reviews, news & interviews

Saskia Baron's Top 10 Films of 2022

It’s a cruel world – and desperate refugees, dodgy doctors, drought, disease and emotional misfits lit up the screen

by Saskia BaronThursday, 15 December 2022

'The Kingdom: Exodus' - If you want to know what's going on in the hospital, ask the kitchen porters

MUBI

I struggled to find enough features this year for a top 10, probably because Covid’s long shadow made it harder for filmmakers to get interesting work on screen. But there are several documentaries with fascinating characters, untold stories, excellent cinematography (All that Breathes) and ingenious editing (Three Minutes: A Lengthening) that have been as moving and absorbing as any fiction film.

The dramas that I’ve loved have also been drawn from life, using non-professional actors (Tori and Lokita, Utama) to highlight the vile exploitation of immigrants and the effects of climate change. My other favourites have been sourced from news accounts, memoirs or autofiction (Nitram, Everything Went Fine, Happening, Compartment No. 6). Even Causeway saw Jennifer Lawrence going method by immersing herself in the experiences of traumatised military veterans.

Lars von Trier is the only director with a film on my list who is working purely from his imagination, which is uniquely crepuscular as his scabrous, wickedly comic return in The Kingdom: Exodus to the haunted hospital he first occupied 28 years ago showed. Or at least I hope that its cast of medical misfits come from von Trier’s fevered brain, and that the Danish health system is not quite as populated with desperate souls as the UK's.

1. The Kingdom: Exodus

2. All that Breathes

3. Tori and Lokita

4. Happening

5. Three Minutes: A Lengthening

6. Compartment No. 6

7. Everything Went Fine

8. Nitram

9. Causeway

10. Utama

Overleaf: watch the trailer for Kingdom:Exodus here

More film reviews on theartsdesk

Support the future of arts journalism

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thanks so much for choosing genuinely independent arts journalism theartsdesk’s mission has never been more important – in an age of relentless algorithmic recommendation, sponsored content and unreliable AI, the expertise and discernment of individual critics deeply embedded in their specialist areas is absolutely vital.

If you want more of that in your life, why not subscribe now?

If you do this before the 31st August, you’ll be able to keep at this “founders rate” for life: your subs will never increase! You can choose to subscribe annually for just £40 simply click here
or monthly for £5 per month simply click here.

Not ready to subscribe?

If you want to support with a little extra or aren’t ready to subscribe just yet, there’s also the option to give direct to our crowdfunder to support our imminent redesign and exciting expansion with new features and collaborations Simply contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d.

However you choose to be involved, you can proudly say that you are picking the right side in the battle for truth and humanity in the modern information landscape. And we will be very glad to have you on board!