Weekend Watchlist | Favorites From 2022

Now that 2022 has come and gone, it’s time to look back and see which films were our favorites.

Strange World (Disney+) // Sinéad McDevitt, Digital Manager

I’ll be honest — I will watch anything with an airship. I never grew out of my steampunk phase and I decided I was going to check this movie out as soon as I saw the D23 trailer that opened with a big ol’ airship coming down on a farm. And it does indeed have airships, which I was very satisfied with. If you’ve taken Professor Hannah Johnson’s Steampunk course or just really like a good Flash Gordon homage, you should watch this movie.

For everyone else, this film follows Searcher Clade (Jake Gyllenhaal), a farmer who lives in a small, isolated community. Years ago he discovered a revolutionary power source that is now dying out. So he, his wife (Gabrielle Union), son (Jaboukie Young-White) and a crew go in search of the cause of the problem. In the process they stumble into the titular “Strange World” and find Searcher’s father, Jager Clade (Dennis Quaid). As the group sets out on a long and arduous journey, Searcher must reconcile his troubled relationship with his father and find a way to be a good father to his own son.

This movie is action packed, heartfelt and made for Steampunk nerds looking to get a fix, so for all those reasons, I highly recommend it.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Paramount+) // Patrick Swain, Senior Staff Writer

This is the best movie to take place partially within an office building since “Die Hard.” It’s a story about the madness hiding in the margins of the mundane. It begins with a laundromat owner juggling scores of stressors. An IRS audit coats her kitchen table with a sea of papers and receipts. Wonky washers and crass customers chip away at her patience, while her disjointed family has their priorities elsewhere. Our protagonist wheels her elderly father and boxes of tax forms into an elevator — the last sight we see before this movie goes completely bonkers, bananas and off-its-rocker crazy.

In a split second, we’re launched from a dreary tale of taxes and laundry into a multiverse melee of kung fu, googly eyes and hot dog fingers. Our unlikely hero embarks on an interdimensional odyssey to save the world. Chaos and cosmic nihilism menace the fabric of the universe — but amid this preposterous premise, the protagonist finds power in the familiar, not the fantastical.

“Everything Everywhere All At Once” is an immensely eccentric, fun film whose scope is as broad as its title. Spectacular visuals and impeccable costume design accent an exhilarating ode to the imagination. Hey, is anyone else craving a bagel?

The Northman (Amazon Prime) // Nicholas Simila, Staff Writer

Most of us had to read Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at one point in high school and are intimately familiar with the titular protagonist’s constant moping. Although, to be fair, his father was murdered, so he’s entitled to some grieving. Based on the same legend that inspired the Shakespeare play, Robert Eggers’ “The Northman” turns this popular conception on its head and offers a fresh take on an old tale.

A young prince Amleth flees home after a brutal coup led by his uncle results in the death of his father and the kidnapping of his mother. He swears to avenge his father and save his mother by killing his uncle. Years later, he learns that his uncle was deposed from the throne that he had stolen, and is now a common shepherd. Looking to follow through on his promise, Amleth poses as a slave on his uncle’s farm in order to finally take vengeance.

This is a brutal film about how far one man will go to right past wrongs. It also deals with the question of fate and whether any of us are able to escape it — or if fate is just the will of man. Although Amleth is a violent warrior, love drives him, and Alexander Skarsgård’s performance cements this film as an instant classic.