It’s not been your standard, regular, common-or-garden year at the movies so far. The slate of big new movies remains a little (okay, a lot) skinnier than usual and release dates have continued to shift, with more than one big release decamping to the safer surrounds of 2023.
But this year has still been an often crowd-pleasing, occasionally electrifying six months so far. From awards picks like Parallel Mothers to virtuoso indie gems like British chef thriller Boiling Point, to popcorn perfection like RRR and Top Gun: Maverick, there’s been much to celebrate.
Here’s our best of the best of the year to date.
11 Turning Red
Awkwardly, no Pixar film had been solo directed by a female filmmaker until Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Domee Shi came along with this cute-as-buttons creature feature about a 13-year-old girl who turns into a red panda when big emotions come knocking. It’s based on her own childhood – okay, not the panda part – and comes freighted with the authentic growing pains of adolescence. The only pity is that it went straight to Disney+, because its surprisingly Godzilla-esque climax would have looked epic on the big screen.
What we said: ‘Its boldest move is tackling female childhood in such a candid, empathetic way.’
10 Boiling Point
Proving that he can do just about anything, Stephen Graham fuels this terrific one-take drama with skittish, sweaty energy as a chef on the edge in a buzzy London restaurant – all while shucking oysters like a pro. As an advertisement for getting into the hospitality industry, it’s pure nightmare fuel. As a viewing experience, it’s a thrilling watch that left everyone who caught it feeling rinsed out like a kitchen sink at the end of a dinner service.
What we said: ‘Stephen Graham and Vinette Robinson help make this the best kind of worst ever restaurant trip.’
9 Elvis
The trailers made it look a little, well, hammy, but Baz Luhrmann’s ode to the King turns out to be a hip-shaking and hypnotic experience. Is it occasionally over-the-top? Yup. Are the maximalist visuals a lot to absorb over two-and-a-half hours? Sure. Does Tom Hanks’ waxy, fat-suited version of Colonel Parker seem to be in danger of melting from contact with the nearest bright light? That too. But for all its flaws, Elvis is an irresistible night at the pictures: a more-is-more collage of music, history and Presley pilgrimage that’s lit up by the spectacular Austin Butler.
What we said: ‘Just when Baz Luhrmann’s hyper-stylised visions were starting to feel played out, he delivers his best film for 20 years.’
9 A Hero
A kind of Iranian Ken Loach, Asghar Farhadi is a master at weaving thorny morality tales into a wider social framework. This Cannes hit is another probing look at life in a hierarchical, judgmental society. Its protagonist, Ramin, emerges from imprisonment for bankruptcy and finds a shot at redemption in the form of 17 gold coins found by his girlfriend. Does he do the right thing or milk the situation for financial or social capital? The genius of A Hero is in the ways Farhadi finds to turn this basic moral dilemma into a nightmarish Gordian knot that shows up a malfunctioning social order for what it is.
What we said: ‘It’s a superb morality play that keeps us guessing right to its powerful final shot.’
7 Belle
‘It’ girls, grieving high-schoolers and cyber dragons collide in Mamoru Hosoda’s dazzling anime skew on ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The tunes are banging, the visuals eye-popping and the ideas, exploring life as a digital native and the oldies who forlornly try to help Gen Zers navigate it, richly conceived. The Japanese animation master has come a long way since being fired as director on Howl’s Moving Castle.
What we said: ‘It’s high time to mention Studio Chizu in the same breath as Studio Ghibli, because this one is an absolute feast.’
6 Everything Everywhere All at Once
Somewhere out there is a small but fanatical posse that holds Swiss Army Man on their shoulders as an unheralded classic. For the rest of us, this high-concept multiversal sci-fi is the first proper showcase of what directing duo the Daniels could do. With Michelle Yeoh launching from laundromat owner going through marital strife – basically a Mike Leigh character – to action star and back again, and then into a multitude of other adventures, Everything Everywhere All At Once does exactly what the titles implies and sends you spinning through time and space in exhilarating style.
What we said: ‘The Daniels juggle silly gags and weird visuals like cackling Dadaists.’
5 Happening
Audrey Diwan’s tumultous, hard-hitting drama is not for the faint hearted – it goes further than Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake in depicting this bleak world – but it’s a gripping story of a pregnant student. Anamaria Vartolomei makes a luminous heroine full of gritty determination.
What we said: ‘An atmospheric, gripping drama full of poignant contemporary relevance.’
4 The Worst Person in the World
Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve is the heart and soul of this touching and inventive account of one millennial life that unfolds over several years in Oslo. Very much not the worst person in the world, her medical student-turned-writer is a perfect avatar for the uncertainties and confusions of young adulthood: a whole mess of conflicting thoughts, moments of directionless and emotional rawness that feels endlessly relatable. And her showstopping run through a freeze-framed city is possibly the movie moment of the year so far.
What we said: ‘Any film that can combine questions of mortality with funny, fully alive scenes of social awkwardness, professional mess-ups and throwaway fun is a rich one.’
3 Parallel Mothers
Pedro Almodóvar gets serious with this poignant investigation of Spain’s buried Civil War trauma, although without ever sacrificing his light touch and delight in giddying melodrama. Penélope Cruz lights it all up like a starburst, with her performance as a new mum caught up in a case of mistaken identity in the maternity ward a career high, even by her own lofty standards. In a just world, she would have picked up her second Oscar for it.
What we said: ‘Entering Almodóvar’s world is a pleasure, even when we’re faced with pain and tough lessons.’
2 The Northman
‘A widescreen rallying cry for cinema in the age of streaming’. So read Time Out’s admittedly fairly breathless appraisal of Robert Eggers’ brilliant, blood-soaked Viking epic when it landed in (smashed into? Ransacked?) cinemas in April. But the sentiment stands, because in an age increasingly dominated by streaming sites, The Northman is a useful reminder that the place to witness the grandest, boldest cinematic visions is on the biggest screen possible – and unless you live in an IMAX, that won’t be in your front room.
What we said: ‘Thank Odin for Robert Eggers and his mad, brilliant, violent, hypnotic, trippy Viking opus.’
1 Top Gun: Maverick
Okay, hands up who saw this practically flawless blockbuster coming? A few people probably did – this long-in-the-making Top Gun sequel was originally due out two years ago – but that enforced delay detracts not one iota from the purest widescreen thrill ride of the year so far. Tom Cruise’s ace pilot provides heart, soul and some fighter jet manoeuvres that we’re pretty sure defy every law of physics in the book. Mind you, the book gets binned early (and literally) in this one, to reinvent the so-called ‘legacy sequel’ into something that soars way above hollow Hollywood cash-ins.
What we said: ‘Tom Cruise owns a crowd-thrilling sequel that easily surpasses the original.’
