As anyone who has stood in line at the DMV or sat waiting in a hospital’s emergency room knows, the passage of time is relative. With all that is going on, it is sometimes hard to remember when an important period has started, and then when it ends. The same principle applies when doing an Oscar check-in at the halfway point of the year. In order to assess the best films and performances in the first half of 2022, we must first decide what we mean by “first half.” My notes show that, in January 2022, I almost exclusively watched movies (including documentaries and short films) that were released in late 2021 and were either nominated for an Oscar (such as Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, from Norway), or submitted for Oscar consideration (like Lamb, from Iceland) for the 2021 calendar year. Many of these, however, were not available to the average movie goer until the beginning of 2022.
Very few new films were released in January, so in a very real sense, the new movie year did not begin until February.
Of course, many movies are released around the Memorial Day weekend in late May, the unofficial beginning of summer for the film business. But the majority of those are studio tent-pole films, action flicks such as
The Batman (an entertaining but ultimately disappointing reboot, with Robert Pattinson the latest to don the cape and cowl) and
Jurassic World: Dominion (the sixth dinosaur extravaganza in the series, it is unlikely to be the last, as the interest in seeing people eaten by dinosaurs remains almost inexhaustible: the worldwide gross of Dominion is over $900 million and counting). But as we come to the end of July, I find there is a sufficient corpus of cinematic output capable of evaluation and deserving of comment. Thus, following are my nominations and winners for the first annual Half-Oscars™ for movies released or available between February and July 2022. It is, admittedly, an eclectic assemblage.
10.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (in theaters) Not every movie has to be
Citizen Kane,
On the Waterfront, or
Raging Bull. Sometimes, it can just be
Born Yesterday,
Charade, or
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That is, a little bon bon, a pick-me-up, a feel-good movie. A gem. That describes this movie. Starring the wonderful Lesley Manville (
Phantom Thread,
The Crown) as Ada Harris, a working class Englishwoman, a little past middle aged, who cleans houses for a living while waiting for her husband to return from World War II. But the year is 1957 and there is little hope that he is still alive. Still, she lives in a kind of emotional limbo until something jolts her out of her emotional rut. And that something is a Christian Dior dress one of her wealthy employers has just bought in Paris. The dress costs £500, an enormous sum for a person like Mrs. Harris. Still, she is so taken with the beauty of the dress that she decides she will make it her life’s goal to buy one. In real life, of course, that decision is wholly unrealistic. But this is the movies, Mrs. Harris is plucky (and lucky) and, well, her quest for a Dior frock is no less lunikely than an orphan named Luke Skywalker bringing down the Death Star, or Dorothy defeating the Wicked Witch of the West. And we know how those turned out. You will walk out of the theater with a smile on your face, no small thing in these dark times.
9. Vengeance (currently in theaters) B.J. Novak’s directorial feature debut is a winner. Don’t be put off by the fish out of water set up: Novak plays Ben Manalowitz, a sophisticated New Yorker who arrives in rural Texas for a funeral. This is no Sweet Home Alabama. But in any event, why would you be put off? These set ups, done right, can be very funny, and there are admittedly some great zingers in this movie. So sure, the movie seems to be traveling a familiar road. But buckle up y’all, there are dangerous curves ahead. People may not be what they seem to be, and Ben Manalowitz (Novak), the New York writer and podcaster, has precious few reliable landmarks to guide him through this potentially deadly terrain.
8.
After Yang (free with Showtime, also streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and other services) This is a fascinating meditation on the meaning of family and personhood. Set vaguely in the near future, the movie is visually detailed and contemplative, with Colin Farrell (
The Lobster, In Bruges, and, sadly,
Dumbo) and Jodie Turner-Smith (
Queen & Slim) playing the parents of a young daughter named Mika. Also part of the family is Yang, an artificial being who acts a companion for Mika. Yang is much loved by all but when he begins to malfunction, how far will the family go to repair him and bring him back to the bosom of the family? And whose family did Yang belong to before theirs? Did he have a whole other life? (Spoiler alert: yes, he did.) And what should be done with the memories, both Yang’s and their own with him? Can they just replace him with a new unit? Directed by the talented Kogonada, whose previous film was the wonderful
Columbus from 2017.
7.
Elvis (currently in theaters) I was leery of this production, being no great fan of director Baz Luhrmann and his ecstatic, lurid style. (See 2013’s
The Great Gatsby, or 2001’s
Moulin Rouge!) But that style largely works in a movie about Elvis Presley, especially the performer’s later, rhinestone-studded, bell bottomed years in Las Vegas. Austin Butler is fantastic in the lead communicating both Elvis’s early animalistic charisma as well as his late-career fatigue, confusion, and burnout. I would have preferred more young Elvis and less of the older, chubby version, but that’s just a personal preference. The music and performances, of course, are fantastic, and we (the audience) totally get why Elvis rose to superstardom. And showing the influence of Black music on Elvis was a nice touch; indeed, the performances of Shonka Durkureh as Big Mama Thornton and Alton Mason as Little Richard threaten to hijack the narrative. But we kept coming back to Tom Hanks as the reptilian Col. Parker, and it’s a tribute to nice guy Hanks’s acting chops that we come to really hate that guy.
6. The Sky is Everywhere (Apple TV+) Bailey is the older, more charismatic, outgoing sister; Lennie, the younger sister, is a shy and sensitive teenager. When Bailey dies suddenly, Lennie’s world collapses without warning. The loss, for Lennie, is so massive, so incomprehensible, that she cannot seem to get over it and move on with her life. On the brink of earning a music scholarship to college, she suddenly loses the ability to play the clarinet. It’s as if she simply lacks the life force to blow her breath through the instrument. People just don’t understand. She retreats into herself and to a somewhat fanciful, magical world. But people love her and try and coax her back. Will they succeed? Grace Kaufman is wonderful as Lennie: smart and perceptive, damaged yet vulnerable. And yes, she’s somewhat similar to Daisy Edgar-Jones’s Kya in Where the Crawdads Sing, a movie that is similar is many ways. But Crawdad is slicker and has a more conventional look and feel. The Sky is Everywhere instead reminds me a little bit of CODA, the surprise Oscar winner from last year, albeit with a some additional flights of creative fancy. With Jason Segal and Cherry Jones as her caring but ineffective parents.
5.
Men (streaming on most services including Amazon and AppleTV) This one will not be for everyone since, if it must be pigeon-holed, one would have to conclude
Men is a horror movie. And yes, it is creepy: first in a slow, what-is-happening? sort of way, and by the end, in a Grand Guignol way. But there are some very interesting ideas at work here.
Men stars Jessie Buckley as Harper, a woman who kicks her husband out when he becomes physically assaultive. He then kills himself by jumping off a building. Or did he just slip trying to break back into her flat? Or was he pushed? We don’t know, but Harper takes refuge in a rented country home in a small, rural village in order to emotionally recharge. Yet, she cannot escape the scrutiny, the skepticism, the subtle disrespect, and eventually the outright menace of the men in the village.
All the men. In fact, there appear to be no women or girls in the village at all. In a star turn that should not be forgotten come Oscar season in six months, Rory Kinnear masterfully plays every male we see. The vicar, the pub owner, all the pub patrons, the rude teenager, the local constable, the creepy naked stalker. All of them. It’s as if there is only one proto-male in the world, and they keep giving birth to just slight variations of themselves. (If you see the movie, you’ll know what I mean.) Is there no hope for females on this planet?
4.
My Donkey, My Lover and I (currently in theaters) This is a movie so funny, so touching, so beautiful, and so French, you will bemoan the current Covid restrictions on international travel, as you will want to go directly to the Cévennes, a large wooded region in south-central France, to hike, drink wine, and take in the beautiful scenery. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll run into Antoinette LaPouge, an effervescent fourth grade teacher played by Laure Calamy, and your life will never be the same. The movie has an unfortunate English title (its French title is
Antoinette dans les Cévennes) but don’t let the title put you off. This is a charming movie with loads of wonderful performances and unpredictable turns. Calamy, who played Noémie in
Call My Agent!, won the César for Best Actress.
3.
Official Competition (currently in theaters, and streaming on most services) This is a clever send-up of acting and movie-making and movie promotion, stuffed with star-making turns by two famous, egotistical and competitive actors with radically different approaches to acting. Felix, played by Antonio Banderas, is a famous movie star. By contrast, Ivan, played by Oscar Martinez, is a serious and well-respected actor whose career oeuvre is not nearly as lucrative as Felix's. It’s like Dwayne Johnson versus Daniel Day Lewis, and the sparks—and insults—begin flying. They are egged on by Lola, a director/auteur whose creativity borders on insanity, played by Penelope Cruz channeling her inner Lina Wertmuller. Eventually, given the poisonously competitive atmosphere, we know that not everyone will escape with their dignity intact. Or even their lives.
2.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (currently in theaters, and streaming on most services) This movie is all over the place but that’s a good thing, because the film is trying to portray numerous parallel universes all at the same time. In an age when the “multiverse” has become a thing (at least in the DC and Marvel comic book cinematic universes), this movie, sans super-héros, shows us what that might look like. Like a moving cubist painting that shows multiple perspectives all at the same time from the same vantage point, the characters keep morphing into themselves from a different universe. The conceit can’t really be maintained forever — the number of other universes is unlimited, after all — and the story eventually becomes quite goofy, unwieldy and slightly out of control.
But beneath the craziness are some really interesting ideas. Like: if you could go back and make a different decision at a critical point in your young life, what would your life look like now? If you could go back and take that alternate path, would you? And maybe everyone has the capacity to be, or to have been, a completely different person now. (Yes, even your aged, slightly demented grandfather, who could secretly be an iron-willed resistance leader.) And in a cinematic landscape where there is a depressing sameness, you will see things in this movie you have never seen before, like one man subduing a group of burly security guards armed only with his fanny pack. (Yeah, you heard me.) That’s a big plus. With a formidable performance by amazing Michelle Yeoh as the put-upon mother, Evelyn, Ke Huy Quan (last seen as Short Round in 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) as her ineffectual (or is he?) husband Waymond, and ably assisted by film veteran Jamie Lee Curtis as an IRS auditor. All should be remembered come Oscar time. Special mention also goes to 93-year-old film legend James Hong, who plays the grandfather, who has appeared as an actor in productions since the mid 1950s and for whom IMDB records an astounding 450 entries in his filmography.
1.
Montana Story (rentable on Amazon and most other streaming services ) Continuing the theme begun by last year’s
CODA (or did it start a year earlier with
Nomadland?), small movies can break through for the Best Picture Oscar. So it is for the 2022 Half-Oscars™.
Montana Story, which was released into theaters in April and played for a few weeks, certainly puts the lie to the claim that viewers must look to Europe for movies about family relationships, and that America now makes movies only about superpowers, zombies, giant animals, and people in space. Haley Lu Richardson, who also appears in
After Yang, plays Erin, a young woman who mysteriously fled her family home in rural Montana as soon as she could. Now, some years later, her father is dying and she has come home, but for what, exactly? To say goodbye? For closure? For revenge? We don’t really know, at least at first. Erin’s story unfolds slowly but in due course, all against the backdrop of adult children making difficult decisions about a parent’s last days, something so many of us have recently experienced. This small film brings us into a real world of a family damaged by tragedy, with sister and brother trying to find some place of grace, seemingly without the tools or abilities to get there. Owen Teague ably plays Erin’s brother, Cal.
Austin Butler, Elvis
Laure Calamy, My Donkey, My Lover and I 
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