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Netflix, New Releases

Netflix Film Reviews including: A House of Dynamite (2025), Ballad of a Small Player (2025) Frankenstein (2025), Jay Kelly (2025) and Wake Up, Dead Man (2025)

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Netflix Film Reviews – Winter 2025

Netflix’s auteur-driven cinema push has seen the platform hand enormous creative freedom—and budgets—to filmmakers like Noah Baumbach, Rian Johnson, Kathryn Bigelow, Edward Berger, and Guillermo del Toro, pairing them with world-class casts and top-tier crews to produce works of unmistakably cinematic ambition.

The paradox is that many of these films—designed with theatrical scale, craft, and seriousness—ultimately premiere to mass audiences via Netflix’s online platform rather than traditional movie theatres, reflecting a fundamental shift in how prestige cinema is financed, distributed, and culturally consumed in the streaming era.

What can you do? Well, pay the Netflix subscription and watch them from the comfort of one’s living room. Here are my reviews with usual marks out of eleven. Happy 2026!

A House of Dynamite (2025)

Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite (2025) is an expertly directed and intriguingly structured disaster movie, unfolding across three interlocking chapters that chart a nuclear attack on the United States by an unknown enemy. Each section reframes the same escalating crisis through a different lens—the White House intelligence apparatus, the military response, and the political sphere—culminating in the perspective of the President, played with sensitivity and gravitas by Idris Elba.

As events overlap and repeat, the script cleverly ratchets up tension, revealing new information through subtle shifts in context, while Bigelow’s command of pacing and scale, combined with sterling filmmaking and a who’s-who ensemble cast, keeps the film gripping on a moment-to-moment level. Yet for all its craft, the film ultimately plays like a fear-mongering piece of propaganda and an implicit recruitment advert for the U.S. government and military. Its refusal to name a perpetrator suggest the U.S. has many enemies thus justifying huge spending on defence and weapons. The abrupt ending could be interpreted as brave storytelling, but for me it undercut the suspense, leaving the experience feeling oddly hollow and non-plussed rather than provocatively unresolved.

Mark: 6 out of 11

Ballad of a Small Player (2025)

The Ballad of a Small Player (2025) follows Lord Doyle, played by a magnetic Colin Farrell, as he lies low in Macau, numbing himself on casino floors with deep debt, bad bets, and the stubborn hope that the next hand will fix everything. Farrell is phenomenal here, turning compulsive gambling into a form of slow self-harm, his performance layered with exhaustion, bravado, and quiet panic. When he’s offered a fragile lifeline by the enigmatic Dao Ming, played with poised restraint by Fala Chen, the film hints at redemption.

Director Edward Berger and his production team deliver a ravishingly beautiful film, capturing Macau’s neon glow and claustrophobic interiors as both seduction and trap. At its best, the film is a melancholy character study about addiction for a protagonist who is often deeply annoying and morally bankrupt. However, the final act falters, introducing fuzzy, unearned twists that soften the film’s harder truths and dilute its emotional impact. While the journey is engrossing and Farrell’s performance alone makes the film worth seeing, the conclusion ultimately cheats the audience out of a powerful Uncut Gems (2019)-style denouement.

Mark: 7 out of 11

Frankenstein (2025)

Is Guillermo Del Toro’s big budget adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel really necessary? There are much better versions out there, yet, Netflix and Del Toro certainly thought so. Oscar Isaac is a great actor but miscast or misdirected here for me. Then again, even in Shelley’s seminal novel Dr Frankenstein is a colossal whinger! Thankfully, Jacob Elordi gives a hearty and emotional rendition of the tragic creature, who again is the most interesting character. Safe to say the majestic production values provide a visual and aural feast, but, aside from a scintillating opening in the North Pole, Del Toro’s slog of a script ultimately fails to bring Shelley’s story to life in a sustained enjoyable fashion. Don’t get me wrong, the production and design is of the highest order but I just didn’t connect emotionally or philosophically or even as a horror fan.

Mark: 6 out of 11

Jay Kelly (2025)

Jay Kelly (2025) is a mild, reflective comedy drama that sees George Clooney doing what he’s long perfected: playing a famous film star grappling with past and present relationships while barely appearing to break a sweat. As Kelly travels to Tuscany to collect a lifetime achievement award, the film drifts between memories, regrets, and professional compromises, offering Clooney ample opportunity to deploy his trademark charm—stretching his range (not), but doing so with effortless ease. The more grounded emotional texture comes from Adam Sandler, who is quietly excellent as Kelly’s long-suffering manager, bringing a lived-in, humane quality that feels more emotionally honest.

Director Noah Baumbach has delivered far sharper and more incisive work and Jay Kelly (2025) never quite pushes its Hollywood satire of spoiled first-world creatives as far as it could. Still, there’s an undeniable pleasure in Baumbach’s dialogue and structure, with clear echoes of Wild Strawberries (1957) and 8½ (1963) filtering through in its introspective, memory-haunted moments. The film ultimately has its cake and eats it—content to indulge its characters rather than interrogate them—but it remains a very pleasant cake all the same: soft, well-made, and easy to enjoy.

Mark: 7 out of 11

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

Wake Up Dead Man (2025) stands as the clear high point of Netflix’s auteur-driven releases from November and December 2025, confirming Rian Johnson as a post-modern master of the classical whodunnit. Once again drawing from the elegant clockwork of Agatha Christie’s works, Johnson constructs a devilishly complicated mystery centred on the murder of the tyrannical Monsignor Wicks, played with thunderous menace by Josh Brolin. The suspect list is gloriously stacked—church staff and parishioners portrayed by Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, and a young visiting priest, Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor)—each performance feeding into a puzzle that’s as playful as it is precise.

What elevates the film beyond genre excellence is its sharply observed character work, particularly in the portrayal of Wicks as a Trump-like authoritarian figure ruling his congregation through fear and humiliation. Johnson smartly frames the mystery as a moral clash between Old Testament wrath and New Testament compassion, allowing the film to interrogate power, faith, and hypocrisy without ever losing its entertainment value. The script crackles with brilliant one-liners and sly, witty exchanges, especially when Daniel Craig’s Poirot-style detective peels back layers of deceit with theatrical relish. Among the ensemble, Josh O’Connor delivers a superbly nuanced performance, injecting emotional specificity and intelligence that rise above what could have been more generic material. Clever, funny, thematically sharp, and immaculately engineered, Wake Up Dead Man isn’t just Netflix’s best auteur offering of the season—it’s one of Johnson’s most satisfying achievements to date.

Mark: 9 out of 11

Cinema, New Releases, Oscar Bingo, Reviews

CINEMA REVIEW: POOR THINGS (2023)

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CINEMA REVIEW: POOR THINGS (2023)

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Screenplay by Tony McNamara

Based on Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer by Alasdair Gray

Produced by Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone

Main cast: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Kathryn Hunter and Jerrod Carmichael.

Cinematography by Robbie Ryan

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

I have now seen all of Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ most recent directorial works, namely: Dogtooth (2009), Alps (2011), The Lobster (2015), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), and The Favourite (2018). Collectively they defy conventional film styles and tropes to deliver absurd, surreal, funny, disturbing, thought-provoking, erotic and imaginative visions of human behaviour. Also, let’s not forget the writers too; so kudos to his writing partner Efthymis Filippou, and latterly Tony McNamara, who have combined with Lanthimos to create such memorable cinematic offerings.

The director’s early lower-budget dysfunctional comedy-dramas such as Dogtooth (2009), and Alps (2011) are unforgettably strange films to experience. They feature uncomfortable depictions of family, sex, death and relationships. While offbeat, you sense they are from the mind of a filmmaker seeking to provoke thought rather than exploit. While equally dark and strange The Lobster (2015) is clearly more comedic, even though it probes strange love, fascism and violence within romantic relationships. Further, in The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), Lanthimos and Filippou, in Godardian fashion, constantly called attention to cinema form; especially with a strangely effective form of anti-acting within the arguably more conventional revenge narrative. Whereas in The Favourite (2018), Lanthimos’ delivered a unique period satire, with the language and behaviour of the characters often crude and shocking. His visual choices are always fascinating, with his use of the fish-eye lens creating a distorted effect that made the characters seem trapped by their surroundings and circumstances.

With the success of The Favourite (2018), both critically and commercially, Lanthimos has of late been given an increased budget, reported as $35 million. His bold choice, along with screenwriter Tony McNamara is to adapt award-winning novel, Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer by Alasdair Gray has produced by far the most originally conceived and fantastic genre-bending comedy, drama, horror, rites of passage and salacious film of many a year. If there is a more bizarre, enthralling and enjoyable film of 2024, than Poor Things (2023) then this will be a most excellent year for cinema releases.

Set in Victorian London, we are introduced to the rather eccentric household of Dr Godwin “God” Baxter, an expert but secretive surgeon whose home hides bizarre animal experiments, and the beautiful but frankly odd human specimen, Bella Baxter (Emma Stone). Entering this weird abode of pig-hens and goose-dogs, comes innocent medical student, Max McCandless (Remy Youseef). “God” asks Max to assist with the childlike Bella’s development, charting her daily physical, speech and mental growth. Now, if you think the chimeric beast experiments are disturbing then brace yourself for the events of Bella’s ‘Frankensteinesque’ happenstance. I am not going to spoil it here, but it truly is a fantastic concept as invented by the author, Alasdair Gray, to contemplate. I was teetering on the fence with the film until this stunning reveal was given, but then I was committed to this medical oddity.

The first act finds Bella developing her speech, emotions and intelligence, as if a young child growing within this woman’s body. Bella also locates her libido and begins experimenting with her lust to great pleasure. Here Lanthimos continues exploring the themes of previous films with sex not only a natural expression of humans, but also an act used to control and drive people mad. Enter Mark Ruffalo’s caddish lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn who spirits a willing and rebellious Bella on a European trip. One where she truly discovers and satisfies her continual carnal desire or “furious jumping” as she hilariously calls it. Bella’s rites of passage, frankness and rapid growth threatens Duncan’s masculine insecurities and he finds it difficult to control her. Here the hilarious screenplay shows Bella and Duncan becoming more and more fraught until she craves further independence from his cloying envy. The central theme of Bella overcoming the chains of controlling masculinity dominates right up until the extremely dark final act.

While there is a lot of sex and nudity in this film, I felt that Lanthimos balances the exploitative nature of such material by contextualising it within Bella’s fascinating character arc. Emma Stone also provides a complex performance, funny and moving, as the woman-child discovering her mind, body, soul and the world. Ruffalo is particularly over-the-top as the sneaky but pathetic reprobate, Wedderburn. While Remy Youssef’s young medical student adds some compassionate balance within the ensemble, Willem Dafoe gives his customary brilliant turn as the tragic man of science. He himself had his childhood tainted by a father determined to use Godwin Baxter as a human guinea pig.

With a spectacular production design that employs a rich palette of colours, sets, lighting and immaculately furnished rooms, Lanthimos, stamps his authorial style along with genius cinematographer Robbie and his array of lens. Such creative choices evolve a spectacularly hyper-real vision of Victoriana. Indeed, the form and style coalesce with the content and themes in Poor Things (2023) to create what could already be the favourite film of my year. The screenplay dares to provoke the audience with gender political, sociological, historical and hysterical analysis as Yorgos Lanthimos again proves himself to be one of the most original filmmakers of his generation. Owing much to the imagination of Alasdair Gray’s source book, this is a shocking and explicit Frankenstein’s monster of a film. Lastly, it had me consistently thinking and laughing throughout, testifying to the power of family, however dysfunctional that Victorian household may be.

Mark: 10 out of 11

Cinema, New Releases, Reviews

THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017) – MOVIE REVIEW

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THE DISASTER ARTIST (2017) – MOVIE REVIEW

“Just because you want it doesn’t mean it can happen.”

DIRECTOR(S): James Franco / Tommy Wiseau 

WRITERS: Screenplay by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber (Based on: The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Film Ever Made by Greg Sestero & Tom Bissell

CAST: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Ari Graynor, Jackie Weaver, Alison Brie, Hannibal Buress etc.

**CONTAINS MINIMAL SPOILERS**

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I’d never seen the cult “bad” movie, The Room (2003). I’d seen clips on YouTube of actor, producer and director, Tommy Wiseau’s magnum opus drama, and not only found it excruciatingly painful to watch but, like a car crash I couldn’t take my eyes of it, transfixed at the creative carnage on show. From the initial limited release in 2003, The Room has subsequently become celebrated as a paean to bad filmmaking as armies of hipsters and millennials laugh and quote-along to agonising performances and dialogue on the silver screen. Even during the showing of The Disaster Artist (2017) I was at, a couple of audience members quoted along to some of fantastically simulated scenes from The Room.

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Films within films and the movie-making process have provided, down the years, a rich vein of comedic and dramatic output from: Singing in the Rain (1952), Living in Oblivion (1995), The Player (1992), State and Main (2000); plus, the film The Disaster Artist most reminds me of, Tim Burton’s glorious tribute to the hopeless, yet determined, director called Ed Wood (1994).  Structured around two struggling actors in Tommy Wiseau and Gregg Sestero this hilariously skewed yet somehow likeable buddy movie is propelled by the Franco brothers’ brilliant performances as European eccentric Wiseau and the younger, naïve, and ever-smiling Sestero.

Wiseau’s character is an actors’ gift as he exists in some delusional yet over-confident Neverland. We do not know Wiseau’s age, background and how he managed to become so wealthy, yet Sestero is drawn to his outrageously up-to-eleven acting performance during a class, and the two soon become inseparable. Moving to Hollywood they valiantly try to make it as actors and the film lurches from one desperately funny scene to another. Despite their apparent lack of ability they won’t be deterred and decide if Hollywood won’t come to them then they will come to Hollywood. They will make their own movie!

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Here The Disaster Artist really becomes a wonderful comedy of filmmaking flaws as we get scene after scene where all manner of rookie errors are committed by Wiseau. James Franco really excels as Wiseau; as the production is clearly beyond him his deluded power and determination will not yield, despite run-ins with the script supervisor (Seth Rogen) and various cast members who have no idea what the hell The Room is about. Here the story becomes compelling as Wiseau’s mania and lack of discipline flies in the face of established filmmaking conventions. During the making of the The Room, Wiseau is genuinely funny, monstrous, and yet somehow sympathetic. He is a true outsider’s outsider; he is a bona fide Hollywood version of Frankenstein’s monster.

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James Franco has an odd career trajectory and has kind of stamped himself as a scattergun jack-of-all-trades, giving impressive performances in such films as: Spiderman (2002), 127 Hours (2010) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011); but also starring in some haphazard comedies of which the hilarious This is the End (2013) was the best. Amidst his prodigious work ethic he has also produced some turkeys (i.e. Your Highness (2011); as well as pretentious adaptations of literary classics by William Faulkner. If pushed I would say that his faithful recreation of the cult of Wiseau is his greatest performance to date. The fact he directed the film too is also remarkable as he got the pitch of parody and drama just perfectly.

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Meta-textually, comedically and entertainment-wise this film is a highly satisfying cinematic experience. As the credits roll the sequence which compares scenes from The Room and Franco’s faithful simulacrum is a joy to behold. I can certainly recommend The Disaster Artist to anyone who enjoys seeing massive fails in the creative process of filmmaking. Having said that though this is a film which also pays tribute to the deluded fools trying to make it in Hollywood. I mean, however impossible it may seem Wiseau and Sestero, refuse to buckle in light of insurmountable odds. Their reward is one of the worst films ever made in The Room; but paradoxically it is a success as it has given so much joy to people at the same time. It’s this joie de vivre that the Franco’s bring forth and the underlying message is that without friendship, dreams and hopes you are nothing in Hollywood or life.

Mark: 9 out of 11