On 2024
Jesus Christ, this has been a year. Previous years were similar, but this one was different. It had a 4 at the end of it.
In all seriousness, this year has been a very personally important year. Important things have happened in my life. I’m feeling grateful, at peace, and increasingly aware of how fortunate I am. One thing I am grateful for: MOVIES. Movies rock so much. Movies rocked a lot this year. Here’s a list, which is undoubtedly due to be updated, of the movies I liked the most this year.
And once more, before you yell, these are my personal favorites. This is my list. Write your own.
ON MY WATCHLIST
Movies I am dying to see but haven´t because I can´t or I just haven´t got around to watching for one reason or another.
- A Complete Unknown (James Mangold)
- Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez)
- All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia)
- The Apprentice (Ali Abbasi)
- A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
- Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
- The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
- Evil Does Not Exist/ 悪は存在しない (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
- Flow (Gints Zilbalodis)
- Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)
- I Saw The TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
- The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Kenji Kamiyama)
- Maxxxine (Ti West)
- Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
- Problemista (Julio Torres)
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof)
- Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar)
- Transformers One (Josh Cooley)
- The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Anyone But You (Will Gluck): Super fun. Kinda infectiously so.
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Tim Burton): Legitimately entertaining and funny. Was not at all displeased, as I thought I would be.
- Civil War (Alex Garland): Incredibly well produced. Everything that had to do with the journalists, the real meat of the movie, was so great. And suddenly, it would get interrupted by lukewarm preachiness and a nonsensical world.
- Conclave (Edward Berger): A great-looking, well-acted, entertaining drama. The ending is a bit abrupt, but the film is veeeery engaging.
- Deadpool & Wolverine (Shawn Levy): Funny and entertaining, yet toothless and kinda bland visually.
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller): An incredible action spectacle that carves out its own place in the Mad Max series. Some sequences are very obviously CG, though.
- Gladiator II (Ridley Scott): Massive and epic, but really just a retread of the first one. The movie only really comes alive when Denzel is on screen.
- Heretic (Scott Beck & Ryan Woods): Super fun, but the ending is kinda half-baked.
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Wes Ball): Kinda pales in comparison to the Matt Reeves films, but fun and visually stunning nonetheless.
- Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola): Insane, vibrant. Incredibly inconsistent, and has a feeling of incompleteness to it.
- Monkey Man (Dev Patel): A really good directorial debut, a good action movie with a sense of righteousness.
- Pedro Páramo (Rodrigo Prieto): Even though I love that a Mexican story can be told with this massive scale and production value, I was kinda nonplussed.
- Queer (Luca Guadagnino): Incredible-looking and really well-acted (Daniel Craig might have delivered his best dramatic performance yet) but starts to drag after the first act.
- We Live In Time (John Crowley): A sincere, beautiful love story with a very cool editing style.
- Wicked (Jon M. Chu): all of its shortcomings in filmmaking are offset by its sheer spectacle and the talent of its leads.
THE LIST
DUNE: PART TWO
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Let’s just get this out of the way. This is, by far, my favorite movie this year. I must confess that it’s not particularly close. I saw it twice in theaters, both times in IMAX, and have seen it several times on digital since. My God, is this film incredible. Epic, dark, beautiful, and satisfying on every level. It feels true to the spirit of the original novel’s message, but it allows itself its own freedoms. In particular, I loved this take on Chani, this element of free-mindedness lost in a fanatical culture, this voice of reason among her peers, blinded by faith and prophecy. Every five minutes, there’s a shot that takes your breath away, a sequence that turns you into a member of the crowds on Arrakis or Giedi Prime. Absolutely perfect casting in Butler, Pugh, and Walken, and Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem portray the roles of oppressor and oppressed with amazing skill and agility. “In your nightmares, you give water to the dead and it brings joy to your heart” gives me chills every time. Dune: Part Two is one of those movies that linger, and I hope it will. It certainly will in my mind.
ANORA
Dir. Sean Baker
For the past decade, every time Sean Baker makes a film, it is immediately acclaimed as one of the best of the year but ignored by major trades or wide audiences. The Florida Project and Red Rocket came and went without their deserved fanfare. Enter 2024’s Anora, an unexpected Palme D’Or winner that’s a strong Best Picture contender and an even stronger contender for the best film of 2024. It’s chaotic, fiery, goofy, and filled with gut punch after gut punch, an examination of transactional relationships, hopes, dreams, pride, wealth, maturity, vulnerability. It’s an impeccably told story, masterfully written and directed by Baker, performed by the incredible Mikey Madison and an equally dextrous supporting cast, and filled with empathy and humanity. Please watch it YESTERDAY.
CHALLENGERS
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
I’m not the biggest Guadagnino fan, but this movie has a sense of energy that is kinda impossible to resist. It is entertaining, juicy, and involving in the same way that good relationship drama and gossip are. It’s erotic and sexy, but more in its vibe and dynamics than in the actual sexual nature of the movie. The score is amazing and the screenplay and editing are great, but the real takeaway are the three central performances and the incredible work of cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, an incredible artist who has been having a hell of a year.
LONGLEGS
Dir. Osgood Perkins
Anyone who knows me knows I’m not the biggest horror buff. Nothing against the genre at all, I just like others more. And yet, this year, The Substance and Longlegs were two of the best theater experiences I had all year. Decidedly creepy, but unafraid to be goofy and campy, and it made me laugh and feel uncomfortable in equal measures. It looks absolutely incredible, with an intricately detailed atmosphere paired with great cinematography and color. Maika Monroe is really great in this, but as a Cage-head, I had an awesome time watching him. Side note: awesome score and soundtrack.
HIT MAN
Dir. Richard Linklater
What a wonderful surprise this was for me! Can’t think of a single minute in this film that isn’t funny, sexy, or both. There is a feeling that everything is essential, and the film delivers so much in its brisk runtime. Absolutely great script. Glen Powell is obviously great in this, delivering anywhere between 5 and 7 different performances, but Adria Arjona is also really good in this film, just an instantly great femme fatale.
THE SUBSTANCE
Dir. Coralie Fargeat
I’d never dare to frame myself as any sort of authority on film that is to be taken seriously, at least not anymore and not at this point in my life. But…for my money, Dune: Part Two and The Substance are the two best 2024 releases I’ve seen so far. I loved Fargeat’s commitment to making this film viscerally uncomfortable, incorrigibly zany, and over-the-top. Demi Moore delivers one of the year’s best performances in a role that is obviously very personal and vulnerable, and Margaret Qualley also delivers in spades. Even Dennis Quaid comes in for a limited amount of screen time and nails it! The movie looks really great, and the myriad of strategically-placed Kubrick references does not go unnoticed. Despite the fact that it is a goofy, gory film at the surface level, there is a tender, sad vein of reality and truth under it. It’s hard to make a horrifying monstrosity seem less unnatural and uncomfortable than a man eating shrimp or even a glossy, sanitized TV set full of sexually objectified fitness dancers, but Fargeat pulls it off in a way that makes it look easy.
TRAP
Dir. M. Night Shyamalan
I am, by no means, a Shyamalan fan. He’s made one or two of the most mortifying film viewing experiences I’ve ever had, and one or two films that I hold up as all-timers, but most of his stuff is just…fine to me. However, I’ve always respected him as a filmmaker for his ethic, his commitment to his vision, the fact that he makes stories with small budgets and large appeal, and the fact that he seems to genuinely love his work. We could all be a little more like M. Night. That being said, Trap is so fun and entertaining that I felt disappointed in myself for missing out on it in theaters. I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it, but the way the film unfolds and the way it uses the intelligence of its protagonist is so smart and so cool, that the premise and the weirdness of the concert that the film takes place in work completely despite the nonsense and impracticality. The balance of camp and stylish execution seems more present to me here than in a lot of Shyamalan’s filmography. Oh, and excellent work by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (here he is again) and a pitch-perfect Josh Hartnett.
NOSFERATU
Dir. Robert Eggers
I saw this the same day I saw the Murnau Nosferatu and Herzog’s Nosferatu The Vampyre for the first time. And again, not the biggest horror buff. But I do like Robert Eggers quite a bit, and his Nosferatu has to be one of the most visually enthralling films this year. The Dracula/ Nosferatu story feels like it was made for Eggers’s sensibilities here, and he indulges in all of his Eggers-isms with palpable delight, but there’s also a lot of what made the other two versions I mentioned iconic works of cinema. The aerial and landscapes shots have a timeless feel and it has an amazing use of shadow and light and the colors of fire, night, and snow. Bill Skarsgård once again proves that he’s a generational talent in playing weird, creepy, intimidating guys, but there’s also a full cast of people who brought their A-game. In particular, what a delightful surprise it was to see Lily-Rose Depp act her ass off and nail a very physically demanding role. Great score, incredible photography, a sustained tension and grotesque…good horror right here, folks.
Cannot think of anything to pick apart here. This movie is one of those perfect ones, executed to maximum precision within the objectives and limitations of its medium. Super fun, goofy, spectacular-looking, personally very nostalgic, and a little anti-AI, which I enjoyed.
KINDS OF KINDNESS
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
I’m starting to become a Yorgos fan. I still have some of his early stuff left unwatched, but I love his offbeat, funny, harsh approach to storytelling. Despite the fact that Poor Things is his most visible, widely acclaimed piece of work yet, and a film I liked quite a bit for its elaborate design and great performances, I love the more “realistic” aesthetic and unchained weirdness of Kinds of Kindness far more. There might be a lot of vaguely phrased questions within it, as well as purposefully unsolved mysteries, but there is a clarity in its themes hiding beneath the off-putting relationship dynamics and unorthodox structure. Great cinematography, great score, great script, and a cast that came to PLAY. Jesse Plemons delivers what might be some of the best three performances of the year in a single film. If you thought Poor Things was weird, I promise you that this movie is far, far stranger, but it’s my kind of strange, and I love it.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
I feel like I have so much left to see and so much I’ll never see. However, I’ve learned to think of this as something encouraging. It means that there’s literally so much art and passion in the world that it is literally impossible for one to receive it all. So many people creating beauty, all at once, sharing their thoughts, feelings, and spaces. It’s reassuring, and I am in a state where I feel very aware of the things I feel grateful and reassured about.
In a year full of things that happened that can make one feel hopeless and angry and anxious, it’s important to take stock of whatever brings joy, peace, and fulfillment to your life. Existence is hard enough without denying ourselves that much. I can tell you that, at a personal level, movies and TV, as well as working on movies of my own, have brought me a great amount of relief from the stresses of being a human adult in the 21st century. I hope that you have had a great year, and I hope that the next one, and all the ones after, are just as good if not better. Here’s to a great year and to having fun at the movies!
Comments
Post a Comment