Top Rated Films of 2022

Cinema just had a rough year. While there were definitely upbeat stories to accompany the now constant anxieties percolating throughout the industry—from Tom Cruise once again asserting his dominance as the king of summer via Top Gun: Maverick to the surprise and wholly welcome blockbuster status of A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once -the fact remains that "the movies" are in a state of upheaval and uncertainty. Do massive, mainstream audiences still have taste left in their palates for original adult-skewing films? And if streaming is the future for dramas, comedies, and other "mid-budget" movies, what then is the future of streaming given that market's own recent crisis?
It's a weird time. Yet one thing stays consistent: the satisfaction that comes with seeing a good movie. Whether that film makes you laugh, cry, or shudder, there is still an ineffable joy derived from being lost for a couple of hours in the dark. Finding those stories has gotten a little more difficult in recent years, but trust us, there is gold up in them hills. And sometimes its shine is as big and gaudy as you'd hope-like an F/A 18F rocketing past IMAX cameras.

With that being said, here's the Top 4 Films of 2022

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Even in the vastness of the multiverse, the chances of a film as boundlessly creative, heart-stoppingly emotional, and adrenaline-poundingly exciting as Everything Everywhere All At Once coming into existence is slim-to-none. To say that the Daniels' follow-up to the barmy Swiss Army Man is a revelation is an understatement – its combination of crude comedy, surreal sci-fi, inventive action and epic emotional stakes make it one of the most magical, original movies in recent years.

Michelle Yeoh is at the top of her game as Evelyn, a laundromat owner with too many thoughts and not enough time – with too many dreams and too little commitment to making them happen. As it turns out, that makes her the perfect candidate to take on Jobu Tupaki, a dark force who has learned to harness the power of the multiverse, and wants to see it swallowed whole by an 'everything bagel' black hole.

There are dildo fights, secret raccoon-chefs, hot-dog hands, and hyper-hench pinky fingers. Jamie Lee Curtis does kung-fu in a tax office. Ke Huy Quan delivers heartbreaking monologues and beats people up with a bumbag. A near-silent scene of two rocks with googly eyes becomes pure cinematic ecstasy. But all of the absurdity in EEAAO makes the grounded, ever-relatable theme of tension between parents and children all the more powerful, with further nuance in its intersections of immigrant identity, cultural heritage, and LGBTQ+ relationships. This film is love and pain, strength and weakness, light and darkness, all wrapped up in a perfect, undefinable package. It is everything, everywhere, all at once.

Top Gun: Maverick

"Tom Cruise owns a crowd-thrilling sequel that easily surpasses the original"

Not just the best of the best but now also the oldest of the old, Tom Cruise's Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell is back in the cockpit in a follow-up that will thrill every Top Gun fan. There's a bit in the middle that sags, but, honestly, your neck will need the respite. The rest of the movie soars – a reminder of how good Hollywood can be at popcorn entertainment when it sets its mind to it (and Cruise is involved).  

Maverick is three decades older and looks about one of them, but for all his still-boyish looks and perma-pearly grin he's now a relic of a test pilot who's about to be put out to pasture by Ed Harris's A.I.-championing rear admiral, aka 'the Drone Ranger'. But what's that? There's an illegal uranium processing plant in an unnamed rogue state and an impossible bombing mission to carry out? Soon Mav is reluctantly being sent back to Top Gun Academy to train a new batch of young F-18 hotshots. God help us, etc.

The opening alone – a rule-breaking test mission at Mach 10 – is eye-wateringly exciting: a homage to The Right Stuff that finds unexpected soul on the edge of space. From then on, the beats are very familiar: there's a ball-busting ranking officer (Jon Hamm) itching to sack Maverick; a gun pilot with no sense of teamwork (Glen Powell with a scene-stealing grin); and a lot of bickering about hard decks. There's even flashbacks to the first movie, a bar singalong, some sweaty ball games on the beach, and a blast of Kenny Loggins for the oldies in the crowd.

But after about half an hour of fan-friendly reorientation (there's even a pilot with the call sign 'Fanboy'), it starts to break new ground. A smart screenplay, co-written by Christopher McQuarrie, brings freshness via Maverick's spiky relationship with Miles Teller's bitter Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw, the son of his old co-pilot Goose, and a sweet love story with Jennifer Connelly's bar-owning single mum. Obsolescence never feels far away for this ageing hero, even if he still has the reflexes of a 21-year-old.

Most of all, Top Gun: Maverick works because with its insane aerial photography to the fore, and the style-forward Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski a smart pick behind the camera, it never lets go of that simple love of flying: of men and women stress-testing high-tech machines until bits start to fall off, and the machines testing them right back.

All this helps avoid any sense of it being another multi-million dollar recruitment ad for the US military. The mission is more of a McGuffin: a Death Star trench raid to let the characters show their mettle, while Maverick and Rooster's testy relationship delivers additional tension. It's pure escapism and just the right side of gung-ho, even in the present geopolitical moment.

It is a shame that, for whatever reason, the female characters from 1986's Top Gun are nowhere to be seen – Kelly McGillis's flight instructor, Charlie, clearly opting for the 'leave me forever' option, and Meg Ryan killed off as Rooster's mum – especially with such effort made to locate Val Kilmer's Iceman in the story for a touching bromance with Maverick.

But minor grumbles aside, few Hollywood reboots can boast this blend of nostalgia, freshness and adrenaline. You will want to high five someone on the way out. 

The Banshees Of Inisherin

Writer-director Martin McDonagh does it again, reuniting his In Bruges team of Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson for a tragicomic tale of the many cruelties that human beings can inflict on each other in service of their own personal aspirations. Farrell is the sweet-natured but simple Pádraic, who is first befuddled and then hurt when his longtime friend Colm (Gleeson) decides to abruptly end their friendship. Colm, it seems, wants to spend his twilight years composing music that he hopes he'll be remembered for instead of spending hours and days in idle chit-chat with his former drinking buddy.

Colm's warning to Pádraic to stay away or else soon escalates into a shitstorm that engulfs most of their tiny village, including Pádraic's compassionate sister Siobhan and rather dim local boy Dominic (Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan, respectively, in fantastic, scene-stealing performances). With the film set in 1923 against the backdrop of the Irish Civil War, the smaller conflicts on the fictional island of Inisherin mirror those on the mainland, in all their pointless cruelty and pettiness.

Farrell, who's had a hell of year between this, After Yang , and his knockout turn as the Penguin in The Batman , does perhaps the finest work of his career as Pádraic, whose innocence and kindness is gradually whittled away until he becomes unrecognizable. The always outstanding Gleeson is ostensibly the "villain" here, but Colm's question of how much are we willing to give up to be remembered hangs hauntingly over this beautifully shot, poignantly scored, and unsettlingly funny film.

Avatar: The Way of Water