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Even with movie theaters starting to reopen this year, it was still a banner few months for movies on streaming. Whether it was continued simultaneous theatrical releases, or the now standard 45 days after cinema release, movie fans had more options than ever before.
Luckily, so did the team at Decider, who watched a ton and picked a few for their list of the best movies of 2022… So far. Those include a real multiverse of madness with Everything Everywhere All At Once, a twisted take on the rom-com that’s juicy enough to sink your teeth into with Fresh, an incredibly nuanced animated movie about a girl who turns into a giant red panda with Turning Red, and a whole lot more.
But how did we decide on this list? Great question. The staff of Decider was asked to provide their list of the top ten movies that have premiered since January 1, 2022. From there, those were ranked, weighted, culled together and result in the list you see below. Does that mean that movies more of us saw had a better chance of getting listed? Certainly. But the list is still a fun snapshot of the past six months.
Take a look below for the full list, and get ready, because there are still a whole lot of movies coming before the year ends…
'Watcher'
Watcher premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and has been terrifying audiences ever since. Chloe Okuno makes her directorial debut with this haunting and deliberate psychological horror thriller about Julia (a gripping Maika Monroe), a young American woman who moves to Bucharest with her Romanian husband (Karl Glusman) when he gets a new job. Lonely and unnerved in her new surroundings, Julie notices a man (an unsettling Burn Gorman) watching her from the apartment building across from hers just as a serial killer called “The Spider” begins to stalk the city. Well-paced, suspenseful, full of dread, minimalist and effective, Watcher will keep you guessing about Julia’s state of mind until the film’s well-earned conclusion. — Karen Kemmerle
'Apollo 10 1/2'
Whether or not you grew up in Houston in the 1960s, Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood will make you yearn for those specific, simpler times. That’s the magic of filmmaker Richard Linklater, whose recent animated Netflix film combines his real childhood with his childhood fantasy, aka, a top-secret mission to the moon. But the best parts of Linklater’s nostalgic retrospective take place back on earth, as the protagonist recalls—via a voiceover from an unusually subdued Jack Black—the brilliant efficiency with which his parents provided an all-American childhood for their six children. Perhaps it’s a rose-colored view of ’60s Americana, but it’s beautiful to look at, and it goes down easy on a lazy Sunday afternoon. — Anna Menta
'Kimi'
Kimi, HBO Max’s claustrophobic thriller, is further proof that Steven Soderbergh is America’s most dependable and versatile auteur. The beguiling Zoe Kravitz stars as Angela, an agoraphobic tech worker whose attempts to report a violent crime overheard on a customer’s “Kimi” — an Alexa-like home assistant that records everything in the user’s home—lead her to uncover a dark secret about the founder of the company she works for. Clocking in at just 89 minutes, Kimi is a well-paced and well-executed Hitchcockian tale that will make you look twice at all your smart devices. — Karen Kemmerle
'Scream' (2022)
Scream holds a soft spot for dedicated and casual horror fans alike, which explains why the franchise is now in its fifth movie and second decade. The latest Scream film served up a new slate of unlucky victims for Ghostface, including one beloved, longtime cast member, and provided a satisfying twist, much like the original that started it all. It also stayed true to the tropes we’ve come to love and expect from any installment in the slasher series (Opening phone call scene? Check!), and of course brought back the final girl(s): Sidney and Gale, which is what you see any Scream movie for, anyway (cough, cough, please bring Neve Campbell back for Scream 6!). — Greta Bjornson
'The Northman'
Bloody and beautiful, The Northman is the epic viking film we have been waiting for. With a star-studded cast including Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, and Anya Taylor-Joy, this film is a story of revenge and the sacrifices made to achieve it. The Northman combines Norse mythology, action, and horror into an intensely memorable film that will keep audiences on the edge of their seat until the very end. — Hannah Schinzing
'Chip 'n' Dale: Rescue Rangers'
Okay, so, Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers should have been bad. At best, it should have been passable all-ages entertainment with rapping chipmunks and too many poop jokes. Instead, screenwriters Dan Gregor and Doug Mand and director Akiva Schaffer put a bewildering amount of thought and detail into what we all assumed was gonna be a ’90s nostalgia cash-in. The movie created a richly developed toon world, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and it served up as many laugh-out-loud jokes-per-minute as a 30 Rock marathon, if not more! Top it off with surprisingly layered character work from John Mulaney (Chip) and Andy Samberg (Dale) and you easily have one of the best movies of the year. I mean, were any other movies brave enough to give us Ugly Sonic? — Brett White
'Cha Cha Real Smooth'
Cha Cha Real Smooth is an earnest exploration of post-college aimlessness. Written and directed by Cooper Raiff, the coming-of-age charmer follows Andrew (Raiff), a Bar Mitzvah party host who strikes up a friendship with a mother (Dakota Johnson) and her autistic daughter (Vanessa Burghardt). An evocative film that’ll make you laugh, cry, and reminisce about the halcyon days of the past, Cha Cha Real Smooth is indie movie magic. — Josh Sorokach
'The Lost City'
The Lost City is a giddy celebration of a type of movie that has long gone out of fashion: a star-studded, action-filled, romantic comedy. Riffing off the legacy of Romancing the Stone, The Lost City follows what happens when a romance novelist finds herself thrown into one of her own stories. In this case, Sandra Bullock is the cynical writer, Channing Tatum her cover model-turned-wannabe rescuer, and Daniel Radcliffe is the mercurial villain stealing the show. The Lost City is silly, saucy fun. — Meghan O’Keefe
'RRR'
To paraphrase 1999’s The Matrix: Unfortunately, no one can be told what RRR is… You have to see it for yourself. But I’ll try anyway, because RRR might be the most glorious time you’ll have watching a three-hour movie this year. Ostensibly the story of the lost period of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, RRR posits: what if they met each other, became friends, and it was rad as hell? Featuring some of the most insane action sequences ever filmed, incredible dance numbers, and an engrossing plot that mixes fantasy and history, RRR is an experience unlike any other, and the only bad part is that there aren’t another three hours to watch once you’re done. — Alex Zalben
'After Yang'
If you could only remember 10 seconds of each day of your life, which moments would you save? That’s a question I’ve been pondering since I saw After Yang, Kogonada’s gorgeous sci-fi drama. Colin Farrell and Jodie-Turner Smith star as a husband and wife who purchase a robot of Chinese descent for their adopted Chinese daughter, who then deal with the fallout of that when the robot, Yang (played by Justin H. Min), malfunctions. It’s a quiet, slow-moving film. But Kogonada—best known for his 2017 film Columbus—has constructed a fictional future so deeply beautiful, so acutely precious, you’ll never want to leave. — Anna Menta
'Top Gun: Maverick'
Tom Cruise hopped into an F-14 and shot himself into the stratosphere of movie superstardom with 1986’s Top Gun, a pumped-up dose of Reagan-era machismo that still works quite well on both surface and subtextual levels. It took 25+ years for a sequel to emerge, but unlike, say, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the wait for Top Gun: Maverick was well worth it. Director Joseph Kosinski eschews the dramatically inert greenscreen soundstage production techniques that have rendered the Marvel properties all but unwatchable in favor of REAL locations, REAL airplanes, and most importantly, REAL PEOPLE with REAL EMOTIONS. Cruise still plays the cocksure Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, of course, but the years since he emerged from Miramar have taken their toll on him; he spends most of this movie atoning for his past sins (romantic, professional, and otherwise) while imparting his world-weary wisdom onto a new class of hot shot naval aviators. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most of all, you will FEEL something — specifically, that feeling of why you fell in love with movies in the first place. — Mark Graham
'Good Luck To You, Leo Grande'
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande doesn’t need CGI or multiverses to set off explosions. The film, which is essentially a two-hander between living legend Emma Thompson and incendiary up-and-comer Daryl McCormack, tells the story of how one dashing sex worker breaks down a prudish widow’s walls. The twist is she does the same for him. What makes Good Luck to You, Leo Grande so magical is how it not only celebrates sexuality, but champions radical self love. Intimacy isn’t a dirty sin, but a gift we give ourselves…and hopefully others. — Meghan O’Keefe
'I Want You Back'
It’s rare to find a rom-com that tinkers with tired tropes and challenges expectations these days. That’s what makes Prime Video’s I Want You Back, directed by Jason Orley and written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, so refreshing. The film follows Emma (Jenny Slate) and Peter (Charlie Day) — two recent dumpees turned fast friends — on a quest to win back their exes. The robust comedic stylings of Slate and Day perfectly complement each other on screen, and when their characters are apart, cameos from Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto, and even Pete Davidson steal your attention. The charming, delightfully awkward story of rebuilding after self-destruction keeps you on your toes and deserves a spot in the slow-burn hall of fame. — Nicole Gallucci
'The Fallout'
It’s disturbing to admit, but Megan Park’s directorial debut may be the teen drama of our time. What starts as a normal school day for Vada (Jenna Ortega) and Mia (Maddie Ziegler) devolves into a nightmare when their lives are torn apart by a school shooting. What follows isn’t a tragic reflection on the lives of these poor children or a fiery call to action, though both those perspectives appear in the film. Really, The Fallout is a surprisingly charming movie about Vada’s sometimes weird, sometimes sad path to recovery. She drinks too much red wine. She takes ecstasy in the middle of the school day. She has sex. Ortega is a powerhouse, effortlessly drifting between emotionally devastating breakdowns and laugh-out-loud moments of ridiculousness. The Fallout, in its own gentle way, captures the complexity of shared trauma. – Kayla Cobb
'The Batman'
Given Batman has been around for over 80 years, and we’ve been watching movies featuring the Dark Knight for over three decades, it seems nearly impossible that director Matt Reeves and company found a fresh take on the character. Yet, thanks to a stellar cast led by Robert Pattinson as an emo-Bruce Wayne, that’s exactly what The Batman did. A character study that elevates Gotham City and its residents to new, Nirvana-fueled heights, The Batman is exactly the dark, gritty story it seems to be on the surface. But it’s also surprisingly fun to watch, particularly as Batman matches wits with an incel version of The Riddler (Paul Dano). But the true triumph of the movie is that by keeping everything focused on and revolving around Batman, for the first time in film history the title character is more interesting than the villains around him. Bring on the sequel. — Alex Zalben
'Hustle' (2022)
No disrespect to icons like Happy Gilmore and The Waterboy, but Adam Sandler’s Hustle might just be the star’s best sports movie yet. Now streaming on Netflix, the film follows the story of Stanley Sugerman, an NBA scout who discovers a talented street baller (Bo Cruz, played by Juancho Hernangomez) while in Spain. After being fired from the 76ers, Sugerman trains Cruz for the upcoming draft as he tries to make it back into the NBA. An absorbing underdog story that basketball fans will relish, Adam Sandler’s newest film is a slam dunk. — Josh Sorokach
'Fire Island'
If you’re craving a movie that’s just great time, look no further than this romantic comedy from director Andrew Ahn and writer and star Joel Kim Booster. A beat-for-beat remake of Pride and Prejudice, this movie proves why Jane Austen’s work has stood the test of time. The jokes and the writing are as strong as the drinks. But where Fire Island truly excels is as a love story. Bowen Yang is a standout as a wide-eyed romantic who remains charming and funny even during his most vulnerable moments, and the chemistry between Booster and Conrad Ricamora is simply swoon-worthy. In a microcosm defined by hookups and one-night stands, Fire Island tells two love stories that are so sweet, they’ll make you scream “Kiss!” at your TV. — Kayla Cobb
'Turning Red'
Turning Red just may be the most relatable film in Pixar’s impressive oeuvre. Yes, it is a highly specific film about a teen Chinese-Canadian dealing with body change drama while being hyper hormonal at the height of early ’00s boyband mania. But those hyper-specific details are crucial. How often do we get to see coming-of-age stories where girls are in the lead? And isn’t it rare to see the passions of teen girls treated with the kind of endearing accuracy usually reserved for superheroes? The themes, though, they are universal. The film is about so much more than just a girl turning into a giant red panda! If you’ve ever feared disappointing your parents, if you’ve ever struggled with your identity, if you’ve ever grown up, then Turning Red is going to make you so emotional. — Brett White
'Fresh' (2022)
From start to finish, Fresh lives up to its title. The comedic thriller invites you in under the guise of a modern day rom-com, waits until you’re smitten, then unexpectedly shoves you butt first into a dark, deranged alternate reality. When the dreamy plastic surgeon Steve (Sebastian Stan) outs himself as a cannibal, his latest romantic interest Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) embarks on a bizarre fight for her life. Whether Fresh is dropping a title card 30+ minutes late or showing viewers a fully stocked fridge of human meat, Mimi Cave’s directorial debut is a one-of-a-kind viewing experience. It’s a skip for the squeamish, but if your stomach is half as strong as Stan and Edgar-Jones’ on-screen chemistry, definitely give it a try. — Nicole Gallucci
'Everything Everywhere All At Once"
You know a movie is special when you’re laughing at butt plug jokes in one moment, and sobbing over the concept of finding meaning through love in the face of nihilistic despair in the next moment. From filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka The Daniels, this is a movie like no other you’ve seen before. Perhaps that’s why we like it so much. The story follows Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) who unexpectedly finds herself hopping through her other lives in the multiverse. But this is not Kevin Feige’s multiverse—these multiverses include a universe where everyone has hot dogs for fingers, a universe where Evelyn is a rock, and a universe where Pixar’s Ratatouille is real (albeit with a raccoon). You’ll laugh, cry, and cheer on the career revival of the fabulous Michelle Yeoh. This is her Odyssey. — Anna Menta
