| A still from Steven Spielberg's The Fablemans |
My Favorite Movies Released in 2022
I had some movies which finished with the same score and I'm not interested in picking them apart to separate one of these from the rest. So, I'll list these 11 movies in tiers (in alphabetical order):
Tier 1:
Athena: Directed by Romain Gavras: Propulsive, visceral cinema built around long takes about a low-income immigrant community thrust into anarchy over an extrajudicial police killing and the family it tears apart. Dazzling and ultimately wrenching, particularly because the extended takes make clear how interconnected all of the various players and factions are.
Everything Everywhere All At Once: Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert: Wildly excessive, funny, sincere sci-fi action comedy about an Asian family and the bonds between mother and daughter, wife and husband, and adults questioning their choices mid-life. Exceptional performances from the entire cast keep this anchored in genuine emotion even when (as the title says)...
Tier 2:
Armageddon Time: Directed by James Gray. Patient and authentic. Understands nostalgia is born of remorse, examines the disconnect artistic kids find within social systems designed to serve the needs of profit, and the weight of older generations' pains and failures as applied to their children.
Crimes of the Future: Directed by David Cronenberg. Examination of how our bodies are corrupted by our impulses as well as the society we create is thrilling, unsettling, tender and intimate. The stylized performances are effective, and the body horror elements are suitably disturbing.
The Fablemans: Directed by Steven Spielberg. Episodic view of Spielberg's youth is a bit scattershot, but gets brilliant performances from a splendid cast, covers the push/pull between art and family with rigor, and depicts the pain of divorce with astonishing empathy.
Fire of Love (documentary): Directed by Sara Dosa. Dynamic and vivid imagery compliments a marvelous love story about the Kroffts, who dedicated their lives to studying volcanoes by literally staring into the maw of hell, sharing it with the world and surviving for decades.
The Last Movie Stars (documentary): Directed by Ethan Hawke. Six compelling hours on the career, legacy, and love story between Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman is bracing for the unflinching look at their relationship and their struggles to maintain work/life/family balance.
RRR: Directed by SS Rajamouli: An expansive world with clearly delineated characters and motivations add emotional punch to beautifully staged and executed action and musical sequences. Occasionally strains from length, but tremendously entertaining.
Tier 3:
The Banshees of Inisherin: Directed by Martin McDonagh. A plunge into solipsistic despair and loneliness, with terrific performances by Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Kerry Condon. Mordant humor, lovely settings with music and dialogue that feels authentic, occasionally meandering.
Decision to Leave: Directed by Park Chan-wook. Slow burn mystery carries shades of Vertigo with a police investigator who suspects a recent widow is in fact a black widow. Sumptuous photography and a pair of lovely performances keep tension high even when narrative slacks.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande: Directed by Sophie Hyde. An open-hearted, vulnerable performance by Emma Thompson is paired with the sweetly firm Daryl McCormack as a male sex worker. Touches on ideas and assumptions about sex/shame/pleasure while conjuring a sweet air of erotic tension.
Other 2022 Movies I Liked (in alphabetical order):
- Ambulance - directed by Michael Bay
- Avatar: The Way of Water - directed by James Cameron
- Barbarian - directed by Zach Cregger
- The Black Phone - directed by Scott Derrickson
- Bodies, Bodies, Bodies - directed by Halina Reijn
- Bones and All - directed by Luca Guadagnino
- Bros - directed by Nicholas Stoller
- Dead for a Dollar - directed by Walter Hill
- Deep Water - directed by Adrian Lyne
- Elvis - directed by Baz Luhrmann
- Emily the Criminal - directed by John Patton Ford
- Entergalactic - directed by Fletcher Moules
- The Fallout - directed by Megan Park
- Halloween Ends - directed by David Gordon Green
- Kimi - directed by Steven Soderbergh
- The Northman - directed by Robert Eggers
- Prey - directed by Dan Trachtman
- Top Gun: Maverick - directed by Joseph Kosinski
- The Woman King - directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
- X - directed by Ti West
Movies Released in 2022 I Still Want to See:
- Aftersun. Directed by Charlotte Wells.
- Both Sides of the Blade. Directed by Claire Denis.
- EO. Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.
- Hit the Road. Directed by Panah Panahi
- Men. Directed by Alex Garland.
- The Menu. Directed by Mark Mylod.
- Pinocchio. Directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson
- Stars At Noon. Directed by Claire Denis.
- Tár. Directed by Todd Field.
- Terrifier 2. Directed by Damien Leone.
Most Frustrating Movie(s) I Saw in 2022:
Babylon. Directed by Damien Chazelle. This movie opens with an elephant explosively defecating at the camera; a "hotshot" director making a "STATEMENT OF INTENT!" What follows is amusingly but adolescently lurid and excessive, narratively scattershot, and lacking in developed characters or depth/interest in the world/era it portrays. Delivered with flair and never boring, but ends up cheaply cynical and sentimental.Blonde. Directed by Andrew Dominik. Despite my misgivings, parts of this movie have really stuck in my head. It is technically dazzling, but it is also a needlessly brutal, leering, and repetitive experience. This heavily fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe generates pathos, but takes genuine glee in shaming its audience for indulging. Ana De Armas gives an amazingly committed performance, albeit one limited by the conception.
Worst Movie I Saw in 2022:
Jurassic Park: Dominion. Directed by Colin Trevorrow. An aggressively malicious tone is set at the start, the actors are bad with the very little they're given, the visual effects feel perfunctory, the action is choppy and chaotic, the narrative is a mess of clichés and callbacks with no new or interesting ideas. The only redeeming element was getting to see Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum together again.
Great Movies I caught up with in 2022.
Before Midnight (2012). Directed by Richard Linklater. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy give amazingly layered and nuanced portraits of a couple questioning their relationship as it relates to life ambitions and goals. Lovely setting, emotionally involving and upsetting, genuinely moving.
Brief Encounter (1945). Directed by David Lean. Brief and fleet, empathetic middle-aged characters bring this doomed romance to life with wonderful performances by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. Distills the feeling of loss and regret when dwindling opportunities can't be chased.
Double Indemnity (1944). Directed by Billy Wilder. Sublime archetypal film noir, with a pair of perfectly cast leads in Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. Writing, pacing, plotting are lean, stylish, seductive, sleazy, and maintains an almost comic-horror tension from start to finish.
Drive My Car (2021). Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Emotionally epic and intimate look at two people from wildly different backgrounds and with different traumatic experiences forging an intimate connection. Builds powerful catharsis through accumulation of details.
Faya Dayi (2021). Directed by Jessica Beshir. Meditative, bordering on hallucinatory evocation of the lives of Ethiopians adversely affected by poverty and the effects of the khat trade. Luminous black and white imagery and a deliberate, immersive pace pulls you in and holds you.
The French Connection (1971). Directed by William Friedkin. Propulsive, raw, lean, violent, no frills crime thriller with clearly designed stakeouts, a classic sniper into car/subway train chase, and unvarnished performances from Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.
Hud (1963). Directed by Martin Ritt. A towering bastard of a performance from Paul Newman, with able support from the cast, brilliant black and white photography, and perfectly pitched source material highlight this unflinching look at the end of a self-made cattle rancher.
Imitation of Life (1959). Directed by Douglas Sirk. Vivid theatrical performances and lush imagery illustrate the power divides between white men, ambitious white women, and black women trying to survive. Empathetic to all characters and ultimately devastating.
In The Mood for Love (2000). Directed by Wong-kar Wai. Luxuriously sensual and swoony, with vivid photography and a perfect pair of leads which finds overwhelming passion in long glances, furtive encounters, rehearsed daydreams, and stolen touches, all lost to time.
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971). Directed by Robert Altman. Luminous hazy photography and vivid, visceral settings create an immersive dream world for a small time gambler and opium addicted madam to build a small fortune and romance before being crushed by big business.
Seven Samurai (1954). Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Dynamic and muscular storytelling, emphasis on social, cultural, economic inequalities, focus on geography as it relates to strategy and tactics, and vibrant performances. Builds very slow, but accumulates genuine power.
The Worst Person in the World (2021). Directed by Joachim Trier. Effortless, lived in performances, empathetic towards its characters even when they're at their messiest, genuinely moving and sincere about the compromises coming out of youth contrasted with middle-age and mortality.
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