The year 2022 was the first year post-pandemic where people are starting to return to the movies. While overall moviegoing attendance was much lower than pre-pandemic, the year proved that people are willing to go back to theaters—if the movies are worth a trip to a local cineplex.
It was the year of the spectacle and a lot of movies in this writer’s top list reflect big and bold filmmaking with crowd-pleasing delights. After a year-and-a-half away and apart from others, 2022 gave us a reason to come together and share in cinema again.
10. Nope
Directed by Jordan Peele, Nope has a lot of big vegan energy. It’s one of the very few big budget blockbusters that explores animal rights and respect in a neo-western, science fiction genre mix. Peele displays a clear vision of thrills and chills with a social conscience in his biggest movie yet.
9. Jackass Forever
Director Jeff Tremaine, ring leader Johnny Knoxville, and producer Spike Jonze get the band back together in Jackass Forever, a new installment in the popular film series that works as a proper sequel, reboot, and remake at the same time. It’s tough to top what came before, especially with a new cast of unknowns and a few missing key pieces (Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn), but Tremaine and crew manage to keep the laughs coming with the dumbest stunts and pranks captured in movies.
8. Top Gun: Maverick
The year 2022 will go down as the year of spectacles and no other film soars and takes flight like Top Gun: Maverick. Director Joseph Kosiniski and star Tom Cruise deliver a good dose of nostalgia with good ol’ fashion Hollywood movie magic, while it surpasses the original in just about every way—a rare feat.
7. The Woman King
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood historical drama The Woman King—which stars Viola Davis as the general of an all-female army of the West African Kingdom of the Dahomey—is the very definition of big screen epic in the tradition of Spartacus, Gladiator, and Braveheart. It works on a big scale that’s full of action, drama, and romance that highlights Black women in history.
6. RRR
Director S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR is the most fun movie of the yeaRRR. TheRRRe’s a sinceRRRity and joy that comes along with this thRRRee-houRRR-and-two-minute Indian Telugu film, while it has eveRRRything fRRRom epic RRRomance and fRRRiendship to big scRRReen dance off against BRRRitish colonialists.
Rudie’s Top Ten Films of 2022
5. Triangle of Sadness
Director Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is a brilliant satire about the haves and have-yet-to-haves. The film displays power dynamics shifting from one social class to another like a luxury yacht caught in the middle of a storm in the Mediterranean Sea. While the movie is one of the most grotesque of the year, it’s also one the most lingering and sobering.
4. White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach has really upped his game with White Noise, a film adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name. The film jumps from an ‘80s family sitcom to corporate satire to massive disaster movie energy with such ease, it makes me wonder why Baumbach has never made a big scale movie before. But as it stands, the movie is unique in his filmography.
3. Decision to Leave
Decision To Leave is Park Chan-Wook’s take on an Alfred Hitchcock mystery thriller—think South Korean Vertigo. While the film delivers a brilliant multi-layered story with a bizarre romance at its center, it’s also a visual marvel and shows just how far film technology has come from the advent of CGI.
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
From cosmic everything bagels to Wong Kar-Wai film homages, Everything Everyone All at Once has literally everything you can imagine happening everywhereall at once. The Daniels (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) manages to balance big screen spectacle with genre leaping pacing and heartfelt mother-daughter drama in a movie that’s easy on the eyes and broadly entertaining.
1.Bones and All
More like “Call Me By Your Maim,” amiright? Director Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal love story offers a lot of teenage romance with couple Maren and Lee, played by Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet, respectively, and bloody genre fare that you don’t often find on the big screen. Guadagnino expertly balances both tones with a travelodge exploration across the Midwest.
Moreover, it’s interesting to think about whenever a foreign director comes to America to make a movie, it’s usually a landscapey travelogue movie—see Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights, Wim Wenders’s Paris, Texas, Walter Salles’ On The Road, and others. Why is that? Is there something exciting about exploring the great unknown of the United States that American directors take for granted?
I don’t think it’s “usually” that. The “Three Amigos” of Mexican cinema haven’t done that, nor has Andre Ovredal. I can’t be sure about all of Lasse Hallstrom’s films, but I don’t think he qualifies either. Park Chan Wook’s Stoker wasn’t that, nor was Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. There was a huge wave of European directors who came over after the rise of Hitler, and they’re best known for making noirs.
As for the merits of Bones & All, I thought it should have ended soon after Chloe Sevigne’s scene.
I don’t think it’s “usually” that. The “Three Amigos” of Mexican cinema haven’t done that, nor has Andre Ovredal. I can’t be sure about all of Lasse Hallstrom’s films, but I don’t think he qualifies either. Park Chan Wook’s Stoker wasn’t that, nor was Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. There was a huge wave of European directors who came over after the rise of Hitler, and they’re best known for making noirs.
As for the merits of Bones & All, I thought it should have ended soon after Chloe Sevigne’s scene.