December 2025 Reviews: Three Quality Films to Watch this Month

There are plenty of movies to choose from when you’re looking for a new film, but finding something of quality can be harder than you’d expect. Luckily, these three 2025 releases are all available to stream currently and are each well worth a watch!

Frankenstein (2025)

Netflix, 150 minutes

Out of all the classic movie monsters, the monster from Frankenstein has never been one of my favorites. He’s typically portrayed as a big dolt who just walks around and grunts with his arms stretched out in front of him. Mary Shelley never even bothered to give him a cool name, which is probably why over time people started calling the monster “Frankenstein” when that’s actually the name of the scientist who created him.

Though he’s not my favorite, I’m still not anti-Frankenstein either. In fact, I think he’s due for an A+ film adaptation of his story. One that shows him in a less goofy manner and will finally give him the recognition he (probably) deserves.

Anyways, after watch Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein on Netflix, I don’t necessarily think it’s quite in A+ movie territory, but it’s a major upgrade in the telling of this story. Frankenstein is a well-crafted film with great costumes that feels loyal to the story’s Gothic horror roots.

The movie definitely has a theatrical, over-the-top flair about it, but it worked for me. The film is broken up into two halves, Victor’s Tale and The Creature’s Tale. I felt like the first part dragged a little bit and could’ve been sped up/shortened to result in a tighter story. When we got into The Creature’s Tale everything picked back up though.

If you’re in the mood for some Gothic, classic-feeling horror, del Toro’s Frankenstein is the film for you. It’s more stylized than scary, but, at the same time, it’s a very solid telling of Frankenstein.

Grade: 7.5/10

Bugonia (2025)

Element Pictures, 118 minutes 

Bugonia is the latest film by director Yorgos Lanthimos. Lanthimos’ movies tend to fall somewhere on the scale between absurd/totally out there and not quite as absurd, but still pretty darn weird.

I tend to connect with Lanthimos films to varying degrees, though how much I like one doesn’t seem to correlate directly with how odd they are. I loved completely bonkers films of his like The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer but didn’t care for Poor Things, which is another absurdist movie.

Overall, Bugonia is a film that I enjoyed (but didn’t love), which it is incredibly weird. The movie might be a satirical black comedy, but it’s one with a pretty bleak message/outlook. In that way, it sort of reminds me a little bit of Dogtooth, the foreign film that catapulted Lanthimos to stardom in 2009. However, it’s presented in a more fun/colorful way than that movie – which I suppose is my way of saying that it’s largely a more enjoyable watch. 

Part of what makes Bugonia so watchable, other than its creative story and that I was super curious to see where it was going, are the outstanding performances of Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone. Who would’ve thought that Landry from Friday Night Lights would become one of the more quality actors of his generation? Plemons and Stone are really great here – nailing unique, memorable roles. 

If you’re craving something totally different and don’t mind a movie that sometimes feels like watching a train wreck in slow motion, Bugonia should be the perfect fit. I’m not sure it’s a film with vast, widespread appeal, but I certainly appreciated it.

Grade: 8/10

One Battle After Another (2025)

Warner Bros. Pictures, 162 minutes

Going into writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another my expectation was that I wasn’t going to enjoy the film as much as I did. I knew the movie was political in nature and saw that it clocked in at over two and a half hours, so I figured it was going to be maybe sort of boring, pandering to a certain type of Hollywood critic, and overly long. Well, while the film is definitely quite political, it’s certainly never boring and the long runtime feels totally justified.

While One Battle After Another does follow members of a far-left revolutionary group, I thought it did a good job not really glorifying them. We more see a group like this how it might actually be, and while Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, a former member, is our protagonist, it’s not like he’s a great guy by any stretch of the imagination. Despite this, Anderson is clearly crafting a movie about resistance, and if you find yourself far to the right of the political spectrum, you’re probably not going to enjoy One Battle After Another.

For everyone else though, this is a supremely well-crafted thriller. Much of the film’s runtime focuses on an ex-member of a revolutionary group called the French 75 and his daughter being ruthlessly pursued by a ruthless military leader named Colonel Lockjaw. 

DiCaprio plays the ex-revolutionary, and he, and the rest of the cast, do deliver great performances. However, this is a film more concerned with story and message than character. I was interested in all of the characters, but if there’s one weakness to the film, it’s that I didn’t find any of them to be particularly deep or really explored on more than a surface level.

That still doesn’t stop One Battle After Another from being one of the better movies of the year. Another aspect of the film that surprised me was just how funny it is. I was unaware that the film was part black comedy going into it, and there were a few moments where I laughed out loud. Overall, I can see why the movie could be divisive, but I’d still strongly recommend it. 

Grade: 8.5/10