By Movie Geeks | December 30, 2022

2022 has been an interesting year for movies, with some of the big blockbuster spectacles getting a lot of attention, smaller ones desperately looking for audiences, and lingering questions about the future of the theater experience past the event films. First time directors and musical delights painted the cinema canvas with mesmerizing swaths of biographical and semi-autobiographical themes, adult dramas, independent and international films, and the crowd pleaser, RRR.

The sequels, and there were many, returned audiences to the worlds of Pandora and Wakanda, the Multiverse of Marvel, the mysterious layers of the Glass Onion, the dominion of dinosaurs and the soaring skies with Captain Maverick Pete Mitchell for one last mission.

And then there’s movie star Tom Cruise. In another year that was challenging for the box office by the covid pandemic and audiences conditioned to stay home with the many streaming services, TOP GUN: MAVERICK proved to be the most important film of 2022 as it cracked a billion dollars at the box office and brought people back to the movies. This Oscar worthy, best picture film was noted for how it made you feel and it’s why we all go to the movies.

For those who follow awards season, nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. The 95th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

With the end of 2022 drawing near, WAMG gives you our Top 10 Movies of the Year.

Honorable Mentions – RRR, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, TOP GUN: MAVERICK, GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY and WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVICH STORY

10.EMILY THE CRIMINAL

One of the year’s “outta’ nowhere sleepers”, this modern spin on classic noir thrillers is also an engrossing character study and an unlikely love story. Most of its power comes from the unconventional casting of the title character, as Aubrey Plaza, usually known for comedic roles, commands the screen as a struggling “gig” worker who quickly becomes a diva of deception in the shady underworld of credit card fraud. Filled with heart-pumping danger and double-crosses, this “under the radar” thriller delivers.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/08/emily-the-criminal-review/

9.NOPE

That ending of is he or isn’t he! It left all of us thinking and discussing NOPE way long after we actually saw NOPE! Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, and Michael Wincott are all fantastic in director Jordan Peele’s nod to Steven Spielberg’s CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and his masterpiece JAWS. “I’m hopeful that people will look at clouds after this movie the way they looked at the surface of the ocean in Jaws,” said Peele and boy was he ever successful with his flying saucer horror film. The filmmaker was also brutally honest with his take on people’s unhealthy fascination with social media and reality tv, as well as society’s blase and indifferent attitude to the recently released UFO videos saying, “it proves that there is a desensitization to spectacle. It’s nerve-wracking and scary.”  The Great American UFO movie, NOPE was this year’s definitive summer event film.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/07/nope-review/

8.DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

The best of the 2022 Marvel Studios feature films debunks the claims that they squelch the personalities of their directors. From the opening few minutes, we’re aware that Sam Raimi has put his distinctive stamp on this imaginative sequel. Plus it has a most unique sympathetic hero turned villain and a showstopping first appearance of comics fan favorites, the Illuminati played by some fantastic familiar faces.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/05/doctor-strange-in-the-multiverse-of-madness-review/

7.THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Writer-director Martin McDonagh reunites his IN BRUGES stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in a tale of friendship gone wrong, a story that starts out darkly comic but gives way to something darker and twisted, more in the manner of McDonagh’s plays. Set on a remote Irish island in 1923, with the Irish Civil War still raging on the mainland, one man (Brendan Gleeson) decides to end his long-time friendship with another (Colin Farrell). Ruminating on his legacy as a musician and feeling his time growing short, Gleeson’s Colm tells his nice but dull friend Padraic (Farrell) that he doesn’t have time for him any more. The decision leaves the discarded friend devastated, puzzled and looking for a way to restore their friendship. After Gleeson’s character makes a shockingly violent threat, things unravel and lead to unexpected consequences. Brilliant photography and powerful storytelling, along with outstanding acting (including what may be a career best for Farrell) make THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN a top contender for the Oscar for Best Picture.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/11/the-banshees-of-inisherin-review/

6.APOLLO 10 1/2: A SPACE AGE CHILDHOOD

Here’s one of the most unique animating films of the year, as director Richard Linklater returns to the rotoscoping technique he used in A SCANNER DARKLY and WAKING LIFE for his whimsical fantasy of a flight prior to the big moon landing of Apollo 11. Thats’ entertaining in itself, but then the film takes a welcome detour to 1960s nostalgia about the joys of being a preteen in suburbia and the wonders of “boomer” pop culture touchstones ( running home from school to catch “Dark Shadows” on TV). Going into space is almost as much fun as just hanging out with this big rowdy family.

5. TILL

In her powerful drama TILL, director Chinonye Chukwu took an unusual but effective approach to telling the story of Emmett Till, the Black teen murdered by Southern white racists for whistling at a white woman. Instead of focusing on the murder itself, TILL focuses on Till’s mother, whose decision to have an open casket funeral for her only child drove home the nation the reality of the violence of racism, as it tells the story from her point of view. Danielle Deadwyler gives a electrifying, star-making performance as Mamie Till-Bradley, and the director’s choice to make her the center of this brilliant film turns it into something unexpected – something hopeful and inspiring as well as heartbreaking, about a mother fighting back for justice and her son’s memory.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/10/till-review/

4.ELVIS

ELVIS was a dazzling spectacle and is number 4 on our list. One of the many highlights of Baz Luhrmann’s film is the blending of period and modern music and artists in a manner only he can envision. The film not only features the voices of Austin Butler (vocalizing the live performances of young Elvis), Elvis’s own iconic vocals in the latter part of the movie, and occasionally a blend of the two voices, but also several of today’s hitmakers, including Yola, Shonka Dukureh and Gary Clark, Jr. as Beale Street legends Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Big Mama Thornton and Arthur Crudup. A range of such powerhouse performers as Doja Cat, Kacey Musgraves, Jazmine Sullivan, Jack White, Måneskin and more are showcased on the soundtrack as well. The other terrific highlight is the close friendship seen in the film is between Elvis and B.B. King (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), whom Elvis goes to for advice, or when things simply get out of control in his life and he needs a safe haven. King is portrayed in the film not only as a musician, but as a shrewd businessman, a role he would continue to fulfill throughout his lifetime. To take audiences back in time through Elvis’s life, production designers Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy focus on blending historic reference with Luhrmann’s larger-than-life visual storytelling. The attention to detail for the Beale Street and Graceland sets are amazing and the whole movie is a one that fans embraced and Elvis would understand and celebrate.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/06/elvis-review/

3.THE FABELMANS

Several directors this year made films that drew on their own personal life experiences, but none as entertaining as THE FABELMANS, Steven Spielberg’s tale of growing up and falling in love with making movies, as his parents’ marriage falls apart. The cast includes Michelle Williams as the mom, Paul Dano as the dad, and Seth Rogan as family friend and dad’s coworker Bennie. The coming-of-age story is full of fun as young Spielberg makes his earliest amateur movies (especially fun for those who dabbled in film-making as kids), and pain has the young character confronts things like moving across the country, bullying, antisemitism, and ultimately his parents’ split.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/11/the-fabelmans-review/

2.SHE SAID

In the great tradition of real journalism docudramas such as ALL THE PRESIDENT”S MEN and SPOTLIGHT comes the tale that is actually still unfolding. Director Maria Schrader uses actual recordings and a stunning cameo from one of those involved to deliver a celebration of reporters that will uncover the truth no matter how powerful the culprits, and showing us that the “fourth estate ” is far from being “the enemy of the people”. And a stellar ensemble cast makes the story truly riveting and compelling.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/11/she-said-review/

1.EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

One of two top Oscar contenders on this list, this fantasy comedy/drama is highly entertaining and incredibly creative with a story that is both touching and thought-provoking. In a mold-breaking performance, Michelle Yeoh stars as a middle-aged Chinese American disappointed with her life as owner of a struggling laundromat, with a husband who decorates everything with googly eyes and a daughter with whom she has a difficult relationship. As she both faces an IRS audit and prepares to throw a birthday party for her disapproving father, she is suddenly sucked into the multiverse where she is expected to save the whole of existence. Packed with humor, martial arts and reflections on existence (in the form of a bagel), it is a creative and visual feast with a wonderful human story at its heart, and a movie where a rock will make you cry.

review: https://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2022/04/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-review/

STAFF PICKS

Jim’s Top Ten for 2022:

1. SHE SAID
2. GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO
3. ELVIS
4. SIDNEY
5. THE FABELMANS
6. CHIP ‘N’ DALE: RESCUE RANGERS
7. EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
8. EMILY THE CRIMINAL
9. TILL
10. DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

Honorable Mentions:
WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVICH STORY, TURNING RED, APOLLO 10 1/2: A SPACE AGE CHILDHOOD, WENDELL & WILD

Cate’s Top Ten for 2022:

1. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
2. WOMEN TALKING
3. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
4. BENEDICTION*
5. THE FABELMANS
6. WOMAN KING
7. AMSTERDAM
8. SHE SAID
9. TILL
10. ARMAGEDDON TIME

Note: Terence Davies’ masterpiece British drama BENEDICTION played the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021 but wasn’t released in the U.S. until May 2022. However, some consider this a 2021 because IMDb lists it as 2021 film since there was a second film with that title in 2022.

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
THE MENU, EMILY THE CRIMINAL, THE WONDER, THE INSPECTION, ELVIS, RRR, PHANTOM OF THE OPEN, CORSAGE, CLOSE, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO, THE WHALE, MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, GOOD NIGHT OPPY, BULLET TRAIN.

Some more Top 5 lists for 2022:

Top 5 Horror Films

1. Men
2. The Pale Blue Eye
3. She Will
4. Nope
5. Pearl

Top 5 Animated Films

1. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
2. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
3. Apollo 10 1/2
4. Wendell and Wild
5. Mad God

Top 5 Action Films

1. Woman King
2. Bullet Train
3. Everything Everywhere All At Once
4. RRR
5. The Outfit

Top 5 Comedies

1. Amsterdam
2. The Phantom of the Open
3. The Duke
4. Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris
5. White Noise

Top 5 International Films of 2022:

1. All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, Germany)
2. Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, Austria)
3. Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani, Morocco)
4. Close (Lukas Dhont, Belgium)
5. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland)

Top 5 Documentaries of 2022

1. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
2. The Janes
3. Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blues
4. The Automat
5. Fire of Love

Michelle’s Top Ten for 2022:

1. NOPE
2. TOP GUN: MAVERICK
3. PREY
4. GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY 
5. RRR
6. ELVIS 
7. DON’T WORRY DARLING 
8. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
9. APOLLO 10 1/2: A SPACE AGE CHILDHOOD
10. HUSTLE

Special Mention:

EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is that one must-see movie that is released every year that becomes the “have you seen ______?” Its thought-provoking, bizarre and a glorious trip into the multiverse.

The horror elements that Sam Raimi included in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS and Elizabeth Olsen’s stunning performance as Wanda Maximoff has undoubtedly become Marvel’s most compelling post-Endgame character as well as Disney +’s Wandavision most interesting and forgivable of characters.

Making you remember Colin Farrell is a great actor bound for Oscar, BANSHEES OF INSHERIN is a simple tale about friendship, heartbreak, and the absurdity of everyday life.

Horror Mentions: 

THE BLACK PHONE – Scott Derrickson’s return to horror along with Ethan Hawke (SINISTER) was terrifying with an ending that left audiences cheering, SCREAM – who knew that the latest entry to this franchise could be so entertaining, SMILE – Holy Moly a ton of fun for horror fans? Can I get a Hell yeah!?, BARBARIAN – a movie that is best experienced knowing absolutely nothing going in, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT – Marvel’s best projects in a long while, X and PEARL – With these two X films—and a third, titled MaXXXine coming soon— Ti West and Mia Goth have created the best original horror franchise of the last decade; ORPHAN FIRST KILL – better than the original and proves rich people are a bit “off”, SPEAK NO EVIL, The INNOCENTS and finally SALOUM.

Movies I Just Had To Include:

CAUSEWAY, BULLET TRAIN, LIVING, THE BATMAN, THE GRAY MAN, THE NORTHMAN, THE LOST CITY, MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON, THE WOMAN KING, THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING, THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER, AMBULANCE and GOOD NIGHT OPPY