What can I say about 2024? A lot, but I won’t because I’ll start spiraling into unintelligible chaos. It’s funny and awful how a great movie year can be colored by unfortunate year-end things (and at the time of writing, terrible year-start things). I don’t have many words for the movies I did enjoy this year that haven’t been wonderfully written by fellow Hasslers, but I’d say that each of these movies contribute to small piece of my feelings toward myself or the world. Call it personal, call it political, call it my sad sop list. Here are the movies that I hope to remember this year by.
TOP TEN FILMS
10. PICTURES OF GHOSTS (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)
You know what? There’s always room for sincerity, and I’d like to think our personal memories will remain standing while history crumbles around us.
9. THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE (dir. Magnus von Horn)
A surprise last-minute hit for me! This movie gets you horrific niche history (post-WWI win for the victorious country, but nothing really changing for poor women) with a bit of comedy for garnish. I think there’s a lot I’d like to discuss about this (mainly wishing that I saw more of Peter in his dark shadows!) but I’d recommend watching it without looking into the story’s inspirations.
8. EVIL DOES NOT EXIST (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
This film is like a waterfall. It starts with the tranquil pace of water running at a lateral, undisturbed level. But when it hits chaos, turbulence is out of control. The waterfall happens, and at the very end, it re-establishes equilibrium. Trust me, I almost walked out of this one but the perils of nature (in nice-looking parkas) drew me back in.
7. DUNE: PART TWO (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
We come to the movies for a good blockbuster.
6. LOVE LIES BLEEDING (dir. Rose Glass)
We come to the movies for a good c*ckbuster.
5. BABYGIRL (dir. Halina Reijn)
When all is said and done about this film, I will be standing in the rearview mirror, wiping a tear. That’s getting older and feeling your shelf life diminishing, baby!
4. THE SUBSTANCE (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
The Substance is absolutely that movie. But if you ask me what I remember most: my heart rose and collapsed in my throat in the two scenes where Demi Moore’s Elisabeth is sitting alone with her back faced towards the camera. Do you know? Do you know what I mean?
3. THE BRUTALIST dir. Brady Corbet
Grand! Sweeping! Majestic! I keep using these adjectives to describe Brady Corbet’s monstrous undertaking of the plagued American Dream through architecture, immigration, and a visionary’s compromise (and if you are tired of seeing those words, appreciate that I didn’t use “m*********”, which probably has seen quite the surge in the past month). I knew we were in for a treat with the beautiful geometric placement of the title credits, but when the library was revealed — whew!
2. A DIFFERENT MAN dir. Aaron Schimberg
No notes.
1. I SAW THE TV GLOW dir. Jane Schoenbrun
What I didn’t feel in We’re All Going to the World’s Fair was made up in tenfold when I saw Schoenbrun’s second feature. Justice Smith delivers the coldest monologue when he describes the last episode of Pink Opaque before its cancellation. The accuracy in capturing that Internet-less, community-less feeling of witnessing something on TV and not having anyone to ask, “Did you see this shit?” Instead you feel cold and isolated, especially for feeling so emotional about something on top of figuring yourself out. This is just a one-of-a-kind, singular film.
FWIW
Films and people that kept me under their spell