Jacob Hall's Top 10 Films Of 2022

2022: pretty rough year for humanity, pretty darn good year for film! I've yet to meet anyone who could survey the past 12 months and honestly claim they became better off because of them, but I have seen with my own two eyes that the movies were great. And maybe it was because the news headlines were bleak day-in and day-out, but I was pleasantly surprised that many of those great movies were pieces of pure entertainment, wide releases from major filmmakers that didn't just meet expectations, but surpassed them with grace and top-notch craft. When I sat down to assemble my top 10 list of 2022, I did not expect it to be so full of crowd-pleasing blockbusters, but anything else would've been a dishonest list. These were the movies I needed in 2022, and I'm glad they came into my life.

And before you ask: "Elvis," "Babylon," "Bones and All," and "Decision to Leave" were all tied for eleventh place. 

In a year that was dominated by a seemingly unending line-up of incredible horror movies ("Smile," "Deadstream," "The Black Phone" and many others were considered for this list), "Barbarian" proved to be the most pleasant and shocking surprise. The kind of horror movie that benefits from knowing as little as possible going in but also proves even more effective on a second viewing when you can see the pieces moving into place with such care that it's no wonder you were so taken aback the first time, Zach Cregger's darkly funny and brutal examination of safe spaces and the insidious underbelly of the American home is a delirious trip that is sure to discombobulate even the most seasoned horror fan. Freely rotating between gross-out nastiness, stomach-churning dread, and audience-pleasing wildness, "Barbarian" is the total package and the announcement of a new important name on the modern horror scene.

What if you took a legendary story about with an often-unacknowledged and sinister undertone of "conformity at all costs" and inverted it to be a tale of rebellion, individualism, and the power to change others rather than change yourself? Director Guillermo del Toro's mesmerizing take on "Pinocchio" is one of the most beautiful movies released in 2022, a stop-motion marvel that is never not incredible to look at. But its real power lies in the subversion of its material. By moving the story to 1930s Italy, the film positions itself squarely as an anti-fascist fable in an era when we need that more than ever, and tells the story of a puppet without the hindrance strings surrounded by men who are under the control their own brutal masters. It's the kind of head-slapping metaphor that makes you wonder why no one thought of it before in the countless other times this story has been told. Rarely has an old story felt so fresh, so new, so relevant, and so damn alive, and by the time the film redefines what it means for the title character to become a "real boy," you'll be weeping too hard to think straight.

Since Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" arrived in 2019, I have watched the first Benoit Blanc mystery too many times to count. It has emerged as a comfort watch — a brilliantly told whodunit anchored by a delightful cast and Daniel Craig at his absolute best. The fact that all of that applies to "Glass Onion," a film that I like just as much as the first one, suggests that I will have the sequel on repeat for the foreseeable future, too. Johnson has found a formula that just plain works: a darkly comedic mystery carried on the shoulders of a brilliant rotating ensemble, anchored by Craig's increasingly entertaining Blanc, swirling around a core of social commentary that lends the frothy proceedings a vicious bite. Benoit Blanc, one of the great characters of 21st century cinema, is the southern fried moral crusader we need, and the fact that Rian Johnson is already working on a third film is the best kind of good news.

There was no bigger, wilder surprise in 2022 than "RRR," director S.S. Rajamouli's three-hour action epic about the power of bromance in the face of colonialism. Playing like history reimagined as a lunatic comic book, the film's astonishing action and goofy humor is what gets you in the door — but it's the surprising earnestness that wins you over. This is a movie that's as outrageous as any "Fast and Furious" film, but it's built around an emotional core so sound that you can't help but fall in love with the characters, even as they're engaging in jaw-dropping action scenes that make most Hollywood movies look anemic in comparison. It's safe to say that you probably haven't seen anything quite like this movie before, and that when the fastest three hours in human history are over, you'll probably be annoyed that most films aren't "RRR."

I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" at the SXSW Film Festival, where I reviewed it and awarded it the first 10/10 I have ever given a movie in over a decade of working in this industry. I still stand by that review, even after multiple viewings, and feel that the latest film from the directing duo Daniels is the best American film in years. This is a masterpiece of kitchen sink filmmaking, of artists throwing everything at the screen and watching, miraculously, as the results feel as anarchically cohesive as an actual human soul. A blend of science fiction and action, of big ideas and low comedy, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" is the antidote to the modern landscape, a movie about how everything is a big, impossible mess, and the only solution is to be kind in the face of it all.