Rotten Tomatoes has become a go-to place for many cinephiles in the past decade or so. The aggregation website that works solely on the basis of where a movie stands according to a fresh or rotten verdict (based on reviews by renowned film critics from around the world) has both become a punching bag for totalitarians and a mecca of revisits for those who adore and criticize the ups and downs of cinema. However, from a personal standpoint (apart from a few disagreements), it’s safe to say that the Best Movies of 2022 list by Rotten Tomatoes is worth checking out.
In the following list, I’d look at the 15 movies that secured a higher score on the RT meter, beating out a bag of buzzy titles from last year. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.
15. To Leslie
If there’s one thing you can totally vouch for if a movie stars Andrea Riseborough, is that the actor will excel at whatever character she is trying to replicate on screen. With To Leslie, director Michael Morris gives her a character that needs to tesselate the familiar beats of an addiction drama. Yet, Riseborough provides her with an extra depth that makes the narrative feel more emotionally driven than it could have been.
Following the titular character who comes out of a lottery win by completely blowing it all up, the story takes us into a disturbing westward end for the Texan, who feels like she is at the bottom of the hourglass with no place to go. The movie charts a character-driven narrative that looks at redemption and second chances with a clear eye. Currently, at an RT score of 96%, the website’s consensus reads, “To Leslie’s familiar framework is granted extra depth through a stellar Andrea Riseborough and a sensitive and nuanced approach to the cycle of addiction.”
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14. Great Freedom
Director Sebastian Meise’s German drama, Great Freedom, is set in post-WWII after the Allies got their freedom. However, this freedom doesn’t entail the same things for everyone since Hans, played by an excellent Franz Rogowski, is imprisoned for a crime that the government finds heinous – the crime being his sexuality. Hans is gay, and under the penal code, homosexuality entails that he is imprisoned. The movie charts his constant return to jail as he develops an affectionate relationship with his cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich), who is a convicted murderer serving a life sentence.
Exploring the loss of time seen through a sensitive lens of what makes companionship the real deal, Great Freedom is deemed as one of the best movies of 2022 by Rotten Tomatoes, with a score of 97%. The website’s consensus reads, “With intelligence and sensitivity, Great Freedom draws on past injustices to present a beautifully crafted tribute to the persistence of the human spirit.”
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13. Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
After the first film in 1996, the 2022 film Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, based on the popular animated series, finds director John Rice and Albert Calleros trying their best to turn their latest work into one of the dumbest sci-fi movies of all time. Spanning two centuries, the movie begins at a space camp where the duo excels at making a docking simulator and ends up joining a space shuttle mission on a sorry wimp by the PR. The other part of the movie happens when they go into a black hole after being left for dead, ending up on earth in 2022, where they are deemed as the most intelligent creatures in a parallel universe.
Looking at the legacy that precedes the movie, it wasn’t expected that the new movie would be so well received. With an RT score of 97%, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is just as stupidly hilarious as one would expect, with critics praising creator/writer Mike Judge’s ability to channel the awkward, horny phase of teenage boys to the best of his abilities.
12. Hellbender
Discovering something truly bizarre about your immediate family can be either completely devastating or life-changing. For Izzy, a teenager who lives with her mother in complete seclusion in some mountain area of United States, trying to take her metal band (which includes her mother) off the ground uncovers a dark secrete about her family. Her mother’s connection to witchcraft brings a rift between the two, leading Izzy on a path of a blood-drenched nightmare that pushes her through the angsty milieu of being a grownup.
Balancing the more atmospheric tonalities of horror with Izzy’s coming-of-age arc, directors John Adams, Zelda Adams & Toby Poser serve up a wicked movie that uses music and isolation to tell a feminist folktale. With an RT score of 97%, the consensus for Hellbender reads, “Hellbender stirs a boiling cauldron of adolescent angst, serving up a coming-of-age story with dark horror overtones,” making it one of the best movies of 2022, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
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11. The Duke
It’s incredibly sad that the late British director Roger Michell wasn’t here to see the release of his last film. After premiering in Venice in 2019, the movie faced many delays due to the coronavirus and was eventually released in select theatres in the UK in 2022. Sad because it is such a light-hearted and entertaining yarn that Michell would be pleased to see how it is able to put a smile on everyone’s faces with such an improbable premise.
Following the life of a 60-year-old taxi driver named Kempton Bunton, who, in 1961, supposedly stole the Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London and kept demanding the authorities to invest in care for the elderly in exchange for a return.
Starring acting legends Jim Broadbent and Dame Helen Mirren, The Duke stands at an RT score of 97% based on 114 reviews, with Rex Reed of the observer calling it “A charming, understated and completely enjoyable frolic about how ordinary people can do extraordinary things.”
10. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Stop motion animation legend Mark Gustafson and Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro have become as familiar to movie lovers as the tale of Pinnochio itself. However, their rendition brings a deeper, more resounding, and essential spin to the classic source material. The Netflix original, which isn’t the first collaboration the streamer had with the director this year, presented an imaginative and thought-provoking tale of a boy learning the ways of the world.
Currently, at an RT score of 97%, the website’s consensus reads, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio delivers fully on its title — which is to say it’s a visually stunning adaptation that embraces its source material’s darkness.” Critics from around the world have gushed about the painstakingly done animation style of the movie and have called Toro’s vision imaginative and emotionally moving.
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9. The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh returns to his homeland for his latest, The Banshees of Inisherin. Marking the return of actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson after starring in McDonagh’s In Bruges years ago, this is a story where two lifelong friends, Pádraic and Colm – living on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, find themselves at a crossroads when Colm unexpectedly puts an end to their friendship.
Shocked by this sudden change in his laid-back life, Pádraic is determined to turn things back around and takes the help of his sister Siobhán and a troubled young islander Dominic. However, his efforts only deepen Colm’s resentment leading to situations that escalate the entire thing to a greater level. One of the leading Awards time contenders and deemed as one of the best movies of 2022, both by critics and Rotten Tomatoes, The Banshees of Inisherin is a must-see to understand the complexity of human relationships.
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8. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, this Bhutanese drama follows the life of Ugyen, a middle-aged man training to be a teacher in a government school while secretly wishing to move to Australia to be a singer. The story takes a turn when Ugyen is assigned to teach at a remote school in the mountain of Lunana. Unwillingly he goes there but stays for longer than he thought he would, leading him toward a path of spiritual and emotional enlightenment.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, which is Dorji’s debut feature, was the Bhutanese entry for the Best International Feature Film, which they submitted twice in subsequent years. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus says, “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a simple story with a big heart — and a reminder of film’s ability to communicate universal truths across international borders.” The Fresh score is at an impressive 98%, with 47 out of 48 reviews being positive.
7. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
Yuta Okkotsu witnessed the death of his childhood friend, Rika Orimoto, and became haunted by her apparition. To get over it, he enrolls in Jujutsu High, meeting classmates Maki Zen’in, Toge Inumaki, and Panda, and aims to break Rika’s curse. However, Suguru Geto, a vile curse user, appears and plans to carry out a Night Parade of a Hundred Demons to exterminate non-sorcerers. So, Yuta feels he is tasked to stop him while confronting his desire for death due to his traumas. Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie tackles the conflict of whether he will be able to defeat his own demons, the curse, or both.
Critics from all over the globe have praised the movie for its strange aloofness in tackling its existential themes. While most of them have poked at how not much of the premise makes sense, they have also confessed that the transition from the tv show to the movie is a lot of fun. At an RT score of 98%, the website’s consensus reads, “Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie offers a thrilling, beautifully animated gift for fans of the anime — and a story that holds up as a standalone effort.”
6. The Quiet Girl
The Irish-language feature film, “An Cailín Ciúin” (The Quiet Girl), directed by Colm Bairéad, made history earlier this year when Allison Williams and Riz Ahmed announced that the film had become the first-ever Irish-language film to be nominated at the Oscars. The story, which talks about a nine-year-olds coming-of-age when her parents abandon her and leave her to be with distant relatives, has garnered universal acclaim.
The film, which was nominated in the Best International Feature Film category, has been praised for debutant director Colm Bairéad’s masterful direction and nuanced portrayal of isolation with a focus on silence and stillness. At a 98% RT score with 66 registered reviews, Rotten Tomatoes has deemed it as one of the best movies of 2022.
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5. Till
It was sad to see Till completely sidelined at the Oscars this year, but no one can deny the power it holds over everyone who has watched it. Telling the true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit for justice when her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, was lynched in 1955 Mississippi, director Chinonye Chukwu takes a deeply moving approach to this heartwrenching tale.
Featuring one of the year’s best performances by Danielle Deadwyler, the movie charts one woman’s pursuit for justice, taking us through her mourning period to her activism with grace and conviction. The Rotten Tomatoes website says that “Till reframes a historically horrific murder within a mother’s grief, brought heart wrenchingly to life by Danielle Deadwyler’s tremendous performance.” Currently, the movie is at a 98% approval rating with 173 reviews.
4. Girl Picture
When it comes to tales of teen girls finding themselves, they are almost always presented in a rather regressive, repressed environment. Not that I claim that the world isn’t that way, but at this point in time, such stories often get tiresome when freeing themselves from this burden of an environment becomes the sole purpose of the story. Keeping that in mind, Finnish filmmaker Alli Haapasalo’s radical debut film ‘Girl Picture (Tytöt tytöt tytöt)’ truly stands out just for allowing the girls in the story to be seen in a world where they are not constantly hassled for what they are. Instead, their conflicts become more personal.
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award in the World Dramatic Competition, the Finish film has received universal acclaim, with a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The website’s consensus read, “Sensitively written and beautifully acted, Girl Picture captures the whirlwind of teenage emotions without sacrificing narrative maturity and depth.”
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3. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
In Marcel the Shell with Shoes on, we are taken into the life of a one-inch-tall talking shell who lives with his grandmother, Connie, and their pet lint, Alan. The two have been living inside an AirBnB after being drawn away from their well-rounded and close shell community. The tragedy, however, hasn’t left Marcel hopeless, who enjoys the colorful little things about life. That is until a documentary filmmaker posts a short film about Marcel online, drawing the attention of thousands of passionate fans that make him aware of the dangers of the world while also exposing him to the possibility of venturing out to find his long-lost community.
A part of the Rotten Tomatoes best movies of 2022 list, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is loved by both Critics and audiences alike. While the critic’s consensus reads, “Poignant, profound, and utterly heartwarming, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is animated entertainment with real heart.” the audience reaction can be narrowed down to, “Beautiful inside and out, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On proves even the smallest, strangest characters can give you big feels.”
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2. Happening
Following the life of Anne (played by an incredible Anamaria Vartolomei) – a bright and young Literature student who shows a great and promising career ahead of her, Happening is all about her accidental pregnancy and the helplessness that follows. Set in the 60s – a time when abortion was illegal in most parts of the world, Audrey Diwan’s film feels like a thriller where a young girl’s life is put on the pedestal for the world to judge. However, instead of an exploitative gaze, the director presents a sensitive, almost urgent look at the realities of a world that gets aggressively unfair when a person isn’t allowed to take control of their own body.
The current state of affairs in a lot of countries makes the film an even more urgent statement. The fact that the craft of the film doesn’t overpower its strong thematic elements makes it all the more devastating and profound. Film critics have lauded the film unanimously, with a 99% RT score based on 167 reviews. The website’s consensus reads, “A tough but rewarding watch, Happening puts a personal face on an impossibly difficult choice and its heart-rending aftermath.”
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1. No Bears
Iranian master filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s No Bears follows the director (playing himself) navigating two intertwined plots. In one, he attempts to make a film remotely via video calls (having been banned from making a movie by the Iranian government), offering guidance to his crew from a location that remains undisclosed. In the other, he lives in a remote area near the Iranian border, struggling against the prejudiced nature of the locals and constantly calming his urge to leave the country, with a rebellious yearning for artistic freedom.
No Bears is one of Jafar Panhai’s best-received movies to date, and the Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% is a testament to that. Critics have called it “Witty and despairing in equal measure,” and the website’s consensus reads, “No Bears bears witness to Jafar Panahi’s incisive filmmaking while urging viewers to examine the complex layers of a deceptively simple story: a man oppressed and suppressed by his country.”
