22 of the best films of 2022

6 janvier 2023 ThePressFree Aucun commentaire

Another quick year made better by the movies…

Make 2023 extra special by catching any of these standouts that you may have missed.

In no particular order:

The Banshees of Inisherin

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Alan Corr says: The In Bruges dream team of writer-director Martin McDonagh and stars Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are back and are joined by the equally superb Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan for the end of a friendship on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland. Here, entrenchment leads to the inevitable freefall of savagery in a story so simple and yet so terrible that you may spend days wondering what you have just seen after the final credits roll. Is it a morality tale? A parable about men’s inability to communicate? A twisted comedy? Any way you slice it, Banshees is funny, powerful, grotesque, and indescribably sad. If you like the black stuff, be warned – this is a brewery of sorrow.

Emily

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Laura Delaney says: Actor Frances O’Connor’s ambitious directorial debut takes creative liberties in portraying the mysterious literary figure behind Wuthering Heights. In doing so, she carefully reminds viewers not to judge a book by its cover. Anchored by Sex Education star Emma Mackey’s superb performance as the woman in question, the richly fictionalised tale acquaints viewers with the suffocated identity of a young writer battling to take charge of her own story in small-town, 19th-century England. At over two hours, the film feels drawn out in parts, but it is impossible to shake this understated gem and the powerful sentiments expressed in every chapter. O’Connor said she wanted the movie to be « a love letter to women today ». Mission accomplished.

The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert

John Byrne says: And, in the end, this is it. The Beatles performing live in public for the last time – the legendary gig on the Apple rooftop in London’s Savile Row on January 30, 1969. In modern terms, the mundanity of it all is the most remarkable aspect of this fascinating documentary, an offshoot of Peter Jackson’s epic eight-hour restoration and overhaul of the footage filmed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the 1970 movie Let It Be. It’s all put together in a very smart fashion, with split-screen activity on and off-stage, and the non-Beatle element is superbly presented through the secret camera that was placed in the reception of the Apple offices. If you’ve any doubts about the merits of this movie, put them to one side. This is an essential experience – especially if you’re a Beatles fan.

Belfast

Harry Guerin says: A beautiful coming-of-age story, a pitch-perfect celebration of family, and a fitting tribute to the goodness in a city and its people, Belfast crams a lot into an hour and a half. Writer-director Kenneth Branagh’s return to his birthplace to explore his early years has inspired him to deliver his best work – poignant, funny, and timeless. It’s the kind of charmer that parents or grandparents would watch whenever it came on the telly way back when. It may well be one of your own go-to movies for the years ahead. Filmed in black and white to conjure the magic of old photographs, Belfast glides from one snapshot to another with the kind of enchantment you feel when turning the pages in an album. It’s also proof, if needed, that you can go home again.

The Northman

Sarah McIntyre says: The Northman is not for the faint-hearted. Director Robert Eggers’ blood-soaked Viking epic is equal parts brutal and breathtaking, a truly immersive cinematic experience that makes the almost-140-minute runtime pass in the blink of an eye. The film, which was largely shot in Ireland – the rugged northern coastline effortlessly standing in for the monumental landscapes of Iceland – is one of the wildest and strangest big-budget action movies in recent memory, seamlessly interweaving trippy mystical and supernatural elements with scenes of savage violence. A gruelling watch, to be sure, but an invigorating one.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Harry Guerin says: The maddest adventure of 2022 is also the one to get us seriously thinking about our own lives and the gift/burden of that bucket list. As profound as it is madcap, Everything Everywhere… is a celebration of the no-place-else magic of a trip to the cinema, a widescreen what if? to put more juice in the tank, and an experience that feels like it’ll still be having its way with people long after we’ve all gone to the next life. Although they lose the run of themselves with the length (was there really a need for so much shape-throwing?), writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert still emerge as a film force to be reckoned with and, after the trauma of recent years, their exhortation to be the star of our own movies is perfectly timed. Here’s hoping that the best scenes are yet to come.

Watcher

Bren Murphy says: The horror genre is really having a moment lately as theatrical audiences flock to see Smile and Barbarian. And now we have a nice change of pace with Watcher. While the above titles gave us fun scares, laughs and gore, Chloe Okuno’s film is a throwback to slower-paced psychological thrillers. It feels like it was made by a lover of a very specific type of horror film who’s not afraid to wear their influences. Polanski’s Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby come to mind along with the Italian ‘giallo’ horror films from the 70s and 80s – the latter being a subgenre that made much use of the ‘foreigner in a new city in the midst of a serial killer scare’ template that is also employed here. With a great central performance from Maika Monroe, Watcher is tense and chilling but always grounded and believable – apart from possibly one scene that will prove to be divisive…

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

Harry Guerin says: « We need our dreams – now more than ever. » Never a truer word spoken – and never in a nicer film than this grown-up Cinderella, set in 1957 and thoroughly deserving of its place in the pantheon of timeless feelgood favourites. Lesley Manville shines brighter than the City of Light as Ada Harris, a widowed Londoner who comes into a bit of money, makes her way to Dior HQ, and informs the couturiers that she wants to buy a dress. As Ada’s magic rubs off on the strangers she meets, she becomes younger by the minute. Watching, you’ll be a few years to the good too. And as for that ending, well… it’s truly the stuff that dreams are made of.

Elvis

Harry Guerin says: As lavish and live wire as its title demands, Baz Luhrmann’s labour of love is a film fit for The King. A mix of celebration and tragedy, it enhances the legend while leaving audiences in no doubt about just how much Elvis’ genius owed to African American artists. If music biopics are your own greatest hits, you’ll have the best seat in the house. And what a setlist… Powered by a star-making performance from Austin Butler and with Tom Hanks cast against type as Elvis’ manager/arch manipulator Colonel Tom Parker, Luhrmann’s go-big study of artistic freedom and the gilded cage crams a lot into two and a half hours and leaves a hunger for more. The wonder of him indeed.

The Peculiar Sensation of Being Pat Ingoldsby

Alan Corr says: At the grand old age of 80, the spirit is very much alive in indefatigable people’s poet Pat Ingoldsby. Most of us know him as the avuncular RTÉ children’s TV star of the late Seventies and early Eighties, but Séamus Murphy’s beautifully shot and constructed documentary reveals a rich and fascinating background to the great man’s development and arrival as merry prankster and master of the absurd and surreal. After watching this charming and delightful portrait of a true original, you may read far more into his giddy and insightful prose and verse. He’s a magic street preacher with a streak of mischief who has fought hard to remain as bright as ever.

Aftersun

Harry Guerin says: If ever there was a film that could leave tan lines on your heart, it’s Aftersun – an eleventh-hour arrival on the 2022 must-see list. It announces Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells as a force to be reckoned with, puts another rocket under Paul Mescal’s stock, and has an astonishing performance from youngster Frankie Corio. What a partnership! Watch it knowing the bare minimum: father and daughter Calum and Sophie go on a package holiday to Turkey. What follows is charming, mysterious, poignant, and so convincing that the pair’s camcorder footage feels like it belongs to a real family. Memories are made of this.

Moonage Daydream

Alan Corr says: Brett Morgen’s fabulously strange film manages to capture the full range of David Bowie’s world of imagination. The director, who made the excellent Kurt Cobain documentary Montage of Heck and the romp of a Rolling Stones film Crossfire Hurricane, never intended to make a linear, chronological account, and having gained access to the Bowie archive, he had an Aladdin Sane’s cave of over five million assets to play with. The resulting 140-minute film is a lurid rush of sensory overload that comes at you all at once and seems to echo our phone-scrolling addiction. Or maybe it’s all akin to tuning in and out of a radio station beamed in from a distant star or absent-mindedly channel surfing in a late-night funk. This is a far-out trip!

See How They Run

Harry Guerin says: Defiantly old-school, a great showcase for Saoirse Ronan’s comedy chops, and wrapping everything up in an hour and a half – what’s not to like about See How They Run? The first half of this whodunnit is absolutely glorious; a barrage of brilliant one-liners in laugh-out-loud set-ups as the perfectly matched (and mismatched) Constable Stalker (Ronan) and Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) do their bit and then some for all things Ealing. The second half doesn’t have quite as many zingers, but the pace never falters as we screech – literally – to the madcap ending. This is the first big-screen outing from TV comedy writer Mark Chappell (Bliss, Flaked, My Life in Film) and Tom George, the director behind the BBC’s award-winning This Country. Like their central duo, they make a great partnership.

An Cailín Ciúin

Siún Ní Dhuinn says: As soon as I heard about this film, I was excited to see it. I devoured the book on which it was based, Claire Keegan’s Foster, in one sitting. Set in early 1980s Ireland, An Cailín Ciúin follows Cáit, played by Caitríona Clinse, a young girl whose family send her to her mother’s cousin to be cared for while her mother has another baby. Without spoiling the rest of the story, Cáit discovers the cost of great love is deep, relentless, life-changing grief. Director Colm Bairéad’s word-of-mouth wonder went on to take over €1 million at the Irish box office and became Ireland’s submission for Best International Feature Film at next year’s Academy Awards. Scannán é seo a fhágfaidh rian ar éinne a fheicfidh é.

Boiling Point

Harry Guerin says: An edge-of-the-seat film – set in a restaurant. Boiling Point has more tension than most thrillers, and you’ll be doing well to find a more immersive experience among the releases of 2022. Filmed entirely in one take, director Philip Barantini and co-writer James Cummings’ searing study of the workplace and its diverse personalities sees Stephen Graham leading a superb cast as close-to-breakdown chef Andy Jones. Watching the dominoes fall in real-time here is a reminder for the year ahead that as bad as things get, they can always be worse. You’ll see yourself in these characters – and their reactions – as the lid comes off everything that they’ve piled into the pot. There’s a spin-off BBC series on the way, but, in the meantime, this is one sit-down you can’t afford to miss.

Nope

Alan Corr says: A visually stunning summer blockbuster, Nope marks a departure for Jordan Peele, the filmmaker who made his name with satirical social issue horror movies Get Out and Us. It tells the story of brother and sister OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald (Keke Palmer) who start glimpsing strange phenomena in the skies above their ranch in California. It’s all tension and pure atmosphere before that gasp of a ‘reveal’. It’s also a movie that makes a lot of claims on its own behalf (Peele says it’s about our need for spectacle and a history lesson about « the erasure of black contributions » from cinema history), but for anyone looking for pure thrills, Nope is – plain and simple – a compulsive sci-fi thriller that will keep audiences guessing and baffled.

Licorice Pizza

Harry Guerin says: Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is back on his home turf of California’s San Fernando Valley – and back with another must-see. The location for Boogie Nights and Magnolia is now the setting for a classic coming-of-age movie that gives the viewer a first-class ticket in the time machine, with the controls set for 1973. There, Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman; and Alana Haim, singer-guitarist with the band Haim; deliver life-affirming breakout performances. Equal parts strange, sentimental and screwball, you never know what’s coming next in Licorice Pizza. It will take your mind off things – guaranteed.

Nothing Compares

Alan Corr says: Belfast-born director Kathryn Ferguson’s documentary about Sinéad O’Connor does a very good job of reclaiming the singer from the wreckage of her early years and demolishes any notion that what the industry called « self-sabotage » was all a wily publicity stunt on O’Connor’s part. The film also pulls the whole saga into sharp focus to reveal just how radical and brave O’Connor’s words and deeds really were all those years ago. This year’s Roe v Wade reversal and the #MeToo movement make Nothing Compares a very timely look at a very important artist, and younger viewers may be shocked by the level of abuse she suffered and just how misogynistic the music industry was and, indeed, still is.

Armageddon Time

Harry Guerin says: The film with the most unfortunate title of 2022 also turns out to be among the most compelling as writer-director James Gray digs deep in his own childhood to tell a story of family, friendship, and fate. Set in 1980, capturing that dowdiness and doom, and eerily resonating in the present day, it is powered by knockout performances by young stars Banks Repeta and Jaylin Webb, with acting heavyweights Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Strong in the supporting roles. Armageddon Time‘s chain of events is so wholly convincing and important that it feels like it should be a must-watch on the secondary school curriculum. Adults could well do with a reminder of a few things too.

She Said

Alan Corr says: Like the shark in Jaws, we only see Harvey Weinstein towards the end of Maria Schrader’s accomplished and forensic dramatisation of the fall of the disgraced Hollywood mogul. But just like that cold-blooded predator, he circles every second of She Said, which is based on the book by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan play the two journalists with a mix of weariness and determination as Schrader tells the story in a brisk, linear style that is a very literal evocation of the source material. However, that procedural pace never prevents She Said from becoming a powerful and gripping account of a sordid tale that is as old as Hollywood.

You Are Not My Mother

Sarah McIntyre says: The opening scene of Irish writer-director Kate Dolan’s assured, atmospheric debut feature is so intensely unsettling that it creates a sense of foreboding that inexorably draws you in. It’s a clever device that is representative of the director’s talent for deftly setting the scene while leaving the audience guessing. There is much to question over the film’s hour-and-a-half runtime. Steeped in Irish folklore, You Are Not My Mother effectively explores themes of mental illness and generational family trauma through the prism of horror. It’s a tightly edited, effective, and unnerving chiller that hints at great things ahead for emerging writer-director Dolan.

North Circular

Harry Guerin says: The latest addition to Dublin film folklore really is a road movie – an award-winning documentary that takes us from the start to the finish of one of the city’s most famous thoroughfares via its surrounding neighbourhoods. North Circular sizes up the landmarks, meets the people, and hears their stories and music along the way. It’s an eye-opener, a time-capsule charmer, and a catalyst to get on the comfortable shoes with your own director’s commentary playing in your head, wherever you are. Hoofing it here alongside writer-director Luke McManus and his crew reminds us how much and how little areas can change, how communities evolve, and how there’s a story to everyone we see. Or don’t. A walk to remember.

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