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

Comments

Elemental: Savoring Pixar's Fading Light

I’ve only been doing this writing thing for a short while. But in that space, I have been surprised at many of the developments I’ve gotten to witness unfolding in the popular film landscape. It was only five years ago, for example, that superhero movies were still thought to be unstoppable. Here in 2025, though, we know better. But the wheels coming off the Marvel machine accompanied a shift in their whole method of production and distribution, and it didn’t take long for the natural consequences to catch up with them as verifiable issues started appearing in their films. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) No. The development that has most surprised me has been critics and their slow-motion break-up with Pixar. The only way I know how to describe what I’ve seen over the last five years … imagine that your roommate has been stuck for a long time dating a girl who was obviously bad for him, and after he finally breaks up with her he gets back into the dating ring. All the girls he takes out ...

PROFESSOR'S PICKS: Five Lessons Hollywood Ought to Learn from the Success of WICKED

That which has teased studios since the freak success of La La Land and The Greatest Showman has finally come to pass: Hollywood has finally launched a successful musical. Or rather, they've launched two. The musical is sort of like the golden idol at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark . It's valuable beyond imagination--but only if you know just how to retrieve it. There have been specific periods where the musical has yielded tremendous rewards for Hollywood, but for the greater part of the lifespan of feature-filmmaking, studios have been punished for reaching beyond their means. Yet after ages of dormancy, t he years leading up to the Wicked movies were lined with musicals, more than we'd seen in the previous decade. A few of them were quite well crafted. Others were ... learning experiences. None really became what we'd call "mainstream." But Wicked and Wicked: For Good have both seen rare success. I'm publishing ...

REVIEW: AVATAR - Fire and Ash

The "Avatar" chapters have generally renewed their interest to the masses based on which exciting new locale and each new culture whichever film opts to explore. Following that dance, "Fire and Ash" introduces yet another Na'Vi clan, this one hailing from the scorched plains under the shadow of an erupted volcano. But their biome is decidedly less spectacular than the lush jungles of the Omaticaya or the rich coral reefs where the Metkayina dive. Between the ashen grounds of the volcano clan and the metallic fortress of the humans, this is comfortably the most monochromatic of the three Avatar films. And yet, Avatar: Fire and Ash is no less gripping for it. And this is where the internet really starts to reckon with what us fans of the franchise have always kind of known: that the many screensavers offered by the Avatar world ... they have been nice . But these films would have never made the impact they have if the...

Year in Review: 2025

So, I guess I’ll start out by saying that … I wasn’t kidding last year when I said I was gonna do better with reviews, folks. This is the first time in three years that my review count landed in the double digits, and I reached that benchmark barely past the year’s halfway point. My total this year landed at 19. This breaks my previous record of 17 from 2021 and also outpaces the total haul from 2024 and 2023 combined. Once again, " WICKED " pulled through as the biggest contributor this year, and I wouldn't have had that any other way. These last two years of active anticipation have been some of the most gratifying I've ever had as a person who feels investment in moving pictures. I'm even more excited, though, for this duology to be folded into film history: that thing I really love writing about. I will always regret not reviewing The Holdovers (2023) In the past, I have let myself get away with checki...

The Great Movie Conquest of 2022 - Febuary

Welcome back, one and all, to my latest attempt to justify being enslaved to a million different streaming services. My efforts to watch one new movie a day all year haven't worn me out yet, but we're not even past the first quarter yet. My first film of the month brought me to Baz Lurhmann's Australia , and it reminded me what a beautifully mysterious animal the feature film is. My writer's brain identified a small handful of technical issues with the film's plotting, but the emotional current of the film took me to a place that was epic, even spiritual. I don't know. When a film cuts straight to the core of your psyche, do setup and payoff even matter anymore? I think this film is fated for repeated viewings over the years as I untangle my response to this film. One of my favorite films of all time is Billy Wilder's The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. You'd think, then, that learning that the t...

Children of a Lesser God: Between Sound and Silence

So ... you all remember how I was really annoyed by The Power of the Dog ? I am more than perfectly fine that the award went to the much better CODA . I thought it was much more enjoyable as a piece of film, and unlike The Power of the Dog , it did showed honest interest in the community it was reporting to champion. In the case of CODA , that was, of course, the deaf community. But it's actually not CODA I want to talk about in detail at this time. That movie's milestones exist along a timeline that extends ... further back than I can track today, but at least as far back as March 30, 1987, when Marlee Matlin became the first deaf actor to receive an Academy Award for her performance in Children of a Lesser God . Randa Haines’ 1986 film centers on the romance between a hearing man and a deaf woman and the challenges they face. This was a major shift in how the deaf community was represented onscreen. Paul Attanasio wrote in ...

The Notebook Has No Excuses

The thing about film is … the more you think about it, the less sense it makes. Film tells us, even in a society obsessed with wealth and gain, “Remember, George, no man is a failure who has friends.” Film warns us that the most unnatural evil lies in wait at the Overlook Hotel and peeks out when all the guests leave for the winter–and that the heart of it resides in room 237–knowing we'll trip over ourselves wanting to open that door. Film is what makes us believe that the vessel for the deepest human emotion could be contained in a cartoon clownfish taking his unhatched cartoon son and holding him in his cartoon fin and telling him he will never let anything happen to him. Nights of Cabiria (1957) Even when it tries to plant its feet aggressively in realism, film winds up being an inherently emotional realm. We feel safer to view and express all manners of passions or desires here in the space where the rules of propriety just don’t matter anymore. So a fa...

Saying Goodbye to Stranger Things

There's a quote from critic Mark Caro that I think about a lot. I shared it back when I did my critical survey of Pixar movies . Writing about Finding Nemo , Caro wrote in the Chicago Tribune in 2003 , "Classic film eras tend to get recognized in retrospect while we take for granted timeless works passing before our eyes. So let's pause to appreciate what's been going on at Pixar Animation Studios." I think that captures the aspirations of all active-minded media consumers. Or at least, it ought to. "This good thing won't last forever, so savor it while it before the sun goes down." Modern Times (1936) But this is also a very hard mindset to access in an online culture that is always seeking to stamp labels and scores on a thing before we shove it on the conveyor belt and move on to the next parcel. It's something I have been thinking about for the last year or so as the completion of the ...

An Earnest Defense of Passengers

Recall with me, if you will, the scene in Hollywood December 2016. We were less than a year away from #MeToo, and the internet was keenly aware of Hollywood’s suffocating influence on women on and off screen but not yet sure what to do about it. Enter Morten Tyldum’s film Passengers , a movie which, despite featuring the two hottest stars in Hollywood at the apex of their fame, was mangled by internet critics immediately after take-off. A key piece of Passengers ’ plot revolves around the main character, Jim Preston, a passenger onboard a spaceship, who prematurely awakens from a century-long hibernation and faces a lifetime of solitude adrift in outer space; rather than suffer through a life of loneliness, he eventually decides to deliberately awaken another passenger, Aurora Lane, condemning her to his same fate. So this is obviously a film with a moral dilemma at its center. Morten Tyldum, director of...

Do You Hear the People Sing?: "Les Miserables" and the Untrained Singer

Perhaps no film genre is as neglected in the 21 st century as the musical. With rare exception, the o nly offerings we get are the occasional Disney film, the occasional remake of a Disney film, and adaptations of Broadway stage shows. When we are graced with a proper musical film, the demand is high among musical fans for optimum musical performance, and when a musical film doesn’t deliver this, these fans are unforgiving. From the moment talking was introduced in cinema, the musical film has been a gathering place where vocal demigods assemble in kaleidoscopic dance numbers in a whirl of cinematic ecstasy too fantastical for this world. What motivation, then, could Tom Hooper possibly have for tethering this landmark of modern musical fandom in grounded, dirty reality? This movie’s claim to fame is the use of completely live-singing, detailed in this featurette, something no previous movie musical had attempted to...

Films and Feelings

Search This Blog