The Oscar Project
I love doing this post because I get to call out some great individual performances by actors, often in films that might not make it into my top ten of the year. Last year’s top performances included Lakeith Stanfield in Judas and the Black Messiah (affiliate link), Zendaya and John David Washington in Malcolm & Marie, and the wonderful Lauren Ridloff in Eternals (affiliate link).
Before I get to this year’s favorite performances, don’t forget to check out the rest of the posts in this series for 2022 linked below.
4: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton in Thirteen Lives
If you follow my posts and videos, you probably got sick of hearing me talk about Thirteen Lives (affiliate link) when it arrived in late summer. I absolutely loved the documentary The Rescue about the 13 boys trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 and when I found out it was being made into a feature film with Viggo Mortenson, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton as the three main divers, I was so excited. These three actors are among my favorites, and they nailed the people they were playing to perfection. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you check out The Rescue on Disney+, then immediately go over to Amazon Prime (affiliate link) and watch Thirteen Lives (affiliate link). You will be amazed at how well these three actors embody Richard Stanton (Mortensen), John Volanthen (Farrell), and Dr. Richard Harris (Edgerton).
3: Brad Pitt in The Lost City
If you read my Biggest Surprises post the other day, you already know that I loved the cameo swapping between The Lost City (affiliate link) and Bullet Train (affiliate link) that led to Pitt being in the Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum action comedy. Pitt almost literally dropped into the movie to rescue Bullock’s Loretta Sage and while he only has about 5-10 minutes of screen time, it’s a perfect dose of Pitt to whet your whistle and prepare you for his all-out assault in Bullet Train.
2: Ana de Armas in The Grey Man
2022 has been a busy year for Ana de Armas, appearing in Deep Water with Ben Affleck, as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, and in The Grey Man opposite Ryan Gosling. I choose this role because de Armas has been a rising star over the last several years, and finally got to be in the middle of the action. You may remember that she was in the latest bond film, No Time to Die (affiliate link), last but spent about as much time in the trailers and marketing materials as she did in the film itself. The Grey Man gave her a chance to perform a bit more and gave her a character that was more than just something for the hero to ogle for one scene.
1: Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once
For those of you who don’t recognize the name or haven’t seen this film, Quan is the former child actor who played Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (affiliate link) and Data in The Goonies (affiliate link). He appeared in a number of other films throughout the 80s and 90s including Encino Man before taking a break from acting for 20 years. He has returned to appear in the Netflix film Finding ‘Ohana in 2021 and will appear in the upcoming season of the Disney+ series Loki. But he’s at the top of this list because of what he did in Everything Everywhere All at Once (affiliate link). While the film centers primarily on Evelyn Wang, it doesn’t work without her husband Waymond to play off of. And the best part of Quan’s performance as Waymond is the range that he’s able to show across the various universes. He goes from devoted family man struggling with his marriage to debonair corporate CEO to the universe jumping rebel trying to save existence. Even just one of these is more character depth than he had with his roles as a child, and to see them all in one film from the same actor is a real treat.
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I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s first post in the series with my biggest surprises of the year. Today I’m looking at the biggest disappointments of 2022. Be sure to check out all the posts below.
Biggest Disappointments of 2022
As with yesterday’s surprises post, last year I had two films that disappointed me and yet again, the list has grown a bit for 2022. These are in a specific order from the somewhat disappointing, to the extremely disappointing.
Overhyped Superhero Films
I’m thinking of three films specifically that disappointed me and they all fit in the same category. There was so much hype for both The Batman and Thor: Love and Thunder earlier this year and while they’re OK movies, I didn’t think they were the best in their respective franchises. I know I’m generally in the minority when it comes to The Batman (affiliate link) as fans seemed to love it from the start, but it just didn’t resonate with me the same way the Dark Knight trilogy (affiliate link) did, though I did remark in my review that I love Zoë Kraviz in the role of Selina Kyle. In a slightly different way, Thor: Love and Thunder (affiliate link) was tasked with following up on what I maintain is the funniest film in all the MCU, Thor: Ragnarok (affiliate link). I loved what director Taika Waititi did with that film, and had high hopes for the latest iteration, but it too fell a bit flat. Yes, we got the return of Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, and plenty of awesome Valkyrie action, but the film as a whole could never live up to its predecessor.
Lastly, it wasn’t really over hyped, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Morbius (affiliate link). It’s interesting that we got two movies about superheroes associated with bats this year and I was disappointed by both of them. It’s almost hard to believe that Morbius could be worse than the two Venom (affiliate link) films, but it’s true. I just hope that Sony can redeem itself with the upcoming sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse next summer.
Believe it or not, that could have been my entire list of disappointments this year, but wait, there’s more! Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood This was a film I heard a bunch about early in the year and I added it to my watchlist on Netflix because I trusted the opinion of the people I heard raving about it. Maybe I expected too much, or maybe I wanted it to be great because I would have loved being a kid in Houston during the time of the Apollo missions. That’s I think what made it all the more disappointing for me when I watched it.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad movie. I did enjoy the animation style and even the use of some actual archival footage related to the space race in the 1960s. There have been more films like this recently (Flee immediately comes to mind from last year) and it’s refreshing to see creators willing to blend animation with other types of film. But then we got a whole section of the movie where Stanley (played by Jack Black in voice over) tells the story of being assigned to go to space on Apollo 10 ½ before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on Apollo 11.
I get that it’s a fantasy, but so much of the rest of the film was grounded in reality that it didn’t mesh for me. I would have preferred one path or the other, not a messy blending of both. Hotel Transylvania: Transformania I mean no disrespect to the creators when I say this was a train wreck of a movie. I have such a hard time panning films in this way because I know hundreds of people worked long hours to make the best movie they could, but I know for sure they could have done better with this.
How do I know that? Because they already made three films in this franchise that are wonderful. And to top it off, they are all unique in their own way.
The first thing that should tip you off is that Adam Sandler and Kevin James were not involved in this film like they were for the other three. The rest of the main voice cast returns, but it just felt off without those two anchor points as Dracula and Frankenstein. The second strike against the film is that it was released primarily as a straight to streaming feature on Amazon Prime (affiliate link). It did get a small theatrical release, but the fact that it was tucked away on Amazon’s streaming service shows that the studio didn’t ever expect it to be a huge success. The story is lacking and doesn’t really move the franchise forward. It was extremely disappointing for a group of films I have enjoyed up to this point. They were never to the level of some of the Pixar and Dreamworks creations, but always entertained the kids and managed to give me some laughs too.
I’m starting this countdown a little earlier than I did last year to make sure I have enough time to get everything in that I want to talk about. Just like last year, I’ve put together a total of six lists to recap the year. You’ll see the posts throughout the month of December, but here’s the full list that I’ll link to as they post:
Biggest Surprises of 2022
Last year I had two films that surprised me and this year the list has grown to a total of four films, but I’ve combined two of them and you’ll see why below. In no particular order, they are:
The Sea Beast I didn’t write an official review of this at the time, but I absolutely loved this animated Netflix film. It was vibrant and colorful. It features a gruff sailor who befriends a spunky young girl and together they learn that the sea monsters their world fears and hunts are not truly evil, just misunderstood. There was some “messaging” regarding tolerance and overcoming prejudice, but I didn’t think it beat you over the head with it. The acting is well done, with Karl Urban and Jared Harris filling the hero and villain roles. Zaris-Angel Hator voices the young girl and has racked up multiple credits this year, including Morbius (affiliate link) (also with Harris) and the recent Netflix Christmas film Scrooge: A Christmas Carol. And did I mention it was a beautiful film? I would put the visual style on par with just about anything from Disney, Pixar, or Dreamworks. The colors of the ocean and the various cityscapes are a sight to behold and it seems like the sea monster come in every shade of the rainbow. To top it off, your kids will love this too. My own kids were initially skeptical of this one, but they sat through the whole thing and have watched it at least a few times since the summer.
Cow
This film I did review back in October after hearing about it on several podcasts over the summer and fall. I was a bit skeptical myself about the film that focuses on the life of dairy cows with no real soundtrack to speak of and no narration. But, as I watched, I found myself connecting with the cow on screen and empathizing with her when her calves are taken away and she is forced into the daily grind of eat, sleep, get milked, until the inevitable end. The creators of Cow (affiliate link) claim not to have any agenda other than to make us think, but many people will probably see it as an anti-animal cruelty film or a pro-vegan film. I didn’t take it as either of these, but it definitely made me think.
The Lost City/Bullet Train
These two get combined because of the cameo trading that went on between them. Brad Pitt made a several scene cameo in The Lost City (affiliate link) trying to help Channing Tatum’s character save Sandra Bullock before meeting an untimely end (or did he?). Bullock and Tatum then returned the favor in Bullet Train (affiliate link), Bullock appearing as Pitt’s “voice on the phone” handler and Tatum as an unnamed train passenger. While I’m still finalizing my top ten of the year list for later this month, it’s safe to say that at least one of these films will be on it. They are both fun and breathe some fresh air into the action-comedy genre, in very different ways. Be sure to keep an eye out here to find out which one makes it into the top 10! |
AuthorI'm just a film buff who wants to watch great movies. Where else to find the best, than the list of those nominated by the Academy each year? Archives
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