Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

It’s time for my annual best movies of the year, where I list the films that struck me as remarkable in some way: the novelty, shock, joy, and satisfaction the film provides. This includes the direction, acting, plot, and the look of the movie. If any of those are just mediocre, it probably won’t make the list. They make hundreds of new movies every year, but in this list I only include films that were either released in Toronto or screened at a festival here in 2024. And I’m forced leave out certain categories — like documentaries and animation — for lack of space. Otherwise movies like Pelikan Blue, Memoir of a Snail, Flow, and The Wild Robot would definitely have made my list. And finally, because it’s a holiday, I’m recording this a week in advance, even though I know I’m going to leave out some movies I meant to include. Oh well..

With no further ado, here are my fave movies from 2024 in semi-alphabetical order.

Anora
Dir: Sean Baker

…is a comedy romance about about an exotic dancer in Coney Island who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch. Mikey Madison is great as Anora.

The Brutalist
Dir: Brady Corbet

…is a four-hour epic about a modernist architect who leaves postwar Hungary to make it big in America, but forced to deal with his patron. The look of this movie is incredible.

Conclave
Dir: Edward Berger

…is a dramatization of a boring topic — Cardinals electing a new pope — and somehow makes it into a shocking thriller.

Emelia Perez
Dir: Jaques Audiard

…is a very unusual musical melodrama about four women in Mexico, including a transgendered woman who wants to hide her past as the former head of a drug cartel.

The Girl with the Needle
Dir: Magnus von Horn

…is a shocking historical dramatic horror movie about a woman in post WWI Copenhagen who gives her baby up for adoption, not knowing its future. This one blew me away.

Hard Truths
Dir: Mike Leigh

…is a powerful drama about two black families in London, with Marianne Jean-Baptiste in an stunning performance as a deeply likeable matriarch. (In my review I called this a perfect film).

Kill the Jockey
Dir: Luis Ortega

…is a brilliant, surreal and mind-blowing fantasy about a jockey in Buenos Aires. I saw this gem at TIFF, and I sure hope it gets released soon.

Love Lies Bleeding
Dir: Rose Glass

It’s a violent, sexy neon noir, about small-town crime in the southwest, with Kristen Stewart as the daughter of local kingpin who falls for a female weightlifter.

Paying for it
Dir: Sook-yin Lee

…is a low-budget, local comedy/ drama set in Toronto’s own Kensington Market about a cartoonist who gives up dating in favour of sleeping with paid sex workers.

Sing Sing
Dir: Greg Kwedar

…is a true drama about a group of prisoners at Sing Sing putting on a musical, starring Hollywood actors like Coleman Domingo and formerly incarcerated ones.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof

…is a dramatic-thriller about a Teheran family torn apart, where a father who arrests dissidents for the government, has a daughter involved in political protests. It was secretly shot within Iran.

The Substance
Dir: Coralie Fargeat

…is an over-the-top audacious, LA fantasy-horror of a fading TV celebrity who tries to create a younger, more perfect version of herself.

Universal Language
Dir: Matthew Rankin

…is a fantastical reimagining of Canada’s two solitude’s as Quebec and an Iranian/Canadian amalgam located on Winnipeg.

Runners Up (in alphabetical order)

The Apprentice, Didi, The End, Gladiator II, Heretic, Kill,  Kneecap, The Life of Chuck, Misericordia, The Order, A Real Pain, Riff Raff, Sasquatch Sunset, Smile 2, The Queen of My Dreams, Wicked.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.