You Want it Darker: Vic's Top 10 (20) Films of 2024

I will make up for Walter’s lack of preamble with a very long introduction to my top-ten film list. If that doesn’t excite you, please do jump ahead to my list, found somewhere below. 

Introduction: Part One

A careful examination of my annual lists of favourite films (and my lists of favourite festival films) reveals what some may see as a disturbing pattern: the films on these lists are overwhelmingly dark, by which I mean they are films about people who are suffering or films about awful things that people have done to each other (or will do to each other in some possible future) or films about dark secrets, or films about dark subjects in general. Defined broadly enough, every single film on my 2024 list (including the ten honourable mentions) could be classified as a dark film, though two of them (Perfect Days and Flow) are much lighter. Indeed, 2024 may be my darkest year yet, something I already alluded to in my list of favourite films of Cinéfest 2024. 

In my weekly movie-night group, I have developed a reputation for spurning lighter films in favour of darker fare. Such a reputation appears to be well-deserved: You’ll find very few rom-coms on the favourite films lists I’ve been making since 2006. In my defense, I could note that a third of my fifteen all-time favourite films are comedies, but someone might point out that they are all ‘dark’ comedies, like Brazil and Dr. Strangelove. And three very dark films (Missing, Under Fire, The China Syndrome) are among my seven all-time favourite films.

What does all this mean? Am I such a depressed or depressing fellow that I need to watch depressing films? Or am I such a dark person myself that I am only attracted to darker films? I don’t believe either of these is true. What then? 

Perhaps I’m just a film snob who believes only serious films have any real merit. This gets closer to the truth, though I would strongly disagree with that statement. Indeed, I believe laughter is an essential part of our wellbeing and any film that elicits genuine laughter, without compromising the flourishing of life, is welcome. By my caveat, I refer to films that contribute in some way to making the world a worse place to live. This, unfortunately, is something many action films are guilty of doing (primarily by promoting the myth of redemptive violence). I have watched many action films in my day, including all of the James Bond films (multiple times). There are worse forms of escapist entertainment, and escapism has its place, but you won’t find a lot of action films on my lists either (though 2024 came close to being the third straight year that my number one film was an action film, as Dune: Part Two held the number one position for much of 2024). Of course, action films are often also very dark, so I digress.

While comedies and action films are essential genres, they are less likely to be listed among my favourites because a primary criterion for me is how emotionally engaged I am with the protagonist(s) as they struggle with the vicissitudes of life. This can happen with action films (e.g. Spider-man, the Wang family or Chani) and even with comedies (e.g. Rosie) but it is much more likely that a dark drama will move me as opposed to a lighter film. Darker films are also much more likely to involve themes like exposing injustice or corruption, which I find particularly engaging.

It is when I watch films about hurting people, lonely people, oppressed people and people struggling with decisions or with life in general, that my heart and soul are most likely to become fully engaged (dark musicals are especially effective for me, as the music touches the deepest places in me - but see below). Watching darker films also makes me feel connected to the countless wounded people in the world, calling and  inspiring me to action, and challenges me to look for the light in each of the characters, a light which I believe resides in everyone. I am also much more likely to cry during a darker film, sometimes for a half hour at a time and most often not during scenes intended to elicit tears. When I watch a rom-com (that many of my friends prefer), I get pleasure out of it and it provides laughter for my soul, which is also important, but it doesn’t connect me to people and the world in the same way. These are the reasons why it’s much more likely that a darker film will make my list of favourites.

But one thing to keep in mind is that I am NOT a fan of dark films as such! Horror is by far my least favourite genre (though there are exceptions). And among the most critically-acclaimed films of 2024 are the following darker films that disappointed me: Anora (dark comedy), Nosferatu (horror), The Substance (dark sci-fi), Babygirl (dark thriller), I Saw the TV Glow (horror), The Brutalist (dark drama) Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (dark comedy), The Nature of Love (dark rom-com), Love Lies Bleeding (dark thriller), AND Emilia Pérez, the dark musical (and international film no less) that received the most Academy Award nominations this year. 

Given the acclaim and what I said above about dark musicals, how could Emilia Pérez fail to make even my list of honourable mentions, let alone get in my top ten? I’m so glad you asked. I loved the first half of the film, and there are wonderful moments throughout, but I have watched  the brilliant Netflix documentary, Disclosure, three times and it taught me to be sensitive to the terrible way trans women have been portrayed throughout the history of film. As a result, as I watched Emilia Pérez, I grew increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of the plot and with the depiction of the trans woman (Emilia) at the film’s heart (a terrific performance by Karla Sofía Gascon). I wasn’t at all surprised when I read a recent collection of reviews of Emilia Pérez written by trans reviewers that roundly condemned the portrayal of Emilia Pérez (link: https://glaad.org/emilia-perez-is-not-good-trans-representation/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIAEV1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHUAx28XuW2iA5NfyYIKPYaWRqJriVrrvypSS3JqXjgzJ6K3cbIW4DzKN3A_aem_HYCDJCXeJcQ8odT46J6TKg). I’m quite disappointed in the Cannes jury and the Academy for their unquestioning praise of the film.

My line above about how music touches me also invites the question of why the music in Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (Walter’s favourite film of 2024) actually prevented me from appreciating that documentary enough to get it into my top-ten list (though it’s one of my honourable mentions). For Walter, the music in that film is precisely what made it special - creatively connecting the documentary to the right side of his brain as well as the left. Because it helped him engage with the time period and events in the documentary, Walter welcomed the ‘distraction’ of watching the jazz musicians of the period (early sixties), while I did not. For me, the music in a film must help me engage directly with the subject of the film or with the protagonist, which much of this music did not do.

Introduction: Part Two

Given the length of the above introduction, I will keep my standard introduction brief this year.

The reason this is a top-ten list with ten honourable mentions is because when I looked at my list of 20 favourite films of 2024, I noted that the top ten were all described in my notes as WOW four-star masterpieces. The others were not. I felt like I needed to highlight these ten masterpieces in a special way.

As for my observations about these 20 films, I will note that this year the films were made in 14 different countries, which must be a record, and that my top five films of 2024 all concern a man struggling, largely by himself, to deal with the challenges life has presented him and do the right thing. Clearly I resonate deeply with such films, especially if they are as well made as these five films (IMO). 

Finally, I think this is the first time that four of Walter’s seven favourite films are among my seven favourite films.

Honourable Mentions

20. Sing Sing - Greg Kwedar’s humanizing film about prison inmates woking on a play is authentic, unsentimental and a must-see, with another amazing performance by Colman Domingo, one of the greatest actors of our time. An excellent film, but it failed to engage me the way I might have hoped. 

19. Robot Dreams - This is a story about the unique and amazing friendship between a dog and a robot in New York City in 1984. Based on the graphic novel by Sara Varon, Pablo Berger’s heartwarming (if often sad) film is gorgeously animated and dialogue-free.

18. The Count of Monte Christo - This French adaptation of the classic adventure by Alexandre Dumas is gorgeous to watch and it’s engaging throughout. Written and directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière. Enjoyed it very much bit it didn’t quite wow me. 

17. Who Do I Belong To? - This Tunisian-Canadian film, made by Tunisian-Canadian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur, concerns Aïcha (a wonderful Salha Nasraoui), a woman whose two oldest sons have gone off to fight in Syria (a crime in Tunisia). One of those sons suddenly returns to his village, accompanied by a mysterious pregnant woman wearing a Niqab. Strange things begin to happen. This is a haunting nightmarish tale that grips you and doesn’t let go until its horrific end. Only recommended for those who can handle the darkest films.

16. Io Capitano - Two sixteen-year-old boys from Senegal travel across Africa to get to Italy, where they hope to find jobs to support their large families back home. Matteo Garrone’s gorgeous empathetic film is based on real stories about African migrants and features terrific writing and acting.

15. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat - This is the only documentary on my list this year. It tells the incredibly important and timely story of how the wealthy nations got rid of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of Congo in the early 1960’s in order to retain control of Congo’s mineral wealth. It’s a bit too long and some of the music is distracting - otherwise it would have made my top ten. See Walter’s list for a longer description. 

14. The Zone of Interest - A brilliant haunting film by Jonathan Glazer about the life of an Auschwirtz  commandant and his family living right next to the concentration camp during WWII. A little too stylistic for me, but a deeply moving film.

13. About Dry Grasses - Another masterpiece from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, one of the greatest directors of our time. This one is about a school teacher - a protagonist who is anything but sympathetic and yet we are forced to see life in Turkey today through his eyes.

12. Civil War - A horrifying gut-wrenching film somewhere between Under Fire and Apocalypse Now is about the moral/ethical questions war journalists must face while not taking sides or stopping for anything. Riveting from start to finish.

11. Origin - Ava DuVernay’s moving and timely biopic concerns the life of Isabel Wilkerson, a woman coping with a devastating personal tragedy while writing her incredible seminal book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in a sublime performance), travels through Germany, India and the US to research the caste system in those countries, asking vital questions and getting startling results. 

Top 10 Films of 2024

10. The Girl with the Needle - This is the darkest film on my dark list, a Danish black & white film directed by Magnus Von Horn and written by Line Langebek Knudsen that reminded me of the darker works of another Danish filmmaker, Carl Dreyer. Indeed, this film felt like a classic from the 1950’s. It tells the story, based on actual events in 1920’s Copenhagen, of a young woman with an unwanted baby who meets an older woman who runs a clandestine adoption agency. The cinematography is breathtaking, the acting by the two women leads, Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm, is mind-blowing and the sound is terrifying, contributing to the haunting harrowing atmosphere. In short, it’s a masterpiece for those who can handle the grimmest of tales.

9. The King Tide - Nowhere in any description of The King Tide did I see the word ‘horror’, and yet, using my own definition of horror films, The King Tide qualifies. This would normally not be a positive thing, but this Canadian gem by Christian Sparkes is my kind of horror film: a slow thoughtful examination of an isolated island fishing community which seems to have found paradise until one innocent but ill-advised decision exposes the fears and jealousies that could lead them all to hell. Brilliant! Gorgeous cinematography, dark creepy atmosphere and some fine acting.

8. Flow - The lightest film on my list is a dialogue-free animated film by Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis. In a world no longer inhabited by humans, an independent cat afraid of water suddenly finds the sea level rising by a meter a minute and must rely on other animals to survive in this strange new world. Flow is a stunning achievement, with extraordinary animation (influenced by Hayao Miyazaki) and a thought-provoking story. Each animal characters is given a depth of characterization and personality that is remarkable without dialogue.

7. Dune: Part Two - As I suggested three years ago, the second Dune film was much higher on my list than the first. Now that a third part is coming, there is still a possibility that Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy, based on the classic novels by Frank Herbert, will rise all the way to number one. Indeed, Part Two, which is a haunting, mind-blowing spectacle (a sci-fi masterpiece) was in the number one spot for most of 2024, thanks to the way Chani (great performance by Zendaya) became the protagonist of the film after Paul (Timothee Chalemet) ‘embraced the dark side of the Force’. But when I watched this film for the third time, I realized that the three revenge-killings late in the film (two by Paul, the third by Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) were far too likely to elicit positive feelings in viewers rather than the profound discomfort I felt and which Villeneuve (in the case of Paul at least) would not have wanted to be enjoyed). I’m also not convinced viewers understood how Paul was no longer the hero of the story but had become a villain himself. So I had to drop Dune: Part Two down the list to number seven. 

6. Green Border -  This B&W masterpiece by the great Polish director, Agnieszka Holland, feels like you’re watching a documentary, with incredibly authentic performances and wonderful characters. The border in question separates Belarus and Poland and the victims of what happens there are refugees from wars in the Middle East who are trying to get to the EU. A tragic but ultimately hopeful story.

5. All of Us Strangers - Written and directed by Andrew Haigh, based on the 1987 novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada, All of Us Strangers tells the story of a lonely gay screenwriter (played marvellously by Andrew Scott) who confronts his past and his long-dead parents in hauntingly unique ways. This beautiful humanizing film was one of the most critically-acclaimed films of the year and received six BAFTA nominations, but hasn’t been widely seen. 

4. Conclave - Edward Berger’s film about the election of a new pope is captivating from first to last and features Ralph Fiennes in one of his best performances (and that’s saying something). The rest of the acting is also excellent, the writing is intelligent and thought-provoking and there are some great little sermons. Can one man cut through the intrigue and be a voice of hope for the future of the church?

3. Perfect Days - This film by Wim Wenders is as perfect as the days of its protagonist, Hirayama (played superbly by Koji Yakusho), a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo. The film follows Hirayama’s routine life from day to day, which may sound boring but is actually wise, fascinating and gorgeous. A sublime work of art.

2. Joker: Folie à Deux - I have written a long essay on why I think this Todd Phillips film is an underrated masterpiece. Perhaps I will post it one day, but my gut told me that few readers would be interested, since neither viewers nor critics (other than my friend Gareth Higgins, for whom it was the number one film of the year) had much use for the film. In the meantime, I will just say that this very bleak story about Arthur Fleck is set in a prison and a courtroom, it’s a musical (an odd choice that critics hated but I loved), it has terrific performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga and Brendan Gleeson, it has gorgeous cinematography, it’s screenplay is very thoughtful, and it contains one of the best scenes of the year in which Gary Puddles (Leigh Gill) is on the stand describing the trauma caused by Arthur’s actions in the first Joker film (which I wasn’t a big fan of). Joker: Folie à Deux won me over in one of its opening scenes, in which dark grey umbrellas were suddenly red and blue and green and yellow, an homage to Jacques Demy’s great French musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. 

1. Small Things Like These - Rarely have I seen a film that grabbed my soul like this one. I cried for most of the film because of how engaged I was with the protagonist’s struggle to do the right thing even at the cost of his happy home. This struggle is expertly framed with memories of childhood Christmases and a dawning revelation. Cillian Murphy is brilliant (even better than he was in Oppenheimer), conveying every thought in his mind with his expressions alone. Perhaps the best Christmas film ever made, this masterpiece by Belgian director Tim Mielants was written by Claire Keegan, based on her novella. Another great film that sadly didn’t get the distribution it deserved.