The end of 2022 is upon us, and December is often seen as a time to reflect on all that has happened in the year, and what an insane twelve months we have just had, with political chaos galore, our first change in monarch since 1952, and many global disputes and conflicts. However, it’s good to know that some things never change, the most notable similarity being we got some really good and fun films this year. 

I will be honest and declare that I haven’t seen as much this year as I would like to have done, and safe to say I have a lot of catching up to do in the new year regarding 2022’s more critically-lauded releases. However, I have definitely seen enough to make a roundup of my top four favourite films that I saw this year. Like my lockdown roundup from a while ago, this isn’t in any particular order of what I enjoyed most or which one is better objectively, but consider this as my diary of the main things I watched this year that I felt were worth talking about. 

So, without any further ado, here’s my 2022 roundup!

Everything Everywhere All At Once

I have no doubt that at least one person this year has told you about Everything Everywhere All At Once. It’s easily one of the most acclaimed films to release in 2022, and also strangely accessible – the film melds many genres such as superhero, science-fiction, martial arts, comedy, and fantasy but never feels like it’s tripping over itself with the immense amount of ideas it has to play with. 

I haven’t seen much starring Michelle Yeoh, but this film shows her excellent versatility and she is really funny throughout the film’s surprisingly long runtime. She truly is an underrated actress and I’m really glad this film is giving her exposure again. 

The film is also just absolutely hilarious, partly because of the film’s weird odd-ball charm but generally from the brilliant performances by Jamie Lee Curtis, in a character that is certainly a far cry from her role in Halloween, and Short Round himself Ke Huy Quan as Michelle Yeoh’s nerdy, loving husband, who is responsible for some of the film’s best running gags.

The action can feel a little bit generic towards the end, but that’s really just me nitpicking and trying to find flaws. It’s a heartfelt and crazy blast of a movie that has some of the most memorable sequences of any film so far this decade. God bless those two rocks.

Nope

Jordan Peele’s latest film as director has probably had the most muted reaction out of his three films so far. Speaking as someone who hasn’t seen Us but has watched Get Out and thoroughly enjoyed it, I was interested to see him take a shift away from horror to science-fiction territory, and I think Nope succeeds in delivering a really cool, original and off-kilter look at extraterrestrial life. 

The look of it is stunning. It’s not a film that dazzles you with big effects or sweeping music, but the desert terrain and a moodier tone are not things you see often, and I think it’s brilliant that Jordan Peele is still stamping his own vision onto whatever he touches. The film definitely has his weirdness all over it – I won’t give too much away but there is some stuff involving a monkey that would’ve been the weirdest live-action thing I’d seen this year had it not been for Everything Everywhere All At Once. 

The building tension in the first half is really well-done, it uses a lot of night-time footage and obscured visions to get across the feeling that something’s hidden above the clouds, and the understated performance of Daniel Kaluuya worked brilliantly. The second half of Nope is a more action-focused narrative, but as always the unsettling atmosphere remains and it does a great job of combining the two seemingly separate plot strands from the first half. 

As I said, I haven’t seen Us so I can’t speak with full authority on Jordan Peele’s directorial work, but he continues to prove his strengths as a filmmaker with Nope, and if you want a unique take on an alien invasion, I’d really recommend this. 

Turning Red

It’s not often that I get to discuss Pixar, an animation studio that loads of us grew up with, but that’s mainly because I’ve felt diminishing returns from some of their more recent films over the last five years or so, and I felt inspired to discuss this one because I think this is the studio’s best movie since Coco. 

It’s another one of those Pixar films that deal with the more difficult and grown-up subject matter but in a very comforting and family-friendly way, and the fact that it got loads of religious conservatives into a fit over its explorations of puberty and sexuality shows that Pixar is doing things right and pushing just the right buttons. 

As ever Pixar’s animation is fantastic but I do love the art style here. It’s like a more kid-friendly anime and it’s cartoonish but never feels like it’s forcing any exaggerated designs onto the screen, and the designs of the (red) pandas to make them seem more fluffy and cute was a nice touch. 

I think my main problem with Pixar recently is that I don’t get the same distinctive Pixar charm or feel to some of the films, as both their releases and Disney’s new animations begin to bleed into one. Despite this being a different movie in their wheelhouse, I felt like the Pixar charm was truly back in a way that I haven’t felt for a while now. It’s really heartwarming and uplifting and a really good animated film. 

The House

I’m finishing off with another animation, only something that is darker and way weirder than anything Pixar will ever make. The House is a stop-motion animated anthology film that consists of three half-hour shorts all falling somewhere on the line between quirky and genuinely unsettling. 

The first short, And Heard Within A Lie Is Spun, gives off a sense of eeriness and tension that I honestly don’t think I’ve seen in an animated film since Coraline. Very few things are answered in The House, and there is very little that connects the three shorts beyond the setting and an odd line here and there, but I love that vagueness – it allows the audiences to interpret the events themselves, how the house itself changes over the years depending on who occupies it. 

The next two shorts are not quite as striking as the first, but they were still fantastic – the third plays almost like a domestic drama, whereas the second is without a doubt one of the most quietly bonkers things I’ve ever seen in animation. 

I thought The House was tremendous, and if you were faced with the option to watch only one of these four films that I’ve discussed today, I would highly recommend it to be this one. There are bits of imagery that will stick with you for a long time.

2022 Roundup

Nope – Amazon Prime! Everything Everywhere all at Once – Amazon Prime! The House – Netflix Turning Red – Disney Plus