by This list has been compiled by the Guardian film team, with all films released in the UK during 2022 in contention. Check in each weekday to see our next picks, and feel free to share your own favorite movies from 2022 in the comments section below.
50
Ward No. 6
Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen helms this response to Before Sunrise, about an archeology student who shares a train compartment with a dodgy Russian; the pair connect despite their differences. Read the full review
49
Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise returns nearly four decades after another installment of Speed and Need: this time, he mentors a new generation of Navy fighter pilots, led by Miles Teller, who plays the son of Maverick’s late wingman, Goose. Read the full review
48
Paris, 13th arrondissement
The latest film from Rust and Bone director Jacques Audiard, who here puts together a short story collection of sexual encounters and relationships in Paris’ 13th arrondissement, shot in stark black and white. Read the full review
47
Happens
Golden Lion-winning abortion drama, more relevant than ever, from director Audrey Diwan; a study of a woman (played by Anamaria Vartolomei) who becomes pregnant in early 60s France before legalization. Read the full review
46
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Entertaining second dose of Rian Johnson’s labyrinthine crime mystery, with Daniel Craig in fine form as the Hercule Poirot-esque detective Benoit Blanc, who here investigates a murder-themed party that turns deadly. Read the full review
45
Vortex
Split-screen dementia drama from Argentinian provocateur Gaspar Noé, starring Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun as an elderly couple whose lives are haunted by the latter’s cognitive decline. Read the full review
44
The female king
Gripping period epic starring Viola Davis as the leader of the Agojie, a brigade of female warriors in West Africa trying to fend off threats from the Oyo Empire as well as from slave-buying colonialists. Read the full review
43
Brian and Charles
David Earl and Chris Hayward’s story of an inventor’s relationship with his creation mixes Caractacus Potts with Victor Frankenstein to heartwarming effect. Read the full review
42
We (Nous)
French-Senegalese filmmaker Alice Diop provides a sensitive portrayal of the diverse communities living along one of Paris’ commuter train lines in a documentary that predates her acclaimed fiction debut, Saint Omer. Read the full review
41
Everything went fine
André Dussollier and Sophie Marceau are outstanding in François Ozon’s wonderfully observed story of a father and daughter whose difficult relationship is turned around when he asks for her help in dying. Read the full review
