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.

17 of 25 photo by MUBI

89 Great Freedom

(#7) Originally debuting in the Un Certain Regard section at 2021's Cannes Film Festival—where it won that competition's Jury Prize—Austrian director Sebastian Meise's second narrative feature also cracked the International Feature Film Oscar later in the year before finally reaching American audiences in the spring of 2022 via MUBI. The two-hander takes place at various points in post-WWII Germany where Hans (Franz Rogowski) is repeatedly imprisoned (including, during the war, in a concentration camp) for being a homosexual under that country's infamous Paragraph 175 law. But while in prison he forms an unlikely relationship with his cellmate (Georg Friedrich), who has been convicted of murder.

Watch it on MUBI
Also available to rent or buy at digital stores including Prime Video and Apple

“While it smoulders with indignation for the injustice that was perpetrated for so many years, Great Freedom is also a love story, a remarkable character study, and an absorbing meditation on what long-term imprisonment for a crime that is not a crime does to the soul.” —Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

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