Living, Knock at the Cabin and Top 20 Films of 2022 FINAL list revision on Monday Morning Diary (February 6)

by Sam Juliano

I have been as busy as a beaver this past week attending to the submitted edits on my second novel, Irish Jesus in Fairview.  I believe I can wrap things up on that front in about eight more days, at which point I would send the revised manuscript over to my second-stage editor, Bill Kamberger.  Meanwhile, I await my artist, Andrew Castrucci, to complete his work.  I look forward to resuming my authorship of Roses for Saoirse.  I should be hearing from our film writer extraordinaire, Jim Clark soon with his new essay.

Lucille and I did manage to see two films in the theater.  Living with Bill Nighy, (seen at the Montclair Clairidge) was a wonderful revision of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru and the less said about M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, (seen in Teaneck on a Friday night when temperatures hovered around 0 degrees) the better! Ha!

I have finally finished my list revision of the 20 Best Films of 2022, after I saw all that was needed to be watched.  It is as follows:

FINAL REVISION ON MY TOP FILMS OF 2022 LIST (20 films in alphabetical order)

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells) UK

All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger) Germany

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras) USA

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh) Ireland

Un beau matin (Mia Hansen-Love) France

Benediction (Terence Davies) UK

Close (Lukas Bhont) Belgium/Holland

EO (Jerzy Skolimowski) Poland

The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg) USA

Illusions perdues (Xavier Giannoli) France

Living (Oliver Hermanus) UK

No Bears (Jafar Panahi) Iran

The Quiet Girl (Colm Bairead) Ireland

RRR (S.S. Tajamouli) India

Saint Omer (Alice Diop) France

Till (Chinonye Chukwu) USA

Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Ostlund) Sweden

Vortex (Gasper Noe) France

The Whale (Darren Aronofsky) USA

Women Talking (Sarah Polley) Canada

HONORABLE MENTION: (also in alphabetical order) Armegeddon Time (USA); The Black Phone (USA); Blonde (USA); Broker (Japan); Bros (USA); Corsage (Germany); Decision to Leave (South Korea); Devotion (USA); The Falls (Taiwan); God’s Country (USA); The Inspection (USA); The Menu (USA); She Said (USA); Sundown (USA); Tar (USA); To Leslie (USA); 13: The Musical (USA).

NOTE: My great Canadian friend, the film scholar Todd Sherman, has humbly asked me in private discussion to identify the films I thought were the very best, in an effort to have me pare down the list even further. His suggestion does make a lot of sense, and gives me a further challenge. Here are my Top half-dozen (6) in alphabetical order: Aftersun; Benediction; Close; The Quiet Girl; Saint Omer; Women Talking.

ALSO: Only 4 films in my Top 20 are American-made.

Wishing everyone a great week!

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