Movies I Loved in 2022

  • 3 min read

TL;DR: In 2022 I watched 95 movies, and some of them were incredible. Let me tell you about them!

I watched 95 movies this year, several of which are absolute top-of-list bangers that I will happily watch over and over. The kind of movie I will sit you down and talk at you about animatedly at great length until you agree to watch it. In fact, let’s not wait, pull up a chair, let’s watch one right now!

  • Bullet Train

    Five assassins aboard a swiftly-moving bullet train find out that their missions have something in common.

    The core of this movie is Brad Pitt, who’s taken a simple job to steal a briefcase from a train, and instead runs into every assassin in the world, and they’re all mad at him, and he can’t figure out why. Pitt is always at his best playing lovable confused losers, and he nails it here. “Why?” He yells as a dude tries to stab him. “I don’t even know you, man!”

    But the best thing is that every other character in this movie is also delightful. One of my favorite scenes is when Brian Tyree Henry delivers a monologue about how people are like characters in Thomas the Tank Engine to the exasperation of his partner. This movie features a Weekend at Bernies scene, a Kill Bill scene, and a Speed scene.

    Seriously. I know it’s just a dumb action movie, but it’s now one of my favorites. Just trust me, order some pizza, pop an edible, and enjoy.

  • Everything Everywhere All At Once

    An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.

    Jesus, I don’t even begin to know how to talk about this movie. First, the cast is incredible. Michelle Yeoh effortlessly grounds every scene she’s in. Ke Huy Quan is adorable and sweet and delightful. Stephanie Hsu is a fucking force of nature. And Jamie Lee Curtis milks every bit of humor out of every line she gets. Then drop all four of them into a complicated multiverse scenario that ultimately boils down to the complexity of mother/daughter relationships. This is one of those rare perfect movies that I look forward to watching over and over.

  • Glass Onion

    World-famous detective Benoit Blanc heads to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery surrounding a tech billionaire and his eclectic crew of friends.

    Listen, I just want Ryan Johnson and Daniel Craig to keep making Knives Out films forever. This was the easiest possible sell for me. That said, there are some fucking hilarious pandemic jokes in here. When Kate Hudson showed up wearing a decorative mesh mask, Annie and I fucking lost it. Ed Norton plays a perfectly insufferable Elon Musk type, Dave Bautista nails the mens-rights YouTuber vibe, and Janelle Monáe is perfect.

  • Nope

    Residents in a lonely gulch of inland California bear witness to an uncanny, chilling discovery.

    I love Jordan Peele, but I’m not a huge horror movie fan, so I haven’t watched any of his other films, even though I’ve heard they’re excellent. This one came to me in a round-about way when the UFO community started excitedly sharing the trailer because it shows a UFO. I’m happy to say this movie is fantastic. It’s creepy and unsettling without relying on jump scares, and features at least two scenes of Daniel Kaluuya looking at some crazy shit happening and just shaking his head, saying “nope” and refusing to engage.

  • Palm Springs

    Stuck in a time loop, two wedding guests develop a budding romance while living the same day over and over again.

    If the words “Andy Samberg meets Cristin Milioti at a wedding and is hunted by J.K. Simmons while stuck in a Groundhog Day time loop” aren’t enough to make you watch this, I don’t know what else I can say.

  • The Sunlit Night

    An aspiring painter meets eccentric locals and a fellow New Yorker while working on a barn in Norway.

    Jenny Slate takes an apprenticeship with a cranky painter in Norway, where she meets a sad boy and learns about herself. It sounds awful and trite, but it’s lovely and hopeful. Also starring Zach Galifianakis as a Viking and Gillian Anderson as a Russian. I watched this and then immediately watched it again with Annie.

  • RRR

    A fictional history of two legendary revolutionaries’ journey away from home before they began fighting for their country in the 1920s.

    I can think of no better way to recommend this movie than to show you this video:

    If you liked that (And how could you not? Suspender dance!) the rest of the movie also includes tiger fights, bromance, and revenge.