Sunday, January 1, 2023

Films of 2022: Quick Single Line Comments

Some quick one-liners (synopsis and/or reviews) on the films and shows memorable enough to remember seeing this year. These are in no particular order, and I'm missing many of them:

Good Luck to You Leo Grande - It's Sex, Lies, and Videotape 40 years later. It was okay.

Tar - it's has the feel of Whiplash but starting from the suicide - more psychological thriller than drama

The Banshees of Inisherin - lovely and touching and so unfortunate and lonely and beautiful

The Fabelmans  - lovely film of Spielberg's childhood, mainly about his mom; love is heartbreaking

The Outfit - fun organized crime flick - love this kind of thing!

Emily The Criminal - a solid film about falling into crime with a sort of lighthearted tone

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - I've actually watched this more than once! It's endearing in a goofy way and makes it feel like the world's going to be okay. Nostalgic for anyone my age.

The Menu - perfectionism, letting people down, class divides, and image-conscious issues - fun!

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once - a must see multiverse family finding their way to each other

Maudie - touching true story 

Don't Worry Darling - entertaining reboot of The Stepford Wives, but it cut to the ending too abruptly - didn't quite work 

Glass Onion - didn't love it - they gave away too much too soon, but good commentary on Musk-types

Triangle of Sadness - I couldn't get past the grossness of it, so I didn't even finish (and I watched The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover all the way through!)

Avatar 2 - a bit too similar to the first one, but all underwater this time - some upsetting animal cruelty

Comedy Specials: Nate Bargatze,  Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Sloss (buy his book too!) all so funny

Bit Older Movies

Burning - a frustrating love triangle, but so worth the watch - highly recommend

Who is Harry Nilsson - lots of songs I had no idea were his!

Hector and the Search for Happiness - sweet and light

Shows

Severance - Fantastic story of people who split their subconscious between work and home

Succession - like Arrested Development with glorious somber music - give it time to get really into it

Barry - Love it!! - a serial killer tries to use drama class as therapy - with Henry Winkler, too!

Better Call Saul - one of the best written female characters of all time

Kleo - Russian killer running for her life -- fun along the lines of Borne Identity

Euphoria - it's not just for teenagers! Season 2 gets into the moms of the show more, and how they try to manage their struggling, fatherless kids. Very realistic exploration of addiction. Incredible shots. 

Russian Doll - season 2 went down a different direction -- very compelling 

Inside Man - a light version of Hannibal Lector helps people solve crimes from inside prison - and it's Stanley Tucci!

Archer's most recent season was disappointing. I mainly like the show for Pam's friendship with Archer, and there wasn't enough of that.

Peacemaker - fun and light 

Handmaids Tale - still enjoying it - lots of twists left

Stranger Things - still keeping things new enough to stay tuned 

1899 - kinda like Lost - some interesting bits as we go back and forth in time

Dead to Me - it was tied up neatly with a bow at the end but lots of unexpected twists getting there

The White Lotus 2 - It was fun! I just watched it for Will Sharpe, who is a must watch since Flowers, which is one of my favourite series ever.

The Bear - lots of people love it - it just brought back memories of the stress of working in a restaurant

Older Stuff

Nobody's Looking - about angels not doing their jobs!

Peep Show - I found it this year and love the awkward quirkiness. It's like the Odd Couple, updated.

Party Down - caterers in Hollywood - lots of fun cameos - I checked it out because of Adam Scott

Friday Night Dinner - actually laugh-out-loud hilarious at times - hard to watch at others

Grey's Anatomy - episodes feel repetitive and makes us all long for a house where we can just hang out

Santa Clarita Diet - really too bad it was cancelled - fantastic look at how to cope with difficulties in a family when mom's a zombie. We don't get enough examples of healthy family dynamics. 


On My List to Watch in No Particular Order

Bros

The Woman King

The Worst Person in the World

She Said

Bones and All 

Mythic Quest

Pachinko

Hacks

What We Do in the Shadows

A Touch of Evil

Petite Maman

The Policeman

Kimi

Eternal Daughter

Decision to Leave

Mr. Backmann and His Class

RRR

The Boys

The Whale

This Property is Condemned

Families

Empire of Light

Close

After Yang

Worst Person

Memoria

Northman

High Heat

The Fallout

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