15 HISTORICAL FICTION MOVIES TO GET EXCITED ABOUT IN 2022
After two years of watching movies from the couch, I’m so excited to get back to the theater! (I will probably still watch most of my movies on the couch though lol). I went through the anticipated releases for the year and found these 15 movies that looked promising for us history buffs.
Quite a few don’t have an exact release date, looking at you Netflix films, but keep these on your radar. I’ll be back soon with a list of historical tv shows because it is just the golden age of historical drama out there. Enjoy!
March 2
Not one, but TWO Lannisters from Game of Thrones appear in this one!
“Exploring Greenland's vast landscape for a lost map, two men must fight to survive. Based on the true story of Denmark's 1909 polar expedition.”
March 25
The Duke: A Priceless True Story
I saw the trailer for this movie a few months ago and just had a smile on my face the whole time. It stars Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. I LOVE Jim Broadbent. Moulin Rouge, Bridget Jones Diary, and the narrator for the audiobook version of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (if you haven’t read or listened, do it now). I would love for him to be my grandpa. Helen Mirren is everything I aspire to be when I grow older.
“The Duke follows the incredible true story of Kempton Bunton, a 60-year-old taxi driver in 1961, who was able to steal a Goya masterpiece from an art gallery.”
No but really, how does he get his abs like that? He is 45. I am almost 37 and I would love to know how I can achieve 1 ab.
April 22
This one is probably my most anticipated film of the year. And that’s not just because Alexander Skarsgard and his abs star in it. The film is written and directed by Robert Eggers – one of my favorite directors and the person behind my favorite film, The Witch. The director of the movie, in my opinion, is a better metric than the actors for whether it will be a good film.
So, while I’m VERY excited for Skarsgard, and Anya Taylor Joy (also in The Witch), Willem Dafoe (from the director’s other film The Lighthouse), Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, and BJORK, the fact that Eggers wrote and directed this, with inspiration from HAMLET no less, means that it will soon join the list of my favorite movies.
“The Northman is an epic revenge thriller, that explores how far a Viking prince will go to seek justice for his murdered father.” Watch the trailer. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?
June 24
BAZ LURHMAN!!! It never occurred to me that he should direct a biopic but for The King, IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE. Oh yeah and Tom Hanks and Maggie Gyllenhaal are also in it, no big.
“Elvis Presley rises to fame in the 1950s while maintaining a complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.”
July 1
Well, this just sounds delightful.
“A young woman in 1800s England enlists the help of her friend to get revenge on a suitor who rejected her for failing a requirement of his list.”
July 15
Here for the fashion history.
“In 1950s London, a widowed cleaning lady falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, deciding she must have one of her own. After working to raise the funds to pursue her dream, she embarks on an adventure to Paris that will change not only her own outlook -- but the very future of the House of Dior.”
September 16
Viola Davis, enough said.
“The Woman King follows Nanisca, the general of the Dahomey Amazons, and Nawi, an ambitious recruit in the Kingdom of Dahomey. The film will depict how the pair "fought enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they have lived for."
September 23
This is a film from writer/director Olivia Wilde and stars two young actors I greatly enjoy, Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. My cousin was (is?) obsessed with One Direction and I never understood her infatuation with Harry until I read an interview where he defended teen girls as being arbiters of taste because of their love for The Beatles. Seems like a good guy! Gemma Chan (Astrid from Crazy Rich Asians) and Chris Pine (my favorite Chris) also star.
“A 1950's housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.” Sounds dark and trippy!
No release date but coming in 2022
A biopic on Emily Bronte! Not a lot of details but look at this gorgeous picture.
“Emily imagines the transformative, exhilarating, and uplifting journey to womanhood of a rebel and a misfit, one of the world's most famous, enigmatic, and provocative writers who died too soon at the age of 30.”
Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians!) and Dakota Johnson star in this version of the Jane Austen classic!
I looooved the first Enola Holmes movie. It came out when I was almost done with chemo in 2020 and was the first thing I looked forward to in months because I love Henry Cavill and am very appreciative that he is having a moment these days. Same for Millie Bobby Brown. On a recent road trip we listened to the book the film was based on and my 8 year old also loved it and has since watched the movie at least 5 times.
“Enola Holmes takes on her first case as a detective, but to unravel the mystery of a missing girl, she'll need help from friends and brother Sherlock.”
This is a Martin Scorsese film with the usual awesome, Robert DeNiro and Leonardo Dicaprio. But also, BRENDEN FRASER! I haven’t seen him in anything in years and I’m so happy to see him back!
“Members of the Osage tribe in the United States are murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s sparking a major F.B.I. investigation involving J. Edgar Hoover.”
GILLIAN ANDERSON. CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG. CHRISTIAN BALE. DUDLEY FROM HARRY POTTER AS EDGAR ALLAN POE. WHAT? SIGN ME UP.
“At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope just off the parade grounds. An apparent suicide is not unheard of in a harsh regimen like West Point's, but the next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has stolen into the room where the body lay and removed the heart.
Follows a veteran detective who investigates the murders, helped by a detail-oriented young cadet who will later become a world-famous author, Edgar Allan Poe.”
Listen, if you’ve been with me a while, you know I love Nicolas Cage. Mr. Cage gives it his all no matter if its Oscar worthy (Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation) or bizarro cringe (Vampire’s Kiss). A lot of people think he is a weirdo, I think he is self-aware and eccentric. Please read the best interview ever given to see what I mean.
It is in this spirit that I am excited to see he will be in this 1800s Western.
“An old gunslinger and his daughter must face the consequences of his past, when the son of a man he murdered years ago arrives to take his revenge.” What I love about this description is that it is the plot of literally all of his movies but this time it’s in the 1800s lol.
For bonus non-historical related Cage, I will be going to see The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent on opening day because that is my birthday week.
Another Florence Pugh movie! She’s really good in period pieces, see The Outlaw King and Little Women. I hope this turns out to be a creepy, demon adjacent situation as those are my favorites in case you couldn’t tell.
“Set in The Irish Midlands in 1862, the story follows a young girl who stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well. English nurse Lib Wright is brought to a tiny village to observe eleven-year old Anna O'Donnell. Tourists and pilgrims mass to witness the girl who is said to have survived without food for months. Is the village harbouring a saint 'surviving on manna from heaven' or are there more ominous motives at work?”