Saint Omer – 7

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A simply shot, mesmerizing courtroom drama, semi-opaque as a drama but evocative of ideas. Of maternity, of personal responsibility, of colonialism, of man and woman, of race, more of race, of journalistic objectivity. From our viewpoint, it is also curious to observe and try to understand the French criminal justice system (with six seasons of Spiral as our background). We never quite understand the two Black women at the story’s center, the writer and the defendant who murdered her child. It is not our place to understand them. But they are unforgettable.

Retrograde – 7

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Utterly remarkable footage of the last days of the Afghan war, embedded with American troops/advisers in Helmand Province, then with the Afghan forces after the Americans withdrew. The story wasn’t much, and there were perhaps too many scenes of soldiers looking at each other, talking on the phone, and just thinking; but the portrait it painted of the two forces was devastating: the Americans exuded competence, the Afghans were amateurs. You wondered what 19 years of American training had accomplished; or, conversely, what we were doing there at all. There was no discussion or explanation of why the Taliban were such superior fighters, or even what the war was about. And footage of the withdrawal itself–what a mess! As a scrapbook of a doomed war, this should be a keeper.

Happening – 7

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A one-trick pony on an unpleasant journey. I take it this was based on Annie Ernaux’s experience seeking an illegal abortion in 1963 France (similar in monotone to her 2002 memoir which I’m currently reading about her affair with a Russian diplomat). The acting was impeccable and realistic, a la Francaise, but the film wasn’t easy to watch. From the start we knew where we were going, just not exactly how we’d get there. The subject, an important one, was handled more to my appreciation in Call Jane.

Avatar: The Way of Water – 5

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What a spectacle, what a production! If there was an ounce of originality in the story or characters, however, I missed it. The dialogue might as well have been cartoon bubbles; action scenes came straight from Moby Dick, Wizard of Oz and Titanic, just to name obvious sources. Any drama was dissipated by the three-hour length. And attempts to make the incredible plausible–e.g., the discussion of breathing underwater–just called attention to the logical absurdities–e.g., every arrow hit its target, while the machine guns mostly missed. And call me a racist, but I didn’t find the Navi terribly appealing.

All Quiet on the Western Front – 7.9

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As movies showing the horror of war go, this is hard to beat–more realistic and thus more powerful than 1917. In fact, that is perhaps the sole purpose of the film. There are characters, but we are told nothing about them, any more than we know about the pawn or the knight on a chessboard. The wastefulness, uselessness and stupidity of World War I trench warfare hits even harder when we have read that morning of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers locked in similar combat. What a species are we! My only complaint, and it’s not insignificant, is that the 2-1/2 hour film is a half-hour too long. I kept identifying welcome and appropriate endings, only to have the camera find one more battle, one more wound to the gut to show. [Although a Netflix film, this needs to be seen on the very wide screen of a movie theater.]

All The Beauty and the Bloodshed – 7

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This was three films in one, but none dug as deeply as I would have liked. Nan Goldin’s crusade to make museums expunge the Sackler name bookended the documentary, but we never saw how the museums grappled with the issue. Second was Nan Goldin’s loveless upbringing, which produced the film’s title and her sister’s suicide, told through scrapbook phots. Third, and most intriguing, was Goldin’s artistic output, but the movie didn’t address the question I’ve always had: how did her photographs of grungy people in their underwear make her an art star? You could say her upbringing led to her art, and the success of her art enabled her to accomplish her crusade, but a film that concentrated, instead, on any of those three topics could have been better.

Top Ten 2022

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It has become traditional at year’s end that I look back and select ten memorable films I’ve seen in the preceding twelve months, and I shall hew to tradition, even though a look back convinces me that this was the worst year of cinema I can remember. Was it a hangover from the pandemic? A migration of talent to television series? Uncertainty about the fate of the world? Who knows? One trend that was constant was the absence of spectators in the theaters. At a 7:30 Monday showing of Devotion I was completely alone. It seems inevitable that the industry will suffer, then change. Movie budgets and star salaries could drop by 50% or more and it wouldn’t necessarily hurt the product. Many of my favorites–e.g., Banshees of Inisherin–could be made on a shoestring. At the same time, the year’s highest grossing films, albeit few and far between, were still high-budget blockbusters; so I fear Hollywood will chase in that direction for a while to come. The number of big-budget flops, however, will shake something. Usually, the last weeks of December are full of pedigreed, Oscar-intended releases that we have to wait until February to catch. This year, not so much. That said, here are my favorites:

1. Argentina 1985. A true story of a political reckoning in, per the title, 1985 Argentina, this had superlative ensemble acting around a remarkable lead performance and a convincing sense of realism (compare, e.g., to the similar She Said). It got bonus points for showing me a culture and a moment of history I was unfamiliar with. And, always welcome, a heartwarming ending.

2. Official Competition. The most fun movie of the year, with Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderis and Oscar Martinez having the time of their lives playing actors making a film. The plot twists wee delicious, the spare cinematography elegant, the intelligence welcome.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin. So Irish, so stubbornly tragic, so forlornly beautiful, but above all such amazing peformances by Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Kerry Condon and all the regulars at the pub. This was obviously and fittingly a playwright’s movie.

4. The Bastard King. A totally remarkable nature docudrama in which the life of a lion is not only anthropomorphized but raises issues central to our own species, from climate change on down. Filmed in sepia, each scene is more jaw-dropping than the last.

5. Call Jane. In spirit a sequel to the superior The Trial of the Chicago 7, this was the political feel-good film of the year, unfortunately made timely by the Dobbs decision.

6. Tar. The final ten minutes ruined what was otherwise the most powerful, thought-provoking American film, with two great performances by Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and a unique dive into the world of classical music.

7. Cyrano. As much a ballet or opera as a movie, this reimagining of a well worn fable with Peter Dinklage as the fulcrum brought the 17th-century French settings to lovely life.

8. Phantom of the Open. Always room for a feel-good comedy with a good heart. The golf sequences were spurious but Mark Rylance’s characterization was deft.

9. Top Gun: Maverick. Strictly formulaic but an expertly executed tried-and-true formula. The anonymity of the enemy downplayed the militarism, and Jennifer Connelly was the heartthrob of the year.

10. The Good Nurse. Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in a quietly powerful “based-on-a-true-story” indictment of our health care system.

PS: The Quiet Girl and All Quiet On the Western Front While not available for viewing in Santa Barbara in time for the initial list, both of these films are up for 2022 Oscars and merit inclusion on the above list, replacing Phantom and Nurse, as much as I liked those quirky choices. All Quiet is powerful both as action film and political statement, while Quiet Girl is a pure expression of love and beauty, a psychological probing worthy of an Irish Bergman.

Top Performances
While not a fan of combining the categories of Best Actor and Best Actress, I do see merit in eliminating the often artificial distinction between Lead and Featured Actor, when studios use it to game the Oscars and snag an award for a featured performance that may be onscreen as much as many leads. So, without increasing the total number of nominees, here are the performers whose work I consider award-worthy.

Cate Blanchett, Tar
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Jessica Chastain, The Good Nurse
Emma Corrin, Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Sally Hawkins, Phantom of the Open
Nina Hoss, Tar
Zoe Kazan, She Said  
Keke Palmer, Nope 
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu 
Sigourney Weaver, Call Jane

Antonio Banderas, Official Competition
Paul Dano, The Fabelmans
Ricardo Darin, Argentina 1985
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse
Mark Rylance, Phantom of the Open
David Strathairn, Where the Crawdads Sing

Ten Worst
Finally, I can’t go quietly without singling out the major disappointments. I’m avoiding obscure titles here and considering only films that made some critic’s best-of list:

Aftersun 
Crimes of the Future
Elvis 
EO
Everywhere Everything All at Once
Fire of Love
Glass Onion 
Nope
Petite Maman
Woman King

Catherine Called Birdy – 3

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A silly cartoon of a film about an unappealing, unattractive 14-year-old who comes of (romantic) age in 13th century England. I couldn’t wait for it to end, so I didn’t. Monty Python, where art thou?

Living – 7

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A fairly literal relocation of Ikiru, by Akira Kurosawa, from Tokyo to London, with the estimable Bill Nighy playing the role created by the incomparable Takashi Shimura. As I watched, all I could see were the echoes of the Japanese original (somewhat like seeing David Copperfield as I read Demon Copperhead). By cutting 40 minutes from its source, the English movie loses texture and context: Mr. Williams’s tortured relationship with his son and daughter-in-law is among the losses. The biggest loss, however, is the devastating social satire: Ikiru commented on the Japan of 1952, when it was released. A 2022 film about England as it supposedly existed 70 years ago carries no bite. And I found it hard to believe that the mores of Tokyo and London in 1952 were so identical. In short, I found this an interesting experiment, but I can’t judge it on its own merits or lack thereof.

Till – 7

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This was three things: a history lesson, a collection of fine roles for Black actors, and a bravura performance by Danielle Deadwyler as Emmett Till’s mother. The challenge was creating interest in a story that is already familiar–and not a pretty story, at that. For me, it explained why the case of Emmett Till, among all the anti-Black atrocities in the South, resonated so loud and long. Deadwyler deserves an Oscar nod for all her emotional nuance, even if it went on a bit long. The movie’s weak spot was its characterization of Emmett (“Bobo”) as a clueless and fairly unsympathetic Momma’s boy, not that he deserved his fate. Ultimately, good or bad, you felt you were in history class more than the movies, and left to wonder: as this is the version that will live in the public’s imagination, how true is it?