NEW RELEASES SEEN, 2022

([s] short, under 30 minutes; [m] medium length, 30-69 min; * grade changed upon repeat viewing)

[pretty much flawless]

[really freaking great]

Coma (Bertrand Bonello, France)

Devil's Peak (Simon Liu, Hong Kong / U.S. / U.K.) [m]

Instant Life (Anja Dornieden, Juan David González Monroy, Andrew Kim, Germany) [s]

[very strong]

After Work (Céline Condorelli and Ben Rivers, U.K.) [s]

Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg, Canada / Greece)

Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka Fai, Hong Kong)

urban solutions (Arne Hector, Vinicius Lopes, Luciana Mazeto, Minze Tummescheit, Brazil / Germany) [m]

When We Were Monsters (Steve Reinke / James Richards, U.K.) [s]

[all in all, I quite enjoyed this film]

Against Time (Ben Russell, France) [s]

At the Edge of the Curtain (Antoinette Zwirchmayr, Austria) [s]

The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, Ireland / U.K. / U.S.)

Becoming Male in the Middle Ages (Pedro Neves Marques, Portugal) [s]

Blind Date (Jan Soldat, Germany) [s]

Bouquets 31-40 (Rose Lowder, France, 2015-2022) [s]

The Cathedral (Ricky D'Ambrose, U.S. / Italy)

Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola, U.S.)

Configurations (James Edmonds, Germany / U.K.) [s]

A Couple (Frederick Wiseman, U.S. / France) [m]

Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright: Oraison (Gaëlle Rouard, France) [m]

Darkness, Darkness, Burning Bright: Prelude (Gaëlle Rouard, France) [m]

Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook, South Korea)

The Demands of Ordinary Devotion (Eva Giolo, Italy) [s]

Dos Estaciones (Juan Pablo González, Mexico)

Either or Neither (Daniel Barnett, U.S.)

EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland / Italy)

EVENTIDE (Sharon Lockhart, U.S. / Sweden) [m]

Exhibition (Mary Helena Clark, U.S.) [s]

Expedition Content (Ernst Karel and Veronika Kusumaryati, U.S.)

Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Dominik Graf, Germany)

Fairytale (Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia)

F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now (Fox Maxy, Mesa Verde Reservation / U.S.) [s]

Fire of Love (Sara Dosa, U.S. / Canada)

A Floating World (Jean-Claude Rousseau, France / Japan) [m]

Flora (Nicolás Pereda, Mexico) [s]

gewesen sein wird / will have been (Sasha Pirker, Austria) [s]

The Girl Who Is (Sara Sowell, U.S.) [s]

Glass Life (Sara Cwyner, Canada) [s]

Glass Onion (Rian Johnson, U.S.)

Golden Jubilee (Suneil Sanzgiri, India / U.S.) [s]

Gush (Fox Maxy, Mesa Verde Reservation / U.S.) [m]

Heliotrope (Janie Geiser, U.S.) [s]

Heron 1954-2002 (Alexis McCrimmon, U.S.) [s]

High Heel Beloved (Leslie Thornton, U.S.) [s]

Hit the Road (Panah Panahi, Iran)

Hors-Titre (Wiame Haddad, France) [s]

Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann, Germany / France)

Di Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, France / U.S.)

I Thought the World of You (Kurt Walker, Canada) [s]

Impersonator (Andrew Norman Wilson, U.S.) [s]

Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine, U.S.)

Kicking the Clouds (Sky Hopinka, Ho-Chunk / Luiseño) [s]

Last Screening (Darezhan Omirbayev, Kazakhstan / Kyrgyzstan) [s]

Light Signal (Emily Chao, U.S.) [s]

Lingui (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad / France / Belgium / Germany)

Lungta (Alexandra Cuesta, Mexico / Ecuador) [s]

Maria Schneider, 1983 (Elisabeth Subrin, U.S. / France) [s]

Master (Mariama Diallo, U.S.)

Mnemonics of Shape and Reason (Sky Hopinka, Ho-Chunk Nation / U.S.) [s]

Moire / Écume (Maxime Hot, France) [s]

Moonrise (Vincent Grenier, U.S. / Canada) [s]

M*U*S*H (Jodie Mack, U.S.) [s]

NE Corridor (Joshua Gen Solondz, U.S.) [s]

The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, Argentina) [s]

Nobody's Hero (Alain Guiraudie, France)

Notes, Imprints (On Love): Part II, Carmela (Alexandra Cuesta, Ecuador / U.S.) [s]

Object Permanence (Alix Blevins, U.S.) [s]

Oh, Butterfly! (Sylvia Schedelbauer, Germany / Japan / U.S.) [s]

open sky / open sea / open ground (Martín Baus and Libertad Gills, Ecuador) [s]

Paradiso, XXXI, 118 (Kamal Aljafari, Palestine / Germany) [s]

The Passengers of the Night (Mikhäel Hers, France)

A Perfect Storm (Karel Doing, Netherlands) [s]

Picasso in Vallauris (Peter Nestler, Germany) [m]

El Planeta (Amalia Ulman, U.S. / Spain)

Prometheus (Dominic Angerame, U.S.) [s]

Puerta a puerta (Jessica Sarah Rinland and Luis Arnías, U.S. / Mexico / Venezuela) [s]

Rewind and Play (Alain Gomis, France / Germany / Lebanon) [m]

Robe of Gems (Natalia López Gallardo, Argentina / Mexico / U.S.)

Safe Place (Juraj Lerotić, Croatia / Slovenia)

Sea Series 23 (John Price, Canada) [s]

seeing her (Lindsay McIntyre, Canada) [s]

The Sky's In There (Dani and Sheilah ReStack, U.S.) [s]

Sometimes a little Sin is good for the Soul (Alex Beriault, Canada) [s]

Subtraction (Mani Haghighi, Iran)

TÁR (Todd Field, U.S.)

The Time That Separates Us (Parastoo Anoushahpour, Jordan / Palestine / Canada) [m]

The Tomb of Kafka (Jean-Claude Rousseau, France) [s]

Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, Denmark / France / Germany / Greece / Mexico / Sweden / Turkey / U.K. / U.S.)

2020 (Friedl vom Gröller Kubelka, Austria) [s]

ul-Umra (Guatam Valluri, India / France) [s]

Unrest (Cyril Schäublin, Switzerland)

Vecino Vecino (Camila Galaz, Chile) [s]

Viking (Stéphane Lafleur, Canada)

Vortex (Gaspar Noé, France / Belgium / Monaco)

Welcome (Jean-Claude Rousseau, France) [s]

What Distinguishes the Past (Ben Russell, U.S.) [s]

What Do We See When We Look At the Sky? (Alexandre Koberidze, Georgia / Germany)

Will-o'-the-Wisp (João Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal / France) [m]

Word (Beata Parkanová, Czechia / Slovakia / Poland)

XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX (Ken Jacobs, U.S., 1980 / 2021)

[mostly has my admiration, but there are definite flaws]

The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin, Italy / France / Belgium)

The African Desperate (Martine Syms, U.S.)

After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico, France)

After Yang (Kogonada, U.S.)

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, U.K.)

Answering the Sun (Rainer Kohlberger, Austria / Germany) [m]

Autoimmune (Marcos Serafim, U.S.) [s]

Azor (Andreas Fontana, Argentina / France / Switzerland)

Black Hole Space Debt (Stephen Wardell, U.S.) [s]

The Bob's Burgers Movie (Loren Bouchard and Bernard Derriman, U.S.)

CafeBarRestaurant (Nick Collins, U.K.) [s]

Candyman (Nia DaCosta, U.S. / Canada)

Chyme (Brandon Wilson, U.S.) [s]

Concrete Valley (Antoine Bourges, Canada)

Condition / Decondition (Jason Osder, U.S.) [s]

Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, Austria / Germany / Luxembourg / France)

The Day Lives Briefly Unscented (Brandon Wilson, U.S.) [s]

Dry Ground Burning (Adirley Queirós and Joana Pimenta, Brazil / Portugal)

Eami (Paz Encina, Paraguay / U.S. / Germany / Netherlands / Argentina / France)

Elvis (Baz Luhrmann, U.S. / Australia)

Encanto (Byron Howard and Jared Bush, U.S.)

Entrunken (Friedl vom Gröller, Austria) [s]

Eternal Beach (Nisi Jacobs, U.S.) [s]

Everything Went Fine (François Ozon, France)

The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, U.S.)

Feathers (Omar El Zohairy, Egypt / France / Netherlands / Greece)

Fluid Dynamics: Steady Flow (Maximilien Luc Proctor, U.S. / France) [s]

From the Ground (Anna Marziano, Italy / France) [s]

Harkis (Philippe Faucon, France / Belgium)

A Hero (Asghar Farhadi, Iran / France)

Horse Opera (Moyra Davey, U.S.)

In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun (Sylvia Schedelbauer, Germany / Japan / U.S.) [s]

The Integrity of Joseph Chambers (Robert Machoian, U.S.)

It Is Night in America (Ana Vaz, Italy / Brazil / France) [m]

The Kingdom: Exodus (Lars von Trier, Denmark / Sweden / Belgium)

Looking Backward (Ben Balcom, U.S.) [s]

Madness Remixed (Rhea Storr, U.K.) [s]

Medicine Bundle (Thirza Cuthand, Canada) [s]

Mother and Son (Léonor Serraille, France)

My Imaginary Country (Patricio Guzmán, Chile / France)

The Novelist's Film (Hong Sangsoo, South Korea)

of and from (Nick Collins, U.K.) [s]

Paris, 13th District [Les Olympiades] (Jacques Audiard, France)

Partial Differential Equation (Kevin Jerome Everson, U.S.) [s]

Patent 1,571,148 (Kevin Jerome Everson, U.S.) [s]

Pigment-Dispersion Syndrome (Jennifer Todd Reeves, U.S.) [s]

Pleasure (Ninja Thyberg, Sweden / Netherlands / France)

The Potemkinists (Radu Jude, Romania) [s]

Puncture (Carleen Maur, U.S.) [s]

Punctured Sky (Jon Rafman, Canada) [s]

Riotsville, USA (Sierra Pettengill, U.S.)

RRR (S.S. Rajamouli, India)

Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)

Sea of Sighs (J.M. Martínez, U.S.) [s]

She Gather Me (Miatta Kawinzi, U.S.) [s]

Slaughterhouses of Modernity (Heinz Emigholz, Germany)

Solace (Chantal Partamian, Lebanon) [s]

The Sower of Stars (Lois Patiño, Spain / Japan) [s]

Splendid Isolation (Urszula Antoniak, Netherlands)

Squish! (Tulapop Saenjaroen, Thailand / Singapore) [s]

Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, France / U.S.)

Station II (Michael Hubbard, U.S.) [s]

Stonewalling (Ryuji Otsuka and Huang Ji, China / Japan)

Surface Rites (Ryan Ferko, Faraz Anoushahpor, and Parastoo Anoushahpor, Canada / Iran) [s]

The Tale of King Crab (Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, Italy / Argemtina)

Talking About the Weather (Annika Pinske, Germany)

A Thousand Years Ago (Edgar Jorge Baralt, U.S.) [s]

III (Alexandre Larose, Argentina/ Canada) [s]

Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, Australia / U.S.)

Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter (Gustavo Vinagre, Brazil)

Tommy Guns (Carlos Conceição, Angola / France / Portugal)

Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, U.S.)

Triforium (Jayne Parker, U.K.) [s]

Unclenching the Fists (Kira Kovalenko, Russia)

The United States of America (James Benning, U.S.)

The Unstable Object II (Daniel Eisenberg, U.S. / Germany / France / Turkey)

A Vessel, The Ideas Pass Through (Linnea Nugent, U.S.) [s]

What Rules the Invisible (Tiffany Sia, U.S. / Hong Kong) [s]

When There Is No More Music to Write, and Other Roman Stories (Éric Baudelaire, France / Italy) [m]

A Woman Escapes (Sofia Bohdanowicz / Burak Çevik / Blake Williams, Canada / France / Turkey)

X (Ti West, U.S. / Canada)

You Could Have Seen the Mona Lisa (Doug Dillaman, U.S. / New Zealand) [s]

[average, but with some merit]

A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano, Italy / France / Sweden)

Aipeia (Nick Collins, U.K.) [s]

Armageddon Time (James Gray, U.S. / Brazil)

Berlin Fire (Pedro Maia, Germany / Portugal) [s]

Belle (Mamoru Hosoda, Japan)

Bigger On the Inside (Angelo Madsen Minax, U.S.) [s]

Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis, France / U.K.)

Boys Beware (Eden Poag, U.S.) [s]

Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda, South Korea)

Causeway (Lila Neugebauer, U.S. / Finland)

The City and the City (Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece / Germany / U.S.)

Close (Lukas Dhont, Belgium / France / Netherlands)

Curve the Night Sky (Peggy Ahwesh, U.S.) [s]

Deep Water (Adrian Lyne, U.S.)

Domingo and the Mist (Ariel Escalante, Costa Rica / Qatar)

Falcon Lake (Charlotte Le Bon, Canada / France)

Fire Emergencies (Kevin Jerome Everson, U.S.) [s]

The Following Images Never Happened (Noé Grenier, France) [s]

Framing Agnes (Chase Joynt, Canada)

Girl Picture (Alli Haapasalo, Finland)

Global Fruit (G. Anthony Svatek, U.S.) [s]

Happening (Audrey Diwan, France)

Hunt (Lee Jung-jae, South Korea)

I Want You Back (Jason Orley, U.S.)

The Kegelstatt Trio (Rita Azevedo Gomes, Portugal / Spain)

Kimi (Steven Soderbergh, U.S.)

A Little Love Package (Gastón Solnicki, Austria / Argentina)

The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Greece / U.K. / Israel / U.S.)

The Maiden (Graham Foy, Canada)

Magdala (Damien Manivel, France)

Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, Austria)

Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu, U.S.)

The Night of the 12th (Dominik Moll, France / Belgium)

Nitram (Justin Kurzel, Australia)

Nope (Jordan Peele, U.S. / Japan)

The Northman (Robert Eggers, U.S. / China)

Notebook From 22 (Nick Collins, U.K.) [s]

Of This Beguiling Membrane (Charlotte Pryce, U.S.) [s]

100 Ways to Cross the Border (Amber Bemak, Mexico / U.S.)

Paper Bag Test (Trevon Jakaar Coleman, U.S.) [s]

Das Rad (Friedl vom Gröller, Austria) [s]

Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, France / South Korea / Belgium / Cambodia / Germany / Qatar / Romania)

A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces (Shengze Zhu, China)

SEAM (Sheri Wills, U.S.) [s]

Shashin no Ma (Tetsuya Maruyama, Japan) [s]

shadow swells (Karissa Hahn, U.S.) [s]

A Short Story (Bi Gan, China) [s]

Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball, Canada)

Stone Turtle (Woo Ming Jin, Malaysia / Indonesia)

Sundown (Michel Franco, Mexico / France / Sweden)

Suzanna Andler (Benoit Jacquot, France)

The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, U.S.)

Tropicollage (Astria Suparak, U.S.) [s]

Turning Red (Domee Shi, U.S.)

Under the Fig Trees (Erige Sehiri, Tunisia / France / Switzerland / Germany / Qatar)

Up Close (Sam Gurry, U.S.) [s]

Upwards Tide (Daniela Zahlner, U.S. / Germany) [s]

You Have to Come and See It (Jónas Trueba, Spain) [m]

[all in all, I did not enjoy this film]

The Adam Project (Shawn Levy, U.S.)

Alive in Death (Maliyamungu Muhande, U.S.) [s]

The Dam (Ali Cherri, Sudan / France / Germany / Serbia)

Dark Glasses (Dario Argento, Italy / France)

death by fantasies by mirrors (Charlotte Clermont, Canada) [s]

CODA (Siân Heder, U.S. / France)

Contour (Fabio Andrade, Brazil) [s]

Cow (Andrea Arnold, U.K.)

Dans les cieux et sur la terre (Erin Weisgerber, Canada) [s]

Do Revenge (Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, U.S.)

The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, U.K.)

Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland, U.K. / Hungary / U.S.)

45th Parallel (Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Canada / U.K. / U.S.) [s]

Fresh (Mimi Cave, U.S.)

from time without beginning (Lorenzo Gattorna, U.S. / India) [s]

Holiday (Azucena Losana, Argentina / Brazil / Mexico) [s]

Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi, Denmark / France / Sweden / Germany)

The Inspection (Elegance Bratton, U.S.)

La Jauría (Andrés Ramirez Pulido, Colombia / France)

Joyland (Saim Sadiq, Pakistan)

Leonor Will Never Die (Martika Ramirez Escobar, Philippines)

Luminae (Dominic Angerame, U.S.) [s]

Memory Playthrough (Sim Hahahah, U.S.) [s]

Men (Alex Garland, U.K.)

The Mountain (Thomas Salvador, France)

Postlude (Roger Deutsch, Hungary) [s]

The Restless (Joachim Lafosse, Belgium / France / Luxembourg)

Singing in Oblivion (Eve Heller, Austria) [s]

Skinship (Mike Hoolboom, Canada) [s]

Three Floors (Nanni Moretti, Italy / France)

Tora's Husband (Rima Das, India)

Tori and Lokita (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium / France)

Underground Rivers (Simón Vélez, Colombia) [s]

A Valley Without Trees (Janelle VanderKelen, U.S.) [s]

VS (Lydia Nsiah, Austria) [s]

[very weak indeed (or in some cases just wrongheaded)]

Alone Sleeps the Water, Frozen She Awakes (Sofía Petersen, Argentina) [s]

D'Homme A Homme (Yashaddai Owens, U.S.) [s]

Leonora Addio (Paolo Taviani, Italy)

Microcosmos (Takashi Makino, Japan) [s]

That Kind of Summer (Denis Côté, Canada)

The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, U.S.)

[unusually, startlingly bad]

[no redeeming value whatsoever]

[walk-outs / turn-offs]

Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood (Richard Linklater, U.S. / Netherlands) (0:30)

Children of the Mist (Diem Ha Le, Vietnam) (0:27)

Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford, U.S.) (0:56)

Happer's Comet (Tyler Taormina, U.S.) [m] (0:40)

Hot in Day, Cold at Night (Park Song-yeol, South Korea) (0:34)

The Innocents (Eskil Vogt, Norway / Denmark / Finland / Sweden) (0:30)

Once Upon a Time in Calcutta (Aditya Vikram Sengupta, India / France / Norway) (0:42)

Petrov's Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov, Russia / France / Germany / Switzerland) (0:34)

Pilgrims (Laurynas Bareiša, Lithuania) (0:41)

The Severing (Mark Pellington, U.S.) (0:30)

Watcher (Chloe Okuno, U.S. / U.A.E.) (0:34)

White Building (Kavich Neang, Cambodia / Qatar / China / France) (0:40)

[very briefly sampled]

Ambulance (Michael Bay, U.S.)

Animal Eye (Maxime Martinot, France / Portugal)

Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre, Argentina / U.S. / U.K.)

Aribada (Simon(è) Jaikiriuma Paetau / Natalia Escobar, Colombia / Germany) [m]

Athena (Romain Gavras, France)

Blonde (Andrew Dominik, U.S.)

Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino, Italy / U.K. / U.S.)

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (Nina Menkes, U.S.)

Constant (Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner, U.K. / Germany) [m]

The Deep (Gavin Hipkins, New Zealand) [s]

Elephant (Maria Judice, U.S.)

The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra (Park Syeyoung, South Korea) [m]

First Hypnotic Suggestion (Brittany Gravely and Ken Linehan, U.S.) [s]

Granary Squares (Gonçalo Lamas, U.K. / Portugal) [m]

Kafka For Kids (Roee Rosen, Israel)

Lácrimas (Jeremy Moss, U.S.) [s]

Met Mes (Sam de Jong, Netherlands)

Mother Schmuckers (Lenny and Harpo Guit, Belgium)

Murina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, Croatia / Slovenia / Brazil / U.S.)

Peter von Kant (François Ozon, France)

Pinhole Park (Alex MacKenzie, Canada) [s]

Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush (Andreas Dresen, Germany / France)

Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 (Mani Ratnam, India)

Shankar's Fairies (Irfana Majumdar, India)

Show Me Other Places (Rajee Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka) [s]

The Silver Reel (Josh Gibson, U.S.) [s]

Singing in the Wilderness (Chen Dongnan, China)

Strawberry Mansion (Kentucker Audley / Albert Birney, U.S.)

The Super 8 Years (Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot, France) [m]

Watch the Fire or Burn Inside It (Caroline Poggi / Jonathan Vinel, France) [s]

Who Is Afraid of Ideology? - Part 4 - Reverse Shot (Marwa Arsanios, Germany / Lebanon) [m]

You Won't Be Alone (Goran Stolevski, Australia / Serbia / U.K.)