Disclaimer
I have still not seen as of Dec 31 2024 (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa):
All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhang-ke)
Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
The End (Joshua Oppenheimer)
Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
Kneecap (Rich Peppiat)
Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)
Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie)
Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)
A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
Universal Language (Matthew Rankin)
Critecariat’s darlings that I found insufferable:
La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
The Human Surge 3 (Eduardo Williams)
I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)
The Test of Things (Tran Anh Hung)
Didn’t bother:
Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)
Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve)
Nota bene: I’m not a fan of Luca Guadagnino and the fact that he is going to ruin Harron’s American Psycho after vandalizing Argento’s Suspiria makes me really uncomfortable – I’m not an Argento’s fanboy, for the record.
Highlights (top 20):
1. Civil War (Alex Garland, United Kingdom, United States): A powerful, insightful, zeitgeist-y premediation - in Richard Grusin’s definition - of what’s coming (hell’s around the corner where I shelter). A highly politically-charged film, Civil War shines as a meditation/mediation on the role of photography in depicting the ignominies of war, delivered through the spectacle of cinema. For those interested in the contextual underpinnings of the narrative aka “backstory”, consider diving into the current news landscape and/or read Turchin’s End Times, Barbara F. Walter’s How Civil Wars Start or Stephen Marche’s The Next Civil War. Garland celebrates the “enemies of the people” in an era shadowed by Fascism. In a not so distant future, this will be considered a documentary.
2. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, United Kingdom): A visceral assault on the senses. The Zone of Interest is less about images, and more about a deafening cacophony of relentless dehumanization, the feral brutality of ethnic annihilation motivated by petty bourgeoisie ambition, and the horrors of mass killing behind the wall. Confronting the horrific echoes of past atrocities and the ongoing horrors of present genocides is painful. A confrontation so intense it might leave you wanting to cover your ears and scream. Unsurprisingly, lessons have not been learned: Slaughterhouses turn into museums, tourists take selfies in concentration camps.
3. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude, Romania): The greatest Romanian road movie of all time, depicting all the ignominies & sheer stupidity of driving - think The Plains, but with the added insult of relentless road rage. Behind the facade of an hysterically funny comedy, lies an indictment of the abject corporate world and its abominable exploitation of people & nature. The elites take mindfulness classes, play Minecraft and recite Taoist principles while the working class is systematically abused. Multinationals rape entire nations with the complicity of governments. All is left is victim blaming. Tragedies turn into farces. Hey, Jude.
4. The Settlers (Felipe Gálvez, Chile): Physical extermination by the Anglo-European-Americans with the complicity of some locals is followed by cultural appropriation by the “progressives” of the age. The wealthy colonizers are interested in material goods, territories, and resources. The progressives mostly care about optics, aesthetics, propaganda, and means of mass distraction, e.g., cinema and photography. Only a woman dares to reject the exploitation while the passive man sips his tea. The Settlers, The Nightingale and Killers of the Flower Moon are tragic reminders that man’s History is an ongoing horror story.
5. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan): Both Perfect Days and Evil Does Not Exist are implicitly informed by Kohei Saito’s notion of degrowth communism. Hamaguchi explicitly suggests that the only solution to our dire ecological predicament is a systemic sabotage of the forces of capital that are actively destructing the planet. Such metaphorical (but also literal) blowing up of the metaphorical (but also literal) pipelines will not be executed by pure, perfect, sanctimonious human beings, but by fallible, imperfect, flawed people, people who forget important things. There’s no other way. Change requires actions, not words.
6. In Camera (Naqqash Khalid, United Kingdom): Khalid’s film excels in its portrayal of the dehumanization faced by actors, the pervasive systemic racism, and, most strikingly, the normalization of the industry’s cycle of abuse, a cycle that ensures the status quo never changes. Nabhaan Rizwan exudes the charisma and talent of Riz Ahmed, but here too I am guilty of exoticizing the “Other” (“They love us. They completely love us”). The film’s recurring surreal moments destroy the film’s coherence, enhancing the overall experience. There’s plenty of rage and playfulness and bleakness behind the/on/in camera. An extraordinary debut.
7. Anora (Sean Baker, United States): A modern spin on classic fairy tales where the prince turns out to be an asshole (surprise!) and the evil queen is well, just evil (surprise!). Nevertheless Baker captures the zeitgeist with a candid take on plutocracy in America - but it could as well have been set in the UK as the Ru$$ians own London. His parable is imbued with Tr3mpi4n aesthetics. On the surface, a farce. Deep down, a tragedy, as the working class heroes - cops, maids, sex workers - are treated as disposable NPCs by the oligarchs and their minions. Baker made a documentary, basically. Oh, if you like Anora, you'd love Zola.
8. Red Rooms (Pascal Plante, Canada): Red Rooms depicts the friction-less “tech lifestyle” , its dehumanization effects, and pervasive surveillance. The protagonist’s meticulous/methodical approach to retrieving information from the web - including the dark web - offers a captivating portrayal of “the digital” rarely seen in cinema; here, it feels authentic rather than absurd. Plante presents three intriguing psychopaths - the model, the killer, the groupie - set against a chilling narrative where violence is intentionally off-screen, amplifying its horror. Red Rooms is a striking antithesis to the grotesque spectacle of Hostel.
9. Bird (Andrea Arnold, United Kingdom):
Wings of Desire set in North Kent.
Animal Kingdom meets the British kitchen-sink drama.
The cool kids use Signal, the normies stick to WhatsApp.
And, by the way, the best bloody soundtrack of the year.
10: Dad & Step-Dad (Tynan DeLon, United States):
Masculinity, the movie.
“Let’s go, Branson!”
It’s cheugy, you sexy fox.
Also, this was a four part series.
A tetralogy, you know. Like distinct episodes. But also a whole thing.
As in: Dad & Step-Dad 1, Dad & Step-Dad 2, Dad & Step-Dad 3 and Dad & Step-Dad 4.
Circa 2018.
True story. I found it on vimeo of all places.
Sharing is caring.
So I think there are going to be three sequels.
A full franchise.
With merch, swag, and branded content, you know.
Perhaps video game adaptations, too.
Imagine the possibilities.
11. A different Man (Aaron Schimberg , United States) Watching this feels like stepping into a deranged tale devised by Charlie Kaufman, filtered through the melancholic lens of David Lynch’s The Elephant Man. The film carries an absurdity that resonates deeply with Kaufman’s signature themes - obsession, futility, and the grotesque failure of human ambition. It’s as if Schimberg built his own Synecdoche, New York, not as a theater piece spanning decades but as a compulsive reenactment, one so consumed by its minutiae that the original meaning dissolves into a vortex of artifice until is eventually discarded. A Different Man gets Under The Skin.
12. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat, France, Unites States, United Kingdom): Fargeat reinvents the Picture of Dorian Gray with an overdose of French extreme gore, a dash of Society (Yuzna, 1989) and La Grande Bouffe (The Big Feast, Ferreri, 1973). Here, Dr. Jeckill is in the shadows: The Substance is pits Mrs. Hyde against Mrs. Hyde. The time based constraint - a fairy tale trope - is reminiscent of Reality+: Vincent Colombe’s cameo at 1h 21m was much appreciated. Fargeat excels at addressing the pornographic & the fetish inherent in the TV medium: women = meat. The Substance is the most Cronenberg-esque film Cronenberg never made. Still, it would have benefited from tighter editing.
13. The Beast (Bertand Bonello, France): Bonello’s Alphaville plus incel-tinted 2014 Isla Vista killings home invasion Mulholland Drive/Inland Empire mash up and retro-climate emergency, mixed with pop music, Dasha and dolls. VR retromania in a world in which AI took over and lobotomized everyone, since emotions are dangerous thus must be removed - that’s the Alphaville part. Trash Humpers homage, after all Korine just plays video games now. Feedback loop vicious circle you can only fuck in vr (SAD!!). But behind the facade, this is basically a remix/remake of Patrick Chia’s The Beast in the Jungle (2023). Loved the QR coda, though.
14. Good One (India Donaldson, United States): A tender, unflinching exploration of familial bonds, strained and reshaped within the rugged landscapes of miscommunication. Don’t call it “a study in toxic masculinity” as Donaldson resists such simplifications, revealing instead a delicate interplay of vulnerability, indifference, malice and ineptitude. Echoing the narrative arc of Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet (2011), Good One chronicles an alleged bonding experience gone awry. One of the most convincing debuts of the year.
15. Without Air (Katalin Moldovai, Hungary): Among the recent spate of teachers-in-trenches movies (e.g., The Teacher’s Lounge), Without Air is one of the most accomplished, both in terms of content and form. Involuntarily, Agnieska Holland’s Total Eclipse, which features a romance between poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, ignites a “controversy” in a conservative Hungarian context where homophobia is rampant. As in real life, academic freedom, tolerance, and support for the faculty quickly vanish when funding comes under threat. Ultimately, the school suppresses the brave teacher via bureaucratic asphyxiation. Don’t miss the coda.
16. Handling the Undead (Thea Hvistendahl, Norway, Sweden): Handling the Undead marks a new milestone in the slow zombie genre, joining the ranks of notable films like Halley and the French series Les Revenants (And Campillo’s They Came Back). Based on a significantly streamlined novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this film draws inspiration from the opening scene of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, exploring the provocative question: what would happen if the relatives of mysteriously resurrected deceased decided to keep’em around? Hvistendahl masterfully engages with the conventions of the genre, including the zombies’ cannibalistic tendencies, in a manner that is both clever and innovative.
17. Dead Girls Dancing (Anna Roller, Germany): Echoes of Afire, although the country ravaged by devastating Summer fires is Italy, not Germany. Roller frames Italy as a post-apocalyptic, abandoned, desolate country, the only survivors being Vespa-loving nuns waiting for the rapture & low-key scammers. It’s a realistic portray, as Italy’s youngsters have being fleeing the country for decades - politicians love to blame the Belpaese’s many ills on immigration, but that’s just the kind of idiotic scapegoating you would expect from any far-right movement. If you want to fully grasp the notion of Collapse, look no further than rural Italy.
18. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece, United Kingdom, Ireleand): It is weird (Hadžihalilović-ish). I saw some waves. Athens is mentioned. In short, this is the logical endpoint of the Greek Weird Wave: an Hollywood budget + all American cast + CGI galore (the Lisbon “level” reminded me of Amanita Design’s best puzzle game, Machinarium). I cannot say it that I loved Poor Things as much as Lanthimos’s smaller, darker, edgier, earlier films. This is, at once, a Disney movie, a feminist manifesto, a dissection of many isms - scientism, socialism, capitalism, libertinism etc. The risk, for Yorgos, is normie-lization. The moment you win an Oscar, you’re toast.
19. Blink Twice (Zöe Kravitz, United States): A deeply nihilistic tale - recognizing that the justice system is rigged, thus the only way for women to win at capitalism is to be as cunning & manipulative as the worst male specimen - Blink Twice (née Pussy Island) is a delicious mash up of recent events, including the Robert Epstein sex scandal (Davis performing Ghislaine is Oscar-worth), Sean Combs’s white dress freakouts parties and Dominique Pelicot’s mass rape under sedation case in France, within the context of the United States of Plutocracy. The film that fully captured the zeitgeist in 2024 is Zöe Kravitz’s Blink Twice. Killer combo withRevenge.
20. Hoard (Luna Carmoon, United Kindom): Hoard smells funky. It’s a fully fledged your nose. It tastes like incinerated flesh and bone. It sounds like an endless scream under the sheets. It looks like the 1960s even though it’s set in 1984. It pisses like a horse. It’s raw and overcooked. It’s fresh and rotten. It’s precious and trashy. It’s painful to watch and yet you don’t want it to be over. Body horror, the filthy kind. Delirium. Psychosis. Hoard is going to make you puke. And you will diligently eat up your vomit like it’s a delicatessen.
Link (full list)
2024_My favorite cinematic experiences
2025_My favorite cinematic experiences I have not experienced yet
Previously
2023_My favorite cinematic experiences
2022_My favorite cinematic experiences
2021_My favorite cinematic experiences
2020_My favorite cinematic experiences
2019_My favorite cinematic experiences
2018_My favorite cinematic experiences
2017_My favorite cinematic experiences
2016_My favorite cinematic experiences
2015_My favorite cinematic experiences
Updated lists
Greatest Horror Films 2020-2030
Machinima. From video game to video art
Other links