The Banshees of Inisherin

Unranked at the time of writing.

At the time of blogging, this is not ranked in IMDb's Top 250, although its score is high enough to be (presumably, it doesn't yet have enough regular American voters), and it certainly deserves to be.

2022 has been an amazing year of film for me: there has been not just one - not even two - but three contenders for new all-time faves. The third being this one, in case that wasn't clear...

I like a lot of film in my film. Many of my favourites are dense and dizzying (check out some of my top picks in the sidebar to the right). But I have a huge amount of admiration for a film that takes a simple premise and sticks to it with absolute purity. In this case, the simple premise is: in a small Irish community, 1920s, one character decides he no longer wants to be friends with his best friend. That's it. That's the whole film right there. And it's thoughtful, moving, beautiful, gentle, shocking, and - for all its darkness - surprisingly funny.

Writer-director Martin McDonagh previously paired these two leads, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, in his debut feature In Bruges from 2008, which stood out as a memorably quirky black comedy. In the intervening years, McDonagh - primarily a playwright - has refined his filmmaking craft, while keeping a firm hold on his darkly twisted sense of humour.

I hope this film gets the audience, and recognition, it richly deserves.

Top Gun: Maverick

#45 at the time of writing.

I recently had the best week in cinema I've had in 20 years, having seen two mind-blowing smash hits back to back: Everything Everywhere All At Once, and this action masterpiece.

I haven't re-watched the original Top Gun for many years, and I don't think you need to have watched it at all to enjoy this sequel. (I suspect the original has aged - I seriously doubt it could be as exhilarating as this new incarnation.) I mean, sure, it's military propaganda, and it stars Tom Cruise whose dodgy Scientology connections have apparently included the perk of having been preserved in aspic for the last 35 years, but it's the most thrilling action film since Mad Max: Fury Road - or, perhaps, since ever.

You definitely want to see this on as big as screen as possible. It is incredible how face-meltingly well the G-forces have been captured as we go along for the ride in those fighter jets, preparing for a wonderfully improbable Death Star trench run.

And the emotional beats are well pitched, both in-story and meta - from the nostalgic nods to the original film's homoerotic brand of machismo, to seeing Val Kilmer on screen despite his acting career having been ended by throat cancer (he cannot talk at all, and his few lines in this film are emulated by an AI).

Took my breath away.