Hollywood won’t soon forget 2024.
The year saw a theatrical revival of sorts due to the pandemic and dueling strikes. The stars pulled out all the stops for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and it showed Less than empty.
All the while, the threat of AI (and clever YouTube creators) has been invading the dreams of studio executives.
Through it all, the industry has delivered some great stories between prequels, sequels, and remakes. None of the latter made this list, for what it’s worth, but they still clogged the box office charts.
“Totally anonymous”
Hollywood loves musical biopics, even if some recent films have come and gone without leaving a financial trace. We’re looking at you, “Back to Black” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
We don’t know how this Bob Dylan story will fare at the box office, but it’s the best musical biopic since Joaquin Phoenix Walked the Line (with Unknown director James Mangold as well. Hmm).
Timothée Chalamet lives up to his massive hype as Dylan, the enigmatic singer whose songs captured ’60s angst to a T. The music is important, of course, but it’s the way Mangold puts together familiar pieces that makes it an essential watch.
It’s refreshing to visit an artist who created for the right reason, because he had no other choice.
“Am I racist?”
Who knew we needed a new Borat and that his replacement was a mild-mannered Daily Wire podcaster?
“Am I racist?” It shook Hollywood by making it minty (by documentary standards) and forcing film critics to shun it like a naked coleslaw.
Matt Walsh’s humor has upset DEI “experts” in both funny and profound ways. “racist?” He delivered some of the biggest laughs of the year while doing work that was dismissed by the corporate media.
‘evil’
The film proved to be as great as it was The press tour was tense. That’s saying something.
The first part of the two-part Oz prequel series captured the magic of a Broadway show, starting with two stunning performances by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Their big, booming voices led the way, highlighting the insidious dismantling of the popular culture establishment.
Who cares if Jeff Goldblum’s voice lags behind his talented colleagues?
“brutal”
They don’t make them like that anymore. It’s big, ambitious, and full of bravura performances. Adrien Brody is once again an Oscar nominee for his role as a Jewish architect rebuilding his life in 1940s America.
The film’s impressive running time required a break, but the lavish story deserves to be shared in its entirety.
“Real pain”
The timing certainly cemented this drama about dysfunctional cousins traveling through Poland. We have witnessed a year-long assault on the Jewish people, from Hamas hostage takers to college students who pledge allegiance to hate.
Enter director/writer/star Jesse Eisenberg’s powerful little film about returning Jews to their roots.
The story has an oil-and-water duo (Eisenberg and the wonderful Kieran Culkin play bickering cousins), but the cultural background seeps into the story. This delicate balance shows that Eisenberg is a serious talent behind the camera, while Culkin can look forward to a busy awards season.
“Saturday night”
The timing here proved… disastrous. “Saturday Night Live” is a shell of its old self, lacking the verve of its formative years. The counterculture became cancel culture.
sad!
Why revisit the series’ debut when the current model should be kept in mind? How about “Because it reminds us why we cared about ‘SNL’ in the first place.” That’s why.
Director Jason Reitman captures the behind-the-scenes chaos as well as the anything-goes spirit that made “SNL” important. The actors tasked with bringing Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Gilda Radner back to life come close enough to complete the cinematic spell.
The rest is a mad dash to the first, “Live from New York…it’s Saturday night!”
Honorable mentions: “Between the Temples”, “The Bikers”, “Dune: Part 2”, and “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”.