No other 2022 horror was as pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprising as BARBARIAN. You think you’ve got an idea of how far Zach Cregger’s film is going to go and which formulaic horror beats it’ll hit as soon as Tess (Georgina Campbell) turns up in an unfriendly neighbourhood to a double-booked Air BnB, but you really don’t. She inevitably makes her way down to a scary basement and beyond but then new parties arrive on the scene and we start to delve into the depraved history of the dwelling and its occupants. Barbarian is an absolute ride; thrilling, twisted and wickedly funny but not lacking in heart when it needs it. It’s this latter aspect that’s the most refreshing; plenty of horrors prompt gasps and grimaces, but very few can bring you to the verge of tears. SSP
Looking Back and Looking Forward: 2022
Cinema is back, but sadly not with a vengeance. The world is changed irrevocably and big screen film exhibition continues to struggle.
While I try not to be too downbeat in my yearly roundup, I am worried about the future of my favourite art form. At least we still got plenty of memorable films and film moments this year, and like last time I’ll begin with my favourite scenes of the past 12 months before moving on to my Top 20 Films of 2022.
Best Scenes of 2022:
ELVIS – The Comeback Special
The scene that makes the most of Austin Butler (and Elvis Presley’s) raw, animal charisma sees the King of Rock n’ Roll defy his paymasters and, rather than present the world with a merchandisable, family friendly TV special he unleashes a leather-clad, sexy, powerful performance on his helpless audience.
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE – Fanny Pack Fight
The mild-mannered Waymond Wang is body-hijacked by an a far more physically skilled version of him from another dimension and proceeds to set about audit office security guards with a surprisingly useful fanny pack (bum bag for UK readers).
THE BATMAN – Gotham Nightcrawl
The opening scene of the Dark Knight’s latest big screen iteration guides us through the grim streets of Gotham City like never before, with rain lashing and neon gleaming through the shadows, a threat – or a target for a brutal masked vigilante – around every corner.
TOP GUN: MAVERICK – Mach 10
Pete “Maverick” Mitchell lives up to his name and after fulfilling his military contract by getting an experimental stealth aircraft to hit Mach 10 against the odd, just can’t resist but push it a little further beyond its breaking point where it becomes a fireball moving at the speed of sound.
MEN – Birth of Man
In the best scene David Cronenberg never directed, after enduring days of horrific attacks from the inhabitants of a village who all appear to be uncanny male doppelgangers, Harper witness them all somehow giving birth to each other in squelchy fashion.
RRR – Menagerie Attack
Tribal warrior Bheem is on a mission to rescue his sister and so crashes the Governor of Delhi’s mansion party with the help of a truck full of the most aggressive wild animals he could find to tear into the British colonial opressors.
SCREAM – Drawn-Out Fake-Out
In a meta commentary on how to handle the buildup to, and execution of, the jump-scare, one of Ghostface’s soon-to-be-victims showers, changes and goes about his afternoon around the house, every moment you think the scare is going to come undermined for minutes on end.
PEARL – Ready for my closeup
Following her first killing spree that was brought about by her dreams of stardom being shattered, Pearl’s husband returns from the war to see the aftermath of the carnage and the camera holds on its antiheroine’s deranged, rictus grin of happiness throughout the credits.
BARBARIAN – Be My Baby
After being pursued by the Mother from her basement lair/nursery for unwilling surrogate children and miraculously surviving a fall from a water tower, Tess puts the broken maternal monster sadly but necessarily out of her misery as she cradles her and the jarringly happy “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes fills the soundtrack.
ATHENA – We are the Police
A Paris gang assaults and sacks a police station and steals vehicles, weapons and equipment to fortify their housing estate in revenge for the accidental killing of a child during an arrest, all presented in one blistering 10 minute long-take.
Best Films of 2022:
20. BRIAN AND CHARLES Review in Brief here.
19. PEARL Review in Brief here.
18. X Review in Brief here.
17. SOMETHING IN THE DIRT Review in Brief here.
16. LONG LIVE MY HAPPY HEAD Full review here.
15. TOP GUN: MAVERICK Review in Brief here.
14. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN Review in Brief here.
13. LIVING Review in Brief here.
12. WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR
11. RED ROCKET Review in Brief here.
10. RRR Review in Brief here.
9. DECISION TO LEAVE Review in Brief to follow.
8. BARBARIAN Review in Brief to follow.
7. ALI & AVA Full review here.
6. THE HOUSE Review in Brief here.
5. NOPE Full review here.
4. AFTERSUN Review in Brief here.
3. CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH Review in Brief here.
2. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Full review here.
1. THE QUIET GIRL Review in Brief here.
Here’s to a year with more blockbuster sequels than we’ve seen in some time, and plenty of more interesting cinematic offerings as well. SSP
Review in Brief: Something in the Dirt (2022)
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s follow-up to the weird THE ENDLESS and the (slightly) more mainstream SYNCHRONIC is another low-key, cerebral sci-fi, this time filmed mostly in Moorhead’s own LA apartment out of Lockdown necessity. Two new neighbours discover a strange, unexpectedly musical physics phenomenon in the corner of an apartment living room and set about trying to make a documentary about it, putting pressure on their relationship and throwing up shocking personal revelations in the process. It’s a credit to Moorhead and Benson’s creative partnership, their inventiveness, craftsmanship and on-screen chemistry that their projects continue to be so compelling and unique. You never get easy answers from these films, but the images, the feelings they evoke and the threads left tantalisingly dangling at the close should please the established fanbase. SSP
Review in Brief: Pearl (2022)
X was a huge surprise horror hit earlier in 2022, so when the news dropped that director Ti West and star Mia Goth had simultaneously shot a prequel movie in secret, fans were eager to see what came next (or before). A 1920s-set small town girl dreaming of fame story but with a playful relationship to the early years of Hollywood and a seriously wicked streak running right though it, the account of how the wide-eyed young Pearl (Goth) became a decrepit serial killer is as enthralling as it is bloody and bizarre. West’s visual sensibilities, in particular how he plays with reality and pastiches music hall and movie musicals, will have you transfixed, but it’s Goth’s deranged central performance and especially a painfully uncomfortable long-take at the film’s close that’ll haunt your dreams. SSP
Review in Brief: Living (2022)
How can you improve on a classic from a master? You lean into the period detail, come at it from a new cultural perspective and make the meditation on mortality even sadder. Based on Akira Kurosawa’s IKIRU, Oliver Hermanus’ (director of Moffie) new film follows Williams (Bill Nighy), a local government middle manager who has let life slip by and is now faced with a terminal diagnosis. He finally decides to live, forges and unexpected connection with the ambitious Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood) and aims to actually get something worthwhile done in his coasting department in the time he has left. Maintaining the British stiff-upper-lip ensures that the closest Williams ever comes to telling his family how soon he’s going to die is rehearsing it to a coat stand. LIVING is unassuming, but it’s compellingly honest and really stays with you. SSP
Review in Brief: The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
In Martin McDonagh’s latest dark fable, friends become separable on an island off Ireland small enough to not be able to avoid each other. Day after day Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) meet at the pub and chatter inanely until all at once Colm decides life is too short and he should be focussing his remaining years on artistic fulfilment. Confused and hurt, Pádraic persists until Colm makes a gruesome threat that changes their relationship dynamic irrevocably. Being a McDonagh joint, this is pretty bleak, existential stuff, but it’s also really funny with moments of gallows humour and absurdist comedy coming from Farrell (in his best ever lead role), Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan and a scene-stealing donkey. It’s also a film of depths, of small details coming from its setting (Civil War Ireland) and illusive meanings to decode from its maybe-supernatural elements. SSP
Review in Brief: Aftersun (2022)
Charlotte Wells is a filmmaker unafraid to let a scene play out, to hold exactly as long as is required. AFTERSUN follows 31 year-old divorced dad Calum (Paul Mescal, sensational) and his daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio, an instant star), both trying to make the most of a holiday to Turkey and struggling to find connection. A symbolically relevant long-take early on sees Sophie fast asleep and Calum separated by a screen door behind her, frantically trying to light his cigarette one-handed, the only sound his daughter’s steady breathing in the room. This scene is repeated in reverse later on and several echoes in both their lives pack potent emotions as we draw towards the film’s conclusion. Films set in the 1990s are, depressingly, period films now, and Wells perfectly sums up universal memories of disappointing family holidays abroad in this period (you always arrived at 3am to a slightly shitty hotel with building work going on and had to endure some ghastly nighttime “entertainment”). This is completely grounded, soulful, beautiful stuff. SSP
Review in Brief: Do Revenge (2022)
DO REVENGE is MEAN GIRLS meets STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, but with plenty of choice 90s needle drops. After a humiliating sex tape is leaked to her prep school, former queen bee Drea Torres (Camila Mendes) makes a deal with outsider new kid Eleanor Levetan (Maya Hawke) for them to exact each other’s revenge against the people who wronged them. We’re definitely going to need to add “bitchasaurus rex” to common parlance, for the good of the species, and Sophie Turner’s sweary meltdown scene deserves to be hung in a gallery. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s stylish and witty film hits most of the expected teen movie beats for sure, but usually with tongue firmly in cheek, plus it has more than a few big surprises in store in the constantly wrong-footing final act. SSP
SSP Thinks Film 