10 Best Films of 2022 (So Far)
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The post 10 Best Films of 2022 (So Far) appeared first on Consequence.
Our 2022 Midyear Report continues with a look at our favorite movies of 2022 so far.
What’s fascinating about looking back at the best films to be released so far this year is realizing how damn hard it’s going to be this December, when we have to do this all over again for the entirety of 2022. Because without seeing any of the fall movies which will likely be the year’s chief contenders, we’ve already gotten some truly mindblowing feats of cinema, from jaw-dropping historical epics to equally jaw-dropping adventures through the multiverse.
More importantly, some quieter films have shone through the chaos, ruminations on life and love and loss… okay, and also ruminations on what happens when a guy gets hit in the nuts an awful lot of times. The below list is eclectic in the extreme, but each film represents something special about the place and time we’re still struggling through. Making it was hard, and it’s not going to get any easier over the next six months as more and more great films are released. But definitely expect to see a few of the below on our end-of-the-year list, when the time comes.
— Liz Shannon Miller
Senior Entertainment Editor
10. Lucy and Desi
This documentary from director Amy Poehler premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and while a few others have tried to explore the life of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (looking at you, Being the Ricardos), Lucy and Desi has one essential ingredient many others don’t — access to the real thing. With its treasure trove of tapes from Lucie Arnaz, the daughter of the titular couple, the doc unlocks new sides of the iconic Hollywood duo. — Mary Siroky
9. Top Gun: Maverick
The DNA of most great sequels can be found in the original film, something Top Gun: Maverick is very conscious of, bringing back all the jet-fueled machismo of the original while also openly acknowledging the passing of years. As timeless as Tom Cruise aims to be, Maverick is all about grappling with inescapable facts — time, age, death, the sound barrier — and blowing past them to find infinite glory. — L.S.M.
8. Jackass Forever
Johnny Knoxville and the gang may be long in the broken tooth by now, but that just lends the outrageous, ball-busting gags of Jackass Forever a surprising amount of warmth and poignance. It’s a film that will expand your understanding of the feats the human penis is capable of achieving. — Clint Worthington
7. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is 100% an MCU adventure, complete with multiverse-expanding plot and fan-servicing cameos galore. But it’s also one of the most unique Marvel romps since Thor: Ragnarok, thanks largely to director Sam Raimi. By putting his unique style into the proceedings, Raimi created a film that stands out amidst a crowded franchise — including some of the most innovative and dazzling fight sequences in superhero cinema history. — Ben Kaye
6. Turning Red
Director/co-writer Domee Shi’s fantastical tale of a 2002-era young woman who keeps turning into a giant red panda during emotional moments isn’t just a metaphor for puberty, but a joyful romp about embracing your own power and connecting with your family legacy. With a fantastic cast including Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, and James Hong, and a commitment to exploring the complicated mess that can be the mother-daughter bond, Turning Red proved that when Pixar embraces inclusion with its storytelling powers, the results are magical. — L.S.M.
5. After Yang
There’s before After Yang, and there’s after After Yang. Video essayist turned filmmaker kogonada follows his dazzling debut Columbus with this peaceful, contemplative bit of futurism, in which a mourning father (Colin Farrell) tries to find a way to repair the android (Justin H. Min) who makes his family complete.
What follows is brilliant, reflexive sci-fi storytelling of a kind we don’t often see outside the likes of Her and Spielberg’s A.I., honestly grappling with the nature of sentience, memory, and loss without having to resort to spectacle or setpieces. Kogonada is a filmmaker obsessed with architecture and the merging of nature and technology, and After Yang, with its organic fields of grass punctuated by futuristic minimalism, is the purest expression yet of that ethos. — C.W.
4. X
Two strippers, a porn star, a producer, a director, and a sound engineer walk onto a farm. Not quite the ideal set-up for the next big dirty picture, but little do they know their movie will be dirty in more ways than one. Ti West’s return to filmmaking is a vicious slow-burn set against the backdrop of the porno boom of the 1970s.
Anchored by the intense third-act gore and the dual performances of Mia Goth (she plays both the aspiring porn star Maxine and the elderly Pearl), it’s a story of how repression, both sexually and emotionally, will only end in a damn bloody tragedy. If there’s one thing you should take away from the movie, it’s that you should never accept a life you don’t deserve. — Erin Brady
3. The Northman
You give Robert Eggers enough money to really deliver a high octane Viking-era action drama, and he will give you two naked dudes fighting to the death in an active volcano. Which is just one way of saying that The Northman is maybe the most epic film of the year, retelling the story upon which Shakespeare’s Hamlet was based with a lot less existential yammering and a whole lot more pagan magic, looting, and pillaging.
Alexander Skarsgård does the ancestors proud as Amleth, who as a young prince saw his father murdered by his uncle, and devoted the rest of his life to seeking out revenge against the new king. Once he finds his way into his uncle’s compliment of slaves, though, It becomes a matter of time before the blood (and guts, and other viscera) begin to flow. Raw and yet also poetic, with visuals any hard rock album would be happy to sport on its cover, The Northman represented one of 2022’s boldest cinematic visions, one that might be hard to top. — L.S.M.
2. The Batman
A century-old character like Batman is hard to innovate on: in various media, he’s touched every genre and tone under the sun. But Matt Reeves’ pitch-black, serial killer thriller-inflected take on the Caped Crusader feels genuinely new and exciting, stripping him down to his essential elements and leaning hard on Bats’ status as the World’s Greatest Detective. Robert Pattinson’s signature scowl is on full display, playing Bruce Wayne/Batman as Gotham’s most broken boy, who still has to learn that vengeance isn’t the only role for a superhero.
Cribbing from ‘70s crime thrillers like The Conversation and, most directly, David Fincher’s Se7en, The Batman feels like a movie that’s actually about the relationship between Batman and Gotham City, rather than a showcase for its villains (which are its weakest element, a hammy Colin Farrell aside). In a landscape where it’s harder for superhero films to stand out as capital-a Art, The Batman, with its sumptuous Greig Fraser cinematography and clear perspective, comes closest to earning the title. — C.W.
1. Everything Everywhere All At Once
Let the Oscar campaign start here and let it start now! For who, you might be asking? Great question — The Daniels, for their brilliant script and direction; the radiant Michelle Yeoh, for carrying a tough sell with otherworldly ease; Ke Huy Quan, for his truly remarkable work as the emotional centerpiece; for Stephanie Hsu, for going toe to toe with both aforementioned actors; and perhaps a whole slew of costuming, editing, and cinematography folks, for their invaluable contributions.
It’s a multiverse story, but Everything Everywhere All at Once is sci-fi at its best, because it’s not really a multiverse story at all. It’s a story about family, and people who have forgotten quite how to love each other, and finding their way back together. It’s moving and raucously funny. It’s the best use of rocks in a movie perhaps ever. Circle back here with us for our year-end list; it’s tough to imagine a movie more imaginative and wonderful than this one in 2022. — M.S.
10 Best Films of 2022 (So Far)
Consequence Staff
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