I never seem to get to all of ‘em!
I’ve held out on writing this list, hoping to cross a few more 2022 movies off my to-watch list. Listed from most to least likely to have cracked the top ten: EO; No Bears; Aftersun; After Yang; Babylon; All Quiet on the Western Front; Women Talking; The Woman King; Saint Omer; many other movies; Bros; etc...
Alas, it feels silly to push a ‘Best Of’/End of Year list too far into a new year. It feels like enough of an exercise in futility asking people to care about your (see: my) little opinions. And yet, not putting this list out has been bugging me for weeks now. So here we are!
2022 was a meh-to-bad year for movies.
Outside of my Top 2, these are good-to-great movies that, for the most part, didn’t inspire much thought beyond “Good movie!” Perhaps that’s getting older, though? It’s why you look at most directors’ BFI Sight & Sound Poll list and think, “Really, you don’t think anything made after your 25th birthday is better than The Searchers1??” I turned 30 in 2022. As far as I can tell, getting older is just fielding diminishing returns. Feeling less and less impressed/inspired by art until eventually you’re phased out of the culture.
I recently followed an account that tweets out random excerpts of Pauline Kael reviews/writings (@paulinekaelbot). I love it. Even these Kael quick bites (quibis, if you will) reflect how deeply she took in everything she watched. Love it or (especially) hate it, she let herself be engulfed by the work. She never let movies escape the symbiotic nature of their creation and exhibition. No film is devoid of context. Even a film made in the most isolated of conditions cannot exist as such forever. It cannot remain detached from the societal and political environments it was both created and viewed in. It cannot exist separate from the personal inner life of the viewer at the time of their watching. Audiences bring as much to a work as the artist (albeit with far less effort).
Making lists, such as the one you’re about to scroll through, gives me solace. Even if I’m getting older and more persnickety about art (among other things), at least I’m still giving myself, warts and all, over to the movies. Perpetually in search of that, well, indescribable feeling we get when the lights begin to dim and we go somewhere we've never been before.
TOP TEN NEW MOVIES OF 2022
10. ELVIS
Austin Butler’s performance lands so hard it manages to completely offset the dog shit Hanks performance and Luhrmann’s absolute worst ADHD tendencies. It’s the perfect biopic performance — heightening the truth historical figure in a way that makes it resonate with modern audiences.
9. JACKASS FOREVER
It’s felt like a statement inclusion more than a genuine appreciation of Jackass Forever when I’ve seen it pop up on various critics’ end-of-year lists. I’ll admit my inclusion here is of a similar nature. Yes, I loved Jackass Forever — ‘Cup Test’ Redux, ‘Lie Detector Test’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ rank among the franchise’s best bits — but as a comprehensive film it’s the weakest of the Jackass movies. In a stronger year it’d be hard to justify its inclusion, but the pure joy I felt seeing (most of) the gang together again warrants its spot.
8. MASTER GARDENER
The weakest of Paul Schrader’s recent2 "man in a room" trilogy pushes his classic “Will God forgive us?” question to its most extreme limits, centering on his most unredeemable character yet: Narvel. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for Schrader but Master Gardener reminds that his strengths (in particular, one hallucinatory driving sequence) make it easy to forgive his worst impulses (naming a character Narvel).
7. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
A great script delivered perfectly by its actors. Its central questions (can decent people make important art? why do we externalize our own insecurities upon those closest to us?) are potent, even if Martin McDonagh’s direction fails to add any visual metaphor or nuance to the story. It’d be a five star play, but alas…
6. NOPE
Narrowly beats out Top Gun: Maverick for best IMAX experience of 2022. The way it switches between aspect ratios with legitimate narrative intent left me gobsmacked. There should be an Oscar category for “Best IMAX Movie.” Anyway, I don’t know if Jordan Peele makes great movies as much as he makes ambitiously original ones. Thematically, Nope feels more vacuous the more I sit with it but it feels ridiculous to punish Peele for his attempt to sprinkle in some big ideas at the multiplex. I don’t think I had more capital-F Fun at the movies this year.
5. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
Proof that being “on the nose” isn’t always a bad thing. The familiar, light thematic considerations here (eat the rich, etc.) allow Ruben Ostlund to take some insane swings narratively and visually. Winner of the prestigious 2022 “Best Plane Movie” (another Oscar category we’d all love to see, folks).
4. RESURRECTION
Wicked, nasty little picture. Best genre, freak-out movie of the year, escalated ten fold by Rebecca Hall’s tour-de-force performance as a woman gaslit into losing a grip on reality. Kind of surprised this one didn’t get more love throughout the year. I heard a rumor Tim Roth read all his lines off an iPad teleprompter held just off-screen. Don’t know if that makes what he’s doing here more or less impressive. I’d lean towards more??
3. DECISION TO LEAVE
Decision to Leave is a very good movie but it’s the virtuosic second act that bumps it up to third best of the year. Lotsa movies deemed Hitchcock-esque these days, but Park Chan-wook straight up made a modern day Hitchcock movie with cellphones and screen time.
2. ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED
Okay, now we’ve entered classic territory. Ironically as Laura Poitras’ documentaries have become more refined in their righteous anger towards political systems, she’s counterbalanced any emotional underpinnings by focusing on over-analytical, legitimately neurodivergent subjects (Edward Snowden & Julian Assange). All The Beauty and The Bloodshed, telling the story of Nan Goldin’s career and fight against the Sackler family’s hold on the art world, is a splendid overcorrection. One of the most emotionally tumultuous and resonant films I’ve seen in years. A testament to art’s (both Goldin’s and Poitras’) to reflect societal anger into something more transcendent.
1. TAR
Going back to what I said earlier re: the diminishing returns of aging. Perhaps it’s exactly because I feel so much more frequently underwhelmed and disappointed by art that I’ve gained a greater appreciation for instances where it feels like a lightning strike. Tar is a modern American classic. Not since 2010’s The Social Network has there been a film both so expertly crafted and of its moment.
To take my own Letterboxd words, post-first watch:
I think the brilliance lies in its omissions. You never see any of Lydia Tar’s alleged transgressions or the resulting “difficult conversations” had with her. Too much work trying to capture a cultural zeitgeist portrays morality in black-and-white. Tar lives in the gray. It’s an all-encompassing character study of an archetypal, exceptional American artist in the 21st century. What we (see: society) allow artists to get away with for the sake of their work, but mores for the industries (and people) that hope the success and glory will trickle down to them. It deals with the limits and dangers of transactional relationships on the highest level. Also, what a treat to watch a high-brow American drama employ psychic terrors in a way that advances our understanding of character and story instead of simply flexing the director’s literary prowess or eschewing all humor. It just surpasses all expectations by a mile. A masterpiece.
As for my ten best first-time watches of 2022 (in no order):
The Gambler (Reisz - 1974)
Ace In The Hole (Wilder - 1951)
Topsy-Turvy (Leigh - 1999)
Naked (Leigh - 1993)
Breaking the Waves (Von Trier - 1996)
Dogville (Von Trier - 2003)
The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler - 1946)
Carnal Knowledge (Nichols - 1971)
Sullivan’s Travels (Sturges - 1941)
American Gigolo (Schrader - 1980)
Last thing, I’m always writing here sporadically. If you like this, consider signing up/sharing for reasons of “Harris’ ego.”
Thought long and hard about which movie to put here. Other options for overrated classics that top Sight & Sound include: Vertigo; Battleship Potemkin; Passion of Joan of Arc
Technically, this will be a wide 2023 release but I saw it in 2022. Sue me!