REBEL MOON – PART 2: THE SCARGIVER
STRANGE DARLING
MY FAVORITE THINGS FROM THE MOVIES OF 2024
All of those lengthy musical numbers in A Complete Unknown. For the first time in my long life, I found myself actually wanting to own Bob Dylan albums.
Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Wolfs. Because sometimes movie stars just being movie stars in a movie star-vehicle is enough. (Though Austin Abrams stole the film, as usual. He’s also really good in The Line, an underrated, little-seen film, in a far less endearing role).
Conclave – I thought director Edward Berger’s multi-Oscar-winning remake of All Quiet on the Western Front was hugely overrated, so this one was an extremely pleasant surprise.
Emma Stone’s dance at the end of Kinds of Kindness, and the climactic scene that follows.
That epic final shot of Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate (and the disconnect of seeing The First Omen a few weeks later, a film whose plot so closely mirrors Immaculate that it could almost be a remake).
The final scene in Anora, especially that closeup of Mikey Madison looking at Yura Borisov (and us).
Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens in Cuckoo, the most entertaining horror movie of the year.
Interstellar’s 10th anniversary re-release on 70mm IMAX. Boy, do I love that movie. The score, too. Though perhaps the most unbelievable science-fiction element of it is casting Timothee Chalamet as someone who actually wants to spend his life farming.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – for many things, especially the extraordinary visual effects, and for continuing the rebooted franchise in a way that more than does credit to the original series.
None of them were favorites of mine, but I couldn’t fail to be impressed by the sheer number of musicals and quasi-musicals released in the last months of 2024 – Better Man, A Complete Unknown, Emilia Perez, The End, Maria, Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King, and Wicked (I enjoyed Complete Unknown, The End and Maria the most of these; Better Man the least)
Oddity – the best horror movie of 2024.
The opening scene with the firehose in Blitz. I only wish the rest of the film was nearly as involving, possibly the biggest disappointment of the movie year.
The Order – director Justin Kurzel’s true-crime movies (which also include Snowtown and Nitram) are so good that it makes his two Fassbender-Cotillard misfires (Macbeth, Assassin’s Creed) especially frustrating.
Ralph Fiennes in The Return. Yes, even better than he was in Conclave.
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy, reminding us what charismatic stars in big screen romances are supposed to be like.
September 5 – arguably the best new film I saw in 2024, and definitely my favorite.
Stanley Tucci in Conclave. He’s always wonderful (we’ll just pretend his performance as Merlin in Transformers: The Last Knight never happened), and he’d been too long without a worthy big-screen role. But I’ve heard rumors he enjoys Italian food. If only he could do something practical with that love...
That moment in Will & Harper where that young guy at the bar thanks Will for being such a good friend to Harper. Yes, I cry easily at movies – what about it?
Though The Brutalist was overall quite good, I think what I appreciated the most was the old-fashioned presentation of its release. Seeing a 70mm “VistaVision” screening (at a one-screen theater no less, but with a lobby so insufficient that the concessions and restroom lines stretched all the way out to the curb), with a built-in intermission (take that, Scorsese!), and even a special program handout (a brochure about the fictional community center built in the film) made me nostalgic for that that 1960s era of “roadshow” presentations (which I was alive during but never actually witnessed). I only hope that, in the same spirit, the inevitable vinyl-only soundtrack release will have an elaborate gatefold cover with a large album of full-page color photos. Hurry up, A24!
When I came out of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, I was convinced it was the best of the series. No one else seems to agree with me, but it’s my gut reaction and I’m sticking to it (for now).
Perhaps the most WTF moment of my moviegoing year was the first time I saw the trailer for Strange Darling and its full title card “DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY GIOVANNI RIBISI.”
And since I saw 312 “older” films in theaters in 2024 (compared to 176 of this year’s releases), here are some of my favorite films and/or moviegoing experiences among them: Apocalypse Now (the 1979 cut, in 70mm), Blow Out, Boogie Nights, Charley Varrick, Crossing Delancey, Earthquake, The Food of the Gods, Frogs, Heat, Heaven’s Gate, Holiday, Jason and the Argonauts, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Marathon Man, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Monkey Business, Moneyball, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Oppenheimer (70mm IMAX), Outland, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Palm Beach Story, Patton (70mm), Quatermass and the Pit, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Shin Godzilla, A Shot in the Dark, The Social Network, Step Up 3D, The Swarm, Tenet (70mm IMAX), Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and The Wild Bunch.
MY FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK CD RELEASES OF 2024
EYE OF THE NEEDLE: THE DELUXE EDITION [Varese Sarabande CD Club]
JERRY GOLDSMITH AT THE GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER [Intrada]
LIVE AND LET DIE [La-La Land]
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN [La-la Land]
MOONRAKER [La-La Land]
OCTOPUSSY [La-La Land]
THE OTHER [Varese Sarabande CD Club]
RESURRECTION [Intrada Special Collection]
THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS [La-La Land]
TORN CURTAIN [La-La Land]
THE BEST SCORES OF 2024 COMMERCIALLY UNRELEASED ON CD
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES - Michael Abels
THE BRUTALIST - Daniel Blumberg
A DIFFERENT MAN - Umberto Smerilli
THE INSTIGATORS - Christophe Beck
KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES - John Paesano [LP]
MY OLD ASS - Tyler Hilton, Jaco Caraco
THE ORDER - Jed Kurzel
THE PIANO LESSON - Alexandre Desplat
THE RETURN - Rachel Portman
WOLFS - Theodore Shapiro
