This year has seen a resurgence in the film industry as it recovers from COVID, particularly in Europe where both production and distribution shut down for a considerable time.
This year’s crop of films has included many feature documentaries, which seem to be finding their place again in the mainstream canon. Our reviewers have covered film festivals such as the Adelaide, Italian, British, French, Scandinavian, Spanish, and German, as well as premieres and special screenings. They have interviewed key people in both the creation and the distribution of film, and have spent countless hours watching movies at home via special “screeners”.
This is my chance to publicly thank all of them, and give them a chance to let us know their favourites from the year.
A big thank-you to Heather Taylor-Johnson, Emily Schinella, Rebecca Wu, Michelle Baylis and the Kid Critics, Gemma Crossland, Jordan Ellis, and Jack Seaton.
TRACEY KORSTEN’S TOP PICKS:
Hit the Road
This debut feature from Iranian director Panah Panahi is a quiet piece of narrative perfection. Following a family on a road-trip, it is funny, moving, real, mystical, and cinematically stunning.
Read our review here.
Benediction
Terence Davies’s cinematic biography of Siegfried Sassoon has garnered awards, praise, and fans, around the world. Being on Glam’s list of best films is just one more well-deserved accolade!
Read our review here.
Drive My Car
Based on Murakami’s short-story collection Men Without Women, director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s feature is 3-hours long, full of moments, and not a minute too long.
Read our review here.
HEATHER TAYLOR-JOHNSON’S TOP PICKS:
Aftersun
Aftersun is a work of nostalgia without any sap. When Sophie, turning thirty (played by Celia Rowlson-Hall – the child-Sophie is played by Frankie Corio), recalls a holiday with her father Callum (played by Paul Mescal), as he turned thirty, it’s nearly idyllic. For the audience, however, it’s impossible – though subtly impossible – to look away from the off-kilterness of it all. Kudos to writer / director Charlotte Wells. I’m keen to follow her career.
Read our review here.
Hidden Letters
Hidden Letters is a fascinating documentary about the ancient art of Nushu, which is secret calligraphic scripts that tell of women’s miseries, traditionally written on handkerchiefs and fans. Following three women skilled in Nushu, the doco, like Nushu itself, is a lament for Chinese woman while simultaneously bolstering a feministic spirit.
Read our review here.
Fledglings
Fledgelings. A camera follows three seven-year-old blind children around as they adapt to their new live-in school, where they learn independence alongside reading and writing. Zosia, Oskar and Kinga are very different personalities and cope with this major change in their lives in their own unique ways. You’ll fall in love with the children and, as the filmmaker Lidia Duda suggests in the introduction to the documentary, you’ll leave the cinema feeling a little less hopeless about the state of the world.
Read our review here.
EMILY SCHINELLA’S TOP PICKS:
Elvis
Elvis is a 2022 biographical film directed by Baz Luhrmann, written by Luhrmann, Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce and Jeremy Doner and it was a masterclass in storytelling and showmanship.
Read our review here
Top Gun Maverick
Read our review here
MICHELLE BAYLIS‘ TOP PICKS:
DC League of Super-Pets
The Kid Critics Team of Ms6, Mr11 & Ms13 have had a great year of entertainment and the kids just love reviewing films for Glam Adelaide. We sit around together and have a chat about what we thought of each film, best parts, anything that could be improved, favourite quotes and what score we can all agree on. We loved DC League of Super-Pets it had lots of our favourite things – superheroes, animals and humour. Auntie Michelle here is still cackling herself silly that Krypto the dog puts on glasses and then is called “Bark Kent”.
Read our review here.
REBECCA WU’S TOP PICKS:
Farewell, Mr Haffman.
An intense and gripping film with a unique and unpredictable plot, that explores many values, both good and bad.
Read our review here.
The Batman
This reboot is a fantastic film. If you haven’t given DC films much of a chance before, it is a great place to start.
Read our review here.
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