I have twenty-five films and series to recommend. These are dramas I watched in 2025, but many were produced much earlier. Some are less well-known and under-the-radar. Here are the reviews I wrote this past year with the criteria that they were available for streaming free. Of the 44 reviews I posted this year, these...
Wake Up Dead Man–A Holier-Than-Thou Mystery
Wake Up Dead Man takes place in Chimney Rock, a small town in upstate New York, where a newly ordained Catholic priest named Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) has been assigned to work under Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). An aging, hateful right-wing cleric, Wicks has nothing but contempt for gay...
The Beast in Me–Animal Instincts?
The Beast in Me (2025), a psychological whodunit, is set in Oyster Bay, an affluent suburb in Long Island, where the uber-wealthy play with impunity from law and order. In this drama focused on the dark side of privilege, Aggie Wiggs (Claire Danes), a Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and affluent resident, is still riding the success...
Frankenstein (2025) – – Beauty and the Beast?
In this artistic retelling of Mary Shelley’s 1818 masterpiece, Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus by Academy-Award winning director Guillermo del Toro (of “The Shape of Water”, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Hellboy”), we see his trademark signature of portraying ...
Angry Squad: Civil Servant and Seven Swindlers
Wealthy real estate developer, Tachibana, is a tax cheat. Jiro Kumazawa is a dedicated tax collector. After his good friend mysteriously dies, easy-going, moping civil servant, Jiro, suspects Tachibana and wants to collect taxes of over 1Billion yen from the real estate mogul and solve his friend’s murder. An Angry...
Néro the Assassin (2025)–A Slayer and Hero
Néro the Assassin, set in the 16th century southern French town of Lamartine, opens with an assassin for hire–Nero– bemoaning the fact that: “If you want old age and a peaceful life, don’t have kids.”
For years southern France has suffered a devastating drought and famine. The archbishop of the...






