Hi friends! I hope you are doing well and having a nice holiday week. Lately I must admit I have let written reviews get a little away from me. Aside from the Moana 2 review and blind spot I haven’t done much since the beginning of November. Sorry about that but I have been posting reviews onto rotten tomatoes mostly through doing live streams on my youtube channel. Make sure you are subscribed to get all of my content here. I also post all of my out of theater reactions for both theatre and film on my instagram so make sure you are following me there as well here.
I also recently posted my Worst Movies of 2024 video and will have much more end of the year content coming up.
All that said let me catch you all up on everything I’ve been watching.
Here we go
Animation-
Let’s start with animated films. Memoir of a Snail has incredible animation by Adam Elliot but is so dour and sad it’s tough to watch. I admired it but it’s heavy-handed imo. Flow is a sweet and peaceful film that has a realistic feel without losing its artistry or unique aestethic. I was so pleased to get to interview its director Gints Zilbalodis which you can find here. Spellbound is a disappointment especially given all the talent that’s involved. Ends up being just another generic bland offering from Netflix. I talked about it with the rotoscopers here. Wallace and Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl was a delightful entry from Aardman which I enjoyed as much as their previous film Ware Rabbit. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 starts to take itself a little too seriously trying to be the next superhero movie but the characters are still so cute and Jim Carey is fun enough as 2 villains that it’s a fun watch (my least favorite of the 3 but still decent.) Mufasa: The Lion King has all the expected problems of a prequel explaining stuff we don’t care about and providing almost no entertainment for kids. Do kids really care about a supposed love triangle between Scar, Mufasa and Sarabi? This critic didn’t. I think my expectations were too high for The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim and it ended up just being a run-of-the-mill high fantasy anime with a few Lord of the Rings elements tagged on. Disappointing. Almost a Christmas Story is a delightful short on Disney Plus with the friendship between an owl and a little girl in New York City. That Christmas is endearing with Richard Curtis’ talent of merging different stories together to tell an entertaining story. Hitpig wastes a talented voicecast and premise with unfunny jokes and a story that goes nowhere and finally The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland is an enchantingly animated story of Santa Claus meets Wonderland. Definitely a hidden gem for 2024.
Comedies-
According to the Golden Globes Heretic is considered a comedy, which is bonkers but it does have a good Jar Jar Binks joke. This isn’t perfect but I really liked the performances and it spoke to me and my life experience so I’d recommend it. I did a whole podcast on it with my friend Rebecca which you can find here. Red One had potential to be a fun holiday action film but the poor filmmaking and lack of witty banter put it on the naughty list. Hot Frosty, on the other hand, took its zany premise and had a good time with it. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point had the family feels but not enough story to leave a lasting impression. Dear Santa took its uncomfortable premise of a child selling his soul to the devil and does nothing funny with it. It’s one of the worst movies of the year. Nutcrackers is conventional but endearing. Kiss Me Kate Live on Stage left me wondering why anyone thought this production was proshot worthy? Y2K had nostalgia in droves but needed more laughs and scares to be effective. A Sudden Case of Christmas is well-meaning but dull. I watched The Fabulous Four on a plane and it was passable but fails to utilize its talented 4 cast as well as it could. Nightbitch will be comforting to stressed out Moms but I found it unpleasant and lacking in real insight beyond being a Mom is hard. I knew that! The End is a musical with little to no plot and no memorable songs. Finally Hard Truths is an exhausting watch but Marianne Jean-Baptiste is so good it’s worth seeing for her performance alone.
Dramas
The most impressive of the Oscar bait dramas I saw is The Brutalist a sweeping nearly 4 hour epic about a man and the American dream. One watches it and marvels such a film can still be made in 2024. Wicked gave me everything I wanted from the musical adaptation with 2 dynamic lead performances and some great songs. I’m still not convinced it needed to be 2 movies but I was entertained. I talked about it with my friend Jacks here. Gladiator II had enough spectacle and gravitas to entertain me but I’m not a die-hard fan of the original (it’s alright but not a particular favorite.) Nickel Boys made me nauseous with its first person shooting style and I left the screening early. I also felt the style oddly made it harder for me to imagine what the characters were going through (maybe because I was nauseous) than easier. The Snow Sister is a beautiful but sad holiday tale out of Norway that is worth a watch. Sing Sing is well-acted but lacks the emotional punch I was hoping for. Nosferatu is stunning to look at and director Robert Eggers most approachable film. If you like the Dracula story you’ll probably like this movie. All the performances are also excellent as is the cinematography. Mary takes some narrative risks but I liked the fresh take on the Virgin Mary story. Red Rooms is gorgeously filmed thriller that any true crime fans will find chilling and mesmerizing. The Room Next Door may not be top-tier Pedro Almadovar but the performances from Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton are great and it ends up being a insightful friendship story. A Complete Unknown is a standard musician biopic with lots of Bob Dylan songs and a great performance from Timothee Chalamet. All We Imagine as Light is an intimate and moving slice of life type story of 2 women in India and their various love stories. Very well acted and beautifully shot. Worth your time. Finally Babygirl is a movie with a lot of sexy scenes but no emotional connection between the couple. Nicole Kidman’s character made no sense and so it didn’t thrill me the way it wants to.
So there we have it! My thoughts on all the movies I’ve seen in the last few months! In the New Year I should get back to writing more long-form reviews but hopefully you find this post helpful. Thanks so much!
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