2022 Movie Awards

Favorite Movies of 2022

So we conclude our recap of last year’s movies with a traditional top 10 list of my favorite movies of 2022, only a month and a half (or so) late! This marks the seventeenth year in a row that I’ve posted a top 10. For reference, previous top 10s are here: [2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006]

It’s traditional at this point to discuss themes of the year in film. This is a tricky endeavor even in the best of times, but I have to say: the films of 2022 focused inordinately on one thing. Movies about art were all the rage. Making art, consuming art, interpreting art, contextualizing art, and so on. Stories about stories! Whether it be movies that involve making and consuming movies (The Fabelmans, Babylon, Nope, See How They Run, X, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Something in the Dirt, Fire of Love, Clerks III), movies about both fictional and real musicians (Elvis, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Tár), heck, movies featuring podcasts (Vengeance, Bodies Bodies Bodies), or movies that just explored a more generalized or figurative or unconventional art form or narrative (Crimes of the Future, Three Thousand Years of Longing, The Menu, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Glass Onion, Barbarian, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Scream, Brian and Charles). I honestly can’t think of another theme I’ve noticed in a given year that was this clear or widespread.

From an industry perspective, theatrical moviegoing had a couple of big wins this year, while streaming venues are fraying. We still have not returned to pre-pandemic norms and fears about theatrical business are still warranted, but there does seem to be an acknowledgement that streaming can’t be the end-all-be-all delivery of movies.

On a more personal note, this year’s list is much lighter in tone than last year, which tended towards dark, dreary tales. That’s not to say that it’s all fluffy bunnies and rainbows, there are a couple of harrowing experiences in the list, but it’s a little more balanced this year. I don’t explicitly try to balance these top 10 lists, but it is neat when you get a good variety in the mix (this year, we’ve got a documentary, an animated feature, a couple of foreign flicks, etc..) Perhaps this speaks to broad interests, but on the other hand, there are two murder mysteries on the list, so perhaps I’m making too much of the mix.

As of this writing, this top 10 list is pulling from a total of 104 movies I’ve seen that could be considered a 2022 release. This is less than your usual critic, but probably more than your typical moviegoer. Standard disclaimers apply, and it’s always worth noting that due to release schedules (especially in these plague years), some movies from 2021 that didn’t become available until 2022 qualify for this list. Alrighty then, I think we’ve covered all our bases, so let’s get to the feature presentation:

Top Ten Movies of 2022

* In roughly reverse order

Confess, Fletch – Criminally underseen reboot of a franchise that was perhaps too reliant on its original star’s smarm. Jon Hamm’s Fletch certainly retains the acidic snark, dry delivery, and insouciance of the character, while toning down the costumes and seemingly improvised dialogue. There’s a great supporting cast as well, and in the end, it’s just a great, breezy little flick that slipped through the cracks this year (but is already starting to gain a following as it continues to be discovered by audiences)

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

See How They Run – Another breezy murder mystery, this one a period piece with Agatha Christie flavor. The story is all well and good, but it’s the comedic performance of Saoirse Ronan as Constable Stalker that steals the show. A good supporting cast and enough dry wit to carry the day, this is a smart, self-aware spin on the genre that doesn’t stray too far or feel smug or self-satisified.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Everything Everywhere All at Once – Maximalist, hyper-kinetic tale that boils down to a rather simple story, it manages to combine a moving, sentimental family drama with silly bombast. Bold, adventurous filmmaking at its best. Like The Matrix before it, the only real drawback to the movie is some of its dumber fans (i.e. nothing to do with the movie itself).

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Jackass Forever

Jackass Forever – It’s tempting to see this as nothing more than a feature length version of the “Man Getting Hit by Football” gag from the Simpsons, but I dare say that there is something more poignant going on here. This series has been going for decades now, and there’s something interesting about the aging cast and infusion of new talent, and the way human beings bond and react to stimuli (i.e. most of us generally try to avoid the situations these folks seek out). Anyway, there’s a whole sequence where a guy gets punched in the nuts by a UFC champion, so on this list it goes.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

Athena – This French movie about an uprising in a poor neighborhood, sparked by a video of police beating a child to death, is comprised mostly of virtuosic long-takes. Bold, immersive filmmaking with astonishing set-pieces and a conscience too. The ending is almost comically provocative and presumably divisive, and the whole exercise could seem showy, but… I like that sort of thing, so here we are.

More Info: [IMDB] [Netflix]

Three Thousand Years of Longing – George Miller’s follow up to Mad Max: Fury Road was not what anyone expected, and honestly, it’s not really what it seems either. I mean, it is mostly about two people talking, but Miller can’t help but inject energy and action and visual lushness into almost every frame of this story about stories. There’s a lot to chew on here, and some exceptional performances from the two leads. One of the biggest surprises of the year for me.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

A Hero – There are a lot of great filmmakers in the world, but Asghar Farhadi may be the best at crafting dramas. This one centers around small decisions that snowball into giant avalanches of consequence. It has a lot to say about the ways in which communities perceive actions and the way small mistakes or misstatements can spiral out of hand very quickly. It’s a keenly observed bit of drama that doesn’t feel the need to take sides, and increasingly relevant in these times that are so mediated by outraged social media.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon Prime]

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood – Richard Linklater has this superpower of being able to evoke nostalgia for a time when you were not alive. In this case, we get a look at 1969 Houston through the eyes of a 10 year old. Simple family interactions and nostalgia mixed with a more fantastical take on a secret NASA trip to the moon, all done through Linklater’s preferred (and rather handsome) rotoscoped animation style.

More Info: [IMDB] [Netflix]

Nope – It’s messier than Jordan Peele’s previous efforts, but I can’t help but admire the ambition and weirdness on display here. There’s a lot to chew on with regards to narratives, spectacle, and what it takes to create something for audiences and how audiences are in thrall to that spectacle. But Peele doesn’t forget to make it entertaining either, which is a neat trick if you can pull it off. It won’t work for everyone, but it did for me…

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Top Gun Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick – Pure action spectacle and the best big screen experience of the year, bar none. There are so many things about this movie that shouldn’t work, that I normally hate in a movie, but perhaps through Tom Cruise’s pure force of will, somehow become endearing and breathlessly entertaining. Just pure entertainment, an adrenaline shot to the theatrical experience. I don’t understand how any of this is possible, but I’m glad it is.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Honorable Mention

* In an order I dare you to discern

Ambulance – Michael Bay’s latest didn’t do very well at the box office and it is perhaps a tad overlong, but it’s still quite the action picture. Bay makes great use of drones and location shooting (which is a breath of fresh air in these days of bland green screen actioners) and while it does feature some of his trademark juvenile schtick, it’s a schtick that works well here. Very nearly made the top 10…

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon Prime]

Babylon – Damien Chazelle’s ode to the decadence and depravity of early Hollywood has some crackerjack sequences and some wonderful performances, but is far too long and indulgent. Still, despite all its excesses and coke-fueled hijinks, there’s some depth and thematic heft about art and movies and those that make them that rings true.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Barbarian – Writer/director Zach Cregger’s debut is a fun ride with an unconventional structure and some well balanced tonal shifts between humor and horror that are pulled off with flare and style. It’s one of those movies that’s perhaps best seen when you know as little as possible going in, so that you’ll be suitably surprised when the narrative shifts one way or the other. Another one I genuinely considered for the top 10 but just fell a tad short…

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Review]

Crimes of the Future – David Cronenberg returns to the pulsating, fleshy world of body horror and while it doesn’t quite connect the way his earlier work does, it does feel like a more mature effort (as befits his stature). Featuring some deeply weird performances, especially from Kristen Stewart, and yet another story about art, this time a rather unconventional, fleshy sort of art, but art nonetheless. If this winds up being Cronenberg’s last film, it would make for an interesting capper (though I suspect we’ll be seeing more from him soon enough).

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Decision to Leave – Park Chan Wook takes bits and pieces from Basic Instinct and Vertigo, tosses them in a blender with Korean culture, and you wind up with this pulpy detective story featuring some bittersweet romance and a confounding ending that will leave you reeling. A bit too long with a flashback structure that doesn’t always work (though it’s in line with his previous work), this nonetheless manages to keep things intriguing enough throughout the runtime and it’s visually impressive as well. Certainly worth a look…

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans – Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical coming of age drama is at its best when it focuses on the filmmaking aspects of the story. The messy family drama is perhaps less cohesive, though it still rings true, and when it intersects with the filmmaking, as in the sequence where Sammy Fabelman edits home movies from the family’s recent vacation and makes a shocking discovery (a sequence that recalls Blow Up and Blow Out without feeling derivative at all), it becomes gold. We take late-stage Spielberg for granted, I think, but I’ll always be in line to see what he has cooking…

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Rian Johnson’s much anticipated follow-up to Knives Out (a movie I love) manages to recapture a certain element of humor and pure entertainment, but can’t quite reach the heights of the first film. I think the key reason can by summed up by paraphrasing some dialog from the movie: the mystery’s solution is dumb. So dumb it’s brilliant? No! It’s just dumb. Which is kinda the point, so it’s hard to harp too much on it, but it just doesn’t hang together as well as the first film. It’s still quite well done though and there’s lots to like about it.

More Info: [IMDB] [Netflix]

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – Gorgeously appointed stop motion version of the classic story, with some of Guillermo del Toro’s distinct interests thrown into the mix. A bit darker than your usually take on Pinocchio, with some heavier themes in terms of fascism and obedience, which make the movie a tad too long and messy, but it tugs at the right heartstrings and deserves a bigger audience.

More Info: [IMDB] [Netflix]

Kimi – Steven Soderbergh has made a habit of delivering zippy, taut little thrillers of late, and this most recent example is one of the few to directly acknowledge the pandemic, amongst other relevant topics, in a tense, entertaining way. This is the sort of mid-budget flick that so many of us crave, and yet I suspect it was underseen (in part due to its direct-to-streaming release). Almost made the top 10, and well worth seeking out.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

The Menu – What seemed like it would be a rote, quasi-high concept thriller turned out to have a little more on its mind than I thought. Interesting commentary on art, consumers, the service industry, and so on, with a few great performances and some clever conceits that I was simply not expecting. Much better than the trailers/previews would have you believe.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

The Northman – Robert Eggers continues his interesting arthouse takes on pulpy material, but despite some pacing issues in the middle, this is probably his most accessible film to date. Plenty of gory violence and action, but gorgeous and filled with Eggers’ trademark verisimilitude (though it’s obviously more stylized here).

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

RRR – High octane Indian action bromance flick that is the rare 3 hour movie that earns its runtime (though it flags a bit after intermission, but that’s kinda the point of an intermission). Excellent dance battle, with several notable action set pieces that are completely absurd but joyously entertaining. It’s got some martial arts panache mixed with big budget (but still obvious) CG action that somehow feels fresh. There’s a lot of hyperbole out there about this, and some mixed political reads, but hey, there’s a scene where one guy fights another guy by throwing a tiger at him.

More Info: [IMDB] [Netflix]

Tár – The critical consensus pick of the year and for good reason. A rise and (mostly) fall drama touching on #MeToo and cancel culture and a bunch of other modern obsessions, with a towering performance from Cate Blanchett at it’s core. Well observed, supple filmmaking at its best.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story – This pitch perfect parody of music biopics perhaps treads similar ground as Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, but given the subject, it’s a fitting approach. Certainly one of the funniest movies of the year and criminally underseen due to, once again, a bizarre direct-to-streaming release strategy (it’s free, but you need to sign up for Roku.) Indeed, this was another one that was on the bubble for inclusion in the top 10.

More Info: [IMDB] [Roku]

X – Ti West brings visual flare and thematic heft to a trashy quasi-slasher story. The mix of sex and violence and taboo on display here represents a particular strain of horror film that just feels dirty and transgressive and uncomfortable. Good performances, well executed slasher violence, but also some simple, disquieting sequences that are subtle but very effective. I liked this a bit better than the surprise prequel Pearl that came out a few months after, but I’m obviously excited to see the forthcoming sequel, MaXXine.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Just Missed the Cut

But still worthwhile, in their own way. Presented without comment and in no particular order:

Should Have Seen

Despite having watched over a hundred movies made in 2022, there are plenty that I probably should have caught up with. Sometimes they weren’t readily available, sometimes I couldn’t muster up the will to get to the theater, sometimes I just didn’t wanna watch (because reasons, that’s why). I will almost certainly end up seeing some of these and loving them, which is why the Kaedrin Movie Awards always has a category about the previous year’s movie…

2022 Kaedrin Movie Awards: The Arbitrary Awards

The 2022 Kaedrin Movie Award Winners were announced last week, so now the awards get arbitrary. The idea is to recognize aspects of films that aren’t reflected in more traditional awards or other praise like a Top 10 list. However, any awards system will fail to capture all the nuances and complexity available; hence the 2022 Arbitrary Awards, an opportunity to commend movies that are weird or flawed in ways that don’t conform to normal standards. A few of these “awards” have become an annual tradition, some were stolen from other folks, but most are just, well, arbitrary. Previous Arbitrary Awards: [2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006]

The “You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else” Award for Worst Dialogue: Morbius. I’ve always been somewhat amused by the weird, ironic, performative internet fandom that’s grown around this movie, in part because of the ridiculous dialogue. Plentiful choices, but one of the best/worst has to be: “It’s Lethal To Bats….But Deadly To Humans.” You don’t say! This is one of those awards that’s sorta painful to sort out, because who wants to relive bad dialogue? But I’m guessing some runners up might include stuff like Clerks III and Black Adam.

The Proximity to Jason Vorhees Award for Heroic StupidityHalloween Ends. The franchise just keeps getting stupider, which isn’t necessarily the worst thing (it’s a “bozo masterpiece” as someone once put it), but yes, the franchise “wins” this award for the second year in a row. At least it didn’t win the worst dialogue award too (as happened with last year’s Halloween movie). The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake/reboot/whateverthehellthatthingis was a distant second in the voting.

The “Weiner” Award for Unparalleled Access to Documentary Subjects: Navalny. There’s a phone call scene in this that is pretty amazing. Otherwise, this doesn’t exactly have astounding access (like the namesake of the award), but that phone call is certainly something. Fire of Love is worth mentioning as a runner up here due to the gorgeous footage of volcanos, eruptions, lava flows, etc… that was made available.

The Garth Marenghi “I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards” Award for Achievement in Didacticism: Triangle of Sadness and Women Talking (tie) This is an update to the original post (original winner still below, and mighty quaint compared to this new, winning duo), as I have caught up with these two Oscar nominated films that, well, exemplify Marenghi’s ethos (though I suspect in a much less entertaining way than Marenghi’s writing). The original winner was Smile, which doesn’t even come close to the above two. Of course, the movie’s literalizing of horror’s current obsession with trauma is part of the point, and I ultimately quite like the movie, but it does suffer from that impulse. I wanna say that The Bubble might also be a fit for this award, but quite frankly, I don’t remember much about that movie? Like, I know I watched it, and I do get a sorta didactic vibe from it in my head, but specifics are out of reach.

Best Treatment of the Pandemic: Kimi. Movies, for the most part, have ignored the pandemic. Some make fleeting references, some were clearly filmed during the pandemic and have the odd blocking and editing to show for it, but few have really embraced it. Steven Soderbergh has made a habit of tossing off zippy thrillers of late, and this latest one deals with the pandemic reasonably well, while also being pretty entertaining and relevant. It’s not perfect or anything, but it’s nice. Also of note: The way that Glass Onion acknowledges the pandemic then swiftly dismisses it with a pretty funny Ethan Hawke cameo is great.

Most Unnecessary Origin Story: Death on the Nile. I enjoy these Branagh Poirot movies (I mean, obviously the 1978 version is better, but the Agatha Christie story remains mostly intact, so how could you not enjoy?), but this one has an almost comical origin story for Poirot’s mustache that was just completely unnecessary.

Poirot and mustache

Achievement in the Field of Gratuitous Violence: It’s a special Holiday tie: Violent Night and Christmas Bloody Christmas. Both flawed movies, but the violence is indeed gratuitous (if you can get past the dumb setup or inane chatter, respectively).

Best Robot Manager: Gary the Robot from Moonshot. I mean, he’s sorta dumb comic relief, but I kinda loved Gary and wish he showed up later in the movie. The movie itself is an underseen and perfectly cromulent romantic comedy with SF trimmings. It’s got Zach Braff in it for some reason! It’s got teen actors that I don’t recognize, but who apparently have huge fandoms! It’s set on a trip to Mars, despite the title? Look, it’s not exactly fine cinema, but I enjoyed myself more than the reviews seem to indicate.

Most Underseen Romantic Comedy: I Want You Back. This Charlie Day and Jenny Slate romantic comedy didn’t get much play this year, probably because it was a direct to streaming release. Not sure it would have done The Lost City or Ticket to Paradise numbers, but I do think it’s better than those two movies, even if it’s lacking in starpower. But Day and Slate are great, and even Scott Eastwood is likeable here (which is saying something, cause he’s pretty bland everywhere else).

Best Losing Her Shit Monologue: Resurrection. About midway through the movie, Rebecca Hall just drops this amazing monologue that washes over you like a ton of bricks. And sure, I’ll also through a notice to Pearl here, as Mia Goth also unleashes a corker of a monologue towards the end of the film. I’ll let Rebecca Hall have this award though, as we’ll give Mia Goth:

Best Fake Freeze Frame: Pearl. It’s not exactly meant to be a fake freeze frame, I guess, but the camera holds on Mia Goth’s ridiculous smiling face for a comically long time.

Best Cameo: David Lynch playing John Ford in The Fabelmans. Absolutely perfect, and while this was apparently known before the movie was released, it was fortunately not spoiled for me.

Most Unexpected Appearance of Chain Mail: Decision to Leave. If you so desire, you can explore a lot of thematic depth in Park Chan Wook’s police procedural, but it’s still a thriller that features scenes where a cop, confronted with a knife wielding criminal, pulls out a chain mail glove, catches the knife blade in his armored hand whilst beating the criminal with his other fist.

Most Baffling Use of Color Grading: Emancipation. I get that digital color grading in post production can be a powerful tool, but I don’t know what on earth was going on with this movie. I mean, I get it – a desaturated color palette can emphasize certain thematic elements in a movie about slavery – but the execution was just painful. Like, literally painful, my eyes were so constantly strained throughout the film that by the end, I had a pounding headache. Just shoot the damn thing in black and white and digitally colorize the fire in those scenes, and you’d be much better off. I have not seen it yet, but Women Talking apparently has a similar feel to it (the trailer I saw was not quite as bad, but it was still hurting my eyes). (Update: I have now seen Women Talking, and it is indeed desaturated in the extreme, though not quite as bad as Emancipation. Still distracting and downright ugly, and yes, I get the point of said desaturation and director Sarah Polley tries her best to make the proceedings more interesting through blocking and compositions, but it all just feels drab and bland rather than an accentuation of the film’s themes, which encompass more than that.)

The Wholesome Frankenstein Award: Brian and Charles. This lovely low-fi story about a lonely beardo inventor who creates a robot out of an old washing machine is weird and fun and charming.

Best YouTube Release: Line Goes Up – The Problem With NFTs. Not exactly a traditional film, but this 138 minute long takedown of Crypto and NFTs is certainly well done for something done on a shoestring and released on a personal YouTube channel.

Should Host the Oscars: Johnny Knoxville. As paraphrased by longtime Kaedrin friend Dave: “Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville and this is the Oscars!” *gets slapped in the dick by Will Smith.* Other potential hosts: Lydia Tár, Benoit Blanc, the aformentioned Gary the Robot, and of course, the Predator.

That does it for the 2022 Arbitrary Awards, but stay tuned, moar 2022 movie commentary incoming, including the traditional Top 10 list (this will probably take a couple weeks) and some Oscars commentary…

Update: I’ve caught up with a couple of Oscar nominees that necessitated updating the Garth Marenghi award for didacticism. Big shocker, I know. Say what you will about the rest of the films, but they’re almost cartoonishly didactic films and representative of the Oscars’ desperate attempt to make a Statement (capital S). One of these films also qualifies for the Most Baffling Use of Color Grading, more as a runner up (but it’s still not great).

2022 Kaedrin Movie Award Winners

The nominations for the 2022 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. The overall awards season still has not especially recovered from its pandemic era woes. The Golden Globes, plagued by scandals and corruption, have faded. The Academy Awards struggle to find an unobjectible host, and though last year’s slap may boost viewership this year, they’ve still got a relatability problem (though there are some popular choices they could make this year to reverse course on that front). But through it all, the Kaedrin Movie Awards carries on with the same delayed schedule that befits my status as “not a critic with access to screeners”. So while I’m finishing up with poorly distributed prestige pictures, I’ll hand out these more ridiculous awards, let’s get to the 2022 Kaedrin Movie Award Winners:

Best Villain/Badass: Chef Julian Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes in The Menu, I’m actually a little surprised that the voting came out this way (and yes, there’s only one vote, mine, but still). This partly speaks to a poor year in villainy, but The Menu is a film that was surprisingly well done and deserving of recognition. It probably won’t be making the top 10, so this is a pretty good place for it, and to be fair, Fiennes’ fed-up chef is a wonderful villain with a demented plan.

Ralph Fiennes in The Menu

Runners up to Stephen Lang’s performance in Avatar: The Way of Water, which is great, even if I wasn’t entirely taken with the story, and Jobu Tupaki, played by Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere All at Once, who was pretty fun.

Best Hero/Badass: Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. In a much stronger year for heroism, there as still a pretty obvious choice in Maverick. This is Cruise’s second win in the category, and I’d have to look it up, but this might be the first time an actor repeats with two different characters (he previously won for one of the Mission Impossible movies).

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick

As for runners up, well, most of the other nominees are pretty great… they just can’t quite stand up to Maverick!

Best Comedic Performance: Saoirse Ronan in See How They Run. Another surprising win, I think, which befits the movie: I definitely wasn’t expecting to enjoy it that much, and a big part of that was Saoirse Ronan’s dry humor and delivery. Just perfect comedic timing, and a really underrated movie. Jackass Forever suffers from the ensemble problem here (I nominated Johnny Knoxville as the putative leader of the group, but they really deserve recognition as a whole – this is a common problem with this award that I have no real solution for other than this parenthetical). Otherwise, I really liked Daniel Radcliffe in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and John Hamm in Confess, Fletch – both underrated movies with poor distribution that are worth seeking out and very funny.

Breakthrough Performance: Mia Goth in ‎X and Pearl. Horror movies tend to underperform in awards season, but not at the Kaedrin Movie Awards! Got put forward a trio of performances across Ti West’s unexpected series of ambitious slashers (with another apparently to come!) She plays a wide gamut of emotions and challenging scenarios. Acting against herself in a scene, seducing a scarecrow, stalking the grounds with an axe, or giving a corker of a monologue, she does it all.

Mia Goth in ‎Pearl.

Jenna Ortega in Scream (2022)‎X, and Wednesday was also under consideration here, but her roles were smaller and less varied (and as great as she was in Wednesday, it’s a TV show!) Finally, it’s worth calling out Gabriel LaBelle in The Fabelmans as a larval Spielberg stand-in that genuinely evokes the younger Spielberg character.

Most Visually Stunning: Mad God. I’m not entirely in love with the movie overall (I prefer a little more in the way of actual plot or story), but Phil Tippet’s stop-motion labor of love is truly something to behold, with wall-to-wall gorgeous grotesques populated throughout. A truly astounding and imaginative spectacle that’s unlike anything I’d seen before.

Mad God

Speaking of which, Avatar: The Way of Water also deserves a bit of a callout as a unique theatergoing experience. I normally hate 3D and I’m not entirely sold on high-frame-rate, but I suspect the confluence of those two technologies, combined with James Cameron’s innate visual prowess, made it so that I didn’t get a headache like I do for every other 3D movie I see. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is another stop-motion marvel that, in any other year, might have taken the cake. Also just wanted to mention Three Thousand Years of Longing, which does its best to use digital filmmaking for vivid colors instead of dark, dull, muddy visuals (seriously, towards the end of the film Tilda Swinton is walking around in a park and the vivid green grass and bright lighting was so refreshing in this age of too-dark cinematography and color correction).

Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: Nope. Jordan Peele does it again, and this is a sorta combo Horror and Sci-Fi picture, though it obviously leans horror. Honorable mentions to Everything Everywhere All at Once (best multiverse movie of the year), Crimes of the Future (Cronenberg’s back in body horror, baby!), Barbarian (surprising and deft tonal balancing act going on here), and X (Ti West’s ambitious, grimy sex and violence epic). A pretty solid and fascinating year of horror flicks, actually, and even stuff not nominated was pretty good.

Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake: Top Gun: Maverick. I usually try to spread the love around with awards, but like everyone else, I was taken with Top Gun: Maverick and I can’t really justify giving this to any of the other nominees. Which, to be fair, are a pretty good bunch for a category that I typically loathe. Special mention to Jackass Forever and the criminally underseen Confess, Fletch. Overall, a pretty solid list of nominees this year for a category I usually find difficult to populate.

Biggest Disappointment: Black Adam. I really wanted to get behind a Rock centered superhero movie, but this thing was an absolute mess, leading to probably the biggest chasm between expectations and disappointment. The other one that came close is The Bubble, which has a great cast and Judd Apatow, but was also just interminable. The other nominees weren’t particularly great, but I also wasn’t expecting that much out of them, so the disappointment was commensurately lower.

Best Action Sequences: Ambulance. Alright, who gave Michael Bay a drone? This award could very well go to Top Gun: Maverick, but I’ve already sung enough of its praises here (and this isn’t the last we’ll see of it), so I figured I’d spread it around to the underseen Michael Bay actioner that I really loved. Lots of other great nominees here, and I do want to call out a couple of DTV actioners like Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday and Lost Bullet 2: Back for More, both really fun little action flicks (and both sequels to same – all four movies are worth seeking out). The Big Four is another obscure one that I don’t see people talking about and is worth seeking out (it’s on Netflix). RRR also worth a mention, but I preferred the director’s previous work on the Baahubali films.

Best Plot Twist/Surprise: Barbarian. This is one of those awards where it’s a bit of a spoiler even talking about the vague concept of a surprise, so if you go into these movies with a “surprise me!” attitude, you might find it underwhelming. But Barbarian was one of those movies I went into knowing as little as I could about it, and so I was pretty consistently surprised throughout. Runners up nods to Bodies Bodies Bodies for almost retroactively making me love the movie, Athena for a comically provocative coda, and Decision to Leave for, well, let’s not spoil it.

Best High Concept Film: Crimes of the Future. Yeah, this category is a bit nebulous, but I’m always onboard with Cronenberg’s wholly invented areas of science like… whatever the hell is going on in this movie. Also high concept: whatever it is that Kristen Stewart’s performance is doing here (which, to be clear, I loved). I suppose Everything Everywhere All at Once deserves an extra mention, even if “multiverse” movies are all the rage these days. Brian and Charles is probably the most obscure but deserving nominee here as well, an earnest and oddly sweet mock-doc drama. Nope has sorta stealth high concept stuff going on, which puts a nice spin on familiar tropes. The other nominees are perhaps not as high concept, but all pretty decent…

2022’s 2021 Movie of the Year: The Rescue. I was really taken with this documentary about the rescue of twelve boys and their coach from a flooded cave in Thailand, perhaps in part because it illustrates why I prefer documentaries over dramatizations of real life events… In other words, I preferred this documentary to Thirteen Lives, the Ron Howard dramatization of the same events which is actually pretty damn good. I just would rather watch documentaries about this sort of thing. Other nominees for this were also pretty solid, including a couple of Oscar noms that I caught up with late (or would have otherwise ignored) and some genre stuff that I let linger for some reason (but which were all worthwhile)…

Congratulations to all the 2022 Kaedrin Movie Award winners! And stay tuned, for next week, the awards go arbitrary!

2022 Kaedrin Movie Award Nominees

Welcome to the 2022 Kaedrin Movie Award season, which we’re kicking off with nominees in our standard categories! The idea is to recognize films for achievements that don’t always reflect well on top 10 lists or traditional awards. There are lots of formal award categories and nominees listed below, but once those are announced, we’ll also leave some room for Arbitrary Awards that are more goofy and freeform. Finally, we’ll post a traditional top 10 list (usually sometime in early/mid-February). But first up is the awards! [Previous Installments here: 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021]

Standard disclaimers apply: It must be a 2022 movie (with the one caveat that some 2021 films were not accessible until 2022 and are thus eligible under fiat) and I obviously have to have seen the movie. As of this writing, I have seen 94 films that could be considered a 2022 release. This is precisely where I was last year at this time, which makes sense given how similar my movie watching habits were for these two years. It’s below what many critics have seen, but probably a lot more than your average moviegoer and certainly enough to populate the awards… which we should get to right now:

Best Villain/Badass
Not the greatest year for villainy, though the category did end up filling out well enough in the end. In accordance with tradition, my picks in this category are limited to individuals, not groups (i.e. no vampires or zombies as a general menace, etc…) or ideas. I’m kinda expanding this to include (er, exclude) creatures, even individual creatures. On the other hand, there is a robot on the list, so, I dunno, we’ll all just have to deal with it.

Best Hero/Badass
A better year overall for heroism and indeed, I actually pruned the list a bit (which, given how long the lists are for these badass categories, is saying something). One fun thing about both the hero and villain categories is that they are not as dominated by superhero movies anymore, even if there are a few token representatives from the genre… Again limited to individuals and not groups/creatures.

Best Comedic Performance
This is sometimes a difficult category to populate due to the prevalence of ensembles in comedy movies (this year being no exception). That being said, there were definitely a few standout solo performances this year that are definitely worth recognition.

Breakthrough Performance
This used to be a category more centered around my personal evaluation of a given actor (rather than a more general industry breakthrough), but it’s trended more towards the youngsters breaking through as time has gone on…

Most Visually Stunning
Sometimes even bad movies can look really great… But this is a pretty solid list!

Pinocchio

Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film
It’s always nice to throw some love to genres that don’t normally get a lot of recognition in end-of-the-year lists. As an avid SF fan, it’s sad that the genre usually has to be combined with Horror in order to come up with a well rounded set of nominees.

Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake
Always an awkward category to populate, especially given my normal feeling on this sort of thing (i.e. not a huge fan of sequels).

Biggest Disappointment
A category often dominated by sequels and reboots, but original stuff has been picking up steam in recent years. Not sure if that’s good or bad… Note that these movies don’t necessarily need to be “bad” in order to be a “disappointment”. Basically, these movies scored poorly on Joe Posnanski’s Plus-Minus Scale.

Best Action Sequences
This award isn’t for individual action sequences, but rather an overall estimation of each film. We’ve got a pretty great, extensive lineup this year. The added accessibility of streaming DTV actioners has been a boon to this category.

Best Plot Twist/Surprise
I suppose even listing that there is a twist is a bit of a spoiler, but I guess we’ll just have to risk it.

Best High Concept Film
A bit of a nebulous concept for this category, but there’s some good stuff worth recognizing here because they took chances on a weird concept.

2022’s 2021 Movie of the Year
This is a weird category that is sometimes difficult to populate. During the pandemic, things were a little weird, but we’ve seemingly emerged from that weirdness. Still, there’s some decent stuff on this list that I’m glad I caught up with in 2022, even if I don’t know that any of these would kick something off my top 10 from last year…

So there you have it, please congratulate all of the 2022 Kaedrin Movie Award nominees! Stay tuned for the winners (probably next week, but you never know), followed by the Arbitrary Awards and Top 10 list. I’m still catching up with various flicks, because as usual, those 9 and 10 slots in the top 10 are a little difficult to fill (not, I should add, because there aren’t worthy candidates, but more because there are so many vying for those slots)…