Best of 2022
Added 2022-12-26 20:12:55 +0000 UTCI'm working on a top 10 list hopefully to be out next week. Let me know what some of your favorite movies were this year and why.
Comments
Yay! Glad to see the support. I'm normally not a big movie theater person. But I'm encouraging people to see this one on the big screen.
Deepfocuslens
2023-01-06 20:23:58 +0000 UTCI went to see Babylon at yesterday's noon showing. Very much enjoyed it.
Atticus Xey
2023-01-05 03:25:10 +0000 UTCThere is just so much content nowadays it's impossible to keep up with everything, since I posted this I've seen Vesper and The Banshees of Inisherin both of which would have made the list. Crazy times.
Ross Skilton
2022-12-28 22:22:56 +0000 UTCVery pleased indeed. Looking forward to seeing your list.
Bennett Oliver
2022-12-28 22:05:14 +0000 UTCHaha...I suppose I'm a bit different. I never sign off on anything until I've seen it...even if it is Park Chan Wook. Unfortunately for me, this film just didnt land emotionally. I saw it three times just to be sure. But for sure it has things in it that still intrigue me and I think about often. Certainly not a bad film. Just...didn't feel it. And I always try to find an honest connection with a film from a personal perspective, and I struggled here.
Deepfocuslens
2022-12-28 21:50:09 +0000 UTCHaha....you'll be pleased to see that The Batman made my list as well. Much to my audiences chagrin, I'm sure. Oh well....they can get over it. XD
Deepfocuslens
2022-12-28 21:45:17 +0000 UTCFor sure. Still lingering in mine as well.
Deepfocuslens
2022-12-28 21:44:17 +0000 UTClol...haven't seen half of these XD
Deepfocuslens
2022-12-28 21:43:50 +0000 UTCPlenty of big ones I have to catch up on but from what I have seen: 1. Apollo 10 1/2 A Space age childhood 2. Everything everywhere all at once 3. Blonde 4. Prey 5. Thirteen Lives 6. RRR 7. The Batman 8. It's a wonderful binge 9. Werewolf by night 10. The unbearable weight of massive talent
Ross Skilton
2022-12-27 18:04:06 +0000 UTCDecision to Leave. I mean if it’s Park Chan Wook then it’s an instant win any year, but this feels different to his other films. Though I wouldn’t say it’s his best I do respect that it he takes a more grounded approach to story telling here. Usually he always has this heightened sense of realism in his films but this is his most realistic in many ways and leaves more room for audience interpretation than he has done before. Comes with being a neo noir mystery I suppose.
Matt Silcock
2022-12-27 01:52:09 +0000 UTCI have a list of like 25 haha but for the sake of time: 5. Top Gun: Maverick/Mad God (tie) 4. GdT’s Pinnocchio 3. The Batman 2. Crimes of the Future 1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Even though these are all “genre” films, I feel like these titles were more sonically memorable, visually captivating and technologically innovative than any of the “indie drama” or “Oscar-bait” films that my peers and I would normally favor. I walked out of these 5 theater screenings feeling nothing but joy. #5-3 had years of anticipation behind them, so their success after a long wait definitely helped their ranking on my list. Also, there was a special comfort in knowing that Cronenberg can still gross me out in 2022.
Jared Angcanan
2022-12-26 23:11:30 +0000 UTCDefinitely
Stephen
2022-12-26 22:44:07 +0000 UTCWe're All Going to the World's Fair wasn't a movie that knocked my socks off immediately but it had lingered in my mind all year. Don't think a movie has ever captured the loneliness of the internet so fell.
Tyler Shobe
2022-12-26 22:39:25 +0000 UTC1. Mad God - No film wowed me more than this one. On the surface, a love letter to post apocalyptic sci fi and body horror with plenty to chew on beneath the surface. Visually stunning, I wish I had seen this in a theater. 2. We’re All Going to World’s Fair - Great low budget horror film that explores how consumed today’s youth lives through the internet. It’s approach is more immersive rather than cautionary and yet the results are ultimately very disturbing. I saw this one months ago and the ending and its implications still haunt me. 3. The Banshees of Inisherin - It’s fecking great! Great performances all around, incredibly witty, and ultimately sorrowful. On a personal level, this one really hit home for me more than I’m willing to admit. 4. Crimes of the Future - "It has meaning, very potent meaning, and many, many people respond to it." I thought we’d seen the last of Cronenberg but I’m beyond happy he was able to return with this quirky(to put it lightly), fun film that’s ultimately very hopeful. 5. Nope - For me, Jordan Peele just keeps getting better with each film. His ability to orchestrate tension, exciting set pieces, and of course humor makes this a fun ride, reminiscent of what old school blockbusters use to be. Like his last film, “Us,” there are definitely narrative issues to ponder and I wanted more from certain characters, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was fully invested in this from beginning to end.
Stephen
2022-12-26 21:12:16 +0000 UTCI still need to catch up with all the 2022 movies that have come out, but two films have stayed with me that I consider standouts, and they’re surprisingly mainstream: The Batman and Ron Howard’s Thai cave rescue drama Thirteen Lives. The Batman, as derivative as it is (though to be fair, how could it not be, given how many movies and shows there’ve been on him?), finally tackles the character’s ambiguity head-on and places him in a squalid, sinister labyrinthine world that befits his nature. It goes in too long and there’s one climax too many, but I haven’t forgotten the scene where he lights up the flare and leads the people out of danger. That scene, in which Batman stops being a brutish terror and becomes a hero, says far more about the best that Batman can be for Gotham than any speech given in the Nolan trilogy. Though Ron Howard will never stop being a middlebrow Hollywood director, he has refined his skills in telling a story. Thirteen Lives, in its real-life story of a nation working round the clock to save a soccer team trapped in a flooded cave, can be viewed as a companion piece to Apollo 13. But since that 1995 film, Howard has learned to stay out of the way of a story’s events and simply let them be told. He’s not trying so hard to rouse the audience with suspense and uplift anymore. The result, even if you know how it call goes down, is a thoroughly gripping, no-nonsense depiction of the efforts made—by the divers harrowingly making their way through the narrow flooded passages and everyone trying to stave off the rain water from seeping into the cave—to get the team to safety. It’s been said a lot, but this is the type of film that doesn’t get made anymore, and certainly not as well as this. That’s all I got right now. I have a feeling there’s other movies I can put on my list that I haven’t seen yet, but these are on there for sure.
Bennett Oliver
2022-12-26 20:57:46 +0000 UTCLimbo sounds really cool. Thanks for the rec.
Tyler Shobe
2022-12-26 20:35:36 +0000 UTCI think it’s a bit out there even for him so keep that in mind
Jackson Littlewood
2022-12-26 20:35:05 +0000 UTC1) Mad God An astonishing cinematic achievement of Lynchian, biblical, subterranean horror. Pretty much was made for me. 2) The Banshees of Inisherin Just adored how bleakly hilarious this was. Loved how it dealt with existentialism in rural life. 3) Vortex Noé’s most mature, most personal film to date but still with his signature shock value. 4) Three Thousand Years of Longing One of the most wholly unique and moving fantasy epics I’ve seen in a while. 5) Nope Peele’s treatise on spectacle is him at his most visually ambitious. I was gripped for the entire runtime. 6) Crimes of the Future Cronenberg’s journey back into body horror didn’t disappoint. Very personal too. I think he sees so much of himself in the Viggo character. 7) Stars at Noon Have no idea why critics don’t like this more. Very cool spin on Claire Denis’s usual post-colonial critiques. Societies reduced to transactional relationships. 8) Limbo Hard to find, very underrated Hong Kong procedural noir/action film. If you like stuff like Se7en, Memories of Murder, or I Saw The Devil, check this out. 9) The Northman A psychedelic, testosterone-fueled Robert Eggers Viking epic that still managed to be psychologically engaged with its characters and thoughtfully critiqued the time period. 10) Everything Everywhere All At Once Simply the most fun I’ve had at the movies this year. One of the most wild, unique visions in years.
Jackson Littlewood
2022-12-26 20:33:57 +0000 UTCSpecial shoutout to Tar for being the only movie this year to make me feel smarter than I actually am. Or reminded me that I'm actually dumb. Can't tell which.
Tyler Shobe
2022-12-26 20:28:31 +0000 UTCThe only one I saw this year was Tár and it's still lingering in my mind.
Wolfman Brandon
2022-12-26 20:24:56 +0000 UTCAs someone that hasn't really connected with Strickland's work thus far, do you think Flux Gourmet stands out amongst his work that even a doubter should try it out?
Tyler Shobe
2022-12-26 20:23:31 +0000 UTCEverything Everywhere is far away my favorite but that's gonna be so common that I don't feel the need to add anything to that conversation. My close number 2 is Bones and All. For me, there wasn't a more emotional resonate, atmospheric and sublime movie experience this year. I'm a big Guadignino fan and for me this was an awesome synthesis of his combining the darkness and intensity of Suspiria with the casual atmosphere and off kilter romance of Call Me By Your Name. And what really got me is it takes this kind of absurd premise that on paper is laughable but played it totally straight and somehow it really worked for me. It also captures the American Midwest in a way that accentuates its natural beautiful and grunginess simultaneously. I cried when I saw it the first time and twice when I saw it again a few days later.
Tyler Shobe
2022-12-26 20:22:05 +0000 UTCFlux Gourmet by Peter Strickland and EO Jerzy Skoliminzki are the two films that were standouts to me . They were the most bold and involving sensory experiences I had. They both made me feel a rollercoaster of emotions few films this year did, while being a cohesive vision
jared Clarke
2022-12-26 20:17:51 +0000 UTC
