Netflix is closing out 2025 by offering some of its best content of the year.
But while many will binge Emily in Paris season 5 and the Stranger Things series finale, Watch With Us will be queueing up the latest additions to Netflix’s impressive movie library.
Among the standouts in Netflix’s December lineup are the latest entry in the massively popular Knives Out franchise, Wake Up Dead Man.
Once you’re done solving director Rian Johnson’s latest head-scratching mystery, find some time to travel to Ron Howard’s provocative satire Eden and then shed some tears by watching Kate Winslet’s new film, Goodbye June.
‘Wake Up Dead Man’ (2025)
A priest has been murdered in upstate New York, and no one knows why. The dead man in question, Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), was controversial and had his share of detractors, but who hated him enough to kill? That’s the question master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) must answer, especially when the obvious suspect, fellow preacher Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’ Connor), professes his innocence.
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Ditching Glass Onion’s sunny locations for a more appropriate autumnal setting, Wake Up Dead Man is a great reminder of why the first Knives Out movie worked so well. It uses its all-star cast, which includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis and Kerry Washington, superbly, while spinning a suspenseful story that has unexpected layers of depth. Like the previous two installments, the start of the show is Craig, who relishes playing Blanc as the smartest guy in the room who might have met his match this time.
Wake Up Dead Man will stream on Netflix on December 12.
‘Eden’ (2024)
Remember Ron Howard? The journeyman director used to crank out hit after hit, like Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code, but he’s been keeping a low profile these last few years. The long-delayed Eden was supposed to be his return to form, but the movie bombed at the box office this past summer. That’s a shame, as the satire is one of the most successful — and unconventional — efforts in his long, storied career.
Eager to escape their rigid, bourgeois society, Germans Friedrich (Jude Law) and Dore (Vanessa Kirby) flee to a small isle in the Galapagos Islands, Florenana. Their solitude is short-lived when others join them, including a married couple (Daniel Brühl and Sydney Sweeney) eager to procreate and a spoiled Baroness (Ana de Armas) who can’t escape her catastrophic love life. Tensions rise and frustrations mount as the island’s inhabitants struggle to live with each other and forge a new kind of society. Will this 20th-century Eden survive?
Based on real-life events about people you’ve probably never heard of, Eden is unexpectedly engrossing. You wouldn’t expect the director of Parenthood to be so good at handling material that’s both absurd and erotic, but Howard succeeds. He’s helped by a talented cast who rise to the occasion, particularly de Armas as a woman who pretends to hate drama but secretly loves it.
Eden will stream on December 23.
‘Goodbye June’ (2025)
Crave a good cry on Christmas Eve? Kate Winslet has you covered. The Titanic actress is stepping behind the camera with her directorial debut, Goodbye June, which is pretty much as sad as it sounds. It’s no spoiler to reveal that the title character (Helen Mirren) is dying and wants to set things right with her four adult children before she leaves.
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Winslet, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynn star as June’s children, who all deal with the inevitable in their own unique ways. For Winslet’s busy mother, denial is the best option, while Flynn’s grieving son turns to literature to process his grief. Goodbye June isn’t subtle in wanting you to shed a few tears, but there’s no better time to do so than during the holidays with your loved ones — or several glasses of spiked eggnog.
Goodbye June starts streaming on December 24.
