Best Movies of 2022
So its my final list in counting down the best things about Cinema in 2022. I wouldn’t say it was a bad year for movies, but it was not one that overall excited me despite a few standouts. A lot of what was touted up as big and good from The Fablemans to Top Gun 2 to Avatar to indies like Aftersun or foreign movies like Decision to Leave or RRR I just didn’t care for. None of the superhero movies, Dc or Marvel, I can say I liked that much (the Tv shows however I enjoyed more). Maybe I am becoming an old grump, I don’t know but I don’t think that’s it bc I still found plenty to love in the year. My mind is open as ever, I just think sometimes the mix of cast/ director/ script works and sometimes they don’t. The 10 movies I am putting on here I did truly love though, and as with any year if you search hard enough you will find the ones that move you in some way, and as time goes on and the true masterworks stand as out as they always do, I will revisit the year. There were several, especially foreign ones, I never got to see. You may see my list and say the same thing, that these 10 didn’t live up to your expectations! To Each their own.
After today I’ll be counting down my 10 favorite movies of the year one at a time. Here are the 11- 15 honorable mentions:
All the Old Knives – A great spy thriller with Thandiwe Newton and Chris Pine playing a couple that constantly doubts and deceives each other. Ya know why, they spys! A dense plot that twists reality a bit and really makes you think.
She Said – Strangely not nominated for many awards this season (oh well), a great old style newspaper thriller a la All the Presidents Men or Zodiac, that delves into Harvey Weinstein saga of late. The tale of women doing the research and putting a rapist behind bars, good for them!
Resurrection – Tim Roth goes for evil in this movie of an ex boyfriend-stalker to Rebecca Hall’s mother on the run. But is he real, or just a memory that haunts her? Some great scenes and a horrifying ending.
Saint Omer – Favorite foreign movie I saw last year, director Alice Diop tells this firsthand true story of a French mother convicted of killing her baby in France that is very straightforward but super unnerving. Best courtroom movie of the year, easily.
The Northman – Evidently, this is the Norse version of the story that William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was based on. Everything is primal, ancient, and crazy in the unique style of director Robert Eggers. Skarsgard carries the movie on his massive shoulders, but the supporting cast is perfect too, especially Nicole Kidman as the bewitching mother.
Armageddon Time – My wife’s favorite of the year, a great coming of age story about a Reagan era prep school child (awesome performance by young actor Banks Repeta) and his learning about how race and politics divide those around him, including his parents. James Grey is still on a hot Streak of movies after Lost City of Z (2016) and Ad Astra (2019)
10.The Banshees of Inisherin
This movie has a nice conundrum to it, though it is at times very funny and very sad. At tis core, it’s about friendship and how some people value it more than others in their life. To the main character played by Colin Farrell, his best friend (Brendan Gleeson) and sister (Kerry Condon) mean everything to him, as does his adorable donkey Jenny (she’s not a donkey…). But to Gleeson’s character, making his art (in this case music) is the focus as he approaches the end of his life. To him, it is better to try and put your stamp on the world or to do something meaningful then to sit in a pub talking about the same things every day and waste time….wasting time. The extremes Gleeson goes to when he tells Farrell to quit bothering him “or else” serves as a metaphor that makes more sense the more you think about it. Then there is a clash of former friends and even a minor character who feels the aftereffects of the feud, a simpler minded boy played with great affection by Barry Keoghan.
The third perspective of the movie is what makes the story worthwhile to me, and that is Kerry Condon’s. From her perspective, living life to the fullest is moving away from her hometown onto a bigger city and furthering her education is what makes life worth living. What good are any of these issues the friends are feuding about, if you spend your life on a tiny island that has no connection to the outside world? She loves her family but needs to leave to achieve her full potential; she does this not to hurt anyone, but her actions are still viewed as hurtful. That I think is the point of Director McDonagh’s little film, actions have consequences, whether we intend them or not. People change after they feel hurt or slighted, when all you know is tied up in somebody else and that person changes their mind or their friendship/relationship, the lesson may be…you can only rely on yourself in this world? If that seems too bleak, again Martin McDonagh is kind of a bleak guy. Previous director of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Mo (2017) and In Bruges (2008) this may actually be his “nicest” movie yet. But, as a common theme in his stories, everything usually gets burned down at some point and we have to start over, just when we thought everything was going ok.
9.Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A little miracle of a movie, this started years ago as just an animated short staring Jenny Slate as a funny little voiced Shell with one eye (and shoes) and it evolved into this full length strangely animated miracle. The shell is still played by Slate of course, who is trying to find her parents who got moved when some of the Humans around her moved their stuff (they were living hid in the drawer of course!). So Marcel goes on a little adventure, using household objects such and spoons and yarn to get around, bounce up and down and climb, and of course avoid the house pets like cats, birds and mice!
Her Grandmother (Isabella Rossellini) helps her when she can, but she has her own issues taking care of her house garden. Of course, Marcel and her Grandmother have to try and find her parents using any method they can, but it’s not so much about a plot as it is about the rediscovery of life and finding the beauty in everything. Marcel is very naïve and that can be beautiful, like how she watches 60 minutes with Barbera Walters, how she goes through her routines that make her happy. The movie transforms the ordinary house around the tiny, animated Marcel into something extraordinary and in that same way changes the way we see anything in our worldview as good and not bad. Only Jenny Slate could have turned such a strange little creature into something oddly endearing- she is a one-of-a-kind actress.
8. Sundown
Tim Roth has this ability to play any kind of character and imbue them with any kind of personality. His protagonist in this movie hardly talks, hardly feels any emotions, and only kind of emotes once absolutely necessary. Maybe more people should be like that, or maybe that’s all that matters is what we do not what we say? Im not sure, but Sundown is a movie that constantly surprised me. It gradually reveals what its about, but its an odd thing: the more you know about Roth’s character and life the less sympathy you feel for him. His sister comes to visit him in Mexico (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and tells him there has been a death in the family. He’s not so much a lost soul as someone who has not got what he wanted out of life. He played a similar role with the same director Michel Franco’s Chronic (2015) where he played a nurse that helps the elderly who is often misunderstood. Maybe that’s the key to Roth’s characters, to be misunderstood makes it interesting, adding a mystery where otherwise it would just be a story about a spoiled rich kid. Not that spoiled rich kids can’t make fascinating character studies.
I wish they would have picked a better movie title, Sundown seems vague and its overused as a title- but that’s my only real nitpick.
7.Bones and All
Bones and All is a story about someone who is compelled to eat other humans, so as long as you know that and prepare yourself it opens up as a gorgeous movie full of great performances. The woman who discovers she has a compulsion to eat human flesh played by Taylor Russel soon discovers others like her, first an older man who shows her how to hone her skills (Mark Rylance) and then another man about her age (Timothee Chalamet) who becomes her companion. The comparisons to something like Bonnie and Clyde (1967) don’t really hit the mark for me, as they are not robbing people merely feeding a compulsion- in fact the movie sort of makes the cannibals involved out as victims of their own desires. If they don’t eat, they don’t survive, as plain as that.
Maybe Terrance Malick’s Badlands (1973) is a better comparison, because even though they try to only kill those who deserve it or eat the people who are already dead, there is something sort of surreal and crazy about their life and it’s a fascinating watch. The backgrounds are vast and full of colors, and a movie about cannibals becomes something vivacious for the patient viewer. Rylance gives maybe the Supporting Actor performance of the year for me (tied with his other performance in The Outfit, he was not nominated for either sadly) with Sully, a diabolic and haunting presence that talks in a disorienting southern accent and refers to himself in 3rd person, creating a sort of stalking presence for Taylor Russel- even though he wants to be her mentor. Rylance is sort of the Dracula of the cannibal world here, with a “join me or die” attitude. How it all concludes is not at all how I expected, being less of a road movie and more like a serial killer thriller, and its so rare I am surprised these days. A great movie for sure, though I’m not sure I will have to the stomach to watch it again anytime soon….
6. Babylon
Babylon is as phantasmagoric as movies get. It dares to challenge the audience to keep watching, as much like in Nocturnal Animals (2016) the opening scenes are to test your mantle for staying for what’s around (in the style of a free for all, drug infused 1920’s throw down among actors and movie stars of the time, somewhat based on real Hollywood lore). But after the opening salvo, the movie changes into something beautiful and kind of understated that really affected me. It follows several stories, of what movies stars will do when their time runs out and they are not as famous anymore (Brad Pitt), of what to do when Hollywood cannot put up with your wild nature (Margo Robbie), of how much work you do you may have to sacrifice it for someone you love (Diego Calva), of what you will put up with as a musician when you are finally put on screen in the spotlight (Jovan Adepo).
There are scenes of memorable movie scenes being crafted in the desert, there are testings of going from sound pictures to talking ones and how it changes actors movements and placements on set, and in all everything is so detailed and tense that Director Damien Chazelle should be commended just for trying something with this many moving parts; it’s my favorite movie of his since Whiplash. Make no mistake, this is Chazelle’s stab at making something as ambitious as Magnolia or Pulp Fiction, and for a lot of the movie he is successful. Hey, its 3 hours, there is an argument it could have either been an hour shorter or an hour LONGER and im not sure which would have been better. I could probably write several paragraphs about Toby Maguires scenes, how the references to and from Singing in the Rain (1952) come in and out, all the the amazing tricks and twists in the musical score, etc. I just know I was along for the ride, and it was one I will always remember.
5.Emily the Criminal
Emily the Criminal (played in a breakout role by Audrey Plaza) is a movie where you feel every decision the lead character makes, for every choice and action and reaction we are right there with her, good or bad (and they are mostly bad). Emily goes form a person who is debt with student loans and financial troubles to someone who becomes very good and attempting to scam people with fake credit cards, to something else entirely. She had never tried to be a thief, but find she is very adept at it and the bigger the score the more excited she gets about it. To watch her adapt to this new life is a thrilling to watch, and just like the title says she becomes a criminal but also builds her confidence into becoming a new person.
We stay with Emily as she attempts to steal a car, as she doesn’t let herself get robbed after all her hard work, as she maneuvers one final big score with her new boyfriend (Theo Rossi) who brought her into this criminal life but she learned from him and has the one key element to make her successful: confidence. In reality, this movie is less about being a criminal and more about starting your own business, being an entrepreneur. Watching her work the system and work people I felt like I learned a lot actually, and I feel like the movie is an amazing ride. Movies like this may come and go to some people, and not win many awards, but they are vital to cinema- not quite in the action drama and not quite thriller – but somewhere in between. Plaza dominates the role and lately with her roles in HBO's White Lotus and new movie in theaters Operation Fortune, seems prime to dominate the cinematic world. She deserves all the accolades thrown her way, and is a one of a kind presence on screen. This is her best work to date.
4.Tar
Tar is an impenetrable movie in many ways, mostly because of its subject matter of classical music and the life of a conductor who has worked her way up the ranks. But like any great movie, the subject matter is almost meaningless – the way the lead performance changes and mutates, the way the whole theme of the film turns on its head, the trippy ending that makes zero sense if you expected something predictable like a grand performance. Cate Blanchett carries the movie because she can be a chameleon, she can be a great presence on stage as a symphony conductor or she can be a hard to love wife and parent, or a complete sham of an artist.
Her character as Tar has worked her way up the chain to become world famous, but how she go there comes into question in the middle of the movie – is the movie condemning her actions or is it simply saying “this is the way the world works” or no one stays on top forever. The implications are endless in Tar, and it is a great movie about presenting a way of life and about how even if your station in life changes, its who you are inside that matters. So if you are complete sham inside, you will eventually be exposed; if you are a hard worker and pure of heart, you can still wait for your chance to move up in the ranks and go about it honestly. There are some elements of the movie, like the social correctness scene at the beginning during the lecture, that I am looking forward to see how they age in say 10 years. But for a film 2 and a ½ hours long, I was captivated by everything about it and I’m glad Todd Field is back at directing after a long hiatus.
3.Empire of Light
It’s hard for a Sam Mendes movie to steer me wrong, add to that he is one director who has had Roger Deakins shoot all his movies as of late and you have a perfect mixture of cinematic glory. For his stories, they are never simple, always compacted and never quite about what you think they are. This was a personal story to Mendes, referencing his mother’s mental illness she struggled with all his life as a child and the lead character Hilary (played by Olivia Coleman) reflects this is many ways. She is very loving and caring, but also quite short with people and does not let anyone get close to her. When she meets a kind young man at the local theater movie where she works named Stephen (Michael Ward), their relationship blossoms very quickly almost with a Harold and Maude type connection- Coleman’s character is at least twice the age of Stephen, maybe more.
But it’s not a simple love story, and it’s not just about people. The building the crew we get to know works in is an old movie theater, also a relic in need of love. The times the film is based on in the late 70 and 80s, provoke a kind of nostalgia about Mendes’ youth. Though there are many things that have gotten better- including the outright racism and male dominated workplaces- some things have not changed at all. Through the movie, views of what is right and what is wrong are challenged and it pushes many people’s buttons, much like his first Film American Beauty did. Mendes is always more interested in challenging authority in his movies than in make over dramatic points or being to stagey. In fact, you could say the entire movie follows a linear plot but you have to look hard to find it. It seems meandering, like all true love stories, but when looking back you reflect upon just how much the movie affected you. In all the movies I saw last year, this one surprised me the most- I wonder why the critics and audiences’ reviews were so mixed- perhaps people saw something of themselves in the characters on display that they didn’t like too much. Uncomfortable truths, brought to light very subtlety. Well, that’s Sam Mendes for you.
2.The Outfit
The man sitting silently doesn’t want you to notice him. It’s not always because he is shy, though that is what we all assume. It is simply because he hiding, hiding his true nature or is hiding from confrontation; or perhaps a little of both. In this movie the man is played by Mark Rylance (2015), man what a year for this guy! I admit, even though I liked Bridge of Spies just fine, I didn’t think he deserved the Oscar for it back when he won it. I'm not afraid to say I was wrong, and I just wished he had been more recognized for any of his Movies this year: first I saw his supporting role in Bones and All then I saw this little masterpiece streaming on Amazon (though it came out almost a year ago in March of 2022). There are so many twists and turns in the Outfit, seemingly a story about a Tailor who is close to retirement age who ends up doing a lot of work for local mafia people in the 1950’s. They give him lots of business, so he puts up with heir shenanigans until one day they need his store to hide out in after a heist gone wrong.
But that’s not what the Outfit is really about, its more about how you handle yourself in tough situations, do you crack under pressure, and what life lessons have you learned along the way. I can’t get into the plot more than I did, but I will say this movie has some impressive acting- not only Rylance but Zoey Deutch and the Johnny Flynn – as well as the tightest and twistiest script of the year. If you have not seen this movie yet, I can easily say you will not guess what's coming. It’s a better minimal play act move than The Whale and a better thriller / mystery than Glass Onion. It is easily the most underrated of the year, and I cannot sing its praises enough! It is the difference between a Tailor and a “cutter”, and to know what that means you will have to find out for your self and give it a watch. Perfect.
1.Everything Everywhere All at Once
If you were to tell me when i walked out of the theater in March 2002 that Everything Everywhere All at once had even a chance to win best picture Oscar, i would have called you a liar. But here we are on Oscar day, and its the favorite to win over big budget crowd pleasers (Top Gun, Avatar) and the normal movie fair that tends to win Oscars (the Fabelmans, Banshees of Inisherin). I mean, it seems like the movie was tailor made for me, with its use of multiple genres smashing into each other- there is family drama, there are elements of fantasy and horror, it is at times hilarious comedy. It's kind of unbelievable that I like it so much, not to mention everyone I talked to hat has seen it at least admires parts of it.
So what is this movie about? I mean, its about everything. It successfully navigates those waters and finds a way to incorporate all genres and styles of movie into one story of a family that owns a laundromat. Its like if The Matrix (1999) met an old fashioned tearjerker like The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and that was saddled with a weird obsession with bagels and cream cheese. I mean, did I just write that sentence? The Daniels are the directors behind this masterwork (Kwan and Scheinert ) and their last movie Swiss Army Man (2018) about Daniel Radcliff farting across the sky (seriously) was really NOT my cup of tea. But here is this movie, made on a small budget than one would think and trying to encompass the whole of our existence, making us see our lens of possible life choices and owning up to our own selfishness, and navigating the waters to make it meaningful rather than pretentious.
I don't know why this movie was easily my favorite of the year or why it resonates with other people, maybe every one is as weird as I am or i'm not even that strange after all? Strange is normal now, or something. If you watch this for the first time with a completely open mind, it will change your outlook on life. I don't know its really hard to write about this movie without sounding ridiculous, yet somehow it all makes sense in the end. Like Life, i guess.