Best of 2024 — Film
Perfect Days
"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."— Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
We’re constantly encouraged to be dissatisfied with what we already have, forever wish-listing some future, better version of ourselves. Our achievements in work and play aren’t rewards in and of themselves, but stepping stones to a raise, a promotion, or a new PR. Simply being content is seen as lazy, unambitious, or just plain wasteful.
I’ve long subscribed to the philosophy of “Optimistic Nihilism.” Put simply, we are all pushing a rock up a hill that has no summit. There is no goal that can be reached, so we must find meaning in the act itself. That meaning can come from helping others push their rock for a time, or the simple satisfaction of sore muscles at the end of a long day of climbing.
This outlook often puts me in conflict with the work I do in advertising, where everything is measured, optimized, and evaluated in search of an impossible-to-define metric of “success.” There is an absurdity to spending hours on Zoom calls parsing the differences between an ad that had a 2.3% click-through rate (a failure) and one that had a 4.1% click-through rate (a “big win”). Ten years ago I’d tear my hair out. With age, I’ve come to simply nod and move on to the next task.
This is all to say that a movie about a toilet cleaner in Tokyo who finds joy in the rhythms of his daily routine is, frankly, my kind of shit. I want to be more like Hirayama, reveling in the dancing shadows of tree leaves during a quiet moment instead of working my way through my podcast queue. This isn’t a movie with much in the way of a plot. Instead it’s about celebrating the small moments that interrupt our day-to-day—a game of tic-tac-toe, a drink with a stranger, a song that perfectly fits the moment.
Yes, a raise would make it easier to pay the mortgage. It would be nice to be recognized for the extra effort you put into a project. It’s hard to adopt this outlook given the demands the world puts on us. But this film makes moving the boulder an inch closer to this way of thinking a little bit easier.
Hundreds of Beavers
There were more than a handful of movies this year that made me think deeply about my life, our fraying connections to one another, and how we’re doomed to corrupt any system we collectively agree to put into place.
This movie did none of those things. But it was the hardest I’ve laughed all year. The kind of laughing that has you stamping your feet on the floor, which wakes the kids up, then you have to explain what’s so funny about silent black and white movie. What’s so funny about this movie? It’s a Looney Toons short stretched out to 90 minutes, stuffed with so many gags that you need to keep rewinding because you were laughing too hard at something three jokes ago you missed the next two.
Woman of the Hour
As far as actors going behind the camera to direct a feature, Anna Kendrick was not someone I would have picked. Even less so an excruciatingly tense thriller about a serial killer who ends up on The Dating Game.
Based on the true story of Rodney Alcala, this film takes cues from David Fincher’s Zodiac (one of my favorite films). But where Zodiac is interested in the toll an investigation takes on those pursuing it, Woman of the Hour puts you in the shoes of the killer’s would-be victims and lays bare the complex dance women need to perform whenever they capture the unwanted attention of a stranger. Be nice, but not too nice. Accept a compliment, but not a ride. Or maybe a ride, but just to the next town.
The film excels at illustrating the tightrope these women have to walk when they realize something is off, but know that showing their discomfort may make the whole situation worse. It took something I understood on a surface level and made it uncomfortably visceral.
The Wild Robot
There is way too much snark in kids entertainment. Every modestly emotional moment is immediately undercut by some pratfall or sarcastic quip, making it impossible for kids to sit with uncomfortable feelings in real life. This movie is full of heart and free of irony, and had me sobbing into my popcorn bag on multiple occasions. It is the perfect salve for anyone who is tired of live action remakes and half-baked sequels.
Problemista
I stand with Bank of America! (shoots gun)
This movie made me learn something from someone who, in real life, I would (and do) avoid at all costs.
When Elizabeth tells Alejandro—a guy who is passive to the point of apologizing for other people's mistakes—that he won't get what he wants unless he "becomes a problem for someone," it made me realize that my own go-with-the-flowiness can be at odds with getting what I want. I'm not going to start haranguing Apple support staff for lost photos, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much heart the film had for Elizabeth, a character that would have been little more than a punchline in any other movie.
Evil Does Not Exist
Stillness is not something I have much of in my life anymore. I'm always rushing to get the kids to school, make dinner, line up my next work project, or running errands. Silence is an indulgence I rarely grant myself. So when a film forces that type of stillness on me, I'm immediately sucked in.
Like the developers tasked with winning over the locals of a remote village in a bid to build a glamping site for weekend warriors, I'm charmed and tempted by the type of life these villagers live—following a schedule set by the predictable duration of daily tasks rather than calendar notifications. I dream of identifying trees by their bark and birds by their molted feathers. But this film stresses that even those most at harmony with nature are not a part of it. Humans and the natural world will always be at odds with one another—taking only what we need is still taking.
Free Time
One of my biggest fears is that everyone around me is simply tolerating my presence. That the only thing that keeps everyone from severing ties with me are the various social niceties we've all constructed to get through our days without too much drama and confrontation.
This film takes someone who is utterly incapable of taking a hint and surrounds him with people who are incapable of giving one. Every conversation in this film stalls out in an agonizing sputter of "yeah"s, "well"s, and "so..."s.
Watching this felt like making small talk with your spouse's coworkers. It was brutally awkward, but also hilarious in how it lays bare our absurd, collective aversion to telling someone to simply go away.
Thelma
Not just a wonderful, charming film, but one I would show a film studies class to illustrate how different genre tropes can be used in new, inventive ways. This had all the set pieces of a great action film — chases, computer hacking, heists, explosions etc. — but everything sprung organically from how the main characters experience the world. I loved it.
The Monk and the Gun
"Soon it will pass and everyone will be happy and prosperous." "But Madame... we have always been happy."
Given how 2024 went, I’m sure the last thing most of you want to watch is a movie about an election. But hear me out!
This is a patient, poignant movie about the push and pull between tradition and modernity. At first I was worried it was moving much too slowly, but the film is simply settling you into the pace of life in Bhutan on the eve of its first democratic election. Once the “plot” shifts into gear, though, it ends up becoming a quietly sharp and funny look at what we leave behind in the name of progress, all without judging characters on either side of this divide (though the filmmakers take a handful of opportunities to hold up a funhouse mirror to America’s idea of democracy). It’s wonderful; a reminder that for many outside of the US, democracy is still a concept that instills pride and hope rather than stress and fatalism.
And now my pithy one-liner of every movie I watched this year:
The Instigators - Complete nonsense, but still funny.
La Chimera - A weird, charming little Italian movie about art thieves.
The Fall Guy - Mostly fun, often funny, but ultimately pretty empty.
Alien: Romulus - The androids are the most interesting part of the Alien movies, and David Jonsson’s Andy is no exception.
Sleep - Newborns will drive you insane, for real.
Transformers One - Transformers lore is so utterly ridiculous. Fun movie, though.
The Grab - Great, another thing to worry about that I have zero control over.
Hit Man - Just pure fun.
Super/Man - I distinctly remember my parents being upset when the news broke about Christopher Reeves’ accident. It’s crazy how much of a media frenzy it was.
Challengers - Sexy, sweaty, tennis-y. When it cut to black at the end I immediately said “I fucking loved that!”
Dune: Part 2 - Everything a blockbuster movie should be.
Self Reliance - The type of movie you’d catch halfway through on TBS and watch to the end. This is a compliment.
Late Night With The Devil - Fun and stylish, but ultimately nowhere near as scary or tense as I was expecting.
Love Lies Bleeding - I liked it, but the two dozen lesbians I shared a theater with loved it.
Drive Away Dolls - A deeply silly movie in all the best ways.
Snack Shack - I'm such a sucker for movies about high school summer hijinks. Funny, sweet, and hilariously profane.
Civil War - Aside from a few truly white knuckle-inducing scenes, this really faded in my estimation as the year went on.
I Saw The TV Glow - Thrilled that this exists and happy to read about so many people seeing their own experience reflected in it, even if I don’t think I really "got" it.
Despicable Me 4 - Thinking about the Minion stuck in the vending machine still makes me laugh.
Conclave - Surprisingly fun, stylish, and gripping. The best surprise of the year.
Moana 2 - Fine.
Juror #2 - A good ‘ol fashioned movie. The perfect film to watch on an airplane.