Operation Mincemeat (2022) - WWII espionage drama based on a true story. More of a character drama than a thriller. Of a type with, but more successful than,
Munich: The Edge of War (2022) from earlier this year. Good cast. Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, Penelope Wilton, Kelly MacDonald. It took me a while to figure out that MacDonald is the girl from
Trainspotting (1996). I wondered going into this how they might make this story interesting. It's sort of a fun little anecdote to tell friends over a beer, but I didn't see how it could be filled out into a whole movie. They pulled it off, though.
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022) - Sundance winner, your basic indie dramedy/romcom. The dialogue was oddly literal, but I found that kind of engaging, if only because it was so unusual. I'd never seen any of the main cast before, and they were all very likable. Vanessa Burghardt, who plays a girl with autism, really is a girl with autism. I've never known anyone with (diagnosed) autism irl, so I can't vouch for the authenticity of the portrayal, except to note that the film's writer-director changed the script on the fly as he worked with her, to make her character more realistic. Perhaps also worth noting that I've seen a lot of portrayals of children and teenagers with autism in movies and television, and to my memory, this was the first one who was a girl. Dakota Johnson did a nice job playing the attractive woman with walls up. I have known a few of those irl.
There was a strange moment of connection between
Cha Cha Real Smooth and a 4th-season episode of
Castle that I watched later that same night:
I see that Johnson had another indie drama at Sundance this year,
Am I Okay?, directed by Tig Notaro and her wife, and co-starring Sonoya Mizuno. I'm adding that one to my list of things to keep an eye out for. Google says it was bought by HBO Max, but has no release date yet.
The Colony (2021) - An astronaut from an off-world colony returns to post-apoclayptic Earth and wastes no time getting into trouble. Not to be confused with
The Colony (2013); if you Google "The Colony", the first link is for the 2021 film but the thumbnail shows the poster for the 2013 film. Low-budget but well-executed sci-fi, part 'artsy' character drama and part post-apoc action film; it doesn't quite nail either one on the head, but if you can hang with "half-and-half", it has some interesting camera work and Nora Arnezeder.
All three of these were decent. I don't think any of them transcend their genre or expectations, but all three did what it said on the tin, as the saying goes. If any of them look like the sort of thing you like, you probably will.
