A Game Of Thrones | Cinema Parrot Disco

Happy New Year! Here’s the first of my ranked lists for 2022.

Here are My Top Ten Books Read In 2022

1. The Eyes Of The Dragon by Stephen King

2. A Song Of Ice And Fire: Book One – A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

3. The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

4. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

5. I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

6. Gwendy’s Final Task by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar

7. Malorie by Josh Malerman

8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

9. The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

10. Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

I read 13 books so might as well mention the other three as well as I liked every book I read in 2022: The Taking Of Annie Thorne by C.J. Tudor, We Are All Liars by Carys Jones & Elsewhere by Dean Koontz

Tomorrow I’ll be posting My Top Ten TV Shows Watched In 2022 followed by My Top Ten Older Movies Watched In 2022 then finally My Top Ten 2022 U.K. Movie Releases on Friday. Very disappointed with the 2022 movie releases! Possibly even worse than 2021, which was also bad. But at least I saw some great older films this year.

Wow. Ten years?! When I started this blog I didn’t think I’d still (sort of) be doing this a decade later.

Well, it’s been the very worst year of my life since the start of January. As watching movies is one of the few things that helps keep me sane, I’ve continued to do that but find it difficult to put much time into the blog at the moment.

I’ve now (finally!) set up a CinemaParrot Letterbxd account (here) so that I can more easily & much more quickly log the films I’ve seen & write very short reviews. I then do a monthly roundup on this blog with my Letterbxd reviews & I’ll try to keep doing that until I maybe have time to do the occasional longer posts here again as well. I miss reading all the blogs but will mainly be on other social media sites for now, especially after I go into the hospital this week & then will be recuperating. I like that word… Recuperating! Even comes up with an emoji: ❤️‍🩹 (Not sure if that’ll show up on the blog)

You can still find me on Twitter for now here: @tableninemutant (I’d make that a direct link but I’m too dumb to figure out how)

I’ve also joined Mastodon with a bunch of other Film Twitter people & so far there’s a lot of good interaction there. And I know how to do a link to that, I think! You can find me here: https://mastodon.world/@CinemaParrotDisco

I’m going to do what I did for my blogiversary last year & just list my Top Ten Lists For 2022 So Far as it’s nearly the end of the year anyway. I have to avoid cinemas (I’ve only gone to see Maverick), so this is mainly movies “released in the U.K. for the first time in whatever format in 2022 that I actually managed to watch”. So, yes, most big cinema releases are sadly missing if they aren’t streaming yet.

So here are My Top Ten Movies Released To U.K. Cinemas Or Streaming Services In 2022 So Far (very disappointing):

1. Top Gun: Maverick – 8/10
2. Drifting Home – 8/10
3. Prey – 7.5/10
4. Fresh – 7/10
5. Hustle – 7.5/10
6. Thirteen Lives – 7.5/10
7. Mass – 7.5/10
8. Don’t Make Me Go – 7/10
9. Mr. Harrigan’s Phone – 7.5/10
10. Dual – 7/10

(I just watched Drifting Home yesterday, knocking Everything Everywhere All At Once out of my top ten to 11th place. Know that’s at the top of many lists but I found it disappointing)

I’ve seen much better older films this year than 2022 releases. Seen so many decent ones that I need to make this one a Top 20. So here are My Top Twenty Older Release Movies Seen In 2022 So Far:

1. Lucky – 8.5/10
2. Columbus – 8.5/10
3. A Star Is Born (1954) – 8.5/10
4. The Red Shoes – 8.5/10
5. Safety Last! – 8.5/10
6. Stalag 17 – 8/10
7. Santa Sangre – 8/10
8. Days Of Heaven – 8/10
9. Memories Of Murder – 7.5/10
10. CODA – 8/10
11. Anomalisa – 8/10
12. Finch – 7.5/10
13. A Quiet Place Part II – 7.5/10
14. Easter Parade – 7.5/10
15. The General (1926) – 8/10
16. Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans – 7.5/10
17. Vivarium – 7.5/10
18. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – 7/10
19. Rhapsody In August – 7.5/10
20. Sherlock Jr. – 7.5/10

Honorable Mentions (7.5/10): Another Round, Land, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Phantom Carriage & Beast

Okay, I’ve watched a lot of TV & read quite a few books this year too…

Here are My Top Ten TV Shows Watched In 2022 So Far:

1. Community (why did no one tell me about this show?!)
2. Cobra Kai
3. Yellowjackets
4. Ted Lasso
5. Andor
6. Obi-Wan Kenobi
7. The Outsider
8. House Of The Dragon
9. The Book Of Boba Fett (but the episodes which were pretty much all adorable Grogu & almost no Boring Old Boba Fett would be ranked in 1st place – those ruled!)
10. Stay Close

And My Top Five Books Read In 2022 So Far:

1. The Eyes Of The Dragon by Stephen King
2. A Song Of Ice And Fire: Book One – A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
3. The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
4. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
5. Malorie by Josh Malerman

The full list of absolutely everything I’ve watched & read this year is here if you’re super bored or want to see what terrible movies I ranked the lowest (Blonde & Spencer). 🙂

Thanks to those who are still around these parts. I’m glad you’re still here! Hope that everything is going well for all my past & present blog buddies.