2022 Movies

I have possibly never been so bored looking through the films nominated for awards. I also have had a really busy (see also: rough) year. One of if not the roughest of my life. I have genuinely struggled to even watch movies this year at all unless I have been lucky enough to have someone (usually Adam) who will sit with me and watch. This is made even worse by the fact that it seems like movies are getting longer? Bring back movies that are less than two hours!

In that spirit, my list is short and I'm bringing back the "Movies I Don't Care About" list because there are a lot of acclaimed movies that I simply don't want to bother with. I may watch Fire of Love, All The Beauty And Bloodshed, RRR, Till, or Saint Omar.

Movies I Don't Care About:
Avatar: The Way Of Water: I hated the original one; why would I subject myself to more?
Elvis: I think I'm functionally done with biopics. Just give me a documentary instead.
The Fabelmans: Every time I try to read the summary, I fall asleep. It's something about Hollywood so, of course, Hollywood loves it.
Top Gun: Maverick: It's just military propaganda, right?
The Whale: I was kind of interested in this but then I saw that there were a million think pieces about it and I just decided to walk away.
Blonde: See: Elvis.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Save me from superhero movies. Yes, Black Panther was one of the absolute best but Chadwick is dead and I don't care.
Babylon: Something else about Hollywood.
The Batman: The Batman universe was the only superhero universe that ever interested me and yet I am so done with superhero movies and DC's sloppy films. Just leave me alone.

Movies I Loved:

Everything Everywhere All At Once: This is the only movie I saw in a theater this year back in February and I spent the whole year saying it's the only movie worth seeing. Maybe not the only one but if you only see one this year, this is the one.

The Banshees of Inisherin: The other actually good award-nominated movie. I basically always love Martin McDonugh movies and plays, and this was a great study of adult friendship and significance in the face of mortality.

Glass Onion: The other other actually good award-nominated movie. Also, we were all about eating the rich this year, huh? I hope Rian Johnson continues to make Benoit Blanc films. It's great to see real mystery as a genre that also criticizes society.

Pleasure: I'll watch anything about the porn industry and this film is a good solid overview through the story of one actress.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: Remember when comedies were a thing? This movie actually made me laugh a lot. What a concept.

All Quiet On The Western Front: As an adaption this movie is technically a failure, but as a film in general it is well constructed, has beautiful cinematography, and its soundtrack will haunt me forever.

Pinocchio: I'm obviously talking about the Del Toro one. I cried a lot. I was not surprised by all the talk about ideas of conformity versus free thinking, but I was surprised by how much of a meditation on death it was.

Navalny: This documentary was more exciting than most movies released this year. In spite of it's serious subject, I also got a lot of laughs and hope from it.

The Janes: A documentary about underground abortion clinics. Really well done and interesting.


Movies I Really Liked:

Cyrano: I saw the stage show before the world shut down and really liked the music. The film is a decent adaption that made me cry my eyes out.

Triangle of Sadness: Eat The Rich #2. Like the director's other movie I know (The Square) this movie is a kind of slow burn, but it really pays off with style and message.

The Menu: Eat The Rich #3. I was actually pretty captivated by this film. Is the message obvious? Yeah. I still enjoyed the heck out of it.

Women Talking: I love any version of characters in a room having an intense conversation. I also love cults. This movie was an obvious win for me.

Tar: This movie was really good, but can we please stop making movies so long? I honestly lose detail when films are so long.

X: I can appreciate a good horror movie and, as stated, discussion of sex stuff is also an A+. The director did House of the Devil, so that was promising, and I liked this enough to also go watch Pearl.

Pearl: These two movies together are greater than either one individually. Watching them back to back is the right choice.

Living: In spite of having seen Ikiru (and read Ivan Illych for that matter) I still somehow wasn't prepared to cry. British Isles folk songs, man. But, you know, also meaning of life stuff.

Happening: This was basically the French, period piece version of that other abortion movie from a few years ago. I still liked it.

Petit Maman: A nice, little family movie.

Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste: A messed up documentary that is also about sex and cults? Sign me up. Wait. Don't.


Movies I Liked:

Nope: This was definitely the weakest of Jordan Peele's films but it was still a good one with an interesting message about taming nature.

The Woman King: The plot was super conventional but Viola Davis is always great and I love seeing women kick ass.

The Northman: The visuals in this film were an A and I liked seeing this Viking Hamlet, but I found something kind of off-putting about it. Although, this film may be part of the reason I decided to go to Iceland instead of Peru this year so thanks film.

Causeway: A quiet drama written by the woman who wrote My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I love movies about adult friendship.

Hellraiser: Perhaps controversially, I liked this movie. It had the freaky visuals I associate with the original film, but they added clearer lore on the puzzle box. It could have been better, sure, but I had a great time watching it with my friend Mecchi.

Turning Red: My students really liked this one. I thought it was cute and nostalgic, but nothing to write home about.

Our Father: I love a messed up documentary.

Downfall: The Case Against Boeing: And again, any documentary about fraud is good with me.

Movies That Were Okay:

She Said: I kept thinking of this film as "boring Spotlight." It wasn't bad, but it really wasn't memorable.

Emancipation: One of my students insisted I watch this. It's a slavery action film, basically. Not bad, but I'm just not that into action movies.

Where The Crawdads Sing: You could tell this was based off a really good book. Too bad about the film.

White Hot: The Rise Of Abercrombie: Interesting story, could have been told better.


Movies That I Didn't Like:

Falling For Christmas: A bad movie night pick that was mostly just boring outside of studying the curiosity that is Lohan's face.

I Believe In Santa: Genuinely the wildest movie I have seen this year. Maybe in a few years. I'd recommend it just so more people will have had the experience.