Last Updated on 02/01/2023
- Drive My Car
Dealing with grief – and the power of art to transform this loss into love and friendship for others.
Amazing film-making. (Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which also screened this year, was another great one!)
Beautiful soundtrack. Amazingly subtle acting. This film clicked with me, it consoled me.
- What do we see when we look at the sky?
Or, as they say in Georgian: რას ვხედავთ როდესაც ცას ვუყურებთ?
Adorable, poetic, dreamy and charming.
I did close my eyes when the film asked for it – it gave me this tender wonder!
(I also discovered that Georgian cinema set me up with false expectations of the country itself – or to be more clear, the capital.
I don’t mind – Georgian cinema will stay delicate.)
- Un beau matin
Mia Hansen-Løve does Rohmer successfully. Realistic, small moments of love and connection through conversation.
- Licorice Pizza
I might be rating this movie too highly because this was the first film I was able to see again in cinema this year after lockdown,
and it was on 35mm too! What a vibe this movie was.
- L’événement
Annie Ernaux’ story brought to the screen, told in a touching but also horrifying way. I loved how it’s shot –
sometimes you are not sure if it’s the 60s or in our current times.
- Hytti nro 6
Strangers in a train, from Moscow to Murmansk. Give a human face to certain figures, we are all just trying to survive
instead of being simple pawns. And I too, still want to see petroglyphs!
- Decision to leave
Such a stylish and sensual film. It took me some time to realise how well-made this one is.
- Les passagers de la nuit
Unpretentious melodrama, but for me it was a delicious cocktail. Optimist lefty nostalgia, dimly lit nights and French hot young people watching Rohmer in some art house joint, sign me up!
- How to blow up a pipeline
Film festival favourite. Ocean’s 11 for people that worry about microplastics and know where to buy nutritional yeast.
Activist entertainment!
- Knor
So funny and charming and Dutch! I cannot wait to show this to my nieces and make them vegetarian through the power of stop-motion pigs
ALSO GOOD (IN RANDOM ORDER):
Il buco, beautiful shot Italian caves.
Dwelling in Fuching Mountains, crazy enough to travel 2 hours for a Chinese 3,5 hour movie but this family drama was wonderful.
Memoria, feeling sleepy in a good way.
Ninja Baby & The Worst Person in the World, what a great year for Scandinavian twenty-somethings and their light troubles that are too recognizable!
RMN, RRR, Red Rocket – good movies with Rs.
The Menu – the film that provided the most fun this year!!
DISAPPOINTMENTS
After Yang, Apollo 10 1/2, C’mon C’mon, Glass Onion, Madres Paralelas, Nope, White Noise.
CAN’T WAIT FOR THESE TO BE SEEN IN DUTCH CINEMA IN 2023
Aftersun, Saint Omer, The Banshees of Inisherin, EO, Pacifiction, Showing Up, Tár, Godland,
(Unfortunately missed in Dutch cinemas:
A Hero, All that breathes, Barbarian, Blind Ambition, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Bones and All, Clara Sola, Competencia Oficial, Eight Mountains, France, Girls Girls Girls, Grosse Freiheit, Holy Spider, Incroyable Mais Vrai, Lunana, Met Mes, Natural Light, One Second, Rimini, Sundown, Souvenir Part 2, Tori et Lokita, Unclenching the Fists)