Weird Oscar year. I have three best pics in my top 4. None of the other seven even made so much as Honorable Mention. And The Brutalist is, imho, the worst Best Picture nomination this century. sigh I suppose this is the way it always is. They get some right; they get some wrong. All I know is that I’d watch any film listed below long before I’d see Anora or Dune 2 again.
I’ll start with the next best films of the year.
HONORABLE MENTION
Is it a perfect franchise? No. Is it an entertaining franchise? Hell, yes! See a woman with cancer and a man with a cat battle the worst killers in human history.
This chronicle of a Japanese reporter seeking justice in the face of political oppression is the best documentary of the year. Period.
Right car, wrong drivers, and a whole soccer team of lesbian humor. This is likely the best film nobody saw in 2024.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
I’ve at least ten Planet of the Apes films before this one. I’m not sure I ever truly sympathized with the apes (or in this case, one ape) before.
The madcap real-time revisit of SNL Episode One was perfectly timed to go with SNL season fifty. It makes sense; everything in this film is perfectly timed down to the second.
Six chapters in this film. It starts at Chapter Three; it moves immediately to Chapter Five. A cleverly edited mystery that should be enjoyable for the Pulp Fiction crowd.
It was big, and silly, and highly entertaining. Deal with it.
THE TOP TEN
Tired genre? Maybe
Superheroes done? Maybe
Don’t count Marvel out
9. Heretic
What might horror be?
Opening doors for Mormons
… or toying with them
8. Your Monster
Beauty and the Beast
Gets a modern live reboot
Check out that ending!
7. Better Man
Don’t know this pop guy
But his biopic? Rather
Watch than Bob Dylan
6. Blink Twice
Modern horror comes
With influence and power
And HUGE bank accounts
Motherhood demands
Nothing but care. Don’t even
Have to be human
4. Conclave
New Pope is needed
Here is the best election
Since, well, Election
Behold magic drug
You’re younger, stronger, better
Does that work for you?
2. Civil War
Here is what we feared
Possible to imagine?
Unfortunately
1. Wicked
Music can’t be beat
Neither can the message of
Speaking truth to power
