My Favorite Movie Moments of 2022

And as it’s been a slow January, I thought I’d share my favorite moments from movies released in 2022. Is this how you use linked in? I dunno.?

Either way, 2022 was an amazing year for film. Get watchin’ y’all!?

Here goes. Random order, light spoilers.?

RRR - UNDERWATER BROS

RRR is an amazing watch. It goes over-the-top, then beyond, pushing melodrama so far it becomes comedy, then keeps going until it’s also heartfelt and sincere.?

At its center - two dudes who just love each other so very much.

My fave scene of RRR celebrates that friendship. After saving a boy from a fiery train wreck using a motorcycle, a horse and (somehow) a flag, our two heroes submerge under the water and then converge, running towards each other across the riverbed floor to perform the most endearing epic bro handshake the world has ever seen. This movie is crazy, y'all.

DECISION TO LEAVE - THE UPHILL CHASE

Decision to Leave is Park Chan-wook’s film noir story of a doomed romance between a detective and his lead suspect. There’s really a ton of astoundingly memorable shots throughout - a beautiful snowy meeting at night, a point of view shot from a dead man’s eyeball, a phone call that travels through binoculars…?

But my favorite moment in the film is when the lead detective takes off after a fleeing suspect on foot, and the chase leads them up a huge flight of steps.The steps wear them both out as they run, so that instead of escalating - this chase actually gets slower and slower; the detective and the criminal practically crawling to the conclusion. Such a fun twist on an action movie cliché.

TAR - THE CLASSROOM?

There’s been a lot of talk about the classroom scene in TAR - a devastating scene where Cate Blanchett’s egotistical composer Lydia Tar takes apart a student who doesn’t like Bach because they can’t separate the artist from the immoral life they led. Tar’s assault on this student is shocking, and certainly her motives are questionable being a problematic artist herself. But that’s not why this scene made my list.?

Lasting over ten minutes, this conversation happens in one continuous shot. As the camera subtlety travels around the room, each changing camera position is used to reflect the evolving power dynamic between Tar and her student. And each position it lands in is perfectly framed once it lands - no small feat. We start with the student in the forefront, conducting the orchestra, with Tar in the background. As Tar stops the student, unsatisfied with their choice of music, the student becomes small as she becomes a looming shape in the foreground, lecturing them harshly. Then, she invites them to sit on stage with her at the piano. For a moment they’re equals sitting side by side, sharing the frame - perhaps she’s even extending an olive leaf. But then she leaves the student there on the bench and walks far out into the audience as the camera follows, eviscerating them with her final, belittling blow. As she does, she’s huge in the foreground while they're at their smallest yet.?Like all of Tar, it’s well thought out, well-acted, and yet strangely cold - but it definitely leaves you thinking.

BANSHEES OF INISHERIN - PADRAIC’S RAINBOW

Banshees of Insiherin is a great dark comedy about two friends on a small island whose relationship has suddenly come to an end. My favorite shot is right at the top - Colin Ferrell’s Padraic is happily walking towards the village bar to meet his friend Calum for a pint, unaware of how his world is about to be rocked forever. His joy is reflected in the landscape, as we suddenly see a rainbow over his shoulder as he walks jauntily towards his fate.??

You know what’s coming – this perfect world can’t last.?

Beautiful and sweet.

WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR - NEW YEAR’S EVE

(*No screengrab of that moment available)

This is a creepy film that expertly uses its low budget aesthetic to tell a powerful story of an isolated teen struggling with depression, who’s turned to the dark, weird world of the internet to distract them from life. It keeps you guessing at what’s real throughout. It also somehow manages to turn YouTube’s autoplay feature into a terrifying cue for upcoming horror. (Or maybe that’s what it’s always been?)

The shot that wowed me the most here is another long, one-take shot. Casey is filming walking around her small upstate New York town at night, near Christmas. As she walks, she’s confessing a lot of disturbing thoughts, and the camera shakes with her steps, turning the town’s Christmas lights into a shimmering unstable reflection of her current mental state.

At her darkest, most isolated moment, she rounds a corner just in time to capture a large crowd gathered for a New Year’s Eve, right as the ball drops. She’s poignantly surrounded by happy people celebrating, unaware of the pain she's enduring.

What I love most about this shot, is that the filmmaker Jane Shoenbraun pulled it off by actually crashing a real small town’s New Year’s Eve, with one well-timed take to get it right. It's such a great ‘making of’ story. Kinda makes you wanna go out and shoot a low budget student film.

ATHENA - Y'ALL, THAT OPENING...

In a year of amazing one-take shots, Athena goes next-level. It’s probably the most audacious one-shot ever attempted on film, and yes, I'm counting Children of Men and the entirety of Hitchcock's Rope. It opens on an intimate speech in close up that evolves into a frantic raid of a police station with moltov cocktails and fireworks firing off left and right. We then join the camera on a stolen car chase as it flees the scene, and the camera weaves in, out and around the vehicle effortlessly. But the shot doesn’t even stop there. As the van reaches its destination, we follow the crew inside a massive, rioting apartment complex and witness a few wild stunts and encounters before ending on an epic wide shot, somehow finding ourselves on a drone that drifts up into the air to show the rioting building under siege and the protestors gathered along the top.

The level of coordination and planning here is mind boggling and a spectacle to watch. It’s going to go down as one of the most impressive opening sequences of all time, and rightfully so.

I wish they’d stuck the landing on this movie as much as the opening - but it's definitely worth checking out.

WHITE NOISE - GROCERY STORE DANCE MONTAGE

I really enjoyed the surreal comedy of Noah Baumbach’s White Noise. Visually it’s one of the most striking, colorful films of the year, with amazing production design and cinematography throughout. It's vibe of lyrical-but-dumb wryness reminds me of one of my fave movies of all time, the Talking Heads / Jonathan Demme collab True Stories. There’s so many great shots and moments in White Noise - but the entire community gathering at the end to dance in the grocery store to LCD Soundsystem is so fun, weird, uplifting and stupid all at once that it had to make my list.

Weirdly, this is Baumbach’s second script that ends in a grocery store dance (after the great Fantastic Mr. Fox) and I hope it's not the last.

NOPE - THE BARN VISITORS

Jordan Peele’s Nope is such a smart and disturbing movie, and there’s so much to talk about after watching it. (OJ and Emerald are such great characters.)?I’m not sure this particular scene adds a whole lot to the story or theme overall, but dang if it isn’t creepy watching OJ watch this post in the barn as something slowly emerges from behind it. One of the most intense moments I had in a movie theater this year.

AFTER YANG - DANCE BATTLE

There's so many good musical scenes in films this year. The dance battle in After Yang is one of my faves - so sweet and fun, it's impossible not to smile. And it nicely sets up this family at their best, before we see them struggle to connect in what comes next. This movie is a subtle charmer and I highly recommend checking it out.

HIT THE ROAD - THE SLEEPING BAG

I maybe love this one the most of any shot on this list. It’s so emotional, but in an earnest, real-to-life way. And that's also how I feel about Hit the Road, a drama/comedy about a Mom and Dad and their two sons making a road trip towards the border of Iran - for a somber reason that unfolds as the movie progresses.?

There’s an amazingly wide one-take shot at this movie’s climax that’s rightfully getting a lot of attention, but my favorite moment is one that's smaller and more surreal.?

The dad lies in a full body sleeping bag, his small son on top. As they try to fall asleep, they make up a story together about the Batmobile getting in a wreck. It’s a sweet, silly moment, but as they talk, the camera lifts up and up away from them, sparkling stars appearing one by one in the grass around them, until they’re no longer on the grass but drifting, unmoored in space, still laughing as they float away into the darkness. I highly recommend checking out this movie from first time director Panah Panahi, which also contains one of the best kid performances I’ve ever seen. The mom is amazing, too.

That’s it! Thanks for reading. What are your favorite movie moments of 2022?