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.

75. God Forbid

dir. Billy Corben Watched November 1

I've successfully eradicated these kinds of documentaries from my diet for the most part. They're vapid and salacious and rarely contribute anything of value beyond cheap entertainment. But I've followed the various Falwell scandals long enough that I had to watch. While this does seem to contain some original reporting, it's ultimately no different than the rest, aggregating scandals from elsewhere and constantly losing focus to make larger statements on America. (The subtitle of this film is "The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty." What does this have to do with Stop the Steal and Jan 6?)

This is a story with a clear villain and yet everyone else manages to come off looking like complete fools, too.

74. The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

dir. Rory Kennedy Watched December 19

Conventional but exhilarating in short bursts.

If this weren't a well-captured event (lots of incredible cell phone footage) I don't think there's a documentary here. It's up for debate whether or not that kind of criteria should impact a film's success. Should we make a documentary just because we have the assets for it? Does that make it worse? To me these questions are more interesting than the actual film.

73. Thirteen Lives

dir. Ron Howard Watched August 6

A sturdy docudrama that is both longer and ultimately less harrowing than The Rescue. It makes this extremely inessential viewing unless you happen to be a huge fan of Mortensen, Farrell, or Edgerton. (I like each of those three and I’m still not sure this did anything for me.)

72. The Bob’s Burgers Movie

dir. Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman Watched July 15

Been a while since I watched this series regularly, but this feels like an episode stretched to 100 minutes with 1.5x the typical creative and thematic depth. There are worse ways to handle the TV to theatrical leap, but I’m still not really sure why this exists.

71. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

dir. Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson Watched December 10

Filled with lots of talented actors and looks fantastic. GDT is nothing if not a passionate craftsman. Yet I also don't have any idea why this exists. I commend its larger ideas but nothing here makes me ever want to choose this over Disney's, which remains one of the best in the entirety of the studio's catalog.

70. Jackass 4.5

dir. Jeff Tremaine Watched May 22

A weird casualty of doing these movies of leftovers is that this is technically the final Jackass feature film. But there's some really great stuff here, and it's probably fitting to end the film franchise with an unrated, tremendously gross entry.

69. Confess, Fletch

dir. Greg Mottola Watched December 6

Charming, easygoing, breezy, and almost remarkably ambitionless, which I'd typically accept with more open arms, but Greg Mottola is actually a really good director so this type of thing feels a bit beneath him.

It's good, but kind of in a "Wow this movie I just stumbled across on the in-flight entertainment is kinda good" way. Faint praise given those involved.

68. Fresh

dir. Mimi Cave Watched April 5

One metaphor stretched perilously thin, aping Get Out all the way, culminating in a pulpy, lame third act.

It's a shame this is generally kind of stupid, because it's not a bad movie by any means. The cinematography and music are great, and I adore any opening credits scene dropped 30 minutes into a movie. Unfortunately it builds up as a nifty little thriller and slides into home as every bit a Hulu horror movie.

67. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

dir. Sophie Hyde Watched June 20

Maybe a little plain and obvious in its themes, but enjoyable nonetheless. It’s the kind of movie that’s practically stating its Academy Awards ambitions. I’m not sure if something this sexual, sent through Hulu, can make an Oscars splash, but it wants to.

Movies that largely take place in a single room need lots of tricks to keep their propulsion alive. This is doing it with sharp dialogue but also slyly wonderful camera work—the kind of stuff that doesn’t draw attention to itself but is clever in the ways it can manipulate how viewers feel about its characters and whatever situation they’re in at any given moment. The people who made this movie clearly did so with a lot of care. It sounds silly, but even the opening credits were given proper attention.

It reminds me a lot of The Father, a movie I didn’t necessarily love. This one, thankfully, adds enough humor and leaves the emotional terrorism at the door.

66. Blonde

dir. Andrew Dominik Watched September 28

I'm torn between wanting filmmakers to have the ability to make 166-minute discomfort marathons and thinking this is beautiful without anything going on between the ears. Your enjoyment of this probably depends on your appetite for overlong, self-absorbed movies that are shot masterfully. That's something I love and it still pushed my limits.

Not a strong showing for anyone but the DP. Still appreciate it, generally.

65. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp Watched October 30

Typically go for this type of sentimentality, but this sorta failed to find my heart. Charming and sweet, and impressively retaining the qualities of the original shorts, but ultimately so slight and cutesy that it just feels like a long YouTube video still. I'm certainly not mad at it, but it's not what I'd call inspiring or memorable.

64. Fall

dir. Scott Mann Watched October 30

Fall is listed as a thriller, and maybe that's fair, but it's got a horror ethos. I'm fascinated by how ruthlessly punitive this film is. Like any good horror movie, its characters end up in their circumstances through their own mistakes and personal shortcomings, and the film seems intent on punishing them to the fullest possible extent. There's a version of this story that puts a hopeful spin on things, or at least respects its characters, and it's a version that I'd have hated. But this is mean and nasty, and it's better for it.

I'm just not sure why you'd select one of just a few types of movies that could be reduced to an 85-minute trapeze act and draw it to a heinous 107 minutes by stuffing it full of character developments and backstory that never fully come to bear. This is a one-track carnival ride dependent on letting its riders off before the bit grows old, but Fall unfortunately begins to outstay its welcome and fails to become the truly great B-movie thriller it could've been.

63. Strange World

dir. Don Hall Watched December 22

Strange World? Folks, more like Strange Screenplay!

(The animators pitched a perfect game though. Some of Disney's best eye candy.)

62. Kimi

dir. Steven Soderbergh Watched February 11

It’s a little depressing that Covid has drawn on long enough for filmmakers to get really good at making movies during it. Here’s something that actually leans into current events, both in its plot (privacy, Me Too, Covid) and its execution (lots of video calls and single-character scenes) and actually benefits from it.

This is probably not the best of Steven Soderbergh’s streaming era (Let Them All Talk), but it’s a fascinating little piece of filmmaking, leaning on modern paranoia to kick up tension with ease. It’s also going the nail gun murder route, which is grossly underutilized in film.

Kimi is fun but ultimately turns up a little goofy. I’ll say exactly what I said after No Sudden Move last summer: Soderbergh isn’t hitting homers but I love watching him pop up every eight months hitting doubles.

61. Windfall

dir. Charlie McDowell Watched March 18

I’ve seen two Charlie McDowell movies and have sorta become a fan of his despite not really liking either very much. The One I Love is wonderfully bold and inventive but can’t figure out how to put the pieces together. Windfall similarly squanders its lot. But it’s clear the guy has great taste, so I have hope for the future. The shape of each of these are fun.

The genre elements of this really pop. It comes out of the gate really hot and then very quickly starts to layer on some overt social commentary that sucks all the air out of the room and (for the most part) proves to be inconsequential to the plot. I’d say about 50% of this is a total blast though.

60. Don’t Worry Darling

dir. Olivia Wilde Watched October 3

The Truman Show meets The Matrix meets The Village, but not nearly as transgressive or inspired as any of those. Yet as far as studio satirical thrillers go, I'm a little miffed at people loathing this. It looks and sounds good and, strained metaphors be damned, it kept me in it through a sputtering finish.

If you were to give this premise (and this cast) to a steadier writer and director, would you have a much better film? Absolutely. But you're gonna have to do worse to get me to dislike a movie this centered on Florence Pugh. It's not that bad.

59. She Said

dir. Maria Schrader Watched December 9

I'm a massive sucker for journalism movies, so I did enjoy this. But I can't really see why anyone else would. The whole thing is standard 'Hero Reporter' fare with scarcely anything else to fill it out. And in the few instances where the story does stray a degree or two from boots-on-the-ground reporting it feels pretty slight and sterile.

It's hard to say I'd rather have gotten a documentary, because it's great spending time with Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan while they show off how good they are at their jobs, but this story just has no inspiration beyond what could've been captured by simply speaking directly to those reporters involved.

Though buried in the middle here is a scene starring Samantha Morton that is one of the most enrapturing few minutes I saw from a release this year.

58. Bros

dir. Nicholas Stoller Watched October 12

Every community deserves its own up-the-middle-but-funnier-than-it-should-be studio rom-com before the industry stops making them entirely.

57. The Menu

dir. Mark Mylod Watched December 27 🍿

A silly, mushy, derivative satire that's still brisk and entertaining. The whole movie I just kept thinking about how this turns up kind of middling in 2022 but would've cracked like a whip in 2020 when every morsel of studio-grade entertainment on streaming services felt like manna. This is a Covid banger that never was.

I'm very glad this did not ultimately star Emma Stone, as was originally intended. Not just because she doesn't have the right pitch for this but because Anya Taylor-Joy is effortlessly perfect. Not everything can, or should, be The Witch or The Northman. This should be her meat and potatoes while waiting for the marquee stuff.

I've gotta say Nicholas Hoult is phenomenal here. Quietly one of my favorite performances of the year. By the time they've established characters and plot every single thing he does is hilarious to me.

56. Speak No Evil

dir. Christian Tafdrup Watched September 22

A film about the horrors of politeness. As someone with an innate social anxiety and aversion to confrontation, this worked very well on me and was something I've never seen on screen.

Stupid protagonists has been sort of a crutch in horror films since the beginning. Here it's even the point of the film, yet these two still managed to be frustratingly unable to make the right decision. I think plausibility is crucial to the theme and yet the script betrays that plausibility. I refuse to believe anyone would allow this to happen to them, if given the same number of opportunities for escape.

Pretty fun though. Good reveal. And Morten Burian is doing some really good work in an otherwise limp third act.

55. Men

dir. Alex Garland Watched May 19

Part Persona, part Midsommar. More proof that women in ruinous mental and emotional states shouldn’t take long vacations to remote places!

After crafting what are probably two masterpieces, I think Garland may have gotten a little high on his own supply here, and it’s hard to blame him. Ex Machina broke down the seams between man and machine. Annihilation did the same for man and nature. Men doesn’t plumb the same depths. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, but it feels like a lot of work went in to shoring up a slighter thematic story with more… stuff.

Maybe this will be the Garland movie I return to in five years and realize it was better than I gave it credit for, but for now I gotta chalk it up as an admirable disappointment that squanders a really awesome score and leaves Kinnear and Buckley (who were excellent) spinning their wheels.

54. Elvis

dir. Baz Luhrmann Watched July 5

I guess I can just come right out at the top and say I don't actually like Elvis, the musician. Even as far as pop stars go I've never found his music particularly inspired or inventive. But I'm a fan of Baz Luhrmann, and Elvis as a canvas for his maximalist movie machine had me immediately interested.

These two men, Presley and Luhrmann, are probably pretty similar. They're world-class showmen, perhaps wielding more style than substance, but world-class showmen nonetheless. When those two ideals converge on screen it's sort of magical. Presley and his eruptive stage presence, Luhrmann and his kaleidoscopic, free-flowing filmmaking. But the interstitial moments when something needs to be said about the man or his manager are a predictably stiff, hollow slog.

Austin Butler is selling the hell out of the performance though. I don't know what it says about him that he's totally credible as one of America's greatest sweaty himbos, but at least he's not Tom Hanks doing another one of his crummy, late-career impersonations. The man still has life left in his career so it's weird he doesn't act like it, taking these safe, low-hanging-fruit roles. Here he was outshined by a man who was, fairly recently, starring in a horror movie opposite Amanda Cosgrove. A tough scene for one of our nation's greatest actors.

Luhrmann is sliding into an M. Night Shyamalan space for me. I'll be first in line for whatever he decides to make despite his inability to totally a communicate an idea effectively. This could've been 20 minutes shorter and 20% crazier but I got what I wanted. I might go as far as saying this is his best movie were it not lacking the human trump card in DiCaprio.

53. White Noise

dir. Noah Baumbach Watched December 30

I'm entirely in the bag for Baumbach's dialogue, so this is one of the funniest movies I saw in 2022. Adam Driver is probably our best working actor, full-stop, but he's also one of the best comedic actors too. He just crushes these beats.

Baumbach a gorgeous filmmaker when he's got the budget, too. Marriage Story, though not exactly reliant on visual style, is a very pretty movie. This takes it to another level with some stellar production design.

This is Baumbach doing Charlie Kaufman. (I think in particular there's a lot o Synecdoche, New York here.) They're two filmmakers I like, but I'm not sure the crossover is something I want. Kaufman can do this better and Baumbach is best at his own thing. When it works, it works though. Love the first chapter here.

52. Armageddon Time

dir. James Gray Watched November 3📈

I'm generally allergic to memoiristic films. People are paradoxically bad at telling their own stories and the specific flaws and hangups that occur when one attempts to do so are the kind that rub me the wrong way.

In some sense, Armageddon Time shoots right over top of those issues. It's intensely personal to the point of simply becoming a dense and textured portrait of life in Queens at the turn of the '80s, and these characters get real, meaty performances. Yet the autobiographical problems persist. While I've typically enjoyed James Gray's films less than most, he's a very talented filmmaker and I don't believe he crafted this film with any self-serving intentions. Yet it ultimately, in its bumpy moments, does turn in to White Guilt: The Movie.

I think this is kind of a traditionally limp memoir wrapped around a traditionally great Anthony Hopkins performance.

If there's a saving grace here, it's Gray's ability to tie this chapter in his life, and this chapter in the long arc of American history, to our current moment and the never-ending story of us as a people. At its best, Armageddon Time is less a story about James Gray than it is about the unstoppable bulldozer of life and the backwards kind of optimism that exists when you learn that it crushes cyclically and indiscriminately. Armageddon comes for some earlier and more often, but it comes for us all eventually.

51. I Want You Back

dir. Jason Orley Watched March 19

Very charming, in part because these two are almost perfect career counterparts. The casting director killed this.

Sort of the ideal streaming movie. Are serviceable romcoms (the kind for adults) making a little bit of a comeback?

50. Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist

dir. Ryan Duffy Watched August 16

This Untold series feels like such a classic Netflix thing because, like so many of their movies, it occupies this kind of uncanny valley. It looks like a real documentary and feels like a real documentary, but when push comes to shove there's still a weird disconnect I can't quite place.

Yet I've seen a few of these, and this is their best work yet, perhaps because it's both the richest text and the longest movie. There's just so much America that surfaces in these two hours. This is a story about the internet. It's a story about sports mythology. It's a story about journalism. It's a story about college football. It's a story about love in the 21st century. It's a story about mental health. It's a story about the 24-hour news cycle.

And credit the filmmakers for really getting everyone in front of a camera––not just the key players but people like Dr. Phil, Tim Burke, and Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick. They hit all the angles.

49. X

dir. Ti West Watched March 19

If I were a person who was obsessed with horror movies, I could see absolutely loving this. Unfortunately I'm not, so I guess I'm just sorta lukewarm.

I found myself falling back to gawking at the craft itself, which isn't hard to do given the care it received. Even the opening shot is stellar.

48. Turning Red

dir. Domee Shi Watched March 12

As a lifelong Pixar fan who eventually grew tired of their exhaustingly existential brand of storytelling, I continue to be very into this new era of grounded, lower-stakes approaches. I adored Luca, and Turning Red feels cut from a similar cloth.

Maybe it’s that I’m outside the target demographic, or maybe it’s just a disjointed third act, but this felt like it left a lot of meat on the bone. Of course it’s beautiful and continues to a run of brilliant Pixar settings, but when I heard Domee Shi was directing (Bao is on the Pixar short film Mt. Rushmore) I had higher expectations for the plotting.

47. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

dir. Richard Linklater Watched April 10

Nearly carefree to the point of aimlessness, Apollo 10½ is a comforting bath of nostalgia––a charming love letter to the universal experience of childhood, regardless of whether you grew up in the space age or not.

46. Fire Island

dir. Andrew Ahn Watched June 3 🍿

Love a good vacation rom-com. Love a good rom-com that's largely just about friendship. Bowen Yang is the draw, but Joel Kim Booster is the star here. Actors who write their movies always give themselves the best parts. Get him in more stuff.

I think we're in the rom-com renaissance and I'm not mad about it.

45. Triangle of Sadness

dir. Ruben Östlund Watched November 26

I started off behind the eight ball here, being one that finds a serious hurdle every time it comes time to really enjoy a satire, rather than just give an "Ah, yes" nod. Triangle of Sadness is, indeed, filled with lots of those nods. This is a good script with a few really killer laughs and dialed-in performances. It'll probably get some play on Oscars night.

But, my god, when it's pitched to two hours and thirty minutesI find satire has a way of mutating into smarm and self-indulgence. If you're gonna satirize, bring a sharper pen or hire a more demanding editor. It feels almost antithetical to the entire enterprise to dance around the point this much.

44. Fire of Love

dir. Sara Dosa Watched November 12

Perhaps the prettiest documentary I've ever seen.

Obviously the point is "it's a doc about volcanoes that's really about people" but in my opinion that never fully coalesces. The very nature of the film makes it found-footage and therefore told a degree of separation from its subjects, resulting in a somewhat frustrating lack of precision.

Again, really beautiful though. That alone is more than worth the price of admission.

43. Causeway

dir. Lila Neugebauer Watched November 4 💎

Apple has certainly carved out its lane with these saccharine character dramas. I'd take issue with it, but it beats the alternative and they're good at choosing films that punch above their genre's weight class. Causeway, like CODA before it, is no different.

So many films of this ilk are made in the outline: Hit the three emotional plot points, cue the water works, everyone goes home happy. Causeway feels unique in that it's slow and soft and largely shrugs off the kind of emotional manipulation lesser films use as a shortcut, instead relying on quietly powerful performances from Jennifer Lawrence (!) and Brian Tyree Henry. They're the whole show here, and it's worth admission.

Speaking of Lawrence, I've never been much of a fan. I think now I'm realizing I just don't like her film choices. There's the Hunger Games series, which I've seen the entirety of despite never truly loving. Then there's the David O. Russell films, which give me a rash. She appeared in Don't Look Up, which is one of my all-time least favorite theater experiences. Even in mother!, my favorite performance of hers, she takes a backseat to the spectacle of the film.

But she's wonderful here, and it's like finding money in an old coat pocket. Is this the start of a new chapter? Is she going to take these kinds of roles now? Are we just going to have a new A-list lead actress in the movies I like? She kinda hit me like a bolt of lightning. I'd kill for more. We need her back in the annual "Actual Good Movies in Oscar Races" conversation.

42. Prey

dir. Dan Trachtenberg Watched August 8

Never seen any Predator movies. Still enjoyed this a lot! Clever and to the point with plenty of style and general badassery.

It feels like the discourse here is "This should have been a theatrical release!" And, sure. It's a well-made action movie and those deserve to be seen in theaters. But part of me just thinks this is the perfect direct-to-streaming action movie, which I'm not sure is something that's been perfected yet. I can't imagine the budget here is huge but it still has the trappings of a blockbuster. It takes chances with lesser-known actors. It looks great but maybe doesn't have IMAX-type scale that simply demands a 60-foot screen. Was this going to be a huge hit in theaters? I just don't see it. But on Hulu the buzz drew me in to a franchise I have zero investment in. That feels like a win.

41. Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery

dir. Kevin Perjurer Watched November 29

Thrilled to be able to go back and formally add this to my Letterboxd. It starts off as a silly internet investigation (a genre I love, to be clear) and then morphs into a pretty poignant treatise on artistic legacy.

I saw a tweet about this earlier this year, and I think it's true: YouTube is now a mature enough platform, and successfully rewards its creators enough, that it's starting yield legitimately good documentary filmmaking. Jon Bois is an obvious example here as his work starts to gain recognition in more mainstream spaces, but this one from Defunctland is a wonderfully entertaining (and well-built) story in a 90-minute package. It would fit seamlessly on any streaming service, which I think is high praise for something made by some random guy with an idea, a lot of free time, and a YouTube channel.

40. Ticket to Paradise

dir. Ol Parker Watched October 23 🍿

Gosh, what a charmfest. Rarely do movies so fully deliver on what you want them to be, even when that thing is a kind of silly romcom in the classic style. Not nearly the best movie of the year, but among the most satisfying, and one I'll absolutely be returning to when I'm craving star power or 100 minutes in Bali.

I'd be more than happy to see these two become a kind of Sandler and Barrymore for an older generation. Keep giving me more. I'll keep watching.

(One critical note: Felt a little short on Kaitlyn Dever, which is a shame!)

39. Emily the Criminal

dir. John Patton Ford Watched August 16 💎

This is a good movie that made me feel absolutely terrible. And I do think that alone is worthy of a certain degree of praise in an era where so many movies and TV shows are designed to be completely frictionless. I cherish movies that suffocate me. This got me in much the same way that 2019's The Assistantdid. They'd make a really good depressing double feature.

I don't know that Aubrey Plaza has made a great movie yet, but I really admire her taste. She's done this, Black Bear, and Happiest Season, all of which are kind of deceptively daring. It's admirable work, because I feel like she has enough pull to get a wider audience into these genre movies, which are hopefully a gateway drug.

38. Everything Everywhere All at Once

dir. Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan Watched April 7 and September 18

I've now seen this twice and I'm still having trouble sorting through it. I think my experience is common and makes an easy (and fair) critique. This movie is a mile wide and six inches deep, running in every direction and scarcely giving any idea time to rest. They've even named the movie after this expansive mess, perhaps in an attempt to beat critics to the punch.

But messy movies typically don't bother me. The mess here is only frustrating to the extent that it's annoying and distracting.

This is a movie with good taste. A hot take, I know. The two scenes that resonated with me––and tellingly also slowed down enough to leave an impression––were the rock scene (which calls to mind Jon Bois' miraculous 17776) and the universe in which Evelyn and Waymond did not end up together (which references basically everything Wong Kar-wai made in Hong Kong in the '90s).

Yet wrapped around that is still just a movie that seems almost terminally afraid of nakedly approaching its most daring ideas. I said this when I saw it in theaters in April, but this is a good movie with extra cheese. I was willing to follow this story into potentially scary conversations about our existence. I just wish it didn't treat me like a child the whole way.

37. Hustle

dir. Jeremiah Zagar Watched June 8 🍿

Cliche, predictable, and unrealistic, but when has any of those things stopped a sports movie? There are lots of people who love the NBA and love Adam Sandler who aren’t picky when it comes to movies, and this is should be a big hit for them.

None of this is an insult. It does it’s thing and does it does it well, with plenty of easy charm. It’s also yet another installment in the (mostly) non-comedic Sandler universe. I don’t know that I buy him as an assistant coach, but he’s selling the hell out of basketball scout.

Good stuff!

36. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

dir. Tom Gormican Watched April 21 🍿

Almost strangely plot-heavy for a movie with an elevator pitch that exists outside the confines of such things, yet it blossoms into a good bit of fun if you hang in there until the end.

This is a fascinating movie because its enjoyment almost lies outside of that. It's less of a movie than it is a celebration of an artist and his career––and hopefully the realignment of it. There's a running joke here about Nic Cage being back despite the fact that he never left in the first place. This feels like it was created to do nothing more than than state that fact, and I'm not really mad about it, because it worked. I won't be able to explain the plot of this movie in 48 hours but now I want to spend the weekend watching Nic Cage movies.

This is also the second consecutive Cage movie that ends with a really heartwarming needle drop. It's an emotional manipulation that I always love.

35. After Yang

dir. Kogonada Watched March 4 📈

I immediately swooned over Columbus, while also feeling it was a bit style over substance (a critique I'm more than willing to cast aside, more often than not). Here Kogonada comes back with exactly what I felt he needed.

It's an aesthetic masterwork, but so much of his world building is pushed to the edges of the frame, almost taunting you with the lack of context and perspective it receives. The characters spend the whole movie riding around in what's clearly some sort of futuristic vehicle, but we never see it. They live in what's clearly a futuristic house, but we don't see an exterior.

These compositions alone are speaking my language, but the narrative that ultimately takes the center of the frame is almost frustratingly quiet and abstract. Kogonada, to his credit, absolutely put the horse before the cart this time and I was not ready. Columbus almost trained me to look in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this will be an easy one to revisit (maybe when it finally gets its wide theatrical release).

34. Deep Water

dir. Adrian Lyne Watched March 18 🍿

Yes yes yes! The exact brand of unhinged madness I’ve been dreaming of for two years.

Ben Affleck’s character is a military drone engineer, a photographer, a cyclist, and—of course—a snail breeder. He also loves to do some murders and generally pout about town, occasionally with a small dog named Roger. He absolutely rules in this. (And so does Tracy Letts!)

Just okay as a movie but nearly flawless as an experience I’ve been desperately awaiting. Gone Girl finally has a double-feature partner. The world needs a final entry in the Affleck’s Bonkers Marriages trilogy.

33. On the Count of Three

dir. Jerrod Carmichael Watched May 13

This has been on my radar since it premiered at Sundance early last year. I've long been bullish on Jerrod Carmichael as a superstar, and there's something dazzling about Christopher Abbott. Ever since I first laid eyes on him in the early seasons of HBO's Girls I've been desperate for someone to properly weaponize whatever intangible quality it is he has, and nobody has been able to press quite the right buttons for him like Carmichael has here.

There's a lot of little stuff here that's fantastic, even beyond the performances. The score is great and that soundtrack is really clever. It's got a wonderfully dark sense of humor. The tactile cinematography is way nicer than these little movies normally receive. It paints this setting in a relatable way by managing to look like bottom-of-the-pit depression feels.

Like many people, I have my own journey with mental health. As such, I've always been drawn to these kinds of stories, and I suppose there's nothing more insulting than the ones afraid to stick their finger in the wound. I give this one tremendous credit for having the bravery to steer into the skid. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it yet, but at least it respects its audience enough to treat us like adults when it comes to a topic that deserves it.

32. Cha Cha Real Smooth

dir. Cooper Raiff Watched June 18 🍿

Dakota Johnson and Leslie Mann!!!

As in Shithouse, there's just some unavoidable baggage when you're writing and directing a movie you also star in. If there's something that gets stuck in my teeth here, it's that it's impossible not to come off like a bit of a self-savior fantasy. Raiff's character's fatal flaw, at the end of the day, is that he is simply too boyishly charming and empathetic to exist in the "real world" his characters are forced to occupy.

He's also still figuring out how to end a movie, as this continues his trend of providing his characters with a final heaping helping of closure nobody really needed. I can pinpoint moments in each of his first two films where he could've simply rolled credits and left the audience an inch of space to draw the conclusion he's lead them to.

Yet among the Sundace, feel-good, navel-gazing types, this is a very good one, if for nothing else than giving Johnson and Mann space to pour their well-established aura into Raiff's daydream.

I really hope film discourse cynicism doesn't crush him before he has a chance to fully spread his wings. It's tremendously early in his career, and he hasn't figured it all out yet, but he now has two films that hint at a wonderful destination.

31. Vengeance

dir. B.J. Novak Watched August 2 💎

Exactly like how you'd expect "First feature film from a talented and established _______" to feel. Its reach exceeds its grasp, it's occasionally very clumsy, and it's also really charming (enough so to paint over a lot of its flaws).

I love The Office despite its increasingly annoying presence in internet culture, and there are a lot of those less-savory impulses leaking through the cracks here. Yet there are moments were Novak is able to have his cake and eat it too, winking at podcasts that strain for profundity but doing it in a way that stumbles across something kind of special. Or playing the same old fish-out-of-water tropes for laughs but sparking some moments of emotional resonance in the process.

It's ultimately a movie I've just chosen to like. In a year that's been oddly dominated by major movies, Vengeance is, thus far, my favorite indie movie breakthrough. I'm not ready to say Novak has a long career ahead of him as a Hollywood director/writer/actor, but I'm very happy to have seen this.

30. The Woman King

dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood Watched November 18 🍿

Damn! A real movie-ass movie. Big stars. Big sets. Big score. Big action. Big themes. All of it dense, woven together, and decidedly aimed at adults without any trace of irony. What a breath of fresh air to see earnest ambition in a movie of this type. There are a couple laughs, but I can imagine the version of this film that's less confident and using winks at the audience to slink past its own scrutiny. But this one's throwing heat and it knows it.

The Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu trio is pretty astounding. Each are at different phases of their career and are delivering something special that I think can only manifest out of each of those individual phases. It's perfect casting.

If there's a drawback here it's that the sheer scope of the movie and all of the dynamics it's bringing to the table make it pretty hulking. This borders on an epic. If it were maybe 15% zippier (which I think there's room for) we're talking about one of the best movies of the year. It feels like we're stuck straddling between lean and mean and something fully leaning into the sprawl (Gladiator, Master and Commander, etc).

29. Crimes of the Future

dir. David Cronenberg Watched June 4

It's not necessarily on-the-nose, but there's an obvious peg to current events that keeps this thing afloat long after the body horror wears off. (It has frankly been overstated by reviews anyway.)

You can't stop the future.

28. The Fabelmans

dir. Steven Spielberg Watched November 27 📈

These movies are becoming a dime a dozen, and they're often either drawn-out therapy sessions or sappy love letters to one of various things (home, family, the movies). In its dullest moments, The Fabelmans is every bit of that. There are huge stretches of this where it's just not moving the needle for me, playing as one big trauma dump, jumping from scene to scene of Spielberg's childhood and showing how he used it all to become a legendary director. Bleh.

But this is also a movie that does a tremendous job of accruing momentum, and in its final few scenes it comes to life in a brilliant way, ascending past the ho-hum of these memoir films and displaying the kind of warm humanity and hazy memory you only get in the best movies (and maybe not even in Spielberg ones). There are sequences near the end here that bring the kind of freewheeling exuberance you might find in something like Licorice Pizza.

Some people are gonna flip for this, and I totally get that. And this is going to completely aggravate others––which I also understand, though agree with less. But it seems clear this is going to be an Oscars heavyweight, and as someone whose guilty pleasure is the Academy Awards, there are probably worse things to fawn over than such a personal Steven Spielberg film. I may not have been bowled over, but I found it charming.

27. Torn

dir. Max Lowe Watched March 13

Absolutely heart-wrenching story about family and the things we do to survive. Maybe still a little Free Solo fatigue but I'm a little surprised this didn't get an Oscar nomination.

26. Navalny

dir. Daniel Roher Watched July 4

The rise of documentary filmmaking has been fascinating to watch, in part because important figures now see it as a key piece of public relations. It's hard not to view any piece of documentary with at least a somewhat skeptical eye, including this one, but give it credit for managing to feel dangerous and exciting in equal strokes.

The phone call scene alone may be enough to bring home an Oscar.

25. Pearl

dir. Ti West Watched October 21 😱

Not the slasher killfest of X (a movie I enjoyed), but more of a psychological character study. If there's horror here its a nightmare of unrequited dreams, of feeling like you've been born straight into a dead end. I'd understand why many would prefer X, but this is more in my lane. This isn't drive-in fare, it's built for midnight on your couch when you're in the mood to watch a performer hold court for 100 minutes.

If there were any justice, Mia Goth would get a Best Lead Actress nomination. You know how good you gotta be to hold attention on a single shot for eight minutes? There's an incredibly small number of performers who can pull that off.

Gorgeous, gross, and clearly made by people who were having the time of their lives. Wish more movies were made with this zeal.

24. Bodies Bodies Bodies

dir. Halina Reijn Watched August 13 😱

This works in parallel as a thrilling whodunnit and a funny satire. What exactly it's satirizing feels like the key here. Because not only am I outside of the Gen Z demographic, but I'm also more sensitive than most to self-aware, winking humor. So why did this work for me?

Knives Out is a movie I really enjoyed, despite some humor that fell into this category I'm talking about. In the case of that film, I found it awfully specific. Referencing an "alt-right troll" is annoyingly of-the-moment. In Bodies Bodies Bodies there's a language in use that is obviously very 2022 but in making it 10% less specific it feels like it works well not just as a satire of a specific generation, but as a satire of the vapid drama of youth. I'm 30 and I saw a lot of my own friends and experiences reflected here, despite the fact that we didn't have TikTok or words like "ableism" at the time.

And on a much less analytical level, there's just a lot of talent in this movie, which probably has as much to do with the satire's success as the script does. I love Pete Davidson, but the stars here are Maria Bakalova (of Borat 2 fame) and Rachel Sennott (of Shiva Baby fame). They've each officially crushed two movies, which has me excited to follow their careers.

23. Jackass Forever

dir. Jeff Tremaine Watched February 4 🍿

I don't need to be the one to eulogize how special Jackass is and the childlike wonder the franchise has bestowed on what's now multiple generations. Smarter people will do that, and deservedly so.

But I still think it's worth pointing out how true it is. You see a 50-year old man gleefully running into the next room to tell his buddy "It's pig c*m!" that they just dumped on his head and you actually start to get a little choked up because of how gloriously stupid and funny it is, and how it's been funny like that for your whole life.

Still the most consistent film franchise in America. What a wonder.

22. Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off

dir. Sam Jones Watched April 6

As someone who fell in love with sports in the late '90s, Tony Hawk making the world stop on its axis by landing the 900 is one of my first concrete pop culture memories. He's one of the most famous human beings alive, so despite not being a skater, he's been part of my life for quite literally as long as I can remember. Yet it wasn't until sitting down to watch this that I realized I don't know anything about the guy. All of that is here.

Sam Jones is incredibly talented. He directed I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, one of my favorite documentaries ever. Hawk's career alone would be more than enough to sustain a riveting two hours, but Jones has the wherewithal to realize that the man who engineered that career has something far more interesting on the inside. This sounds like an obvious realization, but not every director makes it, or is able to gain that access.

Yet the key to this film's success lies in skateboarding itself (this is a sport whose entire culture since the beginning has been excessive photo and video documentation) and Hawk's sheer candor. He opens himself up a lot here and isn't afraid to appear alongside peers willing to criticize him. I found this to be incredibly moving––from Hawk's vulnerability to Rodney Mullen's poetic insight (every doc has an MVP, and he's this one's).

You don't have a great documentary without an outstanding moment. This depiction of the 900 is awe-inspiring and manages to recapture the same awe-struck wonder I felt at seven years old when I saw him make history.

21. Sr.

dir. Chris Smith Watched December 9

90 minutes! Incredible the ground covered here. Narratively there's Senior's art film, Junior's guidance of the "real" documentary, Junior's sort of trojan horse discussions with his father, and then a kind of retrospective of Senior's film career.

This is wonderfully constructed and it allows for the full spectrum of emotion. I got in a few real belly laughs and by the end the Nick Drake kicks in and it's hard not to feel yourself coming untied a little bit.

This is a complicated topic that, thankfully, isn't forced into a box, instead given the ability to kind of exist off-screen. And because so much is delivered briefly and subtly, it's actually probably the rare documentary that would make a good rewatch.

This year has quietly had some good docs, but I think this one's my favorite.

20. The Banshees of Inisherin

dir. Martin McDonagh Watched November 14 📈

This is sometimes what it feels like to live in Cleveland.

(What a damn good movie if you love these actors. A couple incredible performances at the middle, with my hero Barry Keoghan in the wings. It feels like perhaps this year's Nightmare Alley; something I'm bound to think back on and wonder if it was one of the few best of the year.)

19. Decision to Leave

dir. Park Chan-wook Watched November 24 📈

Immediately falls into the category of movies I'd like to see twice before judging with any confidence, though I did like it a lot. People flipped for The Handmaiden––and deservedly so, I guess. But I found that film to be narratively and visually exacting to the point of becoming kind of dull or over-manicured. If there's one thing Decision to Leave does really well it's that it allows itself to get a little messy. It's in the moments when Park is willing to leave stones unturned, and flourish unexplored, that this works best for me. After all, love stories, especially this one, are never seamless and beautiful.

18. Stars at Noon

dir. Claire Denis Watched October 30 📀

Sex and politics at the smoldering edge of the world.

Dying to read more about this and marinate on it a little; it's both huge and slippery. Suffice it to say Qualley has finally arrived in force. The titular needle drop is one of my favorite scenes of the year. Sweaty, sultry, and beguiling.

17. Ambulance

dir. Michael Bay Watched April 8 🍿

Another entry in Michael Bay's Maximalist Masculine Mayhem Masterpiece folder. What a treat that I was crazy enough to be earnestly anticipating this only to have to exceed my expectations. Yes, it drags in spots, and yes his heart-hanging-out sentimentality is still kinda weird, but man. This was insanely fun.

Gyllenhaal certainly has more nuanced performances, but this is one of his most enjoyable. And Yahya Abdul-Mateen, who unfortunately got trapped in the disappointing Candyman, is totally filling up the screen here. The way this is shot makes everyone look like the world's greatest action hero, and Bay in drone mode is a wonder. At one point a police car needlessly ramps over a drone and I was giggling in my seat.

Give me one of these every year.

16. The Stranger

dir. Thomas M. Wright Watched October 26 😱📀

"Breathe in the clean air. Breathe out the blackness."

One of the great surprises of 2022 takes the shape of one of my favorite subgenres: smoldering crime thriller. Calling to mind some of the greats like Zodiac or Memories of Murder, The Stranger sends Joel Edgerton into a nation's bad dream to try to strangle the demon.

True crime is unbelievably picked-over (and frankly a little gross) in 2022, but the power of these leads and the care and precision this story receives––smash cuts, discordant noises, creaks in the night––manages to generate a good bit of magic despite the lesser true crime obligations constantly yanking it back down to earth. If this had managed to divorce itself from its docudrama impulses a little bit I think it would've achieved the lift it so frustratingly flirted with a few times.

Absolutely nobody is talking about this, but I really hope it finds its audience. It's not quite great, but boy it comes close. Edgerton and Sean Harris. Chef's kiss.

15. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

dir. Rian Johnson Watched November 28 🍿

Any time a film finds surprising grassroots success, as Knives Out did, you know a sequel is coming, you just have to hope they don't botch it. My biggest worries were that (a) they'd lean too hard into the original's winking humor and (b) they'd somehow try to make the central mystery bigger, grander, and more complicated, ignoring the beauty that comes with simplicity. Frankly I thought the original's closing exposition was 10% too complicated. This is blockbuster whodunnit. I should be able to keep up while half nodding off on popcorn.

I'm pleased to report they've deftly navigated around both issues. This is a blast, and what it lacks in cozy fall vibes, it makes up for in a cast that I actually like more than Knives Out. (Seriously, absolutely major miss to ditch earth tones and wood paneling. Not only is the aesthetic here far more sterile, it's arguably a full-blown summer movie that most will watch over Christmas. Unforced error there. Either give me cable knit sweaters or serve it to me in July.)

Speaking of unforced errors, I cannot believe what Netflix has done with the rollout here. I just watched this in a huge, packed theater on a Monday night, despite its upcoming release on a streaming service nearly every American has access to. Why is it only on 600 screens? And why are they taking it away? Make good movies and let people see them in theaters. It's a two-part formula we keep messing up.

14. Barbarian

dir. Zach Cregger Watched September 15 😱

One thing I do, compulsively, when writing my reviews is that I do them immediately after the movie ends, or—in cases where I see something in theaters—as soon as I walk in the door back home. I prefer to write while a film is fresh in my mind, but the downside is that it doesn’t give me time to ruminate.

Barbarian is a movie that required rumination. I actually circled back the following day and had to boost the rating because I found myself enjoying just the memory of the movie and the thoughts it was triggering. That’s something special.

13. Funny Pages

dir. Owen Kline Watched August 25 💎

One of my all-time favorites is The Squid and the Whale, a 2005 Noah Baumbach film that, in a lot of ways, baptized me to the world of indie, awards circuit movies. One of the stars of that film is Owen Kline. My head nearly blew off when I saw that he was in filmmaking from the other end, directing and writing his first feature under the production of the Safdie Brothers. Watching Funny Pages it's easy to see the influences, as it beautifully blends Baumbach's acid-dipped sociology and the Safdies' ensemble verve into a grimy and left-footed story of teenage ambition, youthful pretension, and social discord.

This is sure to rankle people with its gross-out moments, cringe comedy, and unlikable protagonist, but it pressed all of my buttons and swept me off my feet, even without any real understanding of the comic book world. Tears-in-my-eyes laughter. The funniest movie of the year.

12. The Batman

dir. Matt Reeves Watched March 2 and April 18 📀

I was incredibly uneasy about how much I enjoyed this movie on my first go-round, so I knew I'd have to revisit. As it turns out, this does in fact rule though some of my original issues are probably well-founded.

It's absolutely letting it all hang out and going for it at every turn, for better or worse. There is no reason that the (depending how you count 'em) ninth Batman live-action feature film should be the best-looking movie of the year, yet here we are. This Gotham consisting of a hodgepodge of New York, Chicago, and invented metropolis still takes my breath away, as does the cinematography and all of its wet darkness and vignetted focus.

Yet for that visual triumph, it's the themes that still get me. Batman realizing he may bet better served as a beacon of hope as opposed to a vessel of socio-political anger is a daring conceit for a movie about the most famously angry vigilante. Between that bold direction and the knee-jerk comic book movie insistence on including a villain teaser, I can't help but worry how Reeves will follow this up. He's written a tremendously large check.

But he managed to hit on this installment, so I suppose he's earned my trust, which is an achievement in its own right.

11. The Worst Person in the World

dir. Joachim Trier Watched February 21

Simply crushing it from all corners. I'm someone that has no trouble overlooking serious shortcomings when I just decide I'm going to love a movie. Of course there's no such thing as perfection, but there are some films like this that manage to just nail it all around. Directing, writing, acting, cinematography, score, and soundtrack. Even the structure is wonderful. This is just a clean sweep.

I can't wait to watch this again and feel a little more comfortable fawning over it once the sheer excitement has worn off.

As much as I loved this from the jump, this "Hear everyone rave about a movie and wait seven months to see it" stuff absolutely sucks and feels entirely antiquated in 2022. I hate watching a movie with this many expectations attached to it, and no matter how hard I try to go in with a blank slate it is simply not possible. We gotta fix this!

10. The Wonder

dir. Sebatián Lelio Watched November 18 💭💎

A movie that may have been made for me, specifically.

The perfect marriage of narrative simplicity (a mystery about a nurse and patient) with existential musings (how far humans will go, in the wake of national and personal nightmare, to construct their own myths). It's a film that begins by (literally) admitting it's all fake while asking us to believe anyway, in the process (literally) showing us the scaffolding of the film itself, interrogating our own relationship to the medium as a tool to frame history and shape our collective story.

At the center is Florence Pugh at her best since 2019's Midsommar alongside a sneaky-powerful breakthrough by Kíla Lord Cassidy. There are a lot of trappings here—ominous score, evocative lighting, formal compositions—but this thing blows apart in the wind without buoyant performances at its core. And considering the role players here (Tom Burke, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds) it's kind of crazy this hasn't arrived with more fanfare.

Some will find this cloying, pretentious, or overdetermined, but it's doing all the stuff I love. One of the year's best surprises when a film starts like that and proves to have the bite to match its bark.

09. RRR

dir. S.S. Rajamouli Watched May 27 🍿

Insanity.

The kind of movie you can just gawk at and say "Wow. Banger." but also the kind that's tremendously well-assembled. So few movies keep you on your toes like this, with seemingly anything possible both narratively and thematically. Yet even fewer completely nail every plot thread along the way. It's larger than life but still completely cohesive, never ultimately losing its head in the clouds. Marvel wishes it was doing cosmic spectacle and emotional clarity and resonance this well.

A lot of the Indian politics are decipherable through context clues, though there's still obviously a lot I'm missing. From my limited perspective, this is a kind of masterpiece.

08. The Northman

dir. Robert Eggers Watched April 25

"We thirst for vengeance, but we cannot escape our fate."

If I were asked to choose a young indie director to bestow a $90 million budget upon, I'd have chosen Robert Eggers. Somehow he got one and, against all odds, crushed it. Rarely do young directors know what to do with so much extra cash and rarer these days is it that they choose to craft something that so singularly exists within their vision as opposed to, say, the billion-dollar assembly line at Marvel.

Eggers is a director who's already carved his career against the grain, which makes this satisfying big-budget turn such a thrill. I suppose one's enjoyment of this depends heavily on how bought-in you are to his breathlessly meticulous sense of world building, but if you're already an acolyte like myself this movie is a shimmering wonder, one of the best 135-minute "dudes rock" missives in years, and a flag-planting for one of the best directors of his generation.

07. Avatar: The Way of Water

dir. James Cameron Watched December 15 🍿

I've always found it ironic that James Cameron attached himself to the one movie he made that couldn't seem to find a narrative strong enough to make its spectacle worth the investment. I distinctly remember falling asleep in the theater during Avatar in 2009. I revisited a couple years ago and wasn't exactly able to discover a newfound appreciation. Big Jim is a legend, but it seemed weird this is what he was chasing.

Avatar was famously something Cameron began toying with way back in the early '90s. It took nearly my entire lifetime and one extremely successful test run, but The Way of Water is a vision come to life. While I am incredibly skeptical this (or any film) will make a lasting impact on filmgoing habits en masse or Hollywood at large, it's the kind of movie that reminds you of all that the system can be: Out of this world, cutting-edge artistic spectacle for the price of a burger and fries.

Everyone is going to talk about the visual tapestry here, and for good reason. I have truly never seen anything like this, and there were more than a few moments that were legitimately breathtaking—not often something I feel about movies. Yet I want to give credit to the writing, which (despite some hiccups) is a massive level up from the first film. These are clear, weighty stakes and weave some pretty nuanced emotional through lines that will make any Spielberg fan swoon.

The running joke for years has been that nobody remembered anything about the first film and that Cameron had hitched himself to four more. Yet now I've watched nearly six hours of this stuff and it does feel like the man is only scratching the surface of what he wants to do here. Cameron is one of our most important directors and he's going to die making these. A legacy worth pursuing.

06. Bones and All

dir. Luca Guadagnino Watched December 2 📀😱

So many movies waffle around on taking a point of view or committing to a perspective, so even before accounting for anything else it's refreshing to—within just a few minutes—completely grasp what Guadagnino is gunning for: Life and love on the margins in Reagan's America. And of course he isn't going to shirk away. Next to genuinely heart-skipping-a-beat beauty are images of stomach-churning repulsion. Holding those two extremes next to each other sets the stage for me to be obliterated by the rest.

I've loved Taylor Russell since I saw her in Waves (another heart-on-its-sleeve film that's shooting for the moon; she's got a type) and here she's next to Timothée Chalamet, a full-blown movie star who's chosen to appear in an '80s cannibal romance. (Be still my heart. Protect this man at all costs.) And then there's Mark Rylance. And Michael Stuhlbarg. And André Holland. And Chloë Sevigny.

And I've gotta start gaining more awareness of what film composers are up to, because this is not the first time I've been completely blown to smithereens by a film score only to discover during the credits that it's just Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This is my favorite score of 2022.

I'm kind of amazed this isn't making bigger waves, though I've been won over enough that I don't really care. A strong sense of time and place alongside gorgeous craft is all I really want in a movie.

05. Babylon

dir. Damien Chazelle Watched December 25 💭📀

Damien Chazelle is the future of Hollywood as the best director under 40. He’s got a perfect career going, drawing commercial success, critical applause, and awards glory. And so a studio gave him $80 million and free rein.

He cashed it in to make a movie that feels like it’s going to be a smash hit with 100 people. Fortunately for me I am one of those 100 people.

There are a lot of ways I could describe this. A Once Upon A Time In Hollywood prequel. A roaring ‘20s Boogie Nights. The Irishman for Old Hollywood. Is it as good as any of those movies? Well, no. But then again, how many are? It’s an anti-La La Land with the best opening hour of any movie this year. Equal parts crass, ambitious, and beautiful.

It’s the kind of film I love wholeheartedly and also won’t attempt to defend or recommend. Some of the very best movies are like this. Chazelle was aiming for Mars and I started to doubt him. But what a legend.

04. TÁR

dir. Todd Field Watched October 28 and November 25 💭

Still think this may be the most textured and specific movie I've ever seen. It's no coincidence a lot of viewers left the theater thinking Lydia Tár is a real person. What an achievement for a filmmaker to create a fictional world so lived-in and realized as to fool moviegoers.

On a rewatch the stuff that I liked originally, I liked more. This movie really hits its stride through the middle. At its roots this is about politics. Not just talent and dedication but the shady and manipulative structures one must use to prop those up if they want to be truly omnipotent in a space. And, like anyone who's sold their soul, eventually the rent comes due. (I believe The Big Picture podcast drew a comparison to The Social Network. It's not a connection I'd have made but I think the bitter fall from grace fits.)

03. Aftersun

dir. Charlotte Wells Watched December 10 and December 28 💭📀

This found a place within me that few others have. A movie about the deep aches of empathy and the terrifyingly ruthless march of time. Not entirely sure how to parse it, at least in the immediate aftermath, but it joins a list of 2022 films I'll spend hours of daydream time on.

For anyone prone to nostalgia trips or anyone who's spent time behind a camera, this is just a drone strike. Home movies as time machines. Memories as purgatory. Though—most crucially and painfully—hammering home the strict limitations on what can be accomplished in those spaces. Often the trite question is asked, "If you could say something to yourself _____ years ago, what would it be?" Wells takes that to a deeper level and pierces a metaphysical plane in doing so. It's a movie about coming of age staged like the apocalypse.

There's also a remarkable restraint here. She’s content to lean on the power of the intangible and the magic of the ethereal while styling her film as much around obvious flair as unseen sleight of hand. Simply staggering as a debut feature.

02. Nope

dir. Jordan Peele Watched July 21, July 23, and November 26 💭😱📀

This nearly collapsed under the weight of expectations when I first saw it. I wasn’t sure how much I liked it. Six months later and it might be my favorite from Peele.

I saw it twice in theaters in short succession back in July and exerted a lot of energy trying to sell myself on it logically. I eventually got there. (It's a good movie, after all.) But it was nice to return months later without all the hype and kinda just feel it. This still grabs me by the collar more than just about anything I've seen this year, and that middle 25 minutes is alongside the ending of Top Gun: Maverick as some of the most riveting blockbuster filmmaking I've seen in my life.

I definitely overthought it initially. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff here about media and the attention economy and the ills that inflicts upon society, but I think this is pretty clearly just a story of family, legacy, and man's coexistence with nature at large, our hubris when it comes to the power of its forces, and our inherent need to––in the face of that power––document, distribute, and understand. When OJ first encounters "aliens" in his barn, his first impulse isn't to run away, call for help, or fight back. He takes out his phone and starts recording. When Em gets wind of the alien, her first impulse is to monetize it. She's unaware that the only reason the Haywoods even laid eyes on the monster is that the neighbor down the hill was already doing just that, ignoring the demons in his own closet screaming not to poke the bear.

We'll probably spend the rest of Jordan Peele's career comparing stuff to Get Out. It's one of just a few downsides of launching your directorial career with something so towering. Approach Nope with the Get Out lenses, and you'll probably twist yourself up in a pretzel like I did, reckoning with its symbolism and trying to wrest meaning out of every decision. The truth is this is a movie you can poke holes in. The screenplay needed another pass. The Gordy flashbacks––as much as they're some of my favorite parts of the movie––don't seem to be particularly structural. And I still have a hard time reconciling the moral of the closing scene with what Peele was saying in the preceding two hours.

And yet Peele is a particular kind of artist, one I might compare to Kanye in the first ~10 years of his solo career. Any shortcomings (few as they may be) are instantly papered over by a staggering sense of aesthetic, imagery, and staging. You can sit there and analyze how killing the monster fits into the film's moral logic, but then you think back on those tube men waving down in a barren field, or blood raining from the sky, or the genuinely haunting shots of a startled ape tearing through a '90s sitcom set and you realize that analysis is dumb if the movie is working.

So that's where I'm at. I have my reservations, and I'm not sure I care about them. Calling this anything less than one of my favorites of the year––and one of my 4-5 favorites post-COVID––would be a lie. Movie rocks.

01. Top Gun: Maverick

dir. Joseph Kosinski Watched May 26 and July 13 🍿📀

It’s Tom Cruise’s world and we’re all just living in it.

There's a scene early in the movie where the focus pivots quite heavily to the rest of the cast, and it's where you start to worry how much the supporting characters are going to be able to carry their weight. Make no mistake, this is Tom Cruise's movie, but everyone else acquits themselves beautifully. Even, and especially, Miles Teller.

I am actually not a Top Gun lover, though I think this is going to be incredibly appealing to that crowd. It's hard to pledge unwavering fealty to an origin story and a movie star like this and still keep things on the rails, but they've pulled it off with dazzling success. The subtext here is not subtle, but nobody comes to blockbusters for subtlety. This is a movie about an over-the-hill fighter pilot coming back into the fold to show the young guns he's still got it. It features the world's last capital M, capital S Movie Star. Cruise turned 60 this summer, but he's still got the juice, following up perhaps my favorite action movie ever with the greatest climax since.

And it's in the final minutes, when you feel like front flipping out of your seat, that Lady Gaga's syrupy ballad kicks in. Hollywood magic.

Favorite Movies of 2022