Warfare (2025)

Warfare tells you almost nothing about who these men are, why they’re in this house, or what the mission is for, and that is both its biggest gap and its whole point. Former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza directs with Alex Garland, working from his platoon’s own accounts of one day in Ramadi in 2006, told in real time. Alpha One takes over a two-story house in the dark, Iraqi interpreters gather the two families who live there into one bedroom, and the snipers watch a market down the street. Then the waiting ends. The filmmaking is overwhelming, and the young cast, with D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai playing Mendoza and Will Poulter leading the team, plays fear and exhaustion without a single movie-star moment. It is difficult to sit through, as it should be. One critic argued that, with no wider view of the war, it is little more than a skilled recreation. An 8.4 because it is one of the most honest war films in years. $7,802 says you spend a while afterward reading about the real men of Alpha One.

What works: The real-time structure and relentless craft put you inside the house, and the ensemble plays fear and exhaustion without any heroics.

What doesn’t: With almost no context or backstory, the film leaves the war itself unexamined, and at least one critic found that troubling.

Who it’s for: Viewers who want an unflinching, minute-by-minute account of combat rather than a hero story.