Best Movies of 2022

Director: Guillermo Del Toro
His 12th movie
My 9th movie watched from the director

Did we need another Pinocchio movie? No. Am I fine Del Toro took on the story? Yes. He has always been known for his memorable creatures and imagery and delivers once again. But really outside of that, nothing really wowed me in this movie. I found most of the characters grating and while the story is different from past versions it's not necessarily better. But I will say it again, the animation, imagery, character designs are all pretty great.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Films - Guillermo Del Toro
Top Ten Performances - Christoph Waltz - Honorable Mention
Again, Again, Again, Again - The 4-Timers Club


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Location: Collodi (and other towns), Italy

Director: Chris Smith
His 10th movie
My 5th movie watched from the director

A documentary where it's clear what Jr. set out to do, but in the end I'm not sure what was achieved and the themes never became real clear. This kept it from being great and emotional, but we are still delivered an entertaining and heartfelt endeavor into the mind of our previous generations and what a certain form of success can look like. There are several nice moments between Jr. and Sr. and I liked the retrospective, even if I haven't seen a single movie Sr. directed.

Added to Lists:


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Director: Bob Smeaton
His 12th movie
My 2nd movie watched from the director

The music is legendary, the band is still one of my favorites, with Cosmo's Factory being sometimes considered my favorite album of all time... so yeah, I had fun watching this. It was also elevated by the everlasting voice of Jeff Bridges.

Added to Lists:

Favorite Concert Films

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Director: Noah Baumbach
His 13th movie
My 10th movie watched from the director

This is the most ambitious movie from Baumbach, a director who typically makes low-key movies. It's still dialogue heavy, one of his trademarks. And, as usual, I love the dialogue - It's snappy, intelligent, and above all, strange. While it's not exactly a satisfying movie, I am perplexed by the generally low ratings. Maybe expectations were off? It is weird and not for everyone, so maybe with Netflix viewers people were expecting something more broad.
My main issue with it is it seemed like two movies trying to be one. The first movie I was really interested in, the second one, not as much and it didn't build on the first one enough.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Films - Noah Baumbach
Top Ten Performances - Greta Gerwig
Top Ten Performances - Adam Driver (HM)


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Location: East Palestine, OH, USA

Director: Marc Forster
His 12th movie
My 8th movie watched from the director

Tom Hanks as a curmudgeon actually works quite well and this adaptation of movie which is an adaptation of a book hits the emotional chords the right way and it's a beautiful life-affirming movie, even it is a fucking a Chevy car commercial, which keeps it from being an 8/10.

Added to Lists:

The Affirmation of Life Through Movies
The Curmudgeons of Cinema
Movie-length Commercials - Chevy


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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Director: Bradley Jackson
His 1st movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

A respectable tribute to one of the greatest pitchers the game has ever seen. It goes through his entire career without feeling like we missed something and never feels long. Seven no-hitters but no Cy Young awards, crazy.
Lots of great familiar baseball faces are seen throughout adding to the delightful and nostalgic feel this documentary provides.

Added to Lists:
A Dozen Great Baseball Documentaries

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Director: Peter Farrelly
His 2nd solo movie
My 2nd movie watched from him as a solo director

This movie really had great potential, but it never hit that high mark. I kept thinking it was going to get really good or there would be a big payoff, but instead it just remained... pretty good and entertaining. I like the unusual perspective on the Viet Nam war and I really liked the direction and filming. Efron is pretty strong, but maybe not tonally consistent.
The dramatic aspects are probably more rewarding the comedic, which is maybe why I was the most disappointed in, as I certainly expected it to be funnier.
Last note - Russell Crowe remains awesome.

Added to Lists:

Viet-Fucking-Nam
Top Ten Films - Peter Farrelly (Solo and with Bobby)
Best Movie Posters - 2022
Most Anticipated Movies - 2022

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Location: Inwood, NYC, New York, USA & Viet Nam (Various locations)

Director: Rian Johnson
His 6th movie
My 6th movie watched from the director

I think this one was about as good as the first one, though it seems to not be as well-received overall. I liked a lot of the symbolism in this one and the Fight Club/Tyler Durden poster reference.
This one unraveled nicely and was filled with notable cast and appealing production design/cinematography. I hope they make a third, I think we would all be happy with more Benoit Blanc.

Added to Lists:

2022: The Year We Made of the Ultra Rich
The Art of the Cameo
Top Ten Performances: Janelle Monae

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Location: A private island in Greece & Lenox Hill, Manhattan, NYC, USA

Director: Maria Schrader
Her 5th movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

A strong duo in Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan, a story that deserved a compact telling of the story through investigative eyes, to put all the pieces together. Nothing brilliant, but worthy and glad it was made and seen.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Carey Mulligan - Honorable Mention
Best One-Scene-Only Performances - Samantha Morton
The Investigation Movie: Ranked


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Location: Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA

Director: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinart
Their 2nd movie
My 1st movie watched from the directors

Quite a spectacle and a movie with high ambitions. The ambitions mostly pay off. At times it feels like there is too much going on... but it makes me want to watch it again, so maybe that's a good thing. The editing and visual effects are hard at work the whole time, the performances are solid, and the writing is clever.
I wasn't into the silliness mixed in with the serious philosophical and relationship things happening; but I'm hearing that's intentional and people like it. So, once again, maybe I need to watch it again.

Added to Lists:

Parallel Universes
Top Ten Performances - Michelle Yeoh

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Location: San Fernando Valley, CA

Director: Jordan Peele
His 3rd movie
My 3rd movie watched from the director

I had lowered my expectations going into because of the mixed reviews, maybe too many people had too high of expectations. However my expectations were, I actually find this to be Peele's best movie of the three. Or, at least my favorite. The characters, the rich backstories, the pacing, the imagery, all of it was quite entertaining, and even a little fun, something that you definitely can't say of the first two.
I really like how they made the characters intelligent and they didn't make stupid decisions, they just worked as a team to take down the enemy. It was refreshing.
I wanted a little more of a denouement, but was fine with it.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Keke Palmer
Top Ten Performances - Steven Yeun
Top Ten Performances - Daniel Kaluuya
The Alien Invasion: Ranked
The History of Movies Through Movies
Best One-Scene-Only Performances (Keith David)
Best Quotes from 2020s Movies (This dream you're chasing...)

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Location: Agua Dolce, CA, USA

Director: Michael Morris
His 1st movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

One of the first scenes of the film we see a flash of daylight hit Leslie's face when someone enters a bar, this is after we've seen her partying, flirting, dancing, drunk, as if it's late at night. We see a subtle discomfort in her reaction to it. So much is said in that moment and stays with us the rest of the film.

I was curious about this movie after there seemed to be an unwarranted complaint about Riseborough getting an Oscar nomination simply because it made so little at the box office. This was a source of irritation for me as that should have absolutely no bearing on such a nomination. Now that I've seen her performance I feel even stronger about this. She killed it.

The scene where she makes the decision to turn her life around (pictured above) is so beautiful, nuanced, with no words only her non-verbal masterful acting and disciplined filmmaking.

Added to Lists:

Cinema's One-Legged Dogs
Top Ten Performances - Andrea Riseborough
Top Ten Performances - Marc Maron
Top Ten Performances - Andre Royo
Life, in a Hotel

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Location: West Texas, TX, USA

Director: David Leitch
His 5th movie
My 5th movie watched from the director

I went into this thinking it would line up with Leitch's "Atomic Blonde", but early on it's clear this one is very different. It's just as comically stylized but it's far more comedic. The comedy works well with the action. It's quick-witted and quickly paced, yet rarely feeling rushed.
I like the large cast of characters except I just couldn't buy Joey King's "Prince". It seemed fake, but for the wrong reasons. The Bad Bunny appearance was a fun surprise, as were the several cameos I won't ruin for you.
The movie does well with making it a fun, yet violent, ride and still managed to get some affectively emotional scenes from its actors.

Added to Lists:

It Tracks - The 25 Best Train Movies
Top Ten Performances - Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Top Ten Performances - Brian Tyree Henry


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Location: Tokyo to Kyoto, Japan

Director: Ron Howard
His 32nd Movie
My 26th movie watched from the director

José Andrés is one of my favorite public figures and I was elated watching this important documentary from Robby Howard. I love the direction Howard has gone in his career, creating documentaries with a humanitarian focus. This is a solid doc that does its job and is impressively edited.

Added to Lists:
A Dozen Great Feel-Good Documentaries
Ronny Howard's Documentaries

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Locations:

Director:
His 5th Movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

This is a movie I can't seem to get out of my head. The imagery and tone hit hard. I'm thankful for knowing nothing about it going in. Fiennes continues to quietly be one of the all-time great actors and the rest of the cast is importantly strong to make any of the ridiculousness believable. I won't say any more so you can hopefully have the same experience.

Added to Lists:
Best Movie Sandwiches - Cheeseburger
2022: The Year We Made Fun of the Ultra Rich
Stuck in One Place
Top Ten Performances - Anya Taylor Joy
Top Ten Performances - Nicholas Hoult
Top Ten Performances - Hong Chau
Top Ten Performances - Janet McTeer
Top Ten Performances - Aimee Carrero

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Location: A Fictional Island near Savannah, GA, USA

Director: Tom Gormican
His 2nd movie
My 2nd movie watched from the director

Taking Meta to a Nic Cage level and having a lot of fun doing it. I was expecting very different movie, with this actually being a feel-good movie. It's a lot of fun and rather sweet. Sure not everything lands and some of the tropes seem more like tropes rather than nods to movies' past. No matter, if you're even a mild Cage fan and fan of movies you will find something to enjoy here. Plus Pascal was great in this.

Added to Lists:

Hollywood Parodies Itself
Top Ten Performances - Pedro Pascal
When Actors Play Themselves

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Location: Mallorca, Spain

Director: Anton Corbijn
His 5th Movie
My 5th movie watched from the director

This is the perfect documentary for director Anton Corbijn, and he does not disappoint. This is not an amazing documentary, but it is purely enjoyable the whole way through and thorough... but not too thorough, as some documentaries on such specific subjects can get.

Added to Lists:
A Dozen Great Documentaries on Design

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Director: Ruben Östlund
His 7th movie
My 2nd movie watched from the director

This is a very interesting one. I was originally curious because of its Cannes win, then an Oscar nom. I think it's a very of-the-moment movie and among the better ones making fun of the ultra rich and our current state of social affairs. The various philosophies touted, the money, and the dignity expunged from the screen all make for an entertaining movie. It's got a strange brand of humor that takes some time to settle in. I think Part I makes sense to be in the movie and I appreciate the societal statements being made, but it is really uninteresting and I was quickly confused as to why this movie was getting accolades. Thankfully I kept going and Parts II and III are what make the movie worthy.
Finally, I found the ambiguous ending to be the perfect ending for this movie.

Added to Lists:

First Shot and Final Shot
Woody Harrelson Gets Drunk
2022: The Year We Made Fun of the Ultra-Rich
The Shape of Things

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Location: Greek Isles

Director: Sara Dosa
Her 4th movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

A beautiful story of two people pursuing a unique passion while being passionate about one another through to the end. The visuals are incredible and editing so impressive.

Side note: Keeping the long tradition of watching a documentary as my first movie of each year (Since 2010)

Added to Lists:

Best Documentaries of the 2020s
Volcanoes

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Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
His 1st movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

A truly delightful movie that takes the short form sensation and transfers it to long form perfectly, even effectively referencing its own success. There is comedy, sweetness, sadness, and lodes of beauty packed into what is a still a small film.

Isabella Rossellini's voice is perfect for her character and brings so much to the movie. It's one of those voice roles that should have been seriously considered for an academy award - seriously why isn't that a category yet?

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Issabella Rossellini
Top Ten Performances - Jenny Slate
The Stop Motion Movies: Ranked
Best Songs Sung in a Movie

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Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA

Director: Jeremiah Zagar
His 4th movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

Sandler delivers a memorable performance in what not a movie with an original take or feel, but it takes on the familiar formula and does it so well, making this a rare and successful crowd pleaser from 2022.
The relationship between the two leads is vital for the success of this film and they got it right. The pacing of the film is also noteworthy, in a genre that can feel rushed and pressured to be shorter by studios, yet it's never slow or boring.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Favorite Basketball Movies
Top Ten Performances - Adam Sandler
When Real Athletes Act
Robert Duvall Can't Quit


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Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA; Mallorca, Spain

2022

Director: Andrew Dominik
His 6th movie
My 3rd movie watched from the director

A movie that asks 'what is exploitation?' while being exploitive. An approach a lot of people didn't seem to like. I liked the idea, even if it is difficult to watch. What made it easier to watch is the incredible cinematography and truly artistic and creative structure of scenes and editing. Even with the difficult subject matter and sadness throughout I was excited to see how the next scene would play out, how the movie would approach the next part of her life. I never could truly believe De Armas in the role, only because of her Spanish accent (Maybe director's fault?), but otherwise she was very impressive, as is the large supporting cast.

Added to Lists:

The Many Interpretations of Marilyn Monroe
Top Ten Performances - Ana de Armas
The Story of Hollywood Through Movies
The Great Big List of American Biopics (In Subject's Chronological Order)

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Location: Hollywood, CA, USA; Various Others

2022

Director: Baz Luhrman
His 6th movie
My 6th movie watched from the director

I love Luhrmann's style, no matter the subject matter. It's unique to him and it always creates a certain excitable energy. Butler does a hell of a job playing the king and Hanks is incredibly, and appropriately, unlikable. The title should have been different because of half the focus being on The Colonel, and it's just a boring title... but that's something director has rarely done right (Rome + Juliet, Australia, etc.). Anyway, the whole production has impressive and the scenes with the performances were certainly the highlight. Going into the movie I wasn't expecting to actually feel bad for Elvis Presley, but I did.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Films - Baz Luhrmann
The History of the Music Industry Told Through Movies
The Great Big List of American Biopics (In Subject's Chronological Order)
Top Ten Movies Where Tom Hanks is Actually a Bad Dude
Top 25 Predictions of Future Stars - 2022 - Austin Butler

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Location: Memphis, TN, USA; Las Vegas, NV, USA

Director: Richard Linklater
His 20th movie
My 15th movie watched from the director

Added to Lists:
Top Ten Films - Richard Linklater (HM)
Movies without a Plot
The Space Race Movies: Ranked


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Location: Houston Suburb, TX, USA

2022

Director: Joseph Kosinski
His 4th movie
My 4th movie watched from the director

You've probably heard it too much by now, but people are right, this is a movie worth watching at the theatre. It is perfect for the theatre, with a big screen and dynamic sound system. The movie itself is pretty solid. The story on itself is good, the references and throwbacks are almost too much, but never eye-roll worthy. It's also, with no doubt, better than its predecessor.
After watching this, knowing how little green screen and VFX were actually used, I have respect for the filmmakers and actors and more impressed with the movie... and the results clearly showed this was the right choice.

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Miles Teller
Top Ten Performances - Glen Powell
Sequels Better Than Their Original
Top 25 Predictions of Future Stars - 2022 - Monica Barbaro

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Location: Miramar, CA, USA

Director: Martin McDonagh
His 4th Movie
My 4th movie watched from the director

A movie about nice people and not nice people. Nice people doing not-so-nice things and not nice people doing nice things. It's about friendship, sibling relationships, loneliness, love for a friend, love for a pet, love of a good pint. It's about music, lack of music, leaving a legacy, going mad and making it known, going mad and not realizing it. It's about abuse of power, abuse of time, and abuse of kindness.
It's subtle and it's not so subtle.
It's feckin' brilliant, is what it is.

Added to Lists:
Top Ten Performances - Colin Ferrell
Top Ten Performances - Brendan Gleeson
A Dozen Irish Films to Love
Carter Burrell is Quietly the Third Best Movie Composer of All Time.

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Location: Fictional island (likely in Aran Islands) in Ireland

2022

Director: Ron Howard
His 34th movie
My 22nd movie watched from the director

I tend to like rescue movies and Ron Howard has had success with rescue movies with "13" in the title... so it seemed like a sure thing... and it was great. Howard's documentary experience seemed to influence the approach to this movie as it almost felt like one. It eschewed a lot of the rescue movie tropes and replaced it with natural non-dramatic dialogue with mostly action of how it happened. There were a few moments of the parents that seemed to against this approach, otherwise it worked really well.

Added to Lists:

Favorite Rescue Movies
Top Ten Films - Ron Howard
Top Ten Performances - Viggo Mortensen
Top Ten Performances - Colin Farrell
Saves in Caves
Thirteen is an Unlucky Number?

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Location: Tham Luang Cave, Thailand

Director: Brett Morgan
His 7th Movie
My 4th movie watched from the director

Added to Lists:
A Dozen Great Music Biopic Documentaries


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Director: Edward Berger
His 5th movie
My 1st movie watched from the director

Gorgeously shot with meticulously crafted cinematography. One of those movies where nearly every shot impresses. I am a fan of the 1930 original, but this one is so different it's tough to really compare. I found the casting affective, finding very young men who looked young, making all the death and loss harder to stomach.
Trench wars were horrible and this movie captures the horrors so devastatingly well.
We don't need more war movies (or remakes), but ones like this make it okay.

Added to Lists:

Cinematography Still Matters in the 2020s
Top Ten Performances: Daniel Bruhl

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Location: Rural Northern France

Director: David O. Russell
His 9th movie
My 9th movie watched from the director

I actually loved this movie. I am fully aware it wasn't well-received, but I was continuously entertained throughout. The cast, writing, unveiled story, cinematography, score, and direction is all top-notch. The one weak spot is maybe the editing, which created a couple awkward moments and the pacing could have been better.
It's yet another story surrounding the Second World War and another stellar Christian Bale performance.

Added to Lists:

Best Movie Trios
Top Ten Films - David O. Russell
Top Ten Performances - Margot Robbie
Top Ten Performances - John David Washington
The Insanely Large Amount of Stories from World War II

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Location: Manhattan, NYC, NY, USA & Amsterdam, Netherlands

2022

Director: Damien Chazelle
His 5th movie
My 4th movie watched from the director

Added to Lists:

The Story of Hollywood Through Movies
Top Ten Performances - Margot Robbie
Top Ten Performances - Brad Pitt
Top 25 Predictions of Future Stars - 2022 - Diego Calva
Top 25 Predictions of Future Stars - 2022 - Li Jun Li

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Location: Hollywood, CA, USA

2022

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
His 7th movie
My 7th movie watched from the director

Added to Lists:
Top Ten Films - Alejandro González Iñárritu


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Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Director: Todd Field
His 3rd movie
My 3rd movie watched from the director

Added to Lists:

Top Ten Performances - Cate Blanchett
Top Ten Performances - Mark Strong
Top Ten Performances - Nina Hoss
Favorite Mad Musicians from Movies
The Double-Meaning Movie Titles


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Location: