BEST OF 2022

For me, 2022 was a year of prioritising the new films, filmmakers and national cinemas. I tried to forego all cinematic prejudices, approaching films and genres without any preconceived expectations. I viewed multiplex blockbusters and art house indies as equal partners, two sides of the same coin, a coin we call cinema. According to my Letterboxd list, I saw 100 new films this year, alongside older films and rewatches.

As Ari Aster (Heriditary, Midsommar) remarked whilst introducing his Top 10 of all time list for the recent Sight and Sound Magazine Poll, ‘the ranking of art is a fool’s errand’. Trying to catalogue the films I’ve seen this year, this sentiment becomes all too relatable. Rather than rank each film from 1-10, I instead present these films out of any graded order, knowing that any particular ranking might change depending upon mood or time of day. Each of the ten films I list, however, fufilled some need, some desire for the kind of cinematic experience I craved this year. There are blockbusters and indie films, joyful and sorrowful films. There are two films by Joanna Hogg! Regardless of genre, tone or style, each of these films left a deep impression on me. Some I’ve now seen more than once, others I can’t wait to revisit.

If anything, this is a record of my own viewing and discoveries in 2022 and is, unavoidably and fundamentally subjective. You may notice some absences from the list, but these might be film’s I’m yet to watch (for example, Decision to Leave, Glass Onion, Triangle of Sadness and other potential big hitters that I haven’t managed to see yet) rather than deliberate omissions.

I’ve also included a broader reflection on two types of filmmaking (Horror and Animation) that I seem to prioritise in my viewing choices, as well as the ‘Best of the Rest’ and ‘Best TV’ for good measure.

If you happen to come across something that sparks your own interest, all the better!

Best Films of the Year

From the British indie Aftersun, a heartbreaking account of a father and daughter’s last holiday together, to the multiplex mega-hit that was The Batman, some of the best films this year showcased emerging directorial talents in their debut or sophomore efforts (Hit the Road, After Yang, Everything Everywhere, All at Once) alongside revisionist retellings of classic characters and stories (Pinnochio, Prey). If I were to attempt to narrow down my choices to a single ‘top film’ of 2022, I would probably struggle to choose between the maximalist acid trip that was Everything Everywhere, All at Once, and the nostalgic home-movie heirloom of Aftersun. Aesthetically and tonally, these two films couldn’t be further apart, but both Everything Everywhere and Aftersun share a core interest in family bonds and connections, foregrounding identity and humanity above all else.

After Yang (Kogonada)
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
The Batman (Matt Reeves)
The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)
Everything Everywhere, All at Once (The Daniels)
Hit the Road (Panah Panahi)
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinnochio (Guillermo Del Toro)
Prey (Dan Trachtenberg)
The Souvenir Part II (Joanna Hogg)

Best Horror Films

2022 was a good year for Horror. Jordon Peele continued his hot streak with Nope, reuniting with Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya for an examination of Hollywood spectacle and storytelling, albeit with more of a sci-fi twist than his debut strictly horror genre bonafides. Films like Barbarian, Saloum and Bodies Bodies Bodies similarly experimented with genre hybridty, combining elements of Crime, Western and Comedy, respectively. British horror was served well by films like A Banquet and The Feast whilst the creepy Stephen King-inspired The Innocents offered international scares.

A Banquet (Ruth Paxton)
Barbarian (Zach Cregger)
The Black Phone (Scott Derrickson)
Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (Halina Reijn)
Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)
The Feast (Lee Haven Jones)
The Innocents (Eskil Vogt)
Nope (Jordan Peele)
Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)
X (Ti West)

Best Animated Films

This category is presented with the caveat that, to cite Guillermo del Toro, ‘animation is a medium, not a genre’ , and that any of these films were just as eligible for my overall top 10 list. In fact, del Toro’s exquisite stop-motion animation Pinnochio did make my top 10, but there were plenty of other animated films that I absolutely loved this year.

Apollo 10 1/2 (Richard Linklater)
Belle (Mamoru Hosoda)
Bubble (Tetsurō Araki)
Catwoman: Hunted (Shinsuke Terasawa)
Drifting Home (Hiroyasu Ishida)
The House (Emma De Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Paloma Baeza, Marc James Roels)
Mad God (Phil Tippett)
Pompo the Cinephile (Takayuki Hirao)
Turning Red (Domee Shi)
Wendell & Wild (Henry Selick)

Best of the Rest

Many of the films listed below were very close to ranking among my top 10. In fact, at various points I did have or considered listing Flee, Neptune Frost and Nightmare Alley in my top 10 of the year. Listing those films here under the ‘Best of the Rest’ category by no means make them ‘runners-up’. You can see a variety of different films, genres and national cinemas being represented – all of them fantastic. Like my top 10, they shift radically between blockbuster franchise films (Top Gun: Maverick, Wakanda Forever) to indie comedies (Brian and Charles, Clerks III, Funny Pages) and art house dramas (The Worst Person in the World, Hive, Lingui).

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Ryan Coogler)
Boiling Point (Philip Barantini)
Brian and Charles (Jim Archer)
Clerks III (Kevin Smith)
Flee (Jonas Poher Rasmussen)
Funny Pages (Owen Kline)
Hatching (Hanna Bergholm)
Hive (Blerta Basholli)
Kimi (Steven Soderbergh)
Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (Mahamat Saleh Haroun)
Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)
Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro)
No Bears (Jafar Panahi)
The Northman (Robert Eggers)
Pearl (Ti West)
RRR (S. S. Rajamouli)
Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller)
Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski)
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (Eric Appel)
The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier)

Best TV

Unlike my top 10 film list, I can confidently rank Andor as my favourite television show of 2022. Its exploration of the Star Wars universe from the point of view of the reluctant titular character and its slow-burn take on the dangers of authoritarianism, corrupt policing and unquestioned facism make it a strong contender for one of the most topical and ideologically important works to emerge from a galaxy far, far away. This year also saw Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman finally brought to the screen (and successfully!), whilst House of the Dragon actually managed to wash the bad taste of Game of Thrones‘ final season from my mouth and entice me back to Westeros. Severence and Black Bird meanwhile offered two hard-hitting thrillers, each showcasing a darker side of humanity.

Andor (Disney Plus)
Black Bird (Apple TV)
House of the Dragon (HBO)
The Sandman (Netflix)
Severance (Apple TV)

Best of Notes from the Multiplex

And finally, here are some of my favourite posts from the past year. These are the posts that I particularly enjoyed writing, be it a specific film or TV review, or a longer article in which I tried to cobble together some thoughts and reflections a range of subjects including the passing of Chadwick Boseman, what is great about The Sandman and what Jordan Peele gets right (and what he doesn’t).

Black Panther and the Loss of a Hero