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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 thought kedavis was referring to the Netflix series Wednesday. I don’t know if she’s supposed to be an adult in the show, but the star Jenna Ortega is 20.
Yes, but how do you really measure the value a particular show/episode/movie provides? If it is just subscription and hours watched (which isn’t necessarily bad), is that enough? In an ad supported model, you would also value the demographic you attract. So perhaps small demographic shows would attract advertisers who want to reach that demographic. That uncovers value.
And we have seen that a free vs. premium model works where you can opt out of ads by buying a subscription.
I don’t think anyone has figured out how to make streaming profitable. It seemed obvious until Netflix lost its monopoly.
I do enjoy some some of the free ad-based streaming services like Tubi, but some stuff shouldn’t be seen with ad interruptions.
I’ve only seen the youtube shorts, which are called Adult Wednesday Addams, like I referred to, not just Wednesday. Sorry about any confusion.
“The Munsters” TV show tried, and failed, to occupy the same niche as “The Addams Family.” This is one of those situations where “faithful to the original” is not going to overcome the weakness of said original. I heard about it when it was coming out and yawned. I’d rather watch Gomez play with his train set.
… and Carolyn Jones kicked Yvonne De Carlo’s butt.
I heard the difference was that the Addamses were blissfully unaware of how offputting and strange their behavior was, while the Munsters were a regular family who was assumed to be offputting and strange based on their appearance. I’ve only ever seen clips here and there outside of the two Addams Family movies from the 90s which I have seen in full.
I did watch a video about Fred Gwynne that turned out to be far more fascinating than I could have imagined. A tragic but good life. Could make a great biopic.
No disagreement here.
Sony Pictures ad supported service only lost money, so, as long as the big guys pump out premium content without ads for the monthly fee, you are correct.
Natasha, you spoke French!
I guess the question is how long can the big guys pump out premium content without ads for the monthly fee. From everything I read (which, to be fair, isn’t that much), they’re bleeding money. I don’t think we’ll ever return to the pre-streaming days, but I don’t think the current models will last either.
There are a bunch of Addams Family episodes on YT, maybe all of them but I’m not sure. They’re put up by MGM or something so totally legit.
No no. Adult Wednesday, is Wednesday as a young woman, finding her way in the world. I think as concept MGM should’ve hired her, paid her a boatload of cash – put a known comic actress in the roll (Like Audra Plaza for example) and a hit sitcom…
You are correct. The biggest issue is the economic model for production. It is still carrying a 30-50% premium for Covid protocols and there is no way to measure the revenue the production brings in
This cannot continue. Except for the vanity productions like The Crown ($12mm per episode) and Rings of Power ($60mm per episode), production budgets are going to be under tremendous pressure.
Good news on Rings of Power: next season they are going to an all-female lineup of directors! Stunning and brave!
It would be stunninger and braver if it was a lineup of trans-woman directors.
They’re probably saving that for next season.
Caught “Nope” today, and really liked it. I thought it was novel, entertaining, and I didn’t want to pause it to take a break. Usually a good indicator.
Interesting trailer.
The Late Shift, Roebuck as Jay Leno was excellent.
Wow, I didn’t even know that existed.
His name is Jon Cryer. I remembered after seeing someone retweet this:
This is good examination of the thriller has been evolving from the early days of Hollywood, through the Hays Code to the 90s revival of the fem fatale.
This was a well produced video. One could do pretty much the same thing by substituting bisexuals with immigrants or combat veterans or incels.
I am not sure you could… Not as many examples – particularly from pre-Nixon Hollywood.
I think the premise of these examples being psychological character studies of the psychopath is interesting … I heard an acting coach describing playing a psychopath as being less performance – not to add to the performance but to subtract… I wonder if the bisexual psychopath, isn’t just a trope. Sex, intimacy are on Maslow’s pyramid, I wonder if they’re just manipulating someone into sex – and who doesnt particularly matter – as long as they get the job done, and the physical needs are met. Its not that Villanelle (killing eve) is into pretty girls (or boys) but that she can manipulate them into servicing her needs of the moment.
This also brings us to Dylan Mulvaney:
Micheal Knowles has a pretty interesting theory on the rapid rise of the Transvestite super star…
An interesting take on Bound, which I need to revisit. I can’t decide if Broey Deschanel is a clever name, or a stupid one.
At first I thought you posted a video about John Mulaney.
That video also taught me the word “concupiscence”. Let’s see if I can remember it.
After giving her Wikitubia page (yea thats a thing) a look, I’ll lean on stupid.
The 2 points that bring me to that judgement:
Mostly the second one..
Zooey Deschanel is/was a Disney star?
Obviously it’s a reference to Zooey Deschanel. I’m just not sure if “Broey” is a clever pun. I’d be more on board if she had unashamed “filmbro” tastes.
According to Wikipedia her first role was in the Lawrence Kasdan film Mumford, then she appeared in Almost Famous, so I’m going to say no.
I know her as the love interest in 500 Days of Summer, and the girl in Elf where her hair was blonde (yuck). I’m also aware she was in that New Girl sitcom I never watched, and she has a music career that doesn’t interest me.
Oh, and she’s the hotter sister of the lady from Bones.