The Assessment is the antithesis of a Christmas movie; it’s a mere coincidence that we watched it this week after hearing that it’s one of the best sci-fi movies of 2025. It’s disturbing and triggering to watch, but it also provides a thought-provoking look at a possible future and how it reflects on anyone’s choice to have kids today.
The premise of the movie is that in a hypothetical future where people and resources are scarce, you must apply for an “assessment” if you want to have a child. An assessor comes to your house to live with you for a week. They ask questions, they observe, and they often act like a petulant child in various situations to see how you respond.
An example of one of these situations (without spoiling the others) is when the assessor sets up an unexpected dinner party and proceeds to act out (as a child) the entire time. It’s an impressive scene to watch on multiple levels, because you have the potential mom trying to wrangle the “child” while you’re learning about each guest’s connection to the potential parents and about how the world got to this point.
The movie simultaneously increased my empathy for parents and made me wonder why anyone would ever choose parenthood! 🙂 To be fair, the film balances most of the difficult scenes with tender moments that show some of the joys of parenthood.
I mentioned that the film is triggering, and I mean that in a few different ways. While I’m not a parent, I was a child, and I wasn’t always the best child, so it brought back some baggage. Also, for full disclosure, there is an instance of sexual assault initiated by the assessor that will leave you shaken, which is the intention. For those reasons, I don’t necessarily know if I can recommend this dark movie, but it certainly provoked a range of emotions and thoughts.
What’s your favorite sci-fi film of 2025? I think it’s still The Fantastic Four for me.