2022 was not my year. An absolutely brutal 365 days that kicked me in the face over and over and over again every chance it could. Sure, there were a few bright spots – I lost over 30 pounds and still on track to lose more, I’ve made good progress on my animated film, I learned a few new skills and spent a great deal of time with my family – but overall this has been one of the shittiest years of my adult life. One where it was hard to get out of bed most mornings. I’m foolishly going into 2023 with a lot of (forced) optimism and a personal intention to work for achieving the very best. Let’s hope my best laid plans half work out.
One of the bright spots of 2022 though has been the movies. They kept me up while I was down and thankfully there were a lot of great ones this year. Some were films I have been waiting almost a decade to see, others were films long-delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic that finally got to see the light of day and others were complete surprises.
I’m going to try and keep this shorter than previous years so here’s my QUICK annual write up of my favorite films of the year. First, the Honorable Mentions:
Honorable Mention #1 – KIMI. (Dir. Steven Soderbergh)
In a just world, Steven Soderbergh’s paranoia masterpiece KIMI would have gotten a theatrical release, made a healthy profit, been a pop culture talking point for a couple months and would have ended the year with some much deserved attention at all the silly award shows. Instead, the movie was dumped on HBOMax one quiet Thursday in February with little marketing and made no culture dent of any kind. Which is a fucking crime! Soderbergh, the genre master he is, delivers a tightly edited, wonderfully shot, chaotic and controlled paranoia thriller with direct homages to the works of past masters like Alfred Hitchcock, Brian DePalma and even throws in a cheeky HOME ALONE reference. This movie is sick is what I’m saying! AND it’s one of the few movies to properly express the experience of remote work and living though the COVID-19 pandemic! Zoë Kravitz is the best she’s ever been as Angela, the remote tech working for an Amazon like mega-company, and she wonderfully carries the film which is a must cause at least half of the tight 89 minute runtime is her working on her computer. Hers is one of the best performances of the year in one Soderbergh’s strongest films in his fantastic career!
Honorable Mention #2 – EVANGELION: 3.0+1.0 – THRICE UPON A TIME. (Hideaki Anno)
In 2022 I finally got to experience my most anticipated film of all time – and favorite movie of 2021 – on the big screen. And in IMAX no less! Hideaki Anno’s explosive & powerful conclusion to the REBUILD OF EVANGELION saga is a masterpiece through & through and on the big screen it’s even more of an absolute wonder! I’m saving my thoughts on the Rebuilds for a later essay I intend to write one day so all I’ll say at this moment is THRICE UPON A TIME has only improved every time I’ve watched it – which is often – and the entire Rebuild saga ranks as one of my favorite achievements in film history!
Honorable Mention #3 – WENDELL & WILD. (Dir. Henry Selick)
For the past two months I haven’t been able to log onto Netflix without having WEDNESDAY, their hit show where a decades old IP character is played by a hit Zoomer star dropped in a narrative that doesn’t fit the character, pushed on me. I have no interest in the show. I will never watch the show. I refuse to watch the show. I’ve told the algorithm all this and still the show is pushed on me and I’m told it’s a 97% match to my interests. What I’m saying is when Netflix wants to sell something on their service they have the money and energy to do so. For some reason, maybe because of the film’s no-nonsense in-your-face racial and social politics, Netflix refused to support WENDELL & WILD, the new film from stop-motion master Henry Selick. It’s upsetting. The film isn’t perfect – it’s over stuffed with plot elements and takes too long to get to the very strong anti-business message – but when the film soars it SOARS. This does everything Twitter praises Disney for hinting at it doing in their “content”. Strong political message? Check. A trans character placed front & center? Check. WENDELL & WILD has it all. It’s one of Henry Selick’s messiest films but it is also a rare treat from one of the greatest animation filmmakers alive!
Honorable Mention #4 – MADE IN ABYSS: THE GOLDEN CITY OF THE SCORCHING SUN. (Masayuki Kojima.)
2022 was the year I got back into habitually watching anime and there were some pleasant surprises along the way. I enjoyed the chaotic romcom KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR, I adored SPY X FAMILY which is the perfect made-for-all-audiences TV show of the year, and I’ve so enjoyed the clips I’ve seen of CHAINSAW MAN & BOCCHI THE ROCK that I’m planning to watch both in the very near future when I have the time. But, if there’s one anime series that was a true winner in 2022 it was MADE IN ABYSS. The show actually began back in 2017 but the manga has taken so long to be write a second season only was capable of happening now. Set in a Final Fantasy-like universe, MiA is an adventure tale where on an island in the middle of the ocean there exists a giant mysterious hole, the “Abyss”, and it beckons travelers to explore its dark depths. But, this is no simple cavern because due to the atmosphere inside it anyone who travels too far down into the lower levels of the Abyss becomes physically incapable of returning to the surface. It’s like a fantastical and hyper-violent version of decompression sickness, the “bends”, sets in and kills them if they travel too deep. At the end of the movie, DAWN OF THE DEEP SOUL which takes place between the two seasons, our young protagonists finally go past that point-of-no-return and can’t reverse their suicide mission to uncover what rests at the bottom of the Abyss. With incredibly cutesy character designs meant to mislead the viewer and make the hard moments more impactful, the story of MiA features some of the darkest and most unpleasant imagery I’ve seen in any story and yet despair never overwhelms the show and render the whole experience unpleasant. Horrific yes but there’s joy to be found amongst all the pain the series heroes experience and that balancing act is all the more impressive the darker this tale gets.This second season centers on what the heroes experience in a village deep in the Abyss that is full of and IS one of the most amazing Cronenberg-like creations I’ve ever seen. It’s sickening, it’s gross, it’s unpleasant and it has a secret that is both horrific and beautiful. MADE IN ABYSS is a delightful series and I loved it! The only downside? The (sus) creator is taking so damn long to write the freaking manga there probably won’t be a Season Three until 2030.
THE TOP 15 FILMS OF 2022
Note: The list only contains films I saw for the first time THEATRICALLY in the calendar year 2022.
There are many films I’ve enjoyed a great deal but missed seeing in a theater for various reasons and those aren’t in this list. There are also a handful of 2022 releases I was hoping to see before the end of the year that I didn’t get the chance to – films like THE WHALE, BABYLON, and SHIN ULTRAMAN – and they’re not included for that reason. The general logic is if there’s a movie you loved that isn’t on this list it’s because I haven’t seen it.
I no longer rank my Top 15. There’s too much over thinking about what should be #13 and what should be #9. Instead I only really rank the Top 5. The first 10 are in alphabetical order.
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN. (Martin McDonagh.)
Colin Farrell’s eyebrows have never been better featured in a movie. Those mystical brows of his tilt and furrow in ways I didn’t think humanly possible as he steadily changes from “one of life’s good guys” into a broken man all because his best friend just “doesn’t like him no more” one day. What starts as the smallest of miscommunications grows into one of the most tragic and darkest of black comedies without ever going into overblown parody. The twists and turns of this story, aligned with McDonagh’s memorable and extremely quotable dialogue, are as shocking as they are funny without losing that core sadness. The entire film is a melancholic masterpiece! Farrell is doing some of the best work of his career as the emotional dim bulb who doesn’t have the intellect to find a solution to his problems and Brendan Gleeson is an excellent co-lead as a deep, soulful and smart man who is absolutely incapable of emotionally working through this. The very simple setup of a mismatched duo unable to fully talk to one another is sublime and kept my attention from start to finish! Big shout outs to the supporting cast of Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan who enrich the entire picture. Easily my favorite McDonagh movie!
BEAST. (Baltasar Kormákur.)
I’m a simple man. You tell me your movie has Idris Elba punching a lion in the face and it runs a tight 90 minutes and you’ve sold me a ticket. Based on the box office I was one of the few who saw this in theaters – twice – and considering it has a miserable 5.6/10 on IMDB I may be one of the few who deeply loves this silly little flick. BEAST is not some unappreciated masterpiece that will be rediscovered in a few years but it is a damn fine work of genre filmmaking. With a simple mood building score by Steven Price similar to what he did in GRAVITY and Kormákur using long takes to keep the lion’s off-camera location a mystery makes this a great and tension filled watch. Elba is great, the actresses playing his daughters are strong and Sharlto Copley, getting to play a South African again, is the best he’s been in years. The lion punching doesn’t even come until the end but the preceding 80 minutes are so well-told with the characters all being just the right level of smart and smart to keep the action going that when the lion punching does start you cheer. And the VFX on the lions are incredibly well done! BEAST won’t change your life but if you find yourself with a free night and looking for a movie give this a try!
BLONDE. (Andrew Dominik.)
BLONDE is the biggest swing of 2022. By design, this is either a film you admire greatly or despise passionately. I can’t imagine there are many people who sat through all 167 minutes of BLONDE and felt indifferent after finishing it. A dark and viscerally unpleasant nightmare that starts with childhood trauma and ends in more trauma, this is NOT the “Oscar-friendly Marilyn Monroe biopic” I imagine Netflix wanted when they gave Andrew Dominik a truckload of cash. BLONDE is an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates novel, a very loose “interpretation” of Monroe’s life, and the book, like the film, doesn’t adhere to the normal biopic template – there are no scenes of Monroe falling in love with acting nor are there montages of her career – but instead dedicates itself almost entirely to the trauma and abuse of being a sexual icon in America. It’s DARK. This is a thoroughly unpleasant film! The prologue of Monroe’s childhood is one of the most unsettling things I’ve ever seen in a film – the violent sound design, my god!– and it doesn’t get any lighter from there. This movie comes with ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. I’ll admit I have issues with some of the things shown over the course of BLONDE and I feel the last 20 minutes are a bit of a drag – drag as in it’s dull, the movie by design is a drag – but there is a real power to this unpleasantness and that shouldn’t be ignored. There are images, horrors and emotions from this I will be incapable of forgetting. Dominik is really going for it here with his filmmaking being as impressive on a craft level as it is repulsive in what we’re being shown. And throughout it all Ana De Armas never falters in the lead role and you never are allowed to forget Marilyn was a person and she deserved better in life.
And perhaps Marilyn deserved better than this film? Perhaps the film should have been about an entirely fictionalized “Blonde”. This is a crazy complicated issue and I’ve been reading others opinions on the film since I saw it in September. Is it possible to make a film about the exploitation of a woman who, after her death, might be the most exploited woman of all time without also contributing to the exploitation problem at large? I don’t have an answer. I do know I found the film incredibly empathetic, powerful, moving and was one of the most memorable cinematic experiences of 2022. I also know, unlike most films, if someone told me they thought this was disgusting and offensive they are in the right and there’s no reason to try and dissuade them from feeling that. BLONDE is an insanely complicated film. Or it’s offensive trash. Maybe it’s art. Maybe it’s expensive smut. It’s many things. Forgettable is not one of them.
DECISION TO LEAVE. (Park Chan-wook.)
Park Chan-wook is not human. OR Park Chan-wook is the most human! The filmmaking skill on display in DECISION TO LEAVE is on another level but it never gets in the way of the emotionality and humanity present in every scene. Park’s handle on story is so refined that I rarely noticed how intricately it is all put together on a technical level until a rewatch. I’m usually very good at picking out sneaky filmmaking tricks but I only realized that the shot in the image above not only involves the camera being pointed directly at the mirror BUT that the focus on both characters is alternating at different focal lengths times throughout the shot because of a tweet! The tricks are so well hidden in the emotion of the story and that’s because the best tool Park has at his disposal is the incredible chemistry between Park Hae-il and Tang Wei. The simple setup is Hae-il is a detective investigating whether a hiker’s recent death was accidental or a homicide and in his investigation finds himself drawn to the victims wife, played by Wei, and that Hitchcock worthy setup is only the beginning of where this twisty SEXY story goes. Backed with superb cinematography and production design Park Chan-wook adds another thrilling masterpiece to his long and impressive body of work! I was unaware this film existed until just before release and DECISION TO LEAVE was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2022 and I wholeheartedly recommend it!
GLASS ONION. (Rian Johnson.)
I’ll put this hot take right out there: I prefer KNIVES OUT to the much broader, zanier and colorful sequel. I vibed with the autumnal and more down-to-Earth tone of the 2019 original that I did the sunlit and cartoonishly big reach of the second film. But, I still really enjoyed GLASS ONION! I don’t feel the political commentary is as astute as the original – if the first film effectively pointed out the hypocrisy of wealthy families mooching off a central figure I felt the sequel’s “billionaires are stupid and we’re stupid to trust them” felt Tweetdeep – but I had a great time with the film and will happily see a third Benoit Blanc Mystery. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if Johnson and Daniel Craig – splendid again as Blanc – spent the rest of their careers making one of these every three-to-five years. Give me a dozen Blanc Mysteries. The technicals on this are superb throughout and a great deal above the production values of most Netflix “Originals”. The cast, while all going much broader than in the original, are enjoyable throughout as well. I’m especially fond of Edward Norton as the idiot billionaire and Dave Bautista as an MRA moron continues to be one of the most exciting actors on the planet. As great as everyone is it’s Janelle Monáe who steals the film out from everyone and they are captivating in every scene they’re in. I figure we’ll get a Third “Knives Out” movie by Thanksgiving 2024 and hopefully Netflix doesn’t pull another shitty micro-theatrical run for it but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Maybe when Johnson makes “Knives Out 4” he can go with a real studio again. Take that $500M Netflix paycheck and run.
HALLOWEEN ENDS. (David Gordon Green.)
This was unexpected! Maybe the biggest movie shock of 2022! I liked David Gordon Green’s HALLOWEEN 2018 just fine but thought the “it’s about TRAUMA” sell was a bit much and that it should’ve been a standalone. I enjoyed the all-but-the-kitchen-sink slasher fun of HALLOWEEN KILLS as the silly nonsense it was but never felt a need to revisit it. So my anticipation for the finale of DDG’s Michael Myers Trilogy was pretty low and I was going into it simply as a Halloween completists and fully expected a bland by-the-books slasher.
Then the movie started and 10 minutes in there was a death that floored me! It’s a kill that is as shocking as it is funny and when a character screamed “What did you do!” and the movie sharply cut to a classic Halloween Opening Credits sequence I knew this fucker was going to be something different. If H2018 was DDG making a safe legacy sequel to John Carpenter’s original and KILLS was the pandering “give the fans what they want” then ENDS is purely DDG’s baby! This movie, the 13TH HALLOWEEN FILM, is wonderfully original, plays by its own roles and is loaded with DDG’s collection of weird quirks and filmmaking interests and I loved it! I mean this movie takes so many risks a franchise film this far in to the brand shouldn’t! Michael Myers doesn’t show up until about 45 minutes in and he doesn’t kill anyone until after the 70 minute mark. The heroes of the previous film take a backseat until the final act as the story focuses on a fascinating new character and gives him a really powerful and complete story that gets wrapped up in this one movie!
Obviously, this means the vocal Halloween fanbase has thrown it under the bus. Fans say they want their series to take brave original risks but what they really want is to play the hits again and again and again in hopes of replicating the experience they had as a child… which is an impossible demand. Its been curious to see the online response has almost exclusively fallen into two camps: A) “The worst movie ever!” Or B) “The best since the original!” Clearly, I fall into Camp B. If you go into ENDS with an open mind I’d love to hear where you fell!
NOPE. (Jordan’s Peele.)
Let Peele cook. I thought his first two movies were good, if a bit overrated, but I LOVED his go at making a classic piece of cinematic spectacle in NOPE. This is easily one of the best single Movie Movie’s Hollywood has put out in years! Big visuals and big emotions are what Peele is after here! There is a rich thematic depth to the film as well – especially the throughline of what achieving success in the film industry does to a person – but if you just want to see some people run for their lives from a giant alien or be hit with some destined-to-be-iconic images then this movie is more than happy to give that to you. The cast is delightful – the sibling energy between Daniel Kaluuya & Keke Palmer is exquisitely done – Hoyte Van Hoytema’s cinematography is fantastic, Michael Wincott gets to rasp out Purple People Eater and the continually evolving creature design was the best special effect of the summer. As an added bonus, Peele made the best and ONLY live-action adaptation EVANGELION that ever needs to exist!
TÁR. (Todd Field.)
I don’t know if any recent fictional character has ever been as well realized in a film as Lydia Tár. It helps that the first 15 minutes of Todd Field’s newest essentially centers around a journalist reading her Wikipedia entry to the audience. Lydia Tár may be a fictional character – and a made up creation of the main character in the narrative of the film as well – but when the movie ends you’d guarantee THE ACTUAL Lydia Tár is out there in the world making moves and that her “biopic” is all part of her grand professional career plan. Clearly Lydia Tár isn’t real but Cate Blanchett does career best work – which is saying something – making her feel absolutely real. Her performance, her every nuance, every syllable she speaks, every look she makes is captivating and you are incapable of taking your eyes off her. A film that is equal parts entertaining and mentally stimulating, I wish TÁR had caught on with general audiences cause it’s truly something special but that’s the world we live in.
Todd Field’s cold but sharp filmmaking surrounds this cold but sharp character and when you’re reminded the director had an acting role in Stanley Kubrick’s final film you can’t help but think “Of course! That’s who the film reminded me of!” and if that’s not an endorsement I don’t know what is.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK. (Joseph Kosinski.)
A real breath of fresh air in the blockbuster market. My parents will tell you when I was a baby I was a huge fan of the original TOP GUN and maybe I was but as I grew up the love for that film entirely dissipated. Nowadays I’m excited for a new Tom Cruise simply on the ground it’s a new film of his but I admit when I heard TOP GUN 2 was in development I couldn’t get my excitement up. I guessed it would do fine as a filler in between new MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE sequels but this was not something I expected to get much out of. Thankfully, I was oh so wrong. TOP GUN: MAVERICK is one of the most old-school blockbusters in ages! They take the format of a heist movie, dedicate the whole first two acts to character work and getting these clearly defined characters trained and up-to-speed on what is meant to happen on the mission and then the final act is one big perfect set-piece as everything does – or doesn’t – go according to plan. It’s such classic setup and payoff filmmaking that has been missing from giant movies of late. And this movie feels BIG! While the story and character work is all down-to-earth and real – no one here has magic powers and no one is destined save the universe – but because of Cruise’s dedication to filming as much as possible for real – there’s still a ton of VFX in this and they do incredible work – really pays off. I didn’t see TOP GUN: MAVERICK until a month or so into its run because I wanted my first time to be on the biggest IMAX screen possible and the shows just kept selling out. I finally lucked out one day and getting to see this gangbuster of a film in a sold-out IMAX screening at the Air & Space Museum, after two years of the pandemic making this seem an impossibility, might be the theatrical high-point of 2022 for me. I hope Paramount finds ways to bring TOP GUN: MAVERICK back to theaters again & again over the next few years cause I’d love to experience this A+ sequel with an audience again! This film kills with an audience!
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS. (Ruben Östlund.)
By far, the best of the Rich People, Amirite? projects of 2022. Östlund’s best film is a cruel and hilarious creed against the evils of class, the ungodly wealthy and the abuse of the service industry. Focused in its message, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS is equally funny and sad from the very first frame and only gets better as it completely rebuilds it as it transitions from Act to Act. This is one of the rare films where you want to go in with no idea of where the story is going – AVOID THE TRAILER – so all I’ll say is while everyone in this film is fantastic, it’s Dolly De Leon who steals the show! This is all the more amazing because I don’t believe she has a line of dialogue until deep into the third act! The other satires of the wealthy this year were pretty good – THE MENU, HBO’s THE WHITE LOTUS: SICILY & yes, GLASS ONION, are lots of fun – but underneath all the jabs and jokes they felt a little toothless and safe while Östlund’s film comes across as the real deal and 100% stands behind the “fuck capitalism” message it’s selling.
TOP 5!
05. ARMAGEDDON TIME. (James Gray.)
Most times when a filmmaker makes a film about their childhood it’s impossible for it not to be drenched in nostalgia. Wasn’t it great when childhoods were like this? ARMAGEDDON TIME is cinematic anti-nostalgia. A sad and reflective look back from one of the great modern American movie masters about how he fucked up as a kid but also a film about how there was nothing he could have done to change things because America has always been an unfair and cold country. James Gray is unflinching and from the very first scene to the very last this is a film about race and how unfair the institutions of America treat people that hits hard. Yes, little Paul Graff (Banks Repeta – fantastic) has a tough time getting made fun of at school because he’s Jewish and he certainly has a complicated home environment – his parents love him but Gray is frank about how short-tempered his father was and how among all the love in his family there was also violence – but that’s nothing compared to what his his friend Johnny (Jaylin Webb – powerful) goes through simply based on the color of his skin. The filmmaking in ARMAGEDDON TIME is brave because it never hides what Johnny is going through – his clothes get more disheveled as the film goes on and he looks more harried every scene – but it also never goes into detail what Johnny is experiencing because as a child James Gray, our POV character, was only focused on his own little world. We’re given one quick glimpse into Johnny’s life late in the film and it’s crushing seeing what has been going on this whole time as we’ve focused on this privileged kids flights of fancy. It’s brave mature filmmaking that doesn’t shy away from the cold unpleasantness of life and doesn’t ever pretend to have the answers. It’s an incredible film that cuts deep and stuck with me long after I left the theater.
04. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert.)
No movie did more in 2022 than EEAAO. I don’t really care about things like the Oscars but this should win Best Picture. The Daniels, who I’ve liked but never loved, use every low-budget cinematic trick imaginable to deliver an experience like no other. As a technical craft of filmmaking EEAAO is a shining achievement of what can be done in film but what makes it truly great is all the crazy flights of fantasy and playful humor is fully in support of a powerful human story about family and our need to connect with one another. The entire Wang family is amazing! Michelle Yeoh is superb, James Hong is his usual delightful self, Stephanie Hsu is a revelation as the heart of the film and Ke Huy Quan is just so fucking powerful as the families soul! When Quan is allowed to play a Tony Leung role in one of the multiverses he took my breath away! It’s a breathtaking, breathless but never overwhelming spectacle of creative ingenuity & filmmaking bravado! Speaking of multiverses, as someone who HATES the very concept, the filmmakers really blew me away with how they made the most tired of concepts feel both fresh and emotionally rewarding! Better writers than I have gone in depth on this film so I’ll just say I loved it and I was so happy to FINALLY get my wish and see a kung-fu fight involving butt plugs!
03. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING. (George Miller.)
The film of 2022 that was most unfairly marketed and had the most impossible expectations placed upon it. This was unavoidable cause it’s George Miller’s followup to MAD MAX: FURY ROAD! That is easily the greatest Hollywood action film of this century! FURY ROAD is perfect action cinema experience that no action film has equaled since. Miller, understanding this, had no intention to immediately follow FURY ROAD with another action epic and instead went for a small scale but intellectual vast visual essay. Sadly, because the movie was sold as FURY ROAD 2.0 the few people who went to see it rejected a movie that is 80% two actors in a hotel room having a theological discussion about the need for storytelling. There are some incredible visuals in this – the visions of The Djinn’s captivating backstory are wild! – but this truly is a conversation driven film. Obviously this all wouldn’t work without two great actors delivering said conversation and with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba on hand there’s never a worry. They carry the film and kept my interest throughout. I’m so glad Miller took the money and made this, a passion project of his, on a larger scale than many would argue is necessary and while this is one I think most audiences will never fall for – will this be re-evaluated in 20 years? Maybe. More likely I see it forever being placed at or near the bottom whenever someone will “Rank the Films of George Miller” – it’s one I am going to cherish. It’s not for everyone. But for those it does connect with it hits HARD. And hey, if it’s Action Master Miller you want we’re getting that cause his next film is the wonderful sounding FURIOSA prequel!
02. THE FABELMANS. (Steven Spielberg.)
It’s Spielberg working at the top of his game telling the MOST personal story he’s ever told. Of course I’d be a sucker for this. Thankfully it’s also a masterpiece. This film goes hand-in-hand with ARMAGEDDON TIME in many ways but one way they differ is how intensely THE FABELMANS is a film about the selfish and destructive drive that is filmmaking. Young Sammy Fabelman turns to filmmaking first because he’s scared of what he saw in a movie and to understand it he had to recreate it. From that moment Sammy fell in love with moviemaking and it became his central goal in life and often to the detriment of those around him and his personal relationships. And it is from filmmaking he uncovers the secret that would ultimately destroy his family and forever change how he related to his parents. It’s a passion so all-consuming that even when things were at there worst Sammy would find himself removed from the real world events happening because he’d be thinking “How would I shoot this as a scene in a movie?”. It’s a dark and unflinching critical look at what happens when art takes hold of someone so completely. This is not a sweet and cute film as many expected. Spielberg, of course, wonderfully humanizes everyone and you can’t help but be involved in all the small little dramas throughout the way, but I was most captivated by this very personal dialogue Spielberg has with his undying love of filmmaking and how it has enhanced yet at the same time distanced him from those in his life. It’s a gloriously mature work of art from the world’s greatest filmmaker. Special note: This film has, in my opinion, the BEST “Spielberg Face” moment in his entire career as we spend over a minute watching Michelle Williams (superb) go from a look of utter joy to one of utter horror. Incredible! People say Spielberg is past his prime but the dude has been churning out masterpieces for 50 years now and is showing no signs yet that’s he’s stopping. Can’t wait to see what the master does next!
01. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. (James Cameron.)
Cameron is back, baby! I loved the original AVATAR when it came out back in 2009 and I’ve had an unwavering love for it ever since! This means for the last decade I’ve watched the snarky artificial “No one wants a sequel to James Cameron’s stupid movie cause no one liked AVATAR” bullshit narrative gain immense traction amongst the most cynical and obnoxious of online voices on Twitter, the most cynical social platform of all time. People who praise the “That just happened” insincere and emotionally unengaged writing of the MCU and other modern blockbusters look at the exceptionally earnest and unhip dream of Cameron’s Pandora and call it “badly written.” It’s been soooo annoying. And none of that shit matters now. As of this writing, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER has been a smash the world over. Financially it’s a gangbuster just short of passing $2 Billion globally, as it was always expected to do, but even more exciting is the first sequel has seemingly started a desire in audiences for more big expansive blockbusters from exciting filmmakers! And this makes me so happy because I LOVE THIS FILM! It’s a love so pure and deep that goes beyond my ability to critique it. I know the film has issues – like how the oldest son Neteyam is a fun character but isn’t given anything to do so it becomes really obvious that he’s going to be the sacrificial lamb that dies so the other characters can grow and I know that as a Part 1 of 4 it sets up so many storylines it fails to close off, etc – but those are irrelevant when this film brings me such joy. I’ve seen better films in theaters these past few years and I’ll still argue my #1 film of 2021, EVANGELION: 3.0+1.0 – THRICE UPON A TIME, is a stronger work of art overall but I have not had a better time WATCHING a movie in years. Being back on Pandora was like reentering a beautiful living dream! Reuniting with Jake Sully & Neytiri filled me with unmeasurable joy! Getting to know their four troublemaking children has been delightful! Finding out Quaritch is back and just as much of a ripe bastard is wonderful! Getting to see the goofy but oh-so-loveable Spider secretly be the amazing VFX of all time has been the best! And watching THE WAY OF WATER and realizing Cameron is brave enough to truly shake up the narrative and pass the protagonist torch from the parents to the children has been intoxicating! Lo’ak, Kiri, Spider and maybe even the new Quaritch are going to turn out to be the main characters of this new saga Cameron is telling and I can’t wait to to see where it’s all going! The filmmaking and playing with audience emotions on hand here is so much more pure and superior to everyone else out there it’s shocking. I don’t yet know if AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is a better film than the original but I truly haven’t felt this emotionally engaged in a Hollywood franchise film in ages. I haven’t been this excited about a Hollywood made saga since Peter Jackson’s original go with THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Knowing Cameron and his ream of fellow artists have written, designed and planned out a complete FOUR-PART AVATAR SEQUEL SAGA and that it will play out in cinemas over the next decade fills me with bountiful joy! James Cameron is the only filmmaker alive who can make four films at once and when he says “Each one is better than the one before it” I believe him with my whole core. These movies make me feral! I have no idea where this exciting story is going in the next films but I can’t wait to see what’s next! Film is life!
And that’s 2022!