A new year is upon us, but January isnt exactly the best time for being a moviegoer. Or maybe it is. New theatrical releases might be limited at the start of each year, but that only makes January 2023 the best time to catch up on the best movies that 2022 had to offer. Many

A new year is upon us, but January isn’t exactly the best time for being a moviegoer. Or maybe it is. New theatrical releases might be limited at the start of each year, but that only makes January 2023 the best time to catch up on the best movies that 2022 had to offer. Many film highlights from last year are now available to stream on various platforms, from Netflix to Prime Video, Hulu, Showtime Anytime, Paramount+, Apple TV+, Disney+ and more.

While audiences will have to keep waiting to stream James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” on Disney+, anyone looking to watch one of 2022’s biggest blockbusters from home is in luck, as Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” is now available on Paramount+. Other studio tentpoles such as “Nope” and “The Batman” are already streaming, while Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will launch Feb. 1 on Disney+. It might be an indie, but A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” grossed over $100 million worldwide and is also streaming for Showtime subscribers ahead of likely Oscar nominations.

It might also be a good time to take a chance on one of last year’s great documentary offerings, be it “Fire of Love” on Disney+ or “Navalny” on HBO Max — or international titles, including the Venice-winning abortion drama “Happening” on Hulu. Overlooked gems like Sony’s “Devotion,” Prime Video’s “Catherine Called Birdy” and A24’s “After Yang” are also ready to stream.

Check out below Variety’s guide to streaming the best movies of 2022.

  • Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount+)

    “Top Gun: Maverick” is one of the highest-grossing movies of all time with $1.4 billion, not adjusted for inflation. On the domestic charts, the film is the fifth-biggest title ever with $716 million. No one saw the record-breaking success of “Top Gun: Maverick” coming, but never underestimate the global star power of Tom Cruise. After getting an exclusive theatrical release for months on end, “Maverick” arrived on Paramount+ in December just in time for the holidays. Variety film critic Peter Debruge hailed the film as a “stunning” and “barrier-breaking” sequel, adding, “Engineered to hit so many of the same pleasure points as the original, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ fulfills our desire to go really fast, really far above ground.”

  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Feb. 1 on Disney+)

    Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” sequel cleared the $800 million mark at the worldwide box office and earned critical acclaim for how it wrestles with the death of Chadwick Boseman. From Variety’s review: “Watching ‘Wakanda Forever,’ it’s almost unavoidable that we feel the absence of Boseman’s heroic dramatic center of gravity. The movie doesn’t have the classic comic-book pow of ‘Black Panther,’ and it’s easily 20 minutes too long (we could probably have lived without the Talokan backstory). Yet ‘Wakanda Forever’ has a slow-burn emotional suspense. Once the film starts to gather steam, it doesn’t let up.”

  • Nope (Peacock)

    With “Nope,” Oscar winner Jordan Peele earned his third straight $100 million grosser in a row. More spectacle thriller than outright horror, “Nope” stars Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya as siblings who set out to record a UFO that’s hovering over their remote horse farm. Nothing goes as planned, of course. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman called the film “tantalizingly creepy” in his review, adding, “Watching the movie, you can just about taste the DNA of Steven Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ and ‘Nope’ mirrors the trajectory of other films that have been made in the shadow of ‘Close Encounters,’ like M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Signs’ and Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Arrival.’ Here, as in those films, the anticipation works better than the payoff.”

  • Devotion (Jan. 8 on Paramount+)

    While J.D. Dillard’s “Devotion” struggled at the box office last fall, here’s hoping the movie’s streaming debut on Paramount+ attracts more eyeballs. Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell lead the Korean War true-story drama about the friendship between two naval officers. Variety film critic Peter Debruge praised the film for bringing “Top Gun” energy to the historical war drama, adding, “The film is not just a stirring case of Black excellence; it also celebrates the one white officer who had Brown’s back, Tom Hudner, treating the bond these two men formed as something special unto itself. Director JD Dillard dazzles with see-it-in-Imax airborne sequences, but the meat of the film focuses on the inspirational friendship.”

  • The Batman (HBO Max)

    Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” was named one of the 10 best movies of 2022 by both Variety film critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge. The former critic called the superhero tentpole “the most sweeping piece of comic book cinema since ‘The Dark Knight,’” adding, “Yes, Matt Reeves’ take on the Batman legend owes a lot to Christopher Nolan’s 2008 landmark. But it’s also its own hushed and moody and inky-black thing, with Robert Pattinson, in a supremely tensile performance, playing the Batman like a detective out of a Thomas Harris novel, making his way through a plot that’s canny enough in its labyrinthine design to earn comparison to ‘Chinatown.’”

  • Navalny (HBO Max)

    Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “Navalny” the fifth best movie of 2022, writing, “Alexei Navalny is the Nelson Mandela of Russia: the opposition leader, now shackled in a remote prison, all for the crime of calling out Vladimir Putin as a corrupt emperor with no clothes. Navalny’s story is singular in its relevance, but it is also, in Daniel Roher’s momentous documentary, a saga of forceful and staggering twists and turns. The film invites us to hang out with Navalny in Germany after he got poisoned by the Putin regime, an assassination attempt that plays like a hit ordered by a Bond villain and carried out by the Keystone Kops.”

  • Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Hulu)

    Variety film critic Peter Debruge named “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” the third best movie of 2022. Emma Thompson plays a widowed woman who starts a unique relationship with a male escort (Dylan McCormack). Debruge writes: “It seems condescending to call Thompson’s performance “courageous.” However, in our image-conscious, body-shaming era, the vulnerability she shows in the movie’s mirror scene is both a radical act and a breakthrough in Nancy’s tentative embrace of self-love.”

  • X (Showtime Anytime)

    Ti West’s “X” is a worthy homage to 1970s slasher classics and one of the best horror movies of 2022. The film follows the production of an amateur porn movie on a remote farm, where the members of the cast and crew meet a grisly fate. From Variety’s review: “It’s a movie made with genuine mood and skill and flavor. Your average ‘Chain Saw’ knockoff never seems remotely like a movie from the grainy outlaw ’70s. It is, rather, contempo product that feels like product. But ‘X,’ set in 1979, actually achieves the look and atmosphere of 1979.”

  • Everything Everywhere All at Once (Showtime Anytime)

    Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was a box office force for A24 with over $100 million worldwide, and now it’s a leading Oscar contender to land nominations for best picture, director, actress and actor. From Variety’s review: “It takes the red-pill mind-screw of ‘The Matrix’ and multiplies it by infinity. It’s ‘The OA’ on acid. Yeoh plays immigrant matriarch Evelyn Wang, who operates a laundromat with husband Raymond (Ke Huy Qua) that’s being audited by the IRS. As if her tax woes weren’t enough, she’s saddled with personal issues too: Nothing she does is good enough for her father, Gong Gong (James Hong), which in turn informs the way Evelyn treats her exasperated adult daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu)… True to their brand, the Daniels have made a film that reflects their off-the-wall sense of humor.”

  • Bros (Peacock)

    Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named Billy Eichner’s romantic comedy “Bros” the fourth best movie of 2022, writing, “Eichner, who co-wrote the film, infuses ‘Bros’ with his literate acid wit, and he plays the most entertaining brainiac romantic dyspeptic since the heyday of Woody Allen. Entwined in the tale of Bobby, a New York podcast host, and Aaron, an estate lawyer too sexy for his job, is a full-on comic vision of gay romantic life in the 21st century. The characters may be looking for love, but they keep getting tripped up by the hookup culture they’ve created as a kind of playground — a culture the film both celebrates and satirizes. The movie’s secret weapon is its unconventional ideology: its embrace of the idea that gay culture and straight culture have very different ways to court and spark.”

  • Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix)

    Guillermo del Toro is a frontrunner in the Oscar race for animated feature thanks to his long-in-the-works passion project “Pinocchio.” From Variety’s review: “Del Toro’s version, set in Fascist Italy, is eccentric and imaginative enough to make us hungry again. Aesthetically and narratively, this is a ‘Pinocchio’ that credits its young audience with eminently grownup taste and intelligence… this is a rare children’s entertainment that isn’t afraid to perplex kids as much as it enchants them.” The voice cast includes Ewan McGregor, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.

  • After Yang (Showtime Anytime)

    “After Yang” stars Colin Farrell as a father figuring out how to mourn the loss of his family’s android in the near-future. From Variety’s review: “This film is precise, with its desaturated palette, meticulous framing and near-mathematical cutting style. And yet, Kogonada’s concerns remain fundamentally human. The movie’s pulse seldom rises above resting, but the director invites audiences to dive as deep as they want to go into the film’s themes, to read subtext into body language, silence and the space between characters.”

  • The Menu (HBO Max)

    While it was a tough fall season for many indie films at the box office, Searchlight Pictures’ horror comedy “The Menu” prevailed with $36 million at the domestic box office and over $60 million worldwide. Anya Tayloy-Joy plays a young woman who attends a lavish meal with her rich boyfriend, but the chefs, led by Ralph Fiennes, have a nefarious plan up their sleeves. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman named “The Menu” a critic’s pick, calling it “a Michelin Star version of ‘Saw’ and a tasty satire of what high-end dining has become.” He added, “‘The Menu’ is a black comedy, but one played close to the bone. And it is a thriller, because after a while what’s being served to the diners segues from pretentious to dangerous.”

  • Glass Onion (Netflix)

    “Glass Onion” grossed over $15 million in its one-week theatrical run and has already become one of Netflix’s top three most-watched original movies since launching Dec. 23. Daniel Craig reprises Southern detective Benoit Blanc for a new murder mystery in which the suspects are played by Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Kathryn Hahn and Leslie Odom Jr. From Variety’s review: “Johnson’s sequel tries to top the original in a go-big-or-go-home way, resulting in a showier and even more elaborate shell-game mystery. Daniel Craig has figured out how to let his wry performance sneak up on you all over again.”

  • The Banshees of Inisherin (HBO Max)

    Martin McDonagh’s searing new film traces the tortured breakup between two best pals (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) in remote rural Ireland with all the anguish and gravity of the most charged romantic melodrama. When its characters speak, they do so in the gruffly poetic and violently hilarious vernacular of McDonagh’s best writing. Farrell won the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival, where McDonagh also took home the best screenplay prize. Expect awards voters to stream “Banshees” in the lead-up the Oscars, where the movie is expected to land a handful of nominations.

  • Sr. (Netflix)

    Robert Downey Jr. turns the camera on himself and his father, the iconic cult filmmaker Robert Downey Sr., in Netflix’ “Sr.” From Variety’s review: “’Fyre’ director Chris Smith lets underground movie icon Robert Downey Sr. have a hand in shaping how his life will be remembered in this unexpectedly revealing documentary… it’s a a loose seemingly seat-of-your-pants portrait of the antiestablishment director (perhaps best known for siring ‘Iron Man’ star Robert Downey Jr.) that sneaks up on you, emotionally speaking, seeing as how it doubles as a kind of farewell exercise between the two generations (plus grandson Exton) in the months before Downey succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease.”

  • Emily the Criminal (Netflix)

    Aubrey Plaza earned rave reviews for her role on “The White Lotus” Season 2, but she delivered another incredible performance last year in the underseen indie gem “Emily the Criminal.” Plaza plays a young woman in student debt who turns to scamming in order to gain a quick fortune. From Variety’s review: “Plaza, who also produced the film, is strong as a scammer who invites sympathy and simultaneously pushes it away… It’s a fluorescent-lit noir that spends a fair amount of time near the anonymous big box stores scattered across Los Angeles, which as cinematographer Jeff Bierman sees it, is a city that’s dim even in the daylight.”

  • The Black Phone (Prime Video)

    Filmmaker Scott Derrickson reunites with his “Sinister” star Ethan Hawke for “The Black Phone,” a horror hit at the box office last year with nearly $90 million domestically. Hawke stars as a child serial killer who abducts a 13-year-old boy. The film has a supernatural twist as the kidnapped boy has access to a telephone where he can talk to the killer’s previous victims. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman called “The Black Phone” a “grungy, dread-soaked nightmare” in his review, adding, “Derrickson has made a serial-killer movie that feels like a dark cousin to the comic-book world, with supernatural elements that drive the story, even as they get in the way of it becoming any sort of true nightmare.” 

  • Nanny (Prime Video)

    Nikyatu Jusu’s acclaimed horror movie “Nanny” won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival last year. Anna Diop gives a breakout performance as Aisha, an undocumented Senegalese Immigrant nanny who gets hired to work for an Upper East Side family in New York City. The job doesn’t go according to plan. “In this bold debut, writer-director Nikyatu Jusu conjures figures from West African folklore to critique another myth: the American Dream,” writes Variety critic Peter Debruge. “Jusu brings fresh eyes to this widely accepted story dynamic, so rarely seen from the perspective of the immigrant worker herself.”

  • I Love My Dad (Hulu)

    Actor-director-writer James Morosini won the audience award and narrative feature prize in the narrative competition at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival with his feature directorial debut “I Love My Dad,” starring Patton Oswalt as a father who catfishes his own son after he gets blocked on social media. The film is based on Morosini’s true story. From Variety’s review: “James Morosini takes an embarrassing thing that happened to him and turns it into a squirm-inducing (albeit surprisingly accepting) father-son comedy… Morosini plays most of what follows for comedy, which is certainly a better solution than using the movie as a resentful act of revenge. Or therapy, although it’s clear the project gave the filmmaker a chance to put himself in his father’s shoes.”

  • Minions: The Rise of Gru (Netflix and Peacock)

    “Minions: The Rise of Gru” was the animated blockbuster of 2022. Steve Carell returns as a younger version of Gru, who meets the yellow minions for the first time on his quest to becoming a world-renowned villain. Variety film critic Peter Debruge called the movie a “delightfully silly sequel” in his review, adding, “With every film, Illumination’s technique improves… The creative team, led by director Kyle Balda, blends Three Stooges slapstick routines with the classic squash-and-stretch character animation of the golden era, while getting creative with how to stage such gags in three-dimensional space.”

  • Fire of Love (Disney+)

    While the big screen is the best venue for watching the extraordinary documentary “Fire of Love,” the movie’s many volcanic eruptions are sure to still dazzle on Disney+. The film tells the story of Maurice and Katia Krafft, world-famous volcanologists whose obsession with all things lava was matched only by their love for each other. The film uses restored footage shot by the Krafft duo that takes viewers to the edge of volcanoes in a way they’ve never seen before. Variety named “Fire of Love” a critic’s pick and wrote the film is home to “the most spectacular volcano footage ever shot.”

  • Causeway (Apple TV+)

    Jennifer Lawrence returns to more intimate indie film fare in “Causeway,” where she plays a veteran solider struggling with PTSD as she returns to her home in New Orleans. “Atlanta” favorite Brian Tyree Henry stars as a local Lawrence’s character befriends. From Variety’s review: “Lawrence gives a solid performance that’s raw, plain, stripped of pretense. She makes Lynsey vulnerable and rather impassive; we keep studying her unmade-up face for clues to what’s happening inside… ’Causeway’ traces the healing of a soul, takes its time doing so, and allows actors as good as Lawrence and Henry to vibe together, so what’s the problem?”

  • Good Night Oppy (Prime Video)

    Ryan White’s “Good Night Oppy” is a documentary that tells the story of Opportunity, nicknamed Oppy, a Mars rover that originally was expected to operate for only 90 sols but explored Mars for nearly 15 years. Variety film critic Peter Debruge called the documentary “thrilling” in his review, writing, “The ‘Ask Dr. Ruth’ director turns his attention to space, anthropomorphizing the two robots NASA sent to Mars in a way that recalls ‘Wall-E.’ In a real coup, the filmmakers partnered with Industrial Light & Magic to show what even the NASA scientists themselves couldn’t see until now: Spirit and Oppy rattling about on the six-month rocket journey. For large segments of its running time, ‘Good Night Oppy’ is more than just a documentary; it’s an animated film as well — and a hugely entertaining one at that.”

  • Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)

    Daniel Radcliffe earned rave reviews for going goofier than ever as musician Weird “Al” Yankovic in “Weird,” a knowingly over-the-top satirical biopic. Just like Weird Al’s music, the film is a biopic spoof that takes the elements of its subject’s life and jacks them up to delirious, surreal extremes. Evan Rachel Wood stars as Madonna in the film, although her relationship with Weird Al is more fiction than fact. From Variety’s review: “The movie, to its credit, salutes, skewers, and completely understands the not just silly but goofball scandalous nature of the celebrity of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic… Radcliffe plays Al as an earnest nerd. But one of the good jokes of ‘Weird’ is what a vast Hollywood-biopic arc his personality undergoes. Radcliffe does it expertly.”

  • Crimes of the Future (Hulu)

    “In a throwback to his squeamish early body-horror films, Cronenberg has made a movie that’s a real gut-twister, though the director, as always, works from the head down,” wrote Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman in his review of David Cronenberg’s body horror return “Crimes of the Future.” Set in a world where humans grow multiple organs, the film stars Viggo Mortensen and Lea Seydoux as a couple who make a living off a style of street performance where they openly remove extra organs from the body. The review continues: “Most filmmakers who want to unsettle you in a horror movie will reach for a familiar set of tools: slashers, demons, shock cuts, soundtracks that go boom! in the night. But ‘Crimes of the Future’ is out to provoke and disturb us with something far more traumatic than mere monsters.”

  • Wendell and Wild (Netflix)

    “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline” director Henry Selick returns with the Netflix-backed stop-motion movie “Wendell and Wild,” which reunites Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key in the title roles. Based on Selick and Clay McLeod Chapman’s unpublished book of the same name, the film tells the story of two scheming demon brothers who enlist the aid of a 13-year-old Kat (Lyric Ross) to summon them to the Land of the Living. It also features the voice talents of Angela Bassett, James Hong and Ving Rhames. Selick brings the razzle-dazzle stop-motion effects to the screen, exquisitely assembling luscious set designs and breathtaking effects.

  • Stars at Noon (Hulu)

    A young American journalist stranded in present-day Nicaragua (Margaret Qualley) falls for an enigmatic Englishman (Joe Alwyn) who seems like her best chance of escape. She soon realizes, though, that he may be in even greater danger than she is. Claire Denis directs this erotic romance thriller that won the Grand Prix at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. From Variety’s review: “The genre and milieu may indicate a departure for Denis, but the veteran auteur’s languid sensual signature is all over this slow-burning thriller, energized by Qualley’s tremendous performance…it’s a humid, intoxicating American-abroad thriller.”

  • Catherine Called Birdy (Prime Video)

    “Catherine Called Birdy,” Lena Dunham’s 13th-century coming-of-age comedy about a 14-year-old girl (Bella Ramsey) who rebels against her father’s plan to marry her off, was named a Variety’s critic pick out of the Toronto International Film Festival. “The comedic genius behind ‘Girls’ has found a fresh application for her voice: making a delightful film for girls,” the review reads. “Leave it to Dunham to deliver what’s been missing from the field of princess movies all these years: namely, permission for young women to be themselves, regardless of what their parents or the patriarchy might think.”

  • All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)

    Netflix’s adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” is understood to be among the biggest-budgeted films to ever come out of Germany. Former Washington Post journalist Ian Stokell and producer and actor Lesley Paterson penned the script, which is based on the classic novel about World War I by former German infantryman Erich Maria Remarque, whose story follows teenage Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller as they voluntarily enlist in the German army. The boys’ wave of patriotic fervor quickly dissipates once they face the brutal realities of life on the front. Daniel Bruhl stars in the film, which has been chosen by Germany as the country’s official selection for the international feature Oscar.

  • The Northman (Peacock)

    Robert Eggers’ Viking epic “The Northman” floundered in theaters with just $33.9 million in the U.S., but it remains one of the best action dramas of 2022. Alexander Skarsgard plays a Viking prince who sets out to avenge the murder of his father. The cast also includes Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk and Willem Dafoe. While Eggers expands his scope with a bigger budget (the film cost a reported $90 million before tax breaks), he maintains his love for long takes to create an immersive and visceral action movie.

  • Elvis (HBO Max)

    With $147 million at the U.S. box office, Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” has topped “The Great Gatsby” as the director’s highest-grossing movie on the domestic charts. Globally, “Elvis” has secured just over $277 million and counting. These box office numbers are a resounding success for an adult-skewing drama released post-pandemic, as adult moviegoers have been the hardest viewers to draw back to theaters. “Elvis,” starring Austin Butler in a breakthrough performance as the King of Rock n’ Roll, got its start at Cannes and earned mixed reviews, with Variety’s Owen Gleiberman writing, “It’s a spectacle that keeps us watching but doesn’t nail Elvis’s inner life until he’s caught in a trap… It’s a fizzy, delirious, impishly energized, compulsively watchable 2-hour-and-39-minute fever dream — a spangly pinwheel of a movie that converts the Elvis saga we all carry around in our heads into a lavishly staged biopic-as-pop-opera.”

  • Dog (Prime Video)

    Channing Tatum’s acting comeback and feature directorial debut “Dog” was a box office hit when it opened in February, and now Prime Video subscribers will be able to stream the feel-good buddy comedy about a military veteran driving cross country with an unwieldy service dog. From Variety’s review: “What could have been a basic man-and-dog road movie goes deeper than expected, exploring the damage military service does to two ex-Rangers — one a Purple Heart, the other a Belgian Malinois… Like John Travolta and Sylvester Stallone before him, Tatum is not an actor of particularly wide range, but he knows what his audience wants, and in ‘Dog,’ he gives them more than they bargained for.”

  • The Lost City (Paramount+)

    Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s romantic-comedy adventure movie “The Lost City” grossed $105 million at the U.S. box office and just over $190 million worldwide. Those totals are remarkable for a rom-com, a genre that has been on life support in recent years. Bullock plays a romance novelist who gets kidnapped, while Tatum is her book cover model who sets out a mission to save her. From Variety’s review: “I can’t be the only one who’s been craving a good old-fashioned treasure hunt, where the leads throw sparks and the ladies’ makeup never smudges, no matter how close to the volcano they get. After a long stretch without such a big-screen Hollywood adventure movie (at least, not one without ties to a video game or theme park ride), ‘The Lost City’ makes for welcome counter-programming.”

  • Prey (Hulu)

    “10 Cloverfield Lane” director Dan Trachtenberg revitalizes the “Predator” franchise with “Prey,” which is set in the Comanche Nation in 1719. From Variety’s review: “A Northern Great Plains setting and a young tribal hunter out to prove herself almost make the latest ‘Predator’ sequel look less schlocky than the others…The rippings and slashings, first of animals and then of humans, arrive right on cue, and they’re brutal enough to have earned the film an R rating. As an alien-attack thriller, “Prey” is competent and well-paced, though with little in the way of surprise.”

  • Where the Crawdads Sing (Netflix)

    “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Sony’s adaptation of Delia Owens’ novel, was a box office success with $140 million worldwide. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya, who raises herself to adulthood in a North Carolina marshland and becomes a prime suspect in the murder of the town’s local hotshot. Variety’s review called the film a “compelling wild-child tale” and added, “Sometimes a movie will turn softer than you thought it would — more sunny and upbeat and romantic, with a happier ending. Then there’s the kind of movie that turns darker than you expect, with an ominous undertow and an ending that kicks you in the shins. ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ is the rare movie that conforms to both those dynamics at once.”

  • Vengeance (Jan. 16 on Prime Video)

    B.J. Novak’s feature directorial debut “Vengeance” was named the eighth best movie of 2022 by Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman, who called the film a “one-of-a-kind oddball” in his review. Gleiberman added, “In this dark but word-happy blue-state-meets-red-state tall tale, Novak plays a whip-smart obnoxious writer for The New Yorker who heads to small-town Texas to attend the funeral of an ex-hookup. Once there, he’s embroiled in a murder mystery that is really a culture clash that is really a meditation on why America has turned its once-vibrant differences into hate-fueled divisions. It takes a born filmmaker to keep a caprice this heady spinning in the air.”

  • Happening (Jan. 22. on Hulu)

    Variety film critic Peter Debruge named Audrey Diwan’s Venice-winning abortion drama “Happening” the seventh best movie of 2022, writing, “‘Happening’ is a political statement, pure and simple, but one Diwan makes simply, with empathy rather than manipulation, by showing how far a university student must go when, early in the sexual revolution, she winds up pregnant by a one-night stand. Lead actor Anamaria Vartolomei makes it easy to identify with 23-year-old Anna, scared and desperate, trying to navigate a situation that countless others before her have faced. If society could only get past the shame and share such experiences as openly as Diwan does here, attitudes would change.”

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