It's been a great year at the movies in 2024. Creating my Top 10 films list took a lot of thought as it's been a bumper crop of enjoyable films. The list of movies I loved that battled for a spot but ultimately found themselves at the number 11 spot and beyond includes some great movies. "A Complete Unknown","Challengers", "Bad Boys: Ride or Die", "Twisters", "Ferrari", "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" all delivered for me, as did one that made many worst of year lists, "Joker: Folie a Deux".
But my Top 10 were the films that are the most memorable experiences of my year. It's a strange mix of Big Budget Blockbusters, small yet original films and stories that took me somewhere very unexpected.
You'll see sci-fi, comedy, musicals. drama and a couple that straddle many genres.
As always, I've tried to find a different poster for the film in this annual summary than you might have seen at the theater, or in my review at the time of release.
Let's start with number 10...
10. Strange Darling
If the Coen Brothers brilliant 1984 debut "Blood Simple" had been informed by the world of Quentin Tarantino, it would likely have looked a lot like STRANGE DARLING.
Writer/Director JT Mollner has created a bloody clever, sexually charged thriller that details the final kills of a prolific serial killer.
QT style, the film has six chapters and an epilogue that do not unfold in chronological order. The film opens with Chapter 3 and then hops all over the place for a taut 90 minutes that never fails to engage, even when it pushes your boundaries "Blue Velvet" style.
Loaded with twists and turns and a relentless style that left me winded, it's got an 80's slasher flick feel but a much better screenplay.
Writer/Director Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) nailed it when he said "Strange Darling is brilliant, but you MUST GO IN BLIND!"
I agree, Mike, so I'm not giving anything away here about the story.
Willa Fitzgerald (Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher) is billed as "The Lady". Attractive and personable, we find her in the cab of a truck, talking to her date for the night, "The Demon" played by Kyle Gallner (Smile). The talk is one-night-stand awkward, with The Lady detailing the risks that women take meeting and being alone with a man they've never met. The fact that the truck is sitting outside a seedy Bates Motel like spot in the middle of nowhere is the first spark of tension.
A gaudy neon motel sign fills the truck cab with a blue light that feels as low-life as the surroundings.
As the chapters flash forward, backward, forward, forward and backward, its a testament to Mollner's screenplay that the viewer is never lost.
There are so many layers here that it will take multiple viewings for me to unravel everything hidden in those dirty corners.
Watching the film, I saw so much of the Coen Brothers "Blood Simple" unfold. Never a rip-off, just a shared karma, atmosphere and blood lust.
There were moments that instantly took me back to seeing Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill" and "Blow Out" in a packed theater.
The red lighting in the bathroom, the QT like devotion to shooting the film on 35mm stock that gives it an unmistakable grain & texture of a past time, the stark lighting in the fields as The Lady runs for her life, there are countless attributes that set this film apart from the pack.
I loved seeing Barbara Hershey (The Entity, The Stunt Man) and Ed Begley Jr (Cat People) as aging hippies with a cabin deep in the woods. Their outdoor sound system is a fascinating tiny tidbit in a story loaded with unnerving details.
Actor Giovanni Ribisi (The Offer, Saving Private Ryan, Avatar) steps behind the camera to shoot his first feature film as Cinematographer and he knocks it out of the park. His camera moves never felt like he was ripping anyone off, save those De Palma moments that come off as homage. He's got a killer eye that takes STRANGE DARLING to a bloody different level.
Composer Craig DeLeon is new on my radar, but his score is unnerving in all the right ways, quietly crawling under your skin with the same power as the moments it justifiably blasts you in the face.
As if a Coen Brothers comp isn't credibility enough, there were moments during the hotel room dialogue that felt like Hitchcock in a current form. If "Marnie" and all it's 1964 boundary-pushing dialogue around male & female sexuality and power were created today, sixty years later, this would be it's modern form.
The film is built to immerse you in a place you don't want to be, so it wont be for every viewer. Fitzgerald is a powerhouse. Her entire performance is a masterpiece, but its final coda is one of the best moments of the year. Couldn't take my eyes off The Lady, even when I didn't want to watch.
Disturbing on every level, Mollner just dragged the summer movie season into a very dark, musty corner and unwrapped a terrifying present.
Adult, sexual, violent and disturbing, it's one hell of a twisted ride.
STRANGE DARLING gets an A.
9. A Real Pain
An impressive writer/director effort from actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Zombieland) A REAL PAIN is a welcome, adult addition to the holiday season.
Hilarious and thoughtful, the story seems simple, but defies convention at every turn. Predictable it is not.
As the film opens, straitlaced (uptight?) and successful family man David Kaplan is on his way to the airport to meet his cousin Benji (Kieran Culkin). The two are making a pilgrimage to Poland to honor their recently passed Grandmother.
We immediately see the obvious differences between the cousins who were very close as children but took different paths in life. David is proper, reserved and guarded. Benji is loose, funny, carefree and doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks of him. There are big laughs aplenty as the two navigate travel to Europe.
The film could have become a globe trotting, modern "Odd Couple" riff.
But Eisenberg's got much more in mind.
The two meet their tour guide, James (Will Sharpe) who isn't Jewish, but has every factoid of Jewish history in his brain, ready to share.
The boys tour group includes a recently retired couple, a recent African immigrant who lived through the terrors of ethnic cleaning in his own country and has converted to Judiasm, and a recently divorced woman Marcia (Jennifer Grey from "Dirty Dancing") ready to breakout of a California induced funk.
Their tour across Europe and eventually to the powerful concentration camps in Poland is a complex, hilarious and touching path. I won't share any details, to describe the route might take away from the enjoyable journey.
What I loved most about the film and experienced again and again thanks to Eisenberg's smart and true screenplay, are the surprises of real life. In a more amateurish film, I could have predicted what these characters would do at every turn.
I was constantly surprised. What I expected to happen, never did. Not once.
Culkin will surely be nominated for his laugh-out-loud, in your face performance as Benji. There are many, many layers to this man and Culkin conveys many of them. Some of his quite moments are the best. In one powerful conversation between the cousins, I waited for Culkin's Benji to respond with a conventional, comforting reply. His silence is ten times as powerful. Superb.
Eisenberg is terrific here as well, often playing straight man to Culkin's Benji. His eccentricities as David never overwhelm the character into a corner. The boys learn a lot from each other, but the quiet, powerful final scene leaves you pondering what's ahead.
If Eisenberg isn't nominated for best Original Screenplay, I'd be shocked.
I love "Planes. Trains and Automobiles" and it's a mandatory watch every holiday season. A REAL PAIN shares some basic DNA with John Hughes film in the discovery of depth within its comic foil and the tightly wound businessman who learns a thing or two from his travel companion.
Yet the films are as different as night & day, or frankly, David & Benji.
Loaded with clever dialogue, true storytelling and laughs, A REAL PAIN is a real find and gets an A.
8. Deadpool & Wolverine
NO SPOILERS!!!!
Saw DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE last night at a 3D IMAX Preview and my face still hurts from laughing. Hilariously violent, action-packed and loaded with superb cameos, it's the greatest meta-inside joke that's ever blown up the Marvel Universe.
Ryan Reynolds nails every punch line, and there must be 1000 of them, bathed in a thousand buckets of blood.
Deadpool opens the film with his superhero days behind him. He's just striving to belong.
Just when you think the film is going to be a Disney-fied adventure with our sarcastic hero in search of his feelings, the action explodes and never lets up.
I am intentionally not going to describe any of the plot, because the JOY of the movie is discovering everything it has up its red & black sleeves. NO SPOILERS.
Writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese are back from the first two Deadpool films and are joined this time in the writing room by Ryan Reynolds. The first two installments were hilarious from start to finish. But everything this time out is elevated by the Disney buyout of Marvel and the demise of 20th Century Fox.
Relentless laugh-out-loud one-liners and gigantic action set pieces skewer Disney/Marvel and Fox again and again.
It's especially deft at making fun of the out of control Marvel Multiverse.
In your face, the characters often break the fourth wall and talk direct to you in the audience. In less capable hands, nothing can take you out of the film faster, but not here. The punch lines land again and again.
Hugh Jackman is perfect as the most pissed off Wolverine you've ever seen. If you're like me, your probably think that "Logan" was one of the best X-Men films and a perfect send off for a legendary character. In the first five minutes, Reynolds and team manage to not only honor that film but then dig up its memory and piss all over its grave with such a relentless barrage of blood-letting that it instantly becomes the best Deadpool title sequence of all time. Fans know that's no easy feat.
Emma Corrin (The Crown) is a superb baddy. When she gets her fingers into you, you'll know it.
Matthew Macfayden (Pride and Prejudice) is also a welcome add as a....you know what, I'm not saying a word, but his Mr. Paradox is funny as hell.
I need to see this again soon, to see every Easter Egg, reference and visual joke I missed the first time around. Director Shawn Levy keeps the frame filled and the pace flying, creating a superb buddy comedy that just happens to be between two superheroes that hate each other.
One fight sequence near the end is an incredibly clever send up of every Marvel battle sequence of the past. Once the Madonna song kicks in, get ready to rumble. I couldn't stop laughing for five minutes.
The songs featured throughout nail every scene. It's an R-rated twist on a "Guardians of the Galaxy" jukebox. Great soundtrack..
In one scene, a young boy says "That's Wolverine!", Reynolds responds,
"You damn straight it is. Disney brought him back. They're gonna make him do this till he's 90."
In another sequence, Deadpool threatens a bad guy, saying if he doesn't back off, he's going to have Wolverine sing the entire second act of "The Music Man".
When Deadpool first teams up with Wolverine, he says "Welcome to the MCU. You're joining at a bit of a low point." LOL. Indeed.
"The Marvels", "The Eternals" woof.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE wipes the slate clean of those recent debacles and hopefully sets up a fresh new direction for the next films. It will be very hard for them to go back to the multiverse/overstuffed world they've recently been drowning in after this huge and brilliant take down of all things MCU.
Thank you, Marvel Jesus.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is a fresh, nostalgic and profane masterpiece and easily ranks as the best of the trilogy, earning an A+.
Stay through the end credits for one last big laugh.
I haven't seen a packed house walk out of a movie this happy in a long time.
This thing is going to be HUGE. (and it was, $1.3 billion worldwide!)
7. Civil War
Alex Garland's best film ever, CIVIL WAR immerses you in the terror of combat. Bullets, explosions and tension surround you in a story that seems all too plausible in our current divisive state.
The opening moments depict a USA no longer united. Strange bedfellows Texas and California have seceded and are mounting a massive push toward Washington DC. Florida has also split off and is mounting their own offensive.
Meanwhile in the White House, the third-term President (Nick Offerman, always great and somehow perfectly cast) practices for his latest address to the fractured country.
Writer/Director Alex Garland has created some of my favorite films of the last decade, including the brilliant "Ex Machina" and "Annihilation". After his last film 'Men", which I found intriguing but absurd, this serves as a return to form. He dances an amazing line here, staying out of the political fray while clearly alluding to some of America's most divisive issues and players.
His focus here is a band of journalists immersed in the devastating conflict.
Kirsten Dunst is excellent as Lee, a famous war photographer who has covered all the major conflicts in recent memory. She's traveling with journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) and intending to head to DC to interview the President.
Along the way, they add two to their group. Veteran reporter Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is older, slower and loaded with intelligence and experience. He's covered it all, often at Lee's side.
Jessie is the opposite, a 23 year old budding photographer with no experience but plenty of desire to tag along with the pros. Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) is excellent in a role that could have slipped into an annoyance. Watching her transformation from terrified rookie to numbed vet is a powerful third rail through the film.
From the start, Garland creates impactful moments by showing you the photographs that Lee and Jessie take as stills within the film, the moment they are shot. It's often a jarring edit, with the horrors of war front and center, frequently more horrifying in a black & white still than in the full color assault we witness.
Garland delivers everything you want in the film.
Those looking for human drama will find plenty. It's not easy watching different groups of American citizens prey on each other. The past personal grievances and territorial attitudes that seem to inform the citizens position on the conflict are all too accurate for our current self-centered population.
If you're coming to the film for action, Garland delivers confrontations that range from one or two people with rifles, to street bombings in towns you know. He delivers three set pieces that are instantly memorable. The first is an attack by western forces into an area held by US forces. Lee and Joel's team moves through the assault as part of the forces. Silence is shattered by gun fire and explosions around every corner.
The second is a standoff in the middle of an isolated countryside with an unnamed, racist soldier (Jesse Plemons) with plenty of questions to ask and severe consequences for anyone who doesn't answer them correctly.
One of them is "What kind of American are you?"
Haunting. And far too plausible.
The final 25 minutes might be Garland's masterpiece. An all-out assault on DC and the White House, with Eve, Joel and Jessie huddled in the assault force. I don't remember a war film in history that's this immersive. Think "Saving Private Ryan" with modern weaponry at the gates of the White House.
Garland's sound design team, led by Glenn Freemantle (Annihilation, Gravity, Wonka) deliver an incredible experience. Bullets fly over your head and through you. Explosions rock you. Helicopters thump all around you. In one scene, a military helicopter lowers within tall buildings on a DC street and unleashes a flaming machine gun torrent that cuts THRU you. It's a proper demo reel for AMC's Dolby Cinema. See this movie on the biggest IMAX or Dolby Cinema screen you can find.
Combined with the blend of handheld and sweeping photography by Rob Hardy (Mission Impossible: Fallout) and the flawless special effects team, the conclusion is jaw dropping. A wow on every level.
Disturbing, scary and riveting.
Moura (Narcos, The Gray Man) and Dunst ( Melancholia, Interview with the Vampire) are both excellent. Dunst has been great in a lot of films, but never better than she is here.
I've seen Henderson in many films (Lincoln, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) but this is, for me, his best performance. He adds a lot of humor and power as the old man in the group. He doesn't waste those years of experience.
The American Civil War began 163 years ago today, on April 12th, the same day as the film's official American release. Like everything else in Garland's brilliant film, that's not a mere coincidence. Garland has said that while he'll continue to write films, this is the last film he will direct, after his last divisive film, "Men" was so poorly received. I hope not. His latest adds to his legacy as one of the world's most challenging directors.
CIVIL WAR is the best film of 2024 so far and one of the best combat films of all time. Is it an action/thriller or a cautionary tale of just how far apart citizens are in America right now? Or is it a tribute to the best of journalism and the reporters who risk their lives to capture pivotal moments of history.
It's brilliantly all those things AND vital, earning an A+.
6. Dune Part Two
Superior to Part One in every way imaginable, DUNE PART TWO is visually jaw-dropping and one of the best sounding films in history.
Writer/Director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Blade Runner 2049) opens the film with narration from the Emperor's Daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) that will bring a smile to the face of all us fans of David Lynch's quirky 1984 film adaption of "Dune".
We're dropped right back into the action, picking up where Part One left off.
Paul Atredies (Timothee Chalamet) and his mother Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) begin their immersion in the desert with the Fremen people, led by Stilgar (an incredibly winning Javier Bardem). Stilgar and the older Fremen suspect that Paul is their long awaited savior from prophecy, but Chani (Zendaya) and the younger Fremen pay little attention to the old ways.
As Paul trains with the Fremen on Arrakis, we see the Emperor (Christopher Walken) moving the great houses of the known universe around like chess pieces. He assumes that Paul is dead, so he positions the evil House Harkonnen for leadership over the spice mining operation on the desert planet. Floating fat man Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) and his nephew Beast Rabban (Dave Bautista) try to ramp up spice production, but the Fremen interrupt their efforts every way they can.
The Baron then calls on Feyd Rautha (a scary as hell Austin Butler, looking light years from his role in 'Elvis") to take over the operation. Butler gained 25lbs of muscle for the role. Intimidating and psychotic is a dangerous combination.
Battles ensue.
Villeneuve made a brilliant choice splitting Frank Herbert's book into two chapters, both nearly 3 hours long. The film NEVER drags as he fills every inch of the screen with incredible sets, immersive sound, strong characters and great dialogue.
There are massive political shifts happening throughout, but Villeneuve never gets bogged down in the George Lucas type of boring exposition that plagued the second trilogy.
There are so many great scenes that it will take me a second viewing to truly experience them all.
Paul's first attempt to ride the giant sandworms of Arrakis is fantastic. The special effects are top notch and the sound mix (we saw the film in Dolby Cinema) puts you on top of that massive creature with him, bursting through giant sand dunes as the wind howls around you.
The black and white world of Giedi Prime where Feyd Rautha's birthday celebration takes place is incredible. The camera angles as Feyd walks into a stadium that holds half a million people are startling. Butler embodies the psychotic, murderous Feyd with every ounce of his being.
The Fremen attacks on the Harkonnen teams operating the spice mining machines are spectacular and the huge battle in the finale gets everything right.
The cast is perfect. Josh Brolin is a highlight as Gurney Halleck, Paul's right hand bodyguard turned smuggler. Charlotte Rampling is great as Reverend Mother Mohiam, guarding lifetimes of secrets about the Bene Geserit sisterhood that are very much in play behind the scenes.
Chalamet and Zendaya have great chemistry together, fleshing out their characters much more than in the first film. Skarsgard's make up and body suit took 8 hours to apply every day. He's incredible (and gross).
Babs OIusanmokun (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) is very good as Jamis, a Fremen warrior who plays a pivotal role in Paul's acceptance among the tribe.
The cinematography by Greig Fraser (Rogue One, The Batman) overloads your eyeballs while the sound design team spins your head in every direction during the action. Hans Zimmer's music score fills much of the film and builds off the groundwork he laid in Part One, adding additional themes and action music to the battle sequences.
The film also had some great surprises as well, none of which I'll reveal here.
There's also a very subtle reference tribute to David Lynch in a visual reference to "Blue Velvet". Can you find it?
It's a rare thing to find a sequel this good. Or a film that so perfectly blends humor into a very dramatic tale. Or a nearly three hour film with visuals that more closely resemble an art film than a typical sci-fi action series.
Villeneuve continues to set himself above by creating great film after great film.
There's no doubt DUNE is in the right hands with him.
Looking forward to what he does next.
I hear many Dune buffs and film fans comparing this film to "The Empire Strikes Back". HIGH praise. And more accurate and worthy than I would have anticipated going in.
DUNE PART TWO gets an A+.
"You are not prepared for what is to come..."
5. Conclave
If there is only certainty, and no doubt, there would be no mystery and therefore, no need for faith.
A Hitchcock like mystery blended with a political thriller, carefully wrapped in centuries of Roman tradition, CONCLAVE is an exciting, adult drama and one of the best films of the year.
As the film opens, the Pope has just died. His closest confidants surround his deathbed. Almost immediately, Cardinal Lawrence (a brilliant Ralph Fiennes) begins to sense that the events of the pontiff's last day aren't quite what they appear.
Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow, reliably great) swoops in with a well detailed timeline of the Pope's final meetings. It all seems, a bit TOO detailed.
Cardinal Bellini (a jaw-dropping Stanley Tucci giving one of his best performances) is Lawrence's closest confidant and his choice as the new Pope.
Lawrence is appointed to run the conclave, the mysteries, ancient procedure of electing the new head of the Catholic Church.
Writer Peter Straughan (Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy), adapting Robert Harris' bestseller, shows a deft hand. His screenplay somehow offers up a thriller about political machinations and an enjoyable, twisty melodrama of all these flawed men, perfectly blended.
Director Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front) keeps things moving from the opening scenes to the final shot, immersing you deep inside the walls of the Vatican as the modern world literally explodes around it. The film is so carefully constructed that it offers dramatic surprises around every cloistered corner.
I lost count of the great camera shots that ingeniously frame the mystery, but that overhead shot of all the Cardinals moving toward their voting chamber in a herd of umbrellas will stay with me a very long time.
Lucian Msamati (The International) is a standout as Cardinal Adeyemi, as is Sergio Castellitto as Italian Cardinal Tedesco. Castellitto OWNS the screen as the vape smoking traditionalist determined to be the first Italian pope in four decades.
Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet, Death Becomes Her) damn near steal the movie as Sister Agnes, the quiet but observant woman overseeing all the nuns within the walls of the conclave.
Mysterious characters appear as the gates are about to be closed, shadowy conversations take place in stairwells and secret votes for power become heart pounding scenes thanks to Volker Bertelmann's excellent score. It has echoes of the best of Bernard Herrmann while carving out wholly new territory just under your skin.
Fiennes (Skyfall, Schindler's List) is the heart of the film as Lawrence. He's perfect in every moment. His reactions to all the personalities around him, dealing with his own flaws with the weight of an institution on his shoulders are so true its a thrill to watch. Fiennes should get a Best Actor nomination for his work here.
He's matched by Tucci (Spotlight) who's as funny as he is dramatic in a performance that deserves a Best Supporting Actor nod. He's never been better, and that's saying something.
The film saves its final, monumental twist for last and it's a game changer.
We walked out of the film in a deep discussion about the characters and how all these intriguing, fascinating puzzle pieces gel.
In these days of superhero movies and generic entertainment that are enjoyable in the moment but fade from memory by the weekend, we're blessed to have CONCLAVE. It's an adult, intelligent drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat from it's opening moments to that final shot.
It's also one of my favorites of 2024 and gets an A.
4. Wicked
The best Broadway-to-screen adaption since "Chicago" (22 years ago!), WICKED doesn't just defy gravity, it blows the doors off of even the highest of expectations.
A little history of my experience with Stephen Schwartz blockbuster musical. In November of 2023, just after it opened on Broadway, I went to see it with the original cast. I didn't want to go, I hated "The Wizard of Oz" since I was a kid!
By intermission, with Idina Menzel soaring up into the air while belting out her most famous tune, I sat there with a dropped jaw. It was incredibly entertaining, funny, dramatic, it was a fantastic night of theater.
Over the next 15 years, every client wanted to see it on Broadway, we would go, then I took my wife, then my daughters...by the time I wrapped up, I had seen it 13 times. Hell, I could practically be an understudy by that point. But I'd had enough. I was good. Enough Wicked.
When the film was announced, I was excited Cynthia Erivo was playing Elphaba, she's been a powerhouse on screen, on stage, on TV, in everything I've seen her play.
But Ariana Grande as Glinda. Hmmm....ok.
I apologize Ariana.
She goes toe-to-toe with Erivo and together, they deliver one show-stopping moment after another in an acting and vocal performance that does Kristin Chenoweth proud.
If you don't know the story, it's based on Gregory Maguire's best selling book about what happened in Oz BEFORE the story we all know. Why is the Wicked Witch bad and how did Glinda get to be known as the "good" witch? What's up with those flying monkeys?
If you don't know Maguire's story, brilliantly adapted for both stage & screen by Winnie Holzman, then it's best you discover it on your own as it's got more twists and turns than the yellow brick road.
Nothing is quite what you expect and it's clever as hell.
Pile on top of that Schwartz's finest music and lyric work of his career and you've got a musical packed with now classic tunes, spanning the realm from hilarious to powerfully dramatic.
If you know and love the Broadway musical, then buckle up.
WICKED is bigger and better in every way possible.
Director Jon M. Chu created one of my favorite films of 2021, his criminally under seen adaption of Lin Manuel Miranda's first Broadway hit, "In The Heights".
With many times the budget and a dream cast this time out, Chu creates a WICKED that soars.
Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, Broadchurch) steals every scene he's in as Fiyero, the brainless Prince who arrives at Elphaba and Glinda's school Shiz University.
Bailey's big number, "Dancing Through Life" pops with incredible sets by Gavin Fitch (Ready Player One) and his team, as well as fun choreography by Christopher Scott.
Like the dance scenes in Steven Spielberg's superb 2021 remake of "West Side Story", many players and their synchronized movements fill the entire, wide screen. There's no cheating with fast cuts or clever editing. The camera sweeps up and an entire village or university moves at once. It demands a second viewing, it all just comes at you so relentlessly and flawlessly.
Scott knows the Wicked stage audience as well, bringing in many of the intimate movements you experienced in live theater into his much wider canvas here.
Grande's big number, "Popular" is laugh out loud funny and a showcase for her dance talents and her incredible range. She knocks it out of the park.
Erivo's first big number "The Wizard and I" turns into an epic final camera shot that rivals Julie Andrews singing across that Swiss mountaintop in the classic opening shot of "The Sound of Music".
It's just one of many moments that showcase Chu's achievement in adapting this monster stage hit into a modern movie musical classic. There's a reverence in his framing and storytelling that somehow pays homage to the MGM Musicals of old while he blazes a modern new trail all his own.
Hearing the score and songs with a massive orchestra elevates the material dramatically.
Jeff Goldblum brings his appealing eccentricities and a sense of seductive menace to the Wizard and Michelle Yeoh is Madame Morrible, head mistress and professor of magic at Shiz, who recognizes her dream student in Elphaba.
At 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film never drags (although if you hate musicals, you will probably vehemently disagree. If that's you, why are you still reading this? LOL)
As just part one of the adaption, it has the same running time as the entire Broadway show, but it works perfectly. Chu has expanded back stories, exploring the world of Oz through mostly REAL, physical sets, including actual fields with 9 MILLION tulips planted for scenes in Munchkinland. That train to OZ is an actual train, not a CGI creation. With $150 million budget for each of the two parts of the film, every dollar is on the big screen. We saw it in IMAX and the production design fills every corner, as does the sound mix.
There are plenty of surprises here for fans of the play, but I won't ruin any of them here.
Erivo and Grande sang all their songs live during filming. It adds depth and power to every number. They are in the moment, and they will drag you in as well.
We went into the theater with high expectations and WICKED exceeded them on every level. As I mentioned at the beginning, the first time I saw Idina Menzel lift off the stage singing "Defying Gravity" it became a touchstone moment in my experience seeing live theater. How could they top that?
Trust me when I say, they do. The finale with Erivo soaring into the air left the packed house in our showing stunned and applauding as "To Be Continued...." filled the screen.
WICKED is one of the best films of 2024 and one of the best movie musicals ever made.
Defying gravity, indeed, it gets an A+.
3. Alien: Romulus
Nirvana for old-school "Alien" fans, Fede Alvarez's ALIEN: ROMULUS is jaw-dropping, gory, exciting and packed with Easter eggs of the slimiest green variety.
It's been years since I've heard as much applause as filled the packed IMAX house last night, when the credits rolled after one of the most relentless final acts in the entire series.
NO SPOILERS.
Matching Ridley Scott's pace of the original "Alien", we are introduced to a group of blue collar workers in a Weyland/Yutani mining colony that will look very familiar to fans of "Aliens".
We meet Rain (Cailee Spaeny, so great earlier this year in "Civil War") and her synthetic "brother" Andy (newcomer David Jonsson) as they carve out a hard life with one goal in mind, escaping this dreary planet a long way from Earth.
Rain's ex Tyler (Archie Renaux), his a-hole cousin Bjorn (Spike Fearn), Kay (Isabela Merced) and Navarro (Eileen Wu) have a plan that will get them all out of their dreary existence much more quickly. It seems that there's a massive abandoned space station called Romulus Remus that lies dormant in the atmosphere above the giant rings that orbit the planet, constantly circling Saturn-style.
But why that station is abandoned and if it's actually without life quickly come into question when they dock and begin searching for the suspended animation pods and fuel they need for their plan.
Once they dock with that station, Alvarez kicks the tension and the atmosphere into overdrive.
ROMULUS takes place between the events of the original "Alien" and James Cameron's excellent sequel, "Aliens". Alvarez and his team do an incredible job taking us back to that lower tech, future world where the computers boot up slower, water and chains seem to drip in every loading dock and the corners always seem forbidding.
I'm not going to say anything more about the story and where it goes, but it delivers in every way I wanted it to. There are countless call backs to the best films in the series, both in sight and sound.
There are so many surprises and great set pieces within, it's a puzzle I want to unwrap again soon with a second viewing. It comes at you so fast after the set up opening that I know I missed a hundred things.
The creature work is incredibly good, a deft mix of actual physical effects and CGI. After enjoying the hell out of this, I'm convinced there's never been a better monster than the Xenomorph, originally designed by HR Giger back in the late 70's. It's fantastic.
Think about the first film, when that original face hugger jumped out of the egg onto John Hurt. Now, take several characters, put them in a room with dozens of face huggers who are very, very anxious to plant their eggs, make the entire scene completely silent and hang on.
When the film isn't leaning in on quiet, it's got one of the best sound design mixes this year. The explosions are huge, the scale of spaceships and contact with them is so well mixed you can almost feel them at key moments. You can also hear every rib cracking and popping when our new friends decide it's time to leave their hosts.
The acid drips echo in your head and every massive airlock door seemed to seal up the theater. You can't prepare your ears for this insane trip.
This must be The Summer of Benjamin Wallfisch. After his thrilling "Twisters" score, he delivers a roaring, moving and wholly original music for ALIEN: ROMULUS that deftly honors the legacy of Jerry Goldsmith & James Horner's beloved scores for the series.
Classic scenes abound.
The final 30 minutes re-creates the same tension and fast-paced relentless thrills of James Cameron's chapter, spinning wildly into unknown territory that I loved.
In IMAX, there is no relief (in all the right ways) in either sound or visuals in that final act.
I loved Alvarez's "Evil Dead" and "The Girl in the Spider Web", a very underrated entry in the Salander series. This is, for me, his best film to date, a sure handed tour of all your favorite moments in the series that made me smile from beginning to end. More importantly, I never knew quite where he was taking me.
Alvarez looked for members of the "Aliens" special effects team to help him create the same feel of gritty realism that film oozed. Mission accomplished.
Spaeny is terrific, creating a reluctant kick-ass heroine that would make Ellen Ripley proud. Jonsson and Renaux are also standouts, creating characters you want to survive.
Like Gareth Edwards excellent "Rogue One", ALIEN: ROMULUS is a brilliant stand-alone entry that not only honors, but elevates the film series it is born into. Get ready for thrills, people and find the biggest IMAX screen you can.
It lands an A+ for me as the third best film in the series, right behind it's timeline bookends of "Alien" & "Aliens".
High praise, and bloody well deserved.
2. The Book of Clarence
Part "The Greatest Story Ever Told", part "The Book of Mormon" yet something boldly and in-your-face unique, THE BOOK OF CLARENCE surprised the hell out of me. Laugh out loud funny and soul stirringly powerful, Jeymes Samuel's creation is one of the most original films I've seen in a long time.
Writer/Producer/Director Samuel (The Harder They Fall) has assembled so many different genres in one coherent, masterful work, you can only buckle up and enjoy the ride.
The opening titles call back to the original, golden bordered, super widescreen titles of Cecil B. DeMillle's "Ten Commandments" as great cinematography, a traditional big orchestral score and seamless effects drop you into a chariot race in Jerusalem.
But it's not Ben Hur, it's Clarence, the ne'er do well twin brother of Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus.
The always brilliant LaKeith Stanfield (Knives Out, Sorry to Bother You, Selma) stars as both Clarence & Thomas (that cant be a mistake). He creates two characters so wholly unique that it's hard to believe he's playing off himself.
Clarence is racing the chariot to win a wager he's made with Mary Magdaline (Tayana Taylor) re imagined as a bad ass woman-about-town who's got Clarence's number. When the bet goes south, he's given notice that he owes the wager and a replacement chariot to Jedidiah the Terrible (Eric Kofi Abrefa) who just happens to be the brother of Clarence's love, Varinia (Anna Diop). Jedediah gives him a month to come up with the sheckles and the chariot or die.
Clarence, more interested in smoking weed with his loyal best friend Elijah (the terrific RJ Cyler from "White Boy Rick") comes up with an ever escalating series of ideas to raise the money.
When he poses as a Messiah to earn cash, he discovers his true calling. But what happens next is as unexpected to Clarence as it was to me. Samuel creates a path that challenges and constantly surprises. In less talented hands, I'd be bitching about too many tonal shifts, but Samuel never lets you go.
As you can imagine, pretending to be a Messiah in 33AD Jerusalem will bring you into the orbit of some of the most famous figures in religious history. Barabbas (Omar Sy), John the Baptist (a hilarious David Oyelowo), Judas Iscariot (a haunting Michael Ward) and Pontius Pilate (a laugh out loud James McAvoy from "X-Men" and "Split"). Jesus (Nicholas Pinnock) plays a major role in the story. His conversation with Jezebel and her husband serves up a huge laugh, delivered so subtly that you almost don't hear it.
One of my favorite scenes is the hilarious exchange between non-believer Clarence and Virgin Mary (Alfre Woodard) and her suffer-no-fools husband Joseph (Brian Bovell).
Benedict Cumberbatch is in the entire film, but not easily seen. His comic timing is unholy.
There are so many scenes with comic timing and dialogue that reminded me of "The Life of Brian" in their irreverence, but Samuel's story carries enormous weight just below its laugh filled exterior.
Like the brilliant "The Book of Mormon" by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Samuel has crafted a tale so smart that it captures you and pulls you in regardless of your personal view. Like Parker and Stone's master work, its message that falls unto you will very likely be guided by your own faith, lack thereof and personal take on life.
If that sounds heavy, parts of it are. Samuel doesn't shy away from the brutal violence of the time. Blood and pain mix with hope & light in fascinating ways.
Redemption comes in many forms, but I've never seen it earned in as unique a path as witnessed in THE BOOK OF CLARENCE.
This is a superb, one-of-a-kind vision from Jeymes Samuel. Did I mention he also wrote all the music and songs? Superb.
This wont be for everyone, but movies don't get any better than this for me. Whatever you THINK this movie is going to be, it's decidedly not.
An A+ from this view of Calvary.
And finally, for me, the Best Film of 2024 is
The Substance
What has been used on one side, is lost on the other side. There's no going back.
A thrilling, gory, enthralling blend of Kubrick, John Carpenter's "The Thing" and Cronenberg's "The Fly", THE SUBSTANCE is a creature all its own.
I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen, even though Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat pummeled me with relentless visual assaults that almost beg you to avert your eyes.
Demi Moore (Disclosure, Ghost) gives arguably her best performance as fading actress, fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle. In superb shape, Elisabeth accidentally overhears her gross, disgusting manager Harvey (Dennis Quaid, gnashing and relishing every moment) discarding her like a piece of trash. He's ready for a new, young girl to bring the sparkle.
Elisabeth receives a mysterious package at her gorgeous Beverly Hills apartment, offering an alternative to growing older.
How about a brand new you?
Younger, in perfect condition, at your sexual peak.
There is just one simple rule. Your new you and you, must trade places every seven days. Don't be late. Trade every seven days and keep a perfect balance.
What could go wrong?
Gloriously for us the viewer, plenty.
Margaret Qualley (Fosse/Verdon) is Sue, the perfect young version that splashes bloodily out of Elisabeth's back, her spine splitting like it's being carved open by a giant razor blade in a birth sequence that's flawless and jaw dropping. Don't worry, Sue's going to sew that up and you'll get to watch and hear every plunge of the curved hook as it pulls the thread through her flesh.
Harvey's looking for a new girl to take Elisabeth's place? Great! Sounds like Sue should audition.
What could go wrong?
Farageat is a student of film, conjuring up moments that feel like Kubrick's "The Shining" in their careful structure, but Kubrick was never this funny. Fringe characters deliver big laughs, perfectly timed to relieve the tension.
Sue's ambitious.
She's not what you'd call a rule follower.
I loved how Fargeat manages to create a world of rules that seem logical, that are easy to follow, yet easy to dismiss, with devastating consequences. So many times in M. Night Shyamalan's later films, I feel like there are 100lbs of character exposition explaining the rules. Not here.
A calm, mystery man on the other end of a phone number is happy to repeat them.
But remember, one of you can't break the rules and have the other one bitch about it. There's only one of you, trading places every 7 days.
Watch the calendar.
Moore offers up her bare soul and 61 year old naked body in a fearless performance that makes an incredible statement on aging, Hollywood and youth culture. Qualley matches her as a fascinating blend of sheer desire and voracious appetite, given a new chance to taste all the best things in life, in their prime.
Body image and horror have never been blended quite so effectively.
The finale explodes into an orgy of bloody pulp and sheer madness that feels like John Carpenter and Quentin Tarentino have remade a mashup of "The Thing" and a Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve special.
I laughed, I winced and I loved Farageat's absolute commitment to her final shot. It's an image so perfectly gross and compelling that it made me want to watch the whole bloody movie over again.
When she drops in the theme from Hitchcock's "Vertigo" in a perfect moment, I just let Bernard Herrmann's music wash over me, knowing I was in wet, visionary hands.
The music score by Raffertie is off-the-wall, entrancing and genre-bending, loaded with electronic shocks that pulse through the more traditional orchestral moments.
This is one of most in-your-face, visually shocking message films of the year.
Get ready for your first injection of THE SUBSTANCE. Once you start, I dare you to quit.
One of the wildest films of 2024, it gets a wound oozing, needle penetrating, blood dripping A+ and the peak of my Top Ten of 2024.
If you missed any of these films, I encourage you to go back and discover them. "The Book of Clarence" was my most unexpected, challenging, enjoyable personal discovery of the past year.
Happy New Year and on to 2025!
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