John Waters’ Top 10 Movies of 2022

Every year John Waters does a Top 10 Movies list for Art Forum, and it’s one of the most highly anticipated lists among movie-lovers, critics, etc. His taste is eclectic, to say the least, and he doesn’t focus on the usual suspects. You can already almost tell what’s going to win everything. He stays true to his own tastes, something I always try to do in my own end-of-year lists. What I love about John Waters’ lists is how wide-ranging it is, how disinterested in consensus. It’s like consensus doesn’t even exist. This is my goal, 100%. His list is pure personal taste, perverse even (if you think like the status quo) and I LOVE that. It’s easy to feel pressure to like certain movies. Because, make no mistake, your end-of-year lists WILL be mocked, dragged through the coals, pierced by nay-sayers, interrogated for ideological reasons. I love when people just have fun with this stuff.

Well, his 2022 list came out, and there are many there I have seen, more I have NOT seen, and I was THRILLED to see that at number 7 was Dinner in America, a movie I beat the drum for HARD when it first came out, here, on Insta, on FB, on Twitter. I reviewed for Ebert, first of all, but then continued to write about it on my site. I’ve seen it four times by now. Dinner in America is going to be one of THOSE. I’m quoted on the poster!

I’ve already made up a couple of Top 10s for different sites – yes, I switch the lists up, depending – in general, I hate lists – but Dinner in America has a permanent spot in my top 10. And, as John Waters said, “nobody noticed”. I do want to correct him and shout, “I NOTICED.”

Thankfully, a couple of people I know have sought out the film purely because John Waters called it out – and I know for a fact a couple of people watched it because I recommended it, so I am very proud to be this John-Waters-adjacent!

Here’s the trailer for Dinner in America. See it, dammit! John Waters loved it!