Best Films of 2022 [Poll][Dead] - Movies & TV

BozoTyrannus

Gender: Male
Age: 31

Alright, let's try this out for realsies.

1. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
2. Aftersun
3. Holy Spider
4. Everything Everywhere All at Once
5. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
6. Decision to Leave
7. Cyrano
8. Triangle of Sadness
9. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
10. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
11. Till
12. Bob's Burgers Movie
13. Broker
14. The Wonder
15. RRR
16. After Yang
17. Tar
18. Moonage Daydream
19. Banshees of Inisherin
20. Fire of Love
21. M3GAN
22. EO
23. Belle
24. Nope
25. The Sea Beast
26. Living
27. The Quiet Girl
28. Avatar: The Way of Water
29. Women Talking
30. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
31. A Hero
32. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
33. Cow
34. See How They Run
35. Fabelmans
36. Catherine Called Birdy
37. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
38. Persuasion

I honestly had a hard time assembling even this many. 2022 was absolutely loaded with movies getting great reviews that left me awed at how completely average (or worse) they were. Either critics are getting easier to please or I'm getting more curmudgeonly with age. Even getting up to 37 was difficult, and to be honest we could totally drop 31-37 and I wouldn't be upset. Those ones are less "highly recommend" and more "I guess I could include these, they were fine".

1 - 22 however were absolutely amazing and I highly recommend all.

Glass Onion absolutely sucked and was the worst movie I saw all year. The most painful predictable mystery I've ever seen, the only part that surprised me was how clumsily that soap opera plot twist was shoehorned into the story. That aspect was also the only part that got a laugh out of me, though definitely not for the reasons they intended.
_________________
I wanna take Sean Penn
And take Sean Bean
Put 'em in a blender
And make Sean Pean

Last edited by BozoTyrannus on 04/11/2023 16:55; edited 1 time in total

Hayden

Location: CDMX

EyeKanFly wrote:

Just FYI, there are 2 films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short which hover right at the 40-minute mark: The Martha Mitchell Effect and The Elephant Whisperers are both just about 40 minutes, and may fall between 38 and 41 minutes depending on how you count the credits (e.g. do the translation credits on Netflix count?). Letterbox and IMDB list both at 40+, Wikipedia lists Martha at 40 and Elephant at 39. Doesn't make a big difference to me either way, but it might be wise to include these 2 films/shorts specifically in your eligibility list. If you ask me, I'd probably list both as eligible because I'm inclined to include anything borderline.

Both will be allowed. I'm seeing 40-41 minute runtimes on each. Wiki has 39min for The Elephant Whisperers but I'll go with Netflix's official 40.
(I didn't think it would come down to credits-length, but Laughing

)

BozoTyrannus wrote:

Alright, let's try this out for realsies.
5. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Ooooof— I was going to shut this down, but it turns out the 'official release' was 2022 Shocked

— bizarre, considering it was submitted for the 2020 Oscars.
....... I guess it's fine.... Think

...... (???)

BozoTyrannus wrote:

nus"]I honestly had a hard time assembling even this many. 2022 was absolutely loaded with movies getting great reviews that left me awed at how completely average (or worse) they were. Either critics are getting easier to please or I'm getting more curmudgeonly with age. Even getting up to 37 was difficult, and to be honest we could totally drop 31-37 and I wouldn't be upset. Those ones are less "highly recommend" and more "I guess I could include these, they were fine".

Either way, thanks for the list Bozo Smile

I'll tally it later tonight.
I also wasn't enamoured with 2022 (I'm not even interested in seeing 3 of the Best Picture nominees), but there's definitely a solid handful of films this year. Right now I'd say I'm in a similar boat— I really enjoyed the top 35 or so on my list, but the rest are take-it-or-leave-it. I seem to have a recent pattern Think

—every second year (2017, 2019 & 2021) has landed at least one film getting a 5/5 from me. Cheers to 2023 Very Happy

I don't think you're being a curmudgeon by any means— I've felt the same the past few months (especially when a lot of the decade's most acclaimed films have technically been released this year). I don't think it's a 'getting older/what are those kids even saying' kinda thing— was just a year of particular tastes. Didn't help that the Cannes line-up wasn't overly captivating. Being said, interesting that you have Holy Spider so high— I dug it too (I like Abbasi's style, and Ebrahimi was fantastic)— but I think it'll still land low on my list. Wasn't in love with how bluntly it wrapped, but any film that gets a government in a tizzy means it merits a watch. Shame that it's now the second high-profile Iranian film to land plagiarism accusations... hope there's not some sort of shady opportunity/advantage stuff going around the industry— the country's made some of the best films of the last decade, not to mention a lot of the most remarkable stories and situations surrounding cinematic freedom too. No Bears is still on my to-watch list.

EDIT: I'm sorry— kinda tired— that paragraph is a poorly-flowing mess and I can't seem to fix it.

BozoTyrannus wrote:

Glass Onion absolutely sucked and was the worst movie I saw all year. The most painful predictable mystery I've ever seen, the only part that surprised me was how clumsily that soap opera plot twist was shoehorned into the story. That aspect was also the only part that got a laugh out of me, though definitely not for the reasons they intended.

Did you happen to read my (extraordinarily) brief LB review? Laughing

BozoTyrannus

Gender: Male
Age: 31

Hayden wrote:

Did you happen to read my (extraordinarily) brief LB review? Laughing

Well I have now.

And .... yeah. Pretty accurate.

Hayden wrote:

Being said, interesting that you have Holy Spider so high— I dug it too (I like Abbasi's style, and Ebrahimi was fantastic)

I've had a soft spot for brash feminist (ish) Middle Eastern movies since Wadjda.
_________________
I wanna take Sean Penn
And take Sean Bean
Put 'em in a blender
And make Sean Pean

Hayden

Location: CDMX

BozoTyrannus wrote:

I've had a soft spot for brash feminist (ish) Middle Eastern movies since Wadjda.

Wadjda has a bit of a soft spot in my heart too. First movie I ever saw at a film festival. First non-English film I ever saw on a big screen too. Definitely opened my world up.

Also, I mean this in the nicest way (because I'm also fond of the film) but this made me smile/laught a bit—

Quote:

Alright, let's try this out for realsies.

1. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

I figured it'd be a funny-whatever-cheese-fest (in a bad way) and it ended up being a funny-whatever-cheese-fest (in a good way). To have Weird Al flip the current bland-ass musician biopic wave going around was a blast. Shame he wasn't eligible for the original song Oscar— between Now You Know (Al), Lucky Ducks (Bob's Burgers), Nobody Like U (Turning Red) and some of the tracks from Spirited, this year actually had a decent handful of fun track to pick from (that... all missed Confused

)

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

BozoTyrannus wrote:

I honestly had a hard time assembling even this many. 2022 was absolutely loaded with movies getting great reviews that left me awed at how completely average (or worse) they were. Either critics are getting easier to please or I'm getting more curmudgeonly with age. Even getting up to 37 was difficult, and to be honest we could totally drop 31-37 and I wouldn't be upset. Those ones are less "highly recommend" and more "I guess I could include these, they were fine"

This is pretty much how I feel every year. It's like a step above trying to come up with a Metallica Greatest Hits playlist, and it must be 50 tracks long. Can I come up with 10 tracks? Easily. 20? Okay, that's doable. 30? Well, that's a stretch and I'd rather cut it off sooner. 50? That's impossible. (I'm aware everybody's mileage with this band varies, but you get the idea). Every year, my films ranked from roughly 31-50 are filler tracks, to give the top of my list more points. And I agree about lenient critics in recent years. I hope they haven't been bought. Or that they're not too afraid of taking a stand. I couldn't help but notice Prey and All Quiet on the Western Front were absent from your list. Do they fall under your "getting great reviews that left you awed at how completely average (or worse) they were" category? If so, I totally agree.

On a more positive nope...

Nope - I was lukewarm when seeing in the theaters because I felt the story-line and characters were a bit one-dimensional. But there were several abstract topics beneath the surface (e.g. carrying on the family business, how people use animals for entertainment, history of race and cinema, the lengths some people are willing to go to achieve a few minutes of fame in a media-driven society, etc.) that make up for it. They help fill in plot devices and characterizations that may not seem right at first, but make some more sense upon reflection. This is not to say it's a perfect film, as some of these big swings miss. However, I can't help but admire how much Peele was trying to achieve. It may be a mess, but if so, it's one of the most entertaining and compelling messes of the year. One that I look forward to revisiting before this poll closes.

BozoTyrannus

Gender: Male
Age: 31

CA Dreamin wrote:

I couldn't help but notice Prey and All Quiet on the Western Front were absent from your list. Do they fall under your "getting great reviews that left you awed at how completely average (or worse) they were" category?

Didn't see Prey, but All Quiet on the Western Front was absolutely a willful absence.

Is it a good war movie? Meh, if I hadn't seen 1917 or Come and See or either of the 1930/1979 versions already, maybe I would have enjoyed it, but I can't possibly rank it alongside any of those prior films.

Is it a good adaptation of the novel? Not even close. One of the worst book to screen adaptations I've seen lately. Maybe the English translation of Rohmer's book that I read took very very great liberties and therefore maybe Edward Berger did an excellent job of adapting it. But if my translation of the book was correct, then this new version totally fails to grasp what makes the book interesting, or even its very point, and simply slapped the name onto an obnoxious loud generic war movie.
_________________
I wanna take Sean Penn
And take Sean Bean
Put 'em in a blender
And make Sean Pean

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

BozoTyrannus wrote:

Didn't see Prey, but All Quiet on the Western Front was absolutely a willful absence.

Is it a good war movie? Meh, if I hadn't seen 1917 or Come and See or either of the 1930/1979 versions already, maybe I would have enjoyed it, but I can't possibly rank it alongside any of those prior films.

Is it a good adaptation of the novel? Not even close. One of the worst book to screen adaptations I've seen lately. Maybe the English translation of Rohmer's book that I read took very very great liberties and therefore maybe Edward Berger did an excellent job of adapting it. But if my translation of the book was correct, then this new version totally fails to grasp what makes the book interesting, or even its very point, and simply slapped the name onto an obnoxious loud generic war movie.

Yup. Agreed. I still consider it a 5/10 movie because it lands a couple good scenes from the book and has good technical aspects. But overall this new AQotWF was a lousy book-to-screen adaptation. It completely ripped out the most essential pages of the novel, detailing the main's character's (Paul's) camaraderie with his friends and fellow soldiers, the return visit to his village where realizes just how much the German propaganda machine had brainwashed him, and his final conversation with his dying mother, etc. It created a deep sense of Paul's depression and alienation that was very powerful and universal. The 1930 and 1979 films kept those all-important scenes in the movies, and so should have Edward Berger in this new adaptation. But instead, he threw all that away and replaced it with a mostly useless subplot, that was not in the original novel, about a German diplomat and high-ranking general negotiating peace with the Allies. The screen time we spent with that subplot neglected screen time that should have been spent developing Paul's character. In the end, the subplot was a dumbed down method to get us to sympathize with Paul, when already more effective ways had been tried and true in the original novel and prior movies. I suppose Berger may have considered it safe to stay faithful to the source material and the prior films, and perhaps trying something different was in order. But in this case, different = much worse. In sum, this movie basically reduced an all-time great novel to an impersonal, generic war flick.

The difference between us is I may still put AQotWF on my list near the bottom. Because the size of the list determines its weight, which compels me to fill it up to 50 no matter how little I care for the movies near the bottom. If I have to throw a couple points towards AQotWF in order to give Triangle of Sadness more points, and thus a chance of being in our Top 10, then so be it Smile

. But hopefully I'll see enough better movies by the end of this poll that I won't have to.
_________________
on such a winter's day

Last edited by CA Dreamin on 03/08/2023 03:10; edited 1 time in total

mickilennial
The Most Trusted Name in News

Gender: Female
Age: 35
Location: Detroit

https://letterboxd.com/sentarous/list/2022-favorites/

As I see more movies (in case I'll let you know) the lesser films might get bumped off. 1-15 are the ones I cared the most about.

BozoTyrannus

Gender: Male
Age: 31

Gowi wrote:

https://letterboxd.com/sentarous/list/2022-favorites/

Every time See How They Run is ranked higher than Glass Onion, an angel gets its wings
_________________
I wanna take Sean Penn
And take Sean Bean
Put 'em in a blender
And make Sean Pean

mickilennial
The Most Trusted Name in News

Gender: Female
Age: 35
Location: Detroit

BozoTyrannus wrote:

Every time See How They Run is ranked higher than Glass Onion, an angel gets its wings

I thought Glass Onion was okay. Loved the cast, but I just didn't have fun with it.