Top 20 movies I saw for first time in 2022

I really didn’t go to the movies that much this year, and wasn’t tripping about it. There were a couple times I had fun like watching Jake Gyllenhaal pay homage to the zooted out action stars of the ’80s in Ambulance or Tom Cruise pay homage to himself in TG: Maverick, but generally I was so bored by the ideas that not even a gifted Alamo Drafthouse pass could get me out to the theater all that much. Instead I sat on my ass and burned through a bunch of DVDs from the NYPL and put up with the unpredictability of streaming services (A random top 5 streamers: Criterion, TCM, Hi-Yah!, ScreenPix, YouTube) as I watched movies from the recent and distant past any chance I could. I was really feeling the 50s this year, mostly in the seedy noirs and over the top westerns; every time I watch them I think to myself that if these were made now they would be way more realistic and therefore worse. I also was into the 80s, a decade I used to hate because of how corny it all is, but have come around to as I ventured further into the excess and craziness of B-movies and Hong Kong flicks of the time. Here’s a list in alphabetical order:

Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)

One of those movies I thought I saw without already seeing just because it’s so popular, but it’s way harder than any words can describe.

Black Girl (1966, Ousmane Sembène)

You can really do so much in 60 minutes when you’re not just trying to get people to click on “Play next episode.”

Drug War (2012, Johnnie To)

I get Johnnie To now.

Elvis (2022, Baz Luhrmann)

Fucking crazy. A bunch of choices made for no other reason than they’re cool.

Flashpoint (1984, William Tannen)

It’s got the dumbest fake deep #America monologue ever and it’s delivered by Red from That ’70s Show. I ran it back so many times that I started to believe it.

Gunman’s Walk (1958, Phil Karlson)

This is how Michael Imperioli should have did his son in White Lotus S2 (great tv).

Inferno (1953, Roy Ward Baker)

A Robert Ryan survival thriller with a few of the only moments I’ve ever been into 3-D (I did like Spy Kids 3 as a kid, though).

Jack’s Back (1988, Rowdy Herrington)

A year before he made Road House, Rowdy Herrington ripped off a movie that comes close to being as nuts and not just because there are two James Spaders.

Mississippi Masala (1991, Mira Nair)

Sarita Choudhury might be the only person to ever out charm Denzel on screen.

I feel him.

Nightfall (1956, Jacques Tourneur)

Aldo Ray is built like a racist defensive end (call him Aldo Bosa) but you still root for him.

The gawd Eddie Muller on Aldo Ray:

No Down Payment (1957, Martin Ritt)

Peak melodrama. Belongs in the Sirk conversation.

Peking Opera Blues (1986, Tsui Hark)

All the converging plots and batshit tonal shifts of so many of the Hong Kong actioners of this era, but grounded by Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, and Cherie Chung forming an all time trio (up there with the Migos and the Shield).

Red River (1948, Howard Hawks)

I was reading William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade this year and in it he talks about Montgomery Clift like he’s a God. It was kind of confusing until I watched Red River.

Secret Admirer (1985, David Greenwalt)

I’d take this over all the John Hughes movies tbh, wild that a year after this C. Thomas Howell was starring in Soul Man.

The Barefoot Contessa (1954, Joseph. L Mankiewicz)

The Barefoot Contessa has the scale of ’60s epics, the melancholy of ’70s character studies, and the dated perspective of the batch of ’50s melodramas that nobody watches anymore. It’s a perfect mix. I like this Pauline Kael quote about it a lot: “It's hard to believe Mankiewicz ever spent an hour in Hollywood; the alternative supposition is that he spent too many hours there.”

Look at this shit, Ava Gardner is walking on water; that’s a fucking movie star right there.

The Duel (1971, Chang Cheh)

John Woo before John Woo. The final death scene makes me think about this MarijuanaXO and Joe Pablo song:

Sometimes it also make me think about this Summrs song:

The Five Heartbeats (1991, Robert Townsend)

Hits all of the familiar beats of a standard biopic, but Robert Townsend zooms in on the characters (Leon Robinson in a bag) and Black music which distinguishes it. He’s really one of the greats.

The Fly (1986, David Cronenberg)

Thought I would hate this but by the end I was on the side of Geena Davis should have been more chill about Jeff Goldblum just wanting to do a lil fusion dance.

The Sword (1980, Patrick Tam)

Abandoning everything you love for a journey that takes up half of your life, only for it ultimately to be unfulfilling. Too real.

Adam Cheng wondering if it was all worth it (it was not):

Urban Cowboy (1980, James Bridges)

I love every movie where John Travolta is a complete dickhead so much that I almost put Perfect—the flick where Travolta is a journalist working on a game-changing story about *checks notes* people fucking after aerobics class—on this list. Instead, I’ll go with Travolta throwing tantrums about his wife (Debra Winger) being way cooler at riding mechanical bulls than him.

Favorite movie actors this year: Yuen Biao, Regina Hall, James Spader, Keke Palmer, Fred Williamson, Michelle Yeoh, Ice-T, Jimmy Stewart, David Chiang, Richard Widmark, Kim Novak, Sigourney Weaver, Omar Epps, Arthur Kennedy, Roy Cheung

Movies that almost made this list: Pushover (1954), Unforgiven (1992), The Prodigal Son (1981), The River’s Edge (1957), Dream Lover (1993), Ambulance (2022), TG Maverick (2022), Duel to the Death (1983), Canyon Passage (1946), Black Book (2006), Cops vs. Thugs (1975), The Man from Laramie (1955)

Best movie convo: from North Shore (1987):

Send me your lists!