My Top 10 films of 2022
It had to be “Nope”. Yes! Nope!
It had to be “Nope”. Yes! Nope!
Of all the top ten lists in all the towns in all the world, you walk into mine and for that, I sincerely thank you. These end of year lists are incredibly subjective, as is any form of film criticism or appreciation, but I’ve watched a lot of films in the past calendar year of 2022 and I’ve had a little fun compiling the following.
But first, the simple ground rules: To make the final cut of ten, I had to watch the film itself in the past 365 days, pen my thoughts here in a blog article AND the film itself had to be officially released here in the UK in 2022.
By my calculation I’ve watched and written about 42 films from 2022 as well as at least that same figure again of films officially released in 2021 (but watched last year) and probably another 25 or so staple classics that I re-visit every year. I am a reformed film obsessive (reformed? Film Editor) and I simply enjoy distracting myself from an upside down world and exploring where I can take my rambling musings in a spoiler free direction on a film, and from a blank sheet of paper and a standing start. I find it exciting, daunting and quite often, intoxicating, as I have so much to say I twist myself in knots writing “around” a film rather than spoiling it.
So curtain up and on with the show! But first, some trailers if you will, and a raft of 2021 films seen this year that couldn’t be counted, those unlovable rogues from 2022 to be avoided at all costs and those beautiful gems that just missed the ultimate top ten accolade.
Films from 2021 watched but not available for consideration
I present to you for your cinematic delight:
The Forever Prisoner (Yet another astonishing real life documentary from Alex Gibney).
Nobody (You’ve NEVER seen Bob Odenkirk like this before!).
Limbo (A heart breaking tale and the human casualty of our forever war).
Dune (A promising beginning from director Denis Villenueve).
The Tender Bar (George Clooney the director comes up trumps once more).
C’mon, C’mon (Joaquin Phoenix comes up trumps as always).
But there’s a whole host more, including:
Old (An M Night Shyamalan directed gem that will age beautifully).
Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson guides Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper in his big screen debut).
9 Days (Edson Oda and another debut film to remember).
And should you still be stuck for a film from 2021 you may have missed, I’d heartily recommend The Little Things, Road to Perth, No Man of God and House of Gucci.
Films from 2022 to be avoided at all costs!
The stinkers I watched so you don’t have to included:
Resurrection (An unspeakable central theme and a dreadful film).
The Seventh Day (Watched it twice. Hated it. Twice!).
Into the Deep (Really intriguing and then a dull thud until the end).
The Contractor (The first of two Chris Pine let-downs).
All The Old Knives (See above!).
Umma (Missed opportunity amid lazy boring horror tropes).
A dozen gems from 2022 that just failed to make the cut
(1) Amsterdam (Fantastic conspiratorial tale. Only just missed the cut).
(2) See How They Run (Wonderful central performance from Sam Rockwell. Again, only just missed the cut).
(3) Don’t Worry Darling (Likeable but obvious twist. May grow on me).
(4) Halloween Ends (Went with my two favourite people in all the world to see the end of Michael Myers. Probably!).
(5) Bullet Train (Went with my two favourite people in all the world to our little and local independent cinema and had a blooming ball!).
(6) Prey (Fantastic and surprising Predator update. Highly recommended).
(7) The Grey Man (Ryan Gosling as a hitman. Hooray!).
(8) The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Nicolas Cage being Nicolas Cage!).
(9) The Black Phone (LOVED IT!).
(10) The French Dispatch (Can’t believe a Wes Anderson film didn’t make the cut, but an indicator of the strength of my final Top Ten hopefully).
(11) Crimes of the Future (Bleak and horribly dystopian and horribly brilliantly David Cronenberg).
(12) Uncharted (Console spin off and a firm favourite of both my son’s and my cinema year. Just missed the cut).
My 2022 TOP TEN
(1) Nope (Directed by Jordan Peele).
“Nope” (2022)
Twisted Spaghetti Western. With added Aliens.medium.com
Nope could also be argued as a somewhat psychological horror and my immediate after film thoughts centred on it’s inspiration being a variety of genre twisting films, from M Night Shyamalan’s Signs in 2002, or back to 1996 for the apocalyptic film Twister or especially the 2016 Denis Villeneuve directed Arrival. I’d also argue that the film has a Spaghetti Western feel to it and especially so the early film music from Michael Abels and his use of tension inducing strings and violins. There are constant stand offs and stare downs way before the reveal of our otherworldly viewers but the anxiety and tension never drains and ala the film’s four distinct screen titled segments of “Ghost”, “Clover”, “Lucky” and “Jean Jacket”, this reminded me of Quentin Tarantino and his use of such a device, as well as keeping a brilliant heightened sense of tension and unknowing.
There were “6 minutes and 13 seconds of havoc” apparently.
And then there was a gem of a 2 hour film that followed it.
(2) The Banshees of Inisherin (Directed by Martin McDonagh).
“The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022)
“She never fecking says hello!”medium.com
Aided by a beautiful music score from Coen Brothers regular Carter Burwell and the wide angled cinematography of Ben Davis (who also returns from doing likewise on Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), this is yet another difficult to define comedy from London born Martin McDonagh but perfectly in keeping with his Oscar winner from 2017 and In Bruges from 2008. I’ve been a fully paid up member of his cinematic fan club since this film nearly fifteen years ago and through the various existential prisms of loneliness, death, living a life to be remembered, friendship, depression and the passage of time, McDonagh has written, directed and created an absolute gem once again.
(3) Fall (Directed by Scott Mann).
“Fall” (2022)
Don’t. Look. Down.medium.com
The greatest compliment I can pay Fall is that this was my worst nightmare writ large for 107 cinematic minutes and I was incredibly uncomfortable for the first 40 or so of those minutes. There are unexpected shocks, genuine horrors and to use two old fashioned English phrases which I hope translate wherever in the world you read this brief spoiler free ramble, the film “gave me the willies!” and/or it “put the shits up me!”.
How’s that for a recommendation!
You think they’ll put those quotes on the posters?!
(4) Aftersun (Directed by Charlotte Wells).
“Aftersun” (2022)
The unreliability of the persistence of memory.medium.com
I saw Aftersun through the prism of multiple levels: sadness, melancholia, the piecing together of memories, their unreliability or need for photographic or recorded reminders, as well as the oft repeated assertion of a young aged death. There are the distractions and lost thoughts of a troubled mental health, the film is loving, tender, sensual even and, with the high jinks holiday shenanigans clearly depicted, openly sexual undertones.
Coming of age, the passage of life and the mythologising of a loved one through the medium of the unreliability of memory, Aftersun deserves repeated viewings.
(5) Elvis (Directed by Baz Luhrmann).
“Elvis” (2022)
Beautiful warts and all telling of a broken hearted storymedium.com
I may indeed have been mistaken as I was wiping away a few rogue tears long before this incredibly moving denouement. I didn’t expect to cry as perhaps I didn’t expect to have so much invested in the film by the time Elvis sings for the final time. But I did and I was also enveloped in a huge sense of sadness for the man, the son, the father, the husband and the legend that will never, ever die.
Highly recommended.
(6) Men (Directed by Alex Garland).
“Men” (2022)
The magnificent forbidden fruit of Alex Garlandmedium.com
Far more intelligent souls than I will point to the allegory of the eating of an apple from the tree and from what scant headline reviews I’ve seen of this film so far, the words “Toxic Masculinity” scream from nearly every one of them. There is certainly a vast amount of masculinity on show and it’s toxic and deeply, deeply horrible, but lame real life and insulting labels such as these don’t help. “They” are out to get us all, regardless of our gender or identity labels.
This is Alex Garland’s most human film to date, of death, rebirth, guilt, suspicion, trauma, shell shock and self care away from a concrete imposed reality shot through the twisted lens of a personal psychological horror that will live with me for a long time to come.
Highly recommended.
(7) Where The Crawdads Sing (Directed by Olivia Newman).
“Where the Crawdads Sing” (2022)
Beautiful telling of a melancholic talemedium.com
As you can see I rather liked Where The Crawdads Sing and I’ve yet to mention my admiration for the balancing of the melancholia with the freedom of the human spirit and that this film is ultimately a coming of age drama wrapped in abandonment, grief, loss, loneliness, physical abuse and violence and of living in fear when the utmost desire is to live in peace, at one with nature and in one’s own personal safe haven.
“Sometimes I feel so invisible, I wonder if I’m here at all”.
I still haven’t read any other reviews of this film, I might well now read the book, and I heartily recommend this to you.
(8) All My Friends Hate Me (Directed by Andrew Gaynord).
“All My Friends Hate Me” (2022)
Intriguing thriller for those who can take a jokemedium.com
The fourth reason I loved this horribly brilliant comedy is for the one true piece of jarring horror that arrives from nowhere and perfectly in keeping with a film that seems to continually hit you from nowhere and a film that I never stopped musing on why was the comedy so jarringly sharp, awkward, cringeworthy, and to what ends?
The highest compliment I can pay this film is that my original left field thoughts were wildly inaccurate yet perfectly rational for a wildly irrational and horribly funny film that left me constantly trying to piece the puzzle together whilst never discounting my original thesis however wildly inaccurate.
A very interesting and highly recommended film.
(9) The Batman (Directed by Matt Reeves).
“The Batman” (2022)
A gothic, dirty, fetishised and stylised “sins of the father” tale that was almost very good indeed.medium.com
The excellent opening 20 minutes ends with the first of 2 uses of Nirvana’s haunting and ominous track “Something in the Way” and in between you’re treated to a superb scene I can only describe as being a “Human Bomb” and a brilliant chase scene as we finally see the somewhat antiquated and rudimentary Batmobile, the unmasking of “The Riddler” and the fuller introduction to one or two more future villains for the no doubt future sequels.
I almost loved it! The dragging of the last Act though doesn’t diminish an otherwise visionary departure back to a darker Knight, a human Batman and a story that has shades of Se7en, Silence of the Lambs and Zodiac. This grimy, dirty telling of The Batman story was exactly what I expected from the DC Universe, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so well shot and packaged into an almost very good film.
(10) Top Gun: Maverick (Directed by Joseph Kosinski).
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
A love letter to the original that’s an absolute joy.medium.com
Stating this is a carbon copy of the original would seem to be damning it with faint praise but it’s actually, in this instance, the highest of praise. Director Joseph Kosinski deserves high praise too for the insertions of snippets from the 1986 original, and at exactly the right narrative moment too. Tom Cruise is his usual film star self and his enmity with Val Kilmer’s “Ice Man” fully put to bed in an embrace that perhaps said more about real life away from the screen than the beautiful performances on it. Jennifer Connelly simply adds yet more fun, smiles and laughter to an already overflowing barrel with Jon Hamm chewing the scenery around him magnificently and Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis and Danny Ramirez all excelling as they replace the icons of the 1986 fighter training school with real aplomb.
It’s the Cruiser’s film, obviously, but please don’t discount Miles Teller (Whiplash, Thank You For Your Service) for his portrayal of the angst ridden ghost of the past and present Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw. Both the casting and the inclusion of the character he inhabits was an easy one, but both are brilliantly to the fore.
I loved Top Gun: Maverick, but then again, I always hoped I would. Hope was fulfilled and many, many smiles were had.
Bravo.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore and I hope you found some common ground or agreement with one or more of my hopefully eclectic Top 10!
There are well over 180+ articles within my “Film” list and archive and I’d estimate there are now nearly 400 individual films reviewed as well as a number of director’s entire careers catalogued and contained within numerous opus blog articles stretching from 30 minutes to an hour’s reading time depending on the length and depth of the director’s career.
As a taster, here are my three most recently published film articles:
“Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
“Why won’t you listen to my prayers?”medium.com
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out mystery (2022)
“Tonight, in this very room, a murder will be committed”.medium.com
“Amsterdam” (2022)
Entertaining conspiracy in the land of the one-eyed King.medium.com