Andy Gray

I haven’t done a top 10 movie list in years.

The priorities of the jobs shifted, making the regular trips to Cleveland for press screenings no longer an option. But it coincided with a point in my life where it seemed that every movie I saw reminded me of something I’d already seen five, 10, 20, 50 years ago — and that was done much better the first time.

I used to spend December scrambling to see everything I possibly could before compiling a list. Even then, there were a couple of years when I dodged calling it a “top 10” and simply called it 10 great movies of that year because there were some gaping holes in my viewing list.

I thought I would miss it, but I quickly quit caring.

The number of “best” films I’ve skipped in the last half dozen years shocks me. Of the 10 films that were nominated last year for an Academy Award for best picture, I saw two of them — “King Richard” and “Licorice Pizza.” Most of the others are available on one of the streaming services we have. I could watch them any time — and several of them I was excited to see — but I never got around to it.

When searching my queue for something to watch, I tend to gravitate toward the quirky genre movie over the prestigious Oscar bait, especially when the Oscar-chasing drama clocks in at 150 minutes, and movies like “Emily the Criminal,” “X” and “Barbarian” have no trouble telling their stories in less than two hours.

“Emily the Criminal,” a smart film about current economic inequities done in the style of a gritty ’70s crime story, and “X,” a horror movie in which the greatest horror of all is getting old, are the kinds of movies I would have tried to find a place for on my top 10 of 2022, regardless of how many of them I’d seen.

The two movies I saw in 2022 that I’m confident will be in the best picture category when the Oscar nominations are announced later this month couldn’t be more different.

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” is dizzying and delightful. There’s a point where there’s so much going on that trying to keep track of everything in each of its alternate realities verges on headache-inducing.

Just trust your guides. Writers-directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Schinert are master storytellers. The guy at the beginning of this column complaining about every movie reminding him of something he’s never seen before has never seen anything like this. And the Dans nail the landing.

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” which I watched New Year’s Eve morning, is a quiet and contemplative as “Everything Everywhere” is frenetic.

It’s the story of the upheaval in 1923 in a small island community off the coast of Ireland when one man, Colm (Brendan Gleeson), abruptly decides he no longer wants to be friends with Padraic (Colin Farrell), a sweet, simple guy he’s spent countless hours with in the local pub.

The movie is gorgeous. I didn’t look up where it was shot, but the whole time I’m watching the film I thought, “I’d love to walk those paths and see the view from those cliffs.” I also thought, “The last thing a place that beautiful needs is a bunch of idiot tourists trampling it.”

At times, “Banshees” is very funny (Farrell, Gleeson and writer-director Martin McDonagh previously worked together on a gem of a movie called “In Bruges”). But it’s also profoundly sad and philosophical as its characters grapple with what constitutes a life well-led.

It’s one of those movies that’s haunted my thoughts since Saturday. And there’s a good chance I’ll watch “Banshees” again before I watch the other eight movies that will join it and “Everything Everywhere” in the best picture category.

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.