(Listing streaming/other platforms for each movie for every country is a challenge and not really possible, sorry. I recommend using justwatch.com, they have every movie, every country and most if not all platforms, and it's free)
#1 Vengeance
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Sharply written, hilariously astute and thoroughly entertaining. |
| Vengeance is a story about vengeance that very quickly gets turned on its head because it’s about so much more. The opening is pure comedy, B.J. Novak at his sit-com best. Ben (B.J. Novak) and a friend are chatting at a New York party about life, girls, podcasts, more girls, and more theorizing about life. Don’t worry you’re not supposed to like him; he’s a not bad guy but he does represent what everyone hates about New York writers – they think they’re better than everyone else. Especially Texans | 2022 Directed by: B.J. Novak Screenplay by: B.J. Novak Starring: B.J. Novak, Issa Rae, Boyd Holbrook, Ashton Kutcher, J. Smith Cameron, Lio Tipton | |
| See full review of Vengeance | ||
#2 The Fabelmans
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Profoundly moving, self-reflective, intricate work of art. |
| This is a filmmaker’s movie, and a cinephile’s movie and an everybody’s movie. The Fabelmans is not just Steven Spielberg’s most personal movie, but also his best movie. Arguably one of the world’s greatest filmmakers has just delivered his greatest work of art. It’s the level of self-reflection and detail in each moment of his 1950s-1960s adolescence that leads to a tale about the power of art in the face of hatred reflecting our modern world. | 2022 Directed by: Steven Spielberg Screenplay by: Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner Starring: Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen | |
| See full review of The Fabelmans | ||
#3 Triangle of Sadness
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Brilliant and entertaining social deconstruction. |
| If you want to summarize Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness as succinctly as possible, it’s what happens when the rich get bored – disaster. But of course the film is too perfect of a societal skewering to just make fun of rich people. There are three distinct parts. The first focuses on models Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean), two people who didn’t necessarily grow up with wealth but their physical beauty has placed them in a bubble where they have to try to reflect and capture the average person | 2022 Directed by: Ruben Östlund Screenplay by: Ruben Östlund Starring: Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Vicki Berlin, Woody Harrelson | |
| See full review of Triangle of Sadness | ||
#4 Emergency
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Smart, funny and way too real. |
| Wow. The type of movie that can take your breath away from a combination of laughter, shock and heart-breaking tragedy. Emergency is a dark comedy that can keep you laughing despite the seriousness and real world realizations of the consequences. Kunle and Sean are two Black students at university; they go from a teacher using the N-word to get ready for a night of partying to an unconscious White girl. | 2022 Directed by: Carey Williams Screenplay by: K.D. Dávila Starring: RJ Cyler, Donald Elise Watkins | |
| See full review of Emergency | ||
#5 Argentina, 1985
| Argentina, 1985 starts with a lawyer Julio Strassera (Ricardo Darín) and his family. It’s a modest house, filled with a son who adores his father, a father who hates his daughter’s new boyfriend, and a wife who thinks he needs to go easier on his daughter. But there’s a lot more going on, primarily because Julio is about to become the central figure in the most important court case in Argentina’s history. | 2022 Directed by: Santiago Mitre Screenplay by: Mariano Llinas, Santiago Mitre Starring: Ricardo Darin, Peter Lanzani | |
| See full review of Argentina, 1985 | ||
#6 Where the Crawdads Sing
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Stunning visuals and compelling story. |
| Where the Crawdads Sing is an off-the-beaten track movie and not just because the lead character Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones) lives away from society but also because of the way it lingers on the gorgeous cinematography highlighting the beauty in the natural world, and because to understand Kya in the current moment requires knowing everything that has led her here. It’s a gorgeous combination of past and present, the collaboration of art and science all wrapped up in a murder mystery when society clashes with the unknown. | 2022 Directed by: Olivia Newman Screenplay by: Lucy Alibar Based on the novel by Delia Owens Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith | |
| See full review of Where the Crawdads Sing | ||
#7 Montana Story
A quiet, thoughtful tale of past trauma.
| Montana Story blends the tranquility of a ranch on the Rocky Mountain Front with the stress of death. Cal (Owen Teague) has returned home for his father’s final days. There’s a local family who has worked on the ranch for years and cleans and takes care of the house, and now there’s a hospice worker to help the dad pass peacefully. But it’s up to Cal to find money to cover all the medical bills, figure out what to do with the last remaining animal and then sell the ranch. Until sister Erin (Haley Lu Richardson) arrives. | 2021 Directed by: Scott McGehee, David Siegel Screenplay by: Scott McGehee, David Siegel, Mike Spreter Starring: Owen Teague, Haley Lu Richardson | |
| See full review of Montana Story | ||
#8 Rogue Agent
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A slow-burn thriller and fascinating true story. |
| Rogue Agent is an unnerving and stressful but ultimately fascinating story of a man who identifies himself as an MI5 agent undercover as a car salesman, but is actually a con-man pretending to be an MI5 agent undercover as a car salesman. Correct that, a luxury car salesman. There are multiple subtle things like that which turn this from a slow-burn thriller into a fascinating tale of the human psyche and the manipulation of different people. | 2022 Directed by: Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson Screenplay by: Michael Bronner, Declan Lawn, Adam Patterson Starring: Gemma Arterton, James Norton | |
| See full review of Rogue Agent | ||
#9 Dive (La Caida)
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Captivating, compelling and important. |
| Mariel (Karla Souza) is an Olympic diver. She won the bronze medal when she was 15 and now almost a decade and a half later, she’s trying to get back there for her last chance at gold. Injuries and self-sabotage have plagued her career previously, but now the rest of the world might come crashing down with her. Dive starts with a very minimalistic feel but builds to a compelling and important story. | 2022 Directed by: Lucia Puenzo Screenplay by: Monica Herrera, Samara Ibrahim Starring: Karla Souza | |
| See full review of Dive | ||
#10 She Said
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| In 2017 when the story of Harvey Weinstein broke and #MeToo flooded headlines, I think we all knew that the Hollywood dramatization would soon be coming. It’s finally here. She Said recounts the story of the two New York Times journalists Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) investigating the decades of abuse by Weinstein and finally getting the ground-breaking article published. | 2022 Directed by: Maria Schrader Screenplay by: Rebecca Lenkiewicz Based on the story by Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor Starring: Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan | |
| See full review of She Said | ||
#11 Cha Cha Real Smooth
Balanced approach to young love.
| Cha Cha Real Smooth is filmmaker Cooper Raiff’s sophomore effort following Shithouse’s poignancy and vulnerability of a young guy starting college. Here, Raiff plays Andrew a young man just graduated from college who falls in love fast and hard, and each time it’s funny and sweet as Andrew consistently seems to be one good decision away from turning his life around. | 2022 Directed by: Cooper Raiff Screenplay by: Cooper Raiff Starring: Cooper Raiff, Dakota Johnson | |
| See full review of Cha Cha Real Smooth | ||
#12 Dinner Party
A powerful and cathartic watch.
| As all good indies do to take advantage of a minimal budget, Dinner Party occurs in just one location. A group of adults, all high school friends and their new significant others, have gotten back together for a dinner party. On the radio and TV, pundits are discussing a polarizing sexual assault case that has swept the nation. Little do they know, the friends are about to find themselves in their own sexual assault case played out at the dinner table. | 2021 Directed by: Chris Naoki Lee Screenplay by: Chris Naoki Lee, Daniel Webster Starring: Chris Naoki Lee, Kara Wang, Daniel Webster, Imani Hakim and Charles Hittinger | |
| See full review of Dinner Party | ||
#13 See for Me
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Engaging and suspenseful, an indie thriller with excellent characters. |
| See For Me is an indie thriller that absolutely delivers on story, setting and characterization. We have one main character – Sophie (Skyler Davenport). She is a former champion skier with trophies in her room. She’s currently packing with little aids like safety pins on her clothes to help guide her. Sophie is blind, and she is sick and tired of being a victim. So she tries to sneak out of her house, but her mother (also watching skiing on the TV) catches her, she’s worried about her. | 2021 Directed by: Randall Okita Screenplay by: Adam Yorke, Tommy Gushue Starring: Skyler Davenport, Jessica Parker Kennedy | |
| See full review of See for Me | ||
#14 Love You Anyway
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Unique and inventive, a powerful and beautiful tale of love and depression. |
| A character study slash romantic drama told in a format that shouldn’t work, but surprisingly does. Love You Anyway is an inventive indie drama and romance, told only through the eyes of home video (not real home videos, all fictional). If you’re like me, you’re immediately fearing a disconnected movie with hand-held footage, choppy editing and random vignettes of a young woman’s life. | 2022 Directed by: Anna Matz Screenplay by: Anna Matz Starring: Reign Edwards, Charlie Gillespie | |
| See full review of Love You Anyway | ||
#15 Run Woman Run
An enjoyable journey of love, family and language.
| In Run Woman Run, Beck (Dakota Ray Hebert) is a 30-something single mother who shares a room with her 10-year-old son and shares a house with her sister, her father and his girlfriend. Beck spends her days in her housecoat, smoking in bed, insulting her family members and driving her car to the mailbox and back as her form of exercise. | 2021 Directed by: Zoe Leigh Hopkins Screenplay by: Zoe Leigh Hopkins Starring: Dakota Ray Hebert | |
| See full review of Run Woman Run | ||
#16 The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
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Fun, funny, clever and insane. |
| With that title and a premise involving Nicolas Cage playing a version of himself caught up in the trajectory of his own career who meets a Nic Cage super fan and they agree to write a movie together and end up in a real life action plot, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is exactly as fun and insane as it sounds, and possibly funnier than you would imagine. | 2022 Directed by: Tom Gormican Screenplay by: Tom Gormican Starring: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal | |
| See full review of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent | ||
#17 Wedding Season
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A sweet, funny and charming rom-com. |
| Wedding Season is a surprising delight. After a tired fake dating premise, it becomes a genuinely funny and very charming romantic comedy. Asha (Pallavi Sharda) and Ravi (Suraj Sharma) are two well-written characters, both rebelling against their parents and their cultural upbringing, but doing so with empathy and humour and warmth. And that’s exactly what shines through in the movie. | 2022 Directed by: Tom Dey Screenplay by: Shiwani Srivastava Starring: Pallavi Sharva, Suraj Sharma | |
| See full review of Wedding Season | ||
#18 Stay the Night
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| Stay the Night stars Andrea Bang and Joe Scarpellino as two lonely people facing rejection in their professional life and turning to strangers for a night out in their personal life. Like many romances that have come before it (notably Before Sunrise) this is just about two people meeting and getting to know each other over the course of one night. A cool winter night in downtown Toronto. | 2022 Directed by: Renuka Jeyapalan Screenplay by: Renuka Jeyapalan Starring: Andrea Bang, Joe Scarpellino | |
| See full review of Stay the Night | ||
#19 A Chance Encounter
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Stay and soak in the beauty of love in Sicily. |
| A Chance Encounter is an unexpected gem of a romantic dramedy. A film that shines because of its earnestness. And yes, I did have to use that word; Hal likes making references to Oscar Wilde, and the film knows its writers. A sweet story of a musician and a poet that so easily balances the romance and the humour with the reality of grief and fear because it doesn’t need to spell everything out to the audience | 2022 Directed by: Alexander Jeffery Screenplay by: Alexander Jeffery Starring: Paul Petersen, Andrea von Kampen | |
| See full review of A Chance Encounter | ||
#20 Jane
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Dark and chilling thriller. |
| Jane opens with Jane (Chloe Yu) committing suicide (don't worry, not a spoiler). Back at school, Principal Rhodes (Melissa Leo) is offering nice-sounding but meaningless platitudes about making other choices. None of the girls are listening. This is a private, all-girls school which rich families use as a jumping board for getting into Ivy League universities. | 2022 Directed by: Sabrina Jaglom Screenplay by: Sabrina Jaglom Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Chloe Bailey | |
| See full review of Jane | ||