As streaming libraries continue to expand at an overwhelming pace, choosing what’s worth your time can feel like a challenge in itself. To make things easier, we update this list every month with carefully curated picks that balance new releases, hidden gems, and critically acclaimed favorites across major OTT platforms.
For December 2025, we’ve selected five standout films from each of ten streaming services—Netflix, Prime Video, Peacock, MUBI, Hulu, The Criterion Channel, Apple TV+, Max, AMC+, and Paramount+. Whether you’re in the mood for prestige dramas, genre-bending thrillers, arthouse discoveries, or comfort rewatches for the holiday season, this guide is designed to help you cut through the noise and stream smarter.
Think of this as your monthly streaming compass: a cross-platform snapshot of what’s genuinely worth watching right now, updated regularly so you’re never stuck endlessly scrolling.
The Best New Movies To Stream on Max
1. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
Where to Stream: Max | Dir: Zach Cregger
There isn’t exactly a great track record for comedy sequels, especially when revisiting a film as culturally influential as This Is Spinal Tap. Set forty years after the original, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues plays like a reunion concert of a legacy band, with Rob Reiner returning one last time as documentarian Marti DeBirgi. It’s a ceremonial experience, shaped by nostalgia, that can’t replicate the past but finds modest pleasure in simply bringing these characters back together.
The film follows Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls as they drift through oddly fitting musical sidelines before being drawn into one final performance. To its credit, the sequel continues threads teased at the end of the original, lampooning how former rock stars awkwardly attempt to assimilate into “normal” lives. There are solid laughs, particularly in Nigel’s “cheese and guitar” shop, and the film avoids turning its legacy characters into sad, bitter figures who resent what they once were.
The most genuinely magical moments arrive when the band is playing together, reminding viewers why Spinal Tap remained strangely enthralling decades later. While the mockumentary format no longer feels groundbreaking and the film often plays like a loose collection of vignettes, there’s a quiet poignancy in watching Reiner and his collaborators return to a world that helped define modern comedy. As a final chapter shaped by time and loss, Spinal Tap II stands as a harmless, affectionate farewell rather than a necessary sequel.
Related List: 10 Best Rob Reiner Movies
2. Weapons (2025)
Where to Stream: Max | Dir: Zach Cregger
“Weapons” (2025) is a potent, precise breed of psychological terror that makes no apologies for itself. Between its creative storytelling structure and its truly shocking ending, it is a film intended to initiate conversations. Zach Creggar follows up Barbarian with a subversion of suburban horror that carefully weaves its scares into a nuanced character study, displaying outstanding clarity of vision as the tone shifts between darkly hilarious, utterly terrifying, and completely bizarre without ever feeling inconsistent.
The film opens with the revelation that seventeen children in an elementary school class disappear overnight after waking at the same time and leaving their homes. As controversy overtakes the community, blame is directed toward their teacher, Justine Grady, while the town fractures under suspicion and fear. Told from multiple perspectives, the narrative doubles back on itself to examine how simplistic descriptions only hint at the internal demons each character faces, revealing a community united by tragedy but divided by self-serving sentiment and unspoken resentment.
There’s a joy in the way Weapons builds suspense by withholding information without denying emotional engagement. Creggar lets scenes linger to the point of discomfort, using restraint, blocking, and striking imagery to make the horror land harder than manufactured thrills ever could. Violent in creative and upsetting ways, the film carries an undercurrent of black comedy and sharp commentary on American suburbia, ultimately standing as both a captivating work of entertainment and a story that lingers long after it ends.
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3. Superman (2025)
Where to Stream: Max | Dir: James Gunn
James Gunn’s Superman (2025) takes flight as a fresh, invigorating reboot that skips the origin story to dive straight into a world where the Man of Steel already exists — confident, compassionate, and ever watchful. Set in a universe alive with “metahumans,” the film explores Kal-El’s efforts to protect humanity while navigating the growing tension between hope and fear, symbolized by his ideological clash with Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), the ruthless CEO determined to expose Superman as a threat.
David Corenswet delivers a standout performance as a grounded and vulnerable Superman, balancing power with purpose. His chemistry with Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane adds heart and levity to the story, while Gunn’s world-building introduces memorable supporting characters like Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), teasing a larger DC universe without losing focus on Superman’s journey of faith and self-discovery.
Through its mix of humor, spectacle, and sincerity, Superman, by James Gunn, celebrates the enduring optimism of one of pop culture’s most beloved icons. It’s an earnest, big-hearted superhero adventure that reaffirms why the Man of Tomorrow still matters in today’s cynical world.
Related List: All 10 Superman Movies Ranked
4. Bring Her Back (2025)
Where to Stream: Max | Dir: Danny & Michael Philippou
Following their breakout debut Talk to Me, the Philippou brothers return with Bring Her Back (2025), a haunting exploration of grief, control, and familial trauma. The film follows step-siblings Andy (Billy Barratt) and Piper (Sora Wong) as they navigate a new foster home after the mysterious death of Andy’s father. Under the care of the seemingly kind but increasingly erratic Laura (Sally Hawkins), the siblings find themselves trapped in a psychological nightmare where trust turns deadly.
Barratt delivers an exceptional performance as a teenager forced into premature adulthood, balancing love and protectiveness toward his sister with a deep-seated fear of repeating his father’s mistakes. The film deftly captures how trauma and masculinity intertwine, grounding its horror in emotional authenticity. Hawkins, meanwhile, gives a chillingly unpredictable turn as Laura, embodying a manipulative menace that feels both grounded and grotesque.
Though Bring Her Back unfolds within a contained environment, it maintains an unsettling sense of escalation, with each revelation pulling viewers deeper into its oppressive atmosphere. Blending domestic unease with supernatural dread, the Philippous craft a dark, unnerving tale about the weight of survival and the scars left by those meant to protect us.
Related to the Best New Movies to Stream: 35 Best Movies of 2025 (So Far)
5. Friendship (2025)
Where to Stream: Max | Dir: Andrew De Young
Tim Robinson headlines Friendship (2025), a hilariously offbeat and unexpectedly heartfelt look at adult loneliness and the absurdity of human connection. Robinson plays Craig Waterman, a marketing professional stuck in a midlife rut until he befriends his charming new neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd), a local weatherman whose perfect life seems to offer Craig the excitement he’s been missing. What begins as an earnest attempt to connect quickly spirals into chaos, testing the limits of social boundaries and self-awareness.
Andrew De Young crafts a sharp, unpredictable comedy that perfectly harnesses Robinson’s awkward, confrontational style. His Craig is both painfully relatable and completely unhinged—a man whose inability to read social cues turns everyday moments into comedic disasters. Rudd brings just the right balance of warmth and unease to their dynamic, while Kate Mara and Jack Dylan Grazer provide grounded, often tender counterpoints as Craig’s family tries to understand his midlife unraveling.
Friendship stands out for its fearless tonal shifts—from suburban satire to psychedelic buddy thriller—while remaining a biting, sincere study of how difficult it is to truly connect as an adult. Wildly funny, strangely moving, and wholly original, it’s Robinson at his best.
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6. The Rip (2026)
Where to Stream: Netflix | Dir: Joe Carnahan
The Rip is slick, propulsive entertainment that knows its crime-thriller conventions—drug busts gone wrong, dirty cops, secret stashes of cash—and still finds ways to surprise. Though loosely based on a true story, it plays less like a generic January dump and more like a twisty ’90s neo-noir in the vein of L.A. Confidential.
Set after the murder of Miami officer Jackie Velez, the film follows Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) and Detective Sergeant JD Byrne (Ben Affleck) as their team lands a massive cash seizure that proves dangerously seductive. With the DEA, FBI, and drug traffickers circling, loyalty becomes murkier than guilt.
Director Joe Carnahan delivers his most grounded work since Narc, staging coded conversations and profanity-laced disputes with authenticity and bite. Damon and Affleck—reuniting decades after Good Will Hunting—bring unpredictability to roles that cleverly play against type, while Kyle Chandler chews the scenery as a scowling FBI agent.
It may tip its hand early, but its contained setting and muscular set pieces make it one of the sharper entries in modern crime cinema.
7. People We Meet on Vacation (2026)
Where to Stream: Netflix | Dir: Brett Haley
For all its shameless adherence to virtually every rom-com trope—especially those bred by its ever-anonymous Netflix kin—People We Meet on Vacation does take one bold swing: it asks us to sympathize with a heroine literally paid to travel the world and write about it. Directed by Brett Haley and adapted from Emily Henry’s novel, the film follows Poppy (Emily Bader), a travel writer stuck in a creative funk after her annual summer trips with best friend Alex (Tom Blyth) abruptly ended two years prior.
Told through a nonlinear structure that jumps between past vacations and a present-day reunion at a destination wedding in Barcelona, the film borrows heavily from When Harry Met Sally…, gender-swapping familiar beats of platonic tension turning romantic. Haley’s back-and-forth storytelling gives the dynamic some flow, even if the glossy, car-commercial aesthetic dulls its emotional edges.
Bader and Blyth muster modest chemistry, navigating skinny-dipping mishaps, motel mix-ups, and rain-soaked confessions. It’s benign, predictable, and rarely steamy—but there are worse films to meet in the streaming queue.
8. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)
Where to Stream: Netflix | Dir: Rian Johnson
Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery emerges as the most profound and emotionally affecting entry in the franchise, trading farce for introspection. Where Knives Out skewered generational wealth and Glass Onion dismantled tech-bro excess, this installment turns its gaze toward faith—specifically, the difficulty of retaining belief in a world where religion has been weaponized by extremist agendas.
Set largely within a church and its surrounding community, the film initially sidelines Benoit Blanc in favor of Reverend Jud Duplenticy, a young priest grappling with doubt after being reassigned following a controversial incident. When the charismatic and inflammatory Monsignor Jefferson Wicks is found dead, the mystery unfolds less as a puzzle of mechanics than as an examination of moral responsibility, repentance, and belief. Blanc’s investigation becomes a means of exploring how words, ideology, and faith can corrode communities long before violence occurs.
Confined, low-key, and visually austere, Wake Up Dead Man is also among the most aesthetically beautiful films of Johnson’s career, its gothic compositions and deliberate pacing reinforcing its existential weight. Though still packed with sharp performances and intellectual sparring, the film ultimately distinguishes itself through its kind-hearted optimism—suggesting that even in stories of murder and conspiracy, the measure of a community lies not in its worst actors, but in its capacity for reflection, accountability, and grace.
Also Read: All Rian Johnson Movies Ranked
9. Jay Kelly (2025)
Where to Stream: Netflix | Dir: Noah Baumbach
With Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach steps directly into terrain cinema has increasingly explored over the past decade: the dismantling of myth, celebrity, and self-image. The film opens with a dazzlingly staged sequence in which Jay Kelly (George Clooney), a celebrated movie star, performs a death scene on a soundstage—an introduction that doesn’t merely showcase performance, but announces the film’s preoccupation with mortality, later echoed when Kelly’s manager Ron (Adam Sandler) remarks on the unpredictability of death in a city like Los Angeles.
From there, the story follows Kelly, Ron, and publicist Liz (Laura Dern) across Europe, tracing a journey through personal choices, relationships, and lingering legacies. As the line between man and myth dissolves, Baumbach invites us to reconsider the cost of fame and the fragility beneath public personas. Kelly’s unraveling deepens through encounters with loss, memory, and old wounds reopened, revealing a fractured self shadowing the image he projects.
Yet the film occasionally strains under the weight of its own design. Lines that too explicitly underline its themes soften what might have been sharper inquiry, tipping moments from reflection into instruction. Still, Jay Kelly remains a thoughtful examination of performance, illusion, and identity—less interested in resolution than in observing the uneasy space between truth and the image one casts into the world.
Related: All Noah Baumbach Movies Ranked
10. Train Dreams (2025)
Where to Stream: Netflix | Dir: Clint Bentley
Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams is a quietly powerful period drama that traces one man’s life against the vast, indifferent beauty of early 20th-century America. Set during the final years of frontier expansion, the film follows Robert Grainier, a logger and railway worker whose existence is shaped by labor, distance, and fleeting moments of connection. The landscapes loom large, captured with a lyrical eye that frames nature as both sanctuary and witness to human endurance.
Joel Edgerton delivers a deeply restrained performance, allowing Grainier’s inner life to emerge through gesture rather than dialogue. His relationship with Gladys, played with warmth and grace by Felicity Jones, provides the film’s emotional center, even as work and circumstance repeatedly pull him away. Bentley’s direction favors mood over plot, using voiceover, sound, and imagery to evoke memory, guilt, and the quiet erosion of time.
What makes Train Dreams resonate is its refusal to romanticize progress while still acknowledging the beauty found within hard, ordinary lives. The film moves at a contemplative pace, but its stillness carries weight, offering a reflective look at how history passes through individuals rather than over them. It’s a film that rewards patience, lingering long after it ends with its images, silences, and sense of loss.
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11. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)
Where to Stream: Prime Video | Dir: Nia DaCosta
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple may not mirror Danny Boyle’s digital expressionism, but Nia DeCosta’s sequel is just as thematically rich. Where 28 Days Later captured a cultural inflection point, this chapter observes a quieter truth: life moves on. Building on the groundwork laid by Boyle and Alex Garland, DeCosta crafts a streamlined yet probing story about faith, honesty, and the obligations people choose in a broken world.
After his mother’s death, Spike (Alex Williams) falls under the sway of the cult-like “Jimmies,” led by the self-mythologizing Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), who fashions himself after Jimmy Savile and claims Satanic lineage. Opposing him is Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), still obsessively humane, pursuing a possible cure while tending even to an “Alpha” zombie with empathy.
O’Connell is ruthlessly entertaining, a villain both ridiculous and terrifying, while Fiennes brings warmth and gravity. Brutal yet patient, visceral yet thoughtful, DeCosta’s film contrasts unwavering faith with frank honesty—delivering one of the decade’s most twisted, spiritually resonant studio horrors.
12. Marty Supreme (2025)
Where to Stream: Prime Video | Dir: Josh Safdie
Marty Supreme (2025) is both epic and adrenaline shot—Josh Safdie’s semi-biographical sports thriller fuses grandiosity with visceral intimacy. Loosely inspired by table tennis champion Marty Reisman, the film follows Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser, an obsessive anti-hero whose unquenchable desire to win fuels every triumph and humiliation. Safdie doesn’t pause for easy psychology; instead, he showcases Marty’s compulsive immersion in the sport, letting Chalamet’s haunted, voracious performance define him.
After a devastating championship loss, Marty stakes everything on a comeback, alienating nearly everyone in his orbit. The film blends classic sports archetypes with New Hollywood edge, questioning whether Marty’s ambition is narcissism or defiance of the American dream’s limits in a post-war superpower era.
An eclectic ensemble—Odessa A’zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler, the Creator, and even Kevin O’Leary—adds texture to Marty’s chaotic world, while Oneohtrix Point Never’s synth-heavy score electrifies 1950s Paris, Tokyo, and New York. Sneering and celebratory in equal measure, Marty Supreme is a riveting ride.
13. Is This Thing On? (2025)
Where to Stream: Prime Video | Dir: Bradley Cooper
Is This Thing On? (2025), Bradley Cooper’s third directorial effort, sidesteps the usual pitfalls of films about stand-up by treating comedy as therapy rather than myth. Instead of demystifying the craft, Cooper frames the stage as a space for catharsis—empowering, but no substitute for personal growth.
Will Arnett stars as Alex Novak, a middle-aged father navigating separation from his wife Tess (Laura Dern). After drunkenly stumbling into an open mic night, Alex discovers that his brutally honest reflections on marriage and failure resonate with audiences. Cooper patiently charts his growth—no overnight stardom, just hard-earned routines shaped by domestic frustration and self-examination.
The film wisely spends time with both Alex and Tess, presenting a nuanced portrait of mutual stagnation and second chances. Arnett blends his comedic instincts with the aching vulnerability he honed in BoJack Horseman, while Dern brings warmth and resolve.
Communal and unpretentious, with echoes of Cassavetes, Is This Thing On? is a funny, moving dramedy about reinvention, communication, and the courage to get better.
14. Rosemead (2025)
Where to Stream: Prime Video | Dir: Eric Lin
Rosemead (2025) confronts a bleak true story with sincerity, anchored by two excellent lead performances, yet struggles to balance awareness with insight. Based on a Los Angeles Times profile by Frank Shyong, the film follows Irene (Lucy Liu), a terminally ill widow, as she tries to support her 17-year-old son Joe (Lawrence Shou), who is showing signs of schizophrenia, while also saving the family printing business.
The film is at its best in quiet moments—Joe’s fragile friendships, the fellowship within their Asian American community, and Irene’s stoic refusal to appear anything less than capable. Liu delivers a nuanced, aching performance, and Shou’s restrained debut suggests remarkable depth.
However, the depiction of Joe’s interior turmoil often veers into overstated, nightmarish imagery that feels exploitative, undercutting the subtlety the actors bring. As the story shifts toward a more conventional true-crime framework, its thesis grows muddled. Despite strong intentions and moving performances, Rosemead proves affecting but not as insightful as it could have been.
15. Hamnet (2025)
Where to Stream: Prime Video | Dir: Chloé Zhao
There’s no reason Hamnet (2025) should be framed as a “comeback” for Chloé Zhao, though franchise-minded myopia has cast a long shadow since her MCU detour. In truth, Zhao feels far more at home in this intimate tale of woodland heartbreak than in blockbuster machinery. Adapting Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, she crafts a muted, Malickian meditation on grief that whispers rather than declaims.
The emotional core belongs not to Shakespeare, but to his wife Agnes (a revelatory Jessie Buckley), branded a “woodland witch” in her village. Her union with a young Will (Paul Mescal) blooms in isolation, only to strain as he departs for London in pursuit of authorship. The tragedy that follows—linked to the origins of Hamlet—is rendered with hushed lyricism, where wind through foliage speaks louder than soliloquy.
Zhao balances naturalistic imagery with poignant invocations of Shakespeare’s text, exploring art as catharsis for unexhumed grief. Buckley and Mescal are extraordinary, capturing how a single fleeting expression can hold elation, devastation, and the unbearable weight of love.
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16. Eternity (2025)
Where to Stream: Apple TV+ | Dir: David Freyne
Eternity (2025) revives the whimsical sincerity of classic romantic comedies, blending a ’90s high-concept setup with the wholehearted glow of Golden Age Hollywood. When Larry Cutler dies choking on a pretzel, he awakens in a bustling afterlife waiting room—restored to his younger self (Miles Teller). Soon after, his wife Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) arrives, also rejuvenated. The twist: Joan’s first husband, Luke (Callum Turner), killed in the Korean War, is there too. She must choose whom to spend eternity with.
The film wisely skimps on metaphysical logistics, focusing instead on emotional stakes. Its Technicolor-inspired visuals and gently theatrical staging evoke a bygone era, while afterlife “coordinators” (scene-stealing Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early) deliver brisk, witty exposition.
Teller brings cranky warmth and lived-in gratitude; Olsen balances humor and aching sincerity; Turner lends unexpected depth to a rival who represents lost potential. Predictable? Perhaps. But Eternity earns its sentiment with wit and warmth, offering a transporting, old-fashioned romance.
17. F1 (2025)
Where to Stream: Apple TV+ | Dir: Joseph Kosinski
Whatever career expectations one may have had for Joseph Kosinski after “Tron,” they likely did not include becoming a bastion of grounded, tactile blockbuster filmmaking in a Hollywood increasingly dominated by lifeless pixels. Yet his partnership with Tom Cruise all but guaranteed that “Top Gun: Maverick” would emerge as a perfect marriage of star power and a director willing to bend to it. With “F1,” Kosinski now banks on that success with a near-impossible proposition in 2025: a $200 million blockbuster based on nothing but the brand recognition of Formula One racing and the even more colossal recognition of his newly chosen leading man.
Substituting one “Interview With the Vampire” star for another, “F1” trades Cruise for Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, an aging would-be racing star pulled back into the circuit by his former colleague Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem). The film embraces a familiar underdog sports narrative, pairing Hayes’ rogue tactics with friction inside a flailing team that includes hotshot rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) and technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon). Kosinski and screenwriter Ehren Kruger make no attempt to subvert the genre’s rubric, instead allowing the cast’s charisma and the story’s lack of cynicism to carry the film across the finish line.
Where “F1” proves most effective is in Kosinski’s craftsmanship: the bone-shaking rumble of engines, the screech of tires, and a clear sense of spatial movement that keeps the races legible and tactile. Still, the reality of repetition eventually sets in, and what begins as a victory lap settles into moderate weariness. While “Top Gun: Maverick” was Kosinski’s unequivocal boost to the big time, “F1” feels like a lateral move—competent, sturdy, and committed to sustaining the lifeblood of classic blockbuster fare, even if it never quite takes a definitive lead in the megahit landscape.
Also Read: All Joseph Kosinski Movies Ranked
18. Highest 2 Lowest (2025)
Where to Stream: Apple TV+ | Dir: Spike Lee
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest (2025) takes on the audacious challenge of reimagining Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low for a contemporary American audience — and against all odds, it works. Starring Denzel Washington as David King, a New York music mogul whose son is kidnapped in the middle of a tense financial takeover, the film retools Kurosawa’s moral thriller into a modern-day fable about power, loyalty, and class in the digital age. When it’s revealed that the abducted child isn’t actually his son but the son of his longtime assistant (Jeffrey Wright), King faces an impossible choice that tests both his humanity and his wealth.
Lee infuses the story with his trademark cultural pulse — sharp dialogue, rhythmic editing, and a soundtrack that thunders with contemporary swagger. Washington delivers yet another commanding performance, balancing authority with deep moral conflict, while A$AP Rocky surprises as the enigmatic abductor. The result is a stylish, gripping update that finds relevance in an era defined by social optics and economic disparity.
While it never eclipses Kurosawa’s original, Highest 2 Lowest stands tall as a bold, unapologetically Spike Lee creation — fierce, flawed, and alive with conviction. Highest 2 Lowest is now streaming on Apple TV+.
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19. The Lost Bus (2025)
Where to Stream: Apple TV+ | Dir: Paul Greengrass
Paul Greengrass returns to the realm of real-world tragedy with The Lost Bus (2025), a tense, emotionally charged dramatization of the 2018 Camp Fire in California. In typical Greengrass fashion, the film merges documentary realism with pulse-pounding urgency, focusing on the ordinary heroism of one man caught in extraordinary circumstances.
Matthew McConaughey stars as Kevin McKay, a broken man haunted by personal loss who finds redemption behind the wheel of a school bus as wildfires rage across Paradise, California. When no one else steps up to rescue a stranded group of schoolchildren, McKay risks everything to lead them through the inferno to safety.
Shot with Greengrass’s trademark handheld immediacy, The Lost Bus captures both the claustrophobic terror of survival and the quiet humanity that flickers amid chaos. McConaughey gives one of his most visceral performances in years — his exhaustion and conviction grounding the spectacle in raw, lived emotion. While the film’s sentimentality occasionally verges on heavy-handed, its depiction of courage in the face of unstoppable disaster feels both timely and timeless.
Anchored by its realism and empathy, The Lost Bus stands as a gripping ode to resilience and sacrifice — a reminder that even in catastrophe, compassion can drive us forward. The Lost Bus is now streaming on Apple TV+.
20. The Gorge (2025)
Where to Stream: Apple TV+ | Dir: Scott Derrickson
The Gorge is a genre-blending action-thriller directed by Scott Derrickson, starring Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver. The film follows two elite snipers—Levi, a battle-scarred ex-Marine, and Drasa, a Lithuanian sharpshooter—who are stationed on opposite watchtowers overlooking a mysterious, heavily guarded chasm known as The Gorge. Tasked with monitoring the area for an unknown private organization, they soon discover that the gorge is home to horrifying mutated creatures, the result of a decades-old biochemical experiment gone wrong.
As their isolation draws them closer, Levi and Drasa form a forbidden bond, communicating through notes and gestures across the gorge. But when an accident forces them into the depths of the gorge itself, they uncover shocking secrets about their employers and the terrifying purpose of the research facility hidden within. With their lives on the line, they must fight both monstrous horrors and the sinister forces trying to keep the truth buried.
A mix of romance, horror, and high-stakes action, The Gorge is a pulse-pounding survival thriller that pits love against the horrors of science gone wrong.
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21. Predator: Badlands (2025)
Where to Stream: Hulu | Dir: Sam Yates
As Dan Trachtenberg returns for his third Yautja outing, Predator: Badlands (2025) finally tests the franchise’s long-standing contradiction: can a Predator film thrive beyond a one-and-done premise? Where Prey and Killer of Killers felt like slick “What if?” exercises, this entry lands on an obvious but surprisingly fresh hook—what if the Predator is the protagonist?
Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), the insecure runt of his clan, embarks on a reckless hunt to prove himself, only to crash-land on a hostile planet. His uneasy alliance with Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning) pushes the film into buddy-survival territory, cleverly reframing Dek’s rigid honor code as something malleable—if not entirely humane.
There are missteps: cutesy sidekicks, wolf symbolism, and a climax that leans into contrived survivalist schmaltz. Yet Trachtenberg commits more fully to character and cohesion than before. It doesn’t reinvent the franchise, but for once, the thrill of the hunt feels sustained rather than conceptual—a chase that actually leads somewhere.
22. Magpie (2024)
Where to Stream: Hulu | Dir: Sam Yates
Magpie is a psychological marital thriller that delves into the emotional chaos simmering beneath the surface of a seemingly idyllic life. Directed by Sam Yates in his film debut and based on a story by Daisy Ridley (who also stars as the lead), the film follows Annette, a woman unraveling under the strain of motherhood, marital neglect, and emotional abandonment.
Annette and her husband Ben (Shazad Latif), a struggling writer, move from London to the countryside hoping for a fresh start. But while Ben becomes infatuated with the glamorous world of a film set—where their daughter is cast in a movie—Annette is left isolated with a newborn and a growing sense of resentment. Her psychological deterioration intensifies as Ben becomes increasingly absorbed in a fantasy affair with the film’s star, Alicia (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz), leaving Annette teetering on the edge of madness.
Stylishly directed and noir-tinged, Magpie explores the emotional volatility of a woman pushed to the brink. The film is one of our top picks for the best new movies to stream on Hulu.
23. Small Things Like These (2024)
Where to Stream: Hulu | Dir. Tim Mielants
Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants and starring Cillian Murphy, is a haunting drama set in Ireland during the winter of 1985. The film follows Bill Furlong, a humble coal merchant and family man, whose quiet life is upended when he uncovers disturbing evidence of abuse at a local Magdalene laundry—institutions notorious for imprisoning “unfit” young women under the guise of religious correction.
As Bill confronts the truth about what’s happening behind closed doors, the story becomes less about whistleblowing and more about the emotional toll of complicity and silence in a tightly knit community. Rather than delivering an exposé, the film narrows its focus on one man’s moral reckoning and his connection to this dark piece of Irish history.
Based on Claire Keegan’s acclaimed novella, the film is anchored by Murphy’s subtle, deeply expressive performance, exploring themes of generational trauma, guilt, and the quiet courage it takes to stand against systemic abuse.
Related to Best New Movies to Stream – Small Things Like These (2024) Movie Review: Cillian Murphy Is Devastating In a Meticulously Paced Historical Drama
24. Summer of 69 (2025)
Where to Stream: Hulu | Dir. Jillian Bell
Jillian Bell’s Summer of 69 is a teen sex comedy with heart, following the awkward but determined Abby Flores (Sam Morelos), a socially invisible gamer girl nearing the end of her Catholic high school days. Known only to her online followers through her masked livestreams, Abby finally decides she wants to be seen—especially by Max (Matt Cornett), her longtime crush who has just broken up with his popular girlfriend.
When Abby hears a rumor from the school mascot that Max is into “69ing,” she comes up with a bold plan: to seduce him by becoming sexually confident. But there’s one big problem—Abby has no experience whatsoever. Enter Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), a flamboyant stripper at a local club called Diamond Dolls. Abby strikes a deal to pay Santa Monica to coach her in sex appeal, using the money she had saved for a car. If you have a Hulu subscription, this is one of the better comedy movies to stream right now.
25. The Damned (2024)
Where to Stream: Hulu | Dir. Thordur Palsson
Directed by Thordur Palsson and starring Odessa Young and Joe Cole, The Damned is a chilling Arctic horror film that explores isolation, guilt, and survival. Set in a remote fishing outpost during a brutally cold winter, the story follows Eva, a young widow who has taken charge of the outpost after her husband’s death.
As the harsh environment and dwindling resources strain the group, they are haunted—both psychologically and possibly supernaturally—by the consequences of a moral decision not to rescue survivors from a sinking foreign ship.
The film delves into the slow unraveling of sanity among the fishermen as they begin seeing eerie human-like figures and suffer fevered visions. As suspicions and guilt mount, Eva is forced to confront not just the growing terror around her, but also the darkness within—making decisions that blur the line between moral survival and monstrous instinct. At its core, The Damned is a haunting meditation on survivor’s guilt, the weight of leadership in isolation, and how grief and fear can breed horror from within.
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26. Roofman (2025)
Where to Stream: Paramount+w/Showtime | Dir: Derek Cianfrance
“Roofman” (2025) is based on a true story so unusual that it would feel ridiculous if presented as pure fiction, yet what the film becomes avoids the traps of both a standard studio comedy and a conventional crime drama. Instead, it exists in an uneasy space between bleak romantic-comedy and idiosyncratic crime story, a tonal blend that proves surprisingly effective. Though the film struggles to arrive at a cohesive thesis about its protagonist, it is rarely boring and often finds emotional rewards within its messiness.
Channing Tatum stars as Jeffrey Manchester, a former Army Reserve officer brought low by divorce, financial strain, and shame, who returns to criminal mischief as a misguided means of survival. After escaping prison, Jeffrey hides inside a Toys “R” Us, amusing himself at first before confronting the reality of a future complicated by his growing affection for Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), a single mother navigating her own compromises. Writer-director Derek Cianfrance, best known for emotionally punishing dramas, brings a grounded intimacy to the story, finding tragic irony in Jeffrey’s inability to stop making risky choices even when redemption feels within reach.
The film’s emotional core rests in the chemistry between Tatum and Dunst, whose awkward, sincere dynamic gives the story its most affecting moments. While many supporting characters feel underwritten, Dunst’s performance adds warmth and depth to what could have been a clichéd role. “Roofman” may falter in its wrap-up and lack a clear sense of resolution, but it remains a surprising, witty, and genuinely affecting star vehicle—one that marks a return to form for Cianfrance and stands as one of 2025’s more unexpected pleasures.
27. The Naked Gun (2025)
Where to Stream: Paramount+w/Showtime | Dir: Akiva Schaffer
Liam Neeson steps into delightfully absurd territory with The Naked Gun (2025), Akiva Schaffer’s gloriously stupid and surprisingly affectionate revival of the beloved comedy franchise. Trading in his usual grizzled action-hero intensity for unfiltered slapstick, Neeson plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., the son of Leslie Nielsen’s iconic detective, whose knack for chaos gets him tangled in a hilariously convoluted conspiracy involving a tech mogul (Danny Huston) and his deranged world-domination scheme. Along the way, Drebin crosses paths with Elizabeth (Pamela Anderson), whose personal tragedy adds just enough heart to balance the madness.
Schaffer, joined by co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand, keeps the jokes flying fast and foolish — an endless barrage of sight gags, one-liners, and shameless puns that channel the spirit of Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker while adding a modern satirical edge. Whether riffing on Kingsman or poking fun at Neeson’s own stoic persona, the film thrives on its fearless commitment to stupidity.
Unapologetically silly yet crafted with care, The Naked Gun delivers a laugh-a-minute parody that proves there’s still room for genuine comedy chaos in blockbuster filmmaking. Neeson hasn’t been this loose — or this funny — in years. The Naked Gun is now streaming on Paramount+.
Also Read: 10 Best Liam Neeson Performances
28. Novocaine (2025)
Where to Stream: Paramount+w/Showtime | Dir: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Novocaine is a high-concept action-comedy that centers on Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid), a meek bank employee living with a rare condition called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP)—a neurological disorder that prevents him from feeling physical pain. While most people would consider this a superpower, Nate knows firsthand that it’s more of a curse: every wound he suffers goes unnoticed until it’s too late, making everyday life a dangerous obstacle course.
Cautious and reclusive, Nate finds a flicker of connection in his vibrant new coworker, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), whose warmth begins to pull him out of his shell. But when a violent bank robbery results in Sherry’s abduction, Nate sets off on an unlikely and reckless rescue mission. Despite having no fighting skills or heroic instincts, his inability to feel pain turns him into an oddly resilient action figure—one who can take a punch (or several) and keep going.
Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, Novocaine plays with genre expectations. While packed with bloody slapstick and juvenile humor reminiscent of Deadpool, it also explores the emotional toll of Nate’s condition. The film finds comedic gold in moments like Nate faking pain during a torture scene, while also acknowledging the mental and emotional costs of never knowing when you’re hurt.
29. Hard Truths (2024)
Where to Stream: Paramount+w/Showtime | Dir: Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths is a raw, emotionally piercing domestic drama that explores the quiet devastation of middle age, grief, and unspoken familial tensions. Centered on Pansy (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste in a towering performance), a British woman reeling from the recent death of her mother, the film delves into the ways people cope—or fail to cope—with the crushing weight of everyday life.
Set in a working-class British suburb, Hard Truths doesn’t rely on plot twists or sweeping revelations. Instead, Leigh crafts a slow-burning portrait of a woman whose pain—both physical and emotional—has calcified into anger. Pansy lashes out at everyone around her: her emotionally withdrawn husband Curtley (David Webber), her silent and disconnected son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett), and even complete strangers in public. Her only mirror is her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin), who tries to offer warmth and optimism, though it rarely lands.
True to Leigh’s signature style, the film unfolds with naturalism and restraint, offering glimpses into fractured relationships and internal anguish without over-explaining. There are moments of unexpected humor—like a hilariously tense dentist scene—but they only sharpen the film’s bleak emotional edge. The most devastating scenes come in their quietest moments: a look, a pause, or the crushing silence that follows yet another failed attempt at connection.
Related to the Best New Movies to Stream: 10 Best Mike Leigh Films You Must Watch
30. The Return (2024)
Where to Stream: Paramount+w/Showtime | Dir: Uberto Pasolini
The Return is a raw and powerful drama that reimagines the final chapters of Homer’s Odyssey, focusing on Odysseus’s troubled homecoming after the Trojan War. Directed by Uberto Pasolini and based on a script partly developed from a draft by playwright Edward Bond, the film follows Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) as he washes ashore in Ithaca, burdened by PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and deep shame.
Disguised as a tramp, he secretly navigates a crumbling kingdom where his wife, Queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche), has stubbornly refused to remarry despite mounting pressure. Their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) wrestles with anger and confusion, while suitors like Antinous (Marwan Kenzari) vie for power. Stark, violent, and emotionally intense, The Return explores themes of war’s lasting scars, fractured masculinity, and the struggle to reclaim lost honor in a lawless world.
The Best New Movies To Stream on Peacock
31. Song Sung Blue (2025)
Where to Stream: Peacock | Dir: Craig Brewer
Craig Brewer’s Song Sung Blue (2025) swaps the regional grit of Hustle & Flow for unabashed Midwestern schmaltz, crafting perhaps the whitest musical biopic imaginable—yet one fueled by the same underdog fervor that defines his best work. The film follows Mike Sardina (Hugh Jackman) and Claire Stingl (Kate Hudson), two middle-aged single parents who bond over a shared love of performing and launch a Neil Diamond tribute act, “Lightning and Thunder.”
They harbor no illusions about originality or vocal brilliance; the thrill lies in the spotlight and the communal rush of a vibing crowd. Jackman and Hudson radiate scrappy, sequined charm—his showboating pelvic thrusts and her buoyant keyboard sways selling the act’s rickety razzle-dazzle with infectious joy.
When financial strain and personal demons creep in, the film dips into familiar biopic lows, sometimes veering toward heavy-handed melodrama. Still, Brewer never loses sight of the sincerity powering these dingy barroom shows. However contrived the drama, Song Sung Blue ultimately celebrates performance as salvation—one “Sweet Caroline” at a time.
32. Dìdi (2025)
Where to Stream: Peacock | Dir: Sean Wang
Since the days of François Truffaut, the coming-of-age film has offered emerging filmmakers a familiar framework to establish their voice, though the genre’s growing frequency risks blurring those voices into sameness. Sean Wang’s debut, Dìdi, brushes against that danger without fully succumbing to it. While the film follows well-trodden paths of adolescent self-discovery, its very familiarity underscores the universality of growing up across cultural and generational divides. Wang’s approach may not reinvent the form, but it reveals why these stories persist—and why they continue to resonate.
Set in the summer of 2008, Dìdi follows 13-year-old Chris, a Taiwanese American boy navigating the uneasy transition between middle school and high school in Fremont, California. With a largely absent father and a household shaped by generational tensions, Chris seeks belonging through skate culture, early internet spaces, and awkward social experiments. The film’s period detail—YouTube’s infancy, AOL chat rooms, pixelated screens—never becomes hollow nostalgia. Instead, Wang understands how this emerging digital isolation sharpens social anxiety, keeping the specificity purposeful rather than indulgent.
What ultimately distinguishes Dìdi is its willingness to confront its protagonist’s uglier impulses. Chris’s confrontational behavior and emotional volatility aren’t softened for audience comfort; they’re examined with an acidic self-awareness that pushes beyond the genre’s usual sentimentality. Wang frames this bitterness as a form of self-interrogation, reaching back toward his younger self with neither absolution nor cruelty. In doing so, Dìdi earns its place among contemporary coming-of-age films—not by escaping their conventions, but by exposing the discomfort and self-critique that often lie just beneath them.
33. The Phoenician Scheme (2025)
Where to Stream: Peacock | Dir: Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme (2025) finds the filmmaker at his most playful and worldly, blending the familial warmth of The Royal Tenenbaums with the grand adventure of The Grand Budapest Hotel. Set against a backdrop of international intrigue and eccentric wealth, the film follows billionaire Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) as he embarks on a whirlwind journey to determine the heir to his vast empire — ultimately choosing his daughter Liesel (Mia Threapleton), a would-be nun, to the dismay of his nine sons. With her tutor Bjørn (Michael Cera) in tow, Liesel becomes the unlikely moral compass of a story bursting with wit, color, and chaos.
Anderson’s signature precision — symmetrical framing, dry humor, and ornate design — is elevated by the film’s brisk pacing and inventive gags. Del Toro is unexpectedly hilarious, Cera delivers one of the year’s funniest performances, and Threapleton provides genuine emotional grounding as the daughter who quietly reshapes her father’s worldview. The supporting cast, featuring Anderson regulars like Bryan Cranston, Jeffrey Wright, and Tom Hanks, adds to the delightful, globe-trotting charm.
A satire of greed and a celebration of human decency, The Phoenician Scheme is both a visual feast and a gentle reminder that progress often begins with compassion. The Phoenician Scheme is now streaming on Peacock.
34. Black Bag (2025)
Where to Stream: Peacock | Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag is a taut espionage thriller that strips away the glamour of spycraft in favor of a cold, calculated look at trust, deception, and institutional rot. Reuniting with screenwriter David Koepp, Soderbergh returns to the genre he explored in Haywire—but this time, the storytelling is sharper and more self-assured.
At the film’s center is George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender), a London-based intelligence operative whose life is defined by secrecy. He’s married to fellow agent Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), and while their relationship appears stable on the surface—unusual honesty in a world of lies—it exists in a constant fog of withheld truths. In their line of work, the phrase “black bag” becomes shorthand for anything too classified to explain—even between spouses.
When George is assigned to uncover a mole within the agency, his suspicions lead uncomfortably close to home, placing Kathryn high on the suspect list. What unfolds is not an action-heavy mission, but a simmering battle of wits—where tense dinners, coded glances, and emotional deflections become weapons. Black Bag, currently streaming on Peacock, is one of our top picks this month for new movies to stream.
Related to Best New Movies to Stream – Black Bag (2025) Movie Review: Soderbergh Reuses and Refines His Spy Formula for His Best Film in Years
35. Last Breath (2025)
Where to Stream: Peacock | Dir: Alex Parkinson
Last Breath is a claustrophobic survival thriller based on the astonishing true story of deep-sea diver Chris Lemons, who was left stranded 100 meters below the surface after a catastrophic saturation diving accident. Directed by Alex Parkinson—who also helmed the documentary of the same name—the film dramatizes the 2012 incident where Lemons’ umbilical cable snapped during a mission, cutting off his oxygen supply and communication. With only minutes of breathable air left and unconscious from the fall, his chances of survival seemed nonexistent—until he miraculously lived to tell the tale.
The film stars Finn Cole as Lemons, whose resilience and quiet strength form the emotional core of the story. Alongside him are Woody Harrelson as the veteran diver Duncan Allcock, preparing for what may be his final dive, and Simu Liu as David Yuasa, a stoic team member forced to suppress emotion under pressure. With much of the action confined to the tight, underwater space, Last Breath immerses viewers in the terrifying unpredictability of deep-sea survival and is one of our top picks for new movies to stream on Peacock.
The Best New Movies To Stream on AMC+ w/Shudder
36. Good Boy (2024)
Where to Stream: AMC+ | Dir: Ben Leonberg
There is a scene in Good Boy (2025) where Indy and his owner pause during a walk through the woods. The owner rambles, asks, “Am I crazy?”, and Indy looks back as if to reassure him. That quiet exchange captures something deeply familiar—how pets become silent witnesses to our fears, absorbing words we don’t know how to place anywhere else. Watching a film centered on a dog immediately raises anxiety: will something happen to him? Dogs stay, endure, and protect in ways humans rarely do, and Good Boy leans into that instinctive bond with unsettling tenderness.
Ben Leonberg’s feature—co-written with Alex Cannon—follows Todd, suffering from chronic lung disease, who retreats with Indy to his grandfather’s isolated cabin. The story unfolds entirely through the dog’s point of view, limiting communication to growls, whines, and watchful eyes. The POV recalls the eerie intimacy of The Blair Witch Project, using found-footage textures and diegetic sound to create tension. Indy senses something is wrong long before it’s visible: graves in the woods, Todd’s deteriorating health, and a looming presence that suggests death itself circling the cabin.
What makes Good Boy resonate is not just its formal experiment but its emotional inversion. Usually, humans grieve pets; here, Indy must learn how to survive the loss of his owner. The film quietly explores generational illness, depression, and the unbearable knowledge Todd carries about his own decline. Leonberg uses Indy’s body language—ears tucked, tail stiff, restless pacing—to express grief words cannot hold. Despite uneven lighting, the film remains a striking, low-budget achievement: a haunting, compassionate meditation on death, loyalty, and the unbearable love of a dog who understands danger but cannot escape it.
37. The Baltimorons (2025)
Where to Stream: Shudder | Dir: Jay Duplass
While the premise of a heartwarming holiday comedy might seem easy to pull off, Christmas films often struggle to strike the right balance between sincerity and cynicism. Although it’s unclear if The Baltimorons will age alongside perennial favorites like Home Alone or It’s a Wonderful Life, it stands out as a recent example of a holiday film that understands why the season makes for an emotionally charged setting. It avoids excessive saccharinity while remaining earnest, locating meaning in the quieter, more awkward spaces of human connection.
The film follows Cliff Casher, a former improv comedian six months sober after a suicide attempt, as he reluctantly attends a Christmas Eve gathering with his fiancée’s family. A mishap sends him into Baltimore, where he meets Dr. Didi Dahl, a dentist navigating her own familial unease. Both characters feel estranged within their personal circles, and their growing bond reflects a shared frustration with judgment, expectation, and emotional displacement. Even when the film occasionally writes itself into convenient corners, their relationship evolves with sincerity over the course of a single day.
Anchored by remarkable performances from Michael Strassner and Liz Larsen, The Baltimorons thrives on authenticity rather than spectacle. Strassner brings surprising depth to a character who feels worthy of second chances, while Larsen gives a quietly revelatory performance as a woman rediscovering herself later in life. A love letter to Baltimore and a gently mature holiday film, it touches on addiction, grief, and depression without burdening the audience, leaving behind a warmth that feels earned rather than manufactured.
38. Dangerous Animals (2025)
Where to Stream: AMC+ | Dir: Sean Byrne
Sean Byrne makes a ferocious return to the big screen with Dangerous Animals (2025), his first feature in a decade — a gnarly, sun-soaked horror thriller that sinks its teeth into the classic shark-movie formula and gives it a killer human twist. Set on the open seas, the film follows Tucker (Jai Courtney, in a career-best turn), a deranged fisherman who lures unsuspecting victims onto his boat and feeds them to sharks — all while capturing the carnage on camera. His latest target is Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a fearless surfer whose grit and defiance turn her into the hunter in an escalating fight for survival.
Byrne directs with confidence and precision, leaning on gnarly practical effects, taut pacing, and the uneasy charisma of his leads. Courtney brings charm and menace in equal measure, while Harrison grounds the chaos with a physically demanding, emotionally charged performance. The result is a brutal but crowd-pleasing experience — the kind of gory, high-energy horror that thrives on collective gasps, cheers, and laughter.
Equal parts savage and self-aware, Dangerous Animals is a blood-soaked blast tailor-made for horror fans and festival audiences alike. It’s proof that sometimes, diving into the deep end of genre filmmaking can still feel thrillingly new. Dangerous Animals is now streaming on AMC+.
39. The Ugly Stepsister (2025)
Where to Stream: Shudder | Dir: Emilie Blichfeldt
The Ugly Stepsister is a disturbing reimagining of the classic Cinderella story—told through the eyes of the so-called “ugly” stepsister. Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, this Norwegian horror-comedy turns the familiar fairytale into a chilling body horror tale that explores themes of beauty, envy, and maternal manipulation.
The film follows Elvira (Lea Myren), a young woman constantly told she’s unattractive by her controlling, gold-digging mother Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp). Raised on fantasies of fairy-tale romance and a prince who can “rescue” her from her life, Elvira becomes obsessed with achieving beauty at any cost. When she learns that Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) is holding a ball to choose a bride, Elvira is pushed into an increasingly horrific regimen of forced beautification—from sewn-in eyelashes to extreme dieting that involves swallowing a tapeworm egg.
As her prettier stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) gains the prince’s attention, Elvira spirals into jealousy and rage. What follows is a grotesque and violent descent into madness and self-destruction, culminating in shocking scenes of mutilation and betrayal. Far from a fairy tale, the film presents a cautionary tale about the dangers of unrealistic beauty standards and the price women are often forced to pay to meet them. Dark, disturbing, and brutally satirical, The Ugly Stepsister strips the Cinderella myth of its charm and reveals the rot underneath.
40. Frewaka (2024)
Where to Stream: Shudder | Dir: Aislinn Clarke
Frewaka is a haunting Irish folk horror film written and directed by Aislinn Clarke. Set in a rural Irish village, the story follows Siobhan, a nurse grieving the recent death of her mother. In an attempt to distance herself from her trauma, she takes up a palliative care job for an elderly woman named Peig. But as she settles into the isolated home, strange and unsettling occurrences begin to unfold—visions, folklore creatures, and a disturbing family connection.
The film explores themes of grief, generational trauma, and the oppressive weight of cultural and familial expectations, all through a psychological and folkloric lens. As Siobhan uncovers the eerie truth behind her ancestry, Frewaka gradually transforms into a chilling tale about the inescapable nature of the past.
The Best New Movies To Stream on MUBI
41. La Grazia (2025)
Where to Stream: MUBI | Dir: Paolo Sorrentino
Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia (2025) arrives with unusual haste, premiering barely a year after the misfire of Parthenope, and inevitably reads as a gesture of recalibration. Where that film drowned in indulgence, this one finds the Italian maximalist deliberately restraining himself—locking away the visual hedonism to confront age, power, and hesitation in stark isolation.
Reuniting with Toni Servillo, Sorrentino casts his longtime muse as fictional Italian president Mariano De Santis, serving the final months of his term. Faced with signing a euthanasia bill and weighing two morally fraught pardon requests, De Santis wrestles with the meaning of “grazia”—both grace and clemency—through impassioned exchanges with his daughter and advisor.
Yet for all its thematic heft, passion feels curiously muted. The familiar slow-motion flourishes and musical teases are present, but stretched across a lethargic runtime that struggles to build momentum. Servillo remains magnetic, conveying decades of compromise in a single cigarette drag. Still, while La Grazia gestures toward atonement, its uneven path suggests that true grace may require more deliberation.
42. The Mastermind (2025)
Where to Stream: MUBI | Dir: Kelly Reichardt
Kelly Reichardt has long carved her place in American cinema through a quiet but rigorous deconstruction of genre, often interrogating the power structures embedded within traditionally masculine forms. With The Mastermind, she turns her attention to the heist thriller, reframing it as a study of masculine ambition, economic desperation, and moral futility. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the film situates personal criminal desire within a broader national moment of unrest, decline, and reckoning.
Josh O’Connor plays J.B. Mooney, an unassuming husband and father whose seemingly harmless habit of petty art theft escalates into a meticulously planned gallery heist. When the crime unravels, Reichardt resists sensationalism, opting instead for a relaxed, observational approach that allows the consequences to seep in gradually. Youth protests and political tension remain at the margins, subtly reminding us that J.B.’s downfall mirrors a nation struggling with its own ethical collapse.
What ultimately distinguishes The Mastermind is Reichardt’s refusal to romanticize ambition or criminal ingenuity. Through her restrained direction, muted tension, and intimate scale, the film exposes the emptiness at the heart of capitalist pursuit. Stripped of glamour and spectacle, the heist becomes an act of quiet self-destruction, reinforcing Reichardt’s status as an artist whose soft-spoken cinema delivers devastating insights into America’s enduring imbalance.
43. The History of Sound (2024)
Where to Stream: MUBI | Dir: Oliver Hermanus
“Old-fashioned” fits The History of Sound (2025) not as an insult, but as a virtue. In an era of revisionist irony, Oliver Hermanus delivers a sincere, methodical romance—one elevated by two phenomenal lead performances.
Adapted from Ben Shattuck’s stories, the film traces the relationship between Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal) and David White (Josh O’Connor), who meet before World War I and bond over a shared mission to record American folk songs. Their love unfolds in fleeting intervals, shaped by war, distance, and social constraint. Framed through the recollections of an older Lionel (Chris Cooper), the story plays like a faded memory—restrained, intimate, and quietly devastating.
Hermanus avoids gratuitous trauma or explicitness, instead emphasizing longing and the crystallized beauty of brief connection. Mescal and O’Connor share impeccable chemistry, revealing differences gradually as exhilaration gives way to heartbreak. Though light on plot and occasionally saccharine, the film’s patience pays off. Delicate without being evasive, The History of Sound offers a simmering, deeply felt romance that lingers long after its final note.
44. Die My Love (2025)
Where to Stream: MUBI | Dir: Lynne Ramsay
The most terrifying films are rarely supernatural, and in Die My Love (2025), Lynne Ramsay finds horror in painful realism. Her first feature since You Were Never Really Here adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel into a suffocating, darkly funny portrait of postnatal depression—shot with visceral beauty and tonal audacity.
Jennifer Lawrence delivers a career-best performance as Grace, a new mother spiraling into psychosis after childbirth. Taking fearless swings, she dominates every frame, embodying intrusive thoughts, self-violence, and morbid humor with unnerving conviction. Opposite her, Robert Pattinson is superb as Jackson, the well-meaning but emotionally ill-equipped husband whose incomprehension deepens Grace’s isolation.
Ramsay visualizes Grace’s descent through surreal flourishes—a seductive fantasy figure (LaKeith Stanfield), a distressed dog mirroring her anguish—while balancing bleak comedy, thriller tension, and gothic melodrama. Seamus McGarvey’s kinetic camerawork and thunderous sound design turn the film into a two-hour panic attack you can’t look away from.
Disturbing yet wickedly funny, Die My Love is a bracing, unforgettable plunge into postpartum darkness—anchored by a staggering Lawrence performance.
45. Lurker (2025)
Where to Stream: MUBI | Dir: Alex Russell
Alex Russell’s Lurker (2025) is a chilling reflection of modern celebrity obsession, exploring how social media has blurred the line between admiration and intrusion. In an age when fame is accessible through a screen, the film asks what happens when a fan crosses that invisible boundary. French-Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin stars as Matthew, a Los Angeles retail worker who worms his way into the inner circle of rising musician Oliver (Archie Madekwe). Posing as a documentarian capturing Oliver’s creative journey, Matthew’s fascination slowly morphs into possession.
Russell channels the unsettling voyeurism of Ingrid Goes West, updating its cautionary message for an era where every post is performative and authenticity is a curated illusion. Pellerin’s quietly menacing performance captures how obsession festers behind charm and ambition, while Madekwe adds nuance as an artist trapped in his own projection. As Matthew’s control tightens, the film’s glossy surfaces give way to something rawer and more disturbing.
Both psychological thriller and social critique, Lurker turns the camera back on our own fixation with watching others live. It’s a sharp, eerie portrait of parasocial decay in the influencer age — and a reminder that the real danger often hides behind the lens. Lurker is now streaming on Prime Video.
The Best New Movies To Stream on The Criterion Channel
46. Peter Hujar’s Day (2025)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel | Dir: Ira Sachs
Peter Hujar’s Day (2025) is so formally distinct that its premise is inseparable from its production. Adapted directly from a long-shelved 1974 transcript of photographer Peter Hujar’s interview with friend Linda Rosenkrantz, Ira Sachs’ film plays less like a biopic and more like interpretive journalism. For 90 minutes, Hujar (Ben Whishaw) and Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) sit in her apartment, their conversation unfolding in near real time against the backdrop of a pre-AIDS-crisis New York artistic utopia.
Despite its single-room setting, the film never feels stagebound. Sachs’ camera moves with Hujar’s restless, excitable musings, evoking the texture of his photography without tipping into ornamentation. Whishaw delivers one of his finest performances, capturing Hujar’s flippant charm and intellectual intensity, while Hall imbues Rosenkrantz with curiosity and subtle authority, avoiding mere audience-surrogate passivity.
The film’s brevity and lack of contextual detail may frustrate newcomers, but that incompleteness is inherent to the experiment. As an alternative to the conventional biopic, Peter Hujar’s Day is intimate, daring, and quietly engrossing.
47. Vermiglio (2024)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel | Dir: Maura Delpero
Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio (2025) is a stunningly composed, emotionally rich wartime drama that transforms the quiet life of an Alpine village into a meditation on change, repression, and renewal. Set in 1944 Italy, the film follows Cesare (Tomasso Ragno), a rigid schoolteacher devoted to preserving the moral order of his small community, and his wife Adele (Roberta Rovelli), whose warmth and compassion sustain those around her. Their daughters — Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), Ada (Rachele Potrich), and Flavia (Anna Thaler) — represent a new generation on the verge of transformation, yearning for a world beyond their father’s austere traditions.
When a wounded soldier, Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), arrives seeking refuge, his tender romance with Lucia ignites both love and conflict, challenging the stability of the family and the authority of Cesare’s beliefs. Delpero’s deliberate pacing and intimate camerawork invite the viewer into a world where faith, duty, and desire collide. The performances — particularly from Scrinzi and Potrich — carry a profound emotional weight, balancing restraint with longing.
Visually breathtaking and deeply humane, Vermiglio captures the tension between tradition and progress with grace and empathy. It’s a quiet epic about the courage to question the past — and to imagine something freer. Vermiglio is now streaming on The Criterion Channel.
48. All We Imagine as Light (2024)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel | Dir: Payal Kapadia
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light is a deeply immersive, poetic exploration of womanhood, displacement, and longing in modern Mumbai. The film follows three women—Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha), and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam)—each grappling with their own struggles while navigating the chaotic yet alluring city.
Prabha, a senior nurse in a run-down hospital, is trapped in a long-distance marriage with a husband who moved to Germany years ago. Her heart wrestles with a lingering attachment to the past, preventing her from embracing new possibilities.
Anu, her younger roommate and a junior nurse, is entangled in a secret relationship with Shiraz (Hridhu Haroon), a Muslim man. Fear of societal disapproval looms over their love, intensified by India’s rigid sociopolitical climate. Meanwhile, Parvaty, an older hospital cook, faces eviction due to relentless gentrification, her home at risk of demolition without legal proof of ownership.
Kapadia weaves these personal narratives into a larger tapestry of Mumbai itself—a city of dreams and illusions, where impermanence defines existence. As the women momentarily escape to the seaside, the film’s visual language shifts, embracing the surreal and the transcendental. A sun-dappled love scene and a haunting, cathartic encounter between Prabha and a stranger mark moments of quiet epiphany, capturing the film’s essence of longing and transformation.
49. Misericordia (2024)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel | Dir: Alain Guiraudie
Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia (2025) is a sly, small-town farce masquerading as a crime story — a dry, darkly funny riff on Pasolini’s Teorema that replaces erotic provocation with cozy absurdity. When Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) returns to his rural hometown for the funeral of his former boss, he’s quickly entangled in the strange domestic orbit of the widow Martine (Catherine Frot) and her prickly son Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand). After a “friendly” scuffle between the men takes a deadly turn, Jérémie’s fumbling attempts to cover up the crime ignite a chain of gossip, suspicion, and hilariously inappropriate intimacy among the villagers.
Guiraudie, best known for his wry explorations of desire and morality, crafts Misericordia with a light touch — finding humor not in the scandal itself, but in how casually everyone accepts it. His autumnal palette and languid pacing transform potential tragedy into a gently mocking study of human folly. Kysyl anchors the film with a charming blend of guilt and bewilderment, while Frot delivers a deliciously ambiguous performance as the matriarch who might know more than she lets on.
A murder mystery with no real mystery and a seduction story without consummation, Misericordia delights in its contradictions. It’s droll, intimate, and unmistakably French. Misericordia is now streaming on The Criterion Channel.
50. Evil Does Not Exist (2023)
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel | Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s profound ecological drama explores the delicate balance between nature and human development. Set in the small, tranquil mountain village of Mizubiki, the film focuses on the harmonious coexistence between the villagers and the surrounding untouched natural landscape. The story follows Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a local handyman, and his daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa), as they live simple lives connected to the rhythms of nature.
The film’s peace is disturbed by the arrival of two urban outsiders, Takahashi and Mayuzumi, representatives from an entertainment company, Playmode. They propose building a glamping site in the village, which threatens to disrupt the village’s ecological balance by polluting the local water supply and endangering the pristine environment.
With stunning cinematography by Yoshio Kitagawa, Evil Does Not Exist is a visually and emotionally rich meditation on the fragile balance between human activity and the natural world.
