Xuenou > Movies > The Best Movies of 2022 (So Far)
The Best Movies of 2022 (So Far)
From ‘The Worst Person in the World’ and ‘Cyrano’ to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Tar,’ here are the best movies we’ve seen so far this year, according to Vulture’s film critics Alison Willmore, Bilge Ebiri, and Angelica Jade Bastién.

The Best Movies of 2022 (So Far)

Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos Courtesy of the Studios

It’s never too early to look back and count our blessings at the movies. The range of cinematic journeys we’ve experienced so far in 2022 is dizzying — from poignant hormonal awakenings (Turning Red) to an epic battle across multiple universes (Everything Everywhere All at Once) to a 50-year-old madman’s doomed flight from a jumbo-size cannon (Jackass Forever). And that’s just the start. Here are the best movies Vulture has seen and (for the most part) reviewed this year, according to our critics Alison Willmore, Bilge Ebiri, and Angelica Jade Bastién — arranged in unranked, chronological order.

January

Belle





































































Photo: Anne Joyce/Focus Features

James Gray’s films have always had a deeply personal kick, but he has never made one quite as naked as this mournful family drama set in 1980 Queens. The director’s surrogate here is a young boy named Paul Graff (Banks Repeta), a sixth-grader who’s having trouble at school and bonds with fellow troublemaker Jonathan Davis (Jaylin Webb), with whom he’s usually singled out for punishment. There isn’t much of a central story here. Instead, Gray relies upon the accumulation of small interactions and incidents to slowly form a portrait of an unforgiving world. He cuts from Paul and Johnny’s slowly developing friendship to life at Paul’s home, where the memory and fear of victimhood is still very vivid for his Jewish family. Along the way, we may notice that, while they may seem outwardly liberal, the family’s attitudes about those they see as beneath them, especially Black people, are rather reactionary. We see their racism, their classism, their self-absorption, but these people are not grotesques. Gray has built into the form of the film a quiet exploration of generational failure, and he has zero interest in letting himself off the hook even now. —B.E.

Read Bilge Ebiri’s review of Armageddon Time.

In theaters Showtimes

Related

  • The Best TV Shows of the Year (So Far)
  • The Best Albums of 2022 (So Far)
  • The Best Books of 2022 (So Far)