Amazon Prime Video added a large number of great movies to its ever-expanding catalog of Amazon Originals in 2022. Amazon Prime Video may not be able to compete with Netflix's streaming juggernaut in terms of subscribers, but it still has plenty of great movies to offer its audience. Amazon Prime Video offers Amazon Original movies in a variety of genres, ranging from superhero action films like Samaritan to ensemble comedies like The People We Hate At The Wedding.
As a result, this list includes all genres of Amazon Original movies that debuted on Prime Video in 2022, including the best documentaries and fiction. It includes some of the most popular Amazon Original movies available on Prime Video, as well as some of the streaming service's more obscure titles. Having said that, here are the ten best Amazon Prime Original movies of 2022:
1.Lucy and Desi
Unlike Aaron Sorkin's inaccurate drama Being the Ricardos, Amy Poehler's incredible documentary about the lives of the legendary Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz truly captures their talent. Poehler expertly blends archival recordings, some of which had never before been heard, with an array of remarkable talking heads, including Ball and Arnaz's children, Bette Midler, and Carol Burnett. Amy Poehler's most fascinating observation in Lucy and Desi, 2022's best Amazon Prime Original film, is that Lucille Ball constantly doubts her own talent. However, her ongoing legacy, which can be seen in female comedians like Poehler and Burnett, proves that Ball's reservations were completely unfounded.
2. Emergency
Emergency begins as a politically charged yet hilarious comedy before transitioning into one of the year's most tense thrillers. The film follows three college students, two Black, and one Latino, as they discover the unconscious body of a white adolescent girl in their dorm. They decide not to call the cops because they have no idea how she got there and want to avoid becoming victims of police brutality due to misunderstanding. Emergency has a fantastic cast led by RJ Cyler and Donald Elise Watkins, as well as a hilarious script. Emergency brilliantly manages to be both comedic and thrilling at the same time.
3. I Want You Back
Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Jenny Slate (Everything, Everything, Everywhere) star in the charmingly mischievous romantic comedy I Want You Back. Slate and Day play a pair of recently divorced strangers who band together to ruin their ex-partners' new relationships. Their tenacity results in a series of hilarious mishaps, such as Slate being forced to perform in a middle school musical production of Little Shop of Horrors and Day being forced to jump into a hot tub from a balcony. Slate and Day have fantastic chemistry and are well supported by a fantastic ensemble that includes Gina Rodriguez from Jane the Virgin and Manny Jacinto from Top Gun: Maverick.
4. Catherine Called Birdy
The charmingly irreverent comedy Catherine Called Birdy, directed by Girls' Lena Dunham, stars Game of Thrones' Bella Ramsey. Ramsey plays Birdy, a 14-year-old girl determined to prevent her father (Andrew Scott) from marrying her off in order to reclaim his family's fortune. Birdy scares off any potential suitors with a series of hilarious shenanigans until one arrives and is charmed by her antics. The cast is hilarious, especially Fleabag's Andrew Scott, and Catherine Called Birdy maintains a light tone. It's one of the year's most enjoyable comedies.
5. Good Night Oppy
Good Night, Oppy, co-produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, effectively captures the childlike wonder of his more family-friendly films, such as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The documentary directed by Ryan White tells the unlikely story of two Mars rovers named Spirit and Opportunity, whose 90-day mission turned into a 15-year mission. The rovers are depicted in Good Night Oppy through CG animation, which explicitly recalls WALL-E, given the images of cute robots in an inhospitable wasteland. Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) is an excellent narrator, and the NASA scientist panelists are knowledgeable and enthusiastic.
6. Thirteen Lives
Ron Howard's dramatization of the Tham Luang cave rescue, Thirteen Lives, is technically impressive but nowhere near as engaging as his previous attempts at dramatizing real-life events, such as Apollo 13. Thirteen Lives suffers from being beaten to the punch; this story has already been filmed by the Free Solo directorial team in their excellent film The Rescue. Thirteen Lives' production design and underwater cinematography are fantastic, and the cast is impressive, though the film was criticized for ignoring the trapped Thai football team in favor of the white divers who rescued them.
7. Don't Make Me Go
Movies with unexpected endings live and die by their execution. Unfortunately, Don't Make Me Go's cruel twist ending does nothing but spoil the film's excellent first hour and a half. John Cho's performance in the similarly twisted I'm looking for a terminally ill father who wants to reunite his daughter (Mia Isaac) with her estranged mother. Isaac and Cho are fantastic in this film, with seemingly endless charisma as they navigate a series of familiar road trip movie tropes. While the twist in Don't Make Me Go subverts some of the film's more cliché elements, it feels emotionally cheap. Fortunately, the central performances are so strong that the ending is almost irrelevant.
8. Something From Tiffany's
Something From Tiffany's has the charm, better acting, and larger budget of a Hallmark Christmas movie. Much of Something From Tiffany's rests on the shoulders of star/executive producer Zoey Deutch (Not Cool), who effortlessly delivers a delightful lead performance reminiscent of other genre legends. The plot, which involves temporary amnesia, an engagement ring, and a gift mix-up, is appropriately silly and entertaining. Nothing From Tiffany's is original, but it succeeds because of the great chemistry between the leads.
9. My Policeman
My Policeman is a period romantic drama that is both disappointingly bland and beautifully shot. My Policeman tells the story of a complicated love triangle between a policeman (Harry Styles), his wife (The Crown's Emma Corrin), and his lover (David Dawson) set in Brighton, a picturesque town on the south coast of England, between the 1950s and 1990s. Corrin and Dawson are both fantastic, and while Styles is better here than he was in the disastrous Don't Worry Darling, he still gives a noticeably awkward performance. Nonetheless, My Policeman is stunning, thanks to cinematographer Ben Davis, who also worked on Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin this year.
10.Master
Master is an ambitious horror drama about institutional racism on college campuses, led by Regina Hall's outstanding performance as Gail Bishop, the first black "master" of a house in a fictional Ivy League college. Bishop and freshman Jasmine (Zoe Renee) are both haunted by a ghost on campus. Unfortunately, the film's overt horror sequences aren't particularly frightening. However, the scenes in which Bishop and Jasmine are subjected to a barrage of microaggressions are well-directed and appropriately painful to watch. The ending of Master never quite gels together all of the themes it wants to explore, but it's worth watching for Hall's performance.