Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2022
Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2022

Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2022
10. Deep Water
Deep Water proves the idea that you can never know what is happening inside someone else’s marriage. Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda (Ana de Armas) have a non-traditional relationship, which unfortunately has some dangerous impacts on their social life and marriage. I’m usually not interested in watching movies about terrible people being terrible, but Deep Water manages to find an interesting balance combined with a lot of suspense.

9. Triangle of Sadness
There is a sick sort of pleasure that comes from watching the extremely rich and privileged be taken down a peg. This was a common thread across many films in 2022; The Menu, Glass Onion, and Windfall, to name a few. The absurdity of the obscenely wealthy and the people that surround them is display from the first frames of Triangle of Sadness. Director Ruben Östlund doesn’t need to put an “mustard” on the scenes with the super-rich, their actions, words, and selfishness speak for themselves. Content warning: Emetophobes should take caution, a sequence in the middle of the film may be triggering, and difficult even for viewers with out emetophobia.

8. Both Sides of the Blade
The title of film depends on where it was released, but whether you take the English title and look at this as a story of two different loves or you take the French title speaking of persistence or restlessness, they all work. Sarah and Jean have been married for years but when her past lover François comes back into their lives it threatens to rock their marriage off its foundation. Juliette Binoche gives an incredible and emotional performance as Sara. Director Claire Denis puts the viewer right in the middle of this love triangle, making us an unwilling but curious participant in this messy relationship.

7. Lady Chatterley’s Lover
I love a period dramas and Lady Chatterley’s Lover is no exception. I love the drama, the costumes, and this case the forbidden romance. Lady Chatterley’s Lover shows how marriage was often a trap that women had little to no way to escape in the early 20th century, even women with access to a lot of money. If the man you hardly knew when you married him turns out to not make you happy or fulfil your needs, you didn’t have many options. Lady Chatterley’s Lover tells the story of how one woman, Connie, found her own happiness in a world that would sequester her to only the role of wife and mother.

6. Decision to Leave
Hitchcock’s influence is all over Decision To Leave but Park Chan-Wook brings his own style and tone to the film. Decision To Leave is several puzzling mysteries wrapped in a complicated romance. The film explores the difference between seeing and knowing the truth. It also shows how we are all victims of our biases and beliefs. Park Chan-Wook remains a filmmaker to watch as he continues to tell engaging and thrilling stories with both humor and an unflinching gaze.
Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2022

5. The Innocents
Writer and Director Eskil Vogt seems to be fascinated by the idea that I am going to call ‘soft superpowers’. He explored the idea in 2017’s Thelma and again here in The Innocents. A small group of four children in an apartment complex become friends and realize that they have certain abilities. While some are used to help each other, one child, uses his powers to hurt. These children are quite young and don’t really know how to handle a bully who can genuinely hurt you and your family. The Innocents shows what happens when the most innocent among us turns out to be a genuine psychopath. Content warning: there is some brief violence against animals in the film that people might find disturbing.

4. The Banshees of Inisherin
The undeniable chemistry between Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell is on glorious display in The Banshees of Inisherin. (Also on display is Farrell’s chemistry with a miniature donkey). In this savage and cutting dark comedy, we see what happens when a friendship between two grown men suddenly ends. The results are darkly funny and disturbing.

3. The Wonder
There has always been tension between science and faith. The Wonder put these two opposing forces against each other, but unfortunately the health of a child is caught in the middle. Florence Pugh plays a nurse who must determine the authenticity of a miracle, a child who does not eat is somehow living and thriving. The dark and brooding tone of the movie is accented by moments of real connection across the divide of science and faith. Florence Pugh has become an actor that I can always rely on for interesting work. Even if the film she is in doesn’t blow me away (Don’t Worry Darling, for example) she is always fascinating and brings an intensity to the screen that I find captivating to watch.

2. The Swimmers
Swimmers is an incredible story based on real events about two Syrian sisters, Yusra and Sara, fleeing to Germany with the hope of evacuating the rest of their family from Syria as the bombing and conflict rages on there. Like so many people, I watched the news reports about what was happening in Syria and was deeply sad and troubled, but Swimmer gives a face and a name and a story to what was really happening there and the ongoing plight of refugees. We see their difficult journey as refugees across Europe and eventually even to the Rio Olympics. Director Sally El Hosaini has a true gift for narrative storytelling, and I am eager to watch her career progress.

1. After Yang
As the line between humanity and technology thins and blurs, it makes sense that filmmakers continue to explore what separates man from machine. A key question asked by After Yang is what a single memory from every day of an AI’s life can tell us about machines. After Yang is a beautiful film the meditates on the human condition and what family really means.
Sarah’s Top Ten Films of 2022