Top 10 Movies of 2022

It’s been an exciting, if not mundane, year for movies, but what made it onto our list of this year’s bests were movies that were bulky, ambitious, great, and weird to watch.

Movies don’t have to be perfect to be great; though I’d say South Korean master Park Chang-wook is pretty close to perfection in his doomed neo-noir novel. decide to goour number one with a bullet.

Outspoken and wild is firmly in the top 10: a women-led journey through the Los Angeles porn industry, pleasureor Slime Fest red rocket, which also covers the world of porn and features some serious frontal nudity. Meanwhile, the usually provocative Gaspard Noé broke new ground by exploring age, romance and gender. whirl – a surprisingly piercing film by a French lover of extremes. But if that’s not your thing, sit down with an Indian action epic RRRa CGI tiger fight and dance movie that never betrays its anti-colonial policies.

New films from the likes of Jordan Peele and Baz Luhrmann promise something new for those of us who love a vibrant, original viewing experience. No and Elvismade our list despite the fact that its critics are divided.

In my opinion, both films attempt to jump the fence and explore the art form’s past and future in an aesthetically sophisticated and downright immersive way. Minor flaws notwithstanding, in an age of dirty and boring franchises, it’s worth celebrating.

10. No

Jordan Peele comes into play in his latest satirical horror close contacts Square. Screenwriter-director Exit and US creates a story about an alien spaceship hiding behind a cloud near a horse ranch in California’s Santa Clarita Valley, residents played by Keke Palmer and ExitDaniel Kaluuya. It may be a version of Peel’s summer blockbuster, but it goes way beyond popcorn entertainment. He’s just as interested in race, violence, and celebrity as he is in scaring us with an alien invasion. The director has an uncanny ability to create images that are terrifying, surreal, funny, and frightening—often all at the same time. (Geoffrey McNab)

9. fun

AT pleasure, women who succeed are most willing to submit to extremes. Viewers should, too: With frontal nudity and unsimulated sex scenes, Ninja Tyberg’s raw, stylish interrogation of the Los Angeles porn industry is more frank, lustful, and self-confident than any other porn movie.

The film is about 18-year-old Linnea, also known as Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel), who moved to Los Angeles from Stockholm to try herself as “the next big porn star”. Using mostly real porn actors, Tyberg aimed to portray the world in all its shabby beauty, which oscillates between the sexy and the grotesque. (Christina Neuland)

8. Period of Armageddon

The title may conjure up the apocalypse, but James Gray’s autobiographical drama has nothing to do with the end of the world. Set in 1980 New York City, a precocious 11-year-old boy (Banks Repeta) suffers growing pains and keeps getting into trouble with his friend Johnny (Jailin Webb), one of the world’s few black high school students. . his city school. Jeremy Strong (from TV successor) and Anne Hathaway are inappropriately cast as his parents, leading a modest existence in Queens.

Repeta gives a wild, unsentimental portrayal of the young protagonist—he’s not the innocent drifter often seen in Hollywood childhood films—and Gray makes this boy’s life both hellish and strangely magical. (Geoffrey McNab)

7. Vertebrae

independent thinking person Director Gaspar Noé dedicates his new feature film to “everyone whose brains melt faster than their hearts.” This is one of the most honest and poignant images of old age you’ll ever see on screen. The film is about an elderly couple whose lives are falling apart. The woman (Françoise Lebrun) is in the early stages of dementia. This man (played brilliantly by the venerable Italian horror director Dario Argento) is a scientist working on a book about movies and dreams, but his health is also failing.

Long known as the unconventional bad boy of French cinema, Noé tends to infuse his films with violence and sex. AT whirl, he’s held back by his own standards, but it’s still arguably his most terrifying film yet. (Geoffrey McNab)

6. Red rocket

In cheerful and human red rocketSimon Rex steals the show with his brilliant, witty performance that seems to be taken from every show business underdog you’ve ever seen on screen. The film follows the enigmatic Mikey Saber (Rex), a battered porn star on the run. After a 17-year absence, he returns to his hometown – an unattractive former working-class Texas suburb – because he has nowhere else to go.

Previous films directed by Sean Baker, mandarin (2015) and Florida Project (2017), both interested in the often invisible American underclass, and red rocket is no different. It conveys the feeling that no matter how confused people populate the world around Mikey, and no matter how imperfect they are, they all do their best. (Christina Neuland)

5.RRR

Crossover blockbuster epic action movie S.S. Rajamouli, RRR, is proof that the international audience is craving Indian cinema more than one might think. The film is set in British-occupied North India with Ram Charan as an enterprising leader. The film follows India’s historic struggle for independence, a dance with an energetic colonial Englishman, and a fight with a ferocious computer tiger.

This is before the story of brotherhood between friends, tragic romance and deep anti-colonial sentiment around all those beautifully choreographed action scenes and a few Bollywood style musical numbers. (Christina Neuland)

4. Triangle of sadness

If you loved TV White Lotus, you’ll love Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or-winning satire that shatters the pretensions of tense protagonists aboard a luxury yacht. Aside from Östlund’s understanding of human greed, cunning and intemperance, the acting is impeccable.

Woody Harrelson is portrayed as a grumpy, alcoholic skipper with radical political views, while Harris downplays Dickinson and Charlby Dean (who tragically died shortly after the film’s premiere) as a glamorous but narcissistic couple in a fictitious relationship.

And when other filmmakers struggling with the world’s problems take themselves very seriously, it’s a relief that Östlund keeps his mouth shut. (Geoffrey McNab)

3.Elvis

Baz Luhrmann is cool Elvis To some, this biopic might feel like Marmite – it’s as brilliant, obvious, and astounding as you’d expect from this director and subject, and Tom Hanks in Colonel Parker’s costume can push the boundaries of our self-imposed disbelief.

But it’s also visually risqué, with witty pop culture montages, electric scores (if “Trouble” doesn’t get your pulse racing, you could be clinically dead) and Austin Butler’s quiveringly sexy performance as King.

Above all, Luhrmann’s film professes rock crystal and heartfelt love for its tragic hero Elvis Aaron Presley. (Christina Neuland)

2. Get on the road

In this remarkable debut film by Iranian director Panah Panahi, a trip to the Turkish-Iranian border takes on the traits of tragedy and triumph and paints a serene (and often very funny) picture of family life at its most humane.

The car is a strong point in Iranian cinema; When a mother drops her handkerchief, or when loud pre-revolutionary pop music sounds on the radio, there is no one to scold them. This little four-wheeled island of strange freedom and household chores, sadness and joy is a beautiful cinematic expression of the full humanity of its protagonists. Too bad it hasn’t been shown in Iranian cinemas yet. (Christina Neuland)

1. Decide to leave

South Korean art house favorite Park Chan Wook has returned to the screen with his first performance since 2016. Housemaidand what a masterful comeback it is. decide to go is a mysterious tale of shattered love that pays homage to Hitchcock thrillers and intricate neo-noir, while remaining in perfect harmony with today’s realities.

Headstrong homicide detective Hae Joon (Park Hae Il) finds an amateur climber who has passed out at the foot of a mountain. The widow, a much younger beautiful Chinese woman So-Re (Tang Wei) is under suspicion, but Hae-Joon falls silently in love with the woman and watches her through binoculars until she too knows that he loves her.

Although this is a story about murder and death, it is also a story about tenderness. The park is much more interested in the pain of the living than the dead and buried. (Christina Neuland)