Top Ten Movies of 2022: A List By Q
In our first apparently “post pandemic” year since COVID first cursed our lives, while others leaned in with travel, visiting friends and family, getting married, posting beach shots on Instagram, I leaned hard into: da moovies. This year I’ve fully embraced sitting in the dark surrounded by strangers watching stories being shared. Nicole Kidman was right - heartbreak does feel good in a place like this.
As promised in the latest episode of What Else Are We Mad At, here are my favourite films of the year! Obviously I wasn’t able to see every single release, cause I’m got a stupid full time job to deal with, and there are several films that aren’t out in the UK yet (looking at you The Fablemans). If you don’t like this list, feel free to send hate our way, it’s good for the SEO. Without further adieu:
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
dir: Eric Appel
In case you needed confirmation that I’m not a serious critic, and this isn’t a serious list, how funny was Weird!? Probably one of, if not the, best film made from a Funny or Die Sketch. One of my favourite things in the world is when serious actors seriously commit to objectively goofy bits, and this movie is full of them. The perfect send off of Oscar Bait biopic shlock like Bohemian Rhapsody, Weird was a total blast from start to finish (including the unexpected 20 minute veer into John Wick territory. No notes, great work, this is art, this is cinema).
A TIE! The Northman and The Batman
dir. Robert Eggers and dir. Matt Reeves
Two films about The Something-man dared to ask the question: do dudes rock, or are they incredibly broken thanks to toxic masculinity? When offered an easy life with the girl of their dreams, men would rather face various life-threatening foes, and frankly, we love them for it. Both films are absolutely beautiful to watch, with Eggers leaning into the brutalism and coldness of the Viking era, and Reeves leans into the dark noir vibes of The Batman. Maybe dudes don’t rock, maybe they’re obsessive losers.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
It’s Michelle Yeoh’s world, and we’re just living in it. The multiverse is back! Following two different multiverse Spiderman movies, the Daniels took the concept and ran with it, with the hit sensation Everything Everywhere All At Once. Taking a goofy concept of the multiverse, EEAAO tells an intimate story of crumbling familial bonds and generational trauma, while dressing it up with stunning action sequences and beautiful costumes. Oscar for Michelle! Bagels for everyone!
nope
dir. Jordan Peele
Nope is a spectacular comment on the concept of spectacle. Over the past two years, we’ve been watching endless real-life horrors with basically no time to reflect on this endless stream of tragedy. Nope takes the concept of watching the world seemingly end, and translates it to a Speilbergian extra-terrestrial horror with a healthy dash of Western. Keke Palmer is endlessly charismatic, it’s funny when it needs to be, appropriately terrifying, and ultimately spectacular.
Top Gun: Maverick
dir. Joseph Kosinski
We now enter the “dudes rock,” portion of the list. Tom Cruise, arguable our last real movie stai is going to save cinema, and he’s going to do so by flying a plane directly into out hearts, expertly falling out of said plane, and barely even breaking a sweat. The action sequences are breathtaking, and make every overwraught green screen heavy superhero film look like childs play. I laughed! I gasped! I cheered! I even cried?? He did it, he really did it. The son-of-a-bitch saved the movies
(Tom Cruise, if you are reading this list, please add me to the cake list. I can eat wheat before bed. Many thanks).
Liquorice Pizza
dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
I’m aware this film is inherently 2021, but it came out in the UK in 2022 so bite me. Much like in Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson creates a wonderfully warm, nostalgic vibe to offset the dark undercurrent. I love a good coming-of-age film, especially if it’s about inherently messed up people. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman have such an uncomfortable chemistry, their terrible love story is both captivating and horrifying to watch. If you think the film had a happy ending, you were watching it wrong. Featuring a career best from Bradley Cooper and a surprisingly tender turn by Benny Safdie, Liquorice Pizza is about the difficulties of embracing maturity, and how easy and comfortable it is to backslide.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story
dir. Rian Johnson
Has anyone been on twitter dot com recently? Pretty weird happenings right? What will that wacky, idiot billionaire do next? Anyway, Rian Johnson is a prophet, and Glass Onion was a blast. Much like the first Knives Out movie, from the get go it was pretty obvious who did it, but that didn’t make any of the twists and turns less delightful. Everyone is firing on all cylinders, especially Janelle Monae, Kate Hudson, and of course Daniel Craig doing his best foghorn leghorn imitation (complimentary). I will follow Rian Johnson into the dark, and I will watch every singe Knives Out installation.
Aftersun
dir. Charlotte Wells
What a debut! Charlotte Wells’ debut feature tells the story of Sophie (Frankie Corio) and her dad on holiday. The POV switches between memory and found footage, and we, like Sophie, realise that her mid 90s package holiday may not have been as ideal as initially promised. Aftersun deals with memory vs reality, parenthood, and our own skewed expectations of our lives. Found footage VHS recording is webbed and interspersed with grainy memories, as Sophie, and the audience, gradually piece together what her Dad was detailing with. Wells creates a sense of tension and urgency, whilst also letting the characters sit in quiet contemplation, creating both a beautiful sense of melancholy and dread.
The Banshees Of Inisherin
dir. Martin McDonagh
You can read my full review here, but The Banshees of Inisherin is devastatingly funny tragicomedy about friendship, art, legacy and isolation. I’ve already spoken about how the themes of decaying friendship and insecurity in your own relationships hit me hard, and how the beautiful Irish landscapes are the perfect backdrop for a relationship in decay. Everyone gives a career best performance, especially Colin Farrell and his incredibly expressive eyebrows, and Barry Keogan, in a hilariously heart-breaking role. He’s continuing his trend of playing weird little freaks and frankly I love to see it.
Moonage Daydream
dir. Brett Morgen
I was cosmically destined to put this as my number-one film of the year. As a hardcore fan of David Bowie, this is the perfect encapsulation of experiencing his life and art. When I saw the opening sequence in IMAX, my eyes widened, my jaw dropped and I could feel a breath of excitement leave my body - not too dissimilar to how I first reacted to The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, or the build of Space Oddity. There were a lot of films this year about creating art, and how the pursuit of greatness can lead to self destruction and madness - Moonage Daydream touches on this sensitively, fully engulfing you into the creation of some of the greatest music of all time. Less of a movie and more of a kaleidoscopic fever dream of Bowie, Moonage Daydream is essential viewing for all fans of Bowie.
There you go! My favourite releases of 2022! My new years resolution was technically to read more books but frankly fuck that.
If you wanna see more movie logs and review by me, follow me on letterboxd, and see you at da moovies.
We had thoughts on top ten lists on our latest episode of What Else Are We Mad At!