I didn't make a Top Ten List this year, but I did see A LOT of movies and I really loved quite a number of them. Some of them will be obvious Oscar front-runners, some were dark horses, some were silly blockbusters that (I thought) were excellent popcorn fun.
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I'll start listing in a thread. I'll add to it when I can. May take a couple days!
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And so even though I didn't do a Top Ten, I had a clear favorite movie of the year. The one I can't get out of my head. The one that felt like nothing else I'd ever seen. The one anchored by an indelible, perfect performance. And that was TÀR.
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ALL THAT BREATHES. There's a barely-spoken ache at the center of this documentary about a group of three men in Delhi who've quietly dedicated their lives to rescuing and rehabilitating kites, a local bird. Its argument for conservation is made more powerful by its silence.
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HAPPENING. An unfortunately timely movie in 2022, this French film echoed Never Rarely Sometimes Always in how it turned the navigation of reproductive care into a slow burn psychological thriller.
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THE LOST CITY and BULLET TRAIN. Both of these Pitt/Bullock/Tatum popcorn confections left me grinning as I walked out of the theater. More clever than they got credit for and packed to the gills with movie star charisma. Also: great fight scenes and sight gags in both!
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If you see one movie from last year about a one-eyed shell that mixes sublime offbeat humor with *deeply* affecting meditations on loss... it should be MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON.
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The hardest I’ve heard an audience laugh in a theatre since Superbad. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS consistently nailed such a wondrously bizarre tone, part madcap satire and part slow burn ensemble piece.
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My favorite of the new Thinly Veiled Filmmaker Autobiography Genre, ARMAGEDDON TIME jolted me with its moments of (sometimes cruel) honesty, featuring my favorite performance by a child actor since Atonement.
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RRR is a movie on steroids. It’s part Rambo, part Point Break, part Django, part Passion of the Christ… with Bollywood numbers! It’s like injecting a syringe of awesomeness directly into your brain.
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A meditation on spectacle and responsibility that's also a big, blockbustery adventure structured around reveals and discoveries, NOPE grabbed me early and never let go.
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CORSAGE is a weird, wonderful, anachronistic exploration of Empress Elisabeth of Hungary and our obsession with (and expectations of) beauty.
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I really dug AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Visually stunning (to put it mildly), it fully transported me. When I say it's a three-hour theme park ride, I mean it in a really good way!
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If you have a pulse, you’ll be charmed by HIT THE ROAD. A family road trip movie that’s quirky — but never at the expense of emotional honesty — you can feel the love the filmmaker has for all his characters.
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Sure, we’ve seen “War is Hell” before. But I’ve never seen all nine circles of it in as visceral and heartbreaking of a way as ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. I think we’ll talk about Edward Berger’s filmmaking for a very long time.
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Lyrical, empathetic, and brutal, EO was the best donkey cinema of the year. (Sorry, Jenny.) If you're not already vegetarian, EO may make you reconsider...
(Also: what a score!)
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FULL CONFESSION: the first time I saw Everything Everywhere All At Once, I liked it. Didn’t *love* it. (It was also a 10:30 showing so I blame being tired.) Second time though, I fully absorbed the glorious beating heart under all the stress internet age whizbang spectacle.
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I'm kind of obsessed with Tobias Lindholm's directing, so I was primed to love THE GOOD NURSE. It's a thriller, yes, but it's also about *labor* and the delicate "office politics" that shape our lives.
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FIRE OF LOVE is a sweet and tragic love story, yes, but honestly, I am just obsessed with all the footage they collected.
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My stages of reactions to BARDO:
1. Annoyance
2. Confusion
3. Surprise
4. Intrigue
5. Admiration
6. Wonder
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I feel like TURNING RED kinda came and went, probably because of the streaming release, but I was utterly swept in the goofy charms of this Pixar treat and its insistence on being both totally authentic and completely inventive.
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The kind of traditional courtroom drama I wish we saw more often, ARGENTINA 1985 hits all the required notes with flair, especially when it becomes an unexpected buddy movie.
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And last but not least: TOP GUN: MAVERICK. I mean, even if it wasn't my patriotic duty to enjoy this film, I'd be waxing poetically about the dynamic, *perfect* third act.
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