20 Best Movies Of 2022 (So Far)

Just barely nudging out Everything Everywhere All at Once - though certainly a lot less likely to court any serious Oscar buzz - is Matt Reeves' masterful The Batman.

Stripping the character down to his basic parts while delivering a leaner, weirder take on the Dark Knight, The Batman is a tremendously refreshing superhero epic that mostly earns its expansive 176-minute runtime (though, admittedly, it probably could've been trimmed a tad).

Robert Pattinson was a shrewd casting choice to play this grungy oddball version of Bruce Wayne and wiry iteration of Batman, while the supporting cast is filled out with terrific work from Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell.

With its ambitiously dark narrative and mesmerising visual palette, this a welcome tonic for anyone feeling slightly exhausted by the MCU's more family-friendly, visually holistic brand of comic book movie.