A Year of Going to the Movies: A Top and Bottom Ten List

This was an eventful year. We briefly fostered a puppy. But she did not get along with our aged cat so we were able to find the her a nice family. In August, we brought our bearded dragon Eben home. She has been a fun edition to our family. 

We picked up Eben after attending The Gathering of the Ghouls convention where I was jazzed to meet the Grimm Life Collective. It was my favorite con of the year though I enjoyed July's Mad Monster Party where my wife and I got to meet Juliette Lewis and the duo from The Greasy Strangler! 

I read a dozen or so new books. The only one I can truly recommend is Armistead Mauplin's Mona of the Manor. A minor addition to the Tales of the City universe, a side story really, but it reads better than much of the earlier work. It is so heartfelt. Musically, I embraced 80's punk bands, jazz, Ashnikko, Olivia Rodrigo and Laufey. 

My wife and I were fortunate to catch an IMAX screening of Laufey's A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl. This emotional concert ranks as my sixth best film of the year. I have only been to three IMAX films in my life; this one felt the most immersive. "Above the Chinese Restaurant," "Best Friend," and "Slow Down" were highlights. But my wife and I have decided that "Bewitched" is our love song. At one point. Laufey, who has Diana Krall vibes for the uninitiated, mentions playing Sinatra's old piano while recording a recent album. Apropos to this,the best music I bought this year was a 2024 Sinatra reissue L.A. is my Lady (pictured at top). 

To my regret, I only attended five concerts this year, two jazz piano shows where I was close enough to kick the stage but chose not to, a blues concert with a Halloween themed band called The Mummies, Black Flag and one of the best shows I have ever attended.  

Lucie Arnaz is an incredible performer. She had a program called "I Got the Job." The entire album of this performance can be found on YouTube. Her highlights included "Nice Work if You Can Get It" and "He Just Happened to Me" which came from a Broadway production based off the series Hazel, and if anyone ever watched Hazel on TV Land, you'd probably marvel at the idea of that having a Broadway version.

I viewed 76 films theatrically this year (if we count shorts programs as one event film), seven of them at an all night scream-a-thon in April. The only reason to attend such an event past forty is to make sure you can stay awake all night without incident which I managed.

I have thus far also managed to catch around 150 total 2024 releases between theater and home. And I am open to anything this year, straight to steaming films, new concert films (see Laufey comments above), short films, films that are reissues with new footage. If a film gets a 2024 US release I am counting it. If I see a film at a festival that is not ready for a theater release, I am still counting it. Before I go into my theatrical year proper, I want to give a Bronx jeer to Kevin Spacey for the sex scene in Peter Five Eight (alongside Rebecca De Mornay). I am 45 and felt too young to have viewed it. And I offer another Bronx cheer to Tyler Perry who inflected a lot of cinematic damage this year. The worst film of the year, Not Another Church Movie, may not be directly his fault. But it is a parody of Tyler Perry films. Kevin Daniels plays Taylor Pherry, and the jokes never get better; this despite the fact that Perry's confusingly, churchy though often R rated paradigm deserves a good skewering as he is important enough to raise the ire of Spike Lee and have books written about his cultural impact. The only difference between this and the worst Perry comedies is the Perry comedies couldn't attract Jamie Foxx. 

 

I will give Perry his due and admit I like some of his work. And I am actually disappointed that he went to Netflix and Prime because I think his films would still make the thirty or forty million needed to make a profit, and theatrical movies are cultural events; even if they play for just a bit, they are automatically almost always more memorable than free streaming content, seen by millions but forgotten in a week. It's just that maybe the director could have taken 2024 off instead of directing two films: Mea Culpa and Divorce in the Black. The only reason Mea Culpa didn't make my worst of the year list is because Kelly Rowland put some effort in and is photographed well, and the film has a kink/camp vibe. Ranked fourth worst of the year, Divorce in the Black is the low point because it lacks kink or camp but feels like it could use some. Corey Hardict is hilariously awful as an abusive husband, and the two hour movie has at most 25 minutes of plot.

 

One film that should have nailed kink or camp but instead ended up third worst of the year is the April release Strictly Confidential, Damian Hurley's (advertised as erotic) thriller starring his mother Elizabeth Hurley! This should have been kink personified. I sometimes read Yahoo comments after reading articles. From them, I have learned the only thing every human can agree on is Ms Hurley fucks. Not here she doesn't; hell, even the Caribbean locations lack their usual luster. 

From jeers to cheers, congratulations to Mubi. I wrote a few articles for them when they were a film site and message board called The Auteurs. Now, Mubi is an upwardly mobile film studio that have been doing it for years but had their first major hit recently with The Substance. Now onto my ranking piece proper.

Films I saw theatrically in January:

Bloody New Year (1987), Neon Maniacs (1986), Anyone But You (2023), Bloody Birthday (1981), Utterly Revolting a Tarp Queens Documentary, Desperate Living (1977), The Zone of Interest (2003)

January is often a dead month in theaters, but I usually use it to play catch up with well reviewed or regarded December releases. That covers Anyone But You (very likable) and The Zone of Interest (the kind of film you remember forever but only watch once or twice). I also seek out repertory screenings that sound fun. I was able to attend a few Mondo Mondays (bad movie nights) at the local art theater, The Loft Cinema. That covers the films with Bloody in the title.  A screening at The Screening Room downtown (my favorite theater because it has not been updated since the eighties and gives me a sense of childhood nostalgia) of Desperate Living was great fun. It is John Waters' finest film because it has a punk ethos to it. The screening followed a drag show. There were drag queens, furries and even boring white dudes in the audience, a cultural happening. The screening of the month for me was Neon Maniacs, a crazy eighties horror film that I have never heard of but boasts a cast of monsters that I cannot stop thinking about.

 

Shortly after I saw the film, Terror Vision put out a trading card set for it that I happily grabbed. Neon Maniacs is pure fun unlike the modern day Night Swim, a completely uninspired January horror release that had nothing to offer but a deceptively good trailer. It ranks fifth on my worst of the year list.

Films I saw theatrically in February:

An Affair to Remember (1957), Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts Program (2023), Kenneth Anger Film Festival: Fireworks (1947), Puce Moment (1949), Rabbit's Moon (1971), Eaux d'Artifice (1953), Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), Scorpio Rising (1963), Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965), Invocation of my Demon Brother (1969), Lucifer Rising (1972)

Nothing newly streaming or newly theatrical caught my imagination in February but the month did have its pleasures. Perhaps my hottest take on this blog, the 1994 version of Love Affair is better than the '57 version titled An Affair to Remember. This is because the plane to ship meet cute is dynamically stranger (as those things are). Gary Shandling provides reliable comic relief. The aunt scene is less silly more sentimental perhaps only because a nearly gone Katherine Hepburn is playing the aunt. And Warren Beatty nails the final scene just a touch better than Grant had. Both films were strong however.

The Oscar shorts program was also strong; it is most years. I knew the weakest short "War is Over!" would win because its victory made for the best possible Oscar moment. Yoko ultimately stayed home, but Sean Lennon took the stage! And it made everyone think about the senseless death of John.

Speaking of death, I had mourned the death of the great Kenneth Anger for months when the local occult bookstore did a two night Anger retrospective. My wife and I took off work for this. All his films are worth a look. He is stylistically a giant. Kustom Kar Kommandos where a young man seductively waxes a car while "Dream Lover" blares on the soundtrack is not to be missed. The best of the group and an all time top ten for me, is Rabbit's Moon. A sad (he and his surroundings are tinted blue) mime reaches for the moon and for companionship but his reach exceeds his grasp.

Films I saw theatrically in March:

Sex Workers 2024 Short Film Festival: Sugar  Stiletto  We Are Everywhere,  Lady Los Angeles, Knox Goes Away, Immaculate, Heavy Metal (1981), Late Night with the Devil, Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, Exhuma

If one lives in a town with a sex workers film festival, please go. It gives the opportunity to support sex worker rights and protections merely by buying a film ticket or some lobby art. All the films were made by sex workers. I cannot find a list of the shorts but I remember them all being fair to good, which is the most one can ask from a shorts program. One called Lady Los Angeles about a Latin trans sex worker in a sort of romance stood out. From a celebration of alt lifestyles to overhearing an audience member at a fun, mainstream film threaten to walk out if one of the main characters (Phoebe Splengler) turns out to be gay.

I went to a late night DBOX screening of Ghostbusters Frozen Empire and had a good time (audience member aside). I would watch a new one every few years even if the franchise has moved from comedy to child adventure. Comedy is so unwelcome these days that the movie might bomb at its expanded budget if it were funnier.

Films I saw theatrically in April:

Sasquatch Sunset, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Saw (2004), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), An American Werewolf in London (1981), Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010), The Babadook (2014), Nightbreed (1990)

Coup de Chance is the first Woody Allen film I have not seen in a theater since before Shadows and Fog. As luck would have it, I had to catch the home premiere of a film of such obvious merit that even critics had to give it high marks instead of just writing on a film's illusions to his private life and dismissing it out of hand. This one is middle of the filmography for me, but it is such a strong filmography that it still ranks as fifth best of the year.

Vittorio Storaro does his usual admirable job here; look at the marsh behind Fanny (Lou de Laage) and her mother (Valerie Lemercier) as they discuss Fanny's affair. Herbie Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" hums on the soundtrack, and there is never doubt that we are watching a Woody Allen film despite him making it entirely in French. Allen again uses a film to discuss luck and murder as he did in Crimes and Misdemeanors  and Match Point. But this one is just a bit different. It may end in a dark way, but it still hopeful. Come to think of it, Rainy Day in New York and Rifkin's Festival, the other films that had to be picked up by MPI distributing, are also optimistic to a point.

Fanny and Alain (Niels Schneider) met up randomly on the street, years after knowing each other in school. He remembers the young poetess version of Fanny and even married his first wife because she was like her. Fanny lived the life of an artist for a bit with poor results then married Jean (Melvin Poupaund who did a number of Ruiz films including his best one Time Regained and also did a late period Eric Rohmer film, which is kind of what this feels like). Jean is a shady financial advisor who treats Fanny like a trophy wife causing her to say things like, "This ring may be high society, but I am still a rebel."

Alain buys her sandwiches in the park and chestnuts and poetry books. He is writing a novel. They have an affair. He wants to take her away from her gilded cage. He tells her if "we don't act before winter is finished. We may be frozen over." I think there are illusions to JD Salinger in that scene. Allen has referenced Salinger a lot recently. Alain also talks about the miracle of just being alive in terms of the odds, something I never thought Allen would write.

Jean loves the country and hunting and gets alone with Fanny's mother. He also loves being possessive and soon hires a detective agency to keep an eye on Fanny. This all leads to a cold murder right in the middle of the film. Fanny's mom becomes suspicious of Jean, and the film is briefly a geezer-lit mystery with the most assertive Allen character since Cherry Jones in Rainy Day or even Elaine Stritch in September. The last twelve minutes of the film are high intensity thriller, on par with Hitchcock. This is a film not to be missed.

Films I saw theatrically in May: 

Enter the Clones of Bruce, Jeanne Du Barry, Tarot, Strangers Chapter One, I Saw the TV Glow, Infra Man (1975), Summer Camp, They Live (1988)

I ended this month watching They Live. Four of us, my wife and two friends, play a bi monthly game based on the "Screen Drafts" podcast. We were able to catch a screening of this right before we played our game, a John Carpenter draft. All of us have previously seen it of course. But the big screen adds a lot, and the film ultimately ranked number one. 

Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist had a US release in May and ranks third on my best list. I see the film as a thriller where small town community is in danger of being manipulated by big business. It has great character moments as when Takahashi, an actor and glamping company spokesperson, (Ryuji Kosaka) decides he needs a change in his life and asks handyman Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) to demonstrate chopping wood effectively. The film is engrossing and the ending (which should not be spoiled) is full of real menace.

For a truly terrible film about big money encroaching on nature and glamping, I present, 7 on my worst list, Summer Camp. Kathy Bates plays a self help author who invites her besties (Diane Keaton and Alfre Woodard) from childhood summer camp to attend the 50 year reunion in grand fashion. It's just a lot sex jokes and misunderstandings. I generally trust Diane Keaton. But her performance here suggests her is character mentally off. If any of the world's great neurotics watched this film, they'd likely say, "Sheesh calm down, lady." This is just another lackluster elder gone wild film that could have featured Bette Milder or Jane Fonda or...insert name of actress over 65 here. 

From that to Bruceploitation, David Gregory (Severin Films)continues his B film anthropology with the eighth best picture of the year Enter the Clones of Bruce. This is Gregory's best documentary yet. I saw it with a packed house; the film received a standing ovation! The screen economy is great; in eight minutes, it positions Bruce Lee as a product so unique and in demand that his young death left a hole that producers got creative about filling.  The rest of the film is spent with the pseudo Lees. Bruce Li stands out among them as does Angela Mao, a female Bruce. The most interesting bruceploitation starred Lee himself and was released five years after his death, Game of Death. So many tricks were used on Game to hide the fact that Lee only appeared in about thirty minutes of usable footage. My favorite Lee was Bronson Lee (pictured above), an actor meant to resemble Bruce Lee and 70's superstar Charles Bronson.

If you have a deep love for Charles Bronson, you may at least like Robert Bronzi (real name Robert Kovacs). Bronzi is from Hungary. He was a horseman and actor in live western themed events  he. At the age of 61, Bronzi was hired by film producers for Bronsonploitation films because he looks so damn much like Charles. The only really good Bronzi film before 12 to Midnight was Cry Havoc. Like Midnight, Havoc had a horror theme. The question, What would a Charles Bronson horror film be like, has now been answered twice. Not to knock Tyler Perry again, but Perry directed Tito Ortiz in Boo 2! and Ortiz gave one of the worst performances I have ever seen in a film. DTV director Mark Savage directs Ortiz in a cameo opposite Bronzi, and he is just fine.

12 to Midnight is not much like the 80's Bronson classic 10 to Midnight except both involve detectives who anger their bosses and turn in their badges. Daniel Roebuck plays Captain Rhodes to Bronzi's Detective Toth. With 12 to Midnight and Terrifier 3,Roebuck has contributed the most high-energy cameos of 2024. 10 to Midnight involved a sexual serial killer. 12 to Midnight involves a werewolf (good practical effects here) who is the reason Toth is a widower, a status that led him to alcoholism. A few years prior to the events of the film, Toth saved a suicidal man, Peter (Patrick Voss Davis) from jumping off a bridge by sharing stories from his tough childhood. There's a touching scene where Peter sees Toth drunk at the bar and helps him to his home. Toth shares with his partner (and this mirrors Charles Bronson's actual life), "I was 12 when I started working the mines." "I'm not surprised," his partner tells him. So the film is not humorless. It's also not without a touch of romance. Sadie Katz (Sheriff Stacey) bonds with Bronzi because she's a widow who lost her partner in a violent crime. They kiss but nothing beyond that. Bronzi is given his most complex character. And he hits a home run with it. Rejoice, Robert Bronzi has finally come into his own with this film, and let's not focus on the fact that he did it at the same age Bronson was when he did his last Cannon Film, Kinjite Forbidden Subjects.

Films I saw theatrically in June:

Me, It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012), Run Lola Run (1998), The Blair Witch Project (1999), South Park Bigger Longer Uncut (1999), eXistenZ (1999)

SK8Face (just outside my top ten) is a documentary released in June but caught by me later on Kanopy. It is mostly about the art on skateboards and is good enough to warrant a mention at least. George Powell painted boards that called to mind Dungeons and Dragons. There was a monster series, Rob Roskop. There was a day glow series that felt like a piece of exotic California for people riding in places like Ohio. In the late 1970's, skateboarding was aligned with punk rock. Nick Blender stopping a run to tag a wall is almost as cool as Johnny Rotten yelling, "I am an antichrist." The early designers and riders are still aligned with punk ethos to the point that many of them think being celebrated in a documentary is ridiculous. The film focuses on companies and artists and eventually the boards being collected as art objects which did not really happen until Ebay. I learned basically that many skate parks closed around the country in the 80's due to insurance issues. Being from California, I saw them everywhere and had no idea they were scarce elsewhere. When skaters did not have parks, street skating took off and led to a lot of the underground videos that I used to watch at parties even in the late 1990's! Street skating and videos led to regional skaters, not just a California thing. There is footage of a kid from New York declaring that California does not know how to ride in the snow or evade the homeless. It's all pretty great.

Theatrically, this was a month for classics. And while my world view didn't change with these theatrical re watches, most of which I saw in a theater when they first came out, I did enjoy them a great deal. My wife was really taken with Run Lola Run. I was reminded watching South Park Bigger Longer Uncut that the first time I saw it, I had to go with friends because my girlfriend of that moment found the series it was based on too upsetting and opted to see Big Daddy instead. Thank God that relationship didn't last much longer and I found others with better taste.

I took a chance this month and burned a day off to watch a Don Hertzfeldt double feature.  I knew of him but never engaged with his work. I am always up to learning something new and though Mr H seems like a splendid man (based off his pre-recorded intro), I found Me somewhat jarring and off putting and Beautiful Day chatty and off putting. I could have just gone to work.

Films I saw theatrically in July:

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), Longlegs, Last Summer, Wolverine and Deadpool, Jackass the Movie (2002)

Jackass the Movie was a fun audience experience. Yankee Doodle Dandy was as moving as ever, possibly the top film of the early 40's for me. Last Summer captured a level of pain and obsession that almost compelled me to rank it as a top ten film of the year. Longlegs did quite the opposite. The best of the film was a pale version of The Silence of the Lambs. The worst of it was Nick Cage's Tiny Tim impersonation that made the delay in his capture a bit unbelievable. If a guy behaved like that around town, he'd be on every police list. The real problem of the month was sequels. Deadpool and Wolverine was just bad enough to rank tenth on my worst list.

This film needed to go hard on Marvel. It should have shit on beloved characters like Iron Man or Captain America. Instead there is a feeble joke about masturbating with Hulk hands. The fact that it was not funny enough could be forgiven if the buddy dynamic wasn't so much like the superior buddy dynamic with Cable. This film tells us Deadpool went into worlds and picked the worst possible Wolverine and boy is that right. The character is a snooze and not just compared to Logan. Vanessa was fridged in the last film which at least made you care about Deadpool's arc. Here she is brought back just to tell him he's boring and she's dating a nobody. I was lukewarm on the first film, loved part 2, hated this one.

But an even worse sequel than that ranks sixth: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

This is a pure nostalgia vehicle in that it brings the main people from the first movie back merely so the audience can see familiar faces. The first film is hilarious. The second has great action. The third has a warm performance from Alan Young. The only value here is seeing John Ashton one final time. Axel doesn't even make a scene around the obvious bad guy played with uninspired menace by Kevin Bacon.There are no real jokes in this movie, but Eddie still has it and was hilarious in press interviews for the film, so there's that.

Films I saw theatrically in August: 

Horse Feathers (1933), Borderlands, Fast Getaway 2 (1994), Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Stream, Flowers in the Attic (1987)

A month of truly worthwhile screenings; Borderlands being the exception even if I did enjoy Gina Gershon's Mae West imitation. Horse Feathers is one of the funniest comedies ever made, but, if I am being honest, Fast Getaway II was my movie of the month, just to see Corey Haim again. He filmed this in Tucson and most locations are still recognizable. 

Fuzz on the Lens Productions put out Stream and Terrifier III. I can admit to liking both. But the acting in Terrifier 3  brought it down a touch while Stream had Tim Reid doing fantastic work.

A far more measured film, released this month, ranks second on my best list, and that is the Samuel Beckett bio-pic Dance First. There are only illusions to Mr. Beckett's literary work so that is a bummer. It is the story of Beckett being pathologically shy. He falls in love with Suzanne, after spurning Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce. Suzanne protects him through poverty. After he is a later in life success (at this point played by Gabriel Byrne), he gains confidence and cheats though never divorces his wife. It's a rough story, but the actress playing Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) is noble. And the actor playing young Beckett (Fionn O' Shea) is elegant. Grianne Good is so beautiful as Lucia. Aidan Gillen is James Joyce as far as I am concerned. Lucia, ironic because her name called to mind the word lucid, is mentally ill. She is a romantic who is nothing like her banal mother or only creative in his work father. She is a dreamer. And that rarely goes well for anyone.I learned a lot from this film. There are aspects of it that could make it the best film of the year. But there are just a few too many scenes of Byrne talking to himself.  It ends with a wizened Beckett telling his wife, "I owe everything to you." She then tells him the same. To paraphrase CW Briggs in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion: "Everyone should be lucky enough to have someone they feel that way about."

Films I saw theatrically in September: 

Sleepwalkers (1992), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, The 4:30 Movie, Witchy Ways, The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), Megalopolis, The Circus (1928)

The surprise of the month was Witchy Ways (screened at the Arizona Underground Fest) not because it was great but because it was a no budget lesbian romcom that turned out to be slightly romantic and touching. As I will make apparent in discussing my October viewings,festival movies can be a mixed bag especially when they are selected only by what is playing when I have the time to go. Still, if this film shows up on streaming, I will rent it and watch with my wife.

It reminded me of the newest Kevin Smith, which I liked just as well because Mr. Smith is always just funny enough and The 4:30 Movie, a film about a teen wanting to take a girl to a matinee film, is his most sincere work since Clerks 2 and is especially relatable if you enjoy or have enjoyed theater hopping. 

One film not worth hopping for is the newest Tim Burton sequel. The church sequence and the meet cute (?) between Beetlejuice and Delores prove Burton is still a good director, but the script ruins the film. Goth 90's icon Lydia deserves better than she got. Ortega's character (and Ortega for that matter) is one note and the film is too reverent of Jones' character.

The best works I saw thing month were The Circus and The Conversation. Having just mentioned Coppola, Megalopolis was a romantic film and never bad. I appreciated the humor provided by Grace Vanderwaal and Jon Voight and the big swing. But it does not move the needle towards worst or best of the year. 

Films I saw theatrically in October:

Sam and Colby Paranormal Adventure, Saturday Night, Terrifier 3, Sleepy Hollow (1999), Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party (1983), Daaaaaali, The Queen of My Dreams, Tucson Terror Fest Shorts Program, Demonwarp (1988), The Last Man on Earth (1964)

It was nice to see Sleepy Hollow this month with a packed crowd for its 25 anniversary. But it was nicer to see The Last Man on Earth in an empty theater because Vincent Price was one hell of a leading man. Demonwarp, a George Kennedy starring Bigfoot movie with aliens actually made me feel better about Godzilla Minus One. I liked that film last year but could not get over the fact that the lead was so cowardly. I had no issue with Koichi not wanting to be a kamikaze pilot, but when he could have tried to help by shooting that gun at small Godzilla but didn't, that was somewhat unforgivable. A young character in Demonwarp chickens out when he could have killed Bigfoot. The next day he feels bad and is suddenly expertly heroic from there on in; this made me appreciate the subtle acts of bravery Koichi does after his fail because they were so well handled. 

I enjoyed Paranormal Adventure, my first YouTube inspired movie. I enjoyed the crowd who loved Sam and Cody. I was unfamiliar with them, but my wife and I watch movies and YouTube (That's about it really.) so I was interested in this content film experiment which was silly and too AI heavy but a good time regardless. Not a good time at all was Daaaaali, directed by Quentin Dupieux, a director who tends to make my ten best list every year. This is his weakest since Wrong Cops. I thought it could be a perfect marriage of director and subject, but it was a lame one joke affair.

Another one joke affair is Frankie Freako, number eight on my worst of the year. This is one of a glut of overpraised genre films that are only of value for their effects work. It made me long for The Garbage Pail Kids Movie which is at least so bad it's funny.

Frankie Freako has nothing on the second worst film of the year The Forest Hills. I have been waiting for this one because of Shelly Duvall. But they use her very badly. And she was in a very bad way. The film, same as her brief appearance, doesn't make a lick of sense. I never understand movies that are edited for years and still cannot tell a simple story.

Another strangely convoluted story is The Queen of my Dreams. I can see someone liking it if they grew up sexually curious in India and then moved to Canada. It is very heartfelt.  But the film never achieves anything beyond a Nina Vardalos sort of veneer. It is nine on my worst of list. I saw it at a festival where the curator said it was her favorite work of the festival. And I was in the lobby when it let out as the crowd commiserated over how lousy it was.

I will end the month on some positive (music) notes and some positive people: the late, great Tom Petty, the late, great John Lennon and the still with us and wondrous Yoko Ono. I am counting Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party as a 2024 release because this Cameron Crowe directed MTV special only aired once in the early 80's late night on MTV. New footage was recently added and it played two nights in a cinema. It is the possibly last and certainly best word on the genius of Tom Petty. It is the seventh best film of 2024. Crowe follows the band around on tour and asks Petty legacy questions. He was in his early 30's; few artists would think of such things, but he kept career milestones in his house because he knew this could all be fleeting. We learn his songwriting process, how "American Girl" and "The Waiting" came to be. We learn how landmark videos were brought to life. Mostly we learn that Petty and his band are damn decent people.

Norman Mailer was perhaps less decent though his family seem like a loving group. I saw him do a reading shortly after he wrote The Castle in the Forest. It was hosted by Joyce Maynard, one of the best nights of my life. There's a high quality documentary released early in the year called How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer. It did not quite make the list, but it got me remembering the intellectual period of daytime television, him sparring with Gore Vidal. I was not alive for it, but some friends and I still watch Tom Synder and Dick Cavett reruns on YouTube. The Mailer film put me in the right frame of mind when I viewed (4 on my best of list) Daytime Revolution, a documentary about a week of the Mike Douglas Show co-hosted and planned by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

John Lennon at 31 was young and wise. He had a liberal agenda that seemed radical at the time but one hopes is less radical today. The director sees his choice of guests as ideal and brave, so the film seems correct.  These guests include a macrobiotic chef, Ralph Nader, Bobby Seale, who states, in his best moment, "freedom means free bread, free clothes and free medicine" and Jerry Rubin who opens up about his home life and how one can have faith in people but hate the system they help to push forward. Mike Douglas gives a sincere interview, Chuck Berry shows up and an Asian folk band named Yellow Pearl with such lyrics as "Watching war films with a neighbor, secretly rooting for the other side." John says that collectives decide the future not a hero or a president. Yoko seems the most demure at first, the most nervous. But she comes into her own. Her little asides about a broken tea cup and the need for human connection are kind. She sings "Sisters o Sisters." It's the best moment of the film.  

Films I saw theatrically in November

I Married a Witch (1942), Dory Previn: on My Way to Where, Female Trouble (1974), Maria

Pablo Larrain's Maria is perfect number ten best because it is a wonderful mixed bag: fine actors on display, imaginative scenes, like the statue discussion, but poor pacing. Angelina gives her best performance in many years as Ms. Callas in the dimming years of her life. One could say she brings life to a film about death and decay, a film ultimately about choosing how to leave the world. Haluk Bilgner deserves an award as Aristotle Onassis. His scenes with Angelina are incredible moving, and there should have been more of them since we are lead to believe that he got her to feel fun and girlish. If the parts of this film that felt truncated felt that way because the film itself were 85 minutes, that would be one thing. But this film is 120 minutes, and it's pretty aimless for a bit of a while. 

The best film of 2024 (not yet released, caught at The Arizona Film Festival) is also about a creator that gains through tragedy: Dory Previn: On My Way to Where. I only knew of Dory through her issues with Mia Farrow. The director also shows these issues; as it is a Previn documentary, Dory looks angelic in this film. But the light hits Mia a certain way, and she resembles Dario Argento.

Dory is an artist, with initially un-diagnosed schizophrenia,  that came to Hollywood after seeing Judy Garland sing "Dear Mr Gable: You Made Me Love You." She was a songwriter who was partnered with Andre Previn. She fell in love and idealized him the way Garland did Gable in the song. Previn left her for Mia and her schizophrenia became a lot to bear. The film is heavy with word imagery which helps explain how her mind worked at this time. She found value in names and suffixes. Those words always led back to the word Satan or Devil. And that knowledge would cripple her. She was down but never out. After an extended hospital stay, she wrote songs to deal with her divorce and life's abuses (including one involving a train set). Those songs hit in a big way and eventually they were used in group therapy sessions which Dory was very touched by. This is a focused documentary that runs 77 mins and includes just a few talking heads of which Michael Feinstein is the best. 

Films I saw theatrically in December

Laufey's A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl, Nightbitch, The Bishop’s Wife (1947), A Complete Unknown, Babygirl

Nightbitch ranks 9th on my best list. It is a thoughtful film based on a novel. And I mean whole sections from the book are offered as inner monologues verbatim. The film strongly reminded me of Mike Nichols' Wolf but instead of a commentary on the publishing world. It is a commentary about how stay at home moms (in this case Amy Adams who has a young son) cannot have it all. In those scenes a lot of hash browns are cooked. There are library sing-a-longs, parks, wine drinking, an entire Weird Al Yankovic song on the soundtrack! 

Then Amy Adams' character starts turning into a dog. And like Nicholson, she is not afraid to look unkempt on screen. She embraces her inner animal. Nicholson turning wolf landed him a better command of his job and Michelle Pfeiffer. All Adams gets at first is dead animal offerings from other dogs. But soon she uses her dog nature to bond with her son, gain a pack of friends, have good sex and find out what is lacking in her marriage, namely an outlet for her buried creativity. The end of the film is too pat, but there are scenes that involve cool witch lore; Jessica Harper (from Suspiria) plays a librarian who offers help and absolutely owns her scenes. She raises this film at least half a star and should get a nomination, but it's unlikely. Plummer should have gotten one in Wolf, and that didn't happen either. Thanks to anybody who read this list and a Happy New Year to all.

10 worst films of 2024

10. Deadpool & Wolverine (128 mins) Shawn Levy

09. The Queen of my Dreams (95 mins) Fawzia Mirza

08. Frankie Freako (85 mins) Stephen Kostanski

07. Summer Camp (98 mins) Castile Landon

06. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (118 mins) Mark Molloy

05. Night Swim (99 mins) Bryce McGuire

04. Divorce in the Black (122 mins) Tyler Perry

03. Strictly Confidential (89 mins)  Damian Hurley

02. The Forest Hills (82 mins) Scott Goldberg

01. Not Another Church Movie (90 mins) Johnny Mack

10 best films of 2024

10. Maria (122 mins) Pablo Larrain

09. Nightbitch (98 mins) Marielle Heller

08. Enter the Clones of Bruce (109 mins) David Gregory

07. Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party (90 mins) Cameron Crowe

06. Laufey’s A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl (100 mins) Sam Wrench

05. Coup de Chance (96 mins) Woody Allen

04. Daytime Revolution (107 mins) Erik Nelson

03. Evil Does Not Exist (106 mins) Ryusuke Hamaguchi

02. Dance First (100 mins) James Marsh  

01. Dory Previn: On My Way to Where (79 mins) Dianna Dilworth & J. Greenberg