Happenings

Film Fight 2022: April

Only five films in this fight, but they’re mostly good.

Titane

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood

The Northman

The Bubble

Mass

The April Winner

While The Northman was winning until late on the last day of the month, Mass is the clear winner; a difficult film that will stay with me for years to come.

Film Fight 2022: March

Seven films for the March Film Fight:

Wrath Of Man

Kimi

The Batman

The Adam Project

After Yang

Windfall

Death On The Nile

The month Winner

Lots of big, silly films but not so many great films, making it an easy win for Kimi.

Film Fight 2022: February

A fairly decent month with 7 films in the fight.

The Eyes Of Tammy Faye

Uncharted

CODA

Petite Maman

Belfast

Lamb

The Tragedy Of Macbeth

The February Winner

Although Chastaine’s performance in Tammy Faye is excellent, the winner is CODA: great performances, stunningly shot, and bold direction; a film deserving of its Oscar nominations.

Film Fight 2022: January

A big start to 2022, with 11 new films. A very mixed bag.

The Protege

The Lost Daughter

Licorice Pizza

Swan Song

Mother/Android

The Tender Bar

Preparations To Be Together For An Unknown Period Of Time

The Starling

Nightmare Alley

A Journal For Jordan

Friends And Strangers

The January Winner

While Licorice Pizza is an excellent slice of life film, I think The Lost Daughter is the monthly winner. Several very strong performances, a compelling story, beautifully shot.

Film Fight 2021: Finale

Wow, another year of mostly at home viewing, but with a bit more cinema thrown in, particularly towards the end. It’s been a decent enough year for film, with maybe a few too many big-budget action films dominating screens in the back end of the year (looking at you Marvel!).

As per the caveat every year, Film Fight is done in a (non particularly serious) knock-out style: it can pick my favourite film of the year, but nothing else. (Also the very idea of a single favourite film is a bit silly.)

First up is the honorable mentions: films that weren’t good enough to win their own month, but still worth seeing.

  • Saint Frances
  • Pieces Of A Woman
  • Soul
  • Ham On Rye
  • One Night In Miami
  • Malcolm & Marie
  • I Care A Lot
  • Moxie
  • Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar
  • Dead Pigs
  • Bacurau
  • Concrete Cowboy
  • Proxima
  • The Mauritanian
  • Cherry
  • Sound Of Metal
  • The Woman In The Window
  • Shirley
  • Oxygen
  • Shiva Baby
  • Mogul Mowgli
  • Minari
  • Body Brokers
  • First Cow
  • The Best Of Enemies
  • Black Bear
  • New Order
  • Another Round
  • The Nest
  • Worth
  • Kate
  • Sweat
  • The Guilty
  • The Last Duel
  • Cop Shop
  • The French Dispatch
  • The Trouble With Being Born
  • Surge
  • In The Earth
  • Spider-Man: No Way Home
  • Don’t Look Up
  • Azor
  • Being The Ricardos
  • Encounter

And now the monthly winners:

  • January: Babyteeth
  • February: Possessor
  • March: Judas & The Black Messiah
  • April: Promising Young Woman
  • May: Nomadland
  • June: The Father
  • July: Clemency
  • August: The Green Knight
  • September: Apples
  • October: Last Night In Soho
  • November: The Harder They Fall
  • December: The Power Of The Dog

That’s as solid a list of winners as any other year, and genuinely difficult to narrow it down to just one.

The body-horror of Possessor has stayed with me through the year; the sign of an excellent, creepy movie. Meanwhile, The Green Knight has this beautiful, mythic feel that makes me want to watch it again.

Difficult movies abounded: Clemency, The Father, and Babyteeth are not films I’ll be revisiting soon, but only because they were hard enough to watch the first time.

Nomadland and The Harder They Fall were both beautifully styled, with very different aesthetics: naturalism vs hyper-stylised.

The real challenge, though, is picking between Promising Young Woman and The Power Of The Dog. Each are excellent in their own ways, playing with our expectations expertly. I don’t want to say much about the content of either, because you should watch them without knowing what’s coming.

I think I’m going to go with Promising Young Woman: darkly funny, tragic, brutal, tense, well-paced, with several great performances. A must see.