Films of 2022:Q2
Here are some recent films that I watched. (CC refers to Criterion Channel.)
2022:Q2 films
Newer Films:
Memoria (Thai/Colombia) 3.8 This Apichatpong Weerasethakul film is not for everyone, as the pace is extremely slow. But there are some highly rewarding scenes for the patient viewer (and some subtle humor). The style reminded me a bit of a previous film by Jia Zhangke (who co-produced this film), but Weerasethakul is the more talented director. Colombia’s “La Violencia” is referred to only indirectly, but it’s always present in the background.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Japan) 3.6 Made the same year as Drive My Car (and by the same director), this film attracted much less attention. That’s unfortunate, as the best parts are quite good.
You Won’t Be Alone (Macedonia) 3.5 I generally don’t care much for horror films, and this is no exception. But my taste has no bearing on whether a film is any good, and this film is quite good. The approach is reminiscent of the immersive style of Terrence Malick. I’d like to see one more from this director in order to form a firm opinion, but he could be a major talent.
France (France) 3.4 I suppose you could describe this film as being “about” the news media, celebrity, class, or France in the 21st century. But it’s actually about Lea Seydoux’s highly expressive face, which can be extremely beautiful at one moment and quite ugly a few minutes later. At this late date, who really cares what directors have to say about social issues? The real question is what sort of eye do they have. This is the first Dumont film I’ve seen, and he seems to have a pretty good eye.
Watcher (US/Romania) 3.1 This sort of plot is tailor made for cinema and this particular film is fairly well crafted. So why the so-so rating? Unfortunately, the film is disappointingly conventional and predictable, with almost no sign of creativity.
The Northman (US) 2.7 The reviews were good but I don’t see why. The story wasn’t very interesting—they just threw some Homer, Shakespeare and Icelandic sagas into a bowl and mixed it all up. The cinematography wasn’t all that creative or interesting. It’s a tough slog to sit through almost 2½ hours of mud and rain and blood and guts.
What new films did I miss?
Old Films:
How Green Was My Valley (UK, 1941, CC) 3.8 Won the best picture Oscar over Citizen Kane, and you can sort of see why. Even Stephen Spielberg cannot combine “art” and “crowd-pleasing” as effectively as John Ford at his best. Almost a textbook illustration of Ford’s idealistic view of the good life. Or from a political perspective, Ford’s conservative liberalism. One of a number of masterpieces produced in 1941.
The Empire Strikes Back (US, 1981) 3.8 Seeing this again after many years, I was surprised at how well it holds up despite the mediocre acting. Maybe the best adolescent adventure movie ever made?
The Samurai (France, 1967, CC) 3.8 You could argue that these stylish Melville/Delon films are every bit as unrealistic as a modern superhero film. But they are so much more beautiful. Watching Delon put on a hat is more interesting than almost anything in recent Hollywood movies.
Double Indemnity (US, 1944, CC) 3.8 A perfect film noir. I love seeing what “modern” grocery stores looked like in 1938.
Alphaville (France, 1965, CC) 3.8 As I get older, I become increasingly nostalgic for the future. The best future was and always will be mid-century modern. Seeing this film again after many decades, it seems a bit uneven. But there are plenty of high points, which is more than you can say for most films these days. Godard must have been influenced by Chris Marker’s La Jetee, and Ridley Scott must have been influenced by this film when he made Blade Runner.
The Hole (Taiwan, 1998, CC) 3.7 This Tsai Ming-liang film works on many different levels—black comedy, dystopian story of a plague year, Grace Chang musical, surrealist take on plumbing problems, etc.
The Silence of the Sea (France, 1949, CC) 3.6 Melville’s first film was made on a shoestring budget and has an interesting backstory. The author refused to give Melville the film rights to his novel. So Melville arranged for the author and 24 French resistance fighters to watch the film that he’d spent 18 months making, and promised to immediately burn the negative if they rejected it. Thank God they didn’t.
Pyaasa (India, 1957, CC) 3.6 A crude but highly effective exercise in Bengali romanticism, mostly due to the extraordinary charisma of Guru Dutt. The film exemplifies much of the best and the worst of Indian culture (its humanitarianism and its antipathy to capitalism.)
Accident (UK, 1967, CC) 3.6 I don’t know if Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter adapted this novel with Dirk Bogarde in mind, but he’s perfect for the role. The other actors are also excellent. The film doesn’t have a clear message—thankfully.
The Lovers (France, 1958, CC) 3.6 Louis Malle’s second film made Jeanne Moreau a star. Not exactly a masterpiece, but its lightness epitomizes what so many of us like about French films. A deeply enjoyable film (particularly the second half, where the nighttime cinematography is a bit reminiscent of Night of the Hunter.)
Belle de Jour (France, 1967, CC) 3.6 A now classic film that made Catherine Deneuve a star. The attempt to portray psychological states with fantasy sequences doesn’t quite hold up, but this seems to be a general problem with older films (recall Spellbound.) The rest of the film is expertly crafted, as is typical of Bunuel. Moviegoers who take a more intellectual approach to film may rate this one even higher.
The Last Picture Show (US, 1971, CC) 3.6 I can see where this film would have seemed quite impressive back in 1971. Today, it doesn’t have quite the same impact, but that’s probably because some of its best features have been widely imitated. Features a bunch of future stars.
La Piscine (France, 1969, CC) 3.5 A very influential film. Superficial in the best sense of the term.
High Sierra (US, 1941, CC) 3.5 One of Bogart’s first starring roles, which is all you need to know. BTW, in 1941 we were prosperous, at peace, and without the threat of nuclear war hanging over our heads. In a few scenes it looks like the 1950s were about to begin.
Claire’s Knee (France, 1970, CC) 3.5 Like many French films of this era, it has an appealing lightness. I imagine that the response of viewers depends in part on how many layers of interpretation they see, and how interesting they find those layers. I was somewhere in between those who love the film and those who were bored. I prefer the Korean version of Rohmer films (directed by Hong Sang-soo).
A Taxing Woman (Japan, 1987, CC) 3.4 Tampopo caught on with Western audiences, but this one is almost as entertaining. A painless crash course in Japanese tax evasion.
Murder at the Vanities (US, 1934, CC) 3.4 This rating is a sort of compromise. It’s a 3-star film and a 4-star cultural artifact. The musical numbers are pretty wild and highly creative. There’s even an ode to smoking marijuana. It seems like some of our most decadent years are during hard times—1934 and the 1974-82 period. After 1934, this sort of film couldn’t be made again (in America) for another 30-plus years.
Young Mr. Lincoln (US, 1939, CC) 3.4 The second best John Ford film of 1939 (after Stagecoach), this is sort of like a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. Some will find it too sentimental, but I liked Henry Fonda’s performance.
Black Orpheus (France/Brazil, 1959, CC) 3.4 I can see why this film was viewed as a classic, although today it seems a bit dated. For modern viewers, the best reason to watch the film is that it shows what life in Rio’s favelas looked like back in 1959. (Yes, it’s a romanticized vision, but still better than nothing.)
The Daytrippers (US, 1996, CC) 3.4 Good acting and good screenplay—an entertaining film. My favorite part is the shy young man harboring his deadbeat father.
Stolen Kisses (French, 1968, CC) 3.3 A nice whimsical comedy, but I increasingly feel like Truffaut is a bit overrated. It does nicely capture the mood of 1968, however, when the world in some sense seemed more open.
The Port of Last Resort (US/ China, 1999) 3.3 One of the seemingly endless series of fascinating stories that came out of the WWII-era. This documentary looks at the 18,000 Jews that fled from Europe to Japanese-occupied Shanghai in the late 1930s and (mostly) survived until after the war, often under horrendous conditions. The Japanese should be condemned for their harsh treatment of the Jews. But all other countries refused to accept Jewish refugees, and they deserve even harsher condemnation. Errors of omission are often far more inexcusable than errors of commission.
The film is only 23 years old, but already seems a bit politically incorrect. The Chinese are merely in the background, despite making up almost 99% of Shanghai’s population. Perhaps that was excusable given the focus of the documentary, but given how much the Chinese suffered under the Japanese occupation, I don’t think that oversight would be acceptable in 2022.
Man Hunt (UK, 1941, CC) 3.3 The ending of this Fritz Lang film is marred by wartime propaganda. But until then, it’s a pretty entertaining Hitchcock-style thriller.
Eva (UK/Italy, 1962, CC) 3.2 This Joseph Losey film seems a bit pretentious at times—straining too hard to be cool with its references to everyone from Giotto to Billie Holiday. But it does have a number of enjoyable scenes. And there’s Jeanne Moreau.
The Funeral (Japan, 1984, CC) 3.2 This comedy was highly regarded in Japan, and it is a very good film in some respects. But to westerners (like me) that are unfamiliar with Japanese culture, this more than 2-hour film seems like a lot of variations of a single joke.
A Taxing Woman’s Return (Japan, 1988, CC) 3.1 As in so often the case, the director tries to pack too much into the sequel. But Japan’s non-puritanical approach to kinky humor makes it worth watching for fans of the original.
Moontide (US, 1942, CC) 3.1 This pleasant little film features Jean Gabin in his first American movie.
The Black Watch (US, 1929, CC) 3.1 John Ford’s first sound film shows signs of his trademark style. But it’s hard to take a film seriously in which Myrna Loy plays a white woman wearing a series of sexy sheer blouses as she leads a Taliban-like group of Islamic warriors through the Khyber Pass.
Magnificent Obsession (US, 1954, CC) 3.1 We can tolerate a certain degree of stupidity in melodrama, but this Sirk tearjerker goes a bit too far.
The Cheat (US, 1931, CC) 3.1 Tallulah Bankhead plays a bad girl with a heart of gold. Trigger warning: The films contains lots of cultural appropriation, including a costume ball full of rich white people dressed up as “Orientals”. On the plus side, it actually deserves its pre-code label.
Trapped (US, 1949, CC) 3.1 Routine B-noir about a counterfeiting racket. Nothing special, but these noirs are all pretty entertaining.
The Face of Another (Japan, 1966, CC) 3.0 The director’s first film after Woman of the Dunes is quite a letdown. Makes me wonder if I overrated the earlier film. The accompanying documentary on Criterion Channel, however, makes a strong case for the film.
The Deep Blue Sea (UK, 2011, CC) 2.9 Tasteful but dull middlebrow drama that is never quite believable. The British have a knack for making depressing films.
Amarcord (Italy, 1973, CC) 2.8 Perhaps Fellini’s most overrated film; he seems to have lost his touch.
Million Dollar Legs (US, 1932, CC) 2.7 A sort of poor man’s Marx brothers film, starring W.C. Fields. Some quasi-surrealistic humor, but not quite surrealistic enough to make it interesting.
Lust For Gold (US, 1949, CC) 2.4 The story’s present day framing is almost laughably inept, whereas the flashback at least has some competent acting (Ida Lupino, Glenn Ford). As for Glenn Ford’s German accent, all I can do is SMH.
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2. July 2022 at 15:44
“Everything, Everywhere, All of the Time” is an absolute must-see. Of course, I love Michelle Yeoh. Double Blessing.
2. July 2022 at 15:46
given i already know you are prone to being a philistine, i will find it not surprising your failure to grasp the wonder of Amarcord.
2. July 2022 at 16:35
agrippa, Yes, it seems I failed to grasp that film classic.
2. July 2022 at 16:36
Dennis, I’ll try to check it out.
2. July 2022 at 18:18
Thank you Scott … This is a great public service.
3. July 2022 at 07:13
Scott,
surprised that you liked “Memoria”. I found it unsufferable, so did my wife and my son and we’re all pretty tolerant of “artsyness”. But this one seemed to me like a bad joke. And I had to pee so badly towards the end and I could only think, when O when will this end. The most self indulgent pompous piece of wasted time I’ve seen in a while. It actually led us to put a family ban on an entire category of possible movies. We left the theatre with a palpable sense of hatred. And the audience around us also just groaned (Singapore here, as you know).
I suppose I wasn’t smart enough for this one. I did not get a single plot idea, reference, or emotion.
3. July 2022 at 08:02
mbka, In fairness, the first line of my review suggests that most people won’t like it. Apichatpong Weerasethakul is definitely an acquired taste. Note that I didn’t get Amarcord, whereas many reviewers (and one of my commenters) loved it.
3. July 2022 at 08:06
mbka,
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoria_2021
3. July 2022 at 08:45
Scott,
thanks for the link. Yes the reviews are full of praise and acknowledge, like yours, that it takes a special taste. Unfortunately I saw nothing, understood nothing, and felt nothing (but anger). I actually watched that movie because of Tilda Swinton, that gave me some faith. We do watch plenty of Asian movies and their esthetic / feeling / Weltanschauung / idiosyncrasies aren’t alien to us. Still… this one did not work for us.
Interestingly I saw Amarcord as a very young adult or even teen and I can still vividly remember some scenes, the feeling of the film, though I barely understood what it was “about”, save precisely a kind of feeling. With Memoria, only thing that stuck is the “thump”, whole family now laughs hysterically when they hear a similar sound. Makes me feel like a philistine that I didn’t get it, but I didn’t, it’s a fact.
I like to think that people are intellectually honest and that Apichatpong Weerasethakul indeed had something to say. Plus, many people including you seem to have understood that something. Makes me wonder how different our perceptions can really be. For some, this was evocative of feelings, for some, none at all. Like you say, for you, this worked, for me, Amarcord worked. Maybe there is a deeper meaning in this, as a meta-observation.
3. July 2022 at 10:04
[…] Scott Sumner movie reviews, always […]
3. July 2022 at 11:00
mbka – I’ve been a Weerasethakul superfan for a long time; I even wrote a paper on him back in undergrad (which, tbh, probably forced me to sit and think through what I was seeing in a very constructive way). It’s funny, I definitely think it’s his most straightforward film thematically. The noise that Swinton hears is a manifestation of the long history of political violence in Colombia – it’s only expunged once the old man is able to share his story in full. It’s not the most profound thing, but Weerasethakul’s use of visuals/sound design – plus the occasional magical realist flourish – is why people tend to love him.
3. July 2022 at 11:33
Scott,
once again a great write up. This is really a tremendous service, as Kgaard already said.
Some sentences can be carved in stone:
Double Indemnity is really the perfect film noir, it must be the quasi definition of film noir. The only film noir more film noir than Double Indemnity is maybe the intro of The Killers (1946), but The Killers doesn’t keep up the level at all, Double Indemnity does, from the first to the last second.
Great commentary also on Belle de Jour, one of my favorite films from my youth.
The comment about The Northman also hits the nail on the head. I’m extremely tolerant when it comes to fantasy. Northmen, Vikings, bring it on, I dig this stuff usually. I even watch absolute trash as long as only really small parts are good: But this is a total failure on all levels. I saw nothing good in this movie. What does it say about our times when junk like this gets such good reviews? What is going on?
Robert Eggers was already celebrated for The Witch. This film was already bad, but The Northman is even worse. Critics praised creativity and new approaches? Sorry, but I can’t see it in the movies at all.
This must be the sentence of the year:
3. July 2022 at 12:22
mbka, I’d guess that there’s far more great art that I don’t get (including much of music and poetry) than is the case with you.
Thanks Christian.
3. July 2022 at 13:46
Asked to name the three best American directors, Welles responded with, “John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.” Although in other interviews, he said no one was better than Frank Capra.
3. July 2022 at 15:40
amarcord is the italian best days of our lives, absent the jingoism.
3. July 2022 at 16:39
Some deflation in the scoring here? I wonder if there is an inverse correlation with NGDP…
3. July 2022 at 23:33
I think I liked The Northman a little more than you, but I was similarly disappointed. It was a bit like The Green Knight, in that it seemed to think saying “I’m being mythic” is quality in itself. It didn’t obviously make any points or explore any interesting ideas with its mythic feel.
I’m a bit worried about the recommendation of Everything, Everywhere above… I enjoyed it, but thought it was fairly average, and if you take a moment to think about the plot, you will find it’s all driven by some fairly insufferable woke/Hollywood tropes.
Thanks for the reminders to go back to Bunuel and Louis Malle!
4. July 2022 at 04:22
A good list, many of which I’ve also seen. The only quibble is your statement that Belle de Jour made Catherine Deneuve a star. By the time the Bunuel film was released she already had achieved high plaudits for her role in Polanski’s ‘Repulsion’ and the two Jacques Demy films, ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ and ‘The Young Girls of Rochefort;’ the latter co-starred her sister Francois Dorleac who was killed in a car crash shortly after the film was released.
4. July 2022 at 04:35
EEAAO is an all-time great film for me. Disclaimer: I’ve been dying for a film where Michelle Yeoh acts her pants off and isn’t just “ethnic” as in a certain Tiger film that wasn’t received nearly as well by native Chinese people who can hear that the actors weren’t properly prepped so their dialog is in strange, wooden accents. Ahem.
Saying EEAAO is “woke” is painfully superficial. I think it’s the only film I’ve seen to steelman woke arguments in a truly authentic way, and do so from the perspective of the minorities this ideology is supposed to be on behalf of. That’s laudable. I don’t have to agree with an ideology, to appreciate seeing the world through its adherents eyes in an authentic way.
It is amazing to do so in a film with Michelle Yeoh, James Hong, and the much missed Ke Huy Kwan (I had no idea Short Round was a fight choreographer!). It’s absolutely mind-melting that that film is kung fu, and an interdimensional adventure, and an experimental art film ruminating on belonging and family.
Or – EEAAO is woke in the same way that Godard’s popular films often have self-absorbed hypocrites masquerading as poetic heroes. That’s something humans do. I can appreciate ruminating on their world as an artistic springboard, just like I can watch Leone’s Westerns while I think casually gunning down dozens of people might be of dubious moral standing.
Jenny Slate is kind of terrible in the film but her inclusion does have a payoff.
4. July 2022 at 05:23
I’m not much of a cinephile, but some random comments: I’m surprised you rated Empire Strikes Back so highly. How does the original Star Wars compare? On Pyaasa, isn’t caste the worst aspect of Indian culture? Antipathy to capitalism is a relatively recent affliction, borne through the lasting influence of inter-war elite British educations for India’s ruling class. The Last Picture Show was an enjoyable film I watched at a summer open-air cinema a decade ago. Haven’t many of the ideas from other classic movies being copied at least as much? I wasn’t aware of Claire’s Knee, but I enjoyed Rohmer’s later love in the four seasons series. Are there Korean versions of those? I just got back from visiting Dinard in Brittany where A Summer’s Tale was set, remembering what it was like to be in my mid-20s.
4. July 2022 at 05:44
A link to Scott’s Q1 list: https://www.themoneyillusion.com/films-of-2022q1/
Here’s some that you missed:
Top Gun: Maverick. To those of us who didn’t care for the original, saying that it’s much better is faint praise. Instead, take the movie on it’s own: a riveting and warm action movie that, despite its positive treatment of the American military, managed to receive near universal praise in the year of our lord 2022.
The Batman. Dark. Brooding. The best treatment of the character since Dark Knight, but you need not be a fan to enjoy this movie.
Everything Everywhere All At Once. The answer to the question: what does an existential crisis look like? But on a ton of cocaine and a pinch of mushrooms.
Navalny. Interesting look at one of the bravest men of the 21st century. This documentary *moves*
4. July 2022 at 05:53
“all other countries refused to accept Jewish refugees”
At the 1938 Evian Conference there was one nation that agreed to take in Jewish refugees: the Dominican Republic. Their dictator Trujillo even donated 26000 acres of his own property to settle refugees. This was around the same time he was violently expelling Haitians back to their side of the island.
4. July 2022 at 07:06
Feel the same about The Northman. `Artsy Viking epic’ is right up my street, but I gave it a B/B+. Not a patch on Valhalla Rising.
I’ve seen Dumont’s first several films (Vie de Jesus through Flandres) and liked them a lot. I tend to save favourite directors’ films up for the future; might be time to start watching him again.
I’d been reading about Guru Dutt just before I saw this post, but have never seen anything of his. I’ve seen a few by Ritwik Ghatak. What is it with the Bengali directors and that combo of neorealism and melodrama?
A good (not that) recent film is The Worst Person in the World.
4. July 2022 at 07:29
@Alan Goldhammer
Maybe she was a star before, that may or may not be true. Repulsion and Umbrellas were her breakthroughs, but did they make her a star? Of the four films, Belle de Jour stands out the most and has transcended time, at least in my view. Repulsion has not aged well and the other two are basically musicals.
4. July 2022 at 08:33
Ted, They are both great directors, but so are Hitchcock and Kubrick. It’s hard to compare such different styles.
Alan, I stand corrected.
Anoniemoose, Very insightful review–makes we want to see it.
Rajat, I viewed Stars Wars as being almost as good, but it’s been years since I’ve seen it. The other 7 are all considerably inferior.
Yes, caste is a big problem in India.
“Haven’t many of the ideas from other classic movies being copied at least as much?”
I think it’s more a question of what can be copied and what cannot. Content can be copied, and LPS has lots of interesting content. A very distinctive style is hard to copy. In other words, Bogdanovich is a very skilled director, but not a great director. Having said that, perhaps 3.6 is a bit low—but it’s not a masterpiece in my view.
Song’s Korean films are not literally remakes of Rohmer, but they are obviously influenced by the French director.
Bronze Age, Thanks for the tips.
TGGP, That’s right.
4. July 2022 at 09:07
@ricardo
Thanks for the movie recommendation The Worst Person in the World. This film is at the top of my list. It seems to be the only good movie in 2022 so far. The trailer reminds me of Frances Ha, is it comparably good?
4. July 2022 at 11:55
Ricardo and Christian, FWIW, I wasn’t crazy about The Worst Person in the World. (Three months ago I gave it 3.0 stars.) But critics liked it, so please ignore me.
4. July 2022 at 12:14
@Christian, I can’t compare The Worst Person in the World to Frances Ha as I haven’t seen that.
The director (Joachim Trier) and one of the leads (Anders Danielsen Lie) collaborated on an earlier film: Oslo, August 31st. That was, I think, a _great_ film. TWPITW is not quite as good, but still is better than most other stuff out there. Danielsen Lie is great again, and the lead actress is really good.
4. July 2022 at 16:00
@ricardo @Christian
Fully agree on TWPW. One of Trier’s best. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As for Memoria, it evoked Bogota (I lived there for a while as a teen) in a very visceral way. Yes, it’s slow as molasses, but it’s one of those films you just have to let flow you.
5. July 2022 at 12:46
I also think Everything Everywhere was pretty good, you will be able to appreciate all the references. Also this is not a recent movie, but I saw Moonstruck for the first time recently because I was on a Nick Cage binge, and it turned out to be a great movie. Its more of a Cher movie than Cage and she won an oscar I think, I didnt even know she was an actress before.
5. July 2022 at 17:17
Really looking forward to hearing what you think of Everything Everywhere all at Once.
Since you may like recommendations for films people wouldn’t expect that you would watch I’d add “fire island”
6. July 2022 at 12:45
Interesting as always.
I liked this trailer (combines the 1966 film with the 2022 one):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B90ic2iKDo
This guy seems like someone SS might like (perhaps already familiar, of course):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopoldo_Torre_Nilsson
I’d never heard of him, but a friend sent me a long review of La casa del angel.
6. July 2022 at 14:01
Have you ever considered using letterboxd, Scott?