Home

ENTRIES IN PART 7:


Peter Nagels

Cinephile, Dream Researcher, Librarian (retired), Ballarat.

In no particular order:

Films:

Spencer (Pablo Larrain, 2021) ‘Bleak’ hardly begins to describe this.
Spontaneous (Brian Duffield, 2020) A joyous teen comedy.
Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021) Very slow cinema.
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021)
The Plains (David Easteal, 2022) Oft traveled roads take on a new dimension.
Il Buco (The Hole, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2021) More very slow cinema.
The Sound of 007 (Mat Whitecross, 2022) An amazingly informative documentary.
Dangsin Eolgul Ap-eseo (In Front of Your Face, Sang-soo Hong, 2021)
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022)
Heojil Gyeolsim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022)

Streaming and television:

Archive 81 (Netflix, 2022)
Wednesday (Netflix, 2022)
The Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (BBC, 2022) A remarkable eight-hour
production, all in real time!

Andy Norton

Actor (The Carten Brothers/Inspiration/Metaverse 4/20); Former Selection Committee Member (ABCD Film Society)

Salvation Has No Name (Joseph Wallace, 2022)
Salvation Has No Name can tell an emotionally charged story better in its 17-minute runtime than some meatier blockbusters that have been released this year. With its powerful allegory of prejudice towards refugees, stop-motion auteur Joseph Wallace with their team of animators brought those distinctive puppets to life to tell their tale that the likes of Black Narcissus have influenced in terms of location and religious iconography. Wallace thanks the likes of Barry Purves and the Brothers Quay in its ending credits, but we, the audience, should thank Wallace for this instant masterpiece in their distinct yet universal storytelling.

Ice Merchants (João Gonzalez, 2022)
João Gonzalez directs this animated short with great economy in colour and without dialogue able to tell a complex relationship between these father-and-son characters in a gripping and poetic manner. The fact that this is only their second-ever film from this Portuguese director is just awe-inspiring. Ice Merchants is a fantastic film executed with such emotional gravitas. Make a note of the name of João Gonzalez, as we will surely be seeing more from this instant-auteur in the future.

Pinocchio (Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Gustafson, 2022)
In a year that has seen numerous interpretations of this popular puppet character from the Carlo Collodi novel, this stop-motion adaptation set during World War II seems to hit the right notes with the fans and critics. Whilst you can argue that this is not the first time del Toro has made a period fantasy film (Pan’s Labyrinth, anyone?) you cannot dismiss this as probably the most memorable film version of this story since Disney’s 1940 adaptation.

The Outfit (Graham Moore, 2022)
The Outfit plays like a classic album. With peaks and troughs in terms of drama and action, a small stellar cast, and a subliminal periodic score creates an excellent period piece that brings the best out of the entire cast and a fantastic script. Whilst it can be rather theatrical in terms of blocking and screen acting, The Outfit is probably one of the most memorable gangster period films in recent years.

 The House (Paloma Baeza, Emma De Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, 2022)
Anthology films are quite a rarity in the contemporary cinematic landscape. Still, The House proves that cantering around a titular building, with each segment telling its tale in its own respective. Therefore, whether you like your journey films, a traditional ghost story, or a transformative horror, this Emmy-winning offering from Netflix should be your cup of tea. Featuring well-crafted puppets from Mackinnon and Saunders, and a stellar voice cast with the likes of Mark Heap and Jarvis Cocker, this should be a nice grown-up offering for those looking for a break from the usual family-friendly material on that platform.

Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022)
Let us be honest, those expecting groundbreaking cinema may wish to switch off and enjoy this big-screen sequel of the cult 1980s film, with Tom Cruise reprising his iconic titular role. There is a plethora of nods to the original, including a lovely piece of drama from Val Kilmer reprising his original role, and a few nods to its iconic soundtrack. Nevertheless, there is plenty of new talent (including Miles Tiller) and it’s best to see this film on the big screen to enjoy its booming soundtrack and action-packed sound design. Let us just leave it to the movie nerds to discuss whether it belongs in IMDB’s Top 250, in between Return of the Jedi and Capernaum (at the time of writing this!)

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure (Richard Linklater, 2022)
Jack Black narrates this coming-of-age story about a boy named Stan who helps NASA during the 1960s American Space Race. Rotoscoped in the same vein as some of Linklater’s previous animated works, we are submerged into this period of childhood innocence. Whilst the Academy was confused by the film, Apollo 10 1/2 is a great period piece about the generation gap between the youths and adults, juxtaposed with a child-like fascination with space. 

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson, 2022)
On the subject of great sequels, Glass Onion instantly deserves all the praise this murder-mystery romp has been getting. Even if you have not seen Knives Out you can appreciate the intelligent script, the tremendous all-star cast (including Edward Norton and the late Dame Angela Lansbury), and the creative song choices used throughout the film. You will not hear Nat King Cole’s Mona Lisa the same way after its usage!

The Bad Guys (Pierre Perifel, 2022)
The Bad Guys gives DreamWorks a much-deserved breath of animated fresh air because this funny heist movie is an exceptionally well-timed comedy making it a delight for audiences of all ages. The voice casting is solid and entertaining just as much as the dynamic character animation. 

Turning Red (Domee Shi, 2022)
Turning Red is the most memorable Pixar outing in recent years. Not only is it a fantastic visual metaphor for womanhood, but a great period piece about teenage life in the 2000s. The film seems to be inspired by Kaiju monster movies (especially near the end).

Venton Nurkollari

Artistic Director, DokuFest Kosovo

A long-awaited return to the year of glorious cinema! 

NON – FICTION

  1. All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
  2. All that Breathes (Shaunak Sen, 2022)
  3. Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen, 2022)
  4. Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022)
  5. Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis, 2022)
  6. Riotsville, U.S.A. (Sierra Pettengill, 2022) 
  7. The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft (Werner Herzog, 2022)
  8. Anhell69 (Theo Montoya, 2022)
  9. The Eclipse (Nataša Urban, 2022)
  10. The Plains (David Easteal, 2022)

FICTION

  1. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022)
  2. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)
  3. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022)
  4. Mato Seco Em Chamas (Dry Ground Burning, Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 2022)
  5. Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, 2022)
  6. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022)
  7. Il Buco (The Hole, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2022)
  8. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)
  9. Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi, 2022)
  10. RRR (S.S. Rajamouli, 2022)

Older films encountered for the first time in 2022

In 2022 I finally made it to Bologna for Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, a sort of pilgrimage that I hope to repeat from now on. By far the best and most rigorous programming I have encountered at any film festivals thus far. 

La Maman et la Putain (The Mother and the Whore, Jean Eustache, 1973)
Korotkie vstrechi (Brief Encounters, Kira Muratova, 1967)
Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim, 1922)
My Six Convicts (Hugo Fregonese, 1952)
The Connection (Shirley Clarke, 1961)
On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956)
Je Tu Il Elle (Chantal Akerman, 1974)
Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)

I mostly skipped online festivals in 2022 in favor of few onsite ones. The best “hybrid” festival I attended was Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, where beside a great new documentary and experimental films one could delve into brilliantly curated retrospectives, such as one on Shirley Clarke and Lionel Rogosin. The decision to screen all the films from their short film competition free of charge and asking viewers to vote to determine the winner gave an added value to online or hybrid festivals, in my opinion. 

Darragh O’Donoghue

Darragh O’Donoghue is an archivist at Tate and a contributing writer for Cineaste.  He completed a PhD on the Stephen Dwoskin Archive at the University of Reading.

Ten best new films of 2022:

  • Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)
  • Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021)
  • Di yi lu xiang (Love After Love, Ann Hui, 2020)
  • Funny Pages (Owen Kline, 2022)
  • Gangubai Kathiawadi (Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2022)
  • Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021)
  • Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, 2022)
  • Red Rocket (Sean Baker, 2021)
  • RRR (S.S. Rajamouli, 2022)
  • Unrueh (Unrest, Cyril Schäublin, 2022)

Best performance: I have never been a great Colin Farrell fan, but he is heart-breaking in The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin MacDonagh, 2022). The film itself is almost a masterpiece, but misses the third variable Ralph Fiennes brought to the same team’s In Bruges (2008).

The Banshees of Inisherin

Best old films or new to me in 2022:

  • The Cocoanuts (Robert Florey & Joseph Santley, 1929)
  • Dixiana (Luther Reed, 1930)
  • King of Jazz (John Murray Anderson, 1930)
  • Blonde Crazy (Roy del Ruth, 1931)
  • Platinum Blonde (Frank Capra, 1931)
  • Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932)
  • Red-Headed Woman (Jack Conway, 1932)
  • Angèle (Marcel Pagnol, 1934)
  • Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey, 1935)
  • The Cowboy and the Lady (H.C. Potter, 1938)
  • Sikandar (Sohrab Modi, 1941)
  • Witch’s Cradle (Maya Deren, 1944)
  • Shahjehan (Abdul Rashid Kardar, 1946)
  • Stage Fright (Alfred Hitchcock, 1950)
  • La paura (Fear, Roberto Rossellini, 1954)
  • The Decks Ran Red (Andrew L. Stone, 1958)
  • Maigret (TV Series, Andrew Osborn et al, 1960-1963)
  • Aru kikanjoshi (An Engineer’s Assistant, Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1964)
  • Minamata: Kanja-san to sono sekai (Minamata: the Victims and their World), Noriaki Tsuchimoto, 1971)
  • Deux Fois (Two Times, Jackie Raynal, 1968)
  • Mustaa valkoisella (Black on White, Jörn Donner, 1968)
  • Original Cast Album: Company (D. A. Pennebaker, 1970)
  • Max et les ferrailleurs (Max and the Junkmen, Claude Sautet, 1971)
  • Aa Gale Lag Jaa and Desh Premee (Come, Embrace Me, Manmohan Desai, 1973 & 1982)
  • Szerelmem, Elektra (Electra, My Love, Miklós Jancsó, 1974)
  • The Terminal Man (Mike Hodges, 1974)
  • Amerikai anzix (American Torso, Gábor Bódy, 1975)
  • Örökbefogadás (Adoption, Márta Mészáros, 1975)
  • Les Hériteurs (The Inheritance, Márta Mészáros, 1980) 
  • Napló gyermekeimnek (Diary for My Children, Márta Mészáros, 1984)
  • Three Men in a Boat (Stephen Frears, 1975)
  • Thampu (The Circus Tent, Govindan Aravindan, 1978)
  • Angi Vera (Pál Gábor, 1979)
  • Last Embrace (Jonathan Demme, 1979)
  • Heerak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds, Satyajit Ray, 1980)
  • Sherlok Kholms i doktor Vatson (Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson: Acquaintance, Igor Maslennikov, 1980)
  • Soothing the Bruise (Betzy Bromberg, 1980)
  • Body Politic (God Melts Bad Meat), (Betzy Bromberg, 1988)
  • Akaler Sandhane (In Search of Famine, Mrinal Sen, 1981)
  • Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective (Val Guest, 1981)
  • Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet, 1981)
  • Fear of Drowning (Vanni Corbellini & Peter Greenaway, 1988)
  • Khuda Gawah (Mukul Anand, 1992)
  • Shall we dansu? (Shall We Dance?, Masayuki Suô, 1996)
  • Yaadein (Memories, Subhash Ghai, 2001)
  • Buss (The Bus, Laila Pakalnina, 2004)
  • Yurev Den (Yuri’s Day, Kirill Serebrennikov, 2008)
  • Leto (Summer, Kirill Serebrennikov, 2018)
  • Jennifer’s Body (Karyn Kusama, 2009)
  • Magadheera (The Heroic Man, S. S. Rajamouli, 2009)
  • Maryada Ramanna (S.S. Rajamouli, 2010)
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Michael McDonald et al, 2013-2021)
  • Ozark (Jason Bateman et al, 2017-2022)
  • Donbass (Sergei Loznitsa, 2018)
  • Entrepreneur (Virpi Suutari, 2018)
  • Kansanradio – runonlaulajien maa (A People’s Radio: Ballads from a Wooded Country. Virpi Suutari, 2021)
  • Comets (Tamar Shavgulidze, 2019)
  • Giri/Haji (Julian Farino & Ben Chessell, 2019)
  • Das melancholische Mädchen (Aren’t You Happy?, Susanne Heinrich, 2019)

Further Thoughts:

Best Retrospective: The Short Films of Jacqueline Lentzou, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (24 June 2022).

My opinion about the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll: 

Positives: 

  • The one genuine – and heartening – surprise of this film year was Chantal Akerman’s apotheosis in the poll. I can’t think of a better filmmaker to serve as the ‘greatest’ and as the representative of cinema – the renovator of its past, the attendant to its present, and the guide to its future. More than any other director she fused the avant-garde, arthouse, and popular cinemas. She is the only filmmaker I know whose very work is completely different from the last, encompassing 3½ hour minimalist character studies, musicals, romantic comedies, essay films, home movies, formal games, lyrical stories of love and alienation, period dramas and literary adaptations, searching studies of Jewishness and migration, video installations, and even a Hollywood romp.  Each one a masterpiece.  Not even Godard had her range or wide appeal. 
  • It’s good to finally have in the top ten films I actually saw on their original release!  
  • The noble attempt to diversify those polled. 

Not so good things:

  • The poll endorses a dismaying trend over the last two decades – the shift in the ‘appreciation’ of film from cinephiles, critics, and programmers, to academics, ‘curators’, galleries and museums. The possibility of popular energy and accessibility to elitism, institutionalism, jargon, and narrowly defined ‘special interests’
  • One result is the decline of a certain kind of cinephilia in the poll. More alarming is the absence of eight figures central to the history and theory of cinema: Cocteau, Sternberg, Lubitsch, Hawks, Buñuel, Minnelli, Nicholas Ray, and Resnais. I’m not for one moment suggesting that these filmmakers should automatically appear in a ‘greatest ever’ poll or advocating a return to Paul Schrader’s reactionary ‘museum’ approach that has stifled the poll for so long.  I’m simply asking what the current absence of such figures, who have inspired so many filmmakers, writers, cinephiles, and artists for decades, means today.
  • It is mean-spirited and misogynist to point out that for all the social-engineering involved in the polling, critics around the world still seem to prefer white Orientalist fantasies set in Africa (Claire Denis’ Beau Travail [1998] at no. 7]) to films by African filmmakers (only two in the lower reaches of the Top 100, Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki [1973] at no. 66, and Ousmane Sembène’s La noire de… [Black Girl, 1965])
  • And don’t get me started (again!) on the continued absence of popular Indian cinema!

Roberto Oggiano

Film critic and programmer, London, UK

In no particular order: 

  1. A New Old Play (Qiu Jiongjiong, 2021)
  2. Re Granchio (The Tales of the King Crab, Alessio de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, 2021)
  3. Dal pianeta degli umani (From the Planet of the Humans, Giovanni Cioni, 2021)
  4. Les Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions, Xavier Giannoli, 2021)
  5. Les images qui vont suivre n’ont jamais existé (The Following Images Never Happened, Noé Grenier, 2022)
  6. Herbaria (Leandro Listorti, 2022)
  7. Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, 2022)
  8. Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022)
  9. No Bears (Jafar Panahi, 2022)
  10. Esterno Notte (Exterior Night, Marco Bellocchio, 2022)

Saint Omer

Restorations, Reissues, Discoveries:

  1. Nine Days of One Year (Mikhail Romm, 1962) (Klassiki, French Institute, London)
  2. Women of the Rhondda (Various,1973) (Essay Film Festival, ICA, London)
  3. Eight Deadly Shots (Mikko Niskanen, 1972) (Bologna Cinema Ritrovato)
  4. Black Tuesday (Hugo Fregonese, 1954) (Bologna Cinema Ritrovato)
  5. Cainà (Gennaro Righelli, 1922) (Bologna Cinema Ritrovato)
  6. Love Under the Crucifix, (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1962) (BFI, London)
  7. Perfect Film (Ken Jacobs, 1985) (Barbican, London)
  8. Appelez-moi Madame (Call Me Madame, Françoise Romand, 1987) (La Clef Revival, ICA, London)
  9. El Vampiro Negro, (The Black Vampire, Román Viñoly Barreto, 1953) (Watershed, Bristol)
  10. Girls’ Night Out (Im Sang-Soo, 1998) (35mm, London Korean Film Festival)

Wilfred Okiche

Film critic/programmer, Nigeria
  • Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)
  • All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, 2022)
  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
  • The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022)
  • Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022)
  • EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022)
  • Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022)
  • Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Sophia Hyde, 2022)
  • Pinnochio (Guillermo del Toro et. al, 2022)
  • Joyland (Saim Sadiq, 2022)
  • Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022)
  • Navalny (Daniel Roher, 2022)
  • No Simple Way Home (Akuol de Mabior, 2022)
  • Palm Trees and Power Lines (Jamie Dack, 2022)
  • Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022)
  • Shimoni (Angela Wamai, 2022)
  • Speak no Evil (Christian Tafdrup, 2022)
  • Tár (Todd Field, 2022)
  • The Woman King (Gina Prince-Bythewood, 2022)
  • Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022)

Honorable Mentions:

  • Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron, 2022),
  • Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2022)
  • Godland (Hlynur Pálmason)
  • Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, 2023)
  • Yoon (Ricardo FalcãoPedro Neto, 2021).

Andreea Pătru

Programmer & film critic, Spain/Romania.

No Bears, Jafar Panahi, 2022)
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Pierre Földes, 2022)
Hideous (Yann Gonzalez, 2022)
45th Parallel (Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 2022)
Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022)
Coma (Bertrand Bonello, 2022)
Tengo sueños eléctricos (I Have Electric Dreams, Valentina Maurel, 2022)
War Pony (Gina Gammell, Riley Keough, 2022)
Haulout (Maxim Arbugaev, Evgenia Arbugaeva, 2022)
De Humanis Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022)

Older films encountered for the first time in 2022:

Chibusa Yo Eien Nare (Forever a Woman aka The Eternal Breasts, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955)

Andrew F Peirce

Australian film critic. Founder of The Curb. Author of The Australian Film Yearbook.

Best Australian Films of 2022

Not Dark Yet (Bonnie Moir, 2022)
You Won’t Be Alone (Goran Stolevski, 2022)
Moja Vesna (Sara Kern, 2022)
Anonymous Club (Danny Cohen, 2022)
How to Please a Woman (Renee Webster, 2022)
Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow (Philippa Bateman, 2022)
General Hercules (Brodie Poole, 2022)
The Stranger (Thomas M. Wright, 2022)
Shadow (Bruce Gladwin, 2022)
The Lonely Spirits Variety Hour (Platon Theodoris, 2022)

Jesse Percival

Film Editor

When theaters reopened in 2021, studios were hesitant to release much of anything in theaters. I spent that entire year in Los Angeles Repertoire Theaters, rediscovering old favorites and uncovering new ones. However, all that did was make me rife with anticipation for what lay over the horizon. What gems had yet to be discovered because COVID had held them back from release? While 2022 was still down in terms of overall films (there were about 71 wide releases compared to 2019’s 112), I still managed to feel spoiled.

I loved a great deal of movies this past year, some I loved so much I ran out to see them at least seven times (something I’ve never done)! I’d love to share them all, but here are the ten I adored the most.

  1. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022)

I didn’t immediately know what to make of Spielberg’s most nakedly emotional work to date, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I’ve never seen a filmmaker lay their entire ethos on the line in such a way. It feels like the Rosetta Stone for Spielberg movies. I’ll never be able to watch his films quite the same way.

  1. Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime (Belle, Mamoru Hosoda, 2021)

Hosada has returned to the digital world a few times over his career, but this is his strongest play at connecting the digital frontier and how it functions to his characters that inhabit it and how it reflects upon themselves. Unabashedly sincere and grand; I had the pleasure of seeing this in IMAX more than once during its 2022 American release and it’s not something I’ll soon forget.

  1. Barbarian (Zach Cregger, 2022)

A perfect tonal balancing act. The dread Act 1 develops almost entirely through implication alone would have sufficed, but the places Cregger takes this made it a helluva romp. 

  1. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)

Simply devastating. I was unsure of what to expect and was taken aback by its restraint, until I was railroaded by its final shot. An ending for the record books.

  1. Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron, 2022)

No one makes blockbusters like James Cameron. No one else could get away with making films the way he does and that never ceases to be the coolest thing ever. It’s good to have him back in the saddle, always ready to take his audience for a ride. Can’t wait for the next installment. 

  1. Athena (Romain Gavras, 2022)

My biggest surprise of 2022. Seemingly buried by the Netflix-machine, this might be one of the unsung masterpieces of the streaming age. One of the only films to really make great use of the medium of the at home movie. Still can’t believe they pulled off most of these shots, even the usually obvious hidden cuts were seamless!

  1. Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021)

It took until this year for Memoria to arrive in Los Angeles, but it was more than worth the wait. Maybe my favorite Weerasethakul? I couldn’t take my eyes off, unbearably engrossing.

  1. Tár (Todd Field, 2022)

I forgot adult dramas could just be this good. I don’t even know what to add, just the plutonic ideal of a character study.

  1. RRR (S. S. Rajamouli, 2022)

I was fortunate enough to be an early adopter in America for this one. It seemingly went viral on Twitter sometime during the summer, but due to some friends in the know I was exposed to it back in March. But because it picked up, it never seemed to leave theaters; which meant I could just keep bringing new groups of people to see it. By the time I saw it at the Chinese Theater with a sold-out crowd, I had managed to see it 7 times on the big screen, and there’s truly nothing else like it. Rajamouli is very much like James Cameron in his understanding that what makes a great action movie is clarity. Not clarity of action beats, but clarity of story and character. A lot has been asked of why this crossed over to America when many in the East see it as business as usual, but it’s the same thing that makes Cameron’s films big in non-American countries. The filmmaking is so clear and precise, the conflicts so clean cut, the characters so broadly painted that anyone could follow it. And when anyone can follow it, you can get away with literally anything you feel like, and few films have ever taken full advantage of that like RRR. I could see it 50 times in theaters and never tire of it, and I hope to be given that chance.

  1. Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022)

I’ve always asked myself what would be my equivalent of seeing Star Wars when it first came out? What would be my The Matrix? What film could feel so singular, encompassing everything that’s come before it and be instantly timeless? I didn’t know how to describe what I was looking for, but I knew when I saw it, I’d know it instantly. As the credits rolled over the Daniel’s sci-fi epic, I knew this was the film I’d been waiting my whole life to see. Like Star Wars, it wears its influences on its sleeves but feels completely unique, remixing the best of everything to create a harmonious/chaotic symphony. You shouldn’t get to riff on Wong Kar-Wai and manage to match him emotionally, and yet when Ke Huy Quan gives his now iconic “Taxes and Laundry” speech, I can’t help but cry. It supercharges my love for the cinema and all that it’s capable of in the hands of directors. If 2022 has taught me anything, it’s that there’s always a new classic just around the corner.

Antoni Peris-Graoa

Writer. (Miradas de Cine, Culturaca)

Pandemic seems to be slowing down and cinema is exploding on screen, finally. Festivals crowded and many interesting films to enjoy. I’d like to mention specifically a great year for Spanish cinema coping some of best positions, something never happened before from my point of view.

  1. Manticora (Manticore, Carlos Vermut, 2022). Not a horror movie but a horrific drama; its calm intensity, its clearness and its capacity to look to our inner monster. Heart of darkness.
  2. Un año, una noche (One year, One Night, Isaki Lacuesta, 2022). Again, a painful but serene look to the terror caused by terrorists’ action, balancing what happened and what might have happened. Anyone of us might have been in Bataclan that night.
  3. Alcarràs (Carla Simón, 2022). A piece of reality taken to the screen by means of a great director and a group of amateur actors who show the daily drama of Catalonia orchards’ farmers, trying to keep working and living like their ancestors.
  4. Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022). It’s said last work by Serra is his most accessible, but it may be even better than previous ones. Vanity and uselessness of diplomacy exposed in a lynchian way and confronted to a gloomy real politik.
  5. Espiritu sagrado (The Sacred Spirit, Chema Garcia-Ibarra, 2021). UFOs, sects and dystopic families in a movie that mirrors Spanish suburban society through a farce tone fully linked to Lynch (again) and Almodovar
  6. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021). A comedy about love, extraordinary acting (amateurs nearly, once again!). Really delightful.
  7. Pearl / X (Ti West, 2022). First time ever I considered a terror ‘duet’ for this list. A variation on slasher and rural horror, Ti West and Mia Goth (West’s lead actress and muse) elaborate a meta cinematographic work that looks ironically both at horror and Hollywood classics, using the drama developed in first one to mirror the second and vice versa.
  8. Inu-Oh (Masaaki Yuasa, 2022). A triumph of anime and animation in general. Mixing different design styles narrates a story that mixes legend, history and rock and roll, both delicate and bold, cruel and tender, naïve and wise.
  9. Ha-berech (Ahed’s Knee, Nadav Lapid, 2022). Once again, a bitter and strong blow to repression in Israel, a repression shifted from government itself to citizens and way of thinking, a huge slab smashing free thinking and artistic creation. 
  10. Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan Wok, 2022). A fascinating vertigo of Korean movies. A joyful play of images and edition in a noir story with the most appalling ending to a romantic thriller. 

And I’d like to mention my discovery of Qiu Jionjiong cinema (My Mother’s Rhapsody, Mr. Zhang believes, A New Old Play), thanks to Rotterdam Film Festival retrospective. A work centred both on current China and the impact of Cultural Revolution, a negative link that devastated a generation. A work that uses theatrical strategies to develop a fully cinematic experience, close to Sichuan opera tradition and to real life contemporary drama.

Andréa Picard

Senior Film Curator, Toronto International Film Festival; Independent Writer on Film & Art.

New films (alphabetical order):

  • Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)
  • Autobiography (Makbul Mubarak, 2022)
  • Bigger on the Inside (Madsen Minax, 2022)
  • Cette Maison (Miryam Charles, 2022)
  • Concrete Valley (Antoine Bourges, 2022)
  • Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022)
  • De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022)
  • Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta & Adirley Quiéros, 2022)
  • EVENTIDE (Sharon Lockhart, 2022)
  • Fata Morgana (Tacita Dean, 2022)
  • Fighting Looks Different 2 Me Now (Fox Maxy, 2022)
  • Fogo-Fátuo (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022)
  • Gigi la Legge (Alessandro Comodin, 2022)
  • NE Corridor (Joshua Solondz, 2022)
  • Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022)
  • Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley Mckenzie, 2022)
  • Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, 2022)
  • Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis, 2022)
  • Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022)
  • Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022)
  • The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022)
  • The Geographies of Solitude (Jacquelyn Mills, 2022)
  • The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022)
  • The Novelist’s Film (Hong Sang-soo, 2022)
  • The Plains (David Easteal, 2022)
  • The Slaughterhouses of Modernity (Heinz Emigholz, 2022)
  • The Time That Separates Us (Parastoo Anoushahpour, 2022)
  • Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022)
  • United States of America (James Benning, 2022)
  • Unrueh (Cyril Schäublin, 2022)
  • Walk Up (Hong Sang-soo, 2022)

Old films/restorations (alphabetical order):

  • Abigail’s Party (Mike Leigh, 1977)
  • A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang, 1994)
  • Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, 1964)
  • Brief Encounters (Kira Muratova, 1967)
  • Canyon Passage (Jacques Tourneur, 1964)
  • Eight Deadly Shots (Mikko Niskanen, 1972)
  • Chibusa Yo Eien Nare (Forever a Woman aka The Eternal Breasts, Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955 
  • Girls’ of the Night (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1961)
  • Keane (Lodge Kerrigan, 2004)
  • La Maman et la Putain (The Mother and the Whore, Jean Eustache, 1973)
  • Love Under the Crucifix, (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1962)
  • Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2001)
  • Mes Petites amoureuses (Jean Eustache, 1974)
  • O Sangue (Pedro Costa, 1989)
  • One Way or Another (Sara Gómez, 1974)
  • S’en fout la mort (No Fear, No Die, Claire Denis, 1990)
  • Vengeance is Mine (Michael Roemer, 1984)
  • Werckmeister Harmonies (Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky, 2000)

Milan Pribisic

Teacher, Loyola University Chicago

MY 2022 FAVORITES:

Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021)
The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022)
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022)
Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022)
Rimini (Ulrich Seidl, 2022)
Dangsin-eolgul-apeseo (In Front of Your Face, Hong Sang-soo, 2021)
Eo (EO, Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022)
Heojil kyolshim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022)

Aftersun

Dr Stuart Richards

Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies at The University of South Australia

I have ranked the below films and chosen them primarily on what has moved me the most this year. A festival highlight this year was the Adelaide Film Festival.

  1. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Ostlun 2022)
  2. Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022)
  3. Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh 2022)
  4. Fire of Love (Sara Dosa 2022)
  5. The Wonder (Sebastian Lelio 2022)
    6. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Rian Johnson, 2022)
  6. The Stranger (Thomas M Wright 2022)
  7. X (Ti West 2022)
  8. The Northman (Robert Eggers 2022)
  9. Phantom Project (Proyecto Fantasma, Roberto Doveris 2022)

Peter Rinaldi

Writer and filmmaker in New York City. He hosts the “Back To One” podcast for Filmmaker Magazine, where he talks to actors about acting.

Of all the films that were released in America in 2022 that I have seen, these are what I consider to be the most remarkable achievements: (in alphabetical order based on English title)

  • Actors (Betsey Brown, 2022)
  • All The Beauty and The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
  • Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, 2022)
  • Close (Lukas Dhont, 2022)
  • Große Freiheit (Great Freedom, Sebastian Meise, 2022)
  • L’Événement (Happening, Audrey Diwan, 2022)
  • The Justice of Bunny King (Gaysorn Thavat, 2022)
  • Sell/Buy/Date (Sarah Jones, 2022) 
  • To Leslie (Michael Morris, 2022) 
  • The Wonder (Sebastian Lelio, 2022) 

The best “new to me” film experience I had this year was At Long Last Love (Peter Bogdanovich, 1975). I saw it twice at MoMA. 

The best streaming experience was the multi-part The Last Movie Stars (Ethan Hawke, 2022) which I enjoyed so much I began to pace watching it knowing I’d be depressed when it was over. 

My most satisfying over-all cinematic experience was, for the third year in a row, Caveh Zahedi’s Personal Documentary class screening. The student films on display from this class are a perennial source of pure inspiration for me.

Peter Rist

Professor of film studies at Concordia University, Montreal. He writes regularly for offscreen.

On the average I saw more than one new feature film a day in 2022 (that is, ‘new’ to me). Although I went to the cinema more times than in 2021 (over 175 times), I have not restricted my choices of 20 films to screenings only. My favourite events are archival film festivals, where 35mm film prints are shown regularly, especially The Silent Festival in Italy and the Nitrate Picture Show at the George Eastman Museum, Rochester. The following are listed in the order in which I saw them, and all screenings occurred in Montreal, unless noted otherwise:

  • Hytti nro 6 (Compartment Number 6, Juho Kuosmmanen, 2021). Cinéma Moderne, April. 
  • Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebi? (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, Alexandre Koberidze, 2021): MUBI, April. 
  • Dans la nuit (Into the Night, Charles Vanel, 1930). An absolute revelation; a film I had never heard about; almost certainly the last great French silent film. San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF), with amazing piano accompaniment by Stephen Horne, May. 
  • Flickorna Gyurkovics (A Sister of Six, Ragnar Hyltón-Cavallius, 1926). A surprising and amusing queer film rediscovery; SFSFF, May. 
  • Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021). Cinéma du Parc, May
  • Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022). Cinéma du Parc, May. 
  • Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May,1976). BluRay, May
  • Schlußakkord (Final Chord, Douglas Sirk, 1936). The director’s most cinematic film and a perfect “melodrama”, a dramatic film with music, at the Nitrate Picture Show, in Rochester, NY, June.
  • Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch’s, 1946). It was so great to enjoy the beautiful black and white nitrate print with a highly receptive audience.
  • Benediction (Terence Davies, 2021). Curzon, Bloomsbury, London, June. 
  • Shirokoya Komako (What Price Love?, Kenji Misumi, 1960). A beautiful colourscope 35mm print, at Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, June. 
  • Ich bei Tag und di bei Nacht (Ludwig Berger, 1932). Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, June
  • Street of Chance (Jack Hively, 1942). BluRay, August.
  • Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022). Cineplex Forum, August
  • Den sorte kansler (The Black Chancellor, August Blom, 1912). Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, October. 
  • The Lady (Frank Borzage, 1925). Giornate del Cinema Muto; piano by John Sweeney, October.
  • No Bears (Jafar Panahi, 2022). at Cinéma du Musée, during the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, October. 
  • Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022): Cinéma Moderne, November. 
  • Un beau matin (One Fine Morning, Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022). Cinemania Festival, Cinéma Impérial, November
  • Geographies of Solitude (Jacquelyn Mills, 2022). RIDM festival, Cineplex Quartier Latin, November; my favourite documentary of the year. 
  • Summertime (David Lean, 1955): Blu-Ray, December. Somehow, I had never seen this film; arguably Lean’s best (and, I love Venice)

Bones and All

Kate Robertson

New York-based Australian author and critic

This was a remarkable year for cinema; even after narrowing the focus to genre films released in 2022, limiting this list to ten titles proved impossible. Arranged alphabetically, rather than by preference, these films have lingered long after viewing:

Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino, 2022)
Family Dinner (Peter Hengl, 2022)
Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, 2022)
Fresh (Mimi Cave, 2022)
Huesera: The Bone Woman (Michelle Garza Cervera, 2022)
Les cinq diables (The Five Devils, Léa Mysius, 2022)
Mother Superior (Marie Alice Wolfszahn, 2022)
Pahanhautoja (Hatching, Hanna Bergholm, 2022)
Cerdita (Piggy, Carlota Pereda, 2022)
Sissy (Hannah Barlow & Kane Senes, 2022)
Svetlonoc (Nightsiren, Tereza Nvotová, 2022)
The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022)
Watcher (Chloe Okuno, 2022) 

The Menu

Diandra Rodriguez

Film viewer, occasional video maker and film writer/researcher, San Francisco Bay Area.

2022 new releases: 

  1. You Won’t Be Alone (Goran Stolevski, 2022) 
  2. Heojil Gyeolsim (Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022)
  3. Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, 2022) 
  4. Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022) 
  5. The Territory (Alex Pritz, 2022) 
  6. Athena (Romain Gavras, 2022) 
  7. Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, 2022) 
  8. The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future (La Vaca Que Cantó Una Canción Hacia El Futuro, Francisca Alegria, 2022) 
  9. The Northman (Robert Eggers, 2022) 
  10. Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu, 2022) 

2022 Television and YouTube:

  1. Graveyard Love (Omar Rodríguez-López, 2022)
    So much of the imagery holds so much meaning for the past and present of Puerto Rico. A poetic companion piece to Bad Bunny’s collaboration with reporter Bianca Graulau, El apagón – Aquí vive gente (Kacho López, 2022).
  2. Defunctland: Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery. (Kevin Perjurer, 2022) 
  3. Interview with the Vampire (TV Series, various directors, 2022) 
  4. Pachinko (Episode 4) (Justin Chon, 2022) 
  5. Andor (Episode 6) (Susanna White, 2022) 
  6. KondZilla: The Beat Diaspora (various directors, 2022) 
  7. Kane Pixels – assorted entries of The Backrooms (an internet urban legend) (Kane Parsons, 2022) 

Films from previous years:

  1. Kiga kaikyô (A Fugitive from the Past, Tomu Uchida, 1965) 
  2. The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, 2014) 
  3. Szpital przemienienia (Hospital of the Transfiguration, Edward Zebrowski, 1979) 
  4. Liborio (Nino Martínez Sosa, 2021) 
  5. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015) 
  6. Perfect Blue (Satoshi Kon, 1997) 
  7. Dead Pigs (Cathy Yan, 2018) 
  8. Suspiria (Luca Guadagnino, 2018)
  9. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (Ranald MacDougall, 1959) 
  10. Mirch Masala (Ketan Mehta, 1987) 

Festival/Film Program Highlights:

Sundance: While some aspects of the online interface were better in 2021, I was still very grateful to watch so many offerings from the festival through the ease of home viewing. I really appreciated finding women-directed films like Master (Mariama Diallo, 2022) and Leonor Will Never Die (Martika Ramirez Escobar, 2022). It was a great way to catch premieres as well as discover films I had missed from earlier, like Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2021). The latter would form a solid double feature with another film I finally saw in 2022, Quilombo (Carlos Diegues,1984,).

Noir City Oakland: The Prowler (Joseph Losey, 1951) An essential festival for film noir fans. 

Pacific Film Archive: The Night of Counting the Years (Al-mummia, Shadi Abdel Salam 1969), preceded by The Eloquent Peasant (Shadi Abdel Salam, 1970). Two all-enveloping cinematic experiences. 

Tumblr: The mass hallucination and creation of a fake-film entitled Goncharov (1973) was a thrilling and entertaining celebration of imagination. With all the fan creations it birthed, it should count as an event unto its own, a festival of the mind. 

Daniel Ribas

Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Film Curator at Curtas Vila Do Conde IFF and Contributor to the Portuguese Daily Público.

This is my ten films of 2022, in alphabetical order. I saw many others, mostly researching programs yet to be screened. Films – new or old – are living forms that allow us to glimpse the world. 

Atlantide (Atlantis, Yuri Ancarani, 2021). After Challenging, Ancarani shows how cinema can fake a world already faked. He is the best in doing so in recent years.

A Little Love Package (Gastón Solnicki, 2022). Again, Solnicki knows how to do it in a small, but yet exquisite and tender way of looking at people and the places he films.

Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, 2022). Even with its abrupt ending, Cronenberg creates a wonderful dystopia, of a world without pain. It’s as beautiful as scary.

É Noite na América (Is It Night in America, Ana Vaz, 2022). A wonderful first feature by Brazilian artist Ana Vaz, who deepens our unresolved issues between progress and nature, talking about Brasília’s utopia in a day-for-night fashion, with a beautiful, expired film stock.

The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022). What a strange horror film. Between a portrait of a pandemic and a look at the unresolved issues that accompanied all our lives, Hogg excels in subverting what we perceive.

Mato Seco Em Chamas (Dry Ground Burning, Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 2022). Film after film, Queirós and Pimenta do it better: this is a narrative of empowerment and violence, from a place in which life had to be invented. The future is female.

Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2021). Seen early in the year, Memoria comes from a place where nobody is. And that’s why we still must imagine new possible worlds.

Nação Valente (Tommy Guns, Carlos Conceição, 2022). Violent look to the Portuguese colonial war, as never seen before. Conceição films bodies and rituals, as a zombie film about a trauma that persists in being in the national imagination.

Onde Fica Esta Rua? ou Sem Antes Nem Depois (Where Is This Street? Or with no Before or After, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, 2022). A tender homage to one of our greatest films – Os Verdes Anos, by Paulo Rocha – but also a portrait of a city without its inhabitants. A film made by its empty mise-en-scène.

Unrueh (Unrest, Cyril Schäublin (2022). A discovery: a film that, little by little, in its formal emptiness, discovers both the beginning of capitalism and the end of the anarchist alternative.

About The Author

Related Posts