Djinns in love, excrement-soaked billionaires, and a musical action epic that puts the MCU to
shame. 2022's best films covered every genre and proved that original stories are far from dead.
Athena is a thriller, a family drama, and a snapshot of contemporary tensions between
citizens and institutions. It's all told from the perspective of three grieving brothers
trying to make sense of their fourth brother's death. If the opening sequence doesn't grab you,
you may not have a pulse: In a continuous 10 minute shot,
a press conference regarding the brother’s murder by the police collapses into a frenetic raid of
the station by well-organized protestors, who proceed to fortify an apartment complex
into a revolutionary stronghold. It only gets more intense from there.
Years after the release of his
acclaimed debut feature In Bruges, writer-director Martin McDonagh reunites stars Colin Farrell and
Brendan Gleeson for another bizarre and moody dark comedy. Set on a fictional island off the coast
of Ireland in the 1920s, where drinking, music, and idle chat are the only available pastimes,
The Banshees of Inisherin is the story of a messy breakup between lifelong friends Colm and Pádraic.
"Let's just call it quits." "We won't call it quits. We'll call it the start."
Witty, bleakly funny, and shot on the picturesque Aran Islands, The Banshees of
Inisherin is a shoe-in for Oscar nominations for acting, writing, and costume design.
Now and then,
a horror film comes along that has to be seen to be believed. Barbarian is one such movie. A woman
arrives at the house she's renting for a short period of time, only to discover someone's already
home. Now, she must spend the night sharing the home with this stranger. That's not all: The house
itself seems to harbor its own strange secrets. Equal parts shocking, revolting, and hilarious,
Barbarian is best enjoyed without spoilers and a room full of likewise unsuspecting viewers.
The streets of Gotham City have
never been grittier than in The Batman, a new interpretation of DC's most popular superhero.
Despite being yet another reboot that takes the character "back to basics" as a lone crimefighter
chasing gangsters and serial killers, The Batman still feels distinct from both Christopher Nolan's
nuts-and-bolts realism and Tim Burton's dark whimsy. More than any previous Batman film,
it's a detective story, closer to a 1970s neo-noir than a modern action blockbuster. Within the
film's ambitious three-hour runtime you'll find memorable performances, gorgeous photography,
and one of the most in-depth explorations of the title character ever to hit the big screen.
2018's Black Panther was a global sensation,
earning over $1 billion at the box office and a slew of Academy Award nominations,
including Best Picture. As with any successful chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
it seemed obvious that Black Panther would expand into a colossal franchise in its own right. The
sudden and tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman threw the future of the series into question,
but director Ryan Coogler and his cast and crew committed themselves to reworking the
planned sequel into a heartfelt tribute to their absent friend.
On top of the familiar action, adventure, and spectacle that Marvel fans have come to expect,
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever offers a complex meditation on grief, following the
lovable ensemble from the first film through the process of moving on after a devastating loss.
Belle follows
a talented teenage songwriter, Suzu, who's been unable to raise her voice in song since
the tragic death of her mother. But when she logs into the futuristic social media
platform "U," Suzu transforms into "Belle," a spellbinding songstress who becomes a global
sensation overnight. As Suzu attempts to reconcile the two parts of herself,
she becomes fascinated by an infamous online prizefighter with a monstrous virtual avatar.
Belle is nominally an adaptation of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast for the social
media age, but the film brings far more to the table than just the familiar beats of its
source material. Belle is part timeless and part bleeding-edge contemporary, as exemplified by its
two distinct but equally beautiful art styles — painterly traditional animation to represent the
real world and eye-popping cell-shaded CGI to represent the virtual reality of the Internet.
Cooper Raiff stars opposite
Dakota Johnson in Cha Cha Real Smooth, a sweet, witty indie comedy that took home
the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at 2022's Sundance Film Festival. Raiff portrays Andrew,
a recent college graduate who's landed back at his mom and stepdad's house while he figures out
the next phase of his life. Though built around the sizzling chemistry between Andrew and Dakota
Johnson's 30-something character Domino, Cha Cha Real Smooth is really a quirky and heartfelt
coming-of-age story about a college-educated young adult who has to get a job at the mall food court.
South Korean director Park
Chan-wook of Oldboy and The Handmaiden fame presents a seductive thriller that expertly
balances suspense, romance, and comedy in Decision to Leave. When an ace detective
is assigned to investigate a mysterious death, he becomes bizarrely obsessed with
the victim's widow. The feeling seems to be mutual, but is the widow simply toying
with him to cover up a murder? Gorgeously shot and simmering with tension that's occasionally
broken by a pitch-perfect gag, Decision to Leave is a masterfully crafted mystery.
Around the turn
of the millennium, a string of teen flicks adapting the plays of William
Shakespeare to a contemporary high school setting debuted.
"Sweet love, renew thy force."
"Hey! Don't say s— like that to me. People can hear you."
With Do Revenge, director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson makes a killer case for giving the
same treatment to the films of Alfred Hitchcock. In this comedy-thriller loosely based on Strangers
on a Train, a new kid at an affluent prep school and its disgraced queen bee team
up to exact some cruel and imaginative vengeance upon each others' enemies.
"I want to burn her to the ground."
"Woah. You're giving off some serious Glenn Close and 'Fatal Attraction' energy.'"
Lively, funny, and sporting a tremendous performance from Maya Hawke, if Do Revenge
doesn't spark a new trend in high school thrillers, someone is going to pay.
Emily the Criminal is a
crime thriller born of the present moment, as a generation weighed down by debt and denied
full-time employment struggles to make ends meet in the "gig economy." Aubrey Plaza stars as Emily,
who juggles various menial jobs with combined wages that can't make a dent in her student
loans. When presented with the opportunity to make a lot of money fast, Emily becomes
a "dummy shopper," maxing out cloned credit cards and reselling the purchases on the black market.
"You know what my mistake really was? I didn't go far enough."
The story of a hard-luck outlaw getting in too deep is nothing new,
but Emily the Criminal has such a modern edge that it can't be denied.
Evelyn Wang is an exhausted and
unfulfilled laundromat owner who's just trying to get her taxes done
when she's suddenly recruited to fight in an inter-dimensional war. To save the multiverse,
Evelyn will have to learn how to "verse-jump," tapping into the feelings, memories,
and skills of her alternate selves, all of whom have done more with their lives than she has.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is uproariously funny, visually dazzling, and deeply moving.
Director Steven
Spielberg has shaped the past 50 years of cinema more than any other filmmaker. Now,
he's finally ready to tell the story of the events that shaped Steven Spielberg. Though his
films are generally known for their sincerity, The Fabelmans is Spielberg's most personal work yet,
as a semi-autobiographical story based on his own adolescence.
"You do what your heart says you have to."
Sammy Fabelman is a young Jewish kid with a love of filmmaking who must navigate the
collapse of his parents' marriage. His is a sweet coming-of-age story that's also a thoughtful
and sympathetic examination of a loving couple who've drawn apart from each other. Beyond this,
The Fabelmans is a charming love letter to cinema, following its protagonist as he embarks
on ever more complicated home movie projects that are a delight to see on the big screen.
The latest in a proud
tradition of modernized Jane Austen adaptations, Fire Island sets Pride and Prejudice during a
tight-knit, queer chosen family's annual reunion at the titular New York vacation
spot. Austen's novel of manners translates beautifully into this contemporary setting,
trading prim propriety for raunchy comedy, while also poking fun at the roles of race, class, and
narrow beauty standards in a closed but thriving sexual economy. Conrad Ricamora is a standout as
Will, Fire Island's version of the steamy and stoic Mr. Darcy, but the heart of the film is
the friendship between the lead characters, portrayed by Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang.
Fire of Love tells the true story of
Katia and Maurice Krafft, fearless volcanologists who visited multiple erupting volcanoes during
the latter half of the 20th century. To finance their studies, the couple filmed and photographed
their adventures, turning them into books and movies that captivated audiences across the
world. This documentary is the distillation of hundreds of hours of footage of their strange
journey into one, stunning narrative. Fire of Love is part nature documentary, part romance,
and part tragedy, best seen with the person next to you clutching your hand.
Set in Mussolini's fascist Italy,
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is a dark fairy tale about childhood, parenthood, and mortality,
brought to life via stunning stop-motion animation. What's most remarkable about this
film is that it's family entertainment that never panders too hard to either adults or children.
There are heavy themes and silly slapstick, but neither feels like a correction for the other. Del
Toro is a grown-up with a kid's imagination, equally capable of simplifying complex ideas
and extracting the maximum substance from storybook concepts. The result is one the
year's best animated features, and a worthy entry in the filmography of the Oscar-winning director.
In between
bringing his friends on vacations to sunny locales around the world,
Adam Sandler maintains a successful career as a dramatic actor. In Hustle,
Sandler plays a desperate basketball scout who discovers a world-class talent in a poor single
dad from Spain. The film doesn't exactly break the sports drama mold, but Sandler and co-star
Juancho Hernangómez share a lovely chemistry that reminds you how uplifting this dying genre can be.
"This is all for you, pal."
"It's for us."
"Okay, it's for us."
The Menu is a satirical
thriller in which a dozen discerning diners catch a ferry ride to an exclusive culinary
experience that just might be their last. The film has a bit of a Twilight Zone edge to it:
Its ironic twists are somewhat predictable, but also hugely satisfying. Like a great meal,
it's almost exactly what you ordered, but with a few surprising accents and secret ingredients
to make what could have been simple sustenance into an experience worth playing top dollar for.
Horror auteur Jordan Peele returns with his biggest and most ambitious film yet,
a sci-fi-horror-comedy-Western that deconstructs the very concept of filmed entertainment. When
a brother-sister pair of down-on-their-luck horse trainers spies a UFO above their ranch,
they hope to secure their legacy by capturing the first incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial
life. But at what cost are they willing to attain the impossible shot? And what drives people to
seek out bizarre spectacle in the first place? Peele doesn't answer every question he poses,
to tremendous effect. Expect the wheels in your head to keep turning for days after you see Nope.
From celebrated
director Robert Eggers comes this unflinchingly brutal historical fantasy, based on the ancient
Viking epic that inspired Shakespeare's Hamlet. The dethroned Prince Amleth will stop at nothing
to exact vengeance against the uncle who slew his father and kidnapped his mother — but will
his quest leave him more beast than man? The Northman is as visually stunning as it is
disturbing, a meticulous and unsanitized portrait of the grim and miserable past.
Prey, a prequel
to Predator set in the North American Great Plains during the 18th century,
is by far the best installment in the series since the original. It's a lean,
character-driven horror-thriller with some gnarly, cleverly staged violence. Amber Midthunder makes
her mark on action cinema as Naru, a young Comanche warrior looking to prove herself
by hunting a dangerous beast. Her prey turns out to be a well-armed extraterrestrial who's
come to kill humans for sport, as well as a portent of the colonizing threat that awaits
her community. Like all Predator films, Prey can be enjoyed entirely on its own,
but it also contains some cute Easter eggs for longtime fans of the franchise's mythology.
Resurrection is a
white-knuckle psychological horror film in which star Rebecca Hall delivers one
of 2022's best performances. Hall portrays Margaret, a businesswoman and single parent
who seems in total control of her life until a mysterious man from her past resurfaces and sends
her spiraling into an all-consuming panic. What is it that makes his mere presence so
terrifying? We are absolutely not telling — you need to see this one for yourself.
Essentially a superhero epic based on two real
Indian revolutionaries of the 1920s who likely never actually met, RRR is a violent, thrilling,
heartfelt, and gleefully over-the-top Tollywood action/musical blockbuster. Its song and dance
number "Naatu Naatu" has gone mega-viral online, and it teases only a small fraction the bombastic
excitement of its battle scenes. It's a three-hour film that energizes rather than exhausts its
audience. By the time the credits roll, you'll feel like you could punch a hole through the moon.
Just as each Scream sequel
has commented on the nature of horror sequels and the changing landscape of horror cinema,
this fifth entry tackles the contemporary trend of the "requel," in which "legacy characters"
pass the torch to a new generation. But, as always, Scream isn't just about
dorky inside jokes for cinephiles, it's also a thrilling horror "whodunnit" in its own right,
with scares and chuckles in equal measure. Scream can be enjoyed as either a jumping-on
point or a satisfying conclusion to one of horror's most consistent franchises.
Cate Blanchett delivers
one of the most captivating performances of her career as fictional composer-conductor Lydia Tár
in this gripping character study. Tár is a titan in the world of classical music, with a colossal
ego to match. But in the run-up to her latest career milestone, whispers of her personal and
professional misconduct crescendo into a deafening roar that threatens to knock her off her podium.
Blanchett endows Tár with such charisma and menace,
one can immediately understand how awful people manage to acquire so much power — or
how power can make a person awful. There are moments when you might find yourself
sympathizing with this self-obsessed genius, even as you eagerly anticipate her downfall.
With Three Thousand Years of Longing,
director George Miller has delivered a haunting adult fairy tale romance. Though unsurprisingly
a box office bomb, this dark storybook tale of a solitary academic who frees a lonely djinn
from centuries of imprisonment is both thought-provoking and heart-wrenching,
musing on the nature of love, the shape of stories, and the death of myth in our
modern world. It's not a "feel good" movie, it's a "feel everything" movie.
Till is based on the
true story of Mamie Till's fight for justice after her son, Emmett, was brutally murdered by white
supremacists at the age of 14. Till introduces us to a bright and charming young man in Emmett "Bo"
Till, and forces us to reckon with his inhuman death and the deep wounds it leaves behind — not
only on those who love him, but on everyone the lynching is meant to terrorize. An intimate and
heartbreaking character study, it centers on a woman whose unimaginable pain becomes the
center of a national news story and a movement for civil rights. What results is a commanding entry
to the Hollywood main stage for both director Chinonye Chukwu and star Danielle Deadwyler.
Top Gun: Maverick is
a ridiculously fun cinematic novelty that will thrill even the most cynical viewer. Eschewing
CGI as much as possible, director Joseph Kosinski puts the actors and cameras right
into actual fighter jets and lets audiences marvel at incredible real-life feats of aerial agility.
"Just want to manage expectations."
The spectacle is bound together by irresistible charisma machine Tom Cruise reprising the role
of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, leading a new generation of hot shots into the danger zone.
Writer-director Ruben Östlund won his
second Palme d'Or for Triangle of Sadness, a wacky satire about class disparity and the apocalypse.
Though its first and third acts contain plenty of laughs, its middle hour — set on a luxury
yacht populated by sociopathic billionaires and an exhausted staff — is worth the price of admission
alone. Essentially a broad gross-out comedy for arthouse audiences, Triangle of Sadness captures
the lunacy of the mega-rich. It's not the most subtle film of the year, but it is the only one
that offers the thrill of watching the soulless elite violently evacuate their digestive tracts.
Overachieving eighth-grader
Mei Lee awakens one morning to discover she’s transformed into a giant red panda,
just as every woman in her family has for generations. Mei's panda form emerges
whenever she experiences strong emotions, and her mother Ming expects her to rein it in,
like she did. But what if Mei likes being an excitable furry monster? Turning Red is a joyful
celebration of friendship, family, and how the awkward process of growing up complicates both.
The Woman King is
a grand Hollywood war epic unlike any other. Set in 19th century Dahomey,
it stars Viola Davis as General Nanisca, the leader of an elite army of female soldiers.
"Fight or we die."
Through the eyes of Nanisca and teenage recruit Nawi,
The Woman King explores the lives of these incredible warriors as their nation attempts
to divest itself from the monstrosity of the slave trade. Between its taut direction,
gnarly action, and heartfelt performances, it's a prestige blockbuster that kicks butt while
celebrating a piece of history Hollywood has traditionally failed to represent.