Somehow we’re already halfway through 2022. Amid the fireworks and festivities of the long weekend, we took stock of our favorite movies of the year. We each separately compiled our individual lists and in a surprising bit of unanimity, we all had the same film — Everything Everywhere All At Once — in the top spot, so let’s start there as we work through the dozen films that stuck with us most over the last six months of cinema.
| Chase | Josh | Morgen |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Everything Everywhere All At Once 2. RRR 3. X 4. After Yang 5. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair 6. Neptune Frost | 1. Everything Everywhere All At Once 2. Cha Cha Real Smooth 3. After Yang 4. Top Gun: Maverick 5. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On 6. “The Chargers 2022 Schedule, But It’s Anime“ | 1. Everything Everywhere All At Once 2. Lightyear 3. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent 4. Linoleum |
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Josh Bis: Little did I know that Everything Everywhere All at Once’s themes of confronting the appeal of nihilism in the face of [gestures wildly] ~all of this~ would be even more relevant with each passing month of this still chaotic and frequently dispiriting year. Yet just as experiencing a multiverse in which every possibility was real galvanized Michelle Yeoh’s perpetually-frazzled, frequently-underachieving, small-business-owning mother into an improbable adventure to salvage her strained family, the DANIELS’s maximalist, infinitely-entertaining, and deeply sentimental yarn encourages its audience to choose googly eyes over a dark swirling bagel of despair. “If nothing matters, why not choose kindness?” is pretty squishy as a grand unifying moral code, but it’s been getting me through more than a few days.
Chase Hutchinson: There is so much to love about Everything Everywhere All at Once that I keep wishing I could watch it all over again for the first time. It is a chaotic work that throws itself forward at every chance it gets with Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Ke Huy Quan leading us on with a confident hand. It is undeniably messy, though there it is hard to think of a movie this year that surpasses it. [review]
Morgen Schuler: I hate to be a third voice praising Everything Everywhere All at Once when there are tons of movies out there to discover and discuss, but I can’t help it. It took me some time after seeing the film to soak it all in and decide whether I actually enjoyed it or if I was just taken in by the bigness of it all. Soon after I read about the film itself and how the lead actors welled up with emotion just reading the script. Nothing, in their lengthy careers, had such positive, interesting, and rich Asian characters as this does. It was the film they’d been waiting for someone to make and they were overcome that not only had it finally arrived, but they got to be a part of it and that knocked it out of the park for me. The relationship between a mother and daughter is the overarching theme for me, but it contained multitudes as you can see from my fellow writers’ reactions. I wasn’t sure I even liked it until a week later a friend asked if it was worth seeing and an emphatic “YES” crossed my lips without hesitation.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is back in theaters and also available to rent or own
RRR
Whatever you may think you know about RRR, you have no idea how wild of a ride this film is until you’ve seen it for yourself. There is a danger in huge hits that are spread by word of mouth being overhyped. In this case, the praise undersells this vibrant and energetic action musical that puts all other summer blockbusters you’ll see this year to shame. — Chase Hutchinson [review]
You can watch RRR on Netflix and ZEE5.
Speaking of blockbusters, I was prepared to laugh my way through this militaristic nostalgia-fest as yet another crass case of revisiting old intellectual property to stoke a movie star’s ego for financial gain. And as much as Maverick is all of that, it’s also a hell of a summer blockbuster that clears the not-too-high bar of being an improvement on the original in almost every way. While indulging Tom Cruise’s love of airplanes and beach games, Joseph Kosinski structures his return to the Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (TOPGUN) around a single seemingly-impossible mission. With breathtaking aerial choreography, a cast of impossibly fit newcomers who caused legions of young men give “summer mustaches” a try, it also manages to make the age-defying Cruise begin to reckon with the passage of time. Getting older isn’t easy even when you’re the world’s last true movie star, but a billion dollar box office that packed theaters has to take the sting off of approaching the big six-oh. — JB
Top Gun: Maverick is still in theaters; see it on the biggest loudest screen you can find.
Of course I’m a fan of the Toy Story series, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who dislikes it… Pixar at its best. Lightyear is a level of meta-storytelling I don’t think I’ve experienced before and so I went in with a healthy dose of skepticism. It starts with something like “Andy got a toy for his birthday from one of his favorite films. This is that film” – are they just going for a money grab pulling at your heartstrings and the nostalgia of folks my age (well, any age really)? Happy to report my skepticism was unfounded; they had a new and imaginative story to tell with the same old heartstring pulling Pixar is known for. There were callbacks to Lightyear’s phrase “To Infinity and Beyond!”, but it wasn’t overdone with just enough cheese to make you giggle. Anyone could go into this film knowing nothing of the Toy Story franchise and enjoy it just as much. Buzz had just the right amount of machismo paired with personal growth to leave you feeling sappy and happy straight through to the end. — MS
You can still see Lightyear in theaters
A horror film that is gleefully violent and meticulously well-crafted, X was one of my favorite movie-going experiences this year by far. Further cementing Mia Goth as an icon of the genre, she brings the chaotic and oddly charming world to life . It lives up to words of one character as being “one goddamn fucked up horror picture” that you won’t soon forget anytime soon. — CH [review]
You can watch X on Blu-ray and VOD.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
A long time fan of Nicholas Cage for both his terrible choices and undeniably weighty indie appearances, I could not wait to see what this meta-script had in store for us. Pulling us along with his typical manic-yet-self-loathing behavior, the audience is set on a course for bald-faced insanity. Cage is hired to be the entertainment for a grown man’s birthday party. This super fan is rich enough to entice the celebrity to hang out with him for a few days and play the star of the show at the birthday celebrations. But then it takes a turn where real life and action-adventure-drama don’t just collide, they cause an atomic explosion, we’re just holding onto our seats waiting for what’s coming next. Mafia, gun fights, kidnapping, FBI agents and narrow escapes all leave you feeling dizzy for days and wondering what the hell you just watched. I had a smile plastered on my face from sheer ridiculousness the entire time and it was everything and nothing like what I thought it would be. Worth every ludicrous moment. –MS
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is available on various VOD platforms
Josh: In a not-too-distant future, Colin Farrell plays a father coming to terms with the breakdown of Yang, a sweet-tempered second-hand “technosapien” who joined the family as a synthetic sibling to provide cultural context to his adopted Chinese daughter (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, in a wondrous debut). With one of A24’s best plot-relevant dance sequences and a meditative pace of discovery Kogonada conceives an entire world and gently reveals its sprawling parameters through Farrell’s journey, which considers mortality, our relationship to household objects, and the very nature of being alive. — JB / CH [review]
You can watch After Yang on Blu-ray and VOD.
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Chase: When I first saw We’re All Going to the World’s Fair back at the North Bend Film Festival, I was blown away by how it managed to capture the loneliness and liberation to be found on the internet. As time has gone on, my appreciation and awe for all it manages to achieve has only grown. It marks the arrival of a fresh new voice in director Jane Schoenbrun whose incisive work in this debut feature is beyond compare. — CH [review]
You can stream We’re All Going to the World’s Fair on Hoopla and various streaming platforms
I’m bringing this one back into discussion because there has been literally no media coverage, fanfare or wide release planned and that’s a damn shame. Jim Gaffagan gives a marvelous performance as Cameron, the middle-aged down-on-his luck guy that just wants to fulfill his dreams, regain the love of his estranged wife and show his kids that he is worthy of their admiration. A crashed satellite in his backyard throws the world into chaos for characters and viewers alike, but it’s also the catalyst that brings his family back together again. The farther into the story we get the more we wonder if this is just Cameron’s daydreams or if he really can achieve what he’s set out to do. It’s such a strange, sweet film and I hope it gains traction at some point. — MS
Linoleum is seeking US distribution
A somewhat squishy, incredibly Sundance-y, coming-of-age tale about a twenty-something idiot who’s still learning just how much he doesn’t yet have figured out, Cooper Raiff’s dramedy concerns a wayward bar mitzvah party-starter whose caretaking (and romantic) instincts draw him into the orbit of a single mother and her autistic daughter. Some have unfavorably characterized this movie as directorial wish-fulfillment or self-aggrandizement, but that criticism ignores what underlies Raiff’s character’s perpetual people-pleasing. I almost envy viewers who don’t immediately recognize his extroversion and attention to others as a shield for his own deep uncertainties. With terrific performances by Dakota Johnson and Vanessa Burghardt as her daughter, no one, except for people who have to say the title of this film out loud, are let off the hook too easily, least of all its prodigious lead actor/writer/director. — JB
Cha Cha Real Smooth is now available on AppleTV+
Neptune Frost
Chase: An imaginative work that challenges any rules and binaries placed upon it, the Afrofurtist science-fiction musical that is Neptune Frost is as elusive as it is utterly enthralling. A rebellious story that shatters expectations in both narrative and form, there are just so many striking scenes that are sure to forever stick with you. It is worth taking the plunge and letting it wash over you as soon as you can. –CH [review]
You can watch Neptune Frost in theaters and on Kino Now
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Unfamiliar with his 2010 YouTube series made with Jenny Slate, I never quite found time to watch Dean Fleischer-Camp’s feature film expansion when it premiered last year at Telluride. I imagined that the story of a stop motion animated mollusk (also with one evocative googly eye, a surprise A24 DIY theme) would be too cloyingly cute and I’d have to feel like a grinch for not agreeing with everyone who raved about it in the queues for other movies. So when it was the only film that compelled me back into a crowded theater to see it at this year’s hybrid SIFF, I was bowled over by its depth of emotion and overwhelmingly poignance in the story of an perpetually upbeat shell whose entire community disappeared, leaving him and an elderly aunt (voiced brilliantly by Isabella Rossellini) all alone in to be discovered by a curious AirBnb guest who happens to be a filmmaker. Often funny, frequently profound, this tiny world stirred up huge feels. — JB
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is still in theaters.
Special Mention: Los Angeles Chargers Schedule Release Hype Video
I’m not typically a viewer of short films, a ravenous connoisseur of animation, or even a supporter of the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s become a weird tradition for NFL team to trying to squeeze some springtime excitement out of something as routine as letting fans know which opponents they’d be playing this season and when they’d be playing them. Sure, a hokey comedy routine about an overeager new intern or a behind-the-scenes look at coaches pranking their players are kind of cute but ultimately kind of desperate. Regardless, everything paled in comparison to the high art commissioned by the genius behind the Chargers’ social media team: a manic two-minute anime masterpiece with clever (and often savage) jokes about each of the upcoming opponents, including more than a few at the expense of Seattle (and our recently-departed Russell Wilson). I’ve watched this thing at least ten times and found something new and hilarious every time; so much so that I’ve jokingly threatened to bring my fandom to LA’s lesser loved team when the Seahawks inevitably fall apart this season. If the Academy can’t find a way to make it eligible for Best Animated Short it’s a failure of imagination. — JB
“The Chargers 2022 Schedule, But It’s Anime” is available on YouTube