Sarah's Best of 2022

December 27, 2022

There’s a few days left in the year, and I’m only a few movies away from hitting 50 on the year — we’re not counting the mumblemumble many re-watches of Top Gun: Maverick in that number — but we’re calling it a few days early. Here’s my top five movies, television shows, books, and albums of the year. Albums are all ones that came out in 2022; the others include some nods to media that I only just got around to.

None of these are ranked. I hate making ranked lists. Movies are in chronological order of when I saw them; the rest are in whatever order my brain spat them back out at me in.

Later this week, if I get my act together, you’ll also get to read about all the places that I’ve been in 2022, as well as all the different adorable animals who called my place home during the year.

Also also, I’m actively looking for a different place other than Substack to host this — while I’m not taking payments for this infrequent newsletter and thus Substack is making no money off of me, I also know that they’re raking in money via subscriptions to writers who are wildly transphobic, right wing fools, and I feel increasingly icky about everything about the situation. So some time in 2023 you may get another newsletter from another source, I’m just trying to find one that works the best for me. (If you’ve got favorite Substack alternatives, let me know.)

Movies

Great Freedom: German film told in a non-linear timeline, stretching from post-WWII to the late ‘60s. Set largely during a time period where homosexuality was illegal, Hans finds himself repeatedly jailed under the law, and developing a bond with his frequent cellmate. Beautiful, devastating, haunting. Franz Rogowski is brilliant as Hans.
Everything Everywhere All At Once: I laughed until I cried at the stupid rock scenes. A refreshing movie, bold, creative. I love that this role let Michelle Yeoh in particular really show off so many different facets of her talent.
Top Gun: Maverick: Look. It’s got plot holes that you could fly an F-18 through, the writing is cliche/heavy-handed, but I’ve also seen it like 10 times because it hits that primal part of my brain that gets excited when big planes go zoom zoom and things explode and people have amazing abs. It goes on the list.
The Blue Caftan: French/Moroccan film about Halim, a tailor practicing a dying art, who takes on a young apprentice, Youssef, and finds himself developing feelings. A quiet, reflective piece with things to say about death, marriage, and wanting someone you love to find happiness, even if that happiness is without you.
The Banshees of Inisherin: This one sneaks onto the list at the tail end of the year - I watched it a few days ago and can’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t expect myself to cry through part of it, but I did. Stubborn men blowing up their lives and their friendship as a metaphor for the Irish Civil War? Yes, good.

Honorable Mentions:

Prey (well-done horror flick which works just fine if you have no knowledge of the series)
Whiplash (I described this as a 90-minute anxiety attack and I stand by that assessment)
Nope (has some interesting things to say about celebrity/fame/trauma)
The Empty Man (it’s your standard suspense/horror movie, but it’s a horror story with a genuinely surprising ending, which is what lands this on the list)
American Made (surprisingly entertaining Tom Cruise flick, based on a true story, about a pilot-turned-drug-runner-turned-informant; if you’re curious about imagining an AU where Maverick breaks bad, this will scratch that itch)
The Inspection (semi-autobiographical story about a young queer black man who joins the Marines in the aftermath of 9/11)
Devotion (true story of two Korean War pilots, including the first Black man to become a Naval aviator. Glen Powell looks great in his dress whites and also cries in it. I cried through the last 25% of it.)

Television

What We Do In The Shadows: goofy vampire mockumentary grows increasingly sincere as seasons go on; I would fight a man for Guillermo
The Boys: If you find yourself thinking that superhero movies are too neutered by the need to be acceptable to the general masses in order to make oodles of money, this show has all the gore/sex/boundary-pushing you could ever want
Interview with the Vampire: It’s a rare adaptation that takes source material and actually elevates it. This adaptation could have gone so wrong but instead they knocked it out of the park. Furious that I have to wait an indeterminate amount of time for season two. The entire cast is phenomenal but Jacob Anderson (Louis) is absolutely breathtaking.
Under the Banner of Heaven: Miniseries (do they even call it that anymore?) based loosely on real-life murders in a small Mormon town. It’s got everything! Religious trauma! Buddy cop dynamic! Vaguely homoerotic subtext! Andrew Garfield crying!
Severance: This show is so weird and so captivating and Adam Scott makes you forget every other role he’s been in.

Honorable Mentions: House of the Dragon, Our Flag Means Death

Books

The Half Life of Valery K — Natasha Pulley: Set in the 60s in a mysterious town in the Soviet Union (loosely based on a real location/event). Do you ever read a book and then feel the immediate urge to start reading it again so that way you can still exist in the book? Anyway I read most of this in one sitting because I couldn't put it down, it's magnificent and brutal and lovely.
The Locked Tomb Trilogy — Tamsyn Muir: This is cheating because I haven’t finished Nona the Ninth yet, although I fully plan on reading it before the end of the year. I did do a re-read of Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, and both are very rewarding on re-read — all the small details/jokes/hints that you only pick up on once you’ve seen everything unfold. They’re weird and strange and just up my alley.
Devil House — John Darnielle: A look at the true crime industry, with some weird twists. I love books with a strong sense of place, and Darnielle is writing about places that he loves and is intimately familiar with, and that comes across on the page. I think that were this book by any other author, I would be annoyed at the stylistic liberties taken and the way things unfold, but it's such a perfectly John Darnielle-type story that I can't even be mad about it.
Band Sinister — KJ Charles: KJ Charles is one of my favorite romance writers and I don’t know why it took me so long to read this one. A disgraced aristocrat and innocent country gentleman find love. It’s about found family, actually talking about your desires, and living unconventional lives: these things are all my jam. Less fraught/high stakes than many of Charles’s other novels.
The Bone Season — Samantha Shannon: This book was like at least 50-75 pages too long and had several things that annoyed me (your classic YA ‘heroine refuses to believe someone is trying to help her’ nonsense) but I also sat down and read most of it in the course of a few sittings, so we’ll go with it on the list.

Music

The Mountain Goats — Bleed Out

Some of my friends are in this music video, and/or helped out with it behind the scenes. If I had shown up to a few different venues a little bit earlier, I would have been there for the magic; I only have a little FOMO about it.

Orville Peck — BroncoOrville Peck wound up being the first artist I saw in 2021 once music venues started opening back up again and I still stand by that as a solid choice.
Stromae — Multitude

One of the most amazing live shows I’ve ever seen — not just performance-wise but the artistry/presentation, too. Stromae “retired” from music back in 2015 and I thought I’d lost my chance to ever get to see him, but he came back with an absolutely phenomenal album and breathtaking tour.

Σtella — Up and AwayI get to hear a lot of new albums through my volunteering with CHIRP Radio but this one, by Greek artist Σtella, really stuck with me.
Andrew Bird — Inside Problems

I have been going to Andrew Bird concerts long enough that I find myself in the weird position of hearing fans go nuts for stuff that’s only a couple years old but having no idea what the old songs are. Help.