My favourite part of the year (alongside the New Year break) is collating the many hundreds of hours I’ve spent in front of a screen to entertain myself. If I have a carefully curated list to produce at the end of it, it somehow makes my year feel more cohesive in retrospect. Here is my final list; films.
If you missed it you can go back and read my list of top 10 and most anticipated video games and TV shows.
10. Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry
I wasn’t even a Billie Eilish fan before watching this but now that I’ve listened to her album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? I’m a stan. The World’s A Little Blurry is a fly on the wall documentary as 17-year-old Billie enters the early days of fame, recording the above album in her parents’ home with her brother Finneas and going on tour. It captures an intimate and unguarded view of her creative process and how the newfound fame is affecting her.
9. Coming Home In The Dark
It puts the dark in its title so know that going in. I thought I was prepared but not having read the short story this is based on I really didn’t expect the places this film decided to go. The performances are grounded and strong, especially Miriama McDowell who I’ve enjoyed on the short-lived Head High. If you also want to experience one night in hell and have to look over your shoulder next time you’re in rural countryside, this is the film for you.
8. Nine Days
The job interview of all interviews, for your place on Earth. There’s a sci-fi mystical premise here but it all boils down to our selection of candidates being tested for their newly discovered personalities. Winston Duke gives a powerful performance as the buttoned-up interviewer in contrast to the curious Zazie Beetz.
7. The Power of the Dog
Jane Campion’s great American Western, filmed in Otago of all places. I always love power-couple, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, but our main characters here are played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Kodi Smit-McPhee to great effect, taking on Campion’s exploration of masculinity in the adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel.
6. Cousins
I’ll admit, I was a little taken out by the brief scenes on Cuba Street (too close to home!) but the rest of the film is a powerful tale, bouncing between timelines, as Mata grows up separately from her two cousins, and longs for the brief time they all had together. Aotearoa New Zealand had many instances of Māori adoption into Pākehā households, separating children from their familial ties (we currently have an inquiry into abuse in care).
5. Pig
Nic Cage is John Wick… if John Wick (contract killer) was a pacifist in Portland. A once renowned chef, now a hermit in the woods, his beloved truffle pig goes missing and he is of sole mind and soul purpose, to get his pig back. What follows is a sly takedown of the modern restaurant industry, which has strayed from the true joy of food.
4. Minari
Steven Yeun is a young father who moves his immigrant family to Arkansas to chase the American dream. It’s not as easy as he makes it out to his wife. Youn Yuh-jung is fantastic as the grandmother, and just as fantastic as herself when she gave an incredible speech at the Oscars last year.
3. Another Round
Mads Mikkelsen stars in this Danish black comedy about a group of school teachers who one day decide they like themselves better when they’re intoxicated. So they start experimenting with alcohol micro-dosing. It’s an interesting thought experiment that the film has fun with, but at its core, Another Round is about emotional connections and learning to deal with middle age.
2. Sound of Metal
Riz Ahmed plays a drummer in a metal band who loses his hearing. The film intimately follows his journey as he learns how to deal with his new condition and ongoing drug addiction. It’s not all doom and gloom as he finds family in a rehab for deaf individuals but pushing up against that he also has a strong mind to get back to how things were. The sound design is intense in the beginning, replicating what our drummer is experiencing as he begins to lose his hearing.
1. Quo vadis, Aida? (Where are you going, Aida?)
A heartbreaking dramatization of the Srebrenica genocide in 1995 during the Bosnian War. Jasna Đuričić is the titular Aida, a fictional translator volunteering for a UN camp. The film follows Aida and her sometimes competing objectives due to the need for her translation services but also wanting to secure her own family’s safety. If Coming Home In The Dark wasn’t enough anxiety and dread, here comes along Quo vadis, Aida? This is a film I can’t stop thinking about.
Honourable Mentions
Last Night in Soho, Limbo, Drive My Car, Flee, The Justice of Bunny King, High Tide Don’t Hide, Children, Sabaya, Bo Burnham: Inside, Promising Young Woman, Tick, Tick… Boom!
Asides
Because of weird New Zealand screening dates some of mine might technically be 2020 films but for the purposes of this list, that’s when I was able to see them here. And the same will happen again this year. We will always be a year behind. Although it does sting to see top 10 lists from American film critics featuring films that haven’t even screened here yet, I suppose it does make it interesting for us, in having a different set of movies to compare and contrast.
As someone squeamish to body horror I couldn’t stomach seeing the Palme d'Or winning Titane.
There were a few on my watchlist I didn’t get around to seeing; The Green Knight, The Lost Daughter, West Side Story, The French Dispatch or The Last Duel. Annoyingly, I had tickets to see Dune but missed out due to waiting for the results of a COVID test. It just won’t be the same on a small screen.
Most anticipated of 2022
Nope
Jordan Peele. Enough said. Sketch comedy translates really well to horror, apparently. I love the combination of big sci-fi ideas and black comedy. While not talked about in the same ways as, Get Out, I actually really liked his last film, Us. But this poster is all we have to go off for now. Sentient clouds, you read it here first.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nicholas Cage as Nicholas Cage, baby. This looks like it could be a lot of fun as we get to see the many modes of Nic Cage. A Nicholas Cage movie made my top ten! Hoping the meta-ness of it all doesn’t drag it down.
Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness/Thor: Love and Thunder/Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Again, lumping these Marvel properties together. Marvel is doing a better job of letting directors have more of a distinct take on these films, but at the end of the day, they are hamstrung by needing to tie into each other and teasing the next thing. Bringing Sam Raimi back to Marvel, Ryan Coogler returning and of course Taika Waititi. Black Panther of course will not be the same without Chadwick Boseman and I’m curious to see how they deal with that.
The Worst Person In The World
This Norwegian romance has won a number of awards and has been talked about in critic circles. I don’t know much about it except for a sequence where time stops in the middle of a busy town. Film distributor, Neon, picked up this one. Like A24 they have a good track record for picking interesting films.
Knives Out 2
Putting down the Bond gadgets and once again donning glasses and a coat, Daniel Craig returns as Southern gentleman detective for two more films with Netflix. Rian Johnson is one of my favourite directors. One could be sceptical of turning what was a fun one-off film into a franchise, but the premise is well suited to bringing a whole new cast of stars into a murder mystery.
Scream (2022)
“What’s your favourite scary movie?” Scream was one of the earlier self-referential horror comedies. Nowadays they’re a dime a dozen. But this series has always been entertaining for me and one of the rare horror series where the continuity has remained and not spun off in a million directions.
The Batman
Fool me once with Batman V Superman. Fool me twice… But I’m a big fan of Robert Pattinson these days. Director Matt Reeves’ last two films were part of the Planet of the Apes trilogy, which were interesting blockbusters all said and done. The angsty look of the film could go one of two ways for me but I am curious.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Starring the legendary Michelle Yeoh. From Daniels, creators of Swiss Army Man, this film looks insane, dealing with a multiverse, but without the comic book characters.
John Wick: Chapter 4
I’m thinking he’s back. Chapter 3 was a mostly fun ride and I love how actors from the Matrix keep filtering in, like Laurence Fishburne. While Matrix Resurrections did not live up to the stylised action of its predecessors (admittedly it was going for something different), John Wick is first and foremost, guns-blazing action.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse Part One
I adored Into The Spider-Verse. The art style, the characters. So much fun. I’m a little bummed they’re stretching the sequel out into two parts. But more Spider-verse right?
The Northman
From Robert Eggers, director of The Witch and The Lighthouse. I wonder if these films are connected? Eggerverse anyone? These films are dark and strange. This one has Alexander Skarsgård as a Viking and an all-around great cast.
Morbidly curious
Uncharted - The casting is weird. The trailers look bad. It’s some incoherent amalgamation of all the cool moments from the video games. I loved the games, but from what I’ve seen this looks like another terrible video game adaptation.
Super Mario Brothers - starring Chris Pratt as Mario. I don’t know if the Internet will ever get over that announcement. This is from the Minions people so I’m sure it will sell gangbusters.
Lightyear - I grew up on Toy Story. Now CG animation is commonplace and running out of ideas, apparently? I actually liked some of the Buzz Lightyear animated series but this seems to be stripping everything away that made Toy Story great.
The Flash - When your trailer is selling Batman over who the movie is actually named after. This multiverse stuff is interesting but only worthwhile if they can make it emotionally engaging, and not just ride on the nostalgia. I mean, it is Michael Keaton but then again, DC’s track record of late...
Avatar 2 - Will James Cameron actually release these FOUR sequels? They’ve been doing something in New Zealand, apparently…
Prey - Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, director of a movie I loved; 10 Cloverfield Lane. But this is a Predator prequel, a franchise I’ve never been overly invested in and it’s going straight to Star on Disney+.
Halloween Ends - The first Halloween reboot was good. I still haven’t seen the follow-up. It did not review well. I may get around to it before this one screens.
Ambulance - So yes, it’s a Michael Bay action flick. He hasn’t done anything worthwhile since he started doing Transformers movies. But the trailer looks sick and they’ve apparently got some new camera tech.