January 20, 2023
Following last week’s Golden Globes Awards and a number of the production branches nominating their favorite films of the year, it’s clear that movie award season has kicked into high gear. The Oscar nominations come out on Tuesday, but the ceremony is not until March 12th, so you have plenty of time to catch up on some of the contending films before then. This week I’m breaking down more of my favorite movies from 2022 that you might have missed. If you missed part one, you can check it out here.
Before we dive into a new crop of movies, here is a quick link to some 2022 films I covered late last year in other posts.
- Don’t Worry Darling – the domestic drama with more melodrama behind the scenes than on the screen, featuring a performance by Florence Pugh that is much better than the paper-thin plot she deserved. You can read my thoughts here and check out Don’t Worry Darling on HBO Max.
- Weird: The Al Yankovic Story – Daniel Radcliffe continues his pursuit of playing roles that are wildly different from Harry Potter. Parts of this film work very well, but some of it is a little too silly. If you remember the 80s nostalgia of Weird Al and go in with the right expectations, this one is kind of fun. Here are my thoughts and you can watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story for free on the Roku channel or at Roku’s website.
Some of my favorite music documentaries from 2022:
- Moonage Daydream – The David Bowie documentary that is more art film than conventional look at a musician’s life. If you are a diehard Bowie fan, you’ll admire this one a lot. You can read my thoughts here and rent Moonage Daydream on demand.
- George Michael: Freedom Uncut – A fascinating look at one of the more talented singer-songwriters of the 1980s and 1990s who died way too early. Michael started making this film before he died, so it features a lot of his narration. Here are more of my thoughts and you can rent George Michael: Freedom Uncut on demand.
- Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me – A wonderful examination of the woman behind the celebrity persona. The vulnerability and courage she displays in sharing her struggles in an effort to help others was inspiring. Here are my full comments and Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me is available on Apple TV+.
Two that just missed my top ten list of the year:
- Barbarian – the bonkers horror movie that had me saying “What the f*ck?” out loud in the theater multiple times. As I covered here, I recommend going into this one blind before you watch Barbarian on HBO Max.
- Thirteen Lives – in any other year, this film about the boys soccer team rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand would (should) be part of the awards conversation, but it was lost in the acquisition of MGM Studios by Amazon and then dumped onto Amazon Prime. It disappeared, hardly anyone saw it, and I think in a few years people will discover this thrilling story from Ron Howard and ask “How did I miss this?” Another endorsement – Paul Thomas Anderson just named it his favorite film of 2022. You can read more of my thoughts here and watch Thirteen Lives on Amazon Prime.
OK, let’s jump into some other films, starting with two movies led by A-list celebrities that pleasantly surprised me.
Biggest Surprises – Confess, Fletch and Hustle
As a child of the 1980s, one of my favorite comedies from that era was Fletch, with Chevy Chase as the wise-cracking investigative reporter. The magic in that film was not necessarily the story he was working on (despite having seen Fletch dozens of times, I barely remember the plot). No, it was Chase himself taking on various personalities, wearing disguises, and delivering iconic punchlines and memorable quotes that stuck with us for decades. The film was based on a series of novels, so it seemed like this could turn into a franchise. Unfortunately, the sequel was a disaster and a flop and the Fletch character sat on the shelf for many years. That is, until a new adaption came last year with none other than Jon Hamm in the starring role.
Hamm is obviously best known for portraying Don Draper for seven seasons on Mad Men. That series, as much as I love it, is the farthest thing from comedy you could think of. But Hamm has had his comedic moments, particularly during episodes of 30 Rock, hosting Saturday Night Live, and various other cameos in comedies. I was pretty sure Hamm could make this work, but was still a little cautious since it had been so long since the original movie. But I was proven wrong as this was a delightful comedy, with a little drama and suspense thrown in for good measure.
The plot of Confess, Fletch is pretty good and has some twists and turns to keep you guessing about where the story is going. There is also a very good supporting cast featuring Kyle McLachlan, Marcia Gay Harden (in a hilarious performance) and old Mad Men friend John Slattery as Fletch’s former boss. But the clear star here is Hamm, who is perfectly delivering deadpan jokes throughout the film and is as charming as ever. It’s hard to compare his performance to Chase’s, which was more slapstick than this one – there are no goofy wigs, fake teeth, or wacky accents here. Just smart humor. I liked this one a lot and hope to see more adaptations of the Fletch novels with Hamm starring in the lead role in the future. You can watch Confess, Fletch on Showtime.
It’s no secret that I have been critical of the original content that Netflix churns out. It feels like most of the movies and television shows are empty calorie junk foods. Occasionally they will finance a well-known filmmaker, or acquire a very good international picture (like the recent adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, which is excellent), but most times it feels like their films are one notch above a Lifetime movie. I’ve also been hot and cold on Adam Sandler. Maybe I am the wrong generation, but I could never get into the goofy comedies he made – as an example, I found Happy Gilmore amusing, but not the legendary comedy it is often hailed as. So, I went into his new film with a little hesitation, and much like Confess, Fletch, I was pleasantly surprised.
In Hustle, Sandler brings his real-life love of NBA basketball to the screen. He plays Stanley, a scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who has gotten on the bad side with the team’s owners and is sent overseas to find the next basketball superstar. He stumbles upon a prodigy in Spain and quickly convinces him he can get him into the NBA. When he brings over his prized recruit (played by NBA player Juancho Hernangómez), things go awry, and Stanley quits the 76ers, determined to represent the player himself and get him drafted into the NBA.
Hustle is a very good film that NBA fans will probably really enjoy. It features a (fairly) realistic look at the NBA player development process and is a good combination of comedy and drama, along with basketball sequences that are realistic and compelling. Sandler was outstanding in this role and this is my favorite kind of performance from him. He’s funny and charming, without being overly goofy, and he has strong dramatic acting chops, especially when instilling a sense of urgency with the players, arguing with the team’s owner, or interacting with his wife, played by Queen Latifah. You know who else likes Sandler? His fellow actors. He was just nominated for Best Actor for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which is voted on by only actors, and was a surprise nomination during this award season. You can watch Hustle on Netflix now.
A Very Good Movie with an Unfair Comparison – Devotion
Try to imagine a world where Top Gun: Maverick didn’t exist. I know, that’s not fair and if you loved it as much as I did, you don’t even want to think about such a world. But in that world, this next movie might have been a much bigger hit, and could have filled that nostalgia hole that Top Gun: Maverick did. But, Devotion was released in the midst of the busy award season and this film is not going to win any awards. But that’s not to say it isn’t good. Despite the lackluster results at the box office, I actually liked Devotion a lot, mostly because it features very good action sequences and two of the best young actors working today in the leading roles.
This true-story film begins at a naval base in Rhode Island during the time right before the Korean War. A group of pilots are training, but not knowing what they are training for. Feeling that they missed out on their opportunity to fight in World War II, they wonder if they will ever have the chance to serve their country overseas. Jonathan Majors (about to have a huge year co-starring in Creed III and taking over as the new villain in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) plays real-life naval pilot Jesse Brown, the only Black member of his unit. He strikes up a friendship with Tom Hudner, played by Glenn Powell (Hangman from Top Gun: Maverick) and as they continue their training, they become good friends. The film chronicles their experiences, including going overseas just as the Korean War breaks out. Brown was the first Black officer to complete the Navy’s flight training program and Majors is outstanding in the role. Devotion is a little on the long side and I might have liked it a little more if they kept it under two hours, but for a Friday night viewing from home, this is a very good choice. Devotion is available to stream on Paramount+ now.
Great Actress Showcases – Causeway and Emily the Criminal
Besides a supporting role in 2021’s Don’t Look Up, Jennifer Lawrence hasn’t been very active in her acting career lately. After a whirlwind decade that included an Oscar win at the age of 22, four Hunger Games pictures, several dramas, a few superhero movies, and some ill-advised choices, she took a self-imposed break from the acting grind. This past year, she continued her re-emergence into the movie industry with a dramatic performance in Causeway that was a showcase of just how talented she can be.
Lawrence plays a soldier returning from a tour of duty where she was injured by an IED explosion. She suffered a brain injury and moves back in with her mom to begin her recovery. She is eager to move through her rehabilitation quickly to get back overseas, but her doctor is reluctant to grant her approval given her condition and resulting depression. While figuring out her way through her new life, she strikes up a friendship with a mechanic, played by Bryan Tyree Henry, who is also recovering from a different kind of trauma. The two characters only seem to have one thing in common, but they bond over their shared grief and recovery. This is a quiet story of friendship, without the messy plot device of “will they or won’t they”. Just two people helping each other heal from life’s wounds, with two strong lead performances making this a very good film. Causeway is available to stream on Apple TV+.
One actress who hasn’t been on a break, but instead has been very busy since her turn on Parks and Recreation ended in 2015 is Aubrey Plaza. She was probably my favorite character on that show, and for a while she ended up playing characters very similar to her role as April Ludgate. The sarcastic, eye-rolling, wiseass who made you laugh, but also kind of drove you nuts. It was refreshing to see her start to branch out into different roles recently, including her excellent performance in season two of The White Lotus. Speaking of which, if you aren’t watching that show yet, add it to your list. It’s a fantastic dark comedy-drama with rich characters and storylines written and directed by Mike White, whose sole purpose is to make his audience feel uncomfortable about the realities of life.
Back to Plaza. About a year ago, I watched her most recent movie, Emily the Criminal, as part of the Sundance Film Festival. I enjoyed the movie a lot, especially her performance, but kind of forgot about it until recently. That was because after a short theatrical run last summer, it was picked up by Netflix and started streaming in December. Suddenly, it was showing up on the “Now Playing” carousel and getting some eyeballs on it. This is where Netflix can do good – keep acquiring very good films to make them available to viewers, and stop financing true-crime documentaries and shitty movies with half-baked stories, B-list actors, and messy CGI special effects.
In Emily the Criminal, Plaza plays the title character who is struggling to survive financially, saddled with high student loan balances, and a criminal past that hampers her ability to get a good job. She stumbles into a quick way to make some money and discovers it’s actually a credit card fraud ring. Once she partners up with the group’s leader, she is enticed by the ability to quickly get out of her burdensome debt. As you can imagine, things spiral out of control from there. This is a nice independent film that feels more polished than that label. Plaza makes this movie work very well, and some of the heist scenes add some complementary suspense to the story. A great showcase for Aubrey Plaza the actress, not just the comedian. Emily the Criminal is now streaming on Netflix.
A Compelling Personal Story – All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
As the critics’ top ten lists started to emerge in late December, there was one documentary that kept appearing over and over again. Now, it’s somewhat rare for documentaries to get this much attention in critics’ top ten lists, so it seemed like this one was special. In case you were wondering, a documentary has never been nominated for Best Picture, and given the Oscar voting process (too complicated to go into here), it likely won’t happen anytime soon. Needless to say, I kept hearing about All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras (Oscar winner for Citizenfour, a documentary about Edward Snowden that I covered here), so I decided to seek it out.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is the story of Nan Goldin, an activist and artist who gained a following in the 1970s in New York City. Goldin rose to fame through her art that focused on the LGBT culture and she was known for pushing boundaries, including highlighting the government’s lack of attention to the emerging AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. Now, this is not usually a topic that would interest me, as I am not into art and this is a very New York movie and I am not really a New York kind of guy. But there was a hook to this film that I found really intriguing and it made the film a powerful story.
Following a serious addiction to drugs and alcohol, Goldin found herself becoming addicted to opioids. After seeking treatment, she started to realize that the Sackler family (who owned Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin) were large supporters of museums, and their donations got their name on various exhibits and museum wings. She formed an activist organization, along with other survivors of opioid addiction, to push the museums to take down the Sackler name and stop taking their money. The lawsuits against the Sackler family are also featured in the film, and we see some powerful sequences with family members of those who died from opioid addiction. The film bounces back and forth between Goldin’s life story, and present day, where we see her group’s fits and starts to achieve their activist goals. I found the latter topic more compelling, but her life story definitely had some interesting moments that shaped who she is today. A very powerful story about an inspirational person trying to use her experience and influence to change the world. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is now playing in limited theaters and will likely be available to rent on demand in the coming weeks.
A Different Kind of Love Story – Fire of Love
About a year ago, as I was making my way through the virtual Sundance Film Festival, I kept reading about one of the documentaries that was getting rave reviews. Needless to say, I quickly added it to my list. Fire of Love is an unconventional documentary about a French couple who make their living as volcanologists, individuals who study the science of volcanoes.
Maurice and Katia Krafft met in college and were drawn together by their love of science and the intrigue of volcanoes. They made their career the sole focus of their lives, choosing to not have children as they knew it wouldn’t be a good environment to raise a child. They were like storm chasers, quickly traveling to the location of a recent eruption, studying what happened. Their ultimate goal was to better understand the science, so as to be able to predict when an eruption would occur, to better protect the people who lived nearby.
Fire of Love is a unique documentary in that director Sara Dosa compiled the film based entirely on the Krafft’s archive footage, and she narrated the movie to help shape the story. You can probably guess what happens to the couple as the story starts to emerge (hint: don’t read the Wikipedia description), but what the film highlights is the incredible relationship these two people had together. Their passion for their career and each other showed that they would be happy with whatever happened, as long as they were together. Needless to say, the volcano footage in the film is stunning and this is a great story. Fire of Love is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
The Master at Work – George Carlin’s American Dream
When I was growing up, we were fortunate to have HBO in our house. Aside from a run of 1980s staples airing over and over again, HBO was known for being at the forefront of the stand-up comedy special. One of my memories during that time was finding a way to sneak in a viewing of Eddie Murphy Delirious. I was only 11 when it came out – not exactly ready for R-rated content. Delirious is an all-time comedy special, albeit with some bits that have aged incredibly poorly forty years later. Another memory is watching the stand-up specials of the comedy legend George Carlin, particularly Carlin at Carnegie and Carlin on Campus. His witty, rapid-fire take on the absurdity of the world around us, even with a crudeness that would make anyone blush, left me in hysterical laughter. There are still bits from those specials that resonate decades later. If I ever see a package of head cheese at the deli, I instantly play Carlin saying it in my head and start laughing. And I get strange looks.
Last year, director Judd Apatow decided to pull together a two-part documentary film to tell the story of his life and career. Interviews with Carlin, his family, and fellow comedians are featured throughout the almost four hour runtime. It’s probably worth it to pause to say that I don’t know if this technically qualifies as a film or a television show, but I wanted to write about it, so there you have it.
Anyway, two things stand out in Apatow’s film. The first is that I had no idea that Carlin’s early career as a writer and sketch performer on television shows was more straight-laced than the comedian I saw in the 1980s. Fortunately, he had a realization that he wasn’t being true to himself in his work, and his wife encouraged him to try something different in his comedic approach. It took him a while to find success, but once he did, he became an icon in the industry.
The second thing that stood out is the footage. Oh my god, the sequences featured in this documentary are absolutely hilarious. It made me glad that Apatow had the flexibility to make this a long film, just like I felt about Peter Bogdanovich’s Runnin’ Down a Dream, the four-hour documentary about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. We get to experience so many of Carlin’s legendary routines, many of which still resonate in today’s culture – political, economic, societal – everything still connects to today’s world. Which brings up one downside. The last portion of the film includes some sequences that draw some comparisons to the most recent occupants of the White House, which felt a little bit like Apatow shoving his own political beliefs into the movie – a choice that I think filmmakers have to be really careful about. Regardless, that little complaint doesn’t hamper what I think was my favorite documentary of the year. George Carlin’s American Dream is now streaming on HBO Max.
That’s all for this week. I’ll be back next week with a look at more of my favorite films of 2022. If you’d like to find where to watch any of the movies I write about, you can go to my Film Index here or to JustWatch.com and search for the film there. Thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe below.