The top 50 movies of 2022 - Part II
Our critic Mark Walsh completes his countdown of the top films of the year, from 25 to number one. What will top the chart this year?
You can check out part I here - covering numbers 50 to 26.
Look out for Mark’s previous guides to the top movies of 2021 (part I and part II), 2020 (part I and part II), 2019 (part I and part II) and 2018 (part I and part II), plus a guide of the best movies of the first 20 years of this century (part I and part II).
25. Belfast
Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical recounting of his upbringing in the Northern Irish capital is a monochrome delight, flecked with bursts of colour to represent the joys of childhood thriving despite a backdrop of sectarian violence. Catriona Balfe is the standout in a cast which also includes Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench.
24. All My Friends Hate Me
Andrew Gaynord’s film defies simple categorisation, with a comedy horror that’s blackly comic and derives its horror from the toe-curling social awkwardness of a weekend reunion of friends going increasingly awry. Tom Stourton is the confused, paranoid Pete attempting to unravel his friends’ true intentions.
23. Brian And Charles
As far as odd couples go, there may not be as many as strange as Brian Gittens (David Earl) and his robot creation Charles Petrescu (Chris Hayward). Earl and Hayward write as well as starring in Jim Archer’s debut film, and the self-named robot with a washing machine for a tummy who wants to run away to Honolulu in a hula skirt is just one of the film’s many delights.
22. Jackass Forever
It’s been a while since we last saw Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O and the gang, and while they might be a bit older they don’t seem on the surface any wiser, pranking each other and engaging in daftly outrageous stunts. The camaraderie has endured, though, and there’s still a charm and invention missing from any of its imitators.
21. Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
This has no right to work as well as it does, with Lesley Manville’s cleaner who takes a trip to the house of Dior to buy herself a treat of a dress walking a tightrope of twee, but Manville delights and charms in equal measure and the supporting cast from Isabelle Huppert to Jason Isaacs deliver pitch-perfect support.
20. Triangle of Sadness
Ruben Östlund’s first English language film is a satire about as broad as Hadrian’s Wall, but despite being a blunter instrument than his previous successes such as Force Majeure or The Square, it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious and on this evidence Dolly De Leon’s scene-stealing performance marks her out as a star in the making.
19. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Daniel Craig returns with his scenery-chewing Southern drawl as the world’s most famous detective Benoit Blanc, as writer/director Rian Johnson serves up another crowd-pleasing murder mystery with twists aplenty and another all-star cast, this time littered with fun cameos. Hopefully this follow-up will be the first of many more Blanc adventures.
18. Boiling Point
So successful it’s being followed up with a BBC TV series, Philip Barantini’s kitchen thriller turns the gimmick of being a single tracking shot to its advantage, ratcheting up the tension to breaking point as Stephen Graham’s head chef deals with a series of escalating problems in the kitchen and the dining room.
17. Parallel Mothers
The seventh time that Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar have teamed up, and what could have been melodrama in less assured hands, is a rewarding examination of the complex overlaps between relationships and motherhood. Cruz and Milena Smit are both excellent as the mothers from different generations who end up supporting each other.
16. The Quiet Girl
This tender, delicate Gaelic drama, adapted from Claire Keegan’s novel Foster by director and writer Colm Bairéad, sees young Cáit (Catherine Clinch) sent to live with foster parents for the summer who help to bring her out of her shell. Kate McCullough’s warm cinematography helps to bring the moments of minor drama into focus.
15. Bones and All
A reunion for Timothée Chalamet and director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), and another compelling success for the pair. Chalment and Taylor Russell play the young lovers grappling with their cannibalistic urges, while Mark Rylance and another Guadagnino veteran Michael Stuhlbarg offer creepy, menacing support.
14. Nitram
Director Justin Kurtzel avoids sensationalising the events of the Port Arthur massacre which led to attempts at greater gun control across Australia, but still draws edgy, compelling drama from the events which led to the tragedy. Caleb Landry Jones adds threatening unpredictability to the title character, the perfect counterpoint to Judy Davis as his spiky, dismissive mother.
13. Great Freedom
Sebastian Meize’s prison drama won a jury prize at Cannes and is centred around Hans (Franz Rogowski) moving between the decades as he’s repeatedly imprisoned for contravening laws criminalising homosexuality in post-war Germany. The prison setting offers both a contrasting metaphor and a grimy crucible in which its character drama smoulders.
12. No Bears
Jafar Panahi has long had to work around threats of punishment by his home government, and is now serving six years in prison for alleged anti-establishment propaganda. His films in the last decade have had to explore loopholes in a ban on filmmaking, but here Panahi plays a version of himself, examining the possible effects of his actions on others and pulling no punches in his personal appraisal.
11. The Banshees of Inisherin
It’s taken far too long to happen, but finally the writer/director and stars of In Bruges have reunited for a follow-up about mental health and social niceties which manages to top even that classic. Brendan Gleeson is the curmudgeon who just wants to be left alone by Colin Farrell’s enthusiastic puppy dog of a companion on a fictional Irish island, with some of the year’s best supporting roles for Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan.
10. She Said
Another film in the fine tradition of sharply-observed journalistic dramas such as All the President’s Men and Spotlight, Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan are the reporters working to expose the truth behind the power of Harvey Weinstein and his circle of legal protection. A drama so contemporary that one of Weinstein’s accusers plays themselves in this riveting, necessary drama.
9. Aftersun
An incredible feature film debut which writer/director Charlotte Wells imbues with the wistful quality of a half-remembered dream. Normal People’s Paul Mescal as the single father attempting to bond with his daughter on a holiday to Turkey, while Frankie Corio glows in her first major role as daughter Sophie, with her coming-of-age story contrasted with her father’s increasing struggles with fatherhood and life.
8. Memoria
Another English first film, this time from acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Tilda Swinton is a Scottish botanist whose life in Colombia is disturbed by a strange noise that seemingly only she can hear. Her journey of discovery to the truth is, in the director’s typical style, meditative and mesmeric, that offers up answers even as it tantalises with further mysteries.
7. Ali & Ava
British film-maker Clio Barnard has an unerring gift for working class British stories that have been untethered from the kitchen sink, and this Bradford-set romantic drama has a charming yet honest chemistry between its leads Adheel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook as they gradually bond while both deal with their residual family issues.
6. The Woman King
I didn’t have Viola Davis down as a convincing action hero on my 2022 bingo card, but one of the year’s most pleasant surprises was this historical epic inspired by the Agojie, the female warriors who guarded the Kingdom of Dahomey in 18th-century Africa. A strong supporting cast deliver both meaty drama and thrilling battle sequences.
5. Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook is a self-confessed fan of Hitchcock, and this might just be his Vertigo. A detective (Park Hae-il) becomes drawn to the Chinese immigrant wife (Tang Wei) of a climber found dead, only to discover that there are more mysteries than he first suspected. The Korean director blends mystery, romance and thriller and, with cinematographer Kim Ji-yong, delivers the year’s best-looking film.
4. Living
That absolute rarity of a remake that can be discussed in the same breath as the classic original that inspired it, Kazuo Ishiguro’s adaptation of the Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru retains the Fifties setting of the original but transplants it to London. Under Oliver Hermanus’s direction, Bill Nighy’s subdued office manager becomes defiant in the face of adversity, and delivers one of the year’s most heart-warming films that still had me in tears at least twice.
3. Top Gun: Maverick
I love Top Gun for its nostalgia value, but it wouldn’t come anywhere near an equivalent top 50 of 1986. All the more astonishing, then, that this belated sequel manages to combine reverence to the original with Tom Cruise’s grinning charm with one of the most perfect distillations of the blockbuster formula ever delivered. The reliance on real action with less CGI really did take my breath away.
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
Ever watch a film and wish it could have fully had the courage of its convictions? The multiverse-hopping comedy drama from the pair of directors Daniels is not one of those films, having enough courage for a dozen blockbusters. Constantly topping itself with ever more outlandish plot twists, jokes and action, yet a character triumph for Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis and a renaissance for Ke Huy Quan. Somehow a film where people have hot dogs for fingers manages to homage Wong Kar Wai and still remain a focused study of family. Genius.
1. The Souvenir: Part II
But my film of the year is a follow-up to Joanna Hogg’s semi-autobiographical story of Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) as she deals with the emotional fallout of her destructive relationship with Anthony (Tom Burke) from the first film, with her relationship with her parents (including real-life mother Tilda Swinton) and with her attempts to finish her student film, mentored by a scene-stealing Richard Ayoade. It not only adds new layers to the already excellent original, but the two parts represent an epic coming-of-age story, a meta commentary on the creative process, and this follow-up offers moments which not only celebrate British cinema at its finest but also simultaneously confirm Hogg’s place in the pantheon of great British directors.
