1) Misericordia (Alain Guiraudie) 2) May December (Todd Haynes) 3) In Water (Hong Sang Soo) 4) The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) 5) All We Imagine As Light (Kayal Kapadia) 6) The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno) 7) Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) 8) Ma Vie Ma Gueule (Sophie Fillieres) 9) Trap (M. Night Shyamalan) 10) The Other Way Around (Jonas Trueba) Cahiers du Cinéma's top 10 of 2024 Topped by Alain Guiraudie's ‘Misericordia' — Includes Shyamalan, Glazer and Haynes — World of Reel Cahiers du Cinéma is French so there are some release date differences, but Evil Does Not Exist is number 1 for me so far in 2024.
I’ve basically missed the second half of the year in terms of cinema releases, but will have a look and post a list at some point. Slightly surprised that Hong Sang Soo’s In Water being in the top 3, even as a big Hong devotee, I thought that was a very minor film for him, and watching an out of focus film for an hour hurt my eyes.
Interesting mix, especially with Shyamalan and Guiraudie. Evil Does Not Exist is a strong pick, but I’m curious about Misericordia topping it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/30/movies/best-movies-2024.html Wilkinson: Nickel Boys RaMell Ross Eno Gary Hustwit Anora Sean Baker Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat Johan Grimonprez Evil Does Not Exist Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Janet Planet Annie Baker The Green Border Agnieszka Holland Good One India Donaldson The Remarkable Life of Ibelin Benjamin Ree Union Brett Story and Stephen Maing Dargis: All We Imagine as Light Payal Kapadia Ernie Gehr: Mechanical Magic [exhibition] A Real Pain Jesse Eisenberg Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World Radu Jude Dahomey Mati Diop Pictures of Ghosts Kleber Mendonça Filho Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga George Miller Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola The Green Border Agnieszka Holland Here Bas Devos I really admire that multiple critics have gone to bat for Megalopolis.
I will never be a cinephile, so looking at critics’ lists is more of a hobby of interest than anything that will ever affect how I consume and watch art, but seeing Trap on that list has me legitimately flabbergasted. That movie is trash. Entertaining, but trash.
NYT's best TV series of 2024 list by James Poniewozik Not in a ranked order ‘English Teacher’ (FX) ‘Fantasmas’ (HBO) ‘John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.’ (Netflix) The Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (HBO) ‘My Brilliant Friend’ (HBO) ‘Say Nothing’ (FX) ‘Shogun’ (FX) ‘Somebody Somewhere’ (HBO) The Summer Olympics (Peacock) ‘We Are Lady Parts’ (Peacock) Honorable Mentions: “Baby Reindeer” (Netflix), “The Decameron” (Netflix), “The Diplomat” (Netflix), “Evil” (Paramount+), “Hacks” (Max), “St. Denis Medical” (NBC), “Sunny” (Apple TV+), “The Sympathizer” (HBO), “The Vince Staples Show” (Netflix) Flawed But Fascinating: “The Bear” (FX), “My Lady Jane” (Amazon Prime Video), “3 Body Problem” (Netflix) Best international series by Mike Hale Babylon Berlin’ (MHz Choice) ‘Blue Lights’ (BritBox) ‘The Confidante’ (Max) ‘The Day of the Jackal’ (Peacock) ‘Everything is Fine’ (Hulu) ‘Kleo’ (Netflix) ‘The Lesson’ (ChaiFlicks) ‘A Shop for Killers’ (Hulu) ‘Until I Kill You’ (BritBox) ‘Without Sin’ (Acorn TV)
I have seen very little but this month will be the catch-up month. If I did a top ten right now it would be: 1. Evil Does Not Exist 2. Last Summer 3. Anora 4. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World 5. The Beast 6. Furiosa 7. The Bikeriders 8. Challengers 9. Trap 10. Megalopolis
A very rough ranking that is missing out on lots of films, and maybe includes some 2023 films officially! Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda) Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang) Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar) Chime (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) Red Rooms (Pascal Plante) Drive Away Dolls (Ethan Coen) Only the River Flows (Wei Shujun) The Taste of Things (Trần Anh Hùng) The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin) The Lyricist Wannabe (Norris Wong) Mondays: See You ‘This’ Week! (Ryo Takebayashi) Kensuke’s Kingdom (Kirk Hendry, Neil Boyle) Hijack 1971 (Kim Sung-han) The Movie Emperor (Ning Hao) Oddity (Damian McCarthy) Conclave (Edward Berger) El Conde (Pablo Larraín) Jackpot! (Paul Feig) The Substance (Coralie Fargeat) Stuff I didn't like, which is a meaner and shorter list. Night Swim Mean Girls The Musical Argylle A Legend Dragonkeeper Subservience In A Violent Nature The Fall Guy Ice Cream Fever
That NYT blurb about us living in peak "mid" TV feels correct to me. I watched less new TV this year than any of the previous 5 years, at least.
The 25 Best Movies of 2024 Nickel Boys at number one. That one is quickly becoming the most anticipated.
Right now the only thing I am desperate to see is Hard Truths. Mike Leigh has earned one of my lifetime passes for his career of amazing films. Nickel Boys is earning a lot of attention so I will be seeing that. Juror #2 might be this weekend if I find time. I keep hearing about All We Imagine as Light, too. The Film Comment top twenty is usually the best "list" of the films I need to catch up on. I keep looking every day.
Richard Brody: Nickel Boys RaMell Ross Christmas Eve in Miller's Point Tyler Thomas Taormina Megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola My First Film Zia Anger Oh, Canada Paul Schrader Blitz Steve McQueen Between the Temples Nathan Silver The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed Joanna Arnow Juror No. 2 Clint Eastwood It's Not Me Leos Carax Hit Man Richard Linklater The Featherweight Robert Kolodny Evil Does Not Exist Ryûsuke Hamaguchi I Saw the TV Glow Jane Schoenbrun Last Summer Catherine Breillat The People's Joker Vera Drew Dahomey Mati Diop No Other Land Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor The Seed of the Sacred Fig Mohammad Rasoulof Sasquatch Sunset David Zellner and Nathan Zellner Winner Susanna Fogel
There are definitely some rough lines in there. Eastwood lost nuance in his dialogue a long time ago.