It was a tough year for film in Scotland after the Centre for Moving Image, who ran the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh’s Filmhouse and Aberdeen’s Belmont went into administration. The news cast a long shadow over this year and the future. On screen, the outlook was better, with some excellent fare as the industry continued to bounce back after COVID. We reviewed over 100 movies, including a large selection from EIFF, Glasgow Film Festival and Sundance, although when the time came to put together our top picks from the year, a lot of our writers had other ideas..
5. Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise reprised the role which helped make him a superstar in 2022’s top grossing film. It “has absolutely no right to be this good,” admitted Set The Tape back in May. “The action walks over anything present in its predecessor,” making it “a wonderfully pleasant surprise”.
4. The Banshees of Inisherin
The Skinny declared this black comedy about feuding friends on a fictional Irish island to be director’s Martin McDonagh “funniest since In Bruges” and called Colin Farrell’s performance “astounding”. “Every interaction is laced with searing wit and prickly sharpness, and self-inflicted violence adds a thrilling edge.”
3. Triangle Of Sadness
The Palme d’Or winner was this social satire, set among the super-rich aboard a super-yacht. Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s film took “paw-swipes at privilege” said The Scotsman, and “let rip with an over-the-top assault on their bubble-like existence, one enhanced by the additional micro-aggressions perpetrated against (and by) the yacht’s upstairs/downstairs crew.”
“[Frances] O’Connor’s filmed exploration of Emily Bronte has a strong cast and vivid imagery,” said Fiona Black in her October review for us. “The Brontë sisters’ writing is revered, and the film Emily enhances their myth while presenting the audience with the conundrum: what is fact and what is fiction?”
1. Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
Michelle Yeoh takes the lead in this multiverse-spanning hit. “Within it, you’ll find every genre, experience every emotion. It’s both a reflection of, and an oasis from, the incessant overstimulation of 21st-century life,” declared Empire in their five star review.