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- CreatorVince GilliganPeter GouldStarsBob OdenkirkRhea SeehornJonathan BanksThe trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill in the years leading up to his fateful run-in with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.I hit rock bottom in 2022, at least as a movie-goer. Either my workload kept me from going to see indispensable new films. Or I was too tired to risk another let-down – and preferred watching a mini-series at home.
Looking at the “Best of 2022”-lists of critics whose taste I trust – Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott for instance – I have to admit: I haven’t seen the half of it. (Not even eight tenths…)
Don’t get me wrong: I’m still eager to check on films like TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and THE WOMAN KING, ILLUSIONS PERDUES and THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN.
But until I do this will have to do.
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This list works like a countdown, so
the Best of 2022 is mentioned LAST.
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Ok (but in most cases just barely)
===================== - CreatorDarren StarStarsLily CollinsAshley ParkPhilippine Leroy-BeaulieuA young American woman from the Midwest is hired by a marketing firm in Paris to provide them with an American perspective on things.SEASON THREE:
Began horribly, but it got better just when we were close to skipping it – and when Kate Walsh exited the city and the series.
THE GRAY MAN (solid but monotonous)
THE ADAM PROJECT
SPIDERHEAD (ambitious but a tad flat)
THE CONTRACTOR
WILLOW #1 (episodes 1-4) *
BULLET TRAIN
UNCHARTED
SCREAM 5
THE WALKING DEAD #14 *
THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT * (Surprisingly high on the list, considering the lame episodes directed by Robert Rodriguez; but then they brought back the Mandalorian & The Child as key characters – which is a little strange when you look at the title.)
STRANGE WORLD
DEATH ON THE NILE
THE PATIENT *
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Good, but not as good as I
thought / hoped it would be:
================ - CreatorSteven KnightStarsCillian MurphyPaul AndersonSophie RundleA gangster family epic set in 1900s England, centering on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss Tommy Shelby.SEASON SIX:
Future activities (a movie??) will tell whether this Season was just a fumble – or that one Season too many. (Polly was sorely missed!) - CreatorNick SantoraStarsAlan RitchsonMaria StenMalcolm GoodwinItinerant former military policeman Jack Reacher solves crimes and metes out his own brand of street justice. Based on the novels by Lee Child.FIRST SEASON:
Started good and funny and inventive, but lost with every episode – and had a very disappointing showdown.
THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
FANTASTIC BEASTS III
GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE
BEING THE RICARDOS
BELFAST
NOPE
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (I'm just a sucker for Dino-romps)
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (#1) *
KLEO (#1) *
AFTER LIFE (#3) *
THE SINNER (#4) *
INVENTING ANNA *
ALLE REDEN ÜBER DAS WETTER
THE FABELMANS
Starts fabulously, but as so often with the older Spielberg, it gets murky during the second half, and the air fizzles out like from a flat tire.
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GOOD:
===== - CreatorPeter MorganStarsClaire FoyOlivia ColmanImelda StauntonFollows the political rivalries and romances of Queen Elizabeth II's reign and the events that shaped Britain for the second half of the 20th century.SEASON FIVE:
Diverting, but nowhere near as riveting as the other seasons. The main reason for that is the casting problem: The casting for Season #4 was among the greatest ever. In contrast to that stroke of genius Imelda Staunton, Elizabeth Debicki (sorry, RTJ), even Dominic West seemed misplaced. Only Jonathan Pryce fit right in as Prince Philip. - DirectorDan TrachtenbergStarsAmber MidthunderDakota BeaversDane DiLiegroNaru, a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly-evolved Predators to land on Earth.PREY (Best B-movie of the year)
- DirectorJoel CrawfordJanuel MercadoStarsAntonio BanderasSalma HayekHarvey GuillénWhen Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish.Sweet, but it shoulda been better – and at times it came close to Part I. If only the filmmakers had realized that Puss (& Kitty) don’t need BIG baddies; they need teasing and elegance and fun. For someone who loved most of Part 1 and later to 100% the glorious short film THE THREE DIABLOS, this was almost a wasted opportunity, especially after waiting more than ten years.
- DirectorAaron NeeAdam NeeStarsSandra BullockChanning TatumDaniel RadcliffeA reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in a kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.Channing T. & Sandra B. were funny - but Brad Pitt was even better. That said, I dreaded the final scene with Pitt so much, it nearly ruined the whole film for me. He was so great at the beginning – why couldn’t he stay dead?
- DirectorRon HowardStarsViggo MortensenColin FarrellJoel EdgertonA rescue mission is assembled in Thailand where a group of young boys and their soccer coach are trapped in a system of underground caves that are flooding.Solid stuff from Ron Howard, who has done some of his best work in the last years.
- DirectorMatt ReevesStarsRobert PattinsonZoë KravitzJeffrey WrightWhen a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement.Been there, seen that, but surprisingly enthralling nonetheless.
- CreatorBill DubuqueMark WilliamsStarsJason BatemanLaura LinneySofia HublitzA financial advisor drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks, where he must launder money to appease a drug boss.SEASON FOUR:
In January 2022 I wrote the following about Ozark:
Among the many images of the Netflix series "Ozark" that have etched onto the retina of viewers is that of Marty Byrde kneeling on the floor of a factory in the very first episode. To his left and right, friends and business colleagues have just been killed and put into acid barrels, whose existence-dissolving effect had become known through "Breaking Bad". The decent family man from Chicago, who is supposed to pay for the misconduct of his cocky partner, is the last to face death.
Now he stammers something about money laundering, about the Ozarks, a place in the Midwest of the USA that was kinda created for this kind of illegal business, and then Marty, in his supposedly last breath, mentions the sum of 500 million dollars. Even Del, the number two of the Navarro drug cartel, is alert. He knows how good Marty is as an accountant and gives him a shot. The Byrdes are moving, they are now living on probation, of which no one knows how long it will last.
Three seasons later, Del has long since abdicated, Marty and Wendy Byrde have more than paid their monetary obligations. But to do that, they had to create a building of lies that has grown bigger and bigger and could collapse at any time. For every crime needed to maintain the appearance of legality and eliminate competition, at least two more offenses became due. You don’t have to be an excellent bookmaker to estimate the fatal exponential growth of this curve. And it doesn't help that everything has been spread over several shoulders, that even the teenage children have learned to live with the lies and to develop a routine for cheating – so skillfully that they think about what would happen if something happened to the parents. The question of whether this might have to be helped haunts the room unanswered – proof of how skillfully the series manipulates its viewers.
The fourth and final season of Ozark begins a few minutes after the end of the third. Shortly after Marty and Wendy wash blood and more from their hair at Omar Navarro’s hacienda in Mexico, they are entrusted with their next crazy task: to whitewash the office-weary clan chief Omar. His unscrupulous pragmatism is: The Byrdes have reinvented themselves in the Ozarks and bought social respect with a pile of money – they could probably do the same for him. Of course, he hasn’t figured in the FBI, which is perhaps even less trustworthy than the gangsters.
This is the next punchline of this brutally funny satire on the more winding American paths to wealth and fame. In Mexico, the Byrdes meet Omar's potential successor Javi, and it doesn't take long before Marty (wonderfully dry: Jason Bateman) finds himself in the same situation as in the very first episode: He no longer talks on a factory floor, which sounds easier said than done, because lying on a carpet in an upper-class villa, he is kicked in the groin: Hot spur Javi holds a gun to the accountant’s head because he thinks Marty is deceiving the Navarro family.
This is still considered a core sin in "Ozark" – although we have long since witnessed how quickly someone can become an ex-family member here. As undertakers the Byrdes have their own crematorium to get rid of the corpses in the cellar; the fact that they have built a family mausoleum that serves as a storage place for their cash, is a brilliant metaphor. Ideas like these are the reason for the greatness of this series with its mean, but never cheap humor and the perfect little punchlines. The series pushes us to the limits of morality out of sympathy for the characters, which it has in common with the great stories of this genre.
A good half dozen family stories are at the core of Ozark, they pile up thanks to the Byrdes, Snells, Navarros, the mob from Kansas City, the pregnant FBI agent Maya; woodchucking Ruth (excellent: Julia Garner) is being pushed back and forth in a tsunami of contradictory emotions. Javi, for example – who, by the way, has astonishing parallels to the goosebump-inducing mob Hellodri Eladio from the similarly wacky series "Better Call Saul" – waves his gun around very quickly when he thinks he can solve something with a shot in the interests of his family. But if Uncle Omar (Felix Solis) were to make a mistake, Javi would love to grab the scepter immediately.
“Sangre Sobre Todo” – (family) blood above all, that is supposedly the catalyst of all involved; but the motto is based on very shaky foundations. Take Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney): In the meantime she has matured (or degenerated) into a schemer of Shakespearean dimensions. She launders nine-figure sums through foundations and triggers heart attacks with her smile: She actually believes it might be a fitting reminder for her rebellious son Jonah, who manipulates the books at the competition, to hand him over to the FBI and send him to prison. When Marty finds out, old wounds are ripped open. You can feel how fragile the Byrdes’ alliance of convenience has remained since the first fraud – and you are exposed as a naïve spectator if you have indulged in the old-fashioned idea that there might be a happy ending after all.
Netflix is holding back seven episodes until the end of April. It's completely open when the present will catch up with the future, whose beastly paw we saw in the first minutes of the fourth season. Only one thing is already certain, one way or another: In the Valhalla of the crime families, the Corleones and Sopranos got neighbors. Who would have thought that when Martin Byrde pocketed a flyer of the Ozarks four and a half years ago?
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Turns out I was a little too enthusiastic. The last seven episodes felt rushed, almost hectic at times – and therefore not fitting to the standard of this series, which was at its best when everything seemed to be calm; but we knew (or sensed) that a volcano was about to erupt. Of course it wouldn’t have been realistic if everybody had survived, but the choices of the showrunners are suboptimal. I didn’t feel closure. - CreatorAlfred GoughMiles MillarStarsJenna OrtegaEmma MyersHunter DoohanFollows Wednesday Addams' years as a student, when she attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a killing spree, and solve the mystery that embroiled her parents.Tim Burton’s best work in years, it really gets going as soon as Catherine Zeta-Jones leaves. Let’s watch Jenna Ortega closely.
- DirectorDon HallCarlos López EstradaPaul BriggsStarsKelly Marie TranAwkwafinaGemma ChanIn a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.Nicely crafted.
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VERY GOOD
======= - DirectorJared BushByron HowardCharise Castro SmithStarsStephanie BeatrizMaría Cecilia BoteroJohn LeguizamoA Colombian teenage girl has to face the frustration of being the only member of her family without magical powers.Magical.
- DirectorMaria SchraderStarsZoe KazanCarey MulliganPatricia ClarksonJodi Kantor and Megan Twohey's quest to break the Harvey Weinstein scandal.Meticulous. And touching / infuriating.
- DirectorFatih AkinStarsEmilio SakrayaMona PirzadKardo RazzaziCapturing the life of German hip-hop rapper, entrepreneur, and ex-convict Giwar Hajabi.Fatih Akin strikes again!
- CreatorMichael Patrick KingDarren StarStarsSarah Jessica ParkerCynthia NixonKristin DavisThe series follows Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte as they navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s.The last episodes of the first season were even better than the early ones.
- CreatorRobert SiegelStarsLily JamesSebastian StanSeth RogenFollows the story of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee's relationship, going back to their whirlwind romance that started with them marrying after only knowing each other for 96 hours in 1995.Now here’s something you don’t see every day… I didn’t care too much about the nakedness and the talking penis, but as soon as that was settled in episode 2, this miniseries becomes a poignant satire about the shadowy zones of America & capitalism, the whole shebang against the backdrop of new technology making all of it possible. Lily James manages to be funny, attractive, naïve AND clever at the same time.
- CreatorBrad IngelsbyStarsKate WinsletJulianne NicholsonJean SmartA detective in a small Pennsylvania town investigates a local murder while trying to keep her life from falling apart.One murder puts a whole small town into disarray. There’s a pivotal scene that’s really horrifying: Right when we realise who the murderer is, the camera exits the premises and leaves the Inspector (Kate Winslet) alone with the killer in his house – almost like Clarice Starling with Jame Gumb in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
- DirectorCédric KlapischStarsMarion BarbeauHofesh ShechterDenis PodalydèsElise, a very promising classical dancer, is injured during a performance at 26 years old. Although she's told she will no longer be able to dance, she will try to find a new direction in contemporary dance.As universal as the story unfolds (young balletteuse has to come back after a career-endangering injury), at the core it is very French. In a good sense.
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No. 15: NIGHTMARE ALLEY
================= - DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsBradley CooperCate BlanchettToni ColletteA grifter working his way up from low-ranking carnival worker to lauded psychic medium matches wits with a psychologist bent on exposing him.Guillermo Del Toro’s pitchblack and unsettling movie about circus, deceit and tricks that come back to haunt you, touches a raw nerve. I thought it was much better than his Oscar-winner THE SHAPE OF WATER, and Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett build a couple that reminded me of John Malkovich in DANGEROUS LIAISONS.
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No. 14: VERY GOOD
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__________________ - CreatorMichelle KingRobert KingPhil Alden RobinsonStarsChristine BaranskiSarah SteeleNyambi NyambiWhen Diane Lockhart's life savings are lost, she must start from scratch at a new firm.SEASON FIVE:
The public court scenes with Mandy Patinkin, original at first, become a little enervating close to the end. But the rest was almost as good as always, and the only real blemish is that this legal dramedy will rest its case after season #6.
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No. 13: ANDOR
========== - CreatorTony GilroyStarsDiego LunaKyle SollerStellan SkarsgårdPrequel series to Star Wars' 'Rogue One'. In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian will embark on the path that is destined to turn him into a Rebel hero.Holy Lucas! Just when I thought I would finally give up on STAR WARS etc., along came this series to the rescue. (Funny, considering the fact that one knows the later stages of the story from ROGUE ONE – a film I do not hold too high in my esteem.) And although some of the splendor of ANDOR has to do with money well spent, you only have to point to the expensive debacle that is OBI WAN KENOBI in order to realize that it is more about the brains of showrunner Tony Gilroy, his scripting and plotting and the vision behind ANDOR. (Which, ironically, doesn’t start that well but comes together in the third and fourth episode.) There’s a real interest in character development, including the baddies, and at the end of the season Gilroy even dares to face the challenge of creating setups in the spirit of Sergio L. & Ennio M.
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No. 12: IM WESTEN NICHTS NEUES
====================== - DirectorEdward BergerStarsFelix KammererAlbrecht SchuchAaron HilmerA young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.For years I’ve been insisting that some films should never be remade. Probably I would have named ALL QUIET ON WESTERN FRONT as a prime example for that argument. But then I saw the newest version of the WWI-classic, and quickly (and finally) did I understand why it is not enough to see those old movies. The Next Generation needs to dig deep in order to understand what man-to-man-combat means. Even my 18-year-old son, who normally never shies away from battle scenes, was shell-shocked. Really, if somebody wants to start a war after seeing this film, that person should be put in a looney bin.
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No. 11: ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING
========================== - CreatorJohn HoffmanSteve MartinStarsSteve MartinMartin ShortSelena GomezThree strangers - who live in the same New York City apartment building and share an obsession with true crime - suddenly find themselves embroiled in a murder.SEASON 1 & 2:
Swell & fast, this murdercomedy starring Steve Martin, Martin and the surprisingly witty Selena Gomez is currently shooting season #3. Let’s hope it will be as fresh as the existing two.
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No. 10: DOPESICK
=========== - CreatorDanny StrongStarsMichael KeatonPeter SarsgaardMichael StuhlbargThe series takes viewers to the epicenter of America's struggle with opioid addiction, from the boardrooms of Purdue Pharma, to a distressed Virginia mining community, to the hallways of the DEA.A vibrant attack on the reckless business of painkillers – of course it is biased, how could it not be? But it avoids the easy blame game by concentrating on the characters and their fight to survive and regain their dignity. Perhaps the best ensemble of the whole year.
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No. 9: KING RICHARD
============== - DirectorReinaldo Marcus GreenStarsWill SmithAunjanue Ellis-TaylorJon BernthalA look at how tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams became who they are after the coaching from their father Richard.“I thought the roof would come down,” said Chris Evert, icon of fine white tennis, about the scene that made Richard Williams famous worldwide. It took place at venerable Wimbledon immediately after his daughter Venus won the world’s most famous tournament for the first time at the age of 20. Her father, a powerful figure despite his thin legs, shouted “Straight Outta Compton” from the stands, so loud that no one could miss it: an ironic reference to the notorious Los Angeles neighborhood where the Williams clan had spent some difficult years before leaving for Florida and turning the tennis world upside down. So in July 2000, the father climbed to the NBC commentary booth, where Evert was shaking, and held up one of his infamous plaques, on which he had scribbled this time: “It’s Venus’ party – and no one was invited.”
You can expect this moment in a film about the life of Richard Williams, the ultimate player’s father, loner and stubborn. However, it does not occur any more than similar appearances in Key Biscayne (“Welcome to the Williams Show”); or such as the decision not to register the sisters Venus and Serena for the same tournament beyond the Grand Slam events, so that they would not have to compete against each other. Many other striking cornerstones of the biography are also missing – whether the tragic death of Yetunde, a half-sister of Venus and Serena, or Richard Williams’s separation from the strong family mother Oracene.
Mind you, all of this is not because the movie KING RICHARD would not take its time (it lasts 145 minutes). Or that he wants to whitewash the controversial tennis father. On the contrary: Richard Williams comes across as appropriately ambivalent, as a pain in the ass and unpredictable power, as a one-man demolition pear. Williams knows that he will never be heard without persistence; he preaches humility and gratitude, educates his children strictly; he would like to isolate them; hangs himself completely clean and makes many sacrifices – but he does not always escape the danger of vanity.
What is missing sharpens the senses for what is there. It turns out to be a clever move by screenwriter Zach Baylin to focus the film on the childhood of the eventual Grand Slam winners. First, the father’s influence is greatest at this stage of life; secondly, life outside the tennis court is gaining weight; and lastly, individual games and rallies become subordinate. As convincing as the sisters’ actresses are as athletes, they do not have to confirm this impression under competition-like conditions. This is not a sports film, but a drama about a family of athletes.
As pithy as some scenes sometimes seem (father Williams plays with the children in wind and rain and dusts off worn balls in clubs and on public courts), many of them are probably understated compared to the truth. When the family of seven with five daughters is on the road in a VW bus, it seems almost picturesque, but director Reinaldo Marcus Green never falls into the sentimental LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE-trap. This is also appropriate because the family man is anything but a romantic: Even before the birth of Venus and Serena, Richard Williams had decided to shape the two into tennis professionals, the best in history. Now he just has to manage to establish his daughters in a white world, which is why he rattles off one club after another and meets at best skeptical, mostly disinterested people for years.
Sadly, there aren't a lot of people around who could tell you about Richard Williams’ effect on the white sport of the early 1990s. It resembled as the appearance of Eddie Murphy in 48 HOURS (1982), when he becomes a nightmare for the seemingly superior whites in a redneck dive – with the difference that Richard Williams had to do without a police badge.
Thus, racial politics always plays one of the main roles in an important, but never suffocating way. In any case, not only the whites are the problem – even the envious black neighbors and various gang members begrudge Williams’s idea of freedom beyond the ghetto. How this problem dissolves in the film is not historically proven, but it is convincing – even and especially when you consider how close it all was; and how lead actor Will Smith, who won an Oscar for this performance, would have proceeded in his earlier films.
Smith plays Williams as a man who has practice in making himself smaller than he is: his shoulders hanging low, as if trying to conceal his intimidating height; or as if he had received so many beatings and rebuffs in his life that he can no longer stretch himself. When he is allowed to have the older Venus play, he regularly disturbs potential investors, annoys experts and trainers with his own coaching (“Don’t forget the open stand!”). His only aces in the hole are the two tireless children, whose qualities would have been recognized even a blind man, due to the clean, swift sound of their strokes.
In the end, there are still two matches, at the beginning of 1994, Venus’ first foray onto the professional tour. But here, too, the filmmakers are less concerned with individual points than with mental experiences: how Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, at the time the top player from Spain, uses one of her patented psychological tricks to throw the dominant, just 13-year-old Venus of balance; and how she learns more from defeat than from any previous victory.
In the long run, many mantras of the father and coach Williams have proven to be useful – for example, the risky open stand on baseline shots, which Serena soon mastered even better than Venus, which is why the little sister won more than three times as many Grand Slam tournaments as Venus (23:7). Also not to be denied is the fact that Richard’s refusal to let the daughters continue to play youth tennis, which had been ridiculed for years, has paid off. Unlike other, early emaciated teenage stars such as Tracy Austin, Andrea Jaeger or Jennifer Capriati, the two Williams sisters played into their 40’s, and Venus continues to compete, if her body allows it. Until 2022 you could see them giggling extensively during doubles, just like in the film as teenagers: two conspirators, carefree in a hostile world. Richard Williams moved further and further away from his daughters after the separation from Oracene. A stroke did the rest to limit public appearances. He couldn’t even attend the premiere of “his” film.
This is all the more sad because one would have liked to know how he feels about a few developments of the past 20 years: Venus’ rare autoimmune disease, which slowed her down for years; and, of course, the memorable behavior of Serena, who violated her father’s code at least twice: in losing efforts in New York to Kim Clijsters (when Williams was disqualified for threatening a lineswoman in 2009) and Naomi Osaka (when Serena stole the spotlight in 2018 with a rant against the referee). Of course, one would also like to hear what he thinks of KING RICHARD. The story of the Williams clan is far from over with this film.
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No. 8: BABYLON BERLIN
=============== - CreatorHenk HandloegtenTom TykwerAchim von BorriesStarsVolker BruchLiv Lisa FriesLars EidingerColognian commissioner Gereon Rath moves to Berlin, the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties.SEASON FOUR:
It has become a little too easy to take the merits of BABYLON BERLIN for granted. I enjoyed watching the fourth season in two sessions. How good was it? It blew away my concerns regarding the real-life-politics of one key character faster than you could say Volker Bruch. I loved the THEY SHOOT HORSES-sequence early on; I wish the three directors would have toyed longer with the intentions of Detective Rath mingling with the rising Nazi-mischpoke. And in the very last episode two things bothered me: the boxing scenes are below standard. And the “Things to come”-flash was rather heavy-handed. Then again: If that’s all that I have complain about, that’s proof we still have a pretty good show at our hands.
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No. 7: THE POWER OF THE DOG
==================== - DirectorJane CampionStarsBenedict CumberbatchKirsten DunstJesse PlemonsCharismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.I saw this modern western for the first time on January 1 2022 – what a way to start the new year! I was enthralled that Jane Campion was able to fulfill all the promises of the story – and then some! Late in the game she comes up with two twists. They are the biggest surprises in recent years – yet they never feel forced. On the contrary: They change the pace, the meaning and the depth of the story by providing you with insights about two totally different Westerners. And in the end Campion is clever enough not to reveal everything. This is a film that will stay with us for a while, as will the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst.
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No. 6: LIGHTYEAR
=========== - DirectorAngus MacLaneStarsChris EvansKeke PalmerPeter SohnWhile spending years attempting to return home, marooned Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear encounters an army of ruthless robots commanded by Zurg who are attempting to steal his fuel source.Delight- and insightful, this action adventure was a wonderfully funny reminder of how great Pixar-movies were until recently. It is also very close to TOP GUN: MAVERICK in many regards, and I think that is part of the reason why LIGHTYEAR undeservedly tanked at the box office. Among the big What If’s of the year: What if LIGHTYEAR had opened three weeks before TG:M instead of three weeks after? We’ll never know. But we’ll always be thankful to the makers of LIGHTYEAR for introducing us to Sox, the RoboCat. Says Sox: “It took me 62 years, 7 months and 5 days…” - "I am an excellent listener." - "Be-boop, be-boop, be-boop, be-boop."
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No. 5: TOP GUN: MAVERICK
================= - DirectorJoseph KosinskiStarsTom CruiseJennifer ConnellyMiles TellerAfter thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.The background story of this unexpected marvel of a movie is a little like the one of UNFORGIVEN, when Clint Eastwood decided that he was finally old enough to play William Munny, the killer turned farmer. Eastwood had waited a dozen years, before he touched the script again in order to film it. Tom Cruise, never too shy to break records, put a different number on the table: He declined to participate in a sequel of TOP GUN for close to 35 years! So that when he finally said yes to playing Maverick again, you had the feeling that he was vulnerable both physically and mentally – maybe for the first time in a leading role. The film plays with the idea that life is finite, and this is essential to sharing Maverick’s worries.
Therefore TG:M is a stark contrast to the original, because in the 1986-version Maverick made mistakes, too – but all in all he came across like a dare-devilishly great guy who succeeded as a pilot, a partner and a lover. (I went ballistic when his pitiful wooing of Kelly McGillis was rewarded, even though everything he did – the grinning, the talking, the stalking, the bragging – felt lame and disrespectful to her intelligence.) All of this feels much more credible now in TG:M. And the casting of Jennifer Connelly as Maverick’s love-interest Penny works wonders, because she not only holds her ground but actually calls the shots when the pilot is on the ground. It’s a relief to see Connelly, who has played serious, really serious women for more than 35 years, finally having fun and letting us be happy for her. In the end she gets him to accompany her, which reminded me of IN THE LINE OF FIRE, in which Rene Russo made the difference, granting Clint Eastwood’s character a life after the job.
Director Joseph Kosinski, whose films (TRON: LEGACY, OBLIVION) I had liked even before TG:M, has a knack for room and space, and the action scenes are among the best I’ve seen in a film lately, let alone the fleeting airfighter genre. When TOP GUN came out in 1986 the filmmakers committed the egregious error of not paying homage to THE RIGHT STUFF (1983), and the camaraderie in TOP GUN felt as inauthentic as the rivalries. TG:M makes up for both aspects, and the best moment of the movie evokes the memory of Sam Shepard: After his Mach-crash, Maverick – looking like The Struwwelpeter in a space suit – enters a packed diner, empties a glass of water in one big gulp and asks: “Where am I?” To which a boy, his mouth wide open, answers: “Earth”.
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No. 4: ENNIO
======== - DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsEnnio MorriconeSilvano AgostiAlessandro AlessandroniA documentary on the legendary film composer Ennio Morricone.The Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore tends to be overly sentimental for my taste. But in ENNIO, the exhilarating documentary about the unique Italian composer, his teary approach is just the right antidote to Morricone’s no nonsense perspective on life and composing – and the pain caused by his high-brow-colleagues, who took decades to realise the greatness of Morricone’s art. I wish Morricone and Tornatore had talked about PEUR SUR LA VILLE and the collaboration with John Carpenter on THE THING in length. But you can’t have everything, and Tornatore makes up for that by assembling many of Morricone’s peers who give you a different perspective on his work.
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No. 3: TED LASSO
=========== - CreatorBrendan HuntJoe KellyBill LawrenceStarsJason SudeikisHannah WaddinghamJeremy SwiftAmerican college football coach Ted Lasso heads to London to manage AFC Richmond, a struggling English Premier League soccer team.SEASONS #1 & 2:
Why did I shy away from this series for so long? Ah, yes, it’s about an American coach (Jason Sudeikis) taking over an equally hapless London-based SOCCER club! But the series is incredibly light on its feet, and while it is good-natured the jokes come as hard as tackles by Vinnie Jones.
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No. 2: DER PASS
=========== - CreatorCyrill BossPhilipp StennertStarsMatthias HackJulia JentschNicholas OfczarekEllie Stocker and Gedeon Winter have become bitter enemies. A ritual murder leads to the formation of a German-Austrian Soko and forces the two opponents to investigate together.SEASONS 1 & 2:
A gorgeous German-Austrian thriller digging deep in snowy areas of both countries and characters. The casting is impeccable (I’ve never seen Julia Jentsch as good as here), and the end of season #2 is as devastating as endings can be. But it assures that there will be a third season – with a reason!
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No. 1: BETTER CALL SAUL
================ - CreatorVince GilliganPeter GouldStarsBob OdenkirkRhea SeehornJonathan BanksThe trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill in the years leading up to his fateful run-in with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.SEASON SIX:
Maybe it helps to think of Saul Goodman as a cat. Eight of his nine lives have been used up. Now the question arises: How does he deal with the last? Withdrawn and careful? Or foolhardy as ever? It’s the question that has hovered over everything since the beginning of the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul. In the brilliantly brutal drug dealer world of "Breaking Bad" (from 2008 to 2013), Saul Goodman was a windy lawyer with the methods of a trickster; a man who knows no boundaries and never shies away from stretching rules and laws to the extreme.
Many Bad-fans avoided "Better Call Saul" because they feared the spinoff wouldn’t be able to keep up with the original. Big mistake. In 2015, Saul came up with the idea of showing the time before his transformation into a ruthless, exploitative (and extremely entertaining) corner lawyer who doesn’t just use the American Constitution (“We the People”) as wallpaper for his office.
It was a whole new character, one that had never been seen before in 60 years of lawyer series. At the very beginning, he still bears his real name as a career starter who emulates his famous brother. As Jimmy McGill, he positioned himself as an advocate for the little people, and one would not have hesitated to call him a friend: a lovable anarchist in his job and in his life.
Even then, he sometimes had no control over himself and, more than once, chose the wrong path. Saul was sometimes crude and always a bit too loud, just like Saul’s garish suits and ties. Being a man of contradictions, his weaknesses deepened the sounding board of his character; or rather: his characters. Jimmy McGill disappeared a few years ago, but as soon as Saul Goodman went into hiding at the end of Breaking Bad he changed his name and location once more, in order to avoid the mob and the FBI. In Omaha, his name is Gene Takevic, and for a while no one suspects that the inconspicuous manager of a cinnamon bun stall at a mall has hidden away a bag full of diamonds and bundles of cash at home – neither of which he can use without exposing himself to the danger of being exposed.
At the beginning of the first five "Saul"-seasons, Gene/Jimmy/Saul could be seen in this dreary world for one scene at a time, and the piercing black and white made these minutes look almost like illustrated obituaries. But Saul is not dead. He is in Nebraska. Which is probably even worse.
Thus, the series remained grounded even in the most merciless (and in the few hopeful) moments. A series without kings and jesters, dragons, plagues and monsters. But wait a minute: All of this is also available here – but always on a human basis, perfectly bundled in one person and embodied by the formidable actor Bob Odenkirk, in a sensational mixture of megalomania, skill and shamelessness.
Actually the series has a Queen as well, and she exemplifies the art of the creators of this series. Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) is no ordinary beauty, but she soon shines brighter than everyone else. The authors Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould invented Kim first for "Better Call Saul" – in "Breaking Bad" she hadn't been an issue, not even in a subordinate clause.
It can drive you nuts when you think it through: after all, she soon turns out to be the woman at Saul’s side: lawyer of integrity, friend, wife (quite pragmatic, so that she never has to testify against Saul), partner in crime – and the latter must be taken literally, because Kim mutates into another toxic being next to Saul who develops a great talent for destruction and enjoys it a great deal – until she is disgusted by herself in the face of unpredictable consequences. With what result?
The supporting characters are exactly the opposite of Kim. Due to the unique construction of "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul", we know about the fate of several supporting characters even before "Saul" begins: Nevertheless "Saul" manages to deepen the personalities of these henchmen of death – but the end of the drug and chicken dealer Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) and his cleaner Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), of DEA investigator Hank (Dean Norris) and Walter Hartwell White (Bryan Cranston), the most famous of all chemistry teachers, is already history.
That’s exactly why three questions tormented us more and more: When and where do the stories of "Bad" and "Saul" overlap? Can this work well? And, most importantly: Where and why does Kim disappear from the life and heart of Saul?
The sixth season of "Better Call Saul", which came to an end last summer, rounded off almost everything; it found the answers to these questions – in a way that was hard to swallow, but despite all the mental hardship it seemed realistic. Already at the beginning of the final 13 episodes, a few important connections were severed (Ignacio! Lalo! Howard!), and because Frings and the drugs no longer play a key role during the final stretch, the writers are able to concentrate completely on Kim and Saul. The emotional drop becomes even more extreme in the final four episodes, with scenes of silence and meaningful looks that hardly any other series has dared to come up with.
Over the years several great series (from "Alias" to "Ozark") have been remembered as unfinished because of their subpar final season. And sometimes, as with "Lost", the solves of big puzzles were so shallow that one refused to go along with the final twists. "Better Call Saul", on the other side of the spectrum, found just the right time and tone to end the series at the highest point. Especially nifty are the episodes 6.10 (Nippy), 6.11 (Breaking Bad, showing Jimmy/Saul/Gene at his lowest and most dangerous point – he has become a real gangster), 6.12 (Waterworks – Kim’s return), and, of course, 6.13 (Saul Gone), the wonderful finale.
By then, we’ve finally learned what happened to Kim, so we can bring all time-levels together. We find out how long Kim and Saul have gone their separate ways (even longer than expected!) – and how far they have distanced themselves from each other and from themselves. Their dreariness reveals one of the deepest abysses of the American dream.
In the end you understand why only incorrigible optimists could hope for a happy ending in the usual sense: This series started as a thieving comedy. It ends as a silent tragedy – albeit with an unusual touch of happy ending. How did Rhea Seehorn put it? “Death is not the only tragic conclusion.” But the series also shows that a happy ending does not always require total acquittal. Sometimes a final cigarette together is enough.