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| Demi Moore in The Substance |
As dear followers of my annual list already know, I like to pick great films that impacted on me the most this past year, films that left a deep intellectual, emotional or psychological impression on me, that spoke to my values or desires or fears in truly unique ways this year, movies I will never forget.
2024 was a truly great year for feature films with so many good projects bursting into my top ten, with many left out.
This is not some objective, film critic list of the best of the best. These are merely my favourites of 2024:
1) The Substance - Never have I seen a wilder, more hilarious, more brutally honest satire than this body horror comedy. The post-Trump victory was the perfect time for this jaw-dropping exploration of female self-hatred to surge into the zeitgeist and devour its horrible male characters. Just when you think it's gotten as crazy as it can, it amps up the crazy even more, beautifully telling a unique parable about the psychological and physical damage caused by a fading Hollywood starlet, played to perfection by Demi Moore, who experiments with a black market drug that promises to transform her into the body of her youth. It doesn't go so well. It's supremely bloody and totally bonkers by the end, but I loved it. I wouldn't normally pick a movie filled with this much female nudity as my top pic, but all of it is completely appropriate and serves the narrative perfectly, and in fact enhances the experience. And yes, there is at least one uber hot man's ass in close-up in this too, so it's fair on that scale as well. Directed by the brilliant French director Coralie Fargeat, this masterpiece puts a very big mirror in front of modern society and it looks pretty darn horrible and disgusting.
2) Anora - Girl meets boy and gets swept off her feet. But this time, the girl is a street smart sex worker living in New Jersey, and the boy a wayward son of Russian oligarchs. As the hot young couple's brief paradise unravels in tragically hilarious fashion, one can't help but forgive the leads for daring to try to break away from the empty nonsense that is their lives. Of course, the slightly funny tone of the piece is a decent cover for the harsh realities that undermine the road to a happy ending.
3) Dune: Part Two - Mesmerizing, engrossing re-telling of the classic book, with an emotional resonance and excellent acting that was missing somewhat from Denis Villeneuve's first part of this trilogy.
4) Wicked: Part One - It's all here: the characters, the music, the storytelling, the colourful sets and costumes, the deep emotions, the superb acting and singing, this film hits all of the right notes and then some. I can't wait for Part Two.
5) Monkey Man - I finally caught this amazing gem recently after missing its initial release back in the spring. I was blown away by the frenetic energy, pace, and the extreme but beautifully choreographed violence in this shockingly good directorial debut by Dev Patel, who's never looked hotter in the lead role. This isn't some sweet retelling of Slumdog Millionaire, that's for sure. This brutal satire / thriller shatters the racist hypocrisies of Modi's India.
6) Challengers - Sexy and fascinating exploration of a troubled throuple consisting of two mostly straight and very hot young men and the female object of their desire. All three share a passion for tennis, and their pursuit of that passion from their teen years to early adulthood acts as an appropriate metaphor for the setbacks and triumphs they inevitably face.
7) Alien: Romulus - Finally, a terrific, tragic and scary Alien movie, a wonderful tribute in some ways to the best originals (1979's Alien, and 1986's Aliens), and a much deserved addition to the franchise. This one is probably the third best of the franchise, if you ask me.
8) Sing Sing - A modern day, non-homophobic, deeply moving new version of Shawshank Redemption, in some ways. Colman Domingo and the whole cast of mostly actual male prisoners explore the joys of being fully realized human beings while incarcerated. This is a radical reminder that all people, not just those who have managed to stay out of the American injustice system, are deserving of basic human dignity. If you can see beyond your right-wing prejudices, you might enjoy it.
9) Conclave - A well-done, well-acted, earnest story about a secret meeting of Catholic cardinals struggling to decide on the future of their entire faith. The spectre of its mostly male cast playing politics and manipulating each other to earn the papal crown irritated on some sexist levels amid the political climate we're now suffering through, but this film's surprise ending proved most cathartic and satisfying.
10) A Real Pain - A quiet, engrossing journey shared by two Jewish-American cousins played by Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed) and Kieran Culkin who've grown apart in their adulthood as they take a historical tour of Poland on their way to see the house where their late grandmother used to live. It often had the same vibes as Before Sunrise, one of my favourite movies, as the characters explore the surprising sentiments and memories the experience evokes.
OTHER FILMS I SAW IN ORDER OF APPRECIATION:
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Fierce, violent, colourful, engrossing, perhaps not quite as accessible as its Mad Max predecessor. Anya Taylor-Joy does almost as good a job as Charlize Theron did in the same role.)
Gladiator II (Liked it better than the original, and Paul Mescal is a hero for the 2020s (ie. he's not an asshole like Russell Crowe has turned out to be.))
On Swift Horses (A surprisingly resonant and sexy queer film that nicely explores the struggles of both queer men and queer women in its bygone era.)
Piece by Piece (A wonderful documentary about Pharrell Williams that just happens to be told beautifully with stop motion Lego.).
A Complete Unknown (Timothee Chalamet beautifully (what role could he not play beautifully) captures the spirit of Bob Dylan and may be on his way to winning his first Academy Award in March.)
La Chimera (Little known gem spoken mostly in Italian explores a sexy English archaeologist played by Josh O'Connor who joins a collective of grave robbers trying to find fortune and maybe some long lost love by looting Etruscan tombs in central Italy.)
The Brutalist (Super accomplished and ambitious, this masterpiece explores the tragic search for success and acceptance in America experienced by a genius architect and later his suffering wife escaping post-war Europe. I liked it but found it slightly empty emotionally.)
Unstoppable (Inspiring, feel good biopic about a one-legged champion American wrestler played to perfection by Jharrel Jerome.).
Nightbitch (Amy Adams goes a bit nuts while isolated with her newborn baby in this nicely entertaining comedy-drama.)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (An excellent and fitting sequel to the strange, quirky original.).
Babygirl (Nicole Kidman does her usual intense thing, but ultimately I found this story of a dissatisfied woman's rebellion from her boring marriage and sex life rather timid. The setup didn't quite deliver the radical payoff needed to make this more than a simple story about a woman who walks a bit on the wild side before coming back.)
Queer (Daniel Craig chews up the scenery here and is fascinating to watch from start to finish. While the film is beautiful from an art direction perspective, the narrative is empty, and we simply don't care much about this drug-addicted man, and we care even less about his superficial and mostly silent boy toy who accompanies him for reasons never explained.)
Juror #2 (Nicholas Hoult finds out he may have played a major role in a tragedy in this decent moral tale by director Clint Eastwood.).
Fly Me To The Moon (Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson entertain in this frothy, simple tale of faking the 1969 moon landing for the masses.)
Maria (Angelina Jolie is great in this role, but the movie is a bore and not nearly as interesting as I think the filmmakers and star assumed it would be. )
The Idea of You (I liked the idea of older and still beautiful Anne Hathaway having an affair with a much younger boy band star played by the super sexy Nicholas Galitzine, who's also excited me in recent years playing gay roles including in Red White & Royal Blue and Mary & George.)
Killer Body Count (A better than most horror centring around a teenage girl's struggles to explore her perfectly healthy and horny sexuality while surrounded by a bevy of super hot young men at some kind of a Catholic anti-sex intervention camp. Of course, this being a silly horror, any one who reaches orgasm soon finds themselves massacred by a mysterious killer. The unique and radical angle here: it's the young men who all without exception strip naked and let the camera ogle their smooth physiques before they perish, while ladies are mostly spared. If you've been waiting your whole life to see some anonymous naked young hunk show off his ass in a horror movie while being sliced literally in half, this is the flick for you. An entire industry of genre movies did the same thing to women for decades, so to finally see this one give the boys a taste of their own medicine was a thrill.).
Saturday Night (Not many funny or joyful moments here, and a whole lot of filler - who would've thought the last 90 minutes before the first Saturday Night Live broadcast would be so boring? I do love Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, but I'd love Gabriel LaBelle in anything.).
Damsel (Mildly entertaining, but not enough to recommend.)
The Exorcist (Oh my God, please avoid this horrible, totally unscary and ill-conceived film that shows Russell Crowe has no idea how to identify a good script before signing on.)
OTHER FILMS I WANT TO SEE ASAP, IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE:
Nosferatu
Nickel Boys
Emilia Perez
Hard Truths
The Room Next Door
The Life Of Chuck
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Heretic
The Last Showgirl
The Order
Rumours
September 5
The Program
The End
Scoop
The Piano Lesson
I'm Still Here
Inside Out 2
The Return
Memoir of a Snail
The Wild Robot
All We Imagine As Light
A Different Man
The Apprentice
Megalopolis
Blitz
Lee
Kraven: The Hunter
Twisters
We Live In Time
Poolman
Small Things Like These
Despicable Me 4
Red One
Argylle
The First Omen
Oh, Canada
Y2K
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