My favorite movies of 2022
It was a real everything bagel of a year.
I’m finishing this list so that I can watch TV.
I know most critics reveal their favorite films of the year in the weeks before Christmas. In that past, that has been my approach. In the days when I was part of a film critics society, the availability of screeners made it easy to see nearly everything, even if it hadn’t yet been released in the Detroit area. This year, the critics group I have traditionally been a part of disbanded, which meant I had to wait until they started holding screenings, or the films were available in theaters or on digital.
I had several films I knew I wanted to make time for before putting my list out, and I got through most of them. There are a few I wasn’t able to get around to, which is why you won’t see The Northman, Elvis, Pearl or All Quiet on the Western Front. But no critic has seen everything released in the year, and even if we’re using the word “best,” the truth is our end-of-year lists are always really just “favorite movies I saw this year,” with some seeing more than others.
I could keep catching up on movies, but we’re moving into the time of year where screenings for 2023 releases keep coming and, honestly, I want to get back to watching some TV. I hear great things about Poker Face, Shrinking and Paul T. Goldman. I never watched Andor. I’m actually still only halfway through Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show, and never did start season two of Only Murders in the Building. So, I’m sticking to my self-imposed Jan. 31 deadline, and we’ll let future discoveries come as they may.
And honestly, cutting any of these 10 movies from the list would just hurt too much. It was a great year for movies, and the resulting list is one of the most diverse and interesting I can recall. One of the biggest films of all time is here, but there’s also a directorial debut that’s one of the year’s smaller and subtler films. There are towering performances, and a kind little mollusk who makes us view our world differently. There’s multiverse-hopping and tiger-throwing action, as well as a meditation on the loss of friendship and a film that uses not-so-unthinkable technology to examine what it means to be human. This year had everything – you might say it was an everything bagel of cinema.
And so, here are the list of my 10 favorite films of 2022, ranked in ascending order. Enjoy – and share your own picks in the comments!
10. Avatar: The Way of Water: There was no shortage of big movies this year. We had three Marvel entries. We went back to Jurassic World. Tom Cruise re-entered the Danger Zone. But none of these was as big, spectacular or truly awesome as James Cameron’s return to Pandora. Every director who signs up to helm a big-budget movie should be required to watch this to see how Cameron handles action filmmaking, world-building and scale. Where too many blockbusters rush their production and end up with spotty CGI, Cameron took his time, resulting in some of the most tangible, immersive and poetic digital imagery I’ve seen; there’s a stretch that made me wish for a Pandora-set National Geographic series. And while dialogue is still not Cameron’s strong suit, he expands the scope to deliver something more thoughtful and emotionally resonant than the first film. It’s the blockbuster that makes you realize how bad most blockbusters truly are.
9. Tȧr: To say Cate Blanchett gives the performance of her career in Tȧr is quite a statement when considering that career. She’s ferocious as a problematic but celebrated conductor, creating a character who is by turns brilliant, loathsome, pitiable and terrifying. She’s the centerpiece of Todd Field’s first film in 16 years, which is more than just “Cancel Culture: The Movie,” as some have called it. Yes, the film examines unchecked privilege and the harm that can come when geniuses aren’t held accountable. But it’s also about the nature of that genius, a character study of a woman who’s a true master of her craft while also deeply unaware of her blind spots. Lydia Tar is one of the more nuanced characters we’ve had on screen in years, and Field’s film is more content to ask questions than preach to audiences. It’s a fascinating, multilayered and – fittingly – perfectly composed film.
8. RRR: S.S. Rajajouli’s Indian epic is as bombastic as any Marvel movie, with action sequences that defy logic and shatter the laws of physics. It turns history into mythology in a way that makes Braveheart look like a PBS documentary. It has song and dance numbers as engaging as any Hollywood musical. When I describe RRR, friends expect it to be a “so bad it’s good” bit of cheese. But it’s not; it’s just really good. Every action sequence is so over the top it threatens to burst through the ceiling, but those moments are all emotionally grounded; it’s ridiculous, but never stupid. You couldn’t make this movie in Hollywood, where we’re uncomfortable with vulnerable male friendships, and so obsessed with realism that an impromptu dance off would be derided as “cringe.” To watch RRR is to be caught up in the pure delight of experience, as you realize the movie keeps topping itself and you can do nothing but beg for more.
7. Marcel the Shell With Shoes On: From some of the biggest movies of the year to one of the smallest, with a lead character who could fit in my daughter’s fairy garden. Based on a series of YouTube shorts from a decade ago, director Dean Fleischer Camp brings Jenny Slate’s glasses-wearing mollusk to the big screen with wit and heart. The mockumentary observes Marcel and his grandmother (Isabella Rossellini) as they remake their little corner of the world after their community moves on. It’s a gentle, often very funny movie that has the whimsy and imagination of the best children’s films. But its musings on friendship, community, resilience and grief pack a quiet profundity that will wrest tears from the adults who are paying attention. A special, beautiful little movie.
6. Aftersun: Charlotte Wells delivers one of the strongest directorial debuts in years with this perceptive, subtle movie about memory and empathy. Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio play a father and daughter taking a weeklong resort vacation; we watch this through home video footage being viewed by the daughter years later. What seems to be an ordinary family trip is an opportunity for her to look back and consider the struggles her father may have hidden and muse on the time when children begin to see their parents as human beings who exist apart from themselves. A quiet, insightful movie that ends with the most emotionally devastating final shot of the year.
5. The Fabelmans: I hope we have many more years of films from Steven Spielberg. But if, God forbid, The Fabelmans were his final film, what a capstone. A thinly veiled bit of autobiography examining his parents’ dying marriage and his own budding love of cinema, the movie is much more complex than many may have expected. Far from a “the movies are great” celebration, the film is the story of a young man whose love of film is a way to control fear, process reality and serve as a barrier to the people who hurt him. Paul Dano and Michelle Williams are fantastic as the proxies for Spielberg’s parents, and the film feels like the director resolving the parental obsessions that have dominated his career. But it’s also as lively, beautifully photographed, and human as any of the director’s high-concept films, able to elicit laughs and tears. Its family drama allows for some of the most complex character work in Spielberg’s career, and it functions as a memoir of the craft from one of the best.
4. Women Talking: Sarah Polley’s richly written drama observes a group of women discussing their options after years of sexual, physical and religious abuse. The title is accurate; for most of its run time, the film is given over to conversation between these women. Few directors are better than Polley at capturing the process of emotional discovery, and the director is fascinated by the way these dialogues allow the women to understand their rights, dignity and potential as they come together in community. While the subject matter is often bleak, Women Talking is a movie of hope and imagination, the conversations laying a foundation for a future these characters may not have thought possible. And the year’s best ensemble navigates the difficult terrain wonderfully, delivering performances filled with anguish, regret, hope and even joy.
3. After Yang: A deeply human work of speculation, Kogonada’s film follows a father (Colin Farrell) in the not-so-distant future as he attempts to repair the android that his family has purchased to help their adoptive daughter learn more about her native China. Kogonada’s vision of the future is hopeful and imaginative, and while the movie has things to say about our relationship to artificial intelligence, it’s much more interested in questions of memory, connection, grief and family. Like many films that are ostensibly about technology, it’s really about what makes us human. The film is quiet and gentle, curious and meditative. Farrell is strong here as a father whose exposure to Yang’s memories stirs his own emotions, and Kogonada’s film is thoughtful and philosophical without sacrificing warmth.
2. The Banshees of Inisherin: Martin McDonagh’s film is the most Irish story of the year, which is to say it's both the funniest and saddest movie of the year – often at the same time. Farrell caps a year of great performances (in addition to this and After Yang, he was also a lot of fun in The Batman) with the strongest of his career. He’s heartbreaking as a kind-hearted yet dim man living in a village on the Irish coast whose drinking buddy (Brendan Gleeson) suddenly decides he doesn’t like him anymore. The divide between the two has dire ramifications, not only for them, but for their entire community. McDonagh’s in his element here; his mixture of blisteringly funny dialogue and sudden bursts of violence is more potent than ever, tied into the film’s themes about friendship, war, kindness, meaning and depression. It’s the best Farrell has ever been, and Gleeson is just as strong. Add to that heartbreaking and very funny performances by Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon, and you have one of the most entertaining, moving and memorable films of the year.
1. Everything Everywhere All at Once: One thing I hate at press screenings is when you have to give a report to the screening rep on the way out the door. Very rarely do I know my true thoughts on a movie the instant it ends; I have to let it marinate on the drive home and in the coming days. But when I screened Everything Everywhere All at Once this spring, I couldn’t wait to run out to the lobby to talk about it. The film hit me with the same impact as my first viewings of The Matrix, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Mad Max: Fury Road. Daniels wrote and directed one of the most imaginative, bizarre and exciting films in years, powered by dynamite performances by Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis – all of whom were rightfully nominated for Oscars. It’s packed with multiverse hopping, martial arts and jokes about the movie Ratatouille, yet still manages to be emotional and surprisingly profound. From my review: “it’s about failure and contentment, and the power of families to heal and break cycles of harm. Most explicitly, it’s about the tension between hope and despair, and the importance of being kind and pressing on even when it feels like nothing matters. It’s the rare movie where a plea for kindness feels radical and world-changing, and where an everything bagel can serve as a powerful symbol for nihilism that can only be defeated by the googly-eyes of hope.” Everything Everywhere All at Once is not just the best movie of the year; I can’t imagine this not being on my eventual list of the best films of the decade.
Runners up: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Decision to Leave, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Nope, Apollo 10/12: A Space-Age Childhood, Fire of Love, Living, Armageddon Time, Top Gun: Maverick, Turning Red, Prey, Crimes of the Future, The Batman, Barbarian, Kimi.