Every year is a good year for dramatic movies, but it was only in 2022 that we saw the return of an 80’s hit movie in such a dramatic fashion it took the world by storm. On the other end of the spectrum, Batman is back and still a subject for great movies, and Pinnochio was back twice in the past year, but only one of those movies has made our list.

Here are our picks for the Top 5 Drama Films of 2022.

– Dylan Blight

5.) Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson

2022 was oddly the year of Pinocchio. First, there was the Russian-made and thoroughly memed Pinocchio: A True Story, then Disney’s forgettable live-action remake and finally, and easily the best of the bunch, there is Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. The film is absolutely stunning, with so much love and care put into its stop-motion animation. You only need to have seen any picture of Guillermo del Toro holding a Pinocchio figure to see how much this means to him.

Del Toro reworks the classic tale of a wooden boy who comes to life to make it entirely his own. Setting in the film in Italy during the period between the two world wars adds interesting new elements to the story as does the idea of Pinocchio being an immortal entity. While Pinocchio has been considered a children’s story, Del Toro adds many elements to his version that are sure to go over kids’ heads or have them asking serious questions like why do they want Pinocchio to fight or who the hell is Mussolini? An absolutely rollercoaster ride of a story beautifully brought to life in the only medium it could be: animation.

– Ashley Hobley

4.) Spencer

Pablo Larrain

I could have nearly put Spencer up for one of the best horror movies of 2022. The film is filled with such a tightrope of suspense that every twang feels like it could uproot the entire royal family, which is the point. Spencer chronicles Diana’s weekend with the royals before her deciding to leave Charles. This film paints Diana as a bird trapped in a nest of vicious predators, with The Queen sitting as the leader of would-be spiders.

– Dylan Blight

3.) The Batman

Matt Reeves

Whenever we think we’re getting sick of Batman films, someone comes along and gives the DC superhero a fresh makeover, and we’re all strapped in and ready for a new trilogy of films. That’s what Matt Reeves did with Robert Pattinson in The Batman. A film that takes the detective part of Batman and brings it to the screen as we’ve never seen before. As if inspired by Se7en and Zodiac, The Batman follows Bruce as he tracks down The Riddler, this time portrayed as a violent and sadistic serial killer. It’s dark, brooding, and gives very little to Bruce Wayne in a film that commits to showing that Wayne is the mask, while The Batman is who Bruce Wayne truly is. 

– Dylan Blight

2.) Top Gun: Maverick

Joseph Kosinski

Top Gun: Maverick was the action event this year, if not the cinematic event of the year. With Tom Cruise returning to play Maverick after 36 years, it would have been easy to just play on nostalgia with some CGI plane sequence and a round of volleyball. But what Crusie and director Joseph Kosinski did instead was make a modern-day action masterpiece, doing things no other film has done, like sticking all your actors in actual fighter jets to get their actual reactions to how the plane is flying.

The film is expertly crafted with Maverick given a spectacular introduction before returning to Top Gun to train the best fighter pilots in the Navy to fly an incredible crazy mission. The trainees are all excellent and unique, adding their own flavour and tension, ensuring this isn’t just the Tom Cruise show. From the selfish and arrogant Hangman to the only female pilot of the bunch Pheonix and her Weapons officer Bob to Rooster, the son of Maverick’s best friend Goose, who has a strained relationship with Maverick due to past deeds, the crop of younger actors hold their own and prove their worth.

Add a sweet courtship between Maverick and Jennifer Connelly’s Penny, a pitch-perfect appearance by Val Kilmer as Ice-Man and the most thrilling final 45-minutes of a film in recent memory and you have a film that is the new benchmark for the legacy sequel, one that is unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon.

– Ashley Hobley

1.The Northman

Robert Eggers

Robert Egger’s Viking epic isn’t like the light-feathered and good-natured Viking movies or TV shows of recent years. It feeds off the violent nature true to history, as well as the nordic mythology that surrounds the characters and world. Alexander Skarsgard gives a perfect performance as Amleth, who has to watch his Uncle take everything from him as a kid, his father included. Obsessed with a vengeance, his quest takes him into uncharted territories, where he meets Anya Taylor-Joy’s Olga. Love awaits him, but of course, he cannot forgive and forget, and as he feels his life propels him, Amleth moves in sheep’s clothing to slowly get his revenge in one of 2022’s biggest epics.

– Dylan Blight

Dylan Blight and Ashley Hobley compiled this Top 5 list. The movies nominated must have had a theatrical release in a cinema, VOD or on a streaming platform between December 27th 2021 – December 27th 2022.