If 2026 was, probably, not a banner year for Sundance—nor the ideal send-off to Park City, but let’s not get into that now—the best titles still made a fine impression. Standing among our favorites was Georgia Bernstein’s feature debut Night Nurse, which fused erotic tension with appreciably obscure character work—a film, one might say, that percolates rather than bludgeons. IFC will release Bernstein’s film on July 10, and there’s now a trailer exemplifying its ratcheting tension.
As John Fink said in our review, “The second collaboration between Bernstein and Cemre Paksoy (after their series following a professional cuddler), Night Nurse is a fascinating character study that can suggest an early Atom Egoyan film with notes of Michael Haneke. The film’s production design and aesthetic embrace a 1980s style, itself harkening back to Douglas at the height of his success. It’s never quite clear what kind of man he was before his health started to fail, but it’s easy to imagine Douglas as the kind of psychopathic lawyer or business shark who only shows teeth when about to bite. Night Nurse is a study in susceptibility and codependence as Eleni, early in the picture, becomes fixated on gestures of care. It’s not quite clear what her objective is until the final act, where perhaps all our suspicions are confirmed.”
Watch the preview below:
