2022 has been over for a few weeks, and tomorrow for film fans it will find its extension. It's rare I get to do this literally on the day before the Oscars, but this year, it's going to happen. I don't usually rank the films in this lineup until we get to the OVP, but below is my annual (alphabetical) list of the Top 10 films of 2022, according to me. These are personal preference, and inevitably I haven't seen all of the movies of 2022, but I will say I got to a lot (and that I had a great time in cinemas this year-this is a list I'm very happy with).
Aftersun
dir. Charlotte Wells
A look at the way we can never totally understand our parents, the scars they leave behind, and the ones that they left us with. This is a grand acting duet, and another testament to the rare emerging talent that is Paul Mescal.
Avatar: The Way of Water
dir. James Cameron
Cameron took 13 years to get us back to Pandora, but man was it worth the wait. Visually so impressive you can't believe we've been indulging Marvel as a "VFX titan" for the past decade, it's all a vision, particularly that gargantuan final hour where you can barely breathe it's so well-staged.
The Banshees of Inisherin
dir. Martin McDonagh
McDonagh reunites his In Bruges leading men with equal flare. The thing about Banshees that I'm struck by is not just the fine writing & acting, but the insight. The way that lonely people are willing to give so much to excuse their loneliness, and the social pacts we make to keep life worthwhile, and what happens when someone doesn't honor them.
The Bob's Burgers Movie
dir. Loren Bouchard & Bernard Derriman
I watch Bob's Burgers pretty much every day, so this film was playing with a loaded deck I love it so much. But that doesn't mean it doesn't have something fun to say. From a splendid opening act number to in-depth looks at our characters (specifically Bob & Louise), we get a spiritual sequel to the equally heartwarming Simpsons Movie fifteen years ago.
Decision to Leave
dir. Park Chan-Wook
Beautiful noir piece about the shifting lens of reality and postulation. Two astounding lead performances from Park Hae-Il and Tang Wei (back in front of a movie camera where she belongs), with an ending even Hitchcock would've been proud of for the way it ambitiously leaves the film on a coda.
The Fabelmans
dir. Steven Spielberg
I'm not tired of "odes to cinema" but given the box office I'd be fine if this was the capper on the genre for a while. The way the movie is not about a sentimental Spielberg family drama, but instead about the prickliness we find when we reexamine our own origin stories...I love the way he portrays his parents as humans, loving but with true, difficult faults.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
dir. Rian Johnson
The most fun I had all year at a movie theater. Johnson takes the best parts of Knives Out, and gives us a far compacter, tighter story by trimming the fat. Made for the movies (why is this on Netflix?), it's so funny & sharp and Johnson somehow predicted the future with that ending.
Nope
dir. Jordan Peele
Peele continues to be one of the most remarkable voices in cinema after his breakout six years ago. Here, he combines the horror genre with the western, giving us as much an homage to The Misfits as we get to Tremors or It Came From Outer Space. Those final twenty minutes rocked my world-just a beautiful movie.
Tar
dir. Todd Field
Cate Blanchett finds her Daniel Plainview as Lydia Tar, a fictional (or is she?) figure at the top of her field, but also a potential predator who is about to eat her own hubris. Chilling, filmed as if it's a horror film, Todd Field's long absence from the screen feels worthy of this comeback.
Women Talking
dir. Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley lenses this movie as almost a claustrophobic play, an unrelenting kaleidoscope of women, freed from the binds of the male gaze, discussing that gaze and the ramifications that it has had on their lives. Powerhouse performances all around, but most crucially, chemistry from these women who have the difficult job of showing evolution within what seems like what long take.
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