Do you even care about movies if you aren’t constantly freaking out about the quantity and quality of new releases?!

I think we’re finally far enough removed from the pandemic that I no longer worry about what the film industry is doing as a whole. Good things are coming out if you pay attention. In thinking through my own favorite movies, I also think we’ve all overestimated how things actually looked in the past. Annual strength tends to move on a cycle, and each monster movie year I can think of (1999, 2007, 2019) is followed by a reloading period. Considering we’re swimming in the wake of a strong 2019 that was immediately followed by a complete reset of the industry amidst Covid, I think this was actually a good year. I really do.

Maybe that’s just depth. This felt like a deeper movie year than we saw in 2020 and 2021. I’m not sure how much of that is simply because I’m watching more, but there were roughly 50 movies I’d recommend and 20-ish movies I got really excited about. (Last year maybe 35-ish and 15-ish, respectively.)

If I’m trendspotting my own personal tastes, it seemed like a year where the mainstream weirdly dominated the top of my list. (I think this will make the Oscars more fun.) I’m used to the top of my rankings being the home of the indie and auteur, but this was a really great year for plain old blockbusters. You’re a bozo if you didn’t at least see 4-5 movies in theaters this year.

This was also a year I went all-in on horror. I watched 2020’s burgeoning cult classic The Empty Man in October and I think it knocked loose something in my brain. The film industry is in a weird spot right now, but somehow the horror landscape is stronger than ever. I think if you’re a movie fan who craves great, original storytelling from emerging filmmakers you’re doing yourself a disservice by overlooking what’s happening in the genre.

This year I’ve grown to love movies that stick in your brain and stew there. The best film experiences exist beyond when the credits roll, and 2022 supplied those. I cannot tell you how long I spent simply daydreaming about Nope and its spectacle or TÁR and its infinite nooks and crannies.

I watched 308 different movies in 2021, a pretty startling number once you start to add up the minutes. I wanted to watch less in 2022, shooting for somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 while realizing I’d realistically surpass it. One area I thought I could cut back was watching fewer movies just because they were new. I watched 76 new releases last year, which felt irresponsible. Yet somehow I blew past that in 2022. Oh well.

A few “notable” movies I’d have liked to have seen but didn’t get to:

• The Whale (Aronofsky)
• All Quiet On The Western Front (Berger)
• The Eternal Daughter (Hogg)
• This Place Rules (Callaghan)
• Amsterdam (Russell)
• Bardo (Iñárritu)
• Empire of Light (Mendes)
• We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (Schoenbrun)
• A number of 2022 films that still haven’t been given a wide release because the movie industry spits in the face of anyone living outside of NY and LA. I’ll pay to watch all of your movies, if only you’d let me.

That’s enough rambling.

Here are all 88 new releases I saw this year, ranked:

Here’s this list on Letterboxd.

And here’s where you can follow me on there.

Superlative key:

Trying something new this year. I threw some emojis beneath a bunch of these to add a layer of categorization.

💎 = Diamond in the rough | The best under-discussed movies of 2022.

📈 = Likely to improve with a rewatch | Every year there are a few I return to later and like more than I did when I established my rankings. These are the ones I think that could happen to. Could also just be called “Movies I wish I liked a bit more.”

😱 = Had me on the edge of my seat | The best horror, thriller, and unsettling.

🍿 = Super satisfying | Maybe not movies you can watch with your brain turned off, but movies that are very easy to enjoy and appreciate.

💭 = Fun to think about | This was a really good year for movies that sorta just got stuck in my head and improved as they marinated.

📀 = Sounds great | Soundtrack, score, and/or sound design I love.

88. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

dir. David Yates Watched June 7

Unbelievably ugly! Terrible storytelling! Ezra Miller is a bad actor and worse person!

My biggest regret in life was choosing Harry Potter as the one piece of intellectual property to care about into adulthood. These movies are a train wreck at this point. David Yates owes me money. I could rant about the state of this franchise for hours.

…and yet I still think this was better than the previous installment. Faint praise.

87. The Gray Man

dir. the Russo Brothers Watched July 23

Wherein Julia Butters shoots Chris Evans with a flare gun.

I don't like the Russo brothers any more than the next guy, but I really tried to give this a shot. For a bit, it seemed as though it might salvage itself. Perhaps there's a 100-minute version of this that gets out the door before anyone realizes it's not about anything.

Unfortunately, its best visual ideas are not executed practically. Its best performers are not utilized properly. It's content to just ape everything Bay, McQuarrie, Liman, and other modern action directors have already perfected.

There's enough Evans/Gosling/Butters residual charm to keep this warm for a while though. And now that Gosling is back, let's get him in some good stuff again. His run from 2010-18 was heroic and I can't stand to see him trying to fulfill boyhood fantasy in stuff like this.

86. Bullet Train

dir. David Leitch Watched October 10

This movie is exactly what you think it is. This is not an issue in itself, but for a movie that believes it has tricks up its sleeve... boy, does it not.

If you saw this trailer and thought it looked really fun, you will love this. If you saw this trailer and a million alarm bells started going off in your head, you will find it annoying and tedious like I did.

85. Our Father

dir. Lucie Jourdan Watched May 15

I guess I give Netflix credit for sorta mainstreaming documentary content (something I never would’ve predicted 10 years ago). On the other hand, they currently seem set on bringing the fad to its bitter conclusion.

This is just cheap and vapid. Entertaining in the kind of “designed to watch while scrolling Twitter” way, which is kinda bleak! Especially when it comes to topics that deserve a level of care.

This is just a 1,000-word article turned into streaming content. I’m done watching these.

84. Not Okay

dir. Quinn Shephard Watched July 31

This has the finger on the pulse of social media culture, yet I'm not sure how much it really has to add to the conversation. It reads like "We all recognize this, right?" And along the way it almost starts to trivialize social justice influencers, which I'm not sure is the intent. Everyone, even the "good guys" just look kinda silly.

I'll give it credit for not giving the villain an out, though! Few movies dare to stand behind not owing forgiveness to their main characters.

83. Death on the Nile

dir. Kenneth Branagh Watched December 28

Very mildly entertaining and very flagrantly ugly. The movie looks terrible, folks.

82. Sharp Stick

dir. Lena Dunham Watched October 21

The miracle of Lena Dunham's Girls is how well it selects its ingredients and balances them all. The show is a wonderful melting pot, viewing its characters with equal disgust and empathy, delivering balanced drama and comedy. At its peak it’s a fantastic show.

Sharp Stick shares some of those hallmarks. Not just the strong cast, but in its themes (sexual awakening, romantic relationships with an imbalance of power, etc). But here the balance is completely wrong. Can't recall the last movie I watched with such a meandering and evasive tone. This is all over the map, which prevents its (generally strong) ingredients from congealing.

Kristine Froseth is the only one who makes it out unscathed. Good performance.

81. Stutz

dir. Jonah Hill Watched December 29

A very odd and personal documentary that is, in part, about what it's like to make a very odd and personal documentary. By those strange standards there's a lot that works, or is at least interesting and noble.

But the rest of this is an incredibly mixed bag, oscillating between a TED Talk-style rundown of some mental health tools (your milage may vary) and uncomfortable and unfocused forays into the life of this therapist. It's clear Jonah doesn't know what he wants this documentary to be or what he wants it to say. On one hand I'd say this is fine. He's a charismatic guy and I think he's done enough to earn a vanity project that seems to be coming from a very genuine place. But on the other hand we're playing in some very personal waters and something is just not passing the vibe check about roping this guy into talking about some intimate and unresolved aspects of his own life, especially considering Jonah (who insists on being a character in this) spends the majority of the movie refusing to play ball. At one point he even acknowledges this whole venture might be a bad idea, and points out that his own lack of vulnerability could be getting in the way. Yeah man!

I don't know. I'm a big Jonah Hill fan and this won't dissuade me from that position but this is bizarre at best.

80. Spiderhead

dir. Joseph Kosinski Watched June 18

It's hilarious that this is going to Netflix with The New Yorker attached. I don't even hate that about it. Bring more of these high-concept short stories to the masses (they're often fairly well-suited for 90-minute streamers). Just don't sand-blast the source material next time.

Spiderhead is a kind of Ex Machina for people who don't know how to read, and even the movie's otherwise strong points (charismatic leads, slick cinematography, inventive production design) simply feel like part of the larger Netflix formula. There's a sameness to so many of their Originals that hard-caps how creatively successful they are.

Fascinating that Kosinski had two movies release in 2022. One is among the worst and the other is among the best.

79. Lightyear

dir. Angus MacLane Watched June 22

Kind of a befuddling movie because it (a) was released in the summer (b) is Pixar's first post-Covid theatrical release and (c) centers on its golden child of intellectual property, yet carries itself with the ambitions of one of those old direct-to-VHS Disney sequels.

Lightyear opens with a series of title screens that explain, within the world of Toy Story, this movie was released in 1995 and was splashy enough to inspire a line of toys and inspiring enough that it gripped Andy's imagination for a childhood. This whole affair wouldn't be so embarrassing if Pixar were even 1% committed to the bit.

If this movie was released in "1995," why doesn't it feel like it? Where is the swashbuckling fun? Where are the big goofy needle drops? Where is the nostalgic schmaltz? Instead this is vapid and soulless in a way that only a 2022, multi-verse adjacent, IP cash grab can be.

I'll say this: It is gorgeous, and feels like it's actually doing "cinematography" and aesthetic homage to sci-fi in a way that Pixar doesn't typically bother with. And there's enough of the studio's button pressing and nostalgic baiting that it just barely escapes feeling like a waste of time or money.

But man, what a low-effort addition to a franchise I was raised on.

78. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

dir. Eric Appel Watched November 6

A lot of talented people fully committed to the bit, for better or worse.

It's fitting this was produced by Funny or Die, because it's a funny 12-minute YouTube sketch stretched out to a much-less-funny 108 (!) minutes. Like a lot of people, I had a Weird Al phase. I think I'd have appreciated this a lot more if I were still in it.

I don't think Daniel Radcliffe is a great actor, and he doesn't have good taste in movies. But there's something satisfying about watching someone with a blank check in this career just take wild swings at every opportunity. He’s cool in my book.

77. Three Thousand Years of Longing

dir. George Miller Watched November 19

The first two acts here, oddly constructed but full of flights of fancy and adventures through fairytales, are successful. They're a kind of ode to storytelling and work as a celebration of, and homage to, the reasons we watch movies. It's maybe not my thing, but I can admit to being kind of swept up in the pageantry of it all.

And then the third act hits, with me already unsure of myself, and completely tips the movie over. Miller reveals what he finds interesting about the story and it completely unravelled for me. Absolutely brutal finish.

76. The Black Phone

dir. Scott Derrickson Watched August 20

Reminds me a bit of The Lovely Bones in that it's interested in trauma's ability to poison a community and transcend space and time. Unfortunately there are a lot of other thematic elements it also seems interested in yet can't quite seem to get a handle on. Some of these gambits without any effective dramatic thrust behind them end up playing pretty goofy, which obviously isn't ideal in a horror movie.

I would not have watched this movie if it weren't starring Ethan Hawke, so while the child performances ended up being pretty good, it's a shame Hawke didn't play a larger role. The IT slash Stranger Things-ification of horror is rarely successful for me.