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Which are the ten best movies of 2022?

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We all like a good Top Ten list. They’re fun to make, entertaining to read, and amusing to argue over. In 2003 I included Love, Actually on my Top Ten list and an erudite film critic friend practically did a spit take he was so shocked I would put such an admittedly middlebrow entertainment among my other choices, which were more esoteric and in line with his tastes. But, hey! Enjoy the art you enjoy and don’t be ashamed of it.

This is a roundabout way of saying we’ll be collecting your Top Ten lists the first week of 2023. We’ll include the entry form in that week’s newsletter and, assuming he catches up on the buzzy films he hasn’t seen yet, Greg Laemmle’s Top Ten list. By submitting your list you’ll be entered into a raffle for free Laemmle gift cards!

For inspiration, here are some Top Ten lists the nation’s leading film critics have submitted and — good news! — many of the titles — No Bears, One Fine Morning, EO, and Return to Seoul — are either now playing or coming soon so you can see them as they were meant to be seen, theatrically. They are hyperlinked below.

Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
1. No Bears
2. Aftersun
3. The Eternal Daughter
4. Tár
5. Benediction
6. Decision to Leave
7. Kimi
8. Crimes of the Future
9. One Fine Morning
10. EO
11. Nope

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

1. EO
2. Petite Maman
3. Nope
4. No Bears
5. Kimi
6. The Eternal Daughter
7. Happening
8. Decision to Leave
9. Expedition Content
10. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

From NO BEARS. Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety

  1. Tár
  2. The Fabelmans
  3. The Batman
  4. Bros
  5. Navalny
  6. Holy Spider
  7. Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
  8. Vengeance
  9. Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb
  10. 13: The Musical

Peter Debruge, Variety

  1. Tár
  2. Saint Omer
  3. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
  4. Playground
  5. The Batman
  6. Corsage
  7. Happening
  8. After Yang
  9. The Whale
  10. You Won’t Be Alone

Alissa Wilkinson, Vox

1. Tár
2. Aftersun
3. No Bears
4. Return to Seoul
5. Riotsville, USA
6. We Met in Virtual Reality
7. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
8. Emily the Criminal
9. The Cathedral
10. Top Gun: Maverick

The critics of RogerEbert.com

1. The Banshees of Inisherin
2. The Fabelmans
3. Decision to Leave
4. Tár
5. Aftersun
6. Nope
7. No Bears
8. Everything Everywhere All at Once
9. RRR
10. Babylon

“A gem of the Iranian new wave,” THE RUNNER opens Friday at the Royal & Town Center.

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Featuring one of the finest cinematic performances by a child actor (Madjid Niroumand) and a peer to classics like Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief and Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados, Amir Naderi’s The Runner (1984) has been beautifully restored by Rialto Pictures. We are proud to open the film this Friday, December 16 at the Royal and Town Center.
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“A gem of the Iranian new wave…crisply restored with improved subtitles…admirably lean and remarkably well-constructed…the light is often dazzling; the array of bottles floating in the harbor is bewitching… has a subtle fairy tale quality.” — J. Hoberman, The New York Times
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“To say that the 1984 movie doesn’t seem at all dated is almost an understatement. I can’t think of any 2022 film that radiates so much joy in the act of filmmaking, or that can serve as such an electrifying inspiration to younger artists.” ~ Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com
 
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“Niroumand gives a remarkable performance, thoroughly uninhibited and completely engrossing.” ~ John Anderson, Newsday
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“A work of astonishing power and simplicity, reminiscent of the finest Italian neo-realist films.” ~ Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
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“One of the best films in town right now.” ~ Derek Malcolm, Guardian
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“The film uses stylization and photographic compositions of remarkable beauty (the director of photography was Firooz Malekzadeh) without ever compromising the tough reality of the lives of these undaunted young outcasts.” ~ David Robinson, Times (UK)
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“[Amiro’s] unguarded exuberance hits you with unexpected force. It stays with you.” ~ Hal Hinson, Washington Post
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“Like Bunuel, Naderi shows a keen understanding of children’s camaraderie and determination.” ~ Ted Shen, Chicago Reader
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“If The Runner is tentatively optimistic, it is also drenched in a mood of yearning lyricism.” ~ Stephen Holden, New York Times
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“Young Nirumand gives a performance to make Rossellini weep, and the soundtrack is a joy.” ~ Pierre Hodgson, Time Out
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ONLY IN THEATRES – 100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Add your review!

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Only in Theaters, the new documentary about the Laemmle family and their film 85-year-old foreign and art film exhibition business, is a critical success, universally praised by critics and audiences alike. You can add your review here (scroll down to the “rate and review” section and click on “what did you think of the movie?”). Now playing at the Monica Film Center.

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“I felt like I was watching a family’s home movie… A celebration of people to whom we owe an enormous debt.” ~ Wade Major, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)
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“A fascinating and poignant look at the Laemmle family.” ~ Claudia Puig, FilmWeek (KPCC – NPR Los Angeles)
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“Watching how it was a struggle to get people into the seats even before the pandemic and all the stress that Greg and Tish Laemmle endure is a little tough to watch at times, but Only in Theaters is essential viewing for every filmgoer.” ~ Jason Delgado, Film Threat
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“Like a knotty, poignant family business saga you might see on one of their screens, the story here is beautiful and complicated, one in which the twin weights of legacy and calling bear down on the need to survive in changing times.” ~ Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
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“It’s not a film about how important theatrical exhibition is for filmmakers (though that is nice too). Rather, it’s an intimate portrait of a man burdened by legacy, navigating uncharted waters, not even sure that he wants to.” ~ Katie Walsh, TheWrap
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“Only in Theaters isn’t just a celebration of the Laemmles and their love of sharing cinema but the American Dream.” ~ Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
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“The kind of film where the viewer loses sense of time itself, mesmerized by the beauty and melancholy of each shot,” NANNY opens Friday.

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Nanny, the acclaimed psychological horror fable of displacement, is about Aisha (Anna Diop), a woman who recently emigrated from Senegal. She is hired to care for the daughter of an affluent couple (Michelle Monaghan and Morgan Spector) living in New York City. Haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind, Aisha hopes her new job will afford her the chance to bring him to the U.S., but becomes increasingly unsettled by the family’s volatile home life. As his arrival approaches, a violent presence begins to invade both her dreams and her reality, threatening the American dream she is painstakingly piecing together.

Nanny won the Grand Jury Prize for drama at Sundance at the Directors to Watch award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and is a nominee for the Someone to Watch prize at the Spirit Awards. We open the film Friday at the Monica Film Center, Claremont 5 and NoHo 7.

“Diop’s delicate, fine-tuned performance works harmoniously with movie’s shape-shifting and with the other actors, especially Monaghan’s more full-bodied, quietly violent turn.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“Nanny starts as a movie about a reality that we’d rather not face and ends as a movie about reality that we cannot bear. That is the horror of it — and, in Jusu’s hands, the galvanizing thrill.” ~ K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone

“The film is an experience for the senses; you’ll hold your breath as you’re consumed.” ~ Pilar Galvan, NPR
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“A work of compassion and unease heralding a thoughtful, genre-probing talent.” ~ Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

“Its feeling and its images stayed with me long after it ended.” ~ Sahir Avid D’souza, TimeOut
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“Jusu digs into her heroine’s psyche in a way that is unsettling and unforgettable.” ~ Esther Zuckerman, Thrillist
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“It’s the kind of film where the viewer loses sense of time itself, mesmerized by the beauty and melancholy of each shot.” ~ Jourdain Searles, Hollywood Reporter

The “deeply felt and tenderly funny family drama” MEMORIES OF MY FATHER opens Friday at the Royal and Town Center.

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Colombia’s official selection for the 93rd Academy Awards and an official selection at Cannes 2022, Memories of My Father follows the life of Héctor Abad Gómez, one of Colombia’s most beloved national figures. Beautifully dramatized by Fernando Trueba, the director of Academy Award winning Belle Epoque, we open the film this Friday at the Royal in West L.A. and the Town Center in Encino.

 

Almodóvar regular Javier Cámara plays Gómez, in this adaptation of his son’s Héctor Abad Faciolince richly evocative memoir. It recounts life in the turbulent South American country in the 1970s and 1980s, charting how the city of Medellín’s descent into corruption transformed the halcyon days of Héctor’s youth as his father became an increasingly outspoken critic of the government. Shifting between the stark black and white images of the 1980s and warmer color tones that define life the 1970s, Fernando Trueba’s film balances a nuanced portrait of family life with the harsher realities of a rapidly changing world. Cámara, who drew worldwide acclaim as the nurse in Talk to Her, movingly captures Gómez as both caring father and activist whose politics were based less on ideology and more on the human rights of everyday people in being able to access the necessities of life: Food, water and adequate shelter.

“This is a wonderfully sympathetic, deeply felt and tenderly funny family drama with a novelistic attention to details and episodes.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“A bracingly affectionate biopic that compels despite (and because) of its unapologetic sentimentality, Fernando Trueba’s Memories of My Father pays loving tribute to someone who took comfort in the knowledge that he would be forgotten.” ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire
“Those seeking a pleasantly expansive, somewhat old-school dose of laughter and tears — one not so distant from the director’s Oscar-winning “Belle Epoque” three decades ago — will enjoy this handsomely produced tale.” ~ Dennis Harvey
Variety

“Wild, boldly expressionistic” EO advance screening with the filmmaker in person Nov. 28; regular engagement begins December 2.

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     With his first film in seven years, legendary director Jerzy Skolimowski (Deep End, Moonlighting) directs one of his most free and visually inventive films yet, following the travels of a nomadic gray donkey named EO. After being removed from the traveling circus, which is the only life he’s ever known, EO begins a trek across the Polish and Italian countryside, experiencing cruelty and kindness in equal measure, all the while observing the follies and triumphs of humankind. During his travels, EO is both helped and hindered by a cast of characters that includes a young Italian priest (Lorenzo Zurzolo), a Countess (Isabelle Huppert), and a rowdy Polish soccer team. Loosely inspired by Robert Bresson’s Au hazard Balthazar, and featuring immersive, stunning cinematography by Michal Dymek coupled by Pawel Mykietyn’s resonant score, Skolimowski’s film puts the viewer in the perspective of its four-legged protagonist. EO’s journey speaks to the world around us, an equine hero boldly pointing out societal ills, and serving as warning to the dangers of neglect and inaction, all while on a quest for freedom.
     We are screening EO on Monday, November 28 at the Monica Film Center as part of the Reel Talk with Stephen Farber series. Mr. Skolimowski will attend for a Q&A. The regular engagements begin December 2 at the Royal and December 9 at our Glendale theater.
     “EO is an astonishment and so too is this wild, boldly expressionistic movie that conveys the life of its largely silent protagonist with a bare minimum of dialogue.” ~ Manohla Dargis, New York Times
     “EO may be one of the greatest movies ever made about the spirit of animals, as much as we can know it.” ~ Stephanie Zacharek, Time Magazine
     “EO’s personality shines thanks to Skolimowski’s daringly imaginative depictions, both visual and emotional, of the donkey’s point of view.” ~ Richard Brody, New Yorker

“A potent emotional charge, very contemporary eco-consciousness, and film-making that at its best fairly sizzles in its strangeness mark out EO as an animal film that stands defiantly on its own hooves.” ~ Jonathan Romney, Screen International

     “EO is a damning polemic on our relationship to other intelligent species — as free labor, food and companions — as seen through the dewy, wide eyes of a donkey whom we come to adore.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety
     “Think of Skolimowki at this stage of his career and life as a filmmaker happily grazing, indulging in an animal need for cinema.” ~ Mark Asch, Little White Lies
     “In Bresson’s version, it’s the humans around the donkey who are the true center of the story. Not so in EO. This is Donkeyvision, and we’re better off for it.” ~ Adam Solomons, indieWire

“Sublime,” “meditative and deeply romantic” UTAMA opens Friday the Royal. Plus: Current & coming competitors for the Best International Film Oscar.

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Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize this year at Sundance, Utama is set in the arid Bolivian highlands and follows an elderly Quechua couple that has been living the same daily routine for years. While he takes their small herd of llamas out to graze, she keeps house and walks for miles with the other local women to fetch precious water. When an uncommonly long drought threatens everything they know, Virginio and Sisa must decide whether to stay and maintain their traditional way of life or admit defeat and move to the city with their descendants. Their dilemma is precipitated by the arrival of their grandson Clever, who comes to visit with news. The three of them must face, each in their own way, the effects of a changing environment, the importance of tradition, and the meaning of life itself. (Watch the trailer.)

This visually jaw-dropping debut feature by photographer-turned-filmmaker Alejandro Loayza Grisi is lensed by award-winning cinematographer Barbara Alvarez (Lucretia Martel’s The Headless Woman).

We open Utama Friday at the Royal. Loayza Grisi and producer Santiago Loayza Grisi will participate in Q&As after the 7:30 PM screenings on Friday and Saturday, November 11 and 12. Moderators: Friday – Carlos Aguilar (Los Angeles Times, New York Times); Saturday – Katie Walsh (Los Angeles Times, The Wrap).

“Sublime. From the breathtaking opening shot… the film looks unlike anything else.” – Variety

“Meditative and deeply romantic. Rarely has the [climate] crisis been addressed as organically—or with quite so many llamas.” – RogerEbert.com

“Visually stunning… combines magical realism with gorgeously precise cinematography. The images conjured in Utama momentarily let us into the language of the unknown, of what we can not comprehend unless we are as in tune with the land as those whose existence is so deeply tied to it.” – IndieWire

Utama is one of several Best International Oscar competitors that we’re already screening, with more to come, including:

Holy Spider (Denmark)
Decision to Leave (South Korea) This one ends Thursday, though we’ll probably bring it back if it gets an Oscar nomination.
EO (Poland)
Return to Seoul (Cambodia)
Corsage (Austria)
Alcarras (Spain)
Last Film Show (India)
Cinema Sabaya (Israel)
Saint Omer (France)
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Broker will not be Japan’s submission but we’re going to show it anyway, of course!

LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S BLACK & BLUES: Experience an unprecedented look into the life of the founding father of jazz.

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We are honored to open Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, the new bio-doc that offers an intimate and revealing look at the world-changing genius musician. Presented through a lens of archival footage and never-before-heard home recordings and personal conversations, this definitive documentary, directed by Sacha Jenkins, honors Armstrong’s legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States. The film shows how Armstrong’s own life spans the shift from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, and how he became a lightning rod figure in that turbulent era. Screenings begin Friday, October 28 at the NoHo.
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“Sacha Jenkins is undaunted by the complexity of his subject, plunging ahead with swagger and not worrying if we have unanswered questions at the end. A delightful experience for jazz buffs and more than an eye-opener for any youngsters who barely know who Armstrong was.” ~ John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
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“A doc that will make you appreciate Armstrong, the man. Someone far too complex to reduce to any one thing.” ~ Christian Blauvelt, indieWire
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“Like one of Armstrong’s great solos, it feels packed with dynamics, sprinkled with astonishing high notes, and immensely pleasurable.” Leslie Felperin, The Guardian
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“The magical sounds Satchmo created gave people joy and so will this deeply affecting bio/doc.” ~ Dwight Brown, DwightBrownInk.com
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“The director’s spelunking of the film archives is amazing.” Ty Burr, Ty Burr’s Watch List