Much like my reading, my film watching dropped off at the end of the year as I had some Life Stuff going on and I only watched 104 films. I know that’s a lot for most people, but that’s the lowest number for me since 2011. 70% of the films were new to me, which is the same as last year and a bit higher than the previous years.

Viewing method
I went to the cinema 20 times this year, which is nearly double the number in the last couple of pandemic years. I’m actually a little surprised that the figure was that high, because I know there were a fair few times that I thought about going to the cinema but couldn’t find anything that inspired me. Give or take a couple, I watched the same number of films on Amazon (17), Disney (18), Netflix (22), and on DVD (20). Then a handful from Apple+ or just on the TV.

Ages
41% of the films were from 2022, which is actually a lot higher than previous years, maybe it’s the backlog of pandemic releases or something. I really didn’t do much ‘classics’ watching, only 16% of the films were more than 10 years old, only 9% older than 20 years and 3 of those were Jurassic Parks! I know that I studiously watched a lot of old films previously, but I’m sure there are still some gaps that I should be filling in.

2022
There are 3 films from 2022 that I gave 9/10 to and it’s kind of sublime and the ridiculous. The best film of the year was definitely CODA, and it’s pretty rare that I align with the Oscars! The most enjoyable films of the year were Minions: Rise of Gru and Glass Onion A Knives Out Mystery, both sequels I actually thought were better than the first films.

Honourable mentions: Avatar: The Way of Water has been a VERY long time coming but I really enjoyed 90% of it (teenagers – ugh). Do Revenge, The School for Good and Evil and Persuassion all brought something fresh to standard genres of high school drama, fairy tales and Jane Austen respectively; while Downton Abbey: The New Era, Adam Project, All the Old Knives, The Tender Bar, Jurassic Park Dominion, Dog, Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, and Sing 2 didn’t do anything particularly original but they all did it well.

Dishonourable mentions: Moonfall is a terrible waste of money, Thor: Love and Thunder a waste of a previously fun character, Lightyear a waste of legacy, and Spencer a waste of a singular good performance. I may also be the only person in the world that found Everything Everywhere All at Once boring.

Older films worth noting

Older films worth avoiding