This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we begin by remembering the late-great David Lynch and then end the show by discussing our most anticipated movies of 2025! Plus, a small conversation on the current awards season and recent claims of AI being used in the films up for contention.
– David Lynch (6:40) After some opening banter, we open the show this week by remembering the late-great David Lynch. There was no one else like him. His legacy is marked with his patented weird and surreal aesthetics, but underneath all of that obscurity was a sentimentalist who believed in the human spirit. He’s an artist that we loved and will deeply miss.
– Awards Season / AI (40:42) With awards season is full bloom comes the snipers of competition, and boy did we see some hit pieces over the weekend. While other films were noted, such as Emilia Pérez and Better Man, no one took the hit harder than The Brutalist. Part of it is because of the marketing around The Brutalist, and part of it is the general discussion around AI, but either way it sparked heavy debate. Since we recorded this conversation, Brady Corbet did clarity some things that make sense of our speculation on the matter.
– Most Anticipated Movies of 2025 (1:09:49) The InSession Film Awards is one of our favorite shows each year, but it’s a new year and that means new movies to look forward to as we turn the page. 2025 could be quite the departure from last year as we’ll see more spectacle this year with the likes of Avatar: Fire and Ash, Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts, Captain America: Brave New World, Jurassic World Rebirth, and Superman among others. However; we’ll have plenty on the auteur side of things as well as we are getting movies from Paul Thomas Anderson, Bong Joon-ho, Wes Anderson, Lynn Ramsay, Kelly Reichardt, Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Chloe Zhao, Ethan Coen, Guillermo del Toro and many more. There is a lot to be excited about for 2025. That said, what would be your top 5 most anticipated movies of the year?
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Director: Seth Gordon Writer:Seth Gordon, Brendan O’Brien Stars:Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Glenn Close
Synopsis:Former CIA spies Emily and Matt are pulled back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed.
Eleven years after the release of Annie, Cameron Diaz has come out of retirement to star in the action/comedy Back in Action, which reunites her with Jamie Foxx, who also starred in the 2014 reimagining of the hit Broadway musical. In using Back in Action as a vehicle for her return to acting, Diaz wants to recreate the comedic magic that made her a household name in the 1990s and early 2000s with She’s the One, There’s Something About Mary, and The Holiday. Of course, the title not only refers to the film’s CIA agents getting back in action after their identity is exposed but also cheekily winks at Diaz returning to the medium that made her the star she (still) is today. Sadly, Back in Action contains zero magic since it’s less interested in developing dynamic chemistry between the two leads and more pressed on filling the ever-expansive Netflix algorithm with more mind-numbing “content” than something of true value that will stand the test of time instead of being forgotten in a week when their variation on the same film comes out.
It does feel redundant to discuss the problems that plague most Netflix productions because most of these “films” (if we can call them that, but that would be an insult to, you know, actual movies) serve as nothing but background noise for someone who can’t concentrate in front of something for more than two hours and needs to look at their phone every five seconds. But that’s what most of these movies are. Even the masses will largely forget the prestige stuff (Emilia Pérez? Anyone?) when the next awards cycle begins. In that regard, however, Back in Action is the perfect movie for viewers who don’t want to watch movies because it has the attention span of a TikToker who continuously scrolls on their phone all day and looks at nothing but fruitless videos that give them little to no dopamine rush. It’s genuinely incredible how virtually nothing works in this 114-minute-long actioner; you’d think a robot generated lifeless doubles of both Diaz and Foxx in an entirely synthetic background to pass it off as a real return to the screen for an actress we’ve all missed because of how bored they look on-screen together, even though it was Foxx’s idea in the first place to bring her back into the spotlight.
As CIA spies turned (too) controlling parents, Diaz and Foxx have zero chemistry in this listless moving picture that showcases us twenty-four images every second (rather than running at 24 frames per second), as if we always need to be stimulated instead of developing a tangible aesthetic, writing fully-developed characters who we latch onto beyond the off-screen personas of its leads, crafting nifty action setpieces, and give a carefree, entertaining time to the audience. Each flatly shot action scene is hacked to bits as if editor Peter S. Elliot forgot that the entire notion of “attention span” exists. Worse yet, none of the dialogue that over TWENTY (not a joke) screenwriters contributed to, in one shape or another, feel in any way natural. It doesn’t look like Diaz and Foxx were on the same set for most of the movie, possessing none of the fun they had just eleven years ago (even if Annie was not very good). However, this was true in some cases, as Foxx was hospitalized for a medical emergency during filming, and a body double was required to complete several scenes with his face digitally inserted in post-production.
The results, while understandable given the gravity of Foxx’s emergency, aren’t very convincing and make this chemistry-less picture even more devoid of any real emotion. One even wonders how director Seth Gordon managed to get legitimate talents like Kyle Chandler, Glenn Close (who needs to stop working with Netflix, collecting so many terrible movies to her resumé like they’re infinity stones), and Andrew Scott to deliver three of the most embarrassing performances of their respective careers. Chandler seems so far above the material he’s given but looks, for some time, to be the most unscathed of them all because of his limited screen presence.
He phones it in, yet it doesn’t look like he’s in the movie for much. Whatever, we all need money, and no one can blame such an incredible actor for accepting the easiest-ever paycheck (if you were in the same situation, would you? Of course you would – don’t lie!). After all, acting is an art, but it’s also, first and foremost, a profession. However, Gordon makes the bafflingly predictable decision to bring him back near the movie’s conclusion for what would be considered a “shocking” twist if it was built correctly up but is so telegraphed from the start that audiences will figure it out long before Christopher Lennertz’s bludgeoning music reveals it with little to no nuance, or depth.
Back in Action is such a dishonest movie that no audience member who values their time could ever find enjoyment inside a “piece of content” that never rewards us. The plot is as basic as it comes, but Gordon does have the opportunity to infuse some fun into the proceedings through its lead stars’ natural chemistry. And yet, there isn’t a scene with both of them that actively works, either comedically or emotionally. It also is a spectacular feat to make Glenn Close’s turn as Emily’s estranged mother, Ginny, so far worse than the last movie she starred in, The Deliverance. If you thought her saying “I can smell your nappy pussy” was terrible in Lee Daniels’ horror picture (which did have some things going for it, most notably rock-solid work from Andra Day, Mo’Nique, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), just wait when seeing her share the screen with Jamie Demetriou, already the top spot as the year’s most grating character, with nothing else to offer beyond dull physical comedy with zero sense of timing.
All of this is bad enough, but it’s genuinely such an absolute shame that Diaz would want to make her return to acting with…whatever this is. Perhaps she felt compelled to at least give another memorable role to the screen after her last four motion pictures, The Counselor, The Other Woman, Sex Tape, and Annie, were massive critical failures. You were on top for some time, but your career took a nosedive by choosing one flimsy project after another. No one can blame Diaz for coming back and hopefully rectifying the last movies she starred in while perhaps hoping that her acting career will also be reinvigorated by newfound interest in her screen presence.
Yet, Back in Action is somehow worse than all four movies combined. At least these ones had some form of life or directorial juice (one of them is directed by Ridley Scott, after all) behind them that, in comparison to her latest endeavor, made them semi-watchable. If anything, Diaz came out of these projects unscathed because her versatility as an actress has always made her a real talent on-screen, having fun with different genres and working with the best-ever filmmakers to make her an even better performer than she already was (i.e. Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday and Cameron Crowe’s vastly underappreciated Vanilla Sky).
There isn’t a single scene, or even a fleeting moment, from Back in Action that feels worthy of Diaz’s on-screen talents, and her performance is nowhere near the level of commitment and standards she has always set on screen, whether good or bad the finished project ultimately became. Foxx, who has always possessed a natural sense of charm, doesn’t fare any better either. In a way, it does feel like a Herculean feat to make two of the most charismatic people whose effervescent qualities always pop off the screen look like they have never acted on a movie set a day in their life. Watching the film, I kept asking myself where the “fun” that Diaz kept talking about made her want to come out of retirement and co-star with Foxx. After all, what convinced her to star in another picture again was Foxx saying to her, “Do you wanna have some fun? Just have some fun!” (or maybe it was money. Who knows, but we’ll stick to the official version).
Perhaps they had fun off-set. But on the screen, Back in Action feels like the antithesis to what is objectively described as “fun,” which is, according to Merriam-Webster, “providing entertainment, amusement or enjoyment.” Based on this definition, you’d likely have more fun watching even Garth Thomas’ eight-hour Baa Baa Land, which captures sheep standing in a field in the hopes that their audience members will fall asleep, than sit through this agonizing excuse of a “film” that insults both our intelligence and the precious time we have on this decaying planet.
The 97th Academy Awards, set for Sunday, March 2, have not (yet) been postponed due to the tragic wildfires that have engulfed much of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas since the first few days of 2025. Voting for nominations and the announcement of this year’s nominees, however, have been extended and delayed once again, respectively, out of sensitivity for the city and some of the Academy’s members who have been directly impacted by the fires. (Four governors and a former CEO lost their homes, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday, January 13.) The new dates and times for the folks keeping track at home are as follows:
Nomination window: Began at noon ET on Wednesday, January 8, now runs through 8 p.m. ET on Friday, January 17 (Previously slated to end at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, January 14, and at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, January 12 before that first extension.)
Nomination announcement: This will now take place at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, January 23 (Originally scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET on Friday, January 17.)
Most recently – and for the purposes of this article, most importantly – came the nominations for Best Original and Adapted Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. Given that my focus for Chasing the Gold is on Adapted Screenplay, I’ll only note those nominees, though eligibility-related omissions are of note across the board: A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, Hit Man, Nickel Boys, and Wicked made up the crop here. Notably absent titles include the Golden Globe-winning Conclave, Sing Sing, I’m Still Here, and Emilia Pérez, all because they were either produced outside of the guild’s collective bargaining agreement or written by a non-union member.
Despite how focusing on these precursors as we look forward to the Oscars is how many of those working in the film journalism make a living, all of this talk – he types while gesturing wildly into open space – leaves awards prognosticators feeling queasy. Phrases like “the show must go on” should not (and do not) apply to live-streamed events unfolding amidst horrifying disasters that have taken homes and lives, as if those things aren’t slightly synonymous on their own. Then again, curiosity persists, and if it’s enough to distract those in need of one the most, I suppose predicting the nominees in this year’s Best Adapted Screenplay field is worthwhile.
ON THE OUTSIDE, LOOKING IN:
Dune: Part Two (Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts; based on the 1965 novel “Dune” by Frank Herbert)
The second half of Denis Villeneuve’s sprawling science fiction epic has been all but blanked this awards season, a frustrating fate for one of 2024’s great cinematic achievements despite how franchise flicks tend to fare at the Oscars. If there’s any point of comparison for Dune: Part Two eking out a nomination here, it might be worth pointing to Top Gun: Maverick and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, both of which received nods in this category at the Academy’s 95th ceremony in 2023, or even to 2021’s Dune, which received a nomination here. Then again, both of those former films were legacy sequels of a kind, not precise second chapters of a continuing story like this one; plus, the first film came in a pandemic-impacted year. The best chance for a Dune film triumphing in above-the-line realms will come in a few years when Dune: Messiah – the presumed final film in Villeneuve’s Timothée Chalamet-led trilogy – could have its own Return of the King moment.
Hit Man (Richard Linklater and Glen Powell; based on the 2001 Texas Monthly article “Hit Man” by Skip Hollandsworth)
Could 2024’s best rom-com be improbably surging in this category? Let’s look at the facts: For starters, Richard Linklater is a two-time previous nominee (although both nominations came for his Before trilogy sequels, co-written with stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy). Glen Powell, being a co-author of Hit Man’s script with Linklater, could do it a favor, given the former’s rising stardom and boundless likeability – insofar as those are worthwhile qualities for Academy voters to consider. Perhaps the most crucial piece of information is that their script was nominated by the Writers Guild, but it’s once again imperative to mention that a number of films that have been considered frontrunners (or at least eventual nominees) were ruled ineligible, leaving a spot for Linklater and Powell to work their way into the fold. If the same happens at the Academy Awards, it will be a pleasant, unexpected surprise, with an emphasis on “unexpected.”
Nosferatu(Robert Eggers; based on the 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, written by Henrik Galeen)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded in 1927, making it five years too late to honor F.W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece upon its release. The same fate appears to be inbound for Robert Eggers’ rendition, as it has missed out on any Adapted Screenplay honors from groups not made up entirely of critics. (It was nominated in the category by the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists). Alas, one of the foremost horror auteurs of his generation will have to settle for having made a critically lauded work that is one of the year’s best films.
Wicked (Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox; based on the musical “Wicked” by Holzman and Stephen Schwartz, and the 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire)
Of the four films on my “outside looking in” list, Wicked inexplicably stands the best chance at nabbing a nomination for its screenplay. Alright, fine, so it isn’t all that inexplicable, my personal bias be damned: The musical has been an undeniable awards-season juggernaut thus far. And while most of its nominations and/or wins have not been for its script, Holzman and Fox did receive an Adapted Screenplay nomination from the Writers Guild of America (alongside Dune: Part Two and Hit Man, as aforementioned). But the reasons I’ve left it out of my predictive top five have more to do with where it has missed. It failed to garner a nomination at the Golden Globes – never mind the fact that the category there groups all screenplays together – and the BAFTAs, two major precursors for the Academy Awards. It could sneak in here; I’m betting it won’t.
THE PREDICTED NOMINEES:
A Complete Unknown (James Mangold and Jay Cocks; based on the 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!” by Elijah Wald)
Nominations from the WGA and the BAFTAs serve as huge boosts for Mangold and Cocks’ Bob Dylan biopic, a project that had “Best Adapted Screenplay” nominee written all over it long before it was released… maybe even before it was greenlit. Who are we kidding: The true (albeit far-too familiar) story of the greatest songwriter of all time’s rise to fame, complete with Timothée Chalamet wearing a prosthetic nose and learning guitar to bring Dylan’s lyrics to life? It may not be a shoo-in, but it’s most definitely a shoo-nom.
Conclave (Peter Straughan; based on the 2016 novel “Conclave” by Robert Harris)
This year, the Golden Globes’ “Best Screenplay” category was populated by five original works and one work of adaptation – the latter is the script that won. Not only is Conclave a certain nominee at the Oscars, but Peter Straughan should be favored to take home the statuette on March 2.
Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard; based on the opera libretto “Emilia Pérez” by Jacques Audiard, which was loosely adapted from the 2018 novel “Écoute” by Boris Razon)
I still can’t figure out Emilia Pérez. Why people love it confounds me; why people defend it is even more baffling; why anyone voluntarily watched it outside of a festival setting is perhaps the most mystifying of all. Nonetheless, it has been the most dominant title this season, periodically sweeping up tens of nominations from awards bodies and critics groups alike, and Audiard’s screenplay is practically certain to go noticed by the Academy, too. If it wins, I wonder if this category’s presenters will announce it by saying, “From penis to vaginaaaaa, it’s Emilia Pérez!” (Related: God help us if it wins.)
Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes; based on the 2019 novel “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead)
The best work of adaptation to be released this year – not to mention thefilm of the year – should be winning here, yet there’s a chance it misses out on a nomination entirely. Should that happen, voting bodies will have done RaMell Ross’ masterpiece a disservice far beyond the lengths of how Nickel Boys has already been treated by bodies including (but not limited to) the BAFTAs, the Producers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Golden Globes. At least it was nominated for something by the latter group. That the Writers Guild included it in its five nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay gives me hope that the Academy will have a similar amount of sense and enough decency to recognize its brilliance with the top honor.
Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley; based on the 2005 Esquire article “The Sing Sing Follies” by John H. Richardson, and the musical “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” by Brent Buell)
Speaking of decency: Among 2024’s most urgent and heartful films also had one of its strongest screenplays, a true story about the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Upstate New York’s Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison brought to life by many formerly-incarcerated alumni of the program. The most heralded among them has been Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who – along with John “Divine G” Whitfield – receives a “story by” co-credit with director Greg Kwedar and his co-writer, Clint Bentley. It’s an emotional meal of a film, its dialogue delivering regularly scheduled wallops to the soul. Like Nickel Boys, it’s a work that deserves plaudits beyond Oscar nominations, but receiving notice from the Academy wouldn’t be a half-bad start.
The time has come, and Oscar nomination morning is right around the corner (as of now, the nominations will be announced on January 23 at 5:30 a.m. PT). Still, even though we’re only a few days from figuring out who is in and who is out, many categories feel chaotic, including the Supporting Actor category. The supporting actor category has undergone many changes over the past few months; what once felt like a safe category quickly flipped to pandemonium.
This category currently stands with Kieran Culkin, Yura Borisov, and Edward Norton out front. These three are the only Supporting Actor contenders that picked up nominations with all four major precursors: the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Critics Choice Association (CCA), Golden Globes (GG), and The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Culkin won the Golden Globe. These are our top three, and there is a reasonable belief that any of them can win. For Norton, A Complete Unknown is overperforming in above and below-the-line categories and could lead, or be close to the leader, in terms of overall nominations. Norton has never won an Oscar, even though he has been nominated three times, and this could be the time when the Academy throws him a bone in a movie they greatly enjoy. He also has the privilege of playing opposite a strong Best Actor contender in Timothee Chalamet, not as an enemy, but as a friend. While A Complete Unknown is about Bob Dylan, it is more about folk music as a whole, and Norton’s first appearance in the film shows the command he will eventually have throughout. I don’t think this will ultimately happen, but I’m confident a nomination will come, so there’s always a chance.
If there is a race, it will be between Kieran Culkin and Yura Borisov, two actors with vastly different narratives, but both can still win. For Culkin, we have a child star who gained recognition throughout the years before genuinely breaking out with HBO’s Succession, where he not only stood toe to toe with the likes of Brian Cox but eventually outshined the entire cast, winning a majority of the awards (SAG and Emmy among to name a few) for his performance in the show’s final season. Culkin has been a wrecking ball this season and has the most critics and industry wins of any actor in any category thus far (29 by the time of writing this article). He hasn’t missed a nomination anywhere and will likely ride this train to the Oscar stage.
However, we can’t entirely count out Yura Borisov just yet. His nuanced performance in Anora vastly differs from Culkin’s bombastic one in A Real Pain, which also plays to his Oscar journey. Borisov is a well-known actor internationally but has never acted in an English-language film until this one. The title for Best Picture is up in the air as multiple films still have a good shot at winning, with Anora being one of them; however, Culkin’s A Real Pain doesn’t quite share that sentiment, and even a nomination for the film is still questionable. If A Real Pain finds a spot among the Best Picture lineup, I don’t think there’s much that Borisov can do to win. Still, a missed nomination creates an exciting scenario as there have only been five occasions since 2000 when a Supporting Actor winner came from a film not nominated for Best Picture, and there have been seven times since 2000 when the winner of this category was also in the Best Picture winner. Realistically, Culkin will take the prize at the end of the day like he has so many times before; however, it would be ignorant to say that Borisov doesn’t have a chance, especially when the Supporting Actor winner and Picture winner have lined up for the past three years.
With the easy predictions out of the way, let’s move on to the final two slots, one of which firmly belongs to Guy Pearce. Did he miss the SAG nomination? Yes, but so did many others who don’t have the same resume that he does in terms of nominations and The Brutalist’s overall power this season. Like Borisov, The Brutalist is still one of the frontrunners that could win Best Picture, and Pearce plays a prominent role in the film, being what could be considered the main antagonist. Pearce has had a long career and has never been recognized by the Academy, which plays a factor. A snub is possible but unlikely.
This takes us to the final spot, which is between three people. First, you have Clarence Maclin, who was thrown a massive British lifeline by picking up a BAFTA nomination after missing both the SAG and the Globe. Sing Sing is a film that has been all over the place for the entire awards season; at one point, it was heralded as a guaranteed Best Picture win and is now fighting for a nomination. Colman Domingo is safely in the Lead Actor category, and the screenplay might also be secure. Still, the film not showing up at the Globes, SAG, BAFTA, or PGA is a telling factor regarding how people in the industry feel about it. While he did get a BAFTA nomination, they also nominated six actors in the category, and arguably, he might have been the sixth. I won’t count out a nomination for him, as maybe the film has more passion than it seems, but I don’t think it’s likely.
Next, there’s Denzel Washington for his role in Gladiator II. While Gladiator II wasn’t the most beloved film of the year, it was almost unanimous that people left loving Denzel’s performance. However, he has even been all over the place regarding precursor nominations. After picking up Critics Choice and Golden Globe nominations, he missed a nomination for the BAFTA (which isn’t too shocking considering he has never been nominated for a BAFTA) and SAG. Gladiator II, as a whole, isn’t performing well either, as there is a real possibility that the Oscar nomination morning will come and go without mentioning the film once. With all that being said, he is still Denzel Washington, the same actor nominated for nine acting Oscars, winning two of them. He has picked up nominations for far less performing films and is an easy name to write down for a voter. A nomination isn’t as strong as once felt, but you can’t ever count out Denzel.
Ultimately, though, I believe Jeremy Strong will hear his name called among the nominees—an early heavyweight out of Cannes whose campaign has been everywhere since. The entirety of The Apprentice seemed to be Sebastian Stan or bust, but then, as campaigning began to kick up, it felt more likely that this film was being pushed away due to the subject matter. Then, both Stan and Strong earned nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTA, with Strong also finding a way in at SAG. For Jeremy Strong, this means he earned a nomination at three major precursors and could even pick up a nomination without his co-star getting one. To me, this shows that there is support for not only him but his performance as well, and maybe Strong and Stan aren’t as much of a package deal as they once seemed to be. Getting the BAFTA and the SAG nominations makes me believe he will get his first Oscar nomination and round out the list of five.
This week on Women InSession, we discuss the trajectory of James Bond in the 1960s and why it was so special with Sean Connery! And a one-timer in the role with the interesting George Lazenby. Not all of the films are great, but there’s a reason the legacy of James Bond continues to this day.
Panel: Kristin Battestella, Jaylan Salah
On that note, check out this week’s show and let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks for listening and for supporting the InSession Film Podcast!
2024 was a weird year, especially in the world of cinema. Gone are the big event movies that dominate the box office and the awards circuit. The only real chance of that was Dune Part Two and Wicked. While Wicked still has that opportunity, Denis Villenueve’s space epic seems dead in the water, in that regard. It just goes to show that release dates and schedules have much too large of an impact on the way we think of movies and awards. And, of course, it’s all subjective and ridiculous. Is this a top 10 List? Of course. Could you convince me that ten other films are even more deserving? Probably!
And this is where the strength of 2024 lies. Were the highs as high as the Barbenheimer year? Certainly not. No matter how hard they tried to make Glicked a thing (it’s not, please stop this But I would argue that if you search, there is greatness to be found. Step outside of the major releases and do a deep dive. There is tremendous talent and art to be found. Now, some of this is deeply out of your control, of course. This is an unprecedented year, in terms of poor access.
I am both lucky and deeply grateful. As a person who was granted acceptance into a few critics groups this year, I was able to have access to the holy grail known as screeners. Without that, I would not have been able to see many of my top films this year. I say this not to brag, but to show understanding of the frustration of not being able to see the best that 2024 has to offer. In that mindset, when I talk about a few of those movies, I will aim to not spoil anything important, but to focus on the emotions evoked in my experience.
Before we get to the official Top 10, here are some films that just missed out this year. And honestly, ask me tomorrow, and they might make it in!
Sing Sing Babygirl All We Imagine As Light Challengers Love Lies Bleeding Hard Truths The Bikeriders I’m Still Here Red Rooms Immaculate
All of these movies (and the ones below, of course) are well worth your time and effort. As always, watch more movies! Now, on to the actual Top 10!
10. The Substance
The Substance was one of the most visceral, enjoyable, disgusting experiences that cinema had to offer in 2024. Obviously, it was a pleasure to see Demi Moore be on top of the film world again, and Margaret Qualley continues her absolute assault on Hollywood. The Substance really fits the mold of some of my favorites. A genre movie that is not afraid to both go for broke in the visuals and also has a point, or two, to make. It is deeply unsubtle (a trait it shares with a few other movies to come) but it handles that blunt force well. A movie about the hideousness of being a woman who ages, both in Hollywood and the real world, but deals with that problem through both a horror and a science-fiction lens. Does the science of taking The Substance make a lot of sense? Did Margaret Qualley make that room up to code? If you are asking these questions, you have lost the plot, both literally and figuratively. Director Coralie Fargeat deserves many awards, not only for the creation of the core, but for some of the funniest (and oddly touching) moments with MonstroElisaSue. If you can’t laugh at her straightening her remaining hair and jangling that one earring, I honestly feel sorry for you.
9. My Old Ass
This was maybe my biggest surprise of the year. And what a happy, moving, emotional surprise it was. I had no connection with the writer/director, Megan Park, or its lead, Maisy Stella. The only reason I even had interest was due to the presence of Aubrey Plaza, who has a smallish role as the older self of the lead, Elliott. We have heard a thousand times that the journey is more important than the destination, and here is the perfect example. If you could meet your future self, what would you ask? My Old Ass posits instead, should you even ask? Yes, our lives are filled with pain and strife. But what if those moments are what build us into the best possible versions of ourselves? This might be the sweetest, most lovely romance of the year. A nearly perfect coming-of-age story that you absolutely will not see coming. This is a film that will transport you back to that all important first love. The rush. The fear. The exploration. Don’t be scared off by the title. My Old Ass is truly great (pause for laugh track).
8. A Different Man
Sebastian Stan has had one hell of a year. He has now cemented himself as the one to watch when it comes to stars built through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He continually makes interesting choices instead of going for the pure romantic lead. This one is no different. Stan plays a struggling actor with a facial deformity (kudos to the makeup team, by the way). He is given an opportunity to undergo an experimental treatment to make him “normal” and he takes it with little hesitation. He, like many of us, assumes that if we can just change that one thing about ourselves, all of our personal anxieties and foibles will go away. Stan, paired with a stunner of a supporting performance from Adam Pearson, shows us that yes, what is inside is what really matters. If we don’t actually take a look at what we are doing internally, no amount of surgery, pills, and outside acceptance will heal us on their own. A Different Man offers a challenge. Become a different man through work, or the world will chew you up and spit you out.
7. The Beast
This is probably the most difficult movie on my list to try to speak about. Set in a future where emotions are seen as a net negative, it focuses on one relationship, between Gabrielle Monnier (Léa Seydoux) and Louis Lewanski (George MacKay). The world is actively trying to heal these two of their emotions and, by extension, their innate connection. Now, in a world where they tell you that it is bad to feel, one must find how willing they are to fight. Or will they give in to the beast, will they give in to fear. Both Seydoux and MacKay are excellent here, to no one’s surprise. The film takes big swings and they may not all work for all audiences, but you really have to admire the attempt regardless. Whether these people are in the future, the distant past, or a disturbing present (to us), we find ourselves actively rooting for them to finally find each other. Given the distance that the film purposefully creates, that makes The Beast a success already. But if you fully get on its wavelength, this is a film that will stick with you well past the credits.
6. No Other Land
This is the only documentary on my list this year (but what a year for non-narrative films!). I would term this as the most important movie to watch in 2024. In Hollywood’s ultimate symbol of cowardice, not a single studio has picked this up for distribution, so I would not be surprised if most readers had not seen this. Once that happens (please!), I urge you to watch this beyond any film on my list or any other list. It tells the story of two passionate friends, one Israeli and one Palestinian, fighting through artistic means to put a halt to the disgusting behavior of Israel’s government as they literally bulldoze homes, leaving people with no place to go. This story of friendship, brotherhood, and a willingness to stand for what is moral and right is desperately important. There are moments of bloodshed that are difficult to watch, but these are acts that from our American privileged position, we have avoided for far too long.
5. I Saw The TV Glow
I want to make this clear. Anyone. I mean, anyone can benefit from this movie and find something to engage with. I say this because one of the main criticisms is that it was solely a Trans story. Now of course, there is a very clear Trans allegory happening here, but we are lost, we are all scared. Jane Schoenbrun calls us to find a way, any way, to be ourselves. Our very best selves. Both Justice Smith and Bridgette Lundy-Paine absolutely own the screen here and dare us to not feel. The monologue under the parachute is a top tier moment of the year for me. It was the moment I knew I was watching something powerful, something different. But it is not just a moment. I Saw The TV Glow resonated so strongly with me that I could not shake it for days. It is not too late. It is never too late. As long as you are breathing, you have at least one more chance to be your self. Take that chance. It won’t be easy, but it will be genuine.
4. Ghostlight
Ghostlight is one of two movies this year that harness the power of theatre to inspire growth and change (I see you, Sing Sing). Keith Kupferer gives the best male performance of the year as a man struggling to hold himself and his family together after an indescribable loss. The film somehow enables us to miss a character we have never met purely through the broken connections on screen. Yes, the metaphor on stage is on the nose to what our characters are suffering through in the real world. But life is like that sometimes. No matter our beliefs, life will inexplicably line up to connect us, to teach us. The film shows us that no, we cannot go backwards. But that cannot stop us from growing, changing, expanding. We are more than the sum of our parts. We are more than our pain. We are more than our loss. We can still find our loved ones, even beyond the grave. They live on in us, and what a powerful and beautiful message to be left with this year.
3. Nickel Boys
Everything from here on could be my best movie of the year, if I am being completely honest. If you have heard anything about Nickel Boys (since most haven’t seen the actual movie) it is encapsulated by the word “gimmick.” Do not be fooled. Yes, the movie is mostly filmed from a first-person perspective, but this is done not simply to perform a trick. Nickel Boys is an exercise in forced empathy. One cannot help but be pulled along on the journey of the main characters and experience it as close to firsthand as possible. RaMell Ross is easily the director of the year; and hand-in-hand with cinematographer Jomo Fray, he creates something brand new. And how exciting is that? To see hundreds of movies over your lifetime, to be introduced to something radical and awe-inspiring. I hope we all get to see this film on the biggest screen possible, as it deserves to be seen.
2. The Brutalist
Some of us have been in on Brady Corbet for longer than others. Some of us love Vox Lux. It’s me, I am some of us. It pleases me greatly that he not only created a great film, but managed to build a nearly perfect metaphor on the creative process. Remember how I talked about movies being unsubtle this year? Yeah, The Brutalist is not subtle at all. And yes, that shot of Lady Liberty is incredible, but what I love about this movie is that this shot, while striking, is a signal for what you, and the lead character, is going to experience. So close to accessing the dream, we are constantly met with problems with the power elite. But how can we get our message across without them? Brody, Pearce, Jones. All absolutely at the top of their prospective games and we are all the better for experiencing The Brutalist. Yes, it’s long. Yes, it’s worth it.
1. Nosferatu
It is not a coincidence that this is the movie I have seen the most this year (Don’t ask how many times, it’s embarrassing). Robert Eggers, one of our best working directors, decided to finally take on vampires. Unsurprisingly, he made decisions that made things harder on himself. Not a Nosferatu remake, not a Dracula adaptation, not an original story. Somehow, he threaded a needle between all three of these options. It should not work at all. It should fail spectacularly. Instead, he manages this particular trick thanks to his script and direction, impeccable casting, and the work of numerous craftspeople working at their absolute best. You can sit around and argue all day about what it is actually about (there is plenty of this on Twitter), but this is the real joy of Nosferatu. It is about all of these things. Consent, desire, repression, darkness. One could writer thousands of words on all of these topics and never scratch the surface at everything bubbling underneath the surface. Nosferatu is Eggers’ best work and, for my money, the best 2024 has to offer. Succumb to his darkness.
Special Mention: Close Your Eyes
I watched this movie very late in the game (after our recording, hence its separate inclusion), but what an incredible experience. Close Your Eyes is an achingly emotional and beautiful meditation on art, life, connection, and most of all, aging. If I watched this when I was 20, well, I don’t want to think about what I would say about it at that age. As someone who has seen a bit of life, the film, as it opens up, reveals something about all of us. On its face, it is about a missing actor featured on an “Unsolved Mysteries” like television program. But plot feels irrelevant here. Director Victor Erice seems basically unconcerned with your reading of the film, but instead focuses on the emotion of loss, regaining ourselves, and our connection to art. This is a film that feels like it deserves thousands of words, and yet, none of them are enough.
You can also hear me talk about these movies and why they resonated with me on this year’s InSession Film Awards.
Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 follows the ABC Sports team as they grapple with how to cover a hostage crisis during the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The tense journalism drama primarily takes place in the ABC studio, meaning that Julian R. Wagner’s production design is front and center in the storytelling, an opportunity Wagner relished, creating a layered, richly detailed, period-accurate playground for the actors.
Watch our full interview with Julian R. Wagner below:
Most cinephiles will be familiar with Stacy Peralta’s skating career because of Catherine Hardwicke’s Lords of Dogtown, a biopic that depicts the development of a skateboarding scene in 1970s Santa Monica. That film, which was based on a screenplay written by Peralta, offered a fictionalized depiction of a specific period in his personal history. In the decades that followed, Peralta continued to branch out into other areas while infusing his increasingly diverse pursuits with his passion for skateboarding.
The new documentary Against the Current aims to expand the general public’s understanding of Peralta by providing an intimate portrait of Peralta’s transition into making art. Naturally, skateboarding continues to play a significant part in this endeavor, but his artistic process ends up taking center stage here. This is a side of Peralta that even longtime fans won’t have been exposed to, and there is enormous value in viewing his creative development through such a specific lens.
Zita Short had the opportunity to interview producer Charlie Smith about their new documentary, Against the Current.
Photo: Cruise Control Gallery
Zita Short: Why do you think that athletic accomplishments have traditionally served as a rich source of inspiration for artists?
Charlie Smith: The aspirational nature of the undertaking. There’s a belief that the world is not done rendering itself into existence, that progress is possible, and that there are unknown barriers to be broken. Even within a team sport, the responsibility of the individual to be undeniably great is always there. But, add in personal style, and it becomes a dance of sorts with almost no clear “winner,” just new expressions.
Zita Short: How does Stacy Peralta’s art, which places a heavy emphasis on the history and development of skateboarding, fit into the lineage of athletically influenced art?
Charlie Smith: I’m tempted to say it almost does not. They are pretty straightforward studies of his old and used equipment. It’s a hyper fixation on this old equipment that was both his tool for freedom and his only limitation, and that changes through time. But I think he paints as they are found now, so there’s a lack of nostalgia there that I found compelling. I guess the most interesting facet is that there was no skateboarding before him and his generation; it simply did not exist.
Zita Short: Stacy Peralta makes note of the fact that he finds a kind of ugly beauty in images of rusty, corroded bolts. Why do you think that human beings are drawn to works of art that have the power to simultaneously attract and repel?
Charlie Smith: I’ve referred to it as a sort of The Picture of Dorian Gray show, only we don’t recoil anymore from a desire to share truth, in whatever form it may present itself. Nobody (yet) seems to be in love with all the AI-generated polished content out there. I think blurring and distorting are closer to how we perceive and store memories and emotions. Non-duality experiences are becoming more sought after in a post-advertising world.
Photo: Cruise Control Gallery
Zita Short: In addition to serving as a producer, you work as an art curator at the Cruise Control Gallery. What are the challenges of working in this field, and what drew you to such a specific Californian cultural milieu?
Charlie Smith: Well, no one really seems to want to buy art. So I won’t sell the art per se. I sell the experience or the world of the artist. To get a master storyteller like Stacy to allow little old me to turn the camera on him was unexpected, to say the least. I’m trying to manage a non-retail art and community gathering zone in a place where this kind of stuff does not exist. I’m a fifth-generation Californian, and we have so much talent right here in our backyard; I think “global destination” type talk for art possibly discounts the setting where these works are produced and why.
Zita Short: Do you think that cinema is well-suited to capturing the power and intensity of the medium of visual art, or is film limited, to some degree, in its ability to capture its complexities?
Charlie Smith: I think it’s the closest to a dream. I think you can sugar pill and backdoor people’s defenses and hesitations by wrapping information in easy-to-digest sound and image combinations. I was raised on the Cinema of Transgression and Lydia Lunch, so this is pretty tame in comparison. But beyond shock, to fold time with the film, if anything, it tells too much. No one wants to really know how the sausage gets made. That’s why it is still palatable. But yeah, it’s an enhancement tool, I think, if you can get anyone to sit still and watch it.
Zita Short: Do you think there are any major artists or works of art that could serve as effective comparison points for Stacy Peralta’s works?
Charlie Smith: We didn’t show them in this program, but his abstracts are very Kandinsky. Stacy is an artist through and through, a lifestyle artist as well. His penchant for film and love of surfing and painting makes him sort of adjacent to a character like Julian Schnabel… Going against type has always been his thing; when the world zigs, he zags. The best compliment we’ve got is other artists asking how these were painted.
Photo: Cruise Control Gallery
Zita Short: Why does Stacy Peralta’s story resonate so strongly with people who are deeply enmeshed in the California art scene today?
Charlie Smith: I think it’s the pioneer aspect primarily. The fact that he did it first. Grabbing his camera and making the skate video, The Search for Animal Chin employs storytelling in a sports/lifestyle film. It had never been done before. Ask anyone who’s seen a skateboard between the ages of 10 and 50, and they will know his name and what he did for the sport by following through on his beliefs and values. It’s a democratized merit-based system in the world of skateboarding; you just have to commit over and over. And he did. Most skaters grew up to make art in one way or another; they just couldn’t help themselves.
Zita Short: What part can cinema play in bringing visual art to a wider audience?
Charlie Smith: Now, with the phone, I mean you can reach anyone… I’m all for film as art and the romantic notion of this huge audience for well-made cinematic masterpieces. I still take myself to the movies. But there are fewer people there than ever. If you can express and document the “whys” and “hows” from the artists themselves, hopefully at its best, it is an invitation for someone else to come out and play in the sandbox of creation. Whatever form it takes.
Director: Scott Chambers Writer: Scott Chambers Stars: Kierston Wareing, Kit Green, Chrissie Wunna
Synopsis: Wendy Darling strikes out in an attempt to rescue her brother Michael from ‘the clutches of the evil Peter Pan.’ Along the way she meets Tinkerbell, who will be seen taking heroin, believing that it’s pixie dust.
The Poohniverse has proved to be a dark theme park for adults wishing to relive their favorite childhood stories with a twist. In the third installment of the franchise, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, screenwriter/director Scott Jeffrey creates a monster using the pinnacle childhood escapist hero, Peter Pan, turning him into a dark ranger of sorts, kidnapping children and banishing them to Neverland.
As fans of the franchise are used to its depravity, everything is upside down in this fantastical childhood tale turned rogue. Peter Pan (Martin Portloc) is a scalping killer and a child abductor, Tinker Bell (Kit Green) is overweight and addicted to fairy dust, and Wendy is a brave female protagonist determined to save her little brother from the grasp of an evil masked monster.
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is darker and gloomier than other installments in Poohniverse. How depraved and unflinching its handling of disturbing subject matter has been is a shock. There must be multiple trigger warnings because this can be a tough watch for many, even if casual The Twisted Childhood Universe elements and tropes are present, it is still grim and hopeless. While the dark themes including children can be off-putting to some, Jeffrey still handles a tough subject matter with as much grace as could be possibly achieved in a film about a murderous, deformed Peter Pan and a junkie Tinker Bell.
Jeffrey creates a bloodbath; this film is gorier than any previous franchise installment. It’s fun, gross, and very entertaining for bloody R-rated horror aficionados. It’s filled with gruesome kills and nightmarish creatures, a feast for the horror fan’s senses. The script has also impressively improved from earlier installments, all thanks to the new blood pushed into the franchise, the acting choices, and the character dynamics. The bond between brother and sister heightens the film as the plot progresses into unimaginable realms.
What makes this movie stand out though is the brilliant casting of the child actor (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) as Michael. He adds layers and depth to his character, and the audience can’t help but root for him as he is thrust from nightmare to nightmare. It’s not a performance one expects in a movie like this; a cheesy, bloody, low-budget horror, but DeSouza-Feighoney has a bright future ahead as an adult actor if he elevates his game and takes on more roles as he grows up. His portrayal of Michael is haunting, vulnerable, and disturbed. Scenes where he tries to put up a brave front as he faces his scary kidnappers or tries to reason with them, immediately remind me of another talented child actor, Milo Machado-Graner from Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall. It’s the ability to shrink into their childhood to bring out the horrors they face at the hands of adults. Megan Placito is also decent as Wendy, she plays it well with her performance and viewers connect with her as she goes on a quest to save her brother. Her journey surpasses her acting prowess but it’s fine enough to make us invested in her storyline.
The question remains: Has the Poohniverse succeeded in destroying the legacy of beloved children’s classics, replacing them with Brothers Grimm-like tales of horror for children? What adult would let a child out of their sight after watching the decaying, living corpses of Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, and Captain Hook rotting while holding children hostages in their House of Horrors?
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is a raw, vicious, unhinged bedtime story from Hell. Audiences will go on a 90-minute rollercoaster ride of pure gore and flying body parts. It’s TheBlack Phone coated in cotton candy or Stephen King’s It if caught in a web of stardust.
It’s possible that 2022 and 2023 spoiled us with event films like Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, and of course the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, all of which gave their respective years a cultural touchstone to remember them by. The year 2024 didn’t have anything even remotely resembling that, and as we’ve seen over the last several weeks, the awards race has been all over the place. Has this made 2024 a weaker year in film? Well, on one hand it certainly wasn’t as consistent. But on the other hand, that lack of consistency has given 2024 something that recent movie years haven’t really had – a lack of consensus. The year has done a great job spotlighting vast differences in opinions among critics and audiences, and if anything, that has made 2024 a more intriguing film year to dissect. This year highlighted the “little engines that could”, specifically up-and-coming indie filmmakers who all found new and exciting ways to challenge the form. I’ll take that over any “event film” any day of the week.
Let’s celebrate those who made 2024 worth talking about. Hopefully you also listen to Episode 619 for a more in depth (ahem, 7-hour) analysis, but for those who need less suspense in their lives, here are my Top 10 Movies of 2024.
Pat Boonnitipat’s feature debut from Thailand is the most egregiously manipulative movie of the year, and it knows it. To achieve this level of emotional trickery without sacrificing sincerity is no easy feat, and should be just as heavily praised as those that sidestep saccharinity. This is a sweet and often very funny movie about familial connection and inheritance, featuring a pitch perfect performance from Usha “Taew” Seamkhum, who makes her acting debut here at 78 years old.
9. Hundreds of Beavers
Many films this year attempted to challenge the form, but Hundreds of Beavers is the one that had the most fun doing it. Mike Cheslik’s feature debut functions like a live action Looney Tunes episode (the references to the Acme Corporation are a dead giveaway) in the style of a 1930s silent comedy, but through some very clever comedic timing and editing, the film proves that it’s not just pastiche. Despite its visual familiarities, there’s a newness to Hundreds of Beavers that feels sincere and loving, functioning like a reinvention of a classic form of comedy. It also helps that it’s funny as hell.
8. The First Omen
With Disney now exploring the back catalog of their newly acquired 20th Century Studios (with movies like Prey, Alien: Romulus, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), it’s here where they seem to be most comfortable letting their filmmakers really cook (low risk, high reward, I guess). Case in point The First Omen, which is too good to believe it stems from that same Disney umbrella. Arkasha Stevenson’s directorial debut is a confident, artful, and truly frightening depiction of the church using fear as a weapon to increase attendance (no joke), featuring a lead performance from Nell Tiger Free that should be getting massive awards consideration. Until its final coda, you might have forgotten you were watching a prequel to The Omen all along. Click here to listen to our full review.
7. Rebel Ridge
Jeremy Saulnier’s latest has been described as First Blood meets Michael Clayton (by Saulnier himself), and it’s an apt description for what is at its core an ‘80s genre film made with contemporary sophistication. Rebel Ridge is a film that slowly reveals itself the more you think about it, as its notions on small town corruption and how bigotry stems from desperation have sneaky staying power. But taken simply on the service, it’s thrilling entertainment, featuring a star-making performance from Aaron Pierre. If Pierre doesn’t become the next big thing, we may have failed as a human race. Click here to listen to our full review.
6. Red Rooms
It’s hard to believe a movie like Red Rooms even exists, and it has become even more frighteningly relevant today in light of recent events. This French Canadian thriller from Pascal Plante may seem like a conventional courtroom murder mystery at the onset, but as it progresses, it instead taps into a growing culture of murder groupies and cosplayers, rooted in this contemporary (almost celebratory) obsession that many have with true crime. While not the most literal “horror” movie of the year, it may be the year’s evilest movie, featuring a lead performance from Juliette Gariépy that should garner Hannibal Lecter levels of comparison. I may never listen to an episode of Crime Junkie ever again. Click here to listen to our full review.
5. Nickel Boys
Much has already been said regarding RaMell Ross’ direction in Nickel Boys, but it’s worth emphasizing as much as possible. Based on the 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead (inspired by the historic Dozier School), Nickel Boys depicts the Nickel Academy reform school’s abuse of black children in Jim Crow era Tallahassee, utilizing one of the most unique and effective forms of first person perspective shifting to ever grace the screen. It is a one of a kind experience, the purest definition of what it means to “put yourself in their shoes”, all fronted by a central friendship between its two subjects (Elwood and Turner) that is genuinely moving. We may be looking at a new trendsetter here. Click here to listen to our full review.
4. Close Your Eyes
One of the most celebrated Spanish filmmakers makes his triumphant return 30 years later with arguably the year’s most reflective film. On its own, Close Your Eyes functions as a deeply moving mystery about the tie between cinema and memory, but when you consider it through the lens of director Victor Erice, the film becomes even more thoughtful and heartbreaking, how growing old and being forgotten might be the thing we fear the most. The bookends to this film (and its clever sleight of hand) rank among the best of anything I witnessed in 2024.
3. Anora
The ending to Sean Baker’s latest should be studied, as it makes for a compelling thesis about what happens to a film when it outright sticks the landing. Anora is not Baker’s best or most thoughtful film (I would certainly rank The Florida Project and Red Rocket above it), but it might be the film from this year that has aged the most gracefully, given how successfully it concludes. In its final 20 minutes, Baker transforms Anora from “raunchy sex-comedy-thriller” to a thoughtful exploration of workers at the mercy of the almighty dollar, coupled by a cathartic exchange between Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov that I won’t soon forget. It may not be the movie of the year, but its ending might be the scene of the year, and that has to account for something. Click here to listen to our full review.
2. All We Imagine As Light
It’s astounding that All We Imagine As Light is a narrative feature debut. Payal Kapadia’s work might be the most confident display of direction this year, a film so precise you would think she had been making movies for decades. All We Imagine As Light is one of the most remarkable contemporary films about urban life and its cultural restrictions, how a place that’s more populated and opportunistic can actually be a lonely hindrance. This is especially true for Prabha, played beautifully by Kani Kusruti, and those final scenes tying all the film’s central characters together are among the most magical moments of the year. It also features the greatest performance of all time from a rice cooker. Click here to listen to our full review.
1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
It’s a shame hardly anyone went to see George Miller’s return to the Wasteland, because Furiosa is a pretty special movie. It’s a film that challenges blockbuster and franchise expectations, and kudos to George Miller for shifting gears into something this solemn, grief-stricken, and regretful. Furiosa is the epic power ballad of a heavy metal franchise (if Fury Road was “Enter Sandman”, then this is “Nothing Else Matters”), sharing similarities with the likes of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven as a tale of vengeance corrupting the soul, all crystallizing in a surprisingly artful and psychological way that pays tribute to the legends of Miller’s Australian homeland. I cannot recall the last time a franchise epic felt this mythic and spiritual, and it just may be the most spiritually charged film of 2024. Hot take or not, I can see a world where this becomes my favorite George Miller film. Click here to listen to our full review.
Honorable Mentions that round out my Top 20: 11) A Different Man 12) Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat 13) Queer 14) Juror #2 15) The Substance 16) Evil Does Not Exist 17) Hit Man 18) Love Lies Bleeding 19) Sometimes I Think About Dying 20) Challengers
Let us know what you think. Do you agree or disagree? We’d like to know why. Leave a comment in the comment section below or tweet us @InSessionFilm.
To hear us discuss our InSession Film Awards and our Top 10 Best Movies of 2023, subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud or you can listen below.
Each year we do a Top 10 list for our awards show, and it’s some of the most fun we have on the podcast. This year was very exciting to me because it didn’t have a cultural-defining moment like 2023 or any other previous year. You could argue that Dune: Part Two held that spot with how audiences reacted, even bringing their own sandworms to the theaters. But I’m not entirely sure how much it moved the zeitgeist needle comparatively. Most of what we saw from mainstream Hollywood was middling and uneven.
However, the cinematic landscape still had an abundance of riches. This is particularly true in regards to animated film, documentaries, American indie and International film – which was dominant. If anything, the year will be defined by innovative and resourceful filmmaking. Young filmmakers brought something to the table this year that is potentially game-changing. I do wonder if we’ll look back at 2024 decades from now as some sort of pivot point for modern cinema. And what’s really interesting is that it’s from names that the general public won’t recognize. No Spielberg. No Nolan. No Scorsese. No Fincher. 2024 was the year of young, ambitious, provocative filmmakers looking to make a difference. With perhaps an exception or two.
We do encourage you to listen to Episode 619 to hear more about our picks, but as we do every year, listed here (after the jump) are my Top 10 Movies of 2024.
There is clearly a lot of love for The Wild Robot across the board, but how many people would be willing to put it up against the likes of The Boy and the Heron or Across the Spider-Verse? Because that’s exactly where I’m at with this film. It’s one of the best animated films of the decade and one of the most poignant of 2024. There’s something about Chris Sanders’ writing that’s so magical here. The idea of Roz realizing that her programming has to change to take on the responsibility of being a parent is really powerful. Her dynamic with Brightbill is really endearing and charming to boot. Culminating in a sequence utterly obliterated me when The Wild Robot suddenly transformers into Midnight Special. The migration scene isn’t just the best of this film, it’s one of the best of the year, heightened by a rousing score from Kris Bowers (my pick for Best Original Score btw). Words can barely articulate its emotionally affect, but that’s the beauty of animation. It does all the work and it’s utterly beautiful. Roz urgently running up the mountainside to see Brightbill one last time is a moment I will soon not forget. Click here to listen to our full review.
9. Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve is one of my guys. Not sure how he convinced a studio to let him make, not one, but two large-scale Dune movies when the original bombed so hard. Yet here we are, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. As was the case with its predecessor, Part Two is an incredibly immersive and transportive experience. Continuing its dusty and arenaceous aesthetic, the cinematography and production design is out of this world. The remarkable scope of the film is what makes cinema a unique form of art. But beyond its bombastic qualities, it’s a riveting cautionary tale for messianic worship and blind followership. The nuances of religion and its fanatical dualities are equally as striking. All heightened by an electric cast who are all terrific. Not to mention another great score from Hans Zimmer, who deserves an apology from The Academy. Click here to listen to our full review.
8. Evil Does Not Exist
Evil Does Not Exist is one of the best overlooked movies of 2024, even by critics and cinephiles. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest may not be for everyone, but it’s 100% my jam. It is slow and methodical. It isn’t interested in pandering or hand-holding. It’s exquisitely crafted. The camera isn’t afraid to linger and simply observe. The score is excellent, edited to coexist with the film’s dramatic pauses. The performances are immaculate. Yet, for all of its technical merit, where Evil Does Not Exist really thrives is with its magic trick. The film somehow operates with this entrancing, redolent realism with how it weaves a modern-day landscape and conflict that’s easily attainable. Yet, at the same time, it plays out as an eco-fable, all the way down to invoking Little Red Riding Hood as young Hana frolics in the forest. As the film crystalizes, it is clearly working as some sort of cautionary tale or parable about the intrusion of corporate greed against natural beauty. But I love how deeply grounded and pragmatic it is from moment to moment. There’s something about that duality here that is magical. Click here to listen to our full review.
7. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World is the most dense and complex film of the year. It intertwines social and political dramas of the past, as the film shifts from a 1980s Romanian drama about a female taxi driver to the modern day where Angela (our lead character) drives around Bucharest visiting the exact same places, just with a different context. That on its own terms is impressive. The parallels between the two timelines is absolutely striking. But that’s just scratching the surface because it also wrestles with corporate greed and the tendency of capitalism to blame injuries of workers on the workers themselves. It’s about the Romanian government selling itself to Europe. It’s about racism and toxic masculinity (and how the film uses TikTok as a literal filter for that idea is absolutely hysterical). There’s a Uwe Boll cameo that had me on the floor. There is commentary about filmmaking itself. Hell, it’s even about bad roads and dangerous intersections in Romania. There is no way it should all work, and yet it does. Because ultimately it’s a movie about how it’s a miracle that we’re able to get through the day as it is. The world is too f***ed up. The fact we make it though is an achievement.
6. I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun is a Best Director nominee for me at the InSession Film Awards. For good reason. Their work here is astounding. The use of neon hues and smoke is visually entrancing. The use of the camera, particularly with how it lingers at times, is incredibly inspired filmmaking. Every shot in I Saw the TV Glow is thoughtfully designed to heighten or further bring clarity to the emotions of these characters. Not to mention the creation of “The Pink Opaque” – this amalgamation of Nick At Night and Buffy the Vampire Slayer – is straight out of the 1990s. Perhaps what I admired most, however, is how those redolent images compliment the film’s themes. I was viscerally moved by the storytelling and its meditation on the role art plays as both a tool for self-discovery and something that can trap us. As a trans allegory, it is deeply poignant and stirring. Justice Smith with one of the very best surprise performances of the year. Truly, truly incredible what he does here. Those final moments at the birthday party are chillingly melancholic. Click here to listen to our full review.
5. Red Rooms
Red Rooms is one of the most disturbing, yet thought-provoking and bold serial killer films we’ve seen in a long time. Horror comes in many forms, but there’s something about the sadistic torture and brutality at the core of Red Rooms, that is then used as a cypher for obsessive behavior, that I find immensely more unsettling than the gore and violence itself. We actually never see graphic violence in the film, a ploy that’s very effective as the film examines the polarity between fantastical desires to be involved and the consequences of anonymity. Eventually, that duality crumbles and there comes a moment Kelly-Anne (our lead character) removes the mask of anonymity. What plays out is *the* scene of 2024 as she makes a very deliberate choice in the courtroom. It’s shocking. It’s spine-tingling. Truly one of the most evil actions we’ve seen from any character in film. Click here to listen to our full review.
4. Furiosa
Furiosa is not at all what I expected and that’s why George Miller rules. It is the inverse to Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that is structured around its spectacle but infuses moments of poetry throughout its chaos. Whereas Furiosa is structured around its parable and infuses moments of spectacle in-between its beautiful moments of symbolism. Miller isn’t interested in regurgitating the same formula, despite the insane success of Fury Road, and I love how Furiosa bares its heart and rage in an attempt to find hope in a wasteland of grief. It’s why I could care less that we learn nothing new about this world or Furiosa herself. When the film is this beautiful and poetic, that’s the last thing on my mind. Miller’s work as a writer (my winner for Best Adapted Screenplay – totally underrated) and director is arresting, but I cannot say enough great things about this cast. Alyla Browne and Chris Hemsworth are especially striking. Hemsworth might give a career best performance here. Click here to listen to our full review.
3. The Brutalist
The Brutalist is intellectually stimulating. Bet you haven’t heard that one before. Seriously, though, this film is the literal definition of “they don’t make movies like this anymore.” It’s a large-scale epic that’s reminiscent of the scope and excess of the New Hollywood Era. Everything is grand in presentation; the cinematography, the setting, the architecture, the performances, the score. It’s all gloriously imposing and redolent. Anchored by two images that define the film, The Brutalist is a brazen look at America’s hollow DNA. The Statue of Liberty in the opening scene. A cross in the closing scene (before the coda). Both of these objects in frame are upside down, a scathing reminder of the lie that is the American Dream and the vacuous theology that preaches it. The conviction of the film is palpable, and its parallels to filmmaking itself will only make it hilarious when it wins Best Picture at the Oscars. Click here to listen to our full review.
2. All We Imagine As Light
All We Imagine As Light is my winner for Best International Film of 2024. I loved this film with every fiber of my being, leaving me with an immense euphoric feeling as the end credits rolled. Payal Kapadia isn’t just one of the best directors of the year, but she is my pick for Best Movie Discovery. Her work here is nothing short of sublime. Everything is wonderfully internalized and reflective. It’s emotionally very stirring. The cinematography is exuberant. The score and soundtrack is vibrant. Yet, for all of its evocative craft, its thematic fervor is equally as radiant with how it uses light and nocturnal aesthetics to grapple with loneliness and geographical dislocation. The story may take place in Mumbai, a massive city that is always awake, but our characters find themselves lonely, uncertain and disconnected. And there’s something about them yearning for life in the nocturnal light that deeply moved me. Light in the darkness becomes this magical space for longing and memory. The way all of that concludes in those final scenes is everything Nicole Kidman talks about in her AMC ad. It’s why we go to the movies. It’s beautiful and stirring. Kani Kusruti, you deserved more this awards season. Click here to listen to our full review.
1. Nickel Boys
Nickel Boys is a game-changer. Perhaps in the ways that 2001: A Space Odyssey became a pivot point in the history of cinema, that may be Nickel Boy‘s story as well. Time will tell, but perhaps that’s what will define 2024 in film. The filmmaking here from RaMell Ross, in collaboration with cinematographer Jomo Fray, is simply among the most intuitive and creative filmmaking we’ve seen this century. There have been other attempts at POV, but none as graceful or assiduous as Nickel Boys. The POV isn’t a gimmick. It’s a brilliant way to expose how an abusive system gives you perspective, a viewpoint that shifts as your worldview evolves dramatically. The alternating viewpoints offer up a subjective and objective observation on what’s really happening at this reform school with these characters, and the results are devastating. Not only does it deconstruct decades of film language, but it gives the film a very unique pathos as we get just a small glimpse of what it’s like to see the world through Black eyes. Click here to listen to our full review.
To round out my Top 20, here is the rest of my list: 11) A Different Man 12) Janet Planet 13) Sing Sing 14) The Beast 15) Anora 16) Close Your Eyes 17) Queer 18) No Other Land 19) A Real Pain 20) Ghostlight
Let us know what you think. Do you agree or disagree? We’d like to know why. Leave a comment in the comment section below or tweet us @InSessionFilm.
To hear us discuss our InSession Film Awards and our Top 10 Best Movies of 2023, subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud or you can listen below.
Director: Lawrence Lamont Writer: Syreeta Singleton Stars: Keke Palmer, SZA, Vanessa Bell Calloway
Synopsis: When best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact.
There’s just something about a film that makes you laugh deep from the bowels of your stomach, causing gut-busting hilarity. To my utter shock,One of Them Days is one of those films. Written by Syreeta Singleton (Insecure), directed by Lawrence Lamont (Rap Sh!t), and produced by Issa Rae (American Fiction), One of Them Days is the next great American buddy comedy for a new generation. Hilarious, with a sense of community and female empowerment, it’s one of those movies that’s just a good time.
One of Them Days follows the trials and tribulations of Dreux (Nope’s Keke Palmer), a hard working waitress struggling to make ends meet. She’s up for a big promotion at work—to become a franchise manager at one of the locations where she strives to make patrons feel like family. Dreux is a good kid, growing up in the “Jungle,” and forming relationships with people like Mama Ruth (Vanessa Bell Calloway), who runs a bodega out of her apartment.
Dreux lives with her best friend, Alyssa (SZA), who complements her. Where Dreux is a grinder, Alyssa is a dreamer—a local artist and bohemian free spirit who lets life come to her. However, after Dreux gets a visit from her landlord demanding rent—something she thought Alyssa had taken care of—they discover that Alyssa’s boyfriend, Keshawn (Joshua David Neal), took the money to invest in his own extremely flammable fashion line. Now, they have eight hours to come up with some cash or face eviction.
Lamont and Singleton’s film is often very funny, highlighted by the charming performances of Palmer and SZA. The script includes a handful of vibrant and hilarious cameos, including a scene-stealing Katt Williams as “Lucky,” a man warning patrons outside a payday/installment loan center about the dangers of these establishments. (Hilariously, the interest rate is 1,900%.) This depiction is spot-on, as these places often prey on working-class, historically marginalized communities. This is an example of a funny and smart satirization from Singleton’s script that will go underappreciated. Abbott Elementary‘s Keyla Monterroso is very funny as a non empathetic loan agent.
You then have a subplot about the beginning of gentrification in the Jungle, with the daughter of Judd, Maude Apatow’s character, Bethany, being the first white person to move into the neighborhood—motivated by the fact that her rescue dog came from there. The movie’s biggest laugh comes from another Quinta Brunson player, Janelle James, who plays a phlebotomy technician and pushes the envelope with some blood-drawing gross-out humor. There’s even a running gag about drive-through robberies that incorporates product placement for Church’s Chicken.
Yes, this is a comedy that is easy to see where it is headed with a fairly standard plot. At some point, you know the friends are going to question each other, fight, and come back together. However, that is just common with any genre buddy comedy. The difference here is the comedic chemistry between the leads. Palmer and SZN push and feed off each other, while also adding heart to the roles that promote empowerment while avoiding harmful tropes.
Yet, that’s beside the point. One of Them Days is too damn funny to ignore. With two hilarious lead performances, a handful of memorable cameos, and four or five big belly laughs, this comedy delivers laugh-out-loud, friendship-fueled chaos that kicks off the new year just right.
You can watch One of Them Days only in theaters January 17th!
With Oscar nominations coming on January 23rd,, it’s crunch time for awards enthusiasts. The Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) announced their nominees on January 10th,, recognizing A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, The Substance, and Wicked for their sound work, giving us a glimpse into which films the sound industry supports. Over the past 11 years, the AMPS winner has gone on to win the Best Sound Oscar seven times. More often than not, upwards of three of the AMPS nominees match with the Academy’s nominees. It’s safe to say they are a huge precursor for this category.
Below are my predictions for Best Sound, listed in alphabetical order.
Alien: Romulus – This is my pick for the more commercial genre film that gets in on nomination day. There are some truly horrifying sounds found in this film that could only be created for an Alien movie.
A Complete Unknown – The first of three musical-adjacent films, A Complete Unknown utilizes live recordings of actors singing and playing their instruments, which makes the movie stand out in the musical biopic genre. The mixing is so precise and makes you feel like you’re there with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez instead of listening to a studio recording while Timotheé Chalamet and Monica Barbaro lip-sync on camera. It would be hard for the Academy to leave out such intimate sound design.
Dune: Part Two – Dune: Part Two’s predecessor took home this award, among many other below-the-line prizes in 2022, and it seems like the team should be gearing up for another win here. There’s been a significant dip in support for Part Two when compared to the original, but sound is where it has held strong throughout the season. Dune: Part Two is the only film thus far to have won more than one critics’ group award for sound, so the case for its nomination is rather compelling.
Emilia Perez – Emlia Perez is trending toward becoming the most Oscar-nominated film of the bunch this year, and Best Sound is just one more inevitable nomination for the international musical. There seems to be a divide between online backlash and industry support, as Emlia Perez continues to overperform with various voting bodies. film has numerous people against it, yet it seems to perform It was a shock to some that it beat out Wicked for Best Musical/Comedy at the Golden Globes, but the writing had been on the wall all night. I don’t find the sound work in Emilia Perez to be all that memorable, but it feels like this will be part of the package that will make the film the thing to beat after nominations are announced.
Wicked – Similar to A Complete Unknown, almost all the singing used in the movie was recorded live on set and not in a studio. Wicked’s commercial and critical success has made it more of an awards player than I would have ever guessed, but the sound mix is legitimately impressive. We’re headed toward three musicals being nominated for Best Sound, and to me, it feels like Wicked has the weakest chance of actually pulling out the win compared to the other two.
I’m confident in all of these picks, with the exception of Alien: Romulus. I could easily see Gladiator II swooping in for that spot, but I found the work on Romulus to be head and shoulders above Ridley Scott’s latest outing. In a more fun world, The Substance would also make an appearance here, but I just don’t see it jumping ahead of any of these other films despite its AMPS nomination.
The Academy’s nominees for Best Sound will be announced on January 23rd.
This week on the InSession Film Podcast, we featured our 12th annual InSession Film Awards! During Part 1, we discussed the very best that 2024 had to offer in terms of film. We dove into everything from movie surprises, to overlooked movies, to the best acting performances and so much more!
For every category, we each listed our own nominations and winners. Winners are highlighted in bold.
Best Actor
Brendan:
Daniel Craig, Queer
Nicholas Hoult, Juror #2
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight
Aaron Pierre, Rebel Ridge
Sebastian Stan, A Different Man
JD:
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight
Sebastian Stan, A Different Man
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Daniel Craig, Queer
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Dave:
Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Justice Smith, I Saw The TV Glow
Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Josh Hartnett, Trap
Best Actress
Brendan:
Juliette Gariépy, Red Rooms
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Mikey Madison, Anora
Daisy Ridley, Sometimes I Think About Dying
Nell Tiger Free, The First Omen
JD:
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Daisy Ridley, Sometimes I Think About Dying
Ilinca Manolache, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here
Kani Kusruti, All We Imagine As Light
Dave:
Lily Rose-Depp, Nosferatu
Maisy Stella, My Old Ass
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here
Naomi Scott, Smile 2
Best Actor Supporting Role
Brendan:
Yura Borisov Anora
Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing
Mike Faist, Challengers
Adam Pearson, A Different Man
JD:
Yura Borisov, Anora
Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Adam Pearson, A Different Man
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing
Dave:
Bill Skarsgard, Nosferatu
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Mike Faist, Challengers
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing
Denzel Washington, Gladiator 2
Best Actress Supporting Role
Brendan:
Adria Arjona, Hit Man
Joan Chen, Didi
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Nickel Boys
Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters
Usha Seamkhum, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
JD:
Usha “Taew” Seamkhum, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters
Joan Chen, Dìdi
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Nickel Boys
Aubrey Plaza, Megalopolis / My Old Ass
Dave:
Katy O’Brian, Love Lies Bleeding
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Joan Chen, Didi
Michele Austin, Hard Truths
Aubrey Plaza, My Old Ass
Best Director
Brendan:
Sean Baker, Anora
Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine As Light
George Miller, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Pascal Plante, Red Rooms
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
JD:
Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine As Light
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Dave:
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Robert Eggers, Nosferatu
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Luca Guadagnino, Challengers
Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine As Light
Best Original Screenplay
Brendan:
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Victor Erice and Michel Gaztambide, Close Your Eyes
Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man
Jane Schoenbrun, I Saw the TV Glow
Jeremy Saulnier, Rebel Ridge
JD:
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Radu Jude, Do Not Expect Much From the End of the World
Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine As Light
Aaron Schimberg, A Different Man
Dave:
Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist
Kelly O’Sullivan, Ghostlight
Megan Park, My Old Ass
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Zach Baylin, Kevin Flynn, Gary Gerhadt, The Order
Best Adapted Screenplay
Brendan:
Vera Drew and Bri LeRose, The People’s Joker
Justin Kuritzkes, Queer
Richard Linklater and Glen Powell, Hit Man
George Miller and Nick Lathouris, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
JD:
Justin Kuritzkes, Queer
George Miller and Nick Lathouris, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Chris Sanders, The Wild Robot
Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley, Sing Sing
Dave:
Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Sing Sing
Jeff Nichols, The Bikeriders
Ramell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Robert Eggers, Nosferatu
Richard Linklater, Glen Powell, Hit Man
Best Cinematography
Brendan:
Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu
Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Queer
JD:
Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu
Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Queer
Dave:
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Challengers
Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu
Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Trap
Best Documentary
Brendan:
Dahomey
No Other Land
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane
JD:
Dahomey
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
No Other Land
Sugarcane
Dave:
No Other Land
Sugarcane
Soundtrack To a Coup d’Etat
Super/Man
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Best International Film
Brendan:
All We Imagine As Light
Close Your Eyes
Evil Does Not Exist
How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
Red Rooms
JD:
Red Rooms
Evil Does Not Exist
All We Imagine As Light
The Beast
Do Not Expect Too Much From The End of the World
Dave:
All We Imagine As Light
I’m Still Here
Red Rooms
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Best Animated Film
Brendan:
Flow
Look Back
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot
JD:
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Flow
The Wild Robot
Transformers One
Dave:
Memoir of A Snail
The Wild Robot
Transformers: One
Flow
Piece By Piece
Best Original Score
Brendan:
Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot
Bryce Dessner, We Live in Time
Eiko Ishibashi, Evil Does Not Exist
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Queer
JD:
Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
Eiko Ishibashi, Evil Does Not Exist
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Queer
Kris Bowers, The Wild Robot
Hans Zimmer, Dune: Part Two
Dave:
Daniel Blumberg, The Brutalist
Tom Holkenborg, Furiosa
Cristobal Tapia de Veer, Babygirl
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Challengers
Alex G, I Saw The TV Glow
Best Use of Song
Note: This category includes original songs and pre-existing music.
Brendan:
“Greatest Day by Take That, Anora
“Let Me Entertain You” by Robbie Williams, Better Man
“Starburned and Unkissed” by Caroline Polachek, I Saw the TV Glow
“Come As You Are” by Nirvana, Queer
“Wild Is the Wind” by Nina Simone, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
JD:
“Come As You Are” by Nirvana, Queer
“Starburned and Unkissed” by Caroline Polachek, I Saw the TV Glow
“Kiss the Sky” by Maren Morris, The Wild Robot
“New Brain” by Skye Riley, Smile 2
“The Homeless Wanderer” by Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, All We Imagine As Light
Dave:
“Creep/The Air That I Breathe”, Heretic
“Come As You Are”, Queer
“Defying Gravity”, Wicked
“One Less Lonely Girl”, My Old Ass
“Compress/Repress”, Challengers
Best Opening/Closing Credits Sequence or Scene
Brendan:
Anora (Opening Credits)
Gladiator II (Opening Credits)
Queer (Opening Credits)
Sing Sing (Closing Credits)
Smile 2 (Opening Credits)
JD:
Close Your Eyes (Closing)
All We Imagine As Light (Closing)
Red Rooms (Opening)
The Brutalist (Opening)
Anora (Closing)
Dave:
Queer (Opening)
The Brutalist (Closing)
Smile 2 (Closing)
I Saw The TV Glow (Closing)
Trap (Opening)
Best Overlooked Movie
Brendan:
Ghostlight
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
Janet Planet
Sometimes I Think About Dying
We Live in Time
JD:
Sometimes I Think About Dying
Janet Planet
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Small Things Like These
The Beast
Dave:
Red Rooms
Fancy Dance
Handling The Undead
Lisa Frankenstein
Femme
Best Surprise Movie
Brendan:
The First Omen
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Hundreds of Beavers
Love Lies Bleeding
Smile 2
JD:
Babes
Transformers One
A Quiet Place: Day One
My Old Ass
The First Omen
Dave:
Ghostlight
My Old Ass
Immaculate
Hundreds of Beavers
Thelma
Best Surprise Actor/Actress
Brendan:
Ed Harris, Love Lies Bleeding
Sydney Sweeney, Immaculate
Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Lesley Manville, Queer
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow
JD:
Michelle Buteau, Babes
Demi Moore, The Substance
Josh Hartnett, Trap
Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow
Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
Dave:
Sydney Sweeney, Immaculate
Lily Rose-Depp, Nosferatu
Justice Smith, I Saw The TV Glow
Maya Hawke, Wildcat
Andy Samberg, Lee
Best Movie Discovery
Brendan:
Mike Cheslik – Director, Hundreds of Beavers
Juliette Gariépy – Actress, Red Rooms
Aaron Schimberg – Writer/Director, A Different Man
Conor Sherry – Actor, Snack Shack
Arkasha Stevenson – Director, The First Omen
JD:
Daniel Blumberg – Composer, The Brutalist
Rachel Lambert – Director The Brutalist
Annie Baker – Director, Janet Planet
Katy O’Brian – Actress, Love Lies Bleeding / Twisters
Payal Kapadia – Director, All We Imagine As Light
Dave:
RaMell Ross, Director, Nickel Boys
Keith Kupferer – Actor, Ghostlight
Maisy Stella, Actress, My Old Ass
Zia Anger, Director, My First Film
Arkasha Stevenson – Director, The First Omen
JD’s Individual Special Awards
Best Individual Score Track
“Imagined Light” – Topshe (All We Imagine As Light)
“I Could Use A Boost” – Kris Bowers (The Wild Robot)
“Overture (Bus)” – Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist)
“Matchpoint” – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Challengers)
“Pure Love” – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Queer)
“Memory is a Voyager” – Max Richter (Spaceman
“Evil Does Not Exist V2” – Eiko Ishibashi (Evil Does Not Exist)
“Arrival” – Volker Bertelmann (Conclave)
“Acceptance” – Gintz Zilbalodis and Rihards Zalupe (Flow)
“Dreams” – Jed Kurzel (Monkey Man)
Best Overlooked Performance
Cillian Murphy, Small Things Like These
Aaron Pierre, Rebel Ridge
Juliette Gariépy, Red Rooms
Léa Seydoux, The Beast
Julianne Nicholson, Janet Planet
Maya Hawke, Wildcat
Best Directorial Debut
Sean Wang – Dìdi
Dev Patel – Monkey Man
Arkasha Stevenson – The First Omen
Annie Baker – Janet Planet
Vera Drew – The People’s Joker
These Movies Are Actually Good
Megalopolis
The Outrun
Wildcat
A Quiet Place: Day One
Saturday Night
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
The June Squibb Award
June Squibb, Thelma
Brendan’s Individual Special Awards
Best Performance by a Non-Human, aka “Cheddar Goblin” Award
Alfie the cat, Argylle
The turtle, Conclave
Dogpool, Deadpool & Wolverine
Dondas the monkey, Gladiator II
The family dog, I’m Still Here
The dogs, Nightbitch
Frodo the cat, A Quiet Place: Day One
The turtle, Sasquatch Sunset
Death the macaw, Tuesday
Best Double Feature
The First Omen / Immaculate
I Saw the TV Glow / The People’s Joker
The Substance / A Different Man
The Substance / The Last Showgirl
The Substance / Smile 2
The Wild Robot / Flow
Actors Who Win 2024
Nicholas Hoult (Juror #2, Nosferatu, The Order)
Daisy Ridley (Sometimes I Think About Dying, Young Woman and the Sea, Magpie)
Best (or Worst) Movie To Make Into a Drinking Game
A Complete Unknown (any time when Dylan performs and the camera slowly inches in on Chalamet, coupled with insert shots of the crowd gawking over his genius)
Most Undeservingly Good Performance in a Movie That Didn’t Deserve Them
Leigh Gill, Joker: Folie a Deux and Blitz
Go **** Yourself Disney
Moana 2
Alien: Romulus
Dave’s Individual Special Awards
The Keanu Reeves Exceeding Low Expectations Award
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, Fly Me To The Moon
Tom Hardy, Venom: The Last Dance
James McAvoy, Speak No Evil
Jason Schwartzman, Queer
The Eva Green Innocent Award
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Aubrey Plaza, Megalopolis
Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness
Denzel Washington, Gladiator 2
The Michael Bay All Filler No Killer Award
Maria
Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim
Godzilla x Kong The New Empire
Twisters
Alien: Romulus
The Steven Soderbergh Very Good Year Award
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Nicholas Hoult
Glen Powell
Saoirse Ronan
Luca Guadagnino, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
The Ladybird They Didn’t Understand It Award
Wildcat
Rumours
The Order
Small Things Like These
Immaculate
Well, that’s it for our 2024 InSession Film Awards! Hopefully, you all enjoyed our nominations and winners. If you agree or disagree with us, let us know in the comment section below. We would love to hear how your nominations and winners would vary from our picks above. You can also email your selections to us at [email protected] or follow us on social media.
Clothes, hair, and makeup tell stories not just about characters with monster prosthetics or gushing blood wounds, but tales of classism, beauty, and objectification shine through the actors’ hair and makeup, as well as their costume choices, or rather, the hair & makeup artists and the costume designers behind them.
In Sean Baker’s Anora, there seems to be nonstop controversy yet again about his depiction of, as Gabriel García Márquez would describe in Memoirs of My Melancholy Whores, “beautiful, melancholy sex workers,” But what everyone agrees on is how stunning and vibrant Ani (Mikey Madison) is on screen. Every element of Anora, from set design and cinematography to hair, makeup, and costumes, complements the story, elevating it to greatness on a small-scale film, as one would expect with Baker’s filmography.
Ani’s costumes vary from one stage of her life to the other. The film’s costume designer Jocelyn Pierce summarizes it perfectly during Ani’s clubbing days with hair tinsel and body diamond dust glitter to her clothes on her trip returning home with a puffer jacket and Uggs. Then comes her stunning Hervé Léger dress as she first enters the magical world that is Ivan’s (Mark Eydelshteyn) house and extravagant life, then her floor-length fur coat, and her (3-carat) wedding ring. Anora tells a rags-to-riches story through hair, makeup, and costumes about a too-ambitious young woman and how her brief brush with the upper class and a snooty Ogliarchs led to her fall from grace.
Anora’s classist commentary speaks volumes, from the electric blue dress Ani picks for her first private date with Ivan to her excessive Carrie Bradshaw-like shopping spree, buying from high-end luxury brands the moment she becomes his wife, to the way she picks up her fur coat, the red scarf, and high heels on the hunt for him with his godfather’s henchmen, including the dutiful Igor (Yura Borisov), whose style is representative of his status —a handsome young man, born into poverty and a life of crime, hiding in the shadows, with glimpses of his manly beauty escaping from underneath the hoodie.
But from New York, the mood shifts, and we move to a colorful, bloody, and mascara-smeared Mexico with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, where three ladies find their place in a merciless world. But what role do costumes play in this movie? How do they speak of the characters’ suffering? Most of the ladies’ costumes, especially on their fancy nights and luxurious dining outings, are from the Saint Laurent archives, so again, high-end fashion speaks volumes.
Whether it’s Zoe Saldaña’s red suit, Selena Gomez’s printed Saint Laurent blazer, or Karla Sofía Gascón’s entire wardrobe, those women seek identity and self-expression, and what better way to do that than through fashion and styling? Saint Laurent is bold, visible, and skin-baring in so many ways. Gomez’s blouse, which she opens to show her breasts to her lover as she gets out of the car to say goodbye to him, is a testament to the fragile relationship the famed fashion house has with femininity, and this is visible throughout the movie.
Gascón’s dresses are bodycon, form-fitting, and almost hugging her voluptuous figure. In her portrayal of Emilia, she breathes through her clothes; her first meeting with Saldaña’s character in that restaurant in London showcases an elegant lady in black with a fashion choice, smart and classic, one that can never go wrong. Her makeup, as orchestrated by makeup department head Julia Floch Carbonel and SFX makeup artist Jean Christophe Spadaccini, shifted from her pre-transition prosthetics to become Manitas, to soft tones and naturalistic look to accentuate Gascón’s beautiful skin and strong features as she played Emilia.
In both films, it’s easy to see a culture of excess, a cocktail of colors, fabrics, and branded items that only confess to a lifetime of poverty, suddenly followed by a plunge into riches. Those women have been thrust into the upper-class world with all its shady, dark interwebs, and now they have to dress the part. Whether a trophy wife to a Russian bratty heir in Anora, the gang girl in Emilia Pérez, or the woman who travels her way to the top by taking over a drug lord’s shady business, all those women run in circles of uncertainty, using costumes as armor to shield them from an indecisive world marked by the rise and fall of the bourgeois and those who accompany them on their life-or-death journeys.
With the 97th Annual Academy Awards nominees being announced on January 23, the time has come for my final predictions for the Best Director five. The landscape has taken shape over the last few weeks, but there’s still some uncertainty around who could land the final two spots. Below are my official predictions with nominees listed in alphabetical order.
Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) – Corbet took home the prize for Best Director at the Golden Globes, and seems to be the most consistent presence in this race. I’d go as far as to say he is the favorite to win at the Oscars, too. The Brutalist is finally releasing wide and its legend continues to grow, primarily due to the excellent press tour Corbet has embarked on since the film hit the festival circuit last fall.
Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) – I can’t believe I’m saying this, but The Substance is happening. I believe that this film is going to solidify the differences between this new Academy and the old guard. A lot of the love for this film has indeed been channeled into giving awards to Demi Moore (who is winning Best Actress, by the way), but in many cases, Fargeat has been included in the nominations alongside Moore and Margaret Qualley’s performances.
Edward Berger (Conclave) – Edward Berger hasn’t missed many nominations for Conclave this season and that momentum is going to carry him to a nomination at the Oscars. He missed a nomination for All Quiet on the Western Front, a film that had tremendous below-the-line support. With a longer awards campaign this time around, Berger will hear his name called when the nominations are announced.
Jacques Audiard (Emilia Perez) – Despite Emilia Perez being the most divisive film of the awards season, it keeps picking up wins and nominations when it matters. Audiard is incredibly famous with international bodies, and the Academy has more international members than ever before. This support is undoubtedly going to carry him through to the Best Director five.
Sean Baker (Anora) – It’s fair to say that Anora’s season-long front-runner status has hurt its chances to actually win a lot of awards, but the campaign hasn’t completely gone off the rails yet. Similar to Corbet with The Brutalist, Anora would not exist in any form outside of Sean Baker’s mind. Baker’s fingerprints are all over this movie and he is likely to be rewarded with a nomination.
Of my list above, only one doesn’t match up with the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) nominees: Coralie Fargeat. James Mangold was recognized for A Complete Unknown in her stead, which came as a surprise. While a DGA nomination is a solid indicator for the Academy’s nominations, the two lists have only matched five times since the DGA made the shift to five nominees in 1970 to match the Academy. The last time the DGAs matched the Oscars was 2010, so there’s still hope for wiggle room in that fifth spot.
While I’m fairly confident in my picks for the final five nominees, there are a couple of directors that I wouldn’t be surprised to see take someone’s spot come nomination day. The three next-best contenders are RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys), Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light),
This year, we’ve seen many exciting films, from bold international releases to indie films that push storytelling boundaries. Big studio blockbusters have done well, but so have smaller, deeply personal dramas, showing how diverse voices are becoming more prominent than ever. These films continue to redefine what both big-budget and independent cinema can do. Without further ado, here is a list of the ten best movies of 2024 and fifteen honorable mentions in alphabetical order!
A Real Pain
A comedy that packs an emotional punch, Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut hits home with a relatable story of mindfulness and inherited trauma.A Real Pain stars Eisenberg, who also wrote the script, as David and crafts the dynamic character of Benji, portrayed by Kieran Culkin in one of the year’s standout performances. The two play Jewish-American cousins who travel to Krasnystaw to visit their recently deceased grandmother’s home—a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp. The result is a touching, funny, and deeply moving tale of shared trauma passed down through generations.
Cobweb
Cobweboffers a subversive film experience that pokes fun at the establishment and challenges it, raising the question of why truth is essential in any artistic medium. Kim’s South Korean tale of obsession is a darkly funny, skillfully crafted work of meta-cinema, reminding you of films like Black Bear and Birdman in the way it blurs the line between reality and illusion. The film explores an obsession with an artist’s vision, but what’s particularly striking is how Cobweb puts truth on trial, especially in its highly entertaining third act. Ultimately, Cobweb becomes a story of redemption, seen through Song Kang-ho’s portrayal of Kim’s moral and professional character. It’s a filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery and reinvention.
How to Build a Truth Engine
Director Friedrich Moser delivers a mind-blowing exploration of how information is fed to us—and how we consume it—in How to Build a Truth Engine. The film is absolutely chilling, undeniably powerful, and riveting from start to finish. This vital documentary tackles morally complex issues, revealing how higher powers leverage the evolution of modern technology to shape perspectives in their favor. Examining how news is produced, consumed, and understood forces viewers to question: Who benefits, and why?
His Three Daughters
Occasionally, a film comes along that delivers a profoundly poignant punch that never quite goes away. His Three Daughtersis that film—a beautifully complicated slice of sour family drama with a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that few can truly experience. You know the feeling where deep down, you secretly long for them to comfort you as they pass away and reassure you that everything will be alright. This moment in Netflix’s His Three Daughters cuts through all the family angst, resentment, and uncomfortable silences—the ones you hope will wash away before your time is up—because nothing is more precious than time.
The Imaginary
The Imaginary evokes wonder, explores modern cultural themes, and employs innovative storytelling techniques. It is one of those films—a wonderful and creative breath of fresh air destined to be hailed by critics and audiences alike. The animation is gorgeous, and the story lives up to its limitless possibilities. Brimming with unparalleled empathy and unspeakable compassion, this family film sparks a passionate fascination with what movies are and what cinema can be. There’s magic in it.
Longlegs
Longlegs, along with Nicolas Cage’s performance, will leave you breathless. From the moment Oz Perkins’ terrifying new psychological horror thriller begins, with a reddish glow on the screen during the credits, you start to feel the physiological hold and effect this movie has on you. Your heart begins to race, and the fight-or-flight response kicks in as your pulse feels like it will burst through your neck and wrist, much like the Kool-Aid Man. Perkins masterfully builds and layers tension, mood, and pace, leaving you in a psychological catatonic state, afraid to move. It’s a throwback to the fabulous ‘90s thrillers, peeling back the curtain on religion’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with more on its mind than gutless jump scares.
Monkey Man
Monkey Man, Dev Patel’s directorial debut, is a triumph that straight rips and f*cks, grabs you by the throat, and maintains its steadfast ironclad grip. It is a revenge-fueled, vengeful thriller through Mumbai’s gritty, sweaty streets and the unseemly acts of the rich and powerful that unfold high up in towers and shadowy, smoke-filled rooms. However, Patel’s directorial debut is that this isn’t just John Wick in Mumbai, but a thriller for the freaks, the downtrodden, Dalits, slumdogs, hustlers, prostitutes, and the religiously oppressed fighting against a system stacked against them.
Música
A filmmaker rarely finds a fresh angle for the left-for-dead romantic comedy. Yet, an exciting new voice occasionally reminds us why we used to love the genre in the first place. That filmmaker’s name is Rudy Mancuso, and his latest movie, Música, is sweet, laugh-out-loud funny, and downright adorable from start to finish. Música is a sincere romantic comedy that embraces community and personal growth, never forgetting that life is a journey and we should enjoy the ride. The script thoughtfully acknowledges that humans evolve and dares to let their characters’ lives move on, no matter how the movie ends—something rare. Mancuso’s film is a vibrant, rhythmic, and eclectic rom-com that sets itself apart from the rest.
Only the River Flows
Shujun Wei’s Only the River Flows feels like a throwback while offering a fresh perspective. It skillfully blends classic and modern cinematography, anchored by the brooding intensity of its main character. The third-act shot, filmed digitally to create a distinct visual contrast with the rest of the movie, weaves Zhe’s haunting memories—past, present, and future—in a way I’ve never seen before. Moments like this, paired with a deep respect for the genre’s traditions, make the film a neo-noir with a psychological edge that chills to the core and lingers long after the credits roll.
The Order
The Orderis a powerful film that thrives on the career-best turn of Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult. An extraordinary amount of relentless intensity and obsession fuels each turn. In particular, Law’s portrayal of Agent Husk, as Hoult’s Matthews continually raises the stakes, brings a gripping emotional urgency to the film’s core, which resonates deeply with today’s audience. On the flip side, Hoult is mesmerizing, capturing the dark side of obsession—how hate distorts a false sense of identity and superiority. Justin Kurzel has crafted a film that transports you to a different time and place while still feeling relevant, with scenes that stay with you long after the credits roll.
Saturday Night
If the opening title sequence didn’t credit Jason Reitman as a co-writer alongside Gil Kenan, you might think this was a home-run swing from Aaron Sorkin. That’s because the script crackles with a distinctive style and dialogue with a rhythm all its own. Saturday Night is funny, anxious, and packed with rapid-fire, razor-sharp wit that few films can replicate. Gabriel LaBelle, who was so impressive in Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, is phenomenal as Saturday Night Live founder Lorne Michaels. He captures the youthful exuberance—and arrogance—of a maverick creative with something to say.
September 5
September 5is a gripping true-life tale of an unlikely journalist chronicling one of the most tragic terrorist attacks in history. Featuring a stellar cast, including Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch (as Peter Jennings), Tim Fehlbaum’s film brims with energy, despair, and suspense. At the same time, September 5 underscores the wherewithal, ethics, and critical importance of responsible journalism—particularly in an era when most people consume information through social media.
Sing Sing
Sing Sing features two astonishing performances: Colman Domingo as the lead, John “Divine G” Whitfield, and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who portrays himself. Director Greg Kwedar (Jockey) infuses the film with humanity, community, and unexpected poignant moments that stay with you long after the credits roll. Sing Sing is a richly layered film, anchored by Domingo’s exceptional performance, as it navigates themes of denial, acceptance, and redemption, delivering an empowering real-life story of inspiration.
Wicked
Wickedis an all-encompassing grand spectacle that combines old Hollywood grandeur with modern special effects, enhancing the script rather than detracting from it. The cast is exceptional, with Ariana Grande displaying a real knack for comic timing and a talent for physical comedy. This big-stage musical adaptation is overstuffed but never feels stuffy. While overly long, it never overstays its welcome. Most importantly, director Jon M. Chu doesn’t fumble the big moment with its stunning musical conclusion, keeping you under its spell with a handful of immersive musical numbers and a powerful, show-stopping performance from Cynthia Erivo.
The Wild Robot
Every so often, we encounter an animated film that pulls at the heartstrings and immerses the audience in animation that reminds us of the magic of movies. That film is The Wild Robot, a big, beautiful, animated family film that may be passed down from generation to generation as an enduring classic. It’s a wildly entertaining, touching, and poignant adventure of the heart. Chris Sanders has carefully captured the essence of Peter Brown’s book, making it the year’s best-animated family film. The experience will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—perhaps all at the same time. At least, it did for me.
Woman of the Hour
Woman of the Hour is a masterful crime thriller filled with scenes of unwavering anxiety and almost unbearable whiteknuckle tension. Director Anna Kendrick holds the viewer’s attention with a contextual experience unlike any other crime film this year. Watch the opening scene and then feel the hairs on your forearms stand at attention. However, that’s not what will sell Netflix’s latest streaming sensation to fans and critics. The nuances of McDonald’s script and Kendrick’s lens offer a unique perspective—not on the killer, but on society’s role of the victims, by being a film that believes in women.
10. Conclave
Conclaveis a stunning, subdued, and provocative morality play that is exceptionally acted, flawlessly shot, and superbly written. The very definition of an actor’s showcase, Ralph Fiennes delivers one of the best performances of his career as a cardinal burdened with navigating a conclave of “saints” full of sanctimonious ambition and fundamentalist zealots, where the righteous are few and far between. Edward Berger and Peter Straughan’s script employs addictive, provocative, and sharp dialogue as its carrot, with razor-sharp subtext as its stick. Conclave’s desire to put faith versus power on trial is an all-encompassing high-wire act with breathtaking results.
9. Day of the Fight
Loosely based on Stanley Kubrick’s 1951 documentary short film of the same name, Day of the Fight is a powerful story of redemption that is both cathartic and uncompromising. Actor Jack Huston—part of the legendary Huston clan that includes Hollywood icons like John and Anjelica—makes his directorial debut and pens the script, delivering a true knockout. Michael Pitt gives a jaw-dropping performance as “Irish” Mike Flannigan, capturing raw intensity and vulnerability. His portrayal makes you empathize with an unlikable character and cheer for his triumph—a feat few actors can achieve.
8. Anora
If there is any film that lives up to the phrase “wildly entertaining,” it’s Sean Baker’s Anora. Part romance, part crime film, part road picture, part buddy comedy, Baker’s phenomenal script leaves you giddy with sheer entertainment while slowly sneaking up on you, culminating in a devastating final scene. At its heart, Anora is a sociological character study featuring a transformative performance from its star, Mikey Madison. Her spitfire, firecracker portrayal is nothing short of sensational from start to finish.
7. Civil War
I cannot imagine a more dangerous film to enter our lives now.Civil Waris jaw-dropping, downright incendiary, and brutally obtuse in its stubborn frankness. Yet, the gloriously mercurial writer and director Alex Garland paints a picture of modern-day dystopian America in peril. Initially, you may think you’ve figured the movie out, but after leaving your local Cineplex, you won’t be pondering which side you would choose. Instead, you’ll find yourself asking, “Which side of patriotic fervor won?” His tenacious, riveting, and staggering vision isn’t the American dream, but an American nightmare.
6. Nickel Boys
Many will find it difficult to shake off the film’s unique point of view. Some may even argue that it prioritizes style over substance. However, such claims would miss the mark. Nickel Boysis a film of extraordinary patience, meticulous structure, and undeniable power. This is because RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name is fundamentally rooted in perspective. The film delivers an impactful and unforgettable story by prioritizing empathy and immersing the audience in another time and place. Haunting, unrelenting, and profoundly influential.
5. Sugarcane
Sugarcanesneaks up on you with the concept of the gatekeepers of indigenous cultures that keep history alive for the next generation and beyond. The idea is essential in modern culture because of the practice of assimilation and acculturation among these vast and varied populations across North America. These stories not only impact the individual but have devastating effects across generations. Sugarcane’s presentation of the issue is horrifyingly honest and thoughtful, which makes Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat’s film essential viewing.
4. All We Imagine As Light
All We Imagine as Light is extraordinary and a picture of moving tranquility and restorative empathy. In her first narrative feature, documentarian Payal Kapadia delves into the fragility of human connections and the elusive nature of self-discovery in a world that refuses to allow such introspection. No film this year has been such an evocative and lyrical presentation, connecting these women through multiple generations and their shared hardships that remain steadfast. Kapadia’s film manages to transport the audience to another place while also making the story unique to its culture and, somehow, universal.
3. The Brutalist
A remarkable fusion of the American dream, shared cultural trauma, and the ambition of art versus commerce, The Brutalistis one of the best American films about the immigrant experience in decades. Adrien Brody is astonishing in the role of László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who was separated from his wife during his migration to America. Enhancing the film is the booming and exhilarating score from Daniel Blumberg and the cinematography of Lol Crawley, which is expansive and captures the darkly intimate nature of the immigrant experience. In short, Brady Corbet’sThe Brutalistmerges the concept of human survival and an artist’s vision through existential philosophy, creating an epic, transcendent experience.
2. Dune: Part 2
Hollywood has turned to one filmmaker to bring Frank Herbert’s smart, sleek, and ultra-cool science fiction epic to life in all its glory: Denis Villeneuve. Dune: Part 2continues the French-Canadian maestro’s follow-up to the opening chapter, featuring complex characters, an indescribable mood, a visually captivating aesthetic, an intense atmosphere, and meticulous attention to detail that transport the viewer to another time and place. It is a sophisticated sci-fi masterpiece, an instant classic, and an unprecedented sequel—not to mention an exemplary showcase of world-building that most can only dream of.
1. Strange Darling
There are a few rules before watching Strange Darling. First, avoid trailers, reviews, and all talk of the year’s best thriller. Second, I implore you to avoid all fluid intake one to two hours before showtime because you want to avoid taking unnecessary bathroom breaks and missing a moment of the year’s boldest script. Finally, after watching JT Mollner’s instant classic, you must talk to everyone about Strange Darling (while avoiding spoilers, you filthy cinephiles). Put it out there—tell family, friends, strangers, and even your local clergy—because this movie is that good.
Strange Darling offered a chilling escape from last year’s searing hot summer heatwave, but after multiple viewings, this thriller is so much more than the year’s most inventive thriller. The experience is arresting—a real armrest-grabber that won’t let go—and masterfully blends classic horror-thriller filmmaking’s gritty realism and psychological depth with modern visual techniques. Much of that can be credited to the year’s most unheralded performance (and one of the year’s very best) from Willa Fitzgerald, which is wickedly good and, at times, jaw-dropping.
Fitzgerald’s performance is electric, transforming what could have been a one-note character into a profoundly complex portrayal shaped by internal pain you never see coming. This pain drives the story, culminating in a closing sequence with a devastating emotional impact. It leads me to reflect on the film’s psychological depth—a profound exploration of the duality of trauma, its cyclic nature, and the obsessive turmoil within us as society’s atrocities converge upon our mind, body, and soul. It’s the year’s best film.
This week on Chasing the Gold, Shadan and Erica break down the 2025 DGA and SAG nominations, and how they might affect the Oscars race! We also spend a little time talking about the unfortunate events happening in Los Angeles right now, which has of course pushed back the timeline of a few things at the moment. Our hearts go out to everyone effected by the fires.
On that note, check out this week’s show and let us know what you think in the comment section. Thanks for listening and for supporting the InSession Film Podcast!
Director: Aws Al-Banna, Ahmed Al-Danf, Basil Al-Maqousi Stars: Aws Al-Banna, Kenzi Al Balbisi, Mohammed Kamel
Synopsis: From Ground Zero is a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza. Initiated by Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi, the project was born to give a voice to 22 Gazan filmmakers to tell the untold stories of the current war on film.
A young boy packs his schoolwork everyday and walks from his displaced persons tent to the grave of his schoolteacher buried in rubble to study. A woman sends a letter in a plastic bottle across the ocean with a digital record of her life in Gaza. A man retraces his steps to recall why he awoke inside a body bag. A child explains that the only two recognizable sounds her little brother utters are, “Papa and the siren of an ambulance.” An adolescent girl keeps her headphones on to block out the sound of drones and the flashbacks to when she almost died when her family home was bombed. A young man relates that his fiancée is dead and with her the names for the potential child they planned to have. This is but a glimpse of the twenty-two powerful short films included in From Ground Zero which is Palestine’s entry into the Academy Awards.
Collected and produced by Rashid Masharawi, the shorts in From Ground Zero reflect the experiences of amateur and professional filmmakers in war torn Gaza. Some are documentary styled, others are experimental, others fictional but nevertheless viscerally real. The sounds of drones and aircraft are so prevalent in most of the shorts it is almost shocking when a film does not have them in the soundscape. In Hana Eleiwa’s No a journalist seeks to replace the sound of war with music. The music is her way of repudiating war (Hana says “I reject October 7th”) and hopelessness, bringing to the fore the creative and community spirit of the Palestinian people.
Art, dance, and music represent some of the cultural touchstones of the Palestinian people both in a historical and contemporary framework. They are also ways of coping with, and expressing, trauma. Nidal Damo’s All is Fine follows a standup comedian as he dresses in his performance suit and goes to a theater where he was doing a routine. The theater was destroyed in an air assault. Making people laugh is what the comic hoped to do, but can people laugh in a time of ongoing tragedy? He decides they must and performs for others in the refugee camp. Bashar Al Balbisi’s Charm is an abstract dance piece wherein a young girl imagines her past and future on the shores of Gaza overlooking a mystical and mythological dancing sea goddess with voices chanting. Sorry Cinema by Ahmed Hassouna shows the work the professional director was doing before the IDF bombs and fighters crippled Gaza, and how he now feels all he can do with his camera is document the reality – the notion of fictional worlds being out of his reach. A promising visual artist in Out of Frame by Neda’a Abu Hasna visits her mostly destroyed studio examining what is left of her work. She holds her detritus covered prize-winning sculptures of doves and expresses they were meant to be symbols of peace, but now there is no peace. Her photographs of Gaza are memories of an area that no longer exists. Her art is already memory box documents.
Two of the most powerful short films using art are Awakening by puppeteer Mahdi Kreirah and Soft Skin by children’s animation teacher Khamis Masharawi. Both shorts allow children to create the scripts and, in the case of Soft Skin, the children voice and create the animation. Awakening revolves around a family where the father regains full consciousness after an injury in the 2014 struggles. As his family relates what is happening now, he cannot fathom whether he is in the past or the future – either way, they all wish for the blissful state of living without memories.
Soft Skin brings together a group of young children who draw and animate their understanding of what is happening around them. The soft skin referred to is their own. Parents write the names of the children on their arms or legs so they might be identified if they are caught in a bombing. In the animation, the writing on the skin brings bad dreams, an awareness that they are targets and their names could bring the bombs to them. Each child builds the story and animation with Khamis Masharawi documenting the process and assisting in bringing the final product to be viewed by the children and the audience.
Dignity and humanity within a traumatized and exhausted community is the core tenet of most of the shorts. Some are melancholy, such as School Day where a young boy packs his exercise book in his refugee tent and walks across Gaza to sit in the rubble of what was once his primary school to study in front of the hastily marked ‘grave’ of his schoolteacher. Other shorts speak to the urgent panic of the daily devastation. In No Signal, a man searches for his brother who he thinks could still be alive under the rubble. The buried man’s daughter thinks she heard him answer the cell phone call, but with communications being lost there is no way to be sure, and calling the emergency services is pointless. Wissam Moussa’s Farahand Myriam consists of two teenagers relating their terror and the loss of their homes, safety, and family. “I’m afraid of the night…” “The noise of the rockets is unbearable…” “Our mental health is ruined.”
Creating art in a warzone is an act of bravery and a herald for audiences to bear witness to the struggles of everyday people trying to survive in extreme circumstances. Etimad Washah, the director of the unfinished short Taxi Wanissa, about a man and his donkey cart taxi, stops making the film because her brother was killed in a bombing. The unfinished work is her statement. It is near impossible not to wonder how many of the people appearing in the shorts, in the background of the work, or areas filmed are gone since the work was made. Are the children of Soft Skin safe? From Ground Zero may be the only surviving record of the very existence of the faces and voices seen.
From Ground Zero is not a piece of propaganda. It is not what is termed ‘incendiary’ filmmaking. It is the opposite. In some ways it is summarized by the first short, Reema Mahmoud’s Selfie, in which a woman films her days creating a digital record of her life in the camps. How every day she puts on makeup to cover her exhaustion and goes out to find food for her children, or visits what is left of her house with her cat who refuses to leave. Around her people are dying of disease and starvation. Her sister’s house is bombed and only her niece survives. She places a letter and a sim card in a plastic bottle and lets the sea take it. The letter reads; “Dear unknown friend, I don’t know if you’ll read this letter… but I want you to know I had a beautiful life and a beautiful city.”
From Ground Zero is a cinematic letter in a bottle hoping to reach shores of empathy after being caught in the tides of ceaseless conflict. To watch the film and embrace its humanity is to be a part of the safe harbor for desperate people. One should not look away.
Director: Maura Delpero Writer: Maura Delpero Stars: Tommaso Ragno, Roberta Rovelli, Martina Scrinzi
Synopsis: 1944, Vermiglio, a remote mountain village. The arrival of Pietro, a deserter, into the family of the local teacher, and his love for the teacher’s eldest daughter, will change the course of everyone’s life.
In Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 masterpiece, Theorem (Teorema), a stranger (played by Terence Stamp) enters the household of a wealthy Italian family living in the bourgeois suburban area and turns it upside down. He seduces each and every family member, stays with them for a few moments, and even then, it leaves a mark on them, only to disappear afterward–leaving them dumbfounded and perplexed about his appearance and the whole experience. Each person is affected by this differently; they actualize and realize themselves in ways they never thought, expressing hidden emotions, desires, and opinions. The family begins as a faux embodiment of fulfillment and ends up as hollow shells that will be reinvigorated in time. Through his unique way, with dashes of provocation to make the viewer have a similar experience as the family with the stranger, Pasolini touches on self-realization and the breakdown of societal and personal boundaries through a psychological “attack” on their morals and concealed pleasures.
Pasolini uses a supernatural force to break what this bourgeois family deems clandestine and flip it into disarray, using the ashes coming down from Mount Etna as a symbol of rebirth. Last year, German director Christian Petzold used Theorem as inspiration for his film Afire. But instead of desolation, a beautiful, relatable truth lies behind the ashes. Similarly, albeit without the mysticality and hollow, brooding nature of Pasolini’s existentialist themes, Maura Delpero’s new astonishing film, Vermiglio, does the same thing. A stranger disrupts an entire Italian family by his mere presence and principles. Instead, Delpero uses this presence of a stranger as a catalyst for a chain reaction tether in the titular village’s fear and repression during the end of WWII, all of which implode gradually through minimalist expressions into an upheaval of drowning emotional weight.
Vermiglio is set near the end of WWII, in the titular alpine village where snow coats the plains in a rich white that pops in each frame yet adds a coldness that molds with the darkness lingering in the narrative. Every square inch of this village is beautifully framed by cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, known for his work on Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan and Loveless, making the frames look like paintings or old photographs. But this beauty seemingly comes with a price, as the villagers have several burdens induced by the war and apart. The story has a meandering feel as Delpero takes the viewer through the village to meet and explore the minds of those who inhabit it. You get sparse moments with some of them, later switching to others in the next scene to get the community feel of that time and place.
Regardless, the main narrative revolves around a family of nine, led by patriarch Cesare (Tommaso Ragno), particularly focused on one of his daughters, Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), the one he vows to protect the most. The name Lucia is no coincidence; it is taken from a saint (Santa Lucia), and their journeys share similar thresholds and garner sadness and hope. Saint Lucia was a virgin and a martyr, considered the patron saint of the eyes or the blind. She became a martyr by having her eyes removed to avoid marrying a pagan. This action reflects her martyrdom and places Santa Lucia as a symbol of purity and devotion–the light emerging from her fidelity to the land. It is an act of sacrifice, rewarded by getting her sight back through divine intervention. The physical eye was not her literal sight; understanding God’s truth guided her to a better path.
In Vermiglio, Scrinzi, who glances and pierces with her big blue eyes, plays her Lucia with a sacrificial tone to her persona, as if everything that transpires in the film gives way to a better path in life during turmoil–even if there are specific scenarios where it does not seem as such–all for acceptance and embrace in many aspects. All of this begins when a stranger, Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), an army deserter, comes crawling into the village terrain–Pasolini’s “visitor” that will cause ripple effects on the family members, making them feel things they have never felt before, ponder things they didn’t worry about, and desire something they never thought of wanting. Lucia and Pietro are the vessels for the two sides of uncertainty: the catalyst and the receiver. Their unison shifts the ideologies of Lucia’s other sisters, who also have their respective debacles with different relationships and bonds because of their hidden desires or newly found ones.
Delpero shows us these psychological and emotional collapse and reconstruction moments through subtle movements and focusing on small details, such as looks, gestures, facial expressions, and limited talk, never relying on dialogue to set the tone or guide the performances. This minimalist approach makes each scenario realistic, almost like recreating photographs through cinema. The specificity of its setting, from the characters’ pasts to the rich detailing in the background, adds to this because Delpero dedicates time for the audience to feel right then and there by using visual exposition rather than being verbose. From the dialects to the gowns, suits, and outfits, you see the extent of her research and the power of her direction. She has a steady hand and even better control in maneuvering her cast to create the most striking frame possible.
Vermilgio, both the film and the place, become easy to perceive yet tricky to catch as its narrative, containing climatic twists in the latter half, develops. Everything is taciturn in speech and expressionistic in its emotional physicality, working wonders on its cold, tight atmosphere that shifts as each season comes and goes. Slowly, Delpero constructs an observational piece about the passing of time amidst a fracture in a setting deemed clandestine and a post-war subservience. Vermiglio proceeds efficiently as its textured, tactile tone is felt across the snowy plains. Delpero inflamed the lands with her storytelling and image composition. It remains in my head, and I hope others do so because of its painting-like visual language that speaks louder than words. Each frame is curated by an elegance and poise, a lavishness that takes you back to a distant time–cinematic collective remembrance even if its memories are not our own.
