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It's that time again! Very exciting time when I go back to my spreadsheet (yes, I'm that kind of nerd!) and compile my list of the best movies of the year. Very tough choices this year, but that seems to be like any year. People who say "there are no good movies coming out" always confuse me, because I had to leave off so many really cool movies off my Top 35. And there are still lots of 2022 releases I've yet to see like: How to Blow Up a Pipeline, The Five Devils, Joyland, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Little Nicholas, Oink, Unicorn Wars, The Sales Girl, I can go on and on... It's why this list is always evolving, since I constantly update my living annual lists when I see and discover new movies. So, with that said, here is my list. I always want to add commentary for every movie but I feel overwhelmed and I'm not great at talking about movies. I just like watching them!
Top 35 Films of 2022
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Aftersun
- Mars One
- Tár
- Babylon
- The Quiet Girl
- Kimi
- Turning Red
- Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
- Blonde
- Nope
- Fresh
- Barbarian
- Triangle of Sadness
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- Three Months
- Emily the Criminal
- Decision to Leave
- RRR
- Girl Picture
- Causeway
- Prey
- M3GAN
- Cha Cha Real Smooth
- The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
- Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
- Pearl
- Close
- Men
- You Can Live Forever
- Bodies Bodies Bodies
- Please Baby Please
- Palm Trees and Power Lines
- Klondike
- Armageddon Time
I've been waiting for this list! Those people that say, "there are no good movies coming out" are just consuming what Hollywood is forcing down their throats, and it's actually kinda sad.
I love your list, it's super eclectic as always. A few that really jump out at me are Kimi at #7. A lot of people missed that one and I thought it was a really good little thriller in the same vein as Rear Window. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is one I didn't see because I thought it seemed to get mixed reviews, but its placement has me intrigued.
So happy to see Emily the Criminal and Decision to Leave on there as well. Decision to Leave is a film I think will continue to grow in popularity. Not enough people have seen it once, let alone twice, which I feel is somewhat required.
I continue to work on my 2022 list. There are still a few films I need to see before I can tie a bow on it. The very first film on the top of that list is Aftersun.
Yeah, I knew I was going to love Kimi just from the trailer and the premise and I was right. It's such a good techno-thriller like Soderbergh's Side Effects and Contagion, but I feel even better. Leo Grande was also such a pleasant surprise. It's just two characters and it's sexy and sensual and sensitive, I really think Emma Thompson could've had a Best Actress nomination here. Decision to Leave I've only seen once so far but it was a really singular experience, definitely need to watch it again and then it might move up the list.
Your No. 1 makes me happy. It's my favorite of 2022 also.
I haven't bought physical media -blu rays, DVDS, video game discs - in years but I actually bought EEAAO on Blu-Ray so I could own it forever. Plus the sentimental value of course.
Every year I seem to really like a couple of movies everyone else seems to actively dislike and I don't know what it is. In 2021, that was Eternals (one of the best MCU movies for me and I think the only MCU movie still on my annual lists apart from Endgame), and The Matrix Resurrections. This year that's Men and Blonde, the latter of which I thought was a near-masterpiece and I'm still not comprehending all the hate for it.
The same can be said for Babylon, actually. I also loved the film, so I was happy to see that so high on your list. The only film I'm not familiar with is Mars One. It's not easy to have a film ranked so high on a list like this without me ever hearing of it, so I'm intrigued.
I know Babylon wasn't a box-office success, but I never consider how much money a film made as any kind of indicator. On Letterboxd, it has a very good rating, however. I really thought Babylon was such an amazing experience. The "Hello, college!" scene had me rolling with laughter. The entire thing was just genius. The ending montage was a complete WTF moment and I loved it. And that score! That was one of the few misses the Academy made on Sunday! And Mars One was really great as well, you should check it out, it's on Netflix. I think I just found out about it via the trailer. A much more simple and intimate drama, but so beautiful and touching.
I see Babylon has a very strong 3.9 Letterboxd rating (that's out of 5), but on RT looks like it's 56% and the main criticism is that it's "chaotic"? LOL that's the point!
Believe it or not but we're halfway through 2023. As usual, curious to see what are some of everyone's top movies of the year so far?
My preliminary Top 35 of 2023 is here. As usual, there are still lots of big movies from the past year I need to see that I expect can make my list (The Boy and the Heron, How to Have Sex, Chicken for Linda, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, The Monk and the Gun, etc.), but for now this feels good. As always, it's a living list and is never set in stone:
- Barbie
- Past Lives
- Anatomy of a Fall
- The Zone of Interest
- American Fiction
- May December
- Dream Scenario
- Poor Things
- Leave the World Behind
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
- A Thousand and One
- Afire
- The Delinquents
- Fair Play
- Nimona
- The Holdovers
- Robot Dreams
- Polite Society
- Soulmate
- The Creator
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Elemental
- Godzilla Minus One
- Landscape with Invisible Hand
- The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
- Oppenheimer
- Rye Lane
- 20,000 Species of Bees
- Monster
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Priscilla
- Bottoms
- They Cloned Tyrone
- When Evil Lurks
It doesn't make sense to have a thread about the best movies of this decade (2020-2029) when we are not even half way through the decade. This thread could be a debate for 10 years,
We just go year by year and then reflect in 2030, if we’re still around.
Barbie at #1? Surprising.
So many films over the past few years I still haven't seen. Covid screwed over my enjoyment of the movies, along with film school. It's not only harder for me to get to the theatres on my own to see these smaller, art house films (which usually have a limited window), but for the first few years of decade the only place to catch many of the oscar movies is on streaming and I ain't paying 25 goddamn dollars to watch a movie at home. And then so many of those films after their digital premieres ended up on Prime or Apple or other OTT services I don't have so they basically don't exist for me...unless I go back to torrenting and I'd prefer to support these films than pirate them.
Mae's list of her top 35 movies has gotta be longer then my list of 2020s movies I've actually seen.
All that said: my #1 film so far is Poor Things.
Have you seen All of Us Strangers, mae?
For me the 2020's have seen a dearth of good films. The whole experience of going to a theater was shanked by Covid, the preponderance of insipid superhero movies, then actor/writer strikes. For four years I didn't care.
It's hard to build up excitement. I used to go to the theater 35+ times a year. I haven't been to the theater 30 times total since 2020.
I can see that, and I feel like 2023 was a very strong year for movies. In the 2020s the smaller streaming movies have exploded and have been excellent (of course the vast majority of them are decidedly not).
It's actually the opposite for me. The day theaters opened back up during COVID I was there and it was amazing. My friend and I were typically the only people in the theater.
Most big-budget films weren't coming out, so I got to see a lot of smaller films in theaters like Sound of Metal. There's still nothing like going to the theater and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. I watch a lot of movies at home. I have a great setup, but I never truly unplug from society at home like I do at the theater.
Also, great list as always, Mae.
And I can't stop thinking about it since. It's probably the defining movie of the decade for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsTOQGjP-U