My 22 Favorite Movie Watches of 2022

     2022 was another bizarre year with a lot of bad news but I did watch nearly 300 films and short films.  I wanted to write a bit about my favorite new (to me) watches. It was a tough choice because I watched so many films that were fun, beautiful, affecting, and exciting. I tried to pick things that surprised me and which I kept thinking about.

    I'm notoriously bad at watching new movies the year they actually release- especially since I don't go to theaters much anymore, so a lot of these will be older films. Like last year, I will also be including 10 of the films at the end that were total stinkers, but truth be told, I didn't watch a ton of films that I outright hated.

  

Cabaret scene from Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet
 

 

  In no particular order, here are the hits!

1) On the Silver Globe (1988)

Many folks have only seen Zulawski's Possession (an incredible film) but it's been nice seeing a little more love for On the Silver Globe, which is one of the most breath-taking and epic in the classic sense science fiction films I've ever seen. The costumes, styling, settings are all very unique and interesting- far more imaginative and "sci-fi" than most American cinematic conceptions of the themes.

There's such an otherwordly sense to all of it, it spans generations as marooned astronauts populate an alien world and new astronauts arrive to find their records, all recorded on camera. The film is very concerned with media and viewing and employs some shockingly contemporary-feeling handheld camera footage of the astronauts' video diaries. The newly arrived astronaut goes to live among the alien culture and finds himself embroiled in the war against strange bird-like creatures called The Shern. 

The whole experience of the film is quite impressionistic and surreal, in part that's due to the scale of it, but also due to the fact that the production was so heavily censored. About 1/5 original footage is missing- the chosen method of filling in the missing scenes narration on top of footage of cityscapes and other mundane settings. You'd think something like that would hinder the experience but it doesn't, it's beautiful. This film only exists because the crew helped save and hide the materials and reels themselves.

2) Cat People (1982) 

    I'd never seen it in full before, a really gorgeous and stylish remake of the 40s film. It's perhaps overwrought, but in a way that is exactly my bullshit. It's a movie about people who turn into black panthers when they make love. Only killing in cat form can turn them back into people.

    A woman re-unites with her lost brother, finding that his intentions towards her are less than pure. At the same time, a dangerous black panther ends up on the loose and then is placed into the local zoo, where the main character meets and falls in love with the zookeeper in charge. As she learns about her brother's curse, she worries that she herself might be resigned to the same fate.

    It's also set in New Orleans, which is the perfect kind of environment for an ancient curse and a giant panther to be stalking around in. It's a stunning and sexy film with a great soundtrack too. Some very cool practical effects as well.

3) Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet (1978)

     A total delight- whimsical, weird, and extremely creative. American detective Nick Carter travels to Prague to solve the mystery of a strange disappearance and discovers that an old nemesis, The Gardner, is behind it all. It's a wild blend of Hercule Poirot, James Bond, and The Abominable Dr Phibes and also includes wild gadgets and a man-eating plant animated by stop motion master Jan Svankmajer. 

    It's kind of steampunk in the era of Sherlock Holmes and has the language of all the best silent movie era slapstick. Words don't really do justice to what a fun and charming film this is. Also, when I say steampunk I mean in the older sense- Jules Verne and HG Wells type conceptions of tech- before all this became such a "random gears stuck onto things" reddit concept.

4) Crimes of the Future (2022)

    Cronenberg body horror is back baby, it's good again *wolf howl*

   I got to see this in theaters with friends, so that alone already makes the experience special, but Crimes of the Future is also a wonderful triumphant return to body horror for Cronenberg. When you compare it to older films like Videodrome or Existenz, there's a lot of connecting elements and themes, but you definitely get the sense that it's much more meditative and introspective. 

    With Crimes of the Future, you get less of a resolved story and more a world that you become immersed in- one where people's bodies are changing in response to technology, and surgery takes on a role that is both sexually charged and a means of controlling these changes. Pain and infection have disappeared mysteriously. Viggo Mortensen plays a performance artist who makes his surgeries to remove new mystery organs the center of his artistic practice. There's also the case of a boy who was murdered for his own mutations, and people who eat plastic.

    What's also refreshing is that Cronenberg has been open to (and positive about) feminist and queer reads on the film, which has a lot of themes that echo both reproductive rights as well as the gender affirming procedures for trans people. It's a film where bodily autonomy is such a big component. I know the director hasn't always been very interested in these kinds of reads- though I also think second wave feminism and its nutty anti-sex and anti-porn sensibilities probably didn't help. It's nice to see a film and get the sense that a person has learned and grown.

5) Backroads aka Bearwalker (2000)

    A surprising indie film with a supernatural element on top of a story that's all about family and the violence that Indigenous women face. Four sisters pull together when one of them kills her abusive husband- something that is attributed to the Bearwalker, a malevolent shapeshifter that can possess people. The supernatural aspect is more of a backdrop to the other issues facing the women on the Cree reservation though- police brutality, the violence of incarceration, poverty, sexual abuse. It's a really *real* story. Heavy but smart.

    What really makes the film is how believable the sisters are together. There's a great sense of their relationship, their difficulties and their bond as they try to protect each other.

6) To Be or Not to Be (1942)

    A really beautiful old comedy about a theater troupe taking on the role of resistance members and spies during the Nazi occupation of Poland. A Polish GI becomes romantically involved with a married actress and unwittingly leads her into the hands of a German spy, who tries to get her to work for the Nazis. The actress and her husband end up being spies for the resistance, with some actors pretending to be Nazi officials themselves (thanks in part to a play they were working on that was about Hitler).

    It's a concept that could have totally flopped but it works. It's marvelously funny, charming, and yet you feel what's at stake. It's also a great send-up of the buffoonery of the Nazi party- the officials being the exact right combination of wormy and utterly vain.

    This also happens to be an old favorite of my dad's from film school. He watched it with me.

7) Martin (1976)

    It's a shame it took me this long to watch Martin, since George Romero is a director who has made some of my absolute favorite films of all time. It's so neat to see him handle both the concept of the vampire and the serial killer and create a story that's so shocking and new.

    Martin kills women and drinks their blood. He's also a rapist. His superstitious and deeply religious uncle believes he's an actual vampire and it's due to a family curse. Martin insists that's not real, there's no curse, yet he pictures himself as a vampire- complete with these dreamy black and white sequences that emulate old vampire films. How "real" it is is up to the viewer.

    As gruesome and loathsome as his murders are, there is a kind of pathos and likeability to Martin which makes the whole thing feel so much more complex. It's uncomfortable and I like it. Ultimately, the story is quite tragic, especially as Martin tries to be more "human" and develops a romantic relationship with a lonely older woman.

8) Someone's Watching Me (1978)

    An early John Carpenter thriller and also a tv movie, but it proves that tv movies can be really exciting and cool. It's also just so neat to see the early work of a man whose movies I adore and to see the building blocks that'd culminate into some of the coolest films of all time.

    A woman moves into a new apartment and starts getting phonecalls and packages from a mysterious man who becomes increasingly more menacing. Tense, engaging, and at times genuinely scary. It also shows that Carpenter is more than capable of writing compelling female characters- the lead girl is plucky and likeable, and seeing her stand up to her stalker is great. She's realistic but she's not a fainting damsel.

9) Runaway Train (1985)

   Everything you could want in an action movie about a runaway train, but also more than you'd expect from one- thank Kurosawa for that. At times quite existential and philosophical, it questions machismo and heroics while also being an exciting prison break and disaster story. Great cinematography and a killer soundtrack too, as well as compelling performances from its leads.

10) The 4th Man (1983)

   This is a really cool erotic thriller from Paul Verhoeven when he was still working in the Netherlands. I'd also seen Benedetta this year and was tempted to also put it on the list, but I had to pick one (I didn't just want to fill the list up with a singular director's work). This one is just loaded with a lot of fantastic imagery and has a surreal and supernatural bent to it. It's also the prototype for Basic Instinct and it's so interesting to see how his idea developed and changed for Hollywood.

    An alcoholic and very Catholic gay author finds himself in a casual relationship with a mysterious woman he meets at a reading. He finds out she had 3 previous husbands, all who died under strange circumstances. He also finds out that she has a boyfriend, and he becomes erotically fixated on the man and aims to seduce him. However, he also starts to suspect that she killed her previous husbands and that she's looking for a 4th victim.

    Stylish and cool. It's neat that Verhoeven doesn't shy away from depicting male homosexual desire too. He's very equal opportunity with eroticism and knows how to make things sexy. It's rare to see a bisexual dynamic in a film where it's two men involved with each other.

11) Edge of the Knife (2018)

    One of my favorite Indigenous films, starring and directed by Native folks. It's a take on the idea of possession, but here it's an response to grief, guilt and trauma. A man is careless with a young relative and the child drowns when they go fishing. In response to this, he becomes mad and turns into a Wild Man, disfigured and disconnected from his humanity and his community. His family tries to bring him back into their fold and help him become a person again. It's a very beautiful and touching story about community, forgiveness and family. It's also an intimate portrait of the daily lives and customs of the Haida in a particular time period, very lovely.

12) Clearcut (1991)

    A white lawyer representing a Native reservation against a paper mill is kidnapped and forced into a plot to kidnap and murder the mill owner by an unhinged Native man. It's a revenge story with a supernatural element and some truly fantastic acting from Graham Greene as the antagonist/anti-hero of the story. He hits the mark as both scary and super compelling.

    There's a lot of nuance to the story, and it asks what would you do when the "proper channels" don't get the fair results. How far is too far?

 I like stories that explore indigenous issues and this is one hell of a relevant topic.

13) Deadstream (2022)

   This is a silly one and not a typical choice for me (you know I'm so picky about horror comedy and I hate 99% of the newer ones) but I was so pleasantly surprised by Deadstream. With the premise of "a twitch streamer livestreams inside a haunted house" it could have so easily been awful and really annoying, but this was such a pitch perfect parody and embodiment of this niche (yet pervasive!) bit of culture. Actually funny, paced pretty well, and I loved seeing the real-time audience reactions of the stream chat- which was again, pitch perfect.

    Charming practical effects with fake-looking (but really fun!) ghosts and ghouls.

14) The Mafu Cage (1978)

   A very different and subversive film that explores the incestuous codependent relationship between two sisters, one of whom is stuck in a child-like state and tortures apes and monkeys which she calls her "mafus". Explores the connections between colonialism and anthropology, as well as being an interesting portrait of familial abuse and trauma. This film was also the first one of Annie Rose's curated streams for Girls Guts Giallo that I was able to attend, so it's quite special to me.

15) The Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

  This one snuck in at the end of the year, picked randomly from the Criterion Channel to watch with my mother, who is recovering from a cancer-related mastectomy. Based on a book, this film is about Ricky, a Maori boy going to his "last chance" foster home (with the alternative being juvie) and finding the love and care he needs from his foster Auntie Bella. However, when Bella dies suddenly and unexpectedly, the state decides that her husband Hector is not suitable to parent on his own, and they intend to take Ricky away. The boy runs off into the New Zealand bush, but Hec, an experienced bushman, follows the boy with the intent of returning him. But through a series of accidents, the two end up stranded in the woods together and on the run from the law. What starts as a mistake becomes a commitment to staying together as the two bond and come to care deeply for one another. 

    Very often the foster system fails and outright condemns indigenous children, so it's quite a meaningful story to tell, especially in the way it demonstrates that "problem" kids so often just need stability, love and understanding. It also illustrates both the carceral nature of the system as well as the way it can just as easily break apart families that *do* work together.

    It's a very funny and bittersweet tale and I love the way it's shot and acted too. I'm a big fan of Sam Niell as is, and he's great playing a grizzled old curmudgeon with a tender heart.

16) Singapore Sling

    A totally wild and perverted romp with film noir trappings. As a man investigates the employers of an old flame who went missing, he witnesses them burying a body. The man is then captured by the insane mother and daughter duo, who subject him to a variety of strange tortures and sex games. It's both incredibly beautiful and off-putting in ways I adore. If you're sensitive to puke, maybe skip it, but otherwise check it out if you want to see something completely different.

    Lovely costumes and set decor bring a sense of opulence and aristocratic decay to a film that is as much Georges Bataille as it is The Fall of the House of Usher.

17) Ferat Vampire (1982)

    A smart thriller all about a vampiric race car that sucks the life from its drivers and a doctor who is trying to save the girl he loves from that same fate. There's also the evil corporation behind the car, with the vampy lesbian CEO at the helm (for all you queer villain lovers out there!)

     If you're expecting a monster car on the level of something like Christine, that's a bit too literal, here it's an ambiguous situation- whether it's weird tech or supernatural, the message is about the way capitalism and consumer culture eats people up, as well as the way media informs our desires. The film is also very critical about the entire culture around cars, showing the utter disregard that drivers have for other people in a couple absolutely terrifying scenes.

    It's a very sexy and fun film with some dry humor to it as well. It also features some amazing paintings and some costume design by Theodor Pistek, a former racecar driver himself, who also designed the titular vampiric car.

18) The Light on the Hill (2016)

    An amazing thriller from Peru. When a shepherd dies mysteriously in the hill, two young coroners uncover a secret that could make them both extremely rich- but the consequences are deadly. They've also run afoul of a troubled policeman with a bad temper, as well as some gangsters that are trying to shake down the shepherd's widow. 

    This film deals a lot in the language of horror, but it's definitely more thriller/mystery. I enjoyed it a lot and was reminded, tone-wise, of the kind of desperation and grim tone of films like Sorcerer (1977) and Thief (1981).

19) Black Lizard (1968)

     A beautiful and stylish heist/spy film with queer icon Akihiro Miwa as a devilish jewel thief and femme fatale, being pursued by a detective who is trying to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a jeweler from her clutches. It's a great watch and very beautiful.

20) Mad God (2021)

    Phil Tippett's stop motion masterpiece, a beautiful and viscerally gross descent down into a mad world of horrors as an assassin with a doomed task follows in the footsteps of countless others. Surreal, meandering, creative and splendid. It's amazing what an elaborate and imaginative world unfolds for us in Mad God. I'm so glad that Tippett finally got to complete his vision.

21) A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

   Fun and fantastical wuxia that's also a tragic love story. A tax collector and a cursed ghost fall in love and he has to free her from the evil spirit that is holding her captive. He is helped by a Daoist swordsman who also does a goofy rap about Dao, it's incredible. Amazing effects and fight choreography, tight editing, great sense of humor. It's just an absolute joy and very beautiful. So rare that things actually make me laugh this much.

22) Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997)

    One of the most provocative and emotionally resonant and utterly devastating documentaries I've ever seen. It's so interesting to see this man's life (and his actual death) documented in so much detail as he and his partner navigate their S&M relationship and his degrading health, including the good moments and a lot of the bad. Cystic fibrosis is an awful disease and it's not often that we get frank discussions of the spaces where disability, chronic illness, and sex overlap. For Bob, being a submissive and choosing the pain he endured was a release of sorts from the pain in his daily life. It was also a part of a philosophy and artistic practice. It's a heavy watch but very meaningful.

    And here, also in no particular order- the stinkers

  1) Science Crazed

    I actually like this film, but it's incompetent to the point of becoming surreal. Admirably bad, but also genuinely tedious and difficult to sit through. It's complicated. You'd think a story that is basically about a mad scientist's monster running amok is pretty-straightforward and hard to fuck up, but this movie feels like an alien tried to replicate a film. Strange dialogue, shots of nothing, characters only lit in spotlights and seemingly not in the same room together when they speak, a monster dragging its foot down a hallway ad nauseum, an aerobics class of two and a pool party all inexplicably happening in this same unnamed building where the monster was created. Quite an experience.

2) She's the Man (2006)

     This film is all the worst tropes and indulgences of 00's "comedy" and I just don't vibe with that sort of thing. I appreciate the implicit transness and homoeroticism that comes with these types of Twelfth Night riffs, but this film just isn't funny and I couldn't suspend my disbelief for any of it.

3) The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance

    Utterly baffling giallo(?) murder mystery with the sensibilities of a bad community theater stage play. Apparently there's a version of it with porn scenes and I imagine that's more fun. 

4) The Retreat (2020)

   An attempt was made at conveying a "what really happened in the woods?" story where two best friends with some issues go hiking together. One ends up dead in the snow after the other is attacked by a strange monster while the two of them are on psychedelics. All is not quite as it seems, and it's a mystery of what's hallucination and what's real. I just wish it was actually interesting.

    This is also one of many films that borrows the idea of the Wendigo from Native Americans for its story about white guys.

5) Georges Bataille's The Story of the Eye (2004)

     An adaptation of Bataille's novella The Story of the Eye, supposedly. To consider it an adaption is very, very, very generous, because it neither addresses the themes or events of the story in any way beyond "there's sex". It's an experimental piece of pornography and it reminds me of art school in a bad way. And I think here the shocking and subversive element is supposed to be "it's pornography" (light bdsm, full penetration, and scenes with gay and lesbian pairs) but it's frankly tamer than Bataille's transgressive text. A shame really, there were some stylistic elements I liked but it really is a student film with all the pretentiousness included.

6) Apocalypto (2006)

    Mel Gibson's technically skillful but deeply paternalistic "noble savage" fantasy about the Mayans right before Spanish contact. It's a common theme for conservatives and far right nuts to indulge in this sort of thing and it fools liberals and less-versed leftists into thinking it's "inclusive" or not racist because it involves the perspective of a different ethnic group. Story-wise, it's also kind of a slog.

7) The Snarling (2018)

    Boring and unfunny horror comedy about a werewolf killing people on the set of a zombie movie. The premise sounds like it could be so fun and the movie is so dull. Everyone wants to be Shaun of the Dead without committing to any of the things that are actually fun about that film. You get about 30 seconds of werewolf at the ending too.

8) The Howling VII New Moon Rising (1995)

    The worst of the Howling sequels, which is saying a lot. Boring and mostly about drinking beer and country music. The werewolf shows up at the very end for a brief moment. Otherwise, you'd barely think there was a werewolf in this one.

9) Poison Ivy II: Lily (1996)

    An erotic thriller that is somehow neither erotic or thrilling. It's also weird because the first very excellent film is about a teen female sociopath destroying her friend's family and this one is about... a girl being "bad" because she's experimenting in college and gets in a love triangle between her jealous classmate and her creepy art professor (the actual villain).

10) Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (1999)

    This is a documentary which technically again, is pretty good, but my listing of it as a stinker is mainly due to the director's scummy and unethical conduct with the film's subject, Annabel Chong, an adult actress who became famous for being part of the "world's largest gangbang". Chong herself is smart, charming, funny and extremely likeable and the real draw of the documentary. It sucks that both this documentary and the world at large have treated her so poorly. The director was involved with her, altered the timeline of events, and generally caused Chong a fair amount of distress too. It's an interesting watch, but it's not something I'd call "good" with these factors in mind.