Where I live in Idaho, we have a very average AMC Theater with 11 screens. It gets most of the big movies and a handful of the more artsy ones. I am a proud member of the A-List club and see almost everything that comes through this theater. I’ve always liked going to movies, but this past year, I’ve really made it a part of my weekly life rhythm. I know I’m blessed to be able to go to the movies more than a lot of people, so here is a roundup of what I watched in theaters the past month. The past month in this case goes from October 20th through November 22nd. I saw 11 movies in the theater this month. Here are my thoughts on them.
Black Adam
I’m not the biggest superhero movie fan, but I actually really liked this one. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seemed really well-suited (pun!) for the title role and the rest of the cast was really good, too. The villain part of the story, especially near the end, was weak and typical of superhero movies, but it didn’t ruin the film for me. I also thought it had some interesting and complex things to say about the nature of war and the American war machine industry. It’s a movie that really asks questions about the role of superheroes in terms of being national heroes or protectors of specific people or regions. I tend to like DC movies a good deal better than most Marvel fare and this was no exception.
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
This movie was surprising in a good way. The songs, from Pasek and Paul, are a good deal catchier and more interesting than some of their previous work (at the very least, it helped to banish that awful Dear Evan Hansen movie from my mind). The story is quirky and fun, like a lesser version of a Paddington movie. The cast, featuring Costance Wu and Javier Bardem, feels like they’re just having a lot of fun making the movie, which goes a long way. It’s not groundbreaking or anything, but I found it worth watching.
Ticket to Paradise
It’s been fun to see some of the stars of the 2000s sort of “return” to movies a bit this year. Channing Tatum came back in Dog and The Lost City (both solid movies), and the latter also featured Sandra Bullock and Brad Pitt. I was grateful to get more Brad Pitt in Bullet Train and now get a dose of fellow 2000s megastar George Clooney in this movie. He’s opposite Julia Roberts and, as an Ocean’s Eleven (2001) superfan, it was a joy to see them reunited. They play the divorced parents of Kaitlyn Dever’s character who, after graduating college, took a trip to Bali and fell in love. Clooney and Roberts are hoping to break them up in a sort of reverse Parent Trap. If we’re talking 2022 romcoms, I don’t think it’s quite as good as The Lost City but it’s a fun movie with a few good laughs and a lot of chemistry between the actors.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I really like movies, of all sorts, and though there will be the occasional dud, I’m a largely positive movie watcher. Even more so when I see movies in the theater.
Call Jane
Based on Oscar buzz I’ve heard, this movie will very likely be overshadowed by Women Talking when it comes out in a few weeks. That said, this movie still had its moments. Elizabeth Banks is really good in a more dramatic role and it’s always nice to see Sigourney Weaver on screen (I really loved her in The Good House a couple of months ago; I thought it was a lot better than many reviewers thought and recommend checking it out). But for me, something was off about Call Jane. I felt similarly about Phyllis Nagy’s previous film, Carol (2015). So I’ll say that if you really like Carol, you’ll probably like this one more than I did. Either way, I think it’s worth the watch even if it is a straightforward social issue period piece.
Prey for the Devil
2022 has been a horror year for the ages. X and Pearl asserted Ti West as the latest essential horror director, Smile and Nope provided big box office for original ideas (The Black Phone did well too), and Barbarian instantly broke into the ranks of my favorite horror films (so good I saw it twice in theaters). Given how good horror has been this year, Prey for the Devil is quite a lesser entry, but I found that refreshing. I don’t want every movie to be a masterpiece and though this one wasn’t great, it still had some interesting ideas about trauma (especially religious trauma) and possession. I thought the lead performance from Jacqueline Byers was solid and I hope to see her in more things soon. Not great, but worth a stream if you call yourself a horror fan.
The Banshees of Inisherin
I adore Martin McDonagh. The Pillowman is one of my favorite plays and In Bruges (2008) is one of my favorite movies. And his latest effort doesn’t disappoint. Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are their usual winning selves, and the movie is just so darn strange and delightful that it should captivate any fans of McDonagh’s previous work. This film feels especially like one of his early plays, and I’d happily watch another half-dozen movie in this vein. It’s the kind of movie you want to rewatch right away.
Black Panther Wakanda Forever
As a rule, I don’t like Marvel movies. So whereas many people approach Marvel with expectations of greatness, I watch Marvel movies with incredibly low expectations and am willing to give them a lot of credit for anything they do right. And this movie does a lot right. Everything dealing with grief and mourning was spot on, and I liked all the stuff with Namor. As everyone has already noted, the more “Marvel-y” plot points are unnecessary and make the movie feel overstuffed, but, for my money, it’s still easily one of the best Marvel movies, successfully washing at least most of the bad taste left by Thor: Love and Thunder out of my mouth.
Till. This movie tries to pull off something very challenging—make a movie about the events and culture surrounding the murder of Emmett Till—and it mostly succeeds. Danielle Deadwyler deserves all the accolades for her stirring performance as Emmett’s mother. The film wisely sidesteps forced drama instead of leaning into its feelings of frustration and exhaustion. Unlike so many movies in a similar vein, Selma (2014) for example, there’s very little inspiring here except the relentless pursuit, not of justice but of human civil rights. It’s a movie that understands that when the system is broken the answer isn’t hoping in it but to disrupt the system radically. Strong movie deserving of awards recognition.
She Said
This movie is basically Spotlight (2015) for the New York Times Weinstein investigation, but Spotlight was a great movie, and so too is this one. Anchored by performances from Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan, this movie doesn’t lose that at the heart of the Weinstein case are very real women with very real trauma. The movie is especially adept at navigating themes of silence vs expression. There’s a moment early on when a mentor character at the paper asks Mulligan how she’s doing shortly after having a baby. Mulligan says something to the effect of “fine,” but the moment underscores how women have been culturally taught to suppress their feelings and words in many scenarios, and how this contributes to the culture of silence on which sexual harassment is built. Definitely, one to check out.
The Menu
I love dark satire making this easily one of my favorite movies of the year. From director Mark Mylod, best known for directing a large portion of Succession, comes this searing takedown of wealth and privilege centered on food. Anya Taylor-Joy is captivating as always, and Ralph Fiennes gives one of the strongest performances of his illustrious career. What’s really special about this movie as a thriller is how frequently it goes to unexpected places in unexpected ways. To use the least spoiler-y example, early in the film we’re shown a mysterious door…and we never see the other side of this door, instead, eventually, seeing behind a similar version of it in a different building. The movie is full of these moments making it easily among the year’s best thrillers and most laugh-inducing comedies.
Bones and All. I seem to have been the only person who didn’t really enjoy Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name (2017), but I’m pleased to report that this film was much more my speed. The performances are strong, especially from Taylor Russell, but what really captivated me about it was its vibe similar to that of a work of early 70s American cinema (like something directed by Peter Boganovich). It’s a movie that feels as if you mashed up John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969) with Julia Ducournau’s Raw (2016). An excellent road trip movie about queer love and human connection.
That does it for this past month with a lot of exciting theater movies on the way. There’s the new Disney feature Strange World and the long-awaited (and just plain long) Avatar: The Way of Water. Violent Night looks like it could be fun, and Devotion also has me intrigued. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to see Women Talking, The Whale, Empire of Light, The Son, and The Fabelmans, but time will tell how the rollouts for these go. Whatever I see, I’ll be back in a month to report it, and, depending on how I feel, I might throw in a few Netflix movies that I wish I could have seen in theaters (Glass Onion, Bardo, etc).
