This is coming from a movie person who have seen over 100 movies in 2022 alone. So, this list is highly recommended and tight. I will add 5 honourable mentions to the list.
NO SPOILERS!
In no particular order…
1. Emancipation
This movie is hands down terrific. You will forgive Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock after seeing this movie. He has redeemed himself from falling into an oblivion. This is not your regular slave movie. It is a Art at its Pinnacle.
2. RRR
I am not into India movies but I was compelled to watch it after rave reviews of it on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. It is 3 hours of the good, the bad and the ugly well directed by Bollywood finest, SS Rajamouli. No wonder he won New York Film Critic’s Best Director of 2022. It is the first India movie I have watched with songs that are completely necessary and rationable.
3. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Glass Onion is not beautiful because of Dave Bautista, Janalle Monaé, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar or Serena Williams. Besides being star-studded, it delivers excellent storyline in the genre of the crime and mystery. By the way, Monaé is beautiful.
4. The Woman King
Your favourite Voila Davis of HTGAWM delivers a sterling performance in this movie. She goes to win a Grammy and becomes an egot. The Woman King is based on true events of how women united fearlessly to defend their town. It tells the untold warrior stories of women in the frontline of the battlefield. You will find it very relatable as African.
5. Thirteen Lives
Tells the real events of young soccer boys getting trapped in a cave with their coach in Thailand. It is a not a tear-jerker per se but it is not for the emotional. This movie tells a story of how humanity can be the only saving grace of the world we live in. The rescuers are the real heroes and heroines who will forever have their names etched on the rocks of the cave. I love it.
6. Swimmers
It made me cry. I cried like a baby. It is based on true events following the Syria war. A father who thought he could accomplish his failed Olympic dream through his daughters is confronted with an insurmountable challenge. This life is not fair at all. Your life is not entirely the decisions you take within your control but also decisions of others that you can do nothing about.
7. Watcher
I am a huge fan of the psychological thriller genre. I thought I have seen enough of the nuances but Watcher delivers an exhilarating originality. The movie is about newlyweds moving to another country. The woman starts seeing things but the husband writes it off as “mental stress”. The end will leave you startled. Watcher is exceedingly watchable. Don’t confuse this movie with “The Watcher”.
8. Top Gun Maverick
America seeks nothing but perfection in all of its military operations. Top Gun revisits the story of how a secret operation to take out the enemy was carried out. It is based on true events.
9. The Sea Beast
Among all the animations I have watched last year, The Sea Beast gave me the vibe of my 2021 best animation movie, Luca. The Sea Beast tells a story of fighting things that we consider as enemies yet those considerations are often grounded in ignorance.
10. Drishyam 1 & 2
Drishyam was my second and only India movies for 2022. This movie tells a story of how far a father can go to protect his family. Suspense is properly utilised in this movie.
11. Athena
(Bonus) Athena, a city in France ends up in ember, rubble and pile of dead bodies. It depicts the possibility of how a city can somersault on the back of extreme nationalism, racism and terrorism. Athena, inspired from the destruction of Athens in Greece, is full of action, fire and anger from start to finish.
Honourable 5 mentions that could make it to the top ten too.
1. Aisha
2. Barbarian
3. The Good Nurse
4. Orphan First Kill
5. Molly Game
How many of these movies did you watch? And which one will you recommend for me.
By Hanan-Confidence Abdul