A thriller that's relatable to the pandemic age.
A dazzling Tollywood film that mixes fact and fiction. A disturbing, "Hamlet"-inspired
drama. There's more to the big screen than just these. Here are the best movies of 2022 so far.
You've heard the term "elevated horror," now get acquainted with its close cousin,
"quiet sci-fi." "After Yang" is a character drama centered
around a father who suffers an unusual loss. The loss has to do with Yang.
Yang is a lifelike android programmed to connect
the father's adopted daughter to her Chinese heritage. However, suddenly Yang shuts down.
While the father seeks out a way to repair Yang, he and his family are forced to ponder Yang's
place in their lives and explore Yang's own inner life that he chose to conceal from them.
Don't be misled by that PG rating: "After Yang" is a tender, patient,
and elegant film for grown-ups that ruminates on themes of memory, intimacy, and identity.
"Belle" follows a talented teenage songwriter, Suzu,
who's been unable to raise her voice in song since the tragic death of her mother.
But when she logs into the futuristic social media platform "U," Suzu transforms into
"Belle," a spellbinding songstress who becomes a global sensation overnight.
As Suzu attempts to reconcile the two parts of herself, she becomes fascinated by an infamous
online prizefighter with a monstrous virtual avatar. Though originally released in Japan
and on the festival circuit in 2021, the critically acclaimed anime musical "Belle"
finally arrived in U.S. theaters in January 2022.
It's nominally an adaptation of the classic fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast"
for the social media age, but "Belle" brings far more to the table than just the familiar
beats of its source material. "Belle" is part timeless and part bleeding-edge contemporary,
as exemplified by its two distinct but equally beautiful art styles.
There’s the painterly traditional animation to represent the real world
and eye-popping cell-shaded CGI to represent the virtual reality of the Internet.
Mix one part college buddy movie with one part thriller and stir in a shot of social commentary
to give it some bite, and you've got "Emergency." A pair of college seniors plan to be the first
Black students to complete a legendary bar crawl on their campus, but their plans are interrupted
when they find an unconscious white girl sick with alcohol poisoning in their living room.
Certain that calling the authorities will only get them arrested or worse,
they embark on an increasingly complicated quest to drive her to the hospital themselves.
A spoonful of stoner comedy helps the medicine go down as "Emergency" highlights
the way systemic racism increases the danger and difficulty of life for Black Americans.
"Think about it statistically.
How many people actually get shot by the cops? It’s like really unlikely."
"What are you talking about!"
The COVID-19 era has produced a number of "locked room" feature films.
They're films produced with a minimal cast in an isolated location to reduce the risks and costs of
working during a pandemic. "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" stands out among this accidental genre.
It's essentially a two-person play set almost entirely in a London hotel room.
Here, Emma Thompson plays a retired ethics teacher who hires a young sex worker
to help her rebound from decades of unfulfilling sex with her late husband.
It's an argument in support of legalized sex work,
but the heady controversial conversation never weighs down this charming, dialogue-driven comedy.
Who would've guessed that the first
honest-to-goodness critical darling of 2022 would be "Jackass Forever?"
The long-awaited fourth installment of the film series based on the MTV
prank show of the same name sees Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and the gang once again
punishing their bodies with elaborate pranks and dares. The twist: this time, they're middle-aged!
The key to this film's critical success is its total sincerity. Despite the increased risk to
their health, Knoxville and company carry on performing dangerous, disgusting bits.
Why? It's simply because they love making each other laugh, and to them, nothing is funnier.
Now, they get to share their legacy with a new generation of comedians who grew
up watching them hit each other's genitals and saying, "Someday, that's gonna be me."
"KIMI" is a thriller that's extremely relatable to the moments of 2022.
Zoë Kravitz plays Angela, a programmer whose job is to manually review garbled or misunderstood
communications between an Alexa-style electronic assistant called KIMI and its users.
When she stumbles across an audio recording of a heinous crime, Angela must try to get the
evidence into the right hands without tipping off its perpetrators. But there's an added
complication — it's the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Angela is severely agoraphobic.
"KIMI" utilizes the unique stresses of the present day,
from the anxiety of being constantly surveilled to the social and economic tumult inflamed by
the pandemic. In doing so, we have a short, sweet hour and a half of intrigue and action.
Debuting at Sundance and hitting theaters and streaming later in 2022,
"Resurrection" is a white-knuckle psychological horror film
in which star Rebecca Hall delivers one of the year's first great performances.
Hall portrays Margaret, a businesswoman and single parent who seems in total control of her life
until a mysterious man from her past resurfaces and sends her spiraling into all-consuming panic.
What is it that makes his mere presence so terrifying?
We are absolutely not telling — you need to see this one for yourself.
Rebecca Hall and Tim Roth sell the film's bizarre and disgusting twists
with such conviction that they can stick with you long after you've finished watching.
In 1996, director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson ushered
in a new era of horror movies with "Scream," in which a group of teens
are hunted by a mysterious killer who's obsessed with slasher movies.
Each "Scream" sequel has commented on the nature of horror sequels and the changing
landscape of horror cinema. This fifth entry tackles the contemporary trend of the "requel,"
in which "legacy characters" pass the torch to a new generation.
But, as always, "Scream" isn't just about dorky inside jokes for cinephiles,
it's also a thrilling horror "whodunnit" in its own right,
with scares and chuckles in equal measure. "Scream" can be enjoyed as either a jumping-on
point or a satisfying conclusion to one of horror's most consistent franchises.
The streets of Gotham City have never been grittier than in "The Batman,"
a new interpretation of DC's most popular superhero.
Despite being yet another reboot that takes the character "back to basics" as a lone
crimefighter chasing gangsters and serial killers, "The Batman" still feels distinct.
It’s different from both Christopher Nolan's nuts-and-bolts realism
and Tim Burton's dark whimsy. More than any previous Batman film,
it's a detective story, closer to a 1970s neo-noir than a modern action blockbuster.
Within the film's ambitious three-hour runtime you'll find memorable performances, gorgeous
photography, and the most in-depth exploration of the title character ever to hit the big screen.
"Don’t make me hurt you?"
"You better watch it!"
Based on the popular 19th-century French stage play, "Cyrano" is a musical romance starring Peter
Dinklage as a warrior poet who's hopelessly in love with his oldest friend, Roxanne.
This latest twist on the classic romance features
original songs written by members of the indie rock band The National.
It also showcases Dinklage's untapped potential as a leading man,
both during the film's comedic first hour and its heavier, dramatic second half.
Evelyn Wang is an exhausted and unfulfilled laundromat owner who's just trying to get her
taxes done when she's suddenly recruited to fight in an interdimensional war.
To save the multiverse, Evelyn will have to learn how to "verse-jump".
She'll have to tap into the feelings, memories, and skills of her alternate selves,
all of whom have done more with their lives than she has.
"Everything Everywhere All at Once" is uproariously funny,
visually dazzling, and deeply moving. Michelle Yeoh delivers an Oscar-worthy lead performance,
and that's without even factoring in her multiple off-the-wall fight scenes
that demand both great technical skill and comedic timing.
Overachieving eighth-grader Mei Lee awakens one morning to discover she has transformed
into a giant red panda, just as every woman in her family has for generations.
Mei's panda form emerges whenever she experiences strong emotions,
and her mother Ming expects her to rein it in, like she did. But what if Mei likes being an
excitable furry monster? "Turning Red" is a joyful celebration of friendship, family,
and how the awkward process of growing up complicates both.
"It must be so difficult keeping that unruly beast at bay."
Director Michael Bay's maximalist style of action
filmmaking has rarely produced a better product than "Ambulance"."Ambulance"
is a pulse-pounding heist thriller that's basically a feature-length car chase.
It's the story of two brothers — one a career criminal, the other a desperate
Marine veteran — attempting to escape a deadly bank robbery in a stolen ambulance
with a brave EMT and a badly wounded police officer as their hostages.
Bay infuses "Ambulance" with a killer combination of old- and new-school production techniques.
There's practical automotive action and also a metric ton of pyrotechnics perching cameras
on the noses of high-speed stunt drones that give
the audience a first-person view of their daring dives and barrel rolls.
The screenplay's not exactly Shakespearian, but when it comes to dizzying blockbuster fun,
look no further.
As Siddhant Adlakha of IndieWire puts it:
"["RRR" is] a dazzling work of historical fiction — emphasis on the 'fiction.'"
RRR is essentially a superhero epic based on two real Indian revolutionaries of the 1920s
who likely never actually met. It's a violent, thrilling,
heartfelt, and gleefully over-the-top Tollywood action/musical blockbuster.
Its song and dance number, "Naatu Naatu" has gone mega-viral online,
and it teases only a small fraction of the bombastic excitement of its battle scenes.
"RRR" is no hollow spectacle. Beyond its anti-imperialist political message,
"RRR" also boasts one of the most unreservedly sincere bromances in modern cinema.
It's a three-hour film that energizes rather than exhausts its audience.
By the time the credits roll, you'll feel like you could punch a hole through the moon.
"The Bad Guys" follows the exploits of a gang of famous thieves who attempt to rehabilitate
their public image, pretending to reform while actually planning their biggest crime yet.
Based on a series of graphic novels for young readers by Aaron Blabey,
the art style of "The Bad Guys" embraces its 2D, ink-and-paper origins.
This results in a distinctive and fun visual aesthetic that
looks like nothing DreamWorks has produced before. Looper's Alistair Ryder calls it:
"The studio's best effort since the first 'How to Train Your Dragon' sequel."
It balances out its lowbrow kids humor with a surprisingly good send-up of hip heist films
like "Ocean's Eleven" and "Reservoir Dogs".
In this very modern thriller, a young woman exhausted by the online dating scene
takes a chance on a charming stranger who she meets at the grocery store.
He seems too good to be true — and of course,
he is — but nothing could have prepared her for the gruesome reality of his intentions.
"Fresh" is a grim, bloody tale with a sick sense of humor,
a cutting criticism of the way men commodify women and their bodies.
It's not a subtle film, and its politics are sometimes transparent to the point of pandering,
but its message has value. The film as a whole offers far more gasps than it does groans.
From celebrated director Robert Eggers comes this unflinchingly brutal historical fantasy,
based on the ancient Viking epic that inspired Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
The dethroned Prince Amleth will stop at nothing to exact vengeance against the uncle who slew his
father and kidnapped his mother — but will his quest leave him more beast than man?
"The Northman" is as visually stunning as it is disturbing, a meticulous and unsanitized
portrait of the grim and miserable past. In Amleth's blood-soaked world,
cruelty is the only currency, and debts are always paid with interest.
"I am Amleth, the beowulf!"
The premise of "The Lost City" is rather similar to the 1984 adventure film
"Romancing the Stone", in which a romance novelist finds herself on
a real-life treasure hunt through the jungle with a roguish hunk at her side.
"The Lost City" is as much a parody if this idea as it homage. Sandra Bullock plays a
bestselling author of erotic adventure novels who's washed up and embarrassed of her success.
Instead of a devilish Indiana Jones type, she's paired up with the sweet but dimwitted model,
played by Channing Tatum, from the cover of her books.
While "The Lost City" doesn't approach the level of craft on display in "Romancing the Stone",
it's the sort of charming, low-stakes adventure flick we wish would hit the big screen more often.
Is "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" a cinematic masterpiece on par with the likes of "Paddington 2?"
No, not quite. But is it a comic action-adventure that's an absolute blast to watch? It is indeed.
The super-fast blue hedgehog of Sega fame once again fights the diabolical
Dr. Robotnik. Once again, we see Jim Carrey demonstrate that he's just as much a cartoon
as any talking animal that the effects department can render.
But now, the cast of computer-generated characters has expanded, bringing the series
closer to the purely animated kids film franchise it probably should have been in the first place.
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