My Favorite Films of 2022

A look back at some movies I loved from the past year.

By: Josh McCormack 

I, for one,  thought 2022 was a wonderful year for film. While I certainly didn't get to see everything, the films I watched this year were overwhelmingly solid. This being the case, I had trouble whittling my favorites down to my normal ten. So, for the third year in a row, I am choosing to break my own "top ten" rule and instead present 20 films that I loved in 2022 in alphabetical order. 

Here we go!

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (Dir. Cameron)

Using a simple but sturdy narrative as the framework for visual eye-candy and jaw-dropping action sequences, James Cameron puts the spectacle back into the modern blockbuster. In a MARVEL-ized cinematic landscape that puts snarky dialogue and references to other movies at the forefront and often skimps on trying to wow the audience, The Way of Water is a three hour reminder of how earnest storytelling mixed with modern technology can be used to heighten the power of movie magic. See it in Dolby 3D if you haven't already and brace yourself for one of the most immersive cinematic experiences of the last decade. 

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (Dir. McDonagh)

A dreary and darkly funny Irish fable, led by some of the best performances of the year. The film focuses on the tense conflict between Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson's characters, but the surrounding residents of Inisherin prove to be some of the most fascinating supporting players in any film of this past year. Barry Keoghan has been putting in some incredible performances as of late, but his performance here is his best work since 2017's The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Such a sad character.

BARBARIAN (Dir. Cregger)

While it's become a sleeper hit in part due to how bonkers it gets in the third-act, the secret weapon of writer/director (and former member of my beloved Whitest Kids U Know sketch comedy group) Zach Cregger's debut feature is the way it wrings so much tension out of the setup, only to gloriously subvert the viewers expectations. With a quick cutaway to Justin Long in a sports car about forty-five minutes into the film, Barbarian proves itself to be one of the most uniquely constructed and delightfully idiosyncratic horror films of the year. 

THE BLACK PHONE (Dir. Derrickson)

Far and away Scott Derrickson's best film. A masterclass in suspense and one hell of a well-made ghost story, The Black Phone calls back to the best of 1970's horror filmmaking. Led by terrific child performances and a chilling turn from one of our best actors, Ethan Hawke as The Grabber, The Black Phone is an intense, bare-knuckled thrill ride that proved to be one of my favorite theater going experiences of 2022.

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (Dir. Cronenberg)

David Cronenberg's latest feature announces in the first act of Crimes of the Future that "body is reality",  and in our lead body mutilating performance artist played by Viggo Mortensen, we see a man who is trying to deny that reality. For all the socio-political commentary and heavy gore that Cronenberg puts into this dystopian tale of body modification run amok, its this core story of bodily acceptance that I found to be so powerful. As the filmmaker, who's almost 80, begins to reckon with his own bodily deterioration and the new reality that can bring about, so must his lead character. I know he's got at least one more in him, but Crimes of the Future really does feel like a perfect concluding statement for the master of body horror cinema. 

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS (Dir. Raimi)

No matter how good or bad I find certain MCU entries, there is almost always one constant detriment; a lack of a singular, directorial voice. This is not the case with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a campy, colorful, and delightfully anarchic entry in this superhero saga that announces itself right from the start as a Sam Raimi movie. From the constantly moving camera to the demon-infested final act, Multiverse of Madness perfectly fits amongst the canon of other great films from the Evil Dead and Spider-Man director. I wish more recent comic book movies felt like this one.

ELVIS (Dir. Luhrmann)

Not a critical deconstruction of Elvis (much to the chagrin of some naysayers), but rather an over-the-top, rhinestone-encrusted tribute to The King, presented in such a way that only a filmmaker as maximalist as Luhrmann could present it. Austin Butler is most likely going to lose the best actor Oscar to a performance like Brendan Fraser's in The Whale and that's a real shame. It's easy to see what Butler is doing here as some form of impressionistic Oscar bait at first glance (a la Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury),  but what he achieves is a level of transformation that no other recent performance of this type can hold a candle to. Also, Tom Hanks delivers one of the most beautifully ill-conceived supporting performances in recent memory and it's delightful to watch for all the wrong reasons.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Dir. The Daniels)

Film Twitter's favorite movie of 2022 is, in fact, quite great. Utilizing a healthy dose of absurdism to punctuate the very real drama between a mother and a daughter, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a truly remarkable feat of delicately balancing what initially seems to be like two very disparate tones. No other movie I can think of that features this many goofy running visual gags--such as a man being controlled by a Raccoon sitting atop his head in a reference to Ratatouille--can also reduce me to tears by the end. Silly, existential, and all elevated by an incredible cast. Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan for all of the Oscars please.

THE FABELMANS (Dir. Spielberg)

While arguably no living director is more controlled behind the camera than Spielberg, there's a certain looseness that struck me when watching The Fabelmans. This auto-biographical, coming-of-age story certainly isn't as free flowing as something like a Richard Linklater joint, but the use of small vignettes that Spielberg presents that collectively make up his youth allows the director not to be as concerned with plot mechanics as he often is, but instead present the lives of these characters as they inhabit this immaculately recreated world of America in the 1960s. There's also something so vulnerable and touching about Spielberg not only facing his parents' divorce head-on, but also calling himself out for his own faults; the main one being not able to face the hard parts of life without a camera in front of him. A real treat from one of our master storytellers.

JACKASS FOREVER (Dir. Tremaine)

There's a scene about halfway through the latest Jackass movie that really stuck with me. After almost an hour of pogo sticks to the balls and tasers to the tongue, the lead madman, Johnny Knoxville, gets violently flung around by a bull and falls head first to the ground. In any other Jackass stunt, the rowdy boys would start to laugh like maniacs, but this time there's silence amongst the now aging crew. As Knoxville continues to be unresponsive, there is genuine concern in the eyes of those who were once considered to be the greatest daredevils of the late 90s early 2000s. The beautiful cringe-worthy chaos is all still there in Jackass Forever, but what puts this movie on this list is the way the movie documents a group of madmen who are starting to realize they might finally be getting too old for this shit.  

NOPE (Dir. Peele)

Jordan Peele's third feature is a horror/sci-fi hybrid that confronts how we reckon with trauma through spectacle. It is one of the strangest and impenetrable films to be unleashed on to a mainstream audience, and that being the case, a lot of geniuses (such as Logan Paul) really didn't get it. It also happens to be the downright scariest movie I saw in 2022; a film that taps into so many of my specific fears such as animals going berserk, claustrophobia, and that feeling of powerlessness as his lead characters look to the sky and see an enormous, unrelenting being that they are powerless against. The Jupiter's Landing massacre, alone, is the most unnerving scene I witnessed all year.

THE NORTHMAN (Dir. Eggers)

A 90-million, R-rated viking epic that we'll probably never see the likes of from Hollywood again. Robert Eggers takes his trademark grit and authenticity that worked so well for him in The Witch and The Lighthouse and applies it to a dark and violent adventure tale that's one part Hamlet, one part Conan the Barbarian, and a little Gladiator sprinkled within for good measure. The plot is certainly the basic heroes journey, but to see it told with such gusto from a modern-day auteur like Eggers and a rock solid cast makes it an absolute delight. 2022's most metal movie.

ON THE COUNT OF THREE (Dir. Carmichael)

Comedian and actor Jerrod Carmichael's feature directorial debut is another example of a skilled artist somehow managing to pull off a tight wire tonal balancing act between a dead serious drama and buddy comedy. The result is a frank movie that talks openly and honestly about two lead characters who are living out their last day before they both commit suicide that--in other hands--could have been one of the most depressing watches of the year, if it wasn't for the script's more lighthearted touches that are woven in so delicately that they never seem to detract from the seriousness of the subject matter. A remarkable feat, especially for a first-time director.

PREY (Dir. Trachtenberg) 

Of all the franchises that have started to seem creatively bankrupt after years of mediocre sequels and failed reboots, the Predator franchise ranks high on the list. However, director Dan Trachtenberg shows how effective a simple change of setting and a killer lead performance can be in setting a series back on course. Prey is the best kind of stripped-down action/thriller. It's a beautiful reminder that what made the original Predator movie work so well wasn't a script that dumped pointless expository lore on the audience, but instead threw them into the action and allowed the audience to discover what made the Predator so frightening through the eyes of its main character.

TÁR (Dir. Field)

To describe Todd Field's latest as merely a statement about "cancel culture", as many online have done, is to relegate this incredible, ghostly tale of manipulation and transformation as nothing more than some sort of time capsule of what's going on in the world today. Instead, it is a truly nuanced and complex character study that never provides easy answers. One second you find yourself loving Lydia Tár and the control she has in any situation, but the next you see her as the monster others see her as. While there have been plenty of recent stories told about someone being taken down for their abhorrent behavior, Tár asks, "what happens next"? Also, the final scene in this movie is an all-timer. 

TERRIFIER 2 (Dir. Leone)

One of the most unexpected movies that really worked for me was the gore-heavy Terrifier 2; a sequel to a micro budget slasher wannabe that I absolutely hated. While it's a cheap, scuzzy slasher movie with buckets of blood, I was honestly quite charmed by this nasty little movie's ambition in a way that I haven't been with an independent horror movie in quite a few years. With a cost of only $250 grand, writer/director Damien Leone sets out to make the ultimate slasher flick, with some insanely creative kills and gnarly set pieces, all packed into a supersized 138 minute runtime. Is it too much? Probably. But for a horror fan like myself, I couldn't get enough of this goofy, gross-out sequel. 

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (Dir. Miller)

Between his two most recent trips back to the Wastelands of Mad Max, director George Miller made a pitstop with this fantasy love story that works as an amazing showcase for the talents of Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. Taking place mostly in a hotel room where Swinton's character expresses the power of stories to a magical Djinn, the existential musings of these two characters proves to be just as much a delight as any odd visual Miller and co can conjure in the fantasy sequences. It was horribly mis-marketed as sort of trippy, visual odyssey, but it's the love story that really shines here.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Dir. Kosinski)

Here's the thing; it's not like I'm the biggest fan of the first Top Gun. I watched it here and there when I was younger, but it certainly never felt like the defining movie that it is for a lot of people. So while many fans watch scenes from Top Gun: Maverick that act as callbacks to the original film, I see elements of that first film being done 10x better. Thrilling, funny, and unapologetically earnest. Top Gun:Maverick is one of the only--if not the only--legacy sequels in recent years that finds just the right balance between paying homage to what came before and still finding ways to surprise its audience without sacrificing what we all came to see. It is a thrill-ride of a movie that relies on the best old tropes of action movie storytelling. Not because it's lazy, but because Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski know these tropes are used again and again for a reason; they really work when done well. And boy, is it all done well here. This movie deserves every bit of acclaim it has received.

WE'RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD'S FAIR (Dir. Schoenbrun)

One of 2022's most underrated movies was this one-of-a-kind independent horror movie. Not since Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade (which I argue is a sort of horror film, itself) has a film tapped into the cultural moment the youth of today is engaging with. Focusing on a young girl who takes on a viral horror challenge and the insanity she seems to be falling into as a result, the film is a claustrophobic and patient horror story that I still don't know if I can fully decipher. But it has wormed its way into my brain and after only one viewing, I still can't shake its disturbing vibe.

X (Dir. West)

Rounding out this list of movies I loved in 2022, is one of the year's most exciting A24 films. An homage to 1970s slasher about a porn shoot gone horribly...horribly wrong, Ti West finds the perfect balance of genuine scares and dark comedy. Mia Goth is an absolute powerhouse here in a dual performance as both the film's protagonist and antagonist, the elderly and murderous Pearl (who got her own, slightly inferior prequel movie just a few months back) and the kills are wonderfully nasty. A good ol' grind house homage that deserves to be seen. Can't wait to see how West ties up this trilogy.