Top Ten Movies of 2022

Some years are better for movie lovers than others. 2022 was not one of the better ones. At least not for mainstream English language “prestige” fare, aka Oscar bait films, that get proper theatrical releases.

This was frankly a bit of a surprise for me, given how strong 2020 and 2021 were for exactly that kind of film. The dropoff could be due to a number of interrelated factors: delayed impact of the pandemic; the ongoing shift from theaters to streaming services for non-franchise films and character-driven dramas; and the broader decline of medium-budget prestige pics and the generally anemic box performances of those that do get released, which only feeds the other trends. But there’s also the simple fact that so many of the 2022 films that seemed promising on paper turned out to be critical duds. (I’m looking at you, Amsterdam, Babylon, Empire of Light, and The Whale – all of which I skipped due to poor reviews.)

Whatever the reason, the dearth of traditional awards contenders is reflected in the dominance of this year’s Oscar nominations by the delightfully out-there Everything Everywhere All at Once, German war movie/literary adaptation All Quiet on the Western Front, nihilistic chamber drama/black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin, and the action megablockbuster that “saved” the movies, Top Gun: Maverick. I saw those movies, and enjoyed or at least appreciated them. There were other bright spots, too, which I’ll highlight below. But for the most part, there were very few that I really loved or that knocked me flat. And that’s okay – like I said, some years are like that. I just hope it doesn’t turn into a trend.

First, before I get to the list for 2022: a special shout-out to two exceptional films that were technically released in 2021, but didn’t come to theaters near me until 2022. There are always a few of these – usually, as in this case, non-English language films – that fall between the cracks of my top ten lists. But particularly given what a weak year it was, I wanted to highlight them.

Compartment No. 6

I saw this tender and engaging little Finnish film – about a Finnish student who finds herself sharing a compartment with a young Russian laborer on a long train ride from Moscow to Murmansk, circa 1997 – the same day I saw Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World (which, unlike Compartment, got Oscar nominated for Best International Feature). I liked both very much; yet Compartment is the one that’s lingered longest and that I think of the most often. It starts out as a kind of anti-Before Sunrise, as the two protagonists initially seem utterly incompatible – she’s reserved, gay, and worried about her relationship with her Russian girlfriend, while he’s an obnoxious boor who kicks things off by getting drunk and sexually harassing her. However, over the course of their journey they build a bond of affection and maybe something more. The movie really captures the drab, claustrophobic feel and forced intimacy of a post-Cold War Russian train, but also the unexpected moments of connection and camaraderie that develop as a result. It’s a wistful tribute to the idea that individual humanity and empathy can bridge gaps of nationality, class, and cultural identity.

Petite Maman

This tiny gem of a French film by Celine Sciama (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) centers on a little girl who meets and befriends a doppelganger in the woods outside her grandmother’s house. While that may sound creepy, it’s anything but. To say more would be to give too much away – not that that’s stopped too many other reviews from revealing the central conceit – except that the film itself doesn’t really try to hide what’s going on. It’s more interested in the emotional terrain explored by the girls, which ends up being both slightly melancholy and utterly charming.

And now, my top ten movies of 2022:

1. FIRE ISLAND

You heard it here: This is the best Jane Austen screen adaptation since the mid-1990s one-two punch of Amy Heckerling’s Clueless and Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. Joel Kim Booster’s contemporary gay spin on Pride and Prejudice is, simply put, a delight. Come for the clever reimagining of the Austen classic and/or the satirical skewering of 21st century gay social hierarchies; stay for the sweet chemistry between Booster and Bowen Yang, who play the movie’s Lizzy and Jane (with a touch of Charlotte).

2. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

An apt title for “the Daniels’” latest cinematic swing for the fences, wherein Michelle Yeoh, as a long-suffering laundromat owner named Evelyn, literally saves the world (all worlds) by channeling all of her character’s different existences across multiple universes. Wildly trippy, hilarious, exhausting yet exhilarating, it’s crammed with tributes to everything from moody Wong Kar-Wai romances to wu xia films to The Matrix and (I kid you not) Ratatouille. The result can feel overstuffed, but it holds together thanks to the wonderful performances of Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan as Evelyn’s husband, and Stephanie Hsu as her daughter/adversary. Ostensibly a multiverse action fantasy, at heart it’s a testament to deep familial love and, in particular, the complex relationship between an Asian mother and daughter. I guarantee you’ve never seen a movie quite like this before.

3. TÁR

Not just the tale of the downfall of a sexual predator or a vehicle for the great Cate Blanchett, Todd Field’s magnum opus is a satire of the classical music world, a ghost story/horror movie, and an unsparing but not completely unsympathetic portrait of a seemingly perfectly au courant woman who, without even realizing it, has fallen fatally out of step with her times. It’s nerve-jangling and, when you least expect it, cruelly funny; it’s definitely longer than it needs to be, but Blanchett is so mesmerizing you almost don’t notice. Field is careful to avoid telegraphing any judgment as to Tár’s (heavily suggested, never “proven”) guilt and whether her comeuppance is overdue justice or a byproduct of our social media-driven culture. Both could be true, and the fascination of the film lies in pondering whether it matters.

4. TOP GUN: MAVERICK

Yes, it’s just as much of a military recruiting poster and wish fulfillment fantasy of American machismo as the original TG was. Yes, it’s still centered on the bonding and conflict between white men, with women and POC in visible but ultimately dispensable roles. Yes, it hits all the beats you’d expect it to; yes, the airfighting sequences are the strongest element and the romance the weakest; and yes, Tom Cruise once again saves the day. And you know what? It was easily the best, most satisfying theatrical movie viewing experience I had in 2022. What’s most impressive is how it manages to take the same basic themes and narrative tropes as its predecessor and make it into something a thousand times better.

5. SHE SAID

Directed by Maria Schrader (who helmed the 2021 charmer I’m Your Man and the Netflix series Unorthodox), this dramatization of how NYT reporters Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey helped bring down Harvey Weinstein does an excellent job capturing the dogged shoe-leather work of investigative journalism in the grand tradition of films like Spotlight, The Post, and of course All the President’s Men. Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan are solid as Kantor and Twohey, as are the always-reliable Patricia Clarkson and Andre Braugher as Times editors Rebecca Corbett and Dean Baquet. However, the real show-stealers are the actresses playing Weinstein’s victims, especially Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle. In just a few scenes they capture the pain, fear, and impotent rage of all the women who were bullied and manipulated into silence by one powerful creep and the complicity of an entire industry.

6. AFTERSUN

The debut feature of Charlotte Wells stars Paul Mescal (my latest One to Watch, now an Oscar-nominated actor) and newcomer Frankie Corio as a young father and his 11-year-old daughter on holiday in Turkey, circa late ’90s. There’s no real plot here; this is a movie about remembering and how memories of a loved one can be at once indelible and fragile, vivid with emotional truth even as the facts are fragmented by unexplained blanks. Sequences of the unlikely pair’s vacation, idyllic on the surface while cross-hatched with small but telling tensions underneath, are intercut with glimpses of the daughter as an adult 20+ years later, trying to piece together her recollections of a dad she clearly feels she never fully knew. Quiet and lovely, the film reminded me a bit of Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere – but hits a deeper chord. Mescal and Corio have an appealing and believable chemistry that leaves a pang when their time together comes to an end.

7. DECISION TO LEAVE

Park Chan-Wook’s lush homage to Vertigo (and other Hitchcock films) may be less outré than some of PCW’s previous works, but still exhibits plenty of his stylized violence, twisted plotting, and dark humor. Some may feel, not unfairly, that it’s more style than substance, designed to seduce rather than endure. What gives the film is emotional heft, though, is the first-rate acting by Park Hae-il as an insomniac detective and Tang Wei as the murder suspect/femme fatale who becomes the object of his obsession. Their faces have stayed with me long after the details of their machinations faded.

8. THE FABELMANS

Steven Spielberg’s contribution to the ever-expanding “Director Looks Back at his Youth” canon, is less interesting as an autobiography of Spielberg than as a canny reflection on the incredible, at times discomfiting power of filmmaking. Gabriel LaBelle is compelling as the teenage Spielberg stand-in, and Michelle Williams may have gotten most of the awards attention, but for my money the perpetually underrated Paul Dano is the most affecting as the proto-computer engineer dad who tries to be supportive of his loved ones despite not really understanding what makes them tick. While the pacing is a bit uneven, the ending is note-perfect, thanks to a memorable cameo that film nerds will love.

9. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Martin McDonagh goes back to his roots with this tale of human folly and existential angst, set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland in the 1920s, in which a brooding musician (Brendan Gleeson) abruptly cuts off his longstanding friendship with a nice dimwit (Colin Farrell) who stubbornly refuses to accept being ghosted. Not surprisingly for McDonagh, the script feels a bit like a play – think Waiting for Godot if Vladimir suddenly stopped speaking to Estragon – but opens up nicely with some beautiful cinematography and thematically significant references to the concurrent Irish Civil War. Farrell and Gleeson are terrific, with strong supporting turns by Kerry Condon as the dimwit’s much brighter sister and Barry Keoghan as the town misfit. Overall, it’s a moving if bleak – and unexpectedly bloody – meditation on mortality, relationships, and what it means to endure.

10. AFTER YANG

This gently futuristic parable about a family struggling to decide what to do with their failing android companion probes quietly yet thoughtfully into the big questions of mortality, humanity, our relationship with technology and how it impacts our relationship with each other. Like Kogonada’s other work (e.g., Columbus), it’s a beautifully composed meditation that both exhibits and requires patience and careful attention to detail. Its contemplative, measured tone put me in mind of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun.

Honorable mentions: Women Talking; Turning Red; Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery; The Woman King; RRR

Have not seen but want to see: Corsage; EO; Armageddon Time; Elvis; Marcel the Shell with Shoes on; Living; more than a few non-English language films or documentaries

Do not want to see, thank you: Triangle of Sadness; Avatar 2