Top Ten of 2022

Riley Cassidy
Dec 29, 2022
8 min read

Another year gone by! Time to spiral over the inevitable and ever quickening passage of time and compartmentalize my experiences throughout this vast tear through a series of organized lists. While there are still many films that came out this year that I haven't watched yet, I would love to take you on a journey through my personal favorite movies that came out this year. Now more than ever we crave connection, meaning, and catharsis on a molecular level, and in their own unique ways, each of these movies provided that for me in spades.

10. BONES AND ALL dir. Luca Guadagnino

"All I think is that I love you."

Cannibals, romance, road trip odysseys, those include at least two of my favorite things and I'll let you determine which ones. Luca Guadagnino has an incredibly keen sense of capturing what it is like to grow up. To have so many enormous feelings bubbling up inside you and no concrete outlet to express them, or at least no concrete outlet that will allow you to be heard. Taylor Russell's Maren and Timothée Chalamet's Lee find just such an outlet in each other as a reflection of themselves. Beyond their shared cannibalistic urges, they also share a deep sense of abandonment, a sense of longing to belong, to be seen, to even be loved.

Gruesome, heartbreaking, and beautiful, BONES AND ALL is a stunning depiction of what it is to be alive, to love, and to let yourself be loved. To find that place we are all searching for where you are wholly safe and accepted. And it also just so happens to be a gnarly cannibal flick at the same time.

9. BODIES, BODIES, BODIES dir. Halina Reijn

"A podcast takes a lot of work, okay?"

The rare, and dare I say only movie, that attempts to satirize gen z culture and actually ends up being sidesplittingly funny. It also manages to be a thrilling, compelling whodunnit, with a reveal I never would have guessed, and I just think that's fun. While I do think it's enough for a movie to be entertaining, mindless fun, BODIES, BODEIS, BODIES also makes very cogent points about paranoia, the weaponization of trauma and oppression, and other deeper issues that feel particularly prescient in the digital age.

The entire ensemble cast provides incredible, fully realized (if at times unbearable) characters, but Rachel Sennott as Alice in particular steals the show. Whip smart delivery of some of the most moronic sentences a human could utter, she is so exciting to watch and with this as a follow up to her performance in the equally wonderful SHIVA BABY, I can't wait to see how far her star will rise.

8. MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp

"Suddenly we're one large instrument."

This fucking shell made me cry so hard you guys. I was never incredibly taken by the virality of Marcel beyond watching a few videos in my middle school hallway and going about my day. That being said, what Fleischer-Camp and Jenny Slate (Marcel) were able to create here is nothing short of magical, as well as the most achingly human film I saw in this entire year. Perhaps it's because this movie came right when I needed it, at the precipice of a moment of great (and somewhat unwanted) personal change, I saw this little shell be scared yet brave, sorrowful yet hopeful, inanimate yet so alive and funny and sweet all at the same time.

An enchanting portrait of grief, acceptance, and the breathtaking realization that we are all part of something larger beyond ourselves, MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON is one of those movies that reminds me of the pure power of cinema, as well as what it means to be a part of this great big world.

7. JACKASS FOREVER dir. Jeff Tremaine

"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail."

Hear me out. If JACKASS FOREVER didn't make it onto your top ten list, you weren't paying attention. Having never seen a Jackass movie or a single episode of the TV show, I went into this film just wanting to see some guys get hit in the nuts and laugh about it. While I certainly got that to an astronomical degree, what shocked me was that I also got a story of camaraderie, empathy, and friendships standing the test of time. In addition to that, I also got Johnny Knoxville being shot out of a canon, Steve-O's dick riddled with bee stings, and a grown man shitting his pants on camera.

It's a movie I've revisited several times throughout the year and it never fails to bring me joy, laughter, and a little bit of hope. I believe that's what movies were made for.

6. NOPE dir. Jordan Peele

"Right here, you are going to witness an absolute spectacle."

Jordan Peele somehow manages to come out with films that fill me with more wonder, awe, and fascination every time, so much so that I actually fear what he will come up with next. NOPE so perfectly encapsulates what is so beautiful and terrifying about cinema, and also just the world of instant gratification that we currently live in. The danger of this perceived need for everything to be a spectacle, documented and shared as far and wide as possible. It's unnerving and uncomfortable and all too familiar.

Beyond that, NOPE is a bonafide adventure movie that brought me back to feeling like a little kid watching a Spielberg film for the first time. Plus it's gory and chilling and funny, and stunning to look at, all things that I love so much.

5. ON THE COUNT OF THREE dir. Jerrod Carmichael

"I fucking love you dude."

What a wonderful year for Jerrod Carmichael. Between a very successful turn hosting SNL, the marvelous stand up special ROTHANIEL, and directing his debut feature, ON THE COUNT OF THREE, it has felt like a privilege to be aboard the Carmichael hype train in 2022. My enthusiastic recommendation of this movie however does come with a fair bit of caution as the inciting incident revolves around a suicide pact and these darker topics are not shied away from in the slightest. ON THE COUNT OF THREE tells the story of two best friends as they are consumed by the deep wells of despair and childhood trauma they have had to navigate, to varying degrees but similar intensities.

Bleak and funny, tragic and life affirming, it is frighteningly easy to see yourself in both of these characters as you find yourself hoping against all hope that they come to a different conclusion by the movie's end. Featuring two of the greatest performances of the year from Carmichael, and one of the most overlooked actors we have currently working, Christopher Abbott, this is one movie that hasn't let me go since I first saw it. I'm only mad I didn't think to make it first.

4. CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH dir. Cooper Raiff

"Most people in the world aren't your soul mate."

Speaking of movies making me angry, CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH is a film that I found myself furiously cursing throughout much of the runtime because it's just that damn good. Cooper Raiff has a way of writing characters that are so real and messy in a way that makes it look so easy. There are countless movies about how it feels to be an aimless twenty-something stumbling through life, and CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH doesn't pretend to be anything more than that. In its lack of artifice or pretension though, it unlocks something so incredibly cathartic and human, and that's where the true genius of this movie lies. It accesses a wealth of thoughts that feel too niche or personal for anyone else to understand, and to see them on a big screen just feels so validating.

CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH is a movie that treats its subjects with care, and as a result, you as the audience feel equally as cared for. It's a movie that tells you life is complicated and hard, and it's okay that it's hard. It offers no answers or roadmaps, merely the assertion that you are not alone, and at times that can be the most comforting thing of all.

3. X dir. Ti West

"I will not accept a life I do not deserve."

Some of the most fun I had in a movie theater this year was screaming and hollering in a dark room full of strangers as we all experienced X on opening night. A true celebration of horror cinema for the gritty, sexy, bloody, heartfelt, and above all else human genre that it is at its core, you can just tell that X was made by people who really get it. Horror has always been for those who have been made to feel othered, like monsters, unwelcome and unwanted by polite society. X embraces those things and even finds the beauty in them. It shows us how so many of us want the same thing, to be desired, to be appreciated, to be seen.

Delightfully self aware, with the ability to give the people what they want and pull the rug out from under them simultaneously, X is a blood soaked, hypnotic nightmare full of all things depraved and all things beautiful. It is one goddamn fucked up horror picture and I am so grateful for its existence.

2. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE dir. Daniels

"This is how I fight."

A miracle of a movie. Daniels' previous film SWISS ARMY MAN was one of the first to really show me how much I could care about movies and what they mean to me. Their specific brand of existentialism fills me with so much dread but always leaves me with a newfound sense of hope and I have no idea how they manage to do it. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE felt like the perfect follow up, building and expanding on their ideas and delivering them to the audience in a way that is awe inspiring. It's as confusing and painful and mystifying as life is and does the impossible in the way it perfectly captures what it means to be alive.

Relationships are messy, whether they be interpersonal, or just within your own self. Each one is different and every choice you make in any given moment leads to a new outcome. It's overwhelming and suffocating and undeniably human, leading me to believe that at our core we all just want to be understood. It is difficult to properly articulate how I feel about a movie like this, because there simply is no other movie like it. Personal and universal, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is the blueprint.

1. HYPOCHONDRIAC dir. Addison Heimann

"You'd be surprised how the mind can affect the body."

And finally, a movie that I knew I was desperately, head over heels in love with the instant the credits began to roll, HYPOCHONDRIAC is my favorite movie of the year. Horror will always have the number one place in my heart and this film beautifully encapsulates all the different elements that make the genre what it is. HYPOCHONDRIAC is full of explicit queerness, something essential to the lifeblood and fabric of the genre, tapping into universal fears through a specific, heightened lens. It's a movie that leads you to question your own reality and ask if you can be really sure of what you're seeing. It's thrilling and heart pounding, fully immersing you in each moment that you are experiencing.

You are right there with Zach Villa's Will, just as scared, confused, and open as he is. Is everything he is experiencing a byproduct of a mental illness, or is there an actual wolf-like nightmare creature invading his day to day life? How much of himself is too much to reveal to those he loves and those he hopes will love him in return? HYPOCHONDRIAC makes you feel like if he will be okay, you will be okay too and I think that's one of the most incredible gifts that a movie can give.