The Best of 2022: 42nd Shadows Awards

After the first few months of trailing pandemic chaos, 2022 felt much more normal for film critics, as we saw most major releases on the big screen. Oddly, the same can't be said for audiences, who seem happy to watch movies at home now, reserving cinemas for event blockbusters only. The ripple effects on the industry are already beginning to be felt, and it's scary to think that fewer and fewer truly inventive films will be able to be seen in theatres. No home cinema will ever replicate the feeling of watching something with a crowd immersed together in projection and sound.

So here are my favourites from 2022, a mixed bunch that I saw in cinemas, at home, at festivals and even on airplanes. Much more extensive lists are ON THE WEBSITE >

BEST FILM:

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once 
2. No Bears
3. The Quiet Girl 
4. The Inspection 
5. The Banshees of Inisherin 
6. Living
7. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
8. Decision to Leave 
9. She Said 
10. Elvis 

DIRECTOR:

1. Park Chan-wook - Decision to Leave
2. Romain Gavras - Athena
3. Charlotte Wells - Aftersun
4. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert - Everything Everywhere All at Once
5. Sarah Polley - Women Talking
6. Iryna Tsilyk - Rock. Paper. Grenade.
7. Baz Luhrmann - Elvis
8. Georgia Oakley - Blue Jean
9. Maryna Er Gorbach - Klondike
10. Lila Neugebauer - Causeway

SCREENWRITER:

1. Kazuo Ishiguro - Living
2. Martin McDonagh - The Banshees of Inisherin
3. Jafar Panahi - No Bears
4. Marie Kreutzer - Corsage
5. Sarah Polley - Women Talking
6. Elegance Bratton - The Inspection
7. Rian Johnson - Glass Onion
8. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert - Everything Everywhere All at Once
9. Dimitrij Schaad, Alex Schaad - Skin Deep
10. Lena Dunham - Sharp Stick, Catherine Called Birdy

ACTRESS:

1. Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once
2. Letitia Wright - Aisha, The Silent Twins, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
3. Ana de Armas - Blonde, Deep Water, ​​The Gray Man
4. Catherine Clinch - The Quiet Girl
5. Penelope Cruz - Official Competition, Immensity, On the Fringe, The 355
6. Cate Blanchett - Tár
7. Danielle Deadwyler - Till
8. Florence Pugh - The Wonder, Don't Worry Darling
9. Zar Amir Ebrahimi - Holy Spider
10. Jessie Buckley - Men, Women Talking

ACTOR:

1. Colin Farrell - The Banshees of Inisherin, After Yang, The Batman
2. Bill Nighy - Living
3. Jeremy Pope - The Inspection
4. Paul Mescal - Aftersun
5. Mehdi Bajestani - Holy Spider
6. Brian Tyree Henry - Causeway, Bullet Train
7. Park Hae-il - Decision to Leave
8. Oleksandr Yatsentyuk - Pamfir
9. Brendan Fraser - The Whale
10. Austin Butler - Elvis

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1. Hong Chau - The Whale, The Menu
2. Samantha Morton - The Whale, She Said
3. Nina Hoss - Tár
4. Dolly De Leon - Triangle of Sadness
5. Frankie Corio - Aftersun
6. Gabrielle Union - The Inspection
7. Judy Davis - Nitram
8. Kiyohiko Shibukawa - Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
9. Lashana Lynch - The Woman King, Matilda the Musical
10. Jamie Lee Curtis - Everything Everywhere All at Once, Halloween Ends

SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1. Diego Calva - Babylon
2. Barry Keoghan - The Banshees of Inisherin
3. Ke Huy Quan - Everything Everywhere All at Once
4. Ben Whishaw - Women Talking
5. Andrew Bennett - The Quiet Girl
6. John Boyega - The Woman King
7. Anthony Bajon - Athena
8. Brendan Gleeson - The Banshees of Inisherin
9. Russell Harvard - Causeway
10. Thomas Wodianka - Skin Deep

WORST FILM:

1. Samaritan
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
3. Padre Pio
4. Dear Zoe
5. Where the Crawdads Sing 
6. The 355 
7. The Bubble
8. Moonfall
9. Mr Malcolm's List
10. Death on the Nile 

N O N - F I L M   D I V I S I O N

TV SERIES:

1. This Is Going to Hurt (BBC)
2. Heartstopper (Netflix)
3. The White Lotus (HBO)
4. Derry Girls (C4)
5. Hacks (HBO)
6. Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)
7. Acapulco (Apple)
8. Ozark (Netflix)
9. His Dark Materials (BBC)
10. The Great (Hulu)

SINGLE:

1. Break My Soul - Beyoncé
2. Firebabe - Stormzy
3. Boyfriend - Dove Cameron
4. About Damn Time - Lizzo
5. Child of God - Chance the Rapper
6. Lift Me Up - Rihanna
7. Overthinking - Mabel & 24kGoldn
8. Oh My God - Adele
9. Bam Bam - Camila Cabello & Ed Sheeran
10. Psycho - Anne-Marie & Aitch

Venezia79: Starting time

The 79th Venice Film Festival kicked off tonight on the Lido with the world premiere of Noah Baumbach's White Noise, just one of the movies I will miss at this year's festival! I arrived too late to catch it, but I'm already facing a full schedule, long days and, for the first time, an extended commute across the Lagoon to where I'm staying. Here's a first batch of highlights...

Living 
dir Oliver Hermanus;  with Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood 22/UK ****
With a smart, delicate script by Kazuo Ishiguro and incisive direction by Oliver Hermanus, this remake of Kurosawa's 1952 classic Ikiru is skilfully shot in period style. Sensitive filmmaking and an incisive story tackle themes that still feel powerfully relevant nearly 70 years later, and everything is delivered in a subtle, understated way that's carefully tied in with the story's characters and setting. It also offers Bill Nighy a wonderful lead role. 

Blue Jean
dir-scr Georgia Oakley; with Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes 22/UK ****
Set in a northern English seaside town during the tumultuous Thatcher years, this drama has an earthy, kitchen-sink realism that finds timely themes in a story set almost 35 years ago. While the personal story is compelling and full of involving detail, it's also not always easy to watch a film in which everyone is so miserable. Thankfully, writer-director Georgia Oakley finds moments of humour and joy along the way, and the cast is excellent.

Three Nights a Week [Trois Nuits par Semaine]
dir Florent Gouelou; with Pablo Pauly, Romain Eck 22/Fr ***.
Beautifully shot with a lush sense of light and colour, this French drama spins around a warm, offbeat relationship that catches two people, and their friends, by surprise. The drawn-out narrative plays a bit like a gay fantasy, as that cute guy isn't as straight as he thinks he is. And the plot points sometimes feel very deliberate. But there are honest feelings running through each scene, finely played by the actors in a naturalistic way. And thankfully director Florent Gouelou isn't afraid to lean right into a feel-good moment.

Casa Susanna
dir-scr Sebastien Lifshitz; with Kate, Diana, Susanna Valenti 22/Fr ****
Illustrated with a wonderful collection of home movies and snapshots, plus scene-setting newsreel footage, this quietly observational documentary offers a glimpse into a secret society from the early 1960s where cross-dressers could gather without fear. Director Sebastien Lifshitz gets out of the way and lets these people and their children tell the story with colourful anecdotes, big feelings and a lovely sense of nostalgia.

Full reviews will be linked at Shadows VENICE FILM FESTIVAL page, eventually!