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Movies That Scored 0% on Rotten Tomatoes

Plenty of bad movies get rated on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s rare to see a movie score a flat 0% without a single critic to defend something about the flick. If you didn’t think it was possible, take a walk down the cinematic hall of shame and feast your eyes on some of the worst movies (according to Rotten Tomatoes) to date.

Each film on this list has managed to achieve a flat 0% rating, implying a time suck of epic proportions should you choose to watch them. Obviously, these movies should only be viewed at your own risk. Consider yourself warned!

Look Who’s Talking Now (1993)

Although the original Look Who’s Talking film scored a mere 57% among critics, it was a viewer favorite, which prompted the creators to make not one, but two sequels. The first two featured John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and a series of talking babies. Cute, right?

In the third film, Look Who’s Talking Now , the filmmakers instead swapped the babies out with crude talking dogs who make constant sexual references. Very kid-friendly, right? It’s impossible to understand how anyone making the film failed to consider this strategy would completely alienate the target audience and critics.

MAC and Me (1988)

Although Hollywood may occasionally be able to stomach a bad movie, there’s nothing it hates more than a blatant rip-off. Such was the case when MAC and Me was released in 1988. The story features a young, wheelchair-bound boy who meets MAC (Mysterious Alien Creature), an alien who needs help finding his way home. Sound familiar?

Apparently, the filmmakers thought that putting the poor kid in a wheelchair would keep everyone from realizing they had obviously hijacked the plot of E.T. It didn’t work — Duh! — and critics weren’t shy about letting everyone know what they thought about it.

Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

As Steven Spielberg told a film festival audience in 1975, “Making a sequel to anything is just a cheap carny trick.” The fact that he understands what so many other filmmakers fail to grasp, however, didn’t keep three sequels to his hit movie Jaws from being made by other misguided industry professionals.

The tales of terrified beachgoers just kept coming until finally Jaws: The Revenge , the franchise’s fourth movie, finally sank things once and for all. The movie’s nonsensical plot, bad special effects and sloppy execution were more than critics or moviegoers could handle with a straight face.

Staying Alive (1983)

Ever noticed that there’s something about dance movies that seems to inspire a million sequels? Before the days of the Step Up franchise, Staying Alive led the way toward insipid dance movie franchises of the future. Unfortunately, this questionable sequel to the successful Saturday Night Fever came nowhere near the success of its predecessor.

John Travolta returned as Tony Manero in a plot set six years after he won the legendary disco contest in the first film. The plot mostly serves as a filler for additional dancing that the filmmakers mistakenly counted on to carry the movie.

Bolero (1984)

Poor Bo Derek. One day, her career was off to a great start, and the next, her husband, John Derek, had a not-so-brilliant idea called Bolero . Written and directed by John himself, the film features Bo as a recently graduated woman in the 1920s who traipses all over the globe in an attempt to lose her virginity.

The whole thing turned out to be one of those movies that’s funny for all the wrong reasons, and it was largely considered a huge mess by critics. On the other hand, it won six of its 10 Razzie award nominations. Maybe that counts for something — or not.

Dream a Little Dream (1989)

You know you have failed in a spectacular fashion when not even teen heartthrob Corey Feldman could save your ’80s movie. Such was the case with Dream a Little Dream , a bizarre story about an elderly couple who undertakes a mystical experiment.

As a result, they end up trapped in the bodies of two teenagers, whose lives don’t turn out to be what they had expected. Not surprisingly, the film itself turned out to be epically incoherent. Roger Ebert dubbed it “an aggressively unwatchable movie,” while other critics questioned whether the writers had any idea what they had created.

Problem Child (1990)

A couple adopts a young boy who turns out to be an absolute nightmare who is determined to make their lives hell. While this might sound like a solid premise for a horror movie — maybe it would have worked that way — Problem Child actually tried to present itself as a slapstick comedy.

The problem was that none of the jokes were the least bit funny, and the plot itself came across as more mean-spirited than fun. The result was a mess of a film with a lead character that neither adults nor children could bring themselves to understand, let alone like.

Megaforce (1982)

Megaforce was supposed to chronicle the tale of an elite group of international warriors, but it turned out to be something most critics had to force themselves to watch. As one reviewer put it, the film was “the kind of bad that makes you wish you were somewhere, anywhere else.”

The movie barely grossed a fourth of its $20 million budget, little of which appeared to have been used to improve anything about the film. With bad dialogue, cheesy special effects and a ridiculous plot, Megaforce ended up being the most unintentionally funny action movie of all time.

Highlander 2: The Quickening (1991)

Few movies brought fans, critics and even its own crew together in mutual disgust quite like Highlander 2 . The original Highlander at least achieved a cult following, but the sequel pretty much just borrowed the title and absolutely none of the good parts of the storyline.

The filmmakers bizarrely tossed much of the original movie’s plotline and twisted the premise to include aliens battling on an environmentally plagued Earth in 2024. Rumor has it that even director Russell Mulcahy asked to replace his name with a fake one but was forbidden by his contract from bailing out.

American Anthem (1986)

If you have never heard of this ’80’s gymnastics story, then you’re not alone. The story centers around a young male gymnast who works through various issues, meets a girl and trains for the Olympics — you know, the usual athlete coming-of-age story. Who better to play him than an actual Olympic gold medal gymnast, right?

Apparently not. While production didn’t have to worry about training Mitch Gaylord to do the gymnastics, they probably should have focused a little more on training him to act. The sloppy story and overload of cliches came in second only to his less than gold-medal acting performance.

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)

You know how even the funniest joke loses all its hilarity if the same person keeps telling it over and over? That’s sort of what happened with the Police Academy franchise. While the original was hilarious, nobody was laughing anymore by the end of the sixth sequel.

Among the most painful of the follow-ups was the fourth installment, in which Commandant Lassard decides to recruit civilians to work alongside the cops. The movie seems less concerned with a plot of any sort and plays out more like a string of gags tied together in the longest YouTube compilation ever.

Deadfall (1993)

Based on the cover alone, Deadfall looks like a movie that could attract plenty of unsuspecting viewers. It has Nicolas Cage, James Coburn and even Charlie Sheen among its cast, not to mention a Coppola in the director’s chair.

As it turns out, it’s merely a lesson in never judging a book — or a movie — by its cover. The film is basically an attempt at film noir gone terribly wrong. Although the filmmakers managed to get the look right, they forgot the part where you really need a strong plot to make the whole thing work.

A Thousand Words (2012)

When your movie is shot four years before anyone dares to actually release it in theaters, you know you’re in for a rough ride. A Thousand Words made the mistake of taking the hilarious Eddie Murphy and pretty much forcing him to pull off an hour and a half of recorded silence.

Why? Because if his character spoke too much, he would be doomed to become a magical tree in his backyard. By the time the film was over, audiences everywhere were more desperate for Murphy to regain his speech than his character was.

Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011)

Despite its name, this film ironically did more to tank the career of lead actor Nick Swardson than help it. If you didn’t see it, fear not. It’s pretty much just one long joke that keeps struggling to tell itself for the most painful 96 minutes ever.

You get a socially challenged loser kid who moves to L.A. to follow in his porn-star parents’ footsteps. Unless the previous sentence made you laugh hysterically, then trust us when we assure you that you didn’t miss anything. Seriously, it doesn’t get any funnier from there.

Gotti (2018)

Although it was released a mere two years ago, Gotti has already gained the popular vote for the worst mob movie of all time. John Travolta stars as infamous mobster John Gotti in this biopic, which attempts to cram the guy’s entire life into 105 minutes.

Gotti was many things, and an interesting guy was certainly one of them. Unfortunately, the film fails to capture this fact and also manages to be ridiculously boring in its attempt to entertain. One critic actually said he would prefer to “wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch Gotti again.” Yikes!

Dark Crimes (2018)

In the ’90s, most of us thought of Jim Carrey as the hysterically goofy star of films like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Dumb and Dumber . Then, one day, he suddenly stunned the world with his obvious dramatic talent in movies like The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind .

So, when Dark Crimes came along, it seemed promising. The film cast Carey as a detective, and he did a pretty good job with what he was given. That said, the film was less the thriller it was intended to be and mostly just too disturbing to actually watch.

The Ridiculous 6 (2015)

It seems like we all fell so in love with Adam Sandler during his early career that we just can’t bring ourselves to give up on him. It was probably his early success that made him rich enough to start bankrolling his own movies, and things have been going downhill ever since.

Among the worst of his creations is The Ridiculous 6 , a would-be Western satire that is just painful to watch. Aside from its lame jokes, the flick is insanely racist and disrespectful toward Native Americans — to the degree that several Native American actors walked off the set.

Max Steel (2016)

Not all superhero movies are created equal, as Max Steel will be the first to grudgingly admit. While many action films spawn toy lines, this one did things backwards and attempted to make a movie out of an old toy from the late ’90s.

The movie tells the story of a boy named Max who meets a metallic alien being that can wrap around him like a knock-off Iron Man suit. The rest of the movie follows suit with one superhero cliche after another, none of which are executed half as well as they are in the films they shamelessly mimic.

Simon Sez (1999)

Remember when Dennis Rodman was still around? Well, of course, there was someone out there who just had to ride the coattails of his 15 minutes of fame by dropping him into an action flick. Hence, Simon Sez , the sequel to Double Take , was born.

While Rodman at least had Jean-Claude Van Damme to back him up in the first film, he has to resort to teaming up with a pair of random computer hacking monks in the sequel. Prepare to spend the whole movie wishing he would just give it up and do a couple of dunks instead.

Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991)

Although The Blue Lagoon didn’t even garner a 10% fresh rating from critics in 1980, that didn’t stop someone out there from thinking a sequel would still be a great idea. 1991 saw the ill-fated release of Return to the Blue Lagoon , which fared even worse than the original.

The film plopped then-teenagers Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause onto a desert island, threw in a little romance and a lot of flesh, and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the movie tanked and was even deemed by one critic to be “for pervs and frustrated holidaymakers only.” Ouch.

The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)

Back in the ’80s, there was a card collecting trend featuring the Garbage Pail Kids. With characters meant to be knock-offs of Cabbage Patch Kids, the cards featured kids that were super gross in ways that only young boys find fascinating.

To the horror of parents everywhere, someone decided to turn the trend into a truly terrifying live-action film. While the cartoonish creatures may have looked harmless enough on the cards, their puppet counterparts were the stuff that nightmares — and years of intense therapy — were made of.

Top Dog (1994)

While Chuck Norris may have spawned a series of hysterical memos detailing his epic levels of greatness, Top Dog is his Achilles Heel that refuses to die. How could an action-comedy starring not only Norris but also an adorable dog possibly go wrong?

Well, the first mistake was inserting our heroes into a “family-friendly” film laden with Neo-Nazis terrorists and White Supremacists. (What?) The second was having the poor taste to release it two weeks after the Oklahoma City bombings. All this added up to an epic fail that was virtually booed out of the box office.

Jury Duty (1995)

This Pauly Shore flop was enough to leave most movie fans preferring actual jury duty to sticking around until the final credits rolled on this movie. The tale revolves around an uninspired slacker who gets the brilliant idea to sign up for jury duty so he can take advantage of the free room and board. (Exactly where is this jury duty?)

The rest of the film mostly focuses on him coming up with the most annoying ways possible to keep the case going, simply so he doesn’t lose his temporary digs. By the end, you’re sure to be just as frustrated as his fellow jurors.

You could almost hear the collective shatter of the hearts of Friends fans around the globe when this bad boy flop came out. The sports comedy featured Matt LeBlanc — of Joey Tribbiani fame — and a lovable, baseball-playing chimpanzee named Ed. What could go wrong?

So much. Although the premise could have been a solid kid feature in the right hands, the filmmakers fell back on a string of potty jokes and very little else to make the movie funny. The whole thing just seemed like such a waste for LeBlanc’s comedy skills, and it didn’t do the chimp any favors either.

3 Strikes (2000)

Starring Brian Hooks and written by the same guy who penned the hysterical Friday, this comedy gem seemed destined to be a winner. Wrong! By the time it was all said and done, critics were ready to lock this one up and throw away the key.

The plot centers around a two-strike felon who is trying his best to stay out of trouble, a task that turns out to be surprisingly complicated. The movie relies mostly on super lowbrow humor, which might have been excusable if it had actually managed to be funny.

Redline (2007)

You know those bargain bin DVDs that look like dollar store versions of popular movies? Redline is pretty much their king. Imagine The Fast and the Furious but without the plotline and with women depicted as nothing more than arm candy. That pretty much sums up the movie.

Rather than attempt to tell a story of any sort, the film is a blatant vanity project meant to show off a bunch of flashy cars, complete with the calendar girl side pieces. Save your time and flip through a car calendar at a truck stop instead.

The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)

Seriously, how do you even mess up The Nutcracker ? Sadly, this misguided children’s film pulled it off, much to the dismay of horrified film critics everywhere. The Hollywood Reporter called it “an apparent Scrooge-like attempt by Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky to forever ruin children’s associations with the classic Yuletide ballet.”

Despite the film’s solid cast, which included Elle Fanning and Nathan Lane, it veered so far away from the much-loved traditional tale that it became something else entirely. You had one job, Nutcracker . Step away from the 3D glasses and stick to the beloved story.

National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers (2003)

This sincerely misguided attempt at a comedy stars Will Friedle, who played the lovably bumbling Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World , and Chris Owen as the two least funny guys in any comedy ever. The hijinks begin when the boys decide to marry two older women, in hopes that they will soon die and leave them a large inheritance.

Before long, everyone is trying to murder everyone else, and the mystery of why this mean-spirited flick was ever considered a comedy just keeps getting deeper. If you want a real laugh, read the film’s Rotten Tomatoes reviews instead.

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

Look no further than this 2002 gem for proof that star power alone can’t save a bad film. Starring Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas, the movie is about two government agents who are fighting over who can get their hands on some new diabolical weapon first.

An understandable plot, however, seems to be the last thing on the filmmakers’ minds. The entire movie is more like one big string of explosions, bullets and plotlines gone rogue (and wrong). With more than 100 bad reviews to its name, if it’s not the worst movie of all time, it’s definitely pretty close.

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas (2017)

As one critic summed this one up, “ Saving Christmas is basically 80 minutes of Cameron lambasting Christians for not being his equal when it comes to intolerance and close-mindedness.” The film left both believers and nonbelievers alike wondering what had just happened to the incredibly confusing last 80 minutes of their lives.

The bizarre undertaking looks more like something Cameron filmed on his phone after a few too many egg nogs and is more or less him preaching a sermon he didn’t bother to research. The whole thing comes across more like a vanity piece than an inspirational message.

Folks! (1992)

Tom Selleck, the actor who resembles a real-life Ken doll, made a major mistake when he took the lead role in the incredibly problematic Folks . In the film, Selleck’s Jon Aldrich tries to manage his work and personal life while his parents, particularly his father who lives with dementia, continued to make his life more and more problematic. 

Folks! was heavily panned for its negative portrayal of anyone over the age of 50, but especially for the low-brow humor at the expense of someone living with dementia. You couldn’t find any folks in the archives who had a good thing to say about this poorly-written movie. 

A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994)

A movie with the likes of Keenen Ivory Wayans and Jada Pinkett Smith sounds like it would be a recipe for a good movie, right? Wrong. This action/comedy dud written, directed by and starring Wayans was panned for its terrible plot lines and story structure.

Legendary film critic had some particularly cutting words for the LAPD-focused flick: “Here is a movie about guns. Take away the guns, and the movie would be about nothing much. The plot, the dialogue and all but one of the characters are so shallow that, without murder for a punch line, they’d deflate.” What a shame.

Precious Cargo (2016)

Sigh. Poor Bruce Willis. This movie was so bad it makes other bad movies look good. Willis played the role of Eddie Filosa, who convinces a crime boss and his gang to steal $30 million in diamonds from another crime gang in exchange for a woman. 

Another film whose plot points and story structure are just filled with guns and high-speed chases. The cheap dialog and intentionally funny moments turned into a piece of painful, gut-wrenching cinema. It should honestly be retitled “Total Garbage”.

Transylmania (2009)

A group of sexy college co-eds party abroad in a vampire-filled Romania. What could possibly go wrong? When the lead character Rusty arranges the Eurotrip so he could meet his Internet girlfriend Draguta, you realize how much actually will go wrong in this far-from-campy movie.

The movie is filled with a bunch of tired gags, monsters that aren’t scary and too many characters to develop an affinity towards any of them. For a movie from the National Lampoon franchise, this screwball comedy really fails to deliver any “mania” outside of pure nausea. 

London Fields (2018)

The clairvoyant Nicola Six, played by Amber Heard, learns that she will die at the hands of a man in her life. Naturally, she begins to date three men to discover which one will be her killer. That makes total sense, right? Nothing confusing to contemplate there. 

The film grossed $168,575 on its opening weekend, with a per-screen average of $261. The Independent’s critic Kaleem Aftab claimed, “Most scenes lack pace, are performed badly and are accompanied by a running commentary of action we can see for ourselves.”

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Best Movies 2022

It was a long delay for takeoff but Top Gun: Maverick is why we love the blockbuster experience: Exhilirating action with big emotional stakes and an on-your-feet sunset ending. As for the rest of the top 10, writer/director Martin McDonaugh went back to his roots for the stout-dark comedy The Banshees of Inisherin , co-starring Colin Farrell (also in The Batman , by the way). In this universe, Everything Everywhere All At Once became the sci-fi/fantasy/action/romance/comedy that could. You couldn’t ask for more diversity in animation, with the high-spirited Turning Red , the dark musical Pinocchio , and the sweet and poignant hybrid Marcel the Shell with Shoes On . And in 2022, love had lots to do with it, from a mother’s grief and crusade ( Till ) to a pregnant teenager facing harrowing choices ( Happening ) and one hot quixotic couple ( Fire of Love ).

The order reflects Tomatometer scores (as of December 31, 2022) after adjustment from our ranking formula, which compensates for variation in the number of reviews when comparing movies or TV shows.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 96%

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) 96%

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 94%

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) 96%

Turning Red (2022) 95%

Happening (2021) 99%

The Batman (2022) 85%

Fire of Love (2022) 98%

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) 98%

Till (2022) 96%

The Woman King (2022) 94%

Prey (2022) 94%

The Northman (2022) 90%

X (2022) 94%

The Duke (2020) 97%

The Janes (2022) 100%

Descendant (2022) 100%

No Bears (2022) 99%

Navalny (2022) 97%

All That Breathes (2022) 99%

Official Competition (2021) 96%

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022) 94%

Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (2022) 98%

Nothing compares (2022) 99%.

Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down (2022) 100%

Aftersun (2022) 96%

Decision to Leave (2022) 94%

Free Chol Soo Lee (2022) 100%

Emily the Criminal (2022) 94%

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) 94%

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TOP 100 FILMS IN 2022 THE BEST MOVIES

Top Gun: Maverick , The Batman , Avatar: The Way of Water , The Whale , Elvis... and more Blockbusters 2022 The Best films (most anticipated hits) updated everyday All Films in 2022 All TV Series 2022 All Games in 2022 Upcoming Releases All Films from 1894 All TV Series from 1906 All Games from 1962 ********************************************************** TOP 100 FILMS IN 2023 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: (9.09.22) TOP 100 FILMS IN 2022 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 346,444 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2021 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 70,758 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2020 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 225,045 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2019 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 234,775 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2018 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 51,109 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2017 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 284,958 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2016 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 1,242,933 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2015 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 200,612 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2014 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 425,413 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2013 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 201,083 TOP 100 FILMS IN 2012 THE BEST MOVIES ..........Views: 1,137,968 ********************************************************** 100 not so famous movies MUST SEE TILL DIE ********************************************************** All films in my life I've Seen 2022 all films I've Seen (rated 1K in 2022) 370/14.100 films & 90/690 tv series / 48/866 games (+400>VR) Views: 349,389 | in last week 23,289 (6.01.2023)

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1. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

R | 114 min | Comedy, Drama

Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.

Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell , Brendan Gleeson , Kerry Condon , Pat Shortt

Votes: 232,031

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Probably the Best film of this year , on the same level together with Adam's apples , The New King of Comedy (2019) and many many simillar films about human behavior deserves 4 Your time and money , absolutely briliant ! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . btw. probably every man on the Earth (and woman ) wonder "Que sommes nous? Où allons nous?" maybe ? probaly ? every man want to remain some after ? ...

2. All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

R | 148 min | Action, Drama, War

A young German soldier's terrifying experiences and distress on the western front during World War I.

Director: Edward Berger | Stars: Felix Kammerer , Albrecht Schuch , Aaron Hilmer , Moritz Klaus

Votes: 227,066

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ about 17.000.000 death in WW1 from 2014 to 2018 ... about 20.000.000 injured OMG !!! This is War ! this looks like real War ! ONE MAN MEANS NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ Best Production Design ......... ▇▆▅▃▂ ▂▃▅▆▇ Best Cinematography ............ ▇▆▅▃▂ ▂▃▅▆▇ Best International Feature Film ▇▆▅▃▂ ▂▃▅▆▇ Best Original Score ................ ▇▆▅▃▂

3. Leila's Brothers (2022)

165 min | Drama

Leila, who has spent her entire life caring for her family, makes a plan as her brothers are struggling to make ends meet.

Director: Saeed Roustayi | Stars: Saeed Poursamimi , Taraneh Alidoosti , Navid Mohammadzadeh , Payman Maadi

Votes: 12,122

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Great film , should be included in Oscar nomine list as Best International Feature Film

4. Thirteen Lives (2022)

PG-13 | 147 min | Action, Adventure, Biography

A rescue mission is assembled in Thailand where a group of young boys and their soccer coach are trapped in a system of underground caves that are flooding.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Viggo Mortensen , Colin Farrell , Joel Edgerton , Tom Bateman

Votes: 64,603

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ I didn't want to see this film because i remember this tragic situation and just imagine that film could be a litle boring ... but i was 100% WRONG !!! This is one of the best films of this year , i was shocked how difficult operation they did ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE FOR EVERYONE !!!!!

5. Pearl (2022)

R | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller

In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her parents' farm.

Director: Ti West | Stars: Mia Goth , David Corenswet , Tandi Wright , Matthew Sunderland

Votes: 79,503

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ simply one word : GREAT !!!

6. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.

Directors: Daniel Kwan , Daniel Scheinert | Stars: Michelle Yeoh , Stephanie Hsu , Jamie Lee Curtis , Ke Huy Quan

Votes: 487,599 | Gross: $72.86M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ big surprise - very good :) !!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ THIS FILM WIN 7 OSCARS !!!!!!! ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OSCARS 2023 GOES TO : 1. Best Motion Picture .......................... Everything Everywhere All at Once ⭕ 2. Best Actor in a Leading Role ................. Brendan Fraser 3. Best Actress in a Leading Role ...............Andrea Riseborough ⭕ 4. Best Actor in a Supporting Role ..............Michelle Yeoh ⭕ 5. Best Actress in a Supporting Role ...........Jamie Lee Curtis ⭕ 6. Best Achievement in Directing ............... D.Kwan, D. Scheinert ⭕ 7. Best Original Screenplay ..................Everything Everywhere All at Once ⭕ 8. Best Adapted Screenplay ..........................Women Talking 9. Best Achievement in Cinematography .......Im Westen nichts Neues 10. Best Achievement in Visual Effects ...........Avatar: The Way of Water 11. Best Animated Feature Film ...................... Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio 12. Best International Feature Film ....................Im Westen nichts Neues 13. Best Documentary Feature .......................... Navalny 14. Best Makeup and Hairstyling .........................The Whale 15. Best Achievement in Film Editing .........Everything Everywhere All at Once ⭕

7. Broker (2022)

R | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

When a young mother reconsiders abandoning her baby, she discovers a scheme selling foundlings for adoption.

Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu | Stars: Song Kang-ho , Gang Dong-won , Bae Doona , Lee Ji-eun

Votes: 14,633

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕

8. The Whale (2022)

R | 117 min | Drama

A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.

Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Brendan Fraser , Sadie Sink , Ty Simpkins , Hong Chau

Votes: 187,527

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ OMG !!!!! 9.5 (1461) 9.09.2022 Brendan Fraser cries during 6-minute standing ovation for 'The Whale' in Venice Twenty bucks (it was first film i saw Brandon - good film) Bedazzled was the second i liked Mummy was ... ok after so high rating i'm "very" waiting for The Whale now 14.09.2022 - ok , strange thing ... i'm just realize that this film have no rating yet , but few days ago was 1500 rated (i noticed it above) so what is going on ? watched 20feb 2023 and .... v.good ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9. Holy Spider (2022)

118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

Director: Ali Abbasi | Stars: Alice Rahimi , Diana Al Hussen , Soraya Helli , Mehdi Bajestani

Votes: 22,315

10. The Northman (2022)

R | 137 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

A young Viking prince is on a quest to avenge his father's murder.

Director: Robert Eggers | Stars: Alexander Skarsgård , Nicole Kidman , Claes Bang , Ethan Hawke

Votes: 239,255 | Gross: $34.23M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ big respect for Alexander Skarsgård and of course rest of the crew (Nicole Kidman , Ethan Hawke , Claes Bang and rest ...) thank you for this entertainment all of U

11. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Drama

After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.

Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jennifer Connelly , Miles Teller , Val Kilmer

Votes: 640,291 | Gross: $718.73M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ i watched this film twice and still like it , good film ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12. Joyland (2022)

126 min | Drama

The youngest son in a traditional Pakistani family takes a job as a backup dancer in a Bollywood-style burlesque and quickly becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman who runs the show.

Director: Saim Sadiq | Stars: Ali Junejo , Rasti Farooq , Alina Khan , Sarwat Gilani

Votes: 5,015

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Pakistan has banned its own official Oscar entry film Joyland, alleging that it contains some "highly objectionable material"

13. The Red Suitcase (2022)

18 min | Short, Drama

Luxembourg Airport. Late in the evening. A veiled 16-year-old Iranian girl is frightened to take her red suitcase on the automatic carpet. She keeps pushing back the moment to go through the arrival gate and seems more and more terrified.

Director: Cyrus Neshvad | Stars: Nawelle Evad , Sarkaw Gorany , Anne Klein , Céline Camara

Votes: 1,313

▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Very V.V. goooood film

14. Gargi (2022)

140 min | Drama, Thriller

The journey of a young school teacher to prove her father's innocence with the help of a juvenile advocate who's never even seen the interiors of a court hall.

Director: Gautham Ramachandran | Stars: Sai Pallavi , Kaali Venkat , R.S. Shivaji , Kavithalaya Krishnan

Votes: 6,550

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ One of the best Indian (Tamil) film in this year

15. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

PG-13 | 192 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.

Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington , Zoe Saldana , Sigourney Weaver , Stephen Lang

Votes: 467,245 | Gross: $659.68M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Premiere 16 December First part made in 2009 with rating 7.8 (1,221,431 votes) One of the greates directors on the world James Cameron ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16. Bullet Train (I) (2022)

R | 127 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller

Five assassins aboard a swiftly-moving bullet train find out that their missions have something in common.

Director: David Leitch | Stars: Brad Pitt , Joey King , Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Brian Tyree Henry

Votes: 392,810 | Gross: $103.37M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Briliant Brad Pit , good script , quite funny absolutely worth to see 4 everyone :)

17. Emily the Criminal (2022)

R | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

Down on her luck and saddled with debt, Emily gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles, ultimately leading to deadly consequences.

Director: John Patton Ford | Stars: Aubrey Plaza , Theo Rossi , Bernardo Badillo , John Billingsley

Votes: 49,358

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ woow , its midnight and i'm just in the midle on this film now its black horse this month :) 14.09.2022 Two days after my rating rise to 7.8/10 its surprise for me , because i didnt expect more than 6/10 ...be redy 4 surpraising ending ;)

18. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022)

R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama

Nancy Stokes, a retired school teacher, is yearning for some adventure, and some sex. And she has a plan, which involves hiring a young sex worker named Leo Grande.

Director: Sophie Hyde | Stars: Emma Thompson , Daryl McCormack , Isabella Laughland , Les Mabaleka

Votes: 34,403

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 ⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕

19. To Leslie (2022)

R | 119 min | Drama

Inspired by true events. A West Texas single mother wins the lottery and squanders it just as fast, leaving behind a world of heartbreak. Years later, with her charm running out and nowhere to go, she fights to rebuild her life and find redemption.

Director: Michael Morris | Stars: Andrea Riseborough , Drew Youngblood , Tom Virtue , Lauren Letherer

Votes: 15,138

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ watched 22 feb 2023 and .... great movie Andrea Riseborough rules !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . With all due respect to Michelle Yeoh, I was hoping Andrea Riseborough would win an OSCAR

20. Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022)

TV-MA | 152 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

Duped and sold to a brothel, a young woman fearlessly reclaims her power, using underworld connections to preside over the world she was once a pawn in.

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali | Stars: Alia Bhatt , Shantanu Maheshwari , Vijay Raaz , Indira Tiwari

Votes: 59,860

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ India one of the best films in this year (for western audience ;)

21. The Batman (2022)

PG-13 | 176 min | Action, Crime, Drama

When a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement.

Director: Matt Reeves | Stars: Robert Pattinson , Zoë Kravitz , Jeffrey Wright , Colin Farrell

Votes: 742,143 | Gross: $369.35M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 i dont know ? this is not the best Batman 4 sure (4 me;) but is ok and because i love Batman - my score is high

22. The Worst Person in the World (2021)

R | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

Director: Joachim Trier | Stars: Renate Reinsve , Anders Danielsen Lie , Herbert Nordrum , Hans Olav Brenner

Votes: 88,526

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,9/10 must see this pic. again because I underestimated this film ... ok i saw again (at least tryed and still not my fav )

23. Siya (2022)

117 min | Crime, Drama

Siya, a 17-year-old rape survivor, decides to go against all odds and fight for justice after being held captive and repeatedly abused by a group of powerful men. Can she win against the perpetrators?

Director: Manish Mundra | Stars: Stephen Alexander , Rudra Pratap Singh Chaudhary , Dev Chauhan , Madhvendra Jha

Votes: 6,490

24. Babylon (I) (2022)

R | 189 min | Comedy, Drama, History

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

Director: Damien Chazelle | Stars: Brad Pitt , Margot Robbie , Jean Smart , Olivia Wilde

Votes: 151,747

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ very good Margot Robbie rules !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

25. The Girl on a Bulldozer (2022)

112 min | Drama, Mystery

She lives with her father and a sibling. One day, her father has a mysterious accident, forces her to look after her younger sibling, the restaurant, and an investigator to find the truth about the accident.

Director: Ri-Woong Park | Stars: Kim Hye-yoon , Hyuk-kwon Park , You Chae-Eun , Kang Cho-won

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Absolutely fantastic !!! - must see !!! amazing female role (Kim Hye-Yoon - born 1996) great script

26. War Sailor (2022)

TV-MA | 150 min | Drama, War

The sailor Alfred is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when World War II breaks out. Suddenly the sailors are in the front of the war, without any weapons.

Director: Gunnar Vikene | Stars: Kristoffer Joner , Pål Sverre Hagen , Ine Marie Wilmann , Henrikke Lund Olsen

Votes: 3,579

27. Fresh (2022)

R | 114 min | Horror, Thriller

After quitting dating apps, a woman meets the supposedly perfect man and accepts his invitation to a romantic weekend getaway, only to find that her new paramour has been hiding some unusual appetites.

Director: Mimi Cave | Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones , Sebastian Stan , Jojo T. Gibbs , Andrea Bang

Votes: 69,490

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ good movie !

28. The Wandering Moon (2022)

150 min | Drama, Mystery

In a park on a rainy evening, a 19-year-old university student, Fumi, offers an umbrella to a soaking wet 10-year-old girl, Sarasa. Realizing her reluctance to go home, Fumi lets her stay ... See full summary  »

Director: Sang-il Lee | Stars: Suzu Hirose , Tôri Matsuzaka , Ryûsei Yokohama , Mikako Tabe

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7.5/10

29. The Black Phone (2021)

R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-year-old boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer's previous victims.

Director: Scott Derrickson | Stars: Mason Thames , Madeleine McGraw , Ethan Hawke , Jeremy Davies

Votes: 180,522 | Gross: $90.12M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Realy good film , U watch and even dont know haw fast time go ...and sudenly you are on the end - worth in 100% to see (spoiler) and this ending scene with wrong "side" ...

30. Turning Red (2022)

PG | 100 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

A thirteen-year-old girl named Mei Lee is torn between staying her mother's dutiful daughter and the changes of adolescence. And as if the challenges were not enough, whenever she gets overly excited she transforms into a giant red panda.

Director: Domee Shi | Stars: Rosalie Chiang , Sandra Oh , Ava Morse , Hyein Park

Votes: 143,145

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7/10 ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31. Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)

PG-13 | 125 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance

A woman who raised herself in the marshes of the Deep South becomes a suspect in the murder of a man with whom she was once involved.

Director: Olivia Newman | Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones , Taylor John Smith , Harris Dickinson , David Strathairn

Votes: 110,326 | Gross: $90.23M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ v.good film and nice music at the end (on credits)

32. Till (I) (2022)

PG-13 | 130 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

In 1955, after Emmett Till is murdered in a brutal lynching, his mother vows to expose the racism behind the attack while working to have those involved brought to justice.

Director: Chinonye Chukwu | Stars: Danielle Deadwyler , Jalyn Hall , Frankie Faison , Haley Bennett

Votes: 13,890

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7.5/10 good

33. I Want to Know Your Parents (2022)

111 min | Drama, Mystery

An eighth grade student kills himself but not before writing the names of the students who victimized him. Their parents are then called into the school and a battle goes on regarding the will.

Director: Ji-hoon Kim | Stars: Sol Kyung-gu , Dal-su Oh , Chun Woo-hee , Kim Hong-pa

34. Sisu (2022)

R | 91 min | Action, War

When an ex-soldier who discovers gold in the Lapland wilderness tries to take the loot into the city, Nazi soldiers led by a brutal SS officer battle him.

Director: Jalmari Helander | Stars: Jorma Tommila , Aksel Hennie , Jack Doolan , Mimosa Willamo

Votes: 60,821

35. The Menu (2022)

R | 107 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller

A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Director: Mark Mylod | Stars: Ralph Fiennes , Anya Taylor-Joy , Nicholas Hoult , Hong Chau

Votes: 360,010

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ good

36. The Good Nurse (2022)

R | 121 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

An infamous caregiver is implicated in the deaths of hundreds of hospital patients.

Director: Tobias Lindholm | Stars: Eddie Redmayne , Jessica Chastain , Denise Pillott , Dartel McRae

Votes: 75,435

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Based on the true story GREAT ! Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain !!!

37. Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022)

R | 110 min | Drama

A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.

Director: Jamie Dack | Stars: Lily McInerny , Gretchen Mol , Emily Jackson , Quinn Frankel

Votes: 2,397

38. Nope (2022)

R | 130 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.

Director: Jordan Peele | Stars: Daniel Kaluuya , Keke Palmer , Brandon Perea , Michael Wincott

Votes: 249,229 | Gross: $123.28M

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ good film (even GREAT ! with feeling on any sec. like You want to see - what happend next ...) but silly ending ... :(

39. Triangle of Sadness (2022)

R | 147 min | Comedy, Drama

A fashion model celebrity couple join an eventful cruise for the super-rich.

Director: Ruben Östlund | Stars: Thobias Thorwid , Harris Dickinson , Charlbi Dean , Jiannis Moustos

Votes: 159,469

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7.5/10 v.good , worth to see OMG !!! This is War ! this looks like real War ! ONE MAN MEANS NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40. Jerry and Marge Go Large (2022)

PG-13 | 96 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

Based on the true story about long-married couple Jerry and Marge Selbee, who win the lottery and use the money to revive their small town.

Director: David Frankel | Stars: Bryan Cranston , Annette Bening , Rainn Wilson , Larry Wilmore

Votes: 20,761

41. Athena (2022)

R | 99 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

Hours after the tragic death of their youngest brother in unexplained circumstances, three siblings have their lives thrown into chaos.

Director: Romain Gavras | Stars: Dali Benssalah , Sami Slimane , Anthony Bajon , Ouassini Embarek

Votes: 21,184

42. The Survivor (2021)

R | 129 min | Biography, Drama, History

After World War II, Harry Haft is a boxer who fought against his peers in concentration camps. Haunted by memories, he tries to use fighting legends as a way to find his love.

Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Ben Foster , Billy Magnussen , Vicky Krieps , Peter Sarsgaard

Votes: 5,606

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ film from 2021 but first trailers on YT in april 2022 ? he fought 75 times and never lost good film but The Fucking World :(

43. The Woman King (2022)

PG-13 | 135 min | Action, Drama, History

A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood | Stars: Viola Davis , Thuso Mbedu , Lashana Lynch , Sheila Atim

Votes: 69,031 | Gross: $67.33M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,5/10 ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44. X (II) (2022)

R | 105 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.

Director: Ti West | Stars: Mia Goth , Jenna Ortega , Brittany Snow , Kid Cudi

Votes: 152,134

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ and this Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper song in the movie fragment :) good film

45. Laal Singh Chaddha (2022)

PG-13 | 159 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

The story of Laal Singh Chaddha, a simple man whose extraordinary journey will fill you with love, warmth and happiness.

Director: Advait Chandan | Stars: Aamir Khan , Ahmad Ibn Umar , Kareena Kapoor , Hafsa Ashraf

Votes: 176,936

Question to Aamir Khan : why ? India already has two Forests ... Barfi and P.K and this rating ? 5/10 :( its strange because most of India films have overpriced rating so what is going on ? my liked main actor , "Taare Zameen Par" Production Manager ! and quite good music , what goes wrong ? I think everythink is ok , film is good and probably if not genuine Forest this film would be better rated than now ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 6.9/10 in my opinion btw. ⭕⭕⭕⭕Best Bollywood films of 22 ⭕⭕⭕ 0. Gargi ⭐ 1. 777 Charlie ⭐ 2. Gangubai Kathiawadi ⭐ 3. HIT: The First Case ⭐ 4. Badhaai Do 5. A Thursday 6. The Kashmir Files 7. RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) 8. K.G.F: Chapter 2 9. Runway 34 10. Brahmastra Part One: Shiva

46. The Valet (2022)

PG-13 | 124 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A movie star enlists a parking valet at a Beverly Hills restaurant to pose as her lover to cover for her relationship with a married man.

Director: Richard Wong | Stars: Eugenio Derbez , Samara Weaving , Max Greenfield , Betsy Brandt

Votes: 15,290

47. The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)

R | 126 min | Adventure, Drama, War

A man's story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam.

Director: Peter Farrelly | Stars: Zac Efron , Russell Crowe , Jake Picking , Kyle Allen

Votes: 24,751

48. Against the Ice (2022)

TV-MA | 102 min | Adventure, Drama, History

In 1909, two explorers fight to survive after they're left behind while on a Denmark expedition in ice-covered Greenland.

Director: Peter Flinth | Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau , Joe Cole , Heida Reed , Þorsteinn Bachmann

Votes: 26,917

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ i liked this film , still like :)

49. The Fabelmans (2022)

PG-13 | 151 min | Drama

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Michelle Williams , Gabriel LaBelle , Paul Dano , Judd Hirsch

Votes: 106,704

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7/10 good , as usualy in Spielberg films (well made) but ... i dont know ? OMG !!! This is War ! this looks like real War ! ONE MAN MEANS NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50. In Our Prime (2022)

117 min | Drama

Follows Ji-woo, an outcast in a prestigious private high school who meets Hak-sung, the school's security guard, and asks him to teach him math and become friends, but their friendship is at risk after an incident in school.

Director: Dong-hoon Park | Stars: Kim Dong-Hwi , Park Hae-joon , Dong-hwi Kim , Choi Min-sik

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ BEATIFUL PIANO SONG FROM THE MOVIE U CAN FIND ON MY YT CHANEL : " GRUBO W KINIE "

51. The Quiet Girl (2022)

PG-13 | 95 min | Drama

Rural Ireland 1981. A quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one.

Director: Colm Bairéad | Stars: Carrie Crowley , Andrew Bennett , Catherine Clinch , Michael Patric

Votes: 18,262

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,9/10 ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

52. Snipers (2022)

96 min | Action, Drama, War

The story of sharpshooter Zhang Taofang, a young army recruit who at age 22 sets a record during the Korean War by reportedly killing or wounding 214 American soldiers with 435 shots in just 32 days.

Directors: Mo Zhang , Yimou Zhang | Stars: Yongsheng Chen , Yu Zhang , Jonathan Kos-Read , Scotty Bob Cox

Votes: 1,159

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ v.good in my opinion , must see 4 everyone who like war movies.

53. Prey (I) (2022)

R | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Naru, a skilled warrior of the Comanche Nation, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly-evolved Predators to land on Earth.

Director: Dan Trachtenberg | Stars: Amber Midthunder , Dakota Beavers , Dane DiLiegro , Stormee Kipp

Votes: 217,438

54. The Elephant Whisperers (2022)

PG | 41 min | Documentary, Short

Bomman and Bellie, a couple in South India, devote their lives to caring for an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu, forging a family like no other that tests the barrier between the human and the animal world.

Director: Kartiki Gonsalves | Stars: Bellie , Bomman

Votes: 9,151

Academy Awards, 2023 OSCARS NOMINES : ▂▃▅▆▇ Best Documentary Short Film ▇▆▅▃▂ ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕

55. 1899 (2022)

TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery

Multinational immigrants traveling from the old continent to the new encounter a nightmarish riddle aboard a second ship adrift on the open sea.

Stars: Emily Beecham , Aneurin Barnard , Andreas Pietschmann , Miguel Bernardeau

Votes: 103,536

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜ in my opinion 7.6/10 ok but horrible English dubing 17 Nov. 2022 Episode 1 If U dont understund Matrix dont even try this one . 1899 is ten times more complicated ( but not necessary logically ) Messy Mix closed tiny human imagination about future. I think people will laught from this movie 50years from now like we do this watching The War of the Worlds from 1953... I prefer different look on the future . Kubriks look 4 example but 1899 was worth my time and i cant wait for the next seazon its simply good enterteinment ;)

56. 777 Charlie (2022)

164 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama

Dharma is stuck in a rut with his negative and lonely lifestyle and spends each day in the comfort of his loneliness. A pup named Charlie enters his life and gives him a new perspective towards it.

Director: Kiranraj K | Stars: Rakshit Shetty , Charlie , Sangeetha Sringeri , Raj B. Shetty

Votes: 37,407

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ WOOOOOOW :) I can bet - this film will be made in Hollywood as remake in two years ... i supose Great family cinema !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely for every kid on the planet :) and for aduslts too ;)

57. Black Bird (2022)

TV-MA | 347 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

Jimmy Keene is sentenced to 10 years in a minimum security prison but he cuts a deal with the FBI to befriend a suspected serial killer. Keene has to elicit a confession from Larry Hall to find the bodies of as many as eighteen women.

Stars: Taron Egerton , Paul Walter Hauser , Greg Kinnear , Ray Liotta

Votes: 92,894

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ the best tv series this year : ....................................... 1... Black Bird 2... The Offer 3... Tokyo Vice 4... The Terminal List 5... Man vs. Bee 6... The Dropout 7... Shining Girls 8... The English (Good music, camera and script) 9... Vikings: Valhalla 10... 1899 (but horrible English dubing) 11.. Jigeum Uri Hakgyoneun 12.. Narco-saints 100 the best TV Series Released in 2022 All TV Series 2022

58. Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes (2022)

96 min | Documentary, History

Newly-discovered archive footage and witness accounts to lay bare the tragedy and heroic efforts made to prevent another explosion.

Director: James Jones | Star: Aleksandr Syrota

Votes: 1,755

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ 100% must see this documentary !!!!!!!!!!!

59. Elvis (2022)

PG-13 | 159 min | Biography, Drama, Music

The life of American music icon Elvis Presley , from his childhood to becoming a rock and movie star in the 1950s while maintaining a complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker .

Director: Baz Luhrmann | Stars: Tom Hanks , Austin Butler , Olivia DeJonge , Helen Thomson

Votes: 219,092 | Gross: $151.04M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 everything is ok but there is no "Emotions" only picture based on Elvis popularity ... probably people rated high because Elvis but he is not my fair tale , maybe just this song (Wise men say Only fools rush in but I can't help falling in love with you) and of course Respect , big respect for him and for some moments in movie looks like video clips ;) OMG !!! This is War ! this looks like real War ! ONE MAN MEANS NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60. The Sea Beast (2022)

PG | 115 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

When a young girl stows away on the ship of a legendary sea monster hunter, they launch an epic journey into uncharted waters - and make history to boot.

Director: Chris Williams | Stars: Karl Urban , Zaris-Angel Hator , Jared Harris , Marianne Jean-Baptiste

Votes: 55,504

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

61. Glass Onion (2022)

PG-13 | 139 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

Tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his friends for a getaway on his private Greek island. When someone turns up dead, Detective Benoit Blanc is put on the case.

Director: Rian Johnson | Stars: Daniel Craig , Edward Norton , Kate Hudson , Dave Bautista

Votes: 416,442

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7.5/10 OMG i though this film sucks ... but its realy good entertainment !

62. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)

PG | 115 min | Comedy, Drama

A widowed cleaning lady in 1950s London falls madly in love with a couture Dior dress, and decides that she must have one of her own.

Director: Anthony Fabian | Stars: Lesley Manville , Isabelle Huppert , Lambert Wilson , Alba Baptista

Votes: 23,882

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ it's one of my favorite movies on this year made 4 young but "dreset" in old style and most important - Emotions!!! these goes very well and film seems to be like some "fair tale" for everyone if U are good person this film its 4U ;) ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

PG-13 | 161 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The people of Wakanda fight to protect their home from intervening world powers as they mourn the death of King T'Challa.

Director: Ryan Coogler | Stars: Letitia Wright , Lupita Nyong'o , Danai Gurira , Winston Duke

Votes: 289,626 | Gross: $453.72M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 6.4/10 Like i said in Black Adam ...i'm getin 2 old 4 this ... ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

64. Tár (2022)

R | 158 min | Drama, Music

Set in the international world of Western classical music, the film centers on Lydia Tár, widely considered one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the very first female director of a major German orchestra.

Director: Todd Field | Stars: Cate Blanchett , Noémie Merlant , Nina Hoss , Sophie Kauer

Votes: 85,095

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6/10 you going to cinema and watch first 15min adds , next when film starts you must watch 5 min black screen with credits and finaly U see two people talking 15min ? next scene the same few minutes and next scene again ... and 45min gone and U know nothing ... Film with good acting and camera but i suppose not 4 me or i had a bad day ? OMG !!! This is War ! this looks like real War ! ONE MAN MEANS NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

PG | 117 min | Animation, Drama, Family

A father's wish magically brings a wooden boy to life in Italy, giving him a chance to care for the child.

Directors: Guillermo del Toro , Mark Gustafson | Stars: Ewan McGregor , David Bradley , Gregory Mann , Burn Gorman

Votes: 106,641

Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio ... not Disney's movie , i hope will be worth for waiting . ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 but 4 hard work in this kind of film and great scenery , characters ...8,5/10 ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66. Close (I) (2022)

PG-13 | 104 min | Drama

The intense friendship between two thirteen-year old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi's mother. "Close" is a film about friendship and responsibility.

Director: Lukas Dhont | Stars: Eden Dambrine , Gustav De Waele , Émilie Dequenne , Léa Drucker

Votes: 29,823

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

67. God's Country (II) (2022)

R | 102 min | Thriller

When a college professor confronts two hunters she catches trespassing on her property, she's drawn into an escalating battle of wills with catastrophic consequences.

Director: Julian Higgins | Stars: Thandiwe Newton , Joris Jarsky , Jefferson White , Dan Gravage

Votes: 3,797

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,5/10 if U are 50YO or more and U have quite good brain You know that is true ... i mean people ... they are like in this film (of course not all of us ;) just litle part of scums film is v.good 1. bad people like young one (great role - gretings from Poland) 2. Brothers conections (family is most important ...) 3 No respect 4 others and many more psychological examples in this film worth 2 see for anybody who like philosophy and GREAT !!! Thandiwe Newton I remember her in MI2 ...She was ...so beautifull i fall in love with her :) (Sorry Meg Ryan )

68. In Search of Tomorrow (2022)

305 min | Documentary, Sci-Fi

A nostalgic journey through '80s sci-fi films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artists who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.

Director: David A. Weiner | Stars: Clancy Brown , Sean Young , Adrienne Barbeau , John Carpenter

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ WOOOW :) BEAUTIFUL ERA of eighties - great for games maniacs

69. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

Unrated | 122 min | Documentary

Follows the life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family, the pharmaceutical dynasty who was greatly responsible for the opioid epidemic's unfathomable death toll.

Director: Laura Poitras | Stars: Nan Goldin , David Velasco , Megan Kapler , Marina Berio

Votes: 6,687

▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

70. Women Talking (2022)

Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.

Director: Sarah Polley | Stars: Rooney Mara , Claire Foy , Jessie Buckley , Frances McDormand

Votes: 37,786

OMG !!! This is War ! this looks like real War ! ONE MAN MEANS NOTHING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71. Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022)

Not Rated | 157 min | Biography, Drama

Based on the life of Indian Space Research Organization scientist Nambi Narayanan, who was framed for being a spy and arrested in 1994. Though free, he continues to fight for justice against the officials who falsely implicated him.

Director: Madhavan | Stars: Madhavan , Simran , Rajit Kapoor , Ravi Raghavendra

Votes: 56,016

⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ MY CHOICE ⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕⭕ Great story ...served in "easy and nice way" based on facts (as they said) if You didnt know that was almost 50 atempt to land in Mars by NASA , Rusia , Europe ... and they all faild - so , now U know :) Guess Who try just onece and sucseded ? Yes India :)

72. The Eight Mountains (2022)

Not Rated | 147 min | Drama

An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains follows over four decades the profound, complex relationship between Pietro and Bruno.

Directors: Felix van Groeningen , Charlotte Vandermeersch | Stars: Lupo Barbiero , Cristiano Sassella , Elena Lietti , Chiara Jorrioz

Votes: 11,515

73. Emancipation (2022)

R | 132 min | Action, Thriller

A runaway slave forges through the swamps of Louisiana on a tortuous journey to escape plantation owners that nearly killed him.

Director: Antoine Fuqua | Stars: Will Smith , Ben Foster , Charmaine Bingwa , Gilbert Owuor

Votes: 25,445

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7/10 5.8 (8,575) (15 dec 22) Why so low rating ? this film deserve at least 6,5/10 ...

74. Death on the Nile (2022)

PG-13 | 127 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

While on vacation on the Nile, Hercule Poirot must investigate the murder of a young heiress.

Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Tom Bateman , Annette Bening , Kenneth Branagh , Russell Brand

Votes: 176,201 | Gross: $45.63M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,1/10 remake made almost perfect exacly like genuine one :)

75. The Game (2022)

102 min | Drama, History, Thriller

During the Cold War, the secret service of Kádár began a more dangerous state security game than ever before.

Director: Péter Fazakas | Stars: János Kulka , Zsolt Nagy , Viktória Staub , Gabriella Hámori

Votes: 1,031

76. Klondike (2022)

100 min | Drama, War

After flight MH17 crashes in eastern Ukraine, violent tensions disrupt the lives of an expecting couple living in Donetsk.

Director: Maryna Er Gorbach | Stars: Oksana Cherkashyna , Sergey Shadrin , Oleg Shcherbina , Oleg Shevchuk

Votes: 1,696

77. Navalny (2022)

R | 99 min | Documentary, Biography

Follows the man who survived an assassination attempt by poisoning with a lethal nerve agent in August 2020. During his months-long recovery he makes shocking discoveries about the attempt on his life and decides to return home.

Director: Daniel Roher | Stars: Alexei Navalny , Yulia Navalnaya , Christo Grozev , Dasha Navalnaya

Votes: 25,860

Academy Awards, 2023 OSCARS NOMINES : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▂▃▅▆▇ Best Documentary Feature ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021)

PG | 90 min | Animation, Comedy, Drama

A cash-strapped documentary maker decides to make his newest documentary about a mollusk shell he finds living in his Airbnb with his friends.

Director: Dean Fleischer Camp | Stars: Jenny Slate , Dean Fleischer Camp , Isabella Rossellini , Joe Gabler

Votes: 23,316 | Gross: $5.79M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79. A Man Called Otto (2022)

PG-13 | 126 min | Comedy, Drama

Otto is a grump who's given up on life following the loss of his wife and wants to end it all. When a young family moves in nearby, he meets his match in quick-witted Marisol, leading to a friendship that will turn his world around.

Director: Marc Forster | Stars: Tom Hanks , Mariana Treviño , Rachel Keller , John Higgins

Votes: 139,982 | Gross: $62.47M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,9/10

80. Remember (2022)

128 min | Action, Drama, Thriller

The story of Pil-Joo, an Alzheimer's patient in his 80s, who lost all his family during the Japanese colonial era, and devotes his lifelong revenge before his memories disappear, and a young man in his 20s who helps him.

Director: Il-Hyeong Lee | Stars: Lee Sung-min , Nam Joo-hyuk , Geun-hyeong Park , Man-sik Jeong

Votes: 1,180

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 6.9/10 good

81. Ice Merchants (2022)

14 min | Animation, Short, Drama

Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.

Director: João Gonzalez

Votes: 2,512

82. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Doctor Strange teams up with a mysterious teenage girl from his dreams who can travel across multiverses, to battle multiple threats, including other-universe versions of himself, which threaten to wipe out millions across the multiverse. They seek help from Wanda the Scarlet Witch, Wong and others.

Director: Sam Raimi | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch , Elizabeth Olsen , Chiwetel Ejiofor , Benedict Wong

Votes: 458,879 | Gross: $411.33M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 6.6/10

83. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

PG | 102 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

When Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll and he has burned through eight of his nine lives, he launches an epic journey to restore them by finding the mythical Last Wish.

Directors: Joel Crawford , Januel Mercado | Stars: Antonio Banderas , Salma Hayek , Harvey Guillén , Florence Pugh

Votes: 159,806 | Gross: $168.46M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6.9/10

84. Black Adam (2022)

PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods--and imprisoned just as quickly--Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Dwayne Johnson , Aldis Hodge , Pierce Brosnan , Noah Centineo

Votes: 262,421 | Gross: $168.15M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6/10 i'm getin 2 old 4 this ...

85. The Swimmers (2022)

PG-13 | 134 min | Biography, Drama, Sport

From war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, two young sisters embark on a harrowing journey as refugees, putting both their hearts and champion swimming skills to heroic use.

Director: Sally El Hosaini | Stars: Matthias Schweighöfer , Ali Suliman , Ahmed Malek , James Krishna Floyd

Votes: 34,067

86. Violent Night (2022)

R | 112 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller

When a group of mercenaries attack the estate of a wealthy family, Santa Claus must step in to save the day (and Christmas).

Director: Tommy Wirkola | Stars: David Harbour , John Leguizamo , Beverly D'Angelo , Alex Hassell

Votes: 79,395

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ 7.5/10 good good good

87. Uncharted (2022)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure

Street-smart Nathan Drake is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan to recover a fortune amassed by Ferdinand Magellan, and lost 500 years ago by the House of Moncada.

Director: Ruben Fleischer | Stars: Tom Holland , Mark Wahlberg , Antonio Banderas , Sophia Ali

Votes: 241,327 | Gross: $148.65M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,3/10 i was waiting ... and ...is quite good but i wanted more after playing hundret's hours on playstation in all series

88. Hustle (2022)

R | 117 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport

A basketball scout discovers a phenomenal street ball player while in Spain and sees the prospect as his opportunity to get back into the NBA.

Director: Jeremiah Zagar | Stars: Adam Sandler , Queen Latifah , Juancho Hernangomez , Ben Foster

Votes: 138,187

89. Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

PG-13 | 147 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Four years after the destruction of Isla Nublar, Biosyn operatives attempt to track down Maisie Lockwood, while Dr Ellie Sattler investigates a genetically engineered swarm of giant insects.

Director: Colin Trevorrow | Stars: Chris Pratt , Bryce Dallas Howard , Laura Dern , Sam Neill

Votes: 194,595 | Gross: $376.85M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6/10 I remember 1993 in some Saturday in summer after my work (i was shop assistant in TV shop on Marszałkowska street in Warsaw / Poland) i went to see that movie in cinema three times in one day (spend my time 14:30 to 20:00) till now this is the best Jurassic Park ...ever ;) New one is ok but ... not such good i expect :(

90. Aftersun (II) (2022)

R | 102 min | Drama

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't...

Director: Charlotte Wells | Stars: Paul Mescal , Frankie Corio , Celia Rowlson-Hall , Sally Messham

Votes: 78,209

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6/10 i dont know why but i did not like it this film , maybe i try again in another time ;) ▂▃▅▆▇ 2023 OSCARS NOMINES ▇▆▅▃▂ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

91. Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

R | 94 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller

When a group of rich 20-somethings plan a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game turns deadly in this fresh and funny look at backstabbing, fake friends, and one party gone very, very wrong.

Director: Halina Reijn | Stars: Amandla Stenberg , Maria Bakalova , Myha'la Herrold , Rachel Sennott

Votes: 60,429

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6/10

92. Talk to Me (I) (2022)

R | 95 min | Horror, Thriller

When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

Directors: Danny Philippou , Michael Philippou | Stars: Ari McCarthy , Hamish Phillips , Kit Erhart-Bruce , Sarah Brokensha

Votes: 99,371

93. Deep Water (I) (2022)

R | 115 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her lovers.

Director: Adrian Lyne | Stars: Ben Affleck , Ana de Armas , Tracy Letts , Grace Jenkins

Votes: 54,012

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,5/10 i liked this film , i dont know why people rating so low ?

94. Decision to Leave (2022)

Not Rated | 139 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

A detective investigating a man's death in the mountains meets the dead man's mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.

Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Park Hae-il , Tang Wei , Lee Jung-hyun , Go Kyung-pyo

Votes: 49,633

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7,2/10

95. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

PG-13 | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.

Director: Taika Waititi | Stars: Chris Hemsworth , Natalie Portman , Christian Bale , Tessa Thompson

Votes: 382,983 | Gross: $343.26M

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6/10 OMG Im getting older and older and ... at now i saw this film ... WTF ? is going on ? personally my rating is less than 5 and film is like big mistake (script i mean) i think they try copy sense of humour from tv serie "The Boys" but with light form 4 kids ;) Sorry did't work , some funny moments dont cover weak script and "lazy" fx ... wrong direction :( but must admit , Russel Crowe is in good form :)

96. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

TV-14 | 108 min | Comedy, Crime, Music

Explores every facet of Yankovic's life, from his meteoric rise to fame with early hits like 'Eat It' and 'Like a Surgeon' to his torrid celebrity love affairs and famously depraved lifestyle.

Director: Eric Appel | Stars: Diedrich Bader , Daniel Radcliffe , Lin-Manuel Miranda , Richard Aaron Anderson

Votes: 35,024

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7/10

97. Argentina, 1985 (2022)

R | 140 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

A team of lawyers takes on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time.

Director: Santiago Mitre | Stars: Ricardo Darín , Gina Mastronicola , Francisco Bertín , Santiago Armas Estevarena

Votes: 28,992

98. I Came By (2022)

TV-MA | 110 min | Thriller

Follows a young graffiti artist who discovers a shocking secret that would put him and the ones closest to him in danger.

Director: Babak Anvari | Stars: Antonio Aakeel , Alicia Ambrose-Bayly , Percelle Ascott , Franc Ashman

Votes: 31,742

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 7.5/10 i like this movie , film deserve at least 7/10

99. Werewolf by Night (2022 TV Special)

TV-14 | 52 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

Follows a lycanthrope superhero who fights evil using the abilities given to him by a curse brought on by his bloodline.

Director: Michael Giacchino | Stars: Gael García Bernal , Laura Donnelly , Harriet Sansom Harris , Kirk R. Thatcher

Votes: 67,648

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜⬜⬜ in my opinion 6,8/10

100. Bones and All (2022)

R | 131 min | Drama, Horror, Romance

A young woman embarks on a 1000 mile odyssey through America where she meets a disenfranchised drifter. But all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand that will determine whether love can survive their otherness.

Director: Luca Guadagnino | Stars: Timothée Chalamet , Taylor Russell , Mark Rylance , Kendle Coffey

Votes: 52,117

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The 35 best films of 2022

The essential movies of the year: from ‘The Woman King’ to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

It’s not been your standard, regular, common-or-garden year at the movies so far. The slate of big new movies remains a little (okay, a lot ) skinnier than usual and release dates have continued to shift, with more than one big release decamping to the safer surrounds of 2023. But even the lingering impact of Covid hasn’t stopped it being an often crowd-pleasing, occasionally electrifying year. From awards picks like Parallel Mothers and Licorice Pizza, to virtuoso indie gems like British chef thriller Boiling Point   and   Aftersun to popcorn perfection like RRR  and Top Gun: Maverick , there’s been much to celebrate. Here’s our best of the best of the year.

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The best movies of 2022

35.  Turning Red

Awkwardly, no Pixar film had been solo directed by a female filmmaker until Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Domee Shi came along with this cute-as-buttons creature feature about a 13-year-old girl who turns into a red panda when big emotions come knocking. It’s based on her own childhood – okay, not the panda part – and comes freighted with the authentic growing pains of adolescence. The only pity is that it went straight to Disney+, because its surprisingly Godzilla-esque climax would have looked epic on the big screen. What we said : ‘Its boldest move is tackling female puberty in such a candid, empathetic way.’

34.  Utama

In few places are the effects of climate change more acutely felt than among Bolivian farmers, for whom devastating drought represents an existential threat. In photographer-turned-filmmaker Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s captivating film, a married pair of llama farmers (assuredly played by non-professionals) face an uncertain future as their community, herd and way of life perish. The result is the most surprising widescreen experience of the year. What we said : ‘It’s best enjoyed on a screen so big you’ll move your head reading the subtitles.’

33.  Bones and All

Like Badlands  plonked into the midst of Reagan’s America, this sensitive yet spiky adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’s coming-of-age novel charted a couple of outsiders navigating the outskirts of a shut-off society. Oh, and they just happen to eat human flesh. No biggie. On the surface, it’s a mile away from director Luca Guadagnino’s sun-kissed  Call Me By Your Name , beyond starring Timothée Chalamet, but there’s connective tissue in its deeper exploration of young love and the tentative connections of sensitive souls. Look out, too, for an eyecatching turn from Taylor Russell.

What we said : ‘It flows like a Joy Division song: moody and ethereal until it escalates into a burst of sonic violence.’

32.  Fire of Love

• Documentaries

This elemental, awe-inspiring doc follows two volcanologists – Maurice and Katia Krafft –  to the ends of the earth and witness their passion: for this molten geological marvels and, even more movingly, for each other. It’s narrated by indie doyenne  Miranda July  and was a Sundance breakout hit at the beginning of the year, but it feels like one of pieces of non-fiction filmmaking that will stand the test of time. It shows us the kind of spectacular fiery abyss that most blockbusters can only dream of – and not a drop of CGI in sight. What we said : ‘There are only so many times you can shout ‘‘woah!’’ at yourself during one film, but this doc pushes that number up.’

31.  RRR

There’s a reason Telugu director SS Rajamouli sits so high on our list of the 50 coolest filmmakers in the world : his OTT 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.

What we said : ‘Rajamouli has a knack for finding stars who command the screen and setting them loose on bonkers-sounding adventures.’

30.  Cow

Aside from being absolute gold for pun-lovers, this moo-tion picture is a bold doc from British indie director Andrea Arnold ( American Honey ) that’s set entirely among a herd of dairy cows. On one level, it’s just 90-minutes of voiceover and explanation-free bovine action – a whole world of moos and manure. On another, it’s a moving cycle-of-life examination of a cow’s life that’s far too unsentimental to try to steal your heart but kinda manages it anyway. What we said : ‘Arnold gives us a straightforward slice of a cow’s relentless life of muck, milk, breeding and feeding.’

29.  Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

A perfect marriage of filmmaker and source material if ever there was one, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animation gives Carlo Collodi’s fairytale a beautifully intricate, tactile and enchanting new adaptation. With co-director Mark Gustafson, he sends his newly carved wooden toy on a mission to become a human boy, bringing light to his grieving carpenter creator Geppetto and scuttling joyfully though magic realms, and among frowning townsfolk and fascists alike. It’s a family film that comes without the sugarcoating: a real treasure for older kids and grown-ups, and the perfect gateway drug to Pan’s Labyrinth et al .

28.  Boiling Point

Proving that he can do just about anything, Stephen Graham fuels this terrific one-take drama with skittish, sweaty energy as a chef on the edge in a buzzy London restaurant – all while shucking oysters like a pro. As an advertisement for getting into the hospitality industry, it’s pure nightmare fuel. As a viewing experience, it’s a thrilling watch that left everyone who caught it feeling rinsed out like a kitchen sink at the end of a dinner service. 

What we said : ‘Stephen Graham and Vinette Robinson help make this the best kind of worst ever restaurant trip.’

27.  Bergman Island

It’s takes chutzpah to rock up to the home of one of the true titans of cinema and make a movie that riffs on his life and work, but Mia Hansen-Løve’s sunlit relationship story set on Ingmar Bergman’s island of Fårö pulls the feat off with aplomb. Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth play two writers whose relationship seems to be hitting the skids almost imperceptibly, as they joust gently in their supposed creative haven. There are sharp observations galore here – about relationships and women’s creative emancipation – as well as a juicy, meta twist to keep you on your toes.

What we said : ‘Hansen-Løve has a real genius for amplifying small moments in relationships, and she finds deft collaborators in Krieps and Roth.’

26.  Jackass Forever

When a film gets described as a touching treatise on nostalgia, friendship and growing older, it doesn’t usually also feature a half-naked man hang-gliding into a cactus. But that’s the unique joy of this unexpectedly glorious sixth outing from Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius and the gang – a movie that combines the hilariously puerile with the gently profound, while introducing a new generation of willing young pain-junkies to the joys of the Port-A-Potty and the human ramp. It still hurts just to watch it, mind you.

What we said : ‘This franchise is far more than just a patchwork of batshit crazy hijinks and dick jokes.’

25.  Prey

• Action and adventure

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. 

What we said : ‘ Aided by a forceful performance from relative newcomer Midthunder, this Predator movie is full of surprises.’

24.  Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Last year saw Ryusuke Hamaguchi break through to western audiences with the Oscar-nominated Drive My Car . His quickfire follow-up, a triptych of loosely connected relationship tales, made fewer waves but is just as worthy of the clamour. Its beguiling trio of 30-odd-minute vignettes takes the perspective of three different women, each with a deeper heartache and confusion that steers them in emotionally dangerous directions. Together they make for a magnetic slice of slow cinema.

What we said : ‘The writer-director’s greatest gift is in wringing intense emotion from each moment.’

23.  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.

What we said : ‘Just when Baz Luhrmann’s hyper-stylised visions were starting to feel played out, he delivers his best film for 20 years.’

22.  A Hero

A kind of Iranian Ken Loach, Asghar Farhadi is a master at weaving thorny morality tales into a wider social framework. This Cannes hit is another probing look at life in a hierarchical, judgmental society. Its protagonist, Ramin, emerges from imprisonment for bankruptcy and finds a shot at redemption in the form of 17 gold coins found by his girlfriend. Does he do the right thing or milk the situation for financial or social capital? The genius of A Hero is in the ways Farhadi finds to turn this basic moral dilemma into a nightmarish Gordian knot that shows up a malfunctioning social order for what it is. What we said : ‘It’s a superb morality play that keeps us guessing right to its powerful final shot.’

21.  Belle

‘It’ girls, grieving high-schoolers and cyber dragons collide in Mamoru Hosoda’s dazzling anime skew on ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The tunes are banging, the visuals eye-popping and the ideas, exploring life as a digital native and the oldies who forlornly try to help Gen Zers navigate it, richly conceived. The Japanese animation master has come a long way since being fired as director on Howl’s Moving Castle .

What we said : ‘It’s high time to mention Studio Chizu in the same breath as Studio Ghibli, because this one is an absolute feast.’

20.  Benediction

Great War poet Siegfried Sassoon gets the touching, immaculately mounted Terence Davies treatment in a biopic that manages to be both heart-wrenchingly sad and PG Wodehouse-funny. Peter Capaldi plays the once-closeted gay writer in his older, embittered years, but it’s Jack Lowton who really catches the eyes as the younger version, who struggles to find himself amid the buzzing gadflies of London’s post-war social scene. The writing is bayonet sharp, as when Sassoon is haughtily informed that his poetry ‘has gone from the sublime to the meticulous’. Benediction is yet more proof that Davies’ filmmaking remains sublime.  

What we said : ‘A glidingly elegant, emotionally ransacking story of queerness, repression and the past.’

19.  The Woman King

A historic action epic about Black women, The Woman King is as entertaining as it is culturally significant. It's immense fun watching Viola Davis and her Amazonian warriors train up and fight the bad guys in 1800s Africa, and it’s moving when you realise how groundbreaking and empowering this is. Already a big hit in America, it’s proving that Black female stories can smash it at the box office. Bring hankies for this emotional epic in the vein of Braveheart and Gladiator .

What we said : ‘It’s a story of sisterhood and racial identity that deserves to pack in the crowds.’

18.  Decision to Leave

Forget the hammer smashes and octopus guzzling of  Oldboy , because this   Park  Chan-wook movie showcases the  slowburn, cerebral side of the Korean auteur. It’s a Busan-set  puzzle box of a thriller  that sees a detective and a young widow locked in a complex dance involving a murder, an investigation and a lot of barely suppressed desire. As you can tell, it takes a leaf out of the  Hollywood erotic thriller   handbook – albeit with a chillier atmosphere and even more satisfyingly mazy plotting. What we said : ‘ Park Chan-wook slows things down with a woozily seductive and r idiculously elegant  murder-mystery.’

17.  Nope

While the rest of us were mastering sourdough, Jordan Peele spent the pandemic fusing sci-fi, horror and westerns to create a whole new kind of monster movie. The result – with no disrespect to any our baking efforts – was even better: an unnervy, unsettling and frequently funny third Peele effort, lit up by Keke Palmer’s livewire performance, a killer score and terrifying sound design. It’s easy to over-lionise the filmmaker as the savour of horror – as one poor tweeter discovered – and Nope isn’t without flaws. But it’s a blockbuster that’d unafraid to be depart radically from the norm, securing a likely spot in the midnight movie pantheon in the process.

16.  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.

15.  Hit the Road

It’s been a bittersweet 2022 for Iranian filmmaker Panah Panahi: his dad, legendary auteur Jafar ( The White Balloon ), was sentenced to six years in prison by the country’s oppressive regime; but it’s also been the year his debut film, a beguiling but quietly tumultuous family drama set on the dusty highways of Iran, met its public. And what a debut it is – filled with wry wit and barbed social comment about modern life in the country, and with an outstanding performance from six-year-old Rayan Sarlak as the rascally youngster in the back seat of his family’s SUV. The Little Miss Sunshine comparisons are unavoidable, but Hit the Road ’s destination is altogether more impactful.

What we said: ‘It’s a  road trip movie with an aching heart that’s filled with wry relatability.’

14.  Three Minutes: A Lengthening

At a sliver over an hour long and built around a restored 180-second-long piece of home video footage from a American couple’s 1938 journey through Europe, the raw materials for this Holocaust doc might feel slight, but their impact is monumental. Part act of memorial, part moving exploration of our relationship with the past, and part detective story, filmmaker Bianca Stigter (partner of Steve McQueen IRL) plunges us into, and beyond, the celluloid to reveal the real people whose lives would soon be snuffed out by the Nazis. Helena Bonham Carter’s probing voiceover only adds to a sense of immediacy that makes its small crowds of Polish Jews feel like new friends by the end. The effect is haunting and deeply emotional.

13.  Brian and Charles

Ridiculously charming, playful and touching, this bittersweet British comedy is the year’s surprise package. An oddly-shaped package, sure, what with its titular robot, Charles Petrescu, being built from an expressionless mannequin’s head plonked on top of an old washing machine. But through a much-harder-than-it-looks feat of physical comedy, off-beat dialogue and pure heart, his – ‘its’ doesn’t feel right – bond with lonely inventor Brian Gittins (David Earl) sparks into a magical bromance that delves deeply into what is it to be human – and half-washing machine.

What we said : ‘ Funny and touching, this bittersweet robot buddy movie is the oddly-shaped surprise package of the year.’

12.  Triangle of Sadness

Sure, it’s not always subtle – no film with a six-minute barf-athon right in the middle ever is – but that’s not to say that Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winning comedy, a film that channels the spirit of Swift and Golding, isn’t sophisticated. The Swede slowly saws at the chair legs of entrenched power structures – fashion, money, class and race – until they crash to the floor in the sublimely executed chaos of the third act. Harris Dickinson and the late Charlbi Dean are great as the model/influencer couple at the heart of the storm, but  Filipina actor  Dolly De Leon steals the show as the ‘overseas worker’ who executes Triangle of Sadness’ s memorable coup.

11.  Everything Everywhere All at Once

• Science fiction

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.

What we said : ‘The Daniels juggle silly gags and weird visuals like cackling Dadaists.’

10.  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.

9.  Living

Some movie do-overs feel entirely superfluous (see: just about any Hollywood remake of a Scandi thriller), but others just make perfect sense. So it is with this sublime reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 masterpiece Ikiru , in which Bill Nighy’s terminally ill civil servant rages, very politely, against the dying of the light, with some help from  Sex Education ’ s Aimee Lou Wood as his life-positive underling. Nighy has never been better, delivering a remarkable turn that should, in a fair world, be rewarded with Oscars. Props, too, to  South African director Oliver Hermanus, who has an instinctive grasp of stuffy English internality, and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro,  who rivals his work on ‘Remains of the Day’ with a moving, deeply humane script.

8.  Happening

In a year in which the US Supreme Court put Roe v Wade in its crosshairs, Audrey Diwan’s tumultous, hard-hitting drama arrives to show the realities of illegal abortions. It’s not for the faint hearted – it goes further than Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake in depicting this bleak world – but it’s a gripping story of a pregnant student who risks prison in ’60s France, and Anamaria Vartolomei makes a luminous heroine full of gritty determination.

What we said : ‘An atmospheric, gripping drama full of poignant contemporary relevance.’

7.  The Worst Person in the World

Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve is the heart and soul of this touching and inventive account of one millennial life that unfolds over several years in Oslo. Very much not the worst person in the world, her medical student-turned-writer is a perfect avatar for the uncertainties and confusions of young adulthood: a whole mess of conflicting desires, moments of directionless and emotional rawness that feels endlessly relatable. And her showstopping run through a freeze-framed city is possibly the movie moment of the year so far. 

What we said : ‘Any film that can combine questions of mortality with funny, fully alive scenes of sex, social awkwardness, professional screw-ups and throwaway fun is a rich one.’

6.  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 p oignant political allegory for the sorrows of The Troubles. 

What we said : ‘With apologies to Three Billboards fans, this is Martin McDonagh’s best film since In Bruges .’

5.  Parallel Mothers

Pedro Almodóvar gets serious with this poignant investigation of Spain’s buried Civil War trauma, although without ever sacrificing his light touch and delight in giddying melodrama. Penélope Cruz lights it all up like a starburst, with her performance as a new mum caught up in a case of mistaken identity in the maternity ward a career high, even by her own lofty standards. In a just world, she would have picked up her second Oscar for it.

What we said : ‘Entering Almodóvar’s world is a pleasure, even when we’re faced with pain and tough lessons.’

4.  Aftersun

Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells announced herself as a major talent with this sun-washed and achingly poignant drama about a divorced dad (Paul Mescal) and his young daughter (the effortlessly cool Francesca Corio) navigating the highs and lows of an eventful Turkish seaside holiday. All framed in flashback, Wells mixes up the visual aesthetic to communicate the way gauzy, long-ago memories can sink into your bones. Th e past is a foreign country, a s another coming-of-age classic, The Go-Between , once noted.   Aftersun was a gorgeous passport that took us there and left us richer, if more tear-stained, for the experience.

What we said : ‘A father-and-daughter drama that will stop you in your tracks.’

3.  The Northman

‘A widescreen rallying cry for cinema in the age of streaming’. So read Time Out ’s admittedly fairly breathless appraisal of Robert Eggers’ brilliant, blood-soaked Viking epic when it landed in (smashed into? Ransacked?) cinemas in April. But the sentiment stands, because in an age increasingly dominated by streaming sites, The Northman is a useful reminder that the place to witness the grandest, boldest cinematic visions is on the biggest screen possible – and unless you live in an IMAX, that won’t be in your front room.  

What we said : ‘Thank Odin for Robert Eggers and his mad, brilliant, violent, hypnotic, trippy Viking opus.’

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. What we said : ‘Tom Cruise owns a crowd-thrilling sequel that easily surpasses the original.’

1.  Licorice Pizza

Paul Thomas Anderson delivered his sunniest film with this ‘70s nostalgia trip to the San Fernando Valley about a cocksure teenager trying to win the heart of a drifting twentysomething. Somehow that teenage-gaze premise never comes over remotely Porky’s , helped by two breakout lead performances from Cooper ‘son of Philip Seymour’ Hoffman and Alana Haim, some A-list turns (Bradley Cooper as Hollywood producer-stroke-total-maniac Jon Peters), and PTA’s usual godlike touch behind the camera. What we said : ‘Paul Thomas Anderson’s sweet coming-of-age yarn is free-spirited and fun as hell.’

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The 50 Best Movies of 2022, According to 165 Critics from Around the World

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We’re in the clubhouse turn of the awards season honoring the best movies of 2022. So it’s worth looking back on what  IndieWire’s critics survey of 165 film writers  picked as the 50 best movies of 2022 back in December, before the Oscar race had fully taken shape.

Read the full Top 50 list below.

The critics polled, hailing from North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, for a truly global perspective, were in astonishing agreement about their love of “TÁR.” Not only did they vote it as the best film of 2022, they gave it top honors for Best Director (Todd Field), Best Performance (Cate Blanchett), and Best Screenplay (Field). “TÁR” did receive six Academy Awards nominations, but its best chance for a prize remains Blanchett herself. She won the Golden Globe and BAFTA, but overall the film was more popular with critics groups than the organizations with voting bodies more similar to the Oscars. Likewise, the film that placed at number two on the Top 50 list, “Aftersun,” received Oscars recognition only in the Best Actor category for Paul Mescal — it also topped the  list of the best films of 2022  chosen by IndieWire’s own critics. (Two of the films in the Top 10 here, “Decision to Leave” and “NOPE,” did not receive any Oscar nominations at all.)

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” which placed third, is still a major contender for Colin Farrell in the Best Actor race. He was awarded that prize by the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, the National Society of Film Critics, and, in the musical or comedy category, the Golden Globes.

It’s impossible not to recognize the momentum being gathered by the number four pick on IndieWire’s critics survey: “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It gained an early foothold in the race when it won Best Feature way back at the Gotham Awards on November 28. Since then, the accolades have piled up for lead actress Michelle Yeoh (from the National Board of Review and the Golden Globes) and supporting actor Ke Huy Quan (from Critics Choice, Golden Globes, and numerous critics associations, as well as a Gotham Award himself). But the film has been awarded the top prize by many groups: the Critics Choice Movie Awards, the Directors Guild of America (for directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), and  the Producers Guild. The last of these might be most telling for its Best Picture chances  at the Oscars because the top prize at the PGA Awards has gone on to win Best Picture 23 of the last 33 Academy Awards.

“Everything Everywhere” scored a particularly robust triumph at the Screen Actors Guid Awards February 26, winning Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), and Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), as well as Outstanding Cast, the SAGs’ version of Best Picture.

Other Oscar nominees for best picture in the Top 50 of IndieWire’s list include “The Fabelmans” at number five, “Top Gun: Maverick” at number nine, “Triangle of Sadness” at number 15, “Elvis” at 16, and “Women Talking” at 18. “Avatar: The Way of Water” clocked in at 30, and surging nominee “All Quiet on the Western Front” appeared at 32.

Here’s the full critics survey list.

With editorial contributions from Christian Zilko and Samantha Bergeson. 

50. “Jackass Forever”

Director: Jeff Tremaine

Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Wee Man Danger Ehren, Preston Lacy, Rachel Wolfson

Accolades: Winner of Best Kiss (for Seth McInerey and a snake) at the MTV Movie & TV Awards

Read IndieWire’s Review : Despite its new failures and familiar assortment of dud stunts (Wee-Man being launched onto a pile of metal is a pretty lame payoff to that musical chairs gag), “Jackass Forever” inevitably benefits from a stronger emotional undertow than any of the series’ previous films. It’s always been kind of beautiful to see these guys act like they’re going to live forever. Haunted by the absence of lost friends and facing a pandemic-fueled world that forces us all to confront with death on a daily basis, “Jackass Forever” is all the more powerful because it was made by — and for — people who know that they won’t. —David Ehrlich

49. “Three Thousand Years of Longing”

Director: George Miller

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Idris Elba

Read IndieWire’s Review : A bittersweet modern fairy tale from one of cinema’s most bombastic virtuosos, George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” might have some reservations about the 21st century — the movie often wrestles with the impact that science and technology might have on our ancient sense of wonder — but at the bottom of this tightly bottled epic sits a question that should resonate especially hard with people who have spent too many of the last 3,000 days stuck inside their homes with nothing but “content” to keep them company: Are stories enough to satisfy our lives? “Three Thousand Years of Longing” finds that even the most ancient tales can prove illuminating about those things if they’re told with enough gusto, but also that it’s so much easier for us to see ourselves in those stories if we have someone to share them with. —David Ehrlich

48. “The Woman King”

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Cast: Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, John Boyega, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin

Accolades: African American Film Critics Circle top film of 2022

Read IndieWire’s Review : “The Woman King,” while based on a lesser-known segment of West African history during a decidedly fraught time in history, makes for a hell of a time at the movies, a seemingly “niche” topic with great appeal, the sort of battle-heavy feature that will likely engender plenty of hoots and hollers. And if it seems a bit Hollywood-ized, complete with glossy twists and a touch of the soap operatic to boot, perhaps that’s part of what makes it so special. You’ve never seen a movie about this that looks, well, so funnily familiar. If that’s what it took to get made, so be it. In this climate, in this world, stories like this are too precious and special to stay hidden. Bring them into the light. —Kate Erbland

47. “Corsage”

Director: Marie Kreutzer

Cast: Vicky Krieps, Colin Morgan, Ivana Urban

Accolades: Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard winner Best Performance (for Vicky Krieps); London Film Festival winner of Best Film

Read IndieWire’s Review : Spanning the birth of Mozart in 1756 to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War, the golden age of Vienna was — to paraphrase Darlene Madison Cox — an important and exciting time. Yet the Empress Elisabeth of “Corsage” isn’t feeling it. During that time, Europe’s second city of culture — it was never Paris — housed Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Strauss, Klimt, and Freud. And, though Beethoven died a decade before her birth, “Für Elise” sure hits different when it accompanies one of Elisabeth’s breakdowns. Although “Corsage” makes a worthy attempt to recast Elisabeth as independent of her constraints, its final note leaves it feeling a little too much like its own sort of requiem. —Adam Solomons

46. “Fire of Love”

Director: Sara Dosa

Cast: Miranda July, Katia Krafft, Maurice Krafft

Accolades: Sundance Film Festival winner of Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award (Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput); Atlanta Film Critics’ Circle winner of Best Documentary; Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominee for Best Documentary Feature and Best Director

Read IndieWire’s Review : At an economical 90-minute running time, “Fire of Love” packs a visual and emotional wallop, with enough close-ups on erupting volcanoes — one, at a point, is called “a bathtub with a hole in it, sowing death all around” — to leave you slack-jawed, terrified, and awe-inspired. “Fire of Love” allows you to contemplate life lived at the edge of the abyss, at the precipice of spewing lava and 1200-degree Celsius heat. It’s that pyroclastic connection that brings together twin flames Katia (who calls herself the “bird”) and Maurice (him, the “elephant seal”), who met on a park bench in 1966, got married, and saved up enough cash to honeymoon in Stromboli, an island off the north coast of Sicily that’s home to three active volcanoes. This is a quintessentially French story about French people, which means it’s filled with plenty of French pop tunes and, visible or not, references to French New Wave cinema (there’s a “Jules and Jim”-ness to their love affair with volcanoes, and a Jacques Cousteau quirkiness to the edit). Ultimately, “Fire of Love” acquires a ticking-clock, lump-in-the-throat inevitability as we inch closer to the ’90s, and to the seething mountain in Japan that would eventually claim the Kraffts’ lives. —Ryan Lattanzio

45. “Moonage Daydream”

Director: Brett Morgen

Cast: David Bowie

Accolades: Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominee for Best Documentary Feature

Read IndieWire’s Review : As musical documentaries go, it’s more ambitious than anything you’re likely to witness for quite some time. The film is as much an expression of Bowie’s voice as it is an expression of Morgen’s; it plays like the director’s own search for meaning, filtered through the life of an artist he clearly respects, and who he has the opportunity to reconstruct using unprecedented access from the Bowie estate. Of course, the fact that “Moonage Daydream” is both “authorized” by Bowie’s family and made from a reverential point of view means that it skirts around anything resembling controversy. However, while such a viewpoint may have yielded a more hagiographic portrait had Morgen taken a more conventional approach, the result here is stereophonic immersion and kaleidoscopic imagery geared towards seating audiences at specific points in time. These moments are, at once, distinctly “of” their respective eras, and yet temporally connected to absolutely everything else. —Siddhant Adlakha

44. “The Northman”

Director: Robert Eggers

Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe

Read IndieWire’s Review : It’s not like this movie is a punishing chore; it’s not like Eggers doesn’t want multiplex audiences to like it. And they will. Because this is the kind of filmmaking that rips you out of your body so hard that you’re liable to forget what year it is. In a movie era that’s been defined by compromise, “The Northman” rides into theaters with the fury of a valkyrie — it’s the rare studio epic that would sooner die than submit to modern precepts of how it should be told. While so many people in the industry are scrambling to change their fates, Eggers reminds us just how awesome it can feel to conquer them. —David Ehrlich

43. “Bardo”

Director: Alejandro González Inárritu

Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid

Accolades: Venice Film Festival winner UNIMED Award

Read IndieWire’s Review : With “Bardo,” Iñárritu delivers a cartoonishly indulgent film about the fact that he makes cartoonishly indulgent films — a rootless epic about a rootless man who’s been unmoored by his own self-doubt. It’s a midlife crisis meta-comedy that channels everyone from Federico Fellini to Emir Kusturica in the service of its carnivalesque self-parody. “Bardo” is hardly the first Iñárritu film to argue that “life is nothing but a series of senseless events and idiotic images,” nor even the first of them to do so on purpose, but it is the first of them to use that notion as a starting point rather than a grand reveal. Iñárritu still feels lost by the end of its three-hour running time, but that doesn’t mean “Bardo” isn’t a step in the right direction. —David Ehrlich

42. “Turning Red”

Director: Domee Shi

Cast: Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Orion Lee, Wai Ching Ho, Tristan Allerick Chen, James Hong

Read IndieWire’s Review : Pixas has never shied away from the tough stuff — there are entire generations of kids who have being guided through the cold terror of nothing less than death, world-wide destruction, and even the afterlife through the animation giant’s charming productions — but Domee Shi’s instant classic “Turning Red” marks the first time Pixar has gone all-in on perhaps the scariest, funniest, weirdest thing of all: puberty.

The film sets a course for what a modern Pixar film can (and should) look like, sound like, and obsess over. The lessons are of the usual sort — how to be true to yourself, how to honor your family and friends, the value of culture in all its forms, the need to find humor — but they are rendered fresh and new, with “Turning Red” turning in one of Pixar’s best films not just about the pain of life, but the very joy of it, too. —Kate Erbland

41. “Descendant”

Director: Margaret Brown

Accolades: Sundance Film Festival winner of U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision; Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Best Historical Documentary, and Best Director

Read IndieWire’s Review : How best should we remember the dead? The critical African American history retold in Margaret Brown’s imperative film, “Descendant,” an unblinking investigation combining local stories with “Erin Brockovich” flair, seeks to answer that question. Because for the many Black folks living in Africatown, Alabama, where the last slave ship made landfall, remembering is what they do best. —Robert Daniels

40. “Il Buco”

Director: Michelangelo Frammartino

Cast: Nicola Lanza, Antonio Lanza, Leonardo Larocca

Accolades: Venice Film Festival winner of FEDIC Award for Best Film and La Pellicola d’Oro Best Camera Operator (for Luca Massa) with Special Jury Prize for writer-director Michelangelo Frammartino; Brussels International Film Festival Jury Award for Directors’ Week; European Film Awards’ European Sound winner

Read IndieWire’s Review : As the shepherd makes his way toward one kind of underworld, so too do the spelunkers, exploring the sprawling subterranean landscape in a series of golden-hued chiaroscuro compositions. To engage with this film on its own terms is to welcome this kind of exploration of the natural sublime. When Frammartino tries his hand at narrative, he does so on his own oblique terms, tracking a soccer ball kicked about by a pair of distant explorers that, like the promise of Chekhov’s gun, is destined to go off into the abyss below. —Ben Croll

39. “The Batman”

Director: Matt Reeves

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis

Accolades: Atlanta Film Critics Circle winner of Best Score; Grammy Award nomination for Best Score Soundtrack in a Motion Picture;  People’s Choice Award nomination for The Movie of 2022

Read IndieWire’s Review :  In the burnt orange underworld of Gotham — as in “The Batman” itself — good and bad are as inextricable from each other as the different genres that define their terms, and the film’s hard-earned flares of light are only so capable of pointing the way forward because of how vividly they’re painted against the darkness that surrounds them. Forged from the embers of previous Batman movies despite never indulging in the kind of meta-commentary that has defined so many recent mega-sequels, Reeves’ effort may be too overstuffed and underwritten to succeed on its merits as either a Bruce Wayne story or a blockbuster noir, but there’s something ineffably beautiful to how “The Batman” smelts its many separate components into a new kind of superhero movie. —David Ehrlich

38. “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Director: Rian Johnson

Cast: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monaé, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Madelyn Clinea

Accolades: Atlanta Film Critics Circle winner of Best Ensemble Cast and Best Supporting Actress (for Monaé)

Read IndieWire’s Review : To say much more about the plot would be silly, as it would both spoil a film that is at its very best when it’s misdirecting and redirecting and constantly turning in and out of itself (like a glass onion, there are so many layers to peel, though the answer itself is really quite clear) and detract from the joy of seeing a well-honed mystery like this one unpacked in increasingly bright ways. Fans of the first “Knives Out” will find plenty of the same elements to love, though Johnson has studiously worked to ensure that “Glass Onion” stands alone, both because of its self-contained story and the filmmaker’s resistance to repeating his old tricks. —Kate Erbland

37. “Nanny”

Director: Nikyatu Jusu

Cast: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls, Morgan Spector

Accolades: Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival; Palm Springs’ Directors to Watch; Future/Now winner at Montclair Film Festival

Read IndieWire’s Review : As Aisha, Diop is gifted with a full meal of a role, and she easily embodies all the different Aishas we meet over the course of the film. But which one is the real one? Which one is the ghost? Jusu’s script, while prone to meandering through its second act, delivers a powerful punch as the film ratchets toward its inevitable conclusion. The first-time filmmaker may be attempting to fit too many ideas into one sleek package, but that doesn’t mitigate the truth of “Nanny”: All of it haunts. —Kate Erbland

36. “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”

Director: Jane Schoenbrun

Cast: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers

Accolades: IndieWire Critics’ Poll 2021: Best Films Opening in 2022; Future/Now Special Jury Prize for Visionary Filmmaking at Montclair Film Festival

Read IndieWire’s Review : Schoenbrun never traffics in easy explanations of what’s happening, and even mentioning that things grow stranger as the film unfolds isn’t precisely true. The circumstances Casey finds herself in are unsettling, but they’re also human: She’s looking for connection, and the potential cost of that quest hovers inside every frame of Schoenbrun’s fascinating feature. Even the more shocking twists of “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” are rooted in reality, both online and off. —Kate Erbland

35. “No Bears”

Director: Jafar Panahi

Cast: Naser Hashemi, Reza Heydari, Mina Kavani

Accolades: Venice Film Festival winner of Special Jury Prize for Jafar Panahi and nominated for Golden Lion for Best Film

Read IndieWire’s Review : The humane light that Panahi strives to use on even his most oppressive characters belies a sharp awareness of the power lines and misinformation that color an atmosphere where no one is easy around telling the truth. In one gorgeous scene, an old man that he encounters en route to a specific destination tells him to come in and have tea first. They can go on together afterwards, says the old man, which is better for safety reasons as there are bears out there. Later, when they separate, Panahi asks about the bears. “There are no bears. This is nonsense. Stories are made up to scare us,” replies his companion, in a remark significant enough to be the title of the film. It’s an obscure yet bold statement, one that encourages us to mind the fearful stories we choose to heed. —Sophie Monks Kaufman

34. “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”

Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp

Cast: Jenny Slate, Lesley Stahl, Isabella Rossellini

Accolades: Independent Spirit Awards nominee for Best Editing; Golden Globes nominee for Best Motion Picture Animated; LA Film Critics Association Awards nominee for Best Animated Feature; NYFCC winner of Best Animated Feature; SXSW Film Festival nominee for audience award in Festival Favorites category

Read IndieWire’s Review : As Marcel shuffles through his missing family’s rooms and wonders about his absent neighbors, it’s impossible not to reflect back on the last few months of human existence. The world has known so much loss in 2020 and 2021, and while the grief of Marcel and Nana Connie would always be pronounced — Slate and Camp bring such texture and care to them — these days, it feels even more rich. Yes, again, we’re still talking about a movie about stop-motion shells. Soon, you will be, too. —Kate Erbland

33. “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood”

Director: Richard Linklater

Cast: Jack Black, Milo Coy, Lee Eddy

Accolades: Cahiers du Cinema nominee of Top 10 Film Award, placing in seventh; SXSW Film Festival nominee for Audience Award in Headliners program

Read IndieWire’s Review : “Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood” introduces itself as a fantastical adventure about a Houston fourth-grader who’s plucked out of school for a confidential NASA mission in the spring of 1969 (those wacky scientists accidentally built the lunar module too small for an adult), but Richard Linklater’s first animated feature since “A Scanner Darkly” isn’t really a story about a kid who secretly paved the way for Neil Armstrong, or even a story about a kid who had any special interest in the stars above. In fact, this semi-autobiographical sketch isn’t really a story at all so much as a sweetly effervescent string of Kodachrome memories from the filmmaker’s own childhood — the childhood of someone who was born in a place without any sense of yesterday, and came of age at a time that was obsessed with tomorrow. —David Ehrlich

32. “All Quiet on the Western Front”

Director: Edward Berger

Cast: Daniel Brühl, Daniel Marc Dreifuss, Malte Grunert, Clive Barker, Marc Toberoff, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell

Accolades: Golden Globes nominee for Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language

Read IndieWire’s Review : “All Quiet” was one of the works targeted by Nazi book-burnings, and this new film is an attempt to reclaim the novel as an essential work of German culture. It’s coming from inside the house, so to speak, and there is a certain Teutonic seriousness to the filmmaking as well as the subject matter. Just as polished but not quite as flashy as Sam Mendes’ “1917,” the film displays a similar level of commitment to historical detail, but presents its elaborately staged battlefield scenes in a relatively more plain spoken style. —Katie Rife

31. “Three Minutes: A Lengthening”

Director: Bianca Stigter

Cast: Helena Bonham Carter (Narrator)

Read IndieWire’s Review : “Three Minutes” still demonstrates how that footage, which must have seemed so insignificant at the time, now stands as an invaluable document and a humbling memorial. Beyond that, it’s a reminder of what a magical medium film is — how unique it is in its ability to capture so many moments and so much life. The narration quotes a 1930s Kodachrome advert which boasts that film brings back memories in a way that nothing else can. It’s corny, but it may well be true. —Nicholas Barber

30. “Avatar: The Way of Water”

Director: James Cameron

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet

Accolades: Golden Globes nominee for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director – Motion Picture for James Cameron, LA Film Critics Association Awards winner of Best Production Design

Read IndieWire’s Review : Cameron has always treated story as a direct extension of the spectacle required to bring it to life, but the anthropocenic relationship between narrative and technology was a bit uneven in the first “Avatar,” which obscured the old behind the veil of the new where his previous films had better allowed them to intertwine. An out-of-body theatrical experience that makes its predecessor feel like a glorified proof-of-concept, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is such a staggering improvement over the original because its spectacle doesn’t have to compensate for its story; in vintage Cameron fashion, the movie’s spectacle is what allows its story to be told so well. —David Ehrlich

29. “X”

Director: Ti West

Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, Scott Mescudi

Accolades: SXSW Film Festival nominee for Audience Award in Midnighters; HCA Award nominee for Best Actress (for Mia Goth), Best Horror, Best Indie Film

Read IndieWire’s Review : The renegade intensity of Ti West’s “X,” another homage by the “House of the Devil” writer-director to independent cinema’s past, and his first horror film in over a decade, is his willingness to ask: What if a slasher, but with porn? That genre bending — in a rollicking, wicked dark horror comedy about intrepid filmmakers just barely scraping by, the fetishization of youth, and how the weight of aging into a sexless marriage can lead to mayhem — brings the spirit of the rule-breaking 1970s moviemaking back to modern audiences. While West isn’t always operating on the same levels as his influences, his signature flair for tension through simmering slow-burn pacing remains unparalleled. —Robert Daniels

28. “Kimi”

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Zoë Kravitz, Rita Wilson, India de Beaufort, Emily Kuroda, Byron Bowers, Derek DelGaudio, Betsy Brantley

Accolades: Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards nominee for Best Streaming Movie

Read IndieWire’s Review : A surveillance thriller for an age when everyone knows they’re being spied upon at all times — even, perhaps, by the same device on which they’re watching it — Steven Soderbergh’s “Kimi” is a simple but satisfying genre exercise that uses its agoraphobic heroine to ask what people are supposed to do with their paranoia now that virtually everything is out in the open. —David Ehrlich

27. “In Front of Your Face”

Director: Hong Sang-soo

Cast: Lee Hye-young, Cho Yun-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo

Accolades: IndieWire Critics’ Poll 2021: Best Films Opening in 2022

“On the Beach at Night Alone” director Hong Sang-soo comes back to the big screen with the mysterious and darkly intimate tale of a former actress who returns home to Seoul, where her hazy but palpably regretful past blooms into an artful consideration of expression and isolation. Lee has received extensive praise for her starring performance, her first for Hong. —Alison Foreman 

26. “Hit the Road”

Director: Panah Panahi

Cast: Pantea Panahiha, Mohammad Hassan Madjooni, Rayan Sarlak

Accolades: Cannes Film Festival Golden Camera nominee; IndieWire Cirtics’ Poll nominee for Best Films Opening in 2022; London Film Festival winner in Official Competition for Best Film; SF International Film Festival winner for Golden Gate Award of Best New Director (for Panah Panahi)

Read IndieWire’s Review : A family road trip movie in which we never quite know where the film is heading (and are often lied to about why), “Hit the Road” may be set amid the winding desert highways and gorgeous emerald valleys of northwestern Iran, but Panah Panahi’s miraculous debut is fueled by the growing suspicion that its characters have taken a major detour away from our mortal coil at some point along the way. —David Ehrlich

25. “After Yang”

Director: Kogonada

Cast: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Haley Lu Richardson

Accolades: Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard nominee, Gotham Awards Best Screenplay nominee and Outstanding Lead Performance nomination for Colin Farrell, Sundance Film Festival win for Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film prize

Read IndieWire’s Review : Both a perfect complement to Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Klara and the Sun,” and an ideal alternative to the emotional brutality of Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.,” “After Yang” is a movie that seems like it was made by and for the sort of people who struggle to be present with their partners and children, but eagerly re-watch home videos of them whenever they’re alone. At the same time, the power of this story is also dependent on a refusal to downplay the positive role that digital technology can have when it comes to forging human bonds. —David Ehrlich

24. “Vortex”

Director: Gaspar Noé

Cast: Dario Argento, Francoise Lebrun, Alex Lutz

Accolades: Festival du Nouveau Cinema audience award winner for Best Film, San Sebastian International Film Fetsival winner for Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize

Read IndieWire’s Review : Gaspar Noé is the kind of mad scientist filmmaker whose very name invites expectations of provocative experimentation. “Vortex,” which clocks in at 142 minutes and spends almost all of them in split screen, would appear to be consistent with that trend. Yet this quiet, slow-burn look at an elderly couple suffering from dementia and other ailments is a grounded, emotional variation of “Amour,” as well as the the most sensitive and accessible work from a filmmaker for whom those descriptors rarely apply. —Eric Kohn

23. “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”

Directors: Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, and more

Cast: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann

Accolades: Golden Globes nominee for Best Motion Picture – Animated, Best Original Song for “Ciao Papa,” and Best Original Score; LA Film Critics Association Awards win for Best Animation

Read IndieWire’s Review : “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” reimagines the classic fantasy tale through the most beautifully-made stop-motion animation in years, a powerful and life-affirming father-and-son story about acceptance and love in the face of pain, misery, and fascism, and the filmmaker’s love of monsters in what is easily his best film in a decade. —Rafael Motamayor

22. “Return to Seoul”

Director: Davy Chou

Cast: Ji-Min Park, Oh Kwang-rok, Guka Han, Kim Sun-young

Accolades: Cannes Film Festival nominee for Un Certain Regard award (for Davy Chou); Hamptons International Film Festival audience award for Best Narrative Feature

Read IndieWire’s Review : Few movies have ever been more perfectly in tune with their protagonists than Davy Chou’s jagged, restless, and rivetingly unpredictable “Return to Seoul,” a shark-like adoption drama that its 25-year-old heroine wears like an extra layer of skin or sharp cartilage. The film spans eight years over the course of two hours, but you can feel its bristly texture and self-possessed violence from the disorienting first scenes. —David Ehrlich

21. “Happening”

Director: Audrey Diwan

Cast: Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein, Luàna Bajrami

Accolades: BAFTA Best Director nomination; César Ward win for Most Promising Actress (for Anamaria Vartolomei); Gotham Awards winner for Best International Feature; IndieWire Critics’ Poll 2021 nominee for Best Films Opening in 2022; Venice Film Festival Golden Lion win for Best Film

Read IndieWire’s Review : Based on a memoir by Annie Ernaux, “Happening” is an authentic and earnest work, and though it declines to polemicize, it is inarguably pro-choice. That it played at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the top prize, in the wake of renewed threats to reproductive freedoms around the world made it feel all the more urgent — but there’s no didacticism here, just one woman’s true story. —Natalia Winkelman

20. “Bones and All”

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland

Accolades: Venice Film Festival awarded Silver Lion for Best Director and the Marcello Mastroianni Award to Russell

Read IndieWire’s Review : Blood pours across gothic mahogany in rooms lined with chintzy floral wallpaper and ’80s tchotchkes, made better still by the film’s stunning sound design. Some scenes bring detached cannibalistic chomping, others have crescendoing winds across American plains. The soundtrack, largely period appropriate and featuring Duran Duran and Kiss, is perfectly utilized throughout. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s track for the film, “(You Made it Feel Like) Home,” punches through, in awful harmony with the haunting tragedy of the film itself. —Leila Latif

19. “Living”

Director: Oliver Hermanus

Cast: Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp

Accolades: Winner of Best Production Design at the British Independent Film Awards; Best Lead Performance awarded to Nighy by Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Read IndieWire’s Review : For his part, Nighy is predictably affecting in the lead role of Mr. Williams, a widowed civil servant so calcified by grief that his younger employees assume that he’s actually incapable of human feeling; if they’re terrified of him in a way that no one ever was of Shimura’s version, it might be owed to the fact that Williams already speaks in the ghoulish whisper of a spirit communicating from beyond the grave. —David Ehrlich

18. “Women Talking”

Director: Sarah Polley

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Frances McDormand, Ben Whishaw

Accolades: Awarded Best Ensemble by the National Board of Review and the Robert Altman Award at the Independent Spirit Awards

Read IndieWire’s Review : Adapted from Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name with fierce intellect, immense force, and a visionary sense of how to remap the world as we know it along more compassionate (matriarchal) lines, Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” never feels like it’s just 104 minutes of bonneted fundamentalists chatting in a barn, even though — with a few memorable, and sometimes very funny exceptions — that’s exactly what it is. Toews’ book could easily have been made into a play, but every widescreen frame of Polley’s film will make you glad that it wasn’t. She infuses this truth-inspired tale with a gripping multi-generational sweep from the very first line, which puts the violence in the rear-view mirror and begins the hard work of keeping it there. —David Ehrlich

17. “Saint Omer”

Director: Alice Diop

Cast: Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanga

Accolades: Winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Luigi De Laurentiis Award for a Debut Film, and more at the Venice Film Festival; winner of the Louis Delluc Prize

Read IndieWire’s Review : There is a tradition of humanizing killers that is rarely afforded to Black women in the movies. For Truman Capote’s seminal non-fiction novel, “In Cold Blood” from 1959, he befriended two death-row prisoners guilty of shooting dead a family in Kansas, and turned the resulting conversations into a journalistic doorstop of a book as compelling and detailed as any work of fiction. What made the book so haunting was Capote’s refusal to be daunted by the monstrousness of what the two men had done.

With “Saint Omer,” Diop shows an equally unflinching gaze, yet while Capote examined his subjects with a clinical detachment, the filmmaker distinguishes herself here by daring to empathize with her own. Not with her crime, but with the temporary insanity that afflicted a brilliant, marginalized Senegalese immigrant to Paris. —Sophie Monks Kaufman

16. “Elvis”

Director: Baz Luhrmann

Cast: Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Olivia DeJonge

Accolades: Winner of Best Film, Best Direction, Best Lead Actor (for Butler), Best Supporting Actress (for DeJonge) and more at the AACTA Awards; Top Soundtrack at the American Music Awards; Butler awarded Drama Movie Star of 2022 at the People’s Choice Awards 

Read IndieWire’s Review : Butler’s immaculate Presley imitation would be the best thing about this movie even if it stopped at mimicry, but the actor does more than just nail Presley’s singing voice and stage presence; he also manages to defy them, slipping free of iconography and giving the film an opportunity to create a new emotional context for a man who’s been frozen in time since before Luhrmann’s target audience was born. —David Ehrlich

15. “Triangle of Sadness”

Director: Ruben Östlund

Cast: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Dolly de Leon, Zlatko Burić, Iris Berben, Vicki Berlin, Henrik Dorsin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Amanda Walker, Oliver Ford Davies, Sunnyi Melles, Woody Harrelson

Accolades: Winner of the Palme d’Or and AFCAE Art House Cinema Award at Cannes; winner of Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (for Zlatko Burić) at the European Film Awards; awarded Best Supporting Performer (for Dolly de Leon) by the Los Angeles Film Critics Assocation

Read IndieWire’s Review : It starts, as all movies should, in the world of high-end male modeling. A muted and dangerously almost-smart Derek Zoolander type who Harris Dickinson plays to perfection, the 25-year-old Carl is reaching the geriatric stage of his career, and the anxiety over his economic future is starting to make his eight-pack look two abs short. A merciful society would simply euthanize Carl rather than make him suffer the slow indignity of losing Instagram followers — and spare us the unpleasantness of having to look upon this hideous creature for another 145 minutes — but the fashion industry is not so kind. Instead, Carl finds himself without a seat at his supermodel girlfriend Yaya’s latest runway show (she’s played by Charlbi Dean), and then haggling with her, exhaustingly, over the dinner bill later that night.

These opening scenes contain occasional glimpses of the impish wit that Östlund has long deployed against male insecurities, and he still loves to watch men squirm their way through pained surrenders of gendered power. On the strength of its staging alone, one bit in which Carl and Yaya fling money at each other while arguing across the opposite sides of a closing elevator door almost manages to generate the same friction that makes Östlund’s previous work so wonderfully itchy. —David Ehrlich

14. “The Eternal Daughter”

Director: Joanna Hogg

Cast: Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies

Accolades: Nominated for the Golden Lion at Venice

Read IndieWire’s Review : An elegantly slender phantom of a film that channels a spooky hotel’s worth of gothic horror tropes into the heartrending story of a woman trying to see her own ghost, “The Eternal Daughter” finds Hogg returning to the haunted corridors of her personal experience — and, unexpectedly, to the fictional version of herself that she invented to walk through them. Yes, Julie Hart is back, with Tilda Swinton taking over the role that her daughter originated in “The Souvenir” (that was set in the ’80s, this in the present day). —David Ehrlich

13. “Benediction”

Director: Terence Davies

Cast: Jack Lowden, Peter Capaldi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeremy Irvine, Calam Lynch, Tom Blyth, Kate Phillips, Geraldine James, Gemma Jones, Ben Daniels

Accolades: Winner of Best Film Opening in 2022 from the IndieWire Critics’ Poll 2021; awarded Best Screenplay at the San Sebastián International Film Festival

Read IndieWire’s Review : With “Benediction” — another spectacular and terribly sad biopic about a poet cursed with the ability to express a private agony they could never escape — Davies has once again made a film that feels like the work of someone flaying their soul onscreen. Last time it was Emily Dickinson who provided the prism through which Davies could refract his own wants and wounds, and here it’s the English poet Siegfried Sassoon, an openly but resentfully gay man desperate for a peace of mind he only knew how to look for in other people. Davies has more in common with Sassoon than Dickinson — their lives even overlapped for a time — but viewers don’t have to know a single thing about the director’s work to sense his wounds bleeding through Sassoon’s aching story. This is a film that trembles with a need for redemption that never comes, and the urgency of that search is palpable enough that you can feel it first-hand, even if “Benediction” is never particularly clear about the nature of the redemption it’s hoping to find. —David Ehrlich

12. “EO”

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski

Cast: Sandra Drzymalska, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kościukiewicz, Isabelle Huppert

Accolades: Awarded Cannes’ Jury Prize and Cannes Soundtrack Award; winner of Best Original Score and the European University Film Award at the European Film Awards; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : Told through the eyes of a modest donkey — often literally — Skolimowski’s madcap, visually experimental “remake” of Robert Bresson’s 1966 black-and-white drama “Au Hasard Balthazar” has plenty of nods to his compatriot classmates and little to do with Skolimowski’s previous films. The titular donkey, onomatopoeically named (it is “Hi-Han” in France), is freed from a circus in central Poland and briefly becomes a hardcore “ultra” fan at a local soccer team, before being whisked away for more adventures, taking in the vastness of life along the way. Eo even meets Isabelle Huppert, a privilege any living being can look back on their years proudly for. (In Cannes’s answer to a Marvel cameo, the gasp Huppert’s appearance produced at last night’s press screening is one for the ages.) —Adam Solomons

11. “Crimes of the Future”

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman

Accolades: Awarded Best Direction in a Feature Film by the Directors’ Guild of Canada

Read IndieWire’s Review: What Cronenberg neglected to specify is that those imagined audience members — as implausible as the crowds who supposedly fled in panic when the Lumière brothers aimed a train at them — would be stampeding up the aisles in response to tragedy, and not gore.

Don’t get me wrong, “Crimes of the Future” is Cronenberg to the core, complete with its fair share of authorial flourishes (the moaning organic bed that its characters sleep in is a five-alarm nightmare unto itself) and slogans (“surgery is the new sex”). At the same time, however, this hazy and weirdly hopeful meditation on the macro-relationship between organic life and synthetic matter ties into his more wholly satisfying gross-out classics because of how it pushes beyond them. —David Ehrlich

10. “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”

Director: Laura Poitras

Accolades: Winner of the Golden Lion and Smithers Foundation Award at Venice Film Festival; awarded the Freedom of Expression Award by the National Board of Review; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : That  title . Even before it screened, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” cast a shiver across the Venice Film Festival competition, sounding more like a line from a Yeats poem than the latest documentary from the director of “CITIZENFOUR.” The big news: the film lives up to it. Already a robust director, Laura Poitras has leveled up with a towering and devastating work of shocking intelligence and still greater emotional power.

“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” is about the life and art of Nan Goldin and how this led her to found P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), an advocacy group targeting the Sackler family for manufacturing and distributing OxyContin, a deeply addictive drug that has exacerbated the opioid crisis. It is about the bonds of community, the dangers of repression, and how art and politics are the same thing. —Sophie Monks Kaufman

9. “Top Gun: Maverick”

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer

Accolades: Awarded Best Film by the National Board of Review; winner of Action Movie of 2022 at the People’s Choice Awards

Read IndieWire’s Review : Watching Cruise pilot a fighter jet 200 feet above the floor of Death Valley, corkscrew another one through Washington’s Cascade Mountains, and give one of the most vulnerable performances of his career while sustaining so many G-forces that you can practically see him going Clear in real-time, you realize — more lucidly than ever before — that this wild-eyed lunatic makes movies like his life depends on it. Because it does, and not for the first time.

But if “Maverick” can’t quite match “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” for sheer kineticism and well-orchestrated awe, this long-delayed sequel does more to clarify what that means than anything Cruise has ever made. And the reason for that is simple: Tom Cruise is Maverick, and Maverick is Tom Cruise. —David Ehrlich

8. “RRR”

Director: S. S. Rajamouli

Cast: N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, Olivia Morris

Accolades: Winner of the Spotlight Award at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards; winner of Best International Film at the Saturn Awards

Read IndieWire’s Review : S.S. Rajamouli’s “RRR” is a dazzling work of historical fiction — emphasis on the “fiction” — that makes the moving image feel intimate and enormous all at once. A pulsating period action drama, it outshines even the director’s record-smashing “Baahubali” movies (viewers familiar with them probably won’t know what to expect here) thanks to its mix of naked sincerity, unapologetic machismo, and balls-to-the-wall action craftsmanship. The film is playing on over a thousand screens in North America, and watching it with a packed audience familiar with Telugu-language cinema is likely to yield one of the noisiest and most raucous theatrical experiences imaginable. Plenty of recent releases have been hailed as “the return of cinema” post-pandemic, but “RRR” stands apart as an unabashed return to everything that makes the cinematic experience great, all at once. —Siddhant Adlakha

7. “Nope”

Director: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David

Accolades: Winner of Best Supporting Actress (for Keke Palmer) at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards; winner of Best Science Fiction Film at the Saturn Awards

Read IndieWire’s Review : The only sci-fi movie that might scare and delight Guy Debord and Ed Wood to the same degree, “Nope” offers a giddy throwback to the days of little green men and hubcap U.F.O.s that hopes to revitalize those classic tropes for audiences who’ve seen too much bloodshed on their own screens to believe in Hollywood’s “bad miracles.” It’s a tractor beam of a movie pointed at people who’ve watched 9/11 happen so many times on network TV that it’s lost any literal meaning; who’ve scrolled past body cam snuff films in between Dril tweets; who’ve become accustomed to rubbernecking at American life from inside the wreckage. —David Ehrlich

6. “Decision to Leave”

Director: Park Chan-wook

Cast: Tang Wei, Park Hae-il

Accolades: Winner of Best Director at Cannes; winner of Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Music, Best Director, Best Actor (for Park Hae-il), Best Actress (for Tang Wei), Best Screenplay, and the Popular Star Award (for Go Kyung-pyo) at the Blue Dragon Film Awards; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : Here’s a sentence I never expected to write: The most romantic movie of the year (so far) is a police procedural. Then again, I wasn’t aware that “Oldboy” director Park Chan-wook — whose operatic revenge melodramas have given way to a series of ravishingly baroque Hitchcockian love stories about the various “perversities” that might bind two wayward souls together — was making a detective thriller. In that case, the heart-stirring potential of the Korean auteur’s new detective saga would have been as obvious as the identity of its killer.

It’s a good thing, then, that “Decision to Leave” isn’t a whodunnit — as you’ll be able to discern from the pathetic effort its protagonist makes to solve his latest case. In fact, Park’s funny, playful, and increasingly poignant crime thriller is less interested in what Hae-joon (Park Hae-il) knows about his suspect than in how he feels about her. —David Ehrlich

5. “The Fabelmans”

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch

Accolades: Awarded Best Director and Best Breakthrough Performance (for LaBelle) by the National Board of Review; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : Has any divorce had a more profound impact on the American imagination than the one between Steven Spielberg’s parents? It was the breakup that launched a million blockbusters. That made daddy issues into a spectacle all their own. That led directly to “E.T.,” “Catch Me if You Can,” and the last scene of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” while also paving the way toward any number of iconic films about the meltdown of the nuclear family — which any multiplex would tell you was the middle class’ defining crisis of the 20th century.

And so it stands to reason that “The Fabelmans,” in which Spielberg finally addresses his parents’ divorce head-on — and in exacting autobiographical detail, every shot a memory — would feel like our story as much as it does his own. I’d say this playful yet nakedly personal coming-of-auteur epic was trying to split the difference between memoir and crowdpleaser, but it seems even more determined to reconcile the two: What else would Steven Spielberg’s ultimate divorce movie be about if not the hope for some kind of reconciliation? —David Ehrlich

4. “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Harry Shum Jr., Jenny Slate

Accolades: Winner of Best Feature and Best Supporting Performance (for Ke Huy Quan) at the Gotham Independent Film Awards; awarded the Best Actress (for Yeoh) by the National Board of Review; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : Here is an orgiastic work of slaphappy genius that doesn’t operate like a narrative film so much as a particle accelerator — or maybe a cosmic washing machine — that two psychotic 12-year-olds designed in the hopes of reconciling the anxiety of what our lives could be with the beauty of what they are. It’s a machine powered by the greatest performance that Michelle Yeoh has ever given, pumped full of the zaniest martial arts battles that Stephen Chow has never shot, and soaked through with the kind of “anything goes” spirit that’s only supposed to be on TV these days.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is as overstuffed as its title implies, even more juvenile than its pedigree suggests, and so creatively unbound from the minute it starts that it makes Daniels’ previous efforts seem like they were made with Bressonian restraint by comparison (for context, their last feature was a sweet fable starring Harry Potter as an explosively farting corpse). It’s a movie that I saw twice just to make sure I hadn’t completely hallucinated it the first time around, and one that I will soon be seeing a third time for the same reason. I don’t ever expect to understand how it was (or got) made, but I already know that it works. And I know that it works because my impulse to pick on its imperfections and wonder how it might’ve been different eventually forfeits to the utter miracle of its existence. —David Ehrlich

3. “The Banshees of Inisherin”

Director: Martin McDonagh

Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan

Accolades: Awarded the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay and Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice; winner of Best Actor (for Farrell), Best Supporting Actor (for Gleeson), and Best Original Screenplay by the National Board of Review; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : “The Banshees of Inisherin” often feels more like a Martin McDonagh play — perhaps the abandoned play of the same name that he first conceived as the conclusion of his “Aran Islands Trilogy” — which might help to explain the stony confidence of his direction and the steady focus with which he follows this story to the mournful finale promised by its title (Sheila Flitton is hilarious as banshee incarnate Mrs. McCormick, an old crone so happy to cosplay as death itself that she might as well hobble around Inisherin with a scythe in her hands). If the film never feels the least bit limited by its scope or location, that’s because the Galway Bay lends it an impossibly gorgeous backdrop, replete with rolling green hills and ravishing ocean views on all sides. It’s the perfect fairy tale idyll for the harps and glockenspiels of Carter Burwell’s ominous score to subvert. —David Ehrlich

2. “Aftersun”

Director: Charlotte Wells

Cast: Paul Mescal, Frankie Corio

Accolades: Awarded the French Touch Prize of the Jury at Cannes; winner of Best Directorial Debut by the Natonal Board of Review; winner of Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Music Supervision, and the Douglas Hickox Award at the British Independent Film Awards; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : A stunning debut that develops with the gradual poignancy of a Polaroid, Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” isn’t just an honest movie about the way that we remember the people we’ve lost — fragmented, elusive, nowhere and everywhere all at once — it’s also a heart-stopping act of remembering unto itself. Here, in the span of an oblique but tender story that feels small enough to fit on an instant photo (or squeeze into the LCD screen of an old camcorder), Wells creates a film that gradually echoes far beyond its frames. By the time it reaches fever pitch with the greatest Freddie Mercury needle drop this side of “Wayne’s World,” “Aftersun” has begun to shudder with the crushing weight of all that we can’t leave behind, and all that we may not have known to take with us in the first place. —David Ehrlich

1. “TÁR”

Director: Todd Field

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner

Accolades: Blanchett awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at Venice; winner of Best Screenplay at the Gotham Independent Film Awards; winner of Best Film and Best Actress (for Blanchett) with the New York Film Critics Circle; winner of Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (for Blanchett), and Best Screenplay by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; winner of Best Director with the Boston Society of Film Critics; and more

Read IndieWire’s Review : “TÁR” is so much more than the Great American Movie about “cancel culture” — a phrase that it humiliates with every movement — but this dense and difficult portrait of a female conductor’s fall from grace also demands to be seen through that singular lens from its very first shot. Todd Field’s thrilling, deceptively austere third film exalts in grabbing the electrified fence of digital-age discourse with both hands and daring us to hold onto it for 158 minutes in the hopes that we might ultimately start to feel like we’re shocking ourselves. —David Ehrlich

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The 46 Best Movies of 2022

Rom-coms, slashers, the multiverse, and legendary directors. 2022 has got it all.

2022 was a great year for film, and a better year for movies. From movies that will hit you with you an emotional punch that could stick with you for years to giant blockbusters and everything in between, there was something for truly everyone. And we mean everyone: from horror to comedy to superheroes to action, a lot of really innovative movies from talented filmmakers hit the screen. Seriously—from stuff like the majestic-looking Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to The Fabelmans and Tár, we got the full smorgasboard of movies . And, hell, we're a bit more than halfway through the year, and already have tons of movies that have entertained us, made us think, and downright awed us.

A little weird! But mostly just semantics. Anyway, here are the movies we've loved in 2022 (though we haven't seen everything, and this list can always change)—and more that we're still super eager to check out.

The new Scream, the fifth in the slasher whodunit series, had a lot working against it. It's been more than a decade since Scream 4 hit theaters, and in the time since, Wes Craven—who directed every prior movie in the series—died. Another sequel could've been a disaster. Luckily, Scream was made by directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin with the main goal of being something Craven would be proud of—and they achieved that mission. Legacy cast members Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are joined by exceptional newcomers like Jack Quaid , Jasmin Savoy-Brown, and Jenna Ortega, for a movie that's entertaining and fun, but most importantly just feels like a Scream movie . Scream 6 has already been ordered, and to that we say: hell yes.

jackass forever

The guys—Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee Man, et cetera—may have gotten older, but the fun, thankfully, remains the same. jackass forever is the high-quality lowbrow humor that fans of this franchise have been loving for 20+ years (even longer if you count the original MTV series). And as long as these guys want to keep taking part in this madness, we'll be watching.

Stream It Here

The term "Hitchcockian" gets thrown around far too often, but one filmmaker who can actually try to be like the master of suspense and come through with 100% success is the great Steven Soderbergh. Sodey teams up with Zoë Kravitz for a fantastic thriller that's got a simple, premise: basically a modern version of Rear Window. And it crushes it.

I Want You Back

I Want You Back is fairly standard stuff for a rom-com, but it's got a wildly charismatic cast, led by a pair of great leads ( Charlie Day and Jenny Slate) and fun supporting players (Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto, and Scott Eastwood). The movie zigs a little bit from the standard formula along the way, and ultimately proves to be a worthy comfort movie for anyone who needs one.

We've seen lots of Batman before, but The Batman is something different. We've got a new Dark Knight in Robert Pattinson, an actor known to take huge risks. We've got a super cool Catwoman in Zoë Kravitz, a Zodiac Killer-esque Riddler played by Paul Dano, and a totally unrecognizable Colin Farrell in a brand new take on the Penguin. Director Matt Reeves has helmed more than a few good movies, and his neo-noir, unique take on Batman is another one for the list. Now, we just wait to see what he does next.

Sebastian Stan is having himself a year. While he spent a few weeks grinding everyone' gears as the boorish rocker Tommy Lee in Hulu's Pam & Tommy , he dove all the way into the creepy/horror/ genre with his portrayal of the charming-on-the-surface-but-with-some-dark-secrets boyfriend of Daisy Edgar-Jones ( Normal People ) in Fresh . The movie earned raves out of Sundance and made similar waves when it landed on Hulu and word of its twisted plot hit the internet. Horror fans won't want to miss this fun one.

Writer/director Ti West is at his best when he's in nostalgia-horror mode (check out The House of the Devil! ), and he went for it big time with X, an A24-produced comedy about a group of young filmmakers (including lead Mia Goth, playing a dual role, along with Brittany Snow, Kid Cudi, and new Scream Queen Jenna Ortega) who set out to make an adult film in Texas, before shit gets really out of control. The movie is a slow-burn, but really pays off in the end—and is a far better tribute to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre than the other 2022 movie that actually holds that franchise's name .

Ti West and Mia Goth have a second elite horror movie in 2022 with Pearl, an origin story prequel to X. The film follows Goth as the titular character, set against the backdrop of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Where X is more of a slasher, Pearl is a horror-driven character study that builds and builds as it goes; West has described it as a "demented Disney movie," and that feels just about right. You'll need to lock in to appreciate the intricacies of this character-driven story, but the last 20-30 minutes or so—and Goth's masterful performance within it—make it so, so worth it.

With these two X films—and a third, titled MaXXXine coming soon—West and Goth have created the best original horror franchise of the last decade.

We're All Going To The World's Fair

We're All Going To The World's Fair was a hit at Sundance back in 2021, but it was officially released—and later landed on HBO Max —in 2022. The movie is a low-budget but incredibly inventive and interesting type of grounded horror centered on the modern world of internet "challenges" and the kinds of weird things that can stem from them. Part real horror, part unsettling realism, if you'd imagine a combination of Candyman, Unfriended, and The Ring with the terrifying realism of the little-seen Compliance, you'd get We're All Going To the World's Fair. And for my fellow short attention span havers, even more good news: it's only 85 minutes or so long.

The Lost City

We're not going to pretend like this Sandra Bullock/Channing Tatum vehicle is about to win any Oscars, but it's fun. Bullock plays a writer of romance adventure novels, while Tatum is the guy depicting her fictional characters on the covers of the books. Add in Daniel Radcliffe as a crazy rich guy who thinks something written in her books is a real treasure hunt, and so he drops the two of them into the jungle. A fun movie with incredibly fun lead performances. A truly great smooth brain cinematic experience.

OK, fine: CODA technically came out in May of 2021. But most of us either saw it in the lead-up to, or aftermath of, the 2022 Academy Awards. Because in case you didn't watch, something far more interesting than the slap-heard-around-the-world happened (in the world of cinema at least): a movie with the majority of its dialogue in American Sign Language won best picture. CODA isn't breaking any film barriers with its story (you've seen this arc before), but it's a delightful, feel-good film that has a few moments that are just beyond affectionate. Troy Kotsur, who is deaf and uses ASL, was a well-deserving winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar this year for his role as unfiltered fisherman father Frank Rossi .

Everything Everywhere All At Once

You're going to be hard-pressed to find a movie more universally acclaimed—by both critics and fans alike—than Everything Everywhere All At Once. This multiversal tale has it all: action, drama, humor, intrigue, and even deeply emotional moments. It's a triumph of storytelling and film, and despite its release in the first half of the year, stands a real chance of being an awards contender. You won't forget the performances by Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis any time soon.

The Northman

After doing a combination old-school monster movie/slow-burn psychological thriller with his last movie The Lighthouse, director Robert Eggers switched things up and making an epic with The Northman. Alexander Skarsgård stars as a Viking prince who seeks revenge for his murdered father; Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Björk, and Willem Dafoe are among the rest of the stacked cast. This movie is an artsy take on an epic, and the violence is INTENSE. But stick around for the performances and the sheer visuals of it all; Kidman delivers a knockout, and Anya Taylor-Joy has a late monologue that will blow you away.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

If you're a sucker for meta, you'll be very into The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which centers on Nicolas Cage playing...Nicolas Cage. This fictionalized movie takes the notorious and eccentric actor on an adventure where he gets involved with a drug lord (Pedro Pascal) who loves his work. Imagine Cage's turn in Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation, but updated and made a lot, lot, goofier. Fun stuff.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Superhero and horror movie godfather Sam Raimi gets to a little bit of both of those specialities in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , which has proven to be one of the more polarizing Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to date. We fall on the side of loving it—Raimi's directorial flourishes are all over the movie, which is something that you rarely see in a movie with as many chefs in the kitchen as a Marvel film. At the end of the day, you'll be thinking about the horror elements that the director snuck in, and Elizabeth Olsen's dynamic performance as Wanda Maximoff—who has become without question Marvel's most compelling post- Endgame character.

Top Gun: Maverick

The sequel to Top Gun may have come decades after the 1986 original, but man oh man was it worth it: Maverick is an upgrade in just about every way possible. The action, visuals, and sound here are incredible, and in case you may have been worried, the story and characters aren't too shabby either. Tom Cruise leads the way here of course, but this theme park ride of a movie (in a good way! a great way!) also includes great performances from the likes of Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Glen Powell . The movie has absolutely crushed at the box office, and will continue to be talked about all year long.

The Black Phone

Ethan Hawke plays a creepy villain named The Grabber in The Black Phone, a horror based on a story of the same name from Joe Hill . The movie marks a return to horror for director Scott Derrickson, who most recently directed Doctor Strange, but before that was behind Sinister (also with Hawke!) and The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Hustle is both one of the best sports movies and one of the best Adam Sandler movies you'll ever see. That's right—it's joining prestigious lists that include Field of Dreams and Moneyball and Uncut Gems and Billy Madison. The movie tells the story of an NBA scout (Sandler) who believes he's found the next international superstar (played by real-life NBA player Juancho Hernangomez). Countless NBA figures make cameos, and the movie is a compelling and fun watch.

If you were worried about Jordan Peele keeping his winning streak going, well, it's time to stop. Nope is different from his other films, going for something bigger in scale and spectacle than either Get Out or Us, but it still works to perfection, in that exact Jordan Peele manner. AKA: you'll be thinking about Nope, and talking about Nope, long after you have actually seen nope. Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, and Michael Wincott are all fantastic in this movie—one of the very best of the year.

Bodies Bodies Bodies

Bodies Bodies Bodies is one of the most unique, fun, and stylized horror movies in recent memory (and, my goodness, what a great theme song from Charli XCX ). Centered on a group of 20-somethings stuck in a mansion (including Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalava from Borat 2, Rachel Sennott from Shiva Baby , and Pete Davidson among others) during a hurricane (along with an older dude played by Lee Pace), the movie has twists and turns that you won't see coming. It's funny, disturbing, and truly subversive.

Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.

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The Best Movies of 2022

A buzzy psychological thriller, a guaranteed Pixar classic, and (gasp!) an Adam Sandler flick—all right here.

Well, we’re now closing in on the end of 2022, which means that the year in movies is coming to a close. Since the prehistoric days of January, we’ve been compiling and periodically adding to our list of the best films of the year, In this final installment, we’ve added new titles that we here at Esquire believe are not only worth checking out, but will also still hang around in the pop-culture conversation well into 2023—and certainly after year-end Top 10 lists are trotted out.

TÁR follows conductor Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) as she is accused of offering her assistants quid pro quo sexual favors in exchange for promotions in the industry—whether the allegation is true or not. She is viewed as a visionary in the music industry, and her downfall is the first film of the last few years to truly explore the journey of a celebrity getting canceled in real time. Blanchett's performance as Lydia Tár is a tour de force, with Oscar consideration just about guaranteed. You might even say that TÁR is a TÁR iffic film. Sorry. —Josh Rosenberg

The Eternal Daughter

In The Eternal Daughter , Tilda Swinton stars in a dual role as an aging mother and her daughter, who are both returning to a gothic mansion that holds many family memories. Half ghost story and half meditative drama, The Eternal Daughter is clearly a very personal work for director Joanna Hogg. You truly feel the film's depth in its devastating final moments. Swinton also gives so much life to both of her characters that I genuinely often forgot she was playing both roles. —J.R.

Broker is a heartfelt film about found families and children who are left behind. The story is another tear-jerker from South Korean director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who somehow figured out how to follow up 2018’s fantastic Shoplifters with another unforgettable work . Broker is led by Parasite ’s always-captivating Song Kang-ho, who was named Best Actor for his performance at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. —J.R.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , director Ryan Coogler genuinely did the impossible. Even within Marvel’s bloated cinematic universe, Coogler and the cast of Black Panther were able to tell a story that both pays respect to the legendary Chadwick Boseman and lays the groundwork for the franchise to continue beyond the actor’s death. Featuring what may very well be the best film score of the year, Wakanda Forever will make even the most stubborn MCU skeptic shed a tear. —J.R.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Martin McDonagh is back with one of the most hilarious dramas of the year. The Banshees of Inisherin takes place on a small island off the coast of Ireland, where a tiff between two friends tears their relationship apart. Starring Brendan Gleeson, a cute miniature donkey named Jenny, and some of Colin Farrell’s greatest eyebrow acting in his career, Banshees is a simple tale about friendship, heartbreak, and the absurdity of everyday life. —J.R.

The Fabelmans

Going into The Fabelmans, I expected everything the film was hyped to be: an incredibly well-painted portrait of Steven Spielberg's coming-of-age as an artist, directed by the legend himself. A holy-shit performance from Michelle Williams. Gabriel LaBelle's arrival. The Fabelmans is all of those things. What I didn't expect was Spielberg's harrowing ultimatum on what it means to choose a life in the arts—and the turmoil caused by merely chasing your dreams. —Brady Langmann

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Praise Daniel Craig, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is precisely as fun as it needed to be. Read: a hell of a lot of fun. Following a whole-new crew of A-listers (Kathryn Hahn! Janelle Monáe Dave Bautista!), with whodunit potential, Glass Onion delivers both a tastier mystery and a sharper satire. Did I mention that Daniel Craig's unhinged Benoit Blanc is one more Knives Out mystery away from becoming one of my all-time favorite movie characters? —B.L.

Bones and All

Bones and All lives up to the one-sentence logline provided to the masses: Timothée Chalamet cannibal movie. It's an absolute feast. —B.L.

Jordan Peele has yet to disappoint me. And for that, I am grateful. His third film, Nope —starring Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya—dove into the mysterious and terrifying world of aliens. As with all of Peele’s films, Nope was ripe with metaphors, jump-scares, witty dialogue, and hell, even commentary on humans' relationship to animals. But where Nope truly shines is in its pacing. Clocking in at two hours and ten minutes, the film does an exceptional job of drawing you in without giving anything away. What begins as a slow-paced mystery, quickly turns into a gruesome nightmare. How could we ever forget the chimpanzee scene?!— Bria McNeal

Don't Worry Darling

Sure, Olivia Wilde’s Don't Worry Darling was a bit overhyped, but luckily, it turned out to be incredibly entertaining. The film follows Jack (Harry Styles) and Alice (Florence Pugh), a young couple who live in an idyllic '50s suburb called Victory. Every day, the men in town leave their wives to work on a mysterious project, while the women spend their days drinking, gossiping, shopping, and tending to the house. For Alice, it’s the perfect setup... until a tragic event makes her wonder what the “Victory Project” really is. Though Don’t Worry Darling did include a few plot holes (what happened to the airplane?) Pugh's stunning performance vaults the film on this list.— B.M.

Watch on Amazon

WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story

WEIRD: The Al Yankovic Story delivered on the weird. The biopic subject himself, Weird Al Yankovic, co-wrote the film with the first-time feature firector Eric Appel, turning a Funny or Die sketch from a decade ago into a wild and wacky joyride. Daniel Radcliffe takes on the titular role, and although Mr. Potter may seem like an odd choice, it works. Radcliffe takes on the role with panache, rocking Weird Al's curly hair and stache, fighting off Pablo Escobar, making out with Madonna, and coming up with “Eat It” before Michael Jackson. The events in the film may or may not be even close to reality, but they’ll absolutely make you laugh—and maybe even touch your heart.— Sirena He

The Gray Man

You probably heard that The Gray Man wasn’t very good. How do I know? Because the Internet was absolutely buzzing with takedowns of the expensive action thriller from the Russo Brothers in July. It was inescapable and, guess what, the posts weren’t even true. Is the plot a touch thin? Sure. The backstory of the main characters a bit under-developed? Okay, you’ve got me there. Is the villain—a mustached Captain America—flat in his all-out evilness? Jesus! Yes, get off my back. The Gray Man isn’t going to win an Oscar but I’d bet my career that Ryan Gosling knew that when he signed on the dotted line. What it will do, however, is entertain you for all two hours and two minutes of its two hours and two minute runtime. There are big stars. Big biceps. Quips. Things that go boom. Don’t overthink this. — Madison Vain

Watch on Netflix

Crimes of the Future

Over the course of films such as Videodrome and The Fly , Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg built up a cult audience that appreciates his insistence to make movies that are hard to watch. Crimes of the Future , his first theatrical release in eight years, is no exception. He builds a future wherein humans no longer feel pain and are growing new organs. A performance artist (Viggo Mortensen) views his new internal functions as little sculptures, and he puts on live shows in which his partner (Léa Seydoux) performs surgery on him to reveal his latest “creation.” It’s a bizarre film for sure, but Crimes proves that after 50 years, Cronenberg still has some of the best new ideas in sci-fi—even if they’re freaky, twisted, and downright gut-wrenching ideas. —J.R.

Watch on Amazon Watch on AppleTV+

Orphan: First Kill

You may be wondering if the prequel to 2009's Orphan is worth the hype. Or even really needed a follow-up, 13 years later. Well, guess what? Director William Brent Bell's stab at an origin story for the precocious Esther might just be better than the original. Orphan: First Kill finally gives us a look into how Esther came to be in the adoption system, when she’s actually a 30-something-year-old mental institution escapee. Horror movie logic! Never gets old. This prequel takes the wild concept of the original and spins it in an entirely new direction. We don't want to spoil anything for you, but there are quite a few unhinged scenes that’ll have you cheering for an unexpected hero.— Sirena He

Fire Island

Updating Jane Austen is never easy, but in Fire Island , Joel Kim Booster sure makes it look that way. In this moving modern romcom, Pride and Prejudice is transplanted to the Fire Island Pines, where groups of gay men descend on the island in search of a legendary summer adventure. Booster reimagines the Bennet sisters as a tight-knit group of friends vacationing together, casting himself as the proud and principled Noah opposite Conrad Ricamora’s aloof, romance-averse Will. Bowen Yang shines as the Jane Bennet analogue, mapping poignant themes of loneliness and queer desire onto Austen’s familiar tale. Funny, heartfelt, and often vulnerable, Fire Island proves that there are still new shades to discover in Austen.— Adrienne Westenfeld

Watch on Hulu

BWUUUUM. BWUUUUM. BWUUUUM! Look behind you. See him? Yeah, that's Robert Pattinson in the goddamn Batsuit, and he wants to kill you. Or at least rough you up a little. Listen, I was skeptical about Matt Reeves's The Batman — even after I saw it . It's jarring to see a capes and costumes flick like The Batman dare to experiment with cinematography! Music! But after a rewatch at home, my that was pretty good! response to The Batman turned into a do I like this better than Christopher Nolan's Batfilms? I've gotta say: I'd take Pattinson over Bale any day. The Batman dared to be vibe-y, heavy on detective work. That's not even mentioning the nuclear amount of prosthetics that turned an unhinged Colin Farrell into one of my favorite movie villains of all time. Let's just hope Reeves makes the sequel just as special . —B.L.

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Watch on AppleTV+

Where the Crawdads Sing

In recent years Reese Witherspoon has taken a deviation from acting, instead putting time and resources into creating beautiful cinematic adaptations of incredible books. She’s given us Little Fires Everywhere , Big Little Lies , and now, Where The Crawdads Sing . For the latter, we really must thank her for taking us through the heartbreaking journey of Kya Clark, (Daisy Edgar Jones), an abandoned young girl who raises herself in the Marshlands of North Carolina. Having been an outcast from her society for much of her life, she now becomes the lead suspect in the murder of her town’s golden boy. As the case unfolds, the story becomes not just a gut wrenching tale of a girl with all odds stacked against her, it unravels into something much greater: a thoughtful commentary on society’s treatment of its rejects. —Ammal Hassan

Jackass Forever

Look, you’re either a fan of the sadistic cinema of Johnny Knoxville and his band of merry pranksters or you’re not. There’s really daylight in between the two poles. But if you’re willing to submit to sheer dumbass joy of their nut-cracking pranks and daredevil stunts, you may find yourself discovering something else along the way: A bunch of aging Evel Knievels who underneath their dim-bulb machismo actually care about one another deeply. Their onscreen camaraderie is as undeniable as it is infectious–and, yes, even kinda touching. If you’ve seen any of the previous Jackass outings then you know what you’re in for. But after two years of soul-grinding political- and pandemic-related heaviosity, watching these jackasses’ exploits feels like a healing balm of idiocy.

Read the Esquire review.

No doubt you heard about this Ben Affleck-Ana de Armas erotic thriller when it first released on Hulu in April. And let me guess, you’ve either heard that’s absolute steaming garbage or that it’s absolute steaming garbage that’s amazing, right? I personally not believe in the idea of “guilty pleasures.” If something brings you joy then why should you feel any remorse? That said, I can see why people would call Deep Water one. It tap-dances on the fine line between cheese and fromage. I’m not ashamed to say that I enjoyed the hell out of it. Based on a kinky Patricia Highsmith story, director Adrian Lyne’s return to his ‘80s erotic-thriller pinnacle ( 9 ½ Weeks , Fatal Attraction ) stars Affleck as a filthy rich dude who made his fortune dealing death as a designer of military drones who now spends his early retirement riding his mountain bike, tending to his collection of snails, and fuming with jealousy while his wife (de Armas) flirts and has affairs with a string of young men in plain sight. Lyne is a maestro of this kind of softcore skinemax stuff, and he ratchets up the heat like the old horndog that he is, but it’s the two stars who turn Deep Water into such naughty fun. Is Affleck behind the disappearances and deaths of his wife’s stud lovers? Is de Armas bedding these guys just because it gets a rise out of him? And what exactly is with the snails? Watch Deep Water and come to your own conclusions. Just don’t let anyone give you any shit about it.

If you’re looking to double down on horror, this creepy Hulu offering makes a solid bottom half on a double-bill with X . Although not quite as clever as that film, Mimi Cave, making her promising feature directing debut, delivers the fright-night goods and them some, especially if your sweet tooth in the genre runs toward Eli Roth’s Hostel films. Fresh is far less misogynistic than Roth’s oeuvre, but gender studies majors and dating-app junkies will still have plenty to discuss after the end credits roll. Normal People ’s Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a young single woman tired of the artifice and theater of modern dating. That is, until she meets Sebastian Stan’s Steve—a handsome, funny surgeon who seems too good to be true. And wouldn’t you know it, he is! It would be churlish to spill too much about the film’s gruesome plot (I didn’t know anything about it going in, and I’m glad I didn’t), so I’ll just say this: Steve takes surgery very seriously (especially in his chic home’s designer dungeon basement) and Edgar-Jones isn’t the first woman to fall for his sadistic ruse. Warning: Not for vegans.

Josh Rosenberg is an Assistant Editor at Esquire, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day. His past work can be found at Spin, CBR, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.

Chris Nashawaty is a writer, editor, critic, and author of books about Roger Corman & Caddyshack. 

@media(max-width: 73.75rem){.css-q1kujh:before{color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;margin-right:0.4375rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-q1kujh:before{color:#FF3A30;content:'_';display:inline-block;margin-right:0.5625rem;}} Best of 2022

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Avatar: The Way Of Water (2022)

Star: michelle yeoh,zoe saldana,kate winslet,sigourney weaver,oona chaplin,sam worthington,jemaine clement, avatar sequel scores high on action and emotion. one is not compromised for the other..

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Star: letitia wright,angela bassett,martin freeman,danai gurira,lupita nyongo,winston duke, a heart numbing, visually engrossing, spectacular blend of action and emotion..

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Star: michelle yeoh,james hong,jamie lee curtis,stephanie hsu,ke huy quan, easily one of the best movies of the year and arguably one of the most memorable action comedies of all time, this film simply cannot be missed..

The Banshees Of Inisherin ()

Star: colin farrell,brendan gleeson,kerry condon,barry keoghan,aaron monaghan, collin farrell gives the finest performance of his career as 'dull' padraic. throughout the film, he has succeeded in keeping the same tone. farrell has hit the ball out of the park in the part of someone who is a simpleton at heart and is not as brilliant as he would want to be..

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

Star: ewan mcgregor,burn gorman,ron perlman,john turturro,finn wolfhard,cate blanchett,tim blake nelson,tilda swinton,christoph waltz, in a village in italy, geppetto (david bradley), a wood carver loses his much loved son, carlos to a bombing incident during world war i. the bombing took place just as carlos and his dad were leaving the local church where geppetto was doing restoration work on the statue of christ..

Fall (2022)

Star: virginia gardner,jeffrey dean morgan, replete with relentless mounting tension and not a moment of respite — fall is an absolute nail-biter..

The Menu (2022)

Star: anya taylor joy,janet mcteer,ralph fiennes,nicholas hoult,john leguizamo,aimee carrero,arturo castro,judith light,paul adelstein, the satire begins as a visual treat, taking the audience to an exotic, remote island that’s home to the celebrity chef julian slowik’s (ralph fiennes) super-exclusive restaurant, hawthorne..

Sidney (2022)

Star: sidney poitier,quincy jones,oprah winfrey,harry belafonte,halle berry, this documentary traces the amazing journey of a man who was born prematurely and the family had lost all hope of his survival, so much so that his father had even brought a shoebox..

Thirteen Lives (2022)

Star: viggo mortensen,colin farrell,joel edgerton,tom bateman, based on the true story of the june-july 2018 tham luang cave rescue in thailand, the film shows the incredible global effort made to rescue the 13 kids trapped inside..

Jujutsu Kaisen (2022)

Star: megumi ogata,kana hanazawa,koki uchiyama,mikako komatsu.

Elvis (2022)

Star: tom hanks,austin butler,olivia dejonge,dacre montgomery,david wenham,kodi smit mcphee,luke bracey,richard roxburgh, there can be only one elvis presley, with his staggering good looks and smile, but austin butler has an uncanny resemblance to the rock n roll star..

The Black Phone (2022)

Star: mason thames,madeleine mcgraw,ethan hawke,jeremy davies,james ransone, ‘the black phone’ is a dark film, but within its sinister plot that reeks of dead bodies, abduction and child abuse, also lies hope for life..

Lightyear (2022)

Star: chris evans, ‘lightyear’ will be a nostalgic trip for toy story fans as they recognise references such as the catchphrase ‘to infinity and beyond,’ and buzz recording the logs of his adventures..

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Star: hugh bonneville,michelle dockery,jim carter,maggie smith,elizabeth mcgovern,allen leech,tuppence middleton,imelda staunton,samantha bond,laura carmichael,harry hadden paton,penelope wilton,phyllis logan, simon curtis’s balmy sequel is a bittersweet nod to the passage of time..

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Star: tom cruise,miles teller,jennifer connelly,jon hamm,monica barbaro,glen powell,lewis pullman,ed harris,val kilmer,jean louisa kelly, tom cruise brings old school heroism back in a worthy sequel that’s high on redemption and thrill.

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022)

Star: elizabeth olsen,benedict cumberbatch,chiwetel ejiofor,benedict wong, director sam raimi works his magic by giving the audience an entertaining multiverse saga by packaging it smartly with the elements that he believes can cast a spell on them, irrespective of their love for the mcu..

King Richard (2022)

Star: will smith,aunjanue ellis,tony goldwyn,jon bernthal, revolving around the rising careers of venus and serena williams, two sisters on the cusp of tennis stardom, the film follows their journey as crafted by their father..

The Batman (2022)

Star: robert pattinson,andy serkis,colin farrell,zoe kravitz,john turturro,paul dano,peter sarsgaard,jeffrey wright, this is a standalone film that packs in all the ingredients for a delectably dark mindbender featuring the caped crusader, who is more human than ever..

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2022)

Star: naomi ackie,stanley tucci,ashton sanders,tamara tunie,clarke peters, the biography delves into what it meant to be a black woman in the 80s and the 90s — from her father, played marvellously by clarke peters, to her husband, bobby brown, trying to control her, constantly reminding her they are the men, misusing her wealth, and breaking her trust..

Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical (2022)

Star: alisha weir,emma thompson,lashana lynch,stephen graham,andrea riseborough, a redux of roald dahl’s famous book, umpteen musicals and danny devito’s 1996 silver screen outing, matilda the musical begins with all the babies being called miracles, except for mr wormwood (stephen graham) and mrs wormwood (andrea riseborough) who think their daughter matilda has ruined their lives..

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the ten best films of 2022.

What a year. The array of filmmaking on the list below should be shown to anyone willing to suggest that 2022 was somehow inferior in the history of cinema. And these excellent films don't even include some of the most popular flicks of the year like the critically acclaimed "Top Gun: Maverick" or "Avatar: The Way of Water" (although both films will appear on individual lists from our expanded staff that will run on Friday, for the record).

This composite site top ten used the same formula as we have since 2014, taking the best-of lists from our regular review staff and compiling them into one big list. Documentaries, blockbusters, an animated film, aliens, donkeys, and even the boys from "Jackass" made the top twenty, and the big ten have been detailed by some of our talented critics. Every blurb in the top ten also includes details on where to watch the film. If you took the time to sit and view all 20 of the movies listed below, you would have an incredible picture of where the art of cinema stands as we head into the mid-'20s. It stands tall.

Runners-up: " All the Beauty and the Bloodshed ," " Benediction ," " Bones and All ," " EO ," " The Eternal Daughter ," " Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio ," " Happening ," " Hit the Road ," " Jackass Forever ," and " Mad God ."

10. "Babylon"

A bombastic epic as artistically ambitious as those made during the height of the silent era, writer/director Damien Chazelle's "Babylon" takes the audience on a visceral odyssey through the highest highs and lowest lows of late-1920s Hollywood, from orgiastic parties and chaotic film sets to personal triumphs and melancholic moments of utter despair. As the movie business transitions from silents to talkies, characters like aging matinee idol Jack Conrad ( Brad Pitt ), wannabe starlet Nellie LaRoy ( Margot Robbie ), assistant Manny Torres ( Diego Calva ), sensationalist journalist Elinor St. John ( Jean Smart ), jazz musician Sidney Palmer ( Jovan Adepo ), and multi-talented entertainer Lady Fay Zhu ( Li Jun Li ) struggle to find their footing in an industry in flux. 

Although the story follows fictional players at the fictional Kinoscope Studios, Chazelle's script is steeped in a deep knowledge of old Hollywood's dark, complicated history and its most pervasive (and perverse) mythologies. Linus Sandgren's fluid cinematography, coupled with Justin Hurwitz's hot jazz score, raises this larger-than-life era back from the dead with humor and pathos. Tom Cross' dynamic editing keeps the film vibrating at a breakneck pace, its three-hour runtime barely registering as one zany set piece after another barrels toward the film's denouement. Ending on a note as rhapsodic as it is elegiac, Chazelle's film is ultimately a condemnation of the Hollywood machine that crushes everyone with equitable cruelty and an ode to the innovative artistry and ineffable magic of the movies, whose siren call continues to lure audiences and filmmakers alike towards its warm glow. ( Marya E. Gates )

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It's hard not to love a movie where a herd of snarling Big Cats leaps out of the back of a truck as one (in slo-mo) to sic themselves on a crowd of British imperialists milling about in evening dress. It's hard not to love a movie where two men ( Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), strangers to one another, collaborate on the fly to save a child in peril, their plan involving a motorcycle, a horse, a long rope, a gigantic flag, and simultaneous swan-dives off a burning bridge. S.S. Rajamouli's "RRR" calls into question all other action sequences in all other films, sequences which may have thrilling moments and impressive stunts but lack the dazzling bravura of the spectacle on display here. "RRR" makes you ask: Why CAN'T we show a bare-chested man wielding a crossbow emerging through a ring of fire? Why CAN'T we include family trauma, political commentary, ahistorical wish-fulfillment, revenge/redemption fantasies, sweet romances, rousing dance numbers, and the Platonic Ideal of a Bromance all in the same film?

Critic Siddhant Adlakha observed that Rajamouli "makes the moving image feel intimate and enormous all at once." This is key. A golden coin dropped in the sand is given as much visual importance as those rampaging CGI-Big Cats. Rajamouli ignores nothing and prioritizes everything. What this propulsive style encourages is involvement . It's impossible not to get  involved in the action: the emotion and the characters' destinies. My only regret is I didn't see "RRR" with an audience. It's how it's meant to be seen. ( Sheila O'Malley )

8. " Everything Everywhere All at Once "

It's rare to see a film where you can't predict what will happen by the end, and rarer still to see one where you can't predict what will happen from one scene to the next. "Everything Everywhere All At Once" is an example of the rarest of all: a film where you don't know what will happen from one  shot  to the next. 

The filmmaking team known as Daniels ( Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert ), who started in music videos, made that kind of movie in their first feature, " Swiss Army Man ," a comedy-drama about brotherly love, heartbreak, and the fear and awe of death, focused on the burgeoning friendship between a castaway on a desert island and a flatulent corpse that washed up on the beach. Daniels have done it again on a grander scale with "EEAAO," which does about a dozen different things simultaneously and hops between timelines as it does it. The movie is a marriage story, a mother-daughter drama, a tale of immigrant assimilation and generational changeover, a satire on bureaucracy, an action picture full of willfully absurd and sometimes lewd kung fu battles, and a science fiction movie that accepts the ideal of parallel timelines/universes as a given and shows how personal decisions alter the course of events in each. 

The film tells the story of a troubled marriage between Chinese-American laundromat owners Evelyn and Waymond ( Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan ), and how their struggle affects Evelyn's relationship with her adult daughter Joy ( Stephanie Hsu ), who wants her mother to welcome her girlfriend Becky ( Tallie Medel ) and get her reactionary grandfather Gong Gong ( James Hong ) to accept her, too. But the filmmakers never let the storytelling get bogged down in therapeutic or self-help cliches because all of the ideas are dramatized as well as discussed in breathlessly edited micro-bursts of images culled from different timelines—and sometimes in extended sequences that cross-cut between parallel lines of action during a marital disagreement, a spiritual test, or a martial arts brawl in the office building where Evelyn's family is being audited by cruel IRS agent Deirdre Beaubeirdre ( Jamie Lee Curtis ). 

The cast is fully invested and attacks their scenes with fierce focus—and always with sincerity. For all its blistering and sometimes borderline-pornographic slapstick, this is an earnest and optimistic movie. Spiritual growth is central to every story in every timeline, and the characters' struggles usually come back to the tension between obligation and selfishness in relationships. There's a universe where everybody has hot dogs for fingers (Deirdre plays piano with her feet in that one) and a showdown that prominently involves a dildo. At one point we enter a universe where two rocks on a cliff speak to each other telepathically, and their dialogue is subtitled. If you're not fully on board by then, you never will be. ( Matt Zoller Seitz )

7. "No Bears"

In July, the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison after inquiring about fellow director Mohammad Rasoulof , also in jail. Panahi had completed his latest docudrama, "No Bears," two months prior; it premiered at the Venice Film Festival that same month. 

In "No Bears," Panahi plays himself, a filmmaker sequestered in a village near the Turkish border while filming his latest drama. Panahi's assistant Reza (Reza Heydari) asks him why he didn't just stay in Tehran. Panahi waves away the question, saying he prefers to be near his cast and crew. However, he still goes with Reza to see and even inadvertently steps over the border. Panahi hastily returns to Iran, where he becomes reluctantly involved with the local villagers' drama. 

There's been some confusion: the villagers think Panahi's taken photos of young lovers Gozal and Soldooz. Those imaginary photos threaten Gozal's arranged marriage to Yaghoob. There are some parallels between this domestic dispute and the fictional movie that Panahi directs within the film, through a combination of video chats and Reza's assistance. Still, Panahi struggles to remain disengaged. He does not want to get involved in the villagers' lives, but they insist. 

In "No Bears," Panahi tries to maintain his freedom, to blur the lines that separate fiction from reality (as his mentor Abbas Kiarostami did), and between himself and the world beyond. The film's title comes from a scene where a local villager explains that no bears are lurking nearby; that reassurance is obviously ironic. ( Simon Abrams )

6. " Nope "

Jordan Peele masters the dense blockbuster, again, with his third and most thematically ambitious project, "Nope." Once you get to the second act, the film's brilliant entertainment has an irresistible pitch—"What if 'Close Encounters' turned into Jaws'?" and turns the classic Spielberg gaze inside-out to reveal its terror. Its core understanding starts with locking us in the point of view of a terrified child actor who watches his chimpanzee co-star, Gordy, wreak bloody havoc on a sitcom set before locking a gaze with the boy. It's a pair of shots with no less fury than the Nahum 3:6 Bible quote that comes before: "I will cast abominable filth upon thee … make you spectacle." And to tackle the totality of how monstrous our need for spectacle has become, parallel to our desire to harness it, Peele takes us back to the first moving image, a Black man riding a horse for the inventor of the moving picture, Eadweard Muybridge. So much of humanity has changed since those shots, including who is in the frame and why they are being filmed. "Nope" concerns nothing smaller than the abyss we have made of being seen—in the case of Peele's latest horror metaphor, the abyss sucks its screaming prey into the sky, squishes them in its claustrophobic bowels, and turns them into blood rain. 

Peele's flying people eater is what happens when we treat presidential campaigns as pure entertainment or exploit others on social media for followers—when our coexistence with other souls, animal or human, is devastated by the pursuit of monetary gain. But this is all just the interior for a beast of a sci-fi adventure that constantly transforms, and "Nope" thrives on Peele's inestimable confidence when guiding audiences. His original script is pure entertainment, boasting the writer/director's unique touch for spiky pop culture humor and heartfelt characters who outsmart the evil that hunts them: our heroes here are a horse trainer named Otis (a fascinating Daniel Kaluuya , rewriting the stoic cowboy) and his high-energy sister Em ( Keke Palmer , in one of the year's funniest performances). In a giddy pursuit of what they call "The Oprah Shot," they collaborate with a Werner Herzog-like filmmaker ( Michael Wincott ) and a UFO enthusiast ( Brandon Perea ) to document this killer thing while trying to understand it. 

The gangbusters third act of "Nope" revels in the work that goes into getting one perfect shot, and it's no mistake that Peele's latest has inspired craftsmanship across the board, creating an IMAX-ready scale with a minimal cast and a lot of open range. (For starters, production designer Ruth De Jong conjures a whole Western theme park for our traumatized former child star who still seeks an audience, now played with immense pathos by  Steven Yeun .) All of these talents are storytellers; in revisiting their efforts, bonded by Peele's golden imagination, it becomes apparent how much is there to be mined. From start to finish, "Nope" gifts the audience with a wealth of reflections to discover, consider, and never forget. ( Nick Allen )

5. " Aftersun "

I often think about a tinted polaroid my mother took of my father during a family trip to Wisconsin. He's wearing sunglasses inside our hotel room, looking blankly at the camera. I knew my father for twenty-five years without ever really knowing him. I knew my father for twenty-five years without ever really talking with him, hugging him, or understanding him. We weren't estranged. He was just raised during the 1950s. And with that upbringing came a wall.

So when he passed away in 2015, though I loved him, I knew no matter how much I tried, I could never fully understand what hurts, desires and dreams deferred occupied his mind. It's a burden not uncommon for most people who lose a parent at a young age. But it doesn't hurt any less, no matter how much time has passed.

It's why at Karlovy Vary Film Festival when I saw writer/director Charlotte Wells' feature directorial debut, "Aftersun," a semi-autobiographical film about a woman ( Celia Rowlson-Hall ) looking back on a holiday trip she (Frankie Corio) took with her father ( Paul Mescal ) during the 1990s, I couldn't avoid being broken open again by regret. Supported by riveting performances and told with acute period detail by Wells' taut script, "Aftersun" is a deeply empathetic, visceral tale of the haunting heartache and vertiginous, inconsolable meaning that swims beneath one's seemingly innocuous memories.

The film climaxes with a fitful and stabbing strobe light scene set to Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure," a moment that physically rips open the cavern between nostalgia and nightmare to reveal self-annihilating guilt; it is the truth of a picture so open for picking at what must feel like a festering, self-inflicted wound that it plunged me back into my buried remorse. Wells' "Aftersun" is a tender, unnerving spot of time that, like my father, I will not soon shake. ( Robert Daniels )

Lydia Tár is an orchestra conductor who has received every possible accolade and award. Cate Blanchett is dazzling as a woman who thought she had created an impenetrable fortress of power and prestige and then sees it collapse suddenly and irretrievably. Her physicality is always precise and dominant, as she confronts an insolent student, denies a wealthy donor a favor, threatens her daughter's bully of a classmate, and brings down the baton sharply with one hand while using the other to communicate a world of nuance. Todd Field's script is deeply researched, bringing a sense of authenticity so vivid we almost feel we saw the conductor on "60 Minutes," or was it "American Masters"? That detail provides a foundation for a provocative exploration of longing, identity, obsession, and status. 

Field, Blanchett, and cellist Sophie Kauer make a restaurant scene into a fugue of shifting power dynamics when Tár tries to maintain her control while trying to seduce a young musician. The movie takes its time with the story, but it is as spare as the superb settings from production designer Marco Bittner Rosser . Not a moment is wasted. The sound design and the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir are almost characters in the film, fitting in a story where so much depends on what is heard, about tone and tempo. Tár is an enthralling character who keeps our sympathies shifting as we consider questions of seduction, privilege, predation, and cancel culture, with an audacious final scene that resonates like the last note of a symphony. ( Nell Minow )

3. " Decision to Leave "

"Decision to Leave" finds the Korean master Park Chan-wook operating in a more muted palette and tone, but one that's no less gripping than his bold, beloved works like "Oldboy" and " The Handmaiden ." As he updates the film noir, he steadily builds tension using rapturous imagery, clever technology, a haunting score, and unexpected humor.

But at the heart of Park's Hitchcockian thriller is the tantalizing push-pull of the forbidden romance between a Busan detective and his prime suspect. Park Hae-il is the world-weary but meticulous policeman investigating what looks like an accidental death; Tang Wei is the dead man's widow, an alluring femme fatale who also may be the culprit. He doesn't really want to solve the case, though, because he's become fascinated by her—and who wouldn't be? The Chinese actress is at her most seductive and mysterious. And she doesn't really want him to learn the truth either, for a multitude of reasons—one of which is she kind of enjoys having him around.

We think we know these characters, these familiar types, but the tight and twisty script from director Park and Jeong Seo-kyeong takes them in unexpected and ultimately devastating directions. The actors' chemistry smolders and crackles. And as their relationship evolves, so do the look and feel of the film in subtle but substantial ways. The dark wood and colorful wallpaper of the detective's apartment give way to the soft pastels of the beach at the film's heartbreaking finale. It's where sea and sky blend into one, and the waves lap endlessly, with unanswerable questions lingering in the salty air. ( Christy Lemire )

2. " The Fabelmans "

Contrary to its advertising, this is not a picture celebrating the "magic" of movies or completely espousing them as "dreams." It's a picture about falling under a certain spell, to be sure. The opening scenes, in which a wide-eyed little boy is overwhelmed by a fake train wreck in what most of us now dismiss as a cheesy Cecil B. DeMille movie, make the case that the theatrical experience once was, and still can be, a sensory steamroller. But once out of that theater, "The Fabelmans" goes into an affectionately recreated and vividly acted late-20th century real life and a story of a kid who joyfully learns a craft. And then, as his family and social life fall apart, he uses that craft to keep the world at arm's length or to create worlds one likes better than one's own. 

The emotions at play in Steven Spielberg's autobiographical story are rawer and sometimes more unpleasant than we've seen from the filmmaker in such concentration for a while. We admire Sammy Fabelman's inventiveness and stick-to-itiveness even as we see him become a kind of voyeur in his own life. His feelings about his passionate mom and his kind but buttoned-down dad yo-yo like crazy, as his moviemaking provides something he can actually control. And then he learns that something he controls himself can also be used to manipulate others. As is common in every Spielberg film, every shot here is a kind of miracle, a celebration in and of itself. But don't mistake this for an uncritical cheer for image-making. It's worth remembering that at the end, when Sammy visits "the greatest director who ever lived," that director is cooling his heels without a project in an office across the hall from that of "Hogan's Heroes." Like Sammy's uncle says, art will tear you apart. ( Glenn Kenny )

1. " The Banshees of Inisherin "

Martin McDonagh's black comedy is the rare kind of film that offers a fascinating dissection of the human condition while it entertains. It can be enjoyed thoroughly on its surface as the story of the day that a man named Colm ( Brendan Gleeson ) decided he was done talking to his friend Padraic (Colin Farrell). However, it's also a film that's very intentionally set against the backdrop of the Irish Civil War, a conflict wherein former neighbors became enemies. And it's a film that provokes conversations about our impact on the world around us. Colm becomes convinced that the only impact he can make is through lasting art, but his decision to end a friendship has life-changing impacts on the people around him. "The Banshees of Inisherin" seems to diminish kindness, but it is the removal of the kind of everyday mundane niceties on this small island that shatters it. There's so much to unpack, even in considering why McDonagh chose to make this movie now. It may be set a century ago, but the theme of a divided country and broken friendships feels very current.

Of course, it helps to have a cast as talented as this one, arguably the best of the year. The phenomenal Farrell had the best year of his career with this, " After Yang ," " Thirteen Lives ," and even " The Batman " serving as a remarkable display of his range. This is the peak of his career, the kind of performance that leads a highlight reel for a Lifetime Achievement Award. It is such a richly detailed acting turn, one that reveals new choices made by Farrell with each viewing. Gleeson gives a quieter performance than usual, but he balances Farrell in a manner that sells both their history and his willingness to destroy their future. Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon provide precisely what their roles need and then some.

Like only the best films, "The Banshees of Inisherin" is so hard to sum up in a blurb like this one because it's got so much going on. It's both comedy and tragedy at once. After all, they used to be friends. ( Brian Tallerico ) 

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