Monday, February 20, 2023

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2022


Well I didn't plan on doing this today but what the hell -- seize the moment and such. Unlike last year, where I still haven't shared my favorite movies of the year, that is. That's right -- I'm just going to go ahead and give you my favorite movies of the year 2022 right now, right this moment. Wham bam let's just get it done. I've made it pretty clear here and elsewhere that my hatred for lists and awards has truly gotten the best of me -- ranking something as individual and personal as art as "the best" within a broad context has become nonsensical to me. I don't really even see the use of it anymore.

That said, individually I do find it fascinating -- seeing a single person's favorites, that is. Groupthink obliterates the outliers and quirks of individuality (which is how shit like Green Book or CODA ends up winning a Best Picture prize) but if there's a writer or friend whose opinion I trust I wanna see what they liked, as a singular person, in hopes that they'll direct me to something I might not have paid attention to. See John Waters' list at ArtForum every year -- I've gotten more out of those than any Oscars ceremony ever.

Anyway since I'm a member and/or a writer for a few places where I have had to submit my favorite movies of 2022 a few times already I did make this list awhile back, and I've had it sitting here staring at me. So why not share it? I don't know that I'll ever have the time to do a great big slew of "Golden Trousers" awards like I was doing a decade ago -- with a full-time real-life job AND writing regularly for two other websites AND keeping MNPP itself going my time is thin gruel right now y'all. But please, enjoy this much, if you care to!

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2022

20. Soft & Quiet (dir. Beth de Araújo)
-- my review here -- 

19. Everything Everywhere All At Once (dir. The Daniels)
-- my review here -- 

18. Close (dir. Lukas Dhont)
-- my review here -- 

17. Pearl (dir. Ti West)
-- my review here -- 

16. White Noise (dir. Noah Baumbach)
-- my review here -- 

15. Brian and Charles (dir. Jim Archer)
-- my review here -- 

14. Peter Von Kant (dir. François Ozon)
-- my review here -- 

13. The Northman (dir. Robert Eggers)
-- my review here -- 

12. The Eternal Daughter (dir. Joanna Hogg)
-- my review here -- 

11. Aftersun (dir. Charlotte Wells)
-- my review here -- 

10. Mad God (dir. Phil Tippett)
-- my review here -- 

9. Please Baby Please (dir. Amanda Kramer)
-- my review here -- 

8. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (dir. Laura Poitras)

7. Tár (dir. Todd Field)
-- my review here --

6. Living (dir. Oliver Hermanus)
-- my review here -- 

5. Great Freedom (dir. Sebastian Meise)
-- my review here -- 

4. Benediction (dir. Terence Davies)
-- my review here -- 

3. Decision to Leave (dir. Park Chan-wook)
-- my review here --

2. Bones and All (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
-- my review here -- 

1. Flux Gourmet (dir. Peter Strickland)
-- my review here -- 

------------------------------------

Runners-up: Fire Island (dir. Andrew Ahn), The Inspection (dir. Elegance Bratton), Holy Spider (dir. Ali Abbas), Bodies Bodies Bodies (dir. Halina Reijn), Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund), Three Thousand Years of Longing (dir. George Miller) A Wounded Fawn (dir. Travis Stevens), Dinner in America (dir. Adam Rehmeier), Women Talking (dir. Sarah Polley), Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (dir. Anthony Fabian),  Alcarràs (dir. Carla Simón), Pleasure (dir. Ninja Thyberg), The Banshees of Inisherin (dir. Martin McDonagh), Watcher (dir. Chloe Okuno), The Cathedral (dir. Ricky D’Ambrose), Resurrection (dir. Andrew Seaman), The Quiet Girl (dir. Colm Bairéad), Nope (dir. Jordan Peele), Satan's Slaves 2 (dir. Joko Anwar), After Yang (dir. Kogonada)

So there that is! Go watch all of those movies, please.
And on to 2023 we officially move...

7 comments:

Mat D said...

Went scrolling as soon as I saw this post to be sure Flux Gourmet was in the top position, and I'm so glad not to be disappointed! Love to see Mad God and The Northman up so high, and I'm grateful for both Great Freedom and your choice of image for Great Freedom 😌

Eugene said...

We often have vastly different tastes and opinions, but I was happy to see you placed Benediction so close to the top. Not nearly enough people have seen this film and that's a shame.

pierce said...

Your list is good, but the only ones I saw on it were Tar and Everything Everywhere All at Once, neither of which I liked. I did like Fire Island and The Banshees of Inisherin, but the movies I loved more than any other this year are Marcel, the Shell With Shoes On and RRR. The rest is shite!

joel65913 said...

Usually with these favorite posts I've seen most of your choices and have tons of my own picks but I am woefully behind on my viewing and haven't seen any of these I don't think though there are several I have on my too see list.

I'm struggling to come up with even a top five. Right now these are my favorite five.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
In From the Side
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Glass Onion
Bros (I had hoped to like this more than I did though)

Anonymous said...

I’m really sad to find out that I’m the only person in the world that loved Women Talking.

Jason Adams said...

Anon - Damn damn damn I knew I had forgotten something; Women Talking should be in my list 100%. I thought it was wonderful. I'm not going to rearrange my top 20 because I am lazy and don't feel like redoing it, but I will add it to the runners-up

Joel - Same goes for Mrs Harris, that's getting added to my runners-up. I loved that flick a whole lot. Just absolute delight

Anonymous said...

Just a fantastic top 10. Thanks for post this. You've always got such thoughtful things to say and love your taste.