Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
While I’m still quite backlogged in screeners to watch for movies of 2022, here are five of my favorites so far in alphabetical order.
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Martin McDonagh’s metaphorical look at the Irish period known as “The Troubles,” sets two longtime friends against one another when one (Brendan Gleeson) decides he no longer wants to be friends with the other (Colin Farrell) and the escalating conflict between the two. Kerry Condon stars as Farrell’s sister and Barry Keoghan plays a neighbor’s son. As the quartet try to figure out life around them, each takes a decidedly different approach to moving forward.
Farrell’s performance is the best of his career, coming out not too far above his In Bruges performance. He’s been subtly delivering compelling performances for the last few years, having formally shed his playboy persona and left behind his push for box office dominance. Gleeson never seems to deliver a bad performance and this is one of his best, sitting up there with his work in In Bruges as well. Condon is terrific and Keoghn provides a strong impression in this wonderfully acted, subtle yet obvious morality tale.
The Batman (2022)
In live-action cinema, Batman is an eternal figure. Played to prominence by Michael Keaton, Adam West, Christian Bale, and Ben Affleck, the character might have seemed like it was a bit played out. Yet, the caped crusader has earned yet another rendition from Warner Bros. this time helmed by the most recent Planet of the Apes trilogy’s director, Matt Reeves. Donning the cowl and the scowl, Robert Pattinson steps into a familiar role yet manages to hold his own against the great performances given to this character in the past.
For this outing, Batman is new to his career as a crime fighter and struggles to convince the police department that he’s more than just an interloper. When Gotham City’s wealthy elite are dragged under the microscope by a puzzle-loving psychopath who calls himself The Riddler (Paul Dano), he races to save the lives of numerous prominent figures while uncovering uncomfortable truths about his own family’s history. Dano gives a deranged performance that stands well above the ludicrous take given the character by Jim Carrey and is on par with the adroit performance of Frank Gorshin in the live-action television series and its movie version. Not so capable are Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and John Turturro as Carmine Falcone.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
A meditation on loss, Ryan Coogler’s big screen follow up to his blockbuster Black Panther was forced to move on from the incredibly popular title character after his embodier, Chadwick Boseman, died unexpectedly of cancer two years ago. The rest of the cast carries over from the first film as Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda takes the reins of her prosperous African nation while dealing with her own grief at the same time. Meanwhile, several world powers think Wakanda weakened and move to secure sources of vibranium that the sequestered nation has kept under wraps. A potential rich undersea deposit threatens another secretive kingdom kingdom called Talokan.
The nation is led by Namor, a mutant humanoid whose ancestors were plundered by white colonization, which has led the nation down a similar path to Wakanda’s, but whose approach is more openly hostile than the quasi-benevolence of Wakanda. The entire cast is terrific with Bassett giving one of the most fiery and consequential performances of her career. It’s a fascinating study with a lot of movie parts and quite a bit of parallelism. While it’s not as alike to many other Marvel movies, those films still have an influence with this one and the necessity to tie the film into the world around it can create some unappealing moments, but the greatness far outweighs the minutest of its weaknesses.
The Fabelmans (2022)
Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical feature film features a kid who grows up to become a filmmaker after becoming fascinated with cinema and the moving image at a young age. Gabriel LaBelle ably leads the film as the Spielberg simulacrum and its his performance that centers the film with an array of talented adults giving him support. When you’re working against the likes of Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, and Judd Hirsch, standing out is a difficult thing to do and LaBelle is more than ready for the task.
This is the kind of movie that doesn’t quite get made anymore. Full of wide-eyed optimism and with tinges of sadness, there are subtle moments throughout that will resonate with any cineaste. However, it’s those little films that he makes that allow Spielberg himself to stretch back into his own cinematic history to highlight his capabilities as a filmmaker and accentuate the growth he’s made over the years. He also takes to heart the advice proffered at the end of the film more so than is obvious at the start and his subtle revelations of plot elements that the young protagonist doesn’t notice until later in life only add depth and texture to a film that revels in its own sense of wonder.
Nope (2022)
Few filmmakers can lay claim to having never made a bad movie. Todd Field is one of the only contemporaries of Jordan Peele who could make such a claim while Field is perhaps more aligned with the luminaries that emerged in the 1990s and Peele is of a more modern vintage. Regardless, Nope is another incisive commentary on the Black experience, this one focused on exploitation and spectacle more so than his prior two films. Yet, each of them have an undercurrent of cultural appropriation, each differently layered into a compelling whole. While this film has a lot of horror elements to it, it successfully bridges the gap between horror and science fiction to make a fascinating change of pace for the director.
This film is set in the deserts of southern California where a family of horse trainers makes their living preparing steeds for Hollywood shoots, a history they have been proud of since their first appearance in films decades before. Daniel Kaluuya, who appeared in Peele’s debut feature Get Out takes on a more world-weary role as a member of the family and on whose shoulders the ranch’s operations fall on after an unexpected incident that ties into the film’s plot. Keke Palmer plays Kaluuya’s sister whose exuberance and extroversion help fill the holes of Kaluuya’s more introverted nature. Steven Yeun is solid as the nearby owner of a wild west show while Brandon Perea is compelling as the Fry’s Electronics employee who helps the family set up cameras to catch the strange goings-on that everyone seems to think relates to aliens.
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