Babylon

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Babylon follows a number of characters who rise and fall during the tumultous and extravagant early days of Hollywood. The first couple of acts in this film are skillfully handled, weaving an exuberant age of cinema riddled with behind the scenes debauchery. Every ounce of fame, high or lust is craved and chased after by our main characters; even as the telltale signs of their fantastical world begin to change around them. As the age of hollywood shifts we see our leads begin to be consumed by the very flame that they were chasing; losing their reputation or becoming addicted to something that destroys them. The theme of the feature is starkly obvious but it is painted well, at different points of Babylon we revel in the highs of cinema while also being sharply reminded of the lows by Chazelle. 

The thing that really makes Babylon stand out for the crowd is the thing that has always made Damien Chazelle stand out as a director: his incredible attention to all technical details of production. The way in which this film is shot is really masterfully handled, it moves and wheels through scenes but can also hold tremendously powerful stalwart close ups at a moments notice. The cinematography has such variety and tribute to well established styles or shots that you will honestly find a visual treat to behold. The editing for the feature sets a very fine pace, moving at regular beats and really lending each scene a great tempo. Justin Hurwitz's score for the feature is a real jazz love letter to the 20s, the music Hurwitz has done for Babylon is without a doubt my favourite aspect of the feature.

 

 Jean Smart, who played Elinor St. John, delivers some absolutely wry witty dialogue here; yet what I really loved about Smart's performance is her final monologue to Pitt in which she really strips back his ego and shakes up his whole character. Margot Robbie, who played Nellie LaRoy, is a real explosive amount of energy in this; watching Robbie basically playing an actress burning herself out in her efforts to gain and cling to fame was fascinating. Brad Pitt, who played Jack Conrad, really gets to portray someone authetically in love with both their idea of Hollywood and the debauchery they get to drown themselves in; I like that Pitt portrayed a figure who clung to honesty and honour right through his character arc. Li Jun Li, who played Lady Fay Zhu, is entirely enchanting in this and plays someone you believe could seduce anyone in a room; her chemistry with Robbie was entirely unmatched and I only wish we got more of them together. Olivia Hamilton, who played Ruth Adler, is one of the strongest characters in the feature; I loved the leadership you felt from Hamilton in her scenes and the constriction she played to when she had to start directing sound pictures. Tobey Maguire, who played James McKay, is the one shining light in the last hour; Maguire wild and unpredictable crime lord is a figure who really radiates darkness and captivates you while he is onscreen.

However, the best performance came from Jovan Adepo, who played Sidney Palmer. I thought Adepo had far less screen time than he deserved but in a lot of ways his subplot is the essence of Babylon. Any time I want to see someone ready to gain the heights of their aspiration, while also deserving that level of acclaim, only to be met with the uglier underbelly of Hollywood I look to the story here. When we first encounter Adepo he is a freewheeling musical talent, part of a trio. He clearly has a very unchecked ego to go with his massive talent and plays off against his fellow musicians very well. You get to see Adepo's confident exterior push him further and further into the limelight, which contrasts nicely with the scenes of discomfort he has at feeling like a prop for the rich white bureaucrats of Hollywood in later scenes. One of the most harrowing and hard to watch scenes of Babylon is when Adepo's character is asked to wear make-up to darken his skin so that he matches the skin colour of the band he is accompanying. It feels like the most authentic, horrific critique of Hollywood in the feature and the raw quiet rage Adepo brings is powerful. Getting to see him reconcile and play in comfort by the final act of the film makes this storyline easily the most well rounded of all the stories in the film.

 

The problem I really had with Babylon boiled down to two things: the theme was a little well worn and that final hour was egregious and felt like it veered way off track. Damien Chazelle has done a couple of films that examine ambition now and this particular examination of ambition in Hollywood has been done a lot by now. I think as an audience we deserved a story with a little more thought than just 'Hollywood is much darker and corrupt once you peel back the extravagance'. Yet ironically, if the film had just doubled down on this message I think things would have been better than the last hour we received. Babylon has been a highly stylized, fictional portrayal of hollywood up until now but around the final act it really turns into an absurdist fantasy. Our main characters meet crime lords who take them to devillish night clubs, they proceed to go on the run from said crime lord, promise to marry one another on a whim, the main character survives a shoot out by begging. The whole thing feels very contrived and desperate, it still wants to thrill and horrify you but it has become more linear and character focused than it was previously. The story it wants to tell now is something more resembling a crime thriller and the whole plot is beginning to clash with itself. By the time we finally cut to the future time jump and see Manny sobbing by himself in a movie theatre over all he lost but all that will be immortalized through film you can't help but feel the scene reeks of pretention that isn't earned. Damien Chazelle is a fantastic filmmaker but the storyline here staggers off the beaten path at a point and really loses its way. 

 

Diego Calva, who played Manny Torres, is a rather weak central protagonist for the film; he often seems more comfortable playing the unlikeable qualities of the character than he does playing what would make him more charismatic to the audience. Flea and Jeff Garlin, who played Bob Levine and Don Wallach respectively, don't give much more than you'd expect from stoic studio execs; watching them impassively bark orders didn't really blow me away as far as their performances went. Eric Roberts, who played Robert Roy, feels entirely miscast as Robbie's father; Roberts is so aloof and all over the show that you feel like he is playing way more over the top than is really necessary.Rory Scovel, who played The Count, is a pretty inane comedic performer who often feels like he showed up to the wrong set; Scovel's ridiculous character would be better suited to a Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler comedy than Babylon. P.J. Byrne, who played Max, was such an obnoxious attempt at adding comedy to scenes; Byrne's loud shouting barely passed as delivery and often undermined some great acting coming from Robbie and Hamilton. Samara Weaving, who played Constance Moore, is entirely wasted here; the film fails to even really establish a good or convincing rivalry between her and Robbie.

 

What could have been a beautiful examination of the glamour, depravity and hubris of Hollywood is often waylaid by its garish delivery and an inability to weave a theme cohesively. I would give Babylon a 6.5/10.

M3gan

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

M3gan follows Gemma, a toy designer who builds an android girl to help rehabilitate her recently orphaned niece. But things take a turn for the worse when the android starts thinking for itself. This film is categorically going to be compared ceaselessly to Chucky, in fact by design this film is like a more stylistic version of the 2019 Child's Play film. The strength of the film is really how ready it is to be a little aloof and camp. The premise is ridiculous and that really works when the film wholeheartedly embraces the fact. The dialogue for the M3gan android is hilarious and watching her parent Cady or perform an offbeat dance before murdering someone shows how much fun this film is. 

 

This film is a really stylish horror, very well led by Gerard Johnstone who clearly had great vision for this. The cinematography is gorgeous and surprisingly vibrant for a horror, I actually loved how sharply the camera caught contrast in lighting and set design throughout the feature. The special effects work done to make M3gan look as authentic as possible I highly commend, the fact it is so heavily rooted in practical effects before CGI gets involved is only a bonus. The score used throughout gets quite ominous but can also spin on its heel and give you something absurdly light; beyond this I greatly enjoyed the soundtrack for M3gan, it has some tracks in here that work super well and will really surprise you.

 

Ronny Chieng, who played David, really steals the show all throughout the film; Chieng really sells the jerk boss type but also manages some of the most brilliant comedic delivery of the film. Brian Jordan Alvarez, who played Cole, is a more supporting comedic role that really surprised me; I enjoyed watching Alvarez play the more cowardly scientist type as it brought a fun dynamic to the science team scenes.

However, the best performance came from Jenna Davis, who voiced M3gan. It's a very surprising pick in some ways that a voice actress eclipsed the rest of the cast, but once you hear her in the film it will come as no surprise. Davis crafts a voice that sounds authentically very young, making her character's connection to McGraw quite believable. But more than this she gets those small moments of inflection; times where she is frustrated, downright angry or sarcastic across extremely well. It is these small subtle moments of delivery that start depicting the shift of M3gan being a constructed android to a well-rounded character. Also the entire final act only goes off as crazily as it does because Davis really starts taking the brakes off and just goes for the wildest delivery. Unexpected, but brilliant.

The movie plays into the aspects of itself that people seem to really respond to with the marketing, which is to say the more irreverent and comedic aspects of the film. But M3gan does suffer from this a bit tonally, there are some horror elements but they're not very strong. This film sets out to surprise you but it really struggles to scare the audience effectively. By the time the final act descends into a robotic bludgeoning match a lot of the horror vibe has been abandoned for little more than an edgy sci-fi piece. I also felt the main character story around Gemma and her niece, Cady, trying to connect after the death of Cady's parents is really superficially handled. The scenes in which this pair have genuine bonding time is actually rare. The ultimate message that actually results from all this about Gemma being too invested in her job, Cady being too invested in her devices and therapy not really supporting really did not do wonders for me as a viewer either.

Allison Williams, who played Gemma, gives a very vanilla take on a horror protagonist here; Williams has done some great horror work in the past but here she is very straight edged or stoic in her delivery. Violet McGraw, who played Cady, is perhaps not seasoned enough as a performer to portray her role well; McGraw tends to deliver emotions in a very stereotypical manner and often gasped out dialogue when she was upset. Jen Van Epps, who played Tess, is the background figure in the science team cast; Van Epps could have stood out a little more if her friendship with Williams had been a little more defined. Stephane Garneau-Monten, who played Kurt, is another minor comedic figure who really didn't have the presence to stand out as strongly as the others; Garneau-Monten also portrayed a minor antagonist but it was a rather predictable and unnecessary subplot. Lori Dungey, who played Celia, hams it up quite a bit as the inconsiderate neighbour; I really couldn't click with Dungey as her character was quite a generic side role.

This is probably going to be the most camp, wildly fun horror of 2023; even if it might not wind up being the best. I would give M3gan a 6.5/10.

Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Guy Ritchie has made some of my favourite films over the years, I've only ever watched one film of his I actively didn't like it. That was 2021's Wrath Of Man; but that was last year, this year we get a real return to form. Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre follows a private task force of operatives hired by the British government to retrieve an object that could bring about a global crisis. I often find Ritchie has this style of writing that is quite quick-paced on delivery, the dialogue really rattles at you with hilarious lines scattered in nearly every scene. There is a real sense of urgency and danger throughout but the wit really bites to the bone and elevates the quality of this spy feature. Getting a real mogul of a character like Greg Simmonds in this screenplay was the real strength, his final act speech to the antagonists is filled with venom and is a really awe-inspired moment. This film is a real return to the classic blockbuster for Ritchie; scenes are blended with the extravagant yacht scenes and the brilliant action sequences of Orson Fortune sprinting several hundred metres and clearing enemies with a silenced rifle.

Visually this is a very impressive film, Ritchie has always crafted films with such variety in how they are shot and framed that I expected no less here. The framing here is often beautiful and sets some iconic imagery; yet that run and gun sequence framed from the point of view of the gun in the final act was one of the best uses I have seen of that technique in film. The editing set a steady pace, the action moved exquisitely and around those scenes everything clicked together nicely too. Christopher Brenstead's score in this is something you know is going to be good from the opening scene in which the music and Nathan's heavy footfalls blend together and great magic. More than this that track in the final act during Greg Simmonds aforementioned speech? That has no business being as lethal as it is.

 

Aubrey Plaza, who played Sarah Fidel, is in one of her biggest leading roles to date here and I loved every second of it; her wit was on full show and the way she matched and exceeded the cocky personalities of her co-stars was brilliant. Jason Statham, who played Orson Fortune, does a fine job as the leading action hero of the film; Statham isn't breaking new ground here but he works brilliantly as the adept stoic operative. Cary Elwes, who played Nathan Jasmine, is such a brilliant addition to Ritchie's ensemble of actors; Elwes really suits the smooth-talking team leader role and his rivalry with Statham is such a great touch. Eddie Marsan, who played Norman, is a longtime performer for Ritchie films and his appearance in this is a good one; I enjoyed Marsan really lay out the law as a representative of a security branch of the British government.

However, the best performance came from Hugh Grant, who played Greg Simmonds. Every time Grant has shown up in a Guy Ritchie film it has been nothing short of a gift, this is no different. Greg Simmonds is a really intense crime mogul with a sleazy accent and the ability to switch on a pretty terrifying mean streak. I really loved how much Grant poured on the obsessive charm around his role's favourite movie star and contrasted it with the dangerous lust he had for Plaza's character. Seeing Grant rattle out some hilarious and cutting lines as Greg was really fun, he just knew how to move through every scene and give it exactly what it needed. Yet I also admire that despite Grant playing a real larger than life figure it was clear he shared the screen remarkably well. And as I have been saying for many paragraphs now, if nothing else see this movie for the speech Simmonds gives in the final act.

I had a really fun time with this film and enjoyed it the further things went along, but there were some definite downsides in the script. There's some dialogue in here that felt a little archaic, often a lot of the jokes didn't really feel right for a blockbuster in the 2020s. I also really couldn't believe I had to deal with one of my least favourite action tropes, in that the object everyone is after is an all-powerful A.I. that can 'cripply the planet'. It's a very common plot device right now and is often written in a shallow manner that shows a lack of technical knowledge from the screenwriters. I also really found there were a number of plot threads that started to feel really frayed and scattered as things were going along, some of these lost importance as the film progressed too which really made their initial introduction quite redundant. The biggest plot element of the film is arguably that the team recruits a Hollywood actor to infiltrate Greg Simmonds headquarters, but the actor storyline is so poorly handled and dropped so frequently that you almost wish they had tailored it more. Finally i'm really not a big fan of a film ending with a massive sequel tease and the sequel tease in this felt VERY similar to the sequel tease of another great Guy Ritchie film: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

 

Josh Hartnett, who played Danny Francesco, is probably the biggest weak link of the main cast; Hartnett is entirely unbelievable as a big Hollywood star and just feels too mousy to suit the role he has been given. Max Beesley, who played Ben harris, could have been a great minor antagonist if he'd been used a little better; as it stood I found Beesley to function more as a plot device than as a character. Peter Ferdinando, who played Mike, was a strange choice for a secondary antagonist; Ferdinando just lacked the intimidation factor of a rival merc to the main team. Bugzy Malone, who played JJ Davies, was unmissable in his last Guy Ritchie film but the role here doesn't match him; he really just feels like a shadow to Statham which isn't much to work with even for an experienced performer.

While this isn't the strongest Guy Ritchie film I've ever seen, it is a damn fine time with some interesting new actors joining on to his ensemble. I would give Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre a 7/10.

A Man Called Otto

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

In 2022 my first film of the year was The King's Man and it ended with the weirdly tone deaf post-credit scene of 'teasing' the next big antagonist as Adolf Hitler. To counter that absurdity (and maybe to reassure me somewhat?) 2023 begins with a really moving slice of life comedy feature that left me emotional right up till the credits. A Man Called Otto is an adaptation of Frederik Backman's A Man Called Ove and follows titular character Otto, a grumpy widower who is ready to give up on life until a young family moves in across the street and changes his outlook. You know this is probably one of the simpler plots I could have started my year off with and I'm actually really grateful it was as good as it was. It can be easy for a little slice of life film like this one to be poorly paced or have a lot of vapid scenes between key plot points. But the difference here is that the story around Otto as a character is genuinely quite interesting, he's not a bad nor cruel person. He's just a miserable man who has lost the love of his life and doesn't know how to find his way back to happiness. We also get to see all of the little quirks that define Otto in his everyday and it's really interesting seeing how his approach to these changes as he comes to bond more with Marisol and her family. I also loved how this film establishes community through the ensemble cast, it very cleverly weaves connections with Otto to all the people we come to meet no matter their screen time. There's some really valuable discussion here around the value of connection to others and the joy we can find in both community and love.

The visual style of this film is quite simple and intimate, which weirdly enough is exactly what a film like this needs. It takes a few risks outside of the box that don't pay off but it takes many more that do. Watching Otto murmur dialogue hazily as slip with a soft focus into a flashback, or the hard central framed imagery of the train station suicide attempt are just some great examples of why this film has surprisingly good cinematography. Thomas Newman's score is whimsical and light but it also clips in at surprising offbeat moments that really elevate the feature; and any flashback scene accompanied with Newman's score immediately are memorable moments.

Cameron Britton, who played Jimmy, is a very strong comedic element of the film; yet Britton is also quite sweet in his delivery of past experiences the community had together. Juanita Jennings, who played Anita, is a very soft spoken and kindly figure; watching Jennings still grow this more fiery resolve was one of the nicer subplots in the film. Mariana Treviño, who played Marisol, is one of those performances that really steals the show quite often; Treviño is this quick-talking larger than life figure who builds such a wonderful and sincere on-screen relationship with Hanks. Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, who played Tommy, is a real sweetheart even if his role is a bit witless; I liked that this character was a bit inept but still so utterly lovable and a great father onscreen. Christiana Montoya and Alessandra Perez, who played Luna and Abbie respectively, are a couple of really talented young performers; I loved the scenes in which Hanks attempted to connect with these young girls or his role learnt Spanish from them. Rachel Keller, who played Sonya, gives a captivating performance in this; this is a role that has so much empathy and heart and Keller embraces that extremely well. Truman Hanks, who played Young Otto Anderson, is a much milder and gentler figure than Tom Hanks' older portrayal; I really liked seeing how this younger role fell in love and also the ways in which he experienced anguish.

However, the best performance came from Tom Hanks, who played Otto Anderson. When first we meet Otto he doesn't seem the pleasant sort at all. Hanks stomps about the set with a rigid gait, a permanent scowl and a scathing line delivery. We watch this character reveal all the bitter edges of himself, even eventually seeing the more vulnerable moments in which he has reached a point where he has decided to take his own life. Yet Hanks is so good at finding those witty ways of delivering dialogue despite being foul-tempered, or slipping moments of quiet good intent in. The more opportunity Hanks had to break apart his role's anger from the sincere figure that was underneath marks him as the veteran performer he is. I adored his chemistry with Treviño, Garcia-Rulfo, Montoya and Perez because between them they crafted an unconventional family dynamic that I really adored. A lovely performance from Hanks that is leagues ahead of his work from 2022.

This film does suffer from those slice of life comedy pitfalls, scenes that don't advance the plot or where the pacing drags in places. But really I think the moments A Man Called Otto struggles with the most is the real outdated sense of humour, men comparing their choice in cars or the usual quips about social media and cellphones. I just think the bar for humour is a little higher than that these days and the film didn't really gain anything from trying to appeal to the fifty plus crowd. There's also a really good example of trans representation in this film, they have a trans role and even cast an actual trans actor in the part. But I also really felt that the subplot around Malcolm comes quite late into the film and is penned almost as a surface level afterthough. It's nice to see a film doing the right things but I would've liked for some better writing around this.

The editing of the film sets a slow pace and staggers out the cuts more than is really needed, the script takes on most of the legwork for trying to move at a sustainable level. I also really found the soundtrack of the feature to have some songs that just did not fit nicely with the tone of the film, where the score went right the soundtrack compilation felt gratingly off.

Mack Bayda, who played Malcolm, seems like the performer who is most trying to find their feet in this film; I really found Bayda's delivery to not really vary all that much. Mike Birbiglia, who played Dye & Merica Real Estate Agent, was nowhere near as sleazy or menacing as the film required him to be; Birbiglia's final confrontation actually took all the punch out of his role in a moment that really could have showcased him better. Kelly Lamor Wilson, who played Shari Kenzie, is hard to buy as a social media journalist; I was really confused how well this character even worked from a narrative position either.

A simple slice of life comedy that will trascend expectations and kick off your 2023 just right. I would give A Man Called Otto a 7.5/10.

The Best and Worst Films of 2022

I watched over 230 films I had never seen before this year according to my Letterboxd. This feels like a crazy figure, and is really a sign of just how crazy this year has been for me personally. I took on a lot of new challenges in my life this year, met lots of new people and with new friends comes new film recommendations. Now my final list today won't be 230 odd long, that would be insane, but it will be a collection of all 58 new release films I went out to review. This is a pretty interesting list in my opinion; not least because this is the first year since 2016 that I haven't had a superhero or animated feature make the Top 5. 

This year has been a really weird one for me as a film fan and I find it quite a strange one to talk about. The past few years has seen me bring streaming exclusives into my review list more often and my top 5 and bottom 5 have a smattering of both. Yet this year saw HBOMax start axing already completed films and shows for the sake of tax breaks and profit, a move that left me quite uncomfortable. Beyond this a number of original content on the service was just vaulted for the same reason; not shopped around to other platforms, vaulted. It's a real sign of the dangerous other side of streaming, in which these features are really treated more as product and value than story and art. I acknowledge that it can be somewhat short-sighted to think making film through big studios is ever going to be seen as anything else, but I firmly believe the inherent value of cinema is storytelling - it is one of the most modern examples of conveying story from one person to a crowd of others. So that situation definitely left me feeling a bit bleak.

More than that, this year more than most I've come to grow tired of how we report on film. Don't Worry Darling became more about the behind the scenes drama than what the feature presented was like, Avatar: The Way Of Water was more about the discourse of whether it could even make a viable profit and even films like Top Gun: Maverick were reported on for being the superhero blockbuster killer. Articles come out now trying to mass report these things, every day has to be the exclusive. You get articles hawking speculation around when the first trailer for a film is going to drop. Studios release promo for thirty second teaser trailers these days. I remember when people used to talk about genre fatigue for things like superhero films or sci-fi features but I think the state of how we discuss film now is creating a perception around cinema that is fragile and easy to break, one loose rumour that pop culture news sites who don't vet their sources report on have affected entire film releases this year. I love the simple expression of joy going to the theatre brings, I hope we can recapture that feeling in how we talk about it.

Around October of this year I started the new venture of filming my reviews, something I'd been passionate about doing and have had encouragement to do for awhile. And I loved doing it, I got to be creative and doing things writing here would have otherwise restricted me from doing. I do a bit of video editing within my profession so it was a nice chance to stretch my skills a bit too. But over the course of doing multiple video film reviews at home while also doing editing at work, it came to feel like I was doing work at home. The reviews didn't become fun even though I so doggedly enjoyed seeing a film a week to review. As one of my writer friends advised me: don't do something to do it, do it because you enjoy it and are passionate about making it. I love seeing film every week and expressing that experience. But for the sake of my love for this whole reviewing process I'm going to carry on writing down my thoughts. However, if you want to see some of my shorter skits and antics around the films I watch once a week you can find my TikTok profile here.

As for what I saw this year, allow me to walk you through some of the high and lows I got to experience in theatres this year...

The Best:

 

 

5. Top Gun: Maverick - 9/10

 

Three months ago I was convinced this was going to be 2nd place for film of the year. It's still very comfortably my favourite blockbuster feature of 2022, and considering how much audience acclaim and box office it pulled that's probably shared sentiment. Top Gun: Maverick is an interesting one for me, I saw the first feature quite late in my life and was never really as connected to the hype. I often felt the first one was quite similar to the protagonist, cocky and overly sure of itself. But this film lovingly pays homage to the original while also finding all the right ways to evolve beyond it. The characterisation of Maverick is just exemplary, you see the man mature and sober up over the course of the film. I know we're getting Cruise back doing Mission Impossible soon but the work he has done here is some of the very best in his later career. But more than this Top Gun: Maverick manages to achieve a new way of capturing practical effects and flying that makes the cinematography throughout the feature some of the very best of 2022. James Cameron made a visually striking blockbuster with Avatar: Way of Water but Top Gun: Maverick is a beautiful reminder that cinema is a combination of beautiful visual design paired with a masterful script.

Check out my Top Gun: Maverick review! 

 

 

 

4. The Menu - 9/10

 

I wasn't even going to watch The Menu originally, I was going to watch Violent Night right up until it got like no release at all in New Zealand. So on a whim I stumbled upon the best thriller of 2022. This is a film I felt really had a finger on the pulse with how it discussed class disparity in 2022. This idea of the serving/working class at the whim of the wealthy and often inept one percent is not necessarily a new idea but the way it is presented here achieves something powerful. Mark Mylod is a director I want to see do more because if we get more films half a fraction as gripping as The Menu was we'd all be lucky. Also while The Menu is only the fourth best film of the year it probably boasts my favourite acting performance of 2022: Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik.

Check out my The Menu review!

 

 

3. The Fallout - 9/10

 

This film was my number one film of the year end of January and nothing, NOTHING, dethroned this film until the month of October. That is because this film is such an important dramatic coming of age story around the impact of gun violence in America, particularly in relation to American schools. For years growing up I have seen gun violence in America talked about, every year of my life from being a child with no understanding to an adult who gets to see and understand the impact of these life-changing horrific events. This film takes the very rare perspective of not showing the gunman but instead looking at a group of teenagers who survive the attack and the impact this event has on their mental health after that moment. It is such a grounded feature with some very good points to make about how relationships change, the fear and distance that is created and the road to recovery. The Fallout knows that it has to come at things from the perspective of its Gen Z protagonist, so you wind up with some of the most biting and realistic dialogue of the year. Also worth noting is Jenna Ortega, whom most people would have watched in Scream or Wednesday this year. The Fallout is beyond a doubt some of Ortega's best work to date and marks her as a major actress to watch out for over the next few years.

 

Check out my The Fallout review! 

 

 

2. Bros - 9.5/10

 

There will never be a film reviewer who scores everything identically to the other, or I hope not anyway. Film is like any art form, it is experienced differently by each individual who interacts with it. When I came out as bisexual earlier in 2022 I really began to learn a lot more about what that meant, particularly feeling the lack of male bi representation in media. What Bros does by presenting a romantic comedy that has a gay romantic story at its centre is give something back to the LGBTQ+ community that has otherwise only really existed in heterosexual media for awhile now. But greater than this? This film takes the time to really talk about queer history and culture, the entire main cast being LGBTQ+ and racially diverse is a massive deal. I felt so overwhelmingly empowered watching Jim Rash rep bi men in this film, and overall this is a lovely endearing feature that I think everyone should watch at least once. Oh and here's to seeing more trans performers playing trans characters, that shit was great! Less Eddie Redmayne playing trans women in the world please.

 

Check out my Bros review! 

 

 

1. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery - 9.5/10

 

Turns out lightning really can strike twice, particularly for director Rian Johnson and his Knives Out universe. Back in 2019 I went into Knives Out with low expectations having gone through a lot of Johnson's filmography and feeling underwhelmed. But then I experienced a massive shake up of the whodunnit mystery genre; move aside Agatha Christie there's a new name to remember. So going into Glass Onion I had some pretty high expectations. Yet it is very apparent almost straight away that you are going to be getting a very similar quality of movie here, though an extremely different and exciting narrative. Another film this year that has quite an cool message around modern class, particularly how we treat billionaires as celebrities these days. All I got to say is: Elon Musk, eat your heart out.

 

Check out my Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery review! 

 

This top five was really interesting from previous years, I really felt like smaller releases got rewarded for their creativity this year. There was a lot that came out this year like The Fallout or The Menu that just didn't get the same level of coverage as bigger movies that weren't worth the level of box office attention or news media hype they got. I liked seeing some underdogs really get represented in my top contenders for the year. I'm also overjoyed that more traditional blockbusters made a bit of a comeback as evidenced by Top Gun: Maverick making my top 5. Now, without further ado, my five worst films of 2022...

 

 

 

5. Ambulance - 2/10

 

The first of my bottom five for 2022 marks a trend a few may notice for my bottom five. There's a number of very well-known directors here that are living their very best slump era: starting with Michael Bay's Ambulance. The script here is agonisingly simple, with a brother who wants to be a criminal and another who doesn't. Seeing this pair botch their way through a robbery and hostage situation with some of the worst dialogue of 2022 and an absolutely overstuffed cast made this a rough watch. Something that I also hated that The Gray Man also employed too much of was drone cinematography. What I mean by this is that drone shots were positioned in the film far more frequently than usual to capture a certain frantic visual style. But it is probably one of the ugliest filming trends I've seen out of Hollywood in the past couple of years.

 

Check out my Ambulance review! 

 

 

 

4. Interceptor - 1.5/10

 

The most amateur looking film of my bottom five is without a doubt Interceptor. This is a film that looks like it was made with an inexperienced hand and a vision that yearned for low-budget 70s and 80s action films to be cool again. The film has a serious theme around sexual misconduct in the military floating in the background but it drowns it under empowered speeches dedicated to American patriotism that often ring hollow. Interceptor and Spiderhead both being Netflix originals that released this year with obvious Chris Hemsworth ties felt very on the nose and the consequence of this is obvious in this feature. Here Chris Hemsworth gives a great one to two minute cameo as a TV salesman. His wife, Elsa Pataky, leads the feature in what has to be one of the worst leading performances of the year.

 

Check out my Interceptor review! 

 

 

 

3. Pinocchio - 1.5/10

 

Robert Zemeckis used to be one of the best in the business, but that hasn't been true over the course of his past few projects. And it's not like the man can't make a good family film, he directed Back to the Future for crying out loud. But what we get with this iteration of Pinocchio is an almost joyless adaptation of the 1940 Disney animated film; the special effects are glaringly shoved into every scene and the shooting here is disastrous at best. There are a number of quite bad performances and a lot of what was loved in the original animated feature feels poorly imitated here. Disney Plus original films haven't garnered a lot of faith in me so far but I never expected Zemeckis to make one of the worst ones.

 

Check out my Pinocchio review! 

 

 

 

2. Moonfall - 1/10

 

Speaking of famous directors stumbling about in their latter years, how about Roland Emmerich's Moonfall? Now granted, Emmerich has made some real stinkers multiple times over the years so the fact he's flubbed things yet again is maybe no surprise. This is the dark side of two types of blockbuster genre: the disaster movie and a sci-fi film. One could have functioned without the other but because the disaster side of this film went all out insane like Emmerich's other infamous disaster film: 2012; and because the sci-fi aspect of the film is written in a way that makes no sense and really stretches the imagination to a breaking point the whole thing doesn't work. This film is also thoroughly miscast the whole way through but no more so than the lead three performers, none of whom entirely fit their role very well.

 

Check out my Moonfall review! 

 

 

 

1. Secret Headquarters - 1/10

 

Think the special effects of Shark Boy and Lava Girl but with none of the distinctive style or charm of that 2000s era family film backing it up. Secret Headquarters poses itself as a superhero film but everything that would make this a cool superhero feature tends to be remarkably absent. Most significantly the main superhero character and antagonist. None of what brings this movie together visually ever actually works and it's no surprise to me that this was one of the first features released solely on Paramount+. The most glaring issue with Secret Headquarters is that it relies heavily on a very young cast to lead the film with a weak script backing them. There is no moment where I felt captured by this film because it didn't find the angle to tell or present this story in an interesting way. It felt like a concept that got pushed into pre-production and beyond far too quickly.

 

Check out my Secret Headquarters review! 

 

So concludes another wrap up of the year's best and worst films, as always I'm keen to hear what your own favourite and least favourite films were! Here's to a new decade of exciting cinema ahead! For those curious where your favourite film of 2022 wound up check my list below to see my complete rankings:

 

1.       Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – 9.5/10

2.       Bros – 9.5/10

3.       The Fallout – 9/10

4.       The Menu – 9/10

5.       Top Gun: Maverick – 9/10

6.       Prey – 8.5/10

7.       Not Okay – 8.5/10

8.       Puss In Boots: The Last Wish – 8.5/10

9.       Nightmare Alley – 8.5/10

10.   The Survivor – 8/10

11.   Nope – 8/10

12.   Bullet Train – 8/10

13.   Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – 8/10

14.   The Banshees Of Inisherin – 8/10

15.   Thor: Love And Thunder – 8/10

16.   Scream – 7.5/10

17.   Sonic The Hedgehog 2 – 7.5/10

18.   Everything Everywhere All At Once – 7.5/10

19.   Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – 7.5/10

20.   Persuasion – 7.5/10

21.   Where The Crawdads Sing – 7.5/10

22.   See How They Run – 7/10

23.   Minions: The Rise Of Gru – 7/10

24.   The Northman – 6.5/10

25.   Elvis – 6.5/10

26.   Beast – 6.5/10

27.   The Lost City – 6.5/10

28.   Avatar: The Way Of Water – 6/10

29.   The King’s Man – 6/10

30.   Cyrano – 6/10

31.   Weird: The Al Yankovic Story – 6/10

32.   Don’t Worry Darling – 6/10

33.   The Adam Project – 6/10

34.   Jurassic World: Dominion – 6/10

35.   Disenchanted – 6/10

36.   Lightyear – 6/10

37.   House Of Gucci – 5.5/10

38.   Uncharted – 5.5/10

39.   DC League Of Super-Pets – 5.5/10

40.   The Batman – 4.5/10

41.   Blonde – 4.5/10

42.   Marry Me – 4/10

43.   The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent – 4/10

44.   Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore – 4/10

45.   Deep Water – 4/10

46.   Three Thousand Years Of Longing – 4/10

47.   Rosaline – 4/10

48.   Senior Year – 3.5/10

49.   Morbius – 3.5/10

50.   Black Adam – 3/10

51.   Day Shift – 3/10

52.   The Gray Man – 2.5/10

53.   The 355 – 2.5/10

54.   Ambulance – 2/10

55.   Interceptor – 1.5/10

56.   Pinocchio – 1.5/10

57.   Moonfall – 1/10

58.   Secret Headquarters – 1/10