The 30 best films of 2022 ranked, and don’t try to fight us on this
From intimate drama to daring horror—and, of course, high-flying spectacle—it's been a Tár-rific year for cinema
Film Lists Dean Fleischer-
What are the takeaways from cinema in 2022? If our annual ranking of the year’s best movies is any indication, it’s that prestige filmmaking flourished in a wide array of genres: profoundly intimate drama (from The Inspection to Decision To Leave), daringly original horror (from Nanny to Barbarian) and—because we were all desperate to return to cineplexes—dazzlingly ambitious spectacle (Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way Of Water, and RRR). You could say another trend is that tiny or simple moments felt epic this year (from the everything bagel in Everything Everywhere All At Once to the devastating zingers in The Banshees Of Inisherin), whereas epics themselves felt empty (this was not, as this list suggests, the year for great summer blockbusters). Which title came out on top? Without further ado, here are The A.V. Club’s 30 most superlative films of 2022.
131 Comments
Subjective lists are subjective, but any list of the best films of 2022 without The Menu somewhere on it is inherently wrong.
Well-made movie with a great cast but I think I’m over media that just points at rich people and says “bad!!!!” and then sits back smirking like ahh my work is done without including any more substance
That’s hardly what the film is – but at least you’re exposing yourself to different points of view, and that’s half the battle, innit?
Good thing the movie doesn’t do that then.
That’s exactly what it does lmao
Yes. I thought this film would be right up my alley. But aside from watching more and more bad things happen, there was not much substance or character development. Some scenes have zero payoff. Just felt like it decided that “I hate the people who typically go to very expensive restaurants” is enough for a film.
Yeah, I don’t like it when I don’t *get* a movie too.
Lukewarm take but a bunch of those people…did not deserve it? A restaurant like this has much worse clientele dining there on the daily than people who just seem to have annoyed the chef for petty reasons.
I came here just to say that, probably my favorite movie of the year. I think it deserves an Oscar nomination, if Avatar is seriously in that conversation, then the Menu should definitely be.
idk that movie could have been so much better, I wanted a little nuance to it all.
I give this site a lot of shit these days (mainly directed at the G/O Media execs and the Newswire writers shitting out their terrible “please be outraged at this innocuous thing!” articles) but I gotta admit this is my favourite 2022 films list I’ve seen so far. Really good selections, but there’s one notable omission – where the hell is NOPE????
I just watched Nope last night and it really wasn’t good. The story was all over the place, the tv show flashback scenes were barely relevant, the expositions were unclear, too many plot-advancing decisions that saved the day, etc.
I deeply and thoroughly disagree with you. Just to make one counter point, the flashbacks directly commented on the themes and plot of the story. Most of which are found in traditional westerns: man vs nature, the taming of nature, the relationship between humans and animals. I think sci-fi western is probably one of the most difficult sub genres to pull off but I think it did it and with style and grace. It was my favorite movie of the year. (And I didn’t even mention how beautifully shot it was or the incredible soundtrack, etc etc.)
I think I need to watch it a second time. After reading AV Club comments, I think I missed what he was going for. Peele has a track record of allegorical movies and I didn’t see that here.
So close. Failed at the last moment.Also, Marcel is probably 5 or so spots to low.
failed at the last momentyou know that you need to be more specific than that
The 30 best films of 2022 ranked, and don’t try to fight us on thisThem’s fightin’ words, bucko.
Yep. That’s a paddlin’.
Bring out the stars, shine the lightsHere are the movies they barely covered on this siteDismiss that auto-playing videoCuz’ it’s the AV Club Top 30 Movies of 2022 slideshowI hope Randall Park won’t be pissedBecause there’s very few blockbusters on this listThat’s just how the year goesOn the AV Club Top 30 Movies of 2022 slideshowMarvel continues their downward streakPeople went nuts for RRR (for about a week)Worse than a fictionalized Marilyn MonroeIt’s the AV Club Top 30 Movies of 2022 slideshowwwwwwwwww
Weird that you cite Django instead of A Fistful of Dollars for Kurosawa remakes.Pearl wasn’t as good as X… but it was better than Bones and All, which should have ended after Chloe Sevigne’s scene.
See, I thought Pearl was better than X. But I definitely enjoyed them both.
Both the period of X and its slasher genre are just better suited to Ti West’s talents.
Pearl was a lot better than X. Mis’a performance was brilliant and unique. Everything in X has been done before.
The Banshees of Inisherin was good, but holy hell, was it depressing. I get the black part. Not so sure about the comedy part.
Yes, I just saw this last week, and I don’t get it’s appeal at all. It’s beautifully shot, but that’s about it. The story didn’t work for me at all, so it doesn’t matter whether the performances were good or not. I felt like I wasted 2 hours watching it.
I enjoyed it for the most part, but as a single person myself, the realization that the movie was about how miserable the lives of single people are, felt like a kick in the teeth.
Yeah, I wasn’t digging it either. The underlying theme was that if you’re in a small community or without a family you might as well burn to death or become homicidal. That there’s something inherently unlivable about ‘small talk’ or just living your life.
I’m still contemplating watching it but it definitely has the look of “this movie will hurt your feelings”. And who among us can really afford that kind of hit atm?
Right? My dad was saying it was a great movie and he usually has good taste, but, he sure as hell couldn’t explain it in any terms that didn’t make it sound profoundly upsetting.
Spouse wanted to see it because of the cute donkey. I checked the plot summary and went, “nope! bad idea.”
I think Turning Red is the best movie of 2022, followed by Top Gun: Maverick and then Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. I only saw three movies that came out this year.
At least you’re honest about it.
That’s so unfortunate, Multiverse was actively horrible.
Another person’s opinion is ‘unfortunate’?.
Which opinion? They said Multiverse was the worst movie they saw this year, haha.
That’s why it’s 3rd
Reminds me of 2020, when the one movie I saw in theatres, and what I thought might be the last movie I would ever get to see in theatres again, was fucking Onward.My personal Oscars were very dour that year.
I didn’t see anything in theaters in 2020 so the last thing I saw in theaters before Pandemicpalooza began was goddamn Rise of Skywalker.
Oh man, you win. Onward was aggressively mid, but that one was a dog turd.
I tell people the last thing I saw in theaters before the pandemic was The Lighthouse (or Parasite? Whichever one came out second), but it was actually Rise Of Skywalker. I’m not proud of it.
Last line went without saying.
Ironic that a movie that had “multiverse of madness” was the second best multiverse of madness movie released.See Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
Everything is definitely worth seeing, but it’s a seriously 8/10 movie that’s being treated as a 10/10 movie because of the subject matter and aesthetic. Nothing fundamentally wrong with that – that’s been going on as long as films have been being made (I could easily look at a list of “top” movies from any year in the ‘80s or ‘90s, maybe even the ‘70s and point out the same, it’s just the subject matter in most of those would have been “what middle-aged white guys care/think/worry about”), and Everything is at least interesting. But I think it’s something that’ll become more obvious as time goes on.Multiverse on the other hand is a 6/10 (at best!) movie that’s being treated as if it’s actually good solely because it’s MCU and has some likeable characters in it and an super-sized oil tanker’s worth of fan service. Boring, nothing to say, strangely predictable, and even Raimi’s style is clearly being cramped by MCU requirements.
The best (new) movie I saw in a theater this year was Top Gun: Maverick. I was also the only (new) movie I saw in a theater this year. So, it also be the worst (new) movie I saw this year. I’m confused is what I’m saying.
Whilst we’re recommending films, a suggestion: An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl). Truly lovely. It’s been winning jury and audience awards at film festivals all over the world. Shortlisted for Best International Oscar.I watched it the day after watching The Banshees of Inisherin. Kinda went on an Irish film bender and went and made myself homesick.
Guess I should have seen Barbarian in the theater because at home it was absolute trash.
I am sorry, but was there some form of subliminal brainwashing in the theatrical release of Top Gun: Maverick ?The movie was not good, it was not bad. Though it is closer to the latter than the former. It is nostalgia porn at its best. The thin story, next to not character development, and some overhanded acting. I keep feeling like i am being gaslit about this movie.
Me too. I’ll go further from you and say it was fucking awful. I watched it just to see what the hype was about and really wanted my money back.
This. How the ever-living f**k this movie ended up on this list is mystifying to me. The expositional dialog alone was enough to make my eyes roll into the next state, and the setup made almost no sense. I got an hour into it before I groaned myself into the fetal position.
Were you at a movie theater?
As someone with absolutely zero nostalgia for the original (only saw it a few days before I saw Maverick after being surprised Maverick got good reviews), I loved it. Just think it was a well-made action movie, with good momentum and an incredible third act.
Yeah, I had ZERO interest when I saw the trailer, and I was not a fan of the first film. But enough people were going on about it so I saw it and I had a blast. Just a perfect action movie. And a lot better than the original.
I’m mystified as well. We streamed it a few weeks ago and I couldn’t figure out what the hype was about. As you mentioned, most of it was nostalgia porn. The flight sequences were beautiful, but they also had F-18s doing things that are impossible. Empty eye candy and that was it.
Thing is, it was a sequel to mid 80’s summer action movie, regardless it being released 36 years later. Not sure what you were expecting in terms of plot, dialog or character development given that backdrop. If you watched the first one with this mindset, you would have disliked that one just as much. This movie is a mindless, throwback action movie with a healthy dose of nostalgia for its primary target audience. And as such, it was a massive success. It hit all the marks it needed to hit, which is why it grossed as well as it did. And timing was excellent. A lot of people wanted this type of movie as a release from covid lockdowns and a return back to “normal”. A big dumb action movie that was easy to digest and fun to watch.
I’m just fine with where Top Gun is on this list.Avatar is the one that has *zero* place here.
The military-entertainment complex is pushing it really hard because they want that Iran Quagmussy so bad
I liked it. It easily could have been a mess but they made a fun movie. My fav of the year was Pearl.
Same, same. Bad story, wooden dialog, the stunts sound cooler in print than they look on screen. I’ve never been this bored in an IMAX before.
The still from Top Gun was all I needed. Not worth reading an article that lists it in the top 30. I didn’t watch 100 new movies in 2022, but if Top Gun was among the top 100 it was a bleak year.
I got 15 minutes into it and was really annoyed with the Tom Cruiseness of it all and the dumb cliches. I was 12 I think when the original came out and it was so obviously cheesy then even to a middle school boy although of course I liked the jets. So I recognize it was really for me.
To answer your first question, literally yes. It’s a propaganda film just like the first one and we are all constantly being fed that shit by our government and culture.
Pretty good list AV Club. A couple of headscratchers but otherwise solid.Carry on.
I am gonna fight you on Tár being #1 over Everything Everywhere All At Once, which has a better IMDB rating and a better Rotten Tomatoes score by both the critics and the audience. In fact, EEAAO has a commanding 17% higher audience score than Tár, and while I know that this is all just opinions and such—you’re still wrong, EEAAO is better.Now put up your dukes!
Top Gun: Maverick sucked donkey dicks. The story was a snooze. The action was alternatingly dull/hard to follow or unrealistic (with waaaaay more CGI than the producers would like to admit). The acting was fucking horrible. The script sucked. Why people are jizzing themselves over this movie is beyond me.
Why people are jizzing themselves over this movie is beyond me. No one is jizzing themselves over Top Gun: Maverick; You must be thinking of Top Spunk, the porn parody.
Top Gun Maverick currently has an 8.4 rating on imdb. There’s no way in hell that movie is even remotely compatible to other films at a similar rating. We’re talking about Gladiator, Psycho, Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Shining, Amadeus, and many others. These are films people routinely suggest seeing if you’ve never seen them. Top Gun Maverick is nowhere near that category of film. It’s a brainless slog of a film so Tom Cruise had an excuse to fly a fighter jet for real this time.
It’s absolutely on-par with Gladiator.The rest, yeah, sure, it’s not. But Gladiator? Fuck off if you think that’s a significantly better movie than Maverick. It’s another cheesy bullshit brainless action movie that people mistake for a historical piece. Are you not entertained? But even if you disagree with me on that, what it’s really showing you is what IMDb is rating: “How much do white male Gen-Xers like this movie?”.Because that’s like 90% of the people rating the movies on IMDb, and it always has been (back into the ‘90s – yeah I was there early on, I’m nearly/arguably Gen X myself). Any opinion which isn’t that of a white male Gen Xer, isn’t going to have much impact on the score of a movie on IMDb, given it’ll be a drop in the ocean.And what do you think white male Gen Xers think about Top Gun: Maverick? They just about creamed their pants. Hence the rating. Younger people like us can cope and seethe all we like, and it’s still going to have a great IMDb rating.
Top Gun Maverick is absolutely better than Gladiator. I can’t even believe it’s rated that high. But also IMDB ratings are not like definitive rankings of what’s good or bad so who cares
I agree about IMDB, but what it tells you is what the overall public opinion on a movie is. I don’t take it for face value, no one should when Marvel movies are considered almost as good as iconic movies of their eras that transformed the industry. That’s my point though, that the general public has no fucking clue what they’re talking about on this matter.
Bottom Gun
I was jizzing myself over Top Junk, the show were people declutter their homes but also sell the clutter to collectors.
Go on over to YouPorn and check out Top Gunk, the movie where people jizz themselves over Top Junk, the show were people declutter their homes but also sell the clutter to collectors.
I’m a star, bay-bee!Anyway, follow me on LonelyFans.
Top Gun was good only. No masterpiece. I’d give it a 7.5/10. That being said it was still better than any marvel flick they’ve ever made.
Crap, I guess I’ve barely watched any movies this year.
I don’t care what anyone says, the Fableman’s is one of Spielberg’s worst films. Michelle Williams was laughably bad and the film is so syrupy its obnoxious. I hated it.
Marines are not soldiers. This is trivial to most, but it’s just lazy writing (every major style guide makes it clear).
My wife and I were talking about Tar yesterday and we started comparing it to Emily the Criminal. Spoilers ahead.We realized there was a lot of parallels between Lydia and Emily—both are artists who can’t resist the pull of their respective wrong-doings, and neither character learns anything by the end—Lydia, aided by her PR team, will rebound and Emily seems quite happy in her new life. Both also are hugely egotistical, though Lydia’s ego is driven by her genius, while Emily’s is a self-defense mechanism.The major difference is the character’s circumstances. We empathize with Emily because of her debt and her struggles to find employment. Her crimes aren’t only understandable, we actively root for her to succeed. Lydia, on the other hand, is so hugely successful and tyrannical that we don’t want to see her survive the scandals but rather find her comeuppance instead.These two movies would make one hell of a double bill.
I like your comparison here. Although I can not agree that Lydia will EVER regain her status, PR team or not.
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I mean, if we’re looking at people who undergo similar scandals IRL, Lydia will be absolutely fine.
I don’t disagree she’d be ‘fine’. But I doubt she’d ever head up a major symphonic organization ever again.
Was Till not good?
Women Talking. Moviegoers yawning.
Cartoons selling ice cream
shells with footwear.
We didn’t start the fire!
Leonard Bernstein!
Avatar? At 8?! No. Sorry, just no. Emily the Criminal was better.The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was better. The Batman was better.Nope was better.The Whale was better.Just throwing out ones that weren’t on the list I considered to be far superior.
Isn’t “singularly bleak” and “quintessentially Irish” kind of redundant?
“And now fer a sad song!” — the Irish singers on the Saint Patrick’s Day episode of Cheers.
No Nope?!? Good list overall, but sweet crimmus, where the hell is Nope?
Everything Everywhere All At Once is the most overrated movie of the year, that’s for sure.The last hour should have been 20 minutes. If they had done that, I’d agree with the ranking (somewhere) on the list.
Oh shit, so I’m not alone after all! I thought it was a greatly unique concept but I just found the main character to be such an asshole. There’s no growth or change in her by the end. The ending scenes with her daughter were just appalling to me. Like, oh ha ha she’s still going to call her suicidal daughter fat! I know I’m coming at this too personally but having been that daughter, fuck. That. The moral of the story seemed to be “settle”. Fucking depressing.Mostly though it just seemed like whatever point or points they were trying to make were overshadowed by constant whacky nonsense. It seemed like a shallow movie trying really hard to be deep but with nothing to really say by the end of it all.
Yeah, agree. The ultimate message didn’t get farther than “I love my daughter,” which is obvious and pat and predictable and devoid of any interesting insights into their relationship. And, man, that last hour was almost punishing. Like, end the damn thing already, stop going on all these wacky/pointless diversions when we know exactly where we’re going to end up!
that last hour was pure love caught on screen, I wouldn’t take out a thing. My eyes teared up the entire time.
OMG yes, nothing that bizarre should drag so much.
Thank you! 🙂 I dug the first hour, but after that, I must have checked the clock about 2 dozen times.
I didn’t feel like it needed to be any shorter, but the two people I went with definitely 100% agreed with you, and even walking out of the cinema they were saying “they should have cut the last act down a ton”.
I think those two people you went to the movie with are in this very thread! 🙂
I’m not about to spend multiple hours of my life on the Cate Blanchett: Lesbian Sex Pest movie, but happy to see Everything Everywhere get so close to the top spot. It was an incredible l experience walking out of that theatre, my partner and I overhearing about three other couples talking about it might be their favorite movie of all time while we were having the exact same conversation.
Same re: Tar. Especially as every review I’ve read gives me the impression the director primarily sympathizes with her.Re: Everything I felt it was very-good-but-not-amazing, but that if you were right audience for it, it could absolutely be 10/10. Given I’ve been coping with movies like that since the ‘80s (i.e. ones I was told was 10/10, but seemed more like a solid 8/10), that’s not a shocking or bad thing. The people I went with were of the opinion that it’d have been good if the last act hadn’t been 40 minutes too long, and generally rated it more harshly than me.I get the experience though – my wife and I walked out of TLJ feeling almost like that (not best film ever, but up there), and others who saw it at the same cinema did too. It was thus pretty hilarious to see the sheer amount of unbridled Gen-X man-child rage directed at it online.
EEAAO basically convinced me to leave a bad work situation and reevaluate whether the relationships I allowed into my life were kind ones – whether I was being kind to myself by allowing them in. It was profoundly meaningful to me, and I wouldn’t shave off a single minute. I can’t even imagine how much more meaningful it would have been if I were a first-generation immigrant, or from that background.
Re: Tar – I think there’s always at least one movie a year that’s like “this person is SO TALENTED but SO TROUBLED. What’s the connnnnnecccttttttiiiiooonnnnn?” Like the answer isn’t uniformally “they make a lot of money for people and are thus innoculated against consequence.”
“I can’t even imagine how much more meaningful it would have been if I were a first-generation immigrant, or from that background.”One of the people with me who said that it was overlong is the son of 1st-gen Chinese immigrants. He apparently didn’t find the way the movie approached that resonated with him particularly (that’s the polite version), but there you go.Certainly any film that helps one to re-evaluate one’s life decisions in actually useful way is pretty great though.
No use in complaining about the lack of Nope or any other quibbles I have with the list. I mean what do you expect you’re gonna get when you completely gut the film staff on this site.
I liked Barbarian fine, but I really don’t understand all of the hype. It really didn’t strike me as anything spectacular, and it really doesn’t maintain the dread of its first half. Is there something I’m missing? I get that it has themes it’s exploring, but themes aren’t really enough to carry a movie. It’s not scary. It’s more ridiculous than scary.Getting ridiculous can work wonders, as it did for Malignant – that movie needed to go full ridiculous to redeem it – but I feel like it just bogged down Barbarian, which was not ridiculous at the onset. The movie really lost steam in its second half. (See: Jeepers Creepers; maybe it’s the curse of Justin Long? Regardless, this was still much better than Jeepers Creepers.)I’ve seen so much fawning over Barbarian but the best horror movie I watched in 2022 was far and away Speak No Evil. There’s really no comparison, if you want something that invites analysis while also managing to be actually scary.
No one saw Crimes of the Future, then?
Why the bloody hell is RRR on this list
Because people on Twitter are convinced it’s the most brilliant action film of the past 20 years?
Because it’ll be surprising and influential to a lot of people, I think. And it’s definitely not a bad movie.
Thank you for that. Although I feel it was in absolutely no way attempting to be profound, it was frankly idiotic and its final descent into OTT chest-beating nationalism was embarrassing.
LOL “RRR”
Of course the couple in Nanny were white. The kids are taken care of.
I’m sorry, wait, you…liked…Leo…Grande?? The stupid corny film about the Tory from mumsnet trying to get laid where the sex worker is completely unrealistically okay with her repeatedly being like WAIT TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MOM WAIT TELL ME ABOUT YOUR MOM. Please get yourself checked for a brain tumor. I’m serious.
AV Club list for 2021 was goddamn embarrassing, is this one as awful?
A year of film-going so disastrous for me that, towards the last couple of months when some really decent films were coming out, I just didn’t have the energy to go through the disappointment again. We’re a bit behind on this side of the pond, natch, and I only have access to a couple of streaming services, but my year reached its nadir with Everything Everywhere and On and On for Bloody Ever, a film so relentlessly tiresome in its hyperkinetic fever dream shot through with saccharine, sickly mother/daughter cliches (served up as if that was one of my five-a-day) that I had to force myself not to walk out of it several times. With that and the overlong Drive My Car, Nope and Bodies Bodies Bodies (some of these probably 2021 for you) plus the disappointments of Parallel Mothers, The Worst Person in the World and Licorice Pizza by the time Living and Banshees came along, I just couldn’t do it any more.My own faves:The Quiet GirlThe InnocentsAll Quiet On the Western FrontGlass OnionAll My Friends Hate MeAli & AvaStrawberry MansionThe OutfitThe DukeRun Sweetheart RunThat latter is contentious, I realise. It’s quite a mess but contained enough bravura moments, good acting and cinematography that it actually stuck with me. Also, I can’t even get to a top ten without it.
Oh, and The Wonder. It was brilliant.
I’m not so big on Everything Everywhere either. The funny thing is I actually liked it fine when I saw it, but the insane hype has made me forget that.
I really liked Run Sweetheart Run, haven’t heard anyone talk about it. Love that that made your list!
seriously – Tar #1 – no one agrees with you and they think you are stupid.
very happy to see a list with many new ideas for my viewing, I can always rely on this annual recap for great ideas. not always 100% in my wheelhouse, but I like the vast majority of whatever I try.thanks AVClub.
Where the hell is Emily The Criminal? FAIL!
Pretty sure no rational human being thought Tar was the greatest movie of 2022 – FAIL!
My takeaway is this was a pretty crappy year for movies. Which is perfectly understandable! The confluence of COVID and the peak of Peak TV, it was hardly going to be another 1999.
The A.V. Club’s 30 most superlative films of 2022.
Hey kids, don’t forget that superlatives like “unique”, “worst”, “ultimate” and “superlative” are absolute and adding “most” just makes you look like a person who doesn’t know how words work.
Did Richard actually not know that The Woman King was about the kingdom that was the single biggest slaver in all of the African continent? And did Richard in fact not bother to take a second of his time to research just how brutal and cruel the Dahomey were?
I remain in my lonely introvert corner with my “Three Thousand Years of Longing was one of the best films of the year” flag.
I really, really don’t understand the love for Barbarian. It has an amazing first act, then gets sillier and louder and dumber all the way to the end. If they had actually finished the movie they were making, instead of making a new movie with whatever the Justin Long bullshit was supposed to be, it might have been amazing.
Top Gun: Maverick only deserves to be on a best-of list if it’s “best recent movie sequels that I watched on a 16 direct flight to Seoul”, or perhaps “best movie with a colon in the title that I watched on that flight”. It was better than Jurassic World: Dominion and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, but that’s not saying much since both of those movies were really, really terrible. It wasn’t even the best thing I watched on the flight, which included four movies, a season of a TV show, and a two part documentary about noodles.
Laughable that The Batman is not in this list. My fave movie of the year for sure, guess I’m alone in this.