Madness, introspection, and childhood trauma all feature in the best films of 2022: a good year for delving deep. Triangle of Sadness is over-the-top, cathartic lunacy – don’t see it before going on a cruise – while The Banshees of Inisherin and Nope are marvellously mad in their own ways.
The Quiet Girl, Playground and Petite Maman, all films of great beauty, are focused on the difficulties of growing up, as, in a more extreme way, is Nitram, the story of a mass-shooter whose parents are powerless in the face of their deeply disturbed son. And The Wonder, a strange, beautifully lit story of a young girl who can apparently live on air alone, boils down, again, to family trauma, abuse, and shame.
1. Triangle of Sadness
2. The Quiet Girl
3. Nitram
4. Playground
5. Nope
6. Bergman Island
7. The Banshees of Inisherin
8. Petite Maman
9. The Wonder
10. Licorice Pizza