I'm always amazed when the first week of January rolls by, and invariably, by the end of the week, a dozen people would have asked me "Where's your list of movies for the year?". Always amusing to me that a year-end movie recco list is something that's become a tiny, fun New Year tradition for a whole bunch of friends :)
This year's list is dedicated to these folks, because your kind messages are the only thing helping me keep my procrastination at arm's length every year. Without much more to say, here's my list of the best movies of 2024!
13. Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya (trailer)
The casual rom-com/drama is a genre that seems to be fast disappearing, but I'll start my list with a movie whose vibe falls bang in "timepass movie to watch with someone you love on a friday evening" territory. Gorgeous people (Shahid and Kriti dayumm) doing things gorgeous people do while shaking a leg gorgeously is apparently all it takes to get on this list, and TBMAUJ was the best of the genre this year
Hattip to Anyone But You ("Sydney Sweeney Simp Sanstha" as my Gen Z teammate calls it ) and We Live in Time ("Andrew Garfield Simp Sanstha?") for being two other movies that kept the same vibe this year.
12. The Coffee Table (trailer)
Every few years, I come across a random hispanic dark comedy that completely knocks my socks off (Wild Tales being the best recent example), and this year, Caye Casas' The Coffee Table was that movie for me. The movie isn't for the faint-hearted for sure, but if you like your humor in dark shades of grey, then you'll definitely enjoy this one.
Another Spanish movie that went a bit under the radar this year was The Platform 2, which, while definitely a weaker movie than the first, explored quite a few interesting socio-political ideas which kept it interesting.
Who would have thought that Hugh Grant, the charming bookshop owner from Notting Hill, would be able to pull off the titular, devilish heretic. Heretic is an example of a movie that is all about execution, because the same story executed badly quickly becomes like a B-Grade slasher/horror movie. Thankfully, the movie is executed so well technically, that you will be at the edge of your seat through the entire runtime. The ending has also generated a lot of buzz online, so if you watch the movie and have thoughts on the ending, definitely send them my way!
A couple other horror movies that I genuinely loved this year were Speak No Evil (James McAvoy being the most James McAvoy he can be) and Brahmayugam (Truly a testament to Mammooty's stardom that he can pull off such roles with such practiced ease)
10. Do Aur Do Pyaar (trailer)
There's a common refrain in Hindi Cinema that most romance movies end at the point of marriage, but rarely explore stories of life after marriage. This year, we had a quirky movie exploring one such story with Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi playing a married couple who are both secretly seeing other people. The whole movie somehow manages to touch on very deep topics of relationship, abandonment, and estrangement without getting too preachy or serious.
As an aside, something I really liked about this movie was also the soundtrack which features the who's who of Desi Indie music, from Local Train to When Chai Met Toast to even Lucky Ali. And Lost Stories' Jazbaati Hai Dil is easily one of the bops of the year!
Coming-of-age is such a personal genre of movies, because at the end of the day, a movie in the genre will either resonate or alienate you, and most American coming of age movies seem so distant to the lived experiences of Indian kids in the 90s. Yet somehow Sean Wang's Dìdi managed to pull at all the right strings, and got every reference just right to immediately sent me into a nostalgia rabbit hole.
Whether it's the relationships with friends and family, or the then nascent relationship with the social media (heck, with the internet itself), Dìdi managed to capture the point-in-time so beautifully. It's always amazing to me how globalization has made our stories overlap so beautifully, and Dìdi is a movie that made me glad to be part of the only generation that could "escape" to the interwebz.
Another coming of age movie I really enjoyed was Monster. While wholly different in genre and tone than Didi, it nonetheless leaves a strong impact, and an ending that will devastate you.
Ralph Fiennes is one of those actors who seems to have a knack of picking such delicious scripts, be it The Menu or Corialanus from a few years ago, to the more acclaimed roles of M in in James Bond series or of course, Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. And Conclave, based on a book by Robert Harris, is a great screenplay brought to life with marvellous acting performances across the table.
The story follows the process of the selection of the next pope, which happens behind closed doors, and explores how even cardinals at the highest levels have not been able to get past human vices of greed, jealousy, and lust. The ending was completely unexpected and caught me completely off guard. If you are a fan of the Robert Langdon series of books (The Da Vinci Code / Angels & Demons et al) you'll feel right at home with this movie!
7. The Contestant (trailer)
Japanese reality TV is something I've always associated with silly, over the top gameshows mostly thanks to shows like Takeshi's Castle that I grew up watching. The Contestant is a documentary about one such reality show from 1998 where the titular contestant "Nasubi" is locked up in a room with nothing other than stacks of magazines which have mail-in sweepstakes, and the goal given to him is to keep playing the sweepstakes until he wins ¥ 1 million in total prizes.
Watching Nasubi start off excited about participating, and slowly devolve into complete madness in what is practically solitary confinement, while the TV show goes on playing his misery for laughs is truly shocking. And to overlay the TV series with current-day interviews with the people involved, was really a jolt to the senses.
I've been a Vijay Sethupathi fan since probably Vikram Vedha, and a fan of Anurag Kashyap, the actor rather than the director, since Imaikkaa Nodigal. And when I heard they were both starring together in Maharaja, expectations were high. What starts off as a simple story of a man looking for a stolen dustbin (yes, really, a dustbin), quickly evolves into a taut, gory thriller about love, loss, and revenge. Anurag Kashyap has a penchant for playing the baddie, and brings his best to this role.
While the Oldboy-ish ending had a lot of mixed reactions, it completely worked for me and left me shocked beyond words. Truly an ending that will live with me for a long time. I've heard the movie did excellent numbers outside of India as well (specifically in China) which is testament to how well good Indian stories can travel globally as well.
I can't talk about gory movies without mentioning two other movies that elevated the gore quotient in Indian cinema: Kill and Marco, both really simple stories, but driven strongly by extremely stylized gore. So if that's a genre you enjoy, definitely check these out as well!
5. The Substance (trailer)
As each birthday goes by, there's but a natural tendency to wonder: If I could relive my younger days, would I really want to? Would I do anything different? Would my childhood be any different growing up in the age of Instagram rather than Orkut? The Substance takes this question and pushes it to a fun conclusion.
If there was an award for best casting, it would easily be Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley in this movie, where Demi plays a yesteryears' TV superstar who gets access to a drug (the titular Substance) that allows her to live for 7 days a time as a younger, hotter version of herself (Qualley) and how this ability takes over her life. The body horror in the movie is executed so well, and both Demi and Margaret bring in great performance backed by an awesome background score by Raffertie.
Another movie dealing with body horror this year, albeit from a very different, yet interesting perspective, was A Different Man. Sebastian Stan has really had an incredible 2024, and it's hard to pick his best role, but A Different Man is definitely right up there!
4. Challengers (trailer)
Yes yes, I also saw the trailer for Challengers and was flabbergasted to say the least to see Zendaya in the most risque avatar we've ever seen her in, so when I went into Challengers, I expected to be blown away, and am happy to report back, Challengers lived up to all the hype! If I had to describe the movie, it's like Y Tu Mama Tambien meets Borg vs McEnroe, and if that sounds like a mashup that you'd enjoy, you'll love Challengers.
Of course, special mention of the sountrack of the movie (Nine Inch Nails FTW), and the cinematography, including the POV tennis ball shots that allow the ball to be a character of it's own. And of course a special mention of that ending that left me more pumped at the end of the movie than any other movie this year did.
In it's own way, Challengers is a fictional movie about feminism in the modern age. Another movie that deals with the same idea, though based on a true story instead, is The Red Virgin. If strong female characters are your vibe, then both movies should be on your radar.
3. Godzilla Minus One (trailer)
The difference between how Hollywood makes Godzilla movies and how Japan does is a contrast that I'll never get over. While Hollywood has just been going bigger, badder, grander in their interpretation of Godzilla, Japan always favors telling human stories that feature Gojira and how it impacts the humans. Fun Fact is that Gojira was originally created as a warning of the dangers of radiation in the aftermath of WWII.
Godzilla Minus One continues this tradition by telling a story that has all the elements of an human-driven action movie, talking about rebuilding lives from zero while dealing with loss of pride, forging bonds of family, conquering PTSD in the aftermath of WWII, all in the presence of our favorite kaiju, Gojira. This was the 37th Godzilla movie in the Godzilla franchise, and I for one am starved for more such grounded Kaiju stories.
2. How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (trailer)
I had seen the trailer for How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies a few months ago but found it quite sappy and not at all interesting. But seeing it get hyped through word of mouth through the last couple of months (and ofcourse the "before and after the movie" Tiktok trend that went viral), I decided to check it out, and boy oh boy, was I hitting myself for judging this movie by the trailer.
In India, it's very common for children to be close to their grandparents, and if you are someone who has had the fortune of being able to spend time with your grandparent, especially in the latter stages of their lives, this movie is a rigorous pull on your heart. Absolutely no regrets in saying I bawled at the end of this movie. Thai cinema has another masterpiece after 2017's Bad Genius
1. Black Dog (trailer)
Folks who know me know well that a Chinese director I deeply admire is Jia Zhangke. He is a master at telling stories that talk of the clashing ideas of modern, urban life and traditional, rural life, be it in A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart or Ash is Purest White. But I was so disappointed when his latest movie, Caught by the Tides simply did not work for me at all. But before that disappointment could even settle in, I managed to catch Black Dog by Guan Hu, which deals with the same genre (and funnily enough, stars Jia Zhangke as a side character) and presents the strongest voice in the genre in a long time.
I'm at a stage in life where there's a constant tug between wanting to grow more into a citizen of the world half the time, while wanting to return to the comfort of the small frozen-in-time village where I grew up the other half, and naturally stories that talk about this clash of ideas resonate strongly with me. And from start to end, the way Black Dog uses analogies to talk about this clash we all face, made this a movie I'll cherish for a long time.
Another movie that was really hyped and I enjoyed a lot that deals with clash of ideas is The Zone of Interest, except here the ideas clashing are of a soldier and his family living happily in, of all places, Auschwitz. While my appreciation for this movie has decreased over the year, it's still well worth a watch.
Few other notable movies: Poor Things (Emma Stone + Yorgos Lanthimos = Absurdity 101), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Iranian movies on Feminism are always a treat), Heavier Trip (a hilaroious sequel to Heavy Trip), Monkey Man (Dev Patel flexing his versatility), Saturday Night (What went down on the first night of SNL), Joker: Folie à Deux (Honestly, the ending worked for me), Laapataa Ladies (A story with heart from rural India), Tatami (When sports intersects with geopolitics)
