The new WW2 film fans are calling an ‘instant classic’ | Films | Entertainment

A new World War Two film has been dubbed an instant classic, with it becoming a big hit with viewers and earning an impressive score on film review website Rotten Tomatoes. Nuremberg, first released on September 7, 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a psychological thriller and historical drama based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai.

The Rotten Tomatoes synopsis of the film written and directed by James Vanderbilt reads: “As the Nuremberg trials are set to begin, a US Army psychiatrist gets locked in a dramatic psychological showdown with accused Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring.”

Nuremberg stars the likes of Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O’Brien, Colin Hanks, Wrenn Schmidt, Lydia Peckham, Richard E. Grant and Michael Shannon, whose performances were highly praised by audiences.

One reviewer wrote: “Compelling story with excellent acting and directing.”

A second wrote: “Nuremberg is a gripping and deeply relevant historical drama that feels more urgent today than ever.”

A third also noted the “brilliant acting” whilst adding that the film is an “untold story that EVERYONE should see,” before describing it as “Oscar worthy”.

The film was even dubbed as “the movie of the YEAR!!!” by a fan who rated it five stars out of five.

Touching on the importance of the story, one fan said: “What a powerful film. Though I knew quite a bit about the Nuremberg Trials I didn’t know anything about the role of the psychiatrists tasked with evaluating the Nazi high command.

“Dr Kelley’s assessment of them as regular men that committed atrocities rather than some type of evil being, and his warning that people like them are everywhere, are still poignant to this day. Especially right now. Rami Malek was charming and heartbreaking as Kelley and Russell Crowe was perfectly slimy and terrifying as Göring.”

The two-hour 28-minute film currently holds an impressive audience rating of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 72% critics score with a critics consensus that reads: “Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, Nuremberg is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realising the complexity of its subject.”

Meanwhile Empire Magazine wrote: “Well-paced, expertly performed, and an urgent call to stand up to fascism, Nuremberg is a powerful, sweeping story of the attempt to bring an unthinkable evil to justice.”

And East Bay Express said: “A grand, complex, thought-provoking, intelligent piece of work, a combination war movie/courtroom drama/political beacon, on a subject that most of its audience might think is over and done with.”

Nuremberg is currently available to watch in the cinema.