My Top 25 Movies of 2024

Well, it's that time of year again - even a little earlier for me, in fact. And it's the first time putting a 'fresh' one of these out in it's "new home". 

Frequent visitors to my annual 'warblings' whether that was during my online critic days / Tumblr era or now in this Blogger-Letterboxd 'marriage' know that I’ll throw out a few special mentions to all the films that I wish I could’ve included but couldn’t make fit (yet believe they deserve a shout-out regardless) and then I get stuck into what I think are the 25 best films of the year.

As always, films listed are based on their UK release date whether that’s in the cinema or on DVD, VOD etc. Anyway, without further ado, here are the ‘also-rans’ and ‘near-misses’ separated per genre that very nearly made the final list:

Action movies that I enjoyed this year were the remake of Road House (and apparently I'm in the minority on this one?), Dev Patel's semi-bonkers directorial debut Monkey Man, the European end-of-the-world apocalypse indie Survive and, yes, the really rather stupid (but almost excellent with it) Netflix festive actioner Carry-On.

Horror wise, Maxxxine lived up to my hopes mightily, I had a blast with the very poorly marketed Abigail, I thoroughly enjoyed the increasingly demented Loop Track, equally so the French vampire film The Vourdalak and I really liked Late Night With The Devil too. I'm also just going to come straight out and admit that I stood alone this year in actually liking the heavily molested and maligned remake of Salem’s Lot.

Drama(s) that stood out for me this year were Challengers, a little Cohen-esque thing called LaRoy, Texas that was every bit as good as the lesbian Cohen Brothers homage that was Love Lies Bleeding (and was better than the actual lesbian Cohen Brothers homage made by an actual Cohen Brother), the feelgood true life sporting underdog movie The Boys in the Boat, the brutal kiwi historical Guy Pearce movie The Convert, Netflix's Rez Ball and the confused but terrific Hit Man, with its star-marking turn from Adria Arjona. 

In terms of comedies this year, me and my children loved Hundreds of Beavers, my wife and I very much liked Self Reliance, I thought Adam Sandler: Love You was such a fun little attempt to do the 'Netflix Special' differently and I found lots of really wonderful bits within The American Society of Magical Negroes. I should also maybe avoid hypocrisy by pointing out that it is insane to me that Alice Lowe's Timestalker hasn't been shown more love and been given more attention.

It was a terrific year for animation - more on that in a moment - but two that deserve mention are the 'way better than it had any right to be' duck movie Migration and the unjustly ignored Kensuke’s Kingdom. It was a great year for documentaries too and I really liked One Night in Millstreet and the genuinely shocking Strike: An Uncivil War.

Blockbusters that I dug this year were the delightfully stupid but completely engrossing I.S.S, the visually astounding Dune: Part Two and the prequel A Quiet Place: Day One, which just got under the wire in terms of bleeding this franchise's core concept dry.

Finally, just to squeeze in even more titles of even more films that I absolutely had a great time with and sit just outside of my Top 25 for 2024, here's some thematic double-bills I encourage you to try yourself:

The "WOW! This is WAY better than it has any right to be!" Creature Feature Double-Bill

The Rather Lovely Biography / Tribute Documentary Double-Bill

The 'Aren't Black Cops 4-Some' Action Hero Double-Bill

The 20^th Century Studios Legacy Sequel Double-Bill

The Agitation-Inducing Right Winger Documentary Double-Bill

... and now, without any further ado, my Top 25 favourite movies of 2024:

25. JERICHO RIDGE

Will Gilbey's unashamed ode to John Carpenter's ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is an insanely impressive debut - a tight, controlled, kinetic actioner with clean and well-constructed geography and very clever implementations of plot devices to get around its lower budget.

 

I was genuinely taken aback by how brilliant, efficient and assured it was. Gilbey's assisted somewhat by his lead, Nikki Amuka-Bird, who absolutely kills it here - selling the accent, the tension, the fear, vulnerability etc in a way that takes old 'siege' tropes and makes them feel new. 

 

Every year there's the little b-movie that shoulder barges its way into being able to stand with the 'big dog' blockbusters and rather shockingly this year JERICHO RIDGE is it.

24. THE INSTIGATORS

We bemoan everything being comic book movies and sequels these days yet along comes something like this and it appears critics are having at it for not being some instant modern crime comedy classic, or something.

 

It's director Doug Liman delivering his specific glossy empty octane that he appears to have carved out a little corner for himself doing. It hooked me in effortlessly enough and every scene had people I like a great deal - Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones and Ron Perlman - rolling on in and playing it broad.

 

I smiled through the whole thing, laughed a couple of times and dug the scattering of car chases and smash-ups Liman delivered. I had a blast with it. It's like the lost Bruce Willis and Kurt Russell action comedy of 1989 that Martin Brest never got to make.

23. THE SUBSTANCE

I think this film loses a bit of itself in those heavily lauded (but not by me) final moments because it not only drops the tight control it held over tone and the entire body horror satire and goes far, far too far into cartoon absurdism and excess, but it also shifts the sympathy dial too forcibly in the direction / perspective of Margaret Qualley's Sue and suffers from not centering it on Demi Moore's Elizabeth.

 

It's the only grumble (asides from its length - why exactly is 140 - 150 minutes the new standard nowadays?) I can draw against a film that is otherwise highly entertaining, unashamedly silly and gloriously off-kilter in both its comedy, its satirical targeting and its homaging of all things David Cronenberg, Brian Yuzna, et al.

 

All kudos to filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, who very nearly nails this thing in totality. This is her so-called "difficult second movie" after the excellent 2017 REVENGE and she only stumbles in that aforementioned final five to ten minutes. That it doesn't ruin the whole experience and that she's able to get an awake (and very good) performance from Dennis Quaid (who replaced the originally cast Ray Liotta three months into filming when Liotta died) these days suggests she very much is a master filmmaker on the ascent.

22. ODDITY

I was planning on swerving this simply because the 'buzz' was starting to get a little too OTT and more horrors have failed to land with me under that 'pressure' than have succeeded. But this is one of the rare ones, indeed.

 

It's an absolute gem - somehow both a beautifully etched out 'traditional' ghost story that still very much services a modern audience's thirst for cheap jolts and jump scares.

It unsettles you and gets right under your skin with a simple tale of revenge that burrows through by telling its tale in a unique and interesting way. It's not fodder like so much of its genre bedfellows, it demands your absolute attention for maximum reward... as the final shot re-enforces!

21. TWISTERS

This "standalone sequel" to the 1996 disaster action drama is a better mid-90s blockbuster than that film it is now 'franchising',.

 

This is one of the best of the big, loud, expensive movies of the 'Summer Silly Season' this year. It's a film that in the hands of director Lee Isaac Chung and screenwriter Mark L. Smith (based on a story by Joseph Kosinski apparently) absolutely GETS what made the blockbusters of the 90s so ace and it leans haaaard into that:

 

Overearnestness and high cheese embraced without shame, 'overcoming tragedy' slapped into place as sufficiently simplistic character arcs, a well-curated soundtrack suitably married to a bombastic score, an understanding of how each set-piece needs to build in size and scale from the last and, of course, goddamn movie stars!

 

And if there's one thing Lee Isaac Chung knows with confidence it's that in Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell he's got the closest thing to bona fide movie stars in the traditional sense, but who can also act - so he shoots them like traditional movie stars and rests comfortable in the knowledge they can sell the hacky, heavy, on the nose dialogue. Which they do. (Unlike one actor in this who struggles badly enough all I'll say is James Gunn's upcoming SUPERMAN could be a very rough ride!)

 

The film delivers exactly what you'd want it to from the marketing. It's a terrific amount of enjoyable blockbuster fun in the old-fashioned sense.

20. LONGLEGS

It's absolutely impossible to talk about this without talking about Nicolas Cage and what he does here - physically impersonating SALTBURN director Emerald Fennell, whilst very obviously accessing every off-kilter piece of research or performance tic he carried out circa 1995 - 2005 and just letting it all ejaculate out into the sort of 'thing' that could destroy the film for anyone who doesn't go with him here. 

 

It's interesting that Maika Monroe settles into her role once Cage comes to play 'full time'. To start with she comes across like she's doing a bad impersonation of Dustin Hoffman in RAIN MAN and that irritates more than anything Cage could be seen to be doing here. As the film develops, so does her performance and by the time she starts going toe-to-toe with the underrated gem Alicia Witt she's a powerhouse.

 

The journey was decidedly more enjoyable than the destination was ultimately satisfying and I do wonder whether that had to do with the overplayed explanation of things ahead of the open-ending. (It reminded me, ironically, of the ending of Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO in that regard; a film that starred Anthony Perkins, the father of this film's writer / director.) 

 

It's almost silly to make the complaint though. What lies before it is so involving, enthralling and utterly intoxicating. It is unsettling and uncomfortable and Osgood 'Oz' Perkins knows exactly what he's doing here, orchestrating this as a companion piece to his BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER of which I'm not unconvinced at the time of writing this isn't a sequel.

19. BIRTHDAY GIRL

I wish the people behind BIRTHDAY GIRL could recognise what they have here or get it into the hands of folk like Neon or A24 for its US release, because it is one of the best thrillers of the year and the performances from Trine Dyrholm and Flora Ofelia Hoffmann Lindahl are absolutely exceptional, both deserved of all the awards going.

 

Director Michael Noer has trapped matters such as consent, estrangement, sexual assault, responsibility, culpability and integrity inside the confines of a cruise ship then sent said ship barrelling towards a tropical storm. The tension dial is slowly turned upwards in a frequently excruciating matter as Trine Dyrholm's Adidas-clad force of vengeance storms the tilting corridors, looking for justice for her daughter whilst reckoning with her own enormous personal failings.

 

The drama soaks into your skin as Flora Ofelia Hoffmann Lindahl displays a depth and maturity way beyond her years as she comes to learn about herself and the disgusting realities of the world in front of her in the aftermath of a sexual assault.

 

It's a completely enthralling film. It goes to places just off to the left of where you think it will, whilst offering up an interesting red herring here and there. It very much deserves to be talked about a great deal come awards season!

18. KILL

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's Indian 'DIE HARD on a train' is as momentous a moment in international action cinema as Gareth Evans' 2011 masterpiece THE RAID was. It's a relentlessly brutal film that does not fuck around one jot - 15 minutes in and we're underway with an unending cavalcade of violent kicking, punching, hacking and slashing with a solid 'does as required' turn from our lead Lakshya and a positively delicious Alan Rickman esque one from Raghav Juyal as the villain Fani.

 

You have to go into this as unspoiled as possible if you can because what I loved most about this was that to avoid any accusation of repetition in its action beats, it subverts itself at the 45 minute mark, finally brings up the title card and then spins the dial to go all in on something I've often thought whilst watching stuff like the later RAMBO sequels:

 

How thin the line is that separates these 'one man army' action movies from being stalk-and-slash horror films once you play around with motivating factors and even lighting and music!

17. GLADIATOR II

If Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR was a revitalising of the swords-and-sandals cinematic epics of the 1950s and 1960s but with all the spectacle modern filmmaking techniques could provide, his belated follow-up is a GLADIATOR movie for the cinema crowds of today - a empty-headed, gloriously stupid, large-scale spectacular!

In any other director's hands this thing would be a bloated, self-serious misfire. In the hands of visionary and cinematic 'painter' it is an inarguably entertaining, fuckin stunning action blockbuster epic. The opening salvo - shot on REAL locations, with REAL high numbers of extras that have then been accentuated further in a computer, with REAL stunt-teams and ACTUAL genuine tender loving care shown towards the effects - sets a terrific standard.

 

On the most superficial level, this thing is tremendous and tremendously enjoyable; set-piece after set-piece of hugely-scaled action extravagance with nary a second of greenscreen to be spotted (even though you know it's been used). So much of it is so well accomplished on such an enormous scale that you begrudge the fact Scott can restage the invasion of Numidia and present the flooding of a Colosseum with battleships and sharks, but he can't render baboons and rhinos believably.

 

Wonky script and even wonkier performances can't diminish what an excellent dollop of blockbuster fun this is though - actually one of my favourites of the year in that regard; a hark back to a time when these sort of things took pride in looking damn great and putting a bit of bombast into them that'd leave you with a big grin.

16. SOCIETY OF THE SNOW

The source material here is the recorded reflections of all sixteen survivors of the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster, affording the film a depth J.A. Bayona runs with. Taking onboard the justified criticisms that his other otherwise excellent cinematic account of a true life tragedy, 2012's THE IMPOSSIBLE, fell into cloying emotional manipulation in places he actively appears to go out of his way to avoid such pitfalls here.

 

The final result is a study of how humanity's resolve and faith in a collective state can be an unbeatable force against the worst of situations, accentuated by both Pedro Luque's beautiful cinematography (and how he can find so many different textures in one shade of white) and Michael Giacchino's score, which reminds you that the further he gets away from JJ Abrams' repeated requests to reuse the same mid-noughties LOST cues the better and stronger a composer he reveals himself to be.

 

Drenched in chilling / chilly, heartbreaking authenticity and quietly sensational without delivering overt sensationalism, this was the first great movie of 2024.

15. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel 'The Count of Monte Cristo' is possibly my favourite work of fiction of all time. I've certainly yet to find a book that has engulfed and consumed me reading it quite like that has each time I've returned to it. There's never really been a screen adaptation that has captured the deep, complex, slow-burning detail and grand machinations of revenge and justice. This is the closest I've found.

 

It’s a mostly faithful French period action adventure thriller - done as a proudly old-fashioned, extremely lavish affair full of high-end costumes, beautiful locations and a remarkable ability to lean the story down to something that feels incredibly brisk but is anything but in reality.

 

This was one of my favourite viewing experiences this year - a hark back to a time when a film got a chance to just be indulgent and big, taking its time with complex plotting and rewarding you for your investment; all extremely well-driven by directors Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, gorgeous French women, beautiful cinematography by Nicolas Bolduc and music by Jérôme Rebotier, as well as an enthralling lead performance from Pierre Niney - a man who has the face of one of those build-your-own muppet dolls from FAO Schwartz in New York.

14. MADE IN ENGLAND - THE FILMS OF POWELL & PRESSBURGER

Easily my favourite documentary of the year! It's every bit as wondrous and sublime as you'd assume it would be from a set-up as simple as this:

 

One of the greatest filmmakers of all time sits and talks about the work of the greatest British filmmaking duo in the history of cinema, going almost film-by-film through their 'CV'; talking about what each meant to him, spotlighting things that enrich your experience and understanding of the films and talking about his personal connection and friendship with one half of the team in later life as well as their journey and history as cinema changed around them.

 

It's just a thoroughly fascinating, rewarding and rather lovely couple of hours that gifts you everything you could want from it.

13. CIVIL WAR

I think for Alex Garland to make this movie on this subject now and not apparently have a single introspective thought about our current societal and political divisions he'd be willing to lay down within it is an incredible cop-out and dilutes the conviction of the piece.

 

However, if we're to take from this the fact that Garland wanted to simply experiment with what an ode to journalism amidst a nation in extreme crisis would look like as a mainstream dystopic action thriller if it had been made by Peter Berg in his THE KINGDOM / Marky Mark-less era, then the outcome is an effective, prodigious and coruscating experience that I very much enjoyed.

 

This thing carries a whole heap of flaws - some at a very basic level - and yet it'll stand as one of the best action thrillers of the year regardless, because when this is good it's frickin great!

12. THE END WE START FROM

The proverbial 'wheels' on Jodie Comer's run of impeccable performances are due to come off at some point. Surely? Even Jessica Chastin fucked her tsunami of excellence across 19 films in 5 years (!) with a terrible turn in a shitty HUNTSMAN. I thought judging from the shocking work from Comer teased in that Tom Hardy biker trailer, her straight-line of brilliance was bending...

 

... and then this arrived to prove I was doubting her prematurely. By God, she's a very good actress isn't she? And this is a very good film enhanced by her presence.

 

The title is obnoxious and like something you'd find on a wanky, pontificating student thesis submission. And there's a bit too many 'on the nose' visual metaphors early on that thankfully settle down eventually.

 

But the overall end result - chockful of premium tier acting heavyweights (Mark Strong, Katherine Waterston, Benedict Cumberbatch and Gina McKee) rolling in to hand deliver gravitas - is a moving, haunting and completely captivating alternative take on motherhood and the apocalypse; never once overcooking the dystopic anguish or challenging drama.

11. CONCRETE UTOPIA

Finally receiving a UK release, well after its 'sequel' has had its positively-received Netflix debut here, this was a terrific watch. I liked it a great deal.

 

It was a genuinely thrilling and fascinating mix of disaster movie, dark comedy, sociological study and psychological thriller. It's got some tremendous set-pieces, some legitimately unnerving moments, big shocks and yet another seriously impressive performance by Lee Byung-hun.

 

It is a film that really nails better than most other disaster movies that in the aftermath of these horrendous moments the biggest threat we ultimately face is the absolute worst of each other.

10. YOLO

The worldwide box office "sensation" and China's highest-grossing film of this year so far finally arrives here, and there is no argument whatsoever as to the fact that it is one of the loveliest and most quietly inspirational films of the year - with one of the most unsung performances so far in 2024 from Jia Ling, who also directs.

 

Ling - a Chinese sketch comedienne who is making only her sophomore directing effort with this more comedic take on the 2014 movie 100 YEN LOVE - is heartbreakingly sublime in the lead here, portraying depression and submissive malaise in a genuine and moving way whilst holding a tight control of tone over the film as director AND losing a staggering 110lb on camera in just 12 months to fit her production requirements.

 

It's not the sporting underdog movie nor gentle romcom you're likely to be expecting here. It's something deeper, maybe a little darker but definitely more lovely.

9. VERMINES (aka INFESTED)

This played as one of the most effective horror movies I've seen in a long time; an immediate favourite that shows Sébastien Vanicek as a filmmaker to watch develop - it is no surprise that he's been tapped to make his own EVIL DEAD movie in the future.

Vanicek's made one of the best 'creepy crawly' creature features I've ever seen. It's [REC•] meets ARACHNOPHOBIA, perfectly calibrated to access and exploit our most severe fears and discomfort around spiders.

 

The ending is messy and lacking a clear sense of pay-off, becoming a cluster of action and incident without coherent presentation. It frustrates because it pulls the film slightly back from the brink of instant modern masterpiece status... and sits at odds with the rest of proceedings; all so expertly lit and framed for maximum effect.

 

There's COVID connotations, classist symbolism and typically French anti-authority suggestions at play here if you want to pick n' pull on them. But really it's just an efficient, brutal, genuinely terrifying, insanely uncomfortable and highly enjoyable slice of spider-horror!

8. THE FALL GUY

There's a 13 or 14 year old kid somewhere who's watched this and just immediately decided it's their new favourite film ever. And I totally get that. I really do. Because as much as I thoroughly enjoyed it, I loved it even more for the early 90s vibe it invoked in me, reminding me of what it felt like to be watching Tony Scott's THE LAST BOY SCOUT, John Badham's THE HARD WAY and BIRD ON A WIRE, Richard Donner's first couple of LETHAL WEAPON sequels or peak Renny Harlin fare like CLIFFHANGER or THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT for the first time.

 

Ryan Gosling has absolutely found the lane and speed at which he excels as an irreverent reluctant hero in action comedies, and he's as good here as he was in Shane Black's modern classic THE NICE GUYS, from which this film's screenwriter Drew Pearce (Black's co-writer on IRON MAN 3) pillages both the tone and to a less successful extent the style of narrative.

 

As adaptations of old 1980s TV series go this is 'loose' at best and the plot here can most accurately be described as hokum of the highest order - though props should be given for Pearce evolving the film's title to hold a double-meaning that hides the 'twist' in plain sight.

 

You're ultimately here for the action and the comedy, and this thing made me laugh a lot whilst the action was in parts as tremendous as you'd expect for a wild ode to the profession of the stuntman (set against a frankly ace soundtrack). Though it must be pointed out that for a film championing the art of 'as real' stunt choreography, director David Leitch still traps himself in on action set-pieces that highlight ropey greenscreen work.

7. REBEL RIDGE

Jeremy Saulnier knows how to construct tight, enthralling movies that serve as pressure kegs with perfectly calibrated valves set to pop and release at the most effective of moments. He knows how to use ultra violence in a punishing, shocking but imperative manner (see 'the arm' in GREEN ROOM) that never lands as gratuitous. You watch a Jeremy Saulnier movie and you see someone who's dined on the work of Lumet, Frankenheimer and Badham and drawn the most important nutrients from them.

 

With this, his latest movie, he's made the best action conspiracy thriller of the year... No, one of the best films of the year, full stop; a bruising and remarkably lean (even at 130 minutes!) ride that couches its set-pieces within a deliberately frustrating drama that's astoundingly based on actual law and demented legal precedence.

Aaron Pierre (impressing mightily in a role replacing John Boyega, who walked off the production perhaps in realising he didn't have what it takes to sell what's needed here) heads up a quietly brilliant ensemble that features Don Johnson (still 'killing it' in his character actor 'god' phrase nowadays), AnnaSophia Robb, David Denman, Steve Zissis and James Cromwell.

 

I've seen a lot of reviews label this 'FIRST BLOOD meets MICHAEL CLAYTON'. For me this is Saulnier's 'MAN ON FIRE by way of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK'. I loved it.

6. WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL

Aardman can play it safe and 'work the beats' - A MATTER OF LOAF & DEATH is ostenibly A CLOSE SHAVE freshened up in a lot of ways - but they can also surprise the heck out of you too. After all, at the height of the noughties abrasive yet clunky CG animation boom they delivered a stop motion modern classic with CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT that felt as if Hammer Horror made an Ealing comedy for kids.

For them to follow up WERE-RABBIT with a direct sequel (a Wallace & Gromit rarity) to their masterpiece, THE WRONG TROUSERS, feels one part lazy to two parts bold. Yet this proves once again you should never, ever bet against Aardman.

It is a complete and utter delight - a big ol' warm, comforting and very funny cuddle of a movie that snipes at modern technology / AI whilst delivering sublime visual comedy that most mainstream studio comedies would yearn to accomplish.

A CLOSE SHAVE threw out loving TERMINATOR and BATTLE OF BRITAIN pastiches, whilst this reaches down into the bucket to deliver nods to the likes of FAST & FURIOUS 7.

5. HORIZON - AN AMERICAN SAGA: PART 1

Whatever criticism you've heard or read about this I can confirm it is true - it is scattershot in its storytelling and the "Chapter 1" of it all doesn't help, the deep underlying theme (America was built on a faulty bill of goods and false promises) isn't laid out as well as it could be and the cast is wildly inconsistent in their abilities.

 

But it's a Kevin Costner western epic for Christ's sake. Some folk are disrespectfully acting like that doesn't carry enormous currency. That may be why Costner frontloads the first hour of his first 'chapter' with Pionsenay's mass assault on the Horizon settlement; an extended set-piece that stands as one of the best pieces of cinema you'll see this year. He's reminding you your dealing with the guy who made OPEN RANGE here.

 

J. Michael Muro's cinematography and Costner's ability to frame a goddamn majestic shot against the expanse of the wide open plains of America make for one gorgeous-looking film, and as director the guy knows also the power in putting a great score (John Debney doing brilliant work here) to powerful images.

 

This thing, whatever its flaws, moves at a clip for a three hour old-fashioned western that's nothing but introductions and it never once feels boring. I think people are going to find this, attach themselves to it and it is a 'saga' that is really going to blossom into something over time.

4. THE WILD ROBOT

I'm so glad that I have brought both my boys up to understand that there is nothing wrong in showing their emotions because at the exact moment my youngest boy became an unconsolable wreck in the final minutes of this film, he got to look over and see me sobbing my heart out too.

 

This isn't just a lovely film, it's a beautiful looking one. It's full of humour and stunning imagery, really warm-hearted and moving messages and it's the first animated movie that has come along in so, so, so long from a major studio that feels 'classical' and isn't just some samey, mass-produced, overly-colourful, devoid of artistery 'product' that has no real heart to it... a cartoon made to synergise with a brand the studio already has stakes in, you know?

 

I simply adored this and it re-enforces that Chris Sanders is possibly the most important person working in mainstream animation nowadays.

 

It perfected its sense of scale in terms of story-telling, world-building and humour - AND effortlessly circumnavigates the now annoying 'standard' of studios' putting the third act in their trailers and marketing.

This is an instant modern classic.

3. THE HOLDOVERS

This is a ready-made masterpiece. It's a film about / that generates human connection, one that uses character interaction to drive a plot - not pre-designed set-pieces! It's profoundly moving on one level and very funny in its own right if you don't want anything deeper.

 

The casting - as is frequently the case with Alexander Payne movies - is both exceptional and flawless, right down to the smallest of parts. That core trifecta of Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa is an astonishing construction. In much the same way Payne is comfortable enough to keep back and let his cast shine, Giamatti frequently steps back or changes his speed to let Sessa steal scenes or Randolph rightfully have her moment.

 

Alexander Payne has made some truly tremendous films. ELECTION (the opening chapter in his 'Dark Americana Dramedy' trilogy alongside ABOUT SCHMIDT and SIDEWAYS) remains his masterwork.

 

But this could usurp it; it is an absolute gift from the heavens above; a genuinely flawless, massively warm-hearted instant classic that wears the coat of a caustic character study just to wrong-foot you a little.

2. FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA

If FURY ROAD didn’t do it, then this definitely affirms George Miller as the greatest action director in my lifetime, alongside John Woo. No one uses action as narrative like him. Also, no one thinks up this shit anywhere close to the way he does:

 

There was a sequence in this where a speeding war rig is barrelling through the outback under attack, and a bad guy steps off the back of a motorbike he's riding pillion on and starts skiing on makeshift heel skis alongside the rig and I thought to myself "That's cool as fuck!" but THEN he fired up a propeller on his back and started paragliding after it... and THEN something happened after that that'll go unspoiled by me but left this visually sumptuous punchline there on the screen and I just started laughing giddily at the sheer insanity of what had been thought up, executed then put in front of me on screen.

Like the movie it is prequelising, it never stops moving. It's a massive character study - the story of girl's journey to womanhood and on to iconic warrior status - that's all told through stunning, propulsive action; Tom Burke's Praetorian Jack and [an adequate] Anya Taylor-Joy's Furiosa don't fall in love through declared feelings but through snatched glances at one another whilst killing attackers at 100mph.

 

There is snatches of cheap-looking, wonky greenscreen as the trailer suggested but what's interesting is that they're present in the most arbitrary and boring of shots (characters standing talking on the roof of a truck or overlooking a barren wasteland) and then when it comes to the action set-pieces they're all very obviously done 'as real' with vehicles and lives very clearly on the line.

 

Chris Hemsworth makes a borderline impressive / admirable effort here considering how absolutely out of his depth of capability as an actor he is. (The less said about him shoehorning his talentless wife into TWO bit parts the better!) The frustrating thing is, for anyone who's seen LAWLESS, you can't help wondering how magnificent Guy Pearce would've been in Hemsworth's role.

 

FURIOSA got me good because it gifted me all the shit I liked about FURY ROAD but with a generous increase in the Miller-ish 'flourishes' I've loved so much about the world he's intricately created.

1. ROBOT DREAMS

Pablo Berger's wordless animated comedy-drama about the friendship between a dog and his robot in 1984 New York is absolute joy in cinematic form.

 

Underneath the visual simplicity is an abundance of layers - could the narrative developments that separate dog and robot be a parable for gay relationships in 80s NYC at the height of the AIDS crisis, suggesting sometimes love is taken from us in tragic ways outside of our control and we're powerless to do anything about it?

 

It's as moving as it is funny, as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking; a film that works at its base level to entertain children (both my boys loved it!) and on an even deeper one for adults, reminding us that our first love is not our only love but it helps us grow and develop as people.

 

It's a very beautiful, pure-hearted, completely lovely, instant masterpiece. I adored it.

And that's that! Full / extended reviews of all of the films mentioned can be found here! For now though? See you next year!