The ten best films of 2022, in five double features:
10. “Benediction” and 9. “Bros”
How does one become a fully integrated member of society — an artist, a lover, a participant in the marketplace of ideas — when that society constantly rejects your very presence and participation? Two of this year’s best took very different looks at gay creatives looking for love and fulfillment, about a century apart; “Benediction,” Terence Davies’ haunting biopic of WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden) takes a much different path than the raucous rom-com starring and co-written by Billy Eichner, but both films followed men seeking their heart’s desire in a world that judges that desire. (The exceptional LGBTQ films “Fire Island” and “The Inspection” fit this category as well.)
8. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” and 7. “Women Talking”
Laura Poitras’ searing documentary about artist Nan Goldin and Sarah Polley’s screen adaptation of the novel by Miriam Toews both examine women who have suffered, and who then summon their strength to deliver righteous judgment upon powerful figures who aren’t used to having that power challenged. Goldin’s deployment of her art-world clout against the wealthy and powerful Sackler family — whose Purdue Pharmaceuticals played a key role in the opioid crisis, and who use their philanthropic donations as a way to cleanse their reputation — carries a real charge; Polley’s extraordinary ensemble (including powerful turns from vets Sheila McCarthy and Judith Ivey) captures the electricity of members of a religious sect deciding that, for once, they will not be treated like second-class citizens.
6. “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood” and 5. “EO”
The art of cinematic storytelling goes well beyond traditional narrative structures; talented filmmakers can create characters and worlds that are unforgettable even when they make it difficult to answer the question, “So what’s this movie about?” In Richard Linklater’s animated memory piece “Apollo 10 1/2,” he recaptures the wonder of growing up in the Houston suburbs in the 1960s, in the shadow of the space race, when technology seemed to hold the promise of new and wonderful tomorrows. Taking inspiration from Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar,” Jerzy Skolimowski’s “EO” follows a donkey through good times and bad across the European countryside, silently enduring everything the world throws his way with a steadfast demeanor (and, occasionally, a devastating deadpan side-eye).
4. “No Bears” and 3. “Hit the Road”
Two powerful dramas about life under authoritarianism — and whether to remain or to flee, even as the nearby border beckons — happen to have come from father-and-son filmmakers. Jafar Panahi, still officially banned by the Iranian government from making movies, returned with another underground film, “No Bears,” which asks hard questions about mob rule and public (but ever so polite) intimidation, while his son Panah Panahi scored one of the year’s best debuts with “Hit the Road,” a road picture about a family trying to get their eldest son to safety. The younger Panahi establishes himself as a filmmaker with an aesthetic quite different than that of his father, but he shares the elder director’s ability to capture emotional, everyday moments that reflect a world in crisis.
2. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and 1. “RRR”
As my colleague William Bibbiani so cogently noted earlier this year, “Every few years, if you’re lucky, you get to see a movie that’s just so very much movie, so huge and inventive and exciting, you’re surprised only one movie could contain it. Somehow we’ve had two already this year: ‘RRR’ and ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’” The Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere” was a mind-bending, dimension-hopping tale without superheroes, where the stakes are one family’s sense of mutual understanding, while S.S. Rajamouli’s “RRR” threw unbelievable action sequences, stirring melodrama, and the year’s best musical number at the screen in a way that made even jaded moviegoers react like they were seeing something absolutely new.
The Runners-Up, or Films I’m Glad I Saw This Year: “After Yang,” “Aftersun,” “Aline,” “All That Breathes,” “Armageddon Time,” “The Automat,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Barbarian,” “The Best Families,” “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “Call Jane,” “Cane Fire,” “Causeway,” “Confess, Fletch,” “Crimes of the Future,” “Decision to Leave,” “Deep Water,” “Elvis,” “Emily the Criminal,” “The Fabelmans,” “Fall,” “Fire Island,” “Framing Agnes,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “God’s Country,” “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” “Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio,” “Happening,” “Hatching,” “Hellraiser,” “Hustle,” “In Front of Your Face,” “Întregalde,” “Jackass Forever,” “Love Song,” “Mad God,” “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” “The Northman,” “Official Competition,” “On the Count of Three,” “Orphan: First Kill,” “Pearl,” “The Pink Cloud,” “Please Baby Please,” “Pleasure,” “Prey,” “Resurrection,” “Return to Seoul,” “Spirited,” “Stop-Zemlia,” “TÁR,” “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Turning Red,” “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” “Violent Night,” “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” “The Woman King.”
