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.