THE SCREEN-SPACE BEST FILMS OF 2022

As I read through the final draft of this 2022 wrap-up, the year’s most anticipated film has just hit cinemas. Avatar: The Way of Water needs to land with a big splash, and not just for the Disney/Fox merger, who have billions riding on James Cameron’s eco-epic. The entire industry is desperate for a four-quadrant global hit.

Mid-budgeted horror has helped keep theatre doors open this year - Scream, Smile, Barbarian, Halloween Ends, The Black Phone, X and Pearl all performed to or above projections. But adult-skewing prestige pics underperformed (Don’t Worry Darling; The Fabelmans; Tar) or outright bombed (Bros; She Said; Amsterdam). Cash-cow properties stiffed (Pixar’s pricey Lightyear) or petered out (D.C.’s Black Adam; M.C.’s Black Panther Wakanda Forever); niche audiences grew increasingly tough to impress (festival faves EO, Aftersun and Neptune Frost found little traction). So, Avatar: The Way of Water could not arrive at a better time (yes, I have seen it; no, it’s not amongst my year’s best; yes, it’ll be huge).

My Top 10 suggests great movies are still being made for theatres; three were streaming premieres, though came to home viewing platforms via festival acquisitions or reworked distribution agendas. As long as global filmmakers strive for originality of vision, there is hope that big screen audiences (thought to have become overly attuned to home viewing through the pandemic) will return. Let's count 'em down... 

10. DON’T WORRY DARLING (Dir: Olivia Wilde | Stars: Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Harry Styles | U.S. | 123 mins) The most daring studio-backed feature of the year, Olivia Wilde’s sophomore directorial effort offered a confounding, compelling mix of metaphorical fantasy, gender conflict and dazzling starpower. Some critics called it ‘overly ambitious’, which sounds like a compliment to me; Pugh is being ignored as the award season fires up, which I find bewildering.

9. SHE SAID (Dir: Maria Schrader | Stars: Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Patricia Clarkson | U.S. | 129 mins) An instant entry into the list of great films about the integrity and drive of investigative journalism, German director Maria Schrader, making her U.S. feature debut, and stars Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan capture the incrementally small but sociologically seismic emergence of the Weinstein abuse and subsequent #MeToo movement.

8. CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH (Dir: Cooper Raiff | Stars Cooper Raif, Dakota Johnson, Evan Assante | U.S. | 107 mins) In the wake of 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine came a wave of ‘feelgood Sundance’ films that gave the sub-genre a bad name. Thanks to multi-hyphenate Cooper Raiff’s deceptively rich and adorably cheerful Cha Cha Real Smooth, the ‘meaningful friendship’ comedy/drama is back; the chemistry he shares with Dakota Johnson makes for 2022’s sweetest cinematic confection.

7. THE NIGHT OF THE 12th (La nuit du 12 | Dir: Dominik Moll | Stars: Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners, Lula Cotton-Frapier | France | 115 mins) Based on a shocking thrill-kill that remains unsolved, Dominik Moll’s drama hides a study in alpha-male dynamics and the fragility of self-belief within a traditional police procedural. As the head investigator whose inability to crack the case becomes a soulful burden, Bastien Bouillon provides a great study in anxiety and fractured ego.

6. LYNCH/OZ (Dir: Alexandre O. Philippe | Stars: Rodney Ascher, Karyn Kusama, Justin Benson | U.S. | 108 mins) The latest in his series of deconstructionist deep-dives into  filmmaking, Alexandre O. Philippe (Doc of The Dead; 78/52; Leap of Faith) explores the influence of The Wizard of Oz on the work of David Lynch. Doesn’t skimp of the strangeness of Lynch’s interpretation and reworking of the fantasy classic, but also acknowledges how the sweetness and base values have inspired cinema’s oddest auteur.

5. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Dir: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Schienert | Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis | U.S. | 139 mins) This year’s little-film-that-could, The Daniel’s dazzling multidimensional flight of fantasy proved a revelation for audiences timidly venturing back into cinemas after 18 months on their couches. A mash-up of Matrix-style visionary inventiveness, a Rubiks Cube-like narrative unpacked with clarity and conviction and performances from a trio of mature-age performers who know they may have been handed the roles of their careers.

4. TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Dir: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly | U.S. | 130 mins) Already dubbed ‘The Film That Saved 2022’, the sequel none of us knew we needed emerged as the pop-culture film event of the year. As the last true movie star on the planet, Tom Cruise played the ‘ageing hero’ card to perfection, his mere presence providing the perfect bridge between the nostalgic bravado of the late Tony Scott’s 1986 original with the clean-cut, chiselled millennial ambitions of Joseph Kosinski’s squadron of new top guns. Most importantly, it demanded to be seen on the big screen; those fully immersive flying sequences brought the patrons back in droves. 

3. HELLO DANKNESS (Dir: Soda Jerk | Australia) The Adelaide Film Festival, in conjunction with the Samstag Museum gallery space, commissioned a new work from those maestros of montage, Soda Jerk, whose Terror Nullius rocked everyone’s world in 2018. The result is the mini-feature Hello Dankness, a satirically savage recutting of hundreds of film, TV and multimedia sources to reflect upon the madness that was American politics, 2016-2021. Take your pick of its virtues - an enormously ambitious art installation; a surreal perception of U.S. democracy in downfall; the laugh-out-loud funniest film comedy of the year. The Germans get it; Hello Dankness is Berlinale bound in 2023.

2. BLONDE (Dir: Andrew Dominik | Stars: Ana de Armas, Bobby Carnavale, Adrien Brody | U.S. | 167 mins) I get that those who adore what Marilyn Monroe has come to represent in our culture don’t want to see her as a victim of systemic and cyclical abuse; that Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carroll Oates’ fictionalized account of Monroe’s journey was, in some eyes, exploitative and unnecessarily brutal. But if any figure in pop culture can, even should, embody the misogynistic horrors of a Hollywood that grinds young, spirited artists into the ground, ought it not be the most famous starlet ever? Dominik’s direction is artistically fearless and technically profound; as Marilyn, Ana de Armas enters the upper-tier of film acting talent.

1. PREY (Dir: Dan Trachtenberg | Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro | U.S. | 100 mins) “Seriously?”, I hear you ask. The umpteenth reboot of action cinema’s most defiantly troublesome franchise is your best film of the year? Dan Trachtenberg tears all the rotten residual meat off the Predator series bones and pares it back to the smashing survival thriller/monster movie premise that made John McTiernan’s 1987 original a brawny classic. That he also launched the best action heroine since Ripley in Amber Midthunder’s Naru and provided a Comanche language version of the film on the Hulu/Disney+ platforms only makes this commitment to the spirit of the source material every bit as breathtaking as Arnie’s original.   

THE NEXT TEN: 

SISSY (Dir: Hannah Barlow, Kane Senes | Stars: Aisha Dee, Hannah Barlow, Emily De Margheriti | Australia | 102 mins)

SMILE (Dir: Parker Finn | Stars: Sosie Bacon, Jesse T. Usher, Kyle Gallner | U.S. | 115 mins)

HATCHING (Pahanhautoja | Dir:  Hanna Bergholm | Stars: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen | Finland, Sweden | 91 mins)

SELENA GOMEZ MY MIND & ME (Dir: Alek Keshishian | Stars: Selena Gomez | U.S. | 95 mins)

X (Dir: Ti West | Stars: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson | U.S. | 105 mins)

YOU WON’T BE ALONE (Dir: Goran Stolevski | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta | Australia, United Kingdom, Serbia | 108 mins)

THE BATMAN (Dir: Matt Reeves | Stars: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell | U.S. | 176 mins)

MILLIE LIES LOW (Dir: Michelle Savill | Stars: Ana Scotney, JIllian Nguyen, Chris Alosio | New Zealand | 100 mins)

BARBARIAN (Dir: Zach Cregger | Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long | U.S. | 102 mins)

DISTANT THUNDER (Dir: Takayuki Ohashi | Stars: Tomomi Fukikoshi, Akari Takaishi, Miharu Tanaka | Japan | 151 mins)

NOW CHECK OUT OUR WORST FILMS OF 2022 HERE.

THE SCREEN-SPACE BEST (AND WORST) FILMS OF 2019

Takeaways from the year in cinema include the forced retirement of some once-glorious franchise friends (Terminator Dark Fate; X-Men Dark Phoenix; Rambo Last Blood); the resounding indifference to remakes/reboots/rehashes (Charlie’s Angels; Pet Semetary; Hellboy; Shaft); and, the struggle faced by marketers when selling specialised content (despite pre-release hype and critical buzz, Midsommar sputtered to US$43million globally). Australia produced a legitimate homegrown hit with Ride Like a Girl (US$8.5million), but otherwise found the marketplace tough (Storm Boy, US$4million; Danger Close, US$2million; The Nightingale, a paltry US$0.5million, despite critical acclaim).

But there was much to feel optimistic about. Despite what the HFPA would have you believe, women directors have made some of the year’s best films (40% of my Top 30 are female helmed); Oscars 2019 recognised diversity (in their own baby-step way) when handing out the Golden Guy, even if Best Picture winner, Green Book, carried with it some ugly baggage; and, quite hilariously, the young, white male web-overlords freaked the f*** out when the CATS trailer dropped (apparently, if you’re going to prance around in tights and makeup, you better be in a Marvel movie). Anyway, here are our favourites of 2019 (with their Rotten Tomatoes % included, to show how much we really run with the pack on this stuff)…

10. KNIVES OUT (Dir: Rian Johnson; 130 mins; USA; 97%) Starved of ol’ fashioned star-driven ensemble romps, audiences and critics alike reacted to Rian Johnson’s ripping murder/mystery yarn as if a genre had been borne. Knives Out isn’t new cinema (seek out Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap, from 1982, for starters), but it pulsed with a crisp freshness and giddy sense of fun the likes of which rarely survive studio suits interference.

9. HOMECOMING: A FILM BY BEYONCE (Dir: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter; 137 mins; USA; 98%) The vivacity and vision that Beyoncé displayed in staging her Coachella 2018 set is captured with a potency that leaves the viewer breathless in Homecoming. Her music, her motives, her motherhood – the icon stamps this moment in her country’s history as her own in a behind-the-scenes concert film that ranks amongst the best ever.

8. WORKING WOMAN (ISHA OVEDET) (Dir: Michal Aviad; 93 mins; Israel; 97%) “The piercing humanistic precision that Michal Aviad honed with her decades as one of the world’s finest documentarians serves her well..” Read the SCREEN-SPACE review here.

7. COLOR OUT OF SPACE (Dir: Richard Stanley; 110 mins; USA; 87%) The combination of talents is irresistible to the cult cinema crowd – be he brilliant or barmy, director Richard Stanley; author of the alien invasion source story, H.P Lovecraft; and the mad maestro himself, Nicholas Cage. The finished product is a B-movie fever-dream; a twisted, terrifying, exhilarating nightmare of family angst and parasitic world domination.

6. BOOKSMART (Dir: Olivia Wilde; 101 mins; USA; 97%) A coming-of-age teen comedy with heavy doses of blue humour shouldn’t feel so fresh, be so funny, or pack an emotional punch like Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut managed. With Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever (pictured, top; far left) inhabiting their co-lead roles and a thematic through-line in acceptance tugging at the heartstrings, Booksmart is so much more than the Superbad-for-girls the trailer promised.

5. WILD ROSE (Dir: Tom Harper; 101 mins; UK; 93%) The balance between dreams, talent and the roots that give them meaning have rarely been so acutely portrayed as in Tom Harper’s Wild Rose. As Rose-Lynn Harlan, the Glaswegian ex-con with a voice that fills the room and raises the roof, Jessie Buckley is a revelation; by the time she belts out ‘No Place Like Home’, her tears and triumphs bring emotions that only great rags-to-riches-to-rags stories deliver.  

4. ALICE (Dir: Josephine Mackerras; 103 mins; UK | France | Australia; 100%) In this story of a French woman cocooned by the façade of a dishonest marriage and her rise to independence, Josephine Mackerras has crafted a moving, funny, immediate #MeToo superheroine. As Alice, Emilie Piponnier (pictured, right, and top right) is the Australian director’s perfect foil; her emergence on-screen as a self-reliant, sexually energised woman in charge of her own destiny is the character arc of the year.

3. AD ASTRA (Dir: James Gray; 124 mins; USA; 84%) ‘Mr Serious Filmmaker’ James Gray tackling a science-fiction story (essentially Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, with added daddy issues) had us all intrigued; most critics liked it, audiences not so much (tapped out at US$130million globally). A dark reflection on legacy, masculinity and the pain of truthful self-discovery meant Gray was in his high-minded element, but he didn’t skimp on genre prerequisites (the year’s best VFX) and a subversive ‘movie star’ presence in Brad Pitt’s nuanced performance.

2. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU) (Dir: Céline Sciamma; 121 mins; France; 97%) How does the artist capture a subject who refuses to be observed, who refutes closeness of any kind? Writer/director Céline Sciamma painstakingly unravels the constraints of 18^th decorum and privilege to capture a physical and spiritual connection between two women, alone on an isolated Brittany island. Embodying the soaring, doomed romantic liaison are actresses Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel, whose performances connect as only the greatest of screen lovers can.

1. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (Dir: Quentin Tarantino; 161 mins; USA; 85%) “[Tarantino’s] heart is in this film, for the first time afforded as much input as his fan-boy passion and film culture knowledge…” Read the SCREEN-SPACE review here.

The next 20 (in no particular order; with their Rotten Tomatoes %, where possible) are also great, so please seek them out…:
REPOSSESSION (Dirs: Ming Siu Goh, Scott C. Hillyard; 96 mins; Singapore; N/A)
LITTLE WOMEN (Dir: Greta Gerwig; 134 mins; USA; 96%)
KNIVES AND SKINS (Dir: Jennifer Reeder; 112 mins; USA; 72%)
ROMANTIC COMEDY (Dir: Elizabeth Sankey; 78 mins; UK; 100%)
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (Dirs: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz; 97 mins; USA; 95%)
ATLANTICS (Dir: Mati Diop; 106 mins; France | Senegal | Belgium; 95%)
THE GOLD-LADEN SHEEP AND THE SACRED MOUNTAIN (SONA DHWANDI BHED TE SUCHHA PAHAD (Dir: Ridham Janve; 97 mins; India; N/A)
UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (Dir: David Robert Mitchell; 139 mins; USA; 58%)
READY OR NOT (Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett; 95 mins; USA; 88%)
KLAUS (Dirs: Sergio Pablos, Carlos Martínez López; 96 mins; Spain | UK; 92%
THE BEACH BUM (Dir: Harmony Korine; 95 mins; USA; 55%)
HUSTLERS (Dir: Lorene Scafaria; 107 mins; USA; 88%)
CAPTAIN MARVEL (Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; 123 mins; USA; 78%)
PARASITE (GISAENGCHUNG) (Dir: Boon Jong Ho; 132 mins; Korea; 99%)
TOY STORY 4 (Dir: Josh Cooley; 90 mins; USA; 97%)
THE REPORT (Dir: Scott Z. Burns; 119 mins; USA; 82%)
APOLLO 11 (Dir: Todd Douglas Miller; 93 mins; USA; 99%)
THE FURIES (Dir: Tony D’Aquino; 82 mins; Australia; 60%)
JOJO RABBIT (Dir: Taika Waititi; 108 mins; New Zealand | Czech Republic; 79%)
MOSLEY (Dir: Kirby Atkins; 96 mins; New Zealand | China; N/A) 

THE WORST FILMS OF 2019:
Todd Phillip’s Joker was a puerile, garish, tone-deaf shout-out to angry white males who responded en masse, as was the plan.
Disney plundered its vaults and manufactured a series of awful live-action/CGI abominations that reeked of cash-grab cynicism and stockholder pandering - the hideous Mary Poppins Returns and unnecessarily mean-spirited Dumbo; The Lion King was ok, but ‘not as bad as we expected’ is faint praise.
A lot of critics played the ‘its big, dumb, fun card’ in cutting slack to the idiotic brand-extension film, Fast & Furious Present: Hobbs & Shaw, while the more mature filmgoer had to contend with their own dire movie moments, in grotesque melodrama (Isabelle Huppert in Greta) and boomer privilege fantasy (director Rachel Ward’s insufferable Palm Beach).
The Worst Film of 2019, and by some measure, is Sony’s risible attempt to rekindle the MIB franchise, MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL. Directed by the utterly disinterested F. Gary Gray, this mish-mash of poor effects and grab-bag plotting hoped to exploit the chemistry generated by Thor Ragnarok co-stars Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, but the film leaves Thompson clutching at thin air character-wise and Hemsworth…well, he’s no Will Smith. Handing this horror-show over to Kumail Nanjiani’s comic-relief CGI alien to salvage at the midway mark is testament to the vacuum of creativity on show.