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If you can’t say something nice about a year, then…it was probably 2024.<
Nevertheless, the latest annus horriblis did manage to provide some great big and small screen entertainments to help us process (or escape from) what the old Chinese curse referred to as “interesting times” in my 100% superhero-free Top 10 movie and streaming/TV picks of the previous 365 (and apologies for leaving out the first half of Squid Game 2, which I didn’t catch up with till New Year’s Eve).
Top Ten Motion Pictures of 2024
1. Grand Theft Hamlet
“You can’t stop the production just because somebody dies.” So says Pinny Grylls, co-director of the singular documentary Grand Theft Hamlet during rehearsals for one of the most peculiar Shakespearean adaptations ever attempted — specifically, a staging of the classic tragedy within a video game during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by her out of work actor friends Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen.
Their quixotic plan is hampered by the fact that most of the other human players and automated non-player characters (NPCs) in the GTA space are literally and virtually gunning for them — but over time, they make contact with random strangers willing to join their merry band (including a big-bottomed extraterrestrial operated by a foul-mouthed Muslim who suddenly pops up to audition with a beautifully somber recital from the Qur’an). This moving, endlessly entertaining tribute to the irreplaceable humanity of NON-artificial intelligence is powered by similar memorable moments (including soliloquies performed atop blimps and limousines) in a breathtakingly unique film unlike any other released in 2024.
2. Anora
Arguably the most jaw-dropping, can’t-look-away half hour of the year (not involving a war rig) features nothing more than a young private dancer fighting off three men in an increasingly unhinged and violent battle when the latter attempt to invalidate the former’s quickie Vegas marriage to a bratty nepo baby at the behest of his overseas parents. But what really makes the sequence (and the rest of the movie) so fun and relatable is writer/director Sean Baker’s clear empathy for every (non-oligarch) working stiff character in a comedy of errors that leaves more than a few psychic and physical bruises.
3. The Road to Ruane
Directors Scott Evans and Michael Gillen pack 10+ years of Boston music history into 102 minutes of tributes and tall tales about a larger-than-life bon vivant named Billy who used his wealth and indomitable enthusiasm to support local artists simply because he loved their talent (to the point that he transformed a Middle Eastern restaurant into an iconic rock venue just so they’d have a place to play). Featuring interviews with everyone from Evan Dando, Kay Hanley, and J. Mascis to Mary Lou Lord (giving her side of an infamous story about the Courtney Love-enraging night she spent with Kurt Cobain), The Road to Ruane is a funny, sad, jaw-dropping, and ultimately inspiring tale about the amazing things that can happen when rich people actually fund art and then get the hell out of the way.
4. Kneecap
Speaking of strange but true pop culture fables, writer/director Rich Peppiatt cast the charismatic members of his film’s eponymous Irish hip-hop trio as themselves (including J.J. Ó Dochartaigh, who initially hid his face behind a balaclava onstage to avoid getting fired from his job as a public school teacher) in a semi-fictionalized version of their post-Troubles rags-to-riches journey to international (quasi) fame — and somehow the whole crazy contraption works better than any number of bloated Hollywood musician biopics (complete with a mostly Gaelic fight-the-power soundtrack to keep your toes tapping and fists pumping throughout).
5. Conclave
The type of tense, smart, well-written, character-driven movie by and for adults that Hollywood forgot how to make somewhere between the third Star Wars trilogy and Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Conclave (based on a Robert Harris novel) is a timely chamber piece about politics, religion, and the purpose of power. Featuring lots of cool details about the mysterious inner workings of the Vatican and a murderers’ row of world class actors, the pope election plot is packed with more twists and turns (and a more logical, satisfying outcome) than the 2024 U.S. presidential race.
6. Hundreds of Beavers
Though it debuted at Fantastic Fest in 2022, Mike Cheslik’s marvel of low-budget filmmaking landed on multiple Best of 2024 lists this year after finally earning a VOD and limited theatrical release — and the fact that a movie this wildly entertaining wasn’t snapped up sooner and promoted more widely by the overpaid gatekeepers in charge of entertainment says a lot about the current state of the arts in America. Like a live action Looney Tunes crossed with a mashup of Spielberg and Super Mario action sequence (or, for deep geek cineastes, like the child of Dead Man and Forbidden Zone), this mostly silent tale of a frontier booze enthusiast learning to become a master trapper is a hoot and a half and a lovely reminder of the days when independent films weren’t just slightly cheaper Hollywood star vehicles.
7. The Greatest Night in Pop
“We Are the World” may not have been the best song to emerge from the golden age of all-star charity jams, yet Bao Nguyen’s behind-the-scenes documentary about the night the track came together clearly shows that (most of) the participants at least had their hearts in the right place. The race-against-time mission to corral dozens of pop stars (and, for some reason, Dan Aykroyd) into a marathon recording session provides a strong overarching narrative arc that yields countless charming moments (like Stevie Wonder coaxing Bob Dylan through a moment of performance anxiety when it was finally time for the latter’s solo) as well as a warm burst of nostalgia for anyone glued to MTV back in the day.
8. Woman of the Hour
In 1978, a serial killer named Rodney Alcala was selected as the winning bachelor on an episode of the romantic reality show The Dating Game. However, while that strange-but-true premise supplies Woman of the Hour with its hook and seventies color palette, director/star Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut memorable (and haunting) by shifting the focus from the killer to the stories of the victims he silenced and the ones who managed to survive their encounters with him.
9. A Real Pain
Sometimes a movie scores simply by doing exactly what’s expected of it extremely well. For instance, director/star Jesse Eisenberg casting himself as an uptight nebbish is hardly a stretch, nor is it shocking to see Kieran Culkin play a charismatic asshole.
Nevertheless, their chemistry as cousins traveling to Poland in search of the home of their late grandmother is palpable in a brisk, funny road trip that fires on all cylinders throughout thanks to sharp dialogue and authentic observations about processing pain and interpersonal dynamics.
10. Yacht Rock: A Documentary
There were other well-crafted films in 2024 but few could match the feel-good bona fides of this deep dive into the subgenre identified and popularized by a cult classic web series devoted to the power of smooth. Garret Price’s “dockumentary” pays homage to the history of the studio musicians and Steely Dan alumni who created the sound as well as yacht rock’s impact on everything from emo to hip-hop as a space where men could own up to their insecurities and foolishness backed by killer hooks and beats (with bonus points for a hit parade of great anecdotes like Michael McDonald’s story about watching SCTV on acid).
Wildcards (potentially list-worthy movies as yet unseen by moi: Wicked, Super/Man, The Wild Robot, Furiosa, I Saw the TV Glow, Sasquatch Sunset
Honorable Mention: We Can Be Heroes, Shaking It Up: The Life and Times of Liz Carpenter, Problemista, Freaknik, Late Night With The Devil, Remembering Gene Wilder, Babes, Thelma, Between the Temples, The Substance, Heretic, My Old Ass, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Nosferatu, and Robot Dreams (which I only just realized was officially released in 2024 though it was nominated for an Oscar last year)
Notable 2024 Moments: Isabella Rosselini putting the cardinals in their place with a curtsy in Conclave, the Woman of the Hour parking lot scene, the evergreen joy of Nicolas Cage’s eternal weirdness in Longlegs, the animated ’80s fashion and endless Easter eggs of Robot Dreams, the Notes scam in Hit Man, the perils of falling down and all things Squibb in Thelma, the O’Hara/Ryder mother/Goth bonding in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Demi Moore’s first transformation and pre-date self-loathing in The Substance, Marilyn Busch in Salem’s Lot, the Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point firetruck parade, Lily Rose-Depp’s evil spirit contortions and the Transylvanian village scenes in Nosferatu.
Most Disappointing: Kinds of Kindness
Yorgos Lanthimos’s previous masterpiece Poor Things was a brilliant surrealist fantasia grounded in recognizable human behavior and real world themes of female empowerment. But when everything’s weird in a movie, then nothing is weird…just kinda boring.
Top Ten Television Series of 2024
1. Somebody, Somewhere (HBO)
The only upside to Bridget Everett’s funny, heart-tugging ensemble dramedy ending after only three seasons is that Somebody, Somewhere now joins the exclusive Perfect Series Club of shows without a single bad episode. That’s partly because the stakes and scale remained believably life-sized and intimate throughout with no “happily ever after” endgame for the story’s ensemble of layered, relatable small town Kansas misfits.
Relationships and personal growth ebbed and flowed, everybody kept working for a living without becoming rich or famous, and even the opportunity for a dramatic death was eschewed in favor of the sweet decision to keep a key character alive (and simply out of town) in the story even after the actor who played him passed away in reality — just as the egalitarian, open-hearted world Everett and her collaborators created provided a much-needed respite from the retrogressive red state realities of 2024.
2. The Paris Olympics (NBC/Universal)
From the bonkers beheaded Marie Antoinette chorus of the opening ceremonies, Raygun’s velociraptor dance moves and the breathtaking comebacks of Simone Biles AND Celine Dion to the Mission: Impossible torch-passing from Paris to L.A. at the end of the Closing Ceremony, the 2024 Summer Olympics juggernaut was an absurd, inspiring, all-encompassing fortnight-plus of Choose Your Own Adventure viewing, complete with the fun of randomly sampling events and suddenly caring deeply about them for an hour or so (as well as the bittersweet biannual glimpse of a shared global community we could all share peacefully with Snoop Dogg if a few billionaire psychopaths weren’t standing in the way, ruining everything).
3. Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
Richard Gadd’s limited series adaptation of his own uncomfortably autobiographical one-man show transforms what seems like a simple stalker tale into something far more gripping and unpredictable thanks to a nuanced script and outstanding performances — particularly the writer/star’s troubled protagonist codependently aiding and abetting an alternately scary and sympathetic antagonist (memorably portrayed by Jessica Gunning as a visceral embodiment of the sentiment “hurt people hurt people”).
4. Everybody’s In L.A. (Netflix)
The unpredictable be-here-now energy of John Mulaney’s live Netflix miniseries was a breath of fresh smoggy air wafting through the isolation of 21st century streaming service bubbledom. The modern update of the old school talk show trope wherein random experts and celebrities are thrown together on a couch led to delightfully unpredictable moments including Luenell (in town like many of the guests for the Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival) doing her best to seduce David Letterman while avoiding physical contact with Bill Hader’s icky eye infection.
5. The Curse (Showtime)
An all-star indie jam band of creators (including Nathan Fielder, the Safdie and Zellner Brothers, and their weird-positive movie star friend Emma Stone) presciently tapped into a deep vein of 2024 loathing for gentrification, nepo babies, influencers, and virtue-signaling hypocrites while concocting a viscerally uncomfortable comedy that veers from mere “cringe” into sheer existential dread.
6. Fantasmas (HBO)
Finding something new under the sun is a rare treat in the endless retread of America’s current media landscape — yet Julio Torres somehow managed to create a surrealist sitcom unlike any other show on TV as his fictional alter ego’s search for a missing earring spins off into a series of absurdist side quest riffs on the comedy and tragedy of dehumanizing technological ennui.
7. Black Twitter: A People’s History (Hulu)
A fascinating history of (and farewell to) yet another thing Elon Musk ruined: i.e. the pre-X freedom and creativity of the titular community where millions of (non-Nazi) people could gather in a (relatively) troll-free environment to discuss everything from serious topics like the George Floyd murder to #DemThrones and minute-to-minute updates from (and commentaries on) a guy traveling to fight some other dude in Temecula, CA.
8. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Larry David revisited the Seinfeld finale template with more satisfying results in Curb‘s swansong season as a courtroom trial once again served as the jumping off point for revisiting years of comic misanthropy in a fond, foul-mouthed sendoff satirizing how the awful behavior of the show’s fictionalized ensemble pales in comparison to the daily outrages of 2024’s post-election headlines (some of them, ironically, featuring Cheryl Hines’s actual husband).
9. The Decameron (Netflix)
This oddly underloved adaptation of a 14th century story collection by Giovanni Boccaccio about nobles and servants fleeing the Black Death had everything from timely explorations of seething class resentment, religious zealotry in a world gone mad, and unpredictably tense, funny plot twists to Douggie McMeekin’s memorable performance as an obnoxious rich goofus learning to be a mensch.
10. Double Toasted (YouTube)
Sharp pop culture reviews, insightful current events commentary, and the simple pleasures of shooting the shit made this independent online series (helmed by the endlessly charismatic Korey Coleman, Martin Thomas, and a rotating cast of co-hosts) must-see viewing throughout the year at DoubleToasted.com (with edited clips of the full broadcasts available on YouTube and elsewhere).
Honorable Mention: Abbott Elementary, Hacks, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Survivor 47, Under the Bridge, Stax: Soulsville USA, the James Baldwin episode of Feud: Capote vs. Swans.
Wildcards: potentially list-worthy shows as yet unseen by moi: Shogun, Skeleton Crew, Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist, Agatha All Along, Slow Horses
Didn’t Get Past the First Episode: Franchise, English Teacher
Most Disappointing: True Detective: Night Country (HBO)
SPOILERS AHEAD: Great performances (particularly by co-leads Jodie Foster and Kali Reis), a fantastic set-up (scientists found dead on the ice near an Alaskan research station), and the eeriest production design this side of Twin Peaks were sadly undone by terrible CGI caribou/polar bear technology and the simplistic belief that “patriarchy is bad” is some kind of a foolproof deus ex machina that magically erases any and all questions of emotional believability and narrative coherence.
Worse, the series pats itself on the back for saying you shouldn’t marginalize indigenous female workers even as the show itself literally marginalizes them as background players whose individual identities matter less than the Statement they make by murdering an equally faceless group of white male scientists (themselves an off-putting group to demonize in an era of surging anti-science rhetoric but whatevs) after it’s revealed (in a clumsy last minute spew of exposition) that the one-dimensionally EE-VIL scientists (except for one who…don’t ask) spontaneously switched from research to remorseless murder in the wake of a local activist woman discovering that their research has been covering up the corruption of a female mine boss who’s poisoned the indigenous community for years (even though the latter somehow doesn’t get murdered or arrested or referenced again once she’s discharged her role as a convenient plot device) because…girl boss good, patriarchy bad, problem solved, I guess?
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