Film for Life: Our Increasingly Mad, Melding, and Chaotic World on Screen

Although film critics and academies put out lists of the best movies of the year, the movies we’ll end up loving or hating are as personal as everything. That’s not to say, “ditch the critics”. With the number of movies out there, it would be impossible without them. In December, my Tik Tok algorithm provided me with list upon list of the “10, 20, 50 best movies I saw this year”, some most definitely influenced by the lists famous critics provide, others by what was commercially successful, still more what was personal and touched them because of whatever circumstance or moment they were going through. That is the thing about art. The creator probably holds the “truth” about what a piece of art is all about, but once it’s out there, the spectator, audience, critic, will make it their own.

Still, I want to share my top ten movies with whomever may read this blog because they may want to get this woman’s perspective, which is what blogs are all about anyway. It is my regret that living in Kentucky, where the last of the art house movie theaters closed this year, I have not been able to see some of the movies recommended by my favorite critics, mainly because they are foreign films, many of which aren’t even being streamed (unless you sign up to all the new art house streaming platforms).

What’s made up for the angst I feel about not seeing the great foreign films is some of the wondrous things I’ve seen made for the small screen. Therefore, I want to do something different here, also share the top ten television series I loved this year. They have truly been a reflection of everything mad, melding, and chaotic in our world. We're seeing all this on the big and small screen now. This is my step into the now and forever of this symbiotic dyad of movies and television. With Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming platforms now having studios and not only streaming but making movies, and with some of the best actors, cinematographers, and directors making television series, like what was done in the days of my parents with “serial” movies, some of the best, most moving, evocative, and reflection-provoking film have been in the form of series for television. So, here are my lists. (I comment on my top five films).

My List of Ten Best Films of 2022

1. Everything everywhere all at once - Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schneider

Like I said, it’s all about what’s personal. I am a mother of two girls. The relationship with each one of my daughters is as complicated as a multiverse. I am an immigrant in the US, a woman immigrant of color, therefore I know the daily struggle and doubts about the decision made to come here, especially as I see my daughters and the new culture they inhabit. I am married (enough said). I am depressed when Tax Day comes around. This movie was everything, everywhere, all at once for me (it brought me back to my blog this year).

2. Decision to leave - Park Chan-Wook

I have admired Park Chan-Wook’s work, having seen Old Boy and The Handmaiden on streaming platforms. Decision took me from admiring his talent as a cinephile to being moved by it very deeply. This is, like his other films, a thriller but really the most amazing love story in disguise. I think his other films are like this too.

3. Tar - Todd Field

Cate Blanchet is probably one of the most versatile yet recognizable actors today. There’s always a piece of her in the characters she portrays. Never more than in Tar. I admired the talent in this movie more than loved it for its message or how it made me feel. The direction is impeccable, the cinematography exquisite, the music, well the centerpiece, the set and costume design precise, and Cate Blanchet’s acting superb. The discussion it undertakes never more relevant and one I have faced along with any other person who has, for example, admired a film like Chinatown but now can’t bring herself to watch it without thinking about how terrible Roman Polanski is as a person. There are too many examples today to go over them. Todd presents the dilemma well and very subtly takes sides, which is what makes this movie great. As the pendulum swings back and movements like the #Me Too or even Black Lives Matter diffuse, Tar makes the conversation even more important.

4. The Wonder -Sebastián Lelio

With the force that some “religious” fanatic groups seem to be gaining ground and causing so much damage when they weave their way into politics and policies, movies which question them and the damage done without destroying the essence of what it really means to hold Christian values are good to watch, such is the case with The Wonder. As a Latina, I am proud that this movie was made by Chilean director Sebastián Lelio. Lelio has been a trailblazer in South America for his film a Fantastic Woman ( Una Mujer Fantástica) featuring and about a transgender woman, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. His other films, Gloria, and Disobedience, the latter about a lesbian relationship within an Orthodox Jewish community, also address the issue of women and religion. In The Wonder, Florence Pugh’s performance is subtle and beautiful, as is the camera work, and the story itself.

5. Emily the Criminal – John Patton Ford

Aubrey Plaza is slowly but surely demonstrating her tremendous talent. What a great talent it is! People may have been more impressed this year by Plaza in The White Lotus, but it is in Emily the Criminal where she really shines. The movie, John Patton Ford’s first feature film, is about a young woman saddled with student debt and finding it hard to keep a job, so she becomes involved in a credit card scam. The script takes off from there and never stops being real and down to earth, even as it moves into a more fantastical finale.

6. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - Ryan Coogler

One word: Namor.

7. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies - Halina Reijn

A Gen Z thriller. So, deep, funny, revealing.

8. Turning red -Domee Shi

Disney finally getting inter and intra cultural right... and funny!

9. Thirteen Lives - Ron Howard

The best non-documentary documentary. Edge of the seat till the end!

10. Argentina 1985 - Santiago Mitre

A truth that needs to be told over and over again.

My List of Ten Best TV Series of 2022

Youth and young adults showing us their lives on a reservation in Oklahoma, in Atlanta, as children of Egyptian immigrants in Seattle, or in Mexico, these amazing series (Reservation Dogs, Atlanta, Ramy, Los Espookys) were some of the most emotionally moving and even heartbreaking series I've seen this year, tremendously creative in their narrative, with acting so natural and wondrous that it screams of hope for future great series and films. Really nothing to envy film.

Other series that appealed to me this year because of how they also told the truth of life in the United States through its real history, like The English and what the real "move to the West" meant, through allegory, like Severance, smashing the American workplace, its alienation and class warfare like no other show, or through a series that made me laugh and cry at the state of public schools in minority neighborhoods through the brilliant writing of Quinta Brunson, which was Abbot Elementary.

I loved Tony Gilroy's Andor for Diego Luna and Stellan Skarsgard, who like Pedro Pascal and Oscar Isaacs, have made Star Wars serious and relevant. And as a woman, Bad Sisters spoke to me like nothing I've seen made around just how #MeToo this world really is, and through comedy at that (albeit dark comedy). A masterpiece in comedy and so much more was Our Flag Means Death. Taika Waititi can't be over praised (he's behind Reservation Dogs as well), and he really put his heart into this one!

1. Reservation Dogs