Jenny Nulf's Top 10 Films of 2022
Fri., Dec. 16, 2022
1) Decision to Leave Devastatingly romantic, Park Chan-wook's neo-noir is a sublime piece of filmmaking with an ending that will leave you in a puddle of tears.
2) Bones and All A quiet coming-of-age cannibal romance? I was always destined to absolutely adore Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of Bones and All.
3) TÁR The movie I never stopped thinking about after I watched it, and also one I never wanted to end.
4) Aftersun A beautiful, nostalgic film that captures grief in a very tender way. Paul Mescal's performance is so complex and tragic.
5) Nope Jordan Peele continues to top himself, creating a horror-Western spectacle that's so bombastic and thrilling to watch.
6) Murina First-time filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovi's water-set thriller is crazy hypnotic, with a mesmerizing performance from newcomer Gracija Filipovi.
7) Broker Hirokazu Kore-eda just doing what he does best in South Korea with all his favorite actors.
8) Pearl A very different kind of homage than X: a love letter to classic cinema with an unforgettable performance from Mia Goth, who truly is a star.
9) After Yang A lovely musing on the fragmentation of memory, how we remember the big moments in our lives versus how they actually played out.
10) Barbarian There were so many films vying for the 10th spot, but Barbarian's sheer sense of surprise brought back the joy of going to a movie theatre and hearing everyone around you gasp and scream at the same time.
Near Misses: Crimes of the Future, The Eternal Daughter, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Most Overrated: Triangle of Sadness
Most Underrated: A New Old Play, The Northman
Wild Card: Jenna Ortega, who catapulted into stardom with The Fallout, X, Studio 666, Scream, and the Netflix series Wednesday.
Acting Kudos (Male): Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Colin Farrell (After Yang, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Batman), Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)
Acting Kudos (Female): Tang Wei (Decision to Leave), Mia Goth (Pearl), Keke Palmer (Nope)
Best Director: Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave)
Best Original Screenplay: Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Best Adapted Screenplay: David Kajganich (Bones and All)
TV Series/Event: Atlanta seasons 3 and 4 – a series that one day will be remembered as the one that changed how television could look and feel, truly iconic, with such a graceful ending.
Worst Film: Send They/Them straight to jail for having a bunch of queer kids break into song and dance with P!nk's "Fuckin' Perfect" in the middle of a "serious" slasher.
The Little Film That Could: Mei Makino's Galveston-based coming-of-age story, Inbetween Girl.