If a story about a pair of two 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.
Category Archives: 2022
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 featured directing credits already to his name, 2022’s The Fabelmans is the one that is 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.
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)
Bohemian Rhapsody, Ray, What’s Love Got to Do With It, or Walk The Line, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is not. Kasi Lemmons’s (Harriet, Talk to Me) is not even on the same level as this year’s disappointing Elvis. Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Lady Macbeth) did not encompass the legendary Whitney Houston nearly as well as Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Jamie Foxx (Ray), Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line), Angela Bassett (Angela Bassett) or Angela Bassett (Elvis). Under the right direction and with the right lead, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody should have at least been a lock for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
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My Policeman (2022)
Brokeback Mountain set in 1950s Britain? That’s the best comparison I can give to Michael Grandage’s (Genius) understated and tender My Policeman, a movie that is beloved by audiences (96% on Rotten Tomatoes) but shunned by critics (46%). Much of the criticism has to do with Harry Styles (Dunkirk, Don’t Worry Darling), the singing superstar who, earlier this year, broke a Madison Square Garden record by selling out his concert for 15 consecutive nights. Much of the public was ready to declare him the next Justin Timberlake, based upon a single supporting performance in Dunkirk, a role that didn’t require him to do much. Styles was a late choice in Olivia Wilde’s highly anticipated but polarizing Don’t Worry Darling after Shia LaBeouf abruptly backed out. The film faltered for many reasons, including the less-than-flattering reviews of Styles’ inability to match his much more accomplished counterpart, Florence Pugh. My Policeman had been hyped as Styles’ acting breakthrough. He wasn’t nearly as miscast as in Don’t Worry Darling. His performance opposite David Dawson (most recognizable as King Alfred in the Netflix series The Last Kingdom) was one of the many highlights of the underseen My Policeman.
God’s Country (2022)
Movies set on barren, unforgiving terrains with gorgeous, sweeping landscapes serve as beautiful backdrops. When the same film can provide a gripping, dramatic story of survival, mystery, or tragedy set against such brutal terrain, it can often result in an unforgivable movie experience. Movies that come to the top of my mind include The Revenant, The Grey, Wind River, Legends of the Fall, and Fargo. Julian Higgins’s feature-length debut, God’s Country, isn’t on the same level as these movies, but I’ll argue that it could be in the same sentence. While a bit of a miss with audiences (50% on Rotten Tomatoes), it did strike an accord with critics (90%).