This is a live list where I rank the movies of 2022. People tend to believe I have…contrarian taste. So some of these rankings may surprise you. But they are true and genuine. I highly favor movies with considerable style, deep and rich characters, and strong themes. I’ll be keeping a diary of my thoughts on every new movie I watch. You can find links for all those write-ups in the rankings below (you’ll be linked to my All-Time Movie Rankings page).
If you have any recommendations for me, please comment below. Enjoy!
2022 movie rankings
- Terrifier 2
- Ticket to Paradise
- Vortex
- Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
- jeen-yuhs
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- X
- Dog
- Jurassic World: Dominion
- Ambulance
- Aftersun
- RRR
- The Fabelmans
- Orphan: First Kill
- Kimi
- V/H/S/99
- Not Okay
- Elvis
- Decision to Leave
- Mad God
- Fire of Love
- Babysitter
- Nope
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Deep Water
- Morbius
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
- Jackass Forever
- Confess, Fletch
- Spin Me Round
- Falling for Christmas
- The Bob’s Burgers Movie
- The Batman
- The Banshees of Inisherin
- Women Talking
- This Much I Know to Be True
- I Love My Dad
- Triangle of Sadness
- Qala
- Bubble
- Me Time
- Facing Nolan
- Friends and Strangers
- The Northman
- Bodies Bodies Bodies
- Prey
- Fresh
- Senior Year
- Vengeance
- Death on the Nile
- Don’t Worry Darling
- Bullet Train
- The Lost City
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre
- Christmas with the Campbells
- Barbarian
- The Menu
- Tár
- Scream
- Babylon
- The Gray Man
I recently finished watching The Menu. It was outstanding in my opinion. I would want to read a brief analysis of your viewpoint.
HEREDITARY is atrocious??? You’re lucky you’re a talented and entertaining writer with interesting opinions or I would angrily stomp off of this website. As it is I will be returning frequently, please review the S Craig Zahler canon thanks.
Oh man, you have NO idea how ashamed I am of myself for not watching any Zahler movies. I plan to watch Bone Tomahawk, Dragged Across Concrete, and Brawl in Cell Block 99 in 2023.
All three are imo incredible and very, very different except for the similar slow-burn. Excited to see what you make of them.
A few things:
I can’t remember how I first stumbled upon this article, but when I navigated to your site index a little while ago (https://filmcolossus.com/movies/), I can’t find this page bookmarked. Not sure what’s going on there.
Everything Everywhere, All at Once — Finally, I found somebody else (see also: https://cineccentric.com/2022/04/30/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/ who didn’t like this movie either. Even Red Letter Media, my favorite film critics most often aligned to my tastes, gave this an overall net positive, though not glowing, review. I’m not sure what the disconnect is with EEAO and myself other than its sheer length & nonstop, over-the-top “LOL, so random!”-humor, but I feel this is normally the sort of movie I should recommend. I highly enjoyed Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, after all.
RRR — Interesting how you noted you’ve seen Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, and Bimal Roy, but few contemporary or mainstream movies from Bollywood (Hindi-language), South Indian Cinema (SIC), et al., because that’s been the exact opposite of my consumption of South Asian Cinema. I’ve seen exactly one Ray-movie, Pather Panchali (1955), — I have no intention of seeing more — and nothing by Dutt or Roy, not even Devdas (1955); on the other hand, I’ve absorbed dozens if not well over 100 Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, etc.-language movies since undergrad.
RRR is good because S. S. Rajamouli is one of the best genre directors in India (see also: Baahubali [2015, 2017], Magadheera [2009]), and I would recommend him alongside Trivikram Srinivas in SIC and Sanjay Bhansali in Bollywood. Those directors, I must warn you, are the cream of their respective crops and most popular Indian filmmaking is *so* theatrical & *so* over-the-top that you shouldn’t expect RRR-quality movies w/ every release, just like one wouldn’t expect Top Gun Maverick (2022)-level production values w/ every Hollywood blockbuster.
Really though, popular Indian filmmaking is similar enough to Hollywood — blockbuster tropes, conventional screenplays, likable lead performances — but different *enough* — they’re the lone mecca for the contemporary film musical, great soundtracks all around, colorful costumes & polytheistic mythology, (really bad CGI) — to offer a change of pace from most all of Western filmmaking. I never understood why Indian movies (again, beyond the boring dramatic auteurs) never took root even amongst cinephiles or critics in the USA/Europe. It’s a huge blindspot for most cinephiles when everyone seems to be in love w/ East Asian cinema like Japanese animation and Kurosawa, modern Korean filmmaking, Hong Kong classics, etc.
Glad to meet a fellow EEAAO naysayer 🙂 I can understand why people like it. But its charm has no effect on me.
And thank you for the Indian recommendations! I’m not sure why this style of movie has escaped me for so many years…god there are just so many movies lol. It’s a style of movie I’ve wanted to get into for a while. I think I might dedicate a month to it soon. And your suggestions will help!
Just got done watching The Menu. I thought it was fantastic. I’d love to read a short analysis of your take.
I’m excited to watch The Menu! I’ll move it to the top of my watchlist.
I respect being real but how is the batman below morbius or deep water? Some others i didnt understand but yeah film is subjective
Hey Raul! Personally, I found The Batman to be very difficult to watch on a technical level. I like scope, I like all the themes, I like the actors…but oof, I found a three-hour Batman movie to be very tedious. I just don’t think it’s interesting enough on a stylistic level to keep me interested for that long. I also think its themes lose a lot of weight over that course of time. I just don’t think the movie had the chops to pull it off. I don’t think the movie is bad–I just think it’s a bit of a misfire.
I explained why I like Morbius above. Every reason I’ve seen for why Morbius is terrible just doesn’t matter to me. I’m not super concerned with narrative logic or plot holes (sometimes they bother me, but only if they get in the way of the themes and message). I found the themes to be interesting, the acting to be campy and fun, the flow and editing to be entertaining. Plus it’s a really, really ridiculous movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously–an attitude I really appreciate and wish movies would do more often. I get really sick of the self-seriousness of movies like The Batman.
And I don’t see what’s wrong at all with Deep Water. It’s a solid erotic thriller that adheres to the 90s gems that perfected the formula. For me it was all about the acting. Affleck is fantastic as the monotonous, quietly jealous psychopath ready to kill at a moment’s notice. Ana de Armas was great as usual and really went all in. And every side character–as cartoonish as they were–was really engaging and entertaining. If you’re looking for a better version of Lifetime movies, this is as good as it gets. If you aren’t, then I get it!
What are your favorite movies this year? What do you think I should watch next?