In 2022, I rejoined society, resumed meeting up with friends, revenge traveled-ish. Also returned to the cinemas (thrice!--'Bones and All' during QCinema, 'Wakanda Forever', the new 'Avatar') and the theatre! My Letterboxd tally reflected this: just a measly 209 entries, compared to the previous year's 384. Not complaining, obviously; wouldn't swap, say, ten more entries for that first trip to Bangkok. My tally doesn't include TV, of course, and the side bar on the right of this blog listing everything I saw during the year does not account for the shows I dropped/ couldn't be bothered to finish--shows old and new, like the abysmal fifth season of 'The Crown' (sorry, Lesley Manville!), or beloved, new stuff like 'Yellowjackets', 'The Bear', 'Bad Sisters', 'This Is Going to Hurt' (the most ridiculous premise for a conflict, if we're being real; Ben Whishaw, whom I love, wasn't enough to keep me going).
So, the same annual disclaimer: This yearender accounts for titles from this year (2022) and leftovers from the previous one (2021). As someone who lives in the Philippines and whose movie- and TV-watching life is therefore largely dependent on piracy, I find it pointless to watch *everything* (meaning all the awards contenders) before writing a yearender, seeing as such a goal is always impossible to achieve hereabouts. It's called a "year" ender, after all. Fuck the Whiteness of trying to be a completist.
Anyway, I tried making a top 10; ended up with 12. My top three's pretty much set; they epitomize the year onscreen for me and are listed alphabetically because I refuse to commit to a firm top three like some grade-conscious high school kid. After that, it's nine more titles that, further down the list, can easily be swapped for the rest of my five-star titles. Blah blah blah.
1. 'Barbarian' (dir. Zach Cregger)
Anytime someone asks me what's the one movie from 2022 they should watch, this is my answer.
2. 'Better Things' Season 5 (FX; dir. Pamela Adlon)
The best way to describe this perfect, perfect show: It feels like it's cut straight out of its makers' hearts; there's not a false note in its depictions of familial and generational conflict, familial and generational happiness, our human fears, our mortality.
3. 'Close' (dir. Lukas Dhont)
Starts out as a portrait, almost fantastical, of the fragility of male friendships, only to become a wrenching meditation on the incomprehensibility of grief. There can only be so much happiness, this film asserts, and so much time for it.
4. 'Abbott Elementary' Season 1 (ABC; created by Quinta Brunson)
This show is the very definition of joy. I'm not including Season 2 just yet--it's still ongoing and is even better than this pilot season.
5. 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' (dirs. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)/ 'Turning Red' (dir. Domee Shi)
Two excellent films about the ways mothers love and ruin their daughters; about the ways daughters love and ruin their mothers back.
6. 'Ramy' Season 3 (Hulu; created by Ramy Youssef, Ari Katcher & Ryan Welch)
The pathway to greatness: less serious religious blather, more religious-adjacent absurdity.
7. 'Atlanta' Season 3 (FX; Donald Glover, showrunner)
The sense of thematic and narrative adventure, the balls to push boundaries in its interrogation of what it means to be a Black person today, was unmatched. Still strikes me as weird (if not downright illiterate) that the nonlinearity of its 10 episodes has been a widespread source of negative criticism, when to me it's precisely this refusal to abide by the rules of sequential storytelling that made this season quite effective.
8. 'What We Do in the Shadows' Season 4 (FX; created by Jemaine Clement)
Season 3 was a letdown; this new one was just one riot of an episode after another, culminating, probably, in Matt Berry's delivery of this gem of a line from the ultimate gas pain-inducing episode: "Trust me. Gay is in. Gay is hot. I want some gay. Gay it's gonna be."
9. 'Athena' (dir. Romain Gavras)
Loud, chaotic, very angry, all high emotion like a present-day Greek tragedy by way of 'X2', Brad Pitt's 'Troy', and the Battle of Helm's Deep.
10. 'The White Lotus' Season 2 (HBO; created by Mike White)/ 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery' (dir. Rian Johnson)
Epitomes of a fun time masquerading as whodunits. The whodunit is never the point, of course; it's Jennifer Coolidge becoming an instant Twitter meme with "These gays, they're trying to murder me," and Daniel Craig (and his stewpid accent) not gagging from a throat spray because, presumably, he's used to stuff being shoved down his throat.
* * * * *
The rest of my 5-star titles, as per Letterboxd:
'Avatar: The Way of Water' (dir. James Cameron)
Narrative broadness notwithstanding, the audiovisual spectacle of the year (and I didn't even see it in 3D).
'Derry Girls' Season 3 (Channel 4/ Netflix; created by Lisa McGee)
Siobhán McSweeney should be president of the world, and Nicola Coughlan's Clare deserves a spinoff.
'Fire Island' (dir. Andrew Ahn)
So much fun, but also, insane how it nails every single time it evokes the side-eye emoji, often in extended and consecutive sequences.
'The First Wave' (dir. Matthew Heineman)
This gave me war flashbacks; easily one of the great COVID documentaries of the last three years.
'Great Freedom' (dir. Sebastian Meise)
The wealth of feeling it offers in every frame, the way it evokes history, entire life stories, with only the barest bodies, faces almost devoid of expression, the most piercing silences--it's an absurd tragedy, really, that this didn't make the Oscars final five, while that inept Yak movie from Bhutan did.
'Heartstopper' Season 1 (Netflix; created by Alice Oseman)
Terrific queer fantasy that's sure to melt your defenses unless you're made of granite.
'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On' (dir. Dean Fleischer Camp)
Watched this with a stupid smile plastered on my face the entire 90 minutes, which is to say if you're gonna do pure and earnest, you better make something of this caliber.
'Revolution of Our Times' (dir. Kiwi Chow)
Not flawless by any measure, but this really is the only depiction--unflinching and deeply infuriating--of #ACAB you will ever need to see.
'River of Tears and Rage' (dir. Maricon Montajes)
Necessary viewing; harrowing and enraging, and thoroughly does justice to the assiduous, tireless journalism from which it draws.
'RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars' Season 7 (Paramount+/ WOW Presents Plus)
Returned temporarily to the church of Ru for this "All Winners" season and can 100% say it was the right decision; there wasn't a bad or even meh episode, and everyone really turnedt it outtt.
'The Sex Lives of College Girls' Season 2 (HBO Max; Mindy Kaling & Justin Noble, showrunners)
I thought the relative aimlessness and ADHD pacing of this season would be a turnoff, but not even halfway through, I was already totally onboard and laughing my brains out.
'Soul Fish' (dir. Zurich Chan)
Absorbing, perceptive, revelatory in its concise explication of how happy, and intimate, and close we all used to be as people.
'Tár' (dir. Todd Field)
Most lived-in, most entertaining depiction of power of late.
'West Side Story' (dir. Steven Spielberg)
A great adaptation of a beloved, if problematic, film; a great movie musical--surely one of the 21st century's best.
'The Worst Person in the World' (dir. Joachim Trier)
Messy existential crisis, but make it really sexy.
PLUS--it was a great year for movies and TV (it always is, if you're paying attention), so first, the 4-star titles from the L-app list (a.k.a. full-length films, shorts, comedy specials, "episodes" of anthology series):
'Aftersun' (dir. Charlotte Wells); 'Alingasngas ng Mga Kuliglig' (dir. Vahn Pascual); 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (dir. Edward Berger); 'Benediction' (dir. Terence Davies); 'Bones and All' (dir. Luca Guadagnino); 'Bros' (dir. Nicholas Stoller); 'Cinnamon in the Wind' (dir. Bo Burnham); 'Decision to Leave' (dir. Park Chan-wook); 'Fresh' (dir. Mimi Cave); 'Kun Maupay Man It Panahon' (dir. Carlo Francisco Manatad); 'Last Days at Sea' (dir. Venice Atienza); 'Licorice Pizza' (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson); 'The Lost Daughter' (dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal); 'The Murmuring' (in Guillermo del Toro's 'Cabinet of Curiosities'; dir. Jennifer Kent); 'Nope' (dir. Jordan Peele); 'The Outside' (in Guillermo del Toro's 'Cabinet of Curiosities'; dir. Ana Lily Amirpour); 'Psychosexual' (dir. Doron Max Hagay); 'Random People' (dir. Arden Rod Condez); 'Rothaniel' (dir. Bo Burnham); 'Simple as Water' (dir. Megan Mylan); 'Spring Awakening: Those You've Known' (dir. Michael John Warren); 'The Territory' (dir. Alex Pritz); 'The Tragedy of Macbeth' (dir. Joel Coen)
AND THEN--11 more TV titles (or seasons thereof) that I wholly recommend:
'Atlanta' Season 4 (FX; Donald Glover, showrunner); 'Barry' Season 3 (HBO; created by Bill Hader & Alec Berg); 'Cheer' Season 2 (Netflix; created by Greg Whiteley), except the Jerry episode, which was a solid five stars; 'Hacks' Season 2 (HBO Max; created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky); 'Irma Vep' (HBO; created by Olivier Assayas); 'The Kangks Show' Season 1 (WeTV; created by Antoinette Jadaone); 'Pachinko' Season 1 (Apple TV+; created by Soo Hugh), although episodes 4 and 5 were flat-out great, I cried over a scene involving freakin' rice; 'The Rehearsal' Season 1 (HBO; created by Nathan Fielder), a five-star show with a four-star ending; 'Severance' Season 1 (Apple TV+; created by Dan Erickson), a four-star show with a five-star ending that was, to borrow from James Poniewozik, simply stupendous; 'Slow Horses' Season 1 (Apple TV+; dir. James Hawes); 'Somebody Somewhere' Season 1 (HBO; created by Hannah Bos & Paul Thureen)
* * * * *
Always fun to promote actor-centrism, so here's an alphabetical list of 23 performers I want to draw attention to (as opposed to a list of "the best"--like what does that even mean? Everyone on this list can be described as the best, and many others from the year who fit that description are not here.)
1. Jeanne Balibar ('Irma Vep')
2. May Calamawy ('Ramy' Season 3)
3. Pauline Chalamet ('The Sex Lives of College Girls' Season 2)
4. Meghann Fahy ('The White Lotus' Season 2)
5. Mike Faist ('West Side Story')
6. Sarah Goldberg ('Barry' Season 3)
7. Alana Haim ('Licorice Pizza')
8. Brian Tyree Henry ('Atlanta' Seasons 3-4)
9. Kate Hudson ('Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery')
10. Janelle James ('Abbott Elementary' Season 1)
11. Kim Min-ha ('Pachinko' Season 1)
12. Gabriel LaBelle ('The Fabelmans')
13. Anna LaMadrid ('The Rehearsal' Season 1)
14. Anders Danielsen Lie ('The Worst Person in the World')
15. Paul Mescal ('Aftersun')
16. Aubrey Plaza ('The White Lotus' Season 2; 'Emily the Criminal')
17. Sheryl Lee Ralph ('Abbott Elementary' Season 1)
18. Mark Rylance ('Bones and All')
19. Rachel Sennott ('Bodies Bodies Bodies')
20. Bill Skarsgård ('Barbarian')
21. Sami Slimane ('Athena')
22. Tramell Tillman ('Severance' Season 1)
23. Anamaria Vartolomei ('Happening')
PLUS--13 more unforgettable performers:
Angela Bassett ('Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'); Nicole Beharie ('Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches'); Cate Blanchett (Tár); Olivia Colman ('The Lost Daughter'; 'Landscapers'; 'Heartstopper' Season 1); Kerry Condon ('The Banshees of Inisherin'); Janice de Belen ('Big Night!'); Dolly de Leon ('Triangle of Sadness'; 'The Kangks Show' Season 1); Sabrina Impacciatore ('The White Lotus' Season 2); Dakota Johnson ('Cha Cha Real Smooth'; 'The Lost Daughter'); Margaret Qualley ('Maid'); Conrad Ricamora ('Fire Island'); Taylor Russell ('Bones and All'); Michelle Yeoh ('Everything Everywhere All at Once')
* * * * *
A list of notable sound work, cinematography, standout scenes, anything but individual actors:
1. The opening dance sequence of 'After Yang'.
2. Best opening credits/ theme music is a three-way tie between the new seasons of 'Pachinko', 'Severance' and 'White Lotus' (okay, maybe the last one takes the crown for sheer replayability).
3. Speaking of music: "Wherever I Fall" from the Peter Dinklage-headlined 'Cyrano', and Kathleen's yassified cover of "Pure Imagination" as the perfect welcome to 'Fire Island'.
4. Speaking of music, pt. 2: The original songs of 'Turning Red', all making full use of Jordan Fisher's heaven-sent falsetto and now unjustly snubbed at the Oscars.
5. Speaking of music, pt. 3: The musicscapes of 'Heartstopper' Season 1, 'Tar', 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', 'Bones and All', 'Wakanda Forever', and 'Close' (this last one, especially, with how it uses silence as stand-in for sound).
6. Speaking of sound: The insane soundscape of 'Nope'.
7. Speaking of sound, pt. 2: That great, great, great sound engineer scene in 'Memoria'.
8. Cinematographers flexin': Hoyte van Hoytema ('Nope'), Bruno Delbonnel ('The Tragedy of Macbeth'), Janusz Kamiński ('West Side Story'), Kim Ji-yong ('Decision to Leave'), Florian Hoffmeister ('Tar').
9. The camera work in 'Athena', a jaw-dropping combination of cinematography and choreography.
10. That truck scene in 'Licorice Pizza'.
11. All hail the editors of 'Tar', 'Barbarian', 'Bones and All' and 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'.
12. Two from 'The Rings of Power' (the new Lord of the Rings series from Amazon): The Khazad-dûm ruveal in episode 2 and, even more impressive, the Mt. Doom ruveal in episode 6, a satisfying (if admittedly nonsensical) payoff for those of us who obsessively studied/followed the show's Middle Earth geography.
13. How, in the first season of HBO's 'The Gilded Age', Carrie Coon's grandiose outfits were always just the slightest bit off or tacky because she's new rich and probably had nobody to teach her the ways of the old.
14. Line readings: "I started therapy!" --Michelle Williams, a comedy queen in 'The Fabelmans'; "Oh god, did your mom get assassinated?" --Pauline Chalamet in 'The Sex Lives of College Girls' Season 2; "Gutom? Take home?" --Lotlot de Leon versus the police in 'On the Job: The Missing 8'; everything that emerged out of Kate Hudson's mouth in 'Glass Onion'.
15. The ensemble of 'The Lost Daughter'.
* * * * *
Finally, I didn't get to see as many non-2021/22 titles as I would have liked, but here are the three that easily merited five Letterboxed stars from me:
'Platoon' (1986, dir. Oliver Stone)
'The Savages' (2007, dir. Tamara Jenkins)
'The Visitor' (2007, dir. Tom McCarthy)
And here are nine--including one miniseries--that merited four stars:
'Amadeus' (Director's Cut) (1984, dir. Miloš Forman)
'Billy Elliot' (2000, dir. Stephen Daldry)
'Bo Burnham: Make Happy' (2016, dirs. Bo Burnham & Christopher Storer)
'Born on the Fourth of July' (1989, dir. Oliver Stone)
'Cast Away' (2000, dir. Robert Zemeckis)
'Catch Me If You Can' (2002, dir. Steven Spielberg)
'Cucumber' (2015, created by Russell T Davies)
'Gandhi' (1982, dir. Richard Attenborough)
'The Wrestler' (2008, dir. Darren Aronofsky)
* * * * *
Links to my past lists, which are best read as time capsules of what I'd seen so far when I wrote each of them, and what I thought about the stuff I listed in those particular moments in time:
The Decade in Film 2010-19
