The best movies of 2022

Listener reviewers SARAH WATT and RUSSELL BAILLIE choose their picks for the best films of the year.

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ATHENA

Delivered with virtuosic action choreography, this film about the battle between overzealous cops and outraged residents of a council immigrant housing estate made for an explosive French urban thriller and political drama. (Netflix)

C'MON C'MON

The chemistry between Joaquin Phoenix's carefree uncle and the impressionable pre-teen nephew (a stunning Woody Norman) whom he's forced to babysit as they criss-cross the US made this one of the year's most genuinely heart-warming offerings.

(VOD) DAME VALERIE ADAMS: MORE THAN GOLD

The first feature documentary about a New Zealand sportswoman was an absorbing portrait of the shot-put great; one that showed just what it takes to be able to be the best at hurling a 4kg steel ball 20 or so metres; and one that showed why Adams devoted herself to being so good at it from childhood to motherhood. (Cinemas)

DECISION TO LEAVE 

This Korean noir won Park Chan-wook the Best Director gong at Cannes before it won over audiences worldwide with its gripping, twisting mystery romance about an insomniac detective cop who falls for the widow he suspects might have killed her husband. (Cinemas)

DRIVE MY CAR

An adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, this unhurried Japanese film about the burgeoning friendship between a troubled theatre director and the young woman hired as his driver was surprisingly affecting and thought-provoking. A compelling meta-examination of how humans connect across the barriers of language, age and distrust. (VOD, Rialto Channel)

ELVIS