Good morning, and a very happy final day of 2022!
I’ve been seeing lots of posts going around about freeing one’s self from the need to list and rank everything at the end of one year and start of the next. It’s a noble goal; it may be me someday, but it is certainly not me today. I was fortunate enough to read, watch, and experience an embarrassment of artistic riches (and all eight Jackass movies) this year. Of course I want to share them.
The three categories - books, films, and live performances - are all ranked on slightly different criteria, which all made sense for the way I approach the different mediums. I rarely read books the year they’re released because the to-be-read list is always too long (though two 2022 titles made my top 10 this year, so this may have to change!). With film writing, I do my best to keep up with current releases on the UK theatrical and festival calendars, but I have missed some huge titles I hope to catch early in 2023. And I find the larger theatre category quite hard to rank - perhaps because it’s so broad, but I don’t yet see enough to rank my top 10 operas, ballets, and plays separately - so it’s just the top 10 performances which have stood out and stuck with me.
I may go into detail on some or all of them as I start exploring new topics in next year’s blogging, but for now, here’s the run-down.
Favourite Books read in 2022:
Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
O Caledonia (Elspeth Barker)
Tell Me I'm Worthless (Alison Rumfitt)
The Magic Mountain (Thomas Mann)
Death and the Penguin (Andrey Kurkov)
The Reluctant Empress (Brigette Hamann)
Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir)
The Leopard (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa)
Manhunt (Gretchen Felker-Martin)
Devil House (John Darnielle)
Honourable mentions (re-reads): The Quiet American, The Secret History, The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories
Favourite 2022 Film Releases:
Cyrano (Joe Wright)
Elvis (Baz Luhrmann)
Nope (Jordan Peele)
Please Baby Please (Amanda Kramer)
Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)
Benediction (Terence Davies)
Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)
The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg)
Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro)
Jackass Forever (Jeff Tremaine)
Honourable mention (released 31 December 2021): Titane (Julia Ducournau)
Honourable mentions (pre-2022, first watches): The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, In the Heat of the Night, The Damned, Flashdance, Man With a Movie Camera, Jackass 1-3.5
Favourite Live Performances seen in 2022:
(chronologically ordered, not ranked, not including productions I was involved with)
The Scandal at Mayerling (Scottish Ballet)
Lohengrin (Royal Opera House)
King Lear (Shakespeare's Globe)
Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci (Royal Opera House)
Fountains of Rome / Carmina Burana (EIF Opening Concert)
Rusalka (Garsington Opera at EIF)
John Luke Roberts: In a World Just Like Our Own, But... (EdFringe)
South Pacific (National Tour)
Werther (Wiener Staatsoper)
Andrea Chénier (Wiener Staatsoper)
Honourable mention: watching the walk-outs during a concert version of Salome (EIF)
That’s a wrap on 2022. Wishing you all a lovely time tonight sending off the year and a very hopeful, joyful New Year tomorrow.