[link=/name/nm5097044]Isabela Merced[/link], [link=/name/nm10695146]Leo Woodall[/link], and more stars who are on the rise in 2025.

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Take a peek at the biggest new and returning series coming to your screens in 2025, including new seasons of &quot;Yellowjackets&quot; and &quot;Stranger Things.&quot;

At a group meeting for recovering addicts, not everyone is telling the full truth about their reasons for attending. As each participant takes part, the truth of their pasts and experiences become disturbingly clear as each tries to benefit from the session for very different reasons.

Films that handle addiction and mental illness should be far more tasteful than this.

I feel cheated. Genre bending is an art, and films like Bone Tomahawk succeed. However, addiction drama and horror do not blend nearly as well as that particular fusion of westerns and the grotesque. Group&#39;s premise could be pulled off with a different approach, but the current one is sickening in ways that are more infuriating than fun. If this was a horror story, it had every chance to communicate that from the start. For about 60 minutes, Group is an empathetic, if occasionally rambling look at the reasons people fall into self-destruction. It took a minute to adjust to the film&#39;s rhythm, but I was very much onboard. Then for about 15 minutes, the film takes a left turn into a bizarre noir. The implausible crime plot is distracting, but I at least believed there would be a point to all of this. After all, until this point all the attendees&#39; stories spoke of lived experience, research, and an innate ear for humans. Hen the old man spoke. Here was the chance to tie everything together, reward our patience listening to minimalist monologues for an hour-plus. Time to say something. And the conclusion? Nothing. The old man is a serial killer. He kills everyone except a couple of cowering, traumatized survivors and leaves. The camera lingers on the screaming discussion leader, covered in blood, for fifteen-ish seconds, then cuts to black. Perhaps the filmmaker speaks from personal experience with addiction. I wouldn&#39;t be surprised, because numerous moments touched my heart. But the lovingly crafted stories stop without warning and this well-shot, well-performed film becomes a middle-finger to anyone who&#39;s lived through the highs and lows of addiction or mental illness. I kid you not, the guy wears a Jason mask in a flashback. I was ready to give this film eight stars, but if the filmmaker doesn&#39;t care about the characters he wrote himself, and by extension the very real people they represent, then I rest easy dogpiling on this slap in the face of a film. I hope his next project represents personal growth and the fulfillment of his evident talent.

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Group

Films that handle addiction and mental illness should be far more tasteful than this.

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