It occurs to me that, in the ten years that I’ve been sharing updates to my list of favorite movies on here, I’ve never really explained why I do it in June. The end of December would be the natural time to look back and take stock of things, but my habits in this regard actually extend back to high school, when summer break offered ample time to mess around with list-making — certainly one of my favorite hobbies back then. In fact, with hindsight, I understand that I was initially much more interested in lists than I was in taking the time to watch movies. The scales have properly balanced over the years, as I’ve swapped theoretical interest for real experience, but the impulse to slot everything into its proper place remains at least as strong in my mind as is the pleasure of watching something. And so, here comes another list.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen more new-to-me movies in a twelve-month span than I did between June 2021 and today. Accordingly, I’ve also set a record for new favorites, with 105 films listed below. This tops my previous record set two years ago by a single film. All of this is the product of self-applied pressure. No one has ever told me I need to catch up on things, nor that I ain’t seen/heard nothin’ yet. But my desire to learn and experience more things is undiminished even now. It may be time to come up for air, though. I’ve been thinking about getting back into writing on this mostly neglected blog, and I think I’ll soon be able to free up the time to do so more regularly.
As always, a year offers plenty of time for various little projects. Since last June, I’ve made my way through the Thin Man, Candyman and Ip Man franchises, not to mention Planet of the Apes, Final Destination and the Showa era of Godzilla movies, the last of which I’m just about to wrap up. I’ve now seen every film by David Lynch, Rian Johnson, Jean Cocteau and Sam Raimi. January saw the beginning of the most ambitious project, my retrospective of action films choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, from Hong Kong to Hollywood and back again. That very enjoyable experience spurred me on to try to make the action genre my most-viewed of the calendar year for the first time, and I’ve managed to keep that up so far. Through it all, I’ve been busily planning what I might do next. These blog posts, whatever interest they may hold for other people, are a helpful opportunity for me to take a break from all that and reflect on where I’ve already been.
Now introducing the Class of 2022 in alphabetical order, with a top ten below the full list. One hundred and one of these were first-time views for me, while I had seen Candyman (1992), The Evil Dead (1981), Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (a.k.a. Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, 1966) and The Matrix Reloaded (2003) before but didn’t fully appreciate any of them until this time.
| Title | Director | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Abouna | Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | 2002 |
| Amer | Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani | 2009 |
| American Gigolo | Paul Schrader | 1980 |
| Annette | Leos Carax | 2021 |
| Baby Face Nelson | Don Siegel | 1957 |
| Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn | Radu Jude | 2021 |
| Benedetta | Paul Verhoeven | 2021 |
| Bergman Island | Mia Hansen-Løve | 2021 |
| The Beyond | Lucio Fulci | 1981 |
| The Brothers Bloom | Rian Johnson | 2008 |
| The Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie | Chuck Jones & Phil Monroe | 1979 |
| Candyman | Bernard Rose | 1992 |
| The Card Counter | Paul Schrader | 2021 |
| The Cobweb | Vincente Minnelli | 1955 |
| Crimson Gold | Jafar Panahi | 2003 |
| Cry Macho | Clint Eastwood | 2021 |
| The Curse of Frankenstein | Terence Fisher | 1957 |
| Cyrano | Joe Wright | 2021 |
| Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters | Greg Ford & Terry Lennon | 1988 |
| Dark City | William Dieterle | 1950 |
| Darkman | Sam Raimi | 1990 |
| Dear Comrades! | Andrei Konchalovsky | 2020 |
| Desperately Seeking Susan | Susan Seidelman | 1985 |
| The Disciple | Chaitanya Tamhane | 2020 |
| Drive a Crooked Road | Richard Quine | 1954 |
| Drive My Car | Hamaguchi Ryusuke | 2021 |
| Dune: Part One | Denis Villeneuve | 2021 |
| The Eagle with Two Heads | Jean Cocteau | 1948 |
| Elephant | Gus Van Sant | 2003 |
| Enthiran | Shankar Shanmugam | 2010 |
| The Evil Dead | Sam Raimi | 1981 |
| Eyimofe | Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri | 2020 |
| Fighting Elegy | Suzuki Seijun | 1966 |
| Fist of Legend | Gordon Chan | 1994 |
| France | Bruno Dumont | 2021 |
| The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun | Wes Anderson | 2021 |
| Gate of Flesh | Suzuki Seijun | 1964 |
| Gerry | Gus Van Sant | 2002 |
| Godzilla vs. Hedorah | Banno Yoshimitsu | 1971 |
| Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster | Fukuda Jun | 1966 |
| The Grey | Joe Carnahan | 2011 |
| Happy Hour | Hamaguchi Ryusuke | 2015 |
| He Who Gets Slapped | Victor Sjöström | 1924 |
| Her Socialist Smile | John Gianvito | 2020 |
| A Hero | Asghar Farhadi | 2021 |
| Hill of Freedom | Hong Sang-soo | 2014 |
| I’ll Be Seeing You | William Dieterle | 1944 |
| In the Earth | Ben Wheatley | 2021 |
| In the Line of Duty 4 | Yuen Woo-ping | 1989 |
| In the Same Breath | Nanfu Wang | 2021 |
| Inazuma | Naruse Mikio | 1952 |
| Inland Empire | David Lynch | 2006 |
| Jewel Robbery | William Dieterle | 1932 |
| Judas and the Black Messiah | Shaka King | 2021 |
| Karnan | Mari Selvaraj | 2021 |
| Kill, Baby… Kill! | Mario Bava | 1966 |
| Kung Fu Hustle | Stephen Chow | 2004 |
| Lady Snowblood | Fujita Toshiya | 1973 |
| Last Days | Gus Van Sant | 2005 |
| A Letter to Three Wives | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 1949 |
| Light Sleeper | Paul Schrader | 1992 |
| A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin | Lucio Fulci | 1971 |
| The Long Haul | Ken Hughes | 1957 |
| Love Unto Death | Alain Resnais | 1984 |
| The Matrix Reloaded | Lilly Wachowski & Lana Wachowski | 2003 |
| The Miracle Fighters | Yuen Woo-ping | 1982 |
| Mon oncle d’Amérique | Alain Resnais | 1980 |
| Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life | Terry Jones | 1983 |
| My Own Private Idaho | Gus Van Sant | 1991 |
| Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion | Anno Hideaki & Tsurumaki Kazuya | 1997 |
| Nightmare Alley | Guillermo del Toro | 2021 |
| Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations | Leni Riefenstahl | 1938 |
| Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty | Leni Riefenstahl | 1938 |
| Palm Springs | Max Barbakow | 2020 |
| Paris qui dort | René Clair | 1924 |
| Passing | Rebecca Hall | 2021 |
| Petite Maman | Céline Sciamma | 2021 |
| Raw | Julia Ducournau | 2016 |
| Rien que les heures | Alberto Cavalcanti | 1926 |
| Righting Wrongs | Corey Yuen | 1986 |
| Romancing in Thin Air | Johnnie To | 2012 |
| Royal Warriors | David Chung | 1986 |
| Rumble Fish | Francis Ford Coppola | 1983 |
| A Simple Plan | Sam Raimi | 1998 |
| A Sixth Part of the World | Dziga Vertov | 1926 |
| Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow | Yuen Woo-ping | 1978 |
| Somewhere in the Night | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | 1946 |
| Sud | Chantal Akerman | 1999 |
| Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson | 2021 |
| Tai-Chi Master | Yuen Woo-ping | 1993 |
| They Made Me a Fugitive | Alberto Cavalcanti | 1947 |
| Thundercrack! | Curt McDowell | 1975 |
| Titane | Julia Ducournau | 2021 |
| Twin Dragons | Tsui Hark & Ringo Lam | 1992 |
| Undine | Christian Petzold | 2020 |
| Varda by Agnès | Agnès Varda | 2019 |
| West Side Story | Steven Spielberg | 2021 |
| Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy | Hamaguchi Ryusuke | 2021 |
| Wife of a Spy | Kurosawa Kiyoshi | 2020 |
| Wild at Heart | David Lynch | 1990 |
| Woman on the Beach | Hong Sang-soo | 2006 |
| The Worst Person in the World | Joachim Trier | 2021 |
| Yearning | Naruse Mikio | 1964 |
| Yes, Madam! | Corey Yuen | 1985 |
| Zola | Janicza Bravo | 2020 |
| 10. Happy Hour |
| 9. Petite Maman |
| 8. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion |
| 7. Tai-Chi Master |
| 6. The Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie |
| 5. Last Days |
| 4. Drive My Car |
| 3. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life |
| 2. Romancing in Thin Air |
| 1. West Side Story (2021) |
Geppetto's Clocks 