The 13 best movie scenes of 2022

We’ve already gone over our picks for the very best new motion pictures of 2022, however now it’s time to zoom in a bit nearer and discuss our favourite scenes on this nice yr of flicks. With significant moments, hilarious gags, memorable song-and-dance numbers, and stunning reveals, there was loads for everybody to get pleasure from on the motion pictures this yr.

So the Polygon employees bought collectively and picked our very favourite moments from motion pictures by means of the yr. Something that made us snort, cry, ponder, or shout out in pleasure was eligible, in addition to moments we’ve nonetheless been turning over in our heads months after watching.

Let’s get into it.

Naatu Naatu, RRR

Proper at residence alongside tiger fights and epic bridge swinging, the rambunctious dance battle in the midst of S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR performs simply as an vital function in slicing by means of the hateful coronary heart of the British Empire because the movie’s conclusion, during which our heroes actually slice by means of the hateful coronary heart of the British Empire. Set at a Crown-worthy backyard social gathering, Rajamouli begins the scene with a bang, Raju (Ram Charan) putting a beat on a silver plate as Bheem (Jr. NTR) prepares to obliterate a racist twerp by means of the artwork of footwork. The duo launching into “Naatu Naatu,” written for the movie by composer M.M. Keeravani, is a superheroic feat — their lyrics snap, the drums pound away, and their ft transfer like Goku’s arms. The cyclone impact of the quantity not solely entrances the viewers, however all of the characters round Raju and Bheem; nobody, not even the racist twerp, can resist getting up and dancing alongside. That ends as many scenes in RRR do, with an act of compassion, a good friend aiding a good friend stay his finest life, seals “Naatu Naatu” as utilizing each little bit of film magic to make thoughts reel. —Matt Patches

The tape measurer, Barbarian

For being one of many scariest motion pictures of the yr, it’s typically a bit of stunning to do not forget that Barbarian will be extremely humorous when it desires to be. This could be most evident when Justin Lengthy’s character finds the terrifying torture-video room within the hidden hallway of the Airbnb he owns and instantly begins checking whether or not or not he can cost additional for the sq. footage. The bit even calls again to director Zach Cregger’s roots in sketch comedy because it pushes itself well past the purpose of absurdity, then retains going solely to double again and turn into twice as humorous. By the point the tape measure appears to increase properly past 100 ft, dragging Lengthy all the best way again into the depths of his haunted basement, it’s probably that you just’re so doubled over in laughter you didn’t even discover that Cregger threw one other joke on high for good measure. —Austen Goslin

The primary interrogation, Determination to Depart

Like every part about Determination to Depart, there are two completely different instructions to strategy this scene from. On the one hand, I may go on about how brilliantly author and director Park Chan-wook works inside the conventional format of an interrogation scene to subtly shift it right into a romantic scene of mutual seduction. The script provides the proper quantity of room to the 2 good performances by Park Hae-il and Tang Wei to stroll the tightrope that by no means lets the film fully disentangle their romance from the investigation, whereas additionally making it clear that they wouldn’t need it another approach, and this interrogation scene is each the place to begin for that dynamic and its most clear-eyed and uncomplicated illustration.

Alternatively, I may embody this one clip from the scene and say that it’s in all probability probably the most refined, emotionally efficient, and technically spectacular piece of moviemaking all yr. The main focus sits concurrently on a face within the mirrored background in addition to its reverse within the foreground, then switches because the dynamic does, to characterize every character’s sliding emotions and feelings because the strains of case and romance begin to blur multi function unbroken shot. It’s precisely the form of factor that most individuals will discover with out realizing and the form of small second that turns an amazing movie right into a masterpiece. —AG

Getting the proper shot, Nope

Nope is quite a lot of issues. It’s a sci-fi film, a blockbuster journey film, and typically a horror film — like once we watch Jean Jacket rain blood down on the Haywood household home. And whereas it handles all of those moments superbly, there’s nothing fairly as thrilling within the film because the third act.

OJ, Em, Angel, and grizzled director Holst’s plan of utilizing horses and used-car-lot balloons to lure the alien out in time for a hand-crank shot is among the many most enjoyable metaphors for filmmaking of the final 20 years, and a splendidly ingenious set-piece that’s in contrast to another film. However most significantly, it’s additionally a ridiculously enjoyable and thrilling sequence.

The film’s ending is brilliantly conceived and executed by author and director Jordan Peele and superbly shot by master-of-scale cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Advert Astra, Tenet, Interstellar), who recast the open waters of Jaws because the empty plains of Haywood Ranch. The pair turns the valley’s beautiful vistas into the identical threatening vacancy that make Spielberg’s shark film terrifying, besides one thing may seize you from above as an alternative of under. When OJ begins his experience with Jean Jacket on his tail, or appears to be like straight on the creature to avoid wasting Em, we all know precisely how far he has to go and the way alone he and Fortunate might be. It’s large-scale pressure at its most entertaining.

Like all of Peele’s solo tasks thus far, Nope is a film with an unbelievable quantity on its thoughts. It’s deeply interested in Hollywood’s reference to trauma and violence, and the way these issues solely matter in the event that they’re rendered barely lower than actual by means of the lens of a digital camera; it’s within the film business’s relationship with race, each historic and present, and even within the inherent violence of the form of large-scale spectacle motion pictures (together with itself) depend on. However maybe probably the most spectacular ingredient of the film is how seamlessly Peele weaves all of those factors into probably the most enjoyable and entertaining blockbuster of the yr. —AG

4*City, Turning Purple

This scene entails a bunch of Chinese language girls who’ve become large fluffy purple pandas uniting to assist their member of the family, who has become a extremely large fluffy purple panda. As a conventional chant begins to play, the hip boy band that was beforehand cowering in worry decides to assist and begin singing their infectious hit music. It’s wonderful. It’s an ideal fusion of cultures and symbolically represents our protagonist Mei realizing that she doesn’t have to choose between her Chinese language heritage and her love for boy bands. She will embrace her distinctive hybrid of cultures! Makes me cry, whereas additionally being an absolute banger. 10/10 no notes. —Petrana Radulovic

The ice cream cone, Hearth Island

Picture: Searchlight Photos

I don’t assume any Satisfaction and Prejudice adaptation has nailed Mr. Darcy’s awkwardness a lot as this explicit scene. Earlier on within the film, Noah (our Elizabeth character, performed by Joel Kim Booster) teases Will (our Darcy equal, performed by Conrad Ricamora) for consuming a bit of ice cream cone. After which on this scene, Will spots Noah coming his approach, whereas Will simply occurs to be consuming a bit of ice cream cone. So he does what any rational anxious individual would do — he yeets the ice cream cone within the bushes and simply bolts away. #relatable! —PR

Why we’re at this cabin, Saloum

Picture: Shudder

Saloum doesn’t come throughout as a movie with quite a lot of twists in retailer — it hooks you, at the start, with momentum. Very quickly in any respect, it introduces you to Bangui’s Hyenas, a bunch of mercenaries able to casually strolling by means of the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau in the midst of a violent coup, extracting a Mexican drug lord, and someway making it clear that all the episode would solely be a footnote of their legend. Then issues go awry, they usually’re stranded with their goal in a small village within the Senegalese area of Sine-Saloum, the place issues is probably not what they appear. However then a simple thriller turns into one thing meaner and darker when one of many Hyenas reveals that he stranded them right here on goal, to fulfill a grudge that takes Saloum into searing, private territory that makes it one of the indelible movies of the yr. —Joshua Rivera

The massive reveal, Orphan: First Kill

Photograph: Steve Ackerman/Paramount Photos

It’s downright hilarious how lengthy Orphan: First Kill fools you into considering it’s simply going to retread the 2009 unique, exposing a brand new household to that movie’s deranged twist: that (spoilers) the eponymous orphan Esther is definitely a 33-year-old lady with a hormone dysfunction that makes her seem like a toddler. She’s additionally murderous. For 40 minutes, the prequel First Kill repeats quite a lot of these beats with a brand new household that’s has doomed itself by adopting Esther, solely to brilliantly invert itself and reveal that Esther’s adoptive mom on this movie is aware of about her situation, turning the tables on Esther’s lethal plots and taking First Kill from a retread to an ingenious cat-and-mouse thriller. —JR

Revolting kids, Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical

A film musical is barely nearly as good as its supply materials, however a film musical is barely nice if the author and director rework the supply materials. Whereas composer and lyricist Tim Minchin noticed rightful approval for his top-tapping Roald Dahl stage present when it hit the West Finish in 2011, stage-director-turned-filmmaker Matthew Warchus (Satisfaction) discovered the proper visible language for his 2022 adaptation: Matilda swirls the Kinky Boots-esque British working class comedy with the colour and composition of Paddington 2. Anybody who is aware of Dahl’s guide or the earlier movie adaptation is aware of how Matilda’s standoff with the punishing headmistress Miss Trunchbull escalates, however in Warchus’ palms, the payoff is a stomp-filled song-and-dance revolution that might make the children in One other Brick within the Wall cheer. The quantity rocks. —MP

The legacy speech, Babylon

Picture: Paramount Photos

Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is a messy, self-indulgent film that matches each poignant, important scene with at the least one sequence that feels extreme, redundant, or faintly ridiculous. However when it’s sizzling, it’s sizzling. And it’s even higher when it’s chilly — as it’s throughout the late-film scene the place former cinematic celebrity Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) confronts Hollywood gossip columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Good) a couple of devastating profile she wrote, suggesting that his profession is over. Elinor is brutally light about telling him why his star is falling — however then she continues with a downright lyrical speech concerning the inevitable cycles of Hollywood fame and failure, the mortality of star energy, and the immortality of being captured on movie. A variety of Babylon is concerning the thrill of fame and the eagerness of creation. The legacy speech is concerning the chilly consolation the films give again — Jack’s likelihood to attach with future generations and nonetheless be beloved a long time after his dying. He clearly doesn’t discover that promise compelling, however for these of us who grew up watching the movie stars of the previous work the identical magic they labored 50 years in the past, it’s a superbly scripted sequence, acted with quiet ardour. —Tasha Robinson

The “They Dwell” second at promenade, The Fabelmans

Picture: Amblin Leisure

Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story has many memorable moments, many involving folks transfixed and remodeled by the facility of photos. The screening for Sammy’s boy scout troop! Michelle Williams’ life altering due to Sammy’s photos! David Lynch as a cigar-toting John Ford!

However one second stands out to me, and it jogged my memory of one among my favourite motion pictures of all time.

At Sammy’s highschool promenade, he screens the film he made about his class’s “Skip Day” journey to the seaside. It’s a fascinating sequence that pulls in the entire room, however is very notable for the best way he depicts Logan (Sam Rechner), his bully. On the display screen, Logan appears to be like one thing like a golden god, shimmering within the California solar whereas he dominates his classmates in volleyball. The room erupts in cheers for him, as you’ll be able to see his classmates’ conception of him change in actual time.

However the true magic occurs subsequent. Logan confronts a despondent Sam (recent off a rejected, hasty marriage proposal) within the hallway in a scene harking back to Roddy Piper and Keith David’s well-known alleyway battle in They Dwell.

Logan and Sam could not battle straight, however the battle comes from the identical place — a violent resistance to one thing you don’t wish to settle for (besides as an alternative of aliens, it’s the facility of cinema). Logan merely cannot perceive why Sam would depict him, somebody who has been nothing however merciless to Sam, on this approach. Sam doesn’t know both — was it as a result of he simply needed Logan to be good to him, or as a result of it will make the film higher?

However it’s not simply Sam’s choice that troubles Logan. Logan is shaken by seeing himself this fashion. He sees it as a model of himself he can by no means stay as much as, an not possible commonplace that the true Logan can by no means meet. It’s a strong second in a film stuffed with them, and it will get proper to the guts of Spielberg’s story of the plain energy of photos and the accountability of those that wield them. —Pete Volk

Blood rain, Nope

In a yr filled with scary motion pictures with memorable imagery, nothing in horror felt fairly as heavy because the second in Jordan Peele’s Nope the place a still-unknown, still-mysterious pressure haunting a California horse ranch all of a sudden strikes in above the ranch home and rains blood on it. And never simply blood, both — a complete number of grisly, grotesque reminders of the entity’s final encounter with humanity. The folks in the home do not know what’s taking place, the right way to cease it, or what’s about to occur to them. And Peele shoots the sequence as if a second night time is falling over them — a blood-red night time that makes the home seem like the contents of an alien abdomen. It’s scary. It’s eerie. It’s straight out of a nightmare. And it’s rad as hell. —TR

The rocks, Every part In all places All at As soon as

Amid all of the frenetic multiverse shifting and wild martial arts battles within the Daniels’ epic action-comedy Every part In all places All at As soon as, pissed off mother Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) and her depressing daughter, Pleasure (Stephanie Hsu), snag a startling second of peace in an alternate timeline the place life by no means developed on Earth and each girls take the type of rocks. It’s actually only a collection of photographs of two rocks with subtitles, as the 2 girls attempt to discover frequent floor. And it’s an ideal second. Like so many EEAAO sequences, it turns between feelings on a dime. However the quiet of the second is important. Out of context, it’s simply an odd second between rocks. However inside the context of the movie, it’s a breather the viewers and characters each desperately want, and the feelings are so heightened that simply the sight of rock-Pleasure and rock-Evelyn sharing a companionable snort is remarkably heartening and hilarious. —TR

Field-opening montage, Glass Onion

Rian Johnson’s bubbly follow-up to 2019’s Knives Out packs a ton of character introduction into the early sequence the place 4 smug “disruptors” (performed by Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Kate Hudson, and Leslie Odom Jr.) every get a ridiculously elaborate puzzle field from their billionaire tech-mogul good friend, Miles (Edward Norton), and convention name with one another to unravel the field’s thriller. It’s a full of life, frantic situation, because the field retains altering and the main target retains shifting — every of the foursome (and in some instances, their hangers-on) leans in with some luck or data that strikes the puzzle ahead, instructing the viewers who they’re and what they’re good at within the course of. As they transfer nearer and nearer to completion, the tempo ramps up, the strain builds, and the sequence will get nearly alarmingly frantic. Then Johnson cuts to an estranged, offended good friend (performed by Janelle Monáe), who punctures all that pressure with a wonderfully timed resolution of her personal. It’s a blinding little bit of writing and visible legerdemain, all ramping as much as a easy visible joke — one which says as a lot about Monáe’s character as all of the previous nonsense mentioned about everybody else’s. —TR

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