The Top 20 Films of 2022
Top Films of 2022
Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic
I’m just going to say it, 2022 was one of the best years of movies we’ve had in recent memory. Thanks to the wonderfulness of Letterboxd, I keep track of my movie rankings throughout the year, and of the 68 movies I managed to see from 2022, I ranked 51 movies three stars or higher and 31 of those four stars or higher. This is probably because of all the delayed releases due to Covid that pushed so many great titles into this year.
Surprisingly, I managed to see almost everything I needed/wanted to get to by the end of the year instead of having a handful of high-profile movies that get a wide release in mid-January.
My complete 2022 Movie Rankings can be found on Letterboxd.
Onto the countdown of the best 20 movies of 2022!
20. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (dir. Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson)
Guillermo del Toro, king of the modern-day fairy tale, collaborates with the animation director of Fantastic Mr. Fox for a dazzling stop motion animation adaptation of the beloved Pinocchio, setting the story in fascist Italy around WWII. A fine vocal cast all around, but David Bradley as Geppetto and Ewan McGregor as Sebastian J. Cricket are genuinely delightful in this Netflix exclusive release.
19. Prey (dir. Daniel Trachtenberg)
Just when we thought that they were scraping the bottom of the barrel in recycling stories for Predator sequels, Daniel Trachtenberg stripped it down to its bare essentials, setting the film in the frontier world on the early 1700s and pitting the Predator against a Comanche woman determined to prove her worth as a warrior.
18. Hustle (dir. Jeremiah Zagar)
If Adam Sandler isn’t too careful, he might start making a name for himself again if he keeps making movies like this. Coming on the heels of Uncut Gems, Hustle is legitimately one of the best basketball movies that has ever been made. There is some Jerry Maguire in this movie’s DNA, with two people betting on each other, but it is also an effective underdog story. Also, the quality of the hoops is top notch.
17. Barbarian (dir. Zach Cregger)
Barbarian is the kind of horror film where the less you know about it going in, the better. Let’s just say that it takes stranger danger in some unexpected directions. Throw in some red herrings, some tonal shifts, and time jumping and you’ve got a horror film that keeps you on your toes. But again, the less said the better.
16. Vengeance (dir. B.J. Novak)
Best known as Ryan from The Office, B.J. Novak made a low budget thriller that feels very appropriate for 2022 and our true-crime-obsessed, podcast-obsessed world. Novak’s podcaster goes to Texas for a story about the death of someone he was connected to. On top of being a fish out of water as a New Yorker in Texas, he also finds way more to the story than he originally thought, and his life is changed by the family members of the person he knew.
15. The Menu (dir. Mark Mylod)
This dark comedy of the food industry is a real treat. Each course of the dinner increasingly reveals just how unhinged the kitchen staff are and just how doomed the patrons are. One of several films this year with a “eat the rich” theme, we’ll say this is the most “highbrow” of the three, but maybe the darkest satirically.
14. The Fabelmans (dir. Steven Spielberg)
2022 was a big year for semi-autobiographical films, and The Fabelmans is the best of the bunch. It holds very closely to Spielberg’s childhood, following the Fabelman family and their westward journey across America in the 50s and early 60s. The love of movies, but also the obsession over the craft of moviemaking, is evident. This Spielberg guy just might make a name for himself yet.
13. Nope (dir. Jordan Peele)
Jordan Peele is playing by his own rules. His third feature film is like a mashup of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography captures it all beautifully in the sunbaked hills of California. Keke Palmer is a firecracker, while Daniel Kaluuya seems to be going at 3/4 speed to make their sibling dynamic as contrasting as possible.
12. After Yang (dir. Kogonada)
After Yang is a meditative movie about memory and loss and the intertwining of technology with everyday life. A family’s android, Yang, malfunctions, and in the process of trying to get him repaired, Colin Farrell’s Jake looks through memories captured by Yang and begins to see himself and his family through Yang’s eyes. Also, Farrell does an incredible Werner Herzog impression at one point.
11. Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund)
The cruise industry was decimated by Covid, but after seeing this film, I may never take a cruise in my life. The film is told in three tonally different acts, all of which kick the film’s social commentary up a notch. No one is spared from the scathing satire here, capitalists or Marxists, those in the service industry or those being served. Our second “eat the rich” feature, this one is the most from one of the directors most comfortable with making his audience uncomfortable, Ruben Östlund.
10. The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers)
A Viking revenge fantasy with a hulking Alexander Skarsgård portraying an ur-Hamlet type from Robert Eggers, who may be the best in the business when it comes to period -specific genre fare (see also: The VVitch, The Lighthouse). The berserker village raid and the climactic fight in the belly of a volcano remain seared into my brain. Next up for Eggers: a remake of Nosferatu!
9. The Batman (dir. Matt Reeves)
Another reboot of the iconic DC character, easily the darkest version of the caped crusader that we have gotten to date. This version plays up the detective work of the character, and having The Riddler as a deranged serial killer plays well with that. Add in the great chemistry between Robert Pattinson’s Batman and Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, and that brooding score from Michael Giacchino, and I can’t wait to see the follow-up for this.
8. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson)
Rian Johnson’s sequel to Knives Out more or less runs back the same formula that made the first movie so successful, brings in another banger ensemble cast, and adds an extra layer of cameos, red herrings, and easter eggs for the audience to enjoy. Daniel Craig seems to be having the time of his life in this film, in fact, most of the cast does. The most crowd-pleasing of our unofficial “eat the rich” trilogy.
7. Top Gun: Maverick (dir. Joseph Kosinski)
Some could argue that the movie industry needing saving after the last two years of Covid ravaging the attendance of movie theaters and changing people’s viewing habits. In flies Tom Cruise to save the day. Cruise held firm for two years on making sure Top Gun: Maverick was released in theaters, and it was the right move. It is the blockbuster movie of the year, as good or better than the original, and a total blast.
6. Decision To Leave (dir. Park Chan-Wook)
Film critic Matt Singer said it best on Letterboxd regarding ‘Decision to Leave’: “Like Vertigo and Basic Instinct moved to South Korea together and had an extremely beautiful, elegantly restrained, temporally dislocated, brilliantly edited baby. Swoon.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
5. Women Talking (dir. Sarah Polley)
This film is adapted from a novel of the same name inspired by real-life events. Given that its setting is limited mostly to a barn loft, it feels more like a stage play in the vein of 12 Angry Men. The conversations between the women about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of the men in their Mennonite community are fierce and combative, but the sense of community and grace that is evident between them is what won me over with this film.
4. The Banshees of Inisherin (dir. Martin McDonagh)
Did Colin Farrell have a hell of a feckin’ year or did Colin Farrell have a hell of a feckin’ year? This is his third film to make my list (After Yang, The Batman) and there was critical acclaim for Thirteen Lives too! This Irish fable about the dissolution of a friendship on a remote island in the 1920s reunites In Bruges co-stars Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and debates whether it’s better to be a good person or to be remembered.
3. TÁR (dir. Todd Field)
This might be a career best performance of Cate Blanchett’s career. It is Todd Field’s first film since 2006’s ‘Little Children’. It fooled a lot of people into thinking it was a biopic of an actual person. It fooled a lot of people into thinking that Blanchett’s Lydia Tár was a hero for putting snowflakes in their places instead of seeing how her behavior leads to her downfall. To cap it off, Cate Blanchett making up an impromptu song on the accordion is one of the funniest scenes of the year.
2. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp)
Without a doubt the most earnest and sincere and heartfelt movie of the year, I consider Marcel to be a spiritual successor to the 2018 Mr. Rogers doc Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Outstanding stop motion and real-life hybrid, it is voiced impeccably by Jenny Slate and Isabella Rossellini. I showed this to my seven-year-old nephew around Christmas and he loved it. Even if it was a little sad, it had a happy ending and Marcel was “so cute”, according to my nephew.
You said it, buddy.
1. Everything Everywhere All At Once (dir. Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan)
When I first saw EEAOO back in April, I knew it was the leader in the clubhouse for the #1 spot on my list. In a great year of movies, this exhilarating ride through the multiverse was the most enjoyable movie experience I had all year. This was just the right level of weird, unconventional, creative, bold, ambitious, and inspirational. The Michelle Yeoh appreciation that has sprung from this movie is long overdue. I still remember the pure joy I had when it dawned on me in the theater that Weymond (Ke Huy Quon) was Short Round/Data from my childhood, and Stephanie Hsu is a revelation. There is so much going on in this movie, it seems impossible that it should work, and yet, it pulls it off, balancing the absurd and outrageous and comic with a genuine heart.