As a companion piece to my Top Ten list, every year I write a post to discuss some of the other major films that got a lot of positive attention, in order to give some context to my own choices. I find this exercise helpful when working out how I feel about my list and the year in film as a whole. It's also a lot of fun. Please note that I will not be writing about films listed among my honorable mentions, including "Tár," "The Woman King," and "Women Talking," which I've already written individual posts for anyway.
So, let's get the big ones out of the way first. Where's "Aftersun"? Reactions to this movie seem to be split between viewers who loved it and viewers who didn't get it, and I'm firmly with the viewers who didn't get it. Maybe I've been on too many uncomfortable vacations being bored in the same way. I even rewatched the final sequence multiple times, and it just didn't connect emotionally. The other big title that I couldn't get on board with was Park Chan-Wook's "Decision to Leave." It was so good to see Tang Wei again, but I think I've been watching too much noir recently, because I just didn't have any interest in this. I could admire Park's playful filmmaking choices, but the characters just had no appeal.
The biggest films at the box office this year also got plenty of awards attention, which has been getting rarer and rarer. While I enjoyed "Top Gun: Maverick," and "Avatar: The Way of Water" as well-engineered spectacle, I couldn't see much worth recommending beyond that. I think part of the issue was that these movies are both very simple, traditional, rah-rah male power fantasies and rather devoid of depth and humor. This wasn't a problem with "RRR," the breakout Indian hit that had plenty of substance if you were looking for it. It's such a bright, charming film that offered a breath of fresh air when it showed that it could do Hollywood style, maximalist filmmaking as well as anything that actually came out of Hollywood. Three hours of it was just too much for me.
Other award season contenders include "Elvis" and "Babylon," which did some things very well and some things terribly. Poor Tom Hanks has hit a new low. I have mixed feelings on "Triangle of Sadness," though I find it interesting that there's no consensus on which half of the movie is the better one. I mostly like "All Quiet on the Western Front," just not enough to rank it very highly. "The Whale" had great performances but was otherwise a mess. "Living" and "She Said" were perfectly fine, but felt so slight that I'm not surprised that they didn't get much attention outside of the critical community.
Animated films had a good year with some unusual features like "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" and Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio." They're both very specific films that I admire a lot but don't think I'm really the audience for. I found the great reception for "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" mystifying though. I think part of the issue is that I watched it as a parent, who was more worried about how my kids were handling the rougher "Shrek" style humor, than Puss in Boots' existential crisis. I'm happy that Dreamworks Animation scored a win though.
Finally, I really wish I could find a way to connect with Kogonada's "After Yang," which is the kind of thoughtful science-fiction that I usually love. I suspect that the trouble is that the main character is the one played by Colin Farrell, and not Yang himself.
Films that just missed the honorable mentions include "Hustle," "Do Revenge," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Vengeance," "The Menu," "Comedy Punks," and "Ennio." And I was sorely tempted to add "Clerks III" for being so much better than I expected.
And that's my 2022 in film.
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