On 2022
It´s 2023 now, if you didn´t notice. Another year full of promise and opportunity. However, awards season is around these times, and we tend to look at the year that has passed with a lot of attention at the start of a new one. With that in mind, I wanted to write a little about my personal favorite films of the last year. This is a selection based on personal preference rather than the ones I think were the best.
Honorable Mentions:
- Babylon
- Cyrano
- Decision to Leave
- Chip ´n Dale: Rescue Rangers
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
- Mad God
- Werewolf by Night
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- Joyland
- El Norte Sobre El Vacío
- The Wonder
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- Top Gun: Maverick
- Hija de Todas las Rabias
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Women Talking
- Huesera
THE LIST
PINOCCHIO
GUILLERMO DEL TORO AND MARK GUSTAFSON
This is my favorite movie of the year. It´s so delicate and elegant, so mature, so carefully and lovingly constructed. I was incredibly moved by this story, to the point that I´ve seen it more than five times and I still cry at the ending. It means a lot for me personally, it means a lot for the animation industry, it means a lot for Mexican filmmakers. Its score, cinematography, and writing are all superb, and the animation gives industry frontrunners like Laika a run for their money. It´s truly magnificent and among the best in Del Toro´s filmography, and his passion for the project makes his fifteen years of work worth it.
RRR
SS RAJAMOULI
Talk about a pleasant surprise. This movie was quite a treat, an action movie with gusto, creativity, energy, and most importantly, a palpable love for the craft. The performances, the effects, the music, the directing, and the writing are all elaborated with the express purpose of creating a three-hour juggernaut of entertainment whose goal is to constantly one-up itself, to constantly crescendo and burrow its way into the viewer´s heart. It´s massive, but it´s three hours that are unequivocally well spent. I mean, the scene on the bridge where Bheem and Raju meet and rescue a boy together is easily the best action scene of the year, and it lets you know the kind of sensibilities that Rajamouli has as a filmmaker and his transparency as a person: this movie is very honest about what it is and what it´s trying to do, and the world loved it for it, transforming it into one of the biggest crossover hits of the year.
BROKER (브로커)
HIROKAZU KORE-EDA
I´m into these kind of the movies. Broker is a strange yet delightful comedy-drama road movie about two men that steal a baby that was put up for adoption in order to sell it to a wealthy couple, accompanied by the baby´s biological mother in order to ensure that the baby is in good hands. That premise sounds morbid or dark, but I promise, it is a light, beautiful, moving experience, similar to Parasite in the sense that it manages to be highly entertaining and engaging while also having incredible depth and substance. Do watch this movie as soon as possible.
PREY
DAN TRACHTENBERG
In a time when franchises are increasingly bland and dependent on what Lon Harris (@Lons) calls the "remember some guys" type of movies, reference bonanzas that are all about bland fan service and casting legacy actors as legacy characters, I saw two films this year that realized that trusting their audiences with a back-to-basics movie focused on production quality and contextualization of references is a much more effective form of storytelling. Those two movies were Top Gun: Maverick and the Predator prequel Prey, a Predator movie focused on action, ambience, and cool characters in a way that has been unseen since the first entry in the series. Amber Midthunder and Dakota Beavers absolutely murder their roles. And conceptually, the idea of Naru facing an ancient Predator armed with only a Tomahawk, her adorable dog, and her wits is a winning idea to me.
NOPE
JORDAN PEELE
Peele is three for three with this one. There is a definite ramp up in his career, and this does feel like his biggest film yet, kinda like an expansive horror movie Spielberg would make mixed with the topics and commentary that Jordan Peele is clearly very interested in. I loved the characters, the sound design, the camera work, and everthing related to the creature named Jean Jacket. I love this movie´s ambience, I love and get a lot of the things it´s trying to say, and I love the mystery of the things I don´t. Peele films are a wonderful puzzle to me, experiences that metamorph with each viewing, and this one was no exception.
TÁR
TODD FIELD
I mean, come on. Every thread you could pull out of this movie leads to something fascinating. I don´t think this is about cancel culture or wokeism, but rather a very cool, tense, complex examination of power, prestige, and artistry. It´s so well written, and so well made, and features the always great Cate Blanchett, who absolutely kills it in this role. It´s full of incredibly fulfilled, lived-in supporting cast of characters and ambience. The film is a testament to Todd Field´s patience and tenacity in meticulously crafting this film.
THE BATMAN
MATT REEVES
This is in no manner my favorite Batman movie, but it´s up there with The Dark Knight and Mask of the Phantasm for me because of the fact that this adaptation of the Caped Crusader does feel like it creates a world and a take on Batman and Gotham that feels entirely its own. The style, the vibes, and the music make this the Batman detective story I have been waiting for for YEARS. The performances are all great, and Pattinson did a great job starting off his trilogy, but to me it´s Paul Dano that steals the show. Also, this is personally my pick for best cinematography of the year, with its use of color, expansive establishing shots, its use of darkness, and that awesome Batmobile chase. I´m excited for whatever Matt Reeves throws at me next, and I can´t wait to explore more of his Gotham.
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
DANIEL KWAN AND DANIEL SCHEINERT
I´ve said it before: the best movies, or at least the ones that are the most consistenly enduring and memorable, are at the intersection of spectacle and substance. This is the case for all of the great Spielberg, Lucas, Nolan, Peele, and Tarantino films and the reason audiences connect with film in the first place. The now-Best Picture winner Everything Everywher All At Once certainly falls into that category, and the love for the craft is present in every aspect of the film, but unlike those classics both old and modern, it allows itself to be unapologetically strange and absurd, using the multiverse as a story device in a way that is creative and cost-effective, and to tell a story that uses that absurdity to be unexpectedly and deeply profound, complex, and multilayered. The movie transforms in the watching. The action is better than pretty much every big-budget franchise not named Mission: Impossible and it features a career high for both Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Kwan and a great introduction for Stephanie Tsu, as well as an opportunity for Jamie Lee Curtis to be delightfully unhinged. It might be repetitive to say it, but the scene where Evelyn and Joy are rocks was inspiring, and the line "In another life, I would have loved just doing laundry and taxes with you" gets me every time. This film is full of unforgettable moments like that. Is it the best movie this year? It might very well be one of those, at least in my mind.
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY
RIAN JOHNSON
I don´t really know what I could say abut this movie that would be new or worth saying, so I´ll just quote Birdie Jay: "It´s so dumb it´s brilliant." Also, Daniel Craig gave me my favorite performance of the year as Benoit Blanc.
THE FABELMANS
STEVEN SPIELBERG
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I don´t think that there is such a thing as a bad year for movies. There´s good years and less good years. There´s definitely weak or odd Oscar years, like 2021 or 2018 just to name two, but that´s because voting boards at the different awards guilds are very limited in what they watch and vote on because of the sheer amount of press, business, and artistic interests that are involved. But in general, every year has movies that are inspiring, fascinating, and worth investing in emotionally, now more than ever with our access to stuff from all over the world and companies willing to throw money at anyone, which breeds unique opportunities for unique filmmakers. 2022 had a lot of great stuff to offer, instant classics that the internet and movie audiences celebrated. I have consistently been disappointed in the discourse on social media about movies, centered on gatekeeping and politics. But I´ve also been pleasantly surprised at the support given to so many people who did excellent work this year. Who would have thought at the beginning of the year, with so many Marvel and DC things, that Top Gun: Maverick would have been so succesful? Or that Everything Everywhere All At Once would have been such a hit? Or that audiences in the West would have celebrated RRR so much? That's the best part of living in today's world to me, and that's why I love today's cinema.
Here's to a great 2022 and a hopefully better 2023, a year that will basically consist of me waiting six months for Across the Spider-Verse and Indiana Jones and then another six for the new M:I.
Comments
Post a Comment