Top Films of 2022

2022 was a year where the world felt like it began to approach some semblance of normalcy after a trying start the new decade. New routines began while old ones resumed and theatergoing was among the things that appeared on the latter list as audiences slowly, if not irregularly, returned to the movies. The first half of this year at first seemed like this would be yet another slow trip around the sun for non-blockbuster American films, but once awards season ramped up in the fall, so did the quality we were treated to and 2022 came to an end as a pretty decent year for movies overall.

In our estimation, international markets continue to rise as the place to turn to for moviegoers who want more mature, adult-oriented fare as superheroes continue to dominate U.S. cinema, but the success of Top Gun Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water have perhaps signaled the first crack in the damn for capes and spandex at multiplexes and the return of blockbusters committed to the craft of quality filmmaking. Below is our ranking of the 50 releases we watched and reviewed this year.