It’s that time of year again when your favorite critics start to stress out about what they have and haven’t watched throughout the previous year and make their best predictions of what’s going to happen this award season. But I’m putting my foot down dang it, I want to do this list considerably different than years past so bear with me. What follows are my rants and ravings about the year in movies, 2022 edition.
***Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Rape, Suicide***
While I will not go into depth in this top ten list (you can read my individual reviews), I will note when a movie I’ve recommended deals with the subject matter listed above so that you don’t walk into the movie blind, especially if you haven’t read the review.
A Note About My Honorable Mentions
These are films I certainly enjoyed but for whatever reason or issue, they couldn’t make it higher for me and I will explain why with each entry. That doesn’t actually mean that my Top Ten list movies are perfect by any means either, but I certainly wouldn’t change anything about them…whereas I could certainly do that with a few of the honorables mentioned here to make them better or they don’t resonate with me past their technical achievement.
My Honorable Mentions
Credit: Paramount Pictures
Babylon
This film is a mess…but damn it if parts of this film do it for me. The Justin Hurwitz’s score is amazing, the raunchy expose of early Hollywood, stripped of its allure, directed by a man who may be done with the business – or at the very least, has something to say about its current direction. I truly believe this is a film that folks will come back to and appreciate more as the years go on as themes settle in, but it’s fair to say its uneven approach left a bad taste in many people’s mouths.
Credit: Searchlight Pictures
The Menu
This movie really hits home as a reviewer. True, it’s taking a different space and set of issues but the problems in the celebrity food world certainly echo the problems in Hollywood in various ways. Don’t pay attention to the comparisons between this film and Triangle of Sadness, they are unwarranted. Now, it’s true there’s plenty of places this movie doesn’t innovate on and some character arcs and performances fall flat, but their aim towards critics and modern food culture lands well.
Credit: Lightstorm Entertainment, 20th Century Studios
Avatar: The Way of Water
The story is generic so, like the original, it receives few points there (though I’ll say I’m curious where they will continue to take it, can it achieve some knockouts with the later entries?) From a technical standpoint, it may be the most amazingly shot and crafted thing I’ve ever seen. Why these techniques aren’t translating to other fields, especially the CGI tech or frame rates, I have no idea and that’s worth a deeper dive in itself. Suffice it to say, few directors are innovating in the space as much as James Cameron is.
Credit: Paramount Pictures
Top Gun Maverick
You could make an argument that this film could be higher, and I wouldn’t begrudge you really. However, there’s some generic-ness that plagues this film on repeat watches, especially with the new pilots or the heavy-lifted Star Wars trench run at the end. However, when it comes to 80s remakes and reboots, it’s going to be really hard for anyone to top what Cruise pumped out – along with how well shot and edited the whole affair is.
Credit: Imperative Entertainment
Triangle of Sadness
For all the love this movie receives, it’s baffling to me that more folks aren’t complaining about the length. The first half on the boat is extremely solid and the transition to the actual meat of the story is great, but it also lingers in that space far too long without actually saying anything new. I can only watch rich idiots prance around showing they know little real-world skills for so long before it becomes apparent the film has nothing else to say on the matter. This might be another reason I hate the comparisons to The Menu; sure these two films are tackling class issues, but they are approaching it from completely different directions…and one wears out its welcome too quickly for my taste.
Credit: T-Street Productions / Netflix
Glass Onion
I love Rian Johnson, I really do. But this film has some issues that the glitz and glamor paper over. Given the opulence created for Edward Norton’s Elon Musk-type character, some of the changes in location and grandeur make sense, but it distracts from the narrative in such a large way that I yearn for a more toned down version of this sequel.
Credit: Warner Bros
The Batman
This was tough for me as a major Batman fan because I absolutely love Matt Reeves as a director (his Apes tenure is completely underrated) and he finally nailed a detective-focused Batman with elements that are closer to my generation (Emo-esque Batman, actually listening to Nirvana), the runtime and pacing of the investigation near the middle grind this film down. I don’t have a quick fix for that though so I can understand why they kept so much in, but certainly hurts the film’s impact and rewatchability.
Credit: Disney / Marvel Studios
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
This film had a job that wasn’t fair with the passing of Chadwick Boseman and somehow, they freaking pulled it off. If I were grading this film just on the Wakanda and Talokan scenes and interactions, it would be nearly perfect. However, since I have to grade the entire movie, the MCU elements forced upon it really hinder the story that Ryan Coogler wanted to tell, bloat the runtime, and serve as distractions for a narrative that simply didn’t need it. Seriously, if you remove Ross and the UN/US nonsense and/or develop Riri Williams a bit more and then it would be a flawless film.
A Note About My Top Ten
So I absolutely loathe listicles and if you’ve ever noticed on our site, we rarely produce content like that. That doesn’t mean that they are a useless exercise but many times I think the lists can be devoid of context, lacking respect for the hard work that goes into so many films, and make arbitrary comparisons that no filmmaker thought about when they sat out to make their movie. The Daniels weren’t thinking about editing their scene to beat another movie, like an offensive coordinator sets a plan to beat a particular defensive scheme. They made it to express an idea, make a bit of money, and hopefully be recognized for that effort. So with that in mind, I will definitely tell you my number 1 of the year, but the others will not be numbered because they certainly don’t need to be.
My Top Ten for 2022
Credit: Empatheia Films
Fairy Folk
I was simply stunned at how much this film impacted me. Sure there’s some production values that could be improved with a bigger budget…but when you realize there’s a trans narrative that’s working as the base for the whole story, it changes the tone severely and in a way that is endearing, complicated, and will leave audiences chewing on what gender identity actually means.
Credit: Universal Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
NOPE
I can’t stop watching this movie. I missed it when it first came out due to my travels, so I had to catch up when I was back home. Let me tell you, I attempted to watch it so many times in theaters that I think my local ushers were getting concerned. I’m extremely disappointed this didn’t get the buzz that it deserved: we got a new camera technique for nighttime scenes, it served as an ode to Jaws / Spielberg films, an exploration of how complicated the model minority myth is, wrapped inside a story about aliens…what’s not to love. Oh, and the movie is Black AF.
Credit: Moho Films
I don’t give out 10/10 scores very often and this is one of the few films to earn that distinction. The movie is saddening, hilarious, poignant, and impactful in so much of what it does. Also turtles, just remember the turtles and if that scene doesn’t win you over, nothing will win you over about a detective who crosses the line and becomes emotionally involved with a suspect, with disastrous consequences.
Credit: Orion Pictures, Hear/Say Productions, Plan B Entertainment
Women Talking
***Content Warning: depictions of sexual assault, rape***
There’s a moment near the end of this movie, when the titular women who have been debating their fate finally make their decision and my word, it’s a tearful, gut-wrenching moment. It’s the true definition of a scene or moment being well-earned and it pays off all the dialogue and building that transpired. Sure, there’s plenty of reasons to watch this film, but I think teasing how resonate the ending is might help you weather the extremely difficult but needed conversation on sexual assault and how society can heal.
Credit: Tristar Pictures
The Woman King
***Content Warning: depictions of sexual assault, rape***
Very few action films can claim the character depth and historicity like The Woman King can and it’s used to great effect in the showcasing of the Agojie warriors, how they operated in Dahomey, their might, their societal strife and wrestling with the morality of the slave trade, while avoiding a Disney-style racism fix that is far from the truth. Plus, so many amazing women shine and own their roles that it’s a must see.
Credit: Film 4 Productions
The Banshees of Inisherin
Colin Farrell starred in another dark comedy a few years ago called The Lobster (directed by Georgios “Yorgos” Lanthimos) and had you told me when I saw the trailer for Banshees, that it may be darker than that film, I might have laughed. But there in lies the great tragedy of Banshees: that one man feels his life slipping away, like so many kings and men of power before him, that their futile attempts to create or build something only results in destruction. And destroy it does, as the movie shows the ripple effect from cutting off a friend.
Credit: Ben Smithard / Film 4 Studios
The Son
***Content Warning: Depression, Suicidal Ideation***
Hugh Jackman is firing on all cylinders in a deeply rich and nuanced look at depression, it’s signs and symptoms, and the ways that society fails to have productive and healthy conversations on this topic. I’ve probably said gut-wrenching a few times already on this post, however for people who can regularly dealt with depression and suicidal ideation, so many of the issues and themes are going to do more than hit close to home so tread carefully, read a synopsis if you need to. This film is also a continuation of director Florian Zeller’s adapting his screenplays that started with Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in 2020’s The Father (Hopkins had a small cameo in this film, which chronologically sets the events of The Son before The Father).
Credit: Jafar Panahi, Celluloid Dreams
No Bears
No stranger to controversy for speaking truth to power and oppression, director Jafar Panahi composes a story of the very real circumstances and oppression he’s facing in his home country of Iran. By telling two different love stories, Panahi is able to highlight and intersect the issues of tradition and power and shine a light on the dangers of challenging or bucking those systems at play.
Note: As you read this Jafar Panahi is currently imprisoned by the government of Iran for speaking out on the unjust imprisonment of his fellow directors. For more information, you can read summary from NYT here or support ongoing efforts by the international community to free him by spreading the word. Keeping imprisoned people’s name in the news has been proven to reduce the chances of execution or sustained imprisonment
Credit: Profile Pictures, One Two Films, Why Not Productions, Wild Bunch International, Nordisk Film Production
Holy Spider
***Content Warning: Depictions of sexual assault, strangulation***
This film would have been timely even before recent human rights abuses by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and how they enforce their brand of morality across the country. Director Ali Abbasi, in what feels like a Michael Mann-style thriller, dives into the mind of a killer enabled by the aforementioned morality force to enact their brand of “cleansing” while a young journalist risks her life in early 2000s Tehran to bring him to justice.
My Top Pick
Credit: A24 Studios
Everything Everywhere All At Once
As an avid Matrix fan, I never thought we’d get another major release that matched or exceeded that type of originality. Yes, we’ve received many amazing films, but they are either so indie that few people actually hear about them, like a Primer or they are the bland blockbusters stimulating Hollywood today. The major box office hauls since 1999 have been so formulaic and product tested outside a select few, that it’s become even easier to predict which ones are going to have success, simply by looking at what reboot they’ve dusted off the shelf, which new Marvel character is getting taken out for a spin, or is it Avatar 3?
Everything Everywhere All At Once upends that, given the low-costs that went into making it, the limited release that A24 was able to craft for it’s initial run, and the impact it’s story may have on the currently stale blockbuster model. It may finally push larger studios to take a few more risks on smaller projects and see the value in the narrative, not just the box office returns.
If you want my full thoughts on EEAAO, check out my review here, but what I will say for now is simply: wow. I find more and more details on each repeat viewings – I’m still laughing at so many moments, even when I know they are going to happen, while the message of understanding your family members and healing is a powerful one that will last the ages. It’s what I yearn to bring into my own life so as to explore the same issues – and when a film can make that type of impact, it starts to transcend the screen it’s projected onto.
Conclusion
So…what do you think? Did you read Colin or Logan‘s takes on their favorite movies last year? You can let me know over on the Nerd Union Discord, drop a comment in the article, or feel free to jump over to our Patreon to support and gain access to monthly conversations with myself and other NU writers.
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