Image by Natalia Koroshchenko from Pixabay In some ways, 2021 felt like a return to form for cinema. With megahits like Spider-Man: No Way Home and No Time to Die raking in money at the global box office, there was a sense of hope as the year came to a close for what 2022 would bring us. And, in my humble opinion, this year in movies was much more defined by sleeper hits and indie cinema than it was by big-budget, franchise filmmaking (Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once arguably being the prime example of this). This sentiment is certainly reflected in my favorites of the year; only 2 superhero movies made it into my top ten this year (compared to four last year).
Admittedly, I have yet to see many of what are considered to be the year’s best films, including (but not limited to): Todd Field’s TÁR, Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Still, I want to use this opportunity to shine a light on some of my favorite movies that I haven’t blogged about before. While some are familiar among most moviegoers (casual or otherwise), there may just be one or two on this list you’ve never heard of that are worth checking out. That being said, here are my thoughts on some of my favorite films from 2022. KIMI If you had told me in January of 2022 that one of my top-ten movies of the year would be a Steven Soderbergh feature on HBO Max, I would’ve been the first to recommend you be admitted to a mental institution. Simply put, I’m not a huge fan of Soderbergh’s previous work (the Julia Roberts-led legal drama Erin Brockovich being a notable exception). In particular, I’ve found his two most recent films, Let Them All Talk and No Sudden Move (both HBO Max originals) to be so damn boring and trite. All that said, my expectations for KIMI were in the toilet. Thus, I was more than pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed KIMI. Unlike much of other Soderbergh’s work in the thriller genre, I greatly appreciated the lean and effective narrative that allowed the major characters of the story to shine while never boring me with tons of needless expositions about their lives. Specifically, if you appreciated Zoë Kravitz’s work as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in Matt Reeves’ The Batman then I highly recommend you check her out in this movie. Kravitz plays Angela, an agoraphobic tech support worker who unravels the mystery behind a recording of the murder of a woman named Samantha (Erika Christensen). In capturing the anxiety-ridden, lonely existence of Angela, Soderbergh’s direction and Kravitz’s performance combine to offer up an interesting protagonist that’s not wholly likeable but sympathetic nonetheless due to her desire to uncover the truth and oust those who have committed wrong (even at the potential cost of her own life). Beyond just the characters, however, I greatly appreciated how KIMI felt like a movie produced in the midst of (and incorporating) the COVID-19 pandemic without feeling gimmicky. On the one hand, the claustrophobic and paranoid atmosphere fostered by social distancing and working from home that many of us experienced as the “new normal” for months back in 2020 is Angela’s “normal” normal. Due to her agoraphobia and past experiences with trauma, her daily life effectively emulates what many of us went through mentally and emotionally in the midst of the pandemic. In addition, the overall tense sociopolitical climate of the last couple of the years (notably the mass protests around issues such as police brutality and corruption) is part of both the film’s backdrop and subplot without feeling forced or needless. Rather, it enhances the inherent tension of the film’s back half as Angela evades agents of her boss Bradley Hasling (Derek DelGaudio) in an effort to get the truth about Samantha’s death to the public. All that being said, as just a straight-up thriller film, KIMI does not disappoint. Its first act is direct in setting up the stakes of Angela’s mission while its second act evenly stretches out the tension. Together, it all builds up to a small-scale but engrossing climax in Angela’s apartment involving some smart writing and visceral action sequences. When the twist of modern, post-COVID life is injected, the film consistently immerses the audience in its simple yet engaging story. If, like me, you’re a Soderbergh skeptic or generally not a fan of movies like this, I encourage you to give it a chance (especially given the fact that it received virtually no online discourse this year). With a slim runtime under 90 minutes, KIMI will almost certainly not feel like a time-waster. You may even end up enjoying it as much as I did. 😉 Turning Red When reflecting on Pixar’s recent era of “non-sequels” (coming off of both Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4), I’ve generally enjoyed their movies from the last few years. Ironically (given the state of cinema in 2020), I really enjoyed both Onward and Soul, and was thoroughly entertained by this year’s Lightyear. However, of the two Pixar movies that came out this year, my favorite undoubtedly was Domee Shi’s Turning Red. As the studio’s first solo female director, Shi builds on the success of her 2018 Oscar-winning short film Bao by making a deeply personal coming-of-age story that still manages to engage a diverse audience due to grounding the narrative in powerful and universal emotions connected to the adolescent experience. While Shi’s protagonist Meilin “Mei” Lee (Rosalie Chiang), a Chinese-Canadian girl, has a very specific life experience on the surface, Turning Red does an excellent job of fleshing out the universality of her becoming a teenager. Shi accomplishes this by paying close attention to Mei’s relationship with her parents, her friends, and her cultural heritage in a way that makes her so endearing and relatable. Honestly, when this film came out, I was stunned by the more mixed response from general moviegoers. While I can appreciate some parents’ concerns over the movie’s (brief) inclusion of menstruation as a plot point, I think lots of people read too literally into both the title and the film’s use of an anthropomorphic metaphor. In my humble opinion, Turning Red handled its exploration of what adolescence is like for young women very sensitively and delicately without glorifying or romanticizing the uglier aspects in such a way as to minimize the struggles and triumphs of teenage girls. Does it reach the philosophical or existential highs of other Pixar films like Inside Out or the aforementioned Soul? No, but that’s okay because what the movie is trying to do it succeeds at with flying colors. If you sat on Turning Red and haven’t seen it yet but like most Pixar movies, I strongly recommend you check it out. And if you did watch Turning Red this year but didn’t connect with it, I encourage you to give it another chance. I think it’s easily one of Pixar’s best movies of the decade, and is arguably a contender for one of the studio’s best films ever made. RRR I’ll be the first to admit that I am not very well versed in Indian cinema. With the exception of Satyajit Ray’s “Apu Trilogy” from the 1950s, I haven’t really seen any movies from the subcontinent. And, honestly, I was hesitant much of my adult life to explore Bollywood and Tollywood movies for no particular reason. But, I heard enough good things about the action epic RRR to convince me to check it out (given the availability of the Hindi dub on Netflix, this was thankfully easy to do). So, please consider my lack of knowledge about Indian filmmaking style and sensibilities in my review. All that being said, RRR is easily my most surprising viewing experience of a film this year (somehow, even more so than Top Gun: Maverick). The film’s writer-director, S.S. Rajamouli, is apparently known to India as a crowd-pleasing, box-office-busting storyteller (alongside his Baahubali duology, RRR is one of his three movies in the top five highest-grossing films in India to date). Despite the film’s daunting, three-hour runtime and language/cultural barrier, do not be fooled: RRR is a movie that anyone (and, in my humble opinion, everyone) can enjoy. The movie has so many strengths that it’s genuinely difficult for me to narrow them down. I guess to start, the story being told and the themes being explored are compelling and universal in a way that I wasn’t expecting. But, defying all my expectations, RRR embraces several structural and narrative tropes but utilizes them to full effect to give us a thoroughly entertaining and timeless tale of friendship, betrayal, war, and revenge. Don’t be fooled by the film’s long runtime; it never drags or bores and makes for a wildly enjoyable epic movie in every way that the best epics can be. Of course, the story only works on the backbone of its characters. In that sense, RRR works incredibly well thanks to its two lead actors. On the one hand, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao, Jr.) is overly likeable without coming off as excessively or unrealistically charming. In a way, Komaram is the underdog with the very noble mission. He is tasked with rescuing Malli (Twinkle Sharma), a young girl from his village who was cruelly kidnapped by Governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his wife Catherine (Alison Doody) and, in the process, taken away from her mother (Ahmareen Anjum). This task, while daunting, takes Bheem on a grueling journey that puts the inhumanity of the British Raj on full display. The co-protagonist, Alluri Raju (Ram Charan), serves as the magnetically charming foil to Bheem as an aspiring Imperial police officer who goes undercover and befriends Bheem in an effort to learn the true identity of the person trying to free Malli from Governor Buxton and Catherine’s clutches. As a leading duo, Bheem and Raju have infectious chemistry. Their respective journeys intertwine beautifully with several twists and turns that uplift both their character arcs and the themes that the movie is exploring. Supported by a stellar cast, the brotherly bond forged between these two characters (in my humble opinion) competes with some of the greatest lead pairing in modern cinematic history. But perhaps the greatest strength of RRR is how effortlessly it mish-mashes a bunch of genres. While it remains a dramatic action epic from start to finish, its injection of political intrigue, romance, and even musical moments manages to elevate the movie to the point of exceeding even the most optimistic expectations that I could’ve had for it. By keeping me on my toes as to what was going to happen next, the film embraces the potential of what a truly fantastic epic can be. Even the best epic films can feel redundant or drawn out at times when they feel trapped within the conventions of a particular genre. Not in this case because RRR constantly entertains and surprises through its embodiment of defying such creative trappings. As a result, I would not be amazed if it ends up being one of the best epics for a lot of Western viewers who (like myself) are unfamiliar with the style of these kinds of Indian flicks. Simply put, RRR is one of the best films of the year. If it does not win the Oscar for Best International Picture (or, at least, get a Best Picture nomination), I’ll be very disappointed. I will be eternally grateful that I took a chance on it because it paid off handsomely. And, given a little time, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if RRR cements its status as one of the best action epic films of the century. 😊 Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood When it comes to animated movies this year, some will certainly argue that Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio for Netflix represents the most astonishing technical achievement of the genre in 2022. And while I won’t outright disagree, I do think that another animated movie of this year competes at least in terms of its narrative triumph if not its innovative filmmaking. And that film is none other than Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10½ (also a Netflix movie). I’m generally a fan of Linklater’s work. School of Rock was a formative comedy of my childhood. Boyhood is (in my humble opinion) one of the most interesting mixes of fantasy and reality in live-action filmmaking of the last decade. And several of his movies, like the heist flick The Newton Boys and the black comedy Bernie, are underrated gems if you ask me. That being said, I rank Linklater’s rotoscoped movies among my least favorite of his filmography (Waking Life was utterly unwatchable and A Scanner Darkly, while interesting, never fully gripped me given the talent on screen). So, going into Apollo 10½ I was cautiously optimistic but ultimately hopeful that Linklater’s storytelling sensibilities would outweigh his lackluster use of rotoscoping. Not only did Apollo 10½ exceed my expectations, but I found its use of rotoscoping to enhance the film’s narrative rather than distract or take away from it. If you ask me, Linklater finally found the right story for which this innovative style of animation is meant for. By crafting a reality-bending tale of growing up in suburban Texas during the height of the “Space Race” through the fantasy-filtered eyes of Stanley (Milo Coy and Jack Black), Linklater pulls off a charming story dripping with nostalgia for a time and place I lack any sentimentality for. And yet, the movie is surprisingly relatable and endearing despite its specificity due, in large part, to the universal themes of growing up, family dynamics, and the power of a young imagination that form the backbone of Linklater’s storytelling. There really isn’t much more to say about Apollo 10½, except that you should give it a watch. At just over an hour and a half, it’s a good use of a short amount of time. And even though it probably won’t beat other contenders in the Best Animated Feature category at the Oscars this year (like Turning Red), I do think that the film more than earned a nomination. Top Gun: Maverick I’ll get straight to the point: I’m not the biggest fan of Tony Scott’s original Top Gun film from the 1980s. However, the overwhelmingly positive critical reception for its sequel that came out this year intrigued me. Therefore, I was cautiously optimistic when I sat down in the theater this summer to watch Top Gun: Maverick on the big screen. I really wanted to enjoy it, but I knew there was a decent chance that I would walk away disappointed (especially given other Hollywood franchises, such as Indiana Jones and Bill & Ted, struggling with the “legacy sequel”). Fortunately, I’m happy to say that the film did not disappoint. Simply put, Top Gun: Maverick joins the pantheon of other great “legacy sequels” such as J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, Ryan Coogler’s Creed, and Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 (just to name a few). Despite director Joseph Kosinski’s obvious love for the original film (notably the nearly-shot-for-shot homage of the opening credits), he never let his personal nostalgia (or the fans’, for that matter) cloud his and Tom Cruise’s creative vision for a sequel that embraces modern cinematic style and storytelling sensibilities. The result? A movie that far surpassed its predecessor, and one of the best films of the year. 😊 Unsurprisingly, Tom Cruise brings his all as both producer and lead actor in Top Gun: Maverick. From the jump, his decades-long experience with the Mission: Impossible franchise shines through in how he and the creative team pushing themselves to wholeheartedly embrace practical stunts and effects. By doing so, they crafted a wholly immersive experience that requires virtually no suspension of disbelief on the part of the audience. With such dedication to the artistry of old-school filmmaking, the movie is simply magical. Its action scenes are intense, suspenseful, and breathtaking. The cinematography from Oscar winner Claudio Miranda, combined with the impeccable sound design, have set a new bar for capturing aerial combat in movies (as much as it hurts me to say, I don’t think I can ever watch modern Star Wars movies the same). Not since Avengers: Endgame have I had such an all-around euphoric experience in a movie theater (yup, an even better watch in many ways than Spider-Man: No Way Home). While Top Gun: Maverick is an exceptional action movie, it’s by no means a perfect action movie. If there’s one area of filmmaking on display here that doesn’t reach the heights of the others, it’s in the writing. Particularly, the romance subplot between Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) and old flame Penelope “Penny” Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) fills the slower moments of the screenplay with a narrative thread that just isn’t as captivating as the main story. Primarily, the audience is invested in Maverick’s strenuous relationship with Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), son of his deceased best friend “Goose (Anthony Edwards) which makes any other storyline comparatively less interesting. However, what missteps the script takes in handling some of the characters it more than makes up for with the incredibly fulfilling payoff of a third act. With the heart between Maverick and Rooster at its core, the climax of the team’s dangerous and deadly flight mission is one of the most thrilling third acts in an action movie from the last decade (at least). And it heavily borrows (or, more aptly, rips off) the Death Star trench run from George Lucas’s original Star Wars movie from 1977, so I can’t help but love it! 😊 Beyond just the opening credits (smartly set to the absolute banger that is Kenny Loggins’s best-selling hit “Danger Zone”), Top Gun: Maverick includes several homages to Tony Scott’s original flick that avoid feeling cheap or needless. Instead, Maverick and Rooster speaking to Goose at different critical points in their stories, the football game on the beach between Maverick’s team of pilots, and Goose uproariously playing “Great Balls of Fire” in the bar are just some of the superb tributes paid to the first Top Gun by simultaneously serving the narrative of this movie. Without question, Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel that far and away surpassed the original. More than that, though, it more than earns its increasingly growing reputation as one of the best action films of all time. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, find a way to watch it in a theater if you can (or the best home entertainment system that you can find). Trust me when I say that the sheer entertainment value is more than worth your time! 😉 Thirteen Lives One day, early in August, I had a day off work and thus committed myself to watching two—yes, TWO—films that debuted to streaming the day. In the morning, I pulled up Hulu and watched Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey (which, while I didn’t write about today, I do recommend people watching; fans of horror and the Predator franchise, in particular 😊). After finishing this breezy, intense, and overall enjoyable flick, I figured that the other one I planned on watching that same day would easily be overshadowed: Ron Howard’s survival drama Thirteen Lives. There were several reasons for my trepidation, but primarily I was concerned due to Howard’s general lack of quality filmmaking in the last ten years or so. Not since Rush, the sports biopic about Formula One racers James Hunt (Christ Hemsworth) and Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl), has Howard receive strong critical praise for his film work (although I remain a defender of 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story). Furthermore, I did not think that he could craft a suspenseful and compelling film about the story of Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand back in 2018 due to the highly-publicized nature of the events in question ensuring that most viewers would know the outcome before starting to watch the movie. But all of my trepidations rapidly flew out the window very early on because I remembered that Ron Howard, when he really cares about the material, can put out a great film (remember that he directed such modern classics as Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, and Frost/Nixon). But what about Thirteen Lives makes it not only one of the (in my humble opinion) best films of the year, but my favorite film of 2022? Let’s dive in, shall we? 😊 First and foremost, Ron Howard is a great director whose best movies in my book are the ones based on true stories (like the four that I mentioned in the above paragraph). And that’s no exception in the case of Thirteen Lives. In making this movie, Howard leads a fine cast of performers (both lead and supporting) and crew working behind the camera to capture the gritty realism of such a dire situation as a dozen regular people starving in a cave system deep underground in the middle of life-threatening flooding and, in turn, the worldwide rescue effort to bring them out safely. Only the best talent in the business could pull this off, and I think this story was in very fine hands with both Howard and the team that he assembled to do it justice. I think “realistic” is perhaps the best way to describe Thirteen Lives. When it comes to the story itself, there seems to be no desire on Howard or his team’s part whatsoever to dress up, glamorize, or romanticize the incredible true story being filmed for the big screen. Despite knowing the outcome of the real events, the movie keeps you emotionally invested in every aspect of the rescue mission and the various individuals, communities, and nations coming together to pull it off. Which is another important strength of the movie: its celebration of hope and humanity. While I’ll be the first to admit that I’m generally a cynic pessimist, I do love when a film can inspire in me a belief for the inherently selfless nature of people. Is that the truth of the world we live in? While I don’t feel intellectually equipped to sufficiently answer such a profound question in a blog about movies, I will say that Thirteen Lives managed to strip away any doubt I might have had in our species’ capability to unite in the midst of a tragedy and give everything of themselves for the sole benefit of others (in this case, complete strangers to the people specifically involved with the rescue). If that’s not powerful filmmaking, I don’t know what is. But what about the technical craft of the movie? Does it make you completely suspend your disbelief that these actors playing rescue divers (like Colin Farrell and Viggo Mortensen) are actually in danger trying to save this soccer team from a cave? YES. IT DOES. Simply put, Thirteen Lives offers up some of the most immersive filmmaking of the year in that it fully embraces the urgency of the situation that both the soccer team and the divers are in. Furthermore, Howard’s control of the camera (thanks to the cinematography of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom) fosters a shockingly claustrophobic and suffocating atmosphere in capturing the Thai cave network that the movie simply wouldn’t work without. Ultimately, however, I think the greatness of this movie is best explained by the fact that it exemplifies the best elements of my other favorites of 2022. Simply put, Howard combines the meticulous attention to detail of Apollo 10½, the grittiness of KIMI, the emotional nuance of Turning Red, the immersion of Top Gun: Maverick, and the raw humanity of RRR. By doing so, Ron Howard and his cast and crew delivered a raw, emotional, and powerful two-and-a-half hours that celebrates humanity’s perseverance in the face of heart-stopping adversity. And the fact that these events happened in real life only enhances Howard’s artistic interpretation that, in my humble opinion, does nothing but realistically capture what that experience must have been like for everyone involved. If there’s only one film that I’ve written about here that you’re going to watch, let it be Thirteen Lives. I am certain you won’t regret it. So, those are my thoughts on some of my favorite films of 2022. Of course, there are plenty of other good films from this year that are worth checking out: Megan Park’s The Fallout, Carey Williams’s Emergency, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Just to name a few. 😉 For my thoughts on some other 2022 films, click on any of the titles below:
What are some of your favorite films from this year? What movies coming out next year are you most excited for? What opinions of mine do you find absolutely ridiculous? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, this has been… Yours Truly, Amateur Analyst
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Austin McManusI have no academic or professional background in film production or criticism; I simply love watching and talking about movies. Archives
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