Halfway into 2022 and cinema is almost definitely sort of back, baby! 

Last year’s midyear top 25 was dominated by regional indies and streaming releases—partly because pandemic, and partly because we changed up the eligibility to include films that have been released in any country—not just the US—with at least a limited theatrical, streaming or video-on-demand run (and a minimum of 1,000 ratings on Letterboxd).

That adjustment opened the doors for more world cinema, and more films that hadn’t yet landed US distribution, ultimately making our highest-rated lists somewhat less America-centric. That definitely shows in this year’s midway leaderboard, but what’s also obvious is the impact of theatrical releases (hello to the Hangman, The Batman and The Northman), in-person festival hype, and the return of A24 and its mysterious marketing machine. 

If one thing ties the top three films together, it might be the sheer number of mentions of crying, sobbing, tissues and tears in your Letterboxd reviews of Everything Everywhere All at Once, Kadaisi Vivasayi and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Empathetic cinema is back, baby! 

A24 holds the first and third spots on the list thanks to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s multiverse action-comedy, and a tiny mollusc with tinier footwear. Since we already accepted an acceptance speech from the Daniels when EEAAO briefly became the highest-rated film of all time earlier this year, we reached out to Marcel the Shell with Shoes On director Dean Fleischer-Camp for his reaction to Marcel’s midyear third-place achievement. 

“She’s got the Midas touch,” he told us of actress and co-creator Jenny Slate, who is in both Everything (as a laundromat customer) and Marcel (as his voice), not to mention other 2022 releases, The Bob’s Burgers Movie and the Amazon rom-com I Want You Back. “I mean, if you want your movie to be a word-of-mouth hit, hire Jenny Slate!” Fleischer-Camp advises, before admitting to his fear of success via Letterboxd ratings:  

“I don’t try to make things to be unanimously loved—that’s a recipe for disaster. So when something you make is unanimously loved, it’s scary. The fact that people are rating it highly, I think, probably means that, sure, they like the movie, but that they feel a little bit like they’re judging Marcel or rating Marcel. You would never rate someone who’s really charming. After meeting them for an hour and a half, you’d never be like, ‘Nah, I’d give her a three’. But no, I mean, I’m so happy.” 

In terms of the highest-rated film, what more is there to say about Everything Everywhere All at Once at this point in the year that hasn’t already been said? (And will be said again, come the film’s inevitable awards campaign later in the year.) As soon as Letterboxd members got their googly eyes on this wild action-adventure / sci-fi / martial-arts metaverse ride about paying attention to the people you love and doing your taxes on time, the film by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert rocketed to a 4.5 out of five-star rating, holding strong after half a million watches and still currently placing in our all-time top 10.

The bombastic action delights and brilliant cinematic marketing campaign of Telugu hit RRR ensured it a place on this list, but the highest-ranked of the four Indian films on the list is a gentle, agrarian drama about our relationship with land, starring a real-life octogenarian farmer in his first and last role (rest in peace, Nallandi). “It’s probably impossible to make a live-action Hayao Miyazaki movie but Kadaisi Vivasayi exists to prove us all wrong,” writes Kenthavala of M. Manikandan’s second-placed Tamil-language film, whose English title translates to ‘The Last Farmer’. 

Land is also the concern of another Indian film on the list, Pada, a sociopolitical hostage thriller, while Vikram is more in the RRR vein, starting out as a multi-narrative investigative mystery before turning into an action banger after the intermission (“Now this is a proper mass masala film,” writes John.)

From around the globe, the halfway top 25 also has representation from Ireland (The Quiet Girl), Finland (Girl Picture), Indonesia (Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap), Spain (Lullaby, Alcarràs—the first Catalan-language film to win the Golden Bear), Brazil (Eduardo e Mônica), Korea (Broker, Decision to Leave), Iran (Hit the Road), and France (En Corps, Vortex, À Plein Temps). There are four films by women directors on the list (Lullaby, Alcarràs, Girl Picture, Turning Red)—down from eight at this time last year. 

In documentaries, our top-rated is The Beatles: Get Back—The Rooftop Concert, the final hour of Peter Jackson’s Get Back miniseries, excerpted and sent to IMAX theaters for a limited run. It was so beloved on Letterboxd that it briefly topped the all-time documentaries list. This opportunity to see it on the big screen instead of at home on Disney+ accentuated the communal experience of watching cultural history unfold and witnessing the world’s greatest pop group going out on a high note. 

In other categories, K-drama My Liberation Notes is the highest-rated narrative miniseries at the midway point (with the Ben Whishaw medical drama This is Going to Hurt poised to overtake it once it gains more ratings). Walking with Dinosaurs revamp Prehistoric Planet, narrated by nature’s bestie David Attenborough, is the highest rated documentary miniseries. The highest-rated comedy special goes to Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel (directed by last year’s highest-rated comedy special’s creator, Bo Burnham), and the highest-rated music film is BTS Permission to Dance On Stage. 

In terms of where to find many of these titles within the US, it pays to check your JustWatch availability, as many have come and gone in theaters and are now on video-on-demand and streaming services. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Vikram and Top Gun: Maverick are currently in cinemas, Mad God recently came to Shudder, and Girl Picture opens on August 12 at IFC Center in New York. Several other films are currently awaiting US distribution, and Everything Everywhere All at Once has its Blu-Ray release on July 5. Remember, also, that your ratings count towards the ultimate goal: the 2022 Letterboxd Year in Review, which will be unveiled in early January 2023.