Friday, March 29, 2024

List: Hector Gonzalez’s Top 10 Films of 2022

Last year, we were given plenty of cinematic gifts and surprises in the likes of TITANE, Happening, Bergman Island, The Power of the Dog, Annette, amongst others. And while I love Julia Ducounau’s sophomore feature with my entire heart and cherish the sensory experience of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, I think 2022 has surpassed the greatness of last year’s cinema when you take into consideration all of the great pictures that have released throughout the year. Some of my favorite cinematic or in-theater experiences of the past few years happened in 2022. Sure, many of them premiered at film festivals I attended, and unfortunately, they are not available to be seen by the U.S. or Puerto Rican audiences (Pacifiction, Godland, Manticore, One Fine Morning, Saint Omer). However, those will probably be at the top of next year’s list. Nevertheless, let’s get things rolling; here are my top 10 films this year (without including some of the festival hits that haven’t been formally released). 

 

Some honorable Mentions: Return to Seoul, Stars at Noon, NOPE, BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, and Resurrection

  1. Blonde

Starting the list is one of the most controversial films of the year (and also one of the most hated), Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, Blonde. The film often tethers the thin line of provocation and exploitation to a quite significant fault that causes plenty of audience members to tune off. However, its artfulness and cruel magnetism arrive when the film erupts into a surrealistic Lynchian territory that reminds me of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Mulholland Drive, with Joyce Carol Oates’ version of Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe replacing Laura Palmer. Its tale of a Hollywood icon is fictitious, often intertwining fiction and reality, dreams and nightmares, to uplift its fictitious effect to equally horrifying, devastating, and hypnotizing degrees. Blonde’s lengthy and almost 3-hour canvas is grueling, but it amounts to Oates and Dominik’s surrealistic vision of an unforgiving portrait of Hollywood’s obsession through visually poetic and lugubrious vignettes. And Ana de Armas? Well… she easily delivers one of the best performances of the year. 

  1. Decision to Leave

Park Chan-wook orchestrates with acute precision his latest neo-noir-like venture, Decision to Leave, to provide maximum elegance and cinematic texture. And while it might not surpass his magnum opus (to date), The Handmaiden, or Stoker (in my opinion), he’s at his most restrained narrative-wise, his craft is so skilled and sharp that you can’t ignore such a feature. The mixture of its dread-inducing detective story and the seduction of an erotic thriller paves the way for a story about yearning and dependence via the aspect of being “lost in translation”, where Tang Wei and Park Hae-il deliver astonishing performances that pull you into that web of lies and deceit. There’s more than meets the eye; as you revisit Decision to Leave, you notice more of Chan-wook’s visual distinctiveness and narrative symbolism that you missed in your previous viewing. It is a different experience watching the film a second time than the first after dissecting the various metaphors. 

  1. Aftersun

Quick question: How is Aftersun, one of the most acclaimed films of the year by everyone who watches films as a living, Charlotte Well’s directorial debut? Seriously! I can’t fathom that this is the first feature film she has directed. Its script is exceptionally personal and sincere, and the performances from its leading duo of Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio are enigmatic. This knife-sharp combination helps Aftersun’s reflection on childhood at another stage in your life and its celebration of fatherhood to hit you with all of its emotional force. As time passes, you begin to recall memories and start noticing details – the thing you were too young to understand. This is one of the reasons Aftersun made me reflect a lot about my life, especially the past, and re-evaluate my parents’ sacrifices. As it unfolds, the more it hurts. It’s a tear-jerking wallop of a backdrop while these two characters spend their holiday at a Turkish resort playing pool, enjoying the beach, and doing tai-chi. The hype around this feature was legitimate, and more so. Hopefully, what comes next for Wells is appreciated in the same stature. You won’t hear ‘Under Pressure’ that same way again, trust me. 

  1. Crimes of the Future

The king of body horror (and my favorite director of all time), David Cronenberg, returned to bless the screen with Crimes of the Future – a film where he explored some of the ideas that made his name and sculptured them into a new modernized light (the changes in our bodies, violence within the realms of eroticism, and the introspection of please in a world without pain). It is yet another divisive work that I found myself loving in its totality; there might have been some inch of bias as I am a big fan of the Canadian filmmaker’s work, but who cares. This was not the shock factor carnival ride that its trailers insisted it would be or what the Cannes Film Festival walkouts showcased. Instead, it has a plot-heavier sensibility to the narrative that generated plenty of conversations about how we see reality compared to the dark world Cronenberg was building. And the last shot, which references Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), has remained in my head ever since I saw it. Long live the new flesh, where body is reality, both blood curdling and stimulating. Once again: Thank you, David Cronenberg!

  1. Alcarràs

Carla Simón is one of the best filmmakers working today, and she doesn’t get the praise she deserves worldwide. Her Golden Bear-winning picture, Alcarràs, should receive more love in the awards circuit. Not only is it a marvelously heartbreaking depiction of Spain’s agrarian crisis, but it showcases the importance of heritage and the erasure of identity through modernization’s cold hammer. Time passes, and things tend to change, but Simón captures in a realistically harrowing way by solely focusing on how that inevitable change affects the Solé family mentally. Equally tragic, beautiful, and heartfelt, you are in awe of the breadth and brio of Simón’s latest work, filling her film with empathy and lamentation toward the people who have lost their jobs in recent years because of similar scenarios of those depicted in the movie. It has been a year where many films contain powerful endings, and Alcarràs is no exception, as those last few seconds hit you like a sledgehammer trying to knock on their house’s walls.

  1. Moonage Daydream

In the same way that I love David Cronenberg in cinema, I love David Bowie in music. I grew up listening to his music, and I consider him to be one of the best musical talents ever to grace the stage. So, it would be pretty evident that the kaleidoscopic documentary of the man himself, Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream, would make the cut of my favorite films of the year. Watching this one of the biggest screens possible was such a unique experience that I went back to watch it again and then again. This venture radiantly and stylistically explores the magisterial talents of the Thin White Duke. No matter what stage and which era of his career is your favorite, if you love his work, there is a probability that you will cherish this documentary a lot, just like me. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to see the man live, but thanks to Moonage Daydream, it captured the magnetism of how it felt to be in the audience of one of his shows – one of those infrequent music docs that transcend what you have seen before. I was just buzzing with excitement during its entirety, showing that you can’t beat the real thing in a world where plenty of music biopics are constantly being made.

  1. The Eternal Daughter

Joanna Hogg is one of the best current British acts to pierce the screen, and her latest work, The Eternal Daughter, cements her at the top of the list. The film, which takes us back (in a way) to the self-referential world of Julie Hart and The Souvenir, leaves wistful markings on the viewer. The tactility and gracefulness of her craft help Hogg write about her own pains and potential frustrations, both in her professional and personal life. Compared to her other features, this one is quite different; we see her switching gears and applying some horror-esque elements to conjure a ghost story about the memories haunting your art and life decisions. While heart-rending and haunting, the mirror effect of Tilda Swinton’s dual performance causes a relatively transient experience where this lovely story about a mother and daughter turns into a cathartic reflection of how memories affect a person in an assuring and destructive way through a grounded horror medium. After The Souvenir Pt. 2, I didn’t think Hogg was going to return to tell a tale of Julie and Rosalind, but I’m glad she did. It doesn’t feel like the third part of a trilogy but a glimpse into a potential future for these characters. 

  1. Close

Many films tore my heart into pieces this year, but the one that broke it in half was Lukas Dhont’s sophomore feature, Close. It is one of the most emotionally moving films of the year. It has been a long time since I have had an experience like this, where a film has torn me down entirely to the point of actually crying more than a handful of times (especially in a room full of critics and festival attendees, even the organizers). It reminded me of Destroyer’s underrated record “Introducing Angels”, from their record ‘Trouble in Dreams’, where Dan Bejar speaks on the uniting power of tragedy. This is a crucial factor in the last couple of scenes in Close, where the main character is about to erupt into emotional catharsis as he has bottled all his emotions up. The beautiful yet striking portrait of processing grief at a young age and the toxic masculinity of today’s society makes you think about how the world we live in today. 

  1. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Another film festival top-prize winner arrives on my list with Laura Poitras’s best work to date, the extraordinary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. Although I really enjoyed Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, Andrew Dominik’s This Much I Know to Be True, and Elvis Mitchell’s Is That Black Enough for You?!?, Laura Poitras’ latest is easily the best documentary of the year. It isn’t only a piece on resilience and a showcase of Nan Goldin’s work as an activist and photographer; it is a portrait of the importance of having love, acceptance, and respect in one’s life after tragic events stagger your world. Nan Goldin narrates with a numb yet poised voice as Poitras scrolls through some of her famous portraits and images, where personal tragedies are attached, and she reflects on them. Angst alters to despair as the talks about tragedy and grief arrive. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed begins as a political documentary but ends as a work for Goldin to mend her heart and reflect on the past – Poitras’ most fascinating, emotional, and touching project. 

  1. TÁR

Ok, so hear me out… I think that Todd Fields’ first feature in sixteen years, TÁR, is a masterpiece. Yeah, I said the unspeakable m-word. It is an extremely sharp character study about an artist’s amour propre and orchestrating your own cessation – self-destruction through idolism – through the towering masterclass performance by Cate Blanchett as the fictitious EGOT-winning composer Lydia Tár. These are the types of pictures that just sit in awe of when watching; to experience a magnum opus is a rare feat because they arrive so infrequently. I felt the same uneasy yet riveting sensation when I first watched David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive – something crawling deep inside you that just shatters your mind. Of course, anything I have said (or written) about this film will not do it justice. However, I think this film is one of a kind in all aspects, and it stands out as the best film of the year (and the top of the decade today). 

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