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)

Best Films of 2021

What a terrible year for everyone. Lockdowns, masks, a year of remote school (which I actually didn't mind as much as some), an attempted coup, a second impeachment trial, and hundreds of thousands dead from a terrible virus that 30% of the population either thinks is a hoax or distrusts science enough not to get vaccinated. Thinking about movies in times like these probably seems trivial, but I'm a firm believer that literature and film can offer us something. Maybe they won't save us from extremism or the deadly virus, but they can at the very least help us forget, even if only for a couple of hours. 

It was another solid year for movies. There have been better years, but movies aren't quite dead. As I always say there are movies I didn't get a chance to see, but these are the best that I saw last year. 

10. Annette. This movie isn't for everyone. It's pretty strange. Directed by the famously odd French director named Leos Carax, Annette features a puppet baby and one of the funniest sex scenes ever made. Not sure if it's meant to be funny, but I laughed quite a bit. Like Power of the Dog, it's a film about male power, but it also explores fame and the kinds of things audiences gravitate toward. It took me a bit to get into it, but I was totally absorbed 20 minutes in. Streaming on Amazon.

9. Night of the Kings. It's the story of a new prisoner at an Ivory Coast prison who uses storytelling to survive. It blends fantasy and gritty realism. Some obvious echoes with One Thousand and One Nights.

8. Exterminate All the Brutes. A four-part documentary directed and narrated by the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck and partially based on the 1992 book of the same name. It's a powerful history lesson about colonialism and genocide. The story of Europe and America. The documentary is worth it just to listen to Peck's voice; it's deep and resonate and poetic. Streaming on HBO.

7. Dear Comrades! A Russian film about a massacre that occurred after an entire city rose up to protest working conditions during the Communist era in the 1960s. A faithful Communist and member of the city committee searches for her daughter and becomes torn between her commitment to party and her love of family. Like Quo Vadis, Aida, this film also shows the almost futile attempt of a parent doing anything she can to help her daughter. I'm realizing just now how many of the films on my list deal directly with parenthood. Streaming on Hulu. 

6. Bo Burnham: Inside. I had a difficult time deciding if I wanted this film to be on my list and where I should place it. If you don't know Burnham, he's a young (31 years old) comedian and singer-songwriter who writes satirical songs about society and life. While Inside isn't a perfect film, it is hilarious, smart, raw, beautiful, emotional, brave, and at times brilliant. It also has some catchy songs, and some songs have some spot-on social commentary.  This film more than any other captured what it was like to live in the year of the lockdown, to live in isolation. Written, directed, edited, scored, and performed by Burnham, it is literally a one-man show. Some of the songs and jokes don't work or seem heavy handed, but I watched this three times and was thoroughly entertained each time. Streaming on Netflix.

5. The Power of the Dog. Directed by Jane Campion (The Piano and Top of the Lake), Power of the Dog is a film about toxic masculinity. Set in rural Montana in the 1920s, it tells the story of two brothers who own a cattle ranch. One of the brothers gets married, and his new family disrupts and intensifies an already troubled relationship between the brothers. It's a movie that deserves or maybe even demands multiple viewings. Not that the entire film is particularly challenging, but there are details that mean more than what they seem to mean. One of the qualities of a great film is how well it holds up to multiple viewings. Streaming on Netflix.

4. The Lost Daughter. The directorial debut by the actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, this is a film that finally bursts the overly simplistic bubble of Hollywood's depictions of mothers. Traditionally, mothers fit into the binary of either idealized supermoms or abusive monsters. There aren't many in the in-between, where most actual mothers reside. The Lost Daughter shows how difficult it is to be a mother, a role that carries such huge societal expectations. I love that this movie makes being a mother more complex--and finally we see a movie that shows how annoying and exasperating children can be. We were pretty lucky with Wyatt. He wasn't an excessive crier; he mostly listened to us and asked permission to eat snacks or get out of bed. He drove me a little crazy sometimes, but I always knew there were much worse out there. Anyway, The Lost Daughter is a film that deals with these ambiguities. It's also brilliantly acted and perfectly paced. It's a haunting film that stayed with me long after I saw it. Streaming on Netflix.

3. Undine. A German film by one of my favorite directors, Christian Petzold, that's a modernized telling of a European folktale about love and loss and rebirth. It's a simple story, beautifully told with a perfect cast. Streaming on Hulu.

2. Quo Vadis, Aida. The title sounds pretentious, but the story is actually very simple. It tells of a Bosnian woman working as a translator for the UN as Serbian troops enter her town and leave a trail of death in their wake. She attempts to do anything she can to protect her family. It's one of the most moving and emotionally charged films of the year, revealing the horrors of war and the ineptitude of the UN--despite their seemingly good intentions. Streaming on Hulu.

1. The Underground Railroad.  I'm cheating a bit with this one because it's not a film but a television series. Directed by Barry Jenkins (Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk) and based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead, the series tells the dual story of a runaway slave named Cora and her hunter, a fiercely determined man named Ridgeway. It's a film about survival, persistence, and love in a shameful time during American history. The book and the film both literalize the metaphorical railroad: a train and underground track take people to freedom. It's a beautiful, dramatic, well acted film. And the music and sounds are amazing too. Streaming on Amazon.

Other films I liked this year in alphabetical order:

Azor--story of a banker who travels to Argentina in 1980 and complicitly supports a brutal dictatorship. Streaming on Mubi.

Benedetta--controversial story of a nun's sexual awakening and her claim that she is in direct communication with Jesus. 

CODA--a story of a deaf family whose hearing daughter struggles between her love of singing and her necessary role as the translator for her family. Streaming on Apple+

Dune--it has a few small flaws and the original Middle Eastern elements of the book are downplayed but it's still an effective and beautiful film with some excellent performances. I wouldn't go so far as to say the costumes and set design make the film, but almost.

The Killing of Two Lovers--a powerful drama about a recently separated couple. Streaming on Hulu.

King Richard--the story of Serena and Venus Williams's father, played by Will Smith. 

Passing--an emotional story of a black woman passing as white in the 1920s. Streaming on Netflix.

The Velvet Underground--an excellent documentary about a ground-breaking band. Streaming on Apple+

Zola--based on a true story, it's a wild tale of a stripper who gets wrangled into a trip to Florida and trapped by her "friend's" pimp. Streaming on Showtime. 

Best Films of 2020

Comedies don't get much respect in the world of film criticism. But this year three excellent comedies made my top-ten list and my number one film, while not really a comedy, has comedic moments. There are movies that are funny that I enjoy and re-watch from time to time (Better Off Dead, Raising Arizona, and Bridesmaids come to mind), and there are funny movies that do something more, something a bit more meaningful, or they have an artistic vision that transcends the genre (Modern Times, The General, The Lady Eve, and The Big Lebowski come to mind)--actually practically all of Chaplin and Keaton and Preston Sturges and the Coen brothers probably qualify. In this plague year, it's perhaps no surprise that a number of films are lighter in tone. In a similar vein, the basic message of another great Preston Sturges comedy, Sullivan's Travels, is that during the Great Depression people didn't want drama and tragedy and seriousness; they wanted comic relief. They wanted to laugh, not to cry or think too deeply. They wanted to be entertained. In our almost year-long lockdown and with nearly 360,000 deaths just in the U.S. at this writing, we need to temporarily escape some of the pain. We, too, want to be entertained. But because this is me, I still want to think a little. And I think this list represents both of those sometimes polarized qualities of thinking and laughing.

Also, I should quickly note that there are a handful of films that are getting critical attention that I haven't yet seen. I hope to see Nomadland, Martin Eden, Minari, Undine, St. Maud and The Human Voice soon.

1. First Cow

Over the past 25-plus years, Kelly Reichardt has been quietly re-inventing cinema. Known for her minimalist and simple stories (Meeks Cutoff, Certain Women, Night Moves), Reichardt teaches at Bard College and has made only seven feature-length films since 1994. First Cow tells the story of a friendship between two outsiders (a gifted cook and a Chinese-American) struggling to survive in a 19th-century settlement in Oregon. An engaging, thoughtful and funny movie that explores questions of morality in a world in which there are clear discrepancies between the powerful and the rest. It's a powerful but subtle commentary on what the down-and-out can offer the world and their often risky attempts to achieve not even the American dream but just a basic living wage. Streaming on Showtime.

2. Kajillionaire

A hilarious and quirky comedy written and directed by Miranda July, one of my favorite living directors. But this isn't just a comedy; it's family drama, and like First Cow, another film that lays bare the desperation for some to earn a livable wage.  But it's even more than this. It's a kind of Platonic cave allegory about a young woman's eventual eye-opening in her world full of conspiracy theories and irrational fears. It stars a barely recognizable Evan Rachel Wood (from HBO's Westworld) who freakishly contorts her body in a few scenes where she tries to avoid being seen. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Available for rental on various streaming services. 

3. Small Axe

I'm cheating a bit here by including a television series rather than a single film, but I justify this because the series is really five feature-length films all directed by the great British director Steve McQueen (director of Hunger and Twelve Years a Slave). Each film in the series tells a real-life story of different individuals or families living in London's West Indian community in the 1970s and early '80s. These are powerful stories of love, racism, institutional discrimination, and hope. The first episode and the episode called Lover's Rock seem to be getting the most critical attention, but I loved all of them. Streaming on Amazon Prime.

4. Dick Johnson Is Dead

One of the most original documentaries I have ever seen, Dick Johnson is a comedy about death, dying, and dementia. Kirsten Johnson, the director and daughter of the title character, interviews her aging father and playfully creates a series of his death scenes--all of them hilarious--as he transitions from working full time in Seattle to living in a small apartment (sans car) in New York. It's a life-affirming movie about family, love, memory, and laughing in the face of loss. Streaming on Netflix.

5. Beanpole

A beautiful and sad Russian film, Beanpole tells the story of two women's lives in the aftermath of the second world war. Streaming on Kanopy and Amazon Prime.

6. Another Round

Directed by the often provocative Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (who along with Lars von Trier cofounded the Dogme 95 film movement), Another Round tells the story of a group of male friends in the midst of midlife crises who decide to experiment on the positive impact of drinking alcohol during the work day. At first I thought the film would be examining alcohol as a metaphor for life--the idea that Tennyson discusses in "Ulysses" where Ulysses drinks "life to the lees"--that is, drinking all of life, even the sediment that settles at the bottom of a wine bottle. There wouldn't have been anything wrong with this alcohol metaphor; it's just kind of tired. But about midway through, the film becomes something more complicated and complex. It's an honest depiction of the pleasure and pain that comes with alcohol consumption. I didn't love the way the final scene was shot but Mads Mikkelsen and a stellar cast take the film into a direction more profound than the slightly corny ending suggests.

7. Tommaso.

Considered one of the great independent directors of the 1980s, Abel Ferrara remains active but hasn't directed much of note lately--though I did enjoy his Pasolini--also starring Ferrara's frequent collaborator Willem Defoe. Tommaso is a semi-autobiographical film about the main character's adjustment to life in Italy. He's married to a beautiful women thirty years his junior and they share a young child. Tommaso is responsible, a recovering alcoholic, a hard worker, and probably a bit uptight. The most striking aspect of the film is that, like Dick Johnson, it is filled with Tommaso's fantasies and it's often difficult to know what scenes are real and which are not. And that's what I liked most about it. Streaming on Kanopy.

8. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Starring Chadwick Boseman in his last role and an unrecognizable Viola Davis, Ma Rainey is based on August Wilson's historical play about the "Mother of the Blues." It's a smart, entertaining and dramatic film about black art and creative control. Streaming on Netflix.

9. Sound of Metal

I wear headphones a lot and I probably listen to things too loudly, especially when I'm mowing the lawn or using the blower--probably not a good idea to crank it to eleven to drown out the sound of the leaf blower. Occasionally I hear buzzing sounds for days, and I'll probably lose my hearing if I keep up my typical routine. Sound of Metal is about this, one of my deepest fears. It tells the story of drummer who suddenly loses his hearing. This loss takes him on both a literal and emotional journey to adjust to a new perspective and a new life. It's a beautiful and touching film about learning to live with and maybe even love one's fate. Streaming on Amazon Prime.

10. Palm Springs

Basically a remake of Groundhog Day but this time multiple people are involved in the repeated day. It's funny and strange and violent and kind of surreal. Streaming on Hulu.

Other movies I liked:

The Assistant--a powerful story about toxic masculinity and rape culture. Streaming on Hulu.

Babyteeth--a teenage girl dying of cancer forms a relationship with an older young man, a criminal and a drug user. Streaming on Hulu.

Mank--the story of the screenwriter behind Citizen Kane and directed by David Fincher. Streaming on Netflix.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always--a minimalist and neo-realist film about a teenager who wants to get an abortion and the challenges that presents. Streaming on HBO.

Nocturne--a haunting horror film with that girl from Euphoria. Streaming on Amazon.

Borat Subsequent Movie Film--I watched this twice and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. At times it seems exploitative and manipulative and there are some totally cringeworthy scenes (the mensuration dance scene tops it), but it's also very funny and, unlike the first one, surprisingly touching. It also wins the award for the best movie title ever. Period. Streaming on Amazon. 

Best Films of 2018

I saw several excellent films this year; in fact, I've been struggling to decide which ones qualify as "best-of" material since so many were superlative. And unlike previous years, I saw almost all the films that have appeared on other top-ten lists this year. (Often many critically acclaimed films aren't released in Seattle until January or February but play in New York and L.A. before the end of the year so they can be considered for the Oscars.) One I regret having missed is Burning, a South Korean film based on Haruki Murakami's short story, which itself is based on an amazing short story by William Faulkner. The director, Lee Chang-dong, also made the profound and moving Poetry, one of my favorite films.

I first want to mention that I enjoyed Black Panther and noticed its appearance on a few lists. But while both its Afrofuturism design aesthetic and the presence of a black superhero in mainstream film are something to embrace and celebrate, the film is ultimately a fairly conventional Marvel movie with one scene that seemed to be an exact copy of one of (or several?) the James Bond films. I also wanted to like If Beale Street Could Talk (the latest Barry Jenkin's film--he directed Moonlight) more than I did. It certainly wasn't bad--in fact, it was beautiful and moving in places, but overall it felt a bit flat.

Here is my 2018 list:

1. First Reformed.  Probably better known as a screenwriter and critic rather than as a director, Paul Schrader wrote Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, one of the most important essays about film noir, and a critical analysis called Transcendental Style in Film. While he  directed over 20 films, they have been hit or miss (but mostly miss, especially lately). His most recent film represents Schrader's successful emulation of the transcendental style he analyzed back in the 1970s. With echoes of Bergman, Dreyer and Bresson--particularly Bresson's The Devil, Probably--First Reformed is filled with poetic stillness.  It is a beautifully moving story of ideas, an examination of existential dread and despair and the coming end of the world. But with that dread and despair comes the possibility of redemption. The ending reminded me somewhat of a play I teach by Archibald MacLeish called J. B., which is based on the Job story from the Hebrew Bible. In the play after J. B. has lost all of his children and his business (and is given a terrible skin disease), his wife Sarah returns to him and says "blow on the coal of the heart/ ...the candles in the churches are out/The lights have gone out in the sky." God and religion may have abandoned J.B. and his family, but Sarah and J.B. can reignite their lives with the power of love. The final transcendent scene in First Reformed reflects this theme. It's currently streaming on Amazon.

2. Happy as Lazzaro.  A modern fairy tale inspired by the Biblical story of (wait for it...) Lazarus, Happy as Lazzaro presents a class commentary and a history lesson on the underclass of Italian society, those who were and continue to be exploited by the wealthy. Lazzaro is a fundamentally good, selfless, loyal, and kind human being, a man without a shred of guile. Alice Rohrwacher's film owes something to early Italian classics like Bicycle Thief and Bitter Rice, but it is also new and visionary and sublime. It's streaming on Netflix.

3. Zama. Argentina's Lucrecia Martel had only directed three films (all critically acclaimed) before her latest, which follows a nearly 10-year feature-film drought. She's almost as prolific as a young Terrence Malick (that's a film-nerd joke).  Zama, a revisionist, genre-bending and surreal colonial-era film, tells the story of a Spanish administration official waiting in South America not so patiently for a better post. It's a measured, meditative film about the devastating impact of colonial power.

4. Western. A German film directed by Valeska Grisebach, Western tells the story of a group of German construction workers contracted to build a hydroelectric plant near a small and remote Bulgarian village. One of the workers becomes quickly fascinated with the villagers and village life and prefers them to his gruff coworkers. Tensions between the crew and the village build over a limited water supply and the testosterone-driven crew's sexist treatment of the village women. The film's title purposely evokes Hollywood Westerns. Here, there are no cowboy hats or shootouts or windblown sagebrushes, but tensions between the modern and the untainted West have always been a part of the classic Western genre, and these are the tensions on display here. But Grisebach handles these tensions in a manner far removed from John Ford or Howard Hawkes or Clint Eastwood. It's available at KCLS on video.

5. Roma. By now, everybody knows about Alfonso Cuaron's latest film, so I won't say much. It's a gorgeous and poignant and strange (in a good way) film by one of Mexico's best directors, based on his own life. It's also a film about privilege, class, discrimination, love, pain, loyalty, betrayal, and family. The opening shot alone summarizes the amazing artistry of the film. I got to see it in the theater, but a big screen television will be fine, too. It's streaming on Netflix.

6. Shoplifters. Hirokazu Kore-eda's latest humanist drama focuses on a down-and-out family struggling to survive hand-to-mouth and day-to-day in modern Tokyo. The film's final 30-40 minutes reveal several surprises that make us reevaluate what we have previously seen. It's a heartfelt drama that questions what it means to be a family in a world that is increasingly difficult to survive alone.

7. Sorry to Bother You. A satirical science-fiction comedy like no other, Sorry to Bother You presents a serious critique of capitalism and the ridiculous but brutal and exploitative practices of big business. The last 15-20 minutes might just be too much for some people, but we know early on that when African American men start speaking literally as white men (parts are dubbed with voice actors) that this is not your typical Hollywood movie.

8. Leave No Trace. Best known for Jennifer Lawrence's excellent breakout film Winter's Bone, Debra Granik directed this film about a father and daughter attempting to escape from society.  Played against type by Ben Foster, a former soldier suffering from PTSD lives with his teenage daughter in the quiet woods outside Portland. He and his daughter, played with sincerity and sweetness by New Zealand actor Thomasin McKenzie, are discovered and forced to reintegrate into society. Thom must make the difficult decision over whether to live in the human world with the possibilities of friendship and the comforts of modern living or continue wandering in isolation with her seriously depressed father. I thought of Leave No Trace as the anti-8th Grade film. Not that 8th Grade was bad, but it presents a hyperrealistic if totally stereotypical 13-year-old who can't stand the possibility of having a relationship with her earnest father. Yes, there are 8th graders like her, but I disliked spending time in that world. Unlike 8th Grade, Leave No Trace presents a loving relationship between father and daughter. They care about each other in a way that may not be typical, but it should be. I also liked that Granik chooses not to include any villains in her film. There are no cruel social workers, evil bosses, fiery reverends or lustful truck drivers. In this film, the world is filled with decent people all doing their jobs and trying to help those in need.

9. Shirkers. In 1992 Sandi Tan wrote and shot what would have been a revolutionary Singapore road movie with her high-school friends and creepy mentor/teacher. This documentary tells the fascinating story of how the film came to be and why it was never released. It's a film about youthful ambition, idealism, disappointment, crushed dreams, betrayal, and moving on in life. It's streaming on Netflix.

10. You Were Never Really Here. Scottish director Lynne Ramsay found immediate critical acclaim with Ratcatcher, her neorealist first feature film from 1999. While her first films were concerned with documenting the underclass and revealing the pernicious effects of poverty, You Were Never Really Here is a revenge thriller of the highest caliber. It tells the story of a ruthless, efficient but also paradoxically loving hitman who is called to rescue a young girl from a brothel. Ramsay strips the film of most of the graphic violence, which she often abruptly cuts away from to purposely withhold what we as audience members have been conditioned to expect. We still know what happens, but Ramsay doesn't want us to find pleasure in the violence. Like Hamlet, You Were Never Really Here is a work about revenge that also comments on the revenge genre. It also stars Joaquin Phoenix in his best performance. It's streaming on several platforms.

11. Hereditary. Super scary horror movie by a first-time director about a totally psycho family. There are lots of subtle details you miss the first time, so it rewards multiple viewings. Warning: it's very disturbing and violent.

Other films I liked from the year: Bad Times at the El Royale (inventive crime film with lots of twists and turns), BlacKkKlansman (great Spike Lee joint), Death of Stalin (hilarious political satire), The Favourite (funny and original historical drama), Game Night (hilarious rom-com and action adventure; streaming on HBO Go), Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson animation charged with cultural appropriation [I have mixed feelings about this charge]; streaming on HBO Go), Let the Sunshine In (French relationship drama; streaming on Hulu)), The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles's final film finally given the funding to put all of Welles's footage together; streaming on Netflix), Private Life (comedy/drama about a couple trying to have a baby; streaming on Netflix), Spider-Man: Into the Spider- Verse (surprisingly sophisticated and philosophical Marvel animation) and Support the Girls (thoughtful dramedy about a Hooter's- type restaurant; streaming on Hulu).

Best Films of 2017

Looking over my previous lists, I realize that I would change my mind about some of my rankings. Like anyone, my mind can change. Not that some of the films are bad; I just might not rank them as highly as I did. Anyway, onto 2017.

I thought 2017 was an overall OK year for movies (and another terrible year in general, at least in the political realm), but there were several films that I liked very much. Also, as always there were a few films I haven't yet seen: Lady Bird, The Square, The Florida Project, BPM are films that have been appearing on lots of top-ten lists. Here are my top ten plus a few extras at the end. (A quick note: a couple of the films below were technically released in 2016 but they didn't come to the Seattle area until 2017, so I consider them fair game).

Nocturama. A French film about a group of attractive young people who plan and execute a series of terrorist attacks in Paris and then hold out in a shopping mall. We never discover why they do this. We discover nothing of their political or religious or economic motivations, if they have any. The director, Bertrand Bonello, whose last film was an excellent biopic on the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, leaves everything frustratingly ambiguous. But all of this ambiguity is one of the main reasons the film excels. Too many screenwriters and directors spell everything out for the audience. The film has a cool and detached but hypnotic quality. There is also this amazing lip sync scene where a young man wearing lip stick performs Shirley Bassey's version of Frank Sinatra's "My Way." There are multiple levels of gender bending happening in that scene. One particular and subtle detail that stood out to me was that while the young people who execute the attacks are racially diverse and are composed of both men and women, those who seem to be in charge are white men. Again, this detail isn't emphasized, but it did seem significant. What this means exactly is left open for interpretation(s), but the implication is that some of the worst atrocities are due to white patriarchal power.

Get Out. More than just a standard horror/thriller, Get Out is a movie of ideas that rewards multiple viewings. Directed by Jordan Peele of Key and Peele fame, it's a kind of twisted sequel to Being John Malkovich that also comments on race and racism in America today. The music, acting, script, and pacing are all superb. And while it is genuinely scary, it's also quite funny in places, which is no surprise if you've seen Key and Peele.

Lost City of Z. A kind of Heart of Darkness story but in this case there is no Kurtz, only the obsessive pursuit for a lost city of the Amazon. It's a story that comments on the masculine urge to seek out and discover new worlds, even if that quest leads to the abandonment of family. And the final moments of the film achieve the kind of spiritual transcendence rare in cinema. I'm not a big fan of Charlie Hunnam, who plays the main character, but the film as a whole is complex and beautifully shot.

Raw. A French horror film about a young girl who goes to veterinary school as a vegan and quickly discovers she has a craving for human flesh.

Good Time. Directed by the Safdie brothers, Good Time tells the story of one brother's quest to help his hard-of-hearing and feeble-minded brother (played by Benny Safdie) escape from the police. It's a pulsing, hypnotic heist film with loads of bright florescent colors and colorful performances. I'm not sure why the director team used as many close-ups as they did, but it does give the film a unique look. It also boasts an amazing performance by Robert Pattinson.

A Ghost Story.  Starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, the film tells the story of a white-sheeted ghost who remains in his home after a terrible accident, supposedly waiting to either reunite with or communicate with his former wife. While not the same level of tragedy or drama in Affleck's Manchester by the Sea, A Ghost Story is still a powerful rumination on love and loss, and it's a more beautiful and stranger film. It also has cool music.

Mother! This is one of those rare movie watching experiences where I did not enjoy the experience of watching but the film itself gave me lots to contemplate. This film is disturbing and joyless, but it needs to be both of those things to properly get its meaning across. Why would I put a movie like this on the list? Too many films are about nothing in particular. Not that there is anything wrong with a simple drama or comedy. But Mother! is a film that pushes boundaries and does something new. It tells the story of an unnamed husband and writer (played by an aloof Javier Bardem) and his unnamed wife (played with distressing emotional fragility by Jennifer Lawrence) who live alone in a very large house that Jennifer Lawrence's character is slowly fixing up. Fans of the poet begin showing up and begin to exploit the generosity of the writer and disrespect the house and the wife. There is a really shocking scene in there and supposedly people walked out of the theater during this scene when it premiered in Cannes. Mother! is an allegory. I thought it was about Artists in general and the way fans abuse and disrespect the artist in their severe fixation with the art and the artist. It's a film that could be compared to a story I teach by Kafka called "A Hunger Artist." Darren Aronofsky somewhat annoyingly spelled out what he intended the film to mean (I say annoyingly because it takes the fun out of interpretation when a writer or director tells us what something really means). Anyway, he says it was meant to be an allegory of Mother Earth and was intended to have an environmental message. It does make sense, and there are several Biblical details that reinforce this idea. Aside from what the director has side, the film still holds up to multiple interpretations. It could be read as an allegory for religion, for art, for the inherent cruelty of humans, or, like the director said, for the abuse of the environment.

The Red Turtle. A nearly wordless animated film about a shipwrecked man and a relationship he forms with a large turtle. Produced by Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, the mythic film says something about the potential for pure cinema. The gripping but simple film makes profound statements about love and loss and hope.

Blade Runner 2049. I'm still confused why this film didn't perform as well at the box office as most people thought that it would. And, as far as I can tell, it hasn't appeared on many best-of lists. It's true that it runs nearly three hours and compared to most mainstream films its pace is relatively glacial. But it is the most beautiful film I saw this year by far and it deals with several interesting philosophical ideas that left me thinking for days: what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be a replicant? What is love? What is reality? What does it mean to live a good life? And I could go on. On the whole, I liked 2049 more than the original and the original is a masterpiece. My twelve-year-old son like it, too.

Graduation. A Romanian film about a girl who is attacked before she takes her college-entrance exams and a father's attempt to ensure that she succeeds. The father and daughter's goals for the daughter's future begin to diverge, and the film begins to question not only who is right but also the veracity of the incident itself. It is both a powerful drama and a subtle puzzle film where neither the answers nor the questions are clear.

Other films I enjoyed:A Quiet Passion (a biopic about Emily Dickinson),  Logan Lucky (Steven Soderbergh returns with a very good heist film), The Big Sick (an original romantic comedy based on the real-life relationship of Pakistani-American and stand-up-comic Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon), American Honey (an exploration of the American dream that follows a group of young and reckless door-to-door sellers of magazines), Silence (Martin Scorsese's drama about Jesuit priests who travel to Japan in the 17th century to find a missing priest during an era where Christianity has been outlawed--it's a powerful film about faith and devotion), Okja (a South Korean film about a genetically engineered pig that forms a special relationship with a young girl).

Best Films of 2016

Despite in so many ways 2016 being a terrible year--especially with our recent election results--it was another strong year for movies. All talk of the impending death of the cinema is clearly exaggerated. Here are my favorite films of the year:

1. Moonlight. A heartbreaking but ultimately hopeful coming-of-age story of a gay black man. Its formal innovations with several beautifully composed and stylized point-of-view shots perfectly enhance the story and theme. Matching the beautiful visuals are superb performances. Every one is a work of wonder. The film tells its narrative episodically and elliptically in three chapters where we see the protagonist as a boy, a teenager, and a young man. This is a film that will be watched and discussed in film studies classes for years.

2. O.J.: Made in America. A powerful, detailed, nearly 8-hour documentary on the trial of the century and the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson but also a history of institutional racism in Southern California and an examination of the failure of the American dream. We learn that O.J. was a man who chose to assimilate into the privileged white Brentwood society and cared much more about fame and money than his race or his family. We also hear and see video recordings that document the institutional racism of the LAPD. The film clearly shows how the police discriminated against African Americans and how the justice system favors not only white police officers but also famous rich people. Another major revelation is that the jurors either ignored or brushed off the overwhelming evidence of O.J.'s history of domestic abuse. This seems to suggest that the jurors, and by extension Americans, blamed the victim not the perpetrator. Finally, we are reminded of the egregious mishandling of evidence by the LAPD and how the prosecution lost its case partly because of the stupid decision to have O.J. try on the famous leather glove. (streaming on Hulu)

3. Son of Saul. I sometimes wonder if there have been too many Holocaust films--especially considering the relative dearth of other historical films on, say, American slavery or genocide in Cambodia. But two of the best films in the last couple of years (Phoenix and Son of Saul) have been films about the Holocaust, which tells us that there is still more to say about the Shoah. (I do look forward to more films about other historical eras, though). The Hungarian film Son of Saul is told entirely from the point of view of a Sonderkommando, a member of prisoner work group usually comprised of Jews. In the film, after other prisoners have entered the gas chamber, the protagonist and others check clothing for valuables and then discard the dead bodies. The protagonist discovers a boy who miraculously survives the gas chamber (at least temporarily) and the protagonist begins--for a reason that is never given--a quest to find the boy and give him proper burial rights. This is a totally original and emotional film that gets at the complexities of life and death and one man's attempt to control something in a world where nothing is in his control. And the semi first-person perspective places us in the middle of the dark, brutal, incomprehensible environment.

4. The Lobster. A dark allegorical satire that comments on and mocks social expectations regarding marriage and the necessity of having relationships. The Greek director Lanthimos has previously taken on other big topics like dealing with the aftermath of death and coming to terms with the absurdity of family relationships. But this one is the best that I have seen of his. The Lobster tells the story of a man whose wife has recently left him. He joins a comically absurd dating program at a hotel resort that has strict consequences for those who don't pair up with people after a given time. They also go on hunting parties where they find and shoot single people, and single people are not allowed in town. It's one of the strangest movies I have seen. And it's hilarious. (steaming on Amazon Prime)

5. Cemetery of Splendour. A film by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (don't ask me how to pronounce his name). Like all of his films, Cemetery of Splendour ruminates serenely on the past and the way the past impacts the present. No one makes films like Weerasethakul. They are strange and surreal works of art.

6. Arrival. I was taken aback by this science fiction drama directed by Denis Villeneuve.  His other films (Sicario, which was one of my favorite films from 2015, Enemy and Prisoners) have been very dark--hopeless even, but Arrival is refreshingly optimistic. The way that Arrival depicts the language of the aliens is both beautiful and completely original. Ultimately, the film emphasizes the importance of countries working together to solve major world problems. Unfortunately, the real world seems to be going in the opposite direction. One major plot point made no sense to me, but I still really enjoyed the film.

7. Manchester by the Sea. Unlike The Lobster, Manchester is one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. A powerful and moving story about loss and the difficulties of moving past grief. Everyone has commented on Casey Affleck's performance as an emotionally scarred loner--and rightly so--but Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges are just as good. I felt the music was a bit heavy-handed in a few spots, but this was a minor problem in an otherwise superb story.

8. Love and Friendship. An excellent and hilarious adaptation of Jane Austen's posthumously published epistolary novel Lady Susan, written when Austen was in her late teens. Unlike her other novels, Lady Susan features an amoral and scheming protagonist, one who only cares about acquiring a wealthy husband for her daughter and an even wealthier husband for herself (she is recently widowed). Kate Beckinsale is perfectly cast; she's a pleasure to watch and plays Susan with great aplomb. I had a small problem with Chloe Sevigny's casting as Susan's American friend; Sevigny is too modern an actor to perform in an Austen adaptation. But the film--directed by Whit Stillman best known for his Austen-inspired heavy-dialogue romantic dramas from the '90s Metropolitan and Last Days of Disco--is well worth the time. Even the opening title and closing credits are funny. (steaming on Amazon Prime)

9. Kubo and the Two Strings. A stop-motion animated film set in an ancient fantastical Japan. So many animated films look exactly the same. Even Pixar's high-quality films don't have much variation in visual style. But Kubo tells a compelling story and it is visually distinctive and original. The all-white cast somewhat mars the film and I suppose that some might charge the film with a kind of cultural appropriation, but it does feature a cockroach samurai, so that sort of makes up for it. 

10. Embrace of the Serpent. A poetic black and white film that tells the story of two European scientists in search of a rare healing plant in the heart of the Amazon. It's the story of the impact of colonialism.

11. The Witch. A supernatural horror film set in the Puritan era. What is most interesting about this film is the attention to period-era details--the King James English, the 17-century sets, the austere Puritan clothing. It's obviously a fictional film, but it probably captures what most people actually believed at the time about witches and the power of evil. And it features an evil black goat.

Others films I really liked: La La Land (I especially liked Emma Stone), Gleason (a moving documentary about a former NFL player who gets ALS), Dheepan (a French film about Tamil refugees who emigrate to France with fake identities), The Treasure (a Romanian film about a family man who searches for buried treasure), Deadpool, Hell or High Water (smart bank heist film that is also a commentary on the polarized economy), Green Room (a punk rock band plays for a white supremacist club and bad stuff happens), Keanu (Key and Peele's epic action film about rescuing a really cute lost kitten from gangsters), I Am Not a Serial Killer (a strange film about a teenage sociopath who hopes he doesn't become a serial killer), Midnight Special (directed by the director of Take Shelter and also starring Michael Shannon, it tells the story of a boy with supernatural gifts trying to flee from a religious cult and the federal government)

Still trying to decide if I liked Nocturnal Animals, and I wish I could have like Terrence Malick's hyper-arty Knight of Cups more than I did.

Best Films of 2015

This post is a year late, but I wanted to put out a quick list before I post my 2016 list. I liked several films from 2015. Here are my top thirteen:

1. Mad Max: Fury Road. The best (by far) of the entire series, an original vision of the apocalypse with a positive feminist message about the importance and power of women.

2. The Assassin. A beautifully shot and meditative martial arts film by the great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

3. It Follows. One of the best horror movies that I have ever seen. What makes it great is that it is also an allegory about growing up with the monsters representing adulthood, but the director leaves room for interpretation.

4. White God. A Hungarian drama about a 13-year-old girl and her dog.

5. Sicario. A smart and very dark action genre film that is also a savage criticism on the war on drugs and corrupt government institutions.

6. Arabian Nights. A three-volume, six-hour long collection of both realistic and fantasy stories set in Portugal and very loosely inspired by 1001 Nights.

7. Brooklyn. A beautiful period drama set in the 1950s about an young Irish woman who immigrates to America, falls in love and finds herself conflicted about whether she should return home.

8. The End of the Tour. A fictional film about literary genius and sui generis David Foster Wallace, who took his own life in 2008. It's a touching film about life, love, literature, dogs, finding contentment, and Alanis Morissette.

9. Phoenix. A German film about a Holocaust survivor who tries to recreate her life and finds herself in denial about who her husband really was. You have to embrace the absurdity of the story--it has to do with plastic surgery--but if you can look past that, the film becomes a deep meditation on love and recreating the past.

10. Timbuktu. An African film about a village that is taken over by an Islamic terrorist group.

11. Experimenter. An inventive biographical film about the revolutionary work performed by social psychologist Stanley Milgram, most famous for his obedience experiment in which participants were asked to shock other participants when they did not correctly answer questions.

12. What We Do in the Shadows. A seriously funny vampire movie shot as a faux documentary.

13. Ex Machina. A smart precursor to Westworld.