ALBAWABA - Being a filmmaker means tirelessly working to bring stories to life and provide spectators with endless entertainment on the one hand, and incredible work of art on the other.
And, picking the top 10 movies of the year is even harder, since Albawaba wishes to honor every movie that came out and pay homage to the brilliant minds and all the people who worked together to bring all those amazing stories into our homes and movie theaters.
After thorough considerations, we picked what we believed is the top 10 movies that came out in 2022:
1- Farha
The Jordanian production and the take of Jordanian director Darin J. Sallam on The Palestinian Nakba.
It is a controversial film that caused turmoil in Israel under the pretense that it gives the Israelis a bad rap. In Albawaba's humble opinion, the movie does not show enough about the devastating war in 1948. In fact, it is a wasted opportunity that could have displayed more on the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians during the Nakba period in particular. If anything, the movie gave a humane aspect to the inhumane acts that the Palestinians endured and still do till this moment on the hands of their Israeli occupier. Nonetheless, it is still one of the biggest movies that tell our story released this year.
2- Avatar way of the water
It has been more than a decade since James Camron's record-breaking movie Avatar was released. It changed the filmmaking scene by giving the world new motion capture technology and after what seems to be infinite delays, we are finally delighted with the sequel that instantly greenlit the fifth sequel and James Camron provides us with a mesmerizing spectacle and a continuation of the universe he created and the fight for the survival of the planet form the human invasion goes on.
3- Wakanda Forever
The sequel to Black Panther 2018, unfortunately, had to continue without the lead King T'challa (Chadwick Boseman) due to Boseman’s untimely death. Instead of recasting the character Wakanda Forever chose to honor Boseman and pass on the powers of the Black Panther and give us a more detailed view into the city of Wakanda.
4- The Batman
One of the 2022 early releases was The Batman the newest neo-noir detective story with an all-new Bruce Wayne played by non-other than Robert Pattinson. The movie gives us a glimpse of Batman in his second year after dawning the mantle and focuses on his work as a detective in the grim and crime-riddled city of Gotham with its newest incarnation from the point of view of director Matt Reeves.
5- Everything everywhere all at once
Arguably, this is one of the best movies of the year, an original story with a heartwarming mother and daughter relationship at its core, with a relatively low budget this film certainly exceeded expectations. With its beautifully choreographed fight sequences and intertwining storylines.
6- The Adam Project
It was a good couple of years for Ryan Reynolds we saw Red Notice, a free guy and his latest musical version of Charles Dickens's story spirited alongside Will Ferrell.
The Adam Project is a movie where Ryan Reynolds gave us a full dose of the Reynolds charm. Without spoiling too much he goes back in time and meets his younger self played by Walker Scobell, who is equally as hilarious as Reynolds himself. It is a fun family adventure action comedy movie with time travel and cool weapons kind of movie.
7- Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
After the smashing success of Knives Out with an ensemble cast led by Danial Craig and Ana De Armas; Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery gives us more of detective Benoit Blanc while we follow him into a new mystery that is bound to keep us guessing in this 2022 murder mystery.
8- The whale
After a 12-minute standing ovation on the whales premier for actor Brendan Fraser, this movie was on top of my watchlist and it did not disappoint. The performance that Fraser delivers is captivating and the story is emotional and melodramatic. By acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky, this movie is another medal around Aronofsky’s neck.
9- Top Gun Maverick
After more than three decades, Tom Cruise is back as Maverick, a sequel to his 1986 movie Top Gun about the elite military flight school. The movie takes full use of the 30+ years of technological advancement and filmmaking technology with an amazing stunt team and the actors flying around in fighter jets. It gave us a seat-gripping movie. The stunning imagery does not take away from the depth of the characters, especially Maverick, we can still see the remanence of the old character within an older body and above all his ability to always push boundaries much like Tom Cruise off-screen.
10- Babylon
Our last pick is a movie that will be released next week, but it is certain to make a buzz. What is a better movie to end this list other than a movie that has been said to be "a love letter to movies but a hate letter to Hollywood." Babylon is a movie about the start of the film industry in the 1920s when everything was in excess. With a star-studded cast of Brad Pitt, Margaret Robbie and Olivia Wild.
