As we age, time feels as though it is running on a constant fast-forward setting. Life flashing by in the blink of an eye while we wait in line at Starbucks. It’s hardly a novel take, but something that each of us comes to realize eventually. An inconvenient fact of life, if you will.

That is, unless you’re a heralded filmmaker in 2023. In that case, you put your all into writing scripts thicker than Jon Cena’s neck, firing any editors who dare propose cutting even one second from a scene that is already five minutes too long, and then “rewarding” moviegoers with overly long, often self-indulgent films that would be far better served as five-part mini-series on Netflix, AMC, or even MTV2. Yes, I’m talking to you, Martin Scorcese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Ari Aster (“Beau is Afraid”), and Ridley Scott (“Napoleon”), to name a few.

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“How’s the despair?” It’s a simple question asked by a village priest to Brendan Gleeson’s morose character in “Banshees of Inisherin.” Might as well be the slogan for 2022.

In the nearly three years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, much has changed. People have cast aside life-long friends due to their opinions on cloth masks, Donald Trump, or student loan forgiveness. The Ukraine has repeatedly repelled its crazy uncle to the east at the cost of countless lives. The cost of gas, eggs, and Hot Pockets remain as volatile as…well…the insides of a Hot Pocket. And Kanye West decided that life is more interesting when you profess your love for Hitler whilst wearing a gimp mask.

Yes, it’s been a long haul these past few years. But despite all of the gloom, doom, and pure lunacy of our recent history, at least Hollywood decided it was time to start bringing life back to your friendly neighborhood theater (even if in much smaller doses than most of us film dorks would prefer). That’s right, there was a glimmer of big-screen (and small-screen) hope in 2022. Blockbusters returned, stock prices for fake butter popcorn flavoring rose, and a few brave directors even decided that the craft of filmmaking doesn’t always have to take a back seat to comic-book franchise nonsense.

Perhaps best of all, after a long hibernation, Stink Whispers has returned with our list of the best and worst films of the year, as well as the reintroduction of the awards nobody ever asked for, the Whispy Awards.

With that, I leave you with a quote from the always brilliant Taylor Swift that has nothing to do with movies: “The lesson I’ve learned the most often in life is that you’re always going to know more in the future than you know now.”

That shit is deep.

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