Dev Patel – Scene by Green

Top 10 of the Year

1. Ripley	Steven Zaillian
2. Dune: Part Two	Denis Villeneuve
3. The Substance	Coralie Fargeat
4. Nosferatu	Robert Eggers
5. Nickel Boys	RaMell Ross
6. The Girl with the Needle	Magnus von Horn
7. The Brutalist	Brady Corbet
8. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	George Miller
9. Maria	Pablo Larraín
10. Queer	Luca Guadagnino

Best Film – Ripley

A television miniseries as the best film of the year? How is it so? Well with a stylistic vision as ambitious as Steven Zaillian’s and a formal dedication to patient, calculated storytelling, getting caught up on the structure of a cinematic work this brilliant is a mere triviality. It is far from the first time a miniseries has ended up in the top 10 of its year – just check out 2021’s The Underground Railroad and 2022’s Copenhagen Cowboy. It is however the first time that one has made it to the #1 spot, with similar masterpieces of auteur television like the Dekalog and Fanny and Alexander being slightly edged out in their respective years. Where most television falls flat in maintaining visual and formal ambition across multiple episodes, Ripley not only meets this benchmark but leaps over it, marking an enormous feat of filmmaking endurance akin to a seven hour epic. This is the third screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, and through Zaillian’s crisp black-and-white photography and location shooting, it masterfully narrows in on the notorious con artist’s dark, decaying soul.

Baroque interiors and weathered stonework displaying meticulous attention to detail, reflecting the darkness that Tom carries with him throughout Italy. Few television series in history look like this, but Zaillian draws on the expertise of cinematographer Robert Elswit to capture these magnificent visuals, making for some of their best work.

Most Underrated – Dune: Part Two

Ripley could just easily be the pick here, but I will give the critical consensus some leeway since it will likely take a while for them to accept it as a work of cinema. The disparity between Dune: Part Two sitting outside the top 40 of the year while Part One ranks at #6 in 2021 is strange, especially given that both were equally well received at the time of their release. Denis Villeneuve expands the scope and scale of his worldbuilding in this sequel with sweeping, ominous majesty, concluding Paul Atreides’ Messianic ascension to leader of the Fremen and setting his sights on Dune Messiah.

As tremendous as Denis Villeneuve’s epic achievement was in the first instalment of Dune, it is clear with the context of Part Two just how much of that was simply setting up Paul Atreides’ subverted monomyth, where we witness his evolution into one of cinema’s great antiheroes.

Most Overrated – All We Imagine as Light

Payal Kapadia’s Indian drama sits at #2 of the year on TSPDT, and doesn’t come terribly close to my top 10. It is very easy to settle into the muted, comfortable rhythms of All We Imagine as Light, as well as the soothing cool blues of Mumbai’s warm evenings. The lighting is often gorgeous as we confront the harsh realities of modern companionship, but ultimately none of this justifies at as the second best film of 2024.

Payal Kapadia’s narrative flows between these two flatmate’s stories with lyrical grace, not only seeking insight into their interior lives, but also the friction in their own relationship to each other. In this nocturnal urban environment, love flourishes without judgement, connecting souls in moments of sweet, uninhibited honesty.

Best Directorial Debut – Nickel Boys

In some years this category barely warrants a mention, but 2024 is a year I am glad to single it out. RaMell Ross makes the leap from documentary to narrative filmmaking in Nickel Boys, and his avant-garde instincts come fully formed in its first-person camerawork and impressionistic montages. It is also through these perspectives that he studies the relationship between two Black friends in a 1960s reform school – one being an idealistic advocate for social progress, and the other a cynic looking to keep his head down. What could easily be used as a gimmick instead melds beautifully with Ross’ evocative storytelling and cinematography, calling to mind Barry Jenkins’ distinctive combination of shallow focus and close-ups which similarly forge profound connections with ostracised characters.

It is fitting that RaMell Ross should ground his visual style in first-person perspectives, playing with camera angles, orientations, and movements that we are intimately familiar with in our own lives. During Elwood’s childhood, the camera stares up at towering environments and reveals his growing sense of self through reflective surfaces.

Gem to Spotlight – Flow

The 2020s have ushered in a Golden Age of animation which peaked in 2023 with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and this small but ambitious Latvian film proves that it is far from over. Starting with a tiny budget and relatively small crew, director Gints Zilbalodis decided to animate Flow in Blender – a free, open-source computer graphics program that Pixar and DreamWorks would never even think of touching. Instead of using storyboards or concept art, Zilbalodis created expansive environments within the software and explored how his animal characters inhabited the space. It is a stunning achievement of wordless visual storytelling, exploring a flooded, post-apocalyptic world in long camera takes through the eyes of a cat, and immersing us in the harsh and soothing cycles of nature.

Flow illustrates with breath-taking wonder that there is no perfect state of being in nature, besides that of a balanced ecosystem which resiliently oscillates between different phases. We float and soar through a world in perpetual transition, basking in the order and chaos of nature.

Best Male Performance – Adrien Brody in The Brutalist

Adrien Brody gives a raw, battered performance as Hungarian architect László Toth. He is a culmination of countless devastating experiences, each resulting in unhealthy coping mechanisms that only deepen his psychological wounds. The Brutalist is his platform to project both supreme confidence and dazed, drug-fuelled breakdowns, dealing with Holocaust trauma the only way Toth knows how – through compartmentalisation and addiction.

Dune: Part Two sees Timothee Chalamet take the Messianic saviour of Arrakis to ominous ends, mirroring Anakin Skywalker’s descent into darkness. By the time he is standing upon platforms and delivering rousing speeches to followers and enemies, his voice has shifted down to a deeper, gravelly register not unlike Baron Harkonnen’s, and he exudes a megalomania that leads us to mourn the humbler Paul Atreides we met in Part One. Chalamet may be the most promising actor of his generation, and this is one of the best cases to prove why.

*The Brutalist gives Adrien Brody a platform for his best performance and role in many years, playing that complex mix of guilt, trauma, and hope unique to Holocaust survivors.*

Andrew Scott delivers a sinister interpretation of the titular antihero in Ripley, especially when comparing him against previous versions performed by Alain Delon and Matt Damon. Scott is by far the oldest of three at the time of playing the role, applying a new lens to Tom as a more experienced, jaded con artist. He delivers each line with calculated discernment, understanding how a specific inflection or choice of word might turn a conversation in his favour, while his onyx, shark-like eyes patiently scrutinise his prey.

Elsewhere, Daniel Craig plays a fictionalised version of writer William S. Burroughs in Queer, giving one of his most layered performances as a man wracked with existential insecurities over his sexuality. Ralph Fiennes also anchors Conclave’s sacred assembly of cardinals in a weary apprehension, both disillusioned by the church and anxious that its leadership should fall into the wrong hands. He is restrained, subtle, and subdued – something which cannot be said for Chris Hemsworth, who snarls his lines with broad, nasally glee in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. His boisterous charisma is quite distinctive in this barren wasteland, styling himself in the fashion of a dystopian Roman emperor standing atop a chariot led by motorcycles.

Daniel Craig gives his most layered performance to date at the centre of Luca Guadagnino’s character study in Queer. He is an insecure, half-complete man torn between dualities – shame and indulgence, connection and independence, mind and body.

Finally, Bill Skarsgård delivers an acutely Slavic take on Count Orlok in Nosferatu, sporting a heavy fur coat, bushy moustache, and deep, Eastern European accent. His commitment to this otherworldly voice by training in opera and Mongolian throat singing is astonishing, and his naked physicality when latching onto victims is similarly unsettling as he pulses upon them like a pale, writhing leech. His face is often hidden by shadows, but when he does appear in dim light, he ravenously devours the scenery like he does his victims.

Ralph Fiennes’ performance anchors Conclave’s sacred assembly in a weary apprehension, both disillusioned by the church and anxious that its leadership should fall into the wrong hands. Worry lines crease his forehead, and we are often placed in his uneasy state of mind.

Best Female Performance – Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu

Lily-Rose Depp pays homage to Isabelle Adjani in Nosferatu, displaying total command over a deep-seated torment that is as psychological as it is physical. She swings wildly between emotional extremes, falls into demonic seizures, and embraces Count Orlok’s presence in her life with both blissful smiles and mortal terror. Depp does not play Ellen Hutter as the archetypal ‘pure virgin’, but rather a married, mature woman destined to play a far more active role in confronting the vampire.

A committed performance from Lily-Rose Depp, falling into demonic seizures and swinging wildly between emotional extremes. It is through these strong dramatic choices that Depp displays total command over Ellen’s deep-seated torment.

Hollywood’s past and present run up against each other in The Substance, with Demi Moore making a major comeback and Margaret Qualley capitalising on her excellent run in recent years. This body horror features both at their strongest as two sides of a woman simultaneously envying and revelling in her youthful glamour – and eventually pushing this complicated relationship to grotesque ends.

Much like Moore, Angelina Jolie also gives her best performance beyond the prime of her youth, proving that she has more than just raw star power in Maria. She inhabits the titular soprano as a shadow of herself, delicate and fragile in the final week of her life, while Mikey Madison alternately masks her vulnerability in Anora with a stubborn streak of independence. She is extraordinarily natural in this role, demonstrating savviness and resilience as a New York stripper who refuses to let her guard down, yet ultimately does for the wrong guy.

The Girl with the Needle sees Vic Carmen Sonne and Trine Dyrholm’s performances entwine in a disorientated haze – one a victim of abuse falling into guilty self-loathing, and the other masking incredible malice beneath a warm, maternal mask. Anya Taylor-Joy gets the final mention for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, not quite reaching the heights of Charlize Theron’s soaring take on the character, but nonetheless asserting a powerful presence onscreen as the silent, brooding action hero.

For industry veteran Demi Moore and rising star Margaret Qualley, The Substance displays both actresses’ strongest performances to date, playing two sides of one woman simultaneously envying and revelling in her youthful glamour.

Best Cinematography – Ripley

Film	Cinematographer
1. Ripley	Robert Elswit
2. Nosferatu	Jarin Blaschke
3. Dune: Part Two	Greig Fraser
4. The Substance	Benjamin Kracun
5. Nickel Boys	Jomo Fray
6. The Girl With the Needle	Michał Dymek
7. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	Simon Duggan
8. Maria	Edward Lachman
9. The Brutalist	Lol Crawley
10. Monkey Man	Sharone Meir
11. Flow	Gints Zilbalodis
12. Conclave	Stéphane Fontaine
13. Blitz	Yorick Le Saux
14. Queer	Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
15. Challengers	Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
16. Disclaimer	Bruno Delbonel, Emmanuel Lubezki

The visual majesty of Ripley is astounding, drawing on the symmetry of Italy’s Renaissance architecture and Robert Elswit’s immaculate framing. The mise-en-scène earns a comparison to Michelangelo Antonioni here, aptly using the negative space of vast walls to impede on his characters, while detailing the intricate textures of their surroundings with the keen eye of a photographer.

Best Editing – The Substance

Film	Editor
1. The Substance	Coralie Fargeat, Jérôme Eltabet, Valentin Feron
2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	Eliot Knapman, Margaret Sixel
3. Nickel Boys	Nicholas Monsour
4. Dune: Part Two	Joe Walker
5. Monkey Man	Dávid Jancsó, Tim Murrell, Joe Galdo
6. Challengers	Marco Costa
7. Maria	Sofía Subercaseaux
8. Queer	Marco Costa
9. The Brutalist	Dávid Jancsó
10. Ripley	Joshua Raymond Lee, David O. Rogers
11. Disclaimer	Adam Gough
12. Conclave	Nick Emerson
13. Kinds of Kindness	Yorgos Mavropsaridis
14. Civil War	Jake Roberts

Coralie Fargeat directly references Requiem for a Dream in The Substance, comparing the processes of beautification to an uncontrollable drug addiction through aggressive, rapid-fire montage editing.

Best Screenplay – Nosferatu

Film	Writer
1. Nosferatu	Robert Eggers
2. Ripley	Steven Zaillian
3. Dune: Part Two	Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Eric Roth
4. Disclaimer	Alfonso Cuarón
5. The Brutalist	Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
6. Kinds of Kindness	Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
7. Civil War	Alex Garland
8. Queer	Justin Kuritzkes
9. Nickel Boys	RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes
10. Anora	Sean Baker
11. Challengers	Justin Kuritzkes

Robert Eggers is not so much subverting horror conventions in Nosferatu than executing them with poetic flair, achieving a 19^th century stylisation in the dialogue which elegantly weaves macabre metaphors among other rhetoric devices. The only trace of modernisation may be in the freedom of its subtextual and explicit sexuality, edging us gradually closer to a full consummation of Ellen and Orlok’s sordid affair.

Best Original Music Score – Dune: Part Two

Film	Composer
1. Dune: Part Two	Hans Zimmer
2. The Brutalist	Daniel Blumberg
3. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	Tom Holkenborg
4. The Substance	Raffertie
5. Nosferatu	Robin Carolan
6. Challengers	Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
7. Conclave	Volker Bertelmann
8. Nickel Boys	Alex Somers, Scott Alario
9. Flow	Gints Zilbalodis, Rihards Zaļupe
10. Monkey Man	Jed Kurzel
11. Queer	Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
12. Kinds of Kindness	Jerskin Fendrix
13. The Girl With the Needle	Frederikke Hoffmeier
14. Blitz	Hans Zimmer, Nicholas Britell
15. Ripley	Jeff Russo

Hans Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part Two intrepidly builds on the war cries and blaring electronic orchestrations from Part One, roaring towards a violent, devastating climax.

Year Breakdown

Auteur television has been on a steady rise through the 2020s with miniseries like Small Axe, Copenhagen Cowboy, and The Underground Railroad rivalling feature films in cinematic quality, and 2024 marks the peak of this movement towards episodic storytelling. Ripley is the first televised masterpiece of the decade, and Alfonso Cuarón’s psychological drama Disclaimer backs up the trend, cutting into the inherent subjectivity of storytelling through a mystery of conflicting perspectives. Of course, streaming services continue to dominate here, and credit must be given to Netflix and Apple TV Plus for producing such ambitious projects.

Zaillian is the creative genius behind Ripley, but Netflix deserves partial credit for this recent boom in auteur television. The streaming model blurs the boundaries between feature and episodic filmmaking, giving those directors with the ability to maintain cinematic ambition across multiple episodes a platform to show off their stamina.

Cuarón’s last film was for Netflix, and it seems he is sticking with streaming as he move to Apple TV Plus for Disclaimer. He unravels its layers of conflicting perspectives with great patience, keeping us from the reality of Jonathan and Catherine’s mysterious relationship until the final episode, yet the subjectivity of such divergent accounts is woven into the series’ structure from the start.

It is a relatively quiet year for the old guard of tentpole directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, held up only by Cuarón with Disclaimer and George Miller’s newest entry in the Mad Max franchise. Clint Eastwood’s film Juror #2 is not quite on the same level, but he is officially the oldest director to make an archivable film at the age of 93 – an incredible accomplishment in itself, and a testament to his lengthy, laudable career.

Mad Max’s anarchic dystopia of dictators, marauders, and vehicle chases is clearly where George Miller is most comfortable as a filmmaker, turbocharging him with raw, high-octane vigour, and expanding its world to far more expansive proportions than Fury Road’s tightly contained narrative. Quite miraculously, Furiosa sticks its landing with dynamic poise, giving us greater reason to admire the titular warrior as a force of undistiled willpower.

In place of long-established auteurs, 2024 instead sees the next generation down continue to flourish. Yorgos Lanthimos comes off the grand success of Poor Things with a far more alienating anthology film, Pablo Larraín completes his biopic trilogy with a surreal character study of opera singer Maria Callas, and Robert Eggers’ meticulous remake of Nosferatu offers ups one of the most haunting horror films in recent years. This decade has been a very fruitful period for Luca Guadagnino as well, but with both Challengers and Queer, he also achieves the rare, remarkable feat of delivering two top 10 quality films in a single year.

Pablo Larraín brings his trilogy of biopics to a close with Maria. This historic soprano is a woman of magnificent contradictions, and it is in the collision between extremes of soaring exhilaration and abject misery where the film’s disorientating, nostalgic surrealism takes form.

Yorgos Lanthimos returns to the deadpan bleakness of his earlier films in Kinds of Kindness, delivering an absurd anthology that studies love and abuse in all sorts of relationships. The style is more stripped back than Poor Things, yet wide-angle lenses and monochrome dreams continue to weave through his bizarre narratives.

*Art meets mass appeal in Dune: Part Two, delivering some jaw-dropping visuals – here with an overhead shot capturing the Fremen in their pale headdresses swarming Paul Atreides*.

Chief among these directors though is Denis Villeneuve, who tops his first Dune film with an even more grandiose sequel and simultaneously smashes the box office – though not quite enough to unseat Inside Out 2 from the top. With that said, Pixar’s artistic cache is still wavering, leaving Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis to pick up the slack and keep pushing animation forward in the beautifully minimalist Flow.

Speaking of which, Zilbalodis is one of many up-and-coming directors worth noting this year. Nickel Boys and Monkey Man are extraordinary debuts for RaMell Ross and Dev Patel, while Coralie Fargeat, Magnus von Horn, and Brady Corbet make their well-deserved breakthroughs in The Substance, The Girl with the Needle, and The Brutalist. After 2022’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Conclave also marks the second time we have seen Edward Berger direct a film that nips at the edges of the year’s top 10, setting a healthy pattern that will hopefully continue into the future.

*One of the defining shots of 2024, flipping the Statue of Liberty upside down as László Toth emerges from the darkness of the ship to find his new home in America.*

*Dev Patel makes an incredibly admirable directorial debut in Monkey Man, transposing a John Wick-style narrative into modern-day India and drenching it in gorgeous lighting.*

Magnus von Horn’s bleak, black-and-white photography captures the dilapidated architecture of 1920s Copenhagen in The Girl with the Needle, adapting a chilling piece of Danish history with exceptional psychological tension.

At the Academy Awards and Cannes Film Festival, Sean Baker gets recognition for the remarkably consistent work he has been doing since 2015, with Anora winning the top awards at both. This is a feat accomplished by only three other films in history – The Lost Weekend, Marty, and Parasite.

Quite curiously, Anora is also part of a larger trend of films this year proving that Quentin Tarantino had an eye for casting in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Many of the young actors who played Manson Family members there have since launched into the celebrity stratosphere, this year taking on significant roles across a number of films. Besides Mikey Madison’s breakthrough in Anora, Margaret Qualley excels in The Substance and Kinds of Kindness, Austin Butler takes a villainous turn in Dune: Part Two, Dakota Fanning is led down a trail of lies in Ripley, and Maya Hawke is introduced as Anxiety in Inside Out 2. A new generation of talent is here, and Tarantino saw it before any of us.

*Anora was the big 2024 awards darling and another solid achievement for Sean Baker, continuing his admirable run which began in 2015 with Tangerine.*

Film Archives

Film	Director	Grade
A Complete Unknown	James Mangold	R
A Quiet Place: Day One	Michael Sarnoski	R
A Real Pain	Jesse Eisenberg	R
Alien: Romulus	Fede Álvarez	R
All We Imagine as Light	Payal Kapadia	R
Anora	Sean Baker	HR
Blitz	Steve McQueen	HR
Challengers	Luca Guadagnino	HR
Civil War	Alex Garland	HR
Conclave	Edward Berger	HR
Disclaimer	Alfonso Cuarón	HR
Dune: Part Two	Denis Villeneuve	MS/MP
Flow	Gints Zilbalodis	HR
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga	George Miller	MS
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1	Kevin Costner	R
I Saw the TV Glow	Jane Schoenbrun	R
I’m Still Here	Walter Salles	R
Joker: Folie à Deux	Todd Phillips	R/HR
Juror #2	Clint Eastwood	R
Kinds of Kindness	Yorgos Lanthimos	HR
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes	Wes Ball	R
Longlegs	Osgood Perkins	R
Love Lies Bleeding	Rose Glass	R/HR
Maria	Pablo Larraín	HR/MS
MaXXXine	Ti West	R
Monkey Man	Dev Patel	HR
Nickel Boys	RaMell Ross	MS
Nosferatu	Robert Eggers	MS
Queer	Luca Guadagnino	HR/MS
Rebel Ridge	Jeremy Saulnier	R
Ripley	Steven Zaillian	MP
Sing Sing	Greg Kwedar	R
Smile 2	Parker Finn	R
The Apprentice	Ali Abbasi	R/HR
The Brutalist	Brady Corbet	MS
The Fall Guy	David Leitch	R
The Girl with the Needle	Magnus von Horn	MS
The Substance	Coralie Fargeat	MS
The Wild Robot	Chris Sanders	R
Trap	M. Night Shyamalan	R
We Live in Time	John Crowley	R
Wicked	Jon M. Chu	R
Wolfs	Jon Watts	R

Tag: Dev Patel

2024 in Cinema