HarmonicGenerator

I managed to see 44 new release movies this year. Which I know is not a lot. But that's one more than I managed last year.

 

The beginning of the year when all the awardsy films come out

First cinema trip this year was New Year's Day for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. Nearly a year later it's a mostly not-that-memorable biopic, but if there's one Cumberbatch film to see in 2022, it's definitely this one. Also there is a moment where a kitten is having a little jomp and the subtitles for this moment make it one of the greatest scenes in all of cinema. For another 'if', if you only see one British biopic featuring famous paintings this year, I'd go for Louis Wain over The Duke which was a good story, well told, but for something so firmly set in the North East, you really felt the lack of North East actors. They're even making jokes about Byker, you couldn't get one person from the region in a main part? I know it's funding related and you get your film made if you cast Broadbent and Mirren, but it's disapointing.

Also pretty early in the year we got stuck into potential Oscar contenders and watched The Lost Daughter on Netflix (which, okay, technically was released on New Year's Eve 2021, but it's my list and I'm counting it). Two hours of Olivia Colman moping. Didn't click with me.

Speaking of not clicking with me, Licorice Pizza. I know it's well loved on here, and generally, but I really, really didn't like it. You remember that South Park episode where Ike gets involved with his kindergarten teacher, but because he's the kid and she's the adult, everyone's reaction is just ".... niiice."

Licorice Pizza is 'what if "... niiice" was a movie?' He's a child. 

Anyway, I'll continue with opposites and Nightmare Alley which wasn't generally that well loved, but clicked with me in a major way. Despite feeling the second half dragging while I was watching it, I loved the film overall, and the ending blew my mind. Not from a shock or surprise kind of way, but for the fact it was completely predictable, and you knew exactly where it was going to end up, but all the stepping stones to get you there were executed perfectly, so that when it happened, my reaction was "Aha! Yes!" Del Toro's best since the giant robots hit the giant monsters.

Belfast was good, liked it very much at the time even if the sheer amount of Van Morrison made me wonder if they'd stick one of his Covid songs in there. As the year's gone on it's kind of faded from the memory a bit. Unlike another B&W awards contender, The Tragedy of Macbeth which is a work of art. Almost every shot could be framed and stuck on a gallery wall. The visuals are just stunning, and it's a really strong Shakespeare adaptation besides. Spoiler for the end of the list, this one's gonna be top 3.

The list so far (Jan-Feb, ish)

1. The Tragedy of Macbeth

2. Nightmare Alley

3. Belfast

4. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

5. The Duke

6. The Lost Daughter

7. Licorice Pizza

 

Spring films

I'm not quite finished with February, because on Valentine's Day the tradition of seeing a non-romantic film resumed after Covid stopped it last year. 2022's was Uncharted which, if it hadn't been a movie of Uncharted, would have been quite a fun bit of action silliness. But because it was a movie of Uncharted, I couldn't help myself from making comparisons and they weren't that favourable. Watch the short on Youtube with Nathan Fillion and Stephen Lang instead.

Fun bits of action silliness? Must be The Lost City which is exactly that. Didn't love it but it's a good time. Daniel Radcliffe is ace.

Serious bits of action seriousness? That'll be The Northman which, when it was good, was very good, but for me didn't quite keep the momentum of the very good parts throughout the rest of it. Admittedly my expectations were high and I thought I was going to be wowed, but ... I wasn't. I liked it but ... shrug.

Also in March/April time, a couple of very gentle low-stakes British films. Phantom of the Open was thoroughly charming and lovely and cheerful, and sometimes that's all I'm after from a film. Really liked this one. And for a pleasant surprise, Downton Abbey: A New Era did a similar thing. It was just a long episode of Downton Abbey - but it was a really good episode of Downton Abbey. It'd do nothing for anyone who hasn't seen all of Downton, but if you have, it's like a reunion with old friends.

Oh yeah, and The Secrets of Dumbledore as well, or as my wife calls it, 'Fantastic Coats and where do I find them'. The coats are genuinely the best thing about the film, they truly are fantastic. Film wasn't great, but it has more Jessica Williams in it which helps it be better than the second one.

The list so far (Jan-April, ish)

1. The Tragedy of Macbeth

2. The Phantom of the Open

3. Nightmare Alley

4. Belfast

5. The Northman

6. Downton Abbey: A New Era

7. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

8. The Lost City

9. The Duke

10. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

11. Uncharted

12. The Lost Daughter

13. Licorice Pizza

 

Mostly disappointing superhero movies

Not a great year for superhero films. Three MCU films, none of which are close to breaking my top 10. Thor Love and Thunder got a critical beating and it has a load wrong with it, but I can remember quite a lot of bits from it, which is more than I can claim for Black Panther Wakanda Forever even though that was only last month. I remember it being long. And I remember I didn't dislike it. I did dislike Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There are many reasons for that which I can't be bothered to go into, but I remember in the cinema when The Cameos happened and everyone was supposed to be hootin' and hollerin' like with Spider-Man and there was no reaction apart from one guy who tried to start a round of applause and nobody joined in, and my wife was visibly cringing next to me and saying "Multiworst of Badness, more like". Hard to disagree.

Anyway, that means my favourite superfilm of the year, somehow, was The Batman, which I only went to see because I had a spare Saturday in March. It's grimdark super-serious stuff to the point of parody, and it's so dark the entire time I had to adjust to daylight again when it finished, but if nothing else, it picked its tone and stuck with it, and I kind of admire it for that.

 

Mostly decent animated movies

Turning Red should have got a cinema release. Like Luca last year, it's going to get a little bit forgotten amongst the Pixars because it went straight to streaming, but it's really good. Lovely evocations of friendship, family and the early 2000s.

Lightyear shouldn't have got a cinema release. What a weird film. I still don't get why it exists (beyond the branding etc etc). This is not Andy from Toy Story's favourite film. If it was, Lightyear would have been a cheesy, over the top mid-90s effects blockbuster, and if we'd got a pastiche of that here, yes please. We didn't. It's still Pixar, but no thank you. I'll keep Sox the cat though.

May as well stick with Disney+ and mention Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers which had its moments but went too far into "remember THIS?" territory for me to fully engage with it. Strange World got added on there yesterday, and it's fine, but when the last decade of Disney Animation has given me Big Hero 6, Zootropolis, Moana and Encanto, this isn't on a level with any of them.

Oh, The Bob's Burgers Movie is on Disney+ as well. It is also fine. I've barely seen any Bob's Burgers but the film worked for me.

Over to Netflix for some stop-motion next. Wendell & Wild is inventive and as well animated as you'd expect from Henry Selick; Key and Peele put a lot of character into the title roles. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is equally, if not more, inventive and well animated. It's visually outstanding. What let it down for me, unlike Wendell & Wild, was the little character. Pinocchio's a dick throughout and I know he is in most versions, but he's a proper little shit in this and it's to the detriment of the film even if it's probably quite accurate to real kids.

Cartoon Saloon are over on Netflix now as well, which I hope means more people see their films. My Father's Dragon isn't their best, but it's got plenty of the things that make them the best animation studio around right now. And a super cute baby rhino.

My favourite animation of the year (I suppose it's animation?) was Apollo 10 1/2 which I watched when I had Covid. I could have just been feverish, but the mood and the feeling of this movie just washed over me and I found it completely engrossing despite very little happening. Linklater almost on the level of Boyhood. (This one's going to be top 5.)

Avatar: The Way of Water is basically animation, right? A long, long, long animation, which I didn't like as much as the first Avatar, but which has grown better in my mind in the week since I saw it, to the point I think I'll probably go and see it again after Christmas and I might end up loving it. I want to be friends with a space whale, please.

The list so far (now with capes and toons)

1. The Tragedy of Macbeth

2. Apollo 10 1/2

3. The Phantom of the Open

4. Nightmare Alley

5. Turning Red

6. Avatar: The Way of Water

7. The Batman

8. Belfast

9. The Northman

10. My Father's Dragon

11. Downton Abbey: A New Era

12. Thor: Love and Thunder

13. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

14. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

15. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

16. Wendell & Wild

17. The Lost City

18. The Duke

19. Strange World

20. Lightyear

21. The Bob's Burgers Movie

22. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

23. Uncharted

24. Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers

25. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

26. The Lost Daughter

27. Licorice Pizza

 

Summertime!

Everything Everywhere All At Once. Audacious, sensational, brilliant. This is the only film I saw this year - the first for quite a few years, I think - where I left the cinema and just wanted to tell everybody I knew to go and see this movie as soon as they possibly could. I raved about this film for weeks after I saw it. I loved it. Spoiler: this is my number 1. (It's on Prime Video now, if you haven't had the pleasure yet.)

Top Gun Maverick was very good, but the high praise of the reviews had me thinking I'd feel similarly about this to the way I felt about Everything Everywhere. It's great - if you swapped those jets out for X-Wings it'd have been an amazing Star Wars film - but I didn't quite get that same euphoric feeling as just above.

I almost did, though, for Elvis. We were staying in Manchester for the night and decided to go to the cinema, and it's always more fun going to see a film somewhere different, but I don't think it was just that. It's a lot of movie, and I get why people wouldn't like it, but we had a great time and spent the whole walk back to the hotel talking about it. Not every film has that effect so that's a big positive for Elvis.

A bit less blockbustery, as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival we went to a screening of Nude Tuesday which turned out to be the UK premiere. This meant free snacks, free popcorn, free drinks ... this may play into how highly it ends up ranking on my list. The film itself is an interesting experiment, and it succeeds a lot of the time. You see a lot of Jemaine Clement. All of Jemaine Clement, in fact. 

Couple of streamers in the summer: I feel I might have enjoyed Prey more in a cinema rather than on the TV. I also thought it was a shame that what could have been an entirely Native American story had to be set in the 18th century to bring in European colonisers. It was satisfying seeing them all get what they deserved, but the film would have been fine without them.

Also there was The Gray Man and, honestly, I can't remember anything about The Gray Man. It had good action, I think? 

 

A couple of World War I films, one about World War II, and a couple of murder mysteries

I did a post on here about All Quiet on the Western Front the other week where I mentioned that it was incredibly bleak, and so upsetting I'm glad I watched on Netflix so I could pause a couple of times and just get my composure back. What an achievement this film is; one of the best WW1 films. Watch it in German with subtitles - don't let Netflix dub it for you.

The WW1 parts of Benediction, meanwhile, are its best parts. Jack Lowden is great throughout, and it's nice to see him getting leading roles, but the range of timelines in the film don't always help it.

Also on Netflix, but it came out in January so the algorithm will have buried it by now, Munich: The Edge of War was a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting much but it's well made, tightly plotted, well acted and very compelling. Worth delving through the search function for.

Of the two whodunnits I saw this year, See How They Run had the best single performance - Saoirse Ronan is outstanding - but Glass Onion is the better film overall. I could have absolutely done without the Covid references, but it has the more intricate plot and the better resolution. But Saoirse Ronan ... watch See How They Run just for her. She's the best.

 

Autumn and Winter

We're almost done, promise. These are the films I watched over the past couple of months that I haven't mentioned already.

I'm not good at catching documentaries when they're new, so the only 2022 release I got round to was Sidney. It does a good job of summarising why Sidney Poitier is such an icon - god, that slap in In The Heat Of The Night is electrifying - but doesn't sugarcoat him. Not completely, anyway. There are some big, big names among the talking heads and you can see how important Poitier was to a lot of them, too. 

The Banshees of Inisherin is Martin McDonagh at his best. Superb performances, excellent script, keeps you thinking for a while after you've seen it. Colin Farrell's got a lot of plaudits for it, deservedly so, but the little donkey is the real star and nobody can dispute that. If you missed it at the cinema it's on Disney+ now.

I've got a musical to mention now, sorry. Matilda the Musical doesn't quite capture the magic of the stage version (look, I like some musicals, I'm sorry again) but it does a decent job of translating Tim Minchin's songs to screen. Lashana Lynch is a perfect Miss Honey, pure and wholesome and exactly everything that character should be; the rest of the adults are having a fantastic time outrageously hamming it up but because it's a heightened Roald Dahl musical it works.

 

And finally... stuff that was just on Netflix

I'll be brief. Mother/Android (which I think was a 2021 release elsewhere but only turned up on Netflix here this year) started off well but had one of those annoying 'sad, but not sad, but actually yeah sad' endings, so sod that. Day Shift did a couple of fun vampire things but wasn't particularly great even by the standards of vampire films, and Enola Holmes 2 was not quite as good as the first one but still pretty decent.

 

And that's the lot! What have I ended up with?

The full list

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once

2. The Tragedy of Macbeth

3. All Quiet on the Western Front

4. Apollo 10 1/2

5. The Phantom of the Open

6. Elvis

7. Nightmare Alley

8. The Banshees of Inisherin

9. Sidney

10. Turning Red

11. Avatar: The Way of Water

12. Nude Tuesday

13. The Batman

14. Top Gun Maverick

15. Belfast

16. Glass Onion

17. See How They Run

18. Matilda the Musical

19. The Northman

20. My Father's Dragon

21. Downton Abbey: A New Era

22. Munich: the Edge of War

23. Thor: Love and Thunder

24. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

25. Enola Holmes 2

26. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

27. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

28. Wendell & Wild

29. The Lost City

30. The Duke

31. Prey

32. Strange World

33. Benediction

34. Lightyear

35. The Bob's Burgers Movie

36. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

37. The Gray Man

38. Uncharted

39. Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers

40. Day Shift

41. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

42. Mother/Android

43. The Lost Daughter

44. Licorice Pizza

So there I go. Thanks again UKFF for letting me work all that out in real time. This post has taken exactly one Star Trek III: The Search For Spock to complete.