As certain as there is a yearly selection of cheerful, yuletide merriments to go along with the frostbitten, theater-stricken audiences, so too do there seem to now be other forms of reliable content to establish itself every December. Whether it be self-aware horror – goreful parody charmers the likes of “Violent Night” and “The Menu;” gigantic, expectation-defying blockbuster ralliers presented by our James Camerons and Ryan Cooglers; odes to industry personalities seeking heartful attention from a more sentimental crowd with pleas to Whitney Houston’s anthemic legacy or a funeral for Dwayne Johnson’s superhero career. Altogether, theaters felt subjugated to competition from a league beyond the usual genre-fare, studios and distributors picking their respective niches and fighting for them.
The healthy domestic in-fighting still cannot shield us from the awards-season rallying call – prestige documentaries alongside Brendan Fraser under prestige degrees of makeup. The spectacular, the tearful, the memorable can come from any direction. The trouble then comes from blocking out audience’s attention, assuring they witness the product before its timely theatrical window expires, else they hear about such treasures when the guilds and Globes have already come and gone.
Here are the Top 20 Holiday movie moments that closed out 2022 with aplomb, a range of streaming highlights and Oscar-fodder, international charmers and non-fiction showstoppers alike.
Holiday Season 2022 considers films released theatrically in Los Angeles from November 4, 2022 thru January 5, 2023. This list contains light Spoilers where unavoidable in the description only.
20. Holy Spider: The foot
dir. Ali Abbasi
A simple shot of a bare foot – Saeed Hanaei (Mehdi Bajestani) notices a lone piece of a dead body sticking out from a rolled carpet in his hallway. Needless to say, he had been so hasty to cover up a sex worker’s corpse before distracting his wife with spontaneous lovemaking. Saeed’s neglect finally shows through, bleeding his irrationality into the thriller discourse “Holy Spider” hasn’t been so heavy-handed in depicting and clarifying thus far. It’s an amusing, bizarre, shocking image in a film that has no short time to spare viewers down its seedy underbelly of a spiraling journey through the afflictions of an indignant humanity.
19. Broker: The ferris wheel
dir. Hirokazu Koreeda
Singer-songwriter IU owns her role as So-young, a misguided new mother, led off the beaten path only to be misguided further by her confusing new company. Early on in the film, every word she utters is spiked with a complex indifference to anyone but her child. But before Koreeda’s plot resolves, she silently transforms into a rooted family member of ostensible passion. Dong-soo holds his gaze against hers, cut by a breath – then a tight grip, a hidden intensity, a tearful sentiment. They’ve reached the ferris wheel’s peak, hand-in-hand together, before they can begin to descend.
18. Sr.: “Had you two met before?”
dir. Chris Smith
In a way, it is the most predictable moment of Smith’s Downey-Downey retrospective. Robert, Jr. takes his son to visit their family patriarch’s bedside, onset with Parkinson’s, a figure slowly and selectively disintegrated throughout the documentary in physical health only. On the brink of a conclusive deal with his legacy on Earth, Downey, Sr. still laughs, still muses about the language of art and camera, still lauds his son’s obvious talents, admiring not his work but his demeanor for creations. The target of these words don’t, and didn’t matter, but a Nick Drake cue makes it hard not to wistfully lie on.
17. Bad Axe: The trucks
dir. David Siev
Among many abhorrent moments the Siev family has to endure, the most unnerving follows the most unpredictable motives. Following days of conflict between the restauranteurs and their more conservative Michigan neighbors, the family’s younger daughter Raquel Siev begins to notice teenagers following her route home at night. It’s the first direct contact the Sievs meet with the unknown that feels meant for them – a community outside of their grasp, a cautionary tale not yet written, an unsteadiness behind their leadership, within a documentary that excels when the unknowable becomes the unbearable.
16. The Eternal Daughter: Birthday dinner
dir. Joanna Hogg
The root of Hogg’s very refined form of haunted discourse is the suspicion there may not be anything coming from out of the ghostly, bespoke hallways at all. Turning a mirror to one’s own monster is a feat in itself, but the great trick of “The Eternal Daughter” is doing it twice over – even the snarky hotel waiter can’t hold a finger to the weight of Tilda Swinton ‘celebrating’ opposite herself, hurt reflected upon hurt, confusion infinitely spiraling like a mirror seeing backward onto itself.
15. Black Notebooks: Ronit: Feeding lines
dir. Shlomi Elkabetz
A diary of final moments, achievements and accomplishments, Schlomi Elkabetz captures an astounding moment of invigorating candidness from his late sister Ronit on her final acting project, feeding her lines on the set of “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.” Ronit commands a vitriolic rage in her quick scene here, one that borrows into the turmoil of her character in “Gett” – but in Schlomi’s loving commemoration piece, plays a more ringing endorsement of what his filmmaking partner was capable of. “Black Notebooks” frequently depicts Ronit at the brink of her life questioning her identity, though for these all-too-powerful minutes, her stardom is incontestable.
14. Glass Onion: The flashback
dir. Rian Johnson
An example of a more complicated function of this list – not necessarily the most exciting, or even satisfying scene in the film, but the one on which the emotional crux lies. Tying back to the film’s opening scenes, Johnson brings Janelle Monáe back to life as Helen Brand, a desperate southerner with no one to turn but the world’s greatest detective. Johnson consistently makes use of good rug pulls throughout his work, but such an outlandish premise can only ride one tunnel of purpose: to give Monáe, now the empathic catalyst against a manifestation of capitalist evil, her biggest red carpet to date.
13. Avatar: The Way of Water: Payakan
dir. James Cameron
Time-bending, world-constructing, budget-decimating splendor – it’s all Cameron knows how to do. His hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of special effects go to great use in the second act of his “Avatar” sequel, but he saves his heaviest punch for one entrance in particular. Lo’ak Sully discovers a savage beast strayed from his pack, a desperado male whale he finds a communication line with. It takes a few scenes before their mutual pain entirely sheds, but their immediate connection shines brighter than the Pandoran sun off the oceanic surface.
12. EO: The horse trailer
dir. Jerzy Skolimowski
The cinematography of “EO” has been rightfully heralded in every possible way, across the global spectrum. Michal Dymek films a world from EO’s eyes, on occasion all too literally, for all the raw elements that make up our disheveled civilization. As EO rides in the back of a carriage, peering to the roaming, muscular horses out in the fields, the film’s natural-welfare perspective glistens like the reflections in the donkey’s pupils, a uncharacterizable self-consciousness supplanted onto Earth’s background screen.
11. UN Couple: The monologue
dir. Frederick Wiseman
A cheat of a selection. Wiseman’s first-ever narrative film is, in actuality, a single scene: Sophia Tolstaya (Nathalie Boutefeu) recites excerpts from her writings, embounding a story of lustful love and passionate struggle while the camera follows. Briefly interrupted by nothing more than nature at play, Leo Tolstoy’s marriage is broken down into calm, slow and sincere drama over roughly 60 minutes of runtime. Wiseman is never more delicate than when he is filming the undisturbed – not that Sophia’s words could be taken for anything less than the raw truth.
10. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio: “Ciao Papa”
dir. Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson
Not the most immediately intriguing moment in del Toro’s long-coming passion project (see: Pinocchio’s encounter with the snide afterlife guardians), but the genre-bending director has always been closely connected with the heart he wears on his sleeves. When not guiding and glowing with emotional guidance, “Pinocchio” leads this particular Geppetto on a hopeless chase for restitution that searches beyond the boundaries of safety or livelihood. Gregory Mann’s yearning, angelic ballad to his father speaks for itself. They cannot be reunited in this life apparent – but maybe, one wonders, of the next.
9. Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical: “Revolting Children”
dir. Matthew Warchus
Long live the TikTok brand of celebratory musical number. Red Beret Girl, as she’s known, played by Meesha Garbett leading the charge – a tightly choreographed scene among a mountain of them, blowing most of the last decade’s worth of cinematic dance sequences out of the water with an army of richly talented uniformed kiddos. The longer the hallway, the longer the take, the more hypnotizing the shuffle step. It’s hard to believe the West End was able to contain such imagination to a stage.
8. Living: “The Rowan Tree”
dir. Oliver Hermanus
There is no shame in the biggest swings of Hermanus’ Akira Kurosawa remake, itself an adaptation of Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” being replicated from the past. When it works it works – several beats are lifted, along with their emotional stakes, to allow Bill Nighy the chance to anchor what serves better a lifetime achievement reception. The most culturally significant pull in “Living” sees Nighy swashing an old Irish folk song to a bemused, wistful crowd. Context is everything in many of these choices, but to Nighy’s recognition, rarely with so much poignance.
7. Retrograde: Evacuating Kabul airport
dir. Matthew Heineman
“Retrograde” is filled with discordant rhymes and rhythms. At the beginning of Heineman’s unbelievably on-the-ground account, multiple factions are shown leaving a main flyaway base in Afghanistan – whether it be reluctant and regretful Green Beret soldiers or late-coming, torturous footage of the country’s citizens. At the peak of the movie’s third act, after nearly an hour of perilous footage of a nation out of options, comes the most harrowing repetition: children being handed over, papers being thrust into the arms of the helpless, a bottled-up world on the brink of scripted desecration.
6. Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb: Ending
dir. Lizzie Gottlieb
You can’t create a more demanding lens than the one these two literary giants peer through every time they even think about each other. Through numerous dimensions of context, the ending becomes all the more impressive: the two Roberts know that so far into their careers, it may only be mortality that separates their distinct identities. “Turn Every Page,” a project of Robert Gottlieb’s daughter, acknowledges the same, disintegrating to the smallest, immediate stakes. A muted reunion, a whimsical jazz score, a legacy inscribed on mounds of paper, and at least one (1) number two (#2) pencil.
5. Bones and All: Jake & Brad
dir. Luca Guadagnino
A dark intensity surrounds Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee’s (Timothée Chalamet) new company – two unearthly boys donning the costume of feral men, speaking of shared cravings, harsh origins and invisible intentions. Michael Stuhlbarg, no stranger to Guadagnino scene-stealing, carries a presence that makes even this teen-romantic cannibalism tale stop in its tracks – like the obliviously heartstruck leads, a bit too lost on the edge of darkness, not thinking too hard about where to go next. But certainly, away from here.
4. The Quiet Girl: Ending
dir. Colm Bairéad
Bairéad’s gentle tale of growth & understanding within one’s own identity hinges consistently on guidance & expectation. The final shot, nay interaction, that concludes “The Quiet Girl” is one viewers may see coming from miles away. That doesn’t take away from the profound, patient measures these endearing family figures take to get here. As Cáit (Catherine Clinch) runs back to embrace her surrogate father, she utters the quietest plea, befitting of her character, no disconnected from the commanding portrayal Bairéad has directed with thus far. What concludes our story in turn concludes hers. So why does the future feel so devastating?
3. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed: Barbara
dir. Laura Poitras
Under Poitras’ guidance, a broad selection of photographs woven to fit artist and activist Nan Goldin’s story becomes anthological. Stories with their own rise, fall, twists and conclusions are fluently placed among other arcs and histories. They all come into connection with Nan’s life and hard-fought goals, but none more so than the tragedy of her late sister Barbara Holly Goldin, who is documented by medical professionals as having “seen the future” – among other things.
2. Women Talking: Census
dir. Sarah Polley
Perfectly fitting that the most interesting sequence in Polley’s recourse for the rehabilitation of feminine strength & heroism is not only devoid of pessimism or pain, but practically gleeful. A passing truck signals a great disruption for the time-dislocated Mennonite colony – a modern-day US census count is taking place, for all willing participants. August Epp (Ben Whishaw), the only citizen with a touch for the outside world’s culture, peeks out toward the light from within a farmhouse built on conflict and confusion. For August, ever thoughtful and forward-looking, is often both a daydreamer and a believer.
1. The Fabelmans: Prom
dir. Steven Spielberg
Without context, the post-prom breakdown of Sammy Fabelman’s character, relationships, and youthfully innocent connection to his art is Gabriel LaBelle’s most formidable acting showcase, angered and dazed by his own Godlike machinations. Sammy and Logan’s (Sam Rechner) final scene, an obdurate witness making contact with an infallible creator, serves a greater thesis to the fifty years of distance between their real-life squabble – a head full of pictures and dreams can be wrung dry for ideas, even played for laughs, but it cannot be mistaken for disingenuous. Spielberg’s been teaching us this entire time, and he’s been nothing if not in complete control.
Honorable Mentions:
Alice, Darling (dir. Mary Nighy), Corsage (dir. Marie Kreutzer), Drishyam 2 (dir. Abhishek Pathak), Leonor Will Never Die (dir. Martika Ramirez Escobar), Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (dir. Alek Keshishian)
The writer of Top 20 Holiday Movie Moments is a full-time employee for DreamWorks Animation, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures. The DreamWorks release “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” was removed from consideration for this article.
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