Year in Review: 2022

Well, this was my Return of the Jedi/King year, but unfortunately, I'm probably going to franchise this thing until I die ...

Every year that I'm still putting stuff out is a banner year for me, but I don't want to undersell the effort I put into Films and Feelings during 2022. Arguably my biggest milestone this year was putting out my 100th post, commemorated as a list of my favorite movie each year for 100 years, but this was also a big year for essays.

My essay round-up this year:

-"My Crush on Sarah Conner is Hard to Explain" A summary of all the flagship and subtle ways that Sarah Conner of the "Terminator" franchise advanced female representation in action films.

-"The Belle Complex" A study of how the mania surrounding Disney's Belle as a pillar of righteousness contributed to the incoherency of the 2017 remake of Beauty and the Beast.

-"Meet in St. Louis: The Melancholy Window of Nostalgia" A reflection on how the social unrest of World War II informed the colorful optimism of Meet Me in St. Louis.

-"Some Much Needed Love for Megamind" A retrospective on Dreamworks' 2010 animated superhero parody, Megamind, with some reflection on the discourse around animated films in general.

-"Social Utopia in Raya and the Last Dragon" A deconstruction of Raya and the Last Dragon's thesis on achieving harmony in a socially divided world.

-"Main Character Syndrome" A study of how popular film can both exacerbate and comment on a viewer's self-affirming worldviews--the tendency see oneself as the "main character" of life.

-"The Case for Pre-Ragnarök Thor" An overview of Thor's transformation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from beacon of chivalry to comedic action star.

-"You're Not Stupid for Loving Jurassic World" An advocacy piece for why the Jurassic World trilogy deserves more respect in the popular discourse.

-"Part of that World: Understanding Racebent Ariel" A rebuttal against the #NotMyAriel dialogue surrounding Halle Bailey's casting as Ariel in the live-action remake of Disney's The Little Mermaid.

-"Your Train to Busan Viewing Companion" An overview of various lenses through which Train to Busan can be read and understood, including genre and socio-cultural.

-"What's Up, Doc? Why Everyone Needs the Rom-Com" A study of the male fear of romance, as manifested in the casual dismissal of the rom-com genre, seen through the lens of What's Up, Doc?

-"Silver Linings Playbook: What are Happy Endings for Anyway?" A study of Silver Linings Playbook and its unique perspective on the universality of the search for happiness.

A recurring theme among this year's essays, one that I didn't necessarily anticipate, was that of "Main Character Syndrome." I dedicated an entire essay to this exact topic, but the foundations of said essay also reflected in some of the others, like my pieces for the "Beauty and the Beast" remake or Silver Linings Playbook. I guess this year I've just been thinking a lot about the consequences, good and bad, of trying to live like a main character.

I also want to single out my Main Character Syndrome essay as arguably the most significant from this year because it represented a creative jump for me. This saw me deviating from my usual method of writing about a single film, genre, or brand and following instead an idea across various films of different kinds. One aspect of film literacy is possessing knowledge not just of individual films, but also of finding connections across multiple kinds of film, and I'm really interested in pursuing more essays of this fashion.

Of course, heaven knows when I will put this goal into practice. This time last year, I also teased the possibility of me expanding my boundaries and spotlighting more obscure titles. I then proceeded to spend most of the year writing about Disney remakes and Marvel.

Well, I am trying to rectify that particular oversight. Currently I'm drafting an essay spotlighting an indie film that I really responded to. The film in question is Lamb, released in 2015 and directed by Ross Partridge. The film follows the unusual relationship between a grieving 47-year-old man and an emotionally neglected 11-year-old girl. Variety called the film, "a cautious, sensitive, admirably unresolved attempt to dramatize a relationship for which society makes no allowance and offers no definition." It's the kind of film that would stir a lot of pots, if only it had ever found an audience, and that's where platforms like mine have the potential to elevate fascinating stories that grow on the peripheries of the landscape.

By virtue of its obscurity, I doubt most of my readers have even heard of it, and this is why I want to give curious viewers the chance to find it before I debut my essay on the subject, some time in the first months of 2023. Stay tuned for more updates, and consider seeking it out in the meantime.

I will also probably remember 2022 as the year that I finally cashed in on many of the essays I'd been meaning to write since I started Films and Feelings. As a reference point, I was drafting a defense of the Jurassic World movies in the first few months of my blog (literally before pandemic), but I decided it was in the piece's best interest to wait until I had the chance to see "Dominion" before I signed my name to that franchise. This gave me an extra two years for my argument to cook, which I think made for a much stronger piece. Many of my essays I published this year were of a similar background.

An essay will also occasionally just come to me fully formed and I can get the whole thing written out in a week or two. My series on Pixar and critics and my retrospective on the Percy Jackson movies were both like this. But with most of my essays I'm figuring out the details of my argument as I'm putting words down on the document over the course of several weeks. I'll often assign myself topics and just wait to see where I go with it. I'm sure all my essays would be better if they had two years of researching and prewriting, or if they just fell into my brain and onto my keyboard, but if we only ever waited until the muses dragged us by the ear to go to work, how much art would go uncreated? How much learning would we miss out on?

I obviously can't anticipate how and when I will strike gold, but going forward I would like to cultivate an environment where my workload is more conducive to that other kind of writing. The kind where I am responding less to quotas and deadlines and more to the things that actually excite and inspire me. I can't say for sure whether this will mean more essays or less essays in the next year, but I hope at the very least it will result in better essays.

A unique irritation this year was, of course, my attempt to watch a movie I had not previously seen every day in 2022. This drink from a fire hydrant quickly became a chore, and I ended up bowing out of the challenge with barely over a month left. I documented my complete feelings on the challenge in my concluding piece a few days ago. The short of it, I am glad to have had this experience, and I absolutely recommend that no one attempt to follow my footsteps ...

Perhaps owing to this fool's errand, I went to the theater even more frequently than usual. Regretfully, I only put out 16 reviews this year (including a few for direct-to-streaming films and two for the new season of Stranger Things). This is about on par with my usual yearly count, but it doesn't quite reflect the amount of effort I put into seeing films in their proper context.

Good movies like Father Stu, The Bad Guys, and The Banshees of Inisherin all managed to escape me this year as I struggled to fit in the time to develop a review. Next year I don't plan on slowing down in my intake of new releases, so I'll have to rethink my process. Essays have always been the backbone of my work here. But greeting new films as they enter the arena of social discourse is also a special privilege for the cinephile, and it's one I don't want to neglect or squander.

I don't know if writing about film will ever become mundane or tedious to me, but I'm nowhere near there yet. I'm grateful to have the opportunities that I do, and I'm grateful for readers who are willing to indulge me.

We'll see you in the cinema.

--The Professor

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