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nayapapaya t1_j2ees53 wrote

Love this! I made a Letterboxd list for my favourite movies of 2022 which were not recent releases for this reason.

Of your list, I've only seen Talented Mr. Ripley which is fantastic. You should check out The Two Faces of January as well. It's another Highsmith adaptation and it stars Oscar Isaac, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst. It's good.

Eyes Wide Shut is a film I've been meaning to see for a long time.

My best of the year which aren't new releases are

  1. The Towering Inferno (one of the best films ever made, imo!)
  2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (it's the acting for me. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were never more attractive.)
  3. The Piano (there's a direct through line between this film and The Power of the Dog in terms of how desire can destroy you and I love to see how Campion explores desire and fantasy in her films)
  4. Dance, Girl, Dance (Lucille Ball was a STAR, baby. Biting, funny, sharp and still topical)
  5. The Trouble with Angels (a really lovely meditation on what it's like to have a calling wrapped up in a boarding school yarn)
  6. The Rider (can't wait for Chloe Zhao to get back to making films like this.)
  7. Until They Sail (moralistic due to being made under the Hay's Code but this film is surprising in how it treats sex and casual relationships during war time. It can't be called progressive but there is an attempt at understanding loneliness and longing that I didn't expect)
  8. Bright Star (speaking of Campion and desire, this film is one of the most romantic films I've ever seen and it's such a beautiful tribute to the act of creation - of creating poems, of creating fashion, of crafting beauty with just your hands and your mind)
  9. The Thing
  10. The Sting
  11. Julieta (one of Almodovar's best melodramas. A tremendous look at motherhood)
  12. What a Way to go! (Hollywood has always made silly films and this is one. Silly, odd, bizarre, and it stars a ton of fantastic actors from Shirley Maclaine who the film is built around, Robert Mitchum, Dick Van Dyke, Gene Kelly and of course, Paul Newman in what might be his most attractive role. Paul Newman as a sexy bearded artist!)
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