This is a year-end review of 2022. Most reviews like this have top ten movies, shows, etc. I both did not consume enough and did not enjoy enough for that. So, after my 3-part “Mall Messiahs” article, here is a mercifully short look back at the year that was.
The Return of Shock
Not enough shock, to be sure, but there was a lot more of it this year than in recent memory. And I am not the only one to notice. I have not seen everything in these articles so I am only qualified to discuss a few of the bright spots. Or dark spots. Like Gaspar Noe’s Vortex, which is literally a movie about an elderly woman’s dementia, her husband’s worsening heart condition and their son’s heroin habit. Not as bloody or controversial as the rest of his filmography, but it packs an emotional megaton wallop. Makes for a great holiday watch on MUBI.
There was also Fresh, about a charming male doctor who mutilates women and sells the parts to high-paying clients. There was also the cliffhanger of cliffhangers on a stellar season 2 of White Lotus when one episode ended with a muscular, hunky nephew butt-fucking his uncle. But my favorite shock memory might be attending the NPCC Summer Fest 2022, where Wong Ping’s transgressive digital animation “Who’s the Daddy?” was shown. The animation itself was good and shocking, but watching the droves walk out was well worth the price of admission. When more and more corporations are pumping out anodyne paid content to pacify every special interest mob on Twitter, it is refreshing to see intentional outrage again.
Now With 2x More Christina Ricci
Yellowjackets, Showtimes thrilling, sexy horror thriller aimed at former x-girls, has a great cast of ‘90s indie darlings. But Christina Ricci in glasses was a consistent highlight of the season. Unfortunately, the season ended in January and we had to wait till November for Wednesday, Tim Burton’s monster hit Riverdale-style reboot of The Addams Family on Netflix, to see Christina Ricci again (no she does not reprise her star-making role as Wednesday Addams, yes she is more evil than ever). It took her long enough to return, but at least this time she came back with another great performance and a fetching pair of glasses.
When Pranks Get Real
No secret that Better Call Saul was the best show of the year. I am tempted to say better than Breaking Bad, but I will need to wait for my breathlessness to die down to make that call. Undeniably the best scene of the final season is the one pictured above. Saul Goodman (arguably the best character in TV history [breathlessness still going]) is someone we all know. The guy who knows all the legal loopholes. Who knows all the scams to pull, the corners to cut. And, yes, he is a master pranksman. Him and his wife Kim Wexler love playing pranks on their former legal eagle colleague Howard Hamlin. Increasingly, the pranks turn into gaslighting and professional sabotage. Then, in the shocker of shockers, as Howard confronts them, real murderous psychopath Lalo Salamanca walks in. Howard thinks the whole thing is another put-on. Unlucky guess.
Along with the other great prank-ish show The Rehearsal, this scene marvelously delivered an incisive commentary on our online and offline funhouse mirror world, where distortion becomes so normal we do not even recognize accurate reflections anymore.
That Weird Goofy Movie Episode of Atlanta
Better Call Saul and Atlanta had great final seasons this year. But neither of their finales can match what came a few episodes before. In Atlanta’s case, a truly bizarre mockumentary of how a black man took over Disney animation and made The Goofy Movie. In a world of comedy that examines race and identity, this one had wit, imagination and verve. Best of all, it had Donald Glover’s personal stamp of subversion and innocence.
A Striking Blow Against Conceptual Apartheid
Until this year, any American film or show that dealt with minorities inevitably fell into the representation trap. Yes, Everything Everywhere All at Once was about an Asian family. It was also about the multiverse, nihilism, purpose, capitalism…yes the movie ran long, but it had so much to say for so many minority artists that were forced to stay in their lane and explain what it was like growing up as a minority to a wokeness-validation-seeking white yuppie neoliberal audience. Since it was a runaway sleeper box office hit that ended up on many top tens this year, I hope that the conceptual apartheid of representation traps is a thing of the past.
publicity photo of MJ Lenderman
The Incredible Series Finale of Rock and Roll
Stereogum just dropped a great article on the new wave of American shoegaze. For those not in the know, shoegaze was a genre of rock in the ‘90s were British bands had albums with swirling, feedback-drenched guitars. The new wave is less jammy, more song-oriented (and more American) but the squalls are still there. Lots of great stuff from this scene, some of which is even making its way into the otherwise dance-rock, sleaze obsessed zeitgeist. There have been many false alarms of the end of rock and roll but, at least artistically, this is how it ends. Not with a bang, but with a fuzzy, melodic screech that seems fitting for these Armeggedon-y times.
The Summer of TikTok
Wait, did a Summer of TikTok happen without you? Perhaps. TikTok’s person-specific algorithm is so precise that my feed will never resemble your feed. For me, the summer was an incredibly hilarious one. But as more cringe SJWs ran from Twitter and the diaspora spread to other apps, the final quarter of the year brought amateur analysis of what is progressive and what is not on TV, etc. But anytime I want to, I can taste the biscuit.
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The Meltdown of Twitter
Since 2016, journos have griped about how Twitter and its right-wing trolls have ruined everything. Even when moderation got tighter after January 6, Twitter was still deemed a hellsite. When Elon Musk took over on October 27th, something strange happened. Writers began to lament the good old days that were, just weeks before, hell on earth. Then came the articles of media personalities acknowledging that this was more a problem for them than it was for Joe and Josephine Paycheck. That this was yet another divide between the laptop class and the world they claim to represent. Yes, Elon Musk is running it to the ground. But I am with Freddie DeBoer when he says let it burn.
Wet Brain Podcast
The Red Scare podcast may be the most popular podcast to come out of the whole Dimes Square scene, but Wet Brain has been my favorite. Hosted by casting agent Walter Pearce and short story writer Honor Levy, their dynamic is perfect. Pearce’s stoner bro nonchalant humor pairs perfectly with Levy’s overanxious awkwardness and panic. They are on another hiatus, which gives you plenty of time to catch up with all their previous episodes.
art from Vox’s excellent millennial cringe article
Vibe Shift Discourse
Sean Monahan invented the term “normcore” sometime last decade. This time he brings us the term “vibe shift.” As he recently explained, a vibe shift transcends micro-trends and fast-fashion. In February, a Cut article about the vibe shift got the ball rolling. One of the primary reasons was the schadenfreude of reading an elder millennial’s fear of aging out. This month, Vox published a wonderful analysis of how exactly millennials became so cringe. The short of it: when millennial culture was evolving, it was before the Internet became ubiquitous with the rise of mobile phones. As being online became less of a personality, millennial memes and joke formats were run down to the inner core of the earth.
Though fast fashion and micro trends make it more difficult to say what is replacing cheugy chic, it is easier to say what is out of style, much like in the early ‘80s, America seemed divided by synth pop and corporate FM rock but disco was definitely dead.
Other Great Films
Barbarian
We Are All Going to the World’s Fair
Blonde
Other Great Shows
We Own This City
Severance
Stranger Things
Other Great Musicians
RXK Nephew
Blaketheman1000
Lana Del Rey
Thanks...basically it means millennial cringe.
Just realized that "cheugy" is the word I heard for the first time over drinks with co-workers ~2 years ago and thought was spelled "choogy." Still don't know what it means, not sure I want to. Enjoying this Stack.