6 Obscure Films I Loved in 2022

Ezra James
7 min readDec 9, 2022

It’s that time of the year again, the one where every writer comes up with a “best of” list on whatever niche they’re known for, all in a veiled attempt to cater to popular demand. Nothing inherently wrong with the idea itself, only with the way it’s being used. “Best Travel Destinations of 2022”. “Best Churches To Be Left at the Altar in 2022.” “Best John Cleese Quotes of 2022”. Enough is enough; it’s time to bring back more nonsensical introspection to our internet consumption, and make lists that come from the heart.

Picking a category from my area of expertise has not been easy task thanks in large part to the year-long quest of film binging I initiated. This is mostly due to the fact that I have no interested in making a list of films from this year, leaving me with an even bigger range of selections to pick from. “Favorite 70s Giallo Films of 2022”? “Favorite 60s B Movies of 2022”? “Favorite Rugged Films of the 70s in 2022”?

No, no, and no. Too specific and bland for my taste. There’s no spice to them, and a meal without spice is a meal worth tossing to the sewers for the alligators to eat. Which is why I decided on a more conventional criteria, one that encompasses a bevy of genres and styles, all wrapped up together in a firmly laced double sheet bend by their obscurity in the eyes of the grander viewing public. The films reviewed are all from Europe, and…

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Ezra James

Absurd journalist and essayist from the outskirts of Shambhala.