Top Ten 2022

The Oscars are today, so I made a list of my top ten films of 2022.

All in all, I think it was a bit of a weak year, with lots of movies that were pretty good or had nice scenes/sequences but didn’t cohere as a whole, but few that were excellent overall. Here are the ones that worked best for me:

BABYLON — Damien Chazelle took a big swing to rehash the transition from silent to sound films, and did so with impeccable craft and an eye towards debauchery. Available on Paramount +.

THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN — Ireland itself over the last 100 years or so, personified in this little dark, bleak, sad, beautiful, surprisingly funny little fable. Available on HBO Max.

THE FABELMANS — The marketing for this movie made it seem like another “celebration of cinema”, and it is anything but. Instead, Spielberg made his most personal film about discovering the causes of the dissolution of his family, and how he used his budding filmmaking skills to distance himself from it all. Wonderfully messy and unlike anything he’d ever done before. Available on multiple platforms.

HAPPENING — Abortion in France is the 1960s could destroy a teenager girl’s whole life. We’re rapidly devolving back to that point. Available on Hulu.

JACKASS FOREVER — The most fun I had in the theaters the entire year. Available on Paramount +.

LAST FLIGHT HOME — Eli Timoner wanted to die. His daughter documented the process. Available on Paramount +.

TAR — A biopic about a person who doesn’t exist. Available on Peacock.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK — Crowd-pleasing. Available on Paramount +.

THE WOMEN KING — The kind of ahistorical, rousing period costume epic about foreign warriors that Hollywood has always excelled at. Only difference here is that it revolves around black women in Africa. Available on Netflix.

WOMEN TALKING — A movie about a group of Mennonite women deciding what to do in the wake of a rape epidemic in their colony. It surprised me at every turn. Available on Amazon.