With 2023 around the corner, it’s time to list my favorite movies of 2022! Considering the main movies up for awards so far, this year was a bit underwhelming for me. Most movies loved by the majority of people simply didn’t impact me the same way, so my list will probably be a bit different.

There are, of course, some movies I sadly won’t be able to see in 2022, most notably, Living, Women Talking, The Whale, and Babylon.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

10 – Top Gun: Maverick

As I wrote earlier this year, I enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick way more than its predecessor. It has great action sequences and it really is a fun watch. However, I’m not as fixated by it as apparently everyone else, since it’s the highest grossing movie of the year at the moment (Avatar: The Way of Water might pass that mark early in January). I guess I’m more into Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies!

9 – She Said

For those who like movies such as All The President’s Men and Spotlight, She Said might be a good option. It focuses on the two journalists from The New York Times (played by Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan) who broke the story about Harvey Weinstein’s crimes in 2017, which started the #MeToo movement. Instead of depicting his abuses and facing the risk of being too sensationalist, She Said spends its time showing how the journalists gather the evidence and talk to the (often reluctant) witnesses. It’s definitely not the most thrilling movie of its genre, but it does grab the audience’s attention and it’s very well made.

8 – The Good Nurse

Based on true events, The Good Nurse tells the story of how Amy Loughren, a night nurse (played by Jessica Chastain), begins to suspect her co-worker Charles Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) is involved in a series of sudden deaths of their patients in the ICU. Similarly to She Said, The Good Nurse doesn’t focus on the deaths, giving the audience more time with Amy and her friendship with Charlie and how it slowly changes. Eddie Redmayne’s performance is the highlight of the movie.

7- Till

Even though Till is not my favorite movie of the year, it has my absolute favorite performance of 2022. Danielle Deadwyler is simply extraordinary as Mamie Till, a mother who became an activist after her 14-year-old son was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi in 1955. I wasn’t familiar with this heartbreaking story and the movie was eye-opening. As with previous films on this list, Till has no intention of actually showing the violence. Instead, we witness one of the most gut-wrenching scenes I’ve seen in movies: the moment when Mamie sees her son’s barely recognizable body in the morgue. If Danielle Deadwyler doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for this role, the Academy will have made a serious mistake.

6 – Thirteen Lives

Another common characteristic of this year’s list is that many movies are based on real events, which is what happens in Thirteen Lives. Set in 2018, it tells the gripping rescue story of twelve boys and their soccer coach that got trapped inside a cave in Thailand. Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell play the British cave divers who found the group alive almost 10 days after they went missing. Ron Howard’s direction of the underwater rescue leaves us at the edge of our seats even though we know how the story ends. It’s one of the many movies I wish more people had seen in 2022.

5 – The Outfit

Criminally underrated, The Outfit was one of the best surprises of 2022. Set completely in a tailor shop, it follows the daily routine of Leonard Burling (Mark Rylance), an English cutter who owns the place in a Chicago neighborhood controlled by gangsters, who are his frequent customers. It might sound like an average drama, with not much going on, but it quickly becomes an exciting thriller, thanks to the excellent ensemble cast (Zoey Deutch, Johnny Flynn, Dylan O’Brien, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Simon Russell Beale) and Mark Rylance’s great performance.

4 – Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Even though the synopsis might turn people away (a middle-aged, recently widowed woman hires a sex worker to fulfill her sexual desires), Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is surprisingly funny, smart, thought-provoking, and moving at the same time. Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack do spend 90% of the movie in a hotel room, but they end up having extremely interesting conversations about life, choices, and assumptions we make about other people. Both actors give excellent performances as well.

3 – TÁR

TÁR is Cate Blanchett’s movie through and through. She plays Lydia Tár, a famous composer-conductor and the first female chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. To say she’s complicated would be an understatement. She’s undoubtedly talented, very sure of herself, and extremely opinionated. Slowly, however, the movie shows us her insecurities and her flaws, testing the waters of the #MeToo movement where women are the perpetrators while discussing the never-ending debate of “should we separate the art from the artist?”

2 – The Fabelmans

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical movie could have been a crowd-pleaser if only the audience wasn’t apparently getting enough of “movies talking about the movie industry” as the trailer might suggest. However, as I explained in my review, it is a very interesting retelling of his childhood/teenage years, focusing a lot on his parents. The Fabelmans just proves why Steven Spielberg is a gifted storyteller.

1 – Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Easily the most fun I had in theaters this year, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery takes the first spot because it was the only movie of 2022 I sat through without looking at my watch to see how much longer it would last. I was so interested in the story and so curious to see where it was going, that I was fully engaged with it until the end. You can read my full review here.

No musicals or animated films on my list this year, which is shocking in and of itself, specially when compared to last year’s top 10. So let’s hope 2023 brings better, more exciting movies!