There are a whole load of criteria that we use to select the movies on this list. Some are here because of their artistic merit and technical proficiency. Others were truly revolutionary. Some had singular performances. While others made the cut simply because of how they made us feel. There are never any objective standards behind these things, just informed opinion that is bolstered by good taste, reasoned judgement, and experience. So what are the best movies of 2022? These are our picks.* In no particular order.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
This is Charlie Kaufman meets Rick and Morty, with the unhinged aesthetic of Terry Gilliam, and the mise en scène of Michel Gondry. It is the kind of meta, multiversal mayhem that is so fucking original that it will either leave you utterly inspired or find you rocking back and forth on the floor mumbling to yourself that nothing else matters.
Top Gun: Maverick
The embodiment of everything that blockbuster cinema is, Top Gun: Maverick is Hollywood escapism at its finest. But don’t let all of the flash and pop distract you from the fact that it’s an exceptionally well written, tightly plotted, and perfectly executed piece of moviemaking.
The Menu
With its incisive observations and cutting social commentary, The Menu spoke to every one of our current preoccupations and eccentricities, forcing us to confront our own privilege and reassess our own toxicity like no other movie this year.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Great movies should make you feel things. Cha Cha Real Smooth is one of those minor coming-of-age stories about love lost, and found, and lost again. Wide-eyed, funny, and heartfelt, this one is chock full of relatable characters that you will immediately fall in love with.
Decision to Leave
Park Chan-Wook’s story of love and heartbreak, wrapped in a cold procedural murder investigation, complete with cold mountains and tragic beaches, doesn’t just homage Hitchcock, but reinvents him with a uniquely Korean sensibility.
RRR
RRR is a wild, crazy, balls to the wall, roller coaster of a movie. It has all the touchstones of South Asian cinema as well as the wild abandon of 1990s Hollywood. It is visually inventive, creatively violent, and epic in scope and scale, without ever losing sight of its emotional core.
Nope
There are maybe a handful of directors who can seamlessly bridge arthouse intellectualism with blockbuster popcorn fare. Every frame of this movie is perfectly composed, with every element – performance, dialogue, colour, composition, music – contributing to the narrative.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Glass Onion is as close to perfect a sequel as it gets. It’s full of clever little details, uproarious humour, and a flashier, twistier mystery. The characters are richer. The script is funner. All with some cutting social commentary thrown in for good measure. This one is bigger, brasher, and possibly even better than Knives Out.
The Batman
This is the superhero movie as hardboiled crime fiction. It is as much Raymond Chandler as it is Bob Kane. This is a superhero movie about fathers and sons, about the price of vengeance, about the promise of renewal and the power of hope. This is the Batman that you’ve always wanted.
Turning Red
Clarissa Explains It All meets Teen Wolf, with a soundtrack by NSYNC, and some Miyazaki whimsy thrown in for good measure, Turning Red is joyous and hopeful, bright and beautiful, culturally specific, and yet completely universal.
Notable Mentions
Tiga Janda Melawan Dunia. Elvis. The Black Phone. Prey. The French Dispatch. Confess, Fletch. Rosaline. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Fresh. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Avatar: The Way of Water.
*Notes: 1) This year at Goggler we watched 175 movies and 133 television shows (as of December 25). 2) Because we do not download movies illegally, there are some notable releases (namely, The Fabelmans, Tár, and Triangle of Sadness) that we haven’t yet seen because they either weren’t or haven’t yet been released in Malaysian cinemas.
Follow Us