Best of 2022 - End of Year Report

Sayonara 2022, it's been a pretty good year for film. This top ten list comes from a neat 100 films (80 first time viewings) and 55 trips to the cinema. It's down a touch from last year but it was harder to complete, with some fine films missing out. So here are my favourite 10 films seen in 2022:

[Click on the titles for links to full reviews]

10. Paris, 13th District (2021)

Jacques Audiard's monochrome ode to the multicultural 13th arrondissement of Paris is light on story but heavy on atmosphere. Lucie Zhang is fantastic in her breakout film - she's one to watch - and Noémie Merlant is top drawer as well. This tale of young Frenchies aimlessly searching connection is probably the most joyously optimistic film on the list.

9. Belfast (2021)

Here's a film I figured would be sentimental and a bit dull, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed this autobiographical story from the point of view of young Ken/Buddy, played by newcomer Jude Hill. It tells of his family living in Belfast through The Troubles and the choices they must make. Ma (Caitríona Balfe) and Pa (Jamie Dornan) are amazing, and the whole film hums with spirit. A film that eschews cynicism and dares the audience to care, successfully for my money.

8. The Innocents (2021)

A Norwegian unsettler, the innocents of the title are presumably the kids that are left to their own devices on a quiet high-rise estate. But are they so very innocent? You be the judge, I'll only say that events take a bit of a turn when they begin to realise they have certain special powers that might be fun to mess about with. Creepy, awkward and unpredictable - not the best traits in a baby-sitter but perfect for a psychological drama like this.

7. Nope (2022)

A fine hat-trick of features for Jordan Peele, this coming on the heels of Get Out and Us. Nope is hard to classify - part thriller, part social commentary, part horror, part comedy.... but all mint. The lensing, by Hoyte Van Hoytema, is gorgeous, be it dusty vistas or creepy night skies and the cast are note perfect - Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yuen, all tear it up. The Jaws riff is great fun too.

6. The Forgiven (2021) / The Menu (2022)

This is unprecedented, but I couldn't settle on the top ten, so I've sneakily lumped these two excellent
Ralph Fiennes starrers together at number six. The former sees Lord Voldy as a bigoted snob taking a trip to North Africa for a bacchanalian party, but a car accident on the way scuppers plans a bit. Great cast here (Jessica Chastain, Matt Smith, Caleb Landry Jones, Saïd Taghmaoui) and a nicely askew view of classism, plus a top notch arc for Fiennes. Quite taut and tense in parts as well.

The latter film is a class-based satire mixed with foodie culture that actually has the bollocks to commit to its final resting point. Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are more than able support (Taylor-Joy is more the lead, in fact) and the dialogue is first rate. Blood, haute cuisine, shocks and comic timing all play a part in The Menu. Fiennes is terrific in both of these, though in wildly different roles.

5. You Won't Be Alone (2022)

Here's a ripping folk/horror tale from Macedonian/Aussie Goran Stolevski, starring Sara Klimoska, Anamaria Marinca and Noomi Rapace. It tells the story of Old Maid Maria, a child-thieving witch who, in fairness, has had a tough old time of it in patriarchal 19th Century Macedonia. It's lovely to look at, shot by Mathew Chuang, and the editing (Luca Cappelli) gives us the sense of a lazy kind of foreboding, something's not quite right here. All the viscera and heavy themes notwithstanding, there's a feeling of calm hope to this fine debut feature.

4. Sundown (2021)

Tim Roth shines in this mysterious, sundrenched resort drama about a man who seems to be excelling at doing bugger all. Quite shocking events occur on his periphery, even involving him, yet he has a happy knack of shrugging it all off. Why? What the fuck is going on here? I'm not about to tell you, but I will say that Charlotte Gainsbourg is in it (also excellent) and the unpicking of the whys and wtfs is one of the joys of the film.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Martin McDonagh is on song with this tale of 1920s Irish island life, specifically the relationship between Colin Farrell's Pádraic and Brendan Gleeson's Colm, as well as Pádraic's sister, Siobhán, played by Kerry Condon. The three leads are amazing, the dialogue dances out of their mouths and the scenery of the island (west cost of Ireland) is gob-smacking. The McDonaghs have two film in this list (brother John Michael directed The Forgiven), and like Audiard, they're 'hooks' for me - a new film by any of that lot, and I'm in.

2. The Quiet Girl (2022)

This film was a sublime knockout, so quietly affecting that the key moments have stuck with me for months now. The story is simple - a young girl in 1980s rural Ireland, neglected by her family, goes to live with some elderly relatives for the holidays. What director Colm Bairéad does with this rudimentary outline is not much short of magical. Everything clicks into gear with The Quiet Girl. The lead, Cáit, is played by newcomer Catherine Clinch and she's a special find. The rest of the cast are equally fantastic, the editing is spot on, blimey, nothing here is found wanting. Wonderful filmmaking.

1. Hatching (2022)

Hanna Bergholm's debut feature about a young Finnish girl with a domineering, 'influencer' mother is a stupendously satisfying little gem. It's a satirical body-horror, not too many of them around. Sophia Heikkilä and Siiri Solalinna play the mother/daughter dichotomy at the centre of the film, but on the periphery is the crux - an egg with something inside that may or may not be malevolent. Everything is leading to a resolution of sorts and it certainly delivers on its promise. An immensely watchable film about family pressures and the horrors of growing up. Great stuff.

The odd spoiler or two within this podcast....!!!

Comments

Ghost Cat Anzu (Me & Kid)

Here's a nice surprise. I find Japanese anime to be hit and miss, and the first look at this boof-headed feline didn't promise too much, but Ghost Cat Anzu knocked the bails off. It riffs on the Ghibli theme of children being forced to grow up quicker than they should, with 11 year-old Karin (Noa Gotô) as our focus. Her dad's a bit of a scally and he does a runner while visiting his father at his temple home in a sleepy town, leaving Karin alone with kindly grandad and huge, anthropomorphic cat, Anzu, voiced by Mirai Moriyama. Karin wanders the town, waiting for dad to return and meeting various locals, while being casually monitored by Anzu. The pace is a little pedestrian but the shenanigans make up for this. Anzu is pulled over by the police and told he needs a license to ride a scooter, though he protests that he's not actually a human, so surely these rules don't apply. He works as a masseur but also takes a gig to scare birds away from the river, roping Karin...

Bird

This is such a fine film and going in blind might just be the best way to see it. It's not that it's a twisty, spoilery mystery, just that sometimes knowing nowt about a film is the best way to appreciate it. Zero expectations and all. So if you want the same groundwork that I had, read no more. . . . . Ok. If you're still reading, let's kick off. This is Andrea Arnold's sixth feature and I really have to see more of her work. It's set in the Kent town of Gravesend, and boy, is that a suitable name for this place. Not far from London, on the river Thames, seems like it's wall to wall chavs out there. Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her dad, Bug (Barry Keoghan), and half-brother, Hunter (Jason Buda) in a graffiti covered squat. Pissed off that Bug wants to get married to newish girlfriend, Kayleigh (Frankie Box), Bailey rebels and follows her brother and his mates on a small-time vigilante mission. Things get messy, she does a runner and ends up sleeping in...

The Wolves Always Come at Night

My first taste of the Perth Festival schedule for the coming season was a 'hybrid' film called The Wolves Always Come at Night , directed by Gabrielle Brady. The term 'hybrid' really just seems to mean tweaking the traditional methods of documentary production, in this case, adding some clearly set-up shots and situations, but also, calling on the subjects to help in the writing process. This film is about a family of goat farmers in Mongolia whose difficult existence is made even harder by an unforeseen event that forces them to relocate to the city. The family are led by mother, Zaya Dashzeveg and father, Davaa Dagvasuren, and Brady made the film with their input in mind. She says; Our intention was that Davaa and Zaya have agency within the making of their own story. So, in working together as co-writers, we were able to shape the story together. They would share ideas for what could be filmed and I would translate this into the cinematic language for the film. It...

Audrey

This Perth Fest entry is a very black comedy with a large splosh of Muriel's Wedding about it. Ronnie Lipsick (Jackie Van Beek) has high hopes for her daughter Audrey (Josephine Blazier) to succeed as an actress. Ronnie had some of her own fame years before in Australian TV and is now stage-mothering Audrey to within an inch of her life. But Audrey is a proper arsehole to everyone, including her sister with cerebral palsy, Norah (Hannah Diviney), and her romantically conflicted father, Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor), so when Audrey's melodramatic antics see her slide off the roof of the house and into a coma, the family have mixed feelings about the situation. Ronnie incongruously decides to pose as Audrey in order to be accepted onto the acting course she had her signed up for. Nobody seems to notice, Norah begins to be more accepted by Audrey's friends (and boyfriend), and Cormack turns his meekness around, reinvigorating his sex life with Ronnie. The family feel guilty...

The Monk and the Gun

This Bhutanese comedy drama is part of the Perth Festival and it follows the country's attempts to move from a monarchy to a democracy in 2006. In the small town of Ura, a novice monk, Tashi (Tandin Wangchuk) is tasked with finding two guns for his Lama, played by real life monk Kelsang Choejay. He's not told why but he gets on with the job. At the same time, a 'fixer/tour guide' from Thimphu, Benji (Tandim Sonam) gets a gig driving a newly arrived American, Ronald (Harry Einhorn) around the country in search of a particularly valuable US Civil War rifle. You might be able to see where this is going... This is satire in deep cover. It might even be satire adjacent, such is its mildness. This is not a bad thing. At times I felt like I was experiencing an old Ealing comedy, or maybe a low-key Ken Loach. The government sends officers around the country to run a mock election to show people how to vote, and one of them, Tshering Yangden (Pema Zangmo Sherpa) wanders through...

Timestalker

Here's an odd little number about reincarnation and love across the ages, or more to the point, dawning self-determination. Alice Lowe writes, directs and stars as Agnes, a woman besotted with Aneurin Barnard's Alex. Always. In many different time periods. We kick off in 1688, where Alex is about to be executed before Agnes steps (trips) in, and saves him. We zip forward to 1793, Alice this time bored of her pampered lifestyle in a manor house with pets, wigs and servants. Oh, and a disgustingly oafish Nick Frost for a hubby, George. But who's the stalker in time? Is it Agnes? She's the clear favourite. Or the object of her desires, Alex, who for the most part, isn't too keen on reciprocating? Is it the boorish George, who does physically stalk in one of the episodes. It may even refer to the peripheral figures of servant, friend & potential lover, Meg (Tanya Reynolds) or wily Scipio (Jacob Anderson - Grey Worm from Game of Thrones ). To be fair, it's hintin...

Merchant Ivory

Here's the first of a few films I'm planning to catch at the British Film Festival so I'll attempt to keep the reviews relatively brief. This a documentary directed by Stephen Soucy about the legendary filmmaking team, Merchant Ivory Productions. The formidable ensemble consisted of producer Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and composer Richard Robbins. After meeting in 1961, Ivory and Merchant started a fruitful partnership, both professionally and romantically. The film shows us their somewhat ramshackle early films, made in India, moving on to marginally more assured productions in the US, and finally to the English period dramas they became known for in the 80s and onwards. Together, they made over 40 films, some absolute gems among them. A Room with a View , Howard's End , and The Remains of the Day are probably their best, though you could throw in Heat and Dust , Maurice , and The Golden Bowl as very strong examples of their...

Lee

Biopics are tough to get right. For every Lawrence of Arabia , there's a Diana , for every Raging Bull , there's an Ali . The film Lee shines some natural light of the life of renowned war photographer Lee Miller, played by Kate Winslet. She gives it full welly in this - physically and emotionally nude, with camouflage painted boobs, close-ups with no make-up, moles, wrinkles, rage and tears. It's very much the kind of 'brave' performance that the Academy loves to reward. The film starts with Miller crustily answering questions to a young man in 1977, and as she remembers things from her past, we head to flashback territory. It seems a fairly cack-handed framing device until we realise why it's happening. A modicum of research reveals that the film is a pretty accurate retelling of Miller's life - first her carefree bohemian days in pre-WW2 France (including her intro to future hubby, Roland Penrose, played by Alexander Skarsgård), then how she started with...

Gladiator II

There's a lot to enjoy in this sequel to Sir Ridders' original from 2000. The film picks up about 16 years after the end of the first one, where we find Rome ruled by a pair of foppish twats, Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Tasked to expand the empire, General Acacias (Pedro Pascal) leads an attack on Numidia in North Africa, coming up against Paul Mescal's Verus. Once this speccy set piece is over, now-widower Verus finds himself on route to the fighting stadia, where he catches the eye of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a kind of antiquity Don King. Verus is driven by rage, hungry for revenge on those who killed his wife, but there seems to be more to his story. And those familiar with the original (or anyone who's read anything online about this film) will probably know what, but I'm not about to drop the cat bag. It's beautifully shot by lenser supremo, John Mathieson, especially one silvery sequence near the start where Deaths arrive on a...

Sand Land (Me) (Kids)

Popped down to Palace cinema in the city for a packed screening of Sand Land , part of the Japanese Film Festival Australia . Created by Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball fame), this started as a manga book series in 2000. It seems this film was made slightly before, or at the same time as a TV series covering similar ground. That ground being a Mad Max style wasteland where the water supply is controlled and sold by a rotund King (Chafûrin). An old, local sherriff, Rao (Kazuhiro Yamaji), suspects there's a source of water in the desert a few days drive away and so decides to investigate. Knowing he'll need help, he approaches the gang of demons who live nearby. The demons chosen to accompany Rao are the keen Beelzebub (Mutsumi Tamura) and the less enthused Thief (Chô). The trio head off but are soon beset by issues, including enormous sand snakes, marauding punks and the King's military units. As their vehicles tyres were punctured by said punks, Rao commandeers a tank, set...

Film Shapes

Search This Blog