Top 10 Films of 2024

1. "Anora" (Sean Baker, USA)

2. "Kind Of Kindness" (Yorgos Lanthimos, USA)

3. "The Seed Of The Sacred Fig" (Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran)

4. "My Old Ass" (Megan Park, Canada)

5. "Emilia Perez" (Jacques Audiard, France)

6. "Flow" (Gints Zilbalodis, Latvia)

7. "The Substance" (Coralie Fargeat, USA)

8. "Conclave" (Edward Berger, USA)

9. "Deadpool And Wolverine" (Shawn Levy, USA)

10. "Drive-Away Dolls" (Ethan Coen, USA)

Other great films:

Ababouiné (Canada)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Challengers

Civil War

Dahomey (Senegal)

Eight Postcards From Utopia (Romania)

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Australia)

Kalak (Denmark)

Nos belles-soeurs (Canada)

Wicked

Top 3 Shorts:

1. "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent" (Nebojsa Slijepcevic, Croatia)

2. "The Spider" (Andy Chen, USA)

3. "Closing Time" (Spencer Keller, USA)

Top 3 Music Videos:

1. "Espresso" (Dave Meyers, Sabrina Carpenter)

2. "Taste" (Dave Meyers, Sabrina Carpenter)

3. "Please Please Please" (Bardia Zeinali, Sabrina Carpenter)

Top Commercial:

"Bleu de Chanel" (Martin Scorsese, Chanel)

Other great commercials:

Like A Good Neighbaaa

TV Top 10:

1. "Sugar" (Fernando Meirelles, Apple)

2. "Landman" (Taylor Sheridan, Paramount)

3. "Rivals" (Disney, UK)

4. "The Perfect Couple" (Susanne Bier, Netflix)

5. "Hacks: Season 3" (HBO)

6. "My Brilliant Friend: Season 4" (RAI, Italy)

7. "Cien años de soledad" (Netflix, Colombia)

8. "Fallout" (Amazon)

9. "Disclaimer" (Alfonso Cuaron, Apple)

10. "Niepewnosc" (TVP, Poland)

Other great TV shows:

Ancient Apocalypse: The Americas

Baby Reindeer (UK)

Dating Naked UK (UK)

Evil: Season 4

Top 3 Cartoons:

1. "Sing: Thriller" (Garth Jennings, Netflix)

2. "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" (David Silverman, Disney)

3. "An Almost Christmas Story" (David Lowery, Disney)

Top 3 VR films:

1. "Somewhere Unknown In Indochina" (Asio Liu, Feng Ting Tsou, Taiwan)

2. "Oneiro" (Milos Tasic Grof, Croatia)

3. "The Quest: Everest" (Alex Harz)

Top Stand-Up Comedy Show:

"Jimmy Carr: Natural Born Killer" (Jimmy Carr, Brian Klein, Netflix)

Other great stand-up comedy shows:

Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval

Weak films of 2023:

1995 (Canada)

Alien: Romulus

Argylle

Dune: Part Two

Else (Belgium)

The Girl With The Needle (Denmark)

Gladiator II

Grand Tour (Portugal)

Una Historia de amor y guerra (Mexico)

Inside Out 2

Jour de chasse (Canada)

Maria

Queer

A Real Pain

Le Successeur (France)

Twisters

The Wild Robot

Weak TV shows:

Agatha All Along

Bridgerton: Season 3

Top Musical of 2024

"Wicked" (Jon M. Chu, Universal)

Anora (2024) *****

Sean Baker's greatest film to date, a tarantinesque mix of "Pretty Woman" and "After Hours", starring Mikey Madison in a fearless performance as a tough-as-nails hooker who sees her Cinderella dreams crashing and burning in the most unexpected ways.

Kinds Of Kindness (2024) *****

Yorgos Lanthimos' greatest film to date, a constantly surprising cinematic puzzle of the highest order.

My Old Ass (2024) ****

A wonderful, magnificent film about love, but very different from a typical romantic comedy, although it is that too, but also so much more. A queer film about a young girl falling in love with a boy. A comedy about a 18-year old girl meeting an older version of herself at 39. A Canadian movie about a family that isn't fuck up at all, not even a little bit. A rare gem.

Flow (2024) ****

Fabulous animated feature from Latvia. It's the story of a cat whose life is upended by a massive flood, leading to an unexpected and touching alliance with a diverse group of animals: a capybara, a bird, a lemur, and a dog. Not unlike "Ponyo" (2009) and "Life Of Pi" (2012), but surprisingly different in a variety of ways.

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig (2024) ****

Set during the anti-hijab protests in Iran, it's a tense, surprising drama about an investigative judge who finds himself in a tug-of-war against his wife and two daughters. The film was secretly shot in Iran by dissident director Mohammad Rasoulof, who is now wanted by the police in his own country, where he has been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property. However, he managed to escape from Iran to attend the Cannes Film Festival, where he received a Special Award for his film.

Emilia Perez (2024) ****

Surprising and amazing French film set in Mexico, with a story straight out of a Latin American telenovela, stunning musical numbers, a powerful political message and superlative acting performances from Karla Sofia Gascon, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz (who all won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival).

The Substance (2024) ***

Excellent body horror movie starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

Civil War (2024) ***

The film tries hard to hide its political message, but there are more than enough hints as to where its actual sympathies lie. Nick Offerman's president is a barely disguised Donald Trump, Jesse Plemons' genocidal soldier doesn't need to carry a tiki torch to be easily identifiable, and the numerous mentions of Charlottesville aren't subtle at all. A weird (and unlikely) alliance between Texas and California aside, it's basically an anti-MAGA allegory masquerading as an anti-war one. 

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) ***

A very good sequel to the 1988 classic.

Deadpool And Wolverine (2024) ***

A self-reflexive, brechtian deconstruction of the superhero genre, using parody, irony, sarcasm and coarse language in a fresh and innovative way.

Wicked (2024) ***

The entire cast is superb, but Ariana Grande still manages to steal the movie from everyone else. It's a star-making bravura performance of the highest order, and her greatest show-stopping musical number, "Popular", is the highlight of the entire film. Songs:

"No One Mourns The Wicked"

"Dear Old Shiz"

"The Wizard And I"

"What Is This Feeling?"

"Something Bad"

"Dancing Through Life"

"Popular" ***

"I'M Not That Girl"

"One Short Day"

"A Sentimental Man"

"Defying Gravity"

Conclave (2024) ***

Way better than "Angels And Demons", a very suspenseful political drama full of intrigues during an election of a pope. The final twist is a bit much, but all the rest is pitch perfect.