I always find “Best Of” lists difficult. It’s hard to compare films that are utterly distinct from one another. But like any list, it’s a purely subjective exercise at the end of the day - and it should be for fun. So I’ll just kick things off with a few of my top films that immediately, undeniably jump into my mind.
Tár, The Fabelmans, Banshees of Inisherin, Nope, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Decision to Leave, Crimes of the Future, Top Gun: Maverick, Holy Spider.
Look, that’s nine already without breaking a sweat! Some close contenders perhaps: Bros, Bones and All, Triangle of Sadness, and Three Thousand Years of Longing, and The Batman.
I might add another category specially for 2022 - the year of the decadent, messy epic. Decadent and messy can manifest in many forms. But epic, among other things, means runtime. Some films that I loudly applaud for existing, despite their shortcomings, they are feats of production… Babylon, Avatar: The Way of Water, All Quiet on the Western Front, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Athena, and The Northman. You may not have been perfect in my eyes but you were a good time and cinema is the better for it.
More thoughts to come soon. After all, I haven’t even finished watching them all!