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Best and Worst Films from September 2022

Best Films from September 2022:

3. The Silences of the Palace

This month marked the first half of my African Cinema Marathon, where I watched a major movie from each African country. As a result, two of the three best films for this month came from this continent. This Tunisian drama is slowly paced, but emotionally investing and highly melancholic in its tone. It deals with an interesting period in this country’s history while benefiting from an elegant structure and strong dreamlike atmosphere throughout.

2. The Trial

One of the most underrated movies that Orson Welles directed is The Trial, an adaptation of the eponymous Franz Kafka novel. He did wonders for this story by making it very cinematic and epic in its tone. The production design, cinematography and score are all mesmerizing here. The standout was Anthony Perkins, who has rarely been better than he was in this truly outstanding performance.

1. The Nightingale’s Prayer

The Nightingale’s Prayer was one of the biggest surprises in recent memory for me. This late fifties Egyptian melodrama could rival the best that Hollywood produced during this period as it’s not only cinematic, but genuinely powerful in its central male-female power dynamic. It’s a classic story that ends tragically, but it’s elevated by outstanding dialogue, a wonderfully playful nature to it and excellent acting performances. It is an underrated gem of world cinema.

Worst Films from September 2022:

3. Beast

Beast was just such a mediocre movie that was highly entertaining for sure and Idris Elba is always likable, but the behavior of the lion here was highly unreasonable and all of the situations in the movie were so ridiculous. It’s a fun, but silly movie that was elevated by solid cinematography and nothing else.

2. What About Bob?

This is one of the most overrated comedies from the nineties as it’s never as funny as it thinks it is. In fact, the movie and its protagonist are deeply unlikable and unfunny. It’s a childish flick that looks and sounds very dated nowadays with the psychological insight to its characters resembling that of a three-year old.

1. Pinocchio

They did it. Disney went out and remade ‘Pinocchio’. The end result is this incredibly unnecessary, mediocre movie that looks and sounds bad and all the minor additions that they included were pointless. The ending was good, I will give it that, but everything else was an insult to what was one of the best movies of all time that never needed a remake.