I watch a lot of movies. Now that the production cycles have caught up with Covid it’s easy to get lost in what’s new and on the big screen. But each year I make a point of watching things that are merely new to me. This year was no different than the last, with lots of exciting new discoveries (and a few rediscoveries) to fill my time.
10. The Anderson Tapes (1971)
2022 saw the completion of “The Sean Conn”, my deep dive into the entirety of Sean Connery’s filmography. A constant factor in that watchlist was the dynamic duo that was Sean Connery and Director Sidney Lumet. The duo delivered some of Connery’s most interesting work and The Anderson Tapes is no exception. Taught direction and an excellent score keep you on the edge of your seat in a sharply written and twisting thriller that follows the unravelling of a mafia score undertaken by Connery’s master thief character.
9. Witness (1985)
Harrison Ford has only received one Academy Award nomination in his entire career and it was for his role in this film. This movie was nothing that I expected it to be. Instead of the typical Ford action flick of the era it was a slow-burn romance that played against the backdrop of a murder and the attempt to cover it up. Ford plays against type to deliver a film that while unexpected is far stronger than it should have been.
8. Woman of Straw (1964)
I bet you didn’t expect Sean Connery to pop up again so soon.
This time we find Sean entangled in a scheme to gain his uncle’s fortune by marrying and manipulating his uncle’s nurse. Woman of Straw is uncompromising in the deviousness of its cast of vile characters. It is a thrilling quasi-mystery that doesn’t care what you think about its protagonists and delivers its fair share of twists and turns because of it.
7. The Faculty (1998)
The Faculty was a watch of circumstance. It just happened across my HBOMax screen one night and I rolled the dice on it. I’m glad I did because not only does this movie have a loaded cast of the who’s who of the late 90s, but it delivers a horrific homage to The Thing. This movie makes old tropes new and is filled with gratuitously gory ideas that take full advantage of the recognizability and expendability of its cast of characters.
6. The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
After years of seeing references and call backs to it on the fringe of my twitter sphere, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. While it isn’t something that changed my life, it’s hard to gripe with this movie. The film takes full advantage of its talented cast to deliver delicious moment after delicious moment. The Devil Wears Prada is a biting and hilarious romp through the world of executive high fashion.
5. Killing Them Softly (2012)
I’m a big fan of movies where characters just hangout and shoot the breeze. Killing Them Softly takes the vibes of a hangout movie and drops that hangout against a dumb heist gone wrong. It’s characters are hitmen and mobsters who just happen to hangout and chat. It has fantastic dialogue, well crafted gunplay, and effective commentary to boot.
4. Midnight in Paris (2011)
This was another blind watch, but the Netflix preview was enough to hook me. Midnight in Paris creatively invents its own rules for time travel that allows its main character to step back into the 1920s and meet the leading artists and authors of the time. His walk to the past and the conversations he has there contribute to the expediential decay of his already soured relationship in a very bittersweet exploration of relationships in the here and now.
3. Zardoz (1974)
You might not have heard of this movie but I bet you’ve seen a picture of the singlet Sean Connery wears in the film. (A film which takes place in 2023 I might add.) The film feels really ahead of the science fiction of the time in the ways that it explores technological and moral quandaries. It follows Connery as a savage trained to kill dropped into a utopia where death has been eliminated and explores the implications of what is lost in the pursuit of eliminating “savagery.”
2. Avatar (2009)
I was an Avatar denier until earlier this year. Yet in September I took the Na’vi pill and forgot about all of my doubts and denials. Avatar is a breathtaking achievement in visual storytelling and quite unlike anything else out there. It is nothing short of captivating and the intensity of its scale and depth of color is something every other blockbuster should be envious of.
1. Collateral (2004)
This year my most rewatched film was Michael Mann’s Heat. Upon one of those viewings I decided to chase it with his 2004 thriller starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. It features Cruise playing against type as a cold and calculating hitman with names to cross off his list. As innocent cab driver, Jamie Foxx, gets caught up in his hunt you dive further and further into the mettle that each man is made of. It is intense, thrilling, and absolutely riveting from first frame to final shot.
Collin Willis 