Early December Film Reviews (The Wonder, Nope, Lady Chatterley’s Lover)
With 2022 nearing a close, let’s take a look at three recently released movies to see if any are worth a viewing.
The Wonder (2022)
Netflix, 108 minutes
The Wonder, according to its IMDB page, falls into the mystery/thriller and drama genres. After watching the film, I would argue that the true mystery of The Wonder (which is about as thrilling as painting a room or raking leaves) is how it’s garnered both positive critic and public reviews.
Plotwise, we follow an English nurse hired by a small town in the Irish Midlands to investigate a young girl who’s stopped eating, but somehow remained in normal physical condition. It’s a fine setup for a mystery-type period drama, but it never (and I mean never) gets going. I like a good slow burn story as much as the next human, but there’s got to be a fulfilling payoff and we definitely don’t get that here. If you love movies where you’re waiting for something of interest to happen, but nothing exciting ever does, then this is the movie for you. As far as mysteries and twists go, everything is basically what you’d expect and nothing is surprising.
The acting, led by Florence Pugh as the nurse, is just fine—I really don’t think the actors get much to work with as these are just boring cardboard cutout characters, none of whom are particularly likeable. The production design is solid and The Wonder looks like a professionally done film (which is more than can be said for some of the trash Netflix releases on its platform), but that’s a pretty low bar to clear.
The Wonder is also one of those movies that thinks it’s much better and more profound than it really is, and the main story is bookended by narration from Pugh while showing sets and such that let us know we’re watching a film. It’s all pretty unnecessary. Sometimes movies like this one that are aggressively mediocre are more annoying to me than truly awful films.
Grade: 4/10
Nope (2022)
Universal Pictures, 135 minutes
Speaking of boring movies that think they’re better than they really are, Hollywood darling Jordan Peele continues his quest to prove he’s a one-hit wonder when it comes to movies he’s written, directed, and produced with Nope. Peele always tries to fill his movies with messages and symbolic meanings, which is fine, but I think what he needs to remember is that your audience won’t be able to decipher any of it if they’re asleep.
Should you watch this movie? (Answer pictured.)
Nope is a science fiction/horror UFO story that’s never scary and largely just plain boring. Peele fills the film with an array of somewhat interesting characters, none of whom feel even the slightest bit like real people. In a way, Nope feels like a long skit that’s been stretched into a feature length film.
There’s also a weird subplot about an ape attacking the cast of a children’s show that further pads the runtime, but I’m sure Peele felt it was significant since it all relates back to Hollywood, and no current director loves pandering to the Movie Capital of the World quite as much as he does. Overall, Nope is what happens when a creator has too much control on a project and it’s probably one of the more pretentious films I’ve seen this year.
Grade: 4/10
Lady Chatterley’s Lover (2022)
Netflix, 126 minutes
Everyone who knows me knows that I am (secretly) a romantic at heart, so it should come as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Based on D.H. Lawrence’s often-banned 1928 novel (since people in past decades were even bigger prudes than they are today), our scandalous tale follows the upper-class Lady Chatterley who falls in love with the gamekeeper of the Chatterley estate.
Spoiler: They have sex.
The acting of leads Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell is solid and the two have excellent chemistry together. While the story of two star-crossed lovers doesn’t feel super original by today’s standards, this is a well-done adaptation of a work that played a big role in the sexual revolution in various countries around the world in the 1960s and 70s.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover was filmed on an estate in North Wales and the sets and costume design are really well done. (I definitely would like to live on such an estate in the future.) Given the sexual content of the film, it’s probably best not to watch it on a plane or with your parents, but I’d definitely recommend it as an all-around quality romantic drama period piece.
Grade: 7.5/10