My Year of Movies 2022
I watch less films than I used to (about 60 or so by my count, including rewatches, I also threw in a couple of TV series in the list, too), but I still like to keep track of what I am watching and occasionally jot down my thoughts on Letterboxd. As was the case last year, I pretty much only watched movies at home this year, with at least a couple notable exceptions: I caught Top Gun: Maverick at the drive in, and it was excellent on the big screen (it played in a double feature with the latest Scream reboot/sequel, which was unsurprisingly not great). I also caught Nope in the theatre and it was also well worth catching in the cinema, an excellent riff on an old-school summer blockbuster, and my fave from Jordan Peele yet.
Looking through this list has me realizing that I end up watching too much crap (films or series I end up giving one or two stars to) just because it is on Netflix or what have you, and I’m not taking the time to seek out better, more challenging, and more interesting cinematic content. I’m going to make an effort to push myself to spend a bit more quality time with films in 2023. I’ve recently discovered Kanopy which is a great source of free film loans, provided in arrangement with your local library, I really recommend it. I might also renew my subscription to the Criterion Collection or try out Mubi again (unfortunately there aren’t gonna be any video rental places in my (literal) neck of the woods).
Also, I’ve definitely been feeling liberated since I pretty much stopped watching superhero stuff. The two big ones I checked out this year, The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home, were fairly disappointing (tho’ I much preferred Matt Reeve’s clinically depressed but stylish take on the Dark Knight to the multiversal mashup of Spider-Man). For me personally it was a case of exceedingly diminishing returns and I’m happy to have some of that mental space back (in fact it feels exactly the same as when I stoped caring about following X-Men comics or what have you about 25 years ago!). The fandom was fun while it lasted but I’m happy to be disengaged (for now).
A couple of highlights of things I watched in 2022: The aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick and Nope, The Power of the Dog, The Northman, Licorice Pizza, the hidden gem The Clovehitch Killer, and Basic Instinct, Bicycle Thieves, and His Girl Friday (saw those last three for the first time, about 30, 70, and 80 years after they came out, respectively!). Some rewatches I particularly enjoyed include Inside Llewyn Davis, Out of Sight, and Eastern Promises. Special mention to the documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror which had me scratching down notes for several dozen old-school folk horror movies I wanna check out in the years to come!
The movies below are roughly in the order I watched them. If you’d like to see more of my ratings and reviews or chat about movies throughout the year, please connect with me over on Letterboxd!
The Unforgivable ⭐️⭐️½
Don’t Look Up ⭐️⭐️ Review
“…Overall this got worse and worse as it went along. Once it hit the one hour mark and the abortive attempt to stop the comet I was largely clocked out and rolling my eyes. There was a good film to be made here, but just like the vapid society it attempts to skewer ,”Don’t Look Up” doesn’t have the capacity to tackle a big problem successfully, the film is great at satirizing the superficial and rather crap at criticizing real power.”
Light From Light ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“Very quiet and actively anti-dramatic story that was still affecting and interesting.”
Out of Sight (rewatch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“The perfect combo of crime and romance, comedy and action, irony and sincerity. I think this slim, sexy, charming little film might be my favourite movie of all time.”
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“Finally caught this nearly 20 years after its release and… It’s pretty good!”
Non-Stop ⭐️⭐️
Passing ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“…In total I found this film to be too stiff, too mannered, too parsimonious with detail and backstory and emotion. All this is certainly by design, and the film’s direction underlines the various levels of acting and falsity (racial, sexual, economical) that are on display in the structured social order of 1920s New York (Tessa Thompson in particular feels like she is acting from the inside of a too-small bird cage), but the overall effect is rather dull and mannered.”
Maria Chapdelaine ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“Despite the bizarre fact that the main character barely has any lines, the young actress playing her somehow pulls it off, and I left the film with a sense of Maria as a whole, if very enigmatic, entity… A bit of an “iceberg theory” approach.”
The Power of the Dog ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
From Up on Poppy Hill ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Inside Llewyn Davis (rewatch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A pitch-perfect dream of a film, full of exceedingly well-realized set pieces and period details.”
The Last Duel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A totally brutal portrait of a woman caught in a hellish position between two men who hold her fate in their hands.”
The French Dispatch ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“A lovely, meticulous, and often entertaining diorama of a film, hermetically sealed, expertly constructed, full of terrific details and lovingly polished surfaces, but lacking any real life.”
Backdraft ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“Pure cornball melodrama, yet this is somehow still fun and affecting filmmaking. The performances, the score, the action, its all over the top and yet I still cared what was happening to these hard-charging Chicago firefighters.”
Kimi ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Can any other director do it all, and do it all so gracefully, better than Soderbergh? Kimi is another low-key gem, a fast-paced thriller which nails the contemporary pandemic paranoiac moment with aplomb, with everything from the pitch-perfect set designs to the on-point dialogue making this a mirror of our bizarre moment.”
Point Blank ⭐️⭐️ Review
“A weird, awkward, and deeply disappointing mash-up of American thriller and French New Wave mind trip that never took off for me. Lee Marvin is one of the most passive figures imaginable, a barely-there presence who lets the film’s action wash over him like the waves of San Francisco Bay… Many scenes are seemingly played for laughs but nothing made me chuckle, but the few moments of action are so sad and flaccid they are inadvertently amusing.”
Copycat ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Long Kiss Goodnight ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“The movie misses several chances for the action to be more awesome (the ice-skating assassin moment should have been unforgettable and cool, instead it just sort of happens; the knife throwing bit from early in the film could have been paid off several times in key moments but is instead brought back as a dumb gag, etc) but the action is fun, the explosions are ridiculously over-the-top, and the overall feel is just different enough to make this easy to recommend if you are in the mood for an old-school action flick with a bit of vim and vigor.”
Kiki’s Delivery Service ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (rewatch) Review
“Interestingly, this wasn’t my favorite Miyazaki/Ghibli film when I first watched it, I preferred the more epic works like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, but over the years I find it Kiki’s Delivery Service is the one I enjoy returning to again and again. It’s perfectly cozy and charming, a paean to the dignity and purpose of work and the importance of community, but also has some serious and difficult things to say about growing up, the difficulties of managing our lives, depression, anxiety, and the ability to bounce back again.”
Midnight Mass ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Squid Game ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The House ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“For the first two-thirds of this film I thought it might avoid the curse of anthology films and be rock solid from start to finish, but the final section let me down. A strong conceit (a strange and disturbing house makes life a nightmare for its occupants past, present, and future) and excellent character and scenic design make this film well worth a watch, but I found that everything from visual style to narrative sophistication got more pedestrian as it went.”
In the Line of Fire ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The Green Knight ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“I know that some of the looping, picaresque qualities of the story can be traced back to the medieval source material, but this is an adaptation (as is made very clear by the winking title cards), and I think that it’s not to much to expect the director/screenwriter to bring all the elements together in a way that engages the audience’s mind and heart a both more than they were here. This feels like a clear case of style over substance, and while the film looks appropriately fantastic, it feels quite superficial.”
The Cider House Rules ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
She Dies Tomorrow ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“California Nihilism.”
Out of the Furnace ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Apollo 10 1/2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“The quotidian details of life in the outskirts of Houston in 1968 were superb, and were surprisingly in line with my own memories of youth in Southern California 20 years later; from the rhythms of broadcast television to the disturbing omnipresence of playground violence.”
Taxi Driver (rewatch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Nearly 50 years old and still absolutely cracking. Depressing, brutal, funny as hell, and horrifyingly prescient.”
The Batman ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A really glum, 3-hour slog, featuring a clinically depressed Batman who is pretty miserable at being a detective, at acting like a human being, at stopping villainous schemes… This seems like an almost post-modern, parodic, nihilist vision of the Dark Knight, leeched of all the fun and charm… Perhaps this is The Batman for our times, but I found it pretty uninspiring.”
Malignant ⭐️⭐️ Review
“Fully absurd and over-the-top, ridiculous but occasionally enjoyable and funny.”
Basic Instinct ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Well, it took me 30 years to finally see this (I think at 14 I was too prudish and easily-embarrassed to watch such a sexy adult film) and I have to say it pretty much shines all the way through, and I understand why it is a classic. Sharon Stone is the ne plus ultra of femme fatales, fascinating, brilliant, flirtatious, commanding, manipulative, and flashing a million-dollar smile (not to mention other things), her star power is off the charts.”
Hail, Caesar! (rewatch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Incredibly nuanced and comedic performances across the board, and dozens of fantastic, memorable moments… my absolute favorite is the set-up date between Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) and Carlotta Valdez (Veronica Osorio) where their natural chemistry and star power turns an artificial, commercial construction into something surprisingly special, a lovely metaphor for the magic of movies.”
You’ve Got Mail ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A fairly apocalyptic rom-com where female lead loses everything, apologizes constantly for the slightest showing of anger, and finally gets low-key swindled into falling in love.”
Old ⭐️½ Review
“I didn’t have high expectations, but this didn’t rise even to those. I figured the writing would be poor but was surprised how lack-luster the direction is here… It’s been a while but I can recall some of Shyamalan’s pervious efforts having a little visual energy.”
The Juror ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A very average yet satisfying film… In fact I am starting to suspect that the baseline 1990s film is a bit better than the baseline contemporary film… Naturally I know there’s no arguing matters of taste.”
Eastern Promises (rewatch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“A window into an absolutely hellish underworld that is extremely convincing, full of intense tragedy, with some twists and turns I definitely never saw coming.”
Top Gun: Maverick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Just as the film’s title character sets exacting, perhaps impossible standards for his students, Top Gun: Maverick sets an extremely high bar for the legacy sequel, expanding (and, very often, improving) on the on the original film in almost every way.”
Scream (2022) ⭐️⭐️
Candyman ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“At first I felt that the framing of the film in the context of the gentrification cycle and the culpability of artists in that process was killer, but ultimately it didn’t deliver anything truly damning or thought-provoking on that front, giving creators an easy out. Watching (and re-watching) the original is truly a shock, this sequel is much more standard (if still entertaining) fare.”
Spider-Man: No Way Home ⭐️⭐️ Review
“The ending is totally nonsensical, it ostensibly fixes some of the glaring problems this iteration of Spider-Man had from the jump (which begs the question of why they went down this path in the first place) but I can’t imagine wanting to come back for more.”
The Clovehitch Killer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Valley of the Dead ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“The script here is quite strong in an old-school fashion, plenty of zingers, insults, and patter, the characters are well fleshed out with their own quirks, snappy performances, a superficial but effective utilization of the setting, and overall it just works.”
Oblivion ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“By turns intriguing, entertaining, and frustrating, Oblivion is an overly complicated but overall fairly solid sci-fi flick. Don’t think about it too much and you will probably have fun on the ride.”
The Void ⭐️½ Review
“Pointless and derivative creature feature with awful acting and plot (but the creatures are pretty good if that is your thing).”
Spiderhead ⭐️⭐️ Review
“The plot twists are laughably absurd, the “sympathetic” characterization is maudlin, and the tone veers wildly. The film also manages to transform a (modest) critique of the carceral system and the pharmaceutical industry into a story of a lone villain wrecking havoc on some poor souls.”
Killing Them Softly (rewatch) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
X ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Last Night in Soho ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Gray Man ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“Do I generally prefer a more grounded approach to this sort of tale? Yes. Can I just turn my brain off and enjoy a bunch of men (and women) of action beating each other to a pulp? This time around I definitely could.”
Nightmare Alley ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Nope ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“My favorite film yet from Jordan Peele.”
Licorice Pizza ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“An oddball hustler romance that left me smiling all the way through.”
Porco Rosso ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Light as a feather, perhaps the most pure expression of Miyazaki’s love affair with aviation and the promise of freedom from a cruel world in the escape of flight.”
Bicycle Thieves ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Finally saw this, it certainly deserves its reputation as a classic and has aged wonderfully. Idiosyncratic and surprising, depressing and life-affirming.”
Black Tide ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
Blow the Man Down ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Memory ⭐️⭐️
The Northman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Old People ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lot 36 ⭐️
See How They Run ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“To call this film ‘deeply indebted’ to the filmography of Wes Anderson would be a major understatement, but I’m fine with that.”
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“A deeply engrossing look at a sprawling cinematic genre/mode/vibe that is almost overwhelming in its breadth and depth. The earlier chapters focusing on “classic” English folk horror (both famed and obscure) were the most engaging for me, with really strong analysis and deep reflection, and I basically wanted to make notes about every single film and watch as many of them as I could.”
His Girl Friday ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“Highly entertaining and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it’s Rosalind Russell’s party the whole way through.”
Don’t Worry Darling ⭐️⭐️⭐️½ Review
“Olivia Wilde’s sophomore feature is all dazzling surfaces, a visual treat that unfortunately doesn’t have quite enough substance underneath the inventive styling to support the weight of the film as a whole.”
Peninsula ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review
“This is a great example of the possibilities in taking video games aesthetics, world-building, and mission design and bringing it to a film, however it also clearly shows the limits of that approach.”