Best Movies of 2022
2022 was the year for a lot of great movies. Here are our top 10 movies of 2022
10 - Prey
Fittingly for a movie with a cloaking device at its heart, we did not see this period-set Predator flick coming, Sure, the trailer looked sufficiently promising to banish awkward memories of the last few outings from this creaking franchise, but just how much fresh life talented director Dan Trachtenberg has managed to inject into it amid all the gory, inventive offings still came as a very happy surprise. Yes, it belongs on the big screen rather than a straight-to-Hulu release but at least it's easily rewatchable – and with part-Sioux actress Amber Midthunder providing its ridiculously engaging action hero and that mandibled space bastard actually scary again, it'll be on our favourites list for years to come.
9 - Elvis
The trailers made it look a little, well, hammy, but Baz Luhrmann’s ode to the King turns out to be a hip-shaking and hypnotic experience. Is it occasionally over-the-top? Yup. Are the maximalist visuals a lot to absorb over two-and-a-half hours? Sure. Does Tom Hanks’ waxy, fat-suited version of Colonel Parker seem to be in danger of melting from contact with the nearest bright light? That too. But for all its flaws, Elvis is an irresistible night at the pictures: a more-is-more collage of music, history and Presley pilgrimage that’s lit up by the spectacular Austin Butler.
8 - Everything Everywhere All at Once
Somewhere out there is a small but fanatical posse that holds Swiss Army Man on their shoulders as an unheralded classic. For the rest of us, this high-concept multiversal sci-fi is the first proper showcase of what directing duo the Daniels could do. With Michelle Yeoh launching from laundromat owner going through marital strife – basically a Mike Leigh character – to action star and back again, and then into a multitude of other adventures, Everything Everywhere All At Once does exactly what the titles implies and sends you spinning through time and space in exhilarating style.
7 - The Quiet Girl
Like its title character, the shy nine-year-old Cáit, this Irish surrogate family drama is as delicate as porcelain – and just as beautiful. It reads like an evacuee story from the pages of Enid Blyton – a young girl is sent from her warring family home to stay with two strangers and slowly opens their hearts – but The Quiet Girl tells it with deep feeling and freshness. That it leans so heavily on two first-timers, filmmaker Colm Bairéad and his 12-year-old star Catherine Clinch, makes it all the more remarkable, The Banshees of Inisherin may not be the only Irish story in town at this year's Oscars.
6 - RRR
Telugu director SS Rajamouli's epics are just absurdly fun. And this year’s RRR, the third highest-grossing Indian film ever, could be the most fun of them all. The ‘Rs’ stand for ‘rise, roar and revolt’, themes that play out in a Raj-era storyline about British colonialism and an abducted child that occasionally pokes through all the insane fight scenes, razzed-up dance routines, exploding trains and tigers (there are a lot of tigers). It’s the perfect gateway drug to the highs of Telugu action cinema.
5 - All Quiet on the Western Front
Seen 1917? Brace yourself for 1918. Netflix’s often awe-striking German-language reimagining of Erich Maria Remarque’s classic antiwar novel takes place in the dying embers of the Great War. And ‘dying’ is the operative word, because this vision of conflict is as violent a film as you’ll see this year – a cacophony of screaming shells, rumbling tanks and the rat-a-tat of flying bullets. In the middle of it all is a young German conscript (talented newcomer Felix Kammerer) just trying to stay alive. It’ll leave you dazed.
4 - Avatar: The Way Of Water
Never bet against James Cameron. When news broke that the record-breaking director had not one, not two, not three, but four sequels to 2009’s box-office-smashing, boundary-pushing Avatar on the way, the world wasn’t sure what to expect. The answer – with Cameron, always – is a movie-going experience unlike any other. Moving Jake Sully, Neytiri and their new brood to the oceanic base of the Metkayina clan in The Way Of Water gave Cameron a big new blue playground to swim in. The result? An otherworldly, transportative exploration of family, our bonds with animals, fatherhood, colonisation, revenge and sacrifice, with perfectly paced action sequences that will make your jaw drop.
3 - The Banshees of Inisherin
In Bruges is an all-time comedy great, so the reunion of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson under the watchful eye of director Martin McDonagh is an enticing prospect for any movie lover. And boy, does this fizzingly funny and flawlessly acted anti-buddy movie live up to expectations. Instead of a gobby hitman and his long-suffering colleague, the pair play a couple of old pals on an Irish island whose friendship hits the skids in a big way. Peppered with its writer-director’s trademark dark wit, it carries at its heart an poignant political allegory for the sorrows of The Troubles.
2 - Top Gun: Maverick
Okay, hands up who saw this practically flawless blockbuster coming? A few people probably did – this long-in-the-making Top Gun sequel was originally due out two years ago – but that enforced delay detracts not one iota from the purest widescreen thrill ride of the year so far. Tom Cruise’s ace pilot provides heart, soul and some fighter jet manoeuvres that we’re pretty sure defy every law of physics in the book. Mind you, the book gets binned early (and literally) in this one, to reinvent the so-called ‘legacy sequel’ into something that soars way above hollow Hollywood cash-ins.
1 - THE BATMAN
Matt Reeves brings a new Batman to life in his own cinematic corner proved to be a great move. He somehow finds a fresh way into the well-trodden path of Bruce Wayne, mostly ditching the origin story to chronicle a hero finding his feet, while still stumbling along the way. Robert Pattinson gives good growl as the Bat (though his brooding emo-Bruce gets less to do), haunted by his past but figuring out what he needs to do in the future. Paul Dano is suitably creepy as a serial-killer Riddler, Zoe Kravitz injects wit and energy as Catwoman, and Colin Farrell is almost unrecognisable, chewing the scenery as crime-boss-to-be Oswald "Oz" Cobblepot, aka The Penguin. There's a gritty, rain-sodden reality to Gotham – soundtracked by Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’ – but while the visuals are moody, gorgeously lensed by cinematographer Greig Fraser, The Batman is a vivid new version of a comic book icon.
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