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In a year when all of the ten highest grossing films have been sequels (with the possible exception of Wicked), I take some pride that only two of my favourites (one of you don’t include Wicked) are. Despite what the ticket sales suggest original film making is thriving and these twelve months as much as any others have given us some brilliant examples. 

Number 10 is not a movie I got round to writing a full review for but it’s a great example of how, in the right hands, a fairly standard set up can lead to something really exceptional. Netflix’s Rebel Ridge is about an ex-Marine who is trying to live a quite life until be meets some corrupt cops who just push him too far. It sounds trite but it is actually a gripping story that constantly goes in directions you wouldn’t expect. 

Number 9 in my films of the year is a huge, extravagant cinematic spectacle that leans on decades of filmic (and theatrical) history and when these work they are really fun. It’s a women’s story too which I always dig. This is where Wicked has landed on my list. Read my full review here.

Following Wicked comes another big blockbuster movie, and the other sequel. I liked Dune Part One but wanted to wait to see how it all ended before I made a proper call on it. (That film placed 32 on my 2021 ranking.) Dune 2 brought it to a conclusion brilliantly though and even though it still closed on a cliffhanger, together they tell an epic and engaging story. The film’s secret weapon is Zendaya though, she brings humanity to the whole thing where it is much needed. Perhaps if she’d been in the first one more I’d have been convinced earlier. Read more here.

Number 7 on my list is Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla. Her dad might have gone a bit bonkers as a filmmaker but she is still at the top or her game telling women’s stories in a subtle but powerful way, as she does with this film which brings Priscilla Presley out from the shadow of the man she has been under since 1967. Cailee Spaeny’s central performance is also brilliant and we’ll come back to her further up the list (no, Alien: Romulus is not in my top ten). Review here.

Poor Things was released in the UK on 12th and I said back then that I was sure it would feature as one of my movies of the year. Well, sure enough here it is at number 6. I can see it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I loved it; this is truly original and inspired film making of the absolute highest order, made with precise judgement but no compromise, and that is a really good thing. See what I said back in January here.

Number 5 in my films of the year list is one that I suspect passed a lot of people by but it is sitting right there on Netflix for everyone to see. It’s What’s Inside is a smart body swap movie that plays on the expectations of that as a sub genre, deals with some of the questions this poses but that other films are afraid to address, and works through to a highly satisfying ending. Search it out and read more here.

Fourth from top on my films of the year list is French director Jacques Audiard’s musical crime drama Emilia Pérez which is somehow both like and unlike anything you have seen before. It is the way it combines its contrasting elements that make it exceptional but each component part is also great by itself. The film media is predicting an Oscar nomination for Zoe Saldana as Supporting Actress which is a bit nuts as she is clearly the lead but someone is evidently clearing the way for Karla Sofía Gascón to make history as the first trans woman to win Best Actress. Any victory for either of them would be deserved. Read my review here.

My Number 3 movie is Challengers. This film was so much more than I expected it to be. The narrative control is just brilliant and the characterisation riveting. This is Zendaya again and like Selena Gomez who gives the other great performance in Emilia Pérez, she has totally moved on from her Disney Channel career origins in a way people like Jenna Ortega, Sabrina Carpenter and Vanessa Hudgens still haven’t (although perhaps not as resoundingly as Bella Thorne). Read more here.

As is often the case I have gone back and forth on my number one and two but I have settled on it this way round. In second place then is the blisteringly powerful piece of cinema The Zone of Interest. This film is nothing short of incredible and a pure work of art, handling its heartbreaking material with such mastery. It makes you wonder what could possibly beat it. Read my review here.

As I said at the start, this is a list of my favourite films not necessarily the ten best and I think it is this that has kept Zone of Interest off the top. That’s not to say Alex Garland’s movie Civil War is not excellent or an easy watch. Back in April this story of an American President who revoked the 22nd Amendment and pushed his country into internal conflict was a fantasy, but let’s see how the next four years go. Either way this is a brilliant war film in the setting familiar from every other Hollywood genre but this one. The performances from Kirsten Dunst, Priscilla’s Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson are superb but it is the incredible writing and direction from Garland that make it what it is. Read my review and the full reasons why it is my film of the year here.