Your Top 5 Films of 2022

Not a great year for movies with Covid still affecting production, but I still found plenty to enjoy this year and here is my list!

1. Speak No Evil

In 1988 the Dutch handed us the most shocking ending of any film made up to that time with The Vanishing.

35 years later, this time mostly in English, they have finally outdone themselves.

You have been warned…

The feel bad movie of the year was by far the best for me. No other film made me think more about the sorry state we are all currently living in than this.

It’s hard to even try to put into words how I felt as the final scene of this nightmare played out, as complete shock gave way to blinding anger. We’ve all been there. Got ourselves into a situation we couldn’t have possibly seen coming and then had to deal with the consiquences. Never before have those consequences hit like they do here.

You know exactly where it’s all going as each simple and very human scene plays out one after the other and amps up the tension to frustratingly unbearable levels. You want to scream at the screen, then you do scream at the screen. Then the unthinkable enters your brain…no it couldn’t be that could it? Yes, yes it could. Ahhhhh ok that’s it then. No it isn’t…it really, really isn’t.

You have been warned again…

It isn’t until after it is all over that we realise this beautifully directed, scored and acted little human drama (which admittedly does occasionally clumsily trip on its own horror tropes) is about so much more that what we have just witnessed. That’s when the true horror begins and we are forced to face ourselves and the world we have created, which is probably why the film has received such middling reviews.

No one likes the truth and it rarely hits home like it does here.


2. Men

Alex Garland’s Men has also received a rather muted public response. This is completely understandable considering the internet fan boys who claimed and declared him the next great savior of cinema for his rather ordinary ‘boy’ movies, finally have the mirror turned on them.

This surreal and beautiful fever dream about generational and societal toxic masculinity borrows heavily from Lars Von Trier both visually and tonally and features some of the years most hauntingly beautiful scenes.

Part time Cabaret actress Jessie Buckley is fantastic as is the ever present Rory Kinnear. Together they create an uncomfortably bizarre 90 minutes of cinematic mystery, symbolism and mayhem.


3. Nope

For me this is the best of Jordan Peele’s trilogy of terror.

Though most of the internets seem to have stumbled about trying to understand it’s rather obvious metaphors this time around, this completely original and beautifully made film is an absolute treasure.

The penultimate moment of the film is probably the mostly perfectly edited, scored, acted and directed scene of the year and while he doesn’t really ‘stick’ the landing, the first 3/4 of the film is pure perfection.


4. The Watcher

This micro budget thriller set in winter time Bucharest was a total surprise for my partner and I.

The name literally says it all with this one and it is just a very simple great little thrill ride.

Burn Gorman’s unusual appearance has FINALLY been put to good use and it was great to see Maika Monroe, who seemed to totally disappear after It Follows, back on screen again.

The creepy location and complete sense of isolation of the lead character does the rest.


5. Triangle of Sadness/Don’t Look Up

These 2 films were pretty much 2 sides to the same coin for me.

While ToS is no Parasite, this biting social satire of the rich and not so famous but think they are, moves from boring to hilarious to shockingly bizarre by its end.

Many hated Don’t Look Up, but I think for this one it was a case of which tribe you belong to, with a dash of ‘too soon’. I thought it was hilarious and Lawrence’s constant throw back to the guy who made her ‘pay for snacks’ had me in stitches every time she did it.

Honorable Mention

‘X’

While its prequel Pearl was a major disappointment towards the end of year, ‘X’ was a wonderful and welcome return to the slow burn horror films of the 70’s.

A delicious mix of Boogie Nights (likable deviants) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (location and tone) and Psycho (if Norma lived) this was a completely macabre and bizarrely moving delight.

Literally nothing happens in the first hour other than setting up the films many likable and kooky characters and then the mayhem begins.

Apart from the first rather grizzly murder, the rest is purely slasher fun featuring some really great set pieces, so it is perfectly viewable by the non gorehounds out there.

Let’s hope the sequel Maxine which releases next year is more ‘X’ and less Pearl.