Split Decision: Don't Miss Movies of 2022
Murina (dir. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic)
Available on Showtime, Kanopy, Kino Now and other platforms.
This Croatian chamber drama, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, is a phenomenal debut feature by writer/director Kusijanovic. She shows incredible grace and control as a filmmaker, using space to define the characters in this story about a teenager Julija (Gracija Filipovic), looking to escape from her suffocating, toxic father. But it is more than just that Julija is more comfortable on water than land, it is how she absorbs the dynamics of her parents and Javier (Cliff Curtis), her father’s visiting friend, that creates the real dramatic tension. There are many critical issues addressed in the film–about heritage, manners, gender, class, among others–that provide for a very deep, very moving drama. Filipovic justly won a Gotham award for her performance this week and this hypnotic, accomplished film deserves to find a large audience. –Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer
Fire Island (dir. Andrew Ahn)
Available on Hulu.
I worry that this film will only be remembered in relation to Bros, in part because Billy Eichner wanted to make his film out to be the First Queer Romcom. But Fire Island deserves to stand on its own as both a great film and a great modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Written by, and starring, Joel Kim Booster, Fire Island delivers all the drama and romance a P&P adaptation requires, while feeling fresh and fun. There’s so much to love about this movie, but I loved Conrad Ricamora especially, as such a broody Darcy figure (named Will in this flick). I also loved the core group of friends in this film. I’m a sucker for a found family, and this delightful group of misfits fits the bill for sure. All that, and the movie is also gorgeous to look at! I highly recommend firing up Hulu to check this one out.—Megan Bailey, Staff Writer
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (dir. Sophie Hyde)
Available on Hulu.
This is one of those that wouldn’t have even been on my radar had my wife not heard an interview with Emma Thompson on NPR and, not having anything else on the docket, we fired it up that night. The film is a two-hander that takes place almost entirely inside of a hotel room featuring Thompson as a woman who hires a sex worker (the titular Leo Grande, played by Daryl McCormack) as a means of “getting back out there” two years after the death of her husband. The result is a film that explores a woman’s sexuality at a point in her life where society deems her undesirable, and learning to experience pleasure for the first time (as you’d expect, her husband was not exactly Casanova) and that desirability is primarily a broken construct. Thompson is incredible here but what else would you expect, she’s a pro and her ability to blend her natural humor with some serious dramatic chops is a big reason why she has two Oscars at home. The real revelation is relative newcomer McCormack making the absolute most of his first big lead and the chemistry between him and Thompson is what cements this as one of the year’s best films. –Ian Hrabe, Staff Writer
Million Dollar Pigeons (dir. Gavin Fitzgerald)
Watch for future screenings
This documentary on the world of high-stakes pigeon racing premiered at Hot Docs before playing at a few more festivals, but has mostly gone under the radar with very little media coverage. The film follows the journeys of various quirky individuals involved in the sport of pigeon racing, the biggest international sport you’ve never heard of. In fact, in watching the filmmakers trace the history and growth of the sport, you will wonder how pigeon racing has remained under the radar while simultaneously becoming incredibly profitable for some. Pointing out the flaws and egos of race organizers and competitors, while also maintaining a sense of humor about its niche subject matter, the doc entertains and surprises. Even if it doesn’t delve into every aspect of the sport in an equal amount of depth, it is an enlightening film that will make you appreciate pigeons in a new way, even if you didn’t like them before. –Katharine Mussellam, Contributor
See How They Run (dir. Tom George)
Available on HBO/HBO Max
People really love to talk about how such-and-such murder mystery is like an Agatha Christie story—and I think that’s fair and good, since Christie really innovated the genre and set up what we still view as the modern conventions of it. See How The Run really fits the bill completely, and it was a dream of a flick to see in theaters. See How They Run is a murder mystery set in a theater, during the production of a Christie play. I couldn’t ask for anything better, honestly, as it hits on so many things that I find utterly charming in these kinds of stories. Unfortunately, this film totally tanked at the box office (likely because of its seeming $0 marketing budget), which is a shame because it’s the kind of murder mystery that I dream of and I had a truly great time with this one. I’m hopeful that since it got added to streaming, though, more people will find it and enjoy all the twists, turns, and red herrings. Besides having a great script and being so visually interesting (it has a real “if Wes Anderson made a murder mystery” vibe), the cast is completely stacked. Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo and Shirley Henderson create a truly fun ensemble that you didn’t realize you needed in your life! —Emily Maesar, Staff Writer
Please Baby Please (dir. Amanda Kramer)
Not currently available to stream, watch for future screenings
If you’re a fan of the surreal and the theatrical, you really need this movie in your life. It starts out like a 1950s musical featuring a greaser biker gang straight out of The Wild One (via Querelle and Scorpio Rising), and only gets weirder from there. Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling play a fairly straight-laced couple who are threatened by said gang, including Karl Glusman’s Teddy. The danger intrigues, thrills and excites both members of the couple who become sexually awakened and begin to question gender norms. And there’s even a Demi Moore cameo. Riseborough is typically electric, delivering a utterly magnetic performance.
Please Baby Please follows on from Bertrand Mandico’s The Wild Boys, Yann Gonzalez’s Knife + Heart, Jennifer Reeder’s Knives and Skin, Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century, and Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney’s Strawberry Mansion as the underseen avant garde film recommendation of the year. Take a risk and add some heightened hyperreality to your mundane existence! –Fiona Underhill, Contributor
You Can Live Forever (dir. Mark Slutsky, Sarah Watts)
Not currently available to stream, watch for future screenings
You Can Live Forever is not the first LGBT movie that deals with young, queer love in a religious community, but it is one of the best versions of this story. Jaime is a gay teenager who moves to a small town with a large community of Jehovah’s Witnesses. There, she falls in love with Marike, an extremely devout Jehovah’s Witness. You Can Live Forever is melancholic and aching. Its inherent sadness feels genuine and not just an excuse to show queer suffering. The relationship between Jaime and Marike captures those obsessive youthful feelings perfectly and how impactful first love can be. You Can Live Forever is an extraordinary debut from filmmakers Mark Slutsky and Sarah Watts. - Tina Kakadelis, Staff Writer
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (dir. Ana Lily Amirpour)
Available for digital rental/purchase
Amirpour blew viewers away with her genre bending vampire tale A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Since then she has continued working but many of her movies have not gotten the same kind of buzz even though she is still proving herself to be an incredible filmmaker and storyteller. Much like Girl, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon features a misfit with supernatural powers that is thrust into the world of New Orleans. She meets a cast of misfits who are funny, strange, and above all endearing. All of the weirdos get their time to shine and it is clear that Amirpour likes to highlight the different offshoots of culture in desolate places. Kate Hudson gives an incredible performance as Bonnie Belle, a dancer who befriends Mona Lisa. Craig Robinson, Jeon Jong-seo, Ed Skrein, and Evan Whitten also show off their talent as a fascinating crew of characters. Amirpour also embeds gorgeous cinematography and another amazing soundtrack to this feature. This endearing yet strange world is so much fun to spend time in and it has stuck with me long since watching. Full review. –Tori Potenza, Staff Writer
Fall (dir. Scott Mann)
Available for digital rental/purchase
Much like the great gators-in-the-flooded-house thriller Crawl from 2019, a simple premise becomes a really surprising and entertaining flick primed for a group watch. When two gals climb a disused television tower in the middle of the desert - partly to provide content for Hunter (Virginia Gardner)’s youtube channel and partly to say goodbye to Becky (Grace Caroline Currey)’s deceased, free climber husband - and then get stuck up there, things become dire pretty quickly. As a flick with a thin premise, it hits all the checkmarks that you’d expect before the third act goes fully hog wild with multiple left turns and harrowing sequences that elicited multiple bursts of nervous laughter from me, a person with mild acrophobia. I’m not arguing that Fall is destined to go down in cinema history or anything, but it is a really fun time that most people missed. –Hunter Bush, Staff Writer
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp)
Available for digital rental/purchase
When I bring this one up as one of my best of the year, I usually get a puzzling look. What is that? Then I have to explain. Well, um, so like there’s this little shell and it has a googly eye and it was on YouTube. If you weren’t browsing YouTube in the early 2010s you might have missed this little character, voiced by Jenny Slate, who shows you his world from down below. Doritos can be hang gliders. A pistachio shell can be a hat. A piece of lint can be your little pet. And so on. The film took this world and made poignant observations about family, loss, community, fear, and hope. Little Marcel has lost his family of other tiny shells/doodads, and is left alone with his elderly grandmother, Connie, voiced by Isabelle Rossellini. Through the help of a documentarian (played by Slate’s ex-husband and collaborator Dean Fleischer-Camp, who also directs), Marcel tries to track down where his family went. But Marcel finds that his efforts to find his family become sidelined as people just want to absorb Marcel as a character, a novelty, rather than someone who needs help. They want to use Marcel as a way to bring attention to themselves. Like damn. What an accurate observation about what it means to be a person (or a being, as it were) in the age of social media. It’s also a very funny film, exceptionally shot, brutally honest and original. Not to mention that the documentarian, also named Dean, is going through a break up in the film. While working on the film with his ex-wife. Just, wow. It’s such a life-affirming piece of art and I wish people would seek it out. –Audrey Callerstrom, Staff Writer
Virus:32 (dir. Gustavo Hernández)
Available on Shudder
Yikes! This movie really creeped me out, in a way the best low-granularity zombie movies can: by following one storyline of one person during one period of a few hours, we got to live in the world of a zombie-like infection in real time. Don't get me wrong, I love zombie movies that exist on a grand scale, like 28 Days Later and World War Z, but sometimes I want the tenseness that comes from one desperate moment after another, and Virus :32 does not disappoint. V:32 doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, instead trodding out familiar storylines that let you dive directly into the action, hyperfocusing on one story, reminiscent of [Rec]. Briefly: A woman who works as a security guard overnight at a sports complex must watch her daughter while on her shift. They soon find themselves navigating the halls, locker rooms, and offices, both together and sometimes separately through various forms of communication, as hoards of infected people break in, looking to kill whoever is still uninfected. The only solace? The zombies freeze (seemingly to reflect on their new lot in life) for 32 seconds after every kill. Dark, tense, and filled with terror, I really enjoyed Virus :32, even if it sticks to stereotypes. I’m always here for a new addition to the zombie genre. –Joe Carlough, Staff Writer
The Mission (dir. Tania Anderson)
Streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime)
The Mission is bleak but compassionate, which is the best kind of bleak and the only kind I can handle at this point. Tania Anderson, in what I’m surprised to see is her sole IMDb credit, follows four Mormon missionaries to Finland. Going in, I thought what you may be thinking: Finland is an affluent country that mostly has its stuff together better than the US does, and it sounds like an incredibly easy place to go if you have to take a mission trip. Also missions are weird, at best. And I still think missions are gross! But going to Finland for two years, as an English-speaking teen, looks like hell. You’re lonely, you don’t have much support from home and none of the locals really want you there. The Mission’s heart becomes clear early– these kids don’t all necessarily want to be there either. Or they want to be there but they don’t know why. Or they know intellectually why they’re supposed to want to be there but they aren’t feeling it. They really are kids, too– the four primary subjects are teenagers, leaving home for the first time. The missionary process would be bleak for me now, as a 33-year-old man. It’s tough to watch a handful of almost-adults feel so isolated, knowing they have to hang on and endure another year-plus of whatever they’re feeling. I can’t tell you much more because it isn’t flashy and there aren’t twists. Describing the moments that moved me would just ruin them for you, and if The Mission communicates any feeling above all others, it’s empathy. – Alex Rudolph, Contributor
Great Freedom (dir. Sebastian Meise)
Streaming on Mubi
When we first encounter gay German Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski) in 1968, he’s being sentenced to two years in jail for violating Paragraph 175, the German law that criminalized homosexuality until its repeal in 1994. Sent directly to prison following his liberation from a concentration camp in 1945 and in and out thereafter, Hans is an old pro by the time he’s sentenced yet again in 1968. Rogowski - one of the greatest actors working today - gives another stellar performance, with a captivating physicality and a hard-won indomitability. Tracing Hans’s romantic relationships in captivity and perhaps the even more significant relationship with his heterosexual cellmate (Georg Friedrich), director Sebastian Meise finds intimacy and warmth in the most unlikely circumstances. This moving, elegant drama is a must-see as you’re catching up on 2022 films. –Ryan Smillie, Staff Writer
Do Revenge (dir. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson)
Streaming on Netflix
‘Hell is a teenage girl’ quotes the now cult classic Jennifer’s Body, and it’s not hard to see part of the same sentiment emerge in the frothy, sharp Do Revenge, which scoops up a classic tale of mutual vengeance and daubs it in the pastel hues of a 1990s fever dream. Drea (Camila Mendes) finds herself on the outs from her popular high school clique following a revenge porn leak and her attack on her now-ex-boyfriend as a result. After a summer of slumming it working at a tennis camp that looks like a five-star hotel, she soon joins forces with new girl Eleanor (Maya Hawke) who has also been wronged by a girl at their prestigious high school, and schemes for them to each infiltrate the other girl’s target’s respective clique to wreak havoc. Of course it goes awry, as the plot is wont to do, and the results are sharp and sweet at the same time, a story of revenge and friendship that more than sticks the landing.
Armed with Gen-Z humour, some impeccable casting, and a sense of high-camp fun, Kayten Robinson paints a love letter to the teen comedies of the Nineties on screen, from the cohesive colour palettes of the immaculate school uniforms, to the nods to classic films, updating them for a new generation to great effect. Hawke and Mendes are both incredible in their lead roles, managing to find layers upon layers within their own archetypes and developing a chemistry that feels electric. To say more about the film would give away some of Do Revenge’s sharp-tongued charm, as well as a neat plot twist or two, but all of this produces the rare Netflix teen film that could have stood as a theatre release proper. If somehow you’ve not spotted Do Revenge on your Netflix yet, I can’t recommend enough this satirical teen comedy which manages to be a razor-sharp critique of modern day teen girlhood and also a sweet story about finding your real friends. –Chris Haigh, Contributor
Brian and Charles (dir. Jim Archer)
Available on Peacock
I have to thank our very own Old Sport for putting this charming cottage film on my radar. This movie is about a lonely inventor who accidentally successfully invents a robot. But this is less a Frankenstein story than it is a story about finding your place in the world, allowing people to accept who you are, and the call to explore beyond what’s beyond the hill. Plus it’s charmingly Welsh. –Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor