Top 5 Films To Watch This Month
Here’s our pick of the top 5 films to watch this month, from the comfort of your home or immersed on the big screen. We’ve narrowed it down so you can spend less time scrolling and more time watching.
By Hari Khan | Updated Apr 23 2025
Warfare - Available in Cinemas
Warfare is a gripping war drama co-directed by Navy SEAL veteran Ray Mendoza and filmmaker Alex Garland. Based on Mendoza’s firsthand experiences during the Iraq War, the film reenacts a harrowing 2006 mission near Ramadi, presented in real time and drawn entirely from platoon testimonies. The result is an immersive, unflinching portrayal of combat that strips away Hollywood gloss in favor of raw authenticity. A24’s production emphasizes the emotional toll of warfare, offering a stark, grounded perspective that challenges traditional war film narratives.
The film's visual aesthetic is marked by its stark realism, the cinematography capturing the claustrophobic tension of urban warfare. Warfare avoids a traditional musical score, instead relying on meticulous sound design to heighten the sense of immediacy and immersion. This choice amplifies the authenticity of the experience, drawing viewers directly into the soldiers' harrowing ordeal.
1h 35m | War | 15
Available in Cinemas
Sinners - Available in Cinemas
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a Southern Gothic horror set in 1932 Mississippi. Michael B. Jordan delivers a dual performance as twin brothers who return home to open a juke joint, only to confront a supernatural evil. The film blends period detail with horror elements, using the vampire mythos to explore themes of racial violence and Black resilience during the Jim Crow era. With a strong ensemble cast and a haunting score, Sinners has been praised for its emotional depth and cultural resonance.
The film's production design authentically recreates the era's ambiance, and the cinematography captures the haunting beauty of the Southern landscape, enhancing the film's atmospheric tension. Ludwig Göransson's score, an ode to American blues infused with gospel, soul, jazz, and Irish folk, underscores the narrative's emotional beats, elevating Sinners into a richly textured cinematic experience.
2h 17m | Horror/Thriller | 15
Available in Cinemas
Drop - Available in Cinemas
Christopher Landon’s Drop is a slick, high-concept thriller that turns a routine first date into a white-knuckle nightmare. Meghann Fahy stars as Violet Gates, a widowed mother pulled into a deadly game when she begins receiving anonymous AirDrop messages threatening her family. As the demands escalate—culminating in a call to murder—Violet is pushed to her breaking point in the upscale restaurant where the entire film unfolds in real time. Fahy’s performance grounds the tension with a mix of vulnerability and resolve.
The minimalist production heightens the sense of isolation and control, while the close-up-heavy cinematography creates an almost unbearable intimacy. Drop is a sharp, tightly paced thriller with just enough bite to make its tech-nightmare premise feel chillingly plausible.
1h 40m | Thriller | 15
Available in Cinemas
Nickel Boys - Stream on Prime Video
RaMell Ross brings quiet power and poetic precision to Nickel Boys, his long-awaited adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Set in 1960s Florida, the film follows Elwood and Turner—two Black teens sent to a brutal reform school under the guise of rehabilitation. As their friendship grows, so does the realization that survival requires more than obedience; it demands resistance, sacrifice, and an unshakeable belief in a future beyond the institution's walls.
Ross, best known for his lyrical documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening, brings a similar visual intimacy to Nickel Boys, blending stark realism with lyrical flourishes that elevate the material beyond traditional historical drama. With restrained, naturalistic performances and an aching undercurrent of hope, the film is a haunting meditation on systemic violence, memory, and the resilience of Black youth.
2h 20m | Drama/History | 12A
The Place Beyond the Pines - Stream on Netflix
Spanning generations and lives entangled by fate, The Place Beyond the Pines is a sweeping drama about legacy, masculinity, and the consequences of choice. Derek Cianfrance directs with a haunting, novelistic structure—three interlinked stories that begin with a stunt motorcyclist (Ryan Gosling) turning to crime, continue with the young cop (Bradley Cooper) who crosses his path, and end years later with their sons reckoning with inherited guilt and identity.
Shot with a restless, roving camera, and underscored by an eerie, elegiac score, the film immerses viewers in a world where the past is always lurking just beneath the surface. It’s an ambitious exploration of cause and effect that avoids moral binaries, instead opting for a sobering view of cycles—of violence, fatherhood, and redemption. Cianfrance doesn’t offer easy answers, only echoes that ripple across time.
2h 20m | Crime/Thriller | 15
