Like every beginning of the year, the editorial staff of Just Focus looks back on the films that marked the previous year. Blockbusters, independent films, horror, animation, here are the cinematic works of 2022 that will make history for us. Here is what some of the editorial staff have to say:
His top 5:
5. Licorice Pizza by Paul Thomas Anderson
4. In the west, nothing is new by Edward Berger
3. The Batman by Matt Reeves
2. Vesper Chronicles by Kristina Buozyte & Bruno Samper
1. Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson:
Master of fantasy and influential producer, Guillermo del Toro brave the myth of the wooden man with the help of veteran animator Mark Gustafson. Heartbreaking not to have discovered this miracle of stop-motion animation in theaters. Pinocchio is a indescribable burst of radiance. Guillermo del Toro will have proven, during his rich career, that he knows better than anyone how to get the best out of his teams. His first animated film is no exception to the rule, his technical proposal being audacious and of a new breath. At the same time, the filmmaker summons the memory of Ray Harryhausen in a political, fabulously human and spiritual narrative. His version of Carlo Collodi’s tale becomes a contemporary fable about the creative act, mourning and the fascist ogre.
His top 5:
5. Top Gun: Maverick by Joseph Kosinsky
4. Full time by Eric Gravel
3. Bruno Reidal, confession of a murderer by Vincent LePort
2. A world by Laura Wander
1. Pacifiction – Torment on the Islands by Albert Serra
As a great craftsman of texture, Albert Serra composes an opera of vanities where, for 2h45, confronts the harshness of characters in ideological split and the delicacy of a palpable paradisiacal landscape on all corners of the screen. In this masterpiece, it is men who are tormented, through their voracious, cannibalistic thoughts. Maybe the greatest proposal of French-speaking cinema of the last 10 yearscertainly the most monstrous.
His top 5:
5. Bones and all by Luca Guadagnino
4. Inexorable by Fabrice Du Welz
3. My dates with Leo by Sophie Hyde
2. The Banshees of Inisherin by Martin McDonagh
1. Vortex by Gaspar Noé
From the most simple-minded comes a form of grandeur in a refined and dazzling production that often divides the screen in two, her on one side, him on the other. What may be confusing at first turns out to be dazzling stylistic elegance. We see all the monotony and slowness of an old couple. A poignant film on the end of life quite far from the usual provocation of its director. Gaspar Noé films the farce that is old age with touching simplicity capturing the etiolation between confinement, fear, ladrerie and affliction of living in distressed expectation of death. Overall demoralizing.
His top 5:
5. Puss in Boots 2: The Last Quest by Januel P. Mercado and Joel Crawford
4. Live by Oliver Hermanus
3. The Batman by Matt Reeves
2. I’m Your Man by Maria Schrader
1. Everything Everywhere all at once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan
A story filled with existentialism and intellectual beauty in a world where everything is possible, with a door wide open to the imagination and all its craziest delusions; Without forgetting the phenomenal technical mastery and the exceptional performance of the actors. Touching, funny, impressive, daring.
His top 5:
5. fire of love by Sara Dosa.
4. Pamfir’s Oath by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
3. EO by Jerzy Skolimowski
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan
1. Chronicle of a temporary liaison by Emmanuel Mouret
This year it is the last film by Emmanuel Mouret which wins my ranking. With a cast that saws itself wonderfully at its paw (Vincent Macaigne and Sandrine Kiberlain), the Marseille director signs his most accomplished work while proving, even after the very successful The things we say, the things we do (2020) and Mademoiselle de Joncquières (2018), that it continues to progress with each new feature film. A certainly subjective choice to make my favorite contemporary director shine in the field of romance. A little thought also for Our children’s souls and My Brothers and Me, two incredibly beautiful and tender filmsas well as’Athenathe technical feat of the year.
His top 5:
5. Heaven: To the Land of Happiness by Im Sang-soo
4. Hunt by Jung-jae Lee
3. Midnight Silence by Oh Seung Kwon
2. Alienoid by Choi Dong-hoon
1. Decision to leave by Park-Chan Wook
If Park-Chan Wook received in May the prize for directing at the 75th Cannes Film Festival to Decision to Leave, it is thanks to an amalgamation of elements that the film rises to the status of a masterpiece. It confirms the ability of some directors to explore new styles, to appropriate them, to consolidate sketches that other directors have already treated timidly, without really going through with it.
Decision to Leave is a love story. An extraordinary and innovative film, which will make us want to see it again. To better digest it? To better deepen it? For pure pleasure? Up to you.
Aubin Bouille
His top 5:
5. November by Cedric Jimenez
4. Boop by Jordan Peele
3. Full time by Eric Gravel
2. The Batman by Matt Reeves
1. Everything Everywhere all at once by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan
Everything Everywhere All At Once is one of the biggest slaps I’ve taken in recent years. It’s ultra creative, funny, touching, impressive. It’s an amazing cocktail of balance and generosity. The Daniels offer a generous and impressive staging, which borrows from animation, silent cinema, black and white, musical comedy, and even other genres. The creativity is overflowing, and thus takes the audience into splendid worlds. And then emerges a work that takes a brilliant look at the concept of parallel lives. A pure madness, the feature film fears nothing, doubts nothing, and transports its audience on a hallucinatory journey that will make people laugh, cry and above all impress.