2022 is over and it’s time to reflect on the cinematic achievements of the past year.
it not only managed to capture the exhilaration of Tony Scott’s original film but it also found a story worth telling and possibly in need of telling. It doesn’t demonize new technology, as the Mach 10 opening sequence so captivatingly demonstrates, but it demands a human component of people who have not only been doing the job for a long time but who know what they're doing while they’re doing it. The film finds the humanity in the midst of its unparalleled blockbuster spectacle and uses nostalgia not for nostalgia’s sake but to recall and then expand upon something that is a beloved classic for its target audience, flaws and all.
2nd place:
David Gordon Green, Halloween Ends
3rd place:
Dan Trachtenberg, Prey
4th place:
Ti West, X
5th place:
Jordan Peele, Nope
Honorable mentions:
Matt Reeves, The Batman
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, Scream (2022)
the meaninglessness of war is captured so concisely and with such brilliance. This black comedy is full of absurdity, but also in a certain way brutal. It tells the story of a man in an existential crisis, full of artistic ambitions and trying to complete his manifesto in an extreme way. A simple, kind-hearted farmer is punished for inexplicable reasons by a crisis he does not understand. In this process, there is a kind of detachment in which the senselessness of war can be conceived.
Despite my dissatisfaction with the ending, this is still my favourite film of the year.
2nd place:
Edward Berger, All Quiet on the Western Front
3rd place:
Li Ruijun, Return to Dust
rarely has a film accomplished so impressively to show something so vague, yet at the same time so incredibly intimately personal and powerful, as Charlotte Wells' directorial debut. It is a play with the confusion of memories and it is as close as if we were leafing through our own photo albums from a long-vanished time.
2nd place:
Audrey Diwan, Happening
3rd place:
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
4th place:
Gaspar Noé, Vortex
5th place:
Asghar Farhadi, A Hero
Honorable mention:
Céline Sciamma, Petite Maman
