Entering awards season two years removed from the success of his directorial debut, The Father, a film that was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning two, Florian Zeller’s follow-up, The Son, had some lofty, albeit slightly unrealistic expectations, if for no other reason than that some deemed it a continuation of the story. In contrast, others viewed its Christmas Day limited release as indicating that the production company believed the movie would likely receive the same critical acclaim (98% critics, 94% audience) as The Father and wanted to keep the film fresh in voters’ minds as much as possible. Sadly, the film failed to resonate with either group (a paltry 26% among critics and a lukewarm 67% among audiences). As a result, the film will fail to reach $1,000,000 at the box office despite a star-studded cast that flanked (and outmatched) the relatively unknown Zen McGrath (Dig), who played the title character.
Category Archives: Drama
A Man Called Otto (2022)
In a day and age when far too many movie trailers give away the entire movie, it is refreshing when a well-marketed one gives us just a hint to grab our interest. For me, I’ll start a preview. The second I deem a movie worth seeing, I stop watching the trailer. It’s a little more complicated when I’m in the movie theater. I don’t want to be ‘that guy’ who closes his eyes and plugs his ears. However, with movie runtimes getting longer and the ability to choose seats in advance, I often don’t arrive at my seat until right before the movie starts. I got the basic gist of Marc Forster’s (World War Z, The Kite Runner) A Man Called Otto. It looked like a light-hearted comedy about a disgruntled older man named Otto (Tom Hanks – Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies) who, throughout the movie, is slowly won over by the young family that has moved into his neighborhood. And while that is mostly true, this movie is far more profound and poignant than I was prepared to experience.
Women Talking (2022)
Women Talking. That’s entirely what this movie was. Women talking. A more intelligent person than I would have known ahead of time. However, my decision was based on the months of anticipation surrounding this movie’s Oscar-time release and the outstanding critic (90%) and audience (86%) scores it has received. Women Talking was an all-too-familiar example of a movie receiving a Christmas release to be as fresh as possible at the start of the awards season, only to fall short of the hype. While a good film, Women Talking offers little originality. Sadly, it isn’t very memorable.
Bones and All (2022)
If a story about a pair of young, hungry lovers devouring the flesh from a still-warm body that one of them has just killed sounds like your cup of tea, Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name, I Am Love) Bones and All is the movie for you. If a plot line that revolves around cannibalism revolts you, this would be a hard pass. In either case, if there’s one December. 2022 release to skip the concessions on that film is Bones and All.
The Fabelmans (2022)
Jaws. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Raiders of the Lost Ark., Empire of the Son. Jurassic Park. Amistad. Saving Private Ryan. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Minority Report. War of the Worlds. Munich. War Horse. Lincoln. The Post. Ready Player One. West Side Story. This massive list of Steven Spielberg-directed movies can be rattled off easily by anyone over 35 who grew up in America. Spielberg could be a synonym for the term “movie director.” However, with 30 full-length feature directing credits already to his name, 2022’s The Fabelmans is the one being called, if not semi-biographical, at least his most personal. If that’s true, we get a pretty neat, though not overly sentimental, look at Spielberg’s early influences and how he began honing his craft before becoming the most distinguished director of the last 50 years.