Nuremberg is a 2025 historical drama written and directed by James Vanderbilt, adapted from Jack El-Hai's nonfiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, it dramatizes the months surrounding the first Nuremberg trial, when the surviving leaders of the Third Reich were brought before an international tribunal, and centers on the unsettling relationship that formed between a captive Nazi and the American doctor assigned to gauge his sanity.
Rami Malek plays Douglas Kelley, the U.S. Army psychiatrist tasked with evaluating the imprisoned Nazi high command, while Russell Crowe delivers a commanding turn as Hermann Göring, the charismatic and manipulative Reichsmarschall who becomes both his subject and his adversary. Michael Shannon plays Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief American prosecutor determined to build a lasting framework of international law, with Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, and Colin Hanks filling out the ensemble.
Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival to one of its longest standing ovations, the film earned praise for Crowe's magnetic, chilling performance and for its sober reckoning with how ordinary-seeming men rationalized atrocity. A courtroom drama and a psychological duel in equal measure, it grossed more than $70 million worldwide. Nuremberg is streaming on Netflix.
Bugonia is a pitch-black science-fiction thriller from director Yorgos Lanthimos, marking his fourth collaboration with Emma Stone after The Favourite, Poor Things, and Kinds of Kindness. An English-language remake of Jang Joon-hwan's cult 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, the movie was adapted by screenwriter Will Tracy, whose credits include Succession and The Menu, and it channels Lanthimos's gift for unsettling, deadpan menace into a story that is equal parts hostage thriller, conspiracy satire, and cosmic horror.
Emma Stone plays Michelle Fuller, the poised and powerful chief executive of a pharmaceutical company. Jesse Plemons is Teddy, a troubled, conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper who, along with his impressionable younger cousin, becomes convinced that Michelle is an extraterrestrial sent to destroy humanity. The pair abducts her and holds her captive in a basement, demanding she make contact with her home planet, and the film tightens into a claustrophobic battle of wills in which the audience is never quite sure who, if anyone, is telling the truth.
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival to a rapturous standing ovation and released by Focus Features, Bugonia drew strong reviews for its tonal daring, its escalating dread, and the ferocious central performances of Stone and Plemons. Provocative, funny, and deeply strange, it is one of the most singular studio films of the year and is now streaming on Peacock.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is Marvel Studios' bold reintroduction of its first superhero family, directed by Matt Shakman and set not in the familiar Marvel Cinematic Universe but on Earth-828, a gleaming, retro-futurist world where the swagger and optimism of the 1960s never faded. Pedro Pascal leads the cast as Reed Richards, the stretchable genius Mister Fantastic, alongside Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as the hotheaded Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the rocky, warm-hearted Ben Grimm. Rather than retell the team's origin for a fourth time on screen, the film opens with the Four already established as beloved public heroes, freeing it to be a story about family, responsibility, and the weight of protecting an entire world.
That world is soon threatened by Galactus, the god-like devourer of planets, heralded by his enigmatic emissary the Silver Surfer, reimagined here as Shalla-Bal and played by Julia Garner. As Reed and Sue prepare for the arrival of their first child, the team must weigh the fate of their family against the survival of Earth, and the film balances cosmic spectacle against surprisingly intimate domestic stakes. Shakman shoots it all with the confidence of a classic studio picture, drawing on mid-century design, analog technology, and a warm, hopeful tone that sets it apart from the darker corners of the genre.
Released in July 2025, the film became the highest-grossing Fantastic Four movie ever made, taking in more than half a billion dollars worldwide and drawing generally positive reviews for its distinctive aesthetic, its emotional core, and the easy chemistry of its central quartet. Widely seen as a fresh and much-needed reset for characters who had struggled to find their footing on film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now streaming on Disney+.
The Roses is a savage marital comedy that reimagines the premise of the 1989 black comedy The War of the Roses for a new generation. Directed by Jay Roach and written by Tony McNamara, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as Theo and Ivy Rose, a seemingly enviable couple, he a celebrated architect, she an acclaimed chef, whose glossy, successful marriage curdles into all-out war as professional jealousy and simmering resentment boil to the surface.
Where the original film was a pitch-black farce, this version filters its cruelty through McNamara's razor-sharp, verbally acrobatic wit, the same sensibility he brought to The Favourite and Poor Things. Cumberbatch and Colman, reuniting after earlier collaborations, relish the chance to play a couple whose deep affection and deeper contempt are impossible to untangle. The supporting cast includes Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon, adding to the film's blend of sophisticated barbs and broad comic energy.
Released in late summer 2025, The Roses drew strong interest as a showcase for two of the finest actors of their generation sparring at full tilt. Critics praised the leads' chemistry and McNamara's acidic dialogue, even as some noted the film softens the original's bleaker edges. A stylish, well-acted comedy about the fine line between love and loathing, it streams on Hulu.
Novocaine is a bloody, briskly funny action-comedy built around an irresistible high-concept premise: a man who literally cannot feel pain. Jack Quaid stars as Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered assistant bank manager with a rare genetic condition called congenital insensitivity to pain, a disorder that has kept him cautious and sheltered his whole life. Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, the film gleefully weaponizes its hero's condition, turning a lifelong medical liability into an unlikely superpower.
When a bank robbery goes wrong and the woman he has just started dating (Amber Midthunder) is taken hostage, Nathan throws himself into a one-man rescue mission, absorbing an escalating series of grievous injuries that would incapacitate anyone else. The result is a film that mixes wince-inducing violence with genuine sweetness, anchored by Quaid's endearing everyman charm. Ray Nicholson co-stars as the menacing lead robber, and the screenplay keeps finding inventive, cringe-comic ways to put its indestructible hero through the wringer.
Released in spring 2025, Novocaine was a pleasant surprise for critics and audiences, earning praise for its clever premise, its practical stunt work, and Quaid's charismatic leading turn. It arrived as part of a wave of mid-budget original action films that proved audiences still hunger for high-concept fun that isn't tied to an existing franchise. It streams on Paramount+.
M3GAN 2.0 is Blumhouse and Atomic Monster's follow-up to the 2022 horror sleeper hit that turned a murderous AI doll into a viral pop-culture icon. Writer-director Gerard Johnstone returns, and this time he swings the franchise in a bolder direction, trading the original's tight domestic horror for a slick, self-aware action-thriller in the mold of a Terminator sequel. Allison Williams and Violet McGraw reprise their roles as roboticist Gemma and her niece Cady, who are pulled back into M3GAN's orbit when a new threat emerges that only their old creation can stop.
The sequel's central hook is a military-grade humanoid weapon built by a defense contractor using stolen M3GAN technology, forcing Gemma to resurrect the very machine she once tried to destroy. Jenna Davis returns to voice M3GAN, whose deadpan menace and meme-ready one-liners were the beating heart of the first film. Johnstone leans fully into the character's camp appeal, positioning M3GAN as a reluctant antihero and staging elaborate set pieces that show off her lethal grace, while keeping the series' satirical edge about our dependence on artificial intelligence.
Released in summer 2025, M3GAN 2.0 divided audiences who had embraced the leaner scares of the original, but it was widely noted for its ambition, humor, and Johnstone's willingness to reinvent his own creation rather than simply repeat it. The film cemented M3GAN as one of horror's most distinctive modern franchises, a series unafraid to be funny, strange, and pointed about the technology reshaping daily life. It streams on Peacock.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third installment in James Cameron's Avatar saga, released in December 2025 by 20th Century Studios and Disney. Returning to the moon Pandora, Cameron once again pushes the boundaries of large-scale performance capture and visual effects while deepening the story of Jake Sully and Neytiri's family.
Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña reprise their roles as Jake and Neytiri, with Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, and a returning ensemble of Na'vi and human characters. The film introduces a fierce new clan, the fire-aligned Ash People led by the formidable Varang (Oona Chaplin), whose aggression marks a darker tonal departure from the water and forest cultures of the earlier films, as the Sully family continues to grapple with grief and loss.
Like its predecessors, Fire and Ash became a global box-office juggernaut, extending one of the most commercially dominant franchises in cinema history and earning particular praise for its groundbreaking effects work. It is now streaming on Disney+.
KPop Demon Hunters is a 2025 animated fantasy-musical produced by Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans. Bright, frenetic, and steeped in Korean pop culture and folklore, it became one of the defining pop-cultural phenomena of the year almost immediately after its June release.
The story follows HUNTR/X, a globe-conquering K-pop girl group whose members — Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, voiced by Arden Cho, May Hong, and Ji-young Yoo — lead secret double lives as demon hunters protecting the world from supernatural threats. Their mission is complicated by the Saja Boys, a rival demon boy band, in a story that blends dazzling concert set pieces with mythology drawn from Korean tradition.
The film exploded into the most-watched movie in Netflix history, while its original song Golden topped the Billboard Hot 100 — a rare feat for a track from an animated feature. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and Netflix and Sony quickly greenlit a sequel with Kang and Appelhans returning. KPop Demon Hunters is streaming on Netflix.
One Battle After Another is writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's explosive 2025 action-thriller, released by Warner Bros. and loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland. It reunites Anderson with a sprawling ensemble and marks his first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, anchoring what became the most expensive and widely seen film of the director's career.
DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a burned-out former revolutionary living off the grid until his teenage daughter is abducted, forcing him to reconnect with his old radical comrades for a desperate rescue. Sean Penn is his menacing nemesis, a ruthless military officer, with Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and newcomer Chase Infiniti rounding out the cast. Anderson stages the chase as both a propulsive thriller and a sly commentary on American paranoia and aging idealism.
The film drew some of the best reviews of Anderson's career and became his highest-grossing movie at the box office, before sweeping through awards season to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Praised for its formal daring, its performances, and its blend of suspense and dark comedy, it stands among the most acclaimed releases of the year. One Battle After Another is streaming on HBO Max.
Nobody 2 brings back Bob Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell, the mild-mannered suburban dad and retired government assassin whose buried lethal instincts came roaring back in the surprise 2021 hit Nobody. Written by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad and directed this time by Indonesian action specialist Timo Tjahjanto, the sequel doubles down on the original's blend of deadpan everyman comedy and bone-crunching, meticulously staged violence. Odenkirk once again anchors the carnage with the weary, put-upon charm that made the first film such an unlikely franchise-starter.
This time Hutch tries to give his family a proper vacation, taking them to a nostalgic small-town tourist trap in hopes of reconnecting after his double life has left everyone frayed. The getaway curdles fast when he runs afoul of a corrupt local operation, forcing Hutch back into the kind of relentless close-quarters combat he keeps swearing he's done with. Connie Nielsen returns as his wife Becca and Christopher Lloyd is back as his shotgun-happy father David, while Sharon Stone joins the cast as a formidable new antagonist who gives Hutch more trouble than he bargained for.
Reviewers welcomed the sequel as a sharper, more elaborate ride than its predecessor, singling out Tjahjanto's inventive set pieces and the film's willingness to escalate the action into cheerfully absurd territory. Though it played as a mid-budget crowd-pleaser in theaters, Nobody 2 found a large second life on streaming, where its tight runtime and relentless momentum made it an easy word-of-mouth hit. It streams on Peacock.
The Conjuring: Last Rites is the climactic send-off for Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal-investigator couple whose case files have anchored one of the most successful horror franchises in history. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return one final time as the Warrens, with director Michael Chaves once again at the helm, closing out the main trilogy that began with 2013's The Conjuring. The film is billed as the last chapter for the Warrens, giving the long-running saga a definite endpoint after more than a decade of spin-offs and sequels.
The story draws on the real-life Smurl haunting, a widely publicized 1980s case in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in which a family reported violent supernatural activity that the actual Warrens were called in to investigate. As Ed and Lorraine confront one of the most dangerous entities of their careers, the film also turns inward to their family, giving their grown daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) a central role and treating the case as a deeply personal reckoning rather than just another job. The result is a horror film that leans as much on the couple's marriage and legacy as on its scares.
Last Rites became a phenomenon at the box office, opening to franchise-record numbers and going on to rank as the highest-grossing entry in the entire Conjuring Universe — a rare feat for the ninth film in a horror series. Audiences turned out in force for the promised farewell, and the film's success underscored how thoroughly the Warrens had become horror institutions. It streams exclusively on HBO Max.