2022

This year I started really getting into movies. I watched a bunch, but I'm putting together a list of the movies I saw that came out this year (more or less)

Worst to Best

• 14. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - By far the worst movie I saw this year. I barely remember the plot, other than it squandering all the promise of a world with dinosaurs living in the wild for yet another dino park, this time with big locusts
• 13. The Lost City - This is a completely fine movie, but not really my thing. I saw it in theaters with some family and it was a nice time, so if it seems like you'd enjoy it you probably would.
• 12. Turning Red - I liked it, but I don't have strong feelings about basically any part of it. On another day it could be 4 or 5 places higher though
• 11. The Northman - I saw this in a completely empty theater, which made for a weird experience. I really liked a lot of what it was doing conceptually, but it just didn't quite land for me
• 10. Glass Onion - Not nearly as good as the first, but still a well made sendup of whodunnits with some great performances
• 9. Belle (2021, but released over here in 2022) - I liked it a lot, some of the scenes were breathtaking. Others were there. The twist was one of the most wild things I've ever seen in theaters
• 8. Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (another 2021 anime, though this one was basically a 2022 release anyways) - I read the manga before watching this, but it's a very good shonen action story with immaculate presentation
• 7. Prey - Very well made action movie. Nothing special, but it does basically everything it needs to right. Bonus points for the Comanche dub
• 6. The Menu - Watching it actually made me think less of Glass Onion, and I think this did a bunch of what that did but better. (examining a wide swath of rich assholes, private island setting, working woman who wasn't supposed to be there and watches the island go up in flames at the end). I liked the stuff about art and artistry, though the class commentary was a little muddled
• 5. Inu-oh (yet another 2021 movie that didn't make it out of Japan til this year) - Masaaki Yuasa's work is always a treat to see, and this was no exception. The extended musical performances were enthralling, and Inu-oh's gradual transformation was compelling enough on its own. I really want to see this again, but I haven't had the chance
• 4. Elvis - I wasn't expecting it to be that much, having somehow never seen a Baz Luhrmann movie in my life, but it was so much for the entire runtime. I was entertained the entire time. Austin Butler gave an amazing performance. Tom Hanks gave a performance as well. But having said that, there were movies that were more constantly on than Elvis, and another one that I liked better that I watched the same day at the same theater
• 3. RRR - RRR rules. That's really all there is to say on the matter. Definitely the best action movie of the year, the eternal tale of struggles against imperialism mixed with dance battles and tiger punching and just about everything you could ask for in a movie
• 2. Nope - A modern day western, a monster movie, a film about the film industry, spectacle, and how humans respond to trauma. But above all else, this is a blockbuster. This has a soaring climax that could compete with anything I've ever seen. I went in expecting Close Encounters, but what I got was a mix between Jaws and Alien
• 1. Everything Everywhere All at Once - I've seen this movie 4 times. This movie made me cry and laugh all four times. The movie looks amazing, the costuming and editing and effects are all top notch, the choreography is all entertaining and understandable, and it caps it all off with a David Byrne + Mitski duet