The 50 Best Movies of 2022

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – January 4, 2023

Here is Metacritic's final list of the 50 best-reviewed movies of 2022, ranked by Metascore. This list only includes films receiving at least 7 reviews from professional critics.

All films released between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022 in at least one U.S. theater or directly to streaming or VOD/digital services were eligible for inclusion. Short films and reissues are excluded. Titles are ranked by Metascore (a weighted average of scores from top professional critics) prior to rounding based on scores as of January 1, 2023.

Additional content by Keith Kimbell.

13 of 25 photo by Super LTD

88 Three Minutes: A Lengthening

(#11) The titular opening three minutes in historian Bianca Stigter's documentary inspired by by Glenn Kurtz’s book Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film is believed to be the only surviving footage of the Jewish quarter of Nasielsk, Poland in 1938. Shot, rather unusually for the time, in color by Kurtz's grandfather as a 16mm home movie, those three minutes reveal ordinary life just months before the Holocaust would change everything. The remainder of the film—the lengthening—follows Stigter's and Kurtz's obsessive detective work as they rewatch the film for clues about what life in that world was like and to determine the fates of the people seen—and even finding a living survivor.

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“Bianca Stigter's documentary Three Minutes: A Lengthening is a great film about filmmaking and a quietly devastating memorial for lives long gone.” —Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

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