I’ve not done a ‘best of year’ list before but thought I’d have a stab this time – and do it across films, TV literary fiction and nonfiction. These are lists of my favourites/best viewed or read in the past year, not necessarily works that appeared in 2022 or in rank order (2022 UK release unless otherwise dated).
Many ‘film of the year’ lists are filled with titles those who do not attend festivals have not yet had the chance to see, which is why I’m with those who go by the year’s viewing rather than film year (and I’m not great at catching them on theatrical release anyway). For novels, I much prefer paperbacks to hard covers (and wouldn’t read for pleasure on kindle), so usually have to wait (far too long, in my opinion) for that option to become available. Nonfiction tends to be related to work and so depends on when I happen to be reading up on any particular topic. I also often watch TV series behind time, when they’ve accumulated more episodes, so in all cases ‘experienced during it’ makes more sense for me than from the last year.
Films
Aftersun (even if I didn’t see it until just now, early Jan 2023)
Decision to Leave
Petite Maman (2021)
Elena (2011)
Slow West (2015)
Lamb (2021)
TV
Succession S3
We Own This City
Severance
Dopesick (2021)
Dark (2017-2020)
Squid Game
Russia 1985-1999: Trauma Zone
Literature
The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, M. John Harrison (2020)
The Boiled In Between, Helen Marten (2020)
The Age of Wire and String, Ben Marcus (1995)
Weather, Jenny Offill (2020)
The Long Take, Robin Robertson (2018)
Nonfiction
Stuff, Daniel Miller (2009)
Globalization and Culture: Global Melange, Jan Nederveen Pieterse (4th edition 2019)
The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity and the Birth of the Human Sciences, Jason Ananda Josephson Storm (2017)