In 2024,
Despite thirty four felony convictions, Donald Trump was reelected as President of the United States;
Keir Stammer became the Prime Minister of the UK;
The Summer Olympics were held in Paris;
Jon Stewart returned to The Daily Show;
Taylor Swift won album of the year for the fourth time with Midnights;
The Kansas City Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl;
Billy Joel played the 100th show in his residency at Madison Square Garden;
After forty three seasons, Pat Sajak left Wheel of Fortune, and, after 400 episodes, Sam Waterstson left Law and Order;
Twenty-seven year old Jake Paul defeated fifty-eight year old Mike Tyson;
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Young Sheldon, Blue Bloods, Yellowstone, and What We Do in the Shadows ended their runs;
While Glynis Johns, David Soul, Bill Hayes, Joyce Randolph, Jack Burke Jr., Norman Jewison, Melanie, Charles Osgood, Carl Andre, N. Scott Momaday, Chita Rivera, Don Murray, Carl Weathers, Toby Keith, William Post, Lefty Driesell, Ira von Fürstenberg, Richard Lewis, Brian Mulroney, Chris Mortensen, M. Emmet Walsh, Peter Angelos, Joe Lieberman, Louis Gossett Jr., Trevor Griffiths, Barbara Rush, Joe Flaherty, John Barth, Lynne Reid Banks, OJ Simpson, Eleanor Coppola, Whitey Herzog, Katherine Porter, Duane Eddy, Frank Stella, Bernard Hill, Hootie Ingram, Jack Quinn, Roger Corman, Alice Munro, Morgan Spurlock, Richard Sherman, Bill Walton, Larry Allen, Uri Geller, Jerry West, Anouk Aimée, Willie Mays, Donald Sutherland, Bill Cobbs, Orlando Cepeda, Jon Landau, Jim Inhofe, Shelley Duvall, Ruth Westheimer, James B. Sikking, Richard Simmons, Jacoby Jones, Lou Dobbs, Bob Newhart, Billy Bean, Chi-Chi Rodriguez, Gena Rowlands, Alain Delon, Phil Donahue, John Amos, James Earl Jones, Mercury Morris, Maggie Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Ely, Dikembe Mutombo, Pete Rose, Luis Tiant, Ethel Kennedy, Liam Payne, Mitzi Gaynor, Paul Morrissey, Terri Garr, Alan Rachins, Quincy Jones, Tony Todd, Bobby Allison, Gerry Faust, Chuck Woolery, Marshall Brickman, Nikki Gioivanni, The Amazing Kreskin, Anita Bryant, Rickey Henderson, Greg Gumbel, Olivia Hussey, Charles Shyer, Jimmy Carter, and Linda Lavin died.
The following are my ten favorite films released in 2024:
10. The Curse
This is exactly what you think a TV show from the minds of Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie would be like, combining the cringy humor (anti-humor?) of Fielder with the unrelenting tension of Safdie.
Whitney and Asher Siegel (Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder) are privileged, clueless and entitled wannabe HGTV superstars peddling an undercooked idea about passive homes.
As they sell their design and their show to a city in New Mexico they’re beset by numerous roadblocks.
The show is very good until the final episode. Then it kicks into hyperdrive with an insightful parody of the Hollywood promotional machine followed by a hard turn into the bizarre which floored me. It was a bold risk which produced an astounding hour of television.
I’m genuinely excited by what Nathan Fielder does next and Emma Stone has masterfully leveraged her Hollywood star power to become one of its most bold and innovative filmmakers. Since its inception in 2020, her production company, Fruit Tree, has given us this, Poor Things (2023) and A Real Pain (2024). That’s a heckuva start.
I enjoyed the earlier film adaptation starring Harrison Ford, but with the extra timein a limited series, this David E. Kelley production is superior. The characters are given time to breathe.
The core story, an assistant DA is charged with the murder of another assistant DA (who was pregnant with his child) and improbably winds up defending himself in court, feels like a Jerry Springer episode.
The cast is uniformly excellent, with special praise to Jake Gyllehnaal as the accused Rusty Sabich and Ruthe Negga as his long-suffering wife.
I loved the extra layer of tension from having Gyllenhaal’s real life brother-in-law play Rusty’s chief rival and prosecutor Tommy Molto.
The book and film famously have a twist ending, which this miniseries manages to enhance.
It’s an excellent adaptation, another feather in the cap of Gyllenhaal and the indefatigable David E. Kelley.
Frank Hebert’s novel has a mythic status among sci-fi enthusiasts and in nerd culture. While David Lynch’s mid 80s adaptation has admirers and avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s aborted film has become a legendary what if, Denis Villeneuve is the first filmmaker to turn the world of Dune into the sort of cultural event many predicted it could be.
The cast is a who’s who of all stars, led by Timothée Chalamet and including Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Austin Butler, Dave Bautista, Florence Pugh, Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Waken, Charlotte Rampling, and Josh Brolin.
It’s a crazy time to be alive when a film so unabashedly genre can attract such a phenomenal cast.
I love Chalamet and he’s already an icon before his thirtieth birthday.
The plot is confusing or boring to non-genre fans while to most sci-fi nerds it’s as familiar as their hands. There’s an expensive drug called spice (similar to oil in our world) on the planet Arrakis. Everyone wants it and the people of the planet are subjugated by various factions in an attempt to control production. The film chronicles the political awakening of Paul Atreides (Chalamet) who eventually helps liberate the Fremen (the native people of Arrakis). And, oh yeah, inexplicably, there are giants worms in the sand.
It’s an intoxicating mix of Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Middle Eastern politics.
7. Shōgun
The profound culture gap between the East and the West during the 16th century is on display as Major John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) is enthralled, fascinated, enraged and confounded by the decisions of his Japanese captors / collaborators.
Husband and wife Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks did a fantastic job staying faithful to James Clavell’s 1975 novel while making this feel fresh and modern.
The performances from Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai were rightfully praised as among the best of the year.
American popular culture has a long history of stories and art set in the exotic locales of other cultures (including the original Shōgun miniseries in 1980), but the last few years have seen an explosion in interest in foreign language properties. Some of this is the ease of access caused by the increased prevalence of streaming services and their insatiable desire for new and original content, but the recent awards success of Parasite (2019), Squid Game and this suggest a possible flattening of cultural differences.
6. Spaceman
Czech astronaut Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) is sent on a long solo mission beyond Jupiter to investigate a dust cloud, leaving behind his wife (Carey Mulligan) and their unborn child. In the loneliness of space he meets a giant spider Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano). While possibly a figment of his imagination, this telepathic spider helps Jakub reprioritize his life.
I love serious Sandler, and it’s nice to see Isabella Rossellini having a career renaissance. Paul Dano is a fascinating actor and Carey Mulligan always delivers.
This understated and under appreciated sci-fi film is poor man’s Solaris (1972), and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Architect / Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody) immigrates to the US, where, thanks to wealthy benefactor Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), his career is revived.
Tóth is able to reunite with his family, but their new life is more geared towards survival than creating a happy, safe home.
As he deals with the trauma of his experiences, Tóth is retraumatized by those around him, including Van Buren.
Brady Corbet’s film subverts the familiar of trope of a Holocaust survivor struggling to reenter the world to make us examine the inhumane ways we treat trauma victims. Evil, immoral people take advantage of the vulnerability of these individuals, offering to “help” as a means of finding easy prey, committing atrocities under the cover of humanitarian aide.
Pearce is a journeyman actor who, while well known and famous, has never broken through into the ranks of the top tier; this may change that.
Joe Alwyn is most famous for his longtime relationship with Taylor Swift, but is a fine actor and I hope this portends more from him.
Felicity Jones is good as Tóth’s wife, but her performance is overshadowed by Brody’s. It’s his movie and he carries it well. He’s a fantastic actor, and may win his second Oscar for playing a Holocaust survivor.
One cannot overstate the pivotal role Churchill played in preventing Hitler from dominating the European continent. This documentary series uses Churchill’s own words and archival footage to paint an inspiring portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most important heroes; it’s also a sobering look at the fickleness of political fortune. The details of the relationship between Churchill, Stalin, and FDR are fascinating.
This also serves as a poignant look at what motivates men of such importance, arguing Churchill was driven to live a life more important than his father.
What a beautifully crafted biographical portrait of a truly consequential man.
3. Heretic
Two female Mormon missionaries arrive at the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). The affable Reed invites them in to his home and discusses religion with them. Slowly, the conversation turns antagonistic, as Reed’s challenges to their faith become more pointed and less friendly.
We know Reed is evil well before he finally reveals himself as a murderous fiend, but Grant’s incredible performance keeps you glued to the screen and his passionate speeches about free will, God, and Monopoly are some of my favorite movie moments of the year.
An engaged Grant is one of the best actors working. He oozes charisma and you can’t help but watch him.
I love horror movies which sincerely tackle religious themes, like The Exorcist (1973). This was one hundred percent up my alley and thanks to Grant’s mesmerizing performance, did not disappoint.
Sharon Stevens (Hilary Swank) sees a news report about a little girl, Michelle Schmitt, who needs a liver transplant and feels compelled to reach out to the girl’s family and help. Her efforts are often at odds with stubborn single father Ed (Alan Ritchson), but ultimately prove a dynamic force in helping the family get what they need.
All the while, Sharon struggles with alcoholism and a fractured relationship with her own son.
Swank is fantastic, and Ritchson proves he can do more than action series like Reacher (where he’s excellent).
The movie wears its faith based status unabashedly, but never crosses the line to become too preachy.
It’s not earth shattering cinema, but is a welcome dose of humanity, kindness and goodness in a world filled with real-life examples of the worst of mankind. Everywhere I look I am reminded how common evil and wickedness are, it’s nice to be reminded of how ordinary angels can be.
1. Inside Out 2
Two years after Inside Out, Riley is now nearing the end of middle school. As she enters puberty, new emotions appear to clash with the established quintet of the first movie: Ennui, Embarrassment, Envy, and Anxiety.
Joy had been carefully building Riley’s sense of self based only on good memories (showing she had learned nothing from the importance of fusing the sad and the happy in the first film). These new emotions throw yet another wrench into her carefully established plans.
The returning emotions from the first film are great. Amy Poehler and Lewis Black continue to nail their performances as Joy and Anger, while Tony Hale and Liza Lapira are slight downgrades for Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling as Fear and Disgust.
The new emotions include Ayo Edebri as Envy and Paul Walter Houser as Embarrassment, but the biggest reveal is Maya Hawke as Anxiety. She’s a shot of adrenaline to the series. Her character and performance capture the overwhelming nature of the transition into adulthood.
My favorite part of the series, however, continues to be Phyllis Smith as Sadness. I don’t think there’s ever been a more perfectly matched performer with an animated character.
Nonagenarian June Squibb in a brief role as Nostalgia was a great bonus.
I love this series. My kids love this series. Inside Out was one of my favorites from 2015 and came along at the right time for my son, the sequel is hitting at the perfect time to make a huge impact on my daughter.
This is peak Pixar and deservedly joined the billion dollar club.
There’s not a sour note in the whole thing, although I would have loved to have seen Bing Bong somehow survive oblivion (maybe as a companion to Nostalgia?).