2024 EOTY Entertainment Lists • Page 4

I have not seen Better Man yet, and I know nothing about Robbie Williams aside from “Millennium”, but I feel like a lot of people are prematurely writing it off. It looks interesting. So does Here.

 

Cuckoo is currently penciled into the same slot in my favorites that it has in your least favorites, lol.

 

Hahaha. The magic of cinema!

 

You will often see critics and film analysts describe films as a part of their own Presidential eras. The paranoia of the Bush years, the renewed optimism, and eventual cynicism, of the Obama years, and the open rebellion of the Trump years. Since films take so long to produce and make, we see these conversations usually happen at the end of the first term. Thus it would be the Biden years, where it seems like no one is in charge and that feeling you have when you know you are going to be sick in the morning, seems to pervade. If 2016 was open shock that such a man could be elected, 2024 feels like we are succumbing to despair. After a year of a genocide it gets hard to see any sort of silver lining. Perhaps, then, that is why it feels like a down year for the art form. There were great films, but the fog seems to be getting heavier as we search for these gems. While the year was absent a Spielberg or Scorsese or Anderson, we saw the swan song of two American legends, a return of a French master, and the continued development of possibly the best director of the last ten years. It is worth walking through so much filth to get to these films.

However, before the top ten is revealed, a bottom five is in order. One cannot appreciate the highs without suffering through the lows; one cannot eat in a fancy restaurant every night or win in every contest. This list is incomplete for multiple reasons; firstly, there was no need to sit through MADAME WEB or RED ONE because there are things that are best moved on from at a certain point. If the list came out in a month, more likely there would be other films to highlight. All these lists are incomplete by definition, so here are the five most painful experiences.



5. GODZILLA VS. KONG 2
DIRECTED BY: ADAM WINGARD

It would be dishonest to pretend that this was somehow the beginning of the exploitation of these cultural monuments (memories of the Matthew Broderick GODZILLA and Jack Black KING KONG still exist), but it still disheartening to see what society has done to its own mythos. Kong, a thinly-veiled allusion to slavery, and Godzilla, a post-nuclear warning about human experimentation, both fastened into superheroes in a fight against various other CGI creatures. Perhaps most egregiously is how forgettable it is; how many people even remember that this movie came out this year? The filmmakers and maybe their family?



4. JOKER 2
DIRECTED BY: TODD PHILLIPS

The first film, as putrid as it was, was a pretty smart business move: crib liberally from TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY, use the guaranteed install base of the comic book franchise, and mimic the widely-adored Joker antics in THE DARK KNIGHT, and you can just print the money from there. You would think, then, that Phillips intentionally provoking his audience with a dramatic left turn that would make Bob Dylan and Godard blush would make for an interesting film. Somehow, though, it gets worse, pointing the finger at the media for (correctly) pointing out how the incel crowd would see themselves in Fleck and dutifully ignore the murdering and destruction, which Phillips had to always know was going to happen with such a sympathetic portrayal. A musical but not really, a sequel but more of a summary, at least we got to see Fleck die so the likelihood of a trilogy is dramatically reduced.



3. SATURDAY NIGHT
DIRECTED BY: JASON REITMAN

While A COMPLETE UNKNOWN was mostly lifeless and often felt like more of a wax museum, it is saved at the very least by being full of very good songs that are being exposed to a new generation of listeners. What we have here, though, is a film that acts as if the making and debut of this sketch comedy show is as important as the Manhattan Project or the Moon landing. Saturday Night Live as an institution has always been full of itself, producing far more bad sketches than good ones and the genuinely hilarious people that have come out of there usually came in that way and succeeded in spite of the confines of the network show. It doesn't help that is directed by Reitman, a (seemingly) right-leaning nepo baby who seems incapable of framing anything in interesting terms. Willem Dafoe had a very busy year, but the sequence where they act out the sketches in quick succession in front of him is exhausting.



2. EMILIA PEREZ
DIRECTED BY: JACQUES AUDIARD

Jason Reitman was a fan of this movie.



1. UNFROSTED
DIRECTED BY: JERRY SEINFELD

The answer was obvious for a while, but with 2024 coming to a close we can be pretty sure definitively who was the brains behind the show sharing Seinfeld's name. While Larry David stuck the landing in ending his two-decades plus successor series, Seinfeld released this bizarre ode to breakfast that veers between 1950's sensibilities, jokes that reference current day events so closely that they won't make sense in a year, a parade of ex-stars that makes it feel like one of those right-wing movies that tries to emulate mainstream Hollywood. Who thought this was a good idea? Was this supposed to be a passion project or something? Why couldn't Seinfeld stay home and count his billions of dollars instead of wading into political conversations about current comedy and then turning around and showing everyone how truly unfunny you can be?

 

Unfrosted is sadly one of the few films I have seen this year. Truly such a waste of time.

 

I missed it, was the thread good?

 

Disappointed, in previous years Godzilla and Kong would be in the “there was no need to see” part of your writeup

 

This year is the worst in years in terms of releasing wide before the end of the year.

 

I can't believe I forgot Civil War.

 

I’m still side eyeing posters on here I respect who said they liked it.

 

Civil War would have been 3. I considered A Complete Unknown and Here, but there are admirable parts of both. 2/3rds of Kinds of Kindness could make the list, but the first section was very good. Conclave is too silly to make fun of. The Substance might belong but people get too defensive about that movie.

 

Civil War has slightly upgraded for me since watching it from bad to fine. It’s not as apolitical as the marketing and press around it wanted moviegoers to believe and actually does a decent job depicting what the horrors of that type of conflict would look like in America and thus why it doesn’t feel so far fetched after all. But it doesn’t really say anything new, noteworthy, or insightful with its journalists and it has some of the most dreadful, handholding dialogue I’ve heard in a while.

 

Top 10 films of 2024 for me. Still a lot I haven't seen that I'm hoping to catch up on in the next few weeks.

1. Dune: Part II
2. Challengers
3. Sing Sing
4. The Wild Robot
5. Anora
6. Hit Man
7. Snack Shack
8. Wicked
9. Furiosa
10. Twisters

Full list here: https://boxd.it/tNLdQ

Top 10 first time watches of the year

1. Titanic
2. Interstellar
3. Godzilla Minus One
4. Jurassic Park
5. Oppenheimer
6. Gone Girl
7. Mad Max: Fury Road
8. Donnie Darko
9. 10 Things I Hate About You
10. The Breakfast Club

Full list here: https://boxd.it/uZDdG

 

Since 2007 I have reliably published a Worst of the Year and Best of the Year list, but what about everything in between? There are things to highlight, to celebrate, and to regret. These are 14 awards I would like to dole out.



PERFORMER OF THE YEAR: MARGARET QUALLEY

If you count the anthology film KINDS OF KINDNESS as three films, Qualley managed five unique performances that stretched from the slapstick, classical comedy of DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS to the violent and destructive THE SUBSTANCE. While the films she was in varied pretty wildly in quality, she consistently brought her best effort. We will get to enjoy her range even more in next years' HAPPY GILMORE 2.



ANTI-PERFORMER OF THE YEAR: JOAQUIN PHOENIX

While JOKER 2 was bad enough, he was only in one film this year, so why the placement? It was the news that he torpedoed a Todd Haynes film at the last minute, and that he has tried to do these things before. He never even bothered to offer up even the flimsiest of excuses, and for that one of the most talented actors of his era will likely have directors second-guessing whether to hire him.



MOST WELCOME RETURN (DIRECTOR): JEFF NICHOLS

SHOTGUN STORIES and TAKE SHELTER announced the arrival of a major American artist, finding beauty and drama in the parts of the country that American films feature less and less. However, it then became a decade of films that, while not terrible, seemed to have much less to say. The nadir was the announcement that Nichols would make a QUIET PLACE movie, but that fell out and instead we saw the constantly shifting release date for THE BIKERIDERS, which is almost never a good sign. While it may not be as good as his first two films, it had a real heart and fascinating characters in a way he had not done in some time.



MOST WELCOME RETURN (ACTOR): JOSH HARTNETT

Hartnett was such a fixture and a magnetic presence in the Nineties and the early part of the new century, only to mostly disappear for some time. While he was part of the large ensemble of last years' OPPENHEIMER, this year he got to be a leading man in TRAP, having to convey the outward facade of a family man while also digging into the depths of a dark and depraved murderer. There are always a couple awkward Shyamalan scenes an actor has to work around, but when he flips that switch into threatening people, you believe him.



MOST UNWELCOME RETURN (DIRECTOR): JASON REITMAN

Reitman's first three films put him at the mountaintop. JUNO was a breakout hit and UP IN THE AIR was popular with the awards crowd, but his films started to get less and less attention until MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN came out and was so humiliating that he eventually crawled into studio fare with GHOSTBUSTERS. Time heals most wounds, though, so he was able to use the goodwill he gained from the successful GHOSTBUSTERS reboot, which was no sure thing after the female-led version failed, and he was able to get a lot of people you might recognize from a few things to dress like other actors and say their lines and hit their marks but offer nothing in between.



MOST UNWELCOME RETURN (ACTOR): AMY SCHUMER

Schumer was already an awkward relic of the past, when edgy comedy was much more in fashion and people were shocked that a woman would talk the way men comedians seemed to only get away with (although Sarah Silverman did it years earlier). Her career seemed to be extinguished as more and more plagiarism accusations came out, and it should have been done for good when decided to come out on the side of the genocidal colonizers in the Middle East. However, despite (or because of?) this, Seinfeld decided to bring her into his awful project, where she projects none of the qualities her character is said to possess. It makes one cringe when she is on screen.



BEST ACTOR IN A BAD FILM: TOM HANKS, HERE

HERE is a noble failure, but it is no fault of Hanks, who tries so hard to communicate the thoughts and feelings of a man who becomes metaphorically trapped by his decision to stay in his family home, making excuse after excuse to not let go and grow. There is something so comfortable about seeing Tom Hanks in a film; even when he is making garbage, you know he is going to try and at least elevate the material.



WORST ACTOR IN A GOOD FILM: JON VOIGHT, MEGALOPOLIS

You could honestly pick most of the cast of this film since there seemed to be no overriding philosophical direction in how to portray the characters, but Voight's stumbling around suggests the possibility of elder abuse. He is supposed to be Adam Driver's uncle but he seems like he is at least three generations away from him. People already have their reasons to hate Voight and he does not work much outside of bad right-wing propaganda movies so this might end up being his swan song.



MOST OVERRATED: ALIEN: ROMULUS

Everyone rushed to praise this film, proclaiming it to be the third-best ALIEN film, which is to say not as good as the two agreed-upon classics but better than the heavily criticized sequels. However, as problematic as those films are, they all had something you could hold onto and remember: the weird and creepy setting of ALIEN 3, the bizarre alien baby hybrid and Ripley clones in ALIEN: RESURRECTION, the mystery and allure of meeting the Engineers in PROMETHEUS, and the homoerotic android tit-for-tat in ALIEN: COVENANT. Here, though, it is just cutting and pasting from all those films. Even the new alien had been done before.



MOST UNDERRATED: FURIOSA

There was reason to be worried. Announced shortly after MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, this ended up taking close to a decade to release. It was going to be a prequel. Charlize Theron was being replaced by a younger actor. It did not seem likely that lightning would strike twice, but the film ended up being a worthy companion of the original film, adding depth to Furiosa's journey to get home, which always felt secondary to saving the girls. It is almost certainly Miller's last film in the series, and it goes out strong.



MOST DISAPPOINTING: BABES

Pamela Adlon added so much humanity to LOUIE that she was able to get her own show, BETTER THINGS, which started off fine but truly grew into its own after C.K. and his production company was no longer involved with the show. It became a fascinating exploration of modern families, both in how we navigate those traditional relationships and how the community truly expands with friends and in-laws. The show let these people develop organically into themselves, which is why it was so weird that this movie took the Judd Apatow route of taking these nontraditional, nonconformist characters and ultimately having them endorse the Reagan-era idea of how to be an adult. All roads lead to babies and white-picket fences.



MOST PLEASANTLY SURPRISING: CHALLENGERS

Luca Guadagnino is one of the most inconsistent directors of the century. Sometimes he makes incredible films, sometimes he makes terrible ones, and with the trailer highlighting its young cast along with a summer release date, there was reason to be skeptical. It gets to the core of the intersection between sex and sport, which is full of eroticism even if emotionally stunted hordes of men would never admit it. And that ending!

BEST THEATER EXPERIENCE: CINEPOLIS IN COCONUT GROVE, GLADIATOR II

Say what you will about the movie, but the theater had loveseats, buttons to call a server, and unlimited refills of popcorn and ICEE. Is it a coincidence that it was my first time there and the film being shown is about the desire to be an emperor, one who could also call servants to bring them food and drink? Probably.

WORST THEATER EXPERIENCE: EVERY VISIT TO AMC

The newest local theater does not even bother opening up its secondary popcorn station or man the bar. There is always trash anywhere and you are lucky if one of the soda or butter dispensers work. We know theater attendance is down and people do not want to work for those low wages, but if that is what the theater experience, why bother going out? It will be on VOD in two months anyway.

 

Full list - 2024 in Film



Full list - Favourite pre-2024 First Time Viewings

 

My list for this year is probably something like:

1. Evil Does Not Exist
2. I Saw the TV Glow
3. Rap World
4. A Different Man
5. Challengers

 

Thinking about cheating and including Godzilla Minus One Minus Color in my favorite movies of 2024 list.

 

Ranking of all the 2024 movies I watched. I’m not a critic, but this is going off my enjoyment. I plan on seeing Sonic 3, Anora, and Nosferatu soon, so those will be on here somewhere

The Substance
Smile 2
Transformers One
Alien: Romulus
Dune 2
The Bikeriders
A Complete Unknown
I Saw the TV Glow
Late Night With the Devil
Abigail
Maxxxine
Monkey Man
Cuckoo
Longlegs
Trap
Lisa Frankenstein
Civil War
A Quiet Place Day One

 

FUCK yeah Angels with Dirty Faces is the best.

 

Ran through the bias sorter for a top 20 with quick decisions and no overthinking. God knows it could look different tomorrow (and it doesn't include Hit Man, Sing Sing, Hundreds of Beavers, The Bikeriders, La Chimera, The Beast, His Three Daughters, Wicked Little Letters or others that are technically 2023 releases):

Dune: Part Two
A Quiet Place: Day One
The Piano Lesson
Anora
A Complete Unknown
My Old Ass
Touch
Wicked: Part I
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Challengers
Flow
The Wild Robot
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Snack Shack
The Fire Inside
Horizon: An American Saga - Part 1
Saturday Night
A Real Pain
Megalopolis

Worst are probably Jackpot!, Red One, Borderlands, If, and Miller's Girl in some order.

Still tons to see.

 

Top 50 Films of 2024

1. The Substance
2. Poor Things
3. Dune: Part Two
4. All of Us Strangers
5. Anora
6. Terrifier 3
7. Kinds of Kindness
8. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
9. The Beast
10. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
11. Strange Darling
12. Hit Man
13. Monster
14. Monkey Man
15. A Different Man
16. The First Omen
17. The Promised Land
18. Sing Sing
19. ME
20. The Fall Guy
21. Orion and the Dark
22. Inside Out 2
23. The Iron Claw
24. Smile 2
25. Joker: Folie à Deux
26. Challengers
27. I Saw the TV Glow
28. Red Rooms
29. Queer
30. Last Summer
31. The Last Stop in Yuma County
32. We Live in Time
33. Dìdi
34. Love Lies Bleeding
35. Megalopolis
36. Society of the Snow
37. Spaceman
38. Immaculate
39. Lisa Frankenstein
40. MaXXXine
41. The Count of Monte Cristo
42. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
43. The Outrun
44. Wicked
45. Civil War
46. Memoir of a Snail
47. His Three Daughters
48. Femme
49. Saturday Night
50. It’s What’s Inside

Full list here: 2024



Top 20 Tv Shows of 2024

1. Disclaimer
2. The Curse
3. Shogun
4. The Tattooist of Auschwitz
5. Baby Reindeer
6. Fargo
7. Presumed Innocent
8. Dark Matter
9. The Boys
10. Nobody Wants This
11. Pachinko
12. Curb Your Enthusiasm
13. The Penguin
14. The Sympathizer
15. Shrinking
16. The Bear
17. Fallout
18. House of the Dragon
19. Dune: Prophecy
20. Bad Sisters

Hopefully 2025 is as wonderful as 2024 was for films and television.

 

~*my 2024 movie favs*~

1.) I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
2.) Anora (Sean Baker)
3.) Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
4.) Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos)
5.) Cuckoo (Tilman Singer)
6.) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
7.) Lisa Frankenstein (Zelda Williams)
8.) The People’s Joker (Vera Drew)
9.) Godzilla Minus One Minus Color (Takashi Yamazaki)
10.) Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)
11.) Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)
12.) Madame Web (S.J. Clarkson)
13.) Drive Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)
14.) The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)
15.) Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)


my list of top 40 favorite comics coming soon

 

Not enough lists. @OhTheWater @Nathan @phaynes12 @CarpetElf @Long Century

 

Sadly, haven't had a chance to see some movies that I wanted to by year's end (The Brutalist, Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, etc) but whatever, i've seen a lot.

My favorite films of 2024

1. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
2. Anora (Sean Baker)
3. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
4. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat)
5. Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)
6. Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve)
7. Hit Man (Richard Linklater)
8. The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders)
9. I Saw The TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
10. A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
11. Didi (Sean Wang)
12. The Taste of Things (Trần Anh Hùng)
13. Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)
14. Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)
15. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang)
16. Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
17. Trap (M. Night Shyamalan)
18. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood)
19. La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
20. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi)
21. Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier)
22. His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs)
23. The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)
24. Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
25. The Shadow Strays (Timo Tjahjanto)

 

Yeah Nosferatu, Babygirl and The Brutalist are all 2025 here so expect them on my list next year!