1. LIVING (12A, 102 mins)
Relocated from post-war Japan to London by screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro, Living is Oliver Hermanus's quietly heart-wrenching English-language remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 drama Ikiru.
Bill Nighy is brilliant as a widowed career bureaucrat who receives a diagnosis of terminal stomach cancer and finally acknowledges the emptiness of his existence just before it is cruelly snatched from him.
Hermanus's magnificent meditation on mortality savours every second of its 102-minute running time. We feel each desolating blow when the right words fail to materialise, wreaking emotional devastation in the lingering silences between characters.
2. AFTERSUN (12A, 102 mins)
Writer-director Charlotte Wells' mesmerising debut feature Aftersun elegantly explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child from the perspective of an 11-year-old girl (Frankie Corio) during a 1990s package holiday in Turkey with her idealistic divorced father Calum (Paul Mescal).
On-screen chemistry between Mescal and Corio feels authentic, emboldened by excerpts of raw handheld footage captured during the holiday on Calum's video camera that reveal chinks in his emotional armour.
Nothing is forced or manipulated and conversations unfold organically including adorable scenes between Corio and a smitten boy at the same hotel.
Some filmmakers spend entire careers striving for something this delicate and wondrous: Wells succeeds at the first attempt.
3. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (15, 109 mins)
Writer-director Martin McDonagh's deliciously barbed comedy centres on a disagreement between drinking buddies (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) which whirls sickeningly out of control on an island off the coast of 1920s Ireland as the final deafening roar of civil war reverberates across the mainland.
The Banshees Of Inisherin is a close-quarters study of fraying fraternal bonds and bruised male pride that uses violence sparingly and to devastating effect. Farrell delivers a nuanced, career-best performance as an uncomplicated man of the earth, who is rudely jolted out of a rut by the unexpected parting of ways.
He spars magnificently with Gleeson, armed with verbal grenades that cause maximum damage to their fatefully entwined menfolk.
The script lines up pints of melodic melancholy, exasperation, dismemberment and full-frontal male nudity and we enthusiastically drink the bar dry.
4. THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD (15, 128 mins)
When you don't have to tend the grass on the other side of the fence, it's bound to look lusher and greener.
The impetuous and restless millennial at the centre of Joachim Trier's exuberantly crafted comedy drama learns that lesson the hard way when she jettisons her commitment-ready older boyfriend to embark on a passionate relationship with a new man.
The Worst Person In The World is a luminous character study that stylishly concludes the writer-director's Oslo Trilogy with a series of heartfelt, bittersweet and moving vignettes galvanised by a powerhouse central performance from Renate Reinsve.
The script, co-written by Trier and Eskil Vogt, sends her fickle character along a flimsy tightrope strung between tearful loneliness and giddy carefree abandon.
5. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (15, 140 mins)
Forget all those Marvel superheroes ricocheting through the multi-verse. Their daredevil antics pale next to Michelle Yeoh's breathless tumble through writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's delightfully bonkers mind-trip.
Everything Everywhere All At Once assaults the senses in the best possible way, introducing a hard-working Californian laundromat owner (Yeoh) as the unlikely saviour of our reality and various refractions.
The chameleonic Malaysian actress crouches like a tiger and hides like a dragon in distinctive roles, showcasing her gymnastic abilities in elaborate fight sequences, impeccable comic timing and her dramatic range.
She is the emotional glue holding together the Daniels' unhinged plot and wildly imaginative excesses (hot dog fingers?!).
The writer-directors' bold ambition fills every frame to bursting but all roads ultimately lead to a familiar and cosy conclusion.
6. GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (12A, 140 mins)
Writer-director Rian Johnson's deliciously gnarly and deceptive whodunnit sequel welcomes back debonair Southern detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) for a self-contained investigation on the Aegean retreat of an obnoxious tech billionaire (Edward Norton).
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery explicitly references Agatha Christie's most popular novels in its clinical dramatic set-up and skillful sleights of hand. The script is as tight as the dashing blue cravat knotted around Craig's neck, honouring and distorting genre tropes with a starry A-list-cast of shadowy suspects.
Johnson flatters and deceives, making mirth from murderous intentions with grand theatrical flourishes that go down as sweetly as the hard kombucha (fermented by Jared Leto), which everyone drinks on the island retreat.
Johnson's elaborately choreographed dance of death doesn't put a foot wrong.
7. FIRE OF LOVE (PG, 93 mins)
Sara Dosa's visually arresting documentary is about French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who devoted their lives to recording dramatic footage of one of Mother Nature's most destructive forces.
The Kraffts chased eruptions and lava flows and captured dramatic moments in photographs and on film to enrich our understanding of the natural world.
Narrated by Miranda July, Dosa's picture draws on stunning footage from the couple's archive to champion Katia and Maurice's adventurous spirits, which were extinguished in June 1991 on Mount Unzen in Japan as the couple pursued their passion.
Standing side by side in their fire proximity suits, the Kraffts burned brighter and more fiercely than any surging magma.
Their heat ripples off the screen and warms the soul.
8. TOP GUN: MAVERICK (12A, 131 mins)
Tom Cruise feels the need for speed at the controls of almost every flight sequence in director Joseph Kosinski's hypersonic sequel, strapping subtlety into the ejector seat to deliver a pure, unadulterated adrenaline rush of nostalgic pleasure.
Opening with the familiar beats and chimes of Harold Faltermeyer's electronic score, Top Gun: Maverick is ridiculous crowd-pleasing fare of the highest calibre.
Kosinski orchestrates edge of seat thrills on land and in the air while Cruise glows in peak physical fitness, matching the bare-chested swagger of younger co-stars.
A heavy reliance on physical action sequences rather than digital effects sets pulses racing, answering the tub-thumping battle cry of Kenny Loggins' Danger Zone.
Jingoistic dialogue tees up the derring-do of a white-knuckle final mission, disproving the theory that a sequel lingers in the slipstream of the original.
9. BELFAST (12A, 98 mins)
Distinguished by Haris Zambarloukos's lustrous black and white cinematography, Kenneth Branagh's most personal film is a wondrous coming-of-age drama that harks back to his childhood in 1960s Belfast.
He pens a beautifully crafted valentine to a city in the grip of devastating change and a resilient and warm-hearted people, who mine humour in adversity.
Belfast unfolds through the sweet, unblinkered eyes of nine-year-old rapscallion Buddy (Jude Hill), who slays imaginary dragons with a home-made wooden sword and dustbin lid shield as the two-headed hydra of political and nationalistic fervour tears apart Protestant and Catholic communities.
Catrione Balfe's fearful matriarch is the film's beating heart and she powerfully conveys the emotional turmoil of a family's forcible displacement from their home.
10. TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (15, 147 mins)
Writer-director Ruben Ostlund is in impish and imperious form in this savage satire of rudely clashing classes and moral values, mercilessly skewering the social media elite represented on screen by models and influencers Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean).
The body beautiful, image-obsessed couple accept a free trip on a luxury yacht, joining obscenely rich clientele who belittle and harangue the captain (Woody Harrelson) and his hard-working crew.
A violent storm disturbs the social hierarchy, promoting cleaner Abigail (Dolly De Leon) to the top of the pecking order by virtue of her survival skills.
Ostlund's script gleefully zip-lines across the class divide, relishing the downfall of characters, who have lost touch with reality until it bites them hard, and draws blood.
