ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — From an offbeat Christmas love story to a ghost story led by a dog, here are five new movies to see, stream or skip this month. Read our guide below.

You should see…

(Courtesy: A24) Dwayne Johnson plays UFC champion Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.”

“THE SMASHING MACHINE” (2025, 123 min., directed by Benny Safdie)

Dwayne Johnson brings UFC trailblazer Mark Kerr to life in “The Smashing Machine,” a downbeat biopic with a sports movie structure. Benny Safdie’s solo directorial effort is an odd hang, but not a bad one. The movie is often quite quiet in contrast with its bloody violence and meandering in its pace and urgency. Combined with a jazzy Nala Sinephro score and grainy film stock footage, “The Smashing Machine” brings a refreshingly chill, amiably stylish approach to the biopic formula. The film is a more of a slice-of-life character piece than an exciting sports thriller, a preference which bordered on boring but settled into soothing after the first hour.

Johnson is solid as Kerr, and in more ways than one, considering the sheer size of his body, particularly next to costar Emily Blunt, was virtually a visual effect itself. His performance is an adequate translation of the fighter’s late 90s persona – captured in a 2002 documentary of the same name – but Johnson fails to transcend his pumped-up pantomime into the illusion of real personhood.

The result left the film feeling like a boring Super Bowl: high production value, lots of play time for the star quarterback, but not much fun to talk about. “The Smashing Machine” is a welcome and deserved upgrade for Johnson compared to soulless fare like last year’s “Red One,” but the actor is far from the movie’s MVP.

Instead, it’s real-life MMA fighter Ryan Bader who steals the show, beaming charisma and compassion in his impressively physical performance as Kerr’s friend and rival, Mark Coleman. While Johnson may have been “The Smashing Machine,” Bader was a knock-out.

Rating: 3.5/5

“The Smashing Machine” is now playing in theaters.

You should stream…

(Courtesy: IFC) Michael Strassner as Cliff and Liz Larsen as Didi in “The Baltimorons.”

“THE BALTIMORONS” (2025, 99 min., directed by Jay Duplass)

It feels odd to recommend a Christmas film at the height of Halloween season, but “The Baltimorons” is irresistible.

Directed by independent filmmaker Jay Duplass, the film stars Michael Strassner as Cliff, a recovering alcoholic and improv comedian. Strassner co-wrote the screenplay with Duplass and based much of the Cliff character off of himself, infusing the script with his own experiences with alcoholism, sketch comedy and depression. The film even begins with an autobiographical bit of gallows humor, as Cliff attempts suicide before breaking his self-fashioned noose in a slapstick snap, citing “an extra bit of holiday weight” as the disruptive agent.

From the outset, “The Baltimorons” walks a thin line between despair and hilarity.

While Strassner effortlessly animates Cliff with authenticity, his chemistry with co-star Liz Larsen, nailing her crabby, alluring and deeply funny performance as Didi, Cliff’s so-called “MILF dentist,” is a Christmas miracle. Over the course of a very long day together, Didi and Cliff fall in love in the best display of naturalistic romance you’re likely to see onscreen this year. The slow blossoming of their friendship is as tender as it is funny, threading together sharp observations about mental health and long-term relationships with silly, rapid-fire dialogue into a comforting warm sweater of a movie.

Rating: 4.5/5

“The Baltimorons” is now streaming on demand.

(Courtesy: Netflix) Cillian Murphy is Steve in “Steve.”

“STEVE” (2025, 92 min., directed by Tim Mielants)

Witnessing the depth of emotion, empathy and energy Cillian Murphy brings to “Steve” is incredible in light of the actor taking home an Oscar only two years ago for portraying a chilly, inscrutable nuclear physicist. Here, Murphy is a bright light in a dusty window, channeling the late Robin Williams’ John Keating and Sean Maguire into his depiction of the titular Steve, the struggling head teacher of a British reform school for wayward teenage boys.

Tim Mielants’ drama is fast-paced and intense, covering a single day in the life of Steve, his under-resourced staff and his troubled pupils. Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, a camera crew makes the rounds with Steve’s staff and students, filming “Survivor”-style interview depositions while capturing the barely managed classroom chaos. The cameras serve as an excuse for Mielants to incorporate found footage into the film, a notoriously loose style of cinematography which makes a perfect pairing for the director’s energetic, jittery style, flitting from face to face in “Steve” with cuts, close-ups and shaky cam galore.

There are a lot of moving pieces and hefty ideas in “Steve,” just as there would be inside the heads of the teenage boys Murphy’s character mentors. The hyperactive melodrama of Mielants’ film may be overwrought, but it never feels out of place with its mission to simulate the insanity and profundity of last-chance education. Fortunately, it all never gets too out of hand. Like Steve anchors his students, Murphy holds down the center of his film, ensuring the story stays on track all the way to its moving conclusion. 

Rating: 4/5

“Steve” is now streaming on Netflix.

You should skip…

(Courtesy: IFC) Indy the dog stars as himself in “Good Boy.”

“GOOD BOY” (2025, 73 min., directed by Ben Leonberg)

“Good Boy” is built around a fun idea: What if a ghost story was told entirely from the perspective of a dog?

With Indy, a genuinely amazing canine actor, at the lead, Ben Leonberg’s movie succeeds at following through on its pitch. It just doesn’t have much else to wag your tail about.

73 minutes is an unusually short runtime for a theatrical feature, but even stranger is how much of “Good Boy” is a slog to watch. The film feels much longer than its hour and change, with the space around Indy’s ghostly encounters padded out with dull drama and unsuccessful attempts at metaphor. The whole project might have worked better on a shorter leash, if only those 73 minutes could have been whittled down to a short film.

There are some fun jump scares in “Good Boy” and it would be hard to walk away from it not blown away by Indy. Even if “Good Boy” is more or less a bad movie, it stars a great four-legged actor.

Rating: 2.5/5

“Good Boy” is now playing in theaters.

(Courtesy: Bleecker Street) Andra Nechita as Cin in “Bone Lake.”

“BONE LAKE” (2024, 94 min., directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan)

“Bone Lake” is a derivative, obnoxious attempt at a twisty erotic thriller. Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s movie is a cheap imitation of a thousand better flicks, from the famously trashy “Cruel Intentions” to the genuinely clever “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” featuring sickeningly vapid gestures at “The Graduate” and ostensible references to “Eyes Wide Shut.”

The film stars Maddie Hasson, Marco Pigossi, Alex Roe and Andra Nechita as two couples unexpectedly double-booked for the same lakeside vacation rental. Hasson and Pigossi deliver mostly harmless performances, let down by their script from the beginning but never rising above it.

Roe and Nechita, meanwhile, are committed to camp, but not particularly memorable, either.

The plot is paper-thin, the action is poorly directed and the sensuality implied by its poster is a front. “Bone Lake” is one of the most unpleasant misfires of the year. Skip it like a stone.

Rating: 1.5/5

“Bone Lake” is now playing in theaters.