Yes, we’re still here with Best-of 2022 recaps and 2023 anticipated features; we know. We’re gluttons for punishment and maybe a little bit psycho. But yes, we obviously like to look ahead and look back, and our annual The Best Films Of [Insert Year Here] We’ve Already Seen feature is the perfect opportunity to do both.
READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2022
The gist? Well, we’ve already made our list of the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023, which could have been much longer and will be expanded, by the very least, in our Sundance preview. But more importantly, the collective “we” of The Playlist and its many contributors, international and domestic, attended dozens of film festivals in 2022. Those films have been “seen” by our reviewers, but because they were first seen by critics in one year and then aren’t released in U.S. theaters until the following year or sometimes even later, the remit here is to make sure these great pictures do not fall through the cracks.
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023
They are to be as anticipated and celebrated as any film we covet because we haven’t seen it yet. So, we saw a lot of terrific movies in 2022 that will be coming your way eventually in 2023; here’s that list. – RP
Follow along with all our Best Of 2022 coverage here.
“When You Finish Saving the World”Jesse Eisenberg‘s heartfelt directorial debut, which was adapted from his 2020 audio project of the same name, centers around Evelyn (Julianne Moore), a women’s refuge leader, and her son, Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard), an aspiring folk-rock musician. While Ziggy is busy trying to impress his politically savvy classmate, Lila, Evelyn meets Angie and her teen son, Kyle, when they seek refuge at her facility. Before long, Evelyn decides to take Kyle under her wing, to try and replace the son she fears she is losing. Our Sundance review said the film offers “sharp—if not original—critiques of the pratfalls of seeking internet fame, well-meaning liberalism, and fraught parent-child relationships among a generational divide.” – Oliver Weir.Release Date: January 20, via A24.
“Master Gardener”Director Paul Schrader concludes (?) his modern God’s Lonely Man trilogy with “Master Gardener.” Following the same model of “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter,” his latest stars Joel Edgerton as a meticulous horticulturist with a dark secret and past he’s trying to put behind him. But a young girl (Quintessa Swindell), the great-niece of the wealthy widow (Sigourney Weaver) who owns the estate where the gardener, complicates everything. Our review from Venice called the film a “fitting encapsulation of a man who seems to have embraced the platitude that comes with knowing the past is settled in stone, but the future is as malleable as a garden.” – Rodrigo PerezRelease Date: TBD via Magnolia Pictures.
“Copenhagen Cowboy”We’ll cheat a bit here. Nicolas Winding Refn’s spin on superhero shenanigans is not (contrary to the headline of our list) a film but rather a six-part Netflix series. And yes, it is every bit as neon-soaked, synth-scored, and pop-Freudian as you think. The heroine of the show is Miu (Angela Bundalovic), a semi-divine girl whose powers include healing long-lasting migraines and returning fertility back to postmenopausal women. But just as she is realizing the full extent of her powers, she comes up against Nicklas (Andreas Lykke Jørgensen), “a Danish Draco Malfoy with a slightly too-on-the-nose Oedipus complex.”  Slow-motion kung fu fights ensue. Our review from Venice concluded: “if one is ever so inclined to indulge the filmmaker’s predilection for the self-congratulatory, then ‘Copenhagen Cowboy’ will work a treat. If the opposite is true, then buckle up, as this is about to be one wild yet extremely unpleasant ride.” – OWRelease Date: January 5, via Netflix.
“Showing Up”Given the grace and stillness of Kelly Reichardt‘s last feature, the critically adored “First Cow,” we did not expect her most recent story—of an artist on the verge of a life-changing exhibition—to variously present as an absurdist thriller, a “Nashville“-esque ensemble film, or like someone “gearing up for war.” At the center of the frenzy, Michelle Williams shines as artist Lizzy, who, in the run-up to her big day, must contend with the turbulence of artistic creation, the passive aggression she feels for a friend, colleague, and landlord, Jo (Hong Chau), and an assortment of familial pressures from her self-absorbed father (Judd Hirsch), overbearing mother (Maryann Plunkett) and vulnerable brother (John Magaro). Our Cannes review concluded: “Consciously, as Reichardt slowly, quietly, gently plies the clay of her tensions and emotionally sophisticated subjects, there’s at least tactile warmth to it all. Its unconscious mind, however, contains multitudes that may absorb like a great piece of art you may not fully comprehend but are mesmerized with nonetheless.” – OWRelease Date: Spring via A24.
“Chevalier”This latest film from director Stephen Williams (“Watchmen”; “True Story”) and writer Stefani Robinson (“Atlanta”) is in many ways the long-awaited counterpart to Miloš Forman’s 1984 film “Amadeus,” since the titular Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Kelvin Harrison Jr.)—a French-Caribbean violin virtuoso—was a celebrated contemporary of both Salieri and Mozart. Here, for the first time on film, we see his improbable rise in French society as a celebrated violinist, composer, and fencer, as well as his ill-fated love affair and eventual falling out with Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton). Our TIFF review called it “by-the-book writing, uncharacteristic of Robinson’s sharp, off-kilter sense of humor proven by her prior work. True to form for Williams, however, this does look like a generously-budgeted TV show in its bland gapes at opulence.” – OWRelease Date: April 7, via Searchlight Pictures.