I think I saw more movies in 2022 than I had in a long time — and maybe ever. Certainly, I saw more new movies, thanks to a determination to support my local art-house movie theater by going and seeing whatever they were showing every week. The art-house theater has a still-functioning video store attached, to which I bought a yearlong subscription that allowed my family to check out DVDs throughout the year. No Netflix for us.
As with my books list, I'm including new-to-me movies here.
Best Movie: The Banshees of Inesherin
This is really a movie about a middle age crisis that hit me smack in the middle of my middle age crisis.
Best Actor: Cate Blanchette, Tar
She's as good as they say.
Best Movie I Could've Seen 40 Years Ago: Jaws
I've spent most of my movie-watching life avoiding scary movies. I don't like being scared! So I avoided Jaws for a long time. This year, I decided to get over myself. It turns out that not all "scary" movies are as dread-inducing as The Shining.
Most Magical: Three Thousand Years of Longing/Everything Everywhere All At Once
These movies were a reminder of what's possible when moviemakers let their imaginations run.
Best Low-Budget Sci-Fi: Vesper
A little seen English-language European movie about the environmental apocalypse that has a clunky moment or two, but is overall beautifully imagined and deeply affecting.
Best 80s erotic thriller: Presumed Innocent
The worst thing about this movie: Harrison Ford's haircut. But the whole thing is worth it for Bonnie Bedelia's broken-woman monologue at the end..
Worst Best Picture: The Great Ziegfeld
Checked this out because it has William Powell and Myrna Loy. They're great! This movie isn't, though. Only mildly worth it for the absolutely over the top productin numbers.
Best Musical: tick, tick ...BOOM!
It's possible that Jonathan Larson had a limited number of tricks -- this is very, very reminiscent of Rent. Still, after I saw this movie, the songs were stuck in my head for a month. And when Andrew Garfield takes Bernadette Peters' hand in "Sunday," I get verklempt.
Best Nostalgia Trick: Licorice Pizza
What can I say? I'm a sucker for Paul Thomas Anderson and his misty memories of 1970s California.
Best Ghost Story: Spencer
Do not watch this expecting a biopic. It's a haunted house story, only the house is a royal palace.
Best Paranoid Thriller: The Parallax View
Best of genre, possibly, but also: I'm not one to wax on and on about cinematography, but boy Gordon Willis made this movie look great.
Other things I really liked:
The Last Duel, The Phantom Thread, Dune, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Pearl, The Harder They Fall, Mississippi Masala, The Verdict, The Northman, Cyrano, Phantom Thread
Other things I wanted to like but didn't:
The Way We Were, Heaven Can Wait (1978), West Side Story (2021), No Time to Die.
This was the year I finally allowed myself to admit: James Bond movies are usually pretty boring.
Ha! No wonder I missed the attraction.😜🤣😆
Im down with all of your choices except one. Licorice Pizza. I will never understand the attraction here. He was a kid. She was an adult. Euuuuwwww. And even if you don’t agree with that observation, I cannot think of two less appealing characters.