The Best of 2022 (So Far)
The essential Movies, TV's, Books & Music from the first half of the year.
Hey, welcome to The Five.
A hallmark of this news outlet has been a rock solid commitment to publishing every Tuesday (hard news) and Friday (Culture & Commentary).
However, for the next few weeks, I must ask for your grace with the timeline.
My wife is in the final weeks of pregnancy, on bedrest and facing a probable mandatory C-Section.
Which means I’m on double-double duty with work, childcare, cleaning, etc.
The Five will continue to be 2x/week, but you might see the publishing schedule shift temporarily as I deal with these unforseen circumstances.
With that being said, let’s get into this special issue…the best Culture of the 2022…so far.
Here are my picks for the five best: Movies | TV Shows | Books | Albums | Singles
Let’s dive in.
MOVIES
The Batman: These lists aren’t in order, but The Batman is easily my favorite movie of the year, thanks to heavy influences from the serial killer classic Seven and the incredible cinematography. Director Matt Reeves uses a distinctly blurry lens style that results in dozens of frames beautiful enough to hang on the wall.
Hustle: The number of paint-by-numbers sports movies are Legion, but Adam Sandler finds an interesting new angle as an over-the-hill NBA scout who discovers an incredible talent hustling opponents for cash (played by real life Utah Jazz forward Juancho Hernangomez).
You don’t have to be a basketball fan to fall in love with this one, which features one of Sandler’s best performances and a heck of a first-time effort from an NBA player turned actor.
The King’s Man: I’m cheating just a bit here, because The King’s Man technically came out in 2021, but opened the week of Christmas…and then built at the box office in January.
The series started as a James Bond spoof/over the top action vehicle, but has morphed into what one critic called “the coolest history book you’ve ever watched.”
The film’s commentary on the complexity of Eastern European politics and war plays very well in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Top Gun Maverick: What can I possibly say about this one that someone else hasn’t already?
If you haven’t made it to the theater for this one, it’s an incredible experience on the big screen.
If you’ve already seen TGM, check out the above video of the full cut of Miles Teller (who also showed his real life musician chops in the Oscar winning Whiplash) playing “Great Ball of Fire.”
Father Stu: I wasn’t sold on this one ahead of time, but it’s a heck of a true story.
Biopics (of non-famous people) really only work when the story is REALLY over the top. The true tale of a failed boxer turned unlikely Priest just gets crazier with every scene.
If you’re tempted to skip this one because you’re not religious…don’t. It’s a philosophical journey, not a preach-y one. (In fact, it’s much less preachy than the average Woke movie/TV show).
TV
1883: The Yellowstone prequel was everything I hoped for and more. Western genre OG Sam Elliot turned in an incredible performance as did real-life couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (who stayed in character off-camera and barely interacted with each other during shooting).
But the most stunning part of 1883 was the star-making work of relative unkonwn Isabel May, who’s performance reminded me of Jennifer Lawrence’s Oscar-nominated debut in Winter’s Bone.
Reacher/The Lincoln Lawyer (Tie): A pair of murder/mysteries with excellent acting and twisty plots that aren’t obvious from the jump. Both are reboots of movies trying to tell novel-length stories in a 2 hours, neither of which worked well.
Reacher tells the tale of a hulking war vet (The Hunger Games alum Alan Ritchson is also 6’6”, I always root for tall actors, since it’s usually tough for them to get parts) who is arrested for murder in a small southern town with only a small amount of cash and a WWII French War Medal in his pocket.
The Lincoln Lawyer unravels a Russian nesting doll’s worth of interconnected crimes in LA, while newly sober Mickey Haller inherits the case load of a recently murdered attorney. Neve Campbell (Scream) turns in one of the best supporting actress reels of 2022 in this one.
The Old Man: If this one wasn’t great, I was going to be very disappointed, as it’s based on one of my favorite novels….and it’s got Jeff Freaking Bridges as the lead.
Maybe this is cheating, as this is a weekly streamer and it hasn’t’ finished yet, but The Old Man is a thrill ride so far…so I’m including it.
Oh, right, the plot. A retired CIA operative goes on the run after 30 years of hiding in plain site under an assumed name…and will lose the only thing he cares about, his daughter, if he can’t clear the charges against him and unravel a secret government plot.
The Summer I Turned Pretty: A teenage melodrama show that differentiates itself by being about…actually believable teenagers. Sure, it’s set on an island that’s a summer getaway for East Coast elites (a popular setting for these kind of stories), but that’s as over-the-top is this one gets…there’s a reason TSITP is one of the most popular shows in Amazon Prime’s history just a month after release.
The Terminal List: Don’t believe the negative reviews, which appear to be a backlash by the media elite against Chris Pratt’s Christian faith. The story of a Navy Seal avenging his brothers-in-arms isn’t one to miss.
FINAL NOTES: I haven’t seen Stranger Things season 4 yet, so that one will go on the year-end list (if it’s good enough). It doesn’t get a hall pass because Nancy is my step-cousin in real life. (To answer the most popular questions about this: A), no, I won’t set you up with her, and she doesn’t want to date you B). no, I don’t get any plot leaks).
Also, every show except 1883 on this list was based on a novel…
BOOKS
Jack Carr—In the Blood: The fifth novel in my favorite fiction series as an adult.
This one desks heavily with AI in spy craft and modern warfare.
And yes, this is the same series that The Terminal List show is based on.
Wendy Walker—American Girl: Murder, mysterious pasts and…sandwiches in a fading Pennsylvania mining town. A seventeen year old girl must solve the murder of her boss or risk losing the ability to attend MIT.
This one is an Audible original and a “hybrid audiobook,” meaning it's 80% traditional narration, with a few chapters featuring dialogue between multiple voice actors.
James Hankins—A Blood Thing: A political prodigy is elected to be Vermont’s youngest governor at 32, only to be quickly blackmailed by an unknown party who has framed the Governor's younger brother for murder.
We Were Never Here: There are plenty of murder/mystery offerings around the same old themes: love, anger, rage, money…but a novel about toxic friendship and co-dependency? Heck yeah.
Jonathan Isaac—Why I Stand: The autobiography of the lone member of the Orlando Magic who refused to kneel for the National Anthem during the summer of the George Floyd riots, Isaac also took heat for refusing the COVID vaccine.
Rather than an angry rant, Isaac carefully explains his positions, and why he made the difficult decisions that made him quite unpopular with the league and his teammates alike, and gave him lightning-rod status with the mainstream media.
MUSIC (Albums)
Zach Bryan: American Heartbreak—I spent a decade in media and the entertainment industry, and I’ve never seen anything quite like Zach Bryan. He’s been covered enough in this publication for you to know the former Navy man went viral on Twitter while still on active duty, and hit the Billboard charts with home-recorded albums before his service contract was up.
By the time music was his full time gig (this year), Bryan hit the road for his first real tour, nearly at stadium level.
Yes, American Heartbreak is 34 songs. And as impossible as it may sound, any of them could be a single. If you’ve avoided Bryan until now, you’ve missed out on the best record of 2022 (so far).
Arcade Fire: WE—I dunno exactly how to describe the expiremental wormhole Arcade Fire fell into during the late 2010’s, but I couldn’t follow them into their disco-weirdness phase.
WE returns to the sonics and song structure that earned the Montreal indie rockers “Album of the Year” for The Suburbs, and dives deep into the psyche of a culture hopped up on anxiety and addicted to screens (those two problems may be one in the same).
Gang of Youths: angel in realtime.—The Aussie rock outfit can bear a lot of emotional gravitas without losing the fun, thanks to equal parts Springsteen-esque anthems and the more dance-y elements from U2, New Order and Coldplay. Frontman David Le'aupepe dives into the complicated relationship he shared with his half-Samoan father and the, and unpacks some of the more painful elements of his dad’s life as a minority.
At 13 tracks long, it’s somehow an album that fits as well blaring out the car windows on the way to the beach as it does playing through a pair of headphones, pouring a second whiskey on a cold winter night.
Apple Music | YouTube Music
Kendrick Lamar—Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers: You’re not supposed to say this, but I haven’t been the biggest fan of K Dot in the past…finding his albums to be well crafted, but joyless and exhausting, and borrowing a bit too much from classic Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem to craft his soundscapes and wordplay.
This one changed my opinion. After Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, Kendrick is Undeniable.
Craig Finn—A Legacy of Rentals: Finn is either just a bar band singer from Minnesota, or the poet laureate for the drug addicted and downtrodden of the last decade. He plays both roles well on his latest solo outing, which is a more slowed down and introspective affair than his work as the frontman of The Hold Steady.
Don’t let the lack of hype fool you…the songwriting is pure gold here. The music media tends to fawn over “hype-y” artists, and miss some of the best records in any given year…this is one example of how a great project gets overlooked.
MUSIC (Singles)
Leah Kate--10 Things I Hate About You and Gayle—ABCFU (tie): I'm not even going to pretend I believe that Leah Kate has the songwriting chops or artisitc vision to launch a career with an earworm like “10 Things,” but I really don't care.
Olivia Rodrigo and Lorde were also teenage stars who were largely built in corporate boardrooms, and both turned out excellent pop debuts. (When Lorde took more creative control of her second record, she crashed and burned…proving sometimes it is indeed better to just “shut up and sing.”)
“10 Things” is a teenage breakup anthem probably churned out by middle aged, corporate songwriters…but who cares? It's as catchy as it is smart, and I'm still not sick of it.
ABCFU by Gayle is…pretty much the same song and same story, but different enough to also blow up on TikTok.
Hailey Whitters—Boys Back Home: A singer-songwriter departs for LA, only to look back with fondness for the guys she grew up around.
They wear worn-out boots, they take off their hats/For suppers and sermons, funerals and flags
They'll bail you out of a ditch or a bar/And they won't be caught dead in no electric car
'Cause it's all sure rock roads for the boys back home
Whitters avoids genre cliches and paints a pretty accurate picture of the lives of some of my best friends on the Illinois prairie…and of the kind of man I'm trying to be.
Pharrell Williams—Cash In, Cash Out: Every summer needs one defining banger…super-producer Pharrell delivered the definitive earworm for 2022.
Shane Smith and the Saints—Hummingbird: The unofficial house band of Yellowstone, the band rose from obscurity to buzzworthy status thanks to the incredible cultural weight of the hit western.
Smith’s first single in two years, “Hummingbird” is heavy and hopeful, and not easily forgotten.
Zach Bryan—This Road I Know: On a 34 song album…the best song, may not be a song.
There’s an argument that “This Road I Know” is a poem set to guitar picking and some keyboards…but in a world of hyper inflation, coming food shortages and a possible third World War…Bryan’s dream of home, love and friendship may be just what we need.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for your support during the first half of this year.
It means the world to me.
-sth
I always look forward to your recommendations. I read the Terminal List & The Old Man based on them and was not disappointed. Thanks!
Prayers for your wife & child.