While Netflix offered its Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, a ten-part mini-series on, perhaps, America’s most notorious serial killer, the same company also brought to its streaming service, as well as to the big screen, a feature-length film on a lesser-known, albeit more prolific serial killer in Tobias Lindholm’s The Good Nurse. This review will undoubtedly contain spoilers. If you have yet to see The Good Nurse, I recommend a viewing, though I’ll caution that it operates more slowly than you both wish and expect. I am uncertain if I would have invested in The Good Nurse had I watched it at home rather than at the theater. This is all to say that it deserves the attention the director, the writers, and the actors put into it.’
Category Archives: Top 10 Movie of 2022
Till (2022)
As I watched the beginning of Chinonye Chukwu’s (Alaskaland, Clemency) true story Till, my mind kept returning to two different thoughts. The first was the film’s timeframe, thinking about my grandparents and realizing that the film’s lead character, Mamie Till-Mobley (The Harder They Fall, The Devil to Pay), was about the same age as my grandparents when the film took place (mostly) in 1955. The second was how I thought Till felt like a stage play as much as a feature-length movie. I pondered what a live experience might feel like. Sadly and shamefully, I only became aware of Emmett Till’s story for the first time when I saw the trailer. While I knew there were parts that I knew would be brutal, it was it wasn’t until we got to the film’s second act that I truly began to understand the story’s magnitude and felt that this story would be nearly impossible to pull off as a stage performance because of how draining it might be for the actors to go through the experience repeatedly, as well as how a live performance might devastate unprepared attendees.
Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s (Booksmart), may have been the most talked-about movie of the year. While the film garnered much buzz, it was the much-publicized dysfunction between some cast members (most notably Wilde and Florence Pugh) and different versions of why Shia LaBeouf exited from his role (a he-said/she-said story from him and Wilde) and how it played out in reputable news outlets, as well as the tabloids and social media. There was much worry that Wilde’s second directorial effort would be known for the hoopla surrounding it rather than the film itself. With a production budget of $35 million (compared to just $6 million for Booksmart), I’m sure Wilde felt considerable pressure for her film to succeed. Despite lukewarm ratings from critics (39% on Rotten Tomatoes), it has resonated with audiences (82%). While not a perfect movie, I was thoroughly engrossed in the setting, the characters, and the story’s direction.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
There is a moment between the previews and the opening credits of Top Gun: Maverick where Tom Cruise appears as himself, seated in a director’s chair, and welcomes the audience to the film. This is not the first time a film’s lead actor has welcomed an audience and thanked them for coming since the Coronavirus Pandemic began in March 2020. John Krasinski famously did this in the spring of 2021, before the much-delayed A Quiet Place Part II, arguably the biggest and most anticipated movie (with all due respect to Tenet) that returned to a wide-release audience.
Emily the Criminal (2022)
One of my life’s little joys is seeing a listing for a previously unheard-of movie playing at one of my local theaters when I’m scanning showtimes on a Friday as I plan my weekend. The promotional poster is often enough for me to click and learn more. I’m even more intrigued when there are high critic and audience scores. The promotional poster and the scores encourage me, if nothing else, to watch the trailer. That was what I did with John Patton Ford’s debut feature. It took just 30 seconds for me to stop the trailer. I was convinced. Emily the Criminal was a movie that I needed to see.