There was so much good cinema last year that not all of its representatives made it into our final top. We're fixing that and telling you about the best films of 2024.

This time we'll do without rankings, and each of our authors will talk about the best films of 2024 that could have made it into the final top ten, but for one reason or another fell slightly short of the leaders.

2024 gave us many films that are essentially topical statements. Many creators consider it their duty to convey to viewers the idea that humanity is now at a point of no return, beyond which lies only a bottomless pit of agony. Perhaps "Conclave" was more accurate than others in diagnosing our society. Edward Berger's film tells about people with power who literally shut themselves off from the world to decide who will rule it. Naturally, self-interest comes first. The film has plenty of symbolism, which is not too hard for any viewer to recognize, especially since the fundamental things are spoken directly through the characters' mouths.

Undoubtedly, the most likable character is Cardinal Lawrence, played by Ralph Fiennes. He, of course, is not entirely impartial either, but a crisis of faith pushes him to seek the truth. It is with him that the viewer will identify during the viewing. The phrase Lawrence utters at the opening of the session will likely linger in your head for a long time: "Where certainty rules, there is no room for mystery, and therefore no room for faith."

I can understand those who didn't like the ending. In defense of the film, I will only say that it was carried over from the original source by Robert Harris. But even with a somewhat rushed conclusion, this is, without a doubt, an important and necessary film for the current era. On top of that, it's also an excellent detective thriller that doesn't let you look away from the screen for a minute!

"Blink Twice" is an elegant, stylish, and truly frightening thriller that turns the issue of gender politics into a bloody battlefield. The atmosphere is roughly like mixing Ruben Östlund's "Triangle of Sadness" with Jordan Peele's "Get Out" and sprinkling Alex Garland's "Men" on top, all in the almost blinding color palette of a tropical paradise.

Excellent acting performances, among which Naomi Ackie and Adria Arjona (who steals the final act) are particularly good, and of course the devilishly charismatic Channing Tatum, and a solid, though sometimes predictable, suspenseful plot leading up to a dynamic and literally explosive finale.

It's always great when talented actors and actresses make really cool directorial debuts. Zoë Kravitz's film is exactly that.

Matteo Garrone's film "Io Capitano", awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival (the film has 6(!) awards there), is a touching story about migration and the search for a better life. The main characters are 16-year-old cousins Seydou and Moussa from Senegal, who embark on a dangerous journey to Europe, overcoming the harsh conditions of the desert and sea.

Garrone skillfully combines the realism of events with elements of magical realism, creating an atmosphere in which the characters' suffering is presented with humanity and hope, despite all the cruelty. The film not only explores the hardships of migration but also immerses viewers in the cultural traditions of Africa. And the optimistic ending lets us all understand that one can remain human under any conditions, as long as there is the will.

"Red Rooms" is an excellent thriller. One of the best in 2024 and unfairly lost among a series of more simplistic genre counterparts. Pascal Plante's film is restrained, almost intimate. It says little but shows a lot. More precisely, it silently observes how the main character (Juliette Gariépy) seeks thrills by playing online poker, watching a serial killer in the courtroom, and digging through the darknet for evidence of his guilt.

In strictly expressed frames of exceptional gray and sinister red, Pascal Plante strips the genre of its usual tools. He doesn't ask questions, doesn't wait for answers, and doesn't shuffle suspects like a deck of cards. His goal is not to scare, but to warn. You can find anything on the Internet, and losing yourself is even easier.

Few have managed to surprise as much in the already thoroughly explored genre of "action film" as indie director Jeremy Saulnier. His "Rebel Ridge" painfully resembles "First Blood" or "Jack Reacher," but that's where the references end. Saulnier looks much deeper. A simple brawl is not to his liking.

Saulnier is a regular at all independent festivals. And he invariably achieves success there for his original take on the material. He is the type of director who either has yet to be understood or rejected once and for all.

In this sense, "Rebel Ridge" is more of an anti-action film, in which the main character runs from violence rather than seeks to bring it closer. The film takes a long time to get going, and the final fight lasts only a couple of minutes and does not shine with choreographic sophistication. Fans of "John Wick" won't have much room to maneuver here.

But Saulnier compensates for all this with the harsh laws of the frontier and the viscous suspense of a neo-western. But everyone, without exception, will watch what happens for almost two hours and wait to see how it all ends. Playing such cat-and-mouse games is not something everyone can do. This is Saulnier's undeniable mastery.

Surprisingly, the comedy "Unexpected Ties", even though the film was produced by the French, has nothing to do with love and sex twists. Before us is classic French humor based on acute social problems.

The story meets the viewer on the day when the offspring of the aristocratic Bouvier-Sauvage family and the average French Martin family announce their engagement to their parents. Wanting to give a gift for the occasion of the families meeting, Alice and François present the parents with DNA test results that reveal the secrets of their lineages...

Was there a Frenchman? That's probably an appropriate paraphrase of a famous phrase from Gorky's novel in the context of this film. For "Unexpected Ties" is a very biting and sarcastic statement that begins with the theme of class segregation and goes deeper into the problem of chauvinism.

The jokes literally walk the line, generously dishing out barbs towards the unsightly history of the Germans and the French confidence in their own exceptionalism. Even the British royal family will get its share of pokes...

And the characters shower each other with verbal slaps so sharply that you don't even notice that the story rarely leaves the confines of a few rooms!

If you've seen the film "The Name," you're already familiar with this comedy structure and joke patterns. And believe me, even then, "Unexpected Ties" will have something to surprise you. After all, French humor is an exceptional thing!

One of the best films of last year is "I Saw the TV Glow", a hypnotic drama about life in front of the TV. A reclusive schoolboy Owen accidentally meets Maddy, who is a few grades older, and she shows him her favorite series "The Pink Opaque." She loves a sad and disturbing show about how Mr. Melancholy (the main villain) tries to take over the world, and two girls with a special telepathic connection foil him and his minions every time. After a few years of strange friendship between Owen and Maddy, bound by their fascination with what's on screen and total loneliness in school life, the series ends. Soon school ends. Maddy disappears, and Owen doesn't exactly disappear but dissolves into everyday life, gets lost.

"I Saw the TV Glow" is dedicated to the memories of the adult Owen about the series he loved so much, about school that was more of an unpleasant backdrop for television, and about life in general—which seems to have reached the halfway point but actually never began. It is a smart, scary, mesmerizingly beautiful spectacle that, like "The Pink Opaque," may not impress immediately upon viewing but remains in memory, imprinted as a symbol of someone else's sadness, an unlived better life, a once-loved series that never got a worthy ending.