The Year in Review (Patreon)

Never thought to post a top 10 list here previously—partly because I maintain a running list (albeit organized by year of premiere rather than year of U.S. release), which folks can consult whenever they like, but mostly because my semi-official list used to appear on the A.V. Club in mid-December. Often it wasn't yet final, and that's likewise potentially true of the list below, as I'll be catching up with a handful of titles in January (though I'm skeptical that any of those, including and especially Avatar: The Way of Computer-Generated Wonder, will prove to be my thing). But since I no longer have a professional forum for this endeavor, might as well make it an annual New Year's Eve tradition. I'll go ahead and use the A.V. Club format, except that Alex Dowd, my editor there, always asked for our top 15 and I'm gonna stick to the traditional 10, 'cause yeesh what a bum year in my opinion. Jury's still out on whether the recent paucity of movies that genuinely excite me—there are only three this year, really, three and a half if you want to count most of White Noise—reflects pandemic tribulations or just a general shift away from the sort of fearsomely complex, arguably "problematic" character study I tend to favor. The latter, more likely, even if 2022's most celebrated film (which you'll find on my list, despite my being a bit cooler on it than most) fits that description snugly.

Anyway, here's where things stand as the calendar turns. It's my "polls" list, including some films that premiered at festivals last year but are Skandie-eligible this year. Oh, and I'm starting at the bottom, even though there's zero suspense for many of you, because dammit that's how this should work when the list is meant to be read rather than merely browsed. 

10. RRR (S S Rajamouli, India)

Even my dad saw this. My 77-year-old dad! (No assist from me; Netflix algorithm showed him the trailer and he got intrigued.) I made a token effort to resist, not being generally keen on over-the-top action, but Rajamouli pushes so far into absurdism, with such monumental panache, that he breaks down your defenses. Would be ranked higher if he'd calm down with the slo-mo-speed-up maneuver.

9. Paris, 13th District (Jacques Audiard, France)

Feels like this one's been largely forgotten, and it's possible that I'm overvaluing it because so few films nowadays tackle sexuality with any frankness or candor. But the second tale that emerges, in particular—a portrait of the evolving relationship between Noémie Merlant's college student and the cam-girl for whom she's mistaken by others—has stuck with me for more than a year now. 

8. TÁR (Todd Field, USA)

Been putting off a second viewing, just because I prefer spacing them out more whenever possible, but there's a decent chance that my rating may go up when I take another look. My only significant reservation is that a female sexual predator feels gimmicky, and I've already kinda talked myself into believing that maybe it's a necessary means of defamiliarizing this rather blunt subject. 

7. Hit the Road (Panah Panahi, Iran)

Also dug his dad's No Bears, which is definitely more interesting than this fairly straightforward family drama. But Panahi Jr.'s commitment to emotional restraint, combined with his penchant for leavening heavy material with random encounters (the cheating cyclist) and goofy comedy (dog tied to flimsy plastic chair) suggests that we might have a legit filmmaking dynasty here. 

6. Ahed's Knee (Nadav Lapid, France/Germany/Israel)

This one dropped a bit on second viewing but remains the most demented formal exercise I've witnessed in ages—a movie that often looks as if it's having a nervous breakdown. Lapid's obsessions tend to irritate me in conventional dramatic form, and it was exhilarating to see him throw caution to the wind and just channel everything into a prolonged fit of barely coherent rage.

5. White Noise (Noah Baumbach, USA)

Secretly my film of the year, in the sense that it's the one I'd most like to revisit at any given moment, even as I acknowledge that its entire third section doesn't really work. The existence of people who were not tickled and enthralled by everything involving the Airborne Toxic Event is a grotesque rumor to which I refuse to give any credence. Blatantly the finest direction of Baumbach's career.

4. Benediction (Terence Davies, UK)

The rare biopic that didn't leave me in a Wiki-stupor. Davies himself couldn't manage that trick with A Quiet Passion (though I need to watch it again), and pulls it off here mostly by virtue of tackling a figure whose fame is relatively circumscribed—I'd never heard of Sassoon, myself—and providing him with a fictively rich environment. Didn't love Capaldi's bitter incarnation, but oh well. 

(Here's where we finally reach films that would have made my list in virtually any year. The preceding seven would have been honorable mentions in, say, 2018.)

3. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook, South Korea)

Hey, wanna gape at one arresting composition after another for well over two hours? Care for a reminder that Tang Wei can be one of the most charismatic actors alive when afforded the opportunity? Do you like Vertigo, and would you be interested in a gloss on same that gradually shifts into Madeleine/Judy's perspective, revealing her as perhaps even more fucked up than Scotty? Those who love Park tend to find this second-tier; it's the first of his films I've adored.

2. In Front of Your Face (Hong Sangsoo, South Korea)

Strong year for Korean cinema (but ain't they all?). As with Decision to Leave, I'm diverging from the true heads, who don't love this atypical, more emotionally direct, let's-actually-drop-an-honest-to-god-narrative-revelation side of Hong. Whereas I, convinced that he's beaten his standard approach into the dirt, was pleasantly sideswiped by an injection of quietly wistful delicacy. Simply lovely.

1. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, Ireland/UK/USA)

As always during the Christmas season, numerous relatives asked me for movie recommendations, and my efforts to accurately describe Banshees invariably concluded with a feeble, desperate "I know that sounds horrific but I swear it's mostly hilarious." Would've secured a spot here for its magnificently combative dialogue alone; that it also raises genuinely thorny questions about ambition vs. decency, in cases where the two are hard to reconcile (or are they?), merits awe. Memo to Theo: Colm punishing Pádraic via self-mutilation that defeats the ostensible purpose of pushing him away is the whole damn point (which McDonagh over-emphasizes by repeatedly calling attention to the civil war). 

Now for the A.V. Club bonus categories, excepting Outlier (a film on your list but nobody else's), which I can't know. Probably would've been White Noise. 

Most overrated: Aftersun

Got nothing against Wells' debut, save for its familiarity. The little girl's terrific (Mescal considerably less so—there's one notable divergence from consensus), and I do appreciate the indirect means by which the film slowly reveals itself as an adult's reminiscence. But whatever's reducing others to blubbering wrecks failed to penetrate my armor, for whatever reason. It seemed resolutely ordinary to me. No doubt I'll watch it again at some point, and maybe the whole if-only-I'd-understood-Dad's-pain aspect will wallop me more. Or, y'know, at all. 

Most underrated: Onoda

Really it's White Noise, but I generally tried to pick films not in my top 10/15 for both this category and Most Pleasant Surprise, just to avoid repetition. Still might be the wrong choice, though, because this "biopic" about one of the Japanese soldiers who continued fighting World War II into the 1970s wasn't so much underappreciated as it was little-seen. Would've been high on my list had it leaned more into parallels between Onoda's increasingly preposterous rationalizations and modern-day conspiracy theories, well worth seeing as is.

Biggest disappointment: Nope

Despite my mixed feelings about both Get Out and Us, I was ridiculously stoked for this. Made a point of avoiding all marketing materials and reviews, and managed to enter the theater with only a vague sense that it's science fiction, possibly involving a UFO. Was almost quivering as I sat down. And then Gordy happened. And then Michael Wincott showed up. And then somehow it became a non-ironic (as far as I can tell) story about trying to snap an Oprah-worthy photograph that might vault our heroes into well-deserved notoriety. And then I remembered that Peele has yet to sustain a great idea at feature length. 

Most pleasant surprise: EO

So many options here, and I nearly went with Top Gun: Maverick, simply because I'd spent more than 30 years feeling naught but disdain for the original (which still mostly stinks, as it turns out). Could even have cited Glass Onion, since it's a sequel—to a movie I love—that ditches everything except the one thing that I didn't really love, viz. Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc. But I'd have bet serious cash money against the prospect of my enjoying a contemporary rethinking of Au hasard Balthazar, one of the canonical classics that I kinda can't stand due to its propensity for heaping abuse upon an innocent victim. Not that Skolimowski entirely refrains from doing that, mind you. But the awfulness isn't so relentlessly donkey-directed here, and—crucially—it's counterbalanced with some truly dazzling images. I have reservations, but did not feel pummeled. 

Finally, here's the complete list of films I saw this year, a great many of them selected by many of you via the weekly poll. (I've included one title that I haven't actually watched yet, as I post this, but plan to watch later tonight.)

NEW FILMS PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN (108)

"New films" defined here as premiering within the past three years, 2020-22. 

A Chiara

After Yang

Aftersun

All That Breathes

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Ambulance

Amsterdam

Anaïs in Love

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

The American Sector

Armageddon Time

Atarrabi and Mikelats

Azor

Babi Yar. Context

The Banshees of Inisherin

Barbarian

Belfast

BigBug

Black Box

The Black Phone

The Bob’s Burgers Movie

Both Sides of the Blade

Broker

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Close

Coma

Confess, Fletch

Corsage

Cow

Crimes of the Future

De humani corporis fabrica

Dear Mr. Brody

Decision to Leave

Descendant

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing

Elvis

Emergency

Emergency Declaration

EO

The Eternal Daughter

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Fabelmans

Fire of Love

Flux Gourmet

The Forgiven

Funny Pages

Glass Onion

Godland

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Happening

Hit the Road

Hold Me Tight

Holy Spider

Huda’s Salon

Hunt

Il buco

The Integrity of Joseph Chambers

Jackass Forever

KIMI

The Kingdom Exodus

The Lost Daughter

Metal Lords

Moonage Daydream

Moonfall

The Night House

Nitram

No Bears

Nope

The Northman

The Novelist’s Film

Operation Mincemeat

Out of the Blue

Pacifiction

Petrov’s Flu

Pinocchio (Del Toro)

Pretty Problems

Procession

Rehana

RRR

Saint Omer

Secret Headquarters

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

She Said

She Will

Something in the Dirt

Speak No Evil

Spencer

Spider-Man: No Way Home

Stars at Noon

TÁR

There There

This Much I Know to Be True

Three Thousand Years of Longing

Top Gun: Maverick

Trenque Lauquen

Triangle of Sadness

Ultrasound

Uncharted

Unrest

Vortex

Walk Up

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

White Noise

The Woman King

X

You Won’t Be Alone

NEW FILMS REVISITED (14)

Ahed’s Knee

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

Both Sides of the Blade

Compartment No. 6

Decision to Leave

Drive My Car

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun

Glass Onion (just realized I forgot to log this on Letterboxd...)

A Hero

In Front of Your Face

Licorice Pizza

Red Rocket

The Souvenir Part II

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

OLD FILMS PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN (86)

Shoes (1916)

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler. Part One: The Great Gambler. A Portrait of Our Time (1922)

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler. Part Two: Inferno. A Play on the People of Our Time (1922)

Faust (1926)

The King of Kings (1927)

The Wedding March (1928)

Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)

A Story of Floating Weeds (1934)

Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938)

Saturday’s Children (1940)

High Sierra (1941)

The Clock (1945)

Call Northside 777 (1948)

At War With the Army (1950)

Early Summer (1951)

The Golden Coach (1952)

French Cancan (1955)

A Generation (1955)

It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)

Crazed Fruit (1956)

Elena and Her Men (1956)

While the City Sleeps (1956)

Le notte bianche (1957)

The Lower Depths (1957)

The Big Country (1958)

Irma la Douce (1963)

Youth of the Beast (1963)

Gate of Flesh (1964)

Onibaba (1964)

Samurai Spy (1965)

Story of a Prostitute (1965)

Sword of the Beast (1965)

How to Steal a Million (1966)

The War Game (1966)

Young Törless (1966)

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

The Cremator (1969)

Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970)

The Telephone Book (1971)

Tout va bien (1972)

Edvard Munch (1974)

A Poem Is a Naked Person (1974)

French Connection II (1975)

India Song (1975)

Duelle (1976)

Stay Hungry (1976)

Between the Lines (1977)

Slap Shot (1977)

Out of the Blue (1980)

Roadie (1980)

The Howling (1981)

Le Pont du Nord (1981)

Roadgames (1981)

They All Laughed (1981)

Personal Best (1982)

Vice Squad (1982)

Eureka (1983)

The Keep (1983)

Valley Girl (1983)

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)

The Making of Fanny and Alexander (1984)

Threads (1984)

Smooth Talk (1985)

Betty Blue (1986)

Mix-Up ou Meli-melo (1986)

The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987)

Extreme Prejudice (1987)

The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988)

Chameleon Street (1989)

The Baby of Mâcon (1993)

Hard Target (1993)

Martyrs (2008)

The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Copacabana (2010)

Jackass 3D (2010)

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)

Never Look Away (2018)

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

Captain Marvel (2019)

Ema (2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

The Twentieth Century (2019)

OLD FILMS REVISITED (85)

Almost exactly the same number of "previously seen" and "previously unseen" older films—85 vs. 86. Didn't plan that; it just happened. 

The Docks of New York (1928)

L’Âge d’or (1930)

A Night at the Opera (1935)

Dodsworth (1936)

The Lower Depths (1936)

Modern Times (1936)

Port of Shadows (1938)

Rope (1948)

Stray Dog (1949)

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

The Browning Version (1951)

Diary of a Country Priest (1951)

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

I vitelloni (1953)

La strada (1954)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Seven Men From Now (1956)

Kanał (1957)

The Lady With the Dog (1960)

Tunes of Glory (1960)

Jules and Jim (1962)

Knife in the Water (1962)

La commare secca (1962)

Mamma Roma (1962)

Salvatore Giuliano (1962)

I Am Cuba (1964)

The Train (1964)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Play Dirty (1969)

Z (1969)

Frenzy (1972)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather, Part II (1974)

The Phantom of Liberty (1974)

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Rabid (1977)

The Muppet Movie (1979)

1941 (1979)

Bad Timing (1980)

Bloody Kids (1980)

Pennies From Heaven (1981)

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain (1983)

Blood Simple (1984)

Love Streams (1984)

Secret Honor (1984)

Top Gun (1986)

Near Dark (1987)

Predator (1987)

Roger & Me (1989)

An Angel at My Table (1990)

The Godfather, Part III (1990)

The Commitments (1991)

Deep Cover (1992)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Crooklyn (1994)

Crumb (1994)

Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

Richard III (1995)

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996)

Secrets & Lies (1996)

Trees Lounge (1996)

William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Zero Effect (1998)

Clouds of May (1999)

Unbreakable (2000)

Blue Gate Crossing (2002)

Distant (2002)

In My Skin (2002)

The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002)

Talk to Her (2002)

Turning Gate (2002)

The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)

Bright Leaves (2003)

Shattered Glass (2003)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (2003)

Stuck on You (2003)

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)

Spartan (2004)

Julia (2008)

The Assassin (2015)