The Best Movies of 2022

TÁR follows conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) as she is accused of offering her assistants quid pro quo sexual favors in exchange for promotions in the industry—whether the allegation is true or not. She is viewed as a visionary in the music industry, and her downfall is the first film of the last few years to truly explore the journey of a celebrity getting canceled in real time. Blanchett's performance as Lydia Tár is a tour de force, with Oscar consideration just about guaranteed. You might even say that TÁR is a TÁRiffic film. Sorry.—Josh Rosenberg

In The Eternal Daughter, Tilda Swinton stars in a dual role as an aging mother and her daughter, who are both returning to a gothic mansion that holds many family memories. Half ghost story and half meditative drama, The Eternal Daughter is clearly a very personal work for director Joanna Hogg. You truly feel the film's depth in its devastating final moments. Swinton also gives so much life to both of her characters that I genuinely often forgot she was playing both roles.—J.R.

Broker is a heartfelt film about found families and children who are left behind. The story is another tear-jerker from South Korean director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who somehow figured out how to follow up 2018’s fantastic Shoplifters with another unforgettable work. Broker is led by Parasite’s always-captivating Song Kang-ho, who was named Best Actor for his performance at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.—J.R.

In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, director Ryan Coogler genuinely did the impossible. Even within Marvel’s bloated cinematic universe, Coogler and the cast of Black Panther were able to tell a story that both pays respect to the legendary Chadwick Boseman and lays the groundwork for the franchise to continue beyond the actor’s death. Featuring what may very well be the best film score of the year, Wakanda Forever will make even the most stubborn MCU skeptic shed a tear.—J.R.

Martin McDonagh is back with one of the most hilarious dramas of the year. The Banshees of Inisherin takes place on a small island off the coast of Ireland, where a tiff between two friends tears their relationship apart. Starring Brendan Gleeson, a cute miniature donkey named Jenny, and some of Colin Farrell’s greatest eyebrow acting in his career, Banshees is a simple tale about friendship, heartbreak, and the absurdity of everyday life.—J.R.

Going into The Fabelmans, I expected everything the film was hyped to be: an incredibly well-painted portrait of Steven Spielberg's coming-of-age as an artist, directed by the legend himself. A holy-shit performance from Michelle Williams. Gabriel LaBelle's arrival. The Fabelmans is all of those things. What I didn't expect was Spielberg's harrowing ultimatum on what it means to choose a life in the arts—and the turmoil caused by merely chasing your dreams.—Brady Langmann

Praise Daniel Craig, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is precisely as fun as it needed to be. Read: a hell of a lot of fun. Following a whole-new crew of A-listers (Kathryn Hahn! Janelle Monáe Dave Bautista!), with whodunit potential, Glass Onion delivers both a tastier mystery and a sharper satire. Did I mention that Daniel Craig's unhinged Benoit Blanc is one more Knives Out mystery away from becoming one of my all-time favorite movie characters?—B.L.

Bones and All lives up to the one-sentence logline provided to the masses: Timothée Chalamet cannibal movie. It's an absolute feast.—B.L.

Jordan Peele has yet to disappoint me. And for that, I am grateful. His third film, Nope—starring Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya—dove into the mysterious and terrifying world of aliens. As with all of Peele’s films, Nope was ripe with metaphors, jump-scares, witty dialogue, and hell, even commentary on humans' relationship to animals. But where Nope truly shines is in its pacing. Clocking in at two hours and ten minutes, the film does an exceptional job of drawing you in without giving anything away. What begins as a slow-paced mystery, quickly turns into a gruesome nightmare. How could we ever forget the chimpanzee scene?!—Bria McNeal

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Sure, Olivia Wilde’s Don't Worry Darling was a bit overhyped, but luckily, it turned out to be incredibly entertaining. The film follows Jack (Harry Styles) and Alice (Florence Pugh), a young couple who live in an idyllic '50s suburb called Victory. Every day, the men in town leave their wives to work on a mysterious project, while the women spend their days drinking, gossiping, shopping, and tending to the house. For Alice, it’s the perfect setup... until a tragic event makes her wonder what the “Victory Project” really is. Though Don’t Worry Darling did include a few plot holes (what happened to the airplane?) Pugh's stunning performance vaults the film on this list.—B.M.

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WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story delivered on the weird. The biopic subject himself, Weird Al Yankovic, co-wrote the film with the first-time feature firector Eric Appel, turning a Funny or Die sketch from a decade ago into a wild and wacky joyride. Daniel Radcliffe takes on the titular role, and although Mr. Potter may seem like an odd choice, it works. Radcliffe takes on the role with panache, rocking Weird Al's curly hair and stache, fighting off Pablo Escobar, making out with Madonna, and coming up with “Eat It” before Michael Jackson. The events in the film may or may not be even close to reality, but they’ll absolutely make you laugh—and maybe even touch your heart.—Sirena He

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You probably heard that The Gray Man wasn’t very good. How do I know? Because the Internet was absolutely buzzing with takedowns of the expensive action thriller from the Russo Brothers in July. It was inescapable and, guess what, the posts weren’t even true. Is the plot a touch thin? Sure. The backstory of the main characters a bit under-developed? Okay, you’ve got me there. Is the villain—a mustached Captain America—flat in his all-out evilness? Jesus! Yes, get off my back. The Gray Man isn’t going to win an Oscar but I’d bet my career that Ryan Gosling knew that when he signed on the dotted line. What it will do, however, is entertain you for all two hours and two minutes of its two hours and two minute runtime. There are big stars. Big biceps. Quips. Things that go boom. Don’t overthink this. —Madison Vain

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Over the course of films such as Videodrome and The Fly, Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg built up a cult audience that appreciates his insistence to make movies that are hard to watch. Crimes of the Future, his first theatrical release in eight years, is no exception. He builds a future wherein humans no longer feel pain and are growing new organs. A performance artist (Viggo Mortensen) views his new internal functions as little sculptures, and he puts on live shows in which his partner (Léa Seydoux) performs surgery on him to reveal his latest “creation.” It’s a bizarre film for sure, but Crimes proves that after 50 years, Cronenberg still has some of the best new ideas in sci-fi—even if they’re freaky, twisted, and downright gut-wrenching ideas. —J.R.

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You may be wondering if the prequel to 2009's Orphan is worth the hype. Or even really needed a follow-up, 13 years later. Well, guess what? Director William Brent Bell's stab at an origin story for the precocious Esther might just be better than the original. Orphan: First Kill finally gives us a look into how Esther came to be in the adoption system, when she’s actually a 30-something-year-old mental institution escapee. Horror movie logic! Never gets old. This prequel takes the wild concept of the original and spins it in an entirely new direction. We don't want to spoil anything for you, but there are quite a few unhinged scenes that’ll have you cheering for an unexpected hero.—Sirena He

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Updating Jane Austen is never easy, but in Fire Island, Joel Kim Booster sure makes it look that way. In this moving modern romcom, Pride and Prejudice is transplanted to the Fire Island Pines, where groups of gay men descend on the island in search of a legendary summer adventure. Booster reimagines the Bennet sisters as a tight-knit group of friends vacationing together, casting himself as the proud and principled Noah opposite Conrad Ricamora’s aloof, romance-averse Will. Bowen Yang shines as the Jane Bennet analogue, mapping poignant themes of loneliness and queer desire onto Austen’s familiar tale. Funny, heartfelt, and often vulnerable, Fire Island proves that there are still new shades to discover in Austen.—Adrienne Westenfeld

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BWUUUUM. BWUUUUM. BWUUUUM! Look behind you. See him? Yeah, that's Robert Pattinson in the goddamn Batsuit, and he wants to kill you. Or at least rough you up a little. Listen, I was skeptical about Matt Reeves's The Batman—even after I saw it. It's jarring to see a capes and costumes flick like The Batman dare to experiment with cinematography! Music! But after a rewatch at home, my that was pretty good! response to The Batman turned into a do I like this better than Christopher Nolan's Batfilms? I've gotta say: I'd take Pattinson over Bale any day. The Batman dared to be vibe-y, heavy on detective work. That's not even mentioning the nuclear amount of prosthetics that turned an unhinged Colin Farrell into one of my favorite movie villains of all time. Let's just hope Reeves makes the sequel just as special.—B.L.

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In recent years Reese Witherspoon has taken a deviation from acting, instead putting time and resources into creating beautiful cinematic adaptations of incredible books. She’s given us Little Fires Everywhere, Big Little Lies, and now, Where The Crawdads Sing. For the latter, we really must thank her for taking us through the heartbreaking journey of Kya Clark, (Daisy Edgar Jones), an abandoned young girl who raises herself in the Marshlands of North Carolina. Having been an outcast from her society for much of her life, she now becomes the lead suspect in the murder of her town’s golden boy. As the case unfolds, the story becomes not just a gut wrenching tale of a girl with all odds stacked against her, it unravels into something much greater: a thoughtful commentary on society’s treatment of its rejects. —Ammal Hassan

Look, you’re either a fan of the sadistic cinema of Johnny Knoxville and his band of merry pranksters or you’re not. There’s really daylight in between the two poles. But if you’re willing to submit to sheer dumbass joy of their nut-cracking pranks and daredevil stunts, you may find yourself discovering something else along the way: A bunch of aging Evel Knievels who underneath their dim-bulb machismo actually care about one another deeply. Their onscreen camaraderie is as undeniable as it is infectious–and, yes, even kinda touching. If you’ve seen any of the previous Jackass outings then you know what you’re in for. But after two years of soul-grinding political- and pandemic-related heaviosity, watching these jackasses’ exploits feels like a healing balm of idiocy.

Read the Esquire review.

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No doubt you heard about this Ben Affleck-Ana de Armas erotic thriller when it first released on Hulu in April. And let me guess, you’ve either heard that’s absolute steaming garbage or that it’s absolute steaming garbage that’s amazing, right? I personally not believe in the idea of “guilty pleasures.” If something brings you joy then why should you feel any remorse? That said, I can see why people would call Deep Water one. It tap-dances on the fine line between cheese and fromage. I’m not ashamed to say that I enjoyed the hell out of it. Based on a kinky Patricia Highsmith story, director Adrian Lyne’s return to his ‘80s erotic-thriller pinnacle (9 ½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction) stars Affleck as a filthy rich dude who made his fortune dealing death as a designer of military drones who now spends his early retirement riding his mountain bike, tending to his collection of snails, and fuming with jealousy while his wife (de Armas) flirts and has affairs with a string of young men in plain sight. Lyne is a maestro of this kind of softcore skinemax stuff, and he ratchets up the heat like the old horndog that he is, but it’s the two stars who turn Deep Water into such naughty fun. Is Affleck behind the disappearances and deaths of his wife’s stud lovers? Is de Armas bedding these guys just because it gets a rise out of him? And what exactly is with the snails? Watch Deep Water and come to your own conclusions. Just don’t let anyone give you any shit about it.

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If you’re looking to double down on horror, this creepy Hulu offering makes a solid bottom half on a double-bill with X. Although not quite as clever as that film, Mimi Cave, making her promising feature directing debut, delivers the fright-night goods and them some, especially if your sweet tooth in the genre runs toward Eli Roth’s Hostel films. Fresh is far less misogynistic than Roth’s oeuvre, but gender studies majors and dating-app junkies will still have plenty to discuss after the end credits roll. Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a young single woman tired of the artifice and theater of modern dating. That is, until she meets Sebastian Stan’s Steve—a handsome, funny surgeon who seems too good to be true. And wouldn’t you know it, he is! It would be churlish to spill too much about the film’s gruesome plot (I didn’t know anything about it going in, and I’m glad I didn’t), so I’ll just say this: Steve takes surgery very seriously (especially in his chic home’s designer dungeon basement) and Edgar-Jones isn’t the first woman to fall for his sadistic ruse. Warning: Not for vegans.

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