End of the year 2024 Movie Journal

[Chris Knipp]

End of the Year 2024 Movie Journal

Not in NYC this time, but watching a bunch of movies I won't have time to review. Part of year's end catch-up and final 2024 releases. Just trying to keep track of my end-of-year movie-watching.



GLADIATOR II (Ridley Scott 2024). Surprisingly pleasant and mildly entertaining to watch this remake of his own film starring Russell Crowe of 24 years ago. The giant monkeys and flooded Colosseum filled with sharks come early. As everybody says, Denzel steals the dhow, but not quite as flamboyantly as people say. Paul Mescal is fine but he's a bit too good an actor to be doing stuff like this, only it will make him A-List, I supppose. Metacritic rating: 64%.



CRY-BABY (John Waters 1990). "John Waters' musical ode to the teen rebel genre is infectious and gleefully camp, providing star Johnny Depp with the perfect vehicle in which to lampoon his pin-up image." "The best words to describe this film are corny, comedic, and classic." Think I saw this with my mother at the Senator Theater, where all Waters' more 'mainstream' flicks premiered. It looks ugly to me now but you can pleasurably watch the crowd scenes and dancing over and over on your laptop if you want to. This is when Johnny Depp was in his heyday and got paid a disproportionate paycheck and it was Waters' biggest production yet, total cost $12 million. Metacritic rating: 63%.



MARIA (Pablo Larraín 2024). A bomb at the box office, making $500K and costing $20 million to make. A lagubrious, slow-moving piece. But Anjelina is splendid in it (if not being maybe really interesting, but that's not her fault). She seems convincingly grand, and is really singing, not just lip-synching; the huge Paris apartament is uniquely impressive; and Ed Lachman's cinematography makes the whole thing worth watching, which it may seem anyway if you watched JACKIE and SPENCER, the earlier two in Larraín's grand dames trilogy, and are a completist. The saddest thing is learning Maria Callas is largely forgotten now. Metacritic rating: 61%.



GOOD ONE (India Donaldson 2024). A gay teen girl about to enter college, poised and wise beyond her years puts up with her dad and his best friend's sexism on a summer camping trip to the Catskills (gorgeously shot). Sundance first film seems to have the same origins as Julia Loktev's THE LONELIEST PLANET (NYFF, 2011; I mention other parallels). It lacks the bite, but compensates in relaxed style and authentic feel. Found it on NYT #2 film critic Alissa Wilkinson's kind of cool Ten Best list (as#8). On multiple platforms. Metacritic rating: 87%.



THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF IBELIN (Benjamin Ree 2024). Also on Wilkinson's list (#9). A doc about how gaming can for some have an immense positive impact. "Ibelin" was a Norwegian boy, Mats Steen, born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), who died at 25, and unknown to his parents was a known and beloved figure as Ibelin in the World of Warcraft guild Starlight. The way Ree exhumes/recreates this world and dramatizes it and the blog Mats kept is itself remarkable. My mind was blown and I cried. From Sundance, then ND/NF, now on Netflix. Metacritic rating: 78%.



A DIFFERENT MAN (Aaron Shimberg 2024). Got attention from Sundance, Berlin, and ND/NF for its plot gimmick of a badly facially deformed man with neurofibromatosis (Sebastian Stan in heavy prsthenics) who is miserable, then gets a special treatment that makes him look normal but isn't happy then either. Contrast with "Oswald" (Adam Pearson, who really has neurofibromatosis, a British actor), same problem, but he's happy and highly functional. With its many ideas but very little clear focus, the film winds up seeming rather a mess. If you watch it, it should be for the performances. Metacritric rating: 78%.



FEMME ( Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping 2024) On John Waters' 10-best list, and here is his comment: "A twisted S&M love affair between a black drag queen (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and a white rough-trade gay-basher (George MacKay) that gives new meaning to sexual role-playing. Butch? Femme? It’s all drag when it comes down to being a 'top' or 'bottom.' Each man kills the thing he loves, indeed." Kind of confusing, but disturbing and intense. Metacritic rating: 69%.