The best movies of 2022 were those often those which pulled us back toward the past. In a year which saw the (umpteenth) return of Batman, Nicolas Cage, Jackass and Tom Cruise, the hits of old ruled the box office this year. But if you thought all that was on offer this year was nostalgia, fear not, because there's also been plenty of newness, like foreign language indie hit The Worst Person in the World, mould-breaking homegrown drama Boiling Point, and bizarro cult hit Everything Everywhere All At Once.
This was the year that Harry Styles stepped onto the big screen in Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman, a move which… divided opinion, to say the least. In fact, the D-word might be the most relevant adjective for the year's final months: Amsterdam, Avatar 2 Blonde and Black Adam, the real big guns of the quarter, proved polarising as they come.
With the 2022 film year drawing to a close, here's our unranked guide to the best of the bunch.
Aftersun
Paul Mescal has been a star on the rise since Normal People rocketed him to stardom back in 2020. He showed deft emotional range in the Sally Rooney series, but allow Aftersun to put any doubts to bed: this man can capital A, act. This is one of the best movies of the year, with a wonderful confluence of performers (kid actor Frankie Corio matches Mescal beat-for-beat), excellent material, and a first-time filmmaker in Scotland's Charlotte Wells who demonstrates all the visual verve and acuity of an artist with quadruple her experience. Like Fish Tank, Ratcatcher, or The Virgin Suicides, here's a directorial debut we'll be talking about for decades to come.
Bodies Bodies Bodies
A24's latest bit of Gen Z maximalism is a satire-come-slasher-come-subversive murder mystery, set amid a party of teens and twenty-somethings at a remote estate during a hurricane. The ensemble's stacked with one hot vet (Lee Pace), a self-described guy who looks like he fucks (Pete Davidson), and some of the most incandescent young talents around, from Shiva Baby's Rachel Sennott (it's L.A.!) to Maria Bakalova (Borat's daughter), and Myha'la Herrold (kicking ass on Industry). Oh, and the Charli XCX title track is an absolute banger.
Boiling Point
Nominated by BAFTA but juuust a touch too small and British to bother the Oscars committee, Boiling Point is nevertheless one of the stand out dramas of the year. Shot in one, panic attack-inducing take (placing director Philip Barantini in a long, proud cinematic traditional alongside Hitchcock, Scorsese and Cuarón), it features the still criminally underrated Stephen Graham in a career-best performance as a chef struggling with unruly staff, substance abuse and a truly horrible set of customers.
Bones and All
Set in the late ‘80s across a vast swathe of the American Northeast, Bones and All is a road movie in the classic Hollywood tradition — think: Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, The Grapes of Wrath — with a twist: the two protagonists, played by Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell, have an unrelenting hunger for human flesh. But this isn't just empty provocation. You hardly see the gory bits. It's more about the love that blossoms between these two outcasts, despite the insurmountable odds, who in an era of individualism choose to give themselves to one another, bones and all. This is quite possibly Luca Guadagnino's best film (yes, potentially better than Call Me by Your Name).
Everything Everywhere All At Once
A24's bizarro fantasy trip can reportedly claim to have caused a run on googly eyes, such was the unexpected hit it became when it landed in cinemas earlier this year. From directing duo ‘The Daniels’ (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), and with a tour de force performance from Michelle Yeoh, the story hinges on a reality-shifting ‘interdimensional rupture', the effects of which mean a woman must face down parallel universe versions of herself to save the world. Trust us, go with it.
Funny Pages
If you were known for etching cocks onto your school desk or you have an unshakable proclivity for fart jokes, Funny Pages is the puerile comedy that will take you back. Owen Kline (or: That Kid From The Squid and the Whale) directs a cringe-inducing rib-tickler which brims with unexpected warmth; a coming-of-ager for the weirdos and ne'erdowells of the world whose means of self-expression just so happen to come by way of anthropomorphic dick sketches. Oh, and it's produced by the Safdie Brothers, and a bunch of faces from Uncut Gems pop up in cameos, in case you were a fan of the Sandlernaissance.
Glass Onion
Benoit Blanc is back to solve another murder mystery. This time, it's on a tech mogul's island off the coast of Greece, with Elon Musk facsimile (portrayed by Edward Norton) playing host to a number of his friends for an annual Whodunit. Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista all turn up, with Craig's Blanc in tow. The “Glass Onion” in question is the bulbous centerpiece on the island itself, playing host to billions of dollars worth of valuables including, not least, the Mona Lisa. Perhaps not quite as clever as the first one, but still meaty enough for a bit of Christmas viewing with the whole family.
Hustle
There are no misses in the Adam Sandler Cinematic Universe, there are simply comedies too obscure for the average cinemagoer to fully appreciate. That said, if you find yourself in the camp who prefer Adam Sandler's weightier dramas (see: Uncut Gems, The Meyerowitz Stories) then this Netflix original about his beloved basketball might be one for you. In Hustle, Sandler plays the fictional Stanley Sugarman, a talent scout for the Philadelphia 76ers whose own career was ended after a car accident. Sandler brings a lot of empathy to playing the everyman who travels the world in search of the next big thing, all while his own marriage goes stale, and meanwhile there's plenty of slam dunks on the court, both physical and metaphorical.
Jackass Forever
Twelve years after the Jackass gang got together to inflict pain on one another in Jackass 3D, Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and co are reunited — plus an assortment of new faces — to make total arses of themselves yet again. While Jackass Forever taps into the juvenile sense of humour of the original series, it also feels like one last blaze of glory for its delinquent cast, and waving goodbye to it a little like growing up yourself. This plus firing people out of cannons.
Nope
Get Out marked out Jordan Peele (before then better known as one part of the sketch comedy duo Key and Peele) as something rare: a modern American filmmaker with a distinct perspective. Nope, his third picture, makes him three-for-three. Starring Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, it centres on a sibling pair of Hollywood ranch owners under attack from a UFO — sorry, UAP — and features a subplot stemming from a gruesome massacre by the titular chimpanzee star of old TV show Gordy's Home. Five stars!
Petite Maman
Céline Sciamma's unflinching and erotic 2019 drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire set the French screenwriter and director up as a talent to watch. Her follow-up, Petite Maman, is similarly striking, telling the story of a young girl who is taken to clear out the house of her grandmother after her death, a process which helps her understand more about her own mother. Sciamma takes a seemingly small story and paints it into something that looms large about life and loss.
Red Rocket
You might recall Simon Rex as the star of Scary Movie 3, or indeed from his stint as rap persona ‘Dirt Nasty’. But, once upon a time, Rex appeared in an adult film. It’s hardly surprising, then, that The Florida Project director Sean Baker tapped him up for his latest socially conscious dramedy, Red Rocket. Set in small-town Texas at the dawn of Trump’s presidency, Rex plays Mikey Saber, a down-and-out former adult entertainer forced to return home. There, he meets the much younger Strawberry, grooming her with the promise of an L.A. escape. Rex deserves all of the plaudits in the world for making such a gargantuan prick so likeable — extra points, too, for a glorious N*sync needle-drop.
RRR
The most expensive Indian film ever made at the time of its release, this epic action drama comes from the director of Magadheera, another action film which became the highest grossing Telugu-language film of all time. In RRR, two revolutionaries in the 1920's embark on a long and winding journey, before returning home to fight British colonialist. Explosive, technicolour, and packed with thrilling sequences, this is the film you'll be recommending everyone see on the big screen.
The Batman
Matt Reeves's Nirvana-inspired take on the Caped Crusader, complete with grungy soundtrack and Robert Pattinson wearing heavy eyeliner, was a new direction for the well-trodden figure, but one that still paid respect to its past. But The Batman is more than just The Pats as Bats: Colin Farrell co-stars as an unsettlingly weird-looking Penguin, while Paul Dano’s serial killer take on The Riddler is more evocative of a grungy executioner than anything approaching the gaudy campiness embodied by Jim Carrey.
The Northman
Robert Eggers makes batshit movies like no one else. Not only are they mind-boggling, they’re formal delights, shot with rare acuity. Take The Lighthouse, which paired Willem Dafoe — who also appears in The Northman — with Robert Pattinson, the co-stars descending into mad depravity. With The Northman, Eggers has transplanted his unhinged sensibilities to a fitting locale: tenth-century Iceland. Extremely bloody and very brutal, the ensemble is stacked with Hollywood names, from Nicole Kidman to Ethan Hawke. What’s more, Björk appears in her first narrative fiction feature since 2000’s Dancer in the Dark.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Nicolas Cage needs no introduction. One of the most beloved leading men of the ‘90s, the actor has ridden a smattering of shrewd arthouse picks to a career resurgence in recent years, appearing in the likes of kaleidoscopic nightmare Mandy and culinary revenge flick Pig. But this year came the Nic Cage-iest of all Nic Cage projects that Nic Cage could possibly do: playing Nic Cage in a film centred on Nic Cage. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent pairs the cult legend with Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal in a hyperbolic take on the former’s real-life struggle with stardom.
The Worst Person in the World
If you’ve ever wanted to yearn — and who amongst us hasn’t — might we recommend Joachim Trier’s fifth film, The Worst Person in the World. The threequel to his thematically-connected Oslo trilogy, the romantic drama tells the story of Julie (Renate Reinsve, in one of the best performances of the year), an emotionally unfulfilled woman approaching her 30th birthday. She shares a tumultuous, if passionate, relationship with Aksel (an equally incandescent Anders Danielsen Lie); the proverbial spanner is thrown with the introduction of sadboi Eivind. An immediate classic.
Top Gun: Maverick
More than 35 years since the first film came out, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer returned for a second Top Gun, again centred on Cruise’s iconic airman, Maverick, as he faces up to the ghosts of his past and dodges perennial paperwork duty. Top Gun: Maverick has taken the world by storm, claiming the title as Cruise's biggest hit ever and edging toward the $1bn box office mark. The film is heavy on the nostalgic fodder for fans of the original, but there's also new offerings for first time Top Gun visitors, not least Miles Teller's shirtless dance which has spawned a thousand TikTok imitations.
Triangle of Sadness
Here's a bellowing farce from perennial film provocateur Ruben Östlund that'll make you wanna eat the rich and throw up the remains. Triangle of Sadness, elevated by a starring turn from Harris Dickinson, puts a bunch of one percenters on a luxury yacht out at sea. Without wanting to spoil anything too much, shit happens. Including a lot of literal shit. It is glorious.
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
A gorgeous fable from Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze, and an instant favourite among the arthouse film fans, What Do We See… is an epic ode to the to love, that thing which unites us all but yet feels so rare, so random. Colourful, vibrant, saccharine, playful, buoyant — this one's something of a slow-burner at two-hours thirty, but it rewards your patience in abundance. Think the palette of Wes Anderson, with the optimism of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows.
