2022 WRAP

2022 and the cinemas were back open. The futilely expected springback from 2020 seemed to finally happen as the listings filled up with movies that I actually wanted to see. The audiences tiptoed back in, still masked and careful to keep to themselves. Once my choctop was devoured the cover went back on. This decreased behind me in the middle and back rows. By MIFF, being masked was the exception. I caught a cold which ignited an asthma-like bronchitis which made me cough like an anti-aircraft weapon and I had to reassign a lot of tickets and still miss two screenings. Happily the streaming program continued into this year and I spent a lot of the week after watching at home in voluntary isolation. It wasn't COVID but it did come back along with the bronchitis a week back into work life. Ah well, a few more weeks away from cinemas where I'd be lynched for coughing like that.

Finally got to sit in front of two long bucket-list items: seeing the "lost" classic of Australian cinema 2000 Weeks (ok, but nothing declared lost will ever live up to its hype) and Friday the 13th III in 3D at the Nova which was outstanding. Having the cinema as an option remained a novelty for a good half of the year and added a joyous tickle to the outing. The gasps at spectacular moments of Moonage Daydream, groans of dread at Barbarian, and rattling laughter at Bodies Bodies Bodies offered the familiar pleasure of seeing a movie in the dark with a crowd.

Top spot is tied between Moonage Daydream and Everything Everywhere All at Once

High

Barbarian: smart, cheeky and genuinely scary. Does what it says.

Moonage Daydream: the only way to document the career of one of rock music's most protean and important figures is this beautiful assault.

Saloum: genre-hopping folk horror makes a ton out of meagre means.

The Lost City of Melbourne: Not just because it is about my chosen city but does so with depth, strong storytelling approach and mother of invention aesthetic felt like home as Guy Maddin might have imagined it.

Lola: How to embrace a big idea in a humble budget, keep the story compelling, respect your cast and go for broke. A wonderful surprise of indy cinema.

Prey: Want to do honour to a loved but mangled franchise? Make a prequel that takes it seriously. This is how.

Soft and Quiet: Single shot found footage lets rip from the word go and shows us why we shouldn't be Nazis. For real. Will be thought too contrived by some but it worked a treat for me.

Pig: Nicholas Cage will now and then give his fans proof that he is not just a wild eyed screaming weirdo. This study in pain retention reminded me in the best way of the kind of indy cinema of the '70s and '80s that I still miss without a moment's self-conscious tribute.

Everything Everywhere All at Once: Some heavily clever ideas spin out of their creator's control fast, others are kept too much under restraints. This one both kept spinning wildly and kept giving. A finally beautiful trip of regret and acceptance.

Something in the Dirt: What do a ideas cinema team do in lockdown? They have more ideas and work out how to do them. In an interview I saw with Benson and Moorehead they answered the question of how they would follow their most recent project and one of them said, "we'll do the one we can do." Boy, they'd have to slip up for me to baulk seeing anything new by them.

Blaze: A brutal and beautiful fable of trauma and letting go. Needs more audience. Maybe on one of the streamers.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: A case of a second franchise movie exceeding the original. This is in every way the superior of the two and if there are more to follow I'll be there.

The Drover's Wife: A surprisingly restrained reimagining of a classic Australian tale the keeps faith with its original but also adds the missing element of race.

Petite Maman: Completely disarming time travel tale driven by hard emotions and cooling execution.

We're All Going to the World's Fair: When shoestring screen life  movies keep it short, sweet and simple to create unease and sorrow it's time to watch and keep watching.

Middle 

Bodies Bodies Bodies: Fun and surprising thriller with a coolly undercutting conclusion.

Bones and All: In which Luca Guadagnino partially redeems himself from the sloppy pointlessness of his Suspiria remake.

Wounded Fawn: I kept wanting it to erupt. Good but lacking.

The Worst Person in the World: Engaging fable of life speeding away as its most ardent dreamers take their time with the fantasy. Wanted it a little sharper, though.

Men: What it says and with merit. Wanted it to be more than what it said.

Hellbender: Gloriously taped together supernatural horror by cinema's actual Adams Family. A little creaky but I will now watch anything they put their names to.

Skinamarink: Largely successful experiment in horror gets a little too carried away with its technique that it starts alienating when it stops scaring. I'll watch the space, though, so to speak.

Flux Gourmet: Not the first Peter Strickland piece I found hard to love but I was glad to have seen it at a cinema.

Old: M. Night Shyamalan at his best with strong commitment to concept but also at his worst with an overcooked twist. Always want his films to be better.

Enys Men: The master of Bait (no, not a joke, just reads like one) returns with a '70s style UK weird magic story that works a treat. Let down a little (and only a little) by backstory that we were doing fine without.

Glorious: Nice try at a conversation with a deity with a lot of elements familiar enough to keep it fun. Felt less than 100%, though.

The Wonder: Tale of the meaning of a local miracle and how the community nurtures it even to the expense of its central figure. Strong work that yet felt short of the mark, despite some industry best performances.

Scream: The okayest movie of the year.

Smile: Better than a high functioning jump scare movie but not as good as an original curse tale that clarifies its boundaries and keeps to them. Works well but doesn't quite push its way out of mere adequacy. Points for strong electronic score.

Dark Glasses: Better Argento than we have a right to expect these days.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Another one where you have to qualify the date when you talk about the original. This wasn't so bad but it was unasked for.

Dashcam: More single sequence screen life horror fun from the team that brought us the lockdown classic Host. I share my issue with most of the audience in that it takes so long to care about the obnoxious protagonist that it almost falls apart halfway. It does regain ground but then we need to, also.

Deadstream: See above for empathy and obnoxiousness. It's hard to love the central figure but the horror situation takes over and wins us (not without a big fight).

You Won't Be Alone: Highly accomplished folk horror of body-jumping entity provides both well learned lessons and originality. Kept wanting it to take advantage of the horror flavours on show, though.

Sissy: Highly enjoyable horror satire didn't quite resolve which of those approaches it preferred. Not bad at all but not quite strong enough.

V/H/S/99: One of the better of these horror anthologies with a lot of fun before a trip to hell. Wish I liked more of it.

Crimes of the Future: Cronenberg covers himself in an era when his son is doing similar but better. Always good to see DC get back on to the genre wagon he invented. Maybe it's time to either move away or go harder.

Decision to Leave: Too elegant and stylish for its own good as this Park Chan-wook noir falls into repetition and tedium.

The Black Phone: Intriguing setup just ends up hugging its own coastline. How can alarming topics like child abduction and molestation in a survival story be routine? Watch this movie.

X: Kept confusing it with the Texas Chainsaw remake but a lot of merit by itself. Didn't get to see Pearl in time to put it here but it has a reputation that eclipses this (not too shabby for a secondary project thought up and shot while on location)

LOW

Nope: Everything is extraordinary in principle but, after the initial premise, it seems to just play out, something I couldn't say of Get Out or US.

Belfast: Cute Ulsterians in a neighbourhood increasingly plagued by factional violence while the wee kiddies grow up fast. Too much contrivance for too little heart.

Nightmare Alley: A disappointingly overstated rehash of a great undersung '40s original. I had to return to the Tyrone Power version to remind myself that it did, indeed, feel more grown up than this new one.

Hellraiser: A few good aspects like the new casting of Pinhead and the overall design. But if you are going to persist with grave robbing an old franchise like this without trying to figure out what made the first one work and why the ones that followed didn't you should just go back and watch them and take some notes. Oh, and it really ought to try being scary.

My Best Friend's Exorcism: If you are going to adapt a contemporary classic of YA fiction that contains a laugh out loud moment on every single page try to include some more humour and if said book strays from cliche while poking fun at it try and do that, too. Don't just make a thing with the same title but without the jokes.

Don't Worry Darling: Some films soften with me over time and I can start to see how they work at least for others. This one plays its hand too early and treads water for too long before getting to the point, betraying everything about the first act that was genuinely good.

The Humans: To do a troubled family get together you need a lot more than contrived conflict and a spooky setting. And never, whatever it is, call a piece of fiction The Humans. 

Petrol: A vacuous local scenester guru is pursued by someone who is far more interesting. The kind of overstuffed piffle that gives movies made in Melbourne a bad name. 

The Lonely Souls Variety Hour: Wes Anderson keeps copying Hal Ashby without ever getting it. This copies Wes Anderson.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion: A compelling tale of media violation and the dark web ruined by a cast with no presence.

And so, farewell to the most varied year at the cinema since sometime before the plague. It was wonderful to return to the cinema experience as a normal thing rather than a stolen one. MIFF was much improved with some good selections and the continuation of the streaming program (I suspect that was there as a failsafe like the previous two years). Getting back into the venues that only open for the festival was the smoothest dream. I maxed out the Forum screenings on my sharepass. Seeing less end of year short term titles in the marginal mainstream places like the Nova or Kino but times have altered that. Roll on, 2023.