First cut of 2022

The year in cinema is looking strong so far, according to our halftime report: Here are standouts and how to watch them

The film critic’s yearend list of favorites has always struck me as a provisional undertaking at best, a flawed but essential attempt to bring some coherent framing to a year’s worth of cinematic plenty. Any honest list, however comprehensive its sweep or authoritative its posture, is made in the full awareness of potential lapses, blind spots and, yes, in-the-moment errors of judgment.

The 2022 halftime report that follows must therefore be reckoned even more hasty, unreliable and premature. Given the glut of movies that will be unveiled over the next six months — many of them timed to drop during that competitive annual scourge we call awards season — I have no idea how many of these terrific 12 will land among my top favorites come December. Even still, despite how cinematically backloaded each year invariably is, I’m gratified by how many good and even great movies I’ve seen released in the first half of 2022 alone.

I’m also dispirited, if hardly surprised, by how quickly so many of them evaporated from theaters, assuming they played in theaters in the first place. The speed at which independent movies now pass through screening venues, en route to their hopefully long VOD shelf lives, is nothing new. What’s especially alarming now is how many art-house theaters, hit hard by the pandemic shutdowns of the past two years, are themselves exiting the fray.

The permanent closure of Arclight Cinemas/Pacific Theatres last year continues to sting, even if some of their locations have reopened thanks to major chains like AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas. In May, the Landmark Theatres chain closed its 12-screen Westside Pavilion location, a major loss for L.A. moviegoers. One small but real source of relief: knowing that my own neighborhood art house, Pasadena’s Laemmle Playhouse 7, will survive and reopen later this year under Landmark ownership.

But no movie lover — and no lover of theatrical moviegoing — can afford to take this cherished pastime or their favorite venues for granted. I’m as heartened as anyone by the record-setting box office for “Top

DVV Entertainment N.T. RAMA RAO JR. as Komaram Bheem in the Telugu-language blockbuster “RRR,” which is among the best films to come out of the first half of the year. Directed by S.S. Rajamouli, it is the second-highest-grossing Indian film of all time in America.

Warner Bros. Pictures ZOË KRAVITZ stars in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller “Kimi,” which went straight to streaming.

KimStim CARLOTO COTTA, from left, Crista Alfaiate and Joao Nunes Monteiro in “The Tsugua Diaries.”