2022 Capsule Reviews

The Batman

rating: *****

review: As unlikely as this is for me to believe, there are now two visionary depictions of Batman in the movies, The Dark Knight and The Batman.  By the final act, in which Batman realizes his idea of "being vengeance" ended up sending the wrong message, and instead choosing to rescue people in broad daylight, that's a quantum shift in the legacy of the character.  This is the kind of thing that matters when deciding to make yet another Batman movie.  Tim Burton's Batman made it okay to take the character seriously, and now Christopher Nolan and Matt Reeves have built on that, which to my mind makes it the most important film of the year.  The idea of the superhero has been one of the leading concepts of the past hundred years of pop culture.  Still done best with this one.

Amsterdam

rating: *****

review: The idea of the adult drama has suffered in recent decades as a popular phenomenon, but this David O. Russell all star ensemble is an excellent reminder of just how important it is to the art of film.  I would stack it up with anyone's idea of Hollywood classics.

The Banshees of Inisherin

rating: *****

review: Colin Farrell got another legitimate classic out of this reteaming with Martin McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson (after In Bruges saved his Hollywood reputation), though it's far darker and less kind to fingers in general.

Everything Everywhere All At Once

rating: *****

review: That this somehow actually won the Best Picture at the Oscars is a kind of miracle, but it's such an interesting and insightful movie, hopefully more people actually watch it as a result.

Three Thousand Years of Longing

rating: *****

review: Another miracle, though it's disappointing that hardly anyone seems to know it happened, even while George Miller, Tilda Swinton, and Idris Elba fired on all cylinders to make it.

Elvis

rating: *****

review: For decades, if Elvis made it into biopics at all they were either on TV or some minor productions, on the whole, they might as well not have happened.  This was a necessary thing, then, that nailed it.  Also, Tom Hanks in one of his character roles.  Not the first.  Probably the one most fans will point to in later years.

Nope

rating: *****

review: Jordan Peele earned himself the title of auteur with Get Out, but owns it with this ambitious meditation on strange phenomena (and other matters).

Top Gun: Maverick

rating: *****

review: Probably the single most telling success story of the year, one very view would have seen coming just a few years earlier, when it seemed Tom Cruise's popular career was over.  Instead he turns in a true classic sequel to one of his earliest and biggest hits.  This is how you know the death of cinema was greatly exaggerated.

Bullet Train

rating: *****

review: In college, at least when I went, there was an obsession with obtaining posters to plaster dorm walls, and one of the themes from the selections would be cult cinema.  I can't imagine Bullet Train not obtaining that status.  Brad Pitt had a whole renaissance year in 2022, and this was its peak.

Where the Crawdads Sing

rating: *****

review: The wide success of the popular novel in the early century led to an explosion of bookclubs to keep it going, which eventually led to the book on which this was based.  Eventually I was smart enough to read that book, and made the even better decision to watch the movie that resulted.  The emphasis on David Straitharn's supporting character, to my mind, makes it a classic.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

rating: ****

review: At this point it's a known fact that this series ended with Secrets, and it's really hard to believe that the studio didn't know it was going to make that call right at the start of production.  There was a hard pivot at just about every juncture, except most of the main characters returning and receiving a kind of closure, with an even bigger emphasis on Dumbledore than the last one.  As a fan of the series and franchise, I think it accomplished what it needed to, though it's still rough to think what might have been.

Avatar: The Way of Water

rating: ****

review: I don't think enough has been made of just how grand these films are as cinematic spectacles.  I mean, it's pretty much the whole point.  With the first one, after a while, people started to wonder why they cared so much, why it made so much money, and so they doubted the much-belated second one would be any kind of success.  But of course it was anyway.  And was just as astounding.  In storytelling, it's not overly special.  But it's pure movie magic.

After Yang

rating: ****

review: A much more quiet but still critical success for Colin Farrell.  There's a neat moment near the beginning where the family dances.  I like that bit.

The Outfit

rating: ****

review: After Waiting for the Barbarians, I became a fan of Mark Rylance, who pulls off another success with this unexpected suspense drama.

Breaking

rating: ****

review: Holy cow, what a spotlight for John Boyega!  In other decades he would've been showered with acting awards.  Somehow not in this one.

Marry Me

rating: ****

review: Jennifer Lopez hit a another popular peak in recent years, and this throwback to her biggest movie successes works, for me, as it happens to costar Owen Wilson, who's been a lowkey favorite of mine for years.

Uncharted

rating: ****

review: Made me actually like the pipsqueak who plays the modern Spider-Man.  A solid riff on what will forever be known as the Indiana Jones archetype.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

rating: ****

review: Jim Carrey declared he was done with acting after this.  If he really is, it's not a bad way to go.

Black Adam

rating: ****

review: People with nothing better to do have been having a field day with the box office failure of this one, saying it's the final nail in the coffin of Dwayne Johnson's popular career.  Most of them have barely any notion of what Johnson's career has actually looked like.  Well, anyway, I loved it.  I think it's an astonishing miracle it got made like this at all, much less the fact that it got made only because Johnson took the role.  

The Bad Guys

rating: ****

review: On Twitter (or whatever you'd like to call it these days), I have one of the creators of the cartoon strip Over the Hedge in my feed.  I bring this up because he's always trying to drum up support for a sequel to the animated film that resulted from it.  I figure The Bad Guys is destined for that kind of fate, a classic of a movie that maybe will never get the respect it's due, much less a sequel.  But it could play out differently!

Ambulance

rating: ****

review: It's kind of hard to believe now, but there was a time when Michael Bay was taken seriously as a filmmaker.  The Criterion Collection even added Armageddon to its highly selective catalog of mostly European cinema and American auteurs.  I haven't always overly interested in his career myself (still have yet to see Armageddon, even!), but I figured if anyone was capable of helping define the cinematic surge that was 2022, it was Bay.  I was right.  Good stuff.

The Contractor

rating: ****

review: A fine spotlight for Chris Pine, an action as well as character drama that allows him to showcase his strengths in both.

The Menu 

rating: ****

review: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, crazy social commentary...Whate else do you want served?

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

rating: ****

review: Unlike his last solo outing, Puss's belated second adventure leans back into his Shrek origins with more shenanigans and spoof characters.

Crimes of the Future

rating: ****

review: David Cronenberg showing up in a recurring role for Star Trek: Discovery was enough to convince me to have a look at Crimes, which was overly sensationalized (the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie received similar treatment) by sensitive viewers, when it's really a quiet drama about outsiders.

Don't Worry Darling

rating: ****

review: I am not remotely part of the critical cult of Florence Pugh, but this compelling cautionary tale from Olivia Wilde (now I get why Salman Rushdie was so interested in her; y'know, other than the obvious), which also gives Chris Pine a higher profile gig, a nice spotlight.  Harry Styles got the opposite of the Pugh treatment for no discernible reason.

The Lost City

rating: ***

review: This all star ensemble (Sandra Bullock! Channing Tatum! Daniel Radcliffe! even Brad Pitt in a supporting role!) is a fun ride.  I would've tweaked some things here and there.  Still kind of upset Pitt didn't have a bigger role.  Kind of stole the movie for me.  Fun fact!  Bullock and Tatum also both show up in Bullet Train.  Very weird.  Fairly certain they were completely different studios.

Ticket to Paradise

rating: ***

review: Nice to see George Clooney show up in something visible again (and it was also a minor hit!).  Not to par with his best movies, but certainly worth watching.  His costar Julia Roberts, she's worth noting probably, too.  Old school Hollywood definitely felt like asserting itself in 2022.

Moonfall

rating: ***

review: Another callback to the '90s!  It was like Independence Day all over again!

Death on the Nile

rating: ***

review: I read the book before watching the movie.  Usually I call hogwash the notion that the book is always better than the movie.  But I had a hard time forgetting how enjoyable the book was.  I adore Kenneth Branagh making these movies, though.  

Babylon

rating: ***

review: Here's Pitt again.  But it's really mostly just Margot Robbie doing her crazy routine in the most thoroughly old school Hollywood possible.  

Father Stu

rating: ***

review: I was surprised when I heard my dad say he enjoyed this one, since I thought it leaned a little heavily on Father Stu's pre-Catholic days.

Thor: Love and Thunder

rating: ***

review: For me a huge step up from Ragnorak, which everyone who saw it loved, and loathed this one.  You never can tell how these things will play out.  Best Thor movie, and very easily so for me.

The Forgiven

rating: ***

review: I wasn't actually much of a fan of Ralph Fiennes' prior career as a generally mopy movie star, and yet this is a callback to that, with the added bonus of Jessica Chastain joining along for the ride.

The Northman

rating: ***

review: Cult-like success convinced me to watch.  Generally worth it.

Clerks III

rating: ***

review: Haven't technically seen the other two.  Kevin Smith growing nostalgic works on its own.

The 355

rating: ***

review: An all-womens all star ensemble led by Jessica Chastain is probably well worth another look down the line despite being savagely dismissed on original release.

Beast

rating: ***

review: Idris Elba in a family drama highlighted by a vicious fight scene at the end with the eponymous lion.

Morbius

rating: ***

review: People have no idea how often they're manipulated by studios.  Disney is a terrible offender in this.  They hype up their product, and spread bad vibes for any and all competitors.  This isn't conspiracy.  It doesn't always work, too, especially when no one is really going to see a wide success coming.  But you get things like the constant mindless negativity for Sony's Morbius, which is admittedly already an improbable vehicle.  Better than any of the Blade movies ever were, anyway.  Once the machine gears up, people assume their poor opinions of something were self-generated.  Don't know what to tell ya.  Most of you don't work that hard to generate a reaction.  You agree with the consensus, even when it was somehow there before a movie like this was even released.  That's how it works.

Minions: The Rise of Gru

rating: ***

review: This sort of thing will work really well for kids, but for adults the charms of the original (Despicable Me, in case you forgot) suffer diminishing returns the more the series forgets that the whole point was to, y'know, redeem Gru...

Memory

rating: ***

review: A minor though interesting variation in the later Liam Neeson action canon, allowing the reality of his aging to inform some of the drama.

The Fabelmans

rating: ***

review: For me, Spielberg's career becomes increasingly sad as he desperately pleads for the approval of the Hollywood establishment.  This is the guy who redefined the establishment forty years ago.  He has no business worrying about such things.  And yet he does.

Jurassic World: Dominion

rating: ***

review: This is a whole franchise (going all the way back to Jurassic Park itself) that I've never really been overly invested in, and yet they keep making new movies, and so I have a look every now and then, and it's okay.  

Medieval 

rating: **

review: Gosh, I wish Ben Foster had held out for something a little better.

DC League of Superpets

rating: **

review: Will certainly be worth revisiting, but immediately seems to have been worth the trailer, which was really good, and not a whole lot more.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

rating: **

review: I think probably after it lost its original meta plot of Nicolas Cage appearing in a Quentin Tarantino film, I lost most of my actual interest.  But it's still nice that Cage clawed his way back into movie theaters thanks to whatever you want to call the finished results.

The King's Daughter

rating: **

review: Live action Disney that isn't Disney nor adapting any known Disney material.  So it's probably definitely something you can show the whole family and enjoy.  But not remember very clearly later.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

rating: *

review: To me, the definition of insulting is bothering to bring in a collection of cameo characters that you mindlessly slaughter to drive up the threat of the character who isn't even, in the final analysis, the main threat of the movie.  What a truly embarrassing statement on the current state of the MCU.  Astute readers will note I haven't seen all of the recent additions.  I really don't see the point.  Now they're just making it the same as the actual comics.  Which for me have also been widely skippable.  In order to prove their further relevance, they're becoming either further irreverent or mindlessly obsessed with counterfeit legacies.  What joy.