The best Arabic alternative albums of 2022

“Top Gun: Maverick”

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller

Movies are so rarely high art, wrote longtime film critic Pauline Kael, that if we can’t appreciate high trash, viewers have very little interest. or more breathtaking – trash to find in the cinema this year than “Top Gun: Maverick”. Nor was there a movie that united the world like that. The characters won’t stay with you, nor will the story or the limited themes, but the exhilarating feeling of watching its unprecedented third act on the biggest screen possible, a propulsive and emotional testament to the power of practical effects – without talking about the magnetism of Tom Cruise, our greatest living movie star, are among the highest peaks in the history of this art form.

“Avatar: The Way of the Water”

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

It’s going to sound corny, but James Cameron, the visionary filmmaker behind “Terminator,” “Titanic” and “Aliens,” wants to change the world with the “Avatar” franchise. The first was a scathing treatise on extractive colonialism, endless war, and environmental catastrophe hidden beneath a beautifully animated children’s film about blue people from another planet. The second is no different, this time shifting its empathy towards sea creatures. Most magical of all, the films are so entertaining, so well crafted and acted, with such inspired storytelling throughout, that you never feel lectured. Instead, you come home wondering how a silent space whale named Payakan ended up becoming the best movie character of the year. Drop your cynicism at the door, “Avatar” is transcendent storytelling.

‘Barbaric’

Director: Zach Cregger

Starring: Bill Skarsgard, Georgina Campbell, Justin Long

What “Psycho” did for showers, the hit horror movie “Barbarian” did for AirBnB. It begins with a woman arriving late at night at the house she has booked to find a man who is already staying inside. He too has a reservation – his own from a competing app. Let’s both stay for the night, they decide. What’s the worst that can happen? While things don’t go as planned for the two tenants, this is a film best left with as few words as possible, full of some of the scariest moments – as well as some of the funniest. – found in a film in recent memory, often simultaneously. Jordan Peele is perhaps the best comedian-turned-horror director, Zach Cregger, a former sketch comedian himself, gave him his money’s worth from the get-go.

“The Banshees of Inisherin”

Director: Martin McDonagh

Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan

Following the success of “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” British-Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh has returned to his roots with his latest film, reuniting his “In Bruges” (2008) stars Farrell and Gleeson in a comedic drama that finds a man (Gleeson) in the throes of an existential crisis and his kind-hearted best friend (Farrell) watching his life crumble in his wake. As the performances make the film sing – with Farrell once again proving he truly is one of the finest actors of his generation and rising star Keoghan showing why the world’s best directors keep hiring him – c It’s a story that lingers in the mind long after, as its painfully relatable characters navigate feelings they don’t fully understand.

‘Take the road’

Director: Panah Panahi

With: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak

To describe “Hit the Road” – the feature debut of Iranian filmmaker Panah Panahi, son of acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi – without making it look like another dark and depressing window into the lives of the unfortunate is difficult. After all, this follows a son fleeing Iran to Turkey with his family driving him to the border as their terminally ill dog awaits death in the car with them and serious conversations about the more difficult aspects of their lives. . In context though, Panahi’s soft touch, quirky sense of humor and melancholic wit transform “Hit the Road” into something transcendent, with long dance sequences, absurd asides and a crescendo of hallucinatory images that follow its heartbreaking conclusion.

“Triangle of Sadness”

Director: Ruben Ostlund

With: Harris Dickinson, Dolly De Leon, Woody Harrelson

Money is power, at least in the world we have built for ourselves. But when the trappings of modern society are stripped away after an ultra-luxury cruise ship sinks, leaving a mix of its wealthiest guests stranded on an island alongside the working-class crew, power begins to assert itself very differently. The latest hilarious prank from Sweden’s most ruthless contemporary satirist is a witty sequel to his 2014 film ‘Force Majeure’, in which the male image of a father crumbles after fleeing his family during a moment of crisis. This time the spotlight is not only on the absurdities of male and female roles in society, but on society itself and how we use the trappings of the modern world to obscure our true selves.

“High-speed train”

Director: David Leitch

Starring: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Has there ever been a bigger chasm between critics and audiences than right now? Take “Bullet Train”. On Twitter, you’ll find critics and movie snobs lining up to dismiss the film as an empty star vehicle, a sub-Tarantino pastiche, or worse. Ask anyone in the real world and you’ll get a decidedly different answer. “Bullet Train” is a movie that evokes the soul-crazed action comedies of the late ’90s and early ’00s – a time when video store salespeople enthusiastically recommended under-the-radar movies, those with well-drawn characters, quirky performances, kinetic action sequences and twist-filled plots – that you’d tell your friends about too. Let the Twitter cynics make their jokes. In five years, they’ll pretend to be David Leitch fans from the start.

“The Woman King”

Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood

With: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch

Long before Wakanda, there was Dahomey, a thriving kingdom on the African continent whose power spanned centuries, powered by remarkable female warriors who ignited the spirits of their countrymen. That it took until 2022 to tell their story is a crime. That the creative powers of Viola Davis, Prince-Bythewood and their collaborators were able to squeeze it into the big-budget epic it always should have been seems like a miracle. While it boasts a career-best performance from Davis, long considered one of our finest actors, it’s far from a one-man show, with a bevy of great performers all bringing humanity and depth to characters who aren’t just one-dimensional heroes as they fight the evils they’ve committed to serve a better future.

“Bones and All”

Director: Luca Guadagnino

With: Timothée Chalamet, Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance

What if I told you that the most romantic movie of the year followed two teenage cannibals as they cross the country, unable to quell their desire for each other and their victims? If I haven’t lost you yet, you’ll find plenty to chew on in ‘Bones and All’, the latest film from the Italian filmmaker behind 2015’s ‘A Bigger Splash’ and the remake of “Suspiria” in 2018. While Chalamet is again deftly used as a scared boy pretending he’s ready to be a man, it’s Russell who steals the show with a deeply felt performance of a girl in search of the people who have abandoned her, not knowing who she can trust. See it twice; your revulsion should fade after the initial shock, leaving this film’s heart beating faster than any film in recent memory.

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