Tag: year in review

Top Ten Movies of 2022

~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

I’ll have my regular end of the year list up at The End of Cinema in a couple of days (because the year isn’t over until the year is actually over, and there’s always hope I’ll be able to watch another movie). But deadlines being what they are, I’m putting up a Seattle-specific Top Ten list here and now. These are my favorites of the films eligible for the Seattle Film Critics Society’s end of the year awards.

1. The Novelist’s Film and In Front of Your Face (Hong Sangsoo)

Cheating right off the top with a tie. Hong’s third eligible film, Introduction, makes my Top 30 as well.

2. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)

As packed with sublime moments (funny and terrifying and weird) as anything Spielberg’s ever made.

3. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 (Mani Ratnam)

In a terrific year for large-scale action film, Ratnam’s epic stands out for its commitment to swashbuckling and to beautiful people hatching complicated schemes.

4. Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller)

Like The Fabelmans, a film about telling stories. Like Ponniyin Selvan, a film that tells stories.

5. Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka-fai)

Wai Ka-fai returns with another detective who has an unstable relationship to reality. But this time he’s the sane one while reality itself (ie Hong Kong in the post-protest era) has gone crazy!

6. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)

Tang Wei gives one of the finest performances of her storied career as the most fascinating femme fatale we’ve seen in years.

7. A New Old Play (Qiu Jiongjiong)

The missing link between Hou’s The Puppetmaster and Jia’s Platform.

8. Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)

Look I’m as surprised as anyone, given how much I have, in the past, not liked digital 3D, high frame rate filmmaking, and the first Avatar movie. But I loved pretty much everything about this. Maybe we’ve all been trapped inside too long, by COVID and/or the dire state of 2010s blockbuster filmmaking.

9. Baby Assassins (Sakamoto Yugo)

The year’s most surprising great film, a slacker comedy about two hired killers who find themselves needing to find jobs in the real world. Bookended by the two best fights scenes of the year.

10. RRR (SS Rajamouli)

Rajamouli finally breaks through in the West with what is an undeniably rousing epic of anti-imperialist spectacle, featuring two larger than life stars, wildly imaginative action sequences, and a politics that can charitably be described as “complicated”.

2016 Year in Review: Part 4

~ Michael Strenski ~ 2 Comments

elaine-love-witch

And here we are, the end of the end. Only two brave writers left standing, willing to take on my weakest questions. It’s all a bit deflating but so was this year. If you missed the past three days of erudite discussion, please head here.

Q: We’ve talked about the disappointment of blockbusters but what about genre pictures with more meager budgets? La La Land is playing now and receiving fairly positive praise despite the burden foisted upon it by the media to singlehandedly revive the Hollywood musical. This year saw its usual share of modest westerns and the occasional horror surprise. For my money, Green Room was a solid siege picture that I’m eager to revisit now that I think it presciently captured my emotional state on election night. And the Coens’ wonderful Hail, Caesar! was a great genre picture because it was a picture about genres. What do you think, which genre was best served in 2016?

Continue reading “2016 Year in Review: Part 4” →

2016 Year in Review: Part 3

~ Michael Strenski ~ 2 Comments

cemeteryofsplendor_trailer1

Our autopsy on the still-living body of 2016 continues with a discussion about the year’s best performances. Our previous entries tackled themes and surprises.

Q: As a rank-and-file auteurist, I often fail to adequately acknowledge onscreen work when writing about film. There are exceptions of course. I was quick to acknowledge Zhao Tao’s generous performance as one of the great strengths of Mountains May Depart. I am thankful that wonderful film saw a belated release in Seattle because I can include it in my year-end write-ups (especially since I am woefully behind in the bumper crop of Oscar bait currently invading theatres). Which 2016 performances stood out to you?

Continue reading “2016 Year in Review: Part 3” →

2016 Year in Review: Part 2

~ Michael Strenski ~ 2 Comments

the-fits

All week long we are taking a look back at the year in film. Yesterday’s discussion of cinematic trends can be found here.

Q: Going into a new year, we all have the films we are eagerly anticipating, but when we look back twelve months later it’s often the surprises that stick with us, the films we knew nothing about or didn’t expect much from that end up making the biggest impact. What film(s) snuck up on you this year, be they works by first-time directors or someone you wrote off long ago, that you will cherish in the years to come?

Continue reading “2016 Year in Review: Part 2” →

2016 Year in Review: Part 1

~ Michael Strenski ~ 2 Comments

love-and-friendship-06

To wrap 2016 up in a neat little bow before drowning it in the river, we decided to convene a virtual round table with several Seattle Screen Scene contributors. As expected, everyone wrote way too much so this discussion will be parceled out over the course of the week.

Q: Film nerds are often looking for patterns in the chaos and the end of the year always brings out the think pieces on the cinematic themes of the last 12 months. This year was no different. Dispatches from VIFF highlighted a preponderance of poetry in film, with Paterson, Neruda, and others. Recently I liked connecting the quest for love in Knight of Cups and The Love Witch through Tarot cards. What other patterns or significant trends did you notice this year? Anything flying under the radar of the hive mind? 

Continue reading “2016 Year in Review: Part 1” →