There is a gentle glow that spreads We imagine everything as light As Payal Kapadia films three women bound by Mumbai’s confusion, their lives are shrouded in quiet desperation, tearful tears flicker in their eyes, their silences suggestive of deep pain. The camera provides both lightness and seriousness to the isolated rhythms of urban life. The desire for connection lights the heat in humid bustling places and parks where young lovers meet secretly at night. Dream and memory, time and space seem to collapse in its fascinating coda, placing its characters and audience on the same level, with us all floating and searching for a place to stay. This feature of Kapadia proved to be a historical milestone for Indian cinema. Since its Cannes premiere, it has emerged as one of the big favorites among international critics and awards bodies. And rightly so.
Now take a look at the number of shows allotted We imagine everything as light versus Pushpa 2 In Indian theatres. The disparity is worrying. In case of Tamil film it was even more kottukkaliThe simplicity of PS Vinothraj’s approach and the sharpness of his observations allow the exploration of gender practices to emerge in all its personal, social and emotional complexities. Vinothraj gave us a road trip film, a “capture” drama and a film condemning caste endogamy for the price of one. And he dared to do all this without a background score. But this film became extinct due to endless screenings in theaters. Kalki 2898 AD And woman 2Tentpoles always take up all the space. The hope is that the profits from big-budget crowd-pleasers will ensure that there remains room for smaller productions. The reality is that both are practically separate economies operating in parallel. The growing concern is that the gap between the two has never been wider.
Then just another waltz around the sun. Hopes turned to disillusionment, disillusionment turned to worry, worry turned to fear. A certain sour taste simmered in the pits of our stomachs throughout the year, a sinking feeling that things could get worse. The humanitarian consequences of the atrocities in Sudan and Palestine have been devastating. Democracy is under scrutiny and individual liberties are under threat. The barrage of bad news bulletins is enough to send anyone into emotional distress. Some films appealed to this long-standing fear amid growing crises; Some soothed our troubled minds. Some looked to the past for comfort; Some offered a bleak trailer for the future. Cinema was a window into our longing: for a better tomorrow, for second chances, for connection.
2024 has a bounty of cinematic treasures available, as long as you know where to find them. In no other landTwo Palestinians (Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal) and two Israelis (Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor) document Israeli forces bulldozing a West Bank village and its residents. The quartet’s collaboration reflects an important distinction between what it means to be a Palestinian activist and protest versus what it means to be an Israeli activist and protest. Given that the film could not find distributors in most countries and suffered last-minute exclusion from film festival line-ups, its very existence was an act of resistance. Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was forced into exile in Europe for his latest resistance act, sacred fig seedMixing actual footage of the Mahsa Amini protests in Tehran with a politically charged domestic melodrama shot in secret, Rasoulof portrays a father using the coercive methods of a tyrannical regime to solidify his authority in the home. Taking recourse, shows his wife and two young daughters being subjected to interrogation, shakedown. And solitary confinement.
Two films put legal institutions in the spotlight. Clint Eastwood was in good form behind the camera at the age of 94 Juror #2A tightly scripted examination of crime, accountability, and the American judiciary. Journalist Ito Shiori, who became the face of the #MeToo movement in Japan, takes a look at herself black box diariesThrough a combination of archival footage and secret recordings, she charts her harrowing legal battle to prosecute the man who raped her, a prominent Japanese TV reporter. Her patience and determination are most visible when the investigation shifts to a more intimate first-person mode. The confessional videos offer the heartbreaking testimony of a woman who is pushing back against those eager to bury her case. Documenting her own sexual assault investigation allows Shiori to step back from herself and adopt a journalistic approach. When she opens the “black box”, we discover a justice system that is plagued by antiquated laws and ill-equipped to provide justice to sexual assault survivors.
In evil does not existRyosuke Hamaguchi gives us reason to put a stop to urban encroachment in ecologically sensitive areas. The proposal for a glamping site in a forest outside Tokyo fails to consider the ebb and flow of a village whose residents have always lived in balance with nature. This balance gets upset when company representatives from the city come with rural-oriented daydreams. But nature, in all its unforgiving beauty, will have the final say. Hamaguchi’s film serves as a collective reminder of the inherent disharmony in man’s relationship with nature. Social constructs and critical passivity almost doomed Léa Seydoux and George McCay to the fate of lovers in several lifetimes of Bertrand Bonello. AnimalIt’s a beautiful film worth getting lost in (For all the reasons discussed in this essay,
Franchises are no longer a safe business bet. Sensational superhero movies have lost the loyalty of everyone except those in denial about a serious case of the CGI comeback. not to mention deadpool and wolverine, madam web And kraven the hunter Felt like the cinematic equivalent of the expression, “The camel is a horse designed by committee.” The mass-market films that were most worthy of celebration were not beholden to some committee or fan community, but to the artistic sensibilities of their makers. George Miller reaffirms that he remains the undisputed master of white-knuckle action Furiosa: A Mad Max SagaAn electric film with legendary excitementnot at any moment Dune: Part 2Is there any doubt that Denis Villeneuve, no matter how inspired he is by Frank Herbert’s source text, is listening and relying on nothing more than his instincts as a visual storyteller. looking sweaty Challengers The trip to the sauna after the trip to Arrakis was like an adventure. Luca Guadagnino’s grand slam of fickle desires plays like an erotic rally between three stars (Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Feist) embroiled in a competitive high-stakes game of ambition, co-dependence and betrayal, set to inspiring music. Plays with. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Tennis is sex; Sex is control; Control is power. Guadagnino serves. And it’s game, set, match.
Joker It was really hollow, one-note, dull. But critics and audiences may have been quick to dismiss this foolishness from Todd Phillips harakiri With a sequel that risks killing off a beloved IP and said premise the joke is on the fans. Joker: Folie A Deux Boldly reconceptualizes a villain origin story as a pathology origin story. The Joker is not a single figure, but a shape-shifting symbol, representing a dark ideology born as a reaction to abuse, neglect, and institutional evils, while also making a broader stand against the romanticization of mental illness and anarchic notions. Also works as. As Harley Quinn, Lady Gaga wants her ugliness, her illness, her horror, her design, her psychosis, her love so the two can write a bad romance. Arthur Fleck just wants to watch. But the symbol of moral nihilism it gives birth to takes on a life of its own. The jukebox music, as a device, reinforces not only the shared illusion of the title, but also the artifice of an alter-ego in clown makeup and costume.
Horror as a genre continued to evolve, marking new boundaries and challenging assumptions about taste and artistic value. There were films that depicted the distressing feeling of losing control over our mind, body and soul due to patriarchal orders, alien parasites and the big bad trauma monster. Coralie Fargate’s Substance A raunchy body horror film about the inner self-loathing of aging women has been created, while the film and cosmetic industries are given a fresh look. Fanaticism, depression and frustration form an unholy trinity in Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala devil’s bathLeave it to Kiyoshi Kurosawa to send chills of fear down our spines with the hazy sounds of the city and the sheer power of suggestion. Chime That he accomplishes more in 45 minutes than most films do in two hours is a testament to his formal inventiveness and vision. red roomA Kurosawa-coded cyber-nightmare from Canadian filmmaker Pascal Plante confronts the collective voyeurism of the average true-crime-obsessed netizen. Our own twisted desire to look at things no one should want is put to the test in the darkest corners of the web. Juliette Gariepy is dangerously mysterious as Kelly-Anne, a model by day, a blackhat by night who becomes immersed in the high-profile case of a serial killer who webcasts his murders. In between online poker games and yoga workout sessions, she most casually searches for footage on the dark web. The most depressing moment comes when she enters the market auction and sells the pain to the highest bidder. No film in 2024 has come close to capturing the antisocial frenzy of being online, our lives mediated, experiences screened, identities hidden behind anonymity.
Prahlad Srihari is a film and pop culture writer. He lives in Bengaluru.
