Welcome to the first Food for Thought episode of 2023 — the 17th year of this podcast! Let’s kick this new year off with recommendations of the best films and books enjoyed this past year. You can refer to the blog post for the list of movies. Grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy!
As you’ll see below, we tend to get into themes when we watch movies — it might be a number of films by a certain director or about a particular topic or from a specific country — and that was no exception in 2022. (See Films Watched in 2021 and Films Watched in 2020.)
I’ve provided a synopsis of our Top 10 Films from 2022, followed by some theme categories, followed by a longer list of the name of the films we watched along with the rating we gave them on a scale of 1-10 — 10 being the best. The list below starts with those we’ve rated 9.0, but they — and those rated 8.0 after that — are in no particular order.
David and I always start the new year with a long film or film series, and for 2022 we chose The Battle of Chile, a three-part film about the fall of Salvador Allende and the rise of August Pinochet. Watching this 3-part film just days before the 1st anniversary of the January 6th insurrection of the U.S. Capitol was both fitting and harrowing.
To be sure, there are fundamental differences between the Chilean far right taking down a democratically elected government and the divisive state of our country today. First of all, Chile had a major foreign power backing them (the United States) and a military that acted on its own — independent of the constitutional government.
But there are chilling similarities that every American will recognize in this story and that every American needs to see. As for the filmmaking itself, it’s incredible. The amount of footage and the breadth and depth of the storytelling are enough to justify the high esteem with which it is still regarded 50 years after its debut, and while it is clear which side the filmmakers support, it is hard not to sympathize with the conviction, compassion, and tenacity of the pro-government workers. Highly recommended. 9.0
Directed by Edgar Wright; Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman, and Bill Nighy; written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Being a huge fan of British comedy, I don’t know why it took me so long to watch what the filmmakers themselves call the “Cornetto Trilogy”: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End. All three films are directed by Edgar Wright and written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who also star in all three).
I’d heard about Shaun of the Dead for years and years, but I think I was skeptical of the zombie apocalypse theme (and in the end rated it 7.0). Still, it was my loss for waiting this long. We didn’t watch the “trilogy” in the order in which the films were made; we started with Hot Fuzz, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that I started laughing within the first 3 minutes. The screenwriting, the comedic timing, the editing, the delightful silliness all combine to create a joyful viewing experience! 9.0 for Hot Fuzz! (P.S. We rated The World’s End 8.0.)
Another film we rated 9.0 was a movie I had never even heard of before. And like with Hot Fuzz, I was hooked from the moment it started. It’s also directed by Edgar Wright (who made the aforementioned comedies), and it might be one of the most perfect little heist films I’ve ever seen.
Part dark comedy, part character study, part heist film, part hero story, part …. well….getaway film. (And yes, we’ve decided that is its own genre.) The editing is stellar, the cast is fantastic, and if you like dark comedies, this film is for you.
Heart and humor isn’t all it has; it’s also got one of the most endearing main characters on film, and the music is a significant part of the story. Because of an accident he had when he was young, Baby has a perpetual ringing in his ears. Music is one of the things that brings him relief, and so he essentially creates a soundtrack to every experience in his life. Don’t miss this film. 9.0
The trilogy starts with Pusher, made in 1996 and starring Mads Mikkelsen (one of my FAVORITE actors), followed by Pusher II (2004), then Pusher III (2005). We gave Pusher and Pusher II each an 8.0, but Pusher III didn’t live up to the first two and got a 6.0 from us.
Hear me and hear me now…these films are not for the faint of heart. Pusher is about a drug pusher who grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord. The films are gritty and violent, and the characters are no angels, but the stories are skillfully told.
Moving from Denmark to South Korea, we have another 8.0 film, directed in 2003 by Joon Ho Bong, who also directed the Academy-award-winning Parasite. Both films are irreverent and darkly humorous, though I think Memories of Murder is the superior of the two. Based on a true story about an inept police detective trying to solve a string of rapes and serial murders in a small Korean village, it is adeptly made and well-deserving of its ranking of 8.0.
Moving back to Europe from Korea, we have an 1971 Italian film based on the true story of the 1921-1927 imprisonment, trial, conviction, and execution of two Italian-born immigrant anarchists, named Sacco and Vanzetti. Starring another favorite actor of mine — Gian Maria Volontè — it’s just a complicated story told well. Quite a feat considering the bulk of the story takes place in a courtroom. 8.0
Also starring Gian Maria Volontè and directed by the masterful Francesco Rosi, this film is based on the true story of an Italian industrialist who died in a plane crash and revolves around the question (that has never been answered): was it an accident or an assassination? 8.0
Staying in Italy but traveling back 20 years, we have a classic Italian comedy about a determined priest and a Communist mayor who develop a grudging friendship in spite of their official rivalry. The dynamic between the two main characters / actors is so engrossing that several other films have been made starring the same actors and featuring the same characters. 8.0
Other than The Battle of Chile, we didn’t have any documentaries on our list, so I thought I would choose two from our 8.0 ranking and honor two films about climbing. Both very moving and beautifully told — and both tied for 8.0.
I thought I would end the list with one that — for me — was the feel-good film of the year! As you can see from this year’s list and from those in previous years, we watch a lot of movies with serious or dark subject matter, but in this French film from 2011, we struck feel-good gold. After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caregiver, and a relationship is forged. 8.0
Toward the end of 2022, we were getting ready to take folks on a Joyful Vegan Trip to Rwanda, followed by a Joyful Vegan Trip to Botswana. The latter trip began and ended in Cape Town, South Africa, and we used it as an opportunity to read some books and watch some films about this country in general and apartheid in particular. I had a rudimentary understanding of apartheid and Nelson Mandela, but I wanted to know more. So, I read Diamonds, Gold, and War by Martin Meredith and Mandela’s autobiography Long Road to Freedom, and we watched a number of films about South Africa and apartheid.
Cry Freedom (1987) Like so many of the films we’ve seen about apartheid, it’s a good story but slightly flawed in the telling of it, despite being directed by Richard Attenborough. Still, I definitely recommend it, despite the awful accents. South African journalist Donald Woods is forced to flee the country after attempting to investigate the death in custody of his friend, the Black anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko. 7.0
A Dry White Season (1989) Forgetful title, good story, mediocre dialogue. Still, our intention was to watch the most highly recommended films about apartheid, and this was one of them. It’s still a film worth watching, even if Sutherland’s Afrikaans accent is cringeworthy. A white middle class South African suburbanite with no interest in politics agrees to help his black gardener find his jailed son. His investigation opens his eyes to the horrors committed by the secret police and turns him into a target. 6.0
The Bang Bang Club (2010) While David wanted to rate it a 6.0, I appreciated this drama based on the true-life experiences of four combat photographers capturing the final days of apartheid in South Africa. Some of the scenes were impressively shot and harrowing to watch, and I sympathized with the different personalities of people being in a very difficult situation. 7.0
Goodbye Bafana (2007) This is the true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner’s name was Nelson Mandela. 7.0
At the end of every year, I produce a list of the films my husband and I watched in the previous 12 months. I provide a brief commentary for our Top 10 (or in the case of 2021’s list, our Top 15).
Instead of overwhelming you with a list of dozens (hundreds?) of films at the end of the year, I thought for 2022, I would build a list throughout the year so you don’t have to wait. This would also give me the space to more thoughtfully review some of the films I think deserve attention — or at least those that captured mine.
As I mentioned in my Films Watched in 2021 post, it’s been a tradition for over a decade for David and I to watch a long-form film or film series over the course of the New Year’s Day holiday, and this year — 2022 — was no exception. We decided to watch The Battle of Chile, a documentary film made in 1973 in three 90-minute parts.
I knew that the United States had backed a coup in Chile in the 1970s and that a dictatorial regime was installed in place of the democratically elected government and president. And that’s about where my knowledge ended.
Watching this film just days before the 1st anniversary of the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol was both fitting and harrowing. Before January 6, 2021, I was quite aware that our democracy was under attack, and over the years I have written several essays and podcast episodes on the importance of being engaged in political processes and in our precious democracy. (Elections Matter: How to Increase Voting, Inauguration, A Guide to Being Politically Engaged, Can Garbage Unite our Divided Country?, Why I Love Voting and Why You Should, Too!, Laws for Animals: How to Engage in Politics without Being Cynical, to name a few.) I even made political engagement the theme of one of my vegan / animal protection conferences.
But on January 6, 2021, I saw — we all saw — how fragile democracy is and how it’s only as strong as its weakest individual, as Eleanor Roosevelt so eloquently articulated in her pledge to democracy.
I watched in horror as men and women — provoked by this country’s own president — attacked one of the most fundamental tenets of democracy — the peaceful transfer of power — and persist in lies about election fraud where none had been and none has since been found.
I waited in vain for leaders to abandon such falsehoods once they witnessed police officers, elected officials, and fellow Americans suffer attacks, violence, threats, and even death.
No such change came, and indeed, the lies have become even more fixed and firm. And our democracy remains in peril.
To be sure, there are differences between the Chilean far right overthrowing their democratically elected government and the divisive state of our country today. First of all, they had a major foreign power backing them (the United States) and a military that acted on its own — independent of the constitutional government.
But there are chilling similarities that every American will recognize in this story and that every American needs to see. We must never forget January 6th, 2021, the five people who were killed, and the dozens who were injured and harmed, and we must resist the temptation to naïvely and complacently believe that such an egregious act could never happen again.
Moreover, as ordinary citizens, we must be vigilant against any duplicitous measures that seek to deny facts, distort truth, and chip away at democratic norms, systems, and laws.
This isn’t someone else’s task. It’s ours. It’s mine. It’s yours.
And watch The Battle of Chile.
The amount of footage and the breadth and depth of the storytelling are enough to justify the high esteem with which it is still regarded 50 years later.
And once you watch it, let me know what you think in the comments below.
We saw SOOO many good films this year that I had to expand our Top 10 to Top 15 AND include subcategories based on directors and countries.
David and I always start the new year off with a long film or multi-film series. Last year, it was The Emigrants and The New Land, both of which I highly recommend. From our list of films, you’d think we never watched comedies, and it’s kind of true. We tend to reserve our comedy-watching for UK panel shows (Mock the Week, QI, Would I Lie to You) and endless repeats of Blackadder, but when it comes to film…it’s true they tend to be of a darker nature and more serious subject matter.
Even when they’re comedies, they’re dark.
The Finnish and the Danish have mastered that combination, and 2021 had no dearth of films from both countries in our repertoire. I mentioned Aki Kaurismäki in my 2020 list, and more of his are below, and the first Fassbinder film we watched had us spellbound. We watched a ton by Danish directors Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen, and Thomas Vinterberg — in all of which you’ll see a rotation of the same brilliant actors.
In our Top 15, you’ll see FOUR films by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, so definitely check those out. Not. Comedies. But absolutely heart-rending and heart-filled. Lilya 4 Ever may be the most devastatingly sad film we’ve ever seen, but it’s so brilliantly made and acted that I have to recommend it. It will rip your heart out, and you will never forget it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading our list and our rating of each film, and of course I hope you enjoy any films you watch because of it. We rate each film we see on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest), and we have a number of films rated at 8.0 and above that aren’t in the “top” lists below. And don’t skip the 7.0 films; they’re decent films — entertaining, enjoyable — but just not fall of your seat good.
TOP 15 FILMS WATCHED IN 2021
RECOMMENDED KEN LOACH FILMS
RECOMMENDED DANISH FILMS (there are more, but these are taken from our 2021 watch list)
RECOMMENDED ANDREY ZVYAGINTSEV FILMS
ALL FILMS WATCHED IN 2021
David and I tend to delve into themes — such as watching films from a particular director, genre, era, or country, and 2020 was no different. While the movies on this list were made in such countries as Germany, Mali, Italy, Spain, Finland, Japan, South Africa, Poland, UK, Iran, France, and the U.S., we dove deep into Iranian films, particularly those by Asghar Farhadi, and Finnish films, especially those by Aki Kaurismäki. As a reflection of their brilliance, each of those films we rated at least 7.0 and 8.0.
To save you the trouble of finding our favorites, here are our Top 10 films from 2020! The list includes documentary series as well as feature films but not those we re-watched.
The list below is the complete list of films from 2020 in order of when we watched them — from most recent to the least recent. You’ll see our rating below (which are in whole numbers in keeping with IMDB’s ranking system, though I suspect we would increase or decrease some by .5 if we had our druthers).
David and I rarely differ when it comes to which films we love and which are shite; I think the only exception on this list is The Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which I vehemently dislike and he really loves. Other than that, we’re pretty much in agreement.
If you want more film lists, check out my posts on Films Watched in 2021 and Films Watched (and Rated) in 2022.