Best of 2024 - End of Year Report

Ho ho, yo yos. Here's my rundown of films in 2024. By my best count I saw 124 films last year, 115 of them new watches (though not necessarily made or released in 2024), and 61 of them at the cinema. Of those cinema trips, 28 were at Luna Leederville, 14 at Palace Raine Square and 10 at the Backlot Perth, with 6 other cinemas making up the numbers. So here are my 10 favourite films from 2024, with a top 5 pod down the bottom...

[Click on the titles for links to full reviews]

10. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

George Miller's follow-up to Fury Road tells us the story of how Furiosa got to where that film started. I reckon this was the best blockbuster of the year, certainly the most entertaining, with one epic action sequence and a couple of fine performances from Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth. Great fun.

9. The Taste of Things (2023)

Don't go in hungry! This is a foodie's shan-grill-ah, the high culinary masterwork of the last decade or more. Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel are saucy together but it wasn't their relationship that was causing all the moaning in the cinema. Director Tran Ahn Hung knows how to do lush and he pulls it off here with aplomb.

8. There's Still Tomorrow (2023)

The only Italian film in the list, this strong debut from Paola Cortellesi (who also wrote and stars) is about women's rights in post-war Rome and is brilliantly genre-defying. Shot in black and white, it has hints of neo-realism but is also absurdly comic, all the while making weighty statements about patriarchy and domestic violence. The fact that it succeeds in being a fantastic watch is surely its greatest achievement.

7. Nosferatu (2024)

Ok, so technically this opens in 2025 in Australia but I saw it late 2024 so let's not squabble when such a stunning looking film is on the table. Robert Eggers' take on the Count Orlok story, first adapted from Stoker's Dracula in 1922. I wasn't taken with his previous film, and so wasn't ready for this beautiful gem (admittedly, his last one also LOOKED very good). Lily-Rose Depp is superb as the object of 'the insufferable one's' desire, as is Bill Skarsgård as the titular old gent. But it's cinematographer Jarin Blaschke who stands supreme here.

6. The Beast (2023)

Another odd combination of genres in Betrand Bonello's AI/time travel/reincarnation/romance, starring the luminous Léa Seydoux and George McKay as her cross-timeline would-be suitor. There's a lot to get into with this film, where personal disasters are juxtaposed with actual events across time. The strangeness, almost inaccessibility is maybe one reason it took me so long to rate this as highly as I now do. A proper sleeper this.

5. Bird (2024)

Andrea Arnold's magic-realism meets the grime of Gravesend on the Thames. It's a story of an angry, disaffected young teenager trying to come to grips with relationships around her. Her chance meeting with an unusual newcomer who's looking for his family, slowly brings her to a sort of equanimity. Barry Keoghan as the young father and Franz Rogowski as the interloper are excellent, but it's Nykiya Adams' debut and she's a brilliant find.

4. Kneecap (2024)

What a blast this is. The Northern Irish hip-hop band of the title have put together an origin story with the help of co-writer/director, Rich Peppiat. The trio of Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and CJ Próvai play themselves with gusto, more than ably supported by Jessica Reynolds and Michael Fassbender. It's vibrant, dynamic and fucking funny, with a suitably high energy score. Top drawer fun.

3. Birdeater (2023)

A young bloke convinces his fiancé to come away with him for his buck's weekend in the Aussie bush. This is clearly a questionable decision and though not exactly a horror film, it certainly plays out like one. It's another debut feature on the list, this time from a pair of writer/directors in Jack Clark and Jim Weir, and a shout out to Revelation Film Festival for screening this belter. Best Aussie film of the year for me.

2. The Teachers' Lounge (2023)

It was very hard to put this in second place - the level of film-making in Ilker Çatak's fourth feature is remarkable. This German drama/thriller is about a high school teacher who makes a decision that threatens her career and well-being. Leonie Benesch is phenomenal as the idealistic young teacher and there are moments of score-enhanced claustrophobia throughout that make this a must watch. An incredible film.

1. The Zone of Interest (2023)

An equally excellent film as the one above, Jonathan Glazer has made an uncomfortable classic with this WW2 suburban family drama. The wrinkle is that the suburb is Auschwitz and the father of the family is the concentration camp commander. Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel play the parents so matter-of-factly that you'd be forgiven for not registering the severity of the situation. Glazer stays resolutely outside the camp but the sounds and sights above the wall are a constant reminder of the horrors occurring. This is essential cinema.

Here are some more thoughts on films I saw in 2024.

Best kids' films: The Goonies, The Croods, Jujutsu Kaisen 0, Ghost Cat Anzu.

Feelgood films: The Fall Guy, One for the Road, Power Alley, The Holdovers, Michel Gondry: Do It Yourself, Merchant Ivory.

Feelbad films (but still good): Killers of the Flower Moon, The Promised Land, 20 Days in Mariupol, Hesitation Wound, Assassins, We Were Children, Memories of Murder.

Weirdest films: Poor Things, The Animal Kingdom, Kinds of Kindness, The Substance.

Best shits and giggles: Speak No Evil, Anora.

Best scenes: The nightclub brawl in Monkey Man; the parent/teacher meeting in The Teachers' Lounge; all the food preparation scenes in The Taste of Things; the 'Stowaway to Nowhere' sequence in Furiosa; the dinner in Birdeater; Margaret Qualley's first appearance in The Substance; another dinner scene, this time in Speak No Evil; Sebastien Stan's one-sided bar 'conversation' in A Different Man; and the stunning crossroads scene in Nosferatu.

Best performances: Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel in The Zone of Interest; Leonie Benesch in The Teachers' Lounge; Frederick Lau in One for the Road; Léa Seydoux in The Beast; Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga; Ben Hunter in Birdeater; Leila George in He Ain't Heavy; Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård in Nosferatu; Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofia Gascón in Emilia Pérez.

Best songs: Emily Blunt doing a karaoke version of 'Against All Odds' (Phil Collins) in The Fall Guy; 'Dana-dan' (Bloodywood) in Monkey Man; James MacAvoy singing 'Eternal Flame' (The Bangles) to Scoot McNairy in Speak No Evil; 'To Love Somebody' (The Bee Gees) - a false dawn in Joker: Folie à Deux; 'Dreaming' (Blondie) in Anora; 'The Universal' (Blur) in Bird; 'Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying' (Belle and Sebastien) in Days of the Bagnold Summer. Oh, and absolutely fuck all in Deadpool and Wolverine.

[Like last year, I don't fancy going down the 'Worst 10' route but there are some unmentionables that I'll mention here. Megalopolis and Joker: Folie à Deux were awful but the absolute nadir was a film from 1990 that I had never seen, and now wish I'd kept it that way. This was the much-adored Christmas movie Home Alone. I can't get over how terrible this film is.]

Comments

Best of 2025 - End of Year Report

Hi folks. 2025, eh? Bit of a prick, all things considered, but I reckon it was a pretty good year for films. My list was down from last year, I actually went 6 weeks without seeing a single film! Still time to see some great ones though, and here they are, from 10 down to 1. [Click on the titles for links to full reviews] 10. Hard Truths (2024) Mike Leigh is still punching them out, and this scathing drama reunites him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste (from Secrets and Lies ). She stars as a miserable, lonely wife and mother, constantly verballing those around her. Her sister is the only one who can put up with her. A tough watch but utterly engaging and though-provoking. 9. Of Caravan and the Dogs (2024) This was one of a few gems from the Revelation Film Festival in July. It's a documentary about Vladimir Putin's attacks on press freedom in Russia and how media groups tried to handle the situation. It's depressing but also filled with hope that there are still folks fighting...

Hamnet

Hamnet sounds like something you might take pig fishing but it's actually a fine new film from Chloé Zhao. It looks at how a seismic event in the life of William Shakespeare and, crucially, his wife Agnes, may have contributed to the creation of one of the Bard's most famous plays. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell, and begins with the introduction of Agnes (A.K.A. Anne) Hathaway, played by Jessie Buckley. She's a strong-willed, earthy falconer and more than a match for besotted Will (Paul Mescal), who spies her returning from the woods one day. Will is employed to tutor Agnes's younger brothers and initially takes her for a servant girl, such is her lack of guile and conceit. They eventually get together and are forced into a shotgun wedding, thanks to the beast with two backs. Agnes is a great support for her husband (who, incidentally, is rarely referred to in the film as Shakespeare) and makes a lot of sacrifices to enable him ...

The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

Sirat

Sirat is the fourth film by writer/director Oliver Laxe and it's a bit of a head scratcher, not just about what's going on, but also why? It stars the excellent Sergi López as Luis, a Spanish dad looking for his daughter in the raves of Morocco. Laxe apparently scoured music festivals and street performers' patches to cast the other characters in the film, and he's unearthed some nuggets here. Steffi (Stefania Gadda), Jade (Jade Oukid) and Tonin (Tonin Janvier) stand out, but all of the non-pros certainly feel like they might attend crusty raves in a desert. In its favour, it certainly drops the shock bombs and some of the scenes are extremely tense (there's a bit of mountain road driving, for example, that tightens the knot). But for the most part, I found it noodly, pretentious and lacking cohesion. There were even a couple of scenes that were cut from the middle, allowed to drift away, and Luis's central motivation just disappears off a Moroccan cliff. The s...

David Fincher Top Ten

With Fincher's first feature in 6 years, Mank , due soon, I figured I'd do a top ten of his other films. Conveniently, he's only made ten features, on top of dozens of music 'videos', as well as some TV and a few shorts. But let's focus on the films. 10. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) Where to start? Well, let me say that Benjy is the only Fincher film I hated. Full of heart-felt whimsy attempting depth, it misses just about every mark. This is trite bollocks with very little to raise it, save from the unimpeachable Cate Blanchett. Take her out of it and you're left with a certified steamer. 9. The Game (1997) Not a bad film, and made with some late 90s panache, but it just didn't elevate for me. Not much wrong with the cast, Douglas and Penn are usually watchable at worst. There are the requisite reversals and rug-pulls but maybe that's part of the problem - too much of this malarkey? 8. Alien³ (1992) I don...

No Other Choice

Writer/Director Park Chan-wook likes to experiment with his output. This blackly comic farce follows his previous, Decision to Leave , which, on the face of it, couldn't be more different. But regardless of the content or genre, Park fills his films with his signature cuts, which can be a touch showy but effective nonetheless. No Other Choice is a cautionary tale of modern employment, where everyone is competing with everyone else, executives and company bosses treat their workforce like scum, and people tend to compromise on the basics of society - in the case of our protagonist, Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), this means not committing murder. The film plays out like Kind Hearts and Coronets with a Korean David Brent in the lead. Man-su is a factory foreman at a paper manufacturing company, planning to protest the imminent sacking of some of his underlings, when he realises why his higher-ups have gifted him some expensive eel. It's not a reward, it's compensation for what...

It Was Just an Accident

The latest from Iranian director Jafar Panahi is a simple, yet brilliant story of a chance encounter with a bastard from the past that oscillates between revenge and forgiveness. We start on an almost uncomfortably close mid-shot of a man and a woman driving at night. They run over a stray dog and the mother explains to her daughter that it was just an accident, setting the stage for other events that may or may not have been accidental. Panahi fills the frame with his protagonists, faces, mostly in states of distress, to the extent that when the screen opens up to show a man digging a makeshift grave in a long shot with vast, lumpy hills in the distance, it's a massive relief of tension. This man is Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who thinks he has stumbled upon Eghbal, (A.K.A. Peg Leg or the Gimp) (Ebrahim Azizi), an Iranian intelligence agent who tortured him years ago. Doubt forces Vahid to enlist other victims to help identify Peg Leg, before any retribution is taken. The film is rid...

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

I'm really getting into the 28UoTLCU (28 'Unit of Time' Later Cinematic Universe). This edition is directed by Nia DaCosta, and she picks up the reins from Danny Boyle and slots right into the landscape. The biggest takeaway from The Bone Temple is that Father Figure transference is rife, throughout both of these '28 Years' films, actually. If we choose the obvious link, Spike (Alfie Williams) is passed from parents, Isla (Jodie Comer) and Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in the first film, onto two polar opposites, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) and Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell) in this one, and presumably to a certain returnee in the third installment. But there are also other relationships in the film(s) that explore the nature of dependency, and we have to assume writer Alex Garland, DaCosta, and godfather Boyle, have other, real-world settings in mind, not purely in the zombie genre. This manifests in the rapprochement of Dr. Kelson towards the 'infected', s...

Upon Open Sky

Upon Open Sky sees a trio of teenagers head north from Mexico City on a mission to find the trucker who caused the accident that killed the father of the two lads. Promising enough premise, unfortunately, this is a slight film, aiming for profundity. It opens with the build up to the accident, somewhere in the dusty Mexican bush, then the crash itself acts as a timeslip point to two years later. Fernando (Máximo Hollander) scours a car scrapyard, looking for something. His younger brother, Salvador (Theo Goldin), who was in the car when their father died, understandably mopes around the house, only rising to perv on their new step-sister, Paula (Federica Garcia) as she changes for bed. When mum and new step-dad announce they're off to Spain for a holiday, Fernando makes plans of his own to find (and maybe kill) the trucker. So off they go to a town on the US border in search of him. Now, this film could have been much better, and I'm kind of at pains to work out why I didn...

Film Shapes

Search This Blog