The Sixth (and possibly annual but probably not because this was fucking exhausting) Dixon Movie Awards
Another shitshow of a year is in the books, folks. War rages on in Ukraine, and for some idiotic reason the US keeps funding it, bringing us closer each day to the brink of Kubrickian farce. Inflation is out of control, and the economy is clearly in a recession, regardless of whatever it is they’re calling it now.
At least we had movies to dull the pain. 2022 was the year that movies finally returned to the cinema in full force, or at least as full as that force is ever going to be. Some films are still going straight to streaming platforms, and the theatrical window is smaller than ever. But even so, it felt great to be back at the movies this year.
It was a bit of weak year in cinema in my opinion. This is the first year I’ve written this comprehensive ranking article that I haven’t given any movies an A grade, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t dozens of great 2022 films worth seeing and discussing. Come journey with me through the cinematic year that was, as we patiently await our inexorable nuclear demise.
Every 2022 Movie I Saw, Ranked
B- and above is a thumbs up. C+ and below is a thumbs down. I highly recommend anything A- or higher.
A-
1. The Banshees of Inisherin
2. Triangle of Sadness
3. Men
4. Mad God
5. Neptune Frost
6. Cha Cha Real Smooth
7. After Yang
8. Moonage Daydream
9. Happening
10. Athena
11. Last Flight Home
B+
12. Top Gun: Maverick
13. The Northman
14. Vortex
15. Cow
16. Dos Estaciones
17. Decision to Leave
18. Smile
19. Good Night Oppy
20. Women Talking
21. Holy Spider
22. Resurrection
23. Love Song
24. Bros
25. Montana Story
26. Playground
27. Tantura
28. EO
29. Aftersun
30. Entergalactic
31. Descendant
32. Bad Axe
33. Fire of Love
34. Anais in Love
35. Hit the Road
36. The Same Storm
37. Down with the King
38. In Front of Your Face
39. Eternal Spring
40. You Won’t Be Alone
41. Lux Aeterna
42. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
B
43. Nope
44. Hold Me Tight
45. A Chiara
46. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
47. To Leslie
48. Murina
49. Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
50. Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story
51. Prey
52. All Quiet on the Western Front
53. Everything Everywhere All at Once
54. Belle
55. Bones and All
56. She Said
57. Broker
58. Return to Seoul
59. Tár
60. Turning Red
61. Close
62. The Inspection
63. The Wonder
64. The Menu
65. God Forbid: The Sex Scandal That Brought Down a Dynasty
66. Free Chol Soo Lee
67. My Old School
68. Riotsville, USA
69. Rodéo
70. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
71. Emily the Criminal
72. Causeway
73. Clara Sola
74. Inu-oh
75. RRR
76. Avatar: The Way of Water
77. Dual
78. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
79. The Girl and the Spider
80. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
81. On the Count of Three
82. The Batman
83. Master
84. The Tale of King Crab
B-
85. Corsage
86. Please Baby Please
87. Living
88. Babylon
89. Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
90. What We Leave Behind
91. No Bears
92. Disfluency
93. Retrograde
94. There There
95. Sam & Kate
96. Devotion
97. Il Buco
98. Both Sides of the Blade
99. A Couple
100. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
101. The Whale
102. Barbarian
103. Three Thousand Years of Longing
104. Vengeance
105. Bullet Train
106. God’s Creatures
107. The Pale Blue Eye
108. The Stars at Noon
109. White Noise
110. Armageddon Time
111. All My Friends Hate Me
112. Paris, 13th District
C+
113. Compartment No. 6
114. The Fabelmans
115. Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
116. Hustle
117. Saint Omer
118. I Love My Dad
119. Blonde
120. Hatching
121. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
122. Vesper
123. Don’t Worry Darling
124. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
125. The Bob’s Burgers Movie
C
126. Amsterdam
127. See How They Run
128. Violent Night
129. Rifkin’s Festival
130. Funny Pages
131. Dark Glasses
132. Elvis
133. X
C-
134. Crimes of the Future
135. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
136. Empire of Light
137. Pearl
138. Intregalde
D+
139. Lightyear
D
140. Dead for a Dollar
141. Samaritan
142. Adventures in Success
D-
143. Pinocchio (this one)
Best Picture: The Banshees of Inisherin
Have you ever had a friend that you wish would just stop bothering you? The most Irish movie of all time follows two friends whose lives are thrown into chaos when one tells the other to just feckin’ shush like. I actually did this to a friend of mine in middle school. I thought he was annoying, and I didn’t have the maturity to deal with the situation, so I just stopped talking to him. This led to some awkward interactions in the hallway between classes. The guy didn’t deserve it. I wish I could go back in time and have an adult conversation with him instead of acting like he didn’t exist, but it is what it is. Needless to say, I felt quite a bit of guilt watching this movie.
This type of scenario is sad when it happens with children. It’s sad when it happens with adults too, but it’s also pretty damn funny. Martin McDonagh’s film takes place on a small island off the coast of Ireland in April 1923 as the Irish Civil War is nearing its end. Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) meet at the only pub on the island every day at 2pm to drink themselves shitless and do some good normal chatting. One day Colm refuses to sit with Pádraic and tells him that he doesn’t like him any more.
Pádraic is a kindly dullard who prides himself on being a nice guy. He just wants to spend the rest of his days talking with his buddy and drinking unhealthy amounts of Guinness. Colm is an aging musician who wants to write a brilliant piece of music before his death so that future generations will know his name. He has no place in his life for dull conversations about what Pádraic found in his little donkey’s shite that day.
The abrupt ending of this once strong friendship creates ripple effects through the small community of islanders who are unsure how to deal with the rending of the normally stagnant social order. Pádraic has no idea how to handle the heartless rejection of his best friend and quickly falls into a confused depression that upends the stable routine of his sister and roommate Siobhán (Kerry Condon), who prefers to read alone at home rather than deal with her brother’s emotional problems.
When Pádraic tries to mend the friendship, Colm tells him that the next time he talks to him, he’ll cut off a finger from his own left hand and give it to Pádraic. Each time he talks to him again, he’ll cut off another finger. As a fiddle player yearning to write a song that will outlive him, this is a bit of a self-defeating gesture.
This extreme premise creates a lot of comedic interactions. McDonagh’s script is full of jokes as awkward scenarios play out between different characters (and I will never not laugh when someone says “feck”), but the film’s humor sits beneath a heavy cloud of melancholy.
McDonagh analyzes depression in a visceral way that feels more real than anything else I’ve seen on screen. I’ve fought with depression over the past year since my dad’s death, and I haven’t felt like myself for much of that time. As Pádraic grapples with the loss of his friend, he transforms from a happy simpleton to a bitter asshole, losing his positive outlook on life and alienating the people who still care about him.
Another major impact I’ve felt from depression is a lack of desire and ability to do what I love. (You may have noticed that I haven’t written much lately.) Colm’s depression manifests in the threat of self-mutilation: the literal removal of the ability to do what he loves — the fingers on his fiddle hand.
The conflict escalates to absurd degrees, equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. It doesn’t end well for these characters. These situations rarely do. Pádraic and Colm have to live with the horrible things they’ve said and done to each other in a small island community with nowhere to go. They’re forced to accept their new reality or self destruct. I moved away to college and never saw that friend again. I hope he’s okay.
Best Director: Phil Tippett — Mad God
The most impressive film of the year is neither Avatar: The Way of Water nor Top Gun: Maverick. It’s a hallucinatory stop-motion animated fever dream crafted by special effects maestro Phil Tippett. The director began work on the project in the 1980s before shelving it in favor of more lucrative endeavors. Thankfully some staff members at his animation studio stumbled across the footage in the 2010s and convinced him to restart production.
This harrowing film seems to have been pulled straight out of Tippett’s subconscious and feels more nightmarish than anything this side of David Lynch. There is a loose plot, but Tippett is more concerned with building a unique tone than telling a coherent story. The film begins with a shot of the Tower of Babel followed by an ascending scroll with the following words from Leviticus 26:27–33:
“If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you. I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings. I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled. I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.”
After this uplifting message, we see a gas-masked man descending from the skies in a one-man pod, carrying a map and a briefcase containing a bomb. As he travels toward his destination, he encounters a vast array of hellish creatures committing horrible acts of violence against other equally hellish creatures.
While the film is titled Mad God, it appears to be more interested in the cruelty that humanity inflicts upon itself and the broader world. It’s full of beautifully animated depictions of oppression such as forced labor, diabolical prisons, malevolent doctors, casually sadistic pet owners, and countless other fucked-up scenarios.
Despite these horrifying sequences, I don’t think the film is a difficult watch. Every scene explodes with creativity and beauty. Tippett has crafted his singular vision into a masterwork unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Honorable Mentions
Martin McDonagh — The Banshees of Inisherin
Ruben Östlund — Triangle of Sadness
Alex Garland — Men
Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams — Neptune Frost
Cooper Raiff — Cha Cha Real Smooth
Kogonada — After Yang
Best Actress: Jessie Buckley — Men
It’s a shame that no one saw this movie. The third feature film from writer/director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) stars Jessie Buckley as Harper Marlowe, a grieving widow on vacation in the British countryside trying to heal after her husband’s suicide. As she gets acquainted with her surroundings and meets some of the locals, she begins to feel that something may be off.
Buckley gives an incredible performance as a broken woman trying to put the pieces of her life back together while the environment around her gets weirder and weirder. The movie climaxes in one of the most “what-the-fuck” endings you’ll ever see, and Buckley is a huge reason why it sticks the landing.
Honorable Mentions
Anamaria Vartolomei — Happening
Dakota Johnson — Cha Cha Real Smooth
Pantea Panahiha — Hit the Road
Vicky Krieps — Hold Me Tight
Frankie Corio — Aftersun
Rebecca Hall — Resurrection
Tang Wei — Decision to Leave
Rooney Mara — Women Talking
Best Supporting Actress: Kerry Condon — The Banshees of Inisherin
Kerry Condon’s Siobhán is the most relatable character on the tortured island of Inisherin. Far too smart to be stuck cooking and cleaning for her dull brother Pádraic, she’s roped into mediating his juvenile quarrel with his former best friend. As the stakes escalate, Siobhán receives a job offer on the mainland and is forced to choose between supporting her family and escaping a hostile situation. Condon’s performance rings true for anyone who’s dealt with a similar scenario.
Honorable Mentions
Dolly De Leon — Triangle of Sadness
Noémie Merlant — Tár
Émilie Dequenne — Close
Jessie Buckley — Women Talking
Best Actor: Colin Farrell — The Banshees of Inisherin
Colin Farrell’s great in everything he does, so it’s nice to see him finally get some recognition from the Academy for his work in The Banshees of Inisherin (he’s also great in After Yang, my #7 movie of the year). Farrell’s depiction of Pádraic, a man completely unraveling after discovering that his best friend doesn’t like him anymore, is a joy to watch. He conveys most of the character’s torment and confusion through facial expressions both comic and forlorn that communicate exactly what Pádraic is going through. There’s no other character in film this year that undergoes such a complete transformation.
Honorable Mentions
Paul Mescal — Aftersun
Cooper Raiff — Cha Cha Real Smooth
Colin Farrell — After Yang
Park Hae-il — Decision to Leave
Best Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson — The Banshees of Inisherin
Damn, this cast is stacked. Gleeson’s performance is more subdued than Farrell’s, but it’s no less affecting. Their rapport together, or lack of it, is pitch-perfect as always. Colm is a deeply depressed man determined to leave a lasting impression on the world before he kicks the bucket, an urge that proves destructive to himself and those around him. In an attempt to justify his actions, he tells Siobhán, “I do worry sometimes I might just be entertaining myself while staving off the inevitable.” Same here, buddy. Same here.
Honorable Mentions
Gilbert Owuor — Montana Story
Woody Harrelson — Triangle of Sadness
Zlatko Burić — Triangle of Sadness
Brian Tyree Henry — Causeway
Rory Kinnear — Men
Barry Keoghan — The Banshees of Inisherin
Pedro Pascal — The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Best Screenplay: Ruben Östlund — Triangle of Sadness
No one makes movies about class quite like Ruben Östlund. His latest Palme d’Or winner follows Carl and Yaya, two models who are invited on a free luxury cruise due to their large Instagram followings. The yacht crew is required to acquiesce to every customer request, regardless of legality or inconvenience, and hilarity ensues.
Östlund’s script adeptly analyzes the class dynamics of our ruthless, capitalist world from the uber-rich to the front-of-house employees to the bottom-of-the-boat working class. When a storm hits the boat in the middle of an elaborate dinner, those class dynamics are upended.
Woody Harrelson steals the show as an alcoholic, socialist yacht captain who’s baited into hilarious political arguments by a brash, capitalist Russian fertilizer salesman while the storm wreaks havoc upon the rest of the passengers. As the chaos renders the wealthy patrons completely useless, members of the crew begin to take charge and assert their authority, turning the power structure on its head.
Östlund has a blast roasting the rich and powerful in the first two acts, and then the film takes a poignant, fatalistic turn, questioning whether humans are able to function outside the brutal hierarchy we’ve created for ourselves. Maybe we’re genetically incapable of building a socialist utopia, but at least we’re pretty damn good at making fun of rich assholes.
Honorable Mentions
Martin McDonagh — The Banshees of Inisherin
Cooper Raiff — Cha Cha Real Smooth
Saul Williams — Neptune Frost
Kogonada — After Yang
Audrey Diwan and Marcia Romano — Happening
Best Cinematography: Matias Boucard — Athena
There are shots in Athena that will leave you jaw agape, convinced that what you’ve just seen is completely unfilmable. The most engrossing film of the year is shot in a series of long takes by a single roaming camera that envelops viewers in the action on screen, creating a wild, intense experience that’s nothing short of astonishing.
Honorable Mentions
Claudio Miranda — Top Gun: Maverick
Rob Hardy — Men
Jarin Blaschke — The Northman
Anisia Uzeyman — Neptune Frost
Laurent Tangy — Happening
Michal Dymek — EO
Ben Davis — The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Score: Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow — Men
The scariest movie of the year owes much of its eery atmosphere to Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow’s haunting score. Driven by unsettling, operatic vocals and deep, rumbling bass, the music is terrifying even without the film’s striking visuals. There are sequences in the movie that feel like music videos, eschewing plot and dialogue to build a thick, unnerving atmosphere that serves as the perfect foundation for the film’s themes to develop.
Honorable Mentions
Kid Cudi — Entergalactic
Saul Williams — Neptune Frost
Jim Williams — Resurrection
Pawel Mykietyn — EO
Aska Matsumiya — After Yang
Carter Burwell — The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Documentary: Moonage Daydream
I had never listened to much David Bowie before seeing this euphoric, contemplative rock documentary. Director Brett Morgen attained footage of Bowie’s live performances and remastered the audio for IMAX theaters. Part concert film and part philosophical documentary, the film intersperses musical sequences with archival interviews that explore Bowie’s perspectives on art and the meaning of life in his own words. This movie is an absolute blast, and it’s had me listening to Bowie’s music for months.
Best Animated Film: Mad God
I’m not sure what else to say about this movie. It’s the best animated feature film in years.
Best Foreign Language Film: Neptune Frost
The best foreign language film of the year is a bold Rwandan movie that completely missed the Academy’s radar. Neptune Frost is an anti-colonialist Afrofuturist musical about a small mining community that’s forced into backbreaking labor so that Google can mass-produce smartphones for western consumers. After a miner is killed by an overseer, a group of rebellious workers forms a hacker collective aiming to use technology against their oppressors.
The poetic flow of this film is mesmerizing. While the grim subject matter may make it sound like a difficult movie, the beautiful filmmaking style and inventive musical numbers are a joy to watch. It’s refreshing to see such a direct attack on a powerful institution. Most people missed this movie in theaters, so I hope it finds its audience online. Neptune Frost can be streamed through the tech monopoly of your choice, one of which, ironically, is Google.
Best Comedy: Triangle of Sadness
I know I have The Banshees of Inisherin ranked higher, but it’s about as dark as dark comedies get, and Triangle of Sadness is the funniest movie I’ve seen in years, so I’m giving it a shoutout here.
Best Horror: Men
Alex Garland is a master at crafting horrifying sequences that stick in your subconscious. That damn bear from Annihilation still haunts my dreams. Like Annihilation, I didn’t really know what to make of Men when I first saw it, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. I’ve now seen it four times, and it’s become one of my favorite films of the year. If you’re a fan of Garland or of “elevated horror,” you owe it to yourself to check this out.
Best Sci-Fi: After Yang
Kogonada’s follow-up to Columbus is a beautiful meditation on memory, grief, and the unseen lives of those closest to us. Colin Farrell gives a quiet, pensive performance as as father raising an adopted Chinese daughter. In an effort to make her feel more in touch with her cultural heritage, he purchases a “techno sapien” named Yang, who serves as a big brother and wellspring of random Chinese trivia. One morning, Yang fails to power on, and Farrell’s character embarks upon a journey to have him repaired before he begins to decay.
After Yang isn’t your standard action or horror-filled science fiction movie. Kogonada goes at his own pace and creates a calm, dreamlike atmosphere that allows the viewer to marinate in the film’s themes and contemplate one’s own existence. It’s a mesmerizing cinematic experience that’s stuck with me all year.
Best Action: Athena
Romain Gavras’ enthralling action film follows two brothers in the wake of their younger brother’s death at the hands of the police. One seeks to bring calm to the city while the other incites a massive riot, sparking a war between the police and the citizens they’ve sworn to protect. Athena pulses with the adrenaline of a Fast and Furious movie while staying grounded in a scenario that feels all too real after the worldwide anti-police protests of 2020.
Best Romance: Cha Cha Real Smooth
Cooper Raiff may be the best young writer/director in Hollywood right now. His debut film Shithouse was one of my favorites of 2020. His second effort Cha Cha Real Smooth is even better. Raiff stars as Andrew, a recent college grad who’s moved back in with his mom and stepdad as he tries to figure his life out. When he chaperones his younger brother at a bat mitzvah party, he gets the kids to dance and have a good time, inspiring several mothers to hire him as a party starter for their kids’ bar/bat mitzvahs.
At one of these parties, Andrew meets Domino, a beautiful woman ten years his senior played by Dakota Johnson. Domino’s teenage daughter Lola suffers from autism and doesn’t feel comfortable with large groups, but Andrew makes sure she has a good time. Smitten with Domino, he offers to babysit Lola in an effort to get closer to her.
Raiff and Johnson have incredible chemistry as two people slipping into a romance that’s doomed to fail from the start. Their scenes together remind me of Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise. Raiff appears to take influence from Linklater’s films, instilling his scenes with deep emotional resonance combined with a relaxed hangout vibe. If you’re a fan of the Before trilogy, give this one a shot.
Best Superhero Movie: Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise is a superhero.
Best Live Action Short Film: An Irish Goodbye
Similar to my #1 film of the year, An Irish Goodbye is a melancholy Irish dark comedy about two men who don’t like each other very much. I guess this setup works for me.
Best Documentary Short Film: Stranger at the Gate
This documentary really got to me. Stranger at the Gate tells the story of a former marine driven to extremism by his combat experience in the Middle East. When he returns to his hometown, he discovers that a thriving mosque has developed, which he views as a threat to his family and way of life. As he enacts a plan to blow up the mosque, he comes face to face with the people inside. You can watch it for free here.
Best Animated Short Film: The Flying Sailor
The Flying Sailor tells the true story of man who survived an explosion that sent him airborne for more than two kilometers. The animation is absolutely incredible, despite the sailor dick. You can watch it for free here.
Most Underrated Film: Men
I’m just gonna sit here and keep beating the drum for this movie. A lot of critics found it overly preachy or too on-the-nose, but I couldn’t disagree more. I don’t mind a lack of subtlety in a movie’s message if it’s well executed, but I also think some critics are missing the point.
While the film is not kind to the male gender, it’s not just spewing the tired trope that all men are assholes. It’s a subjective story told from the unreliable perspective of a widow enduring the height of her grief as she notices pieces of her late husband in each of the men around her. If you’ve seen Men, leave a comment and let me know what you thought.
Most Overrated Film: Pearl
I guess this movie just isn’t for me. I’m not sure what people see in it. I found it boring, corny, and pointless. I wasn’t a fan of X either, but at least there’s a bunch of kills in that movie. Pearl is the origin story of the old woman in X, but I didn’t think it added much to that character or made her any more interesting. Mia Goth is a great actor, but I’d love to see her tackle a more grounded role.
Worst Picture: Pinocchio (this one)
It may be time for us as a society to have a frank conversation about sending Tom Hanks to a farm upstate. He gave the worst performance of the year as Colonel Tom Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s chaotic mess Elvis, but his turn as Geppetto in Robert Zemeckis’ dogshit Pinocchio remake isn’t far behind. If 2022 taught us anything, it’s that Tom Hanks needs to stop doing vaguely European accents.
I used to respect Hanks as an actor, but now I’m second guessing whether he’s ever been good. Remember when he won an Oscar for “going full R-word” as a mentally challenged Alabaman who just happened to stumble into every major historical moment that defined the baby boomer generation? Remember when he was nominated for another Oscar for yelling at a volleyball? There’s no way he was good in those movies, right? I have no desire to go back and find out.
These Disney “live action” remakes get flatter and duller as they go. It’s like the studio execs are trying to suck as much life as possible out of their once vibrant animated classics. They know these movies don’t have to be good because my nostalgia-addicted fellow millennials will keep throwing down fifteen bucks a ticket for any movie that reminds them of their beloved childhood before they learned that they’ll never be able to retire and the American Dream is a lie. The whole project is shamelessly cynical, and it makes me depressed just thinking about it. If you’re gonna give us opiates to dull the pain of being a young adult in the twenty-first century, at least make them taste good on the way down.
Michael Dixon is a mild mannered accountant by day and a mild mannered movie watcher by night. He will not do your taxes for you. He lives in Austin, Texas with his lovely television and collection of fine whiskies. Follow him on Twitter @mDixon00 and check out his podcast here. You can’t purchase his book anywhere because it doesn’t exist. Check out his previous annual movie award posts below.
