My 10 favorite movies of 2022
Intros for these lists are pretty unnecessary. So let’s just acknowledge that it actually turned out to be a pretty good year for movies—lots of entertainment and lots to think about. Fun!
10. Top Gun: Maverick
When a sequel arrives 36 years later, you don’t exactly expect innovation. What’s surprising about this very summery action spectacle is how accurately it hits its targets. With Tom Cruise (of course) returning as Maverick and Miles Teller as the late Goose’s (Anthony Edwards) son Bradley, “Top Gun: Maverick” is visually and emotionally satisfying in ways that you’d think would be the norm for big movies featuring families and explosions but very much aren’t. (A big fat no to anyone about to say, “What about the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise?”) No matter how much you sense certain beats between people or maneuvers among aircrafts, director Joseph Kosinski (“Tron: Legacy”) delivers something moving, exciting and quite difficult for an effort that could’ve been a vapid nostalgia trip: an undeniably welcome return.
9. Fresh
It’s not much of a compliment to be the year’s best gross movie, or the superior cannibal title (“Bones and All”). But “Fresh” deserves, um, front-handed praise—recalling the twisted comic perspective of “American Psycho,” this love story-turned-psychological horror descent offers both style and substance, anchored by terrific lead roles for Sebastian Stan (“Pam and Tommy”) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Where the Crawdads Sing”). If it weren’t about what it’s about, you’d say it looks delicious. As is, it’s about 20 times smarter and nastier than “The Menu,” and very easy to recommend to … almost no one.
8. Bros
There was a time—you probably don’t remember; it was long, long ago—when major studios made movies called “comedies,” and, sometimes, “romantic comedies.” Occasionally these were very funny. They were never, ever about a gay couple. Starring and co-written by Billy Eichner, “Bros” very much recognizes and seizes its opportunity, delivering a hilarious romantic comedy that doesn’t try to rewrite the rules but merely craft something both warm and outspoken when at last given the chance. Obviously, this isn’t the first time a gay couple has been played by movie stars in a highly discussed project. But it’s a big deal release for Universal, who shouldn’t take the poor box office to heart. Groundbreaking or not, “Bros” is a winner.
7. The Fabelmans
Warm and affectionate but not as insistently twinkly as you might fear, Steven Spielberg’s reflection on his childhood and the influence of both his family (Paul Dano and Michelle Williams play his parents) and his relationship to art and filmmaking is thoughtful and comforting, reflective and pained, yet inevitably hopeful. Gabriel LaBelle is a legit find as the young Schmeven Schmielberg–I mean, Sam Fabelman–and the director/co-writer delivers his best movie in 20 years.
6. Pleasure
Perhaps if you are a 14-year-old boy in the ‘90s, you might assume that the adult film industry is a shiny world of happiness and freedom, debauchery and delight. Anyone else knows this is not the case. Yet writer-director Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure” neither demonizes this world nor buys into its illusions. As Bella (Sofia Kappel) arrives in L.A. from Sweden with standard dreams of being the next big thing, she discovers that, like any profession, there are good days and bad, kind people and not. What’s most startling here is how effectively Thyberg keeps the boundaries moving; every time Bella gets comfortable, she’s challenged. Every time she’s struggling, the reality changes. Throughout, the filmmaker delivers a film about the business of sex that is very explicit and yet determinedly non-erotic, identifying the spectrum of humanity and what it looks like when that’s lost. It’s both pro-sex and pro-integrity, and very tuned into the cost of a commodity. Or, more clearly, what may or may not change when the camera rolls, and what that says about everyone in front, behind, and watching at home.
5. Babylon
How many three-hour movies have you wanted to watch twice in a row? Not just the most movie of the year, Damien Chazelle’s (“Whiplash,” “La La Land”) swirling, mega-ambitious celebration of love and movies as well as a destruction of any mythmaking behind both is what words like “dazzle” and “astound” were made for. Starring Margot Robbie as an aspiring actress who’s sure she’s already a star–it’s something you are, not something you become, she says–and Diego Calva as the lowest guy on the L.A. totem pole with dreams of getting closer to the movies, “Babylon” is giddy and tragic, optimistic and bruised, naive and seasoned and forever pursuing a high that is, by definition, temporary. Returning to themes of artistic compromise and simultaneous triumph and devastation, Chazelle dares to directly reference “Singin’ in the Rain,” indirectly nod to movies as classic as “Boogie Nights” and nearly earns a place in the same room, if not quite on the same shelf. Exhilarating.
4. She Said
An incredibly important movie about journalism as well as a crackling intellectual thriller, this is a great “getting the work done” movie that touches on an enormous number of contemporary and timeless issues. Zoe Kazan is subtle and effective as New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor and Carey Mulligan is even better as Kantor’s reporting partner Megan Twohey, establishing courage and grit without overdoing it. Taking on a mammoth uphill battle to confront power with truth, these women are very human and very badass in finding the story, knowing who, what and how to ask, and believing in the ethical and moral power of the work. Nothing about the investigation that eventually led to Harvey Weinstein going to jail was easy. “She Said” knows the fight isn’t over as well as the impact that can happen when progress breaks through the old ways to something resembling justice. And the pain that remains.
3. Saint Omer
Riveting, upsetting and anchored by remarkable performances by Kayjie Kagame as a pregnant novelist and Guslagie Malanda as a Senegalese woman on trial for killing her 15-month-old daughter, “Saint Omer” explores enormously difficult questions about race and motherhood (and justice and mental health and bias and cultural differences and true crime and and). Director/co-writer Alice Diop based the trial and even much of its dialogue on an actual case. You will want more and not get it; the film intends to baffle and frustrate (hell of a closing argument, though), demanding discussion and rewatching and offering no easy answers. It knows, in ways I’m still thinking about it, just how much we never can.
2. Nope
Does our need to capture things on camera and create the next spectacle enable those who only thrive on attention? Writer-director Jordan Peele seems to think so, revolving “Nope” around a very hungry entity that is powerless if we don’t look. As visually stunning as anything else this year, the sci-fi/horror film includes subtly fantastic performances across the board and endless insight into how people fight to be seen and a culture in which adjacency to tragedy or trauma can sometimes be its own form of celebrity. “Nope” is as complex and entertaining as it is haunting, recognizing that when we look away from what matters and toward what doesn’t, when we’re desensitized to horrible things, what will make us think? How can we look directly at the thing, and not just at content? In other words, are we numb to threats when life is compared to a movie? Peele’s third feature (“Get Out,” “Us”)—which, full disclosure, took me two viewings to recognize as extraordinary—is about nothing less than how we make sense of the world. Fittingly, it’s beautiful and terrifying.
1. Aftersun
Words really just don’t suffice for this deeply special film, so no point in trying. On the surface it’s about a dad (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter (Frankie Corio) on vacation, and underneath it’s about time and memory and little moments and big questions, and all that parents and kids do and don’t know about each other. Ambiguity rarely feels so clear, and an onscreen family rarely feels so convincing. “Aftersun” will deserve any awards it wins, and first-time feature writer-director Charlotte Wells will sprint to the top of your list of filmmakers you want to follow. See it, love it, recommend it to everyone who has ever been a parent or a kid.
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