this is a film to rival modern Disney musical classics like Frozen and Encanto. — Hannah Collins
No Other Choice
Director: Park Chan-wook
Script: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Lee, Ja-hye
Adapted from The Ax by Donald Westlake
Studio: Neon
This adaptation of Donald Westlake’s The Ax by Park Chan-wook sees the master director once again tackle his favorite subject: desperate people forced to commit terrible deeds due to circumstances. After getting fired in a corporate buy out, paper man Yoo Man-su (Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun in an incredible performance) must find work before his family is kicked out of their house. He comes up with a novel solution: murder his competition so the company is forced to rehire him.
Park makes a film part Hitchcock thriller and part Looney Tunes cartoon. Yoo’s plans to dispatch his competitors get increasingly absurd. Yet for all the wackiness in here, he never shies away from how dark this entire situation truly is for its protagonist. Few understand how easily men will embrace the darkness in their soul like Park does, and No Other Choice ranks among his best explorations. — D. Morris
See all of The Beat‘s Best Movies of 2025 here.
