The UNDISPUTED Top 10 Movies of 2022

People of the internets: This is my UNDISPUTED list of the best movies of 2022, according to me, the maker of this list. There was plenty to like, but I didn't see anything that really hit me like "Drive my Car" or "Summer of Soul" this year. (two movies on the short list of my favorite movies of the last ten years, though, so no shame on 2022.)

1. Decision To Leave - Park Chan-Wook of "Old Boy" fame directing a twisty, noir-ish romance: A dense, foggy movie about a Korean detective falling for a suspect that may have killed her husband. Also, he's got a chain mail glove in his pocket for handling knife attacks (apparently this is a real thing that some Korean cops do. Too bad Cambridge police don't have em.) The ending is perfect.
                                                                                                                             

2. Aftersun - Hey, its just a movie about a young father taking his daughter on vacation... except it's not that, it's a movie about the memories of the adult daughter looking back on that vacation when she's the same age as the father and understanding him with adult eyes... when it's too late. Gutting. I think I'm getting old.

3. Tar - Cate Blanchett's best performance of her career, and considering she's Cate Blanchett that's saying something. It's a character study of a moderately psychopathic artistic genius (Tar, duh) who finally gets her comeuppance, but it doesn't undercut Tar's genius or love of her art. It's also something of a ghost story, wher Tar is figuratively (literally?) haunted by her misdeeds.

4. Banshees of Inisherin - Colin Farrell/ Brendan Gleeson/ Martin McDonough sometimes hilarious, often bleak struggle to come to terms with mortality on the impossibly scenic west coast of Ireland. In a just world, Barry Keoghan as the dimmest of bulbs on an island of low wattage and Kerry Condon as Farrell's smarter, long-suffering sister looking for a way out would be up for Oscars.

5. Everything Everywhere All at Once - The title is accurate. Crazy good mess of a movie.

6. Petit Maman - Yet another gem of a movie by a writer/director where her lead character is understanding their parent through the magic of film. Hmmm. After the death of her grandmother, a young daughter finds a new playmate who seems a lot like her mom as a child. Filmmaker Celine Sciamma also directed "A Portrait of A Lady On Fire" which was one of my favorite movies of 2020, I'm in for whatever she does next.

7. After Yang - The second beautifully composed, thoughtful movie by former internet video essayist Koganada. Colin Farrell again stars as a father who struggles to fix a crashed humanoid AI that served as the nanny/older brother to his adopted human daughter. It's about that, and what it means to be human, but really it's about people struggling with the meaning of life and of death.

8. Top Gun: Maverick - Whew, thank god all that thinking is over! A very fun action movie sequel that's better than the original jingoistic sugar-rush. Pros: Stunning practical effects with cool fighter jets that cribs the death star scene from the OG star wars almost note for note. Cons: Any time they try to shoe-horn in a love story that's not Cruise/Kilmer the movie grinds to a halt. Lets not even talk about that even though they had zero chemistry in the original, Kelly McGillis wasn't deemed hot enough anymore so they plugged in Jennifer Connelly, who has less than zero chemistry with Cruise. I don't think it's Connelly's fault.

9. Confess, Fletch! - It's very funny! It's got a great cast and a good plot! It's got a Don Draper/Roger Sterling scene! It's filmed in Boston! For the present, it holds up way better than then the dated Chevy Chase Fletch, but maybe in 20 years we'll find something wrong with it, too.

10. Nope -  Yep. (Actually, this is a movie I didn't entirely love at first but it's grown on me. Immediately after leaving the theater with mixed emotions, I was texting friends, mulling over all the stuff going on in the film. Like all of Peele's movies, it's an ambitious movie that still manages to be a good watch. Can't wait to see what this plucky sketch comedian does next.)

Hounourable Mentiouns:

• Kimi: Soderbergh makes the best Pandemic action movie?

• Glass Onion: A fun, shiny whodunnit, but Norton is a villain that's a little too on the nose to be completely satisfying. Janelle Monae and Dave Bautista are great.

• The Fabelmans: Spielberg's "Most personal film yet" lives up to it's billing for good and bad. Spielberg does a great job showing you what he thinks is important about his childhood, but he just can't stop himself from over-explaining everything... in his virtuoustic way. David Lynch as John Ford is the cameo of the century.

• Elvis: I typically hate biopics, but the opening half of this movie is electrifying.  Luhrmann's flashy style suits the subject, especially in the scenes where Elvis first records "That's All Right" cross-cut with him hanging out on Beale St. with his Black influences like Rosetta Tharpe, B.B. King and Little Richard. Austin Butler is great as Elvis. The end credits showing Butler's performance with the real Elvis are cool too. Maybe this shoulda been in the top 10? I wasn't interested in the Vegas/Tom Parker debacle though.

Things I haven’t seen but want to: No Bears, Armageddon Time, All the Beauty and All the Bloodshed, Descendant, Women Talking

Disappointing: White Noise

Not going to see:
EO: Look, I hear it's great but I already watched one movie where a charismatic donkey dies and I can't take another one.

Avatar 2, the Avatarining: It will find me one day... on an airplane, in a hotel... it will find me.

      

Best Scenes:

• Nope: Kaluuya riding a horse through a desert valley full of Used Car Lot Inflatable Dancers while being chased by...
• White Noise: Grocery Store Dance Sequence
• Elvis: The early rise of Elvis performances cross cut with his influences and Beale St.
• About half of the stuff in EEAAO 

Best Actor: Cate Blanchette

Best Director: Todd Field