Top 10 of 2022
Year-End List
For as long as I can remember, I loved year-in reviews and especially best-of listicles, but before devising this list, I truly had no idea how much power they had over me. I started reading and watching movie reviews when I was about sixteen and it quickly became a life-changing obsession. As a teenager, I would hang on to every word of anyone who called themselves a movie critic and scold myself for not liking a movie on their best-of list, and then I kept trying to like it to the point of exhaustion. Growing up, however, I learned to sit with my own opinion and to reflect on the opinions of others. The youthful self-loathing transformed into critical thinking and so, by reading movie reviews and interacting with criticism I learned to be more empathetic, while trusting myself in the process.
My love for listicles hasn’t faded one bit, though. I still read them with great appreciation and love to explore movies I haven’t seen or even heard of before. The more unknown movies I encounter, the more I feel like a part of something greater, a network of thoughts and emotions all focussed on the greatest art form there is - cinema.
This year was filled to the brim with great movies. Social injustice, wars and a worldwide pandemic do tend to bring out the best out of the industry, regardless of how sad this sounds.
Social satires were on the rise, including mainstream and festival darlings like The Menu (Mark Mylod) and Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund). The Marvel Cinematic Universe is still the biggest moneymaker for Hollywood, raking in a whopping 26.6 billion U.S. dollars as of June 2022, but also continues to be a total disappointment, with lackluster blockbusters like Thor: Love and Thunder (Taika Waititi) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Ryan Coogler) being among the most underwhelming movies of the year. The decennial “Sight and Sound” Greatest Movies of All Time list also came out this year and Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelle (Chantal Akerman) was put on the top of the list, replacing the all time favorite Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock). I highly recommend you watch this movie and I’ll probably publish a review of it soon, but for now, let’s talk about my best movies of 2022.
The movies on this list are in no particular order. All of them are here for different reasons, be it, because they brought me incredible joy or deeply touched me and if you decide to watch one or more of them, I hope that you’ll be able to feel your way through them and come out on the other side transformed, as did I.
My Top 10 Movies of 2022
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Dir: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
My cinema year began with this fraught mother-daughter relationship. No, a martial arts fueled sci-fi adventure with sausage fingers and on-point comedy. No, a story of generational trauma in immigrant families - or was it rather a tender love story between people who have been married for an eternity? In the end, it was everything and more. This movie forever changed my perspective on motherhood, but also what it means to be an only daughter and a disappointment. It made me question my harshness towards the fallible adults in my life and made me rethink my relationship with my loved ones. A powerful, subtle sci-fi spectacle, this movie masterfully combines the cinema of attractions with high concept sci-fi and family drama.
Watch it or be swallowed by the most mysterious bagel in cinema history.
Nope
Dir: Jordan Peele
On the surface Nope is a fun sci-fi alien invasion movie, about an alien that wants to eat everything in its wake and has chosen the California backcountry as its hunting grounds and the horses on our protagonist’s ranch as its preferred meal. Below the surface, however, bubbles a meditation on harsh Hollywood environments, on taming the beast of progress and the future of the industry. It shows that Hollywood survives on passionate borderline obsessive people that push themselves to the limits to get it right, to stay there, to feel its magic, however flawed and corrupt. It shows unlikely heroes doing their darndest to get the best shot.
Watch it or be left behind in the dust of cinema history.
Corsage
Dir: Marie Kreutzer
A powerful reimagining of the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria or “Sisi”. Corsage tells the story of a woman who has been dead for a very long time and whose place in history has been determined by everyone but her. Together with actress Vicky Krieps, director Marie Kreutzer gives Elisabeth agency and the power to tell her story however she pleases. Her moods affect everyone and everything around her, her decisions have unforeseen consequences, and her search for the part of herself she lost along the way to becoming Austria’s beloved Sisi is uncomfortable, bleak and incredibly nuanced. The ending by the sea is a sigh of relief and a stark acknowledgement that women, regardless of status, should be able to write their own stories.
Watch it or be forever trapped in a corset of societal expectations.
Top Gun: Maverick
Dir: Joseph Kosinski
This movie is the perfect spectacle and is not weighed down by plot, character development or any ethical dilemmas. The only thing that counts is Tom Cruise looking cool, while flying expensive military gear and getting whatever he wants, him being as much a cash cow for the military-entertainment complex now as he was 36 years ago, when the first Top Gun (Tony Scott) came out. Watching the movie with its nebulous mission targets somewhere in Russia, witnessing the audacity of the U.S. military bombing something in a foreign country out of unapologetic arrogance was so overwhelming that my brain short-circuited into pure excitement and joy.
Watch it or be forever haunted by half-naked oiled up soldiers on the beach.
Le Otto Montagne
Dir: Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch
The most sincere portrayal of friendship I’ve seen this year, Le Otto Montagne tells the story of two boys who spend their summer vacations together in the Western Alps forming an irreversible bond, until their lives diverge. In adulthood they find each other again and the Alps as well as other mountains become their guiding light through an unknowable universe. Always moving on the path of the eight mountains, life and death, summer and winter start to feel like a part of an incomprehensible cycle, always in flux, always repeating, until there is nothing but light, love and friendship.
Watch it or never be graced by the touch of the universe.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Dir: Rian Johnson
A whodunit mystery is only as good as the sum of its moving parts and, oh man, does Glass Onion have those in spades. Every character has a juicy secret and motive, every scene is dripping with clues and easter eggs and the conclusion is so incredibly satisfying that you won’t know what to do with the abundance of joy that accumulated in all the nooks and crannies of your very being (Warning: You might want to dance it out.) Benoit Blanc with his combination of over-the-top showmanship, a brilliant mind and an empathetic sense of justice is quickly becoming my favorite master detective of all time, surpassing such greats as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
Watch it or be found out by the detective with the piercing blue eyes.
She Said
Dir: Maria Schrader
Although She Said just came out, it can already easily take its place among such greats as The Post (Stephen Spielberg), Zodiac (David Fincher) and Spotlight (Tom McCarthy). The difference is that we finally get to experience women in the roles of the hardened reporters and every societal repercussion that goes with it. Megan Twohey and Jodi Cantor, well versed in the intimidation tactics of powerful men, take discreditation attempts or even threats in stride and expose them for the abusers that they are. One empathetic interview at a time, they scrupulously gather information to uncover the biggest sex scandal in the history of Hollywood and kick off the Me Too-movement in the process.
Watch it. No joke here.
The Worst Person in the World
Dir: Joachim Trier
You can’t decide what career suits you, because you’re kind of good at everything? You have a long-term relationship, but doubt your commitment every day? You don’t want kids, also you kind of do, but you don’t? - Well, you must be The Worst Person in the World. An intimate portrayal of the “modern woman”, the movie doesn’t judge the main character (or you for that matter) for any roads taken or not taken, as it is far more interested in showing and accepting the messiness of life, love and womanhood.
Watch it and stop judging yourself.
Decision to Leave
Dir: Park Chan-wook
A study in carefully crafted atmosphere, I felt the movie settle on my skin and eyelashes like a cold sticky mist. Be it by showing the lofty coldness of a mountain or the foaming maw of the unforgiving sea, Decision To Leave plants little innocuous seeds of foreshadowing directly into your brain. While you perceive the surface level plot - the murder, the characters - the atmosphere seeps into your subconscious and tells you exactly what will happen. An intrusive experience of pure movie magic, aided by the subdued acting and a meticulously curated soundtrack.
Watch it, or be forever lost in the mist.
Aftersun
Dir: Charlotte Wells
Soaked in the late summer sun, the Turkish resort opens its doors to 11-year-old Sophie and her father Callum. Its walls are fading, paint chipping from the facade and the rooms are musty from countless holiday experiences. In this trip down memory lane a 30-year-old Sophie tries to piece together her memories of this unforgettable vacation with her father. The result is a dreamlike reconciliation of the father she experienced as a child and the one she now understands better than ever. Meditating on getting older, responsibilities and love, you float through Aftersun on an inflatable mattress through the azure Mediterranean sea, not yet knowing where you’ll end up.
Watch it or fade away like fragmented DVR recorder footage.
Honorable mentions:
Apollo 10 ½ (Richard Linklater)
A unique moment captured in time, seen through the lens of a young boy, whose thoughts come out in a stream of consciousness so vivid you’ll think they’re your own.
War Pony (Gina Gammell, Riley Keough)
A fascinating and empathetic glance into the society and life of a Native American reservation and the hopes and dreams of the people who live there. A world most people don’t get to experience.
Der Russe ist Einer der Birken Liebt (Pola Shirin Beck)
An intimate study on grief and the loss of self in a constantly shifting world.
En Corps (Cédric Klapisch)
A feel-good movie about a ballet dancer who discovers that dance doesn’t just exist in the strict confines of classic ballet, but can be found in the unlikeliest of places and heals body and soul alike.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson)
A great reimagining of the well-known morality tale into a story about parental and political responsibility.
Enola Holmes 2 (Harry Bradbeer)
A fun mystery with a strong feminist message.
Servus Papa, See You in Hell (Christopher Roth)
A movie about a terrible man and how only collective action can bring such monsters down.