Month: December 2022

2022 hasn’t exactly been the greatest year for movies.  There have been a number of really good movies, but there have been just as many bad ones.  What has really stood out to me this year, though, was how good the acting has been, even in some of the movies that haven’t been so good.  Good performances can make a bad movie a little bit better, but great performances can elevate already good movies to all new heights.  What makes 2022 different than most years is the number of excellent FEMALE performances.  In an industry that’s heavily male-dominated, women have to work even harder to get recognized.  There are going to be some solid male performances on this list, but it’s the WOMEN that are carrying 2022 in so many ways.  Let’s get right into it.

Best Breakout Performance: Kali ‘K.O.’ Reis: Kaylee – Catch The Fair One

This one surprised me the most.  Kali Reis is a Native American boxer who has multiple world championships under her belt.  I tend to be very skeptical of first-time actors, but Ms. Reis knocked it out of the park here.  Kali plays a down-on-her-luck boxer whose sister had been abducted by human traffickers, so she sets out to find what happened.  It’s a simple premise, but it’s one that’s quite effective.  Part of what makes Kali’s performance so good, is because Kali is an advocate for missing and murdered indigenous women and children, so she takes issues like this personally, and it’s reflected in her performance.  It’s raw, powerful, and incredibly natural.  K.O. has been getting recognized for her performance in this movie and for good reason.  She’s the heart and soul of the film.  I don’t think it would’ve worked as well if she wasn’t a part of it.

Colin Farrell: The Penguin – The Batman

If I didn’t already know that Colin Farrell was playing the Penguin in Matt Reeve’s The Batman, I wouldn’t recognize him here.  Colin is distinctively Irish, but you don’t hear any of that in the Penguin.  While the prosthetics definitely help, Colin just disappears in this performance, making the Penguin one of the most intimidating and powerful characters in the movie.  Sure, he doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but whenever Penguin is on screen, he steals it.  Colin is so good here, that he’s getting his own show as the Penguin.  That’s how amazing the character is.  But Colin isn’t the only great performer in this movie:

Zoe Kravitz: Selena Kyle – The Batman

Catwoman is an integral part of Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery.  She’s essentially Batman’s equal, but her moral code isn’t nearly as strict.  She’s more of an anti-hero than a straight-up villain.  There have been many great women who have played the character, but Zoe Kravitz brings a certain flair to the character that we haven’t seen before.  She goes toe-to-toe with Batman without blinking an eye.  Zoe can not only handle the physicality that the role requires, but she handles the emotional weight of the character almost better than anybody who has played Catwoman.

Austin Butler: Elvis Presley – Elvis

Despite what a lot of people have said over the years, nobody is born to play a certain role.  Nobody.  That said, there are times when an actor takes a role, you can’t really imagine anybody else playing that.  There have been a lot of men that have played Elvis over the years.  But the problem is that most of them simply ACT like Elvis.  They don’t embody the singer.  Austin Butler took the world by storm in Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis.  Not only did Butler get the King’s mannerisms down to a tee, he got to the point where he sounds like Elvis singing and speaking normally.  Honestly, you’re not watching somebody impersonating Elvis here.  You’re seeing Elvis.  That is the highest compliment I can give.  Butler is electric.

Viola Davis: Nanisca – The Woman King

Viola Davis is a powerhouse actress.  She’s absolutely one of the best in the business.  But seeing her in The Woman King was a revelation.  While the character she plays is fictional, the world and story surrounding the character is real.  Davis is COMMANDING in this movie, but at the same time, there are moments where she lets down her guard and it becomes an emotional rollercoaster, not just for the character of Nanisca, but for all the others around her.  It certainly helps that Ms. Davis is bolstered by an incredibly strong cast that includes Lashana Lynch and John Boyega, but Davis carries the entire movie on her shoulders.  I can’t wait to see this movie again.

Michelle Yeoh: Evelyn Wang – Everything Everywhere All At Once

Michelle Yeoh is one of the most iconic and celebrated action actresses of the last 30+ years.  She’s been in so many iconic action movies like Supercop and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but she’s never really had a role that’s truly tested her abilities as an actress.  Until now.  Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the most unique movies I’ve seen in years.  I can’t really describe the film without spoiling things, but it involves the multiverse.  Ms. Yeoh excels at playing against type here.  She plays a laundromat owner who is forced into an extraordinary situation.  It’s incredibly amusing to see her go from this meek laundromat owner to a total bad-ass half-way through the movie.  The character’s journey is unique and funny at times, and Michelle just goes with the flow.  It’s a weird movie for sure, but there is a real strong emotional pay-off at the end that is worth the trip.  You’ve got to see it to believe it.

Amber Midthunder: Naru – Prey

People were really skeptical when Prey was first announced.  This was coming after Disney had bought 20th Century Fox.  After the last Predator movie came out, the franchise was not in a good place.  Enter Dan Trachtenberg with Prey.  The film takes place in 1719 and is centered around a group of Comanche people.  There was no reason for the movie to work, considering it was a Hulu exclusive, but it did.  Part of why it worked was casting Amber Midthunder in the lead.  This movie works incredibly well because Amber put in the work.  The character of Naru is ferocious, not just in trying to be more than what her people expect her to be, but also in battling the Predator creature.  Amber holds her own and she is incredible.  What’s also cool, is that Amber learned how to speak Comanche for the version of the film that was dubbed into Comanche.

Anya  Taylor-Joy: Olga – The Northman

Anya Taylor-Joy is one of those actresses that you might not know much about, but when you see her on screen, you’re captivated.  She is one of the most interesting actresses to show up in the last decade.  I think you can thank Robert Eggers for “discovering” Anya when he cast her in The Witch.  She’s been making her way up the ladder in films like Split and shows like The Queen’s Gambit.  This woman is a force to be reckoned with.  She plays Olga, a forest witch in The Northman, who becomes the love interest to Alexander Skarsgard’s Amleth.  It would’ve been easy to make the character a damsel-in-distress, but that’s not what happens here.  She teams up with Amleth to take revenge on the people who enslaved her.  I would argue that the character is even more devious than Amleth, considering her knowledge of plants and weeds.

Angela Bassett: Ramonda – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

There’s a lot of buzz going around the interwebs about who’s going to be nominated for best actor/actress or supporting actor.  Well, Marvel Studios is making the push for Angela Bassett to be nominated, and for good reason.  Angela Bassett as Ramonda, the mother of T’Challa and Shuri, is amazing.  The character’s obviously had to deal with T’Challa’s sudden passing and with a rising threat from a new enemy.  Wakanda Forever is one of the most emotionally heavy movies that the MCU has ever made.  Angela Basset, and by extension, Ramonda, is the beating heart of this film.  Like Viola Davis in The Woman King, Angela Bassett is surrounded by top-notch talent that includes Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, and Winston Duke.  Yeah, Ramonda is a supporting character, but she’s incredibly important to this story.

For the first time in God knows how long, it seems that men are taking a back seat when it comes to acting.  Yeah, the industry will always be centered around men, but 2022 has proven that women are a force to be reckoned with…and celebrated.  While the movies weren’t the greatest this year, the performances were.  Bring on 2023.

It’s December, my fellow Space Cadets.  With the holidays literally right around the corner, now is the time for me to finish off my Best and Worst movies of 2022.  The first half of this year was pretty loaded with some really outstanding movies.  Here are some of the Best highlights from earlier in the year: The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick, Catch The Fair One, and The Northman, just to name a few.  Some of the worst: Morbius, Moonfall, and the Firestarter remake.  The second half of this year had some pretty decent highlights as well as some really bad movies.  So, let’s get right into it.

The Best: Prey

This was a very unexpected surprise.  When it was revealed that Disney and 20th Century Studios were working on a new Predator movie, most fans were skeptical, and rightfully so.  The last Predator movie was a complete wreck, and the Aliens Vs Predator movies were nothing special.  So, director Dan Trachtenberg and 20th Century Studios decided to take the franchise to the past. 1719 to be specific.  The film was also going to be centered around the Comanche people, which was a very interesting idea.  Well…color me shocked.  Not only was Prey really good, it’s also the best Predator movie since the original 1987 Schwarzenegger movie.  Amber Midthunder carries this movie like its nobodies business, and it’s just a hell of a lot of fun.

The Worst: Blonde

There’s no mistaking the fact that the life of Norma Jean, a.k.a. Marilyn Monroe was tragic.  From a brutal childhood to a ruthless Hollywood culture, Monroe was exploited to the nth degree.  Andrew Dominik’s Blonde could’ve explored some of the woman’s humanity and what she brought to the table, but no…Dominik decided that he was going to focus on her suffering, basing the movie on a fictional account of Marilyn Monroe’s life.  I get the intent, but Dominik ended up doing the thing that he criticized Hollywood for: Exploiting Marilyn Monroe.  I didn’t review this movie because I felt awful watching it, and I just wasn’t willing to give Dominik the time of day for this rubbish.

The Best: The Woman King

The Woman King is a lot of things: A drama.  An historical epic.  An action movie.  It’s all of those things and more.  The movie is centered around an elite unite of female warriors called the Agojie.  You would have to read my review of the film, but this is one of the most beautiful movies ever made.  Not just in terms of cinematography, but the characters and the story are incredible.  On top of that, you have an incredible cast that includes Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, and Thuso Mbudu.  It’s definitely an exciting movie, but it’s also an emotionally charged one.  I love movies that tell me about a part of the world and history that I knew nothing about, and The Woman King does precisely that.  It’s an amazing movie that has to be seen.

The Worst: Halloween Ends

I love me a good slasher movie.  When the reboot/sequel Halloween came out in 2018, it was really good.  It was a direct sequel to the original John Carpenter flick.  It was intense, fun, and gave us a really bad-ass Jamie-Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode.  Halloween Kills was an inferior movie on a lot of different levels, but it delivered on the carnage which I loved.  Halloween Kills was one of the most violent main-stream slashers in the last decade.  But the whole “Evil Dies Tonight” motif was done to death.  Halloween Ends goes out on a whimper, not a bang.  Michael Myers is sidelined for most of the movie while a different character takes his place.  This was NOT the movie that was advertised, so there is a huge bait-and-switch going on here.  The whole movie was just too damn bizarre, and it didn’t make any sense.  There’s a reason why it was released on Peacock the same time it was released in theaters.  This franchise needs to stay dead.

The Best: Terrifyer 2

Well, we go from one of the worst slasher movies of the year, to the absolute best slasher: Terrifyer 2.  The Terrifyer movies are a gore-hound’s dream come true.  The first movie was nuts, but the second movie takes it to whole new level of insanity.  Yeah, the story’s not the greatest, but we have one of the best villains ever in Art the Clown.  Not only that, we also have one of the best Final Girls ever: Lauren LaVera as Sienna.  I love movies that use practical effects instead of CGI, and Terrifyer 2 is a celebration of practical effects.  It’s a gore-fest unlike any other.  If you’re going into it expecting something more than a slasher, you might be barking up the wrong tree.  This one is for slasher fans.  But I love it.

The Worst: Black Adam

There are disappointments and then there’s Black Adam.  This is a movie that should’ve come out 20 years ago at the latest.  It is very much a throwback to the more generic action movies of the 90s, and while I appreciate a good throwback, there’s nothing in this movie that I haven’t seen before.  Most people would agree.  Dwayne Johnson is awesome here.  He’s built to play this character and seeing him go Darth Sidious on fools is spectacular.  There’s a lot of really good action sequences here, but they’re tied together by a story that is neither compelling nor memorable.  Also, the kid is incredibly annoying, and the villain is one of the weakest that I’ve seen in a DC movie.  Yeah, this is not a good movie.

The Best: All Quiet on the Western Front

While one could say that a lot of modern war movies are actually “anti-war” films, All Quiet on the Western Front gives very good reasons why war is terrible.  This World War I story is told from the perspective of a new gung-ho German soldier who gets sent to the front lines.  He gets hit with the ugly reality of war.  This movie is hard to watch, and that’s coming from somebody who loves war movies.  It’s emotionally devastating.  The battle sequences are epic, but they are brutal.  The movie’s perspective is that from a German’s point of view, but the movie doesn’t really take sides.  It’s destructive for everybody involved.  It’s absolutely worth watching at least once.

The Worst: Thor: Love and Thunder

How could a movie like Love and Thunder look so great in the trailers, but go so wrong in the final product?  I never thought that I would hate an MCU movie so much.  There’s no reason for this movie to be this bad.  Thor: Ragnarok was AMAZING.  But it balanced its humor with really strong story-telling and character-work.  Taika Waititi through all caution to the wind for this movie and it’s the worst comic-book movie this year as a result.  Yes, worse than Morbius, which I loathed.  I liked specific elements in this movie, but it does everything wrong.  Gorr the Godbutcher doesn’t feel like a threat, because you only see him kill ONE god and that was in self-defense.  Christian Bale’s performance was great, but he was wasted.  The movie focused way too much on the jokes.  I wanted to slaughter the screaming goats.  This is a terrible movie and it shouldn’t have been.

The Best: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Phase 4 of Marvel’s MCU has been all over the place.  Thankfully, it closes out with a really strong movie in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.  This one was going to be tough one for everybody involved.  Chadwick Boseman’s sudden passing threw a big wrench into Ryan Coogler’s plans for the sequel.  While I’m not going to say that Wakanda Forever is a perfect film, it is the best that we could’ve hoped considering the circumstances.  The handling of Boseman’s death and by extension, T’Challa’s death was extraordinary.  It was an incredibly emotional way to start the movie.  The lack of Boseman’s presence is felt throughout the entire movie, but it mostly comes together with some incredible performances by Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright, and Tenoch Huerta as the film’s villain, Namor.

As with any year, there were movies that I didn’t get around to seeing.  The year’s not over yet, but the only movie coming out this month that I’m going to go see is Avatar: The Way of Water.  What I will see about this year, is that certain aspects of movies have been outstanding.  We’ve seen some really amazing performances over the course of 2022 that I feel are Academy Award-worthy.  Some of the music in these movies have also been incredible.  I’ll be talking about those over the course of the month, and maybe a little into January.  Stay tuned.