2024 has been a pretty stellar year for films, so much so that some have slipped under the radar; here’s ten recommendations for hidden gems you may have missed…
It feels like cinema has had something of a creative upswing lately beneath the mainstream. In the last few years, we’ve seen some interesting auteur horrors and some enrapturing new cinematic voices. We’ve seen indie filmmakers delivering auteur work that tends to be divisive but will enthral those who tune into the vision.
2024 in particular has been a very strong year. Horror continues to have a creative boon, but there have also been some excellent offerings from across the indie and world cinema landscape too.
We don’t need to tell you about the likes of Dune 2, or Deadpool and Wolverine, or Wicked because they’ve filled multiplexes and been right up in trending positions upon home release. However, with so many stellar releases (so much so I’ve been able to fill a top 20 as comfortably as I have for years), some get lost beneath the algorithm or the hype others garner. Here are ten hidden gems from 2024 (based on their UK release dates)….
Monster
It might be Hirokazu Kore-eda’s most well-travelled film since Shoplifters, but Monster still feels like it didn’t capture nearly as much attention as it deserved. With a Rashamon-esque structure, we open with a frustrated single mother trying to work out why her son is acting strangely and getting to the bottom of a physical altercation with a teacher. It plays out from several perspectives, as things become a little clearer, but at its heart, Monster is another beautifully observed drama from Kore-eda, bolstered by incredible performances from the two central children.
Sakura Ando (Godzilla Minus One) is also superb as a struggling mother who feels helpless in her inability to raise her child. It’s up there with some of Kore-eda’s best works like the aforementioned Shoplifters and Nobody Knows, and beautifully balances charm, and whimsy with powerful drama and difficult conversations.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review of Monster
Ama Gloria
This one has definitely slipped way under the radar but is currently on the BFI player in the UK (which is a great source for under-the-radar gems). A young French girl loves her nanny, Gloria and is heartbroken when she has to return to her homeland in Cape Verde to oversee a development project she’s been working in France to fund. Little Cleo is delighted when she receives an invite to spend the summer with Gloria in what is effectively their last hurrah together.
Heartfelt, authentic and creative (there are some great animated interludes), the film goes for naturalism which is always a brave choice when centering a film on child actors. However, Louise Mauroy-Panzani is incredible as Cleo. It’s an unbelievably natural, compelling and at times heartbreaking performance. Ama Gloria is very lithe and tells its story with real efficiency and an underlying comment on colonialism.
Girl You Know It’s True
We’ve seen plenty of Hollywood-ised accounts of icons like Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, David Bowie, The Beatles and Queen, but hold tight for this hidden gem, a German/French co-production about the rise and spectacular fall of Milli Vanilli. Many who grew up in the era Milli Vanilli had their moment in the sun know of the controversy as it turned out they weren’t actually singing their own music and lip-synching at live events.
However, as we’ve seen in a couple of documentaries, this movie gives a stylised but largely accurate account of the details, with a focus on not just Rob and Fab but the (super) producer, Frank Farian who orchestrated the manufacturing of a pop phenomenon. As far as Rob and Fab, the casting is about as perfect as you can get, with Elan Ben Ali (Fab) and Tijan Njie (Rob) both bearing striking resemblance to their real-life counterparts. Then there’s the soundtrack. It’s killer and yes, that includes the Vanilli tracks themselves which were absolute bangers. Some may find the fourth wall breaks questionable and the film perhaps doesn’t delve deep enough into the tragic fall of Rob Pilatus, however, it’s still a compelling and glossy bio.
La Chimera
We’ve spoken already about the stellar year Josh O’Connor has had thanks to Challengers and La Chimera. The former came off the back of a good theatrical run and then a major spot as an Amazon original on the streaming platform. La Chimera, however, is one that’s been stuck a little below the radar and by a long way is the better film.
O’Connor plays a morally obtuse British grave robber who normally oversees a band of miscreant helpers. Fresh out of jail and haunted by memories of his ex, Arthur returns to Italy to find his gang and starts looting tombs again. It’s a kind of anti-Indiana Jones, firmly in the arthouse wheelhouse and really evoking the works of Antonioni, Pasolini, Fellini, De Sica and Rossellini among others. Alice Rohrwacher’s film is beautifully shot (on interchanging film stocks and aspect ratios), playful and poetic. O’Connor is as enigmatic as he is melancholic as we piece together more and more of his past. He’s well aided by superb performances by Isabella Rossellini and Carol Duarte. This one deserves some Oscar hype and it might be my favourite of the year, but very few people (even those in the know about film), have heard of it.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ review of La Chimera
The House of Screaming Glass
Now for clarity, I do have a credit on this feature but given my involvement was negligible, it was a very generous one. However, it’s also the kind of esoteric and cerebral psychological horror that I dig, so watching as a fan I found a lot to enjoy. David R. Williams has an eclectic CV of low-budget horror, usually more in the extreme/exploitation category (Rust Belt Killer for example). House of Screaming Glass is more firmly rooted in arthouse and is a rarity in the micro-budgeted cinema realm: an unapologetically auteur vision.
Guaranteed to repel audiences as much as it lures people in, it’s a film that requires patience as Lani Call is a one-woman show as Elizabeth, a young woman who inherits a vacant schoolhouse from her late grandmother. Isolated and feeling a perpetual lingering presence she starts to hallucinate. Pretty soon things descend into full-blown psychological and (effectively gruesome) body horror at a pace that will be too slow for some. Still, if slow-burn psychological horror is your thing this one has plenty going for it and Lani Call is superb. Currently on a whole bunch of streaming platforms in the US and UK (including Amazon).
Didi
This excellent coming-of-age tale is a wonderfully (and sometimes grimacingly) nostalgic throwback to the early days of that Myspace to Facebook transition. It’s partly based on writer/director Sean Wang’s own experiences of growing up as Asian-American and thus it’s brimming with honesty and sincerity.
Izaac Wang stars as Chris Wang and it’s a brilliant performance as a boy starting to make that shift into adulthood and all the awkwardness that comes with it (particularly with girls). Sean Wang’s film brims with charm and emotional resonance and in particular it’s great seeing Joan Chen back on the big screen. She’s magnificent and if I was dishing out the Oscars, she’d be getting the Best Supporting Actress trophy.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ review of Didi
The Teachers’ Lounge
This German film is incredibly layered, looking at institutionalised racism, educational politics and more. Ilker Catak’s taut drama opens with an investigation and accusation as a student is suspected of theft. It ignites an idea and with money and items going missing from the teachers’ lounge, a new and perhaps naively idealistic teacher (Leonie Benesch) decides to set up a trap. After capturing a thief on video and making a complaint everything gets very messy. This insightful and gripping drama then manages to ratchet up an incredible amount of tension, despite never diving fully into the thriller genre. It retains heart at its core with Carla (Benesch), a Polish teacher in a German school always taking an empathetic view, even in the face of retaliation. It’s an incredible film and Benesch delivers a nuanced and gripping performance.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ review of The Teachers’ Lounge
I Saw The TV Glow
Though it carries the A24 banner and the spotlight that moniker brings, I Saw The TV Glow deserves wider recognition. It’s one of the most divisive films of the year for sure, in part because of its Lynchian ambiguity and slow pacing but sadly too because like anything labelled as Queer (and in this particular case, trans-) cinema, it’s met with unfounded vitriol from people who haven’t even seen it.
Whether you vibe with his cerebral and dream-like film or not is another matter, but if you can tune to its frequency, I Saw The TV Glow has a lot to offer, and whether I like something or not I can always appreciate an auteur’s voice (and this certainly has the DNA of creator, Jane Schoenbrun coursing through every frame). The very upfront connotations of trans identity are interesting but the ambiguity of this part coming of age drama/horror is such that you can read so much into the film. One thing is for sure, lensed on film with a kaleidoscopic colour palette, this might be the most visually resplendent film of the year.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ review of I Saw the TV Glow
Kneecap
This enjoyably raucous fictionalised account of the rise of Kneecap (a hip-hop group whose music often proudly celebrates the ever-dwindling Irish language), is a kinetic and full-pelt comedy drama. A couple of ne’er-do-wells team with a frustrated teacher and form a counterculture group who throw two fingers up against modernity and the rules.
The real-life group all play themselves with no shortage of rogue charm and (an excellent) Michael Fassbender pops up as the lost and presumed dead father of one of the group. It’s erratic and doesn’t always see out its threads to a satisfactory conclusion, but there’s a lot to enjoy from this, not least the propulsive and anarchic soundtrack and effervescent charm of the film.
SEE ALSO: Read our ★ ★ ★ ★ review of Kneecap
Sky Peals
From Moin Hussain, Sky Peals is an atmospheric and intriguing drama tinged with sci-fi. Bored and introverted, Adam (Faraz Ayub) works nights at a service station burger joint, whilst facing the immediate prospect of moving when his mother sells the family home. He is then given unexpected news from a long-estranged uncle, that his absent father has died, having recently tried to reconnect with the hesitant Adam.
Adam feels a disconnect from everyone and everything, performing almost every function even down to his speech in a laborious fashion. Ayub is enigmatically dull, barely hiding a yearning for something greater in life but without the wherewithal to grab any opportunities. As he looks deeper into his late father he suspects that his lineage may not lead just across the waters but beyond the stars. This one is currently on BFI and is one to check if you like cerebral and minimalist sci-fi. It’s also brilliantly shot.
What hidden gems have you seen this year? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
