Anthony Pantalone, Editor

With the recent release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the Marvel Cinematic Universe now touts thirty-one movies and eight television shows released over a span of almost fifteen years. While its newest film, “Quantumania”, is being critically maligned for a variety of reasons, this article will not be delving into any critiques or analyses of that film. People can dunk on Marvel for many things. If you’re Martin Scorsese, these movies represent the creatively bankrupt commodification of cinema and the destruction of the independent theater industry. Also, how Joss Whedon’s tongue-in-cheek writing has nearly ruined humor for all big studio blockbusters, for others, the breakneck pace of film and television show releases has created fatigue in even the most avid follower of this global franchise. I am not here to offer any substantial contributions to Marvel discourse. Simply put, there is not much left to say that hasn’t already been said much more eloquently by another person. What I will discuss, however,  is a problem that has plagued these movies for the last decade: color and color grading.

Color grading can have a positive, creative effect on films of any genre. In many movies, it can help establish a certain mood or atmosphere or be used as a creative tool for filmmakers. The film industry has played with color in shots since the dawn of color in cinema. On film, the process was referred to as “color timing” and has always been an important element of the filmmaking process. With the rise of digital filmmaking in the new millennium though, color grading has seen a monumental shift. As Emily St. James writes, colors in many films and television shows all now “have been pulled way back, giving everything a slightly washed-out appearance.”

Now the desaturated, “slightly washed out” look in modern digital color grading does not always have to be a weakness towards a film. This look again can be effectively employed to have a profound effect on the viewer. Denis Villenueve’s devastating sci-fi thriller “Arrival” appears mostly devoid of color yet makes this creative choice with purpose. In an effort to not spoil a movie that came out seven years ago, I won’t say exactly what happens in the movie. The desaturated grading though makes the viewer feel like they are in an ethereal trance—a dreamy state in which they can become unstuck in time like a Vonnegut character.

Arrival (dir. Denis Villenueve, 2016)

Also, color grading has been utilized in the past decade to great effect when specifically used to emphasize certain colors. A good example of this idea is the use of yellow in “Magic Mike”.

Magic Mike (dir. Steven Soderbergh, 2011)

Outdoor scenes in Magic Mike look like they were bleached yellow. Typically some of the only scenes in which this color grading is not noticeable is during performances at Mike’s club. Outside though, the yellow color palette bleeds through every shot and conveys the greed and instability of the recession era in which the film is set. The movie looking sun-bleached is supposed to make you as the viewer feel that something is off or amiss. It’s a creative choice to highlight the setting and themes of the story. For the protagonist Mike, his financial predicament prohibits him from doing what he truly wants to do, which is making furniture—even though he has the money to start a business. Instead he is forced to continue his life in the Florida male stripper scene where every single aspect of his life feels transactional and his body has been commodified by his employer. He therefore feels aimless and lost in this fast paced lifestyle. The color grading establishes that mood and feeling perfectly.

In the Coen Brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou”, digital color grading was seen as revolutionary as this motion picture used it to make the feel like the era in which it was set: the Great Depression.

O Brother, Where Art Thou (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, 2000)

In Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides”, color timing successfully captures a feeling of nostalgia for the 1970s and a dreamlike trance that permeates throughout the film.

The Virgin Suicides (dir. Sofia Coppola, 1999)

The issue with the Marvel movies though is desaturation. These movies should feel colorful and vibrant, but Marvel Studios’ color grading makes them feel bland. Video essayist Patrick H Willems made a video delving into the color grading of this franchise back in 2016, but the problem has only been exacerbated in the years since. The reason why they depend on such strong gray color grading is pretty simple. Cutting CGI costs. 

When a Marvel movie features messy or unfinished CGI, desaturating color in a shot is the method by which they get around this problem. It’s almost common knowledge at this point that Marvel overworks, underpays, abuses and even threatens to blacklist the VFX artists they contract. A lot of work is still being finished even up until the very day of release of a movie—and even in some cases after the film had already been released like with “Thor: Love and Thunder”. With a release schedule that has only continued to intensify in the past few years, unfinished CGI has become more noticeable in their films. Marvel utilizes it to help cover these costs while trying to make their films at least watchable still.

A prime example of this color grading and CGI having a negative effect on a good Marvel film is “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” which came out in September 2021. In what is otherwise a great movie, the entire third act of the film feels entrenched in a dark gray confusing cloud. This creative decision that negatively affects the film is due to the excessive amounts of CGI. Now they could have simply spent more money to make it look better, but that decision would not have been financially advantageous even though it radically hinders the film and the viewer experience. This decision is contributing to why audiences are growing fatigued with Marvel. More and more products for audiences to consume but with increasingly lesser visual quality.

One of the worst offenders of this color grading is Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The grayish color added in post-production as an extra layer of protection for the CGI simply makes everything feel blander and boring. Hulk’s color looks more grayish than green. The reds in the outfits of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man don’t pop visually on the screen even though they ideally should. Captain America’s shield looks almost completely gray. This shot of the main protagonists all together should feel exciting. And it doesn’t.

Anthony Pantalone, Editor

I have dragged this list out long enough, so now I am here to end it. The top five films in this list are all perfect 10-out-of-10s to me and were very difficult to comparatively rank. All in all, 2022 was a great year in film, and here is hoping that 2023 is nearly as great.

8. Nope

Jordan Peele’s filmography stands as one of the most exciting bodies of work in Hollywood today, and his movies get more interesting and exciting with each new entry. “Nope” is the Jordan Peele screenplay with the most depth compared to his first two films. This comparison does not mean his other two films are not incredible on their own. It is just obvious that Peele came out with so much to say with” Nope”. Speaking with forethought and diligence on the topics of the “othering” of black professionals in Hollywood, processing collective traumas, spectacle, the pandemic, and animals. Aside from Peele’s career screenplay work in “Nope”, this director shows off his skill as a blockbuster filmmaker. This movie also boasts some of the best cinematography and sound design of the year. And a great score from Michael Abels. Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya also stand out as two highlight performances among the cast. Kaluuya’s understated work in this role fits perfectly to how Peele wrote his character. It’s obvious at this point that Kaluuya is Jordan Peele’s creative muse akin to the De Niro-Scorsese creative relationship. For more, see my September 2022 review of “Nope”

7. All Quiet on the Western Front

I have to preface this with the statement that I am not overly fond of war movies. Most war movies are anti-war movies, but some feel like they glorify all this death and human suffering with tales of heroism and bravery. Like I get the point for some of them. Honestly, I do. Seeing a WWII veteran react to “Saving Private Ryan’s” Normandy scene is powerful. Still, I just never feel comfortable with the idea of accidentally glorifying war by propping up the genre of war movies. A portion of the genre always feels veiled in some layer of propaganda. Watching a movie with so much tragedy and death should make you feel deeply uncomfortable and miserable. And that is what “All Quiet on the Western Front” does. This film—just this past weekend—won the BAFTA for Best Picture. This movie’s score is incredible and strikes an uneasiness inside the viewer that aligns well with the content of the film. This film’s own historical and personal importance played a factor in its placement here among my best movies of the year. The 1929 book “All Quiet On the Western Front” and its 1930 film adaptation were landmark anti-war works internationally renowned and controversial during their release. In my own experience as a child, the scene in the mortar shell crater in which Paul fights and stabs an enemy French soldier to survive had a major effect on me. After this protagonist fatally injures the other soldier during their struggle he finds pictures of the soldier’s family and then breaks down—knowing that he is not up against a faceless enemy and is fighting other living breathing human beings with feelings, thoughts and people who love them. In retrospect, I should not have been watching a movie with such heavy subject matter at such a young age, but it showed me then how wrong the glorification of war was. This new adaptation is so successful for me personally, because it is almost as impactful as that experience with the original film. 

6. The Banshees of Inisherin

“The Banshees of Inisherin” is Martin McDonagh at the height of his screenwriting powers—pairing a grand melancholic Irish psychodrama about this nation’s violence in the 20th Century with a story of friendship and despair. The performances are incredible. People continue lauding Colin Farrell’s “You used to be nice” monologue and deservedly so. The four central characters to the story—Padraic, Colm, Siobhan, and Dominic—are all tragically written with precision and care, and Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan all respectively do a great job. For more on “Banshees”, check out my review from November 2022.

5. Bones and All

Luca Guadagnino’s first film in almost four years sees this director team up again with Timothee Chalamet—albeit with a much darker movie this time around. “Bones and All” might be a film about cannibals, but it is also a really effective blend of the romance and horror genres. It is probably one of the darkest films I have seen this year but also tonally one of the best. Set against the backdrop of the Midwest in Reagan-era America, cannibalism is used as a metaphor for “otherness.” The protagonist Maren—played by Taylor Russell—and Chalamet’s Lee have to come of age and traverse a rural America that is hostile to who they are on a fundamental level. They have to do all this while escaping other cannibals who wish harm to them. Among the haziness and horror of their existence, they find each other in what is one of the best films of the year. Guadagnino somehow makes you feel for and care about this romantic relationship while keeping you terrified. This feat luckily is carried out by this filmmaker who has already individually mastered the romance genre with “Call Me By Your Name” and the horror genre with “Suspiria”. In “Bones and All”, he combines the two.

4. Decision to Leave

“Decision to Leave” has more personality than almost any other movie to come out this year. Therefore, it was surprising to learn that Park Chan-wook’s newest film did not earn a Best International Film Academy Award nomination and was snubbed consistently despite widespread critical acclaim. Whether it is a fast paced police chase or a slow conversation, the film’s editing leaves you on the edge of your seat hanging onto every shot or every word. My November 2022 review of the film goes more in depth in what makes this film so great.

3. Petite Maman

I love Céline Sciamma. In a similar way that her last film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” feels like it consumes you in a slow, controlled burn, “Petite Maman” feels like the cinematic equivalent of a tender cathartic hug after crying really really hard. It is a movie that evokes the experience of getting hit with a cool fall breeze and feeling nostalgia for your entire childhood in a single moment. It tells the story of a young girl, Nelly, who meets a young girl in the woods after the death of her grandmother and the abrupt departure of her grieving mother. She soon comes to learn that the young girl is actually her mother in the past, and the film thus focuses on the friendship between the two girls. Costume design is a particular strong aspect of “Petite Maman” as the warm tones and colors of the outfits all create a warm, loving atmosphere that permeates throughout the movie. This warm, loving feeling thus contrasts with the theme of grief and loneliness that Nelly feels at the loss of her grandmother and feeling abandoned by her mother in the modern day. Essentially, this movie takes the premise of the question “Do you think you would have been friends with your parent at your age?” and then slowly wears down the audience emotionally until they feel raw and vulnerable.

2. Aftersun

“Aftersun”, director Charlotte Wells’ debut feature, is about the struggle of holding onto one’s memories of their parents. Wells analyzes the difficulty of reconciling one’s idealized view of their parent with the stark reality of who that parent actually is. The film’s story is about Sophie, an adult in the present who is looking back at home videos of a vacation with her father Calum when she was eleven. Her father is kind and loving, but Sophie is forced to grapple with the fact that her father was much a deeper and more complex person than she had ever imagined. He is thoughtful and cares about his daughter, but a deep, deep sadness and depression lies below throughout their trip. Sophie must contend with this fact as a new parent in the present day and think about how her father did as a parent. There is an intensely bittersweet feeling that emotionally wounds the audience when hit with this realization. Also, the depth of Calum is masterfully portrayed by Paul Mescal—who has earned an Oscar nomination for his first-ever leading role in a film. “Aftersun” went under the radar for many people this year and it should not have. It features the best use of a song in a movie all year with the Queen/David Bowie song “Under Pressure” in a scene in the film’s final minutes.

1. Everything Everywhere All at Once

While “Aftersun” may have given it a run for its money in this list, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” easily took my top spot this year. It was always going to be number one. This movie encompasses so many themes and ideas yet somehow never feels too clunky or bloated. You can notice the spark and desire to create something wholly original and from the heart. In terms of acting, I am not over-exaggerating when saying I would put my life on the line for Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh. They are national treasures. Above everything else, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the creative tour de force that audiences have needed amidst the bleak, increasingly hopeless reality we live in today. It is a piece of art that leaves you gracious for being where you are with the people you are there with. For more on my number one movie of the past year, read my April 2022 review of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. 

Movies I have not watched yet that could affect this list:

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio

The Woman King

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Women Talking

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

She Said

Close

Anthony Pantalone, Editor

On Feb. 9, I had the opportunity to attend a premiere screening of Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s new film “Somebody I Used To Know” and the next day speak to them about the film along with a panel of other college journalists. “Somebody I Used To Know” is the second film from the married creative duo of Franco and Brie in which Franco directs and Brie stars—the first being 2020’s horror-thriller “The Rental”. This movie—co-written by this couple—is a hard turn from the horror genre and is a romantic comedy that takes on all the classic notions of what a romantic comedy should be. 

“Somebody I Used To Know” tells the story of Ally (Alison Brie) who returns home amid roadblocks in her professional career. Once home, Ally is forced to contend with her own life decisions when faced with her ex Sean (Jay Ellis) and his soon-to-be wife Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons)—a woman who reminds the protagonist of who she used to be. It takes this tried and true concept and adds fresh, self-aware characters with modern sensibilities. 

Dave Franco, in his sophomore directorial feature, is well-known for his acting career—starring in such popular films as the “21 Jump Street” franchise alongside Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum and the “Neighbors” franchise with Zac Efron and Seth Rogan. Franco continues along this new chapter of his career—expanding the notion of how audiences perceive him with both this film and “The Rental”.  Alison Brie, most well-known for her previous role in the beloved sitcom “Community”, has become a successful leading actress, writer, and producer in her own right in recent years with 2020’s “Horse Girl” and 2022’s “Spin Me Round.” To its benefit, this film also features a great soundtrack, a reunion between two “Community” alums—Brie and Danny Pudi—and an incredible comedic performance from Haley Joel Osment. 

At this roundtable panel, I and other journalists from local universities had the chance to sit down with Franco and Brie and ask them a question about the movie and their filmmaking process. Here is the transcript of my discussion with them at the event:

Host: This is Anthony Pantalone from The La Salle Collegian.

Dave Franco: Hello.

Alison Brie: Hello. Lasallian… Lasallian rapscallion.

(laughs)

Anthony Pantalone: “Somebody I Used To Know” does a great job of subverting the romcom genre and the tropes that typically also come with it. Why was it important to challenge these tropes that come with romantic-comedies?

Franco: I think our intention with everything we work is try to bring something new to the table. Something you haven’t seen before. And that doesn’t mean completely reinventing the wheel, but we love romantic-comedies. And we used what we know and love about them to lead the audience down a certain path where they might think “Oh, I know where this is going” and then pull the rug out from underneath them every step of the way. So hopefully all the twists and turns do feel surprising and original. 

Brie: Yeah, I feel like it’s like that old adage “you need to know the rules to break the rules.” And that feels especially true of rom-coms, because people who love them really know the formula. People who hate them even really know the formula. That’s almost why they hate them. I think we took that as a challenge to be like, “Okay, can we make something that is at the same time an ode to the genre and also sort of the anti-rom-com at the same time. I think part of it just happened pretty organically over the course of writing [the film]. It’s not like we sat down and said, “Let’s make a rom-com but also…cool.” I think we genuinely love the genre and wanted to dive into it and as we followed the characters on their trajectories. And our style of what we gravitate towards is all character-driven, relationship-driven stories. As we delved into that, we wanted to make it as real as possible and sort of felt like characters in stories now—even they themselves—have seen all the rom-coms we’ve seen. So don’t they have that in their head too? We namecheck a lot of rom-coms and movies in general in this movie, because that’s a part of our vocabulary and how we speak to one another. So I think there was an organic nature to just following characters to their natural conclusions once we change one thing. Like the “Cassidy” character, the trope of the bride in a wedding rom-com. And we tuned into tweaking her character and sending her on a different trajectory. It shook everything up, and we kind of followed it.

Pantalone: Thank you.

“Somebody I Used to Know”—starring Alison Brie and directed by Dave Franco—is now available streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Anthony Pantalone, Editor

As a willing resident of Plato’s allegorical cave, I had the chance to see 53 of this past year’s newest shadows projected on the wall in front of me. 2022 was an incredible year for film—far stronger than both 2021 and 2020. Because this calendar year was so good at the cinema, I am listing and discussing my top fifteen films from 2022.

Honorable Mentions: After Yang, The Batman, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Cha Cha Real Smooth

15. RRR

“RRR” is an awe-inspiring cinematic spectacle. The action in this movie is indicative of what action should look and feel like in films in the present day. Not a bland CGI fight between two CGI characters in front of a green screen with harsh gray color grading. RRR’s action quite literally makes you say “Whoa” and be on the edge of your seat. S.S. Rajamouli serves as an obvious standout with some of the best work from an action movie director in the past decade. On top of that, this movie has multiple musical numbers, and they are all amazing.

Trigger Warning: mentions of suicide

14. On the Count of Three

Jerrod Carmichael has had a huge year. An Emmy for “Rothaniel,” his recent deeply personal comedy special. He also turned heads with jokes aimed at Scientology and the racism of the Hollywood Foreign Press while hosting the Golden Globes. Above all, he released his directorial debut, “On the Count of Three.” I had wanted to include it in my review round-up for summer 2022 but refrained due to the sensitive subject matter of this film. Because it deals with suicide, “On the Count of Three” is a very, very dark comedy. The premise focuses on two friends who have agreed to a suicide pact and have one last day before they die. It’s deeply depressing to say the least but also a really interesting premise. Carmichael plays with the idea of how dark a dark comedy can go. There are scenes that are incredibly intense and sad but are then undercut comedically by a Papa Roach song.

13. Avatar: The Way of Water

“Avatar: The Way of Water” features classic James Cameron blockbuster filmmaking on a grander scale than ever seen before, and it all somehow pays off in the end. This movie feels much bigger than the original Avatar film did in 2009. Special effects that have never looked as good before on the silver screen. Bigger set pieces. Also, a genuine story that is not a “Dances With Wolves” rip-off. Jake Sully is still a pretty dull character, but the time jump and family-focused story make him more interesting and helps the story in general. The children in this family are less boring than Jake; thankfully, Cameron focuses most of the film on them. “Way of Water” feels like Cameron firing on all cylinders in the best way possible. When I watch “Avatar”, I always feel like I’m just watching “Avatar”. This isn’t me saying that I don’t enjoy the first film, because I do think it is well-made and an important piece of cinematic history. With this movie though, I sometimes feel like I’m watching the best parts of “The Abyss” or “T2: Judgment Day”. It made me remember why so many audiences adore James Cameron as a filmmaker. He goes the extra mile with his work, and his movies always end up so exciting to watch. He is willing to fight tooth and nail with a studio executive over a long take of a huge whale because he knows that audiences want to be wowed with a great visual.

12. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

“Glass Onion” is great, and I wish it had a wider release in theaters. Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc returned in 2022 after the widespread acclaim of 2019’s “Knives Out” with a new mystery film that achieves the ideal feat of any sequel: being different from the original yet still feeling similar. The audience knows and likes the prolific detective Blanc and thus follows him as he deals with a new case. This formula works well and presents the opportunity for Johnson to keep making Benoit Blanc movies in the future. Some highlights that really stood out were the set design and costume. Similar to “Knives Out”, the sets were beautiful and intricately detailed. Various decorations of Miles Bron’s house highlight exactly who he is as a person. The Glass Onion as a metaphor for Bron’s own shallowness and stupidity despite his success. A huge mural of Kanye West from the “POWER” music video which has to allude to Bron’s own narcissism and delusions of grandeur. Hanging a Rothko painting blatantly upside down. In terms of costume design, dressing up Bron in the 90s like Tom Cruise in “Magnolia” is hilarious and again indicative of him as a person. He has never had an original thought in his head. He constantly grifts and steals from others whilst propping himself up as an “innovator.” I hope Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig make at least twenty more of these movies.

11. TÁR

With a great performance from Cate Blanchett and great direction from Todd Field, “TÁR” chronicles the dark spiral of a composer at the pinnacle of their field. Alongside Blanchett’s career work, the sound design stands out as a major highlight of the film. Seeing this film on a streaming service does not do it proper justice as the sound design in “TÁR” makes it so much better to watch in a theater. The film doesn’t have a score. Portions of it seem completely silent aside from dialogue. Any piece of music that is played feels explosive to the ears due to lack of score. There are random noises and sounds throughout the film that are mixed and edited so well that I genuinely thought they were coming from inside the theater. Also, this main character of the film is simply so compelling to watch and attempt to understand. Lydia Tár is a bad person, and the movie clearly is stating that you should not like her. She is a narcissist who manipulates almost every single person in her life for her own interests and goals. She grooms young employees while in a position of authority over them. She belittles and humiliates students who have any dissenting opinions. Tár even directly threatens to harm a child. Watching her downfall feels somewhat cathartic because of her wrongful actions, and you can’t take your eyes off it in the same way you can’t take your eyes off a trainwreck as it happens.

10. Babylon

I love a movie that feels grandiose and absolutely swings for the fences. That’s what “Babylon”—Damien Chazelle’s new film about Hollywood at the end of the silent film era—does. It looks with disdain towards every other movie about “the magic of cinema” or the mythology of Hollywood and the film industry. It’s obvious from this movie that Chazelle loves and is heavily inspired by Boogie Nights and Paul Thomas Anderson. I’m absolutely okay with that though, because I too love “Boogie Nights”. This writer-director approaches Hollywood and movies in “Babylon” in the same way that PTA approaches the porn industry in “Boogie Nights”. Hollywood takes people who have nothing but dreams and ambition and consistently exploits them until nothing remains. The people that do survive the experience are left as shattered husks of who they were before success. In addition, Tobey Maguire’s casting in this film was an inspired decision and reminds me of Alfred Molina’s role in “Boogie Nights”. His seedy underworld character is genuinely terrifying and—similarly to the Molina character—shows the protagonist how low he has fallen.

9. The Fabelmans

The divorce between Steven Spielberg’s parents is probably one of the most influential in cinema. Without it, we probably wouldn’t have “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, “Hook”, or “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.  “The Fabelmans” is Spielberg’s way of addressing it directly while also telling the story of his childhood. In the hands of any other creative or writer-director, dedicating an entire film to your own childhood would likely feel just vain and self-centered. Usually, it would feel like I am paying twenty dollars to go to a theater and watch someone try to process and solve their childhood traumas instead of that person going to therapy. Because it’s Spielberg, though, it feels different. No doubt about it, he is the greatest living American director and likely the most influential filmmaker of all time. In this context, it feels like a person at the end of their road or life looking back on their life and adolescence with maturity and the clarity that might come with getting older. Spielberg isn’t indicting either of his parents with his depiction of their divorce. It’s still charged with emotion but at its core acknowledges that their interpersonal relationships were complex and strenuous but full of love. This movie also has a David Lynch cameo where he wears an eye-patch and plays famed director John Ford—which is a welcome sight.

Anthony Pantalone, Editor

Television is often overlooked in the Arts and Entertainment section, but music is typically ignored almost entirely. In part, this exclusion is because I am far less versed in music than I am in film or television. This article, therefore, is allowing me to analyze and review some of the best (in my opinion) best projects released in 2022. There were a bunch of great projects this year. Frankly too many to discuss in their entirety in this article. So here are some of my personal favorites.

Kendrick Lamar- Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers

This pick is incredibly biased. While Mr. Morale is objectively one of the best albums to come out this year, my opinion here is very subjective because I am a big Kendrick Lamar fan. After five years, Kendrick finally returned to music for his final album with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2022, and the wait was more or less worth it. After ascending to the top of the rap world over the course of his four prior studio albums, this rapper had nearly no more mountains to climb. Now, Kendrick Lamar instead looks inward and reflects on himself as a person. “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers” is much more personal and vulnerable than anything this musician has shared before. The album functionally serves as a therapy session for Kendrick who is forcing himself to finally confront his flaws and the generational traumas haunting him. Throughout the course of the album and specific tracks, he explores his sex addiction and infidelities along with his fraught relationship with his father and toxic masculinity. Later, the rapper goes on to confront his own prior homophobia in “Auntie Diaries.” The album crescendos with “Mother I Sober” where Kendrick Lamar attempts to tie together his understanding of his own issues and feelings to break the generational curse of trauma. He needs to figure out why he is the way he is, so he can be a good father and not transfer his own pain and grief onto his children. In confronting traumas of sexual abuse from members of his family, he hopes to “set free” pent-up generational pain and grief in hopes to heal from it in the future. 

Beyoncé- RENAISSANCE

Similar to Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé also returned to music after a long absence in 2022 with “RENAISSANCE,” her first studio album since “Lemonade” in 2016. Everything about this album is incredible. Its celebration of past black music and culture. The flawless transitions between songs. The house music instrumentals. Bey is back, and she is proving yet again why she is the best at what she does. Every song matches a mood or feeling perfectly. “BREAK MY SOUL” channels all the pent-up energy and emotions of people who have persevered through the last few years of the COVID-19 pandemic. “ALIEN SUPERSTAR” is an otherworldly, one-of-a-kind song. “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA” is—in my opinion—one of the best-written love songs of the 21st century. “SUMMER RENAISSANCE” takes Donna Summer’s classic disco hit “I Feel Love” and reimagines it so that the genre of disco experiences its own renaissance in the modern day. Listening to it feels like joyful escapism, and Bey intended it that way. The idea behind the album was creating something through which people feel like they can “escape, travel, love, and laugh again” after all the tragedy and hardships of the past few years (Beyoncé qtd. in Harpers’ Bazaar).  Every song feels so unique and carefully crafted. I would never expect Beyoncé to let listeners down, but I think I also underestimated her. “RENAISSANCE” is so much more cohesive and fully realized as an artistic vision than any other album I have listened to this year.

Black Country, New Road- Ants From Up There

I had never heard of Black Country, New Road before 2022. By the end of this past year though, songs from this album were among my most listened to music on Spotify. It is incredibly difficult to describe what Black Country, New Road is or what their music sounds like. They’re alternative? Post-punk? Rock but folksy? But also very indie and different from anything out there. It feels silly to say, but there are so many different instruments at play. Much of the lyrics throughout “Ants From Up There” don’t always make sense, and they don’t need to. The lyrics used adequately fit the mood and melody of the music. In some other songs though, the song lyrics deceptively pack an emotional gut punch. For example, “Good Will Hunting” is an amazing exploration of romantic yearning but is humorously undercut by a chorus about how a love interest has “Billie Eilish style.” Also, the vocals in this album feel so vulnerable and cut deep for the listener. Isaac Wood, the lead singer of Black Country, New Road, quit the band only days after the album’s release and before their 2022 tour. While this album was met with widespread critical praise, Wood’s personal mental health struggles caused him to quit making music. The band has stayed together without the lead vocalist, yet it will be interesting to see how exactly they will move forward after both a prolific debut and a major loss.

SZA- SOS

Like Kendrick and Beyoncé, SZA came back after five long years with her sophomore album “SOS”, a worthy follow-up to her 2017 debut project “CTRL”. While not as fully realized and polished as her first album, “SOS” is still an incredible feat for this musician. The tone of the songs appropriately match the theme of the album cover art and title. SZA feels far alone out at sea figuratively in her life and literally in the cover art. She was obviously dealing with strife in her love life and failed relationships and channeled those emotions in her songwriting. Even though I love this creative output from her, I sincerely hope she is going to some form of counseling or therapy. This album does feel less concise than “CTRL” as it meanders across a 23 song tracklist, but I don’t mind it at all. “Kill Bill” obviously has become very popular and boasts an Uma Thurman film reference. “Gone Girl”—a grandiose track about a tumultuous relationship—is incredibly underrated and also references another great “Good for Her” movie. “Ghost in the Machine” somehow effectively blends the singing styles of both SZA and Phoebe Bridgers. “Used” is amazing with a great Don Toliver feature and a great line where SZA says that she’s focused like Obi-Wan Kenobi. “Open Arms” probably takes the crown as my favorite song off this album, because it showcases SZA playing up to her strengths with a breezy genuine ballad.

Honorable Mentions:

Ethel Cain- Preacher’s Daughter

Steve Lacy- Gemini Rights

Charli XCX- CRASH

Denzel Curry- Melt My Eyes See Your Whole Future

Orville Peck- Bronco

J.I.D.- The Forever Story

Anthony Pantalone, Editor

While the Arts and Entertainment column ideally should encompass every form of media pertaining to “arts and entertainment,” it does not always meet that standard. In this section of The Collegian, film is quite often the star of the show. The end of a year and the beginning of a new one allows for a person to reflect on that fact and adequately give credit where credit is due to other forms of art and entertainment—particularly television shows. Here are some of the objectively best—in my biased opinion—shows that deserved a bigger spotlight in The Collegian in 2022.

Barry Season 3

“Barry” is one of the most underrated shows on television. This program follows a hitman who wishes to give up his lethal profession in favor of acting. The first two seasons are a near perfect dark comedy, and this third season heightens the intensity much further. At this point, Barry feels simply dark instead of darkly comedic. Pretty much everyone in the cast—Bill Hader, Sarah Goldberg, Henry Winkler, and Anthony Carrigan—turns in career work this season. I love Henry Winkler, and I never knew he had a performance of this caliber in him. Also, NoHo Hank has been my favorite character on television for years. The morale of the story is that no matter what he does or how hard he tries, Barry always falls backwards into a life of violence with horrific consequences for everyone around him. For a show that has balanced comedy amidst a story this violent and tense, this third season takes a turn towards tragedy. NoHo Hank—easily the show’s best and most whimsical character—has a storyline involving torture, kidnapping and the “bury your gays” trope. The episode “710N” in particular features an incredibly long take of a motorcycle chase on a congested highway. Each episode of the second half of this season instills an alarming sense of dread for the audience as something horrible can happen at a moment’s notice. The ending of the episode “candy asses” for example forces the viewer to simply sit there afterwards and process the deep dark spiral of these characters. 

The Bear Season 1

Debuting in the summer, “The Bear” was one of the best new shows to grace television screens this year. Following Carmy who inherits his deceased brother’s restaurant, this show is essentially about the grief of losing a loved one and the ensuing struggles in running their business. Jeremy Allen White recently won a Golden Globe for his performance as the main character, and this honor was genuinely warranted. White brings a quiet intensity to a character who is desperately trying to keep afloat amidst his own grief and the significant financial hardships his brother left him. The seventh episode “Review” is filmed as one long take as everything goes wrong in the restaurant in a matter of twenty minutes. Even if you have not worked in a restaurant or food service, you will likely have to take a deep breath after this one.

Atlanta Seasons 3 and 4

“Atlanta” returned in 2022 with a third season set in Europe and a final season set back in the show’s titular city. I love this show and was really sad to see it end. It is always amazing to see a show that experiments with the medium of television and has so much fun while doing it, and “Atlanta” has always been that type of TV show. About half of the third season does not even feature the main characters or overarching plot of the prior seasons, and these standalone entries were some of the best episodes of “Atlanta” ever aired. In the final season, some great storylines are wrapped up. There is an amazing parody of Tyler Perry in which Donald Glover is covered in make-up and prosthetics—akin to the season two “Teddy Perkins” episode. Also, in one of the final episodes, this show makes an incredible fake documentary about the making of  “A Goofy Movie.” In classic “Atlanta” fashion, when people expect a crazy subversion of expectations for the series finale, Glover and director Hiro Murai choose the funniest “It was all a dream” ending.

Andor Season 1

This opinion could be debated, but “Andor” is the best Star Wars show or movie with anything truly nuanced to say about politics since George Lucas in the 1970s wrote about resisting imperialist oppressors. The creative team behind the show could have settled for the same tired creative beats that almost every Star Wars property has taken on since being acquired by Disney. Some type of cameo. Using the crutch of being part of “a shared universe” instead of actually effectively plotting a story over a season. Instead, it offers intelligent commentary on the matters of revolutionary suicide and the carceral slavery that props up imperial systems of power. It also talks about how fascism and authoritarian philosophies often preys upon and seduces young men with low self-esteem that feel entitled and directionless. In “Andor,” the viewer is rewarded with manifestos and arguments about the morality of violence against fascist occupiers instead of a caravan of “Glup Shittos.”

The White Lotus Season 2

Whereas the first season of “The White Lotus” worked really well as a class satire, the second season of this HBO show delved more into sexism and power dynamics within relationships. There are three generations of men that express harmful masculinity toward women. The grandfather openly sexually harasses women. The father—played by Michael Imperioli of “The Sopranos” fame—treats women better than his own father yet still objectifies them in private as sexual objects. The son appears to be the least harmful—appearing like a “soft boy”—yet still holds concerning views about women. Then the storyline featuring Aubrey Plaza of two couples vacationing together is so incredibly messy but written in such a compelling way. Jennifer Coolidge shines yet again this season—earning her a Golden Globe Award two weeks ago. Mike White is a genuinely great writer and I hope he makes