Watching the film industry transform in 2022 has been more fascinating—and alarming—than anything currently playing in theaters. The hammer blow COVID dealt to movie theater attendance became more obvious than ever: Heavy-hitters like Steven Spielberg and George Miller delivered box office duds, while viewers stayed home en masse and binged on their favorite streaming series.
It took sure-fire crowd-pleasers such as Top Gun: Maverick and superhero tentpole movies like The Batman to lure crowds back, which is a shame. Studios’ fixation on the bottom line has made smaller, riskier, more experimental movies scarcer than ever. Interesting films continue to come in from overseas, including Decision to Leave, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Bigbug.
It was a good year for documentaries including Moonage Daydream and the flawed but fascinating Fire of Love. In terms of filmmaking technique, it seems like most directors let their movies drag on 20 or 30 minutes too long.
The production company A24 consistently produced some of the more entertaining and unusual films, including Everything Everywhere All at Once, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and the interesting misfire Men, while the company’s X and Pearl were vivid reminders that horror remains eternally popular with moviegoers.
But determining the magical element that makes a movie popular, or a critical success, has generally proved elusive. Tragically, the shared experience of seeing a movie with an audience is being overtaken by streaming. Hang on to your DVDs and BluRays, though, because streaming services catalogs are shockingly limited, and movies vanish from them all the time.
Here are a few of 2022’s cinematic highlights:
Crimes of the Future
At 79, writer and director David Cronenberg has lost none of his ability to craft distinctively bizarre worlds on screen, or to go straight for the jugular. Crimes of the Future is 100 percent pure body horror a la Cronenberg, served up with his usual gallows humor. This gem is not for everyone: Some viewers will be revolted, but if you like his work, odds are you’ll love it.
Decision to Leave
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) deliberately toned down his usual violence and sexual excess to create the intriguing, beautifully shot Decision to Leave. What begins as an engaging murder mystery gradually transforms into a perverse romance of sorts, between a detective (Park Hae-il) and his suspect (Tang Wei). It has Hitchcockian overtones—mainly Vertigo—without veering into blatant Brian De Palma-like homages. It’s a little overlong, but even the excess is gorgeous.
Fire of Love
This National Geographic documentary about two volcanologists in love, Maurice and Katia Krafft, is more compelling than most dramatic features. The Kraffts’ unusual relationship, quiet bravery, and the research they devoted themselves to makes for riveting viewing. Their intimate footage of volcanic activity becomes almost visually abstract and, as the film progresses, the Kraffts’ efforts achieve a hypnotic power. Watching these epic forces at work offers a fascinating perspective on humanity’s insignificance from within our own world.
Three Thousand Years of Longing
Australian filmmaker George Miller’s bittersweet supernatural romance shows once again how he almost always defies being pigeonholed in any one style or genre. Foregoing the manic action of his Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller takes his time developing the growing attachment between a buttoned-down academic (Tilda Swinton) and the millennia-old Djinn (Idris Elba) she accidentally releases from a bottle. Miller treats his characters with far more humaneness and empathy than many of the boring, despairing movies vying for awards this year. That, and the director’s deftness in handling mythic material in the yarns the Djinn tells, make it Miller’s best in years.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
The title character is one of the most likable movie stars of 2022, and looks like he was cobbled together with bits and pieces from a craft store’s cutout bin. When director and co-star Dean Fleischer-Camp inadvertently discovers Marcel (the voice of Jenny Slate) and his grandmother (voiced by Isabella Rossellini) living in a miniature environment within an Airbnb rental, he transforms Marcel into an internet sensation. What follows is excellent, family-friendly viewing that offers pithy commentary on everything from the warped nature of online fame to facing loved ones’ deaths. Its complex stop-motion animation seems deceptively simple in a charming DIY way.
Confess, Fletch
For decades, Chevy Chase has been synonymous with Gregory Mcdonald’s detective and con man extraordinaire Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher. Star Jon Hamm and director Greg Mottola successfully revived the character in Confess, Fletch, but without Chase’s trademark goofy glibness and cleaving much closer to Mcdonald’s original concept. The ensemble cast is consistently funny, down to the smallest characters, and the Blue Note jazz soundtrack is a major plus. This is the kind of low-key, unpretentious comedies there should be more of.
Moonage Daydream
Director Brett Morgen’s cinematic experience about David Bowie isn’t a definitive documentary on the rock superstar’s life and work. But Bowie is such an intrinsically interesting person and musician, Moonage Daydream is a can’t-miss concept for an incredibly entertaining movie, and it doesn’t disappoint. Through concert footage, vintage interviews, and other recordings from Bowie’s personal archive, Morgen captures the late icon’s ever-changing, singular nature. Continually articulate and present, Bowie’s interviews reveal his intellect and talents to be light years beyond the average rock star’s.