A House of Dynamite review: Best movie of 2025

Netflix‘s A House of Dynamite is the emotional, intense, devastating best movie of the year. The Kathryn Bigelow-directed thriller featuring an impressive (and impressively understated) cast is what people go to the movies for. It’s also the kind of movie that will leave them shaking when it’s over.

A House of Dynamite is Fail-Safe for a new generation — only better. The plot is deceptively simple: when a single nuclear weapon is launched with no warning and no explanation, the United States must brace for an apparent attack. Or is it? Does the intent even matter? What happens next unfolds over less than 20 minutes, which is a brilliant choice on the part of screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, who has clearly learned from his last Netflix project, Zero Day. There is a minimum of hand-wringing. Scenes never feel drawn out. Instead, the movie’s pacing is deliberate — a slow, steady movement that builds the pressure upon the audience.

Oppenheim and Bigelow eschew the chaotic happenings of other films and TV shows for that quiet steadiness. A House of Dynamite has a minimum of panic and yelling, despite its impossibly high stakes. The film’s underscore comes to a head and then just as quickly disappears again, refusing to tell the viewer what to feel. The actors — a fantastic collection of veteran performers — have taken that note as well. Every one of their performances is steady, save a few moments of heartbreaking vulnerability. The viewer may find themselves begging for those big theatrical scenes, just as a reflection of their own growing dread and fear. But with one major exception, those moments never come, and that’s what makes A House of Dynamite so beautifully terrifying.

This film feels real. It doesn’t feel like a Hollywood production of a nuclear crisis. The characters are struggling with their emotions at the same time the audience is. Gabriel Basso, whom Netflix viewers will recognize as the star of the hit series The Night Agent, shines in that respect playing a role totally different from Peter Sutherland. His Jake Baerington is the Deputy National Security Advisor, thrust into a situation much larger than his station, in over his head but also desperate for his voice to be heard. He’s anxious and vulnerable and determined all at the same time. Basso has one specific moment when the personal ramifications hit Jake and the viewer can hear his heart break in one line.

This entire cast, down to seemingly minor roles, delivers. The Last Frontier star Jason Clarke reunites with Bigelow and gives the production a quiet weight, alongside Rebecca Ferguson as the steady hand in the White House Situation Room. Tracy Letts and Foundation star Jared Harris play their stolid roles to perfection, with Harris taking the audience by surprise. Idris Elba makes his President of the United States feel like a real guy having a bad day, instead of the usual perfect figurehead. The MVPs of the film, though, are Basso and Hamilton alum Anthony Ramos, whose Major Daniel Gonzalez leads a group of Army officers who set the tone for everything else that follows. They are the first line of defense, and they wear their suffering on their sleeves.

But A House of Dynamite also includes Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram, Chicago Med actor-director Brian Tee, Gbenga Akinnagbe from the Broadway production of To Kill A Mockingbird, The Last of Us star Kaitlyn Dever, Jonah Hauer-King from Doctor Who and Ramos’ Hamilton co-star Renee Elise Goldsberry. This wealth of talent isn’t entirely unexpected — Bigelow also populated her previous films with great actors who might not be household names, but darn well should be. In A House of Dynamite, each of these stars shares a common ability to do as much as possible with as little as possible. They are surgically precise with how they affect the audience, whether it’s the reading of one line or a small movement, and these little details are more powerful than any big scene ever would be.

Some viewers may be frustrated by A House of Dynamite going that untraditional route, or the film’s conscious choice to repeat its narrative multiple times over, rather than giving straightforward answers. Those people are missing the point. There is no broader message here. There is no clear path through. And there’s a reason for that: nothing would ever be as effective as the fear — and the small amount of hope — that the audience feels in themselves. Giving any answer would undercut all the tension, would set up a wrong and a right, would imply a point of view. Every time the film backtracks, the viewer knows how painful things are going to be. Yet every time, they also can’t keep from hoping that it gets better.

The latter is a special part of A House of Dynamite. Within the grim realities the characters face, Bigelow and Oppenheim never deprive their audience of that glimmer of hope. Their point isn’t to grind viewers down, even if the subject matter is as harsh as it comes. There’s still that chance. There’s still something for each character to care about and therefore reasons to care about them. Whatever happens, they are not just parts of a cautionary tale. A House of Dynamite is not a lecture on warfare or politics; it’s a shared emotional experience in which viewers are forced to be in the moment with all of the characters.

Bigelow’s direction ensures that; there are just enough extreme close-ups of the actors to showcase the raw emotion, but the camera never lingers too long. It doesn’t need to create tension or manipulate the scene. Bigelow understands that the tension is generated so effortlessly by the cast that she simply needs to meet their moments. The Oscar winner knows this thematic space so well from The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, but a case can be made that A House of Dynamite surpasses either one. That’s because it’s a far more intimate film, still probing the same ideas that made the other two great, but so close to the viewer that it creates a palpable claustrophobia. Especially sitting in the dark of a movie theater, it is impossible not to feel the walls closing in well before the clock runs out.

Credit must be given to Netflix for providing A House of Dynamite with a limited theatrical release prior to its streaming debut. This is a film that begs to be seen on the big screen; being enveloped by the sights and sounds makes it even more terrifying and beautiful. It also provides that same shared experience with fellow moviegoers. There are multiple occasions where watching A House of Dynamite truly feels like the viewer is in the exact space of the characters: watching the end and powerless to stop it. That visceral reaction is what films so rarely have anymore. On a technical level, it’s wonderfully acted, sharply directed and well-written. But more than anything, anyone who walks out of A House of Dynamite won’t forget how powerfully it makes them feel. And that is this near-perfect movie’s greatest triumph.

A House of Dynamite is in limited theatrical release now and premieres Oct. 24, 2025 on Netflix. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Netflix.

Article content is ©2020–2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at [email protected].