Table of Contents
Academy Award–winning director Chloé Zhao is back in the Oscar race with the heartbreaking period piece Hamnet. It stars our favorite sad boy, Paul Mescal, and a sensational Jessie Buckley as William and Agnes Shakespeare — the latter has already taken home the Golden Globe for her outstanding performance.
Mashable Entertainment Editor Kristy Puchko calls it “an earthy and poetic raw tale of love and loss,” and it earned a high spot on our list of the best movies of 2025. It’s still floating around in select theaters, but if you prefer to cry from your own couch, here are all the streaming details you need to know.
What is Hamnet about?
A tragic historical drama based on the novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet offers a view of William Shakespeare (Mescal) and his mystical wife Agnes (Buckley) from a different lens. It paints a portrait of their relationship as they cope with the sudden loss of their youngest son and the ways the tragedy influences one of the greatest plays ever written. Mashable’s entertainment reporter, Belen Edwards, describes it as “the kind of film the word ‘heart-wrenching’ was invented for.” In other words, keep a box of tissues nearby.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
