Best Films of 2022

I didn't go to the movie theater as much in 2022 as I have in the past. Actually, since Covid, I have gone much less, like other people, I assume. One of the other reasons is that most of the films I want to see only play in Seattle, and since I live on the Eastside, that trip across the bridge just makes it a bit more challenging. This wasn't always the case. The old Bellevue Galleria used to always play one independent or foreign film. Now, Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond basically only play Marvel movies and dumb comedies or action movies.

Several movies on my list were technically first released in 2021 but didn't come to Seattle until 2022, so I'm including them here. 

Anyway, here are what I think are the best films of the year.

1. Memoria. Directed by the brilliant Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Memoria tells the story of a Scottish woman (Tilda Swinton) living in Colombia who hears a haunting, deep and loud metallic sound that she can't get out of her mind.  In her quest to describe and discover the meaning of the sound, she begins a deeper journey to discover philosophical truths about life and its meaning. Like all Weerasethakul films, Memoria is dreamlike and beautiful and strange. It's his first English-language film, and I don't think it's his best, but it was unquestionably the best film I saw in 2022. Unfortunately, it's not currently available to stream or even watch on DVD. Weerasethakul said that he has no plans to release it outside the theater circuit. Also, don't get this one confused with the 2015 film which has the same title, starring James Franco. 

2. The Worst Person in the World. The Danish-born Norwegian Joachim Trier is one of the best directors working in the world today. This smart coming-of-age film tells the story of a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world and a measure of happiness inside and outside of relationships. The title is clearly ironic--she is nowhere near the worst person. A beautifully acted, well-paced and moving film about feminism, social-media culture, creativity, relationships and cancel culture. Steaming on Hulu.

3. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.  Perhaps the best male director of women working today, Ryusuke Hamaguchi has made only four feature films, and in 2021 he directed two of the year's best: Wheel of Fortune and Drive My Car (both released in Seattle in 2022). Wheel of Fortune is an anthology film consisting of three segments. The first tells the story of best friends who discover they are both interested in the same man; the second tells a somewhat complicated story of a married woman having an affair with a student who gets the married woman to attempt to seduce his French professor. Things don't go exactly as planned. The final segment finds a woman attending her 20-year reunion thinking she has met an old friend only to discover she wasn't who she thought she was. Hamaguchi writes these totally brilliant scripts that strike that rare balance between the ordinary and the profound.

4. Petite Maman. Aside from some Miyazaki and Pixar films, a quality children's film has become a rare thing these days. Directed by Celine Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Petite Maman is something of a science fiction film but stripped of the typical sci-fi genre elements. It's a time-travel movie without the time machine. A French girl forms a relationship with a neighbor girl her age whom we later discover is actually the little girl's mother. They cook, eat and play detective together, visit their mother/grandmother, and talk about random things that kids discuss. The movie, which has some of the best child acting I have ever seen, is a surreal and moving exploration of a fantasy that many young people have: to become best friends with their mother. It's a simple but moving film about growing up and dealing with loss. Streaming on Hulu.   

5. A Short Story. A beautiful and surreal and haunting short film told from the perspective of a cat and directed by the Chinese writer-director Bi Gan. Streaming on Mubi. 

6. Banshees of Inisherin. I was surprised how much I loved this movie. I knew it would be funny from the preview, but it is so much more. On the surface it tells the simple story of a man from a small Irish village who no longer desires a friendship with another man, but the film is much more philosophical than it appears. It has layers. It's a film that asks some serious questions about how valuable art is, what friendship means, whether it is worth having boring friends, what it means to be happy, and what the meaning of life is. It includes two brilliant performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and it's beautiful to watch the stunning Irish landscape. Streaming on HBO. 

7. Benediction. Directed by who I think is the greatest living British writer-director, Terrence Davies, Benediction focuses on the life of the great World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon, a gay man who survived and criticized the war, married a woman and had a child, and at the end of his life surprisingly converted to Catholicism. Davies incorporates into the film Sassoon's poetry, archival war footage, a rich array of colorful characters, beautiful classical and period music, and very witty dialogue. It's a fully immersive movie that takes us into a specific time and place. It's also a tragic story of a man trapped in unhappy relationships, but the wit and humor balance everything out. Streaming on Hulu.

8. Triangle of Sadness. This was a fairly divisive film among film critics, but I was sold by this hilarious and intelligent satire of rich, entitled people--and Instagram models. Perhaps the funniest line occurs when a man evaluating a male model asks him to show his "triangle of sadness" on his face. I have to admit that a long scene of vomiting and diarrhea was difficult to watch, but I think it had a point--how wealthy people puke and shit on everything and everyone only for poor people to come and clean up the mess. It's an over-the-top comedy in the best of ways, but ridiculousness is necessary to comment on the here and now--the power of Instagram influencers, the lack of actual life skills among rich people, and growing polarity between the haves and have nots,  Also, the ending totally nails it.  The Menu takes on some of the same targets, but for me Triangle works so much better as both a comedy and a social critique. 

9. The Northman. Based on the original source for Hamlet, this thoroughly researched, well-constructed and immersive film by Robert Eggers (The Witch and The Lighthouse) does an amazing job of taking us into the Medieval world of Northern European Viking culture where revenge is everything. This culture of hyper-masculinity and brutal violence won't be for everyone. I was bothered a little by the young actor, but he's only in it for the beginning. Streaming on Amazon Prime.

10. Tie. Fabian: Going to the Dogs. A German historical drama and love story written and directed by Dominik Graf that takes place during the Weimar Republic (early 1930s) right before Germany's shift to Nazism. A former WWI soldier loses his job, and while prospects are grim he has principles and lacks motivation to find work. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful actress but she choses (at least temporarily) her career over a relationship with an unemployed man. The film incorporates archival footage creatively to set the stage and establish the time period. Streaming on Mubi.

10. Tie. The Fabelmans. Steven Spielberg's latest is one of his best and it's his most personal. It's a semi-autobiographical story about his life: growing up in Arizona and then unwillingly being forced to move to California, dealing with his mother's emotional affair, and discovering his love of film. Spielberg recreates several short films he made as a youth--and they are not surprisingly pretty amazing.  Several excellent performances, especially Michelle Williams, bolster the film. And thankfully Spielberg doesn't utilize his typically heavy-handed soundtrack. 

Other films I liked this year in alphabetical order.

Athena--a non-stop French action film about a small and marginalized community's war with the police after the tragic killing of a younger brother in the community. The opening shot is something to see. (streaming on Netflix)

Bones and All--a strange and engaging love story about cannibalists making their way in the world.

Cathedral--an autobiographical drama as recalled by a young man which creatively uses postcards and old photos in place of location shots (streaming on Mubi)

Decision to Leave--a romantic crime drama by the South Korean director Park Chan-wook (of Revenge Trilogy fame). It has some of the most inventive camerawork I have ever seen. (streaming on Mubi)

Everything Everywhere All at Once--a film with an almost cult-like following. I noticed that when the New Yorker film critic Richard Brody posted his top-three films on Instagram that almost all of the two or three hundred comments ridiculed Brody for not including Everything on his list--and basically dismissing him as a critic for having bad (or at least suspect) taste.  I thoroughly enjoyed Everything; it's entertaining, thoughtful and fun--a smart multiverse movie. And it asks some pretty profound questions about the meaning of life. I'm just not sure it lives up to the director's promise that it will change your life. 

Hustle--an entertaining basketball film with a great performance by Adam Sandler (streaming on Netflix)

Nope--the latest Jordan Peele film made lots of top-ten lists in 2022. It's a meticulously well-crafted film that comments intelligently on spectacle, race and the price of success. It's well acted and genuinely scary. (streaming on Peacock.) 

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On--a thoroughly charming and funny mockumentary about a tiny shell living with her grandmother who loses all of her family and neighbors and attempts to find them. It might be too cutesy for some people, but I found it hilarious and meaningful. 

Master--a horror film about three black women adapting to life in an elite (and primarily white) Northeastern University where they face varying degrees of racism as they are haunted by the ghosts of the past. (streaming on Amazon Prime)

White Noise--it took a bit for me to get into this adaptation of the supposedly unfilmable novel by Don DeLillo. Like Triangle of Sadness, it's a satirical film but this one mocks consumerism and academia and mindless paranoia about the modern age. The tone is a bit all over the place, but it's very funny and the end credit scene rocks! (streaming on Netflix)

The Wonder--starring the always excellent Florence Pugh as a nurse who visits a small town to observe whether an actual miracle has occurred (whether a young woman is fasting indefinitely) . (streaming on Netflix)