The Best Movie You Never Saw in 2025

Back in the earliest days of this site, we used to run an annual list of the best undiscovered gems of the year. Our criterion was basically: It had to make less than $1 million at the box office. It’s more difficult to find undiscovered gems these days because small movies tend to skip theaters and either land on Netflix, Hulu, or another streamer or slip into straight-to-digital obscurity. I don’t even understand the business mechanics of movies like that, but there are a dozen straight-to-VOD releases a month — some with well-known actors — that no one has ever heard of, yet they must somehow generate a profit (or at least a decent tax write-off), because they’re still being made.

Take, for instance, a movie called Stone Cold Fox, released last month with Kiefer Sutherland, Krysten Ritter, and Kiernan Shipka. Who watched that? Or I Wish You All the Best, also last month, with Alexandria Daddario, Cole Sprouse, and Lena Dunham. Or Under the Stars with Toni Collette and Andy Garcia. Movies like that barely elicit reviews because most outlets don’t have the resources, and there usually aren’t even enough marketing dollars to promote them.

One such movie is Bob Trevino Likes It, starring Barbie Ferreira (Euphoria), John Leguizamo, and French Stewart. You’ve probably never heard of this movie. Most people haven’t, and this one had a leg up: It not only played at the 2024 SXSW Festival, but it also won the Audience Award. Deservedly so.

It also happens to be my favorite movie of 2024. Seth reviewed it out of the festival last year. But I want to champion it again now because it only made $1.1 million at the box office and, so far as I know, never built the small but passionate following it deserves, and ostensibly, this is what sites like this were made to do.

The problem is: It’s an impossible movie to market, and I understand why: I’ve spent the better part of a year desperately trying to convince my family to watch it. But there is no marketing hook. No big stars! No Taylor Swift song in the trailer!

“Hey! Will you watch this incredibly moving John Leguizamo film with me?”

“John Leguizamo? I don’t know who that is. Pass.”

“Please? I swear you’ll love it. I promise!”

“What’s it about?”

“Um, it’s about a young woman who meets a stranger on Facebook.”

“Pass.”

“No, I swear it sounds better than it is. It’s based on a true story, too!”

“Sounds creepy. Did the woman die in real life?”

“No! Honest! It’s not creepy at all. It’s a found-family movie!”

“That doesn’t sound very appealing. Can we watch Traitors instead?”

“Fine.”

Over the weekend, however, I played board games with the kids for an entire day, agreed to get up early to get a free tote bag for my wife during a Black Friday sale, and did favors for the family until I collected enough goodwill that I could finally force them to sit down and watch a movie begrudgingly. Even then, I still had to agree to do additional favors if they didn’t like it. I promise to pay the twins $10 a piece if they didn’t like it. I think they finally agreed in part because they thought they’d be able to hold it over my head when they didn’t like the movie about the woman who met a stranger on Facebook.

Of course, they loved it. Because everyone who has watched it loves it. Because it’s one of the most moving films I’ve ever seen. And because it’s about two people who have wandered through life feeling unseen, finally finding, in each other, someone who can see them. Not romantically! Not in a creepy way! Just as friends. It is unbelievably good.

It’s also tremendously warm. It will make you cry — in a good way — because it’s lovely and touching and sweet and completely wholesome. It’s a big giant hug of a movie. When’s the last time you watched a movie that made you feel warm and fuzzy? Bob Trevino Likes It will make you feel warm and fuzzy.

I do understand it’s a hard sell. And that this post will probably be read by a few thousand people and only a handful will ultimately watch it. But those who do, I promise, will also want to share it with people you care about. Good luck trying to sell it to them.

‘Bob Trevino Likes It’ can be rented digital at all the usual outlets.