TOP 10 FILMS OF 2022
10. Fire of Love:
A documentary about volcanologists and filmmakers Katia and Maurice Kraftt, drawn mostly from footage shot by them in the 1970s and 1980s, bears witness to both nature’s power and beauty and the poignant relationship between scientists so fanatically driven to examine and record the phenomenon that their demise was preordained. for misogyny or exploitation – missing the point entirely – conceded the brilliance of Ana de Armas in the title role.
8. Triangle of Sadness
Dismissed by many as superficial and obvious in its targets, this Palme d’Or winning satire on the rich from Sweden’s Ruben Ostlund could be thought a cinematic equivalent of the celebrated television series The White Lotus. Stranded on an island, the affluent are at the mercy of the impoverished. Featuring the most memorable mass regurgitation scene since Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. the tale of Waikato farmer Andrew Johnstone, Costa Botes’ warm but never cloying documentary balances character study against bovine herd dynamics, one informing the other. Beautifully shot, this ranks as one of the great evocations of New Zealand rural life.
5. Top Gun: Maverick
Setting a new standard for a sequel outstripping its original and reasserting Tom Cruise’s superstar credentials, this is everything you want in an action film: thrilling, engaging and tremendously well paced, with a climax that had folk cheering in the aisles.
4. You Won’t Be Alone
Linklater is autobiographical, a wry commentary on what it was to grow up in suburbia in the shadow of history’s greatest achievement, with a grumpy old man who worked at NASA.
2. The Banshees of Inisherin
Perhaps an allegory for the Irish Civil War which serves as an indirect backdrop, Martin McDonagh’s blarney about best friends who fall out, with tragic consequences, defies easy categorisation.
The year’s most original film, featuring a career best performance by Colin Farrell.