Just another hellish moment from HOUSE (HAUSU)

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Here it is again: everything I watched in a year, and my totally correct opinions on same!

Of the 2022 releases I saw, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE was memorable for managing to be both heartwarming and anarchically weird. Surprised and happy to see all the Oscar nom love for it. Todd Field’s TÁR is the one I’m still thinking about, months later. Need to rewatch soon.

Most of the features I watched were older, picks for my film review group “Yelling About Movies.” Every week, one of us chooses two features. Sunday night, we all meet on Zoom. It gets recorded. My buddy Skot edits. Over the course of a year, hours and hours of six slightly(?)-inebriated guys jawing about films gets uploaded on YouTube and that’s the link right there, if for some reason that sounds appealing to you.

Of the films I screened on video, there were many I enjoyed, but these were real standouts:

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS—A classic, and deservedly so.

SPRING BREAKERS—A trip into another dimension called Florida.

L’AVVENTURA—Antonioni’s masterpiece, booed at Cannes in 1960 and still challenging. Gorgeous ennui.

THE CONVERSATION—Perfect fucking movie.

SIGNS OF LIFE (LEBENSZEICHEN)—Werner Herzog’s first feature. A delicate poem of a film, absurd, austere, and beautiful.

MY WINNIPEG—To me, a filmmaker, this was an important & needed reminder of how free and fun the craft can be.

IDA—A beautiful, understated story about excavating the past. Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography.

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT—The best Iranian vampire Western ever made.

On the series television front, favorites at our house included Severance, Fleishman is in Trouble, and of course, the amazing Andor. I did not know a Star Wars show was allowed to be this good. Will the Star Trek franchise ever rouse itself from it torpor and give us something this smart?

Linked titles take you to the Yelling About Movies discussion, or more info on the film.

MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN
West Side Story • 2021, Steven Spielberg
The Batman • 2022, Matt Reeves
Everything Everywhere All At Once • 2022, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Dear Zoe • 2022, Gren Wells
Thor: Love and Thunder • 2022, Taika Waititi
3000 Years of Longing • 2022, George Miller
The Banshees of Inisheren • 2022, Martin McDonagh
Tár • 2022, Todd Fields

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN
The Swimmer • 1968, Frank Perry
Underwater • 2020, William Eubank
The Long Goodbye • 1973, Robert Altman
Days of Heaven • 1978, Terrence Malick
The Best Years of Our Lives • 1946, William Wyler
Swimming With Men • 2018, Oliver Parker
The Power of the Dog • 2021, Jane Campion
The Tragedy of Macbeth • 2021, Ethan Coen
The Last Duel • 2021, Ridley Scott
Spartan • 2004, David Mamet
Heist • 2001, David Mamet
The Age of Adaline • 2015, Lee Toland Krieger
L’Avventura • 1960, Michelangelo Antonioni
tick, tick…BOOM! • 2021, Lin-Manuel Miranda
Belfast • 2021, Kenneth Branagh
Spencer • 2021, Pablo Larraín
Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski • 2018, Ireneusz Dobrowolski
My Man Godfrey • 1936, Greory La Cava
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) • 1964, Jacques Demy
Conspiracy • 2001, Frank Pierson
Anthropoid • 2016, Sean Ellis
Drive My Car • 2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
House of Gucci • 2021, Ridley Scott
Waves • 2019, Trey Edward Shults
Pusher • 1996, Nicholas Winding Refn
Hangmen Also Die! • 1943, Fritz Lang
Betty Blue • 1986, Jean-Jacques Bieneix
Scarecrow • 1973, Jerry Schatzberg
We Need To Talk About Kevin • 2011, Lynn Ramsay
Titan A.E. • 2000, Don Bluth & Gary Goldman
Any Given Sunday • 1999, Oliver Stone
Auto Focus • 2002, Paul Schrader
House • 1977, Nobuhiku Obayashi
Closely Watched Trains (Ostre sledované vlaky) • 1966, Jiri Menzel
The Cremator (Spalovac mrtvol) • 1969, Juraj Herz
Benedetta • 2021, Paul Verhoeven
Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) • 2014, Damián Szifron
Killing Them Softly • 2012, Andrew Dominik
Get Carter • 1971, Mike Hodges
Into the Night • 1985, John Landis
O Lucky Man! • 1973, Lindsay Anderson
Spring Breakers • 2012, Harmony Korine
My Winnipeg • 2007, Guy Maddin
Sputnik • 2020, Egor Abramenko
Assassination Nation • 2018, Sam Levinson
Thoroughbreds • 2017, Cory Finley
Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness • 2022, Sam Raimi
The Last Detail • 1973, Hal Ashby
Night Moves • 1975, Arthur Penn
Europa (aka Zentropa) • 1991, Lars von Trier
The Worst Person in the World • 2021, Joachim Trier
Tender Mercies • 1983, Bruce Beresford
Europa, Europa • 1990, Agnieska Holland
Lightyear • 2022, Angus MacLane
Le Samourai • 1967, Jean-Pierre Melville
Tusk • 2014, Kevin Smith
Chungking Express • 1994, Wong Kar-wai
Strangers on a Train • 1951, Alfred Hitchcock
Fallen Angels • 1995, Wong Kar-wai
Cold in July • 2014, Jim Mickle
Thief • 1981, Michael Mann
The Talented Mr. Ripley • 1999, Anthony Minghella
Put Blood in the Music • 1989, Charles Atlas
Train to Busan • 2016, Sang-ho Yeon
Saint Maud • 2019, Rose Glass
Ikarie XB 1 • 1963, Jindřich Polák
Seven Beauties • 1975, Lina Wertmüller
Signs of Life • 1968, Werner Herzog
The Stepfather • 1987, Joseph Ruben
Near Dark • 1987, Kathryn Bigelow
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night • 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly • 2007, Julien Schnabel
Ida • 2013, Pawel Pawlikowski
Resolution • 2012, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
Richard III • 1995, Richard Loncraine
Z • 1969, D. Costa-Gavras
The Battle of Algiers • 1966, D. Gillo Pontecorvo
Shirkers • 2018, Sandi Tan
High and Low • 1958, Akira Kurosawa
Cha Cha Real Smooth • 2022, Cooper Raiff
The Awful Truth  • 1937, Leo McCarey
The Boy Downstairs • 2017, Sophie Brooks
Twentieth Century • 1934, Howard Hawks
Glass Onion •  2022, Rian Johnson
Strange World • 2022, Don Hall
SR. • 2022, Chris Smith

REWATCHES
Dirty Dancing • 1987, Emile Ardolino
Moulin Rouge! • 2001, Baz Lurhmann
Picnic at Hanging Rock • 1975, Peter Weir
That’s Life! • 1986, Blake Edwards
Network • 1978, Sidney Lumet
Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski • 2018, Ireneusz Dobrowolski
Seconds • 1966, John Frankenheimer
Cop Land • 1997, James Mangold
Where the Wild Things Are • 2009, Spike Jonze
A.I. Artificial Intelligence • 2001, Steven Spielberg
After Hours • 1981, Martin Scorsese
Apollo 11 • 2019, Todd Douglas Miller
First Man • 2018, Damien Chazelle
The Conversation • 1974, Francis Ford Coppola
Arachnophobia • 1990, Frank Marshall
Repo Man • 1984, Alex Cox
Day For Night • 1963, Francois Truffaut
All of Me • 1984, Carl Reiner
The Emperor’s New Groove • 2000, Mark Dindal

TELEVISION
The Great
And Just Like That…
Wolf Like Me
Severance
Better Things
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The Bear
Raised By Wolves
Irma Vep
She-Hulk
Andor (yay!)
Fleishman Is in Trouble
The Crown
Star Trek: Lower Decks
The White Lotus
The Last Movie Stars

BOOKS
Victory Point – Owen Pomery (graphic novel)
A Fire Story – Brian Fies (graphic novel)
The Pritcher Mass – Gordon R. Dickson

*a footnote!

I keep this list every year, for fun and for reference. The list only reflects films seen for the first time.

I don’t do a numbered ranking, but my #1-most-fun-I-had-at-the-movies award goes to Leigh Whannell’s UPGRADE. Visually inventive and spectacularly violent, this rough-and-ready cyberpunk B-movie felt like a return to the days of ROBOCOP, or peak John Carpenter. Bravo!

Kudos, too, to the makers of SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE. It’s got heart, it’s got style (more than one, actually) and it’s so smart, fast, funny and original it makes all the other superhero movies look kinda stupid by comparison.

Have you ever been watching a movie when a moment comes along that suddenly shifts your entire sense of what it is you’re watching? I LOVE that. It’s rare to get even one of those in a film, and it happened to me twice while watching Ali Abbasi’s BORDER. This one’s about a Swedish customs officer who can literally smell fear. That’s all I knew going in, and all you need to know too. Don’t read the reviews.

I’ll buy that for a dollar! Boots Riley’s SORRY TO BOTHER YOU takes place in the same universe as ROBOCOP and Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL. That’s just my theory. But it’s true.

Other 2018 theatrical standouts for me included ANNIHILATION, A QUIET PLACE, THE FAVOURITE (seen in 2019 so it’s not on this list) and (sniffle) WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

On the TV series front, favorites at our house included The Crown, The Good Place, Better Things, Travelers, and Killing Eve.

The rise of Netflix streaming is very much in evidence in this year’s list. Standouts include Tamara Jenkins’ note-perfect PRIVATE LIFE (Paul Giamatti and Kathryn Hahn as a middle-aged couple racing against their biological clocks), and writer/director Macon Blair’s 2017 release I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE. By turns funny and violent, the latter stars Melanie Lynskey as Ruth, a woman in way over her head as she tries to recover her grandmother’s silverware from some burglars. Ruth’s simple, heartfelt plea is one for our times: “For people to stop being assholes.” Amen, honey.

Linked titles take you to my review, or more info on the film.

MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN
Coco
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Post
Annihilation
Black Panther
Darkest Hour
A Wrinkle In Time
Isle Of Dogs
A Quiet Place
Finding Your Feet
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Upgrade
Incredibles 2
American Animals
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Bohemian Rhapsody
Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse
Roma
First Man

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping*
Double Indemnity
Dr. Strange
Hunt For The Wilderpeople
The BFG
My Happy Family
Beauty And The Beast (2017)
All That Heaven Allows
Mute
The Secret Life Of Pets
I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Table 19
For The Love of Spock
Mad
Don’t Breathe
The Florida Project
The Informant!
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Battle Of The Sexes
Dredd
Blockers
The Endless
Take Me
E Il Cibo Va
Henry Fool
The Land Of Steady Habits
Game Night
Private Life
The Trip To Italy
Book Club
Sorry To Bother You

TELEVISION
The Crown
Rick and Morty
Travelers
Modern Family
The Good Place
Supergirl
Better Things
Mom
The Orville
Big Little Lies
Abstract: The Art of Design
The Great British Baking Show
Killing Eve
The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes
F*ck That’s Delicious
Black Mirror: U.S.S. Callister

BOOKS and OTHER READING
Spill Zone – Scott Westerfeld
The Best American Short Stories 2009 – ed. Alice Sebold
Orfeo – Richard Powers
Creatures of Habit: Stories – Jill McCorkle

*Surprise, Motherfucker!