ALL 2024 Movies Reviewed, Graded, and Ranked–An Alabama Liberal RECORD of Nearly 500 Movies

Note from Alabama Liberal: “Better late than never” is the thinking about finally releasing this annual movie countdown when it’s damn-near Labor Day. What I lack in speed, I make up for in thoroughness, listing an Alabama Liberal record of almost 500 movies released in a single calendar year. [The only major one I didn’t get to was “Megalopolis,” which I had to give up on ever watching as it’s 7 months into 2025 and still unavailable, but it’s a complete list otherwise.] In truth, this could be a (short) book as it’s the longest article I’ve ever written at over 45,000 words, and should stand as a comprehensive guide to 2024 movies. So enjoy this celebration of movies! Browse around, skim towards movies you’ve seen yourself or haven’t even heard of, and if any of you read the entire thing then let me know in the comments, because I salute you…

The Worst Movie of 2024: “Reagan”…Long-time followers of this annual countdown (which I’ve done since Alabama Liberal’s inception in 2011) know that I don’t usually pick the most technically incompetent movie of the year as “the worst” so much as a film that I think is philosophically offensive in some way. Since I refuse to pay to watch “Am I Racist?” (and it’s not available anywhere for free as too few people have deemed it worthy of pirating), the obvious culprit for most odious movie of the year was “Reagan.” Even if Trump hadn’t won, I would’ve scoffed at a hagiography of old Ronnie, a President that too few Americans remember correctly as the degeneration-starting disaster that he actually was. But “Reagan” is especially miasmic in 2024, given the historical context of knowing that he directly led to every problem we’re “enjoying” today such as sky-high income inequality through collapsed unions, the deregulation and lax antitrust enforcement he championed, the “Trickle Down” sham his party still pretends to believe in today, and the normalization of divorced former entertainers running with inexplicable Evangelical support. “Reagan” is almost like watching a biography of Mussolini remade with the cheerful shallowness of a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

“Reagan” skips everything that would’ve made a movie about Ronnie interesting, and instead embraces the debunked-version of him as a kindly old man fighting valiantly (and exclusively) against the Red Menace (even the Iran-Contra Affair is myopically brushed aside as a tacit red smear campaign). Movies about awful Presidents can still be excellent, such as Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” biography; it’s one of his best films, and even features a nuanced, not-entirely-unsympathetic portrayal of Tricky Dick. However, “Reagan” has the sanitized, propaganda-ish sheen of one of those Christian movies that might star Kevin Sorbo, but instead centered around the a-hole who taught working class people to actively vote for the destruction of their own benefits cast as the Christ-like savior figure.

484. “Coyote Woman”…If you think I’m being too hard on “Reagan” since it has such solid technical attributes as (sometimes) lighting scenes correctly, then maybe “Coyote Woman” is more worthy of scorn. This is one of those garbage Tubi movies that you might check out on a whim, and then eventually be sorry you did. Not only is it crude “filmmaking” with production values shoddy enough to make a Lifetime movie go “tsk-tsk” and finger wag, but it features scene after scene of stomach churning violence and ugliness. To watch nearly 500 movies made in 2024, you have to be somewhat okay with hyper-violence (even as American movies have become allergic to sex, they have fully embraced depraved acts of violence that would make the Manson family blush), but “Coyote” takes a special glee in rubbing our faces in nastiness for its own sake. Truthfully, there’s nothing else to it. Grade: F

483. “First Shift”…Uwe Boll is widely known as one of the worst directors living, and possibly the heir apparent to Ed Wood. Boll announced his “retirement” in 2016–an announcement that was more celebrated than bemoaned–but quietly snuck back into filmmaking with this straight-to-Paramount-Plus dud (and an upcoming movie called “The Dark Knight” that stars disgraced-actor-turned-time-share-salesman Armie Hammer in his “big comeback”). It’s probably not revelatory that Boll’s latest film (his first English language movie in nearly a decade) sucks, but it is noteworthy that it actually feels more like a scrapped TV pilot for CBS All-Access than it does a “movie” at all. Before the Paramount-Plus rebrand, CBS All-Access specialized in cruddy semi-procedurals that felt like R-rated versions of their worst broadcast shows; “Shift” harkens back to that period (including a pair of mismatched leads). To say that viewers probably miss neither All-Access series nor Boll himself is an understatement. Grade: F+

482. “Peter Five Eight”…Speaking of disgraced actors that used to be on the A-list, there’s Kevin Spacey as the title hit man in this turd. Writer-director-producer-torturer Michael Zaiko Hall must know there’s no way he would’ve gotten Spacey to star in this if the two-time Oscar winner were employable in anything else. But that doesn’t stop him from giving Spacey the type of character Nicolas Cage might’ve played at his most bankruptcy’s-edge-desperate. By the time this endless thriller (which is 100 minutes that feels more like 100 hours) reveals that it has Sci-Fi elements, you might wonder if this is what Spacey’s version of hell looks like: playing unlimited versions of this character in sequels that go on forever. I don’t know what the appropriate punishment is for actors who have MeToo-ed their way out of a job, but surely the making of this film means Spacey has suffered enough… Grade: F+

481. “Nugget is Dead? A Christmas Story”…The worst Christmas movie of 2024. [In 2023, I decided to start putting the dozen or so straight-to-streaming Christmas movies in the official countdown since they do technically count as movies, although “Nugget” makes me question that decision.] Irritating, listless, and unfunny almost from beginning to end, and with a shoehorned-in LGBTQ+ “twist” (even though there’s clearly a reason they mention the main character is bisexual about 50 times) that feels like something Billy Eichner’s hilarious comedy “Bros” would’ve mocked in their satirization of how gay-themed Christmas movies have cynically-packaged sexuality as commodities. Christmas movies can get away with being predictable–it’s practically the whole point–but they can’t get away with being centered around a family with this little charm. This is a cast of characters you feel grateful to get away from. When the fiancee is (inevitably) jettisoned, you feel like he’s dodged a major bullet. Grade: F+

480. “Trigger Warning”…I’ve been wanting to see Jessica Alba make a return to acting, but this lousy action-thriller is not it. You might want to keep an optometrist on standby for the eye injuries you could sustain by eye-rolling your way through this. Most of the movies in the D-/F+ range are actually straight-to-Tubi dreck that look like they were made for about 100-bucks. That “Warning” has an actual budget and production values makes its inherent shoddiness even worse. Grade: D-

479. “Run Baby Run”…Young women being hunted through woods or hiking trails was a popular theme for cheap 2024 thrillers (“You Can’t Run Forever,” “Don’t Move,” “Out Come the Wolves,” “Lovely, Dark, and Deep”), but this one was–by far–the most incompetent. How do you screw up the seemingly “can’t miss” premise of having a jogging woman stalked by a vengeful, hulking fiend on the trail? By making it so over-the-top that it completely undercuts the low-frills tension established in a premise like this. For example, the entire last third goes off-the-rails by having the woman stumble across a second serial killer who is abducting and eating children. Damn, this is one dangerous park! However, it must be said that Catuxa Leira (as the hearing impaired jogger) is as good as anyone could be in this, and it is admittedly nice to see more people of different abilities in movies. I just wish the movie itself weren’t so unintentionally-campy. Grade: D-

477./478. “Damaged”/”Crescent City”…A pair of horrible “serial killer on the loose” thrillers that even have similar “twists” that almost any sentient audience member might see coming by the mid point. I personally found “Damaged” to be slightly better because of Samuel L. Jackson’s deliberately-odd performance (he appears to be riffing so as to stay limber in these types of paycheck roles) and the more interesting-Scottish setting, but that’s a bit like saying you’d rather be slapped in the face than kicked in the shins. Either way, you’re not getting anything but pain. Grade: D-

476. “Borderlands”…Any “worst of the year” movies list that doesn’t have “Borderlands” on it or considered for it probably hasn’t seen the movie. About halfway through the movie, my 11-year-old son said “What the hell is this?” (which is funnier than any of the “comedy” in the movie, most of the punchlines making you feel like you’re being held hostage by Arthur Fleck in “Joker” as he practices his “material”) and when I couldn’t answer him, he said “I feel like I’m watching ‘Mad Max’ meets ‘My Little Pony,'” and that’s about right. A joyless cast mostly goes through the motions, except for Cate Blanchett who tries her absolute best to make small moments work (very subtle things like leaning in seductively towards Gina Gershon where somebody else might’ve done a mostly flat line-reading). Still, there’s something depressing about watching an actress of Cate Blanchett’s caliber “try her absolute best” to mine glimmers of quality as though she’s no better than a banished-from-Hollywood Kevin Spacey in “Peter Five Eight.” Grade: D-

475. “Summer Camp”…Lifelong friends revisiting their old summer camp as senior citizens isn’t necessarily a bad premise for a movie, but this comedy clunker doesn’t even attempt something poignant, instead going for broad “laughs” that never come. In fact, “Camp” makes questionable decisions from start to finish that had me asking questions like: Whose idea was it to make the three women “friends” seem like they can barely stand each other for most of the movie? Although Hollywood is far too romance-allergic these days, why shoehorn-in romances for two of the women (one of whom is long-married to somebody else) when this movie is supposed to be the rare exploration of female friendship for women over 60? Is Diane Keaton under a contractual obligation to play only herself in every movie? Is Alfre Woodard’s character’s last-minute desire to quit nursing and go to medical school really the soundest decision for a woman over 70? Couldn’t she just as easily die before actually finishing her doctorate? …These aren’t the questions the movie wanted us to be asking. For a much better portrayal of aging friends who may or may not actually like each other, check out “Let Them All Talk.” Grade: D-

474. “The Painter”…I wrote down that I had seen this straight-to-Paramount Plus actioner, but then I couldn’t remember what it was, what it was about, or what I’d seen. It wasn’t until I had reread about half the premise and cast list that I began to even have a recollection of watching this movie. [At the time I’m typing this, it was only about two months ago I had watched “Painter.”] A movie that is this forgettable is doing something wrong. The parts I do remember are not good–like a melodramatic face-off between the main character and his own daughter. Grade: D-

473. “Prom Dates”…Hollywood, did you know that sometimes gay people have secondary personality traits? I know that sounds wild, but it’s true. And yet “Prom” is a “good” example of something too many Hollywood movies do now: prominently feature a gay or trans character, and then refuse to give them anything interesting to do outside of their sexuality. Since there are now more LGBTQ+ characters than ever in movies and TV shows, it may no longer be good enough to have a character merely declare “I’m a lesbian” in every other scene. In fact, it’d still be nice to see them perform such old-fashioned plot tediousness as, you know, actually doing something; like maybe a gay or trans character could solve a murder? Or maybe defuse a bomb? Or start a labor union? Or maybe do anything but explore their own identity for two hours? “Dates” also commits the uniquely 2020’s cliche of being a “sexy comedy” that is afraid to have its characters actually have sex–not unlike “No Hard Feelings” or another one from this year that’s better-loved (even if it shouldn’t be)… Grade: D

472. “Sweethearts”…Like “Prom Dates,” this movie isn’t nearly as edgy or clever as it thinks it is, and if you watch them close enough together you might wonder if Hollywood is actually afraid of seeing two speaking-part characters have sex in a movie. [But only the consensual, pleasurable, non-traumatic kind of sex, because rapes and molestations still run rampant in dramas, thrillers, horror movies, sci-fi, fantasy, every revenge story under the sun, documentaries, weather channel reports…] The narrative of “Sweethearts” strings together a lot of contrivances that wouldn’t have been fresh 20 years ago, and there’s a lengthy side story about the fabled Gay! Best! Friend! that may be more interesting than the main narrative we’re supposed to invested in, but the subplot still feels like it’s from a completely different script that got combined into this one. Grade: D

471. “Kinds of Kindness”…Every critic’s favorite misanthrope Yorgos Lanthimos is back to torture audiences with one of his hardest “sits” yet. This time, you get three hollow, pretentious duds for the price of one, but all of them will feature women getting brutalized in various ways: killed, sexually assaulted, manipulated in the most dastardly of ways (such as unknowingly ingesting abortion drugs for desired pregnancies), and, of course, sacrificing themselves for the betterment of the world like Margaret Qualley diving into an empty pool or Emma Stone fatally removing one of her own organs. By the time this endless-feeling near-3 hour movie was over (with the predictably quirky “accidental” death of the messiah–har har), it made me wonder what Lanthimos would have to do for most critics to have that “emperor’s new clothes” feeling I’ve felt from him since the days they were doing cartwheels over “The Lobster” or “The Killing of a Sacred Deer?” [Long before his team-ups with Stone like “The Favorite” and “Poor Things” made him seem almost beyond criticism.] Grade: D

470. “Lola”…A movie that got appropriately raked over the coals as the Nepo baby daughter of a billionaire (also married to the son of David and Victoria Beckham) whose never known hardship thought it’d be fun to cosplay as a down-and-out stripper trying to help her gender fluid sibling find peace away from their vicious mother and the mother’s shady boyfriend. If that sounds like it’s liberal, appearances can be deceiving, because the title character gets raped and–per usual for these types of movies–never even considers not having it. Abortion is legal in America, but you wouldn’t know that from movies like “Lola” (or the glossier “It Ends With Us”) making them actually a bit dangerous in how they market themselves to young women. I also noticed that “Lola” was shot in a very traditional and technically proficient way that also felt tonally “off” given the grittier aspects we’re watching (there’s no “Anora” style energy here). Grade: D

469. “Brats”…Did you know that Andrew McCarthy was uncomfortable with the “Brat Pack” label? Well don’t worry if you didn’t because he’ll state that fact literally dozens of times in this documentary so that you’ll never again be able to forget it (or remember that the reason you never knew it is because you didn’t care). Other than Demi Moore, Rob Lowe acquits himself the best here, as seemingly the only ex-Brat Packer who isn’t basing his entire existence around being irritated by the label. You might think a Brat Pack documentary (literally titled “Brats”) would be more of a comprehensive history or make the fun of being the hottest wave of actors at the time contagious for its audience. Instead, many of the Brat Packers interviewed here (Timothy Hutton, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Jon Cryer, and especially McCarthy himself) seem over-cautious or neurotic–which even applies to some of the stars that refused to sit down with McCarthy (Judd Nelson or Molly Ringwall) as they’re apparently still skittish of the label despite having dead careers for decades. I was also curious why there wasn’t more of an effort to reach out to a wider-range of other stars we might’ve liked to hear from like Kiefer Sutherland, Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew Broderick, or John Cusack, but I’m sure the reason is some bizarre feud McCarthy has with them. Altogether, this is a very disappointing way to explore and present this subject matter, making it the worst documentary I saw in 2024 (although I admit that I refused to watch Dinesh D’Souza’s “Vindicating Trump”). Grade: D

468. “Cat and Dog”…One of those grade-Z family comedy capers that Disney might’ve dumped into theaters in the dead of summer when parents are looking for something to do with their kids restless from lack of school (like “Inspector Gadget” or “Dogs vs. Cats” from yesteryear and probably “The Smurfs” thing in 2025). The worst “family” film you’ll see from 2024. I wouldn’t even recommend it for kids since it may not hold their attention long enough to keep them busy. Grade: D

467. “Johnny Puff: Secret Mission”…The worst animated movie of 2024, and that’s truly saying something since I’m at least partially hard-wired to enjoy a movie set in the arctic. You might ask “how do you screw up a movie about lovable penguins foiling a scheming walrus against a soothing, snowy backdrop?” By having the entire “movie” really be a series of endless vignettes edited together with no narrative flow or even dialogue. The creatures “speak” in grunts and guffaws while a narrator–who feels like they recorded their voice over for a different movie altogether–won’t shut up. Even my very young daughter was seemingly exhausted, and asked “When does this end?” An animated movie that can’t hold the attention of a five year old is doing something very wrong. [If you’re looking for an ultra-soft, free-streamer available animated movie starring puffins, then “Puffin Rock” is clearly superior.] Grade: D

466. “Madame Web”…A confusingly-staged, barely-coherent movie that deservedly won Worst Actress and Worst Picture at the Razzies (although I think “Reagan” was robbed). One of the few D-grade movies where people who’ve seen it might wonder why I’m being so “generous,” and not ranking it lower. Well, they at least assemble a promising cast of “actors of tomorrow” to squander. Even if most of them are miscast and flat, that’s still something. Grade: D

465. “Beautiful Wedding”…This movie is apparently a sequel to a movie I didn’t see, but I can basically get the gist of what I “missed” (the first movie’s plot is essentially recapped here). The kind-of movie people might put on as they fold laundry or wait on hold while arguing over a bill. Nothing here demands–or merits–your full attention, but the tropical location isn’t hard on the eyes, and there’s probably worse destinations to escape to in the doldrums of winter. And if you think “the filmmakers surely didn’t want you to zone out on the plot while you fantasized about taking a vacation to where the movie is being filmed,” I’m not certain that’s true, because it sure beats thinking about the annoying main characters squabbling through yet another scene. Grade: D

464. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die”…Enough already. Although Smith had shown an openness to more mature material over the past few years (“Emancipation” and his best performance in years as “King Richard”), it’s sad to see him retreating into the same old 90’s franchises. Grade: D

463. “Chief of Station”…Now that Bruce Willis is retired, Nicolas Cage has the (deserved) clout to go after more quality projects, and there’s only so many movies John Travolta can star in, it appears that Aaron Eckhart is the go-to choice for “once promising serious actor” who gets the action scripts that Frank Grillo, Joel Kinnaman, or Liam Neeson turn down. I thought “Chief” was worse than Eckhart’s other 2024 action clunkers “The Bricklayer” or “Classified,” but your own preferences may vary (Eckhart scowls more here, and is visibly having less fun). Altogether, this is the kind-of movie that makes you long for the sturdy craftsmanship of a no-frills Neeson thriller like last year’s “Retribution.” And co-star Alex Pettyfer should look for other work…I don’t mean other acting work, but a career doing something else. Speaking of… Grade: D

462. “Sunrise”…2024 saw a revival of Alex Pettyfer, who had no less than four movies come out (in addition to “Sunrise” and “Chief of Station,” there are the better ensemble films “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” and “5 lbs of Pressure” that feature mercifully-less Pettyfer), and I don’t consider that to be a good thing since Pettyfer always struck me as the actor you get when fellow interchangeable, international-blandos like Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam, or Orlando Bloom say “no.” In fact, he has so little presence in “Sunrise,” that you find yourself unwillingly focused on the film’s hideous villain: Guy Pearce as a local hate-monger who’s clearly been watching too much Fox News. It’s not a pleasant feeling for a movie’s main character/actor to leave you so charisma-deprived that it practically makes the gross villain look magnetic by comparison. A righteously hated bad guy can only make you “love to hate them” if they’re occupying a scene with something other than a mannequin. Grade: D

461. “Prey”…And in the rare event Alex Pettyfer turns down a script? Ryan Phillippe picks it up. Here, he dodges both African terrorists and man-eating lions after his plane crashes in the Kalahari desert. The Idris Elba lion-attack movie “Beast” looks like “Citizen Kane” compared to this, and I’d recommend checking that out if you’re in the mood for real thrills. As is, “Prey” oscillates between long stretches of boredom, and action scenes with such bad blocking it can be hard to tell what’s actually just happened. During certain climactic moments, I sometimes wondered if the actors were edited together after filming their scenes against different green screens–probably in-between takes of whatever movie they were more invested in filming at the time. Grade: D

460. “The Killer”…If you’re looking for proof that legendary action director John Woo (apparently ready to get back in the game) has “still got it,” I’d recommend last year’s more innovative and more realistic revenge thriller “Silent Night.” Because this remake of his own 1989 movie feels more like the series finale of a lousy NBC drama (not coincidentally, this “Killer” went straight-to-peacock). Nathalie Emmanuel has a wonderfully dreamy romanticism that doesn’t lend itself well to the role of hardened assassin (LaShana Lynch, Alexis Louder, or Danai Gurira would’ve made more sense), and feels about like “Amelie” is playing a contract sociopath. Plus, the plot is on such firm autopilot that absolutely nothing surprises. There’s even the ultimate cliche: a climax with a monologuing villain who could easily get the outcome he wants if only he’d shoot his gun instead of waiting, therefore giving the heroes time to get the drop on him. Grade: D

459. “Speak No Evil”…A dud Horror remake that makes less sense the more you think about it. And no, it is not “ruined” by the happier ending than its Danish original, since that also didn’t stand up to scrutiny. [Why on Earth would kids go along with their captors given what they’ve just seen them do?] The original was using the same type of foggy nightmare logic a lot of misanthropic European Horror clunkers do like “High Tension” or “Funny Games” to show there’s no escape from doom–no matter how implausible. Either way, I think Makenzie Davis and a dumber-than-hell-Scoot McNairy would’ve skedaddled the hell out of there a lot sooner than they wind up doing. Grade: D

458. “1521”…The colonization of the Philippines by Spanish conquerors is an interesting story definitely worthy of the sweeping-epic treatment, but this movie has the production values of softcore pornography. The art class at a local high school could put together costumes and makeup almost as technically proficient as what we have here, and certainly could deliver better performances. That’s a real shame, and I’m hoping some inspired filmmaker stumbles across this cheap-o production on the numerous free streamers carrying it, and then decides to adapt the basic historical facts with more technical skill. Grade: D

457. “Lift”…”Conspicuous consumption: the movie,” as nearly every scene is more fixated on advertising a luxurious lifestyle than making us care about the characters trying to occupy it. All movies that are similar to this (and there are a lot of them, with many of the most “on autopilot” ones going straight to Netflix these days) don’t even attempt to make the oodles of wealth and gadgets personal or character-based. What does it really mean for the various characters to be after such an extravagant lifestyle that they devote their lives to high-tech heists in order to attain it? I know that may sound like the ultimate “duh” question, but wouldn’t it be a kick if at least one movie in the endless catalogue of “high end thieves going after a rich-making score” even attempted to make that wealth tangible? To make that wealth felt as a compulsive need for the characters no different than any other addiction? There have now been more movies made about this type of thief than there are actual high end thieves in the world, so maybe it’d at least be worth attempting to find a new angle into them. Grade: D

456. “Love…Reconsidered”…A movie that unfolds with such ramshackle who-gives-a-shit?-ness that it can barely feel like a “movie” at all rather than a foggy memory of a summer day you had with a friend you can barely remember how you met or whatever happened to them. They just sort-of appeared one day, and they were just as mysteriously gone on another day. Still, a rom-com-lead-plausible Sophie Van Hasselberg may go onto bigger and better things…or she may be the 400th indie movie lead that disappears after a straight-to-streaming movie. You never can tell about these things. Grade: D

455. “Our Little Secret”…You wouldn’t think it’d be possible to screw up a Christmas comedy with Lindsay Lohan trying to win over Kristin Chenoweth as her disapproving would-be mother-in-law, but “Secret” piles on the dumb plot contrivances that wouldn’t have been fresh 20 years ago (when a movie like this would’ve been released in theaters). Almost as bad is that the movie never gets into the Christmas spirit, often coming across more as a depressing example of why so many American marriages and couples fail than anything that brings out the joy, warmth, or heart of the season. Whether our two leads wind up together or with the people they start out dating or whether those people wind up with their own childhood crushes or whether the parents of those childhood crushes wind up dating other people all starts to feel far too complex with far too little emotional investment. Grade: D

454. “I Saw the TV Glow”…This is really three separate movies: the movie “Glow” is advertised which is a nightmarish Horror film about an obsessive TV fan getting trapped into his favorite cult series; the movie people that absolutely love “Glow” are talking about online which is a fully contextualized and articulate allegory for a transgender person’s awareness; and the movie that actually exists when you’re watching it which is an emotionally lifeless, tedious slog through nothing. People retreating into pop cultural obsessions to escape from their real life is never articulated clearly or as literal as you might be hoping for (the Horror sequences are shockingly brief), and–for me–it didn’t gel into the trans allegory at all based on what’s presented. [I only learned the alternative meaning by looking at internet discussion of the movie–which felt devoid from what was actually on screen.] Grade: D

453. “He Went That Way”…A braindead hostage scenario that can often make you feel like you’re the one being held hostage (Zachary Quinto’s hero has many opportunities to get away from Jacob Elordi’s serial killer). But the movie gets a few extra points because of its outright strangeness, making it one of the few movies I’ve ever seen to prominently feature a monkey being used to soothe a knock-off-James-Dean on a killing spree. Grade: D+

452. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”…If you’re wondering how an exercise in pure nostalgia can even be green-lit so many decades after its original came out, keep in mind that “Beetlejuice 2” was the 6th highest grossing movie of 2024; a scathing indictment of modern audiences as I’ve ever seen. None of the 10 highest grossing movies of 2024 were original scripts, and 9 out of 10 were direct sequels or prequels–meaning audiences have now turned movie theaters into McDonald’s: they absolutely will not go unless they already have a strong idea of what they’re getting before they spend a dollar. Still, Michael Keaton hasn’t lost much of a step over the years, and there are a handful of laughs to be had (although not more than a handful). Grade: D+

451. “Murder and Cocktails”…Like most straight-to-Tubi movies, this is barely competent filmmaking, and production values not much better than most YouTube videos. Unlike many, there’s a little bit more joy here as we see the actors are (at least) having fun. Is that contagious for an audience? Not really, but it’s certainly better than the straight torture of something like “Coyote Woman.” Grade: D+

450. “Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate”…Even if “Johnny Puff” is the worst animated movie of 2024, don’t think I forgot about “Megamind 2,” which should’ve never been made. This “movie” is a set up for a Peacock TV series (that also should’ve never been made), and feels almost as cynical as the dated-IP cash grab that it is. Even very young kids who love animated and superhero movies may get restless. Grade: D+

449. “Harold and the Purple Crayon”…Most of the truly bad family films of 2024 will have parents and kids in agreement over their lack of quality, but I do think that kids will appreciate this movie version of “Harold” more than their parents will. There is something undeniably cool in the wish fulfillment of a kid being able to make their drawings come to life–like being able to draw an airplane and fly it around the sky, or having an unlimited supply of blueberry desserts. However, this film adaptation of a beloved picture book pretty much tells us in the first five minutes that it has no intention of being a faithful take (the book’s plot is pretty much discarded after the opening scene), and most of the rest is watching the always-insufferable Zachary Levi mug about in his usual way (“Shazam,” and “Spy Kids Armageddon” had him playing different characters not much different than he does here). It feels longer than it is, and what probably seems very cool to a kid may seem exhausting to their parents. Grade: D+

448. “Argylle”…A frustrating dud because so much of it should work. I’m not sure how a movie assembles Bryan Cranston, Ariana DeBose, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, and still sucks. And it features an against-type Sam Rockwell as a “John Wick”-level killer?! C’mon now… This failure seems almost like you’re trying to make a bad movie. Maybe they were–given “Argylle”‘s not-fun convoluted twists, that would be fitting. Grade: D+ …Speaking of crappy spy comedies…

447. “My Spy 2: The Eternal City”…A sequel that has no reason to be made, and should’ve never been made. Dave Bautista–who has been outspoken about his desire to make quality dramas–looks miserable throughout, almost as if he’s saying “I can’t believe I’m still having to do movies like this.” Grade: D+

446. “My Freaky Family”…Z-grade animated film that is among the worst of 2024, severely testing the hypothesis that there’s no such thing as a lousy animated movie as long as it keeps kids occupied. It should be glad more narratively-incompetent movies like “Johnny Puff” and “Megamind 2” were made, although I’ll admit that kids probably will like it. Grade: D+

445. “The Tiger’s Apprentice”…Garbage cartoon that went straight-to-streaming for a reason. The joylessly generic rhythms are established early on, and never pack one moment of surprise. Grade: D+

444. “Clear Cut”…A violent action dud where Alec Baldwin slums it for a bit towards the beginning. When he goes, so does most of the emotional involvement for the audience, but the scenery isn’t bad, and certainly looks better than most of the sludge-grey Eastern European drabness most straight-to-streaming action movies employ. Grade: D+

443. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”…Who gives a shit? Things go boom-boom-smash for a couple of hours, and Alexander Skarsgaard is replaced by Dan Stevens (not an upgrade), but it’s yet another indistinguishable film in the Warner Bros. monster universe–the last truly good one being the 70’s set adventure film “Kong: Skull Island.” Grade: D+

442. “Something in the Water”…Probably the worst shark movie of 2024, which is saying something because there weren’t any that were much better-than-average. Here, the sharks take a backseat to the dangers of female frenemies bickering like “Real Housewives of the Atlantic Ocean.” Disappointingly, the character I was hoping would get eaten first survives the entire movie. Grade: D+

441. “Asphalt City”…Gritty! Hard boiled! Impossible to enjoy! Are all emotions in this ultra-macho exploration of being an EMT in the mean streets of Hell’s Kitchen. The scenes begin to blur together (as I’m sure actual paramedic shifts must too) as we float from one trying-too-hard-to-be-“raw” encounter to the other, but not much of it sticks until Sean Penn’s character commits an egregious act of sinister self-righteousness. Even then, the movie is too afraid to question if that darkness was always there, masquerading as cynical pragmatism. There’s something just cracked-enough in Penn’s smile to suggest things the movie (for all its faux-grittiness) is too scared to really probe. Grade: D+

440. “Lights Out”…Another anti-miscegenation clunker from Hollywood as it prominently features the stereotypical villainous white boyfriend of Erica Peebles character while also denying her a true romance with Frank Grillo’s lead (loads of flirting that leads nowhere). The plot is dime-a-dozen and one of those barely-coherent deals where each scene seems like it’s randomly strung together instead of having any real momentum. Grade: D+

439. “Asleep in My Palm”…There’s an unnecessary twist ending to this movie that undercuts any emotional involvement we might’ve had beforehand. And the fact that Tim Blake Nelson is being directed by his son shows parent-child Hollywood nepotism isn’t just for daughter/father pairings anymore (“Bleeding Love,” “Wildcat,” “Flag Day,” most Judd Apatow movies). Grade: D+

438. “Poolman”…DeWanda Wise makes for a sizzling femme fatale, but it’s yet another exhausting example of Hollywood’s anti-miscegenation tendencies to make her and the white man she’s actually with the villains. Boo! And the overall movie around them isn’t exactly “good,” with endless “scenes” of Chris Pine and his irritating cohort just slouching from one setting to the next. Grade: D+

437. “The Inheritance”…Speaking of Hollywood’s dismal treatment of black/white couples, the second I saw Brianna Middleton was married to Austin Stowell in this, I knew at least one of them was a goner. Booooo! And the movie around them felt cobbled together out of a dozen other recent “Survive the night” or “which rich family member will come out on top?” Horror scripts that made me realize “Ready or Not?” may have been better made than I realized at the time. Grade: D+

436. “Alien: Romulus”…I didn’t get the hype for this rehash at all. It deep-sixes the philosophical-probing and cerebral ideas of the “Prometheus” series (which sucks) and it’s disappointing that plot points introduced in those movies (which were supposed to be a trilogy) are replaced by something that is closer to “Alien: Resurrection.” It’s also the worst “I’m impregnated with something I don’t want inside me!” abortion-rights allegorical Horror of 2024, a very busy sub-genre (“Immaculate,” “Apartment 7A,” “The First Omen,” and even “Azreal” to an extent). Grade: D+

435. “Emilia Pérez”…The worst Best Picture nominee of 2024, and it looked like it might actually win for a while there, which would’ve been the most disgraceful Best Picture win in years. “Emilia” isn’t trashy enough to be telenovela-level fun nor is it remotely believable enough to be an actually good drama, putting it into a middle-ground purgatory that is the least interesting way you could take this material. By now, the lousy songs and horrible ending have been critiqued enough, but there was one other 2024 musical that may have inspired even more hatred… Grade: D+

434. “Joker 2: Folie a Deux”…Whenever you’re making an unnecessary sequel to a very good first movie, the first rule should be “Do No Harm” to the original. “Joker 2” fails at this in spectacular fashion as the entire movie doesn’t feature Arthur Fleck going off on a “new” escapade so much as completely rehashing every single plot point from the first movie in a labored trial setting. Although Lady Gaga is the best thing in “Folie,” it must’ve occurred to someone during rehearsals that Joaquin Phoenix can’t really sing. However, even that gimmick could’ve worked as it’s fairly original to center a musical around grimy, lovable-losers that can’t totally sing–a “musical for ugly people” would be a terrific gimmick, but perhaps not sandwiched into an unrelated franchise. As is, writer-director Todd Phillips feels like he’s making a sequel he has no real interest in, almost daring the audience to still care about this character by the end, and definitively ending him in a way that treats its core audience with contempt, as if to say “you wanted a sequel, technically I gave you one.” Although I have to admit that the vitriolic reaction to this movie by its core fanboy audience did make me smile. Grade: C-

433. “Calamity Jane”…Low budget Western biography that certainly didn’t over-extend themselves on the technical aspects…or the script. Grade: C-

432. “Disaster Holiday”…Anybody who thinks international movies aren’t just as capable as Hollywood in making something formulaic and clunky should check out this South African family comedy. Broad enough that it might work for desperate family audiences, but let’s not pretend it’s really any better than Hollywood tripe like “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” Grade: C-

431. “Dragonkeeper”…Substandard animated junker bad on the cheap, and even younger kids might get restless while watching it. Grade: C-

430. “Cash Out”…Garbage-adjacent John Travolta heist thriller that can get the job done if you are absolutely desperate for an action movie you don’t have to watch very closely, and the lower-budget actually works in the movie’s favor, making the heist feel a bit more realistic than some gargantuan budget thing on Netflix. Grade: C-

429. “I.S.S.”…Who can “take” the international space station as WWIII breaks out between Russia and America on a doomed planet down below is definitely an interesting idea for a movie, and there are a few nifty sequences here and nice descriptive touches (like a viewing portal of the world below and the different feelings it conjures in the astronauts) despite the overall shallowness of the movie. Eventually, I became disappointed at the trajectory of the movie, and especially the last third where some of the ever-shifting alliances didn’t totally make sense. Grade: C-

428. “Jeanne Du Barry”…For some viewers, it might just be nice to see Johnny Depp still working, and doing it in a movie that’s clearly has more than 100 dollars to spend on him. [Before you puzzle at that qualifier, just look at “Peter Five Eight” for Kevin Spacey–better yet, don’t look at it.] Grade: C-

427. “Back to Black”…A textbook example of a movie that doesn’t give an audience what we want, and doesn’t even seem to know what we want. Anyone drawn to watching an Amy Winehouse movie is probably a fan (logical deduction), but Amy’s druggie husband Blake is not necessarily a popular figure among Amy’s fans. So making a movie that centers itself around their turbulent romance–and is not unsympathetic to him or even necessarily viewing their attachment through a cautionary lens–is an unsatisfying focus for a Winehouse biopic to take, to put it mildly. Grade: C- But since “Back” was appropriately-panned, I found another musical biopic to be far more overrated…

426. “A Complete Unknown”…Most musical biographies feature the artist doing things the audience might find interesting like fighting for civil rights and the prejudice of the time or perhaps getting out-of-control while battling a drug addiction or maybe even getting ripped apart by a volatile romance. However, that’s a problem with Bob Dylan since he didn’t really do anything that would have a satisfying cinematic arc, and overrated writer-director James Mangold is content to show us scene after scene (…after scene) of nothing much with the ultimate climax being Dylan switching to electric guitar (yep, that’s it).

Mangold ludicrously stages this “defiance” as the ultimate act of status quo-busting rebellion instead of Dylan merely embracing the more popular sound of the time, and actually being kind-of a jerk to the folk acts that affectionately mentored him, the very ones he sucked up to in order to “make it.” In truth, I found myself growing weary of the dated-60’s “radical chic” of Dylan (and Timothy Chalamet nails Dylan’s petulant, inarticulate rhythms a little too well) and really gravitated more towards the open-hearted optimism of Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). Viewed through today’s tech-corporatized music industry, the earnest, ultra-liberal folk music of Seeger and Baez looks far more different than the commodified sound of Dylan switching to electric. Grade: C-

425. “Subservient”…One of about 100 “A.I. is, like, really bad y’all” parables, and this time it’s Megan Fox that plays the cyborg/nanny who takes things a bit too far. “Subservient” has an oddly pleasing set design–the warm tones and amber lighting would be better suited for a Christmas movie than a thriller about the perils of tech run amok–and Fox may have finally found a suitable role for her “skills,” as she is completely believable as a calculating machine that can only mimic empathy. A Lifetime thriller that can help you pass an uneventful weeknight, but you might forget you’ve seen it the next day. Grade: C-

424. “American Star”…Ian McShane is one of those actors that I would watch read the phone book, but “Star” almost puts that very premise to the test by having very little happen in the first 9/10ths of this movie, and then an ending that feels like it undercuts the message of the preceding movie. [If McShane is truly expressing a disinterest in the violence of his profession–and that’s not directly stated or even hinted at by anything but the reticent subtext of his performance–then why would he kill someone so close to him as vengeance for a character he barely knew?] The scenery is beautiful, and McShane is as soulful as ever, but I wish that this movie were as deep as it thinks it is. For a hitman thriller that has actual meaning behind it, check out 1985’s “The Hit” instead. Grade: C-

423. “You Can’t Run Forever”…A mean, ugly movie wherein J.K. Simmons plays a guy who “snaps,” murders some people, and stalks a surviving young woman through the woods for the bulk of the movie for no particular reason, killing several other hapless “wrong place, wrong timers” who get in the way. In 2024, there were no less than three separate movies where a male serial killer on a rampage stalks a young woman through nature with the worst being “Run Baby Run” and the best being “Don’t Move.” So if you watch “Forever” after “Run Baby Run,” it might look better by comparison. Grade: C-

422. “Look Into My Eyes”…A big old bucket of hokum. This a documentary that desperately needed a skeptic somewhere in the production team as we’re essentially watching a dead-earnest, overly-sentimental exploration of a profession that is most likely con artistry. “Look” is so slow and painfully “mindful” that I began to let my thoughts wander around the halfway point, actively wondering what the reaction would be if Hollywood made a movie this sincere about televangelism. Wouldn’t they be (rightfully) scolded as irresponsible? Grade: C-

421. “Spellbound”…Advertised as a fun animated fantasy about a princess who goes on an adventure, but it’s really a more depressing movie about a daughter forced to mediate squabbling parents on the brink of splitting up. In showing something “more realistic” the movie also indulges in the equally-unreal fantasy that parents who aren’t together anymore actually stop fighting rather than just taking the battle to new fronts. If this movie picks up much of a longterm following at all, it’ll likely be feared as the film that kids are deliberately shown by their parents right before they split. Grade: C-

420. “Yannick”…A frustrated theater audience member pulls a gun on the actors and inserts himself into the play, eventually holding all of the theatergoers hostage for the full duration of the movie. The movie’s watchers may empathize with those theatergoing hostages far more than “Yannick”‘s creators intended. Although it’s not very long, it’s also done in that sneering French style that thinks it’s clever despite being obvious and repetitive. Grade: C-

419. “The Shadow Strays”…Another hyper-violent “John Wick” knockoff that I caught myself yawning through. Scene after scene feels repetitive and devoid of emotional stakes. Grade: C-

418. “The Killer’s Game”…If you find yourself getting a little burnt out on hyper-violent, relentless action movies like “Shadow Strays,” then it’s worth remembering that at least those movies are actually trying. You can’t say that about most of the Saban Films or Straight-to-Starz-type action fare such as “Killer’s Game,” where even star Dave Bautista looks bored by most of what’s happening. An energetic Terry Crews, a sly Ben Kingsley, and the always-luminous Sofia Boutella do their best in undercooked supporting roles, but when you start checking how much time is left in the action movie you’re streaming, that’s not a great sign. Grade: C-

417. “Sleeping Dogs”…Speaking of guy’s guy action movies that are barely trying, there’s this one wherein a hardboiled man gets dementia (I swear every action or thriller with a lead character over 50 is using this disease as a plot device now). What happened to Russel Crowe? Will he ever get “it” back? Welp, it won’t be in scripts like this that Liam Neeson turned down, I can tell you that. Grade: C-

416. “Afraid”…Yet another “A.I. is coming for you” thriller, but this might be somewhat worse than “Subservience” philosophically (although superior technically) since it’s essentially arguing we shouldn’t even attempt to fight it. The surrender of humanity unfolds as a fait accompli that is barely worth raising a fuss over. Grade: C-

415. “Venom 3: The Last Dance”…Hallelujah, “Venom” is dead. Although this one isn’t as awful as “Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage,” it’s also clear to me that there is no such thing as a “good” movie in this series. Maybe somebody better can work on a darker “Venom” movie down the line that actually lets Eddie Brock explore his darker side rather than run from it at every turn. Grade: C-

414. “Stripped: Nashville”…I would not describe this stripper documentary as “very” illuminating, nor the exotic dancers it showcases as “very” interesting or even distinctive. Grade: C-

413. “Bad Behaviour”…Hard to connect with. Grade: C-

412. “Upgraded”…Lame romantic comedy about type-A people doing type-A things. Grade: C-

411. “Mother of the Bride”…Romantic comedies that star Brooke Shields and go straight to Netflix don’t have to be bad, like the unexpectedly charming “A Castle for Christmas” in 2021. But “Mother” is nowhere near as good and twice as contrived, even if Shields and Benjamin Bratt do have a nice chemistry. Grade: C-

410. “Lonely Planet”…Comfortable, and possibly soothing if someone is just wanting to watch something after work but before it’s very late. But I kept feeling the movie was focusing on the wrong characters. Whereas I would’ve enjoyed spending more time with Diane Silvers’s writer on the rise, “Planet” keeps insisting that Liam Hemsworth’s dull, over-sensitive, non-reading boyfriend should be the main character. There are just too many scenes where he doesn’t do anything, but over-reacts to even mild remarks. And as much as I’d love to see more movie romances with an age difference, I don’t know that Laura Dern’s seasoned novelist would really be drawn to him either. She just feels like an older version of the Silvers character we’ve been told he’s not that compatible with. Grade: C-

409. “The Bricklayer”…A better movie than “Chief of Station?” Sure…A good movie? Not so fast… If Aaron Eckhart is going to eventually replace Liam Neeson in making 6 action movies a year (so far, his script-quality is closer to Bruce Willis’s later-year turds he may not have even fully known he was making), he’ll need to do a bit better than this. But he at least has better co-stars to play off of here like Tim Blake Nelson, Nina Dobrev, the underrated Ilfenesh Hadera, and Clifton Collins Jr. as a villain who is a little bit more interesting than the usual-usual in these types of movies. Grade: C-

408. “Blackwater Lane”…If you’ve been looking for further evidence Minka Kelly cannot act, this should do it. Grade: C-

407. “Buying Time”…A straight-to-Tubi dud that has all their usual shoddy production values, but a little bit crazier than it is dull so that you might enjoy it more. Swerves between over-the-top conspiracy to grimly philosophical so that you might not get bored as easily. Grade: C-

406. “Canary Black”…Another entry into the dime-a-dozen subgenre of “Kate Beckinsale kicks” movies, as she may now be the female equivalent of Aaron Eckhart: an actor who’s more talented than they’re often given credit, but who are now making more action films than they themselves can tell apart. “Canary” is about–oh, who cares? Watch it or the other two dozen espionage capers that streamers churn out every year; what difference does it make? Grade: C-

405. “Red Right Hand”…Have you ever wanted to watch Orlando Bloom pretend to be a Southern crime soldier to a monopolistically-minded female mob boss played by Andie MacDowell? I can honestly say the thought never crossed my mind, and the following movie is about as convincing as what you’d expect. Still, it’s at least showing me something I haven’t already seen, and I’m not sure you can say that about other action movies like “Canary Black.” Grade: C-

404. “The Greatest Hits”…Dull romantic movie that isn’t even necessarily something good to watch while you’re doing laundry or filing tax returns because the time-jumbled plot needs your full attention at certain moments, but it drifts off for long stretches in snooze-worthy other moments. Grade: C-

403. “The French Montana Story: For Khadijah”…If you care about French Montana at all–and I don’t–you’ll probably like this more than I did. Grade: C-

402. “A Prince”…Run-of-the-mill gay cinema mixed with surrealism as we are “treated” to things we can’t quite unsee such as a multi-pronged penis slithering in different directions like Medusa’s hair snakes. Grade: C-

401. “Golden Years”…Rare romantic comedies about older people finding (or reigniting) love are an unexpected subgenre that I love (“Hope Spring,” “What Happens Later”), but there’s a reason that romantic comedies about on old couple falling out of love are even less numerous: they’re depressing as hell, and more than a little aimless. From start to finish with “Golden Years” I felt like I could’ve been watching almost anything else; ironically, the same way these pushing-70 characters also feel they should be spending their time better or in happier ways. Grade: C-

400. “The Beekeeper”…Jason Statham goes quasi-MAGA as a working man out to unravel a global conspiracy that seems suspiciously QAnon-esque. That a thriller can focus on a system of graft perpetrated by Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton (the obvious stand-ins for the villains here) instead of the Trump Crime Family is quite the blind spot. Grade: C-

399. “How I learned the Fly”…Two boys have to fend for themselves when their parents abruptly disappear. Once it’s revealed what actually happened to the mother, and the movie doesn’t really judge the father’s horrific motivations for doing so, it undercuts much of the emotional investment we might’ve had beforehand. Yuk. Grade: C-

398. “A Sacrifice”…Otherwise known as “Berlin Nobody,” this is a muddled movie about an environmental cult that never seems totally sure of what it wants to say. Grade: C-

397. “Uglies”…A movie that might be unintentionally damaging for young girls to watch as it is centered heavily around unattainable beauty standards amongst a cast that is already more attractive than most people could ever hope to be (there’s no other plot to it). Viewers of Young Adult-inspired works may already feel they are a bit fascist (only presenting love amongst the two best looking young people in the room, with all other relationships irrelevant or even sinister), and this unknowingly plays into that even more so–complete with the ludicrously regressive casting of Laverne Cox as the head villain in this dystopia. No wonder a generation of young women didn’t feel motivated to show up for Kamala Harris! Grade: C-

396. “Twisters”…1996’s “Twister” is a throwaway disaster film that still holds up pretty well because of the soulful chemistry between Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, cleanly thrilling effects and tense craftsmanship, and a talented supporting cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman (in a Jack Black-ish role), Carey Elwes, and Lois Smith. But this unnecessary reboot? Something feels like it’s missing, as the “danger” always seems to be behind plate glass, the effects are not necessarily better than they were nearly 30 years ago, and Glen Powell falls back on some of his worst instincts, giving a “Texazzz”-broad performance of cocky grins. Grade: C-

395. “Miller’s Girl”…A movie about the blurred lines between a male teacher and curious female student that is a little bit afraid of its own subject matter, often taking a “middle ground” approach that neither avoids its controversial aspects altogether (so most audiences will reject it outright) but also never gives in to its underlying desire so that more “European” or avant garde viewers have no reason to find it interesting either. Playing it “safe” with a “Lolita”-type story is probably the last thing anyone actually wants to watch, as more morally rigorous viewers probably won’t watch anything with this premise to start with. Grade: C-

394. “Detained”…Straight-to-Paramount-Plus movie that’s cheaply made even for a single-setting movie (some pornos have better lighting and less-clumsy technical skills) but has some twists and turns that will keep you from falling asleep (not ALL straight-to-Paramount-Plus or Starz or Tubi movies can say that), and might please fans hoping for a low-grade “Usual Suspects” type crime film. Grade: C-

393. “Deadpool & Wolverine”…What happens when fan service pretends to be a movie? A billion dollars are made and critics mostly pretend to like it (least they be accused of “not getting it” by hoards smitten with a snarky take on obvious nostalgia), but is this really a good movie? No, it really and truly feels like an R-rated Marvel movie in that every attempt is made at brand extension and cramming in unnecessary supporting roles, but nothing of consequence happens. Although there are a couple of kinetic action scenes (like Wolverine and Deadpool fighting their way through dozens of other Deadpools in order to get to the end of a street) filled with aggression and rage that do connect. Grade: C-

392. “Bleeding Love”…A nepo baby makes a movie with her dad (Ewan McGregor). I know most actors over 50 are making movies with their daughters now (Ethan Hawke, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Judd Apatow) perhaps because it’s the one way they won’t get “MeToo”-ed, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly interesting for an audience to watch. Still, “Bleeding” does have a pretty good last scene that at least understands how to finish an emotional arc. Grade: C-

391. “Parachute”…Whenever people say “Romantic movies are so predictable, the guy and the girl always wind up together at the end,” they’re forgetting that there’s a reason for that: If you don’t care at all whether or not the central couple stays together, the movie has failed. If you do care, then it’s kind-of a bummer to have them wistfully go their “separate ways” after a fond night or two…hundred. “Parachute” gives us exactly one reason to care about it (Courtney Eaton and Thomas Mann’s gentle, root-for-them-chemistry) in a sea of unnecessary subplots. [What the hell is Dave Bautista even doing in this film other than as a favor to his former co-star, writer-director Brittany Snow? And the Joel McHale-as-alcoholic-father character is not utilized well at all.] However, it then mistakenly believes it’s just one more plot strand it can pick up, play with, and then put back on the shelf before moving onto the next thing that might catch its fancy in that moment. Grade: C-

390. “The Good Half”…Nothing especially “good” about it as we get to watch Nick Jonas pretend he’s Zach Braff from 20 years ago as he mopes through an unconvincing movie on grief. The only subplot that generates any investment is between Jonas and the always-charming Alexandra Shipp, but–you guessed it–“Half” doesn’t even do much with that either. Movies like “Half” and “Parachute” keep insisting that “surprise” endings where couples don’t wind up together are fresh, but if every low-budget Dramedy out there is doing the exact same thing, how can it be? Grade: C-

389. “The Tearsmith”…When you get to the end of a movie, is it enough that you merely congratulate yourself that you finished it and didn’t turn it off halfway through? Grade: C-

388. “Wages of Fear”…Nope! The original “Wages of Fear” is largely considered a masterpiece, and possibly the best French language thriller ever made–and it already has an excellent remake in William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer,” a forgotten gem of 70’s cinema that works from start to finish, but has become especially known for a tense sequence where the explosives truck navigates a rickety bridge (in the middle of a rainstorm) that might give out at any moment. Anyway, this lousy “Wages” remake gives this material “The Fast and Furious” treatment, proving it’s not only Hollywood that can make braindead, bastardized remakes of classic movies. Grade: C-

387. “Rebel Moon Part 2”…I hate to diss an original huge budget sci-fi movie made with obvious technical skill, but nothing about this really feels original. Still, it’s nice to see the singe-your-eyeballs-sexy Sofia Boutella get a proper leading role, and I wouldn’t necessarily mind seeing a “Part 3” for this bloated film franchise if it takes us (finally) off that wheat-farming moon into the broader universe where maybe an original idea or two can be explored. Grade: C-

386. “Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp”…The 2017 “Woody Woodpecker” movie is absolutely awful, and I actively hope my kids never ask to watch it again. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled that they made a sequel, but–luckily–it has no real connection to the plot of the 2017 movie, and is noticeably better/less-annoying. It’s still not good, but it didn’t make me hate it either. Grade: C-

385. “200% Wolf”…If you put a gun to my head and told me to recap this movie for you, tell my mother I love her because I’m a dead man. I know I watched the entire thing (and not that long ago either) but I don’t know if a single image or word of dialogue made its way into my memory banks. Crappy animated movies that inspire a type of amnesia probably aren’t very good, and the only reason I’m putting it here is because I’m going to guess that it’s at least as good as “Woody Woodpecker 2…” although it may not be. Grade: C-

384. “Rumours”…2021’s “Don’t Look Up” was an excellent (and by now underrated) allegory for a planet that seems determined not to take climate change seriously–even the middling reviews for “Up” unintentionally proved the point of the movie–and featured a delightful Cate Blanchett in a rare comedic role. “Rumours” is not that. It’s a satire of impotent neoliberalism and meaningless press release “statements” from the world’s preeminent Democracies who have gone downright catatonic from institutional rigor mortis in the face of rising existential threats. But it doesn’t work very well as a movie instead of merely a one-joke metaphor for how old-fashioned bureaucrats have unknowingly surrendered to an out-of-control internet (I’m assuming that’s what the movie’s giant brain represents) mobilizing the dumbest people on Earth and/or creating new ones. Even with that one joke, things don’t really go “far enough,” as it’s not until the very ending that the movie finally becomes deliriously dark–rather than just tedious and confusing, which too much of it is for the first 95% of its runtime. Grade: C

383. “The Trouble with People”…Comedies set in Ireland can coast a lot on the beautiful scenery and the inherent charm in their people and setting, but “Trouble” is torn between being a movie we can just sort-of “hang out” in (Paul Reiser’s nervously nattering energy balances well with Colm Meaney’s straightforward appeal, and the best scenes are these two lost cousins getting to know each other for the first time) or one that forces a “plot.” The “plot” in this case is a contrived family feud around the midpoint, and then a last-minute sapphic romance that had this viewer scratching my head as one half of the unlikely couple (their similar look of fiery red hair, freckles, and piercing blue eyes has them looking more like mother and daughter than two women that would fall for each other at first sight) was supposed to be the catalyst for a fight between Meaney and Reiser. This is one twist that undercuts the barely-there emotional investment we had in whether Reiser would find a late-stage romance for himself as he gets his groove back in Ireland. As is, the movie seems to introduce plot strands before quickly saying “ah hell, never mind.” Grade: C

382. “I Used to Be Funny”…”Canadian standup comic gets raped by a cop she nannies for and then gets publicly shamed by taking him to trial, but then has to find his missing pre-teen daughter that’s taking drugs and acting wild, all told through a needlessly shuffled timeline” almost sounds like a plot that ChatGPT came up with out of very “of the moment” hot button Indie topics (missing white girls, bad guy cops, MeToo, female comics dealing with hostile men, Canadians getting pushed around, a shuffled up chronology for no particular reason).

But not much in this movie actually feels authentic–such as a cop being able to afford a nanny or the daughter being the most upset that a nanny she barely knew “abandoned her” rather than her sole surviving parent going to prison for rape or that it would really be that important to said daughter that her ex-nanny starts performing comedy again. [This last part feels more like the old pull of narcissism many artists have wherein their art becomes the most important thing in the universe even to other people whose lives are falling apart.] However, it’s undeniable Rachel Sennott is completely believable here, and will be the indie “star” of the next few years–a Parker Posey for the 2020’s. Grade: C

381. “The Deliverance”…Tyler Perry acolyte Lee Daniels has found a new vehicle for his “Jesus and Biscuits” messaging, and it’s this horror movie, complete with his usual anti-miscegenation views (represented by Glenn Close’s abusive, Rachel Dolezal-esque white mother). A talented cast is mostly squandered here, but there are sections of the movie that are scarier than you might be expecting. Grade: C

380. “The Watchers”…Da fuck? In 2024, there were two separate supernatural movies where Horror-darling Georgina Campbell got lost in the woods, and “Lovely, Dark, and Deep” is widely thought of as the better of the two–even if “Watchers” almost finds an interesting mythology to explore. Grade: C

379. “The Wait”…Yuck. Body horror is not just for American movies anymore. Yay…now I can get grossed out while watching subtitles. Grade: C

378. “My Last Nerve”…A documentary about a novice who thinks he knows it all in the quest to find a cure for his father’s painful nerve disease. The goal may be admirable, but this doc plays very differently in the age of Elon Musk and RFK Jr.’s takeover, as we’re a little weary of arrogant tech-speak newcomers who think they have all the answers in the face of musty academics they scoff at. Grade: C

377. “The Book of Clarence”…I’d love to see sword-and-sandal and/or Biblical and/or Roman epics make a comeback but this winking, half-ironic one is a step down from Jeymes Samuels’s previous “The Harder They Fall,” where he managed to make a serious and interesting Western that wasn’t confined by the genre’s conventions, but was still a sincere movie effort. “Clarence” feels languid and coasting too much on its own “cool groove” vibes to make for a compelling movie. Grade: C

376. “Mary”…Even if “Clarence” isn’t totally “it” as a pathway forward for Biblical epics (it’s not serious enough to be compelling nor irreverent enough to be Monty Python-level subversive), neither is this dull, hyper-reverent take. Grade: C

375. “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”…An “Inglorious Basterds” knockoff that is supposedly based on a true story, but that doesn’t necessarily make it feel less generic. Every year, there are at least a dozen European or American movies about fighting the Nazis, and yet movies about fighting hate in this time period are still relatively few and far between. Grade: C

374. “Beverly Hills Cop 4”…Unnecessary and too late. Although this may be better than the lousy “Coming 2 America,” you can’t help but feel the tired, creaky bones of nostalgia from start to finish, even if Eddie Murphy himself hasn’t lost much of a step. The man is ageless, but the irony is that “Beverly Hills Cop”‘s Alex Foley is probably one of his least distinctive major roles (“Coming to America,” “48 Hours,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Bowfinger,” and others used him to much more vivid effect), meaning he can do that barely-trying action pitter patter forever, and may very well plan to since there’s apparently already another sequel in the works. I was a little more interested in the subplot romance between Taylour Paige and Joseph Gordon Levitt, and hope further sequels are not too cowardly to have them kiss or actually be romantic with each other as there’s far too much of that going around (“Kraven the Hunter,” “The Union”). Grade: C

373. “Classified”…As I said earlier, your favorite Aaron Eckhart action junker of 2024 will be largely subjective since none of them are exactly “good,” but I slightly preferred “Classified” to “The Bricklayer,” and hands-down preferred it to the generic, self-serious dud “Chief of Station.” Something about Abigail Breslin’s spunky miscasting as the Scrappy Doo to his Scooby seems to mellow Eckhart out, as he almost looks like he’s having a bit of fun here, and makes an attempt or two at charm in certain scenes. And a too-brief Tim Roth is on a different planet, free styling his way into oddball action movie-villaindom in a way that reminded me of the looser Nicolas Cage performances of yesteryear. Still, I’ll admit that the action sequences are almost amateurishly-staged, making them a confusing jumble. Grade: C

372. “Killer Heat”…I was surprised this movie wasn’t better as it has a great cast (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Shailene Woodley, and Richard Madden in a dual role) and beautiful Greek scenery. Viewers who just want to coast on pretty images might even enjoy it, but I kept waiting for something better to happen. Grade: C

371. “Seeking Mavis Beacon”…Far too long for what it is, and would’ve worked better as a documentary short or perhaps even long form YouTube video. Here, two aspiring investigative documentarians (and we see a lot of them throughout the process, learning much more about them than we do their subject) want to find out more about the cover model behind the “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing” character. They discover who she is, but nothing remarkable about her life, and she refuses to talk to them. Pretty dull stuff that has to be padded out with conversations about broader cultural identity that feel increasingly thin. Grade: C

370. “Nazareth”…I would describe this as a “less good” riff on the same material explored in “Arcadian” or “Never Let Go,” as we’re not sure (for a while) if a parent is being entirely forthright with exactly how much the world has collapsed around a dilapidated, remote residence. Grade: C

369. “Attack of the Meth Gator”…An unashamed rip-off of “Cocaine Bear” (or even “Sharknado”) this delightfully trashy creature feature unleashes some premium gator carnage amongst awful performances, shit lighting, and embarrassing special effects. For once, the inherent shoddiness is not necessarily a bad thing, adding to the “swamp schlock” theming, and it’s still better than most straight-to-Tubi movies. But if you’re looking for an actual good alligator movie then check out 2019’s underrated “Crawl,” which is “Citizen Kane” compared to this piece of junk–and shows you don’t necessarily have to make a gator movie bad in order for it to be enjoyable. Grade: C

368. “Out Come the Wolves”…”Wolves” goes in a different direction than the deliberately trashy “Meth Gator” by having a more somber tone, competent production values, and a committed performance by Missy Peregrym. Although it’s not nearly as fun or enjoyable, it is undeniably the “better” movie. Grade: C

367. “Good Girl Jane”…You still hanging in there? If you’re actually reading every single one of these reviews then I’m a fan of yours as much as you’re a fan of mine. You can drop me a comment because you’re pretty cool. …Oh, and as for “Good Girl Jane,” it’s yet another skippable riff on the “Thirteen”-style movie Evan Rachel Woods and Holly Hunter did 20 years ago. Grade: C

366. “Greedy People”…A talented cast can’t quite bring this familiar 90’s-esque indie noir to life, but it’s still good to see actors working outside their comfort zones (like Joseph Gordon Levitt as a buffoonishly macho cop or Jim Gaffigan as a hit man). Grade: C

365. “Pure O”…I wasn’t familiar with this condition (an extreme form of OCD), but this movie will make audiences viscerally uncomfortable in the learning process. [I’m pretty desensitized after seeing so many thousands of movies, but even I was squirming during scenes like the main character holding a knife to his girlfriend’s throat as a form of therapy so he won’t kill her.] You may find this a worthy drama (some that suffer from the condition have responded very positively towards it), but most audiences will be grateful to escape this world. Grade: C

364. “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell”…For critics more than audiences; after seeing the almost universal-acclaim this movie has received, you might find yourself having thoughts like “Okay…I’m sure the good part is right around the corner…Maybe the emotional wallop will be in the next half hour?…This is very boring and aimless…No, really, why is this 3 hours long?…Am I watching the right movie?” Still, viewers who want to be immersed in nice scenery and the Vietnamese language, might find some value here. But I don’t necessarily watch very long movies for the Duolingo exercise. There is absolutely a way to make very quiet dramas around faith completely absorbing (“Small Things Like These”), but this isn’t it. Grade: C

363. “Janet Planet”…Very similar to “Yellow Cocoon” in that critics will love this more than audiences will (it has received overflowing critical praise for a movie that is one stilted, one-decibel scene after another), although they might connect to the characters here a little bit better. Especially the young Lacy’s tense scenes with Wayne (Will Patton), which teeter dangerously close to the edge of something happening in a movie that makes The New York Times “Best 10 Movies of the Year” list. Grade: C

362. “The Silent Hour”…Predictable, and Joel Kinnaman being unable to speak in 2023’s “Silent Night” used that film’s wordless gimmick to greater affect as his character being unable to hear in “Hour” doesn’t have as much of an impact on the action as you’d think. Some better-staged set pieces would’ve been greatly appreciated. Grade: C

361. “Bosco”…Prison break movies are irresistible but this one has such shoddy production values that it actually undercuts some of the difficulty of the escape. “Well, he’s just escaping from an Office Depot–what’s so hard about that? Oh no, it just looks like it was shot in an Office Depot.” You definitely root for the main character, but that makes the anti-climactic ending all the more baffling. Maybe they were staying true to the real-life ending, but this is the rare case where they really should’ve just lied to us. Grade: C

360. “Maria”…Beautiful sets and design, but a mostly lifeless drama. Grade: C

359. “We Live in Time”…The time shuffling felt like a way to disguise how run-of-the-mill this movie actually is. After a while, I began to almost resent its tearjerking aspirations, and began to feel more bored or impatient than genuinely moved. Grade: C

358. “Stress Positions”…Most critics enjoyed this movie a lot more than I did, but it felt loud, irritating, and (ultimately) unconvincing to me personally. Like a poorly-staged play where the actors think being frantic will pull us into their characters more. Grade: C

357. “In Her Name”…Very similar to stress positions in the stagey, irritating, unconvincing, amateur-play way the entire thing unfolds, but at least it has handsome black-and-white photography. Grade: C

356. “Dear Santa”…I’m convinced Jack Black can save any movie. “Dear” has one of the worst premises for a movie I’ve ever heard of wherein a dyslexic young boy writes a letter to “Santa Claus” and spells it “Satan,” with the letter being delivered to hell instead of the North Pole, then the Devil masquerades as Santa in order to trick the boy into going bad. You might think “well that’s not such a bad premise for a Horror movie or a tense European drama exploring the inner darkness of a small child,” but this is a family comedy that isn’t exactly not marketed towards kids. It doesn’t matter; Black does everything with a shit script and not much help from a lackluster supporting cast either, getting genuine laughs from a dozen or so lines I’m sure he ad-libbed. [“You know how many letters I get from kids? None; usually it’s just manifestos from some very disturbed adults.”] Grade: C

355. “The Absence of Eden”…A favor Zoe Saldana did for her husband, who directs the movie. Although in some ways I prefer this to Saldana’s more heralded work in “Emilia Pérez,” and it reminds you that she can be completely believable in even lousy projects like “Perez” or “Lioness.” Grade: C

354. “Green Border”…Like “Eden,” “Border” is about the plight of unwanted immigrants–truly a great topic for our time, but something about “Green Border” felt a little bit artificial, trafficking in that faux-grit that made another overrated Polish drama from a few years ago (“The Painted Bird”) feel so uninvolving. [As you’ll see further down this list, “Io Capitano” is a much better portrayal of the immigrant experience.] Grade: C

353. “Infested/Vermin”…French movie about deadly spiders invading a housing project. I was primed to enjoy this sociopolitical creature feature a lot more than I wound up liking it. “Sting” may not have a politically-relevant allegory, but it does better deliver the “killer spiders on the loose” goods. Grade: C

352. “There Was a Monster”…I’m very divided on this review of a straight-to-Tubi Horror drama that starts off with such incompetently dated production values and amateurish performances/dialogue, that most Lifetime movies from the 90’s would look like big studio blockbusters in comparison. But a last-minute reveal that this entire movie has been a horrifying allegory for one of the worst medical conditions you can contract makes you feel almost guilty for scoffing at what preceded it. It’s ironic that in a year where “body Horror” was as gruesome and ubiquitous as it’s ever been, this zero-budget drama left me more shook than the most graphic gross outs in “scarier” movies. Grade: C

351. “House of Spoils”…Another movie or TV show about preparing food wherein they make restaurant work look as psychologically tense and psyche-stressful as defusing bombs. I do not “get” this sub-genre at all and would love to see a return to food movies like “Big Night,” wherein the joy of cooking isn’t suffocated under tortured metaphors and surreal horror. The best scenes come at the very end wherein an entirely new restaurant concept is born–although you might question how willing the high-falutin’ patrons would be to go along with it. Grade: C

350. “Fancy Dance”…Ambles along, coasting on good performances and minimal plot. By the time we get to the end of the movie, you may be curious to see what happens next (who will the younger daughter live with? Will Lily Gladstone’s character be arrested? How on Earth can any of this end happily for those involved?), but it cuts to black–taking a familiar indie cop-out because they know further explanation would be unsatisfying. But isn’t it a bit of a cheat to “end” the story on the last happy moment most of these characters will be having for quite a while? Grade: C

349. “La Chimera”…Josh O’Conner certainly had a breakout 2024. Some people find him a very compelling lead for a movie; I wish I were one of them. This narrative is too ramshackle to propel a movie if you’re not fully convinced of O’Conner’s charisma. And I don’t really buy him as the type of “we’re fascinated to watch this loosely-plotted film because we believe he could do anything at any moment” live-wire that so many 70’s actors actually were, and a few current actors still are (Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Strong, Walton Goggins). Grade: C

348. “Shamrock Spitfire”…Straightforward WWII drama that is warmly bathed in nostalgia, but not necessarily memorable after you finish it. Grade: C

347. “Turtles All the Way Down”…It might’ve been fascinating to see a movie about a teenager grappling with OCD, but “Turtles” is not that presentation, preferring a softer gaze and more conventional approach to this material. There have been so many teen or young adult romances where the heroine deals with an affliction (“Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Midnight Sun,” “Five Feet Apart,” “Parachute”) that “Turtles” feels completely formulaic, and is even based on a novel from John Green of “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Paper Towns” fame. Grade: C

346. “Gasoline Rainbow”…Would’ve been better as a documentary, but, you know, when movies are technically scripted, you might want “drags” like an actual plot and memorable performances to happen. Grade: C

345. “Heart of the Hunter”…Even if this movie isn’t very good, I don’t want to discourage more South African political thrillers, because the time is right for sharper versions of “Hunter” to have a moment. Grade: C

344. “Brothers”…Even if you might find yourself rooting for a likable cast that includes Peter Dinklage, Josh Brolin (in a more affable mode than usual), Taylour Paige, Brendan Fraser (already squandering that post-“Whale” career resurgence), and Glenn Close, it’s hard to call this movie “good” or “necessary” or “worth watching” or “should’ve been made at all” or “was this originally made in the 90’s and they just kept it in a time capsule for 30 years?” Grade: C

343. “Despicable Me 4”…A “Despicable” franchise worst, although not necessarily worse than the spin-off “Minions” franchise. However, low quality won’t stop your kids from watching it about 50 times. Grade: C

342. “Atlas”…One of the many reasons Jennifer Lopez was royally screwed out of a Best Supporting Actress nomination for “Hustlers,” was that it reminded you of what a force she truly can be with the right material. The “Out of Sight” days are so long ago, that you might forget Lopez actually is a good actress. [As is, she’s far more compelling in documentaries these days than the fictional dramas she’s usually given.] “Atlas” is another sci-fi snooze that feels like the machines have already won since the script might’ve come out of ChatGPT, but if you want something to wash over your eyeballs while you pretend to be truly watching it during a late night on Netflix, you could do worse. Grade: C

341. “Oh Canada”…I love writer-director Paul Schrader’s work, but this is his least satisfying or compelling movie in ages. I struggled to connect with anything presented here in a way that just wasn’t true for “Master Gardener,” “The Card Counter” or especially “First Reformed” (which might wind up being Schrader’s last masterpiece). Jacob Elordi mumbles through the past while Richard Gere (playing a present version of the character that has very little of the same mannerisms) takes a wrecking ball to his own mythology in a way that feels both unlikely (would he really feel like atoning for “sins” nobody cares about in his death rattle?) and also a little bit anti-cathartic since the accolades of a mid-tier documentarian are hardly the stuff foundations are built on. Grade: C

340. “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band”…By now, you either buy into the Springsteen mythology or you don’t, and maybe I just don’t get it. This is about the fifth Bruce Springsteen documentary I’ve watched, which is a lot for someone who isn’t a huge fan of his music. People that love his music will probably enjoy this doc more, and at least the road footage is more cinematic than the dull “Letter to You” from a few years ago. Grade: C

339. “Beatles ’64”…Although I can certainly appreciate The Beatles musical mythology more than Springsteen’s, the documentaries and biopics about them must now number well over 100, and I’m not sure there’s much water left in the well. Increasingly, the absolute fever John, Paul, George, and Ringo inspired plays like a very specific historical snapshot, and a little bit like “you had to be there” to fully get swept up. Grade: C

338. “One Fast Move”…Racing movie that’s nowhere near as good as last year’s “Gran Turismo” (if you’re rolling your eyes after that statement, you didn’t see “Turismo”), but might get the job done if you’re truly desperate. Grade: C

337. “Elevation”…Simplistic monsters attack and soon take over the world! Instead of being activated by sound (like “The Quiet Place”), they can’t get above a certain elevation–leaving the human survivors stranded on hilltops. A dangerous journey below that elevation threshold begins so they can get medicine and/or medical research to save the world. I don’t know…whatever… Grade: C

336. “Babes”…Ilana Glazer comedy that falls into Hollywood’s anti-miscegenation trap as Stephan James dies not long after having sex with her (and getting her pregnant). Glazer herself is not bad here, but also not as spiky as the great cerebral romantic comedy queens like Tina Fey or Amy Schumer, whose 2025 film “Kinda Pregnant” has a funnier and more scathing core. Grade: C

335. “Under Paris”…Not sure I understood the fuss for this one, as it is very stupid, and a knockoff of American shark movies in every way. Maybe people just enjoy the “novelty” of seeing a French knockoff of dumb shark attack movies? No 2024 shark movie was “Jaws” (or even “The Shallows”…or even “47 Meters Deep”), but “No Way Up” came closer to being genuinely good. Grade: C

334. “The Last Breath”…Another shark movie–this one with less novelty than “Under,” as it feels like something you’ve already seen by the time you get to the end of it. However, the majority of it takes place underwater while the hapless, imperiled divers try to find a way out of a maze-like sunken ship while sharks circle them, so I sort-of enjoyed the escape room aspect of that. This is also the final film role of actor Julian Sands, so it probably deserves your attention more than it ever otherwise would due to that. You just wish Sands final role wasn’t something like this, but fans might relish the chance to see him one more time in literally anything. Grade: C

333. “Colors of Evil: Red”…Pretty standard foreign “killer on the loose” mystery, but it’s hard to take your eyes off of Zofia Jastrzebska, and I’ll be excited to see her make the inevitable transition to English-language movies. Grade: C

332. “Lovely Dark and Deep”…Eerie Horror movie that is (essentially) just someone wandering around the woods for over an hour. Once we find out the compromise being struck–you can’t help but feel a little bit cheated that the film never goes into specifics, and that the heroine’s emotional arc was learning how to give up on humanity. Bummer. Out of Georgina Campbell’s two different “stuck in the woods that primeval, supernatural forces don’t want us to escape” movies, this one is probably “better” than the more convoluted “The Watchers” but I admired “Watchers” taking a bolder swing with its less-vague mythology. Grade: C

331. “Things Will Be Different”…Another one of those indie sci-fi puzzlers that keeps you pretty intrigued as you’re watching it, but when it’s all over, you wonder “Wait…what the hell was that all about anyway?” Very representative of this type of pseudo-cerebral genre in that you’re always trying to figure out the “rules” they’re setting up, even if it eventually becomes clear the writers never fleshed it out as much you’re hoping they did. Grade: C

330. “Soundtrack to a Coup D’etat”…One of those movies that critics love (it made the New York Times “10 best movies of the year” list) because it deals with racism that happened more than 50 years ago–thus freeing contemporary audiences from having to do anything about it. But nothing presented here is going to be “breaking news” to those who have seen the superior 2000 biography “Lumumba” or taken even the most remedial African history class. At a bloated two-and-a-half hour runtime (it could’ve easily been 30 minutes shorter), “Soundtrack” manages to shoehorn in every 60’s-chic historical figure (like clips of Malcolm X being shown dozens of times for no particular reason, along with jazz figures that have no connection to the events shown), but there’s a real naïveté to a documentary that portrays Nikita Khrushchev as an anti-colonialist crusader (various countries trapped in the Soviet Union might disagree with that analysis) or Fidel Castro as having the welfare of his people at the forefront his mind. [It’s also debatable if Patrice Lumumba would’ve actually been the great African hope he’s long been presented or would’ve wound up yet another Robert Mugabe-esque figure, meaning a revolutionary who quickly turns into the corrupt tyrants he’s trying to break free from, not entirely unlike Castro himself.] And “Soundtrack”‘s constant juxtaposition between newsreel clips and jazz performances gave me a headache after 150 relentless minutes. Grade: C

329. “A Different Man”…The first half of this movie draws you in completely, getting you to ask real questions about the thousands of subtle “pretty privilege” ways in which we view others or even interact with the world. You think it’s going to be a further exploration into how much Sebastian Stan’s character changes solely based on how the world reacts to him, but instead Oswald (an Uber-confident, British character with an identical facial condition to the one our shy protagonist spent his entire, confidence-deprived life grappling with) shows up and the back half of the movie falls apart with far too much schadenfreude. The makers of “Man” seem to believe that our tortured protagonist deserves to suffer rather than letting him stumble towards anything approaching uplift. I disagree, and so I found the movie glibly depressing (the worse things get for him, the more it’s treated with a wink and a shoulder shrug). However, I also admit that the entire reason I felt that way is because I was emotionally invested in what happened, and no movie that does that is a total misfire. Grade: C+

328. “Salem’s Lot”…I haven’t seen the original 1980’s miniseries adaptation, and it’s been many years since I read the Stephen King novel it’s based on (I vaguely remember it, and feel this movie is only semi-faithful but mostly sticks to the cliff notes). More recent exposure to those two works might make you feel this 2024 adaptation is worse, but I found this to be spookily effective in the first half, and not terrible in the second. If it’s very late at night, make this into your own midnight-movie screening, and it might get the job done. Grade: C+

327. “Dahomey”…Pretentious documentary about the returning of African artifacts from Paris to Benin featuring painfully long scenes that amplify straightforward material into something more artsy and abstract (at one point, one of the artifacts “narrates” its story). Because it is about the returning of objects from a museum (vs. something “depressing” like human misery), critics love this attempt by Parisian filmmaker Mati Diop to gain clout since the custody of cultural artifacts is something the New York Times crowd can relate to a little more than genocides, erosions of freedoms, daily oppression, or environmental destruction through commodified chemicals. Grade: C+

326. “The Six Triple Eight”…To say this is one of the most technically accomplished movies Tyler Perry has ever made would be an understatement. It includes relevant themes of black women fighting to be taken seriously, but giving people their proper due isn’t necessarily the most cinematic experience (this is the only major-budget WWII movie I’ve ever seen that essentially takes place in a mail warehouse). And even if the story is true, I can’t help but feel that a white guy in love with a black woman getting killed almost immediately after kissing her (she eventually marries a black man who clears the bar of being in her vicinity) isn’t a bit too “on brand” for Tyler Perry. Grade: C+

325. “Meeting Ms. Leigh”…Unusual for Tubi movies in that the technical aspects are actually pretty good. By mastering such things like lighting and blocking, that already makes it a cut above. Not sure what to make of the ending as it’s all-too-predictable given Hollywood’s lousy portrayals of interracial couples, but the fact that you’re rooting for this couple does mean the film has done its primary job. Grade: C+

324. “Trap”…A movie that left me conflicted because Josh Hartnett is very good, and the first half is enjoyably tense as it slyly inverts your expectations (you’re riveted to see if he’ll escape to the point you’re not even sure of what you’re rooting for exactly), but the second half of the movie keeps getting more and more far-fetched–especially once we leave the stadium. Grade: C+

323. “Scoop”…Skip this, and watch “A Very Royal Scandal” about the exact same story instead. Michael Sheen’s take on Prince Andrew is superior to Rufus Sewell’s, and the only-three episode miniseries isn’t that much longer than “Scoop.” Grade: C+

322. “Justice”…Somber Polish detective drama that’s heavier on mood than common sense. Grade: C+

321. “Slingshot”…Psychological thriller set in space that has a few twists too many. Good performances (Casey Affleck and Lawrence Fishburn are clearly doing what they can), but the vast majority of this movie is pretty grounded, so when they start piling on the reality-bending towards the end you might wonder if it undercuts everything that came before it. Grade: C+

320. “About Dry Grasses”…”Dry” is certainly the word I’d use to describe this too-long, and too-slow movie. But it excels where other critically beloved snoozers have failed by having at least some scenes that make us connect with the characters. There is something here about the unique relationship between teachers and students, and “Grasses” gets that right. Grade: C+

319. “Joy”…A movie I wanted to like more than I did like; handsomely made, but a little dry given how charged the subject matter would’ve been at the time given the vehement ignorance of the Catholic Church, that reliable foil for any human progress. Grade: C+

318. “Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point”…A movie that felt overrated to me, but many critics enjoyed the accurate depiction of being young and energetic in a sleepy small town’s Christmas. I would’ve been around the same age as these characters at this time, and it does capture that period and mood well–right down to the somewhat ambling nature where you’re looking for something to happen more than it’s ever going to. Grade: C+

317. “Across the River and Through the Trees”…For Hemingway diehards only. Grade: C+

316. “Seneca–On the Creation of Earthquakes”…A movie that’s much easier to admire than actually enjoy, but a worthy attempt to find Trump’s parallel in Ancient Rome: the spoiled-rotten, mentally deranged emperor Nero, who eventually has it in for his “snobby” mentor Seneca (John Malkovich), along with the rest of “establishment” Rome. Many scenes are hard to watch (on purpose), but Malkovich is terrific, and the stark period scenery is rather good. This may ultimately be remembered as one of Julian Sands’s final film roles, but he’s not in this much more than a cameo, sadly. Grade: C+

315. “The Dive”…I want to give this original points for being the rare movie set mostly underwater where the primary threat isn’t sharks, but I still think this overly-technical exploration of “the bends” can feel more like a math problem to solve than something truly thrilling. 2025’s “Last Breath” does a better job with similar material, and, yes, admittedly a bigger budget. Grade: C+

314. “Arthur the King”…So emotionally manipulative that it’s hard to really care what happens, and you can’t help but feel the real-life couple this film is based around wouldn’t care nearly as much about an actual human being in the Caribbean vs. the lengths they go to in order to export a dog. However, the scenery is very nice. Grade: C+

313. “Moana 2”…I consider the first “Moana” to be one of the best movies of this century. And so I was very disappointed in this lackluster sequel that barely feels like it’s trying half the time. It’s overly self-referential towards the first movie (“hey kids, remember the good times?”) and the plot is confusingly convoluted instead of simply satisfying like the original. I’ve seen the first “Moana” at least a dozen times, but I think I’d struggle to give this even a second viewing. Grade: C+

312. “Inside the Mind of a Dog”…An excuse to watch dogs frolic about and roll around and look adorable. Dog people might be drawn to the very light insights the documentary presents, but it’s just a pleasant thing you can put on in the background for most people. Grade: C+

311. “Treasure”…Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry were made to play father and daughter, but–let’s be honest–if people are watching one 2024 movie about complicated relatives trying to reconnect on a trip to Poland, it’s probably the better known “A Real Pain.” But this one has its own charms, and is almost as underrated as “Pain” is overrated. Grade: C+

310. “The Animal Kingdom”…A very neat idea for a movie that never becomes a gripping movie in its own right. Grade: C+

309. “Force of Nature: The Dry 2”…Not sure “The Dry” really needed a sequel, and I’m definitely sure that a movie set almost entirely in lush forests is not the sequel fans of the Aussie outback original would be expecting. [Almost like they were trying to get as far away from the dusty desert geography of the original–even if that was the most memorable character in that Australian mystery.] Anyway, this is neither good nor bad, and can be a little bit clever, but also a little bit dull–much like Eric Bana as an actor. Grade: C+

308. “Bob Marley: One Love”…The opposite of “A Complete Unknown” in that it’s a musical biography centered around a singer who actually did something cinematic. However, the movie and Kingsley Ben-Adir conspire to present their “Bob Marley” in the most stereotypical terms imaginable, having him jabber about “one love,” “jah,” “Rastafari,” and “Haile Selassie” almost to the point of looking like he has Tourette’s, throwing out key catchphrases in-between a near constant stream of pot smoke. These were certainly popular concepts in Marley’s world, but the movie doesn’t deepen or contextualize them the way a more innovative filmmaker might’ve followed those side tangents down the rabbit hole or at least used various techniques to make them more visual. What I wouldn’t have given to see Boots Riley take on this same material. Grade: C+

307. “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Adult”…A few charming moments, but the quirky vampire-movie trope is having a hard time finding fresh angles. You may think (as I did) that this would be a better short film or episode of an anthology streaming series than a full-fledged movie. Grade: C+

306. “It Ends With Us”…A movie that has been eclipsed by the three-ring-circus of legal drama around it. I admit that I watched “Us” after the lawsuits started flying, so I was studying it for tell-tell signs that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni hated each other. To my surprise, they actually had good chemistry, and certainly lots of sexual tension (maybe that’s the real reason all this happened…who knows?). The actual movie could’ve been the rare on-screen portrayal of domestic abuse within a mainstream movie, but “Us” severely soft-pedals that aspect; a couple of incidents are so queasy in showing us things that I had a hard time knowing exactly what Baldoni’s character had done.

“Us” then undercuts its own feminist leanings entirely by having Lively get pregnant without even considering having an abortion. “Well here’s this completely inconvenient pregnancy that will keep a man I can’t be in the same room with around me for the rest of my life…sigh…oh well, guess I’ll do it without question.” It’s “chick lit” presented in a way that would not be remotely challenging to women that don’t want to actually think about women’s rights, and that is a substantially less interesting movie than the court cases around it. For a better exploration of domestic abuse in a movie with the word “Us” in the title, check out the French drama “Just the Two of Us,” although let’s be honest and say that such a film is not really what people checking out “It Ends With Us” are actually looking for. Grade: C+

305. “The Breaking Ice”…Some nice scenery, but the character dynamics never moved me in the way I might’ve hoped. The inherent repression in Chinese society can be devastating for films that really push their exploration of that, but “Breaking” doesn’t fully do that–occasionally feeling aimless, and leaving me somewhat cold, no pun intended. Grade: C+

304. “Magpie”…A thriller Daisy Ridley stars in and wrote the story for about the father of a child actress developing feelings for the sexy adult star of his daughter’s newest film. Ridley is the frustrated mother left at home with a newborn baby. A psychologically tense thriller ensues where a melodrama might’ve been just fine; you can almost feel the ending straining to push the action up a notch. Grade: C+

303. “My Old Ass”…Overrated, and I know every critic on Earth just pretended it wasn’t a gaping plot hole that Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella sound, act, and (especially) look nothing alike, but it is. I’m eager for higher-concept comedies to make a comeback, but the high-concept of an older-millennial woman talking to her younger self is undercut if her appearance deviates so wildly that it looks like she’s gone into witness protection after having extensive cosmetic surgery. Here, Maisy Stella is essentially just talking to a random stranger that pops up for an extended cameo. Grade: C+

302. “Nutcrackers”…It breezes by quickly enough, but you may find yourself a little surprised at how thin it all feels. Given the talent of David Gordon Green, you keep waiting on this to spin off into unpredictable directions, but it never does. Grade: C+

301. “Sasquatch Sunset”…What? Whether or not you get fully engaged in the survival of the Sasquatch species might depend on how easily you get grossed out. Grade: C+

300. “Music By John Williams”…”John Williams is a great composer and also a good man”–If you know that sentence, I’ve saved you the time of watching this documentary. Like most Disney “documentaries,” this is really more talking up an awesome white male creative for a little bit rather than giving you much depth on their life or creative process. Williams has had a legendary career, but I feel a documentary needs to be at least a little bit “warts and all” to have any narrative tension necessary to make the subject’s triumphs compelling to an audience. Grade: C+

299. “Family Pack”…Slight caper where a modern blended family time travels back to medieval France as part of a game where they battle werewolves. Keep expectations low, and watch when you aren’t very busy. The best thing here may be the slight uniqueness of having it be a French family. Grade: C+

298. “Hit Pig”…Parents will be like “What the hell am I watching? How did I wind up with this cruddy looking thing with plot points I can see 30 minutes out? Why does that villain look so cheap? And was this a straight-to-Tubi movie that Peacock bought at some point?” But Jason Sudekis’s cynical voice over work might give you a chuckle or two. More importantly, younger kids will like this and stop fighting with their siblings for 85 minutes, and not every animated movie needs to be “Flow” or even “The Wild Robot” as long as it can fill some much needed time. [Personally, I wish the number of animated movies would double or even triple so more time could be filled.] Grade: C+

297. “Kung Fu Panda 4”…I’m a huge fan of the “Kung Fu Panda” franchise, so imagine my surprise that this series-worst installment is only marginally better than “Hit Pig.” You can tell they’re cutting corners here almost immediately, from the exclusion of Po’s friends (surely due to budget cuts as Awkwafina is undoubtedly cheaper than Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, and Jackie Chan combined) to a script that is way too reliant on the first three installments of “Panda.” I’d prefer this movie weren’t made at all, and the excellent original trilogy stand by itself, right down to “Kung Fu Panda 3″‘s spirit-realm climax that really did feel like the perfect ending. Grade: C+

296. “Storm Chasers/Giants of La Mancha”…I wouldn’t describe this animated film as “very good,” probably not even the makers would, and yet there’s enough visual style to possibly make you glad your kids wanted to watch this over “Family Pack” or “Hit Pig.” Grade: C+

295. “Better Man”…This bloated musical biography goes through all the motions you’d expect (out of nowhere “discovery,” wild times on tour, the break up of a band, solo career struggles, meteoric solo career, existential struggles as you lose touch with your “roots,” drugs, ego, vaguely self-help mumbo-jumbo leading to a rebirth of sorts), and you may feel the gimmick of having Robbie Williams as a monkey is so we don’t recognize just how standard the rest of the movie actually is. Much like the chronology in “We Live in Time” was shuffled to disguise a rather pedestrian story, the CGI work here might be doing the same, and the grim lighting used in the interior scenes (possibly to cover up some weak CGI-detailing) made me feel claustrophobic after a while. Although this is the rare 2024 musical where the songs aren’t absolute dog shit (“Joker 2,” “Emilia Perez”), so there’s that at least. Grade: C+

294. “Girls State”…Turns out big-budget movies aren’t the only films that can have disappointing sequels. 2020 was a weak year for movies due to CoVid postponements, but I picked “Boys State” as the best film of that year because it examined a question I’ve never seen a documentary dare to ask before: Where do bad leaders come from? Although a documentary, “Boys State” felt more like a riveting political thriller with real stakes, a real narrative, and clearly-defined, fully formed “characters” that spoke quite clearly to the political moment of 2020 as an earnest political workhorse faces real opposition from a demagogue pretending he cares about the work of governing, but actually just interested in power.

But “Girls State?” The documentary has no focus, no stakes, no viewpoint, and seems afraid to negatively portray any of the girls attending the camp (as if the next Marjorie Taylor-Greene or Kristi Noem won’t come from somewhere exactly like this). A better documentary might’ve been a bit more judgmental towards things like a clearly-qualified Indian-American attendant getting passed over for a Supreme Court seat or even a tad more incisive towards the girl they spend the most time with: a blonde conservative who keeps saying she “wants to hear all sides” but seems to be using that line more as a marketing gimmick than truly hearing what other girls are saying. In fact, the doc eventually feels so listless that the movie even addresses that by having the last 15 minutes be about the writing of an expose that “Boys State” has more activities than “Girls State” (boy, does it though…). However, it is more than a little bit disappointing that even an experiment to see what happens when girls are allowed to fully form a government of their own just devolves into a myopic focus on what the boys are doing differently–making it no different than if they just did it co-ed to begin with, as the odd framing puts the boys almost as central. Grade: C+

293. “William Tell”…I know that William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head, and also…ummm…yeah, that’s about it. This old-fashioned period film tries to fill in the rest of the legend, but can occasionally feel like it’s cobbled together out of a dozen other “Braveheart”-type films. It hits all the beats you’d expect, and rarely comes up with something you wouldn’t. Not to mention, the usually-villainous Claes Bang isn’t well cast in this part, and it’s about like seeing Rufus Sewell play Robin Hood. Still, it’s nice to see some worthy history fleshed out a bit instead of the same old stories of British kings we usually see in films of this type. Grade: C+

292. “September 5th”…A movie I wanted to like more than I wound up liking as Paramount went the cheap route by not giving the horrifying events at the Munich Olympics a proper docudrama, instead just showing how TV news people at the time made decisions in covering it. Yawn…Something as inherently cinematic as these events sure would’ve been interesting to actually see rather than a handful of men in a booth safely out of danger talking about how best to cover the events. It’s almost shocking how little “movie” there actually is here, and it’s a little bit depressing to think of how studios were willing to shell out actual money for movies like Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” not that long ago rather than cram adult dramas into the cheapest category possible as a cost-saving measure. Grade: C+

291. “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”…An old man rides a bus to go visit a long ago acquaintance at a nursing home. If that doesn’t sound riveting, that’s because it’s not. Still, Jim Broadbent is always likable, and there’s a cozy feeling that you might enjoy if you’re looking for a film to watch as you’re trying to chill out or fall asleep. But “The Last Bus” tread similar territory just a microscopic bit better. Grade: C+

290. “Art College 1994”…Pretty dull overall, but fans nostalgic for that 90’s style of animation where adults shoot the breeze might enjoy it. Grade: C+

289. “Daughters”…A movie I thought I would like more than I did like. By now, almost every aspect of the prison industrial complex has had an excellent documentary about it (“The House I Live In,” “Kids for Cash,” “Philly DA”), but “Daughters” isn’t inherently political so much as character based–to a surprising fault. It’s one thing to feel generalized sympathy towards people that often have no business being in prison, and certainly not for as long as they wind up being there, but there are several scenes in this movie that made me question if they’re really doing the right thing by trying so hard to keep these men in their daughter’s lives (in some cases, even using the term “daughter” is more of a biological fact than them having any true connection beyond DNA). For example, one organizer of the daddy/daughter dance seems to put down the mothers who are left behind raising the kids on their own because they aren’t overflowing with endless empathy towards men that may not even be capable of being good dads. Some of the men may be interested in being fathers to their daughters, but some seem more interested in controlling their mother’s lives on the outside through their kids. This documentary doesn’t really want to even question if all these men really should be in their daughter’s lives, and if it’s doing them more harm than good. [A better exploration of some of the same themes can be found in “Exhibiting Forgiveness.”] Grade: C+

288. “His Three Daughters”…Speaking of movies about “Daughters” that I thought I would like more than I actually liked. You will either go with this movie’s rhythms (which is mostly just three characters bickering with each other from start to near-finish) or you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about when this was released to rapturous critical praise. Obviously, the performances are good, but maybe not much more than that. Grade: C+

287. “Mayhem”…Beautiful Thailand scenery, but not much in the way of plot. Still, the main character is hard not to root for, and the ending is impossible to resist. Grade: C+

286. “Land of Bad”…Straightforward survival film that doesn’t try to be much more than an action movie with competent production values. Undemanding action viewers will be fine with this. Grade: C+

285. “60 Minutes”…From this title, you might be hoping for a drama about the iconic news program (maybe how it started, and the many times it’s run afoul of powerful interests over the decades), but instead you’ll be treated to a throwaway action movie you’re likely to forget when the credits roll. Though there are some pulse pounding action scenes in the interim from opening to ending. Grade: C+

284. “The Thicket”…Tarantino-ish revisionist Western that mixes comedy with bloody violence. May look like a masterpiece if you’ve just watched Tubi-junk like “Coyote Woman,” but not-so-hot if you’ve more recently finished “The Hateful Eight” or even “The Sisters Brothers.” Grade: C+

283. “Caddo Lake”…Swampy scenery adds a touch of originality to a twisty time-bending movie that starts slow and ends depressing with some true emotional involvement in-between. Movies about people trapped in the wrong time period should be genuinely scary (like the superior “Synchronic”), but “Caddo” plays it more as a mild inconvenience. Grade: C+

282. “Humane”…Once the most virtuous character in the entire movie dies (fairly early on), it can be difficult to care what happens to the rest of them..and then the hapless black girlfriend (the second most virtuous character in the entire movie) of a different character dies, and I lost all emotional investment altogether. Thrillers about population control can be cerebral–and “Humane” is interesting enough–but they can be oddly self-defeating by making it irrelevant who the survivors are. I might recommend watching “Soylent Green” a second time over this one once, but it’s still fascinating to see immature-mumbler Jay Baruchel playing an unlikable and completely-adult character. Grade: C+

281. “Apartment 7A”…The least intense of the abortion-allegorical Horror movies where a woman is asked to carry something unholy (like “Immaculate,” “The First Omen,” “Alien: Romulus,” and even “Azrael” by the end), but not necessarily the worst of them (“Romulus” is worse to me personally). The cozier, CBS-drama vibe of “Apartment 7A” may make the underlying sinisterness somewhat more unsettling, and Julia Garner is a worthy successor to Mia Farrow. Now, we could debate all day if there needed to be a straight-to-streaming prequel to “Rosemary’s Baby,” but it could’ve been worse. Grade: C+

280. “The Last Year of Darkness”…Movies about China’s bone-deep oppression can be tough, because filmmakers are still afraid to directly go for the jugular in their portrayals. Here, we are treated to endless scenes of kids clubbing, but very little in the way of actual politics. Yeah, yeah, “this is a slice of life depiction–” but a lot of Chinese documentaries are that because the repression is so severe (verbally, physically, even psychologically, where some people’s very thoughts seem to be censored before they even think them), that they cannot challenge the government directly even in movies that would never play in a mainstream Chinese theater. Grade: C+

279. “A Man Imagined”…A homeless man suffering from untreated schizophrenia wanders around the streets of Montreal for an hour. Occasionally, they show us what he “sees” by transporting us to a place with more vivid visuals than the dull, gray sludge of cold city streets. If you like experimental cinema, you might go for this. Grade: C+

278. “Darkness of Man”…A much slower, more somber Jean Claude Van Damme experience than you might be expecting (or perhaps wanting), and will probably be best known for being one of Shannon Doherty’s final film roles (although her role is basically a cameo). Grade: C+

277. “Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything”…Lots of sex, tragic ending, many scenes of hushed quiet and unspoken tension; usual European fare. Grade: C+

276. “Riddle of Fire”…I’m torn grading this movie. On the one hand, I would love for kid’s movies to return to the analogue, slightly-ramshackle adventures of movie’s past, but I don’t know if this particular presentation is really “it.” Frankly, a lot of Generation Alpha would be bored watching this, and wouldn’t finish it, but I don’t know that it’s really “good enough” for adults either. Grade: C+

275. “Accidental Texan”…A good movie? Not quite, but it’s as relaxed and cozy as a favorite pair of jeans, so that you’re fine spending some time in it. Plus, it’s one of the better roles Thomas Haden Church has had in a while–possibly even since “Sideways.” Grade: C+

274. “Breakwater”…You might think this movie is overly convoluted, but if you compare it to Dermot Mulroney’s other obscure 2024 thriller “Blackwater Lane,” it’ll start to look a lot better. Grade: C+

273. “Spaceman”…A movie I thought I would like more than I actually did like. Anyone who’s ever checked out this annual countdown before knows that I have a loooong time soft spot for “sad dad” space movies (“Interstellar,” “Ad Astra,” “Solaris”) that are a little bit more philosophical than your average “Star Wars” knockoff, and the idea of Adam Sandler (of all people) trying a Tarkovsky-esque role on for size should’ve been irresistible. Instead, “Space” mistakes monotone dialogue said in hushed tones and languorous pacing for profundity (it’s actually not philosophical enough). And this is the umpteenth example of a part that I wish anyone other than Carey Mulligan had played, like an actual Czech actress or Jessica Chastain or Marion Cotillard or Tilda Swinton or Michelle Monaghan or Carrie Coons or Pamela Anderson or Karla Sofia Gascon or literally any actress would be a little bit more interesting to watch. Grade: C+

272. “Find Me Falling”…Harry Connick Jr. is a likable actor, and some may be charmed by this movie. Others will be bored, but I still found it less grating than most Netflix romances such as “Mother of the Bride” or “Lonely Planet.” Grade: C+

271. “The Merry Gentlemen”…”The Full Monty” Christmas version has a very specific fan base, and you’re either going to be in that or you’re not. However, it’s similar to “Find Me Falling” in that it’s far from the worst romantic comedy Netflix put out in 2024. Grade: C+

270. “Epic Tails”…An animated movie that will entertain younger kids, and will wash over your eyes without being absorbed. If you’re given a quiz about this movie at gunpoint after it’s over, you’re probably dead. Grade: C+

269. “Scarygirl”…When your kids get very restless and you’re looking for something to (hopefully) get them to watch so they won’t ask to watch brain-rotting YouTube videos instead, this Tim Burton-ish knockoff might work. Grade: C+

268. “The Children’s Train”…A movie where I felt my mind wandering around, and I actually fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it. It’s definitely possible I just had a bad experience on the wrong night, but I wasn’t especially compelled to give it a better chance on a different night either. Very well could be a great movie if watched under the right conditions (it’s got all the elements of a touching historical drama about a little-known period), but I really wouldn’t know. Grade: C+

267. “The Fall Guy”…One of those average action comedy crowd pleasers that becomes a bit overrated in the wake of flopping. [“No, you should have seen this–it was actually really good.”] Yes, yes, it’s a “love letter” to all of the people who actually make movies–like the stunt men, and the uhhhh…ummm…man, those stunt guys and stunt coordinators sure are great. It’s worth noting that Ryan Gosling’s title character (and the title does have a clever double meaning) is one of the few major characters in “Guy” that isn’t a movie star (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Teresa Palmer), movie producer (Hannah Waddingham), or director (Emily Blunt), so I’m not completely feeling the love for the “hard working crew” the movie may market itself as. [Director David Leitch of “John Wick” is a former stunt guy and may gravitate towards that more than, say, set designers or costume or hair/makeup or lighting technicians or…] More importantly, there’s something about the ramshackle plot, farfetched action scenes, and sub-Shane Black-esque nattering dialogue that began to get on my nerves during this movie’s bloated runtime. Grade: C+

266. “Red Fever”…It’s a bit hard to find this movie (about lousy Native American portrayals in U.S. pop culture even as cultural appropriation of their actual culture was rampant) as relevant as it might otherwise have been since we live in an era where appropriating indigenous cultures will start a firestorm on social media, and depictions of Native Americans in Hollywood Westerns have gone from “savage” one dimensional villains to perhaps overly romanticized. Case in point, half the movies Kevin Costner has directed… Grade: C+

265. “Horizon Part 1”…A movie I wanted to like more than I did like, almost to a desperate extent. I’d love to see large-budgeted, romantically epic Westerns make a huge comeback (instead of the grungy, low-budget Indies we’ve been seeing), but my fear is that “Horizon” might kill the sub-genre for good. The mistakes of the movie are obvious: it so ill-advisedly feels like a TV miniseries that there is literally an “episode 2” mini-trailer as the final “scene” of this movie. Costner also erred by not having finished all four parts before having the first one flop in theaters (it doesn’t sound like they even have financing for the fourth one–let alone anything like a realistic start date for production) nor having a clear “beginning, middle, end” structure for the parts. Something that would’ve made a lot more sense would’ve been having “Part 1” be before the Civil War, “Part 2” be during the Civil War, and “Part 3” be–you guessed it–after the War. As is, the bloated, aimless “Part 1” feels like the first episode of a TV show most people think should’ve been a movie. Grade: C+

264. “In the Rearview”…An experimental documentary about Ukrainian refugees trying to clear checkpoints to Poland. Understand that this is not a typical documentary with contextualized scenes so much as a very tense road trip that is trying to plug you into the journey of people who aren’t sure what’s about to happen next. It can be meandering or feel aimless, but occasionally riveting as we wait to see what happens next. If you’re in the exact right mindset to watch it, please do so. Grade: C+

263. “Anora”…I understand most people would consider it an act of willful lunacy to put this beneath “Kraven the Hunter,” but this is truly one of the most overrated movies of 2024, if not the most. It may be unfair to judge “Anora” as “The Best Picture Winner” rather than the tiny, mid-effort indie underdog it was meant to be–like one of those movies where you’re practically begging people to check it out and tell them “you don’t know what you’re missing,” as I did exactly that for Sean Baker’s superior previous effort “Red Rocket.” However, it is the Best Picture of 2024, and should be judged just as harshly as “Nomadland” or “CODA,” two other recent winners that were largely forgotten a few months after their wins.

“Anora” doesn’t work as it’s presented since the central emotion we’re feeling is that she’s getting royally screwed–thoroughly undercutting the “Pretty Woman” fantasy the audience might wish to indulge in instead. But if we’re feeling like she’s getting ripped off somehow, doesn’t that signify that her “marriage” was largely just transactional? And if we know that it’s all just a transaction, then is she really being cheated? When her “husband” is throwing a temper tantrum on his family’s private jet as though he’s being told he can’t stay up past his bedtime, a shocked Anora (both the film and the character) seem to be seeing him clearly for the first time, but if we now know he’s this emotionally immature, doesn’t that mean he shouldn’t really be getting married in the first place? And then aren’t we back to wondering why we should really be caring about any of this?

To his credit, Baker films his movies “70’s style,” not just in on-the-fly technical aspects, but morally, saying “this is neither right nor wrong, it’s just something that happened.” And that might’ve been fine for one of the 300 indie movies a year that barely get noticed, but should you want something a little bit…more out of the film of the year than a repetitive second half where shady oligarch goons scream at Anora? For me, the answer is “yes.” Grade: B-

262. “Kraven the Hunter”…To say this is the “best” superhero movie that Sony put out in 2024 is a bit of a backhanded compliment since “Kraven” merely being competently put together places it in a class ahead of “Madame Web.” And yet I also prefer it to the “Venom” series and “Mobius,” making it “the best” Spider-Man villain movie–even if that merely means it’s not awful. And since there were no DCU movies in 2024 and only one Marvel movie that I didn’t really like that much (“Deadpool 3”), was this my favorite superhero film of 2024 by default? Talk about damnation with faint praise.

Anyway, what separates “Kraven” from the rest of that garbage is that a real director is behind it: J.C. Chandor (“Margin Call,” “A Most Violent Year”), whose 2013 film “All is Lost” is one of the most underrated movies of this century. Scene after scene in “Kraven” works a little bit better than it should (like Christopher Abbott’s genuinely cool villain or the vastly-superior take on The Rhino compared to “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”), none of the performances are bad (which is saying something since nearly the entire cast has borscht-belt thick Russian “ack-centz”), and the violent action scenes give audiences what they want. Did the PG-13 “Venom” movies feature a guy getting a bear trap to the face? No, no they didn’t. However, the film is still not “good” by any conventional metric–only better than your diminished expectations might’ve thought, and quite possibly the “best” bad movie of the year. Also, I wish it weren’t so afraid of making Kraven’s love interest (Ariana DeBose) actually romantic. As is, they come across more as buddies than anything that even edges into non-platonic territory; “Kraven” and “Deadpool 3” prove that although superhero movies are fine with an off-the-charts body count, they’re still weird on their heroes so much as kissing a girl. Grade: B-

261. “Here”…Many reviewers were too rough on this Robert Zemeckis weeper set entirely in one place throughout time. Truthfully, I became involved in these characters lives more than most movies, and found myself actually caring what happens to them, and those are crucial elements too many dramas don’t “get.” I’ve never seen a movie quite like “Here,” and think experimental filmmaking by major directors, stars, and studios is nothing to sneeze at in this risk-averse movie landscape. Grade: B-

260. “Piano Forte”…Not much to this other than the music itself, as the competition element is never as dramatically compelling as you might think, but also not quite as enjoyably stripped down as “Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus” so that we’re only focusing on the music. Still, the music is good, and it goes by quickly. Grade: B-

259. “Stormy”…The sex scandal between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump is what 95% of people will be watching this for (even if they are millennials who grew up watching Stormy’s previous film work) and all of it is pretty well explained in the first quarter of this documentary. Then you start to feel the plot being lost a bit afterwards, and you might wonder if 15 minutes couldn’t have been trimmed out of the final edit. Still, Daniels is undeniably captivating, and you might find yourself looking for resistance wherever you can find it–just as long as somebody is standing up to Trump, maybe that’s worth watching. This also features one of the most unexpected cameos of Seth Rogen’s career. Grade: B-

258. “Ordinary Angels”…As manipulative as “Arthur the King,” but at least it’s an actual human life at stake instead of a mangy dog in the Dominican Republic. [In “Arthur,” I doubt the Mark Wahlberg character or his lily-white family would’ve shown much interest in getting an actual person from the DR into America.] I didn’t like the Alan Ritchson character’s instinctive surliness, but did find it a pretty good representation of the MAGA-mentality in that he desperately needs charity and has someone else do all the work for him, but acts begrudging and surly the entire time in accepting it. The always-reliable Hilary Swank is very welcome here though. Grade: B-

257. “Nightbitch”…The novel “Nightbitch” is tricky to adapt because so much of it is an internal journey–sharp prose that expertly puts you inside a character’s head and emotions don’t necessarily translate well to the screen, and what reads as a propulsive page-turner in Rachel Yoder’s book feels like it drifts a lot on screen. Grade: B-

256. “Between the Temples”…Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane have such an interesting relationship here that it almost feels like a cop-out that the movie introduces the possibility that Schwartzman is in love with her, but then quickly abandons it and ends the film before following up on that. [We literally don’t even find out her response or how she feels about it.] Because the movie seems to be afraid of the chemistry between its two leads, I can’t fully recommend it, although no one will have a bad time with it either. Grade: B-

255. “Cuckoo”…”What the hell did I just watch?” And not necessarily in a bad way either. Grade: B-

254. “Love Lies Bleeding”…This sapphic noir has a first half that’s tense and excitingly-erotic, recalling the Wachowski’s “Bound,” but the second half eventually becomes goofier and more random, falling back on an unnecessary amount of body Horror and surrealism. It should also be sad that Kristen Stewart and Dave Franco aren’t fully convincing as a pair of skeezy rural characters in unfortunate haircuts, the way Ed Harris lends his role effortless credibility. But Katy O’Brian is a star in the making. Grade: B-

253. “Die Alone”…Is it even possible to do an original zombie film anymore? Well, this one comes pretty close, with a time-jumping plot that may surprise you, and being the rare movie that makes good use of Carrie Anne-Moss, an underrated talent who never really found her post-“Matrix” career groove. Grade: B-

252. “The American Society of Magical Negroes”…An interesting conversation starter in that people can’t really agree on why they don’t like it exactly (some were disappointed it wasn’t a black American version of “Harry Potter,” some wish it had been more scathing in its presentation, and conservatives were mad it existed at all). For me, the film had some rather obvious blindspots in its focus on one very specific media trope–like not featuring a single black female character being relegated to “sidekick” status to a white woman (you can still see this cliche in almost every teen or young adult movie released today); we know the Society has black female members because we see them (like Nicole Byer’s hilarious Society President), but we never really see them work. Still, the always-welcome David Alan Grier is slyly cutting in one of his better film roles in recent years. Grade: B-

251. “Kill”…An unusual heist movie set on a train in India where a couple of commandos (and a few passengers) do battle against a gang of numerous thieves armed mostly with knives. The setting and characters–in many ways, the villains are more humane than the generic action hero lead–make this a little more unique than it might otherwise be. Grade: B-

250. “One More Shot”…I haven’t seen the film this movie is a sequel to, but that’s fine since the entire exercise isn’t really that plot-dependent anyway. People watching this are wanting to see the real-time action gimmick that makes it look like the entire movie is filmed in one flowing take of continuous chaos. I’m a sucker for tracking shots, and they’re an undeniably good way to make average action material feel more compelling than it might otherwise be. Grade: B-

249. “Drugstore June”…Not a bad showcase for Esther Povisky, who hits just the right pitch in a tricky role that asks her to walk a tightrope between funny and annoying. Grade: B-

248. “Lee”…The plot mostly just lies there, as Kate Winslet does what she can. But some viewers might be interested to see Andy Samberg’s dramatic debut, and the technical aspects used to capture the period are pretty good. Grade: B-

245./246./247. “Crisis on Infinite Earths–Part 1” “Part 2” and “Part 3”…Rather than separate these three movies into separate listings, I won’t do what HBO Max did and drag this out. All of them are about the same, which is to say better than some DC animated movies, but still not as memorable as some of the wilder ones (like Batman being transported to medieval Japan in “Batman Ninja” or Gotham by gaslight in “The Doom That Came to Gotham”). Grade: B-

243./244. “The Three Musketeers Part 1–D’artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers Part 2–Milady”…Old fashioned French epic complete with all the usual touches like contempt, political intrigue, some sex (although not enough, and very little for a French film), and Vincent Cassel flaring his nostrils in disgust from scene to scene as if his co-stars are passing gas. I think it is legally required to put either Cassel or Eva Green in every major French movie, and this one has both! That and some sword fights, what more do you want? Might be a little bit slow though, and you might wonder why they didn’t shorten both parts into one 3 hour movie. Grade: B-

242. “Spongebob Saves Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie”…You either like SpongeBob or you don’t, and if you don’t, this movie won’t convince you otherwise. As somebody who doesn’t really “get” the devoted cult for SpongeBob, I can only tell you that I liked this movie more than most I’ve seen in the SpongeBob universe, and so maybe that’s something. Grade: B-

241. “Ultraman: Rising”…Good technical skills, but forgettable animated movie. Grade: B-

240. “The Kleks Academy”…This Polish fantasy movie is built out of very familiar blockbuster family-fantasy elements (“The Bureau of Good and Evil,” or, hell, “Harry Potter,” which some people say ripped off the source novel this film is based on), but distinguishes itself with a batshit-nuts color scheme that is never boring to watch. Fans of hallucinogenics might’ve found their new “2001: A Space Odyssey” to watch while “on a journey.” Grade: B-

239. “The Taste of Things”…A drama about French cooking that is delicious to look at (not just the food, but the warm amber lighting and color palette), but will have more restless viewers checking their watch. At 2 hours and 15 minutes, it could’ve stood not only a bit of editing, but perhaps one or two more standout scenes. Still, a very good movie to eat something while watching. Grade: B-

238. “Ennio”…Talks about the life of Ennio Morricone briefly (mostly towards the beginning) before mostly focusing on his life as an artist. At 2-and-a-half hours, this movie can feel padded given that it’s mostly just recapping Morricone’s filmography rather than really digging deeper into his creative process. There were several documentaries about composers this year, and none of them really delivered much of an explanation on that near-mystical, “touch of the divine” quality that is out-of-nowhere inspiration. I’m not convinced it’s completely unexplainable and/or impossible to make tangible to an audience, but this doc doesn’t do it or much even attempt it despite an opening few minutes that very much pays reference to it. Grade: B-

237. “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”…Critics will love this movie more than audiences, who might at least question why this movie is an hour too long. Still, any movie random enough to string together a cameo from the worst director alive (Uwe Boll), and a parody of social media’s viral misogynists (our main character uses face morphing technology to impersonate somebody very different from herself in online dispatches, a sly jab at how “offensiveness” has become commodified) is never going to be fully boring. Grade: B-

236. “Sweet Dreams”…This is the Dutch movie about the heir to a sugar plantation finding out that his father passed him over for his illegitimate, younger Indonesian son and longtime mistress. There’s a real tension that builds (especially in the middle of the movie), but I kept wishing it would shuck its deadpan smirk and play this material straight. Does an exploration of colonialism really need to be droll and ironic? It’s a little bit as if the Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker Ena Sendijarevic is afraid of her own material. Grade: B-

235. “Bad River”…A difficult movie to critique because the story of Wisconsin-based Native American tribes desperately fighting powerful polluters is certainly a worth topic, but the presentation of this documentary is not the strongest (there are YouTube videos with better production values). I think the story carries it through, and don’t want to discourage people from checking this out–I just want to encourage you to have a sobering cup of coffee first. Grade: B-

234. “Carbon + Water”…A no-budget ultra-indie that went straight to Tubi, but is quite unusual for them in that it’s a quiet, competent drama about an aging gay man’s loneliness instead of some F-grade Horror movie or action junker. The movie has–dare I say it?–actual soulfulness, and the introspective nature of this is borderline-shocking on the free streamer better known for stuff like “Meth Gator.” Still, there are some awkward patches where the movie doesn’t quite flow from one scene to the next, and the ending doesn’t really work. Grade: B-

233. “Hold Your Breath”…A “devil is in the dustbowl” horror movie where you’re (at first) unsure if the evil is real or being manifested by the mother’s damaged psyche. Sarah Paulson plays a woman whose desire to “protect” her family may actually be putting it in terrible danger. Whether you prefer this or the similar Halle Berry thriller “Never Let Go” (I believe “Go” is superior) is largely a matter of personal taste, but I liked the period setting and Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s shifty character here. Grade: B-

232. “The Beast Within”…Like “Never Let Go” and “Hold Your Breath,” this horror movie is really an exploration of abusive parenting. One thing I think works slightly better here than the others is that it’s a little more clear that the real “beast” within is a parent that can’t quite control their darkness, using the metaphor of a werewolf to intelligently explore a father that is one way by day, and something else entirely by night. Grade: B-

231. “The Bad Shepherd”…You might think you’re watching a thriller about ordinary people caught up in a thriller-scenario such as “A Simple Plan,” but “Shepherd” eventually introduces supernatural elements that make the morality play a little bit more obvious. Still, there’s something undeniably compelling about what we’re watching, and the minutes went by a little bit faster than I was expecting. Grade: B-

230. “What’s Inside”…Another morality play that involves characters body-swapping during a sci-fi party game; things “go wrong” in insidious ways that made me feel sorry for most people involved. Grade: B-

229. “From Darkness to Light”…Jerry Lewis’s infamous “The Day the Clown Cried” gets the full-on documentary treatment here, and this movie is probably as close as we’ll ever come to seeing the (supposedly) unfinished film. Here, we can see some “behind the scenes” stills, and even a few rough cut scenes, which makes it maddening that we can’t just watch the full thing and make up our own minds. Instead, there’s an extended “talking head” section with an unhelpful Harry Shearer (who has somehow seen “Clown,” even if he never goes into detail on how) talking about the movie–without giving much of a full synopsis or even breaking down specific scenes that stood out to him. I wish this had been more like “Jodorowsky’s Dune,” a documentary that truly made me feel I had seen a movie that never got made, and made me wish I had seen the real deal.

Even if “The Day the Clown Cried” is as awful as Lewis eventually seemed to believe it was (but most of his movies weren’t exactly “Citizen Kane” so you wonder why he wouldn’t let an audience make up its own mind), you still wish you could see it–as you know there would inevitably be a “devil’s advocate” cult following. As is, his reaction to bury it feels more like a lot of comedy legends: so hyper-controlling to the point they’d rather preserve whatever they think their legacy is than take a true risk, and where you can’t really trust their judgment at all. However, it did leave me wanting more (I especially wish I could find an interview of Lewis talking about Roberto Benigni’s “Life is Beautiful,” which won him the Best Actor Oscar, and if that gutted Lewis), and any doc that leaves you still interested in its mysteries at least kept you invested in what it was showing you. Grade: B-

228. “The End We Start From”…There have been so many “end of the world” movies that it can be tough to do something new, and this one doesn’t really succeed on that front, but it’s not dumb. The characters are relatively intelligent, and the technical aspects are crisp, making it sometimes feel like the PBS version of some Netflix dystopian drama–which is not necessarily a bad thing. Grade: B-

227. “Sting”…Even if this is one of those movies where characters do stupid things, this isn’t a bad creature feature at all, and I (surprisingly) preferred it to the more overtly political/allegorical “Vermin” in terms of 2024 killer spider movies. Grade: B-

226. “The Settlers”…If period Westerns about native rights getting trampled on by European invaders is your thing, you might go for this Chilean version of what we might myopically think of as a uniquely United States story/history. Grade: B-

225. “How to Have Sex”…People might hope their first time is special; for most, it isn’t. This coming-of-sexual-age story has a strong lead performance, but can feel as aimless and overlong as your actual teenage years where more time than you might remember is spent waiting for something to happen more than it does happen. Grade: B-

224. “Absolution”…Liam Neeson has played many over-the-hill hitmen characters over the past few years. And “Absolution” is not even the best one in 2024 (that would be “In the Land of Sinners and Saints”) and yet I’d rather watch about 15 more movies like this than the glut of Aaron Eckhart and Frank Grillo actioners we’re going to be getting now that Bruce Willis has retired and Nicolas Cage has been elevated back to better material. If Neeson can keep finding ways to do smarter, more soulful versions of the usual Saban Films action fare, I say let him. As is, “Absolution” has an alive supporting performance from Yolanda Ross, and a couple of vivid action scenes that never seem unrealistic–not always easy when your central assassin is over 70. Grade: B-

223. “Goodrich”…I felt bad for Michael Keaton’s character almost from start to finish, and wondered how he was able to take so much of this in stride. The problem is that the movie keeps insisting he’s paying for various bad things he’s done (neglect of loved ones being at the top of the list), but we don’t really see him that way from what’s presented. As is, he seems almost too calm and mensch-y given what he’s actually going through. Still, Keaton is as reliable as always. Grade: B-

222. “A Real Pain”…Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for a performance that is (frankly) irritating, and may even be cheating (much like Zoe Saldana’s Best Supporting Actress performance in “Emilia Perez,” Culkin is more of a co-lead than a true supporting actor). Culkin’s work is far more limited and even what we expect him to do vs. long overdue other nominees like Edward Norton and Guy Pearce, or perhaps even the more electric work from his “Succession” co-star Jeremy Strong in “The Apprentice.”

“Pain” itself is occasionally amusing, and has a couple of affecting scenes, but it’s also highly overrated, conventional, and there’s a disconnect given that we’re treated to so many scenes of Culkin’s character acting like a jerk while Jesse Eisenberg’s bemoans his own lack of ability to light up a room the way his cousin can. You might start to think “Is this really somebody you should be jealous of?” Or even “Would four separate characters who are not related to him actually thank him for some of the stuff he’s saying on the tour rather than finding him obnoxious?” This is also one of the few movies that are too short, as you keep waiting for one more standout scene or something that would justify the critical hosannas it’s received. Grade: B-

221. “Memoir of a Snail”…Depressing but soulful, featuring characters we rarely see in animation, and the occasional truth is stumbled upon (such as “life must be lived forwards, but can only be understood backwards”). Grade: B-

220. “Ezra”…It’s just sort-of there, and at least some of it feels like they’re making it up as they go along (perhaps appropriate given how poorly-thought out Max’s plan to “kidnap” his son Ezra actually is when it’s obvious to everyone where they’re headed–his big break of all places, at a taped segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live). Still, there are a handful of very good scenes with Robert DeNiro that are arguably a better father-son dynamic than the one we’re supposed to find more central to the plot. Grade: B-

219. “The People’s Joker”…This is a movie that works better if you have diminished expectations. By the time I finally had access to this, I’d already seen it on Variety’s 10 Best Films of the Year List, and breathless praise from critics for nearly a year. But this works better as a “midnight movie” you check out without knowing much about it, and maybe in the dead of night. You’ll probably laugh more (especially at scathing parodies of not only Batman but “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels as well), and appreciate its underdog rhythms quite a bit more when you have no expectations–much like the D-grade comedy club where many of the movie’s knockoff Batman villains spend the majority of their time. The kind-of place where you just show up, relax in the dark, maybe have a drink, and if something genuinely funny happens, it feels like a revelation. Grade: B-

218. “Longlegs”…A delightfully fiendish turn by Nicolas Cage (his sinister actions offset by a childlike naivety that makes me think he might’ve been channelling Michael Jackson here) elevates some rather routine Satanic serial killer genre tropes (and balances out a typically flat performance from Maika Monroe). Still, this is made with a clear mood, technical specificity, and tone of voice that’s hard to ignore, creating an atmosphere that can often make what we’re watching feel more intense than it actually is, unfolding like a cross between a Lynchian-nightmare and the more glamorous style of David Fincher. Grade: B-

217. “Arcadian”…If there ever comes a time where people once again question Nicolas Cage’s acting ability, maybe show them “Longlegs” and “Arcadian” back-to-back; both are supernatural Horror films, both were released around the same time, neither have blockbuster budgets, and yet Cage manages to believably play two characters who are about as far apart as men can be. Although most people prefer Cage in gonzo-showstopper mode; “Arcadian” reminds you that he can absolutely play a credible human being with normal emotions and interactions even as giant monsters roam the countryside looking for their next meal. The physiology of these beasts is certainly unique (it’s kind-of like Dr. Seuss mixed with H.R. Giger) and stood out to me from the more generic monsters we’re seeing pop up in “Quiet Place” clones. Grade: B-

216. “The Red Virgin”…An obsessive mother raises her daughter to be a feminist voice, and would rather kill her offspring (and the movie presents her upbringing as more of an intellectual experiment than anything close to a true familial relationship) than see her throw away her gifts for a romantic relationship with some guy. Interesting ideas are explored here, even if it might’ve benefited from being about 15 minutes shorter. Grade: B-

215. “The Outrun”…This movie is far too long, but Saoirse Ronan continues to impress with a difficult performance that would’ve been Razzie material in the hands of a less capable actress. There are several scenes of screaming, crying, fighting, nervous energy, worrying about a mentally sick parent, getting sick herself (both physically and mentally), etc. where we just have to fully go with her and it’d be impossible to do that if she didn’t have full control of the character and what she’s doing–taking somebody that could’ve easily been irritating as hell on the page and turning them into a flawed protagonist we can see ourselves in. Also, the scenery is the best supporting character here, and is a worthy scene partner for Ronan to play off (some of the best scenes in the movie are just her moving around by herself). Grade: B-

214. “Suncoast”…Woody Harrelson’s presence is usually as welcome as a cold glass water on a hot day, but I didn’t totally believe the odd “friendship” between his pro-life activist and our heroine here (it felt just as likely she’d avoid a guy like this). The rest of the movie around this subplot is really just trying to capture the mood and atmosphere of being a coming-of-age millennial (I can remember some Alabamians making the Terry Schiavo case a waaaay bigger deal than it actually was), and is no great shakes until an ending that might knock you flat with emotion. Grade: B-

213. “Nature of the Crime”…Men who were convicted of crimes as teens are conflicted on the best way to present their request for a parole. Does a good job of expressing the conflicted emotions in whether you can ever really move on from committing a heinous crime, and what’s the best way to ask for parole regardless since it’s always going to be the human urge to get out of prison no matter what you’ve done. Still, you may find yourself getting a little restless in spots. Grade: B-

212. “The Honorable Shyne”…Could almost be subtitled “Justice for Shyne” as it seeks to shed new light on the event that put Shyne in prison and prematurely ended a promising hip-hop career. For me, the first half of this documentary rings false (Shyne was never really as good a rapper as they’re claiming, and it’s notable that we don’t actually see or hear that much of the music which inspired the breathless hype he receives), but it picks up steam as it deals with the aftermath of the shooting that put Shyne in prison and let Diddy off the hook so he could change his life and start a charity–oh wait, that last part isn’t right… Grade: B-

211. “Monkey Man”…This movie is a mess, but it is still fun to watch an Indian version of “John Wick” and one of the few Western-marketed films that drops the Bollywood-tinged sanitized spectacle India is usually portrayed with to embrace the grittier, corruption-married-to-Hindu-fundamentalism reality. I do wish the ending was better though. Grade: B-

210. “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”…A prequel that really shouldn’t exist (there’s very little here we couldn’t have divined from “Fury Road” or even that we would care to know), but since it flopped, it became fashionable for many critics to subsequently over praise it–often as a cudgel against the superior (and popular) “Dune 2.” You can almost hear the phony-“contrarian” whine of film critics that get paid to come up with this stuff saying “Forget ‘Dune 2,’ the real epic franchise continuation in the desert is…” …Yeah…sure…

It’s not even totally clear why it’s a prequel at all instead of seeing Charlize Theron going on a new adventure in the desert after “Fury Road.” The movie’s best aspect is Chris Hemsworth’s career-high performance as a chaotic tyrant with a bit more layers than we’re used to from the “Mad Max” franchise. There’s no reason at all this character couldn’t have faced off against Theron’s iconically adult “Furiosa,” and seeing the action-equals up against each other would’ve been more interesting as well. Grade: B-

209. “Out of the Darkness”…Early humanity is an under-explored era for thrillers, and this moody little suspense film is taking a step in the right direction. Grade: B-

208. “Self Reliance”…Jake Johnson plays a man getting hunted for cash, and will win a “prize” if he can stay alive for a while. Similar to “Jackpot,” but in a more lowkey, indie-style. Do you prefer things that are more conventionally satisfying (which “Jackpot” is) or more character-driven? If the latter, check out “Self Reliance” on a night you don’t have much to do, and keep expectations pretty low. Grade: B-

207. “Jackpot”…For me, “Jackpot” might be slightly better. Grade: B-

206. “Faye”…Is Faye Dunaway a great actress unfairly railroaded into a “difficult” reputation, or a great actress who’s also a jerk? This movie leans heavily towards the former opinion, but how thrilling might it be to see just one documentary (or biography) of an artist wherein they say “You know what? I’m not really misunderstood. I’m an asshole, and I’m also a genius, and maybe the two go together. I wasn’t a great actress in spite of being a pain, but because I was a pain at a time when it’s the only way a woman could be heard. But was it that important I was nice on the set when the movies were as good as the ones I made back in the day? They still hold up, don’t they?” I know pigs will fly before we ever see an actress say something like that instead of being instinctively defensive of their reputation and the “unfair shackles of society’s double standards” and so on, but wouldn’t it be more fun to see a famous woman that was a little bit proud of the hell they raised? Maybe just a little bit? Grade: B-

205. “The Great Lillian Hall”…Whereas the documentary “Faye” checked in on an actual living legend, “Lillian Hall” fictionalizes a Broadway icon having massive trouble remembering her lines in what will surely prove to be her last walk across the Great White Way. The movie’s real tension is whether she’ll even be able to perform the play at all–and you might be surprised at how wrapped up you get in the dilemma. Nothing earth-shattering, but you could do worse as well. Grade: B-

204. “The Piano Lesson”…Danielle Deadwyler steals the movie with an innovative performance in a movie that feels stiff and stagey until she explodes onto the screen in the film’s most memorable scenes. Grade: B-

203. “Silver Servers”…A documentary about older people playing tennis. Grade: B-

202. “Aisha”…A quiet drama that’s certainly relevant (Leticia Wright has to fight inane immigration rulings) but I wish there had been just a little bit more. Lower-budgeted dramas don’t need special effects to hook an audience, but how about more memorable dialogue and at least a couple of explosive scenes to jolt us? All of that can be accomplished for free and by giving the actors a little bit more to do than stare wistfully out of windows. Maybe they’d even prefer the challenge? Grade: B-

201. “A Family Affair”…A cliched, contrived romantic comedy that still delivers “the goods” in a way that too few of these movies do nowadays. You won’t roll your eyes too much (except at Joey King’s bratty character), Zac Efron has fun spoofing his doltish image, and Nicole Kidman could probably make any scenario believable at this point. Pretty much exactly what people are hoping for when they watch a throwaway Netflix movie on a slow night, but rarely wind up getting. Grade: B-

200. “Songs of the Earth”…Boring, but includes scenery that is so gorgeous it’s almost a spiritual experience to behold. Grade: B-

199. “Modernism Inc.”…Similar to “Songs,” this movie can be very dry, but is visually compelling, just as you might expect from a documentary about design. Grade: B-

198. “Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary”…Delightfully cheesy and knowing exploration of a musical genre that’s easy to poke fun at (right down to the “Dock” pun in the title), but that people genuinely like. Personally, if you’re going for something musically lame, but audibly pleasant, I would reach for Yacht Rock before Taylor Swift or K-Pop or any of the “more legitimate” musical choices that have fan bases that might kill you for not taking them dead seriously. Grade: B-

197. “Autumn and the Black Jaguar”…Whether you enjoy this movie or “Bookworm” more will largely be subjective. “Bookworm” probably has the better plot and entertainment factor, but “Autumn” has an earnest environmental message, and may be more appropriate for smaller kids to watch. Grade: B-

196. “Bookworm”…The movie that “Riddle of Fire” wanted to be in that it’s an old-fashioned kid’s adventure about modern kids going out “into the wild” and encountering some riffraff amongst the nature. Nothing too crazy happens, but for a generation that barely leaves their house and/or screens, this might look revelatory. Grade: B-

195. “Film is Dead/Long Live Film”…Minor documentary about film obsessives trying to preserve every scrap of film they can get their hands on. A worthy effort of cultural preservation, but you’ll probably be watching this only the one time–certainly no obsession of your own will be bred from a single viewing. Grade: B-

194. “Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story”…A British-born, American-living man devotes the back half of his life to bringing better healthcare to rural Americans that have never known anything close to good healthcare. A worthy subject matter, even if the telling is obviously on a budget. It’s an extra shame Stan Brock died in 2018 because it sure would be interesting to see a “sequel” set after Trumpolini’s Medicaid cuts, medical grant freezes, and hospital closures kick in. Grade: B-

193. “The Casagrandes Movie”…I’ve never seen one episode of the TV show, and understood almost nothing about this movie as images moved over my eyeballs. My kids seemed to enjoy it though… Grade: B-

192. “Craig Before the Creek”…Same thing. Although there were some cool pirate scenes and the swampy terrain is a bit unusual for a kid’s movie. Grade: B-

191. “Big City Green: Spacecation”…Same thing; although I did enjoy this one the best of all three “straight to streaming” Disney-animated movies based on similar-looking TV shows. It’s a little bit funnier, the space scenes are an interesting setting for a somewhat redneck-ish-family, and the characters popped a bit more. Grade: B-

190. “Daddio”…Dakota Johnson can sometimes be woefully miscast (usually the further outside her comfort zone she gets, like “Persuasion” or, of course, “Madame Web”), but she’s very good here in a role that fits her better than most. And Sean Penn hasn’t been this good in years, as a rascally know-it-all-cab driver. This is one of those “bottle dramas” that takes place between only a couple of characters in a single setting, but “Daddio” doesn’t really have a narrative arc the way many of those films do like reconnecting with an old love in “What Happens Later” or an elaborate revenge scheme like “Tape.” Even if the dialogue is quite good, this is just a couple of people chattering away while stuck in traffic, and you never get the sense they’ll even attempt to see each other again. Does that sound riveting or even especially memorable? Grade: B-

189. “Hot Frosty”…If you’ve been wondering what Lacey Chabert’s been up to since her mid-00’s heyday, it’s stuff like this, quietly becoming the Hallmark Channel movie queen. Still, straight-to-streaming Christmas movies are usually a lot worse than this, and much less (intentionally) humorous. Grade: B-

188. “The Blue Angels”…Straightforward documentary about legendary pilots that can be a little bit dry when they’re not in the air, but still gives us some breathtaking flight footage which is what we came for. Grade: B-

187. “Endurance”…Similarly to “Angels,” this documentary may stick in your mind more for its visuals than anything else–here it’s some gorgeous Arctic scenery that I wish I had been able to catch on the big screen. Movies set in submarines or ships–preferably surrounded by snow–are a natural fit for the comfortable claustrophobia and surround sound of a movie theater. Grade: B-

186. “Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World”…Documentary about the importance of an iconic NYC Ukrainian restaurant in the face of Russia’s brutal invasion. Grade: B-

185. “The Snow Sister”…A “kid’s Holiday movie” that can run the risk of being depressing (typical Europeans…sigh…), but that might be a good antidote to the endlessly saccharine straight-to-streaming Christmas “movies” we get every year that feel more like commercials loosely inspired by each other. This is a movie you need to be in a particular mindset to watch, but you might be shocked at how moving it is…or maybe you’ll find it manipulative and cheap. Mileage may vary, and you can see both sides easily depending on the mood you’re in. Grade: B-

184. “Crossing”…Very strong character work but the pacing may try your patience. Grade: B-

183. “The End”…Some people might vehemently defend this apocalyptic musical, but far more will wind up hating it. I was somewhere in the middle (I experience that a lot with “love it or hate it” films). On the one hand, the cast is strong (any movie with Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton will never be all bad), and fully committed in the somewhat-unnecessary musical numbers that easily could’ve come off as unintentionally funny. Also strong is the critique of oblivious fossil fuel executives who will defend their “work” until the Earth has literally ended. On the other hand, it’s much longer than it should’ve been, and the “End” feels aimless–unsure if it should push things to “The Menu” style horror extremes (it doesn’t)–or keep hitting some of the same notes about the only character we care about (Moses Ingram) experiencing grief that the others are incapable of (it does). Grade: B-

182. “Evil Does Not Exist”…A movie that received a lot of praise, but you might find yourself getting a bit restless while watching it–especially the first half. The ending is mysterious and fascinating, sneaking up on you completely. Grade: B-

181. “Conclave”…Most reviewers liked this movie a lot more than I did, but it just feels far too soft on the Catholic Church. You can feel the movie being overly respectful and tip-toeing around the elephants in the room during practically every scene. Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci are good (which is not exactly a revelation), but Fiennes has been playing wilder roles in recent years that I prefer him in; almost becoming a Merchant-Ivory-like version of Nicolas Cage in “The Rat Catcher,” “The Menu,” or “28 Years Later.” Becoming the male Tilda Swinton is no small thing, and I’d like Fiennes to continue on that path instead of more dry parts in dustier prestige dramas. Grade: B-

180. “No Way Up”…The “best” of 2024 shark attack movies, a relatively weak year for shark movies that saw more of them than actual shark attacks. [Sharks should fire their publicist because their image sucks.] “Up” has the guaranteed-banger premise of people being trapped in a sinking plane with hungry sharks circling around it. I wish the finished result were as exciting as that premise sounds, but there are still some good moments. Grade: B-

179. “Rob Peace”…A movie I admired as I was watching it…and then almost forgot I had seen it a few hours later. The very next day, I had trouble recalling plot points. This is exactly right for Netflix: something that’s pretty good, but you might feel disappointed if you’d spent money to watch it in a movie theater. With this, you’re seeing something better than most Netflix fare, but not necessarily as good as it aspires to be. Grade: B-

178. “Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano”…Documentary about people trying to make a short film as Beirut feels dangerously close to exploding. A preview of what might come to America soon with Trumpolini threatening martial law in NYC and LA. Still, the movie they’re making often feels very slight to the subject matter of the documentary. Grade: B-

177. “Ghostbusters: Frozen City”…I wasn’t a fan of “Afterlife,” and consider this an improvement because of the better plot, the NYC setting, and some standout scenes that are better than the movie as a whole (like Patton Oswalt geeking out over the origin story of the villain). However, this is still a franchise where the “zoomers” in this “zoomers meet boomers” team up feel completely unnecessary. Grade: B-

176. “A Quiet Place: Day One”…The original “Quiet Place” worked because it came out of nowhere, and you were rooting for an original movie to succeed, especially one that was essentially a 4-character silent film. But they’re going back to the well a few too many times now, and to somewhat diminishing results (a “Quiet Place 3” is also in the works). Nothing here is really that revelatory, but there are still nice touches like an early scene with a puppet that builds tension, and a good performance from Lupita N’yongo, even if her “arc” (a woman who barely wants to live eventually moves on to…uhhh…actively embrace death?) isn’t much. Grade: B-

175. “Elton John: Never Too Late”…As with documentaries about Springsteen and The Beatles, your enjoyment of the music will largely dictate how much you get out of this Elton John documentary. I’m a bit more familiar with John’s work than Springsteen’s and he was still making music during my lifetime (unlike The Beatles) so I probably enjoyed it more as a result. Grade: B-

174. “Fly Me to the Moon”…Harmless enough romantic comedy that’s perhaps a little bit smarter than you might think. Also, Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum have good chemistry. Grade: B-

173. “Black Girls”…Quick, low-key documentary about a few different black women that the filmmakers admire. Affectionate presentation might have black women seeking this out on a day where they especially need to be seen. Grade: B-

172. “How to Rob a Bank”…Goes by quick enough. Grade: B-

171. “Mean Girls”…Did 2004’s “Mean Girls” need a faithful remake that changes very little from the original other than adding in some forgettable songs? No, no it sure didn’t. But if you can get past the pure “unnecessariness” of it all, you’ll enjoy it more. However, one of the least talked about pleasures of the original “Mean” was the way it subverted our casting expectations by having Lindsay Lohan play the squeaky-clean heroine and Rachel McAdams play the conniving one. When you rewatch the 2004 “Mean Girls,” it’s fun to see them playing against type in a way it’ll probably never feel like with the slatternly Renee Rapp (who looks like she’s about to eat half the characters on screen) and wholesome Angourie Rice here. The only true improvement with this movie is Avantika Vandanapu’s take on Karen. Grade: B-

170. “Red Island”…One of those movies that critics will enjoy much more than audiences. It’s about the sly hand of colonialism as we follow various French soldiers and their families around a military base on Madagascar, but the presentation is filled with endless scenes where nothing much happens. That France never really gave up their outsize influence on their African colonies is certainly true, but this drama doesn’t do half as good a job exploring that as you might find in a documentary such as “Virunga.” [I’m not even totally sure why this is set in the 1970’s instead of today since there’s a few other African countries France has current military operations in.] For me, the most interesting plot line was a French soldier who falls in love with a local woman, to the horror of his military colleagues (one even wants to perform an exorcism), showing the weird true face of subjugation–where the rulers want to “civilize” the native population through subjugation only, but are “disgusted” with the idea of being a part of them. Grade: B-

169. “Swan Song”…By now, if you’ve seen one documentary about how tough it is to be a ballerina and the excruciating lengths of training for that fabled “opening night,” you’ll pretty much get the gist of what “Swan” wants to show you. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a quick, captivating watch all the same. Grade: B

168. “The Last of the Sea Woman”…Sturdy environmental documentary about the effects of Japanese nuclear energy on the coastal waters of South Korea that may make you question nuclear power even more so if you were already on the fence. Grade: B

166./167. “The Greatest Love Story Never Told” and “This is Me Now”…The former is a documentary about Jennifer Lopez making an album and hour-long music video “movie” while the latter is that movie. Since I watched this after the news of Ben Affleck and Lopez’s break-up, it definitely added a layer of bitter irony. Personally, I think Affleck is a total idiot, as having a smokin’ hot multi-millionaire wife who thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread is a fantasy for most guys. But for Affleck, her making art around their love freaked him out…for some reason. [The common explanation of “He’s a private person…” seems flimsy since he’s been a professionally working actor who only dates other famous actors for 30 years, and I think the guy’s got other issues that will manifest no matter who he’s with.] The musical video is a visually-interesting art project, and the documentary is a much better showcase of what Lopez is actually going through than the hagiography “Halftime.” However, both show that the most layered and vulnerable roles Jennifer is actually getting these days are in documentaries as herself, and I long for her next “Hustlers” or “Out of Sight”-type role that shows off what she can really do. Grade: B

165. “How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer”…Even if you can’t shake the feeling that Mailer might very well be a Trumper if he had lived long enough (especially in the early days, there were cultural warrior “rebels” against the status quo that seemed to enjoy Trump’s freewheeling vulgarity…and ignored everything else), this documentary still pulls you into the (occasionally uncomfortable) head of a major literary talent. To the documentary’s credit, it doesn’t disguise that Mailer was a brilliant writer…and an asshole, and they can both be true at once. Exploring an age where people didn’t find them so contradictory (they might even go hand-in-hand) can be interesting, as we dive deeper into Mailer’s crowded psyche. Grade: B

164. “A Samurai in Time”…Too long and occasionally a bit dull, but this movie about an ancient samurai teleported to modern times who then quickly becomes an extra on samurai-themed movies and TV shows is earnest in its exploration of ancient traditions of honor meaning very little in the present day. Grade: B

163. “A Great Divide”…Beautiful scenery compliments this story of racism in Wyoming as the Asian Lee family moves to a not-entirely-welcoming new home. I won’t say all of this is as skillful or non-cheesy as it could’ve been, but this is simple, straightforward storytelling that features the rare chance to see Ken Jeong’s solid dramatic chops. Grade: B

162. “Boy Kills World”…Hyper-violent movie about the overthrow of a tyrannical government mostly controlled by one family. Towards the end, you may get numb to the seemingly endless carnage, but at least this is the rare Hollywood film that understands there’s really only one way an authoritarian regime ends, and it ain’t by their own choice. Grade: B

161. “Azrael”…By now, dystopian horror is dime-a-dozen (in 2024 alone, you could’ve watched the world end in everything from sensitive dramas like “The End We Start From” to gonzo creature features like “Arcadian”), but “Azrael” is made with real energy and a distinctive point of view. And Samara Weaving is fully convincing. Grade: B

160. “The Vourdalak”…French period horror movie that has a very memorable puppet villain who might make you smirk at first, but you could find yourself shocked at how sinister the goofy title monster actually becomes by the final act. Grade: B

159. “5 lbs of Pressure”…Could’ve been worse low-budget crime drama that has just the right amount of Alex Pettyfer (not much) and features a surprisingly-believable Luke Evans. Grade: B

158. “The Critic”…Sir Ian McKellen is the main reason to watch this story of a tarnished theater critic trying to blackmail his way into keeping his prestigious newspaper job (this is a period piece, in case you can’t tell). Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Alfred Enoch, and Ben Barnes are never going to be the most exciting supporting players you’ll come across–the movie could’ve used perhaps one additional schemer instead of a blank faced cast of moralists–but McKellen knows how to deliver every word with maximum juice and cunning. McKellen is now 86 years old, and we never know when his final great performance could be; this may well be it. Grade: B

157. “Christmas with the Campbells”…A satire of cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies (at times, Justin Long and Brittany Snow appear to be holding back laughter) with Alex Moffat in the role he was born to play: the douche boyfriend we all know our heroine will move beyond by the end credits. It reminded me of the Will Ferrell/Kristen Wiig Lifetime movie “A Deadly Adoption,” where the cast is playing it straight enough that it might not be immediately obvious this even is a parody, leading to a lot of humorous online reviews like “What the hell is this movie?” Grade: B

156. “The Present”…The “allergic to romance” attitude of 2020’s living has so infected modern movies that it’s almost startling to see a movie that suggests a modern married couple shouldn’t get divorced–what used to be practically law (the Hayes Code) may now actually be so rare it’s refreshing. And the tricky ripple effects of the time travel plot line keeps your brain engaged past the sentimentality. For family entertainment, you could do a lot worse. Grade: B

155. “Anselm”…Documentary about an artist I wasn’t familiar with, and I do think fans of his will probably enjoy this (still visually pleasant) exploration of his pieces. As you may expect from Wim Wenders, the pacing here is deliberate. Grade: B

154. “The Night is Not Eternal”…A documentary that’s right up my alley as freedom advocates talk about fighting repressive regimes. I wish the presentation had been a little bit better, but this is A-level subject matter still worthy of a watch. Grade: B

153. “State of Silence”…Ah, now this is more like it. Whereas “Night is Not Eternal” may be somewhat lacking in the filmmaking aspects in the fight against oppressive regimes, “Silence” can feel like an action movie in certain places. For those incredibly disappointed in how the media has chosen to cover (or not cover) the worst of the Trump regime, this documentary offers something close to a “how-to” guide as we see Mexican journalists quite literally putting their lives on the line to cover narco corruption. Grade: B

152. “The Union”…Forgettable action espionage movies about secret agencies trying to stop deadly plots are a dime-a-dozen these days. [It’s a surprisingly plentiful genre given how expensive movies like “Ghosted,” “Heart of Stone,” “Canary Black,” “Back in Action,” “The Gray Man,” “The Family Plan,” etc. are to make, and they usually go straight to streaming with little fanfare.] “Union” may not necessarily be much better than those, but at least it has a better cast. Maybe the sequel won’t be afraid to have Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry actually–gulp–kiss. It’s rather odd that they don’t in this “romance” that is seemingly scared of the chemistry between its own leads. Grade: B

151. “Wild Wild Space”…Privatized space race documentary that moves briskly, and is cinematically engaging by playing up the competition between different would-be titans trying to rule the stars. Grade: B

150. “James Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid”…This documentary might threaten to give Carville (who has not been the campaign manager for a major campaign in 30 years, and has lost most of the campaigns he’s “advised” on like Kerry’s 2004 run or Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign) a bit too much credit by making it look like Carville–who is wrong just as often as he’s right–is the secret Svengali of the Democratic Party. It’s better if you look at Carville more as being the lovable underdog who helped engineer Clinton’s monster upset over H.W. Bush in 1992. If you see him as an average Joe who won the lottery and has been enjoying it mightily ever since, then you might appreciate this documentary more. Either way, Carville remains a guy that’s very hard not to like, and you might just enjoy watching this as you would a visit with your favorite grandparent. Grade: B

149. “Red One”…Critics were a bit rough on this Christmas fable. Sure, it initially feels like a piece of junk cobbled together out of spare parts (sassy buddy comedies, some fantasy action spectacle, a villain wanting to takeover the world, the presence of The Rock), but I watched it at peak-Christmas time where I might’ve felt inclined to be generous towards a movie where J.K. Simmons’s Santa makes a heartfelt plea for the goodness of humanity towards The Rock’s doubting bodyguard. A crisis of faith and subsequent hope is not always something you get with a throwaway holiday junker, and there’s just enough here to possibly warm you up. Grade: B

148. “Transformers One”…Now that Tom Cruise has left Paramount for Warner Bros. and ended his “Mission Impossible” run anyway, Paramount may be more desperate than ever to keep the Transformers franchise alive. If it’s going to make Transformer movies until the sun implodes, then I would rather watch this animated and full sci-fi take set on their home planet than whatever preposterousness the shape-shifting robots get up to on Earth. Grade: B

147. “A Greyhound of a Girl”…Charmingly old-fashioned animated movie with an effectively emotional twist that might be more appreciated by adults than kids. Grade: B

146. “Puffin Rock and the New Friends”…An extremely gentle animated movie that may bore adults, but that even the youngest kids can watch. If parents of toddlers feel guilty when letting them indulge in Nickelodeon-sensory overload, then “Puffin”‘s sweet storytelling, slower pace, and environmental messaging could be a good alternative. Grade: B

145. “Unfrosted”…Better than you might’ve heard, it’s enjoyably nuts, and shot with the visual style of a “Pushing Daisies” episode. Although this is one of the very few (perhaps only?) times Jerry Seinfeld has played someone other than himself in a live action role, the stacked supporting cast is more likely what people will remember as about 50% of living comics are shoehorned into roles. One of my favorites was Hugh Grant as a washed-up Shakespearian paying the bills as Tony the Tiger, complete with an extended dig at January the 6th. Grade: B

144. “Long December”…”An aspiring singer-songwriter struggles towards his big break” may not sound fresh, but one of the first things you notice “December” is doing differently is in wondering if “big breaks” even exist anymore (a producer all but tells the protagonist he might bankrupt himself to produce a record nobody buys). This indie drama is a quieter, better-made, more character driven musical than what we’re used to seeing (it reminded me a little bit of the films of John Carney), and you might be surprised at how much you wind up caring what happens to the main characters. Grade: B

143. “The Widow Clicquot”…A smart and relatively straightforward period movie about the various ways women could be cheated out of their property at a time when they had few legal rights to own it, and how one woman was determined to own her champagne vineyard regardless. Maybe enjoy a nice glass of champagne or wine as you watch it to make it a more interactive experience. Grade: B

142. “Kensuke’s Kingdom”…Nicely old-fashioned animated survival film that reminded me of “The Red Turtle” from a years ago. Not quite that good, but at least traveling a similar path. Grade: B

141. “Inside Out 2”…At first, I didn’t like “2” at all. I didn’t like that it was essentially a “souped up” rehash of the first movie (all of the original emotions get kicked out of headquarters and have to find a way back before Riley makes disastrous decisions while being controlled by more negative emotions, no different than the first movie). I didn’t like that it made a gajillion dollars so that Pixar is fully incentivized to keep making sequels instead of terrific original worlds like “Elemental.” And I never felt I could watch it the way I’ve seen the first one roughly a dozen times–and I still don’t feel any differently on any of those fronts.

But when I watched it a second time after the hype died down, I had to admit that it was a very good representation of anxiety on screen, and the way it truly can take over your life to the point you’re practically paralyzed with fear. Still not sure why we needed an entirely new emotion to represent anxiety instead of just letting the Fear character evolve into that (why not let the emotions grow up and show new dimensions just like Riley does?), but I guess that’s not the only missed opportunity in this sequel. Grade: B

140. “Damsel”…If you’re going to watch Netflix sci-fi/fantasy junk starring Millie Bobbie Brown, wouldn’t you rather watch this than “The Electric State?” “Damsel” has a real plot, and some memorable set pieces, such as the “escape the maze”-like structure of the cave. Grade: B

139. “The Instigators”…When it comes to action-comedy team-ups from former “Ocean’s Eleven” cast members that went straight-to-Apple+, I personally prefer “Wolfs.” Still, this is a solid buddy caper that moves along quickly. Just be warned that the ending third begins to get a little far-fetched, which undercuts the more realistic, working-class thief premise. Grade: B

138. “Sometimes I Think About Dying”…A frustrating movie because you can feel something truly great right beneath the surface struggling to break through and express itself. Maybe that’s what it’s like to be Daisy Ridley’s extremely introverted character, obviously stilted from participating in even the most basic social interactions, but (possibly) longing for deeper connection. “Dying” almost achieves that feeling; and you have to give it credit as hidden thoughts and suppressed curiosity are not easy things to express visually, this being more the type of work you might normally see in novels. Grade: B

137. “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed”…The inevitable comparisons between the early work of Lena Dunham (“Tiny Furniture”) and Joanna Arnow here are for good reason: they’re not only roughly the same age, viewpoint, and NYC-setting, but they’re combining intelligent, observational humor with stark sexuality that includes ample amounts of their own nudity. Arnow is a little bit more deadpan, and that detachment can sometimes make “Passed” feel longer and more stilted than it actually is (the actual runtime is a brisk 85 minutes, even if it doesn’t seem to pass that quickly). Grade: B

136. “We Will Dance Again”…The overwhelming public support for Palestine may have its heart in the right place, but it must be gutting for people who lost relatives during the October 7th attacks to see. [Like in “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed,” Arnow seems dramatically less interested in a lover when he merely says he’s a “zionist.”] “Dance Again” is a documentary about the people who thought they were going to a music festival and wound up running for their lives. Should be shown with Palestinian documentaries (along with “The Bibi Files,” detailing Netanyahu’s corruption) so this complex issue can be understood better than the one-dimensional screaming match it’s too often turned into. Speaking of… Grade: B

135. “Phantom Parrot”…Crisp documentary over the debate around surveillance and freedom wherein a Muslim rights activist is harassed and targeted by the British and American governments. Grade: B

134. “Woman of the Hour”…Anna Kendrick stars in and directs this movie about a real serial killer who appeared on an episode of “The Dating Game.” Her skill as a director is apparent here, as she builds quietly tense scenes of suspense that threaten to erupt into violence at any time, giving you a slightly-queasy feeling throughout the movie’s many micro aggressions (offhanded comments towards Kendrick’s character’s appearance, or a reluctance to believe the contestant could actually be dangerous). Grade: B

133. “Can’t Feel Nothing”…Is our culture’s over reliance on screens and the 24/7 bombardment of smart phone manipulations causing us to become completely detached? It just might. Grade: B

132. “Immaculate”…This Sydney Sweeney horror movie got so thoroughly overshadowed by “The First Omen,” that it might be a little bit underrated. It’s well-directed with an ending that is visceral. Speaking of movies that will make you scared to death of the Catholic Church… Grade: B

131. “Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara”…The Catholic Church done did somebody else dirty in this true story of a young Jewish boy who was secretly baptized, then abducted to go live with the Pope in 1858. Yet another exploration of faith and fascism run amok that could not be more timely in an age where Trump is “accidentally” deporting Americans to El Salvador, then refusing to make much effort to correct their “mistake” by bringing them back until the pressure build enough to make them do the right thing. Speaking of more-honest explorations of faith than the usual Christian film propaganda, there’s “Convert”… Grade: B

130. “The Convert”…Guy Pearce had a truly great 2024. He was the best thing in an awful movie (“Sunrise”), and Oscar-nominated (his first) in a great movie (“The Brutalist”). So you might not be as familiar with “The Convert,” which has beautiful scenery, a lush New Zealand ocean setting, and political intrigue to go with its battle sequences. This is one of those movies they “used to make,” and I’d welcome a return to more historical epics going forward. Grade: B

129. “Blink”…A family where some of the kids are losing their sight travel the world so they can have beautiful memories of things they’ve seen; and while that’s a beautiful idea for a documentary, the presentation seems to be missing a crucial emotional element. For starters, the parents of these kids seem almost too cheerful and optimistic (a little bit like smiley-faced religious people), lacking true depth or a sense of what their children are actually losing. It might’ve been nice to have at least one very stressful scene where they breakdown with a true sense of loss; as is, this doc actually has a curious lack of narrative or tension given what’s actually happening. Grade: B

128. “Mufasa”…This movie is better if you don’t think of it as connected to “The Lion King” at all. It has very little connection to the superior original story (in the 1994 film, there’s no mention of Mufasa and Scar not being actual brothers), and the intercutting of Timon and Pumbaa throughout the story is actually distracting. Still, I’m kind-of a sucker for epic adventure films, and some of the scenery was beautiful on the big screen like vivid waterfalls or snowy mountains. The ghost lion villains are also excitingly scary. Grade: B

127. “Sonic 3”…It was the Christmas debate of 2024 for families with young kids, which was better: “Sonic 3” or “Mufasa?” Although I like more adventurous (and serious) epics like “Mufasa,” the unanimous answer among my wife and kids was “Sonic 3.” Kids will love this, most adults will love this (any movie with Jim Carrey doing double duty will never fail), and I do think it’s a major improvement over the misfire of “Sonic 2.” Many were saying it’s the “best” of the franchise, but I still slightly prefer the first “Sonic.” Grade: B

126. “The Beach Boys”…Today, The Beach Boys seem like one of the strangest “rock” bands to ever have multiple hit albums; after decades of Heavy Metal, Death Metal, Grunge, Alternative, and even Bluegrass-themed Rock, it’s hard to remember there was a brief moment when rock stars looked like Mormons-gone-surfing. Yet this documentary shows how the best of those bands eventually deepened their music creatively by leaps and bounds (possibly costing lead creative Brian Wilson his mind), whether their manager-father “got it” or not. The central conflict between Wilson searching for more fulfilling musical innovation and his father pushing corporatized reruns could be symbolic of what that entire generation of teens felt by “rebelling” against their 1950’s parents. Even if I was a little bit hard on the Springsteen and Beatles documentaries that came out in 2024, “Beach Boys” was the better exploration of music that peaked before I was born. Grade: B

125. “Reverse the Curse”…Spend a while coasting on the easy charm of David Duchovny, and root for the low-key romance between Logan Marshall-Greene and Stephanie Beatrice. Duchovny may not look as old as he actually is, but he’s getting a terrific second-act to his career exploring the regrets of seniority, like last year’s underrated Meg Ryan dramedy “What Happens Later.” Grade: B

124. “Saturday Night”…It turns out the first episode of “Saturday Night Live” had a rough time making it to air. That’s more of a “Hmmm, interesting…” anecdote you might tell for thirty seconds in an interview than something you would build an entire movie around as those kinds of stories need to be more like “oh wow, that’s interesting.” Still, a talented ensemble cast tries their best (not unlike “SNL” itself), and the runtime goes by pretty quickly. Grade: B

123. “Space: The Longest Goodbye”…A documentary about the toil going to space has on the humans who do so, as well as the families they leave behind. In interviews, astronauts can sometimes come off as a little bit robotic (they have to be to even get up in space as “emotional depth” isn’t really what they’re going for on missions where people could easily snap) so this might add some dimensions to them for those that are interested. Personally, I like to keep them at a distance so we have at least some people to look up to in this current environment where it feels like we know too much about the emotions of the people who are supposed to be in charge. Grade: B

122. “Irish Wish”…Lindsay Lohan was in two Netflix romantic comedies in 2024, and this one was by far superior to “Our Little Secret.” “Irish Wish” coasts heavily on its beautiful scenery and the inherent charm of its locale, but maybe that’s not so bad for an unchallenging fantasy rom-com that features some of the most beautiful “twee old” countryside since “Brigadoon.” Grade: B

121. “My Penguin Friend”…Neither a great movie nor an embarrassment. This is well-crafted comfort food almost like stumbling into a local greasy spoon with a chef who has more skill than you’d think. If you ever wanted to just unwind with a movie that doesn’t require your full attention, maybe this is the one. Grade: B

120. “Taking Venice”…Cold War era documentary about the battle to shape culture itself during that time period. The battle between freewheelin’ capitalism and stark “Communism” has never felt less relevant (what was it even about?), but the desire to shape culture to fit a society’s narrative might seem more relevant than ever in the wake of Trumpolini. Grade: B

119. “Nickel Boys”…I had a somewhat strange reaction to this Best Picture nominee that is filmed almost entirely in first-person point of view. It hopes to really let us feel the systemic bigotry and pain its heroes do (based on a truly awful “reform” school that trafficked in real-life sexual assault and physical beatings). Some reviewers are saying it’s a radical exercise in empathy that wants to change how you view the world, but the self-conscious cinematography actually made me feel a weird distance from what we were seeing. Speaking only for myself, I never felt for a second that I was watching anything but a movie, and the claustrophobic camerawork, jazzy score, and right-at-the-camera performances drew attention to that more than let me forget it. “Boys” is about a worthy and timely subject that I hope people will learn more about through this film, but the verisimilitude it was going for just wasn’t totally there for me personally. Grade: B

118. “Sing Sing”…Similarly to “Nickel,” I didn’t totally feel the sense of verisimilitude that “Sing” was clearly going for (Clarence Maclin plays himself, several of the other performers are real life convicted felons that participated in the stage program, the camerawork is loose and on-the-fly) although this certainly comes closer. Some of the problem comes–shockingly–from the inauthentic work by Coleman Domingo, a truly great actor (he can nail it in roles as varied as a gay civil rights icon in “Rustin” or a scheming pimp in “Zola”) who just doesn’t feel right here. Frankly, Denzel Washington probably could’ve won the Oscar with this same part. Grade: B

117. “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin”…Parents find out that their son had an entire online community they knew little about. Certain scenes like his video game avatar running in a way he’ll never be able to “in real life” capture the feeling so many gamers can’t quite describe to the outside world. Grade: B

116. “Eat the Night”…Similar to “Ibelin,” “Night” is about the inner world gamers escape to when they’re playing their favorite game. Here, it’s not just the players themselves that are in danger, but the entire game that is ending soon–giving the movie an apocalyptic feel. Sadly, “Night” has about a dozen other subplots going on that don’t gel together as successfully; although, the messiness of the rest of the movie makes you long to return to the game scenes even more–not much different than our main character. Grade: B

115. “Super/Man”…Christopher Reeve was a pretty good actor, and a very good man. If you understand that premise, you can pretty much get the gist of the movie. Still, there’s anecdotes you may not have heard, and mentions some lesser known films of his that are worthy of learning about. Grade: B

114. “Sons of Ecstasy”…A fast-paced crime documentary about dueling ecstasy dealers in Arizona, one of whom was the wannabe-wiseguy son of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, a hitman for John Gotti who had only relocated to AZ because he was in witness protection. The movie never quite boils over into the face-off we want to see (neither English Shaun nor Nepo-Soprano are really cut out to be gangsters). Plus, it’s a little bit sickening watching a hardened sociopath and snitch like Sammy “The Bull” get mad that somebody snitched on him. [He really makes it sound like their underling broke a code when the entire Gravano family is literally in witness protection for his snitching.] But the movie is compulsively watchable in that trashy, “History Channel” true crime sort-of way. And the Arizona ecstasy trade revolves around characters we don’t normally see in these types of narratives, like when one participant says that Gravano Jr. seemed to have styled his entire existence around cliched mob movies–and, boy, does he live up (or down) to that incisive slam. Grade: B

113. “The Substance”…From the opening moments where we see a Hollywood star in the sidewalk go from new to trampled on, this is a solid allegory for what happens to aging starlets as they become “mature” actresses, and maybe even a little bit about how society treats women in general as they age. The movie plays a subtle trick with viewers (perhaps especially male ones) as we soon find ourselves gravitating more towards the singe-your-eyeballs-sexy “Sue” (Margaret Qualley), no different than how the shallow world at large does. Still, the last third of the movie is so grotesque that it’s a little bit hard to get through. Grade: B

112. “Omni Loop”…I think five people could watch this movie, and have five totally different reactions. I felt myself having various reactions just while watching it: “this is boring,” “this is brilliant,” “now I get it,” “this is too long,” “it’s not that long, it’s just slow and repetitive,” “why didn’t they cast somebody other than Mary Louise Parker, she’s already too shutdown in even performances where she’s not supposed to underact?” “no, she’s very good here, now I appreciate life again,” and so forth. Time loop and time travel and multiverse movies are becoming a dime-a-dozen, but this is one of the few that is interested in the hard Science and existentialist aspects of it all rather than just using the central gimmick as a plot device. Whether something more character based is what you prefer, and whether this character in particular is one you want to watch for a long time is up to you. Grade: B

111. “Nowhere Special”…Touching drama where James Norton plays a dying father that has to pick what adoptive parents will inherit his 4-year-old son after he’s gone (the mother is not in the picture). It’s an agonizing premise depicted with sensitivity and not nearly as much saccharine as you might expect. In fact, it might’ve been slightly more affecting if they had tried harder to jerk the tears. Damn modern Indies and their tasteful restraint! Grade: B

110. “Power”…In the terrifying Trump era (where visas are revoked at random, legal immigrants can be snatched off the street and imprisoned for a blog post critical of the regime, and black clad hooligan “law enforcement” can menace their way through Los Angeles whether the local government wants them there or not), this documentary is more necessary now than ever, as “modern policing” is explored as the oppressive big business it’s always been. Shows why it’s so hard for progressive politicians and district attorneys to make the public understand they are not being served by over-incarceration, absurdly long probation periods, and militarized police better equipped than some overseas army battalions. Grade: B

109. “Merchant Ivory”…Obviously, whether or not you like (or even have heard of) Merchant and Ivory’s movies will affect how interested you are in this documentary. Very similar to Scorsese’s documentary on Powell and Pressburger, but a half hour shorter and about movies made roughly a half-century later so possibly appealing to a wider audience. For that reason, I’m going to spend a higher word count trying to convince you to check out the Scorsese documentary… Grade: B

108. “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”…For most viewers, watching 80-year-old Martin Scorsese talk for over two hours about the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger would be torture, but for this movie lover it’s the equivalent of a “Real Housewives” franchise: something many people don’t “get,” but is highly-enthralling entertainment to me personally. Here, Scorsese does a deep-dive into the lives and filmographies of Powell and Pressburger, who may be among the most underrated (or virtually forgotten) filmmakers of the last century. Frankly, I’ve always felt that most classic-era directors (many of whom were even better) have been just as consigned to oblivion, and it’s not like 99% of modern audiences would know who Raoul Walsh, Michael Curtiz, William Wyler, Fred Zinnemann, and 100 others are. But if Scorsese can revive the faded memory of even one classic Hollywood maestro or two, then I’m all for it. If this is the kind-of thing you may enjoy, this is a good presentation of it. Grade: B

107. “That Christmas”…Is there really such a thing as a bad animated Christmas movie? There is, and it’s grade-Z stuff I stumbled across on Starz during movie countdowns of yesteryear like “Santaman.” “That Christmas” is certainly a cut above that. Even if it’s not especially memorable, it’ll still get you there. Grade: B

106. “Skywalkers: A Love Story”…Beautiful images as a couple of young daredevils go to extreme lengths to take pictures (or kiss) at the top of inaccessible structures. At any moment they could be arrested for trespassing, but the bigger threat to their outlaw-platform building may be gravity. Exciting as you’re watching it, but don’t expect it to stay with you. Grade: B

105. “Bread and Roses”…Since the Taliban have reclaimed Afghanistan, women’s rights have (predictably) disappeared. “Bread” shines a worthy light on a subject the world has turned its attention away from, perhaps guiltily. Grade: B

104. “Witches”…A documentary about historical depictions of witches and witchcraft (spoiler: there was a strong bias against them as basically handmaidens of the devil) mixed with a psychological exploration of one woman’s internal struggles through motherhood and being pigeonholed by society. Definitely interesting, and pairs nicely with “Bread and Roses” as a double bill of docs about women being told what they should aspire to be so forcefully it can be hard for they themselves to know. Grade: B

103. “The Idea of You”…It’s a bummer that Amazon didn’t give this a theatrical release, since plenty of critics have noted that good romantic comedies have just about disappeared from movie theaters (the dozen straight-to-Netflix movies that come out every year isn’t cutting it quality-wise). This movie is absolutely good enough to have gotten a theatrical release, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it develops a cult following in the years to come, a type of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” wish fulfillment for white women going through a divorce. Grade: B

102. “The Young Woman and the Sea”…Daisy Ridley had an excellent 2024 with strong (and varied) performances in “Magpie,” “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” and here. “Sea” may not be quite as good as “Nyad,” but the ending delivers completely, and the distinguished-gray color palette makes everything look a little bit richer than it otherwise might. Grade: B

101. “Road House”…Made with snap and verve, this remake is better than you might think. Jake Gylenhaal is a bruiser with uncharacteristic vulnerability (like a pitbull that would rather be a wounded puppy) and Billy Magnussen is always best when he’s allowed to be deranged. If the movie has a weak spot, it’s probably Conor McGregor going wildly over-the-top as an unconvincing, scenery-chewing cartoon character of a villain. Grade: B

100. “Challengers”…A good movie? Absolutely…A great movie? [Some people thought “Challengers” should be nominated for Best Picture.] Not so fast. There is not much substance beneath the glittery surface–practically dripping with attitude–and that’s symbolized by the “look at me” score that literally drowns out the dialogue during certain pivotal scenes. But if you need further evidence after her fierce work in “Dune 2” that Zendaya is better than you think, this is a good place to start. Grade: B

99. “Sense and Sensibility”…Ordinarily, classic tales where they arbitrarily swap the races of characters can feel a little bit hokey, and (far too often) anti-miscegenation in nature as it always seems to be interracial couples that are targeted for death or villainy. Luckily, “Sensibility” avoids this fate and feels like a PG-rated “Bridgerton” in a good way. Grade: B

98. “Holiday for Hire”…For me, the best (and most sincere) straight-to-streaming Christmas movie of 2024. You either go for these things or you don’t, and I think this is cheesy perfection for this type of movie. Grade: B

97. “Agent of Happiness”…Documentary about a happiness surveyor in Bhutan where–and this is a real job–a government worker gives various citizens a census-style questionnaire on their personal happiness and life. At this time period in America, I found the contrast fascinating, and the answers the various respondents give us are quietly revealing; it’s Bhutan, so there’s not many fireworks so much as a pinched grimace here and the faintest nod of regret there. Grade: B+

96. “Touch”…Touching drama about a long-thwarted couple trying to reconnect after a lifetime apart. Romantic movies around older people are one of my unexpected favorite sub-genres (“What Happens Later,” “Elegy,” “Our Souls at Night,” “Hope Springs,” a couple of Blythe Danner movies), and “Touch” delivers with a terrific ending. Grade: B+

95. “The Legend of the Vagabond of Lagos”…To say this is the best Nigerian movie I watched in 2024 is misleading since it’s one of the only Nigerian movies I watched from that year, but the filmmaking is a cut above the broader Nollywood comedies and melodramas we might ordinarily see floating around Netflix. This is a story about government corruption and ruthlessly venal, gilded-age-style politicians targeting poor people they wish didn’t exist. Needless to say, Americans in the Trump era can find things to relate to here. Grade: B+

94. “Carry On”…Nerve-jangling thriller about a very bad dude trying to get something onto an airplane, by any means necessary. If you’re a fan of straightforward, tense, clever thrillers (and who isn’t?), check this out. Needless to say, a villainous Jason Bateman runs away with the movie, playing nasty with such commanding cynicism, it’s almost like he’s the beleaguered hero who’s up against it. In a funny way, you realize that both main characters are just going about their jobs so they can wrap it up and go enjoy the holidays. Grade: B+

93. “Sugarcane”…There were many documentaries about Native rights (and culture) getting trampled on in 2024 (“Bad River,” “Fish War,” “Vow of Silence,” “Red Fever”), and that may make it feel like “Sugarcane” hits mostly familiar beats along that vein despite being elevated by a Best Documentary nomination. But the filmmaking is stronger here with a greater sense of urgency, and a story that should absolutely be paired with benign portrayals of the Catholic Church like “Conclave.” In a perfect world, people would watch this or “Kidnapped: the Abduction of Edgardo Mortara” immediately after any “Conclave” viewing to remind them of the true nature of the largest branch of Christianity on the planet, but I doubt it. Grade: B+

92. “Never Let Go”…Genuinely unsettling, and has a great sense of atmospheric dread. At times, the woods feel like a character of their own. A good reminder that Halle Berry actually is a terrific actress too rarely given the opportunity to show you what she can do. Here, the glamorous sex symbol plays an abusive mother who might actually just be crazy (it’s never totally clear) and our built-in sympathy towards her makes this character even more mysterious than if it were an actress we didn’t naturally favor. Grade: B+

91. “Lies We Tell”…A woman has to fight hard to keep her estate (and eventually her life) from getting snatched away by her scheming uncle and cousins; good period detail mixed with real tension and several riveting scenes? Yes, yes, a million times yes! Grade: B+

90. “The First Omen”…As I’ve stated previously, women being forced to carry something unholy to term (and often against their will) was a very popular horror theme in 2024, one of the first full film years since the disastrous Supreme Court decision to overturn legalized abortion at the federal level. Examples of these stories included “Alien Romulus,” “Azareal,” “Apartment 7A,” and “Immaculate.” But this was the best version of that story; filled with images so provocative that this is Italian horror in the best sense of the tradition: mixing elegantly grandiose settings with surreal bloodbaths to an extent that is almost sexy. Grade: B+

89. “Housekeeping for Beginners”…A drama about gay characters pretending to be in a heterosexual relationship that isn’t nearly as contrived as that premise would suggest. If you give it a chance, you might find yourself caring more about this family of misfits (the “father” shows little interest in people beyond sexual conquests) than you’d suspect, the movie rises above the R-rated sitcom its premise might suggest. Grade: B+

88. “Queer”…If “Housekeeping” is a bit too straightforward and domesticated for you, “Queer” presents its gay characters in a much more rebellious and surreal fashion: doing heroin, having graphic gay sex, loafing around Mexico looking for a good time, eventually doing hallucinogenics in a sequence that threatens to scramble souls, etc. Was Luca Guadagnino’s best 2024 movie “Queer” or “Challengers?” “Challengers” is more straightforward and probably “better,” but “Queer” gets a slight edge because it feels like Guadagnino relates to and understands his desirous main character on a deeper level, resulting in an absolutely fantastic Daniel Craig performance. If you don’t yet think Craig is a genuinely great actor who just happened to also become a movie star after being cast as Bond, this could single-handedly change your mind. Grade: B+

87. “Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim”…A down-and-dirty, 80’s style fantasy action cartoon that may not connect very well to Peter Jackson’s more sentimental “Rings” trilogy (good), but should please fans of the animated 1970’s versions of “The Hobbit” or “Lord of the Rings.” I’ve had a weird hankering for more visceral animated epics like this, and given how poorly “Rohirrim” did at the box office, this could be the last one they ever make, so enjoy it. Grade: B+

86. “Gladiator II”…I’m in the minority, but I actually don’t consider 2000’s “Gladiator” to be a great movie, and it’s really a shame that Steven Soderbergh’s underrated drug war epic “Traffic” didn’t win Best Picture that year instead. So while many are “disappointed” that “II” isn’t “as good” as the original, I believe the truth is that it just didn’t cause as much of a cultural impact. What’s presented is more dastardly (unlike the original’s Joaquin Phoenix, there’s at least three sinister villains vying for more power here), more freewheeling, more chaotic, and more like a noir film than the stiffly operatic nature of the original. I’ve rarely seen that in an epic of this size (imagine if something like “Maltese Falcon” had an entire empire up for grabs instead of a priceless heirloom), and it perfectly fits the 2024/25 mood of a great society whose wheels are coming off due to bad leadership. In other words: it’s probably more interesting, not less. Grade: B+

85. “Martha”…I’m surprised Martha Stewart supposedly hates this documentary about her since it’s a very good exploration of who she is, what she accomplished, and the major events of her life. There’s a lot of “I didn’t know that” you may experience, even for those who thought they knew a bit about Stewart and her empire. One of my favorite “fun facts” was that it was James Comey who pushed the weak case against Stewart for insider trading, proving Hillary wasn’t the first powerful woman he wanted to make an example out of. Grade: B+

84. “Piece By Piece”…Speaking of unorthodox documentaries, “Piece” tells the story of Pharrell Williams in animated-Lego movie format. Kids may not gravitate towards this as much as adults, and adults might find themselves thinking they had to do this Lego format because Pharrell’s life might not be so interesting with a straightforward presentation (he’s not had the wildest life for a rock star, nor the most musically dynamic discography), the same way I felt watching Robbie Williams’s “Better Man” ape for two hours. Still, it’s an interesting curiosity that is more than worthy of at least one watch. [But my kids like to watch animated movies over and over, and they haven’t really asked to see this again.] Grade: B+

83. “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”…For most, this will be the “least” of the 2024 Best Animated Film nominees, nowhere near as artistically advanced as “Memoir of a Snail,” “Flow,” “Inside Out 2,” or “The Wild Robot.” Naturally then, “Vengeance Most Fowl” is the animated movie actual kids might like the best–a delightfully witty, old-fashioned caper that isn’t “great,” but is still pretty damn good. In terms of an animated movie you’d stumble across on Netflix, there are waaaay worse options, and plenty of them. Grade: B+

82. “The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland”…This combines old-fashioned charm and psychedelic weirdness. “Wonderland” is the kind-of movie kids might feel they dreamed rather than actually watched, and then stumble upon as adults thinking “Wait, this was…real?” [My version of that is “The Elm Chanted Forest.”] Those are a time capsule ready treat that are rare to come across in these days of antiseptic and digitized kids films. Grade: B+

81. “The Imaginary”…Another cool little animated film that might slip through the cracks. There’s a handful of creative set pieces that are standout scenes. For those that wish Studio Ghibli would make about 5-times more movies than they do, this could fill the void. Grade: B+

80. “In the Land of Saints and Sinners”…Liam Neeson plays a lot of aging or retired hitmen characters (check out “Absolution” further down on this very list as proof he doesn’t even limit them to one per year), but “Saints” is better than most. Going for it are the unusual Irish criminal culture, a unique villain (the always-welcome Kerry Condon), and the fact that the beautiful Irish countryside is just a place most people would enjoy spending more time in. And truthfully, Neeson seems to feel the same way as he’s effortlessly soulful and comfortable here. Grade: B+

79. “An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th”…The Oklahoma City Bombing and the rise of the violently reactionary right are detailed here in a documentary that’s pretty timely, to say the least. An added bonus is the participation of President Bill Clinton, who got a front row seat to the devolving of American conservatism into the fanged-beast it is today. Grade: B+

78. “The Line”…Probably the most realistic Southern fraternity movie I’ve ever seen, right down to the presentation of Lewis Pullman’s fraternity President Todd (everything from his haircut to the way he subtly passes off responsibility for the more controversial aspects of pledging to his underlings is note-perfect). The normally-cerebral Alex Wolff does something completely different here, and John Malkovich, Cheri Oteri, Scoot McNairy, and Halle Bailey are all believable in supporting roles that never take away from the near-documentary attention to detail writer-director Ethan Berger shows towards clothing, accents, and the “soft” teasing/whispers when Wolff is rumored to be dating a woman that’s darker than him that are yet one more “subtle” form of suggested conformity. Grade: B+

77. “Hard Truths”…A movie that left me conflicted, because I thought the first half was so laugh out loud funny (n the tensest way possible) that I was genuinely interested to see where it was going, primed for a major blowout between a cast of characters we grow to care about. But from around the time the two central sisters visit their mother’s grave, the pacing slows dramatically even as less stuff actually happens–I think the last hour of the movie could be summarized in a handful of sentences, Michele Austin’s Chantelle just about disappears altogether, and the ending is meaningless (they could’ve stopped a couple of scenes earlier or they could’ve kept going for another couple of scenes because it feels that random). It’s true that some people are just miserable, and there’s no helping them, but “Hard Truths” isn’t really saying that either–making the ending feel a little bit like a cop out by not taking any narrative thread to something resembling a conclusion. But the central performances and dialogue are so strong that I fully admit I’m only underwhelmed by the back half because I was so throughly enjoying what had preceded it. [Mike Leigh explored the bump-and-go relationship between an angry misanthrope and a genuinely sunny person in a more satisfactory way in “Happy Go Lucky.”] Grade: B+

76. “The Beast”…Reincarnation and oppressive A.I. collide in the best cautionary tale of artificial intelligence of last year, which is saying something as that was a ubiquitous theme. This is an inquisitive movie that wonders if the very things that pull us towards destruction are the same that make us human in the first place. Grade: B+

75. “This is Not Financial Advice: The Meme Economy”…A good primer on the subculture of junk investments that have made some people rich and just as many poor. For me, it still seems like the best way to “get rich” in any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin is to be the one making the dodgy currency-of-the-moment, and anything else you’re doing is pure risk that works about as often as scratch off tickets. The “hidden” world of crypto usually involves a few very dubious white men at the top making the coins, and about 100-times as many more towards the bottom evangelizing whatever get-rich-quick-scheme is taking off for them at that moment…before eventually/inevitably going bust. That many of the exact same type of people promoting Dogecoin or NFTs in this doc make similar claims about a similar junk currency in “The Highest of Stakes” may make you see a pattern in the type of person who goes for these “investments.” Grade: B+ …Speaking of…

74. “The Highest of Stakes”…Whether you prefer “Meme Economy” or “Stakes” is a coin toss, and I’d rank them as more tied than anything. Watching them both back-to-back you will definitely see a pattern in the type of person susceptible to of-the-moment currencies (or fraudulent currency exchanges), and just how hell-bent they are in not hearing the truth. Not completely unlike where we’re at in this political moment. Grade: B+

73. “The Bikeriders”…Jeff Nichols is my pick for the most underrated director currently making movies. For me, “Bikeriders” is his first non-great movie (unlike “Mud,” “Take Shelter,” “Midnight Special,” and “Loving”), but I don’t think I would necessarily consider it a bit of a disappointment if it’d been made by somebody else or possibly even if it weren’t Nichols first movie at all in 8 years. Austin Butler seems period-perfect as a James Dean doppelgänger focused on the freedom of riding motorcycles to the near-exclusion of all else. And Tom Hardy (with a “curious” accent choice) plays the gang’s initial leader who gets swept away by the changing times and biker gangs moving from semi-threatening rebels to actually-threatening criminals. Grade: B+

72. “Nosferatu”…I’m a bit conflicted here, because I love Robert Eggers. Similar to Jeff Nichols, he’s made nothing but great films before (“The Lighthouse” is a masterpiece and “The Northman” was my pick for the best movie of 2022). However, this was the first movie he made that I didn’t love even as it’s financially successful and earning him the kudos that he should’ve been given all along. And yet I’ll admit the performances are good, the technical specifics incredible (Eggers is working on a Denis Villaneuve-level when it comes to things like set design or cinematography), and I’d be very grateful if this started a revival of snowy, period horror films. Grade: B+ …Speaking of prestige vampire films…

71. “El Conde”…Clever allegorical Horror that reimagines Pinochet as a literal vampire, since most dictators are really just leeches, sucking the blood of the countries they terrorize. Not only witty, but technically superior with layered black-and-white cinematography, and a memorable sequence where a new vampire learns to fly for the first time in a way that looks like she’s somersaulting through the air. Grade: B+

70. “God & Country”…”Bad Faith” is the better known 2024 documentary about the scary rise of Christian nationalism, but check this one out too if you can. They compliment each other in material, as “Country” includes a few extra arguments and different talking heads that are impressively knowledgeable. Grade: B+

69. “Firebrand”…I went into this movie thinking “I’ve seen every possible version of Henry the 8th’s life there could be, and this movie can’t possibly show me something new.” Luckily, I was soon proven wrong as the life of Henry’s final wife–and a historically revisionist ending to their rollercoaster marriage–actually is the most interesting take on this material I’ve seen in years. Most movies about his life focus on the period around his first three marriages, and (inexplicably) make his homicidal rage seem justified compared with Anne Boleyn’s supposed treachery. But by shifting the focus towards his final marriage–when his dangerous nature, mental instability, and paranoid penchant for killing his wives is well known–you can feel the danger Alicia Vikander’s Katherine is actually in. Her life is literally hanging on by a thread as she can only hope to outlive an ailing Henry (and the ever-shifting power players feeding things into his ear), making this battle of wits riveting. Grade: B+

68. “Don’t Move”…Women who take a “wrong turn in the woods” movies were a plentiful subgenre of horror this year, but not an especially good one (“Run Baby Run” and “You Can’t Run Forever” were outright dudes, “The Watchers” and “Lovely Dark and Deep” were disappointments), making me prefer the equally-plentiful horror subgenre of “women being forced to carry something unholy” as a whole. However, “Don’t Move” was the best “woman stalked through the woods” story we got in 2024, a movie that finds surprising ways to move along a plot where our heroine can barely move for much of the story. Finn Wittrock is also believably sinister, making you wish he could scoop up at least some of the better roles Nicolas Hoult is racking up right now. Grade: B+

67. “Count of Monte Cristo”…It’s not as faithful to the source material as many might be hoping, but this is still a hard story to screw up–a classic about revenge that worked (for me) better than the big budget adaptations of “Three Musketeers” that came out last year as well. This is popcorn entertainment at its best: a grand vision you can sit back and let just wash over you. Speaking of… Grade: B+

66. “The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”…For me, this is the best “Planet of the Apes” movie since the 60’s original–and (once you get past the iconic nostalgia of that relatively-weak movie with the great twist ending) possibly better. We finally get to see the epic adventure the reboots have been teasing for ages, and enjoying that in a movie theater with some concessions was one of the classic theater experiences I had last year, which have become all too infrequent amongst blockbuster film viewings. Grade: B+

65. “Juror No. 2”…An honest-to-goodness morality play and courtroom thriller? In 2024? Yes, please! Clint Eastwood is one of the most pleasantly old-fashioned filmmakers working today, but it’s tempting to think he might’ve lost a step in his advanced age as his efforts have been middling (at best) recently. This is easily his best in years (I might say since 2009’s “Invictus”). Courtroom thrillers have pretty much disappeared (I absolutely miss the “John Grisham inspired” 90’s heyday when they could be huge hits), so that makes this extra enjoyable. For me, Nicolas Hoult is an actor who will always have limitations (he can’t play every part, although he’s often cast as though he can), but 2024 was a genuinely terrific year for him, well-cast in “Nosferatu,” and especially here. Grade: B+

64. “Babygirl”…It’s amazing that Nicole Kidman has been around for decades, but still finding new dimensions to show us. She starts out as an icily competent corporate badass (which she’s definitely played before) before plumbing new depths of desire, some of which are humiliating. “Babygirl” resists going the “Fatal Attraction” or Lifetime movie route to give us something more realistic, narratively loose, and emotionally nuanced, but–maybe–a bit less fun. Too often, when I watch prestige erotic films, I wish they were a bit more in touch with the revelatory trashiness of 90’s sex-noirs. Yes, yes, “the male gaze” and all that, but didn’t Adrian Lyne know how to find the catharsis in shamelessly throwing off the shackles of what society says you should want? Grade: B+

63. “Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen”…Seek this out; and it should be easy enough to do as the movie is free just about anywhere you look. When people ask “How did Kamala Harris lose?” Journalist Greg Palast reveals some frightening voter suppression tactics (primarily in Georgia, but not only there) that most people asking that clueless question are not familiar with at all. Grade: B+

62. “Separated”…Legendary documentarian Errol Morris looks at Trump’s horrific “child separation” policy, which many people were trying to make as cruel as possible as a deterrent for people crossing the border. Definitely worthy subject matter, and a probing exploration of our cultural lack of empathy. Still, this all takes place before the second Trump term started, and you can only imagine Morris would’ve had 10-times as much material on just the first six months of this current Trump regime alone. However, some of the “meanest” offenders (Trump admits that’s what he’s actively looking for) from the first term are still there, like Tom Homan and, of course, Stephen Miller. Grade: B+

61. “Flow”…The year’s most artful animated film, and immediately captivating as you’re watching it. Even if you won’t necessarily rush to see this a second time (and your kids may get restless even during the first viewing). A memorable experience in the moment, but it may make you feel like you’ve essentially watched a highly acclaimed video game after it’s over. Grade: B+

60. “Steve! (Martin)”…That brilliant title clues you into the fact that this two-part documentary will be exploring Martin’s “wild and crazy guy” earlier years as the biggest standup comedian of his era, and the quieter years of more cerebral comedy (and banjo playing) he’s embraced more recently. The first part is probably the more illuminating, detailing a Steven many of us may be too young to have experienced firsthand. The second part is still very enjoyable, as Martin pals around with comedic soulmate Martin Short and some of his later movies (like the turn that should’ve gotten him a Best Supporting Actor nomination in “The Spanish Prisoner”) are discussed. These are just people you enjoy being around, and sometimes a movie doesn’t need to be much more than that, speaking of… Grade: B+

59. “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat”…Let this movie wrap around you like a warm blanket, and then realize how nice it truly is to see a realistic portrayal of black female friendships (both “of a certain age” and when they were younger) freed from the Tyler Perry factory of melodramatic hysterics and punishing people that stray too far from conformity (such as a woman having an interracial relationship here, but not immediately getting hit by a bus). Uniformly excellent performances from the leads Sanaa Lathan, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Uzo Aduba. Also featuring an unrecognizable Tati Gabrielle as a younger version of Lathan’s character, and recently-deceased Julian McMahon in his final film performance. Grade: B+

58. “Idea Man”…Disney Plus sometimes gets dissed for its endless “here’s a white male creative that’s actually a genius” hagiographies (Elton John, John Williams, The Beatles, Howard Ashman, Bruce Springsteen, Stan Lee, etc. have all gotten rapturously-praising documentaries in recent years), but Jim Henson actually is a terrific subject for a documentary given just how easy it is to overlook his legendary career as merely “some guy playing with puppets.” It also helps that I genuinely miss his memorable, lifelike-creature effects over the charmless CGI of today. “Idea Man” doubles as an exploration any creative person can relate to of having more ideas than you’ll ever have time to bring to fruition. Grade: B+

57. “Patrice”…Charming documentary highlighting a little-known quirk in disability payments. Patrice herself is a better “character” than any scripted movie could come up with, and impossible not to like. Grade: B+

56. “The Secret Art of Human Flight”…An under-the-radar gem that’s original, inventive, well-acted, and has a deeply satisfying ending. Grade: B+

55. “Fly”…If “Secret Art” is a fantasy about how a man who may or may not be genuinely learning how to fly from a mysterious mentor, then this documentary gets us as close as we possibly can to flying for real. The cinematography is astounding, and I wish I had been able to watch this on the big screen for the ultimate rush. This surely would’ve been even more cinematic than “Free Solo,” a more acclaimed recent documentary about a sport that can easily kill you. Grade: B+

54. “Shirley”…A strong, sturdy biography about Shirley Chisholm, mostly centering on her run for President. Regina King doesn’t really look, sound, or act much like Shirley in real life, so it’s truly inspired that she’s able to inhabit her so well here. This is also Lance Reddick’s second-to-last film role (he also reprised his John Wick franchise role in “Ballerina,” although it’s not more substantial than his nuanced, larger work here) and really his last major one. It’s an extra pleasure to see Reddick’s believable camaraderie with King as partners in revolution. This movie was released before Kamala Harris became the 2024 nominee, but watching it in that context now can’t help but feel how depressingly slow progress actually moves. Grade: B+

52./53. “Watchmen Part 1″/”Watchmen Part 2”…I love the graphic novel “Watchmen” and especially Zac Snyder’s 2009 film version. [The stuff he changes from the graphic novel winds up actually making total sense, and I can’t say that about some of the choices the HBO sequel series made, especially the last episode.] This is a very faithful adaptation of the graphic novel that fans could possibly be craving after the live action versions have deviated from the source material. And even if you might wonder why they made this at all–and especially why they divided it into two parts–it’s never a bad feeling to revisit the “Watchmen” story. Grade: B+

51. “Ghostlight”…Sometimes, the right indie movie hits you in exactly the right way. “Ghostlight” is one of those movies that some people will be bored by, and some people will find themselves moved to tears. I’ll admit not every scene works, but it builds up to a terrific ending. And frankly, there are too few movies where middle-aged working joes discover something outside their comfort zone. [Matt Damon’s underrated turn in “Stillwater” was the last one I can even remember.] Check this out, and maybe show it to your dad if he’ll sit through it. Grade: A-

50. “The Last Showgirl”…This movie pairs perfectly with “Ghostlight.” This is another exploration of someone the world says is “over the hill,” but still fighting for something they can barely express. Scenes of this will move you to tears. Possibly the year’s “Undercut Gems” in that an actor you think you know shows a revelatory side of themselves, but doesn’t necessarily change their persona all that much, instead finding fresh ways to showcase it. [It’s enough to make you a little depressed to see Pamela Anderson return to broad comedy in the “Naked Gun” reboot.] Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, and Kiernan Shipka are also very good with characters that are different than what they’d usually play. Curtis especially finds the hidden depth in a woman that could’ve come off as a Farrely Brothers caricature. This is the kind-of movie you can just “hang out” in and absorb the atmosphere with characters we’re actually rooting for. The ending gives us what we want. Grade: A-

49. “Wolfs”…George Clooney returns to form as a veteran “fixer” hired to solve the same problem as Brad Pitt’s fixer. Smooth, movie star charm abounds, and it’s nice to know you’re in the hands of professionals. The ending is just good enough to make you sad Apple+ cancelled the planned sequel for this. Grade: A-

48. “Stolen”…This movie is being described as a “revenge thriller,” but that’s not quite accurate as the heroine tries (and tries) to do things the legal way until she is literally being hunted by a man that has wrecked havoc on her life (and her Sami people’s way of life) for decades. Even then, she seems reluctant to defend herself. So why am I rating this movie so high? Because of the interesting Sami culture explored that many of us have never even heard of in a movie before, and especially for the gorgeous cinematography and peaceful scenes of reindeer herding. This movie has a lot going for it (man vs. woman, man/woman vs. nature, indigenous cultures vs. the “progress” of an industry that’s killing you), and is even broad-minded enough to portray the not-so-romanticized part of the people it wishes to protect like the sexism of the community elders. Grade: A-

47. “Casa Bonita Mi Amor”…I think of Trey Parker and Matt Stone as the ruthless satirical duo that make movies that are either stone-stupid (“Orgasmo,” “BASEketball”) or entertainment in various mediums that is hilariously scathing (“South Park” obviously, but also “Book of Mormon”). This documentary about Stone and (especially) Parker trying to restore a beloved childhood restaurant to its former glory reveals an entirely new side of them: people with a heart. That could’ve felt weird, but we’re also treated to the “Money Pit” feeling of watching a remodel go from bad to worse that keeps the documentary from ever getting too nostalgic. I was amazed at how much I actually cared about whether or not Parker could restore his boyhood dream, and the general hope that modern kids can have real adventures instead of simulated IP on a screen. Grade: A-

46. “Blood for Dust”…Like reliable character actor David Dastmalchian in the movie right above this, Scoot McNairy has his own breakout leading role here in a terrifically doom-laden, dread-soaked wintry noir that also features Kit Harrington’s best performance. You’ll be shocked at how convincing he is as a “no good” rural criminal. Grade: A-

45. “Late Night with the Devil”…One of the better horror movies of 2024 by a mile. There’s so much by-the-numbers jump-scare junk out there that anything as interesting as this should be championed if at all possible. David Dastmalchian also steps into a rare lead role, making it even more worthy of celebration. Grade: A-

44. “2073”…As well-made as “Late Night” is, this is the scariest sci-fi or fantasy movie of 2024. It’s really a documentary about the majority of the planet going to sleep in the 2020’s so that dictators and the tech elite can build a dystopian surveillance state (seen in its full anti-glory in 2073), but there are a few scenes with actresses like Samantha Morton and Naomie Ackie that can technically frame it as sci-fi. Worth watching before it’s too late… Grade: A-

43. “Knox Goes Away”…Like “Blood for Dust,” this is a movie about criminals that finds ways to surprise you. It’s elaborately plotted, and although Michael Keaton is as terrific as he always is, there’s a strong supporting cast here too, featuring reliable pros like Al Pacino, Marcia Gay Harden, Ray McKinnon, and a surprisingly good James Marsden. This is one of the most unexpectedly moving movies about hitmen that I’ve seen in years. Grade: A-

42. “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus”…This is the most straightforward movie of 2024. Dying composer Sakamoto sits down to play the classical music he’s devoted his life to for about 100 minutes, the entire quickly filmed only a few months before his passing. The “movie” (filmed in rapturously melancholy black and white) is merely him doing that. There’s not even an introduction or final bow. The last moments are the piano playing itself as Sakamoto vanishes–a moment so simple in its beautifully sad allegory that fans of his work might find themselves getting a little misty. If you aren’t interested in classical music (or the premise as I’ve described it), there’s not a snowball’s chance you’ll enjoy this. But if you’d love to see a true artist doing what they’re great at one final time, put it on, let your mind wander, and just enjoy it. For me personally, watching someone terrific doing what they were put on this Earth to do is something I always seek out. Grade: A- …And speaking of surprisingly powerful ways to explore death…

41. “Tuesday”…Julia Louis Dreyfuss has a dramatic breakthrough here in a surreal exploration of death wherein “Death” is represented as a mythological parrot. A movie that’s best not to know too much about so its surprises can sweep you up no different than the fantastical bird’s wings. Grade: A-

40. “Parallel”…Groundbreaking in the subtlest way possible. Almost all sci-fi brain scramblers have majority (if not exclusively) white casts like “Coherence,” “Primer,” and even some movies on this very countdown like “Things Will Be Different.” Well, “Parallel” lets black people in on the weird, head-scratching “fun,” engulfing us in a tale that will keep you guessing, and then break your heart. The Hodge brothers are very good, but Danielle Deadwyler continues her red-hot streak. Grade: A-

39. “The Order”…A solid, under-the-radar thriller “inspired by” true events. Certain characters and action scenes are entirely fictional and I wasn’t a huge fan of adding a guy who is interracially married only to kill off that character, which feels like something the white supremacist antagonists of this story might approve of. One thing I wasn’t so wild about is that long stretches of this movie can feel almost like unintentional endorsements of the character’s viewpoints (I think Nicolas Hoult’s villain may be viewed as a bit too “cool” by impressionable young male viewers), and Jude Law is probably a bit miscast, as he’s indulging in a few too many tics and mannerisms here.

Still, the action scenes are excitingly realistic; Hoult’s babyfaced-calmness adds something eerie to his villain; Marc Maron kills it in his too-few scenes; and there’s something undeniably mysterious and hypnotic about the entire thing. Australian director Justin Kurzel completely raises his game here, elevating most scenes above what might’ve been on paper. Also, featuring an elusive and haunting score that made me think about the end scene and credits for days. I might otherwise not have without that evocative music supplementing it. Grade: A-

38. “Blitz”…Other than a handful of notable exceptions like the 1942 Best Picture winner “Mrs. Miniver,” there have been very few truly great dramas about the British population surviving during the WWII blitzkrieg. I believe “Blitz” is of that caliber. Not every scene works, and you may wish the first two-thirds were a little bit shorter, but the ending really, truly works. Even though the film doesn’t shy away from who many of the British civilians of that time period actually were (it doesn’t sanitize the fact some of them were bigots who may not have been entirely unsympathetic to the more-flagrant white supremacy of the Germans if it were under different circumstances), this is still British director Steve McQueen’s most uplifting film, and you may not be expecting that going in. Grade: A-

37. “Didi”…A “boy” version of Bo Burnham’s excellent “Eighth Grade,” and I’ll admit that there are several things in this that made me wince in relation (I was fairly young in 2008, the period this movie is set in). Roger Ebert once said movies are like an empathy device in that we’re seeing lives radically different from our own, and understanding people better. This movie is a great example of that, as Chris “Didi” Wang (or his long suffering mother well-played by Joan Chen) aren’t necessarily people we see in movies all that much, but we might understand a little bit better afterwards. Grade: A-

36. “Orion and the Dark”…A very good animated movie that went straight to Netflix and then pretty much disappeared as the quality ones too often do. There’s a strong case to be made that this really should’ve been nominated for Best Animated Picture over the simpler, more kid-friendly “Wallace and Gromit” sequel, but why not watch both back-to-back on Netflix and be the judge yourself? As a night owl myself, I enjoyed this hearty defense of the dark, and even the multi-generational framing device for the story. Grade: A-

35. “Thelma the Unicorn”…Underrated, delightful tale about being true to your real self over a fantastical popular image that couldn’t be more relevant for young girls exposed to a music industry where almost no woman keeps her actual name or anything close to her original appearance. For me, this really should’ve been nominated for Best Animated feature as it’s one of the year’s best animated films, featuring a bubblegum color palette, hilarious songs (“Here Comes the Cud” is only slightly less stupid than real life unnecessary musical collaborations), and Jermaine Clement as a mesmerizingly cynical music producer. Grade: A-

34. “The Wild Robot”…Peter Brown’s source novel is a low-key charmer that I would encourage readers of any age to seek out. Here, Universal tries their best to make a simple book that is fundamentally about shaking your “programming” to connect with nature and build a community (even if it’s with creatures that are literally another species) into something more “cinematic” by shoehorning in a few unnecessary action sequences and forced jokes. Despite the degrading “upgrades,” the core of Brown’s sweet source novel shines through, and is ably led by a good voice cast. Grade: A-

33. “Food Inc. 2”…At the time the first “Food Inc.” came out, I was living in the Monsanto and Tyson-dominated region of North Alabama, so I could definitely relate to the film’s stark message on how increasingly-bigger food companies were killing us, and especially hurting the areas they took root in. Truly, I consider the original “Food Inc.” documentary to be one of the best documentaries of this century, and would encourage you to check out that movie before this one.

This follow-up may not be quite as good as those lofty heights (some of the material is repeated), but any chance you can get to shine a light on our nation’s horrifying food and agricultural system is one you should take. One of the biggest changes since the 2009 original came out is that the monopolization in the food sector has somehow gotten even worse, and “Inc. 2” does a good job of showing how awful the consequences of that are. There’s also some bittersweet moments showing Senator Jon Tester challenging the food companies, and the knowledge that he’s lost reelection since then (this movie came out before the November 2024 elections, but I watched it more recently), perhaps underscoring just how powerful The Powers That Be truly are in the food economy. Grade: A-

32. “The Return”…Some have been a little under-appreciative of this (based on the final parts of “The Odyssey”), but I was mesmerized from start to finish. The stripped-down, realistic aesthetic makes Homer feel vital, and even more universal as we see a PTSD-suffering warrior-king not just wrestle with getting back his kingdom, his home, and his very family, but even the question of whether or not he should get it back. Ralph Fiennes makes for an unexpectedly terrific action hero (I enjoy his off-kilter and genre-diverse performances in things like “Return,” “The Menu,” “Ratcatcher,” “28 Years Later,” etc. more than his typical prestige roles in “Conclave”), and the thrilling climax delivers one of 2024’s best action sequences with only a few dozen arrows and some villains that truly have it coming to them. 2024’s French language remake of “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Return” may wrestle with the weight of revenge or violence, but they show there’s still something viscerally exciting in seeing decent men turn the tables on the corruption that eats away at a noble society that can’t defend itself. Speaking of… Grade: A-

30./31. “Stopping the Steal”/”The Sixth”…As a human being, Donald Trump is about as low as it gets. Once you get outside the political, you would think more Americans would care that the POTUS is a sociopath. These two documentaries try to refresh people’s memories as we see the true horror of January 6th and Trump’s endless campaign to change history with The Big Lie. They’re important, and worthy of your time. If I didn’t have such fierce competition for the Top 20, I wish I could’ve found a spot for them, I truly do. Grade: A-

29. “Admissions Granted”…Conservatives are as close to open white supremacy as they’ve been in over 60 years (before the parties flipped completely on civil rights). The non-stop demonization of immigrants, “woke-ness,” CRT, school integration, and–of course–DEI is as prevalent inside the MAGA bubble as oxygen itself. So this documentary about affirmative action in college admissions couldn’t be more necessary than it is right now. You’ll have a hard time getting it inside the bubble of those that need to see it, but it’s a solid, straightforward presentation for those that do. Grade: A-

28. “Molli and Max in the Future”…Creatively brazen and cramming in enough ideas for a handful of indie sci-fi brain scramblers (more of them should just throw things at the wall instead of taking one mildly intriguing idea and stretching it out for 80 minutes), “in the Future” takes on various modern dating topics, and a scathing Trump parody that only grew in topicality. This was filmed years before Kamala Harris became the nominee, so they wouldn’t have known how relevant “Rachel” would become. A movie that’s so indie, you can watch it practically anywhere for free, so seek it out–it’s not hard to find. Grade: A-

27. “I’m Still Here”…You should also seek out “Still,” as a never-been-timelier portrait of what it is to live in a society sinking into the shadowy, lawless chaos of dictatorship, where the “rules” are whatever the dictator says they are. For American movie audiences, there’s never been as much relevance towards the legal confusion over “disappeared” people–keep in mind, this film came out only months before Trumpolini’s ICE goons were doing similar things and invading Los Angeles. The second half of the movie is about the people the “disappeared” leave behind as they have no clear path with what to do with their lives, but it has an odd lack of momentum that is the reason it’s hard to put it in the “near perfect” category of the Top 25 (some will scoff seeing more frivolous films listed there instead). Regardless, “I’m Still Here,” is a vital, real-life tale of what trying to mount an effective resistance to a criminal regime actually means, and fully earned its Best Picture nomination. Grade: A-

26. “Just the Two of Us”…For me, the scariest movie of the year wasn’t a traditional horror film, but a French drama about domestic abuse and suffocating coercion. For large sections of this movie’s runtime, I felt my skin crawling, and the level of immersion is simply remarkable, putting you fully inside the confusion and anxiety the heroine feels. Melvil Poupaud makes for a fully convincing villain, as someone who mistakes unwavering control for the only pure form of love, and sees himself as a heinously-aggrieved victim if he doesn’t receive it. And Virginie Efira does a lot even in moments of silence, pulling off a tricky balancing act of letting you know what she thinks without saying a word–simply because her husband has pushed out anyone she might otherwise say it to. Grade: A-

Honorable Mention: “Manodrome”…This movie technically came out in 2023, not 2024, or it probably would have made this year’s Top 20. I still think it’s absolutely worth seeking out to see Jesse Eisenberg’s career-best performance (he’s emotionally unrecognizable from what he usually plays), Adrien Brody’s psychologically scary Jordan Petersen-esque character, and one of the best movies made about the “new masculinity” that threatens to swallow young American men whole. Grade: A-

Other Honorable Mention: “Io Capitano”…I’m actually not entirely sure if this movie came out in 2023 or 2024 (it’s an end-of-the-year foreign film you could count either way), but I’d feel completely comfortable putting it in the “Top 20” if it does count as 2024, and maybe even the Top 10. A timely story about African immigrants trying to overcome incredible obstacles to reach an Italy that may or may not just turn them back. Even the “happy” final scene is ambiguous–highlighting the never-ending doubt that accompanies their journey. “Io” is complete with some of the year’s most beautiful cinematography that I wish I had been able to see on the big screen. Grade: A

“The Top 25”…Ordinarily, I do a “Top 20” best films of the year, but this year’s competition was just too strong.

24. (tie) “The Devil’s Climb” and “Will and Harper”…Two very different movies about male celebrities and their best friends going on journeys across America that could prove hazardous to their health. “Climb” has some of the best scenery of any movie released in 2024, and it’s a real shame it didn’t get the theatrical push “Free Solo” did, as the snowy, hellish mountain peaks here would’ve looked much more amazing in Imax than the somewhat plain rock surface of “Solo.” The plot is also much stronger than “Solo,” as we see the passive aggressive “camaraderie” and barely suppressed competition between celebrity climbing “bros,” especially given that the obsessive Alex Honnold may have surpassed his onetime semi-mentor friend in fame, but isn’t necessarily the more sympathetic of the two.

“Will and Harper” is quite simply the best movie Will Ferrell has made in over a decade, especially as the trip goes deeper into ‘merica (his friend Harper has a love for redneck towns and dive bars that she fears may not be as well received now that she’s transitioned into being a woman) and the conversations Will has with Harper go deeper as well. Ferrell looks visibly anguished when his friend tells him she considered suicide, and also questions whether Will’s celebrity is really helping their quest. Ferrell can sometimes come across as avoiding more personal moments he can’t control, so it’s fascinating to see such a different side of him. Also, this is one of the best movies about the transgender experience made so far, and it’s not for nothing that Harper is such a radically different type of person than we usually see dealing with this in that her transition was later in life and with not necessarily the most Cosmo-ready of presences (as I said, she enjoys redneck towns and honky tonks).

23. “IF”…For me, critics were too harsh against this charming family fable, not only the best movie Ryan Reynolds has had any involvement in making in eons, but also the best family movie of 2024. Reading some of the negative reviews, you can’t help but feel the tone is simply too sour to be moved by sequences like Fiona Shaw reconnecting with her forgotten imaginary friend in addition to her love of dancing. Kids will love fluffy, lovable characters like Blue, and adults might even be surprised to see the corner of their eye getting just a little bit wet–not full blown tears and I’m sure it’s only allergies, but maybe they’ll feel something. And if you can’t celebrate all that, then how about this film (the highest grossing original movie of 2024) being the rare original scripted movie to earn more than 100 million at the box office?

22. “Thelma”…As surefire a crowd pleaser as 2024 produced. The year’s most unlikely (and best) action hero wasn’t a spy or superhero, but 93-year-old Thelma Post, determined to get back her money after getting scammed through the phone. Tom Cruise may hang off of planes, but this movie makes Thelma’s ability to roll across a mattress look almost as riveting, and I found myself stunned at just how much I was rooting for her. Even though this material could’ve been cheesy or felt padded, June Squibb and Richard Roundtree (in his final film role) don’t shy away from the fact that getting old does suck. But that doesn’t mean Thelma has any interest in surrendering her money or her life to unwanted pests, perfectly represented by the final scene where she slyly dispatches a cockroach.

21. “The Room Next Door”…I’ve seen Pedro Almodovar be one of the most overrated directors alive for 50 years, but when I finally really like one of his movies, the rest of America’s critics give it something of a shoulder shrug, picking it apart for odd dialogue rhythms. It’s true that the dialogue and even acting style can feel just a bit “lost in translation” during the film’s first third (and some of the flashbacks aren’t very good at all), but things pick up dramatically once Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore get to the movie’s setup: Swinton wanting her old friend to be in the same house as her as she commits assisted suicide. Movies about depression and giving up during a terminal illness are nearly impossible to get “right,” but Almodovar wraps the audience in a warm, elegant blanket, and you almost feel weirdly comforted during fatalistic-yet-mysteriously alive moments like Swinton’s sigh looking out at her apartment’s view of the NYC skyline for the final time or repeating the final, gloriously-downbeat moments of “The Dead.” Sigh indeed…A perfect movie to watch on a rainy or snowy day, when you’re ready to really bask in the friendship between Swinton and Moore.

20. “Wildcat”…One of the most underrated movies of 2024 in that it’s not even “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes despite being one of the best literary biographies I’ve ever seen. Writing is an incredibly internal and cerebral process, and is not inherently cinematic the way some other art forms might be (such as a movie like “Pollock,” where his unique process is made tangible for an audience). Sadly, most writer biopics focus on their turbulent personal lives, and may not go into their writing process much at all. However, that wouldn’t have been so easy for one like Flannery O’Connor, who spent much of her creative life in a single room due to being confined by lupus, and had an anti-social religious zealotry that didn’t easily lend itself to the writerly “cocktail circuit.”

But writer-director-producer Ethan Hawke finds an innovative way to bring her vivid work to life, incorporating several of her short stories into her own narrative in one of the best representations of the timeless question writers are always asked “Where do you get your ideas from?” I was fully prepared to roll my eyes at the daddy-daughter nepo-stunt casting of Ethan Hawke working with his real life daughter Maya Hawke, who is not exactly the natural choice for O’Connor (she’s taller, younger, obviously more attractive, NYC-born vs. Southern), but Maya is shockingly great in this. Not only does she erase any doubts about her ability to play Flannery, but she takes on multiple parts in the “stories-within-a-story” framework, showing a chameleonic ability that is almost like Peter Sellers reborn in the body of a fashion model. This is–by far–Ethan’s best movie as a director, and if collaborations like this keep bringing out the best between him and Maya Hawke, I’ll permanently suspend my eye roll towards them.

19. “The Old Oak”…Legendary British director Ken Loach has been making movies since the 1960’s, and has become one of the most famous chroniclers of the working class in the meantime. His movies are what more directors should aspire to capture instead of the constant barrage of the 1% we see in TV and film. However, Loach is doing something quietly radical here in his final film, and that’s trying to capture the bigotry of the British working class he usually romanticizes. Frankly, it’s fascinating to see him pull back the layers of modern bigotry people are no longer too ashamed to keep hidden. Keep in mind, that this movie was released several months before Trump’s reelection.

In “Oak,” his hero often looks exhausted–as Loach himself must feel seeing the regression of the world’s democracies–and ready to give up. But “The Old Oak” takes its title not only from the central pub of the story, but the symbolism of a mighty tree that has seen good times and bad times, but is still there, ready to keep doing its job. Right now, that’s all any of us can do.

18. “Civil War”…A movie I didn’t like that much the first time I was watching it, but it kept growing and metastasizing in the days, weeks, and even months since then. That’s when I knew this would make the “Best of…” list no matter how irritating I found the Cailee Spaeny character (she often acts like she’s on spring break instead of traveling through a war zone) and how unconvincing some parts are, especially during the first half of the movie. But it’s become even more relevant during Trump’s regime, as some scenes centered around Nick Offerman’s delusional tyrant could be based off of him (Trump’s constant threats to run for an illegal third term vs. Offerman’s POTUS shredding the constitution to do so, Trump’s war on the legitimacy of the FBI vs. Offerman’s POTUS disbanding the FBI, Trump’s invasion of Los Angeles vs. Offerman’s POTUS supposedly using drones against American citizens). The ending battle scenes in D.C. are terrific, as is Offerman’s last line of dialogue, proving who he’s been all along.

17. “The Listener”…Simply Tessa Thompson talking on the phone to various people who have called into a helpline for the length of the movie (she’s the only character who appears onscreen). It’s Steve Buscemi’s first directorial effort since 2007’s “Interview,” which likewise was just two characters having a gripping conversation for the entirety of the movie. From this, we can maybe presume Buscemi is drawn to dialogue that swirls and drifts and occasionally menaces, revealing more about the characters through what they chose to say–and it is revealing–than the lies of their actions, which can often feel like pretending. Most ultra-indies are cheapo horror films deriving their “audience hook” from seeing people get slashed, but Buscemi is making radical empathy his draw here with a perfectly-cast Tessa Thompson channelling the softest, most earnest aspects of her dreamy screen persona. She’d like to help everyone, even if some people barely seem interested and one would rather fight her. As different people cycle through, it’s a reminder of the lost art of the phone call, where two voices can drift out into space, free from their physical bodies, and maybe achieve a connection that simply isn’t possible with the distractions of face-to-face, and definitely isn’t possible online.

16. “Hit Man”…Gleefully busts the movie trope of the “hit man,” by revealing it’s usually a fantasy that professional assassins exist at all–or, at least, that somebody looking at Craigslist ads would be able to afford one. But the movie deepens out in its second half, becoming an examination of how rigid morality may not be in someone’s best interest, and the aliveness the main character feels by embracing a created persona. I don’t remember the last time I saw an existentialist hitman movie more concerned with questions of identity than action scenes, and that alone makes it unusual enough to stand out. And Glen Powell and Adria Arjona have excellent chemistry, possibly making them the noir-successors to George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in “Out of Sight.”

15. “Femme”…Other reviews have noted how the twisty script keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next and exactly where it’s going. For me, this is more what I’ve been wanting from gay cinema in that it’s not just explicit sex scenes and explorations of identity, but there are actual dramatic stakes and narrative momentum going on here. The central “relationship” between George McKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett is enough to fill three movies, making you unsure of what you even hope happens to them. Any movie that can do pretty much anything for its ending and leave you surprised is doing something very right.

14. “Heretic”…The best horror movie of 2024, and one of the most cerebral I’ve seen in years–to say nothing of the film’s terrific atmosphere, wherein a cozy home literally descends into a charnel house. This is all very surprising as I was a bit reluctant to watch this at first, having a natural aversion to movies that feature an atheist villain; in an era of encroaching theocracy, they feel more like wishful-thinking-boogiemen for the 80% of the planet that’s religious.

But if you read between the lines of the crackling “Heretic” script, I believe the movie’s true sympathy lies with Hugh Grant’s thrillingly faith-busting monologues. Parts of this feel like an electrifyingly dangerous college lecture that would probably never take place in most universities, and Grant continues his late-career hot streak playing villains (“Paddington 2,” “Dungeons and Dragons,” and a literal cannibal in “Cloud Atlas”). A shattering exploration of gullible faith vs. logical doubt you’d rather not have, perfectly symbolized by the film’s tricky ending. Speaking of movies that might lead to questions of faith…

12. (tie) “Bad Faith” and “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”…Two different movies about religious fascism that have more in common than you might think despite being in different countries, about different faiths, and even the fact that “Faith” is a documentary rather than drama. But “Sacred Fig” is about how living in a theocracy can literally rewire your brain towards fascism, so completely clouding the way you think that you don’t even question locking your own family up. No frivolous “personal” ties could ever be as important as the regime, the faith, or merely your own job. All three of which have been tied together so thoroughly in the mind of the compromised main character, he barely sees a difference anymore. That makes “Fig” one of the best movies ever about how the ethical chaos of fascism can compromise you gradually (he at first questions issuing wrong death sentences before stopping altogether), then completely.

“Bad Faith” is a documentary about the rise of Christian nationalism within the United States, and a timely parable of how Trumpolini and Co. would very much love to bring “the Iranian model” to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Watch both movies back-to-back for an especially memorable experience.

11. “The Promised Land”…If you read the entire “Top 25,” you may notice a theme on this year’s “Best of” list where I’m especially gravitating towards movies that question a corrupt authority. This is the year’s best foreign-language film because it features stark landscapes, a truly hate-able villain, a resonant plot about a man who doesn’t want to pay a bribe to a grasping tyrant, a terrific performance from Amanda Collin from “Raised by Wolves” (good to see her getting quality post-“Wolves” parts), and Mads Mikkelsen in the rare part where he’s not only the hero of the story, but also sees him speaking his native Danish. Annually, a lot of costume epics come and go, but this one stuck with me.

10. “Hundreds of Beavers”…The best comedy of 2024 is a DIY indie you probably haven’t heard of. [This movie makes “Molli and Max in the Future” look like “Ocean’s Eleven” in terms of star power.] You might mistake it for being straight-to-Tubi dreck that you’ll be sorry you clicked on after 30 minutes of amateurish technical aspects and softcore-pornography-level acting, but don’t worry because “Beavers” is a real movie, made by incredibly talented people who clearly know what they’re doing. It’s clever, wall-to-wall inventive, and I’ve never seen anything exactly like it. [After watching probably over 10,000 movies, any film you can say this about is doing something worth paying attention to.] It’s closest in presentation to an old silent film comedy, but mixed more with the spirit of a spoof film. Said spirit gets wilder, and more innovative as it keeps going, pulling you into its delightful chaos like you’re watching somebody else’s dream unfold in real time.

9. “Wicked”…A big-budgeted, all-ages skewing, “known” branded movie that’s actually…great? How on Earth did that happen? For starters, “Wicked” is old fashioned enough to care about feeling like an actual movie instead of merely “intellectual property,” the executive speak code phrase for movies-based-on-something-else that make stories sound like they’re wearing a cattle brand. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are well-cast to meet the moment of the first film’s climax: a soaring version of “Defying Gravity” that had audiences practically lifted out of the theater. An eclectic supporting cast (it’s not everyday you see Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeow, Bowen Yang, and Peter Dinklage in the same credits) each have their moments, but the heart of the movie just might be Dinklage’s prejudice-suffering professor, a relevant portrayal of the people that demagogues crush in order to trick people into believing they have real magic powers to save them.

8. “The Truth vs. Alex Jones”…I loved a lot of great documentaries in 2024, but how do you separate the “A-” ones from the near perfect “Best of the Year?” For me, it’s about narrative. Many documentaries cover worthy subjects (and often subjects much worthier than “The Devil’s Climb”), but not that many put that together with people we can root for or anything approaching a narrative form. “The Truth vs. Alex Jones” is sobering, fascinating, person-based, and even rousing as we see the rare case of a deserved downfall among our corrupt conservative elites. Too often total lies are commoditized into toxic misinformation with no repercussions whatsoever; this is a love letter to a system that could (occasionally) still work to prevent that.

7. “Problemista”…Even if I said “Hundreds of Beavers” is the best comedy of the year, that’s largely because I don’t really consider “Problemista” a comedy at all. Sure, it’s laugh out loud funny in parts (like a visual representation of Craigslist), but it’s mostly a wildly inventive, but also realistic depiction of the escalating hell of being forced to work in unworkable jobs. Overlapping with ridiculously soul-crushing “gig” jobs is a dissection of the bureaucratic nightmare that is the legal immigration system, and the near Kafka-esque absurdities our hero (Julio Torres, also making his directorial debut) has to go through to “win” it. Tilda Swinton also plays a part that’s 180 degrees from her “The Room Next Door” character, proving once again she might be the most versatile actor living. This is an incredibly genuine representation of a type of narcissistic NYC rich lady many who’ve lived in the city might instantly recognize–the non-romanticized version of the “Sex and the City” women as they creep past an age where it becomes harder to deny the world doesn’t revolve around them.

6. “Exhibiting Forgiveness”…To speak honestly with the 5 people who may actually be reading this still, I’ll confess that this is the 2024 I had the most personal connection with. “Forgiveness” is startling in its intimacy, and almost feels like you’re peeping in on something private. That’s how vivid the filmmakers represent the confusion that befalls our hero (Alabama native Andre Holland) as his abusive father resurfaces after many years gone. Our protagonist’s mother is pushing him to “forgive” his father–a man who never exactly gives the gushing apology you might expect he would, somewhat arrogantly assuming forgiveness will come because he quotes the Bible a few times–and let him back into his life. But “Exhibiting” is a nuanced exploration of whether or not that’s actually a good thing for Holland.

In some inconvenient scenes, we see the buried anger that can seep up when confronted with living reminders of a dark past, possibly wrecking the present, and even influencing Holland’s parenting of his own son in a negative direction. This is the rare movie that takes the familiar “parent gets forgiveness for abusive past” trope, and subverts the expectation that you automatically owe somebody that, making it the best movie about abusive father-son dynamics since 1998’s “Affliction.” The characters felt like real people, and the conflict is one that is at once realistically specific, but also universal.

5. “Rebel Ridge”…The best action movie of 2024. Here, writer-director Jeremy Saulnier (making his best film so far) creates a “First Blood” for the new millennium, as Aaron Pierre goes up against a corrupt police department that acts like it’s doing him the favor of shaking him down for bail money they’re stealing. Any movie that can raise the alarm over police forfeitures and have some of the year’s most realistic action sequences is doing something very right. Although this was released a couple of months before the election, you may find the portrayal of out-of-control law enforcement following a lying older authority figure (Don Johnson turns his inherent charm insidious in his best role in years) to be even more relevant in 2025 than when “Ridge” was released.

4. “The Apprentice”…People who love Trump will never watch this; people who hate Trump may also have a hard time watching a dramatization of his early rise, and subsequently avoid this movie. But that would be a shame, as it’s one of the few great movies centered around the question “Where does a tyrant actually come from?” The movie is written by journalist and author Gabriel Sherman, who structures it almost as a trick, as you may inadvertently find yourself “rooting” for the Young Donald in the first half, where he clearly views himself as a Horatio Alger-type figure making his way across the New York real estate scene, a “builder” embracing his Manifest Destiny to make towering monuments to himself. But the second half shows just how foolish that thinking actually was, as we see Trump betray everyone who’s ever bought into his image of himself.

Director Ali Abbasi (who made the terrific Iranian movie “Holy Spider” and knows something about monsters following a false belief in themselves) takes the movie’s “go for broke striver” energy in the first part, and subtly tweaks it to have a sinister edge in the second half. Throughout the movie Trump (who has ripped off everything from “The Art of the Deal”‘s title from Andy Warhol to “Make America Great Again” from Reagan) reveals himself to be completely hollow, a human shark (ironic given his fear) who even steals his mentor Roy Cohn’s life lessons to package into a book somebody else will write (the final scene has him meeting “Art of the Deal” ghostwriter Tony Schwartz). A scathing indictment of the warped-conservative version of “The American Dream,” the “hustle” worship of money-hungry America, and how the promotion of those soulless Reaganite values created somebody like this in the first place. Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong are also fantastic.

3. “Small Things Like These”…A lot of movies have the morality of their main character overlap with what’s best for them. But it doesn’t always (or perhaps even usually) work out that way in real life. So what happens when what’s best for a character to do for themselves is diametrically opposed to the right thing to do? “Small Things Like These” is an incredibly quiet movie that knocked me out by answering this very question, in a way that sort-of reminded me of “High Noon,” as a hero faces overwhelming pressure from his community to just maintain the status quo.

Please don’t give up on this during the deliberately slower first half. Emily Watson may have only an extended cameo in a long scene, but I’m almost surprised she wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actress as she is that convincing at showing you exactly how bad people in positions of power get the majority to go along with what they’re doing, and the alternate reality they’re concocting around that evil. And Cillian Murphy gives a performance that rivals his layered “Oppenheimer” work, turning his iconic eyes into searching, confused pools of vulnerability and anxiety without (mostly) saying a word in some of the film’s most revealing scenes. Even if he’s doing something “crazy” in the film’s terrific ending, his superior acting lets you see how he just can’t go along with the status quo anymore.

2. “Dune Part 2”…Sitting in a movie theater watching “Part 2,” I felt like audiences must have in 1977 when “Star Wars” came out. From the opening moments where we see some of the villains ominously glide up the side of a mountain looking for “inconvenient” native populations to murder, I felt I’d been transported to movie nirvana–not only loving the jaw-dropping beauty of the desert landscapes, and the obvious craft of a confident master who knows exactly where he wants to go (Denis Villeneuve), but feeling excited at the narrative stakes put in place towards the end of “Part 1.” [I loved “Part 1,” but will fully admit it’s mostly setup for this even better film.]

Everything here is working at the absolute peak: the romance between Timothy Chalamet and Zendaya, the decision to shoot Feyd’s introductory scene in black and white, the rousing scene where Paul learns to ride a sandworm for the first time, the dissection of revolutionary politics, etc. Everything here is so good that it was damn hard to admit one 2024 film was somehow even better…

The Best Film of 2024: “The Brutalist”

It could be hard to explain why “The Brutalist” was the “Best Movie of 2024” in only a couple of hundred words, so hopefully this video can explain it a little bit better. It’s more generally about why I would’ve enjoyed it winning Best Picture over “Anora,” but also explains why I loved the controversial ending, and why the film’s messages, performances, and themes stayed with me so long after the end credits.

Thank you to everyone who checked out this list! It may be a lot of effort for not many views, but I truly appreciate the readers I do get. If you finished it all the way, feel free to let me know.