DYLA's Top 10 Movies of 2022
Billy and Drew unveil their favorite films of the year!
Welcome to the year in cinema, where Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell returned to the big screen, Colin Farrell supplied us with multiple great performances, and Lydia Tar experienced an epic downfall. Yes, 2022 had a lot to offer when it came to massive blockbusters, intimate indies, and everything in between. For the fourth year in a row, we are running down our top 10 films of the year. After you see our picks, please let us know your favorites from 2022. Thanks for reading all year and we’ll see you in 2023!
Top 10 Movies of 2019
Top 10 Movies of 2020
Top 10 Movies of 2021
Billy’s Top 10
Honorable Mentions: The Northman, Barbarian, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Hustle, Elvis
10. Top Gun: Maverick
The phenomenon of the year that brought all of us together. I have not experienced a movie with such a high approval rating in a long time. Each person I know that has seen it has the same excitable reaction. A type of enjoyment that only a Tom Cruise action movie can bring. Then surrounding him with some of our best young talent in the business and a complete knockout with Jennifer Connelly. Some might be turned off by this propaganda piece, but I hope we can surrender ourselves to the Tom Cruise experience. (Streaming on Paramount+)
9. TÁR
Cate Blanchett gives my second favorite performance of the year as Lydia Tar. A person that seems so real that many have asked if this movie is about a real person. Tar is menacing, old school, and only cares about the purity of classical music. Any opposing view or disruptor of her life as a composer will be destroyed in the process. TÁR does not paint her as a clear villain. Her rigidity and focus is impressive to the point of almost admiration. Not sure if that is just because I love Cate Blanchett or if the complicated look at this character is meant to fool me. I hope Blanchett becomes Todd Field’s muse because their collaboration on this project is mesmerizing and needed. (Available to rent on major digital platforms)
READ: Actress Spotlight: Cate Blanchett
8. Women Talking
The best ensemble of actors this year. Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, and Jessie Buckley lead this drama about a group of women in a religious colony deciding if they will leave the group because of a constant wave of sexual assault against them. While this movie deals with a heavy subject matter none of the violence is on screen and the tension is completely in the performances. One of those movies like Spotlight that may end up being a rewatchable despite the subject matter. (In theaters now)
7. Jackass Forever
I’m Billy Rock and welcome to Do You Like Apples. It’s Jackass. It’s fun. This isn’t complicated. It’s the most fun I had in a theater this year. My goodness, they need to keep making these every 5-10 years. (Streaming on Paramount+)
6. Speak No Evil
The most effective horror movie of the decade so far. Speak No Evil is about a family who makes friends with another family on vacation and are invited to their home in the woods. A scenario of making friends on vacation is an experience we have all had, but I don’t think I will be partaking in those conversations ever again. No experience this year has made me so scared. And I love it. (Streaming on Shudder)
5. The Banshees of Inisherin
The year of Colin Farrell has been the highlight of 2022 in film. He has picked his parts so well while bringing a different experience with each role. The Banshees of Inisherin is a melancholic comedy examining the breaking of a friendship. One of my greatest fears is growing old with no friends around. This plays with that fear and makes you feel anxious the whole time. While creating sweet and heartbreaking moments throughout. Also, the most beautiful looking movie of the year. (Streaming on HBO Max)
4. After Yang
This is my style of sci-fi. A world that feels lived in and has big ideas that the movie is exploring. Another Colin Farrell joint and maybe his quietest performance of his career. His AI family companion, Yang, stops working unexpectedly and the journey to bring him back allows his “memories” to be examined. Bringing forth a lot of thought on identity and purpose. A calming movie that rocks you into an existential sleep that will stick with you for a long time. (Streaming on Showtime)
3. Petite Maman
Throwing on this 72-minute film was the most surprising movie experience of the year. I wanted a short watch on a late night and saw some people who have great taste recommend it, but with such a short runtime you don’t expect to be so moved. Petite Maman is about a family right after a death in the family. They are cleaning out the passed person’s house and the majority of this experience is through the eyes of a young girl. She meets a friend and their quickly established friendship feels confusingly familiar. A sweet movie that had me in tears by the end. This is the perfect movie to watch on a whim. (Streaming on Kanopy)
2. Nope
Jordan Peele is so sick. Nope is the most subtle of his horror/thriller efforts and while it didn’t have the initial impact of his first two movies, I think this one will be his longest lasting. Like all of his movies there are layers and layers of details that will have you coming back often. Or listening to more theories about what each choice could mean. This Jaws-like movie is scary, but the excitement of the adventure is what makes it lasting. Peele is a superstar. (Streaming on Peacock Premium)
LISTEN: Breaking Down Jordan Peele’s Nope
1. Pearl
Hands down my favorite movie of the year. Pearl is a prequel to the horror movie X and Pearl was not announced initially when X was released. Director Ti West was secretly making a horror trilogy and this “universe” relit my passion for movies in a way no other movie has this year. Mia Goth gives a Jack Nicholson in The Shining type performance. Playing a person that is clearly off, but the depths of their madness is not fully apparent yet. Goth gives my favorite performance of the year and it is not particularly close. The range, subtleties, and effectiveness of Goth’s performance entranced me completely. I wanted her to descend further and further into madness and keep seeing what crazier things may happen. Give Mia Goth all the horror roles. (Available to rent on major digital platforms)
Drew’s Top 10
Honorable Mentions: The Batman, Fire of Love, Ambulance, RRR, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kimi
10. Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood
Other veteran directors (Spielberg, Sam Mendes, James Gray) made 2022 films that reflect on their childhood, but Richard Linklater’s animated nostalgia trip captivated me the most. Apollo 10 ½ is a breezy memory piece on life growing up in late 1960s Houston, Texas. Linklater’s playful spirit is very much present via Jack Black’s wonderful narration and the lovely rotoscope animation. At first glance, you could claim this is just a light trifle, but the director imbues the film with just enough complexity and perspective to make this one of his most personal and affecting works in some time. (Streaming on Netflix)
9. Prey
I was not anticipating this prequel to the Predator franchise even a little bit. In fact, I only recently saw the original 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring Predator, but Prey is the kind of back-to-basics action movie that will never get old. Set among the Comanche tribe of the Great Plains in the 1700s, a young female warrior must go toe-to-toe with a merciless alien hunter. Prey doesn’t overload us with backstory or exposition; it just delivers on the promise of exhilarating genre thrills. (Streaming on Hulu)
8. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
It’s no easy feat writing a satisfying whodunnit that simultaneously adheres to the genre’s tropes while cleverly playing with our expectations. So it’s doubly impressive that Rian Johnson has now done this twice. After the East Coast family murder mystery of 2019’s Knives Out, the next installment takes Daniel Craig’s charming sleuth Benoit Blanc to a Greek island. I love how different Glass Onion is in setting and character from the first film. It’s not necessarily better, but it is bigger, funnier, and just as entertaining. (Streaming on Netflix)
7. Top Gun: Maverick
Still the greatest pure entertainer in Hollywood, Tom Cruise exceeded all expectations with Top Gun: Maverick, a legacy sequel that had no business being as well-made and satisfying as it is. He brought in the right director (Joseph Kosinski) and the right co-stars (Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly, and more), and they balanced sentimental cliché and heart-tugging emotion even better than the original. Maverick is a true throwback to a pre-CGI landscape when practical effects and straightforward, unironic storytelling ruled the day. Even at age 60, Cruise stays winning. (Streaming on Paramount+)
READ: Actor Spotlight: Tom Cruise
6. The Northman
It doesn’t get much more intense and immersive than The Northman, Robert Eggers’ savage Viking epic. Here’s a director known for his insane, painstaking commitment to historic accuracy (The Witch, The Lighthouse) taking $90 million of a studio’s money to recreate a Norse myth originating over a millennia ago that would later inspire Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Fortunately, he gets equal commitment from his stars Alexander Skarsgård (who could hardly be more convincing as a hulked-out Viking), Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Ethan Hawke. It’s an arresting tale of vengeance and family legacy that culminates in a fight to the death atop an active volcano. What more do I need to say? (Streaming on Amazon Prime Video)
5. After Yang
It’s the little details and the big ideas of After Yang that kept it living on in my mind since I first saw it back in March. It’s the carefully crafted near-future sci-fi design of the costumes and sets, and it’s also the mysterious questions about memory and humanity that it ponders. Colin Farrell is terrific (in only his second-best performance of 2022; see my #1 film of the year) as a father and husband trying to fix his AI child, but After Yang is first and foremost the vision of its talented and sensitive writer and director, Kogonada. (Streaming on Showtime)
LISTEN: “Gems of 2022,” our guest appearance on The Lens: A Cinema St. Louis Podcast
4. TÁR
There wasn’t a more cohesive match in a film this year than the one between Todd Field’s writing and direction and Cate Blanchett’s performance as renowned composer and conductor Lydia Tár. The precise control in TÁR’s filmmaking is only rivaled by Lydia’s maniacal management of her world-famous career, before it all comes crashing down, that is. The neat trick that Field and Blanchett (in perhaps the best performance of her legendary career) pull off is that there’s enough ambiguity built in so that each viewer can decide what they think of Lydia’s ultimate fate and future, a Rorschach test of a canceled composer. (Available to rent on major digital platforms)
3. Decision to Leave
Director Park Chan-wook has mastered shocking audiences with extremity in his brutal, violent Vengeance Trilogy and the sensual twists and turns of his 2016 tour de force The Handmaiden. But in Decision to Leave, he applies his flair for visual pyrotechnics into a restrained (for him) detective noir mystery, psychological thriller, and forbidden love story. For fans of any of these types of movies, it’s always exciting when a modern maestro like Park Chan-wook shows you the new things these genres can do with their visual storytelling. It’s no wonder he won the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. (Streaming on Mubi)
2. Nope
Jordan Peele is an increasingly rare filmmaker in that while his movies have escalated in ambition, budget, and hype, so have the ideas inside them. For Nope, he blended many different inspirations from the history of sci-fi, Western, and horror pictures together to craft one of the most thrillingly original movies in recent memory. Nope is a leveling up for Peele in terms of cinematic scale and entertainment value, but it’s also packed with thoughts on Hollywood history, the spectacle of modern tragedy, and much more. The brilliant stroke is that he’s not hitting you over the head with these ideas, but if you want to engage with Peele’s wild and wonderful cinema in that intellectual space, it’s available for you. (Streaming on Peacock Premium)
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
How should we spend our brief time here on this earth? Should we dedicate all our efforts to making something that lasts or eat, drink, and be nice among friends? In The Banshees of Inisherin, Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), best buds until suddenly they aren’t anymore, embody this timeless existential quandary. If you’ve seen the work of writer-director Martin McDonagh, you know to expect acid dialogue, dark comedy, and maybe some tragedy and sorrow for good measure. With this Irish fable creation, McDonagh maintained his signature recipe while adding evocative visual poetry and a profound sense of mortality and despair amid a simple story of a couple of pint-drinking friends falling out. (Streaming on HBO Max)