by FilmInk Staff
In no particular order, here are our recommendations.
*Note some of our writers are not based in Australia and thus have seen works not yet available here.
Adam Ross
Playground
Few films have the distinction of making me cry just by glancing at the poster, Laura Wandel’s heart wrenching Playground is one of them. This tale of two siblings navigating their way through the most universal of crucibles – primary school – is the most transportive film of the year.
The Quiet Girl
There is a theme going on here. Yes, I might be a sap, but the second-best film of the year was also concerned with childhood. Colm Bairéad’s quaint drama – about a makeshift Irish family – is in no rush to arrive at its destination, but once it does, you won’t want to leave.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh knocks it out of the park (again) with this tale of two lifelong friends becoming, suddenly, and inexplicably, untangled. A work of startling moral complexity that is as funny as it is bleak.
The Stranger
For my money, director Thomas M. Wright is not only two for two (after the brilliant Acute Misfortune), but he is now this country’s chief purveyor of cinematic dread. Wright knows that there is something unspeakable festering under the bravado of Australian masculinity, and his keen filmmaking skills translate that frisson to the screen.
Top Gun: Maverick
I walked into this 36-years-in-the-making legacy sequel by Joseph Kosinski not knowing what to expect. What I never, ever would’ve guessed is that I was walking into 2022’s biggest film. A towering testament to the action godhead that is Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick didn’t just reboot a franchise, it rebooted the theatrical experience.
Andrew F Peirce
The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh returns after a five-year break with an absolute masterpiece that contains a career best performance from Colin Farrell. This tragicomic tale about two close friends who find themselves at odds when one decides to stop talking to the other will break your heart and may very well change your life.
Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook mined fertile ground with the thriller and romance genre in the past, but never as immaculately presented as he does with Decision to Leave. The finest romance story of 2022 is also the most intriguing film as leads Tang Wei and Park Hae-il depict desire, yearning, and lust with just a brief look. Devastating work.
Nope
Jordan Peele’s finest hour, as he digs into cinema history with a UFO story for the ages. Daniel Kaluuya gives a deadpan performance that contains the finest line delivery in a film in 2022 – ‘nope’ – while Keke Palmer delights with a high-energy turn.
Smile
To paraphrase Jamie Lee Curtis, Smile is all about ‘trauma, trauma, trauma’. Jam packed with effective jump scares that will leave you twitching in the aisle, Parker Finn’s Smile is more than a one-trick pony thanks to Sosie Bacon’s inspired performance.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Sophie Hyde’s tender Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is an impressive double hander, as Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack connect on more than a physical level.
Anthony O’Connor
The Northman
Dark, nasty, mud-spattered and bloody, Robert Eggers’ Viking saga proves that he can handle a chonky budget and tell a well-worn tale in a strikingly original way.
Prey
Dan Trachtenberg’s inventive Predator sequel takes the beleaguered series back to basics and delivers a sharp, engaging adventure with some truly memorable moments. Quite the pleasant surprise.
The Menu
Mark Mylod makes a sharp and biting social satire with excellent performances (particularly Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy) and enough creative violence and gleeful nastiness to satisfy the palate of the discerning genre fan.
Bones and All
Imperfect, oddly paced, yet fiercely original, Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal road trip love story seems to crawl right into your subconscious and stay there. Not always an easy watch but completely compelling and well worth the journey.
Barbarian
What starts off as a tense, socially aware two-hander in an Airbnb becomes one of the wildest, most twisted and blackly comedic horror flicks in yonks. Zach Cregger’s movie is highly recommended for jaded horror fans who think they’ve seen everything.
Cain Noble-Davis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The title promises a lot and delivers on all of it!
The Batman
Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson impressively manage to find new heights for the Dark Knight Detective on the big screen. Grungy, sweaty psycho-noir.
Belle
Mamoru Hosoda’s splendorous and thought-provoking reminder that the internet isn’t all bad.
Cha Cha Real Smooth
Cooper Raiff perfects the formula for introverted cinema, creating a warm, inviting, and accommodating atmosphere for the audience to bond over our shared embarrassments.
The Fabelmans
Spielberg performs an emotional exorcism on his own childhood and reveals the depths of his devotion to cinema in the process.
Dov Kornits
Red Rocket
Sean Baker is such an exciting filmmaker, bringing a much-needed authenticity and relevance to American cinema.
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time
Kieslowski meets Sleepless in Seattle, marking the arrival of a great filmmaker in Lili Horvat.
Franklin
Nostalgic, contemporary and personal documentary filmmaking at its best.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Although the Daniels are way too clever for me, I can see how their films could forge a way for a new generation to fall in love with the movies.
Aftersun
Charlotte Wells’ hypnotic, personal, stripped-back, well-acted and directed drama that offers plenty of food for thought about gender, parenting and humanity in general in the most subtle and beautiful ways.
Erin Free
The Batman
Did we really need another Batman film? With the release of writer/director Matt Reeves’ cinder-black, punk-infused, utterly thrilling The Batman, the answer was a surprising and resounding yes, while Robert Pattinson was startlingly good as The Dark Knight.
The Northman
In one of the most vivid, visually striking, and occasionally floridly bizarre Viking movies ever made, Alexander Skarsgard gives a towering performance as the eponymous warrior, who impressively spends his whole life pursuing vengeance for his father’s murder.
Top Gun: Maverick
So called “legacy sequels” have been a mixed bag, but the soaring Top Gun: Maverick sensibly put Tom Cruise front and centre, while the film’s rich script, incredible practical effects and strong performances made it a true rarity: a sequel far superior to the original.
Elvis
From director Baz Luhrmann’s bravura kaleidoscopic visuals and the hip-swivelling brilliance of leading man Austin Butler through to the interesting detours of the story and Tom Hanks’ remarkably reptilian supporting turn, Elvis is a towering triumph.
The Stranger
Though loosely based on a real life murder case, this hypnotic Australian thriller is no mere ripped-from-the-headlines cash-in, instead focusing on the bizarre relationship that develops between a deranged killer and the undercover cop who lures him into a confession.
Gill Pringle
RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt)
S.S. Rajamouli imagines what might have happened if India’s freedom fighters, Alluri Sitaramaraju & Komaram Bheem had met when they were younger. A dizzying, full on action adventure exploring friendship, conflict, ideology, love, dance… and tigers.
Hanging Gardens
A defiant and hilarious Iraqi film about two Muslim boys who find a sex doll and rent it out to the locals in Baghdad.
Vengeance
B.J. Novak’s overlooked clever satire sends a narcissistic NYC writer deep into Texas to investigate the murder of a girl he hooked up with a couple of times; her family all in the belief that their relationship meant much more than his merely scoring a hit podcast.
The Woman King
Similar to Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, Viola Davis is the badass leader of an elite force of female warriors in this historical saga directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood inspired by true events that took place in Africa’s Kingdom of Dahomey during the 18th century.
Nope
Only Jordan Peele can combine horror, sci-fi and neo-western to create this epic but thought-provoking re-imagination of the classic UFO movie.
Grant Shade
Hatching
Hannah Bergholm’s brilliant psychological horror from Finland that deals with growing pains and the façade of happy families.
The Quiet Girl
Colm Bairéad’s powerfully calm tale with excellent performances and bags of sad Irish charm.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh’s moving and very funny exploration of when friendships come crashing down.
Sundown
Tim Roth is sublime in Michel Franco’s unravelling mystery/drama, set in a Mexican beach resort town, that keeps a lot of cards up its sleeve.
You Won’t Be Alone
Goran Stolevski’s assured debut about folklore and intolerance, with some memorably bleak scenes.
Helen Barlow
Close
Lukas Dhont’s film should have won Cannes. It grabs you by the jugular and doesn’t let go.
Living
Bill Nighy can do no wrong and gives the performance of his career in Oliver Hermanus’ remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru.
Fire of Love
Sara Dosa makes the best documentary about volcanoes, ever.
Navalny
Daniel Roher managed to turn his movie about the Russian politician into a thriller and made it in huge secrecy.
Moonage Daydream
An engrossing new take on David Bowie seemed impossible, but Brett Morgen achieved that.
John Noonan
Nope
Possibly my favourite of Jordan Peele’s movies, my thoughts keep returning to it regularly. Many talk about the horror of Gordy’s decimation of his sitcom family and rightly so. However, for me, it’s the low key (ish) scene where for a few short seconds you witness an entire stadium of people being digested in a living cloud. Absolutely chilling.
The Batman
After the excruciatingly bleak Snyderverse nonsense, I wasn’t up for another dark retelling of a millionaire playboy’s descent into vigilantism. However, Matt Reeves’ The Batman knocks it out of the park. It doesn’t confuse being mature with being broody, and it actually allows Batman to make mistakes.
Moja Vesna
Was not expecting Sara Kern’s film to get under my skin as it did. Just a beautifully heart-breaking film that will resonate with many. Loti Kovacic’s performance is stunningly mature for someone of her age.
Bros
Was lucky enough to catch Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller’s ‘box office bomb’ at MQFF this year. An unapologetically gay film that deconstructs the notions of what it means to be part of the LGTBQ+ community, as well masculinity itself. Eichner’s wine sipping standoff with Amanda Bearse’s conservative primary school teacher is just wonderfully awkward.
Clean
Sandra Pankhurst was a fascinating person who lived a full and dramatic life. Her dedication to her team and clients, while suffering from an incurable lung disease is inspiring. A great documentary by Lachlan Mcleod.
Julian Wood
Close
Nothing comes close to this little gem from Belgium. It deservedly won the Sydney Film Festival Prize this year against a strong field. A study of adolescent friendship and masculinity that is pitch perfect.
A Hero
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi always makes beautifully constructed and acted films. Like his best films, A Hero‘s characters are morally complex, both noble and flawed.
The Stranger
Australian director Thomas M Wright grabbed our attention with Acute Misfortune and keeps up the same intensity and grit with this downbeat crime drama. Outstanding performances from Joel Edgerton and particularly Sean Harris.
Souvenir Part II
British director Joanna Hogg has made two films of the same title in a loose diptych starring Tilda Swinton and her real life daughter Honor Swinton Byrne. The film is a sort of mosaic. It’s about film making as well as a tender family drama. It is so loose and odd that it ought not to work but there are authentic scenes here that you won’t see in more trad filmmaking.
Don’t Worry Darling
Actor Olivia Wilde working both behind and in front the camera brings off a memorable dystopian satire in the vein of The Stepford Wives. The Hollywood glitz and glamour is beautifully undercut by her feminist sensibility.
Kahn Mallett
Fire of Love
Sara Dosa’s documentary about Katia and Maurice Krafft is a beautiful but tragic portrait of humanity’s courageous attempt to capture and observe what are very devastating but beautiful natural disasters.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Daniels’ whimsical adventure about intergenerational healing, one that absorbs all who see it in one of the most creatively crafted genre films of the decade.
Memoria
Thanks to a beautiful connection between actor (Tilda Swinton) and director (Apichatpong Weerasethakul), Memoria is a true temporal, cerebral masterpiece that stimulates the senses in a unique way.
RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt)
S.S. Rajamouli’s Tollywood film is absolutely bursting with energy and pathos that leaves you wanting to punch the sky with joy by the end.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh has written one of the most airtight screenplays of 2022, delivering a complicated story about longing and friendship that pushes the boundary for dramatic comedy.
Lisa Nystrom
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Visually stunning, a rollercoaster of emotions; it’s a movie about rediscovering what matters most in life, and why you should probably just hire a professional to do your taxes.
The Woman King
Historically inaccurate, yes absolutely, but the performances are electric and the action sequences truly epic.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Brutally honest and darkly funny, about the furthest thing from a feel-good film you’ll see this year — it’ll break your heart and you won’t regret a minute of it.
Fire Island
Pride and Prejudice in a speedo holding an aperol spritz — sharp-witted, genuinely sweet, and most importantly, not afraid to have FUN with it.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
It’s absurd, it’s unhinged… it’s Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage, and having an absolute blast doing it.
Mark Demetrius
Moonage Daydream
Brett Morgen’s phenomenally imaginative and surprisingly revelatory documentary about David Bowie, this is as much a visual delight as an aural one.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi tells three stories about three interconnected female characters, and explores love, betrayal and the human condition in general, to sublime effect.
Drive My Car
This is Hamaguchi again, greatly expanding a Haruki Murakami short story, and ingeniously depicting guilt and jealousy while conveying a lot about the very nature of art.
The Humans
Nominally concerning a Thanksgiving dinner, Stephen Karam’s adaptation of his own play about the strain of the daily grind (among other things) matches great performances to eerie ‘offstage’ sounds, and the net result is very unsettling.
The Good Boss
The always impressive Javier Bardem has never been better than here, in a funny and disquieting story about a hypocritical factory boss, directed by Fernando León de Aranoa.
Nadine Whitney
The Quiet Girl
Irish director Colm Bairéad made one of the gentlest and heart-breaking films of the year. Mostly in the Irish language, it is the story of Cáit (Catherine Clinch) a young girl living in poverty who is sent to distant relatives for a summer in the ‘80s.
You Won’t Be Alone
Australian director Goran Stolevski’s folk horror fable is a deep examination of living. The Macedonian language film deconstructs gender and humanity itself.
Moonage Daydream
Brett Morgen’s David Bowie documentary asks the audience to be as culturally literate as the artist himself. A collage of Bowie’s career that eschews the talking head format and lets Bowie’s work and words take the forefront.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh finally makes a film in Ireland, and what a film it is. Bringing back together Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two warring friends, it’s a metaphor for the Irish Civil War happening on the mainland in 1923. Kerry Condon almost steals the film as does Jenny the donkey.
Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook’s homage to Hitchcock is as seductive and beguiling as the femme fatale in the lead. Unpredictable and morally ambiguous, it’s a story of obsession that is lusciously told.
Stephen Vagg
The Bob’s Burgers Movie
A continuation of the popular animated TV series by Loren Bouchard and Brendan Derriman.
Minions: The Rise of Gru
A stellar supporting voice cast that includes Michelle Yeoh, Julie Andrews, Jean Claude Van Damme, and Alan Arkin tells the origin story of the villainous Gru.
Top Gun: Maverick
Joseph Kosinski’s high octane sequel to Tony Scott’s film brought back an older if not particularly wiser Maverick (Tom Cruise) to the role that made him a superstar.
The Bad Guys
Adapted from Australian author Aaron Blabey’s books, The Bad Guys directed by Pierre Perifel is Tarantino for kids. Great vocal work by Sam Rockwell and co., make the animated adventure a crowd pleaser.
Turning Red
Domee Shi’s Pixar film is pretty much the best thing the studio has done in years. A story about adolescence, family, friendship, and worshipping pop music, Turning Red is a delight.
Carlo Peritore
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The little film that could, which, beyond the wonderful weirdness of directors The Daniels, gave audiences the biggest beating heart of 2022 cinema.
The Batman
The obvious next step in the big screen evolution of The Bat. Director Matt Reeves’ film makes you question the sanity of the hero.
Nascondino
Director Victoria Fiore’s documentary is both tragic and beautiful, a heartbreaking and infuriating tale of the Napoli crime meat grinder ravaging yet another young life.
Moonage Daydream
Director Brett Morgan gives us a direct line to the outer dimensional planes of David Bowie’s mind. You’ll fight the experience at first, but Bowie gets you in the end.
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
A warm blanket of a film, director Dean Fleischer-Camp’s stop-motion mockumentary is an instant cure for any cynism that may be running through your veins. It will make you want to call your grandmother the moment it is over.
