Stan's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" and Ann's "2022 in film (Ann and Stan)" is their annual look at the best in film.
2022 in film (Ann and Stan)
Ann and Stan back with with our annual look at film.
First some good news, we don't have to list 8 awful films of the year. We thought we'd have to do that. Because this wasn't a good year in film. So we prepared ourselves for explaining how Brad Pitt is not now -- and, as Betty noted -- really has never been box office. How many flops before the now gruesome looking man gets sent to supporting roles -- on TV sitcoms! He could never act but he used to be something to look at -- before all the drinking showed up on his face and waistline. BABYLON is his failure. He's featured more than anyone else in the trailer -- including in his underwear which, as late as 2014, might have sold some tickets but now he just looks like a paunchy, jowly, elderly actor
Second, we fought. The year was better than we realized and we came up with 15 films worthy of praise and whittling that down to ten involved a lot of arguing. We hope our list inspires you -- to nod in agreement, to shout, "You're full of s**t!" Films should inspire the imagination and we should be passionate about them.
These are our picks.
10) ALIENOID
This south Korean movie is a syfy classic though for many people, they'll need to discover it first. Twists and turns, the most amazing visuals, it's the foreign film even subtitle-haters could embrace.
9) THE LOST CITY
Hey, Julia Roberts, pay attention, this is how you make a romantic comedy. Sandra Bullock is a romance author who ends up forced to promote her latest novel which means appearing with Channing Tatum -- the model for the cover of her books. She loathes him. She does not respect him. She accidentally pulls off his long, blond wig at a book tour event. Despite feeling nothing but disdain for Channing, he can see the hurt in her (she's become a widow) and the good in her. When she gets kidnapped by a delightful Daniel Radcliffe and taken out of the country, Channing is off to find her. Find her, not rescue her. Sandra's not playing a victim and she's very much in charge of her own life -- much to the regret of her social media manager Patti Harrison. Thrills and chills ensue, with lots of laughter and some real heat between the co-stars. Tap Julia on the shoulder, tell her to turn around, we want to be sure she hears this part. Channing is attractive, Julia. People want to see him. No one wants to see George Queenie anymore. He'd be lucky to get a TV role thse days what with the bad plastic surgery and the increasingly mincing manner. We thought AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS breaking your string of 100 million dollar films (domestically) would have demonstrated to you that uggos like John Cusack don't sell tickets -- not for blockbusters. You pulled your weight, Julia, and then some, but you needed a sexually attractive male cast opposite for you to drive TICKET TO PARADISe to $100 million in North America. Sandra drove LOST CITY to that point. We noted it in real time. When everyone was talking about the 'low' opening weekend, we were telling you the film was a hit and that Sandra's fans turn out week after week. One of us (Stan) noted the film passed 4100 million before DEADLINE finally woke up and took notice and wrote their own story many, many days after.
8) UNCHARTED
This was the best action film of the year. And it was perfectly cast: Mark Wahlberg, Tom Holland, Antonio Banderas, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabriell and Rudy Pankow. Everything worked in this film -- which so rarely happens. Reviewers didn't like it? Wah. They missed out.
7) TAR
Reviewers liked TAR. We did as well. Cate Blanchette has rightly won raves. We hope she has an Academy Award nomination coming and we hope that Todd Field does as well. We'd also love to see Todd act again. His line delivery in SLEEP WITH ME, when his wife is calling him and he says that sometimes you start to hate the sound of your own name? Perfection. It's that sort of nailing the moment that probably explains best why he's one of our least productive film directors but one of our finest.
6) BLACK ADAM
Superhero films throughout 2022 -- and there were many -- repeatedly disappointed. BLACK ADAM offered much more than an origin storyline even if so many missed it. Will be kind and not note the 'professional writer' who, just this week, wanted you to know about how the superheroes sent to the area were not a good thing for the people -- but seemed unaware that this was picking up on the critique made in BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE but also that the film also criticized the Australian military that had been sent in prior to the superheroes. Everyone gives a remarkable performance in the film but let us especially note Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Shahi.
5) RICKSHAW GIRL
This is the second foreign film on our list. Amitabh Reza Chowdhury directs this Bangladesh film about Naima who puts aside her dreams of being a painter to bring money home for her family now struggling due to her father's illness. She dresses as a boy and uses her father's rickshaw to bring money in. But does she have to sacrifice everything in order to save her family? This is very moving film.
4) EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
Michelle Yeoh should be walking home with the Academy Award for Best Actress. (By the way, read Ava and C.I. on the prospect of eliminating the Best Actress Academy Award.) She's not the only one who seems a sure winner. We'd argue Sally Field should be winning Best Supporting Actress for SPOILER ALERT. It's a good movie, but Sally is the best thing in it. Michelle is amazing in EEAAO but she's not the best thing in it. Equally strong is the directing and the writing and the rest of the members of the cast. She's the cherry on top, if you like, but she's delivering a first rate performance in a first rate film. This film has action and, more important, thought.
3) THE NAN MOVIE
THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW was a very hilarious sketch comedy series. One of Tate's characters was Nan. Who? Jamie's grandmother who always seem so sweet until she opens her mouth. When not launching into hateful remarks, she's telling anyone who will listen that her straight grandson is gay. Nan is a nightmare. Tate and Mathew Horne return as Nan and Jamie. She wants to go on holiday but Jamie thinks she needs to see the sister she stopped talking to decades ago (the sister stole the man Nan was in love with) because the sister is dying. A road trip ensues, not the one Nan planned on and revelations that emerge were certainly not what Nan planned on. Watch Nan dazzle and take over a nightclub, watch her be pursued for terrorism, it's a hilarious road film, probably the best since PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE.
2) AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
James Cameron returns with an amazing film. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is a great sequel but it is so much more than that. If you are one of the few people who did not see the original AVATAR, you can still follow along with the second film. The visuals are stunning and the film is thought provoking -- especially with regards to our relationship with the world around us and with the inhabitants -- not just people, but the entire environment. Amazing actions scenes. Amazing everything. It could easily have topped our list. But there was a movie that said even more.
And the champ?
1) BROS
This was a hilarious comedy and the strongest romantic storyline of the year. As a community, we loved this film:
Before it moved to streaming, C.I. promoted the film daily at THE COMMON ILLS.
We did that because it is a great film.
But, as C.I. noted early on, there was a backlash to the film. And a backlash by people who didn't know what they were talking about with regards to the film. But they did know that they hated gay people, they did know that they loathed the LGBTQ community.
As Ava and C.I. would explain in "BROS: An American Film Classic (Ava and C.I.):"
BROS. It was supposed to be just a film but it became so much more.
[. . .]
Our response that Monday was anger. We were appalled by the box office -- and we knew it was going to be low. But we were appalled because, over and over, the LGBTQ+ community was there throughout 2022 -- lifting others up and sharing the stage. That included on that awful NETFLIX special we called out, the supposed PRIDE special, which let Sandra Bernhard take the stage to address . . . abortion. When ROE was killed by Clary Thomas and others on the illegitimate court, the LGBTQ+ community could have been silent.
Outside of rape, it's not really a pressing issue for that community. If a lesbian is pregnant, outside of rape, it's pretty much because she wants to be, for example.
But they didn't take a pass. As a community, they came out strong and loud about the death of ROE.
And where's the straight community been all year long?
Jonathan Turley? Our legal expert? He's said that LGBTQ+s have nothing to fear from this court and that despite Clarry Thomas noting in his concurring opinion in DOBBS that the same right to privacy the Court denies exists for ROE also does not exist for marriage equality or, for that matter, anal sex.
Jonathan wants you to know that the Court will never, ever, go after these two issues. This is the same Turley who wanted you to know that the Court would not overturn Roe in 2022. So, forgive us, we're not really believing Jonathan Turley these days.
YOUTUBE
has a host of programs. REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUT, THE KATIE HALPER SHOW,
LEFT LENS, RISING, BREAKING POINTS, HARD LENS MEDIA, JACKIE AND HIS
TINY HINKLE, THE JIMMY DORE SHOW, THE CONVO COUCH, MINT PRESS NEWS, and
many, many more.
Help us out -- which one of them has done a program -- a full segment -- on how DOBBS could threaten the LGBTQ+ community?
Answer: None of them.
Gay activists and gay celebrities did not go silent about reproductive rights after DOBBS was issued. but we can't say the same for the straight community, can we?
And it was apparently too much for our community to get it off its lazy ass and go to the movies and see BROS. It was just too much for us. Buying a ticket and all.
Billy's right to be offended. Time and again, we expect every community to serve us but we don't appear to want to return the favor.
While we refused, as a community, to support BROS, the right-wing was very happy to use the box office as a referendum on gay rights. Did you miss that as well?
When the LGBTQ+ community is under attack, we took a pass and fed the right-wing.
America doesn't like gays, that's what the right-wing is taking from BROS.
Thank you, to our fellow straights, for doing your part to oppress.
That's all you did. You're rather see some crappy movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis who, let's be honest, wants you to now care about trans people because of her daughter but when asked -- by a Howard Stern personality -- about the rumors that she was born intersex, Jamie screamed and snarled that children were present (she was promoting her children's book) and "How dare you!"
Apparently, that video has
vanished from the internet so we will go with the closest approximation
of that moment, Derek from THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW.
And some thought Jamie Lee couldn't do comedy. (Here's a post with the video of Jamie Lee losing it and responding, "How dare you!")
After that was published, the only YOUTUBE program that bothered to cover the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community was REVOLUTIONARY BLACKOUt which devoted two episodes to the topic.
This despite the fact that so much hatred was being aimed at the LGBTQ+ community. And BROS is aware of it. As Ava and C.I. pointed out this month, the issues raised in The House Oversight and Reform Committee's hearing on "The Rise of Anti-LGBTQI+ Extremism and Violence in the United States" were covered in the film.
These events just add to the importance of a film that was already ground breaking and already hilarious. It's our pick for the film of 2022.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
