Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed some well-deserved downtime, and consumed plenty of good food and drink, over the last few days.
I also suspect you’re in need of one or more new movies and/or shows to watch to break up the festivities. Well, the world’s best streaming services haven’t left us in the lurch because enough new content has arrived to satiate your streaming appetite. So, read on to see what’s just come out – and, because I won’t have time to say it beforehand, Happy New Year for next week! – Tom Power, senior entertainment reporter
Stranger Things season 5 volume 2 (Netflix)
It’s time to return to Hawkins. That’s right, part 2 of Stranger Things season 5 has landed on Netflix so, if you haven’t already watched it, what are you waiting for!?
This isn’t the end of Stranger Things‘ main show, either. This season’s eighth and final episode – not to mention the series’ last-ever chapter – is being held back for a later date, so you’ll only be able to watch episodes 5 to 7 in volume 2. Nevertheless, each one should be a thrilling watch as Stranger Things 5 continues to wrap up the supernatural horror show’s many lingering plot threads. Let’s hope franchise creators Ross and Matt Duffer stick the landing when the season 5 finale arrives in the days ahead. – TP
Ne Zha II (HBO Max)
Forget any Pixar movie in the last 12 months – China’s Ne Zha II is now the highest-grossing animated film ever and the highest-grossing non-English film of all-time.
But, something tells me that you’ve never even heard of it. Record breaking aside, it’s well worth a watch on HBO Max. Our young Ne Zha is a boy with uncontrollable power feared by the Gods, who has to grow up to become the hero the world needs when humanity is at crisis point.
As you might expect from a big-budget feature, the animation is absolutely gorgeous. It’s the perfect film for anybody who’s been missing the traditional hero’s arc that’s effortlessly infused with non-Western culture. In fact, some people have used the word ‘masterpiece’ to describe this A24 flick. – Jasmine Valentine, entertainment reporter
Goodbye June (Netflix)
I won’t beat around the bush – Goodbye June is undoubtedly the most heart-breaking film you’ll watch this Christmas (read my Goodbye June review for more) and also the most life-affirming.
A directorial debut from Kate Winslet with the script written by son Joe Anders, it’s loosely based on Winslet losing her own mother and follows June’s (Helen Mirren) last days in hospital as her aggressive cancer becomes untreatable. Doting son Connor (Johnny Flynn) and his sisters, highly-strung Julia (Winslet), internally angry Molly (Andrea Riseborough), and flighty expat Helen (Toni Colette) spend as much time as they can by their mothers’ bedside.
It’s a casting that I never would have put together, but if they did a ’23 and Me’ ancestry test and found out they were related, I wouldn’t be surprised. One of 2025’s final new Netflix movies‘ feelings of hope and startlingly accurate grief sucker-punched me in the feels, so be warned. – JV
Made in Korea (Hulu/Disney+)
Made in Korea is a gripping new crime drama starring Parasite‘s Cho Yeo-jeong, and Squid Game season 3‘s Roh Jae-won, so you can be sure to find. a stellar cast here.
Set in 1970s South Korea, the Hulu and Disney+ show centers around the Korean Central Intelligence Agency as one operative works to secretly control illicit business networks. Meanwhile, an uncompromising public prosecutor is working to expose this, so it’s a thrilling game of cat and mouse with plenty of surprises.
The first two episodes dropped on Christmas Eve and two more are out next Wednesday. A second season has already been confirmed, which is promising news. – Lucy Buglass, senior entertainment writer
Bugonia (Peacock)
Yorgos Lathimos is back and, for me, that’s quite a holiday gift. I’ve long loved his work from Dogtooth to The Lobster, and now his latest feature Bugonia is streaming on Peacock.
In it, two young men (Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis) kidnap a powerful CEO (Emma Stone), suspecting that she’s secretly an alien who wants to destroy Earth. This is the typically wild premise we’ve come to expect from Lathimos, but it’s not one of his original screenplays, as he adapted it from the Korean sci-fi movie Save the Green Planet!
Critics have given Bugonia a healthy 87% Rotten Tomatoes score so why not watch it this weekend? I know I will be. – LB
The Life of Chuck (Hulu)
Come on, let’s get some genuine feel-good film action on this list! Starring Loki‘s Tom Hiddleston as Chuck himself, The Life of Chuck follows his life in reverse… almost like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button without the weird ageing phenomenon.
His death seems to coincide with strange apocalyptic activity but, instead of seeing out the impending doom, we rewind through the joy, laughter, and love in Chuck’s life. Whatever he experienced, from heartbreak to happiness, we’re along for the ride.
In a way, it’s a 180-degree turn from what we expect a movie storyline to deliver and that makes watching it all the more refreshing. If you’re an armchair dancer, I guarantee there are a few musical numbers that will get your toe tapping, too. – JV
The Copenhagen Test (Peacock)
Marvel actor Simu Liu leads the cast of this intriguing new Peacock thriller about an intelligence agent who’s hacked and forced to prove his allegiance. All eight episodes drop tomorrow (December 27), so it’s perfect if you’re in the mood to binge watch.
It might interest horror fans to know that The Conjuring and Saw creator James Wan is executive producing it, so it’s very cool seeing his name attached to something like this.
Right now, plot details are under wraps, but the trailer gives you a little peek at what to expect. It teases some big thrills to come and I can’t wait. – LB
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