Seen and not seen's, recommendations and queries on top films in general.

[Atrophist]

The sequence of her absolutely eviscerating the leftoid comp student for refusing to listen to dead white composers is the best scene of the year. Watched it on repeat.

It absolutely is an amazing scene. Not even lessened by the allegations of her own dubious behaviour that appear later (wonder if they would have dared to include something like that otherwise?)

I've seen discussion of the scene of her jogging in the park, and hearing screaming from somewhere nearby, without being able to figure out where it's coming from exactly. But there's also a scene of her walking up to her daughter calling out abd getting out of bed. There's clearly a human figure sitting on a chair in the corner of the bedroom. The viewer in clearly meant to see it, but Tarr herself doesn't. Like I said I need to watch this again.

The ending was jaw-droppingly hilarious. An absolute stroke of genius in my opinion.

[AdamLehrerImageMaker]

I believe what the film was saying was that this sort of literati approved greatness that Lydia enjoys is in many ways just as nebulous and fraudulent as the ideology of that young student. We come to associate her loss of status as the loss of greatness, but we never actually see her greatness in action we're just told about it by her cultural status. This is what I believe Todd Field communicated: can greatness be achieved in a culture that places so much priority on bland discourse? In any case, fascinatingly complex, slow burner of a film. One that I assume will shift in meanings and readings going forth. A great work of art.

I saw some Terrifier 2 earlier, I think it was also great. Seemed legitimately to be a very cruel work of art and one that could even possibly push psychos over the edge (which is cool.) I wrote about it here: https://compactmag.com/article/away-from-arthouse-horror

The sequence of her absolutely eviscerating the leftoid comp student for refusing to listen to dead white composers is the best scene of the year. Watched it on repeat.

It absolutely is an amazing scene. Not even lessened by the allegations of her own dubious behaviour that appear later (wonder if they would have dared to include something like that otherwise?)

I've seen discussion of the scene of her jogging in the park, and hearing screaming from somewhere nearby, without being able to figure out where it's coming from exactly. But there's also a scene of her walking up to her daughter calling out abd getting out of bed. There's clearly a human figure sitting on a chair in the corner of the bedroom. The viewer in clearly meant to see it, but Tarr herself doesn't. Like I said I need to watch this again.

The ending was jaw-droppingly hilarious. An absolute stroke of genius in my opinion.

[PSYWAR LTD]

My Christmas tradition includes watching Silent Night, Deadly Night. That has to be the most disturbing Christmas movie of all time.

[Bruitiste]

I enjoy that one but find it a bit silly.  Big fan of Black Christmas (1974), by Bob Clark.

[cr]

Didn't have much time to watch movies or series this year. So, any recommendations/must sees? Maybe something like best of 2022? Because now I have some days off and would like to watch something worthwhile.
Thanks!

[Balor/SS1535]

Didn't have much time to watch movies or series this year. So, any recommendations/must sees? Maybe something like best of 2022? Because now I have some days off and would like to watch something worthwhile.
Thanks!

The only new movie that I saw this year (though I really thought it was fascinating) was a documentary called The Most Beautiful Boy in the World.  It tells the life story of the boy who co-starred in Death in Venice and exposes the lifetime ramifications of the abuse/exploitation he encountered as a result.

[Atrophist]

Didn't have much time to watch movies or series this year. So, any recommendations/must sees? Maybe something like best of 2022? Because now I have some days off and would like to watch something worthwhile.
Thanks!

Besides Tarr discussed above, a film I really enjoyed this year was Emily the Criminal with Aubrey Plaza. I can also recommend You Won't be Alone and Bodies Bodies Bodies with some (pretty minor) reservations. 

As for television, Severance was easily the best thing I saw this year. Also, the show based on Steve Jones' memoirs, Pistol, was pretty decent, against all expectations.

[aububs]

i enjoyed emily the criminal too

didn't think tar was great tbh. confused script and a terrible performance from blanchett

skinamarink was my favourite of the year probably. or maybe RRR

[Atrophist]

didn't think tar was great tbh. confused script and a terrible performance from blanchett

There certainly seemed to be a histrionic element in Blanchett's performance that I personally didn't especially care for. Would I call it terrible, maybe not. Each to his own, ofc.

The more I think about it the more I recall great movies I saw in 2022. The Taiwanese horror movie The Sadness managed to actually achieve something new in the zombie genre, against all expectations. Zombies that can still think and even talk — except that they're all murderous lunatics? Bring it on. A few extremely effective scenes, also a couple unfortunately goofy ones. Holds up fairly well till the end, nevertheless.

The Thai horror film The Medium I would rate even higher, except for the ending which falls somewhat flat.

Flux Gourmet is another film that anyone who tries to create experimental audio / live performances ought to appreciate. Like all of Peter Strickland's films, it has a certain pretentious edge to it. But it didn't prevent me from enjoying it.

Another film from 2022 I can recommend, with a few caveats, is Holy Spider (apparently also called Mashhad Nights in some territories), by Iranian director Ali Abbasi. The film deals with the real life case of a serial killer who targeted prostitutes in 2000-2001 in the Iranian city of Mashhad. Disappointingly, there's a sort of Western contemporary "all women good, all men bad" sensibility that emerges a few times in the film. Probably explained by the fact that the director lives in Denmark.

[Balor/SS1535]

Any thoughts on Nagisa Oshima?  I recently went through a phase of watching a lot of his movies (I ended up watching all of them except for about three, which I hope to catch up on shortly).  My favorites have been The Sun's Burial and The Ceremony.  He seemed to change his aesthetic sensibility as time went on, developing (whether that equates to improving is up for debate) from realism to abstract, New Wave experimentation, back to a more traditional---though visually lush---approach.

I still haven't worked out exactly how I feel about In the Realm of the Senses or its less graphic sequel Empire of Passions aside from recognizing that they are visually beautiful (especially the latter).

[Manhog_84]

Another film from 2022 I can recommend, with a few caveats, is Holy Spider (apparently also called Mashhad Nights in some territories), by Iranian director Ali Abbasi. The film deals with the real life case of a serial killer who targeted prostitutes in 2000-2001 in the Iranian city of Mashhad. Disappointingly, there's a sort of Western contemporary "all women good, all men bad" sensibility that emerges a few times in the film. Probably explained by the fact that the director lives in Denmark.

I was actually a bit hesitant because of this comment should I even see the film, but I'm glad I did. After all feminist bullshit movies like The Last Duel, Promising Young Woman and Men, this had zero of that western "all men are guilty" propaganda. Mainly because it was just focused on what kind of shit holes the Muslim societies are. Opening scene was great and I wished the same cold and disturbing atmosphere would have continued after that. Rest of the film is good drama with well written and believable characters. 4/5

[Atrophist]

Skinamarink. Oh dear, oh dear.

You know the expression "form over content"? Well this is exactly that, but the form isn't any good either.

Pointless static shots from the inside of a single house, shot from deliberately awkward, incorrect and unhelpful angles. With no perceptible artistic justification. The image is also deliberately grainy and the sound scratchy, presumably achieved in an artificial, digital manner. Might work as a more subtle effect, but they've completely overblown it.

This might work as a 20 minute short at a film festival. 100 minutes of this? Not a chance. And don't tell me I just don't "get" it. There's nothing here to get.

[aububs]

skinamarink was my favourite film i saw last year

loved it

now that i think of it there's a noise mentality to it

i understand people not liking it and there's a lot of them

[Atrophist]

now that i think of it there's a noise mentality to it

I thought the same, actually. Imo it could have been great, if they'd toned down the gimmickry a bit, focused more on the story and pruned the lenght by maybe 20 min.

But hey, if you enjoyed it, great. I'll still check out whatever the director does next, because like I said at least this film tries to do something different and original, and shows promise. Even if it doesn't deliver this time around, imo.

[chibitachop]

Skinamarink.
You know the expression "form over content"? Well this is exactly that, but the form isn't any good either.

Pointless static shots from the inside of a single house, shot from deliberately awkward, incorrect and unhelpful angles. With no perceptible artistic justification...

This might work as a 20 minute short at a film festival. 100 minutes of this? Not a chance. And don't tell me I just don't "get" it. There's nothing here to get.

this is kind of how I felt the first time I watched it pirated at home, then when it went theatrical I couldn't resist the novelty of seeing it again in a theater and I have to say upon rewatching its shocking to realize how many of the shots that felt pointless / purely-aesthetic are actually motivated and have a functional purpose to drive what minimal plot there is.

without spoiling anything, lot of early stuff is showing progressively more lights getting turned off by indeterminate forces closing in on the living room & establishing when they sleep which objects are moved around, pretty much everything up thru "how'd you do that?" is way more linear than it seems first time. even the most pointless hallway shots are setting you up to notice what has changed later.

which is in no way meant to argue in any qualitative way that makes it "good" but just to say after rewatching I must concede there is much more deliberate structure than is immediately evident, its just skewed towards indirect context clues and off-screen audio (for example, them repetitively trying the light switch in the kitchen which we don't see at all).

I would love to discuss the ending with anyone else who felt they got something out of it, but I'll have to remind myself how to do the spoiler tag on here. it def gets more open-ended post "how'd you do that?" but cursory googling confirmed there is at least some corroborating consensus so its not just me free -improvising.

regardless, its categorically insane a movie this formally antagonistic is in wide theatrical release so I highly recommend anyone reading this at least give it a shot for the cognitive dissonance alone.