Before we send 2024 home, it could be good if we acknowledged that some offbeat screen experiences don't fit the norm Best list of the 12 months. And we also come to the worst movies of the 12 months, that are guaranteed to undo this karma in a flash. So. Goodbye, 12 months. And hats off to the theater staff, archivists, educators, theater managers, and projectionists in Chicago—and to all of the venues that serve real butter on popcorn that doesn't come from a bag and doesn't taste like something that fell out of an Amazon packaging envelope.
Favorite never-again screening experience of 2024: “The Art of Benshi” on the Gene Siskel Film Center, March 16-17 April. What was it? It was a series of programs featuring Japanese silent movies, presented within the virtually lost art form and within the oratorical tradition of live actors along side the screen, providing vocal characterizations, some historical footnotes and way more. The result bridged the gap between cinema and live theater in a way I had never seen before. There's also a beautiful quartet of musicians accompanying the motion. The Chicago tour sold out in a flash and I'm glad I caught this stunner on the Brooklyn Academy of Music on one other of her 4 US tour stops.
All greetings Dick Van Dyke: And Chris Martin from Coldplay and director Spike Jonze. You've probably heard of it and seen it, but the easy, deeply heartfelt music video (watch the director's cut in the event you haven't) encompasses a 98-year-old Van Dyke (he's 99 now), dancing to Martin's “All My Love.” This tribute to an awesome American entertainer and Danville, Illinois native arrived near the top of 2024, when our hearts needed it most.
Star wordsmith and musician Elle Cordova: It took me until this 12 months to find someone whose short videos are based on highly unlikely comedic subjects – Mother Nature, interviewed on a podcast hosted by Father Time; Dinosaurs of their last minute on Earth from extinction; Romulus and Remus, discuss names and locations the Italian capital; dialog between a frustrated copywriter and the underminer called Autocorrect – have been on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram for years. Well, higher late than never, since the younger generations never tire of hearing concerning the older, edgier ones. Check them out, together with this expansive, imaginative songs that Cordova and Toni Lindgren have appeared on five albums to date.
And now, since the film industry continues to be robust enough to face up to it, and in alphabetical order…
The worst movies of 2024
“For Argy”: A busy, over-the-top motion bore.
“Bad Boys: Ride or Die”: The final scene on the barbecue almost made up for the remaining. Plus, the film found a clever option to comment on co-star Will Smith's behavior on Oscar night in 2022. The other 111 minutes weren’t so good.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”: The first: funny, unpredictable, fresh. Continuation: larger, more popular, not funny. Nostalgia sold it.
“Deadpool and Wolverine”: Big hit that theaters needed this summer, but after the relative rise and invention of the primary two Deadpools, especially the second, this two-hour tike-to-kety fanservice blowout was a serious setback.
“Types of Kindness”: Stunning misfire from filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos that stands out from the riches and visual wonders of Poor Things.
“IF”: This offensive-to-the-point-of-insult ode to the glories of childish imagination could have used quite a bit.
“The Red”: There's just an absence of holiday spirit in some scripts, and every part that went haywire on “Red One” happened long before the actors arrived on set.
“Street House”: The brutal Doug Liman-directed remake has unlearned every lesson 1989's Road House taught us about trashing with panache and the proper spirit.
“The Substance”: Demi Moore, fully committed and superb. But she couldn't transcend a powerfully reductive and tiresomely familiar material. Still, bonus points for writer-director Coralie Fargeat's final bloodbath, which works on so long that it becomes a type of crimson fugue state.
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