One to Watch: A House of Dynamite

Releases October 24, 2025

Dir: Kathryn Bigelow

Screenwriter: Noah Oppenheim

Stars: Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Idris Elba

Log: White House staffers grapple with an impending missile strike on America.

Now veteran movie director Kathryn Bigelow has a reputation for bringing conflict driven tension to the screen in a ‘real-time’ way; we feel like we are at the heart of the action, experiencing it as the principle characters do. Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty and Strange Days evince her talent for this immersive style of cinema – films drenched in danger and human difficulty.

With her now exceptional (and high profile, post Mission: Impossible) portfolio, Rebecca Fergusen alone makes this worth keeping an eye – though star power is no guarantee of success or quality – that’s holistic, and script driven.

Jared Harris (son of the legendary hell-raiser Richard Harris) is an underrated film actor – largely because he is not a leading man; but he is a fine performance artist with immense experience and barge-loads of talent.

Idris Elba is Idris Elba: his talent is a given, and his fanbase deservedly large.

This cast and this director mean that House of Dynamite might turn out to be worth a watch.

The film will receive a limited theatrical release on October 10, followed by a streaming release on Netflix on October 24.