2024 Movie Catchup

Before I finalize the list for my top 10 favorite movies of 2024, I decided to do a bit of catching up over the last month.  Given how many movies I had to see, I didn’t have much time to write full reviews.  So, here are some mini reviews for those films.

Demi Moore in "The Substance"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com 

The Substance - One of the most audacious movies of the year, certainly in terms of style, was writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror satire.  The story follows an actress, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), who’s let go by her producer (Dennis Quaid) because of her age.  She’s then introduced to the titular black market drug that allows her to grow a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley), which soon leads to disastrous consequences.  Moore gives the best performance of her career in a heartbreaking and shocking portrayal of someone who isn’t ready to be forgotten, pulling the audience into the depths of her crippling self-consciousness.  Qualley gives a terrific supporting performance as the reckless younger self of Elizabeth, and Quaid is squirm-inducing as a sleazy producer.  Although Fargeat’s screenplay can get a little heavy-handed and over-the-top in the finale, it nevertheless offers a memorable narrative of what it means to be pushed aside because of your age, particularly in the entertainment industry.  As a director, Fargeat shows ample potential as our next great body-horror director, utilizing eye-popping practical effects with as little use of CGI as possible, going all in for the gross-out factors that might even have you watching some scenes between your fingers.  This is only Fargeat’s second feature, and if this is what she accomplishes this early in her career, we’ll be in for some whoppers later on.

Grade: A-

Nicholas Hoult in "Juror No. 2"
Photo Credit: RottenToamtoes.com

Juror No. 2 - Although Clint Eastwood is an iconic American director who has enjoyed a mammoth career, it’s hard to deny that his output of the last 10+ years has been wildly inconsistent.  However, despite being 94, he shows that he still has the talent to make something good if the right material is there, as evidenced by this legal thriller.  The story follows Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) who gets called to jury duty for a murder trial.  Not long into the proceedings, he realizes that he might be responsible for the victim’s death.  Hoult gives us a superb performance of someone who’s caught in preserving his own life when that of another is on the line, with some of his finest moments coming from just using his facial expressions to show Justin processing new details about the case and figuring out how it could implicate him.  The screenplay by Jonathan Abrams is constructed as an old-fashioned courtroom drama, but that doesn’t make the story any less engaging, with him offering revelations that keep us wondering about Justin’s innocence and guilt.  It all culminates in an ending that will surely get viewers debating.  Eastwood isn’t a filmmaker who adds a lot of visual flourishes, but that isn’t a bad thing.  His straightforward direction shows his ability to let pure tension and drama do the work, all while having his actors give grounded performances that ring true.  As Eastwood has you sit in court, you’ll be absolutely riveted.

Grade: A

Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet
in
"A Complete Unknown"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

A Complete Unknown - When you think of musicians from the 20th century and all of the icons that grew from there, it’s impossible to not think of Bob Dylan.  His influence of the last few decades is unmistakable, and his career now goes from the stage to the big screen with director James Mangold’s biopic.  The story follows Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) and the beginning of his career in 1961 to 1965, where he made the controversial choice to switch from an acoustic guitar to an electric, which was seen by his fans as a betrayal of his folk-music roots.  Through his dialogue and singing, Chalamet masters the vocals of Dylan, fully inhabiting his character and displaying how much work he put into bringing the singer’s talent to cinema.  There are some good supporting performances from Edward Norton and Elle Fanning, but the standout is Monica Barbaro, who’s absolutely magnetic as singer/songwriter Joan Baez.  However, the screenplay by Mangold and Jay Cocks, which is based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!,” is a rather repetitive approach to its subject, mostly being one musical performance after another with just a few minutes of drama in between, as if they figured it would be enough for viewers to just hear the songs they’ve come to love.  Meanwhile, Mangold’s direction feels like it’s on autopilot to just deliver a standard musician biopic.  While it was important for the performances, especially the central one, to be on point for a movie like this, Dylan’s legacy needed more than that.

Grade: B-

Pamela Anderson in 
"The Last Showgirl"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

The Last Showgirl - On this list is a film that would make a suitable, albeit very different, companion piece to “The Substance,” in that it tackles the subject of aging in the entertainment industry.  Director Gia Coppola’s drama follows Shelley Gardner (Pamela Anderson), a seasoned Las Vegas showgirl.  When her show announces its closure after 30 years, Shelley is faced with an uncertain future.  Anderson gives a sweet and loving, yet heartbreaking performance of a woman who’s passionate about what she does, but now must confront a possible life without it.  This is stunning work from Anderson that creates a whole new chapter in her career as a true film actress.  Backing her up are great supporting performances from Jamie Lee Curtis, Brenda Song, and Kiernan Shipka, with the standout being Dave Bautista, who does some of his best work to date in an understated, yet strong performance as the show’s producer.  While the screenplay by Kate Gersten, which was based on her play “Body of Work,” has some cliches of redemption and reconnecting with family, it also has a couple of small, yet effective dramatic twists that provide some depth to the character study at the center.  As a director, Coppola uses cinematography from Autumn Durald Arkapaw that’s shot in 16mm, providing a graininess that fits well with the setting, as well as extensive closeups that really help the emotions from the characters land.  When it comes to “The Last Showgirl,” if you want to see a movie led by an actress with freshly discovered talent, this is it.

Grade: A-

Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin in 
"Sing Sing"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Sing Sing - When it comes to movies about the redemptive power of the arts, it’s always engaging to see how people’s lives can change when given an outlet to express themselves.  In this drama from director Greg Kwedar, we follow John Whitfield (Colman Domingo), an inmate at the titular prison, who gathers his fellow inmates to put on a theatrical performance through the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program.  Domingo gives a transcendent performance as a man who finds solace and possibility in theater, as well as a sense of freedom behind prison walls.  Paul Raci gives a great supporting performance as the prison’s theater director, but most of the supporting cast is made up former inmates portraying themselves, most notably Clarence Maclin, all of whom provide stunning emotional work.  The screenplay by Kwedar and Clint Bentley does well in not just making this movie about its main character, but instead about all of the inmates, allowing us to get a sense who these people are, particularly in the audition scene and a mediation scene.  With the help of cinematography by Pat Scola, Kwedar shoots the film on 16mm, which allows us to connect deeper with the setting because of how natural the visuals look, just like with “The Last Showgirl.”  Through this film, Kwedar creates an invigorating portrait of how the creative process can be therapeutic and encourage us to see the world in a whole new way, and in that, “Sing Sing” doesn’t make you feel anything less than alive.

Grade: A

In America, an Immigrant Architect Builds His Future

Adrian Brody and Felicity Jones in 
"The Brutalist"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Period dramas, especially historical ones, have transported audiences for decades to times and places that offer a richness in what they could teach us about the past.  Whether the story takes place over a couple of years or several, these types of stories make the histories of these eras come alive in the details of the set designs, the knowledge behind the screenplay, and the cast members who study their roles to invest audiences in their true-to-life portrayals.  However, there are times when a movie will approach the past from a historical-fiction perspective, constructing made-up, yet fascinating events that allow us to view history through a new lens.

Director Brady Corbet does this as a mammoth filmmaking accomplishment with his epic drama, “The Brutalist.”  Boasting emotional performances, a captivating story, and a sense of scale that can only truly be experienced on a big screen, Corbet gives us a cinematic journey that feels like a one-of-a-kind movie.

László Tóth (Adrian Brody) is a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and immigrates to the United States.  When a wealthy client, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), offers László the chance to oversee a massive construction project, he will face events that’ll alter his views on what it means to pursue the American dream.

Similar to what Brody did with his performance in 2002’s “The Pianist,” he brings to life a character who uses his talents to overcome the horrors of what he has experienced, making this a galvanizing performance that belongs in the epic scope of the film.  Brody has an ability to go between the sadness of the toll that his character’s past has on him, but also the ambition of wanting to make something of himself in a country that might not want him.  As Brody shows the increasing resilience of what László wishes to achieve, it all makes for an inspiring performance in the middle of the intense heartache that he continues to face.  Brody pours so much emotion into this role, whether it be the love for his family or his dedication to his work, and he leaves it all out there in order to depict a character who wants to do anything to make sure that people see his talent.

Pearce gives a terrific performance as a man who seems like he has László’s best interests in mind, but proves otherwise later on.  He does superb work in making you feel the trust that László feels as he starts working with him, seeming like his life is now on the right track.  However, as the movie goes forward, the self-interest that Pearce exemplifies has you tense up as you wait to see how he’ll interact with László as their collaboration slowly becomes more strained.

Felicity Jones is absolutely engaging as László’s wife, Erzsébet.  Despite her character having a soft personality, Jones brings across the assertiveness that Erzébet needs in order to defend László when his goals begin to crumble and those around him begin to doubt or take advantage of him.  Jones exhibits Erzsébet’s ability to put herself forward as someone who, just like her husband, has to show that she belongs in America and has the work ethic to make her dreams become a reality.

Other great supporting performances come from Joe Alwyn as Harrison’s son, Harry; Raffey Cassidy as László’s mute niece, Zsófia; and Alessandro Nivola as László’s cousin, Attila.  All three of them make the most of their screen time in this massive film, making sure you remember them amongst the three central performances as they make their impact on László’s life.

The screenplay by Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold (his frequent writing partner) is broken up into two parts and an epilogue, with the first part focusing on Laszlo’s arrival and project planning, the second part focusing on the construction of the project, and the epilogue focusing on the culmination of his career.  Through this, we get a complex and engrossing view into the two halves of Laszlo’s dream: the beginnings of his contributions to his new homeland, and what becomes of it as everything starts to progress.  Although László Tóth wasn’t a real person, the detail that Corbet and Fastvold put towards his character and story against the historical backdrop very much makes him seem someone who’s a real-life and larger-than-life figure.  The screenwriting duo offers both a gripping look into László’s strive for greatness and a fascinating look into the facets of architecture.  We see László through his personal and professional lives, leaving you absorbed in how they play out separately and how they eventually collide.

I was lucky enough to experience this movie on the IMAX format, and if it’s available on such a format near you, I couldn’t recommend more that you see the movie on that type of screen.  Corbet re-teams with Lol Crawley, who provided the camerawork for Corbet’s other two films, “Vox Lux” and “The Childhood of a Leader.”  With Crawley’s absolutely majestic cinematography, we experience America through the eyes of László.  Aside from the gargantuan imagery that we see in the different settings, Crawley also uses many single takes that allow the drama to unfold at a steady rate as the camera follows the actions and conversations of the characters, immersing us in both the people and the places that they inhabit.  Two fine examples of this is one of the first scenes that has the camera follow László as his ship approaches Ellis Island and he walks from the steerage level to the upper decks, all while walking through a claustrophobia-inducing crowd of people, leading him to outside as he gazes upon the Statue of Liberty for the first time.  The other instance is a climactic dinner scene near the end of the film, of which I don’t want to give much away.  These are two of the most memorable scenes of not just of the film, but of any film in 2024.

This is Corbet’s first movie in six years since his 2018 drama “Vox Lux,” and you can see all of the dedication that he’s put into making sure every ounce of his vision is shown to moviegoers. While “Vox Lux” wasn’t great in terms of its story, Corbet proved himself to be inventive with his visuals, and that ability is seen tenfold in this film.  Also, despite this movie being a sprawling period piece, Corbet crafts the movie in such a way that seems to make it glide smoothly along to the point where you don’t even feel the movie’s three-and-a-half-hour length.  He prevents this from becoming a typical Oscar-bait movie and instead uses his camera to create imagery that can be either beautiful or tense, finding inventive and occasionally thrilling ways to visualize the story.  Throughout all of this, he uses a score by Daniel Blumberg that can be triumphant in some scenes and eerie in others, evoking feelings of both possibility and uncertainty as László experiences accomplishments and downturns.

Corbet gives us a towering achievement in film that makes the most of its narrative and technical canvases.  In a year full of cinematic skyscrapers, “The Brutalist” emerges as the tallest.

Grade: A

New Life and Blood in a Vampire Legend

Nicholas Hoult in "Nosferatu"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

In 1922, German director F.W. Murnau wanted to film an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s groundbreaking vampire novel, “Dracula.”  Having failed in securing the rights, he made an “unauthorized” adaptation called “Nosferatu,” which told the same story as Stoker’s creation, but with different names for the characters and a change of setting.  In the decades since, the film became one of the most recognized amongst silent films and the horror genre, due to its iconic imagery and chilling performance from Max Schreck as the titular character.  Then, in 1979, Werner Herzog wrote and directed a remake, “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” a rare horror remake that lived up to the legacy that was set by the original.

Now, writer-director Robert Eggers resurrects this enduring villain in his vision of the story.  With “Nosferatu,” he delivers the best horror film of the year with intense performances, a classically scary story, and a clear admiration for the source material, continuing his ability to bring his audiences into the depths of darkness.

In 1838, Ellen and Thomas Hunter (Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult) live in Wisborg, Germany, with her husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hunter).  As an estate agent Thomas’ latest assignment sends him to a castle in Transylvania to meet with the reclusive Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) to sell him a mansion in Wisborg.  Upon the two of them meeting, Orlok will unleash terrifying events that put Thomas, his family, and friends in danger.

The horror genre was loaded with stellar performances in 2024, and Depp’s leading work is an unforgettable capstone on the year.  Depp’s performance in this film is the first that I’ve seen from her, and she leaves it all on the screen as someone who’s both terrorized and enraptured by her darkest desires.  Through her portrayal, Depp does an impactful job in exhibiting the hold that Orlok has on her, seeming to always lurk in her mind as she tries to maintain her love for Thomas.  However, this isn’t just a performance that’s deeply emotional, but also one that’s incredibly physical.  Some of Depp’s best moments from her performance is when she has to show Ellen being possessed by Orlok’s power.  The unnatural and disturbing ways in which Depp moves her body will have you unable to look away, absorbing you in the horror of what Orlok could do to someone with whom he’s obsessed.  Depp doesn’t do anything less than throw herself into the grips of this character, leaving you absolutely hooked to her arc.  

Just as Skarsgård accomplished with his portrayal of Pennywise the Clown in Andy Muschietti’s two-part film adaptation of “It,” he displays an ability to bring his own stamp to an iconic horror villain.  Similar to his unsettling circus getup in “It,” Skarsgård shows that he can act with the makeup and beyond it.  With a catacomb-deep voice and his natural physicality, he brings a performance that’s equal parts frightening and magnetic.  Even in his earlier scenes where he’s obscured, Skarsgård ensures that you’ll feel Orlok’s presence as the aura of dread that he carries permeates through the screen and into the shadows of the theater.  

Hoult delivers a performance that brings out both the love for his wife and the nerve-racking fear that climbs as he spends more and more time with Orlok.  From the beginning, Hoult brings out Thomas’ sense of professional ambition and duty to provide for his household, but also shows someone who has a tinge of nervousness as he sets out on his pursuits.  It’s a touch of fear that unravels his persona where Hoult exhibits the frightful hold that Orlok has on him, having us feel the crippling terror that infects him at the castle and stays latched on to him when he returns home.

Other strong supporting performances include Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin as Friedrich and Emma Harding, close friends of the Hunters; Ralph Ineson as Wilheim Sievers, a doctor who attempts to treat Ellen; and Simon McBurney in a disquieting performance as Herr Knock, Orlok’s loyal servant.  However, the standout is Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, an expert in mysticism and the occult.  In an engaging performance, he exhibits the unwavering conviction of his beliefs and knows what sacrifices have to be made to defeat the evil that plagues them.

The screenplay by Eggers offers a faithful adaptation of Murneau’s film, and Stoker’s novel by extension.  It’s a horror narrative that dives deep into the dark desires that can take hold of people, all while showing how those temptations seem all the more enticing when those feelings are told to be shut away, such as society was in the time period of the film.  All of this is encapsulated in the romance between Ellen and Thomas vs. the forbidden love between Ellen and Orlok.  Eggers constructs a disturbing love triangle that immerses you in its light-against-darkness fight that becomes more and more disturbing as Nosferatu closes in on Wisborg, with Eggers building up the events with steadily mounting danger that not only puts the audience on edge, but also adds depth to the characters as they try to protect those they love.

Jarin Blaschke, who provided the cinematography for Eggers’ other three movies, does some of his finest work yet in his latest collaboration, providing the beautiful, yet haunting visuals that we’ve come to expect from his work.  Besides his usual talent with full capturing Eggers’ detailed sets, which he does through several great single takes, he proves to be a master of tantalizing concealment as we’re introduced to Orlok.  Whether he keeps him out of focus, in shadows, or just out of frame, his camerawork has us leaning forward in our seats as we try to get a better look at him, all while our heart rate increases as we continue to anticipate the potential reveal.  Another notable aspect of his lensing and Eggers’ blocking is how the characters are often framed in profile or are partly in the dark, memorably visualizing the theme of people in this era conceding to societal norms, but also having hidden aspects to their personas that they’re tempted to reveal.

Just as he did with his other movies, Eggers and his team’s attention to period detail is astounding.  When it comes to the production design from Craig Lathrop, who worked with Eggers on his other three films, the duo doesn’t do anything less than transport us to the time and place of the story and steep us in the relentless dread that covers everything like a crushing fog.  With Orlok’s castle and the streets of Wisborg, Eggers utilizes his directing skills and arsenal of technical talent to put his horror-filmmaking heart and soul into this interpretation, calling to mind the immaculate visual work of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 adaptation of “Dracula.”  Encompassing all of this is a slow-burn tone that we’ve come to know from Eggers’ horror films, spending a lot of time adding depth to the characters and their environments so that we can grasp the weight of this emotional and dangerous journey.

With “Nosferatu,” Eggers wipes the dust from Orlok’s coffin, awakening him once again, and it was worth the wait.

Grade: A