The Real Best Films of the Year
The Octavian Report list of the best films of 2022
It’s Academy Award season and this year once again there seems to be more conversation about how irrelevant the Oscars are than what should win Best Picture this Sunday. But at the Octavian Report, we’re still film buffs of the old school variety, the types who poured over the once a decade Sight and Sound Top 100 Film list that was released last year. So without further ado, we are pleased to offer up what we thought were the real best films of the year, at least the ones we saw.
Living. A profoundly moving and ultimately uplifting movie about an apparently emotionless mid-century English bureaucrat with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Living is an adaption of the 1952 masterpiece Ikiru by Akira Kurasowa with a screenplay by Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, a combination that would be hard to beat on its own. But Bill Nighy’s tremendous performance is easily the best by an actor this year and has left audiences in tears.
Le Petite Maman. French filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s jewel of a film follows Nelly, an eight-year-old girl who has just lost her maternal grandmother and accompanies her parents to help clean out the home her mother grew up in. When her mother suddenly leaves for Paris for a few days, Nelly befriends a girl her age in the woods next door. The result is magical.
EO. A loose remake of the classic film Au Hasard Balthazar, the film by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski follows the adventures of a Polish circus donkey EO as he travels across Europe and portrays the hardships he endures. Beautifully silent, wonderfully paced and shot from the point of view of the donkey, EO is mesmerizing.
Tár. Any movie with Lincoln Center, the Carlyle Hotel and a classical orchestra would be tough to miss. A complex take on cancel culture and the consequences of the lionization of abusive artists, Tár also features a career-best performance from Cate Blanchett in the title role. Todd Field’s first film since 2006 was well worth the wait.
The Treasure of His Youth: The Photographs of Paolo Di Paolo. A fascinating documentary from photographer Bruce Weber, who tracked down the nonagenarian Paolo Di Paolo, an Italian photojournalist living in Rome. Before falling into obscurity, Di Paolo had been perhaps the most famous photographer in Italy at its most glamorous heights, capturing images of the stars of Italian cinema and society as well as the international jet set in the fifties and sixties. Weber’s film is both a journey back in time, a reflection on legacy, and the story of the revival of a legend.
Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb. For anyone interested in publishing or the editorial process, a behind-the-scenes look at the decades long relationship between arguably the greatest editor and the greatest historian of their generation is absorbing viewing. Directed by Gottlieb’s daughter after much protestation from the protagonists, the documentary is a fascinating window into the often combative but amazingly productive collaboration that produced The Power Broker.
Pourquoi L’Ukraine. Philosopher and humanitarian Bernard-Henri Lévy delivers a profound cri de coeur from the frontlines in Ukraine, explaining in powerful images the importance of the fight and bearing witness to its tragedy. From archival shots of BHL on the Maiden a decade ago to his first meetings with Volodymyr Zelensky to heartbreaking images of atrocities and unique footage fresh from the front lines, this highly personal film with music by Sting is a must-see for anyone who cares about the conflict. His follow-up, Slava Ukraini, just released in France continues the story with comparable power.
AND….our vote for the best classic re-release of the year.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. This decade’s Sight and Sound survey is the first to exclude the great Surrealist director Luis Buñuel, but his work still ranks him amount the greatest auteurs of the twentieth century. This madcap story of the Parisian bourgeoisie, a dinner party gone awry, and interjected dream sequences — with a diplomat from the fictional Latin American country of Miranda at its center — is as fun and brilliant today as it was when first released in 1972 when it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Fernando Rey as the put upon ambassador from Miranda, a South American sanctuary for nazis, is a memorable performance, a reactionary aristo who simply wants the good things in life as reality constantly intrudes.