2022 was certainly a year for cinema, there were a lot of movies that came out, both in theaters and digitally through streaming services with a lot of really good films, and a lot of really bad films. Notable flops include the works of Marvel’s 4th Thor attempt and the weird inclusion of Morbius into the Sony catalog that no one was asking for. Also, worth noting the thousands of awful low budget romcoms on streaming services where the only claim to fame is the fact that they got an old Disney Channel teen to be in a movie where they make sex jokes. Also, Jurassic World was bad.
Brenna Robinson’s Top 10 Films of 2022
I’m not sure I’m qualified to declare whether or not it’s been a “good year” for film. Like everyone else, I spent the first two years of the pandemic watching movies in my bedroom, so to have an entire year that felt almost normal– the theaters opening again, delayed projects finally getting released— is enough for me to count 2022 as a massive win. The fact that some of the new releases from this year have made their way onto my list of all-time favorites certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Harrison Hall’s Top 10 Films of 2022
Perhaps it’s a little too early for me to speak so boldly on this topic, but 2022 was far-and-away the most formative year of my entire life so far, something that movies played no small part in. This was the year that I really discovered my taste in film, beyond the circle of stuff like Pulp Fiction or The Shining that everybody kind of likes anyways. A Sam Raimi binge fine-tuned my brain to horror films– a genre I had previously written off as not-my-thing, now one of my absolute favorites. I’ve begun to crack the pre-1980s bubble that had long eluded me, which opened my eyes to an entire new galaxy of movies. But what’s most relevant to anybody reading this article: 2022 is the year that I set up camp and became a movie theater goblin. I visited the movie theater 72 times in 2022, finishing the year having watched more than 60 2022 releases, a fair increase from having only seen 20 films in theaters the year before (granted, COVID was a much greater obstacle in the way of theatrical releases in 2021 than it is today). I will disclaim that my viewing habits are strongly dominated by American films, as I only have reliable access to Regal/AMC theaters– i.e., not arthouse. As such, the international presence on this “best of the best” list is more than likely underrepresenting the fantastic movies that are produced overseas– I wouldn’t know, because I didn’t get the chance to see them. But with that aside, here are my favorite films of 2022.