Sundown (2022)

Neil is on vacation at a luxury Acapulco resort with his sister and her kids when news is received that his mother has died. Rather than rush back with the others, he pretends to have misplaced his passport in order to stay behind. He tells the taxi driver to take him to a hotel and checks in without question, even though it's clearly low-rent establishment in a dangerous area. And then, he just coasts: spending his days on the beach drinking, eating and romancing what's put in front of him. Within a few days he's no longer responding to calls and texts from home.

Though we are kept deliberately in the dark about what's going on with this guy, I couldn't help but root for him and I'm not sure this would've been the case if Neil were played by anyone other than Tim Roth. With very little dialogue, we can tell that he's not an asshole despite the obvious interpretation of his behavior. His quiet coasting continues even through a short stint in jail after he is implicated in a violent crime. We do get a concrete reason for his actions by the end, but I think I would've liked this every bit as much if there had just been no reason at all.

B+

My Old School (2022)

Brandon Lee was immediately marked out as odd when he enrolled in school as a 16-year-old. He dressed oddly, could explain advanced concepts that his classmates hadn't grasped, and just looked older than everyone else. These differences were explained away by his upbringing: traveling the world with his mother the opera singer meant his education was a more worldly one. Or it could be that this was just his second time at bat.

It's definitely different from anything I've ever seen before: it's a documentary involving the actual classmates and teachers, a good portion is animated, and the main subject delivers his tale in his own words, but with actor Alan Cumming lip syncing them because "Brandon" doesn't want to show his own face. Although I give it props for its offbeat telling, I found the story just weird rather than captivating -- like listening to gossip about people I don't know. I honestly got a little bored.

C+

Fall (2022)

In order to pull her best friend back from the deep grief she's been in since becoming a widow, Hunter convinces Becky to climb to the top of a 2000-ft television tower in the middle of the desert. They get stuck up there.

I had zero expectations of this film since I was only watching it in order to laugh along with this week's "How Did This Get Made," but it surprised me by being truly terrifying. This definitely had more to do with my extreme fear of heights than the script or acting, but the special effects were good enough that I felt that fear in my stomach. Not a good movie, but it's got some really decent trickery.

C

Catherine Called Birdy (2022)

Birdy, a young teen in medieval England, has become a woman (i.e. gotten her period) and -- despite her attempts to hide it -- her father finally knows. This means that she can be sold married off, which should provide some relief for her family. But Birdy has other ideas...

Though it's little more than a trifle, I was charmed.

B-

The Forgiven (2022)

When a young man is hit and killed by a couple on their way to a lavish party in the middle of an impoverished area of the Moroccan Sahara, it's treated like an annoying inconvenience by the host, the other attendees, and even the at-fault couple. It's only when the boy's father arrives to claim his son's body that it becomes apparent that it won't be possible to resolve the situation without an act of contrition. The driver reluctantly agrees to accompany the father back to his home more than a day's drive away. 

We go back and forth between his experience in the stark environment of those native to the land and the bacchanalian excesses of the estate party. While he's learning that he's taken something from a community that had little to spare, the partiers are consuming many times their fair share of pleasure in every form. Can he ever return? 

Though it took me a little bit to acclimate, the driver is the perfect avatar here. Even though he lives a life much more privileged than mine (and probably most viewers'), my easy life is much closer to his than those he'd wronged. Ralph Fiennes inhabits it perfectly and helped me feel the journey.

B+

A Love Song (2022)

Faye is waiting. At a campsite on a lake, in the shadow of a mountain, she waits. She catches her meals from the lake, identifies birds, and spins the dial on her portable radio to hear the perfect song it's chosen for her. When childhood friend Lito finally arrives, they reminisce and swap stories of the partners who left them widowed and spend an awkward yet companionable afternoon and night together. Her wait over, Faye can move on.

There's not much to this, but there's also so much here. Quiet, lovely, hopeful and sad. And -- though I enjoyed the cowboy family -- their quirkiness was a bit out of place: like they'd wandered in from a Wes Anderson movie.

B

The Fallout (2022)

Tomboy Vada and hot girl Mia are the only ones in the bathroom when a shooter opens fire in their high school. They hide in a stall together and are joined by Quinton -- stained with his brother's blood -- just a few minutes later. In the days to come, the girls seek solace in each other despite having no relationship prior to the tragedy.

Though the subject is important, I never felt as though we got beneath the surface to the real "fallout." The responses of the girls' families were especially odd: Mia's parents don't even bother to come home from a trip abroad while Vada's family's way of dealing with things seemed to be simply looking worried. Weeks after the shooting, her mother asks "who's Mia??" when Vada tells her where she's been. Has she never asked her daughter about her experience during the shooting? How can she possibly not know the name of the girl who was trembling alongside her during the scariest moments of their lives?

I don't know... maybe that's supposed to be the point. Perhaps the takeaway is supposed to be that school shootings are almost a rite of passage now? That we're supposed to take a bit of time but then everyone needs to just get back to normal?

C

Infinite Storm (2022)

Despite storm warnings, seasoned hiker Pam sets off on a solo trek. Hours underway, she encounters footprints that eventually lead to a man woefully underdressed and too inexperienced to be out in the approaching storm. Lucky she's trained in search and rescue because they'd be dead otherwise.

Slow and frustrating -- there didn't seem to be near enough story for a movie. The screenplay worked hard to keep both characters a mystery to the viewers, which just meant that I wasn't at all invested in their survival. The denouement would've likely been frustrating if I felt like I'd gotten to know them at all.

C-

Argentina, 1985 (2022)

After coming through a brutal military dictatorship, Argentina's new government decides that those who were responsible during that time must be prosecuted. They select Julio Strassera, a competent but quiet prosecutor, who must then find a willing team to work with him despite threats of violence from those who prefer to leave the past unexamined. I admit that I was sometimes confused about who was who -- this entire subject was completely new to me -- but I didn't need to follow every beat to get it. 

It reminded me a bit of The Untouchables, in which Eliot Ness fought an unpopular war with a cobbled-together team of the untested. This, however, felt more rooted in reality, enabling me to easily envision the future in the United States in a decade or so. Hopefully our incoming government is more familiar with this chapter in history than I was and will take heed.

B-

7 Women and a Murder (2022)

It's Christmas and an adult daughter arrives to spend it with her parents. Also there are her aunt, sister, grandmother, a housekeeper and -- eventually -- a mistress. When they discover the patriarch of the family with a knife in his back, the women try to figure out who's to blame. As the tension ratchets up, so do the obstacles (cut phone lines, power outage, a padlocked exit).

This suffers from a case of mildness. None of the women ever seemed to be truly scared or even really concerned. The funny bits only got a slight smile from me while the crime seemed to be just a subplot. It could've been a fun Marple-type of whodunit, but with a cast of characters who didn't seem to mind that their husband/lover/father/in-law had been struck down, I couldn't muster much interest either. Inoffensive and forgettable.

C-

Cursed Friends (2022)

After receiving a "predict the future" activity book while trick-or-treating, four kids fill it out together. Twentyish years later, they all happen to be together on Halloween and discover the long-lost book -- and now the predictions are coming true.

This felt like one of those K-Mart kids' movie knock-offs: disappointing but also "off" enough to be weirdly watchable. The murder and orgy club subplots, however, make this resolutely inappropriate for children.

D

Here Before (2022)

Because Laura lost her own daughter Josie in a traffic accident years ago, she's naturally drawn to Megan, the daughter of the new neighbors. But there's a bit more to it than just "she reminds me of her" -- Megan seems to know things that only Josie would know. Though Laura understands it must just be coincidental fantasy on Megan's part, she can't help the feelings it stirs up.

I really got into this. Andrea Riseborough as Laura proves that her Oscar nomination a couple of years back was no fluke: I was right there with her, confused and hopeful while realizing that it can't be what it seems to be. Lovely work all around -- though the ending didn't quite explain everything the way it seemed to think it did.

B+

The Quiet Girl (2022)

A large Irish family ships one of their daughters off to relatives for the summer. Cait's used to being neglected and mocked for her bashfulness, but finds a different reality in the home of this older couple. As Cait begins to blossom, the couple's story also begins to reveal itself naturally.

I just loved the honest message here -- that the family you're born into isn't necessarily the family who will know you or love you best. What a hopeful heartbreaker.

A-

Matilda: The Musical (2022)

Matilda, a top-notch brain born to parents who simply don't see the point of her, is enrolled in a school run by a headmistress who doesn't see the point of children in general. It's a grey place with punishment around almost every corner, with the exception of Miss Honey, Matilda's sweet-natured teacher.

Truth be told, I've never read Matilda nor have I seen the earlier film, so I have no idea if there's a huge departure from the material. But I can say that the choreography is manic, the songs are unmemorable, and the caricatures of evil adults are so far over the top that there's barely any humanity there. I had a hard time seeing why this is an enduring story.

D+

The Takedown (2022)

Mismatched pair of cops have to work together despite their wildly different methods. It's both too light (infantile jokes and predictable storyline) and too adult (graphic content and violence) to be a hit with any audience. An absolute misfire that felt like a chore to finish.

D+

Harley & Katya (2022)

Harley (Australian) and Katya (Russian) each had trouble finding a skating partner good enough to keep up with them. So, despite being from across the world from each other and not sharing a language, they clicked immediately on the ice. It didn't take them long at all to start being a competition threat. But, in order to succeed, Katya -- just 16 when they met -- had to come to Australia to live and train. 

I am only a casual viewer of figure skating, so I had no idea where this story was going, but it wasn't hard to predict that it was not going to be to a happy place. Katya's without anything familiar, always struggling to decipher what's being said, and too young to have strong coping strategies in place. The money was tight, which forced her to live with her coaches, which should've been an obvious "no" to the adults making arrangements.

It's a weakens the story that we can't get deeper into Katya's side of the story here, though I realize the impossibility of that ask.

B-

Close (2022)

Leo and Remi are the type of best friends who spend every waking minute together. If they aren't spending the night their parents ask why, since it's unusual for them to be apart. Only when they begin junior high and their closeness is questioned does Leo begin to see the relationship through different eyes. Remi struggles to understand the new paradigm as Leo begins to place boundaries and forge a new path for himself.

This tore me up in a primal way. The topics are so natural and familiar -- even though I'm in my 50s, I can remember the all-encompassing hurt of a friendship coming apart. It's a marvelous and brutal film.

A+

Amsterdam (2022)

It's a murder mystery. No -- it's a war movie focusing on racism in the army. Hold up -- it's an expat throuple love story. Wait -- it's a political thriller. I mean... just when I'd get my bearings, this film shifted focus. Though it kept my interest, sometimes just for the "hey! look who it is!" star spottings, I was usually lost and feeling like I was being deliberately juked.

In short: a vibrant confusion.

C+

Confess, Fletch (2022)

"Jon Hamm is no Chevy Chase" is such a weird sentence, but it applies here. But, even if Hamm mugged convincingly enough to grab some laughs, the script is a mess. The jokes are lazy and the mystery's a bit too twisty to easily follow. A complete waste of time and film.

D

Spin Me Round (2022)

Amber, a manager at an Olive Garden-type chain, heads off to a company training in Florence with a half-dozen other managers from different locations. It winds up being a weirdly low-rent affair in both accommodation and content, so Amber is excited to accept an invitation to spend the day with the chain's owner, who seems quite smitten with her.

I'm making it sound like there's a story here, but there's really not. It feels like the writer's room was one of those "no idea is a bad idea" places and every single thought made it into the movie. It's somehow both too much and not nearly enough.

D+