Hollywood has been on an experimental overdrive, dabbling with themes thrilling and bizarre, bold and unsettling, disruptive and rewarding in a way hitherto unthinkable.
If studio-backed juggernauts such as Deadpool & Wolverine, Dune: Part Two and It Ends With Us got the box office rolling, several smaller, intimate films made us confront uncomfortable truths and the ephemerality of life.
In a year when animated installment films reigned supreme—Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Moana 2, Kung Fu Panda 4 emerged as some of the year’s biggest blockbusters—it’s easy to forget that 2024 was also the year of Joker: Folie a Deux, Challengers, The Idea of You, and A Family Affair.
If you have also had enough of the big screen spectacle and are in the mood to unwind to films that make you feel in a way you haven’t in a long time and stay with you long after the end credits roll, curl up with a blanket. It’s time.
All of Us Strangers (Disney+ Hotstar)
Don’t we all live our lives surrounded by ghosts? Some from the past, most in our heads, and others of those we’ve loved and lost. Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers is a heartbreaking dirge, a whimsical swig at what could’ve been, the impossible longing to hold on, and undo the cruelty of life.
Starring a spectacular Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers is loosely based on the Japanese novel Strangers by Taichi Yamada. It is sparsely populated—few dialogues and fewer people. If you aren’t already in love with Scott and his unreal ability to make the inexplicable palpable, enough to make you think about his every performance for weeks, this film is him giving you yet another chance. Don’t miss it. It’ll shatter you to pieces.
The Fall Guy (Prime Video)
Inspired by Glen A Larson’s action television series of the same name that ran from 1981 to 1986, The Fall Guy is an ode to the relentless grunt and grime that stuntmen plough through all their professional lives without any recognition. Directed by David Leitch, it is full of irreverent candor, buoyant humor, and uncontainable Kenergy.
Starring a fantastic Ryan Gosling and Emma Blunt, The Fall Guy has the two of them firing on all cylinders and having the time of their life while at it. Written by Drew Pearce, it is a high-on-adrenaline extravaganza with elaborate, inventive, nimbly-performed stunt sequences, some of the best choreographed and executed in recent memory. In its 126-minute runtime, so many cars blow up to pieces, it’ll put
Rohit Shetty in an existential crisis. But above all, it’s a glorious testament to the undeniable truth that there’s nothing that Ryan Gosling cannot do.
Road House (Prime Video)
It’s a shame that director Doug Liman decided on a straight-to-steaming release of his reimagining of Patrick Swayze’s 1989 pulpy actioner. Prime Video’s Road House, starring a smashing Jake Gyllenhaal and a crackling Conor McGregor, is just too big, primal, and entertaining to be enjoyed in all its unhinged glory on the small screen.
It’s a remake we didn’t know we needed. At a time when Hindi cinema is treating originals like regurgitated trash, Road House is a fresh reminder that reimaginings can be wildly fun too, visceral, full of wit and vigor and knock-out performances; so good that they end up elevating the source material in a way few could conceive possible.
The Kitchen (Netflix)
Directed by Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya, The Kitchen is a scathing critique of corporate greed and social decay. Set in the dystopian London of the near future, the likelihood of us seeing this restless Netflix film turn into reality well within our lifetimes is so palpable that there is no looking away anymore.
Starring Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman, The Kitchen is the story of a man and his son wanting a future they may never have. In 107 minutes, it presents a worldview that is edgy, outrageous, and ominous. It follows a pre-teen mourning his mother’s passing and trying to negotiate a relationship with an absent father figure who doesn’t want him. All of this with the world crumbling to bits in the backdrop.
But despite the abject hopelessness, it is a story about hope, redemption, and the power of community. Showing what could be is often a temptation that most filmmakers wrestle with. However, at no point do Kaluuya or Tavares give in. Like powerful cinema often does, The Kitchen asks uncomfortable questions but provides no answers.
Mothers’ Instinct (Prime Video)
Based on Barbara Abel’s 2012 novel Derriere la haine, it’s the story of two next-door neighbors Celine (Anne Hathaway) and Alice (Jessica Chastain) living a postcard life in the sunny, suburban America of the 1960s. Both housewives, they are best friends with a young son each of the same age who are inseparable too.
All is good in the hood until tragedy strikes and Celine loses hers in a freak accident. She blames Alice, who she thinks could have saved him. Her insurmountable loss triggers a deranged dance between the two mothers—of provocation and gaslighting each other to the edge of insanity.
Adapted from Olivier Masset-Depasse’s 2018 Belgian film Duelles, Mothers’ Instinct is a twisty, unhinged, domestic psychodrama. It marks the feature directorial debut of celebrated French cinematographer Benoît Delhomme. At 94 minutes, it is a meditation on the dangers of overstepping boundaries, the insidiousness of domestic terror, how grief and loss can cause permanent damage, and the havoc wreaked when vendetta is taken too far.
