Brandon Cronenberg follows up his 2020 sci-fi stunner Possessor with another carnival of grotesque delights in Infinity Pool. Conducting a brand new phantasmagoria of bloody satire and goopy violence, the younger Cronenberg pushes stars Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth to uproarious new extremes. It’s a sick blast. Minor spoilers ahead…

Kyle Edward Ball delivers one of the scariest movies of the decade with a lo-fi stunner that reaches into the crevices of vestigial instinct. Uncanny in its ability to bottle the ineffable childhood dread of past-your-bedtime nightmares, Skinamarink mines a whole new mode of horror from its swirling grain, sinister corners, and dark spaces. Minor spoilers ahead…

After two-plus years floundering in the pandemic, it seems that the film industry is finally regaining its legs. This year, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water blasted off, the Daniels’ multiverse-hopping stunner Everything Everywhere All at Once was the sleeper hit of the year, and old masters in their late eras such as Steven Spielberg and David Cronenberg returned in top form. It might have been harder than ever to whittle down a top ten in 2022, but it was an absolute delight to journey through the year’s cinema. Here are my 10 favorite movies of 2022, along with some honorable mentions:

Netflix and its sagging subscriptions, Warner Bros. Discovery with anti-art tyrant David Zaslav at the helm, Disney’s Bob-for-Bob change in leadership. With cancellations, guttings, and a sprinkling of corporate tumult, 2022 seemed to find the streaming apparatus in dire straits. But even amidst the chaos and fumbles, this year’s television was an embarrassment of riches: from a Game of Thrones revival and Better Call Saul’s final bow to new stunners such as Severance and Pachinko, it seemed like great TV was around every corner. I didn’t get to review as much television as I would have liked in 2022, but here were some of my favorites of the year:

Avatar: The Way of Water is the most compassionate blockbuster of our time. A dazzling gallery frame around cinematic technology in the hands of one James Cameron, its wild spectacle, unbelievable detail, and technical wizardry will blast the eyeballs out of your sockets, but its honest and sincere undercurrents just might be its secret weapon. Like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water is an essential theatrical experience. This film was viewed in IMAX 3D with variable frame rates and reviewed accordingly. Minor spoilers ahead…

The superstar team of Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, and Janusz Kaminski ripping another one out of the park is the least surprising development at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The entirety of Spielberg’s being splashed upon the big screen, The Fabelmans sidesteps the treacly sentimentality of your typical autobiography to deliver a moving form of self-therapy: the legendary director’s heart and soul, delivered through his masterful craft. The Fabelmans is Spielberg’s most personal film, and one of the year’s best. Minor spoilers ahead…

Ryan Coogler pulls it out of the fire with the overstuffed, gorgeously wrenching Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. A powerful tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman combined with Marvel myth-making at its most thoughtful, the film admirably attempts to fill an irreparable void left by its star’s untimely passing. Wakanda Forever strikes sometimes delicate, sometimes clumsy balance between an all-caps comic book movie and an intimate tour through the stages of grief. Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Tenoch Huerta are the most formidable trifecta Marvel has seen in years. Minor spoilers ahead…

Happy Halloween! There’s nothing quite like the words “Guillermo del Toro curates an anthology” to stoke a horror fan’s anticipation. Cabinet of Curiosities, del Toro’s attempt to assemble an all-star roster of genre voices, is as consistently wonderful and gruesome as anthologies get. With creeping eldritch terror, nasty alien infestations, and gothic creature features, Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities has remarkably few duds and more than its fair share of bangers. It’s the perfect way to spend your All Hallow’s Eve. Minor spoilers ahead…

The long-gestating Black Adam, whose association with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson long predates the DC Extended Universe itself, is finally here. Exactly what’s described on its tin, the film never really fulfills Johnson’s hyperbolic overpromise of “changing the hierarchy of power of the DC Universe,” but there’s a fleet charm in its unapologetic goofiness and blunt-force alacrity. An uneven rebuttal of black and white superhero morality, Black Adam successfully — and at times sloppily — juggles its brutality and crowd-pleasing action; it’s a classic superhero team-up in a mixed bag. Minor spoilers ahead…

“The closer you look, the harder you fall.” Park Chan-wook cross-pollinates a police procedural with a swooning, femme fatale romance and it’s every bit as good as you think it will be. Swirling around two lost souls navigating a web of murder, deceit, and desire to desperately cling to their perverse affair, Decision to Leave is a sensual puzzle box — and one of the year’s best films. Tang Wei is sensational. Minor spoilers ahead…

Director Todd Field’s first film in over 16 years, Tár follows a polymath maestro as her career implodes by her own hand. A stark, thorny confrontation of the ego and arrogance that come hand-in-hand with genius, the stunning devolution of Lydia Tár is abetted by one of the great director-actor pairings. Minor spoilers ahead…

Director Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin, a darkly comedic portrait of an imploding friendship amidst mounting pettiness. Men and their decimated kinships unraveled upon the screen, richly textured and frequently uproarious, it’s McDonagh at his best as he explores evaporating bonds, crushing loneliness, and enmity in grotesque escalation. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are unsurprisingly in top form in what will likely be my favorite film of the year. Minor spoilers ahead…

Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde’s thoroughly mediocre followup to her 2019 directorial debut Booksmart, is buoyed by its dazzling below-the-line craft and a handful of electric performances. Florence Pugh and Chris Pine shine with arresting magnetism, but their contributions are mostly illusory: This story of a concealed malevolence lurking underneath a patriarchal “paradise” is, unfortunately, only skin deep. Minor spoilers ahead…

A knock-down-drag-out battle of wits within the confines of a hotel room, Zachary Wigon’s Sanctuary is a two-handed chamber piece for the ages. Sexy, twisted, and eager to draw blood, the film explores the whirlwind disintegration of a relationship that slowly chips away at the barriers between fantasy and reality, class and control. One of my favorites of the festival. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of notable films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for 2022’s TIFF: Devotion, The Whale, My Policeman, and Sick. Minor spoilers ahead…

Coverage of TIFF’s Midnight Madness begins here! The Golden Age of Hollywood meets the bloody end of a pitchfork, Ti West’s colorful prequel is the perfect companion piece to this year’s X. Expanding Mia Goth’s performance into an unhinged showcase with a jaw-dropping, single-take monologue, Pearl leaves behind the grimy 70s porn slasher for the pastures of a technicolor nightmare. Spoilers for X and minor spoilers for Pearl ahead…

Detective Benoît Blanc is back in another intricate whodunit in Rian Johnson’s sprawling sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. A new location, a new mystery, and a new cabal of suspicious, bumbling elites are at the center of yet another murder, and it’s up to the world-renowned gumshoe to solve the case. Glass Onion is frantic and far from the airtight elegance of its predecessor, but Johnson’s wit and craft remain electrifyingly. Frequently surprising, frequently uproarious, this is one mystery you won’t want revealed ahead of time. Minor spoilers ahead…

The secrets to Zach Cregger’s Barbarian have been closely guarded since its premiere at San Diego Comic-Con in July, and for good reason: There are some nasty tricks hiding in this basement. Gore-hounds and squirm-fiends with appetites for sick thrills will have a great time with the film’s surprisingly funny descent into madness, but Barbarian’s fizzling atmosphere and payoffs make it this year’s not-quite-Malignant. Minor spoilers ahead…