My 6 Favorite Films of 2022
Not going to lie—I thought 2022 was a weak year for films. Or maybe I should say that I personally didn’t connect to as many movies as I would’ve hoped to over the past 12 months. But there were certainly bright spots. Six of them, in fact!
While some of these have Oscar buzz and appear on many “Best of” lists, others are simply the movies that I enjoyed the most.
Everything Everywhere All at Once – I called it back in March, and I was right: this bonkers trip of a dramedy from Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) remained my favorite movie of the year. I always applaud movies that are original—even if they’re not really my thing story- or genre-wise. But EEAaO is both original and right in my sweet spot, as it deals with parallel worlds, aka the multiverse. Yeah, I’m a geek about that stuff.
The Banshees of Inisherin – The Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA), of which I’ve been a member for over a decade, just named this Irish black comedy the best film of the year, and it came thisclose to edging out EEAaO for me. It stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as close friends … until one of them suddenly stops talking to the other for no clear reason. If you like Irish humor (which is very much NOT like American humor), the escalating fight that ensues between the two men will be right up your alley.
Top Gun: Maverick – The only movie I’ve seen more than once this year because it’s just THAT good, the sequel to 1986’s Top Gun is better than the original, according to my 10-year-old son. And I actually agree. The ageless Tom Cruise, reprising his role as Navy pilot Maverick, squares off against his late friend Goose’s son (Miles Teller) while training a group of young pilots for a high-stakes mission. You’ll be on the edge of your seat, yelling and cheering at the screen, guaranteed.
The Whale – Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau give career-defining performances as a morbidly obese English teacher desperate to reconnect with his daughter (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink) and his best friend, respectively. I don’t know what I was expecting from this film, but it really affected me, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The less you know about it going in, the better.
Clerks III – My best friend drove from Michigan to see the finale of the Clerks trilogy with me, since we’d gone to the first two together starting way back in 1994. Perhaps it’s because I like Kevin Smith as a person … or maybe it’s because Clerks came out while I was in college and I immediately fell in love with convenience-store co-workers Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) … or it might be because the final installment is all about friendship, and I was with my BFF. But for whatever reason, I was shocked to find myself tearing up (in addition to laughing my head off) at Dante and Randal’s antics this time around. For fans of the original (even if you didn’t love Clerks II), this last chapter really is worth seeing. Berzerker!
She Said – Movies about journalism are like movies about trading or hacking—they can be extremely hit-or-miss, because writing, investing and coding can be difficult to depict in a compelling way on the big screen. But She Said joins the likes of Spotlight and Zodiac in finding a way to make audiences forget that they don’t already know how a real-life headline-making newspaper investigation turned out. In this case, it’s Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey’s (Carey Mulligan) New York Times bombshell article about the sexual assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which inspired the #MeToo movement.
What were some of your favorite movies of 2022?
Happy New Year!