Random Most Underrated Movies Of 2022 (19 items)

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  (#1) Fall

  • Grace Fulton, Ginny Gardner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Mason Gooding, Julia Pace Mitchell, Jasper Cole

  If you're even remotely afraid of heights, Fall will have you squirming and gripping the armrest of your chair for 107 minutes. Grace Caroline Curry and Virginia Gardner play adventure-seeking besties who decide to climb an abandoned 2,000-foot-high television tower out in the middle of nowhere. Upon reaching the narrow platform at the top, the ladder breaks, leaving them stranded way up in the air, with no means of getting down. They come up with ways to signal for help, most of which entail dangling from that platform. Fall seemed primed to become a late-summer sleeper hit, but audiences - presumably recognizing the premise was going to be viscerally intense - didn't materialize to any significant degree.

  That's a shame because this is one of the most harrowing cinematic experiences you will ever have. It works for two reasons. First, the illusion that Curry and Gardner are 2,000 feet in the air is totally convincing. You watch in constant fear of their characters plunging to their deaths. The other reason is that the actresses provide the concept with a human element. The friendship between these women is tested during their ordeal, and the stars bring that to life. Fall is such a non-stop nerve-rattler that it's impossible not to breathe a sigh of relief when it's over. 
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  (#17) Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

  • Jack Black, Bill Wise, Lee Eddy, Milo Coy, Natalie L'Amoreaux, Josh Wiggins, Sam Chipman, Jessica Brynn Cohen, Danielle Guilbot, Zachary Levi, Glen Powell, Mona Lee Fultz, Samuel Davis, Brian Villalobos, Nick Stevenson

  Apollo 10 ½ : A Space Age Childhood faced some definite challenges in getting noticed. It's an animated feature, but not a traditionally-animated one. It's fine for the whole family, yet not aimed primarily at kids. Those factors seemed to limit its ability to break out, no matter how hard critics praised it. The 1969 moon landing is the subject, and it's told, in large part, from the POV of a young boy from Texas who dreams of someday becoming an astronaut.

  Director Richard Linklater returned to the groundbreaking “rotoscope” form of animation that he successfully used in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Several years of additional developments have made it look even cooler now than it did then. Apollo 10 ½ is also a great portrait of childhood wonder, and of the ability of kids to feel inspired by amazing things happening in the world. Linklater based the film on his own childhood experiences, and that personal touch comes across meaningfully.
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  (#14) A Love Song

  • Dale Dickey, Wes Studi, Michelle Wilson, Benja K. Thomas, John Way, Marty Grace Dennis, Sam Engbring, Scout Engbring, Gregory Hope, Jesse Hope

  You may not know their names, but you've seen Dale Dickey and Wes Studi in lots of movies. The veteran character actors come front and center in A Love Song, one of the most touching screen romances of 2022. They play Faye and Lito, long-ago lovers who reunite at a campground after reconnecting online. They have no clue whether the old magic can be recaptured, but they do have memories and hope - a combination potent enough to make it worth trying. Older adults have been more reluctant to return to theater-going in the wake of COVID-19. Since this is a picture aimed squarely at that demographic, A Love Song couldn't find any traction at the box office. In pre-COVID times, it probably would have been an arthouse hit, though. 

  The beauty of the story is in its subtlety. There's no formal plot here. We just watch these two people feel each other out as they try to reignite an old spark. Dickey and Studi give touching, deeply nuanced performances that create drama from the scenario. The stars make it clear what's at stake for the characters they play. Faye and Lito are older and, in their own ways, wounded. This could be their last shot at finding love. Everything builds to a finale guaranteed to give you all the feels. A Love Song lets two very good actors dive deep into their characters, and it's incredibly satisfying. 
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  (#16) Crimes of the Future

  • Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, Yorgos Pirpassopoulos, Tanaya Beatty, Nadia Litz, Lihi Kornowski, Denise Capezza

  David Cronenberg got famous making “body horror” movies like Videodrome and Scanners. Crimes of the Future marked his return to that subgenre after many years away. The film's incessant weirdness and icky visuals were made quite clear by the advertising, likely driving away viewers who didn't know what to make of something so outside-the-box. Viggo Mortensen plays Saul, a performance artist whose body grows unnecessary internal organs, and Lea Seydoux is his partner, who surgically removes them onstage. Kristen Stewart is also here, playing a bureaucrat whose job is to keep tabs on people with such organ-developing abilities. 

  Crimes of the Future proves Cronenberg hasn't lost his touch. There are many wonderfully squirm-inducing moments in the film, one of which involves an erotic encounter between a woman and the gaping wound on Saul's abdomen. It's not all gross-out stuff, either. The movie has a wickedly dark sense of humor that it uses to satirize performance art and explore themes related to the evolution of the human body. It's a unique, eccentric work from a master filmmaker.
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  (#8) Kimi

  • Zoë Kravitz, Byron Bowers, Rita Wilson, Robin Givens, India de Beaufort, Emily Kuroda, Jaime Camil, Alex Dobrenko, Derek DelGaudio, Charles Halford, Jacob Vargas, Erika Christensen, Devin Ratray

  Once upon a time, any new Steven Soderbergh movie would have been a major deal. Kimi, on the other hand, ended up on HBO Max. Consequently, many people didn't even know he had a new work released in 2022. Zoë Kravitz plays Angela Childs, a Seattle tech worker who battles agoraphobia, a fear of going outside. She uncovers evidence of a crime, but in order to do something about it, she will have to leave home. 

  That premise obviously sets up two levels of tension. On one, she's got to do something about this crime. On the other, her mental illness could foil her efforts at any time. Soderbergh gets maximum mileage from that dual idea, while also providing Kimi with a tight pace. (It's only 89 minutes long.) Kravitz continues her streak of interesting, edgy performances, earning our empathy right off the bat and holding it throughout. The next time you're in the mood for a taut, punchy thriller, Kimi is a good bet. 
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  (#9) Studio 666

  • Whitney Cummings, Leslie Grossman, Will Forte, Jenna Ortega, Jeff Garlin

  Studio 666 is an unusual horror-comedy, in that it doesn't star professional actors. Instead, it stars rock band Foo Fighters, whose members play themselves. That uniqueness makes it fun, but it also made the movie a difficult sell. There was a misconception that it was only for Foo Fighters fans, not for the general horror crowd. If you're familiar with the band, it's even more fun, although it can easily be enjoyed by anyone who likes that mixture of gore and humor. 

  The Foos rent out a “haunted” house to record their latest album. While there, leader Dave Grohl becomes possessed by a demon and begins murdering his bandmates. The plot is as simple as that. As actors, the musicians acquit themselves nicely. Studio 666 has plenty of awesomely gory kills that any horror buff will be impressed by. They make you laugh and squirm simultaneously. Grohl's situation additionally allows the movie to mock the rock star ego and excess. Even if you couldn't name a single Foo Fighters song, Studio 666 is a horror-comedy that delivers both halves of that equation in hard-rocking, fist-pumping style.

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