"Top Ten" List - #6

 6. I Love You, but I’m Not *in* Love with You

I respect these films. If you were to ask me about any of them, I’d say something like “Oh yeah, that’s a great movie!” But I didn’t connect with them the way I did with other films further up the list and I find myself a little envious of those who love them so much more than I do.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are doing career-best work here. Kerry Condon is phenomenal. And Barry Keoghan is a wonder (I don’t want to say “career best” for him, even if it’s true, because he’s only 30). I loved IN BRUGES and I liked THREE BILLBOARDS more than a lot of folks. And while I mostly liked this movie, it feels more like a play to me (which makes sense, as Martin McDonagh is a playwright). The set-up and premise feel very stagey and theatrical, like a fable or a short story. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know the premise: two friends, one decides he doesn’t want to be friends anymore, he tells the former friend not to talk to him anymore and, in fact, if he talks to him at all, he’ll cut off his own fingers. There are clearly some mental health issues going on with Gleeson’s character, and Farrell’s character’s story is an exploration of loneliness (and I do love the parallels with Keoghan’s character). But it all feels a bit too fantastical for me to fully take it seriously. There is some beautiful cinematography but I feel like it’s hard to screw that up given the utterly heavenly location where they’re shooting. Loads of people love this movie, and I liked it fine, but I feel like the performances are the showcase here more than the film itself or its story. (Still in some theaters; available on HBOMax and to rent on streaming services.)

Decision to Leave

I have one big impediment that keeps me from whole-heartedly embracing this. Because it’s gorgeous and twisty and psychological and sad and I should be eating this up with a spoon. It's sort of a departure from a director who is well known for a certain flavor of film, which always fascinates me. But I sometimes have a thing about infidelity stories. Now, there are plenty of movies I love that have infidelity as a central factor in the story (THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING being one of my all-time top fivers and definitely being one of those stories). But the way it’s done here, I found it hard to get invested in the illicit love story because they’d made the guy’s wife such a sympathetic character who’s doing nothing wrong and is completely oblivious for most of the movie. I can appreciate complicated feelings, and I am fully aware (at least intellectually) that the idea of one’s lifelong happiness or passion revolving entirely around one person is to a large degree sentimental nonsense. And of course the guy in this movie is never technically unfaithful to his wife. I just could not get invested in his strange connection with this woman. I do find the ending very effective and sad, but I suspect I was supposed to be a bit more so than I was. It’s obviously beautiful to look at, though, as all of Park Chan-wook’s films are. If you see this, though, check any expectations you might have for a film by this director at the door. It’s quite different from his vengeance movies (which is not a criticism). (Still in some theaters; available on MUBI and to buy on AppleTV.)

The Fabelmans

The trailer had me and had me good. It completely sold me on what a wonderful experience this movie would be, which of course is what trailers are supposed to do. So I was seriously bummed when I didn’t love this movie as much as I expected to. It’s a beautiful, well made film (which one expects with Spielberg) that contains easily one of Michelle Williams's best performances. Paul Dano is lovely and understated. Both kids who play the younger and older version of Spielberg stand-in Sammy are uncannily cast (though the character of Sammy is … I’m just going to say it, kind of a Gary Stu with no perceivable flaws, which is not unusual for an author stand-in but rarely interesting). I just felt like I was looking at someone else’s old photographs – snapshots of moments that I can tell mean a great deal to them but which I can’t fully connect with because they’re incredibly specific and personal and not relevant to me (and not meant to be). There are some genuinely great moments, and my favorite parts are when the movie deals with Sammy’s growth as a storyteller – learning how to manipulate footage in editing to make the audience feel a certain thing, discovering something the camera noticed but that nobody else in the real moment did, and especially the last five minutes (down to the perfect final camera move). But *that’s* his growth as a character – as a storyteller, not a person. I also would have loved if the movie had more time for Sammy’s sisters (I mean, you’ve got Julia Butters, and surely you know what she can do). I wish I loved it more, but it’s by no means a failure. I think Spielberg made exactly the film he wanted to make and it deserves to be seen. It’s just not in the pantheon of his oeuvre for me. Right now, at least. (Still in theaters; available to rent – not cheaply – on streaming services.)

Holy Spider

This is one of those where it makes me too upset and angry to properly enjoy it. It won Best Director at Fantastic Fest and it’s objectively excellent. But the subject matter and the film’s antagonist are infuriating to me to such a degree that I had a hard time watching it (which could very well be the filmmakers’ intention; it’s just not usually an experience I enjoy). The movie centers on a journalist who goes to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a string of murders in which a serial killer (called the Spider Killer) has been targeting sex workers, believing himself to be cleansing the streets of immorality. It’s a really good thriller with a real sense of danger, and it’s based on a real life serial killer who murdered 16 sex workers in 2000-2001. Mehdi Bajestani is amazing as the titular Spider, and he’s so smug and self-righteous you want to punch him every time he’s on screen. And the reality this movie presents, where a significant portion of the town are behind him and think what he’s doing is morally just, just makes me want to sit down and cry. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, of course, but it’s the kind of movie that makes me want to protect myself from it. Glad I saw it, but I could do with never seeing it again (which was itself a category a few years ago). (In some theaters; not yet available for home viewing in any format.)

Hunt

Is this a well-made action thriller? Certainly. Did I understand even half of what was going on at any given time? Absolutely not, but I can’t entirely blame the movie for that. This isn’t like THE ROUNDUP, where by just paying a bit more attention (or giving it a second look) could have helped me follow it better. I’m sure this plays very differently for a Korean audience (or anyone remotely familiar with recent Korean history). It’s a movie made for Korean audiences and obviously there’s nothing wrong with that. Americans (including myself) can be so darn selfish when it comes to movies that aren’t specifically catered to them and don’t hold their hands through stuff that audiences in other countries don’t need hand-holding for. This stars and was directed by Lee Jung-jae, who many of you would recognize as the star of SQUID GAME (#456). Fans of that show might also recognize Heo Sung-tae (who plays the treacherous thug Deok-su) in a small role here. The movie deals with actual historical events that happened in North and South Korea in the 1980s, and I am fairly certain I would have been better able to follow it if I’d had even a cursory familiarity with those events. As such, I was lost a lot of the time, but not so lost that I couldn’t appreciate the fantastic action set-pieces and at least a few of the reveals and reversals. (Available to rent on streaming services.)

Pearl

After the credits rolled on X, I was so excited to see the trailer for this and know that this was coming fairly soon. Having now seen it, I liked it fine, but I’m not sure it was necessary. Mia Goth is excellent and she is definitely the reason to see this movie. Her extended monologue at the end of the movie, followed by the absolutely chilling, desperate, “I’m happy, dammit” smile over the ENTIRE closing credits are feats which, in a just world, would see her showered in accolades. She’s genuinely brilliant here. The movie, however, feels a lot like a special feature for an X Blu-ray. It’s beautifully shot, and many people have rightly compared it to a classic technicolor movie or an MGM musical. That’s accurate, but what’s strange to me is that the style choice seems arbitrary. After all, the film doesn’t take place in that time period. Not that I’d expect Ti West to film this like it was an actual 1918 film, but … X is set in 1979 and looks like it was made then. Same with HOUSE OF THE DEVIL – set in 1983 and looks exactly like an early 80s horror flick. And while I get that the style is probably meant to evoke Pearl’s dreams of becoming a dancer and a star, her dreams wouldn’t be likely to look like this because she’s never seen a technicolor musical and nor has anyone else in this time period. It seems like West just picked the earliest style era that could be in color so we could see the blood. Incredible central performance (I also loved the actress who played Pearl’s mother), but I wasn’t as enamored of this as everyone else seems to be. (Available to rent on streaming services.)

"Top Ten" List - #7

 7. I Respect a Wild Swing

Most of these movies are pretty flawed – perhaps hopelessly so – but I still respect the bold moves these filmmakers are making, even if it doesn’t always work.

Doctor Strange in the Multitude of Madness

This turned out to be something very different for Marvel and I was kind of here for it. It gets a little lost in the weeds, and I’m still not sure how I feel about making Wanda some mega-villain (her arc in WandaVision is understandable, but this movie takes her into straight-up supervillain territory and I just kept wanting to scream at her “THOSE ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN”). I love the little continuity details, like Wong being Sorcerer Supreme because Strange disappeared for five years. Loved seeing Rachel McAdams again and getting some closure to that story. Loved the introduction of America Chavez and that the whole story is essentially about her. And I loved that Sam Raimi just said screw it and went full-on zombie!Strange. I liked the Illuminati scene at the time, but its power lies in the surprise of who we’re seeing and looking back I’m less fond of it. Not perfect, but certainly not boring. (I also have no interest in comparing this to that other multiverse movie from this year.) (Available on Disney+ and to rent on other streaming services.)

Elvis

I wrote a bit about this on FB, but I loved a lot of this, even as some of it made me cringe. Austin Butler is flawless and he’s the entire reason the movie works at all. Tom Hanks could not be more of a head-scratcher, though. His non-surface character work is actually quite good, and he successfully weaponizes his long-running audience goodwill to create this incredibly manipulative man who pulled Elvis’s strings for so long. But he leans far too much on the accent and voice, which makes him very difficult to take seriously. Also, I don’t have a problem with the movie leaving certain things out, because a movie cannot be about every dang thing (even though Priscilla’s age and Elvis’s predation is a pretty huge dang thing). And I cannot imagine faulting the movie for being a gaudy mess because so was Elvis. Plus, it’s a Baz Luhrmann movie, so if you’ve seen literally any of his other movies, you should know to expect a tacky tiara of a movie. Ain’t nothing wrong with a tacky tiara. Tom Hanks, though … yeesh. Also, the oft-memed “he’s white?????” sequence is truly hilarious. (Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services.)

Halloween Ends

Hoo boy, the Discourse on this movie was exhausting! I liked the 2018 movie, though I somewhat agreed with the complaints about Laurie’s character and her entire life revolving around Michael. I was less enamored of HALLOWEEN KILLS because it sidelines Laurie and other legacy characters (killing most of them, actually) and focuses on Tommy and the town mob. (Also because they’ve now turned Michael into more of a Jason Voorhees. Yes, there’s a difference.) And I was kind of dreading HALLOWEEN ENDS as a result. But it was actually pretty darn good. Seriously. I kind of loved that, knowing what the fans undoubtedly expected for this final chapter, they decided to go the SEASON OF THE WITCH or FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART V route and focus on a whole new character. They give us a Laurie who has finally moved on and done some healing (the grocery store scene with Frank actually made me cry). Don’t get me wrong; there are some sketchy moments, but this might have been my favorite of the trilogy and I feel certain it will be reappraised in a decade or so. (And for what it’s worth, that kid in the opening sequence had it coming.) (Available on Peacock and to rent – not cheaply – on other streaming services.)

Men

So weird, so unexpected, and maybe a lot on the nose, but I mostly dug it. Jessie Buckley plays a woman who rents a beautiful country manor house to take some time away after the (probable?) suicide of her husband. Between this movie and BARBARIAN, I wouldn’t be surprised if Airbnb’s (and the like) business has gone down a bit. The movie’s schtick is that every man in the town is played by the same actor (Rory Kinnear) and they are each an embodiment of negative male characteristics. There’s a lot of beautiful English landscape to look at, and there’s also a lot of disturbing and unsettling imagery. The “birthing” sequence is quite a lot to deal with, and the ultimate meaning of it is perhaps not as smart as it’s trying to be. Still, it certainly gives you something you’ve never seen before, which is what horror should always try to do. (Available to rent on streaming services.)

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

We’ve seen this kind of story before (which is one reason I’m not ranking it higher, despite enjoying it quite a bit) – movie star plays themselves (or sometimes a fictional facsimile) and skewers or otherwise examines their public image. The story around the star’s performance is usually fairly boilerplate and this movie is no exception. I could take or leave the CIA plot, which boils down to “person who has no business getting mixed up with spy shit gets hopelessly entangled in spy shit,” but the relationships are where this movie’s juice is. The relationship between Cage and Javi (played by Pedro Pascal), the relationship between Cage and his movie family, and, weirdly, the relationship between Cage and “Nicky,” an avatar of himself that is younger and more successful. With Javi being such an obsessed Nic Cage fan, we get tons of fun details and references to Cage’s previous work – like the lifesize statue of Cage’s FACE/OFF character (complete with matching golden guns). Perhaps the greatest part of the movie, though, is the well-deserved lovefest for PADDINGTON 2. (Available on Starz and to rent on streaming services.)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Like many children of the 1980s, I grew up with “Weird” Al and his parody songs. I can’t say I was the hugest fan of his, but I did enjoy him and have a good deal of affection for him. He always seemed to have such a different life and career than everyone else on the radio, and that has always fascinated me. So I loved that, when someone decided to make a biopic (of sorts) about him, it followed the pattern of his best known songs and was a straight-up parody of everything we’re used to seeing in these kinds of stories. There are a few things in this movie that hew closely to the truth, but none of it is meant to be taken seriously and I love that. A lot of it is not my particular brand of humor, but there are unmistakable notes of genius here, especially the pool party with all of the celebrities, and the idea that Al wrote “Eat It” as an original that *Michael Jackson* then parodied. Daniel Radcliffe seems oddly cast to me (Weird Al is so TALL and bless him Dan is not), but then perhaps that was exactly the point. (Available on the Roku Channel.)

"Top Ten" List - #8

 8. Don’t Hate Me, I Loved This Garbage

I don’t believe in guilty pleasures anymore, but if I did, these would be mine for the year.

Marry Me

This is dumb fun with a truly ridiculous premise, and I liked it probably more than I should have. A pop star (Jennifer Lopez) plans to marry her boyfriend on stage at a concert, only to find out juuuuuuust before going on stage that he’s been cheating on her. In a haze of emotions and facing humiliation, she spots someone (Owen Wilson) holding a “Marry Me” sign (in tribute to her song of the same name) and brings them on stage for some impromptu nuptials. Once the concert is over and she’s somewhat come to her senses, she and her team persuade the guy to play along with the stunt marriage for a few months to help her save face in the press. They eventually fall in love for real, yadda yadda yadda. JLo is great, playing a heightened version of herself, and I always love a good aw-shucks Owen Wilson performance. *shrugs* It’s not great but it worked for me. It has an especially good “last minute dash” sequence (like everything in this movie, your mileage may vary). (Available on Amazon Prime and to rent on other streaming services.)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (‘22)

The original 1974 film is one of my favorite horror movies ever, but as a franchise it is a sweaty hot mess (though I am fond of TCM2). This movie is one of those “requels” that people are suddenly talking about, which takes what it wants from the franchise history (in this case, just the first movie, like the new Halloween trilogy) and throws out the rest. We see a reappearance of the original film’s final girl, Sally Hardesty, now played by MANDY’s Olwen Fouéré (RIP to the original, Marilyn Burns), as well as (obviously) Leatherface himself. Don’t ask me how Leatherface ended up in a children’s home after the events of the first movie in which he was a grown-ass man – this movie does not care about such trivial things. I also think the setup – with the young entrepreneurs who have just … bought this town (?) and are fixing it up to entice small business owners (???) – is hella weird. (*insert underpants gnome “PROFIT!” meme*) But Leatherface is actually pretty great here, and there are a TON of great kills (the party bus massacre is an all timer, and I really loved the stabbed-with-a-wristbone kill). Also, that townie mechanic was super hot. (Available on Netflix.)

"Top Ten" List - #9

 9. Didn't Knock My Socks Off, but
Still Pretty Good

This is where most of the films I see tend to fall, honestly. Nothing especially wrong with them, and most of them I highly enjoyed. But for whatever reason they didn’t really stick with me as much as other films did.

Breaking

This is a fairly straightforward heist-with-a-heart story, even if that definition seems horribly flippant, considering the real story (and this *is* a real story, based on an article written about a Marine Corps veteran who held up a bank after his disability check fell through a crack in the systemic failure in the Department of Veterans Affairs). This is a very effective suspense movie, and I was floored by how the audience I saw it with was silent and on the edge of their seats for the entire runtime. John Boyega is the star here and everything hinges on his controlled, emotional performance. But the MVP for me is the late Michael K. Williams, in the penultimate role of his career/life. His interactions with Boyega are the heart of the movie, and his frustration on this man’s behalf is palpable. In the end, everything goes about how you’d expect (in the worst way) and maybe that’s why it didn’t stick with me as much in the long run. It’s still a darn good movie and well worth seeing. (Available to rent on streaming services.)

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Straight white guys went nuts for this movie, and it *is* a fairly good example of hashtag-not-all-men. Our main character Andrew is extremely likable and doesn’t fall into the usual tropes of a young man who doesn’t know how to be a person. That might be the only problem I have with this movie – it feels a bit flat, and the character doesn’t really grow because he doesn't really need to. He’s pretty much the same person at the end of the movie that he is in the beginning, save being young and still having so much ahead of him (which is hardly a character flaw). Dakota Johnson is wonderful, as always, and she has a cool chemistry with star (and director) Cooper Raiff, without it being about whether they’re going to “get together” or not. The movie is perfectly fine and the epitome of what this category is all about. (Available to rent on AppleTV.)

Confess, Fletch

I haven’t read any of the Fletch novels, and I haven’t even seen the Chevy Chase FLETCH movies. So maybe I wasn’t the ideal audience for this. I know that people who are Fletch aficionados (or more so than myself, at any rate) were gaga for this, and I’m happy for them. Jon Hamm is very enjoyable here, in a role that’s not like what we most associate him with (i.e., Don Draper). He’s dry and funny and as likable as he needs to be (I rolled my eyes at his much younger love interest, but whatever). Marcia Gay Harden chews up every bit of scenery she can find and spews it back out all over the place, and it’s GREAT. This does make me curious about the novels, though, and I can only guess that I would have been way more into it if I’d been more familiar with the source material. (Available on Paramount+ and to rent or buy on other streaming services.)

Crush

This is very cute and I’m so glad that there’s starting to be so many more stories about gay characters, especially rom-coms, which straights have commandeered for far too long. I love how this takes the usual teen rom-com tropes and gives them a new spin (particularly the token straight couple). I do feel like the movie occasionally bends over backward a bit too far for its own good. Megan Mullally’s way-too-understanding mom is rather cringy (there’s supporting and understanding your gay kid and there’s being creepy, and this character leans way too close to creepy). It’s also a very strong argument against the insane notion that gay love stories are somehow more sexually explicit than straight love stories. There is a whole thing in this movie with a first kiss and a couple’s first kiss together being the first kiss period for one but not the other, and whether that’s a big deal and whether it should be. The movie does feel like it’s trying too hard at times, but it’s a worthy entry into the teen rom-com pantheon (and a welcome entry into the LGBT love story canon). (Available on Hulu.)

The Fallout

As sad and angry as I am to see “school shootings” become their own trope in teen movies (see also VOX from a few years ago), this is a thoughtful take on the aftermath of such an event. Jenna Ortega has had quite a year, between this movie and SCREAM and X and now WEDNESDAY, and she gives an incredible performance here. Her character Vada is in the school bathroom with a couple of other students when they hear the unmistakable signs of a shooting somewhere close to them in the building. She huddles in a stall with two other students, and the film really puts you in their shoes and makes you feel their fear, which is incredible but deeply upsetting. The three students become close in the aftermath of the shooting, but Vada at least starts to spiral while her best friend Nick responds in a very different way and becomes an activist. This is a lovely exploration of a specific kind of trauma, powered by some great performances from young actors, particularly Miss Ortega. (Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services.)

The Good Nurse

I saw this mainly for the co-writing credit of Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote one of my favorite movies of last year. This is fairly engaging, but also feels like a Lifetime movie – a high-end Lifetime movie, mind you, but Lifetime nonetheless. It’s based on the true crime story about a night nurse who begins to suspect her co-worker and friend might be a serial killer. Jessica Chastain is predictably great here, as is Eddie Redmayne. I love how complicated their relationship becomes once she realizes what he’s been doing (perhaps especially as he’s literally been keeping her alive so that she can get to the end of her probationary period at the hospital and can finally get health insurance, without which she can’t get much needed cardiac care). I also love the bureaucracy and how hard the hospitals are covering their asses. The fact that none of the hospitals were sued over Cullen’s actions feels shocking for a minute, then you realize what it would mean to go after a hospital and potentially shut it down. I did enjoy this story but my goodness I’m SO TIRED of these dang underlit movies! I get that an overnight shift at a hospital probably wouldn’t have all the lights on, but it shouldn’t be Battle of Winterfell dark!  We know we’re watching a movie! We can accept that things have to be lit more than they would be in real life! (Available on Netflix.)

Hustle

This is a very solid sports drama and a good reminder that Adam Sandler is more than just his goofball comedic roles. He plays a pro basketball scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who finds an unexpected star player while scouting in Spain. The movie follows the scout, Stanley, and his discovery player, Bo, as Stanley brings Bo to America and goes through all of the various hoops (heh) trying to get Bo either signed to the 76ers or into the NBA draft. There are complications with Bo’s arrest record, and Bo has serious hang-ups and problems focusing when he becomes the target of trash-talk. But Stanley believes in him enough to put his own career and even his family’s livelihood on the line (which, honestly, is what he’s asking Bo to do as well). A solid feel-good sports movie that gives you a positive conclusion without it being a cookie-cutter happy ending. (Available on Netflix.)

Kimi

I really liked this, though it has a lot of familiar beats. It’s a tech horror and yet another entry in the “Alexa is evil” subgenre, but the setting and our main character (played by Zoe Kravitz, another actress having a great year) set this one somewhat apart. Kravitz plays Angela, an employee of the tech company that has produced a new smart speaker called KIMI. Somewhat controversially, KIMI makes use of human monitoring to improve its search algorithm. Angela’s job is to listen to KIMI recordings and make corrections to the software. She is also agoraphobic (a result of trauma from a sexual assault), which has been made worse by the COVID pandemic. She hears evidence of assault on one of the recordings and the bulk of the movie involves her trying to figure out what exactly happened and bring it to light, against a corporation that is invested in keeping it quiet. This is good, and Zoe Kravitz is great. (Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services.)

The Lost City

The stars of this movie are Daniel Radcliffe and that purple sequined jumpsuit Sandra Bullock wears for most of it. What we have here is ROMANCING THE STONE for a more modern audience. I love the touches of how they visually present the writing of the novels, and there are loads of funny moments and a lot of entertaining adventure stuff. My biggest problem is that I don’t buy the romance at all. Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock are each separately very funny, but they don’t have a ton of chemistry to me (possibly due to the age difference?). In addition, they are outshone at just about every turn by the supporting players, namely Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. They are the biggest reason to see the movie. This is plenty entertaining and well worth a watch, but it’s a story we’ve seen a lot of times before (and frequently better) and it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel. (Available on Paramount+ and to rent on other streaming services.)

The Outfit

I saw this pretty late in the year once it came to streaming, and it’s a cool little spy thriller that all takes place in one tiny location (one of my favorite tropes). Mark Rylance plays Leonard, a cutter (not a tailor, this is an important distinction) who trained on Savile Row in London but now (now being 1956) owns a shop in Chicago. One evening, after his assistant has left for the night, he finds himself mixed up in some gangster goings-on when he is forced at gunpoint to sew up a fellow’s gunshot wound before things start becoming increasingly complicated for him. I wasn’t wild about where this ended up, but it’s still a very effective one-room thriller, and it’s great watching the main character keep his head and outsmart these criminals who could very easily dispose of him. I think this was the first thing I’d seen Johnny Flynn in other than 2020’s EMMA and his character here is certainly cut from a different cloth (*rimshot*). Well worth watching for Mark Rylance and the competency porn of not just his keeping up with the gangsters but his loving devotion to his craft. (Available on Amazon Prime and to rent on other streaming services.)

The Roundup

I went to see this purely because it starred Ma Dong-seok (who played the hot heroic dad-to-be in TRAIN TO BUSAN). He makes a compelling action lead, but I found this film hard to follow. This is most likely a “me” problem but it took rereading the synopsis for me to even remember the basics of this movie’s plot. The movie starts with a cop being given a mission to repatriate a criminal who had fled to Vietnam. Once the criminal is found and seems strangely willing to turn himself in, the main character discovers a string of murders of Koreans and tourists that has been going on for years. There is some incredible action in this, and if you enjoyed Ma Dong-seok in TRAIN TO BUSAN, he’s an absolute beast in this. I should probably watch this again now that I have a better hold on the general plot. Perhaps I’ll get more out of it. (Available to rent on streaming services.)

See How They Run

There’s nothing exactly wrong with this but it does feel like a 90s or early 00s TV movie, which makes sense given the director has done a lot of television. It revolves around a murder at a theater in London doing a production of Agatha Christie’s play “The Mousetrap.” Our sleuths are a crusty-but-benign detective played by Sam Rockwell (with a British accent, which I’d never heard him use before) and a plucky girl detective constable played by Saoirse Ronan. There is a parade of quirky characters, at least half of whom I couldn’t really distinguish from one another. Many of them seemed like they were characters in a source novel that a screenwriter was reluctant to cut for the adaptation and left in for fanservice without being prepared to actually use them in the story. I was pleased to see Sian Clifford (FLEABAG’s Claire), for example, but she had very little to do and I could not tell you who her character was or what purpose she had in the story. Shirley Henderson is delightful in what is basically a cameo as Agatha Christie herself. But I was a tad boggled by the casting of Harris Dickinson (Carl from TRIANGLE OF SADNESS) as Richard Thee Attenborough – he plays the slightly self-absorbed actor thing well and I chuckled at his final line, but was there no one who physically looked even remotely like the actual Attenborough? “Dickie’s” appearance is fairly distinct. Surely someone with a pair of big sad eyes, if nothing else. The movie is fine and there are some funny moments and the tiniest moments of genuine suspense. But it lacks wit, and it’s just not as charming or clever as it’s trying to be. (Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services.)

Sick

One of many Fantastic Fest offerings you’ll see throughout these lists, and a solid horror flick in a year chock full of great ones. With an original story by SCREAM scribe Kevin Williamson – his first time on a horror *movie* in over a decade – this is a pandemic horror story, taking place at the height of the lockdowns (April 2020). Our main character and her friend decide to quarantine at her family’s lake house. It’s supposed to be just the two of them, but this is a horror movie so that’s not how things play out. This is an above-average slasher with a bit of commentary on the times, and I like that it doesn’t really take sides the way it easily could have. I do wonder how this might play for someone whose life was upended by COVID (there’s a critic I follow whose father died of COVID and who is very vocal in his criticism of people who are flippant about the pandemic and masks and vaccines; I would really love to hear his thoughts in particular on how this movie deals with all of that). There’s not a ton of new ground being covered here – even as a pandemic horror movie – but it successfully plays the classic slasher-in-a-big-house tropes to great effect. (Available 1/13 on Peacock.)

Smile

This was the opening film of Fantastic Fest this year, and while I loved it and found it very effectively scary, it had the misfortune to come out in a year where there was an insane number of really, really good horror movies. It’s *really* good and is a rare horror movie that does good jump scares that feel earned. The star, Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin), is phenomenal as a woman who is completely falling apart. Kyle Gallner is a welcome presence as her hottie ex who’s trying to help her figure out what’s going on. Loved seeing Kal Penn as the caring boss who just wants the main character to take care of herself. I do think the strongest part of the movie, though, is the opening sequence with the unforgettable Caitlin Stasey, and the rest of the movie is never quite that good again. Don’t feel bad, SMILE – you’re in good company; I feel the exact same way about the OG SCREAM. Speaking of SCREAM, there’s a moment in this movie where the main character is talking to someone on the phone that forcibly reminded me of that first bone-chilling moment with Drew Barrymore (specifically, “I want to know who I’m looking at”) – just one of those moments where you can actually feel the blood freeze in your veins. (Available on Paramount+ and to rent on other streaming services.)

Violent Night

This is a fairly simple concept with a lot of familiar notes from other action movies (and Christmas movies). There’s a lot of DIE HARD, there’s a lot of HOME ALONE, maybe a little CHRISTMAS EVIL and a smidge of YOU’RE NEXT, among others. David Harbour plays a burned out Santa who’s just going through the motions until he finds himself in the middle of a heist plot with murderous robbers targeting an ultra-rich family. Said family is led by an unrecognizable (to me) Beverly D’Angelo, who plays the matriarch. The leader of the group of would-be thieves is played by John Leguizamo, and he’s a surprisingly effective villain who has no scruples about killing whoever he needs to to get what he wants. This movie doesn’t really care about the Santa lore and how it works – Santa repeatedly says he doesn’t really understand how it all works – but there are some fun details. The little girl’s “nice list” entry on Santa’s magic scroll is especially hilarious (one of her listed virtues is “invited weird kid to party,” which got the biggest laugh in my audience). This is a lot of fun, especially thanks to Harbour and Leguizamo, but it doesn’t add much to the holiday movie canon. It’s also hard to get invested in the safety of these rich assholes (though the little girl and her mom are alright). (Available to rent on streaming services.)

Year of the Shark

This was another Fantastic Fest film and it impressed programmer Annick Mahnert enough that she programmed a handful of other shark films around it. It’s very charming and its protagonist gets you on her side pretty quickly, even while you recognize the mistakes she is making. On the eve of her retirement, she has reason to suspect there is a shark in local waters, but is she really just postponing having to retire? The movie covers the ground of JAWS in the first half and then throws in some unexpected consequences and complications. Once the shark is caught, our heroine is determined to simply take it back to its home waters and set it free. Unfortunately, that becomes impossible and the woman’s compassion leads to more deaths by shark attack. This movie does the disgruntled townfolk bit really well, and in fact the shark aspect of the story is secondary to the character work, especially the relationship between the main character and her husband. It’s an enjoyable slice of French action-comedy and an actually meaningful successor to JAWS. (Not yet released.)