2022 & bite-sized thoughts

a sort of weird version of my highlights of the year, avoiding films I've already written on

At the time I’m writing this, it’s the night of the Golden Globes; it stopped airing about a half hour ago and watching everyone get mad about everything on Twitter made me realize “Hey… I need to write that film fan thing where they talk about their favorite releases of the past year and expose their opinions to the world! I haven’t done that yet!” Shout-out to the Golden Globes awards for pissing every film fan on Twitter off and pulling me out of my never-ending spiral over the Star Wars franchise (something I recently got into again) to become able to write this thing I wanted to have written last week. I’m not going to treat this as some sort of “ranked” thing (I already have a list for that), but just to generally ramble about some films that I don’t think I will ever write a full length blog post about on their own (I also don’t want to write an in-depth ranked because I am acutely aware of the films with hype that I haven’t gotten to yet, such as Tár and Decision to Leave and probably fifteen others).

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

I never shut up about the fact that del Toro is my favorite director ever, and this is the perfect time to force that fact into something I’m saying once again. This was one of my most anticipated films of the year, and the care put into every facet of this film is absolutely phenomenal. I was lucky enough to catch this during its limited theatrical run, with the screening room I saw it at having a grand total of four people (myself, my college roommate I begged to drive me in exchange for paying for her ticket, and a mother and son duo a few rows above where we sat) and I was the only one crying during the credits sequence. This film’s Pinocchio is my little boy and I love him like he was my own son. Animation is beautiful, but any clip from the film could tell you that without me having to.

Elvis

I’ve thought about writing a full length post on this a few times due to it generally being one of the films I revisited most last year, but I don’t think I’ll say anything particularly revolutionary based on other things I’ve read of the film. I was born and raised in the area that Presley spent his life in, but I knew strikingly little about him before going to see this film on the day after it opened, with my reasoning being that I thought a Baz Luhrmann film would connect more with me on a bigger screen. I was absolutely right on that count, with the theatricality and frenzied filmmaking Luhrmann has come to be associated with hitting every possible note to stick with me. Top it off with a stellar performance from Austin Butler in his star-making vehicle, and it has very quickly become my second favorite biopic that I’ve ever seen (The first spot is something I will very likely write something about… eventually. It’s been in the “plans” section since I made this blog.). This film is truly a spectacle befitting of the King.

Nope

Relating again to “spectacle”, Jordan Peele’s latest project was another engrossing experience to view as soon as I possibly could in the theater. Going to see this movie was the one time I tried and failed to bring my sister into an R-rated movie while she was underage (sorry to my sister, at least she got to see it on Peacock a couple months later). The visuals in this have stuck with me since I saw it for the first time; the image of the Haywood home being essentially rained on with blood and the belongings of those who went to Jupe’s show and suffered for it has been glued in my mind for months. Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography sweeps over the often outdoor settings in a way that keeps the viewer absolutely engrossed in what’s happening on the screen, and if he doesn’t get at least a nomination nod for the Oscars I may implement drastic measures.

Pearl

Mia Goth has become an absolute powerhouse in the world of horror this year, and this would be a sad post in my view if I didn’t highlight her in some fashion. With the short release gap between this film and the related X, many eyes quickly widened on the work of Ti West and Goth. While I enjoyed both movies put out this year, Pearl has stuck with me more as time goes on due to my natural inclination to a well done character study akin to what happens in this. I cannot emphasize enough how Goth’s performance carries this entire film on its back and would scream it from the rooftops if needed. I watched this in a room where I was the only one conscious, which became an unexpected mistake, as the credits sequence genuinely terrified me a bit after sitting through the entire two-hour experience and I ended up glancing nervously from the screen to my roommate, pondering if I should wake her up so that I had someone to talk to.

Bullet Train

I really do love a fun action film from time to time, and this gave me everything I could have possibly been hoping for going in. It is so high-energy from start to finish, infused with creative action scenes aboard a closed setting for large parts of the film. I absolutely love films that can do closed settings and pull it off, so I was overjoyed to not grow bored with the seeming familiarity being on a train for a two hour film could possibly create. The entire cast in this is obviously having such a great time with their roles, making it what would have been the most eclectic ensemble in a release this year if Glass Onion didn’t exist alongside it. While it isn’t one of the best movies of the year in my opinion, it is one I think I’ll come back to often (regardless of the fact I heavily pointed my mom at the steelbook release for this as a holiday gift and succeeded with my persuasion).

These are not nearly all of the films I enjoyed coming out of this year; this very quickly became me finding what stuck out to me the most at this moment and rambling on. I also ignored Glass Onion hoping I find it in me to write a full-length post about it someday, because it was one of my favorite releases of the past year and I would absolutely love to talk about it in more detail. I just need to watch it roughly three more times to really make sure I catch everything first. I’m very excited by the outlook of films in general this year, and am even more so to see what’s to come soon!

And finally, an off-topic note: This will be posting the day I move back into my college for the spring semester, so please expect posts to become fewer and farther between. I hope to not abandon this completely, but college does come before this wonderful hobby for me, and that means I have to find a way to balance this with my work as it will be the first time I’m ever doing so.