1) Watcher Maika Monroe is our greatest scream queen.
2) God’s Country My favorite tragedy of the year.
3) The Northman Wish this was a fall release. Where’s the love?
4) Resurrection Makes Uncut Gems feel like ASMR.
5) RRR The best three hours you’ll spend at the movies this year.
6) The Banshees of Inisherin McDonagh turns in the best work of his career.
7) The Innocents Never trust children. Any of them.
8) Top Gun: Maverick So good we’re not even pretending it’s overhyped.
9) Kimi It made me start doing Zoë Kravitz’s hand sanitizer wave thing.
10) Don’t Worry Darling Patience, little ones. This movie will have its moment in the sun.
Near Misses: Prey, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Do Revenge, Montana Story
Most Overrated: Moonfall
Most Underrated: Montana Story, God’s Country
Wild Card: Could’ve easily had only horror films on this list – was an incredible year for horror.
Acting Kudos (Male): Ram Charan (RRR), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brandon Perea (Nope)
Acting Kudos (Female): Rebecca Hall (Resurrection), Thandiwe Newton (God’s Country), Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Best Director: Robert Eggers (The Northman), S.S. Rajamouli (RRR), Jordan Peele (Nope)
Best Original Screenplay: Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Julian Higgins, Shaye Ogbonna (God’s Country)
TV Series/Event: It was Station Eleven. It will always be Station Eleven.
Worst Film: Eventually, we’ll agree that Moonfall wasn’t good-bad, we were just hungry for movies.
The Little Film That Could: Shudder’s Deadstream was the biggest little surprise of 2022.
This article appears in December 16 • 2022.