ReelBob: My view of 2022

By Bob Bloom

I don’t know if it was a hangover from the pandemic, but sometime in 2022, I began losing my passion for movies.

Some of it may be linked to memory problems that I have been experiencing, or it may be that my anxiety of being around people have heightened.

It also may be that many of the movies I saw in 2022 simply did not excite me. Many were much too long, others felt like cheap variations on similar things.

Whatever it was, only a few movies touched my heart and my soul this year. So, without anymore hand-wringing, here are my favorite movies on the year. One movie stands out, so I will list that first — and the others will be in alphabetical order.

Here’s hoping that 2023 will be better — but I seriously doubt it.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once”: A movie that is wholly original. It’s also outrageous, funny and heartwarming, as we experience life through the point of view of Michelle Yeoh’s Evelyn Wang.

The movie, written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (“Swiss Army Man”), a k a “The Daniels,” is a visual feast that rivets you. Events and situations fly by quickly; your full attention is paramount to enjoying and appreciating the film.

The movie rests on Yeoh’s shoulders and she does not disappoint. She gives a magnificent performance as a harried wife, mother and businesswoman seemingly at the end of her rope.
Even at nearly 140 minutes, it’s a joy ride that will entertain you, make you laugh and could also bring a tear or two to your eyes.

“Bad Axe”: Filmmaker David Siev’s intimate documentary is a love letter to his family, the immigrant experience and his Michigan hometown.

His movie that does not shy away from revealing his family’s warts and the prejudices of Bad Axe.

Siev’s camera captures the small-town aspects of Bad Axe — the good and the bad. It is a conservative region dotted by Trump signs and flags.

And the bigotry silently condoned by the then-president allows some of the town’s more bigoted elements to spew their bile, with the Sievs as their target.

“Bad Axe” covers a lot of issues, but at the core of the movie is the Sievs. Their long journey to fulfill their version of the American Dream is sometimes bumpy, but their determination and love — for each other and their adopted home — is touching and inspirational.

“The Best We’ve Got: The Carl Erskine Story”: I freely admit my bias for this movie. I grew up in New York; my grandmother lived in Brooklyn. And when we would visit her, more often than not, my father and I would go to Ebbets Field to see a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game.

More than once, I saw Carl Erksine on the mound.

What sets this documentary apart from a standard sports movie is its focus on Erskine the man — husband, father and, most importantly, advocate and activist, for his son and the Special Olympics

This is an inspirational profile of a good and decent man who has lived an exemplary life and inspired others.

“The Fabelmans”: Steven Spielberg’s movie is more about family — a theme he has focused on in many of his movies — than about his growing love of moviemaking.

The film is a touching and spiritual journey in which Spielberg looks inward more so than he ever has done before.

Plus the last scene of the movie in which Sammy Fabelman meets a legendary filmmaker, played by David Lynch, is itself worth the price of admission.

“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song”: You may believe you know Cohen’s song because you’ve heard it dozens of times in several variations.

The pleasure of this documentary is the appeal the song has to other artists who have put their individual spins to Cohen’s original.

The film not only traces Cohen’s career and the evolution of the song but looks how the lyrics went from a spiritual to more secular work.

“Hallelujah …” Cohen’s complexities and his continual search for spirituality, which he tried to achieve in life, his poetry and his music.

“She Said”: Despite following the blueprint of earlier movies about investigative reporters, “She Said” feels more urgent and relevant.

This chronicle of the work by two women “New York Times” reporters into the allegations of rape and sexual abuse by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein also touches upon those who enabled him as well as the failure by law enforcement officials to take the seriously investigate the reports of the various women who came forward.

This story is worth revisiting because the abuses perpetrated by Weinstein and the silence of those who enabled him, is not limited to the movie industry.

“Till”: The horrific murder of teenager Emmett Till galvanized the nation, but it is the aftermath of this heinous atrocity — and the steadfastness of Till’s mother, Mamie, that is the main focus of the movie.

The dynamic, determined and heartbreaking performance by Danielle Deadwyler is the linchpin that keeps you invested in “Till.”

We see her evolve from private grief to public outrage as she refuses to let her son’s killing go unnoticed.

“Till” is simply not just a searing indictment of a sickening offense. Rather, it’s a chronicle of mother love.

It’s also a tribute to Mamie Till Mobley’s heart-wrenching step of sharing her personal sorrow, opening the eyes of the world to her senseless and devastating loss.

“The Woman King”: The ferocity of Viola Davis’ performance is the driving force behind this historical drama.

As General Nanisca, leader of the Agojie, an all-female unit of warriors who protect the kingdom of Dahomey, Davis would give Keanu Reeves’ John Wick pause.

The movie does not romanticize the setting. Under the sturdy direction of Gina Prince-Bythewood — and a strong script by Dana Stevens — we are shown how women are treated cruelly, and rape is widespread.

The movie is a rousing, big-screen epic that is about more than female empowerment, touching on such issues as family, loyalty, freedom and love of country.

“Women Talking”: This is one of the most painful movies of the year. From the outside, it is easy for us to ask why women in abusive relationships simply don’t up and leave.

The answer or, in this case, answers are complicated and multifaceted as writer-director Sarah Polley impressively demonstrates in “Women Talking.”

The movie deals with a group of women in an isolated religious community who grapple with reconciling their cruel reality with their faith.

The film takes place during one evening in which eight women meet in the community’s barn to debate whether to stay or flee. Most of the men have been arrested on rape or sexual abuse charges after it was learned they had been drugging the women, then convincing them that their post-attack injuries were the work of the devil or demons.

A strong cast that includes Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Judith Ivey and Sheila McCarthy, voice not only the women’s suffering, but their uncertainty on how to proceed and why God would allow such crimes to be brought upon them.

The year also offered us many blockbusters and sequels to familiar characters and places. But this quartet stood out as appalling weak entries.

They all have a couple of aspects in common: weak scripts, dull or underwritten characters and a propensity to drone on much too long.

Thus, this is my 2022 rogues gallery:

“Avatar: The Way of Water”

“The Batman”

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”

“Jurassic World: Dominion“

I hope that our 2023 film-going experience will be brighter, but being a born pessimist, I would not bet on it.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.