John Waters kicks off an already swinging 'Top Ten Season'
Friday, December 2, 2022 at 8:46PM by Nathaniel R
It's the most wonderful time of the year. No, not Christmas... "top ten season"!!! It's when we get to read so many different writers on what they valued most in a given year of entertainment (movies and otherwise). As per usual the festivities kicked off with director John Waters annual list for Film Forum. He places François Ozon's Peter Von Kant up top.
By far the best movie of the year. Fassbinder’s classic lesbian melodrama is appropriated and remade as a gay Frenchman’s love letter to the original version. Hilariously stilted, often overwrought, but always highly entertaining.
The enthusiasm is a smidge confounding...
While it's often illuminating and/or fun to see filmmakers riff on other filmmakers, Peter Von Kant isnt exactly flattered by hanging on so obsessively to a classic like The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. What's more Ozon's been to this particular highly-specific well before with his similar but superior Fassbinder adaptation, Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000). Both films are set entirely in one apartment and involve a rich gay man and his volatile relationship with his young twink lover while the fabulous women in their life pop in to visit them from time to time.
But that's a nitpick. We always love reading Waters' list. The King of Filth is impossible to predict as you never know what he's seen. His top ten generally include a mix of theatrical releases, festival only films, and one or two titles you've never heard of, even if you're the kind of person who follows film incessantly. The 'what's that?' inclusions for me this year were Bruno Reinal Confessions of a Murderer (Vincent LePort) and Dinner in America (Adam Rehmeir). Be warned, though. Waters' caption for Bones and All (perhaps the most predictable choice on his list since the cannibal romance is both queer and in terrible taste) does include a spoiler of a scene that will otherwise take you by surprise.
P.S. If you're already jonesing for top ten lists...
ARMAGEDDON TIME
Richard Lawson has also revealed his at Vanity Fair which includes acclaimed pictures like All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Saint Omer. His write-up of James Gray's Armageddon Time is particularly sharp.
Alissa Wilkinson at Vox has also released her list, a top 25, which includes Armageddon Time, Jackass Forever, Nope, Emily the Criminal, and TÁR among obviously many others.
Empire Magazine has a top 20, from their collective staff writers, stretching from viking epic The Northman through the multiverse madness of Everything Everywhere All At Once. Since they're a very mainstream magazine they make room for titles like Prey and The Batman. Since they're located in the UK, they have different release schedules so there are a handful of 2021 holdovers on the list including Red Rocket and our beloved The Worst Person in the World.
The Indiependent also polled their staff for a top 20. The popular David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream and the phenomenally successful Top Gun Maverick are featured. The most shocking inclusion must be the whodunnit comedy See How They Run.
Finally, Cahiers du Cinema has also shared their list which is topped by the festival title Pacification (not yet released in the US) and includes Jordan Peele's Nope and Richard Linklater's animated nostalgia piece Apollo 10 1/2
Reader Comments (4)
In recent years I've been watching mostly spanish language films (principally from México) that I feel a little disconnected of this lists, is a good reminder that I have to watch more recent foreign language films but also makes me want to do my own list of mexican films released in México in 2022.
the only movies that are locked in my future top 10 are Everything Everywhere All At Once and Nope. All Quiet on the Western Front has a good shot of also staying there, when dust settles...
I always look forward to John Waters' list. His picks tend to have really unique perspectives and a lot of layers to chew through. I hadn't even heard of most of his list this year, so I'm excited to dig into them more.
The most surprising choice John Waters has included on one of his top 10 lists in recent years was The Trial of the Chicago 7, which is just so far outside his usual wheelhouse that I initially thought it was a cheeky joke when I saw he included it. But that’s what I love about his lists, just like you said: they’re completely unpredictable. And that’s really refreshing when it seems like way too many top 10 lists function more as Oscar predictions with just a tiny bit of Oscar wish fulfillment thrown in for color.
Very much looking forward to John Waters’s return to directing too!