1. "Women Talking." I worry about the movies tackling beloved books, especially if they're by the great Canadian novelist Miriam Toews. But writer/director Sarah Polley was the ideal person to craft this searing, disarmingly funny tale of abused Mennonite women who think they must choose between God and their lives.
2. "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On." It must have been tricky to figure out how to transition the star of viral animated shorts into the centerpiece of a feature, but creators/stars Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp made a hilarious, moving gem.
3. "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed." The year's finest nonfiction film combines: a portrait of art photographer Nan Goldin, a deep dive into her troubled family, an investigation into the misdeeds of philanthropists/OxyContin manufacturers the Sackler family and a triumphant campaign to get art museums to do the right thing.
4. "Fire of Love." For most of the year, this was the best documentary. "Beauty" edged it out, but it's a stunner about a couple who got their kicks by studying volcanoes from way, way too close.
5. "The Batman." Sometimes you think you don't need a movie until it arrives, full of wit, surprises and a magnetic new guy in the cowl.
6. "Nope." Jordan Peele ("Get Out") does it again with a lively comedic drama about a trio (Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun) who has a close encounter of the third kind.
7. "Decision to Leave." You may have missed this one in theaters, but you'll likely hear more about it when Oscar nominations are announced in January. The South Korean thriller is modeled on "Vertigo," in which a detective falls for a suspect and maybe doesn't care if she's a murderer.
8. "Thirteen Lives." The second Colin Farrell movie on this list (he's the Penguin in "The Batman") is Ron Howard's inspiring, fact-based look at the rescue of teenage soccer players stuck in a flooded cave in Thailand. (Farrell had a crazily consistent year. He's also in the fine "The Banshees of Inisherin" and "After Yang.")
9. "Everything Everywhere All at Once." Michelle Yeoh is astonishing as a laundromat owner who lands in a multiverse where she's sometimes other people, including a tough-talking secret agent.
10. "Master." My favorite 2022 horror movie is a slow burner about a new administrator at a remote boarding school (Regina Hall, outstanding) who discovers that its long-buried history of racism never went away.
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