Best movies of 2024 in the US: No 3 – All We Imagine As Light

Payal Kapadia’s remarkable feature debut charts the daily lives of three women in Mumbai in a beautifully shot ode to the city and to the power of human connections

• More on the best culture of 2024

“Evening is my favourite time of the day,” says a character in All We Imagine As Light, as twilight descends on Mumbai – it’s when the city comes alive. In the film-maker Payal Kapadia’s feature debut, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, night-time in the city is shown in loving detail, as we see markets, fluorescently lit shops and trains full of women returning from work. Vermeer is famously said to have “painted with light”. The same principle seems to animate every frame of Kapadia’s film, as light delicately bounces around the screen, indicating the film’s interest in illuminating moments of hope as untold secrets lie in the shadows. On two occasions, a phone torch cuts through the dark to reveal words – in a notebook, on a cave wall – professing great love that feels otherwise impossible to say.

The film follows Prabha, Anu and Parvaty, who work as nurses and cooks at a hospital. The sensible Prabha (Kani Kusruti) is being courted by a doctor. She likes him, but she’s married. Though she is estranged from her husband, Prabha feels pressured to remain a loyal wife. Her roommate, the free-spirited Anu (Divya Prabha), is secretly seeing a Muslim man, and their love affair is as tender as it is aware of the politics undermining their match. Would her father approve, he asks, “if I used a Hindi name”? The two women are also helping Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), who is being evicted from her home by developers. A banner across her building shows a city on the march to gentrification: “Class,” it announces, “is a privilege reserved for the privileged!”

Topics

Best movies of 2024 in the US: No 4 – Anora

The Hollywood romcom is turned on it head in this tale of an exotic dancer and an oligarch’s son who get hitched before the honeymoon turns sour. • More on the best culture of 2024 . Here is an ...
The Guardian - 1d
Best movies of 2024 in the US: No 5 – Hard Truths

Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives an immense, acidic performance as Pansy, a woman on the edge, in Mike Leigh’s strange, morbid miracle of a film • Our countdown of the top 50 films in the US in 2024 ...
The Guardian - 2d
9 Best Online Photo Printing Services That We Tested (2024)

Print memories you can hang on the wall, stash in your wallet, or just hold in your hand.
Wired - 5d
The 24 Best Movies on Apple TV+ Right Now (December 2024)

Fly Me to the Moon, Blitz, and The Last of the Sea Women are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Apple TV+ this month.
Wired - 5d
What’s on Your Best-of List for 2024? We Want to Know.

Best cocktail or mocktail? Best advice? Best app you discovered? We want to know your highly subjective, hyper-specific, genre-agnostic favorites from the past year.
The New York Times - Dec. 11
The 42 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now (December 2024)

Joy, Hot Frosty, and Will & Harper are just a few of the movies you should watch on Netflix this month.
Wired - Dec. 7
The best movies of 2024 — and where to find them

The best movies of 2024 include 'Anora,' 'Smile 2,' 'A Real Pain,' 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' and 'Dune: Part Two,' according to our critic Amy Nicholson.
Los Angeles Times - Dec. 6
The 34 Best Movies on Hulu This Week (December 2024)

Thelma, Gladiator, and Kinds of Kindness are just a few of the movies you need to watch on Hulu right now.
Wired - Dec. 5
The best movies of 2024 as ranked by AP film writers

Break out your “Dune” popcorn bucket: It's time for the best movies of the year
ABC News - Dec. 4