Film Finds 2022

FILM FINDS are those films that come damn close to the best of the year but just miss the cut BUT are so freaking good not to remember at the end of the year.(And more than a few should be on the best of the year, except that I wavered)

This is my list:

DELICIOUS- a meal for the soul about cooking during the days of the French Revolution

IMPERFECT-moments in this documentary on a handicapped production of Chicago rocked me (you feel the rage in the Cell Block Tango)

SUMMIT OF THE GODS- why we do what we do with the story of mountain climbing. Glorious

GROSSMAN-portrait of David Grossman is a meditation all parts of life

LOVE TASTING- Stunning filmmaking in a tale about the final days of some kids in school. This is why you need to look beyond the big features

SILENT WORLD-being deaf during the apocalypse is more terrifying then you realize

MAIKA- this shouldn't work but does family film about a young girl from space looking for a friend.

HOW IS THAT FOR A MONDAY is a caper film that is so much more that wonderfully doesn't give us the same old world view

MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM- nostalgia for the NYC music scene before the turn of the millennium

I AM WHAT I AM mind blowing animated film from China about a young man finding his place in the world was one of the great surprises of the film year

BLIND MAN WHO DIDN'T WANT TO SEE THE TITANIC is the story of a nearly blind man trying to get across town to see his girlfriend whom he’s never met in person. Shot so we see the world from his POV this is filmmaking of the highest order

HYPOCHONDRIAC is a descent into madness.

WE FEED PEOPLE the story of a chef and his organization who feed people after disasters. It is a film full of hope and life

HOLD YOUR FIRE the story of a robbery and police siege gone sideways

MONTAUK 77 a ride share that turns into heist film that turns into something else. An inde film that I didn’t think I would like became a film I can’t forget

DIO DREAMERS NEVER DIE is as good a music bio as they come. A whole life documentary that rocks.

BAD AXE one of the best docs of the year is a look at one family racism and America. Rightly in the running for an Oscar

CODE OF SILENCE haunts me. The story of a woman looking for what happened in the past is as good an empowerment film as they come.

LIFT the power of dance to change lives

SANSON AND ME how the system destroys good people is revealed through letters and recreations

LOWDNES COUNTY AND THE RISE OF BLACK POWER staggering film about how one small county’s black population asking to vote changed the world forever. It will rock your world

NO BEARS Jafar Panahi’s latest film will rock you as his story of a filmmaker trying to make a film collides with a village full of hate

BUFFY SAINT MARIE is a film I didn’t expect to like turns out to be one of the most revealing and wonderful viewing experiences of the year

MY SISTERS WEDDING a very funny film that proves, in a weird way, Kenneth R Frank should be making dramas because his scripts walk the fine line between comedy and tragedy and never fall off.

TOP GUN MAVERICK I didn’t think I would like this, but this is a damn fine film

RMN With the 19 minute single take being a best of the year event this look at racism in Romania and everywhere else

MR ORGAN possibly the scariest film of the  year is true story of a guy who likes to screw with people until the break

CONFESS FLETCH the best film version of Jeffrey Mac Donald’s novels deserves many sequels  since Jon Hamm makes the role his own.

FAST AND FEEL LOVE love and friendship in the cup stacking community is a glorious hug for those of us on the fringe

MAIGRET Gerard Depardieu is a perfect fit with the famed French detective  in an adaption of a novel deep in the series

OFF BEAT COPS Hiroshi Abe kills it in the story of a super cop demoted to the police band. Its off beat in the best sort of way- and demands a sequel

GIRL FROM THE OTHER SIDE magnificent animated film about a girl and her protector.

FREEDOM ON FIRE a painful look at the evil that Russia has done to Ukraine. One of the best films on the conflict

OFFICIAL COMPETITION Penelope Cruz is a director who is prepping for her new film with two completely different actors. They should have released this closer to the end of the year so it had a shot at Oscar nominations

COLD WAR KITCHEN the magnificent story of a chef training men in prison to cook and changing their lives for the better.