The tale of 2025 in film so far has been one of blockbusters. Huge IP releases like Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie, Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman, and How to Train Your Dragon have dominated the conversation and the box office. But as with most years, that focused attention on big franchises can drown out smaller, riskier films. And in the case of one of the best and most profoundly affecting movies of 2025, films that bring something more raw, urgent, or emotionally specific. Luckily, HBO Max has just given everyone a second chance.
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Alex Garland’s Warfare is easily one of the most impressive films of the year so far, and it’s just been added to HBO Max, months after it was in cinemas. The pulsating war movie has earned a very strong reception, with a high critics’ and audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes (both of 93%) and a modest $33m box office haul. That’s nowhere near enough to rank it up with the big blockbusters of the year, but I’m fairly confident it’s infinitely more memorable than most of them. Because Warfare isn’t trying to be popular, it’s more invested in offering a near-unprecedented, stunning depiction of what war is really like. And the cast is easily one of the best I’ve ever seen put together. Here’s the trailer:
Why Warfare Demands You Watch It, Right Now
As you consider what to watch on HBO Max, Warfare is one of the best bets. It may well be the best of all of HBO Max’s September additions, in actual fact. Far more than a series of flashy effects and explosions, Garland’s masterpiece is a relentless tale of remarkable camaraderie without a second’s pause to actually develop characters. It’s unflinching from the start, as you’re embedded with a platoon of Navy SEALS, experiencing events in (almost) real time. The co-writer/director Ray Mendoza is a former SEAL who served in the Iraq War, so many of the moments – hours that drag, decisions in the dark, fear, tension – are drawn from lived experience.
Critics fell over themselves to praise how effective this approach is, while also underlining just how claustrophobic an experience it is. In that respect, it’s a lot like the building tension of Nolan’s Dunkirk, which also traded heavily on the sensory experience of dread, but Warfare achieves it with far less expense. The film doesn’t just show war; it forces you to feel dust, smell blood, taste panic, and it sounds like very few things you’ll ever experience. Even at home, nothing is lost.
At the same time, Warfare has depth beyond visceral intensity. It makes you think as all the best war films do. You’re faced with the moral weight of command decisions, as well as the human cost to both soldiers and civilians, which is rather wonderfully underlined by a cast including Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Michael Gandalfini, Noah Centineo, Joseph Quinn, and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Mendoza. The movie relies on their easy charm to make you care, even as the weight of war threatens to crush.
If you like war films that are different from the action-set-piece driven ones that are intentionally hard to watch to the point of discomfort, this is the film for you. And I guarantee it’ll leave you changed. It’s that good.
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