Writer/director Georgia Bernstein is making her feature debut with the psychosexual thriller Night Nurse, and whether you love it or hate it this is going to be one of 2026's films that really stays with you this year. 

Night Nurse isn't a perfect film (what film is?), but it's one of the year's ballsier films with a storyline on the Lynchian side of films like Secretary and Crash among others. It's a film I loved, though I can't completely explain why beyond a performance from Cemre Paksoy that held on to me from beginning to end. 

Eleni (Paksoy) is a nurse new to this semi-luxe retirement community. Assigned to be the night nurse for Douglas (Bruce McKenzie), she gets a lot more than she bargained for with this flirty old guy whom we quickly learn is playing a perverse little con impacting other retirees in the community. 

Night Nurse won't be for everyonee. It's not quite as in-your-face as Secretary or Crash, though for me this works to its advantage especially as the film winds down and the thrills get wound up. Much of Night Nurse seems to exist in a sort of dreamlike state, Lidia Nikonova's lensing demanding we be just as entranced with the film as Eleni is with this svengali-like figure allegedly in the early stages of Alzheimers. The original score from Sam Clapp and Steven Jackson is absolutely delicious and Breanne Ward's production design is bold and brave while existing somewhere between dissociated comfort and cognitive fog. 

Paksoy truly impresses here as Eleni, seemingly the one in charge yet her entire physical being screaming surrender. Watch Paksoy's face here, especially in a relatively early scene in which Douglas inflicts his little game and Eleni almost hypnotically surrenders to it. It's a remarkable scene in a film where Paksoy has multiple remarkable scenes. This is not to minimize McKenzie's performance, a nicely controlled work of wonder where we're never quite sure and we're not sure we want to be. It's a terrific performance not easily forgotten. 

For some, Night Nurse won't go perverse enough. For others, this twisted fu** of a film will be too much to take. Since watching it, I can't stop thinking about it and if this film isn't mentioned in the Independent Spirit Awards this year you might as well toss those awards aside. 

Picked up by IFC Films, Night Nurse opens in select theaters on July 10th. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic