MY FAVORITE FILMS OF 2022

My optimism that the movie business would fully rebound in 2022 after the last couple of years forcing cinemas not to operate at full capacity faded as the year progressed. The year was certainly an improvement over the previous one and clearly people had returned to theaters which allowed a few films to make some serious money; the long-awaited sequel of "Avatar" arrived nearly at the end of the year which quickly overtook the long-awaited sequel to "Top Gun" (which had made quite an impressive sum itself) as the world's biggest box-office champ of 2022, taking in over two billion dollars. And the sequel to "Black Panther" also made a formidable impact at the box-office. So you can certainly begin to see the pattern; people were drawn to the familiar and that is what got them back to fill seats in theaters.

But don't get me wrong, I am absolutely thrilled that these movies did such incredible business. Yet once you move outside of these Hollywood blockbuster sequels, adult dramas, comedies and indie cinema continued to struggle to lure audiences back to the theaters in a significant way. And that cannot entirely be blamed om streaming as that business is going through it's own growing pains. Another issue was the lack of a robust slate of movies reaching theaters with weeks going by before another major new movie was released which was particularly noticeable during the summer and Christmas seasons.

As we move into 2023, I am feeling that sense of optimism once again for a great healthy year of cinema. It certainly feels possible with the reliable Tom Hanks in an adult comedy-drama and a scary, dancing AI doll bringing people back into theaters last month. Anyway, I did manage to find many films that I thought were outstanding and enjoyable throughout the previous year. Here is my list of favorite films from 2022 in no particular order:

"TAR"

"Tár" is a masterful work that explores art, culture, identity and gender politics yet not in a way that is expected, provoking reactions that will either inspire emphatic agreement or trigger bitter outrage. As the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Lydia Tár (played by Cate Blanchett in a breathtaking, riveting performance) is accomplished, a gifted composer greatly admired and respected. She is charming and witty yet also manipulative, impervious and narcissistic. These are traits that would be tolerated by a man in her position but for a woman with unfettered power, they are considered off-putting and threatening. Tár shares her life with wife Sharon (Nina Hoss), the concertmaster for the Philharmonic, and their young daughter but is far from faithful in their relationship. While trying to avoid a former female conducting student that she may have had an inappropriate affair with and dealing with the fallout from an edited video during a master class she conducted at Jullilard where she aggressively challenges and humiliates a student that has gone viral, Tár begins to pursue the attention of a young, talented Russian cellist (Sophie Kauer). Todd Field, who returns to filmmaking after a sixteen year absence, has written and directed an extraordinary character study that offers us no easy or definitive answers, pushing us to consider and reconsider the complicated and disturbing conduct of this volatile artist.

"THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN"

"The Banshees of Inisherin" is the latest dramatic comedy from writer/director Martin McDonagh, an Irish fable that begins with a seemingly innocuous dispute between two old friends before reaching a bitter, gruesome and completely deranged conclusion. Set in the fictional small island of Inisherin in 1923, Pádraic (Colin Farrell), a sweet-natured yet dim dairy farmer, has been drinking buddies with Colm (Brendan Gleeson), a brooding musician, for a while. But one day Colm decides he no longer wants to be friends with Pádraic for no particular reason beyond not wanting to listen to him chattering on. This doesn't sit well with Pádraic, growing increasingly upset by this rejection and insisting on trying to talk with him, leading Colm to threaten to do some drastic self-harm if he doesn't stop. With wonderful supporting turns by Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan (and Jenny the donkey), "The Banshees of Inisherin" is a comical yet tragically absurd look at the inability of these men to properly communicate their fears, desires and emotions, leading to calamitous circumstances.

"TRIANGLE OF SADNESS"

Winner of the top prize of Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes Film Festival, "Triangle of Sadness" is a brilliantly conceived, vicious social satire on the uber-rich, diving into their privileged world with witty political commentary and outrageous pitch black humor. Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean, a South African actor who sadly passed away from a sudden illness last August) are a couple who both model and popular influencers on social media. They are invited on a luxury cruise in exchange for promotion to all of their followers. With an assortment of irrational, wealthy passengers on board and the yacht's Captain (Woody Harrelson) spending most of the time drinking in his cabin, this cruise runs into choppy turbulence at sea (literally and figuratively) before some of the passengers end up in a "Lord of the Flies" situation on a deserted island. For his English-language debut, the Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund (who previously made other well-received dark comedies, "Force Majeure" and "The Square") confronts the absurd power struggles in human relationships in a way that is thought provoking, amusing and extremely disturbing. As for the title? That refers to that space between the eyebrows that could have an unsightly wrinkle which can be erased with some Botox if you have the means.

"ALL THE BEAUTY AND BLOODSHED"

"All The Beauty and Bloodshed" is a captivating documentary that reveals the life of photographer Nan Goldin, looking back on her difficult, middle-class childhood where she lost her beloved older sister to suicide and finding a creative and emotional path as an artist through the queer community in New York City during the '70's and '80's. This is detailed around Goldin's harrowing recovery from an addiction to OxyContin, starting an activist group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) which advocates for more treatment from opioids and using her power as an artist to go after the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma that mislead the public over the serious addictive qualities of these drugs and for years profited off this deception, by protesting to have their names removed from museums. But what makes this film so brilliant is in how director Laura Poitras (who was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival) has woven Goldin's memories, insights, artistry and activism into an expressive biographical study that feels very much like the photographer's own work.

"EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE"

One of the more innovative films that also managed to find significant commercial appeal was "Everything, Everywhere All at Once", an absurdist adventure by the filmmaking collective, The Daniels which is made up of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) runs a laundromat with her husband, Waymund (Ke Huy Quan). Evelyn's marriage is struggling, her relationship with her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu) is strained, in part due to her non-Chinese girlfriend and their business is being audited by a hard-nosed IRS Agent (Jamie Lee Curtis). Suddenly Evelyn meets another version of Waymund who appears trying to explain he's from the Alphaverse, a parallel world which is being threatened by Jobu Tupaki, an alternative version of their daughter. This film doesn't seem like it should work with it's odd jumble of genres and wild editing. But The Daniels, who began as music video directors before turning to feature films, are in full control of "EEAAO" masterfully merging multiple worlds and weird ideas into a film that is thrilling, hilarious, heartwarming and delightfully strange. The cast is perfection with the heartfelt story of Quan's triumphant return to acting after being a child actor (appearing in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Goonies") and forced to abandon his career due to a lack of substantial opportunities, making this film's enormous success even more special.

"LOST ILLUSIONS"

"Lost Illusions (Illusions Perdues)" is a French adaptation of the first two parts of Honore de Balzac's 19th century set novel. Xavier Giannoli, the co-writer and director, has done something unexpected with such venerable material, crafting a vivid and spirited melodrama which examines the contrasting lifestyles between the provincial and aristocratic along with the transgressive nature in the world of journalism. We follow Lucien de Rubempré (Benjamin Voisin), a young aspiring poet of very modest means who falls for the more mature, wealthy and married, Madame de Bargeton (Cécile de France). Envious of her privileged world, Lucien decides to take his chances by going to the big city of Paris to become a novelist. But not able to get published and eventually shut out of the society connections set up by Madame de Bargeton, he is forced to take a job at a small local newspaper where Lucien discovers that actual news is the least thing anyone wants to report. "Lost Illusions" received an impressive fifteen nominations at the 2022 César Awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars), taking home seven trophies including for Best Film. This enticing film takes us into the elegantly rigid world of class and manners yet manages to keep the atmosphere light, intriguing and thoroughly entertaining.

"MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON"

Beginning as a series of shorts on YouTube, "Marcel The Shell With Shoes On" was expanded into a delightful feature length film, introducing to the masses this very cute yet introspective little creature. Blending stop-motion animation in a real world setting, a documentary filmmaker, Dean (Dean Fleischer Camp) moves into a rental after the end of his marriage and discovers Marcel (voiced by Jenny Slate) also living there with his nana, Connie (Isabella Rossellini). Impressed by his tenacity and profound worldview, Dean decides to start filming this little, shoe wearing shell, leading to him becoming an internet sensation. But Marcel soon sees the complications of this fame and how it effects his well being. Created by Camp (who co-wrote and directed this film) and Slate (who also co-wrote), "Marcel" is a wonderfully warm, charming comedy, filled with astute observations on the emotional complexity of humanity as viewed through a talking sea shell.

"TURNING RED"

I do believe that "Turning Red" is probably the first animated feature film that has taken on the complicated subject of puberty. And from Disney/Pixar no less. Domee Shi, the Canadian filmmaker who co-wrote and directed this full-length feature debut following winning the Best Animated Short Film Oscar for "Bao" in 2019, based this superb movie loosely on her own childhood. Set in Toronto, thirteen year old Mei (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) lives with her parents at their family temple. While she is a focused, good student, Mei has also discovered the opposite sex, obsessive over the boy band, 4*Town and having a crush on Devon (Addie Chandler), who works at the local convenience store. One night, Mei is transformed into a giant red panda which is triggered when she is in a state of high emotion. Her mother, Ming (Sandra Oh) tries to help yet her strict, overbearing ways has Mei pushing away from her. Beautifully rendered, "Turning Red" takes an inventive, whimsical look at the experience of a young girl's change to maturity in way that is appealing and considerate for all viewers.



"KIMI"

A terrific film released last year that has not received nearly enough attention (largely due to it only being available to watch on HBO Max) was "Kimi", a taunt, Hitchcockian styled thriller that is placed firmly in our modern times by director Steven Soderbergh. Angela Childs (Zoë Kravitz) is a blue-haired, Seattle-based employee for a tech company called Amygdala. She works from home monitoring incoming data streams for Kimi, an in-house, smart speaker device, and makes corrections to the software. Angela also suffers from agoraphobia with the COVID-19 pandemic only making her anxiety worse. One day, Angela receives a recording that sounds like a woman being violently assaulted by a man. Being a victim of an assault, she becomes obsessed, digging deep into her own investigation to find out how she can help this woman. But this leads Angela to uncovering more than she bargained for, putting her life in a perilous situation. With a solid script by David Koepp and twitchy performance by Kravitz who's in a constant state of trying to calm her nerves, desires and fears, Soderbergh has once again displayed his extraordinary gift for taking a familiar genre and putting his own distinctive spin to create a chilling film that feels fresh and wildly unpredictable.



"THE BATMAN"

Out of the numerous movies based on comic-book heroes (or anti-heroes) that were released last year, the only one that left any lingering impression on me that made some effort to elevate the genre was "The Batman", Matt Reeves' intriguing reboot of the iconic crime-fighter. That begins with the inspired casting of Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who has been secretly fighting crime in Gotham City as the Dark Knight for just a couple years. The police department thinks Batman is nothing more than a dangerous vigilante with the only one who trusts him is Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright). After the Mayor is brutally murdered, Batman gets involved in solving the crime after the masked killer who goes by "The Riddler" (Paul Dano) leaves behind a clue addressed directly to him. More grisly murders are committed by The Riddler with his clues leading to the nightclub run by Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) and Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) a waitress who works there. Despite this being the fourth cinematic revisiting of this character and having an almost three-hour run length, "The Batman" feels decidedly different from previous iterations, managing to create a darker, more grounded narrative that relies more on the emotions and motivations of these familiar characters than battle sequences and visual effects. Yet there is certainly plenty of thrilling, entertaining action to be found in this film. All of this helps make "The Batman" stand out beyond your average super-hero movie with provocative elements of a neo-noir, psychological crime drama.

Honorable Mention: "Babylon", "Bullet Train", "Close", "Emily The Criminal", "Fire Island", "Fire of Love", "The Inspection", "Is That Black Enough For You?!?", "The Menu", "Moonage Daydream",  "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris", "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish", "Saint Omer", "She Said", "The Woman King", "Women Talking"