Weekend Watch - 2022 Recap January through April

                This week’s Weekend Watch is a special edition, recapping the movies that have released so far this year and have a shot on making it onto the list by next year’s updates. We’re gonna do this every month, this one was just delayed because we’re recapping April movies and all the rest of 2022 as well. We’re going to break these movies down into 3 categories: Sure Things, which are movies that have all the ratings and success needed to make the list, Probable Things, which are movies that have a good chance of making the list with some consistent box office success and maybe one or two award nominations, and Long Shots, which are movies that have some decent ratings but not great and will need some major awards love to make the list. (Not all movies will be listed because some are even beyond Long Shots.)

Long Shots:

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (April 22nd): Tom Gormican’s film about Nicolas Cage playing Nick Cage was on top of many film goers’ lists of movies they were excited for this year. So far, it has had audiences loving it and mixed success with critics. Its lack of critical love keeps it as a long shot right now, especially because of its early release, which will probably keep it out of most awards talk as well.

Jackass Forever (February 4th): The fourth film in the Jackass franchise is also its most critically successful, sitting at a 74 Metacritic score and 86% Tomatometer score. Its ratings currently have it sitting right around a 76, meaning it’ll need some awards love to make it higher, and it doesn’t necessarily look like that’s a guarantee for this one.

X (March 18th): A24’s horror movie about young people making a porno in the late 70s has critics loving it but fans giving it mixed reviews. Given horror movies’ overall lack of success in awards shows, it is unlikely that this will climb any higher to make it on the list.

The Outfit (March 18th): Graham Moore’s mob thriller starring Mark Rylance as a tailor who probably knows more than he lets on has definitely been more successful both financially and critically than I originally gave it credit for, but its decent scores aren’t quite good enough to make the list. While Mark Rylance has been a pretty consistent awards darling in the last ten years, I don’t necessarily think this role will be the one to get him back there.

The Bad Guys (April 22nd): The latest from Dreamworks Animation based on the acclaimed children’s books has gotten a lot of love from the people on Rotten Tomatoes and also has been a consistent winner in its first weeks at the box office. Middling Metacritic scores will probably keep it off of the list barring a Best Animated Feature win.

Kimi (February 10th): A surprising critical success from Steven Soderbergh and HBO Max, the Zoë Kravitz crime thriller has some pretty solid critic scores but not phenomenal audience ratings. Its lack of wide release will keep it from box office numbers and honestly awards success too.

I Want You Back (February 11th): Amazon’s romantic comedy starring Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Scott Eastwood, and Gina Rodriguez has some of the highest scores I’ve seen for a true romantic comedy in a while, making it certainly worth watching, but being a romantic comedy, it probably won’t get the awards recognition it needs to push it over the edge.

After Yang (March 4th): Kogonada’s film starring Colin Farrell and Justin H. Min about the death of an AI butler and the fallout from that event has mixed reviews. Fans seem less than impressed, but critics are relatively high on it. It fits the bill of an indie film that could garner a few nominations, but we’ll see for sure once the season rolls around.

Fresh (March 4th): The Hulu original horror romantic comedy about a cannibalistic boyfriend starring Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones has promise as a cult classic, but its scores keep it from making the all-time list, probably. Long-shot potential for writing awards keeps it on the long shot list.

Rescued by Ruby (March 17th): Netflix’s dog movie starring Grant Gustin currently has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (5 reviews so far, but who’s counting). I’m leaving it as a long shot because it is a dog movie from Netflix starring the guy from the CW The Flash series, and it currently has no Metacritic score at all.

Better Nate Than Ever (April 1st): The Disney+ family movie about a kid who wants to be on Broadway has decent enough Rotten Tomatoes scores to keep it as a long shot, but it’ll need quite a few nominations to make it up onto the actual all-time list.

Probable Things:

The Batman (March 4th): Matt Reeves’s comic book film starring Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader has experienced critical and box office success beyond almost every DC outing since The Dark Knight Rises. It currently sits right on the border of making the list, and its technical aspects are up to Oscar levels for nominations, making it likely to climb higher.

Turning Red (March 11th): Pixar rarely misses out on making the list, and it looks like Turning Red should make it. Middling audience scores keep it as a probable thing and not a sure thing because some people are apparently uncomfortable with female coming of age stories. It should be on the list, and I’ll be disappointed if it misses out, but such is the way of numbers.

The Northman (April 22nd): Robert Eggers’s Viking revenge movie is his most successful with audiences. The audience reviews are still not quite at sure thing levels, but it also looks like there’s outside shots at awards for this film as well. I look forward to seeing on how it turns out.

The Fallout (January 27th): HBO Max’s teen trauma movie has really good reviews right now. Audience reviews are right around average, and it might not quite have enough to make it up onto the list without one or two nominations, which quite honestly might not be coming. It’s close though.

Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood (April 1st): Richard Linklater’s animated Netflix film about growing up in Houston in 1969 sits at a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes currently, and its other ratings are pretty solid as well. With Linklater as a director and Netflix’s historical success at garnering nominations for their animated films, it is well within the realm of possibility that this one makes it onto the list next year.

Sure Things:

Everything Everywhere All at Once (March 25th): I already wrote about this one in detail, so I won’t go on and on, but barring some major review bombs, this movie will be on the list when it gets updated next year. Legitimately, this is the most positivity I have seen around a new release in a long time, and it’s really exciting to be a part of it.