Best of 2022: Our favourite movies of the year

2022 was a challenging year at the movies. Cinemas were closed for large parts of the year in many parts of the world due to the pandemic, and when they did re-open, audiences were often slow to return. After two-plus years of streaming habits, did going out to the theatre still have the same allure for people?

Thankfully, Tom Cruise swooped down from the heavens in a fighter jet and finally delivered audiences (and worried theatre owners) the long-awaited Top Gun: Maverick back in the spring. A wildly entertaining thrill ride that not only made audiences remember why leaving their couches was important but also became one of the biggest hits of all time, Top Gun: Maverick was blockbuster Hollywood entertainment at its finest and kicked off an abbreviated but nevertheless stellar year at the movies.

Here are are ten favourite films of the year, all of which are available to stream or rent at home right now.

10. Pinocchio

Disney’s Pinocchio was already one of the most upsetting animated films of all time but pales in comparison to what Guillermo Del Toro does with the tale of a wooden boy and his quest for humanity. If the Disney adaptation wasn’t disturbing enough, Del Toro (who co-directed the film with Mark Gustafson and co-wrote the screenplay with Patrick McHale) also throws the threat of rising fascism in Italy surrounding WWII onto poor Pinocchio’s plate.

Through painstakingly beautiful stop-motion animation, Del Toro weaves an engrossing and dark tale about humanity in the face of war and oppression, a story as sadly timeless as that of Pinocchio himself.

9. Decision to Leave

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, The Handmaiden) returns with his first film in six years, and the wait has clearly paid off. A Hitchcockian police procedural that also doubles as one of the most twisted romantic films since Phantom Thread, the film focuses on the mysterious death of an immigration worker found at the bottom of a mountain. Detective Hae-Jun (Park Hae-il) brings in the victim’s wife Seo-Rae (Tang Wei) for questioning, a young woman who seems to have a motivation for killing her husband. Or does she? Written and directed by Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave offers up twist after twist as Detective Hae-Jun tries to get to the bottom of the mysterious death while sorting out his complex feelings for Seo-Rae. Beautifully shot and featuring a pair of stirring lead performances at its center, Decision to Leave is another knockout from a true filmmaking master.

8. The Northman

There’s nothing like seeing an acclaimed young filmmaker given the keys to the kingdom. Following the success of The Witch and The Lighthouse, two films that helped kickstart the notion of “elevated horror” in the mainstream press, Eggers was given a much larger budget for his third film, the historical fantasy epic The Northman. The film centers on the tale of the Viking prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) seeking revenge for the murder of his father. While the plot may be fairly straightforward, Eggers layers the tale with staggering period-appropriate details, providing a dense and rich sense of time and place that helps make even the wildest fantasy moments of the film seem like distant historical facts. That said, you can ignore most of that and still thrill to a shirtless and impossibly built Alexander Skarsgård tearing heads of left and right as he seeks revenge for his slain father. Either way, you’re in for a singular and captivating experience.

7. Pearl

Released just months after the ’70s exploitation-inspired X, writer-director Ti West returned with Pearl, a surprise prequel to X that he shot in secret immediately following that film. Delving into the tragic backstory of the haggard sex-crazed old woman we met in X (played by Mia Goth, who also served as co-writer here), Pearl is a striking look at a troubled young woman and her slow slide into lunacy. Set during WWI, Pearl is a sun-drenched nightmare of a film that marks a huge stylistic leap from the grimy X. Featuring a riveting lead performance from Mia Goth that easily stands as one of the most remarkable of the year, Pearl is one of the most gorgeous-looking horror films in recent memory. All hail Mia Goth, our new Scream Queen!

6. Top Gun: Maverick

Two years into the pandemic, Top Gun: Maverick finally shot into theatres and provided the most thrilling theatrical experience of the year. A sequel to a 30-year-old film that no one was necessarily clamouring for, Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski delivered a rousing action extravaganza that was miles better than the original. With jaw-dropping aerial stunts and just the right mixture of heart and nostalgia, Top Gun: Maverick reaffirmed why we go to the movies and landed just when theatres (and the moviegoing public) needed it the most.

5. Tár

Cate Blanchett is a special effect onto herself. One of our greatest living actors, Blanchett’s portrayal of composer Lydia Tár was so convincing that vast swaths of the audience were convinced the film was based on a real person. The first film in nearly two decades by writer-director Todd Field, Tár is a tour-de-force about the drive for artistic greatness and what it takes to maintain that success for those who reach that rarefied status. Anchored by a riveting performance by Blanchett, the film follows EGOT winner Lydia Tár, a monumentally influential composer and conductor in Berlin as her life and career begin to unravel following abuse allegations by a former colleague. A unique and potentially controversial look at power and accountability, Tár is sure to continue to inspire conversation long after the credits roll on this intoxicating film.

4. Babylon

With Babylon, writer-director Damien Chazelle has made the anti-La La Land. While Chazelle’s 2016 blockbuster celebrated the magic and wonder of Hollywood, Babylon is a much darker and insidious look at Tinseltown as it was transitioning from the silent era to the talkies in the roaring ’20s.

Weaving in numerous storylines in Altman-esque fashion, Babylon focuses on five characters making their way through Hollywood; an up-and-coming starlet (Margot Robbie), a silent film star (Brad Pitt), an ambitious studio worker (Diego Calva), a jazz trumpet player (Jovan Adepo), and a cabaret singer (Li Jun Li). With clear allusions to real Hollywood personalities, Chazelle paints a disturbing picture of an industry that chews up and spits out those who devote their lives to making films, even as their work is immortalized and beloved for future generations.

Bursting with energy and filmmaking exuberance, Babylon is why we go to the movies. It features big stars giving it 110% and a director seemingly throwing absolutely everything he has onto the screen to deliver a spectacle the likes of which we almost never see on the big screen any longer. Hopefully, Babylon also doesn’t portend the end of another era in Hollywood; one in which bold and daring films like this still get made on this scale.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin

Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s poignant black comedy is a deceptively simple story that sticks with you long after its inevitable unsettling conclusion. McDonagh reunites his In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two friends in the midst of a personal upheaval on a small Irish island during the Irish Civil War in the ’20s. Thrust together by proximity, the older musician Colm Doherty (Gleeson) decides that he no longer wants to drink away his days with the dim Pádraic Súilleabháin (Farrell). When Pádraic refuses to concede to Colm’s wishes to simply be left alone to work on his music, Colm issues an ultimatum; he will begin hacking off his own fingers until Pádraic finally leaves him in peace. With pitch-perfect performances from Gleeson and Farrell (and a riveting supporting performance by Kerry Condon as Pádraic’s fed-up sister), The Banshees of Inisherin is a timely and resonant film about how we choose to live our lives and those we choose to spend it with.

2. Everything Everywhere All at Once

The surprise smash of the year, Everything Everywhere All at Once is the cinematic equivalent of a sugar rush. Co-writers-directors DANIELS have crafted a deep and philosophical film about acceptance and the bonds of family, built within a wild sci-fi extravaganza that also features hot dog fingers and an emotional rock with googly eyes. Michelle Yeoh will likely walk away with an Oscar for her portrayal of a mother struggling to come to terms with her teenage daughter and hustling to keep the family business afloat, while also getting to display her incomparable martial arts skills as she battles Jamie Lee Curtis throughout the multiverse. DANIELS also have to be applauded for bringing ’80s hero cinematic hero Ke Huy Quan back to the big screen where he truly belongs.

1. The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans has been described as a two-hour+ therapy session for Steven Spielberg, but if anyone is allowed the leeway to explore their personal backstory in this navel-gazing manner, it’s Spielberg, one of the most beloved and influential directors of all time.

Based on Speilberg’s upbringing and his path toward filmmaking, The Fabelmans is yet another ode to the power of movies this year but with an extremely personal touch. Many of Spielberg’s most beloved films deal with the divorce of his parents in some way (E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and with The Fabelmans, he has finally decided to tackle the unraveling of their marriage, and how that decoupling fed into his emotional filmmaking.

Teenage Sammy Fabelan (in a star-making performance from Gabriel LaBelle) is fascinated by film. However, he learns early on that film not only has the power to transport and captivate, but also to reveal truths that may be hidden in everyday life. On the flip side, film also has the power to build myths and elevate the mundane into something inspiring and larger than life.

While much of the film feels like a typical drama about a marriage falling apart and its effect on a sensitive young man, The Fabelmans has a lot more on its mind. Co-written by Speilberg and Tony Kushner (Angels in America), the film is as much a celebration of the art of filmmaking as it is a warning about the consequences of fully devoting one’s life to art, a solitary and all-consuming pursuit that forever changes your relationship to everything else (and everyone else) in your orbit.

The standout moment when Sammy confronts his mother (Michelle Williams) with filmed evidence of her burgeoning love for a family friend (Seth Rogen) that will ultimately lead to the demise of her marriage is the most unforgettable scene of the year, a beautiful moment between a mother and son that changes their relationship forever and sets Sammy/Spielberg off on his life-changing trajectory.