Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Night Nurse: Stylish Debut Wins Praise for Leads but Divides Critics

Georgia Bernstein’s feature debut favors mood with intense performances over clear plotting, signaling a distinctive new director.

Overview

  • The film opened in U.S. theaters on Friday, July 10, following a Sundance NEXT festival run and has drawn a split critical response focused on style over story.
  • Reviewers uniformly praised Cemre Paksoy and Bruce McKenzie for carrying the film with charged, intimate performances that anchor its dreamlike tone.
  • Critics faulted the screenplay for thin plotting and a hurried third act that many said undercuts the film’s earlier atmospheric work.
  • The plot device of nurses running phone scams on fellow residents drives the movie’s themes about caregiving, exploitation, consent, and psychosexual power dynamics.
  • Low-budget ingenuity in production design, Lidia Nikonova’s cinematography, and a jazz-tinged score by Sam Clapp and Steven Jackson give the film a larger-than-its-budget look and mark Bernstein as a filmmaker to watch.