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2022 Movie Catch-Up
Christmas is over, and the year is winding down. That means it’s time for annual movie lists. Since I’m not paid to watch movies I haven’t seen enough to justify a top ten, but I did catch quite a few that I didn’t cover in a post. Here are my thoughts.
Nope
Jordan Peele’s latest, a flick about a brother and sister tracking a UFO over their ranch, is his least politically volatile film. It isn’t about race like Get Out or class like Us, and instead takes on media spectacle and exploitation. Reminded me of Jaws in being a crowdpleasing creature feature that in its third act turns from horror to action. Surprisingly for someone of Peele’s pedigree, this is the first time in his films that the comedy was natural and effective. Not the best film of 2022, but it had the best sequence. The only film I’ve seen in theaters twice in its initial run (I attended Castle in the Sky two separate years).
Barbarian
While it doesn’t rise to the heights its fans promised, Barbarian is a twisting and twisted chiller. A woman (Georgina Campbell) arrives at an Airbnb to discover it was double-booked and a man (Bill Skarsgård) is already staying there. Left turns abound; best to go in unawares. A smart but not self-satisfied film. Unfortunately the ending misses the mark, relying on a huge improbability. A candy-colored sequence set in the 80s makes great use of wide angle lenses and long takes.
The Munsters
Rob Zombie is a die-hard Munsters fan. His biggest hit, “Dragula”, was named after the drag strip car built by Grandpa Munster. He’s proof that enthusiasm for the material does not a good movie make. As someone who’s seen about four minutes total of the sitcom, I can confirm this is dreadful irrespective of its faithfulness to the original. I don’t begrudge Rob for loving his wife, but Sheri Moon is stilted to the extreme as Lily. Jeff Daniel Philips is slightly more tolerable as Herman. Only Daniel Roebuck as Grandpa comes out looking good. The movie is visually assaulting, except for Herman’s resurrection which takes advantage of the cheap sets and saturated colors. Too inane for adults, too corny and obscure for kids (Sonny and Cher were before my time; what kid these days will recognize the reference?). There’s a single amusing joke. One. The worst film of 2022.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Yankovic goes from parodying popular songs to parodying music biopics. Like his songs, the movie is good-natured and sporadically funny. Gets huge laughs early on, but only manages the odd chuckle for most of the runtime. Daniel Radcliffe was properly miscast as Al. If you’re a Weird Al fanatic, you’ve already seen it. I’ll stick to UHF.
Emily the Criminal
Aubrey Plaza produces this vehicle in which her talents are wasted. She plays Emily, stuck in a nowhere job, and $70,000 in student debt even though she never finished school because of a felony assault charge. She finds a lucrative alternative in a credit card fraud ring. Between her student debt, her boss not letting employees unionize, her criminal record preventing her from getting new work, and a dream job turning out to be an unpaid internship, the social commentary is obvious. Emily just comes across selfish. Instead of getting in over her head and sinking deeper and deeper, as in say Fargo, her life of crime leads to brief obstacles she overcomes with a little spunk. Her romance with a leader of the crime ring (Theo Rossi) is hollow. So you know it’s indie it’s shot mostly in uncomfortable close-ups, and set to a sub-ambient score. Wishes it were Parasite.
Pinocchio
In a lineup of the four Pinocchio movies that came out this year, it’d be easy to pick out Guillermo del Toro’s based on its bent art style. As usual with the director, the film offers lavish visuals designed with beauty and grotesquerie in harmony. Setting it during Italy’s Fascist years, with a mocking cameo from Il Duce, cements it as part of the del Toro oeuvre (though I suspect co-director Mark Gustafson handled most of the day-to-day filming). The movie is saddled with poor music. I hate when cartoons break into song at the best of times; here the songs are lifeless. The movie is too long too. On the whole, worth seeing, barely. Nice to see stop motion still being made.
That’s it for 2022. Not a terrible year for film. I caught more new releases than usual, though still missed some that looked intriguing like Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, X, Pearl, Wendell & Wild, Decision to Leave, and The House. They’ll still be there in 2023.
Reminder that I did full reviews for Jackass: Forever, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Northman, The Bad Guys, Hellraiser, Crimes of the Future, and A Christmas Story Christmas. Ranking movies is great for baiting clicks, but not for discussing film. I am comfortable calling Crimes of the Future the best of the (new) releases I watched this year. What were your favorites? Your disappointments? What are you looking forward to next year?
Published in Entertainment
I first saw Mr. Roebuck in the movie Dudes, a strange punk western road movie from director Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization, Wayne’s World). Also stars the guy from Two and a Half Men who isn’t Charlie Sheen, as well as Flea from the Chili Peppers and Lee Ving, the singer of Fear and Mr. Body in Clue. I bet Zombie has seen Dudes, too.
In addition to the glut of Pinocchio films, we can look forward to The Lies of P, a game that takes the story into a Bloodborne-esque steampunk world.
In the next few days I’ll try to publish a second post going over some of the other media that released this year (TV shows, video games, etc.).
Glad to read about some interesting Indie production. My brother, who is in that business, says that feature production is dead because of the lack of theatrical revenue for small titles caused by Covid. He has been doing well doing documentaries.
Trailer for a recent release: https://vimeo.com/783129454/4e5ec46dbb
COVID had to have been hell for that part of the business. I’d say streaming has been too, except it seems Netflix, etc. have been greenlighting all kinds of small projects. I don’t know how long that will last, but I appreciate the risk-taking.
Glad he can still make money. That reminds me that I haven’t seen any new docs this year.
Ive wanted a Female Walter White. Someone who’d break the Bonnie & Clyde mold of the feminine criminal, she broke bad, because she fell for the bad man – who led her astray. Which is nonsense. Women can be criminals for all the same reasons a man can, greed, ego, revenge – or just bloody mindedness. Its the one aspect of Emily that I liked, her criminality wasn’t pawned off on some dude she once dated. She did it, and now she was living with it.
The movie could have been a lot better – and maybe even without a larger budget… The script could have used a second draft. I kinda got the uncomfortable close ups, as being in her space, as if living inches from a characters face would help you empathize – when a lot of the empathy was left out of the script.
What would be the quintessential Aubrey Plaza performance? I’ve most seen her playing the socially awkward serial killer in talk show clips…I thought she’d be perfect to play an adult Wednesday Addams, a sitcom were she strikes out on her own – determined to make it in the big city without daddy’s money. The deeply weird poor little rich girl. But thats not likely to happen. – ever.
I was surprised by how much Pinocchio made me laugh. Agree the songs are forgettable.
I liked Emily the Criminal a bit better than you, I think, but only for the fun of watching Plaza.
Nope was worth watching, but not as good as Us or, especially, Get Out.
I also enjoyed the twists and tone changes in Barbarian. Loved how they used Justin Long.
I’ll get to Weird eventually, but think I’ll do without The Munsters (not a Rob Zombie fan.)
Thanks!
Back in 2012 there was a Munster Reboot attempt called “Mockingbird Lane” Only the pilot was ever made … It was an amazing show – I wish that program had taken off..
The special effects budget for this, must have been massive:
The cinematography wasn’t bad per se–it makes for a cramped, uneasy feeling. It’s so prevalent it draws attention to itself. Along with everything else it seemed insistent on showing it was an indie crime thriller. If the rest of the movie worked for me, I’d have no issues with the way it was shot.
April Ludgate from Parks and Recreaction. Boring, uncultured choice, but she inhabited the role so well many people, including me, assumed she was just playing herself. It’s been nice seeing that she has greater range and can channel her unique energy into different characters, but I haven’t been a fan of any of the movies I’ve seen her in (Life After Beth, Ingrid Goes West, Happiest Season, and especially not Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), but she’s always good.
She has a nude scene in The Little Hours so will have to check that out.
I only found it amusing. It made me smile not laugh.
I don’t think Nope was as good as Get Out even if I thought it was slightly more consistent. Us was tonally haphazard, and couldn’t have a serious moment without undercutting it with a one-liner. I mostly liked spotting a Black Flag My War shirt in the opening scene.
You’re missing nothing. Even Rob Zombie fans won’t enjoy The Munsters. His only essential film, to my mind, is The Devil’s Rejects, though Lords of Salem was a nice 6/10 movie.
Calling it Mockingbird Lane probably didn’t help its prospects. I know The Munsters is kind of a goofy name, but it’s recognizable. You’re not the first to recommend this to me.
One would’ve expected Zombie’s take to be tonally more like this. I respect his attempt to do something family-friendly (Eli Roth reportedly pulled it off with The House With a Clock in Its Walls), but it’s clearly outside his abilities. Even looking past budget constraints and having to shoot during COVID lockdowns, it’s plain bad.
Lords of Salem did provide fodder for Movie Churches.
It is interesting how in so many movies about witch trials the witches turn out to be real. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is the movie I like the best of those three. Okay, I haven’t seen The Witches of Eastwick, but I stand by my statement.
They all sound dreadful. “Indie” is capable of so much more – how have we descended to this crap? Are there no thoughtful adults left in the room?
Nope was indeed a good film. I agree, just watch the first half of Weird Al. Guns Akimbo was a good Radcliffe movie.
There’s already Adult Wednesday Addams stuff that seems pretty well cast.
Yes, there was a YouTube show written by a comedian. However she got a cease and desist order from MGM on copyright grounds. I dont know why the episodes havent been struck down.
I suspect there were legal issues around the name. Like why the Firefly movie ended up being called Serenity.
It was heavily promoted by the network as a Munster’s reboot, and had many of the actors out on press junkets to promote the show. I think that executives realized that this was going to be a high budget show, and it needed to perform at the top of their expectation range to break even.
I remember the Guns Akimbo director was embroiled in an inscrutable controversy, one of those ones about social media posts not sexual misconduct. If it is a good movie that especially sucks that it got eclipsed by tabloid bs.
Someone on Twitter was arguing that Luis Guzmán is just as suave and sexy as Raul Julia. Sorry, but no.
Goes to show how hard it is to predict success. Who would’ve thought this would bomb, but a dark take on Archie would take off?
Actually I’ve only seen the parts involving Adult Wednesday, and thought that role was well cast.
I’ve not been interested enough to pay attention. She looks the part.
Its the different model. NBC is advertiser supported – having a darker, more violent murderous family, played for dark comedy might be a tough sell to a lot advertisers, but Netflix being subscriber supported can venture into uncharted waters and take more aggressive program risks.
And they can’t really measure incremental revenue by show. They only know how much it was watched.
Now that I think about it, they also know who is watching so in an ad-supported model this could be a gold mine. And could measure the performance of shows.
The ‘episodes’ are more like brief skits. Only a few minutes long.:
Doesn’t Riverdale air on the CW before arriving on Netflix?
But I stream to avoid ads.