2022 "On Your Left" Film Awards

2022 "On Your Left" Film Awards

Last year was back to normal, for the most part, at the movie theater.  Summer is still the time for blockbusters, and early fall is a dead zone.  Awards contenders did seem to be harder to find at the theater, though.  I saw just four of the ten Best Picture nominees in the theater.  And while I certainly enjoy action, comedy, and other "crowdpleasers", it is a bit distressing to see how few regular dramas - let alone awards contenders - did well at the box office.  Of the top 50 movies, at most ten were dramas (to be very charitable), or as few as five.  Hopefully the variety of movie genres will improve in 2023.  Still, there were some very good acting performances to acknowledge.

For my own Oscar-style awards, I'm sticking with my rule that only films I've seen are eligible.  However, I'm going to try to line up my calendar-based eligibility to match the Oscars (I used to count a movie as released in whichever year I saw them - I often only got to see awards contenders in the following year).

Please also check out my year-in-review post with my top-10 movies of the year, most overrated and most surprising movies, and more, too!

Winners in bold

Runners-up underlined

Best Actor

Christian Bale (Amsterdam)

Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick)

Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin)

David Harbour (Violent Night)

Daniel Kaluuya (Nope)

Disagree/Honorable mention: Austin Butler (Elvis)

Didn't see: Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Bill Nighy (Living)

David Harbour was a perfect choice as a grizzled Santa, darkly funny yet also surprisingly warm.  Daniel Kaluuya was interesting in a stoic, quiet role in Nope, contrasting with the craziness happening around him.  Tom Cruise is still a megastar, giving it everything he's got; the flight scenes, much of which he did himself, were just insane.  Christian Bale, my favorite contemporary actor, was great in an eccentric, bedraggled role with a lot of heart.  But Colin Farrell gave the best performance of the year, a seemingly simple and sweet villager betrayed by his best friend.  Farrell gives him great depth, though, carrying the film in both everyday exchanges and silent but telling body language.

Best Actress

Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza)

Anya Taylor-Joy (The Menu)

Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans)

Letitia Wright (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Honorable mention: Margot Robbie (Amsterdam)

Didn't see: Cate Blanchett (Tar), Ana de Armas (Blonde), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie)

Alana Haim (in Licorice Pizza, a final 2021 carry-over) was intriguing as a young woman searching for her place yet tossed about by a variety of wild characters.  Anya Taylor-Joy is a great audience surrogate in the horror The Menu, but also a wise, strong character to root for.  Letitia Wright had the impossible task of stepping into Chadwick Boseman's shoes, but she takes the superhero in her own firm direction.  Michelle Yeoh is phenomenal as always in her choreography but her personal scenes are just as moving.  But Michelle Williams was the best in 2022, a mother, wife, and artist whose strengths and frailties both are the most raw, powerful parts of the movie.  There is so much truth in her vivid portrait.

Best Supporting Actress

Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)

Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin)

Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Zoe Kravitz (The Batman)

Elizabeth Olsen (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

Honorable mention: Emma Mackey (Death on the Nile)

Didn't see: Hong Chau (The Whale)

Disagree: Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Superhero movies featured a bevy of great performances.  Zoe Kravitz offers a fresh new take on Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman - yet, just like her predecessors, every bit the match of Batman.  Angela Bassett is a commanding presence, trying to hold Wakanda together despite strife, and her familial connections helping the next generation rise up.  Elizabeth Olsen is given a great epilogue role as follow-up to the excellent WandaVision and she takes full advantage, joining Iron Man and company in the superhero pantheon.  Stephanie Hsu plays so many parts in one, the epitome of the multiversal Everything Everywhere... and has the most fun of anyone.  But it's Kerry Condon who shines above the rest as a protective yet independent woman in Banshees of Inisherin (and a librarian, no less!).  Her intense gaze can be withering or warm; her patience with her brother endless but her put-downs of those who earn them lightning-quick.

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale (Thor: Love and Thunder)

Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin)

Nicholas Hoult (The Menu)

Harry Melling (The Pale Blue Eye)

Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Didn't see: Brian Tyree Henry (Causeway)

Disagree: Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans), Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin)

Ke Huy Quan, last seen as Short Round in Indiana Jones, is a sweetly devoted husband in Everything Everywhere.  Nichoulas Holt is deliciously revolting in The Menu, such a pretentious foodie you're dying to see his fate.  Christian Bale shows up again, here as one of Marvel's stronger villains, both menacing but also carrying a poignant backstory.  Brendan Gleeson's gruff tavern fiddler is a perfect foil for Farrell in Banshees, his dark but believable ways packing a punch.  But it's Harry Potter alum (Dudley Dursley) Harry Melling who rises above the rest with a memorable take on Edgar Allen Poe.  His vocal work and physicality stands out, but the way he both hides and reveals things is just as good.

Best Director

Sean Anders (Spirited)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)

Sam Raimi (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

David O. Russell (Amsterdam)

Didn't see: Todd Field (Tar), Ruben Ostlund (Triangle of Sadness)

Disagree: Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere)

I'm not sure how they do it at the Oscars, but I try to rate directors based on the success of the movie in comparison to the degree of (perceived) difficulty and how well it maximizes its potential.  Banshees, which McDonagh wrote, too, doesn't have much of a plot or innate excitement, but he smartly allows the brilliant performers to bring it to life and paces the tensions of the film masterfully.  David O. Russell's Amsterdam is almost the opposite, (loosely) basing his kooky story on a real event; the script is not the best but Russell and his performers manage an impressive comedic-dramatic balancing act.  Sam Raimi is no stranger to superhero movies, and he brings to Doctor Strange 2 the emotional investment of his Spider-Man movies, not to mention fun doses of both horror and trippiness.  But Sean Anders does the best work in 2022, enmeshing his stars' contrasting styles with a modern take on A Christmas Carol with all-new songs - talk about degree of difficulty, but he pulls it off!

Best Screenplay

Sean Anders & John Morris (Spirited)

Rian Johnson (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery)

Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere)

Taylor Materne & Will Fetters (Hustle)

Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)

Best Visual/Practical Effects

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Top Gun Maverick