Films of 2024:Q4

And other stuff

For the past 15 years, I’ve done annual and then quarterly film reviews. But first a few comments on other media.

I saw a few TV shows, such as season 4 of Babylon Berlin, which is a high-quality German production. I also enjoyed a documentary about an elderly couple that travels through England on narrow canal boats—strictly for older viewers. Most TV bores me.

I read a bunch of stuff by people like Knausgaard and Houellebecq, but a Romanian novel entitled Solenoid was by far the highlight of Q4—indeed one of my favorite novels of the past 20 years. Note that it’s not for everyone—a very bleak view of life.

In my previous post I mentioned Peter Hessler’s Other Rivers, which describes his experience teaching at a Chinese university during Covid (and much more.) I also bought a bunch of interesting picture books, including Accidentally Wes Anderson and California Crazy (on which I’ll do a post.) A book entitled Highrises has spectacular photos of the tops of art deco skyscrapers, views that are difficult to appreciate from ground level.

For 2024 as a whole, Monster and About Dry Grasses were the standout new films. Here are short comments on films I saw during the past three months:

Newer Films:

Her Story (China) 3.6 This crowd-pleasing comedy/drama takes some obvious jabs at the Xi Jinping administration. It also tends to support those who claim that the educational elite around the world increasingly form a single culture. It gives me a glimmer of hope that liberalism is not dead in China.

Blitz (UK) 3.6 Historical fiction is a comment on both the past and the present, and the producers of this film clearly had contemporary issues such as immigration in mind when they wrote the script. The content of this film reminds me of John Boorman’s Hope and Glory. But the style is more like Titanic, in the sense that it combines an impressively vivid recreation of the past with a powerful drama that is perhaps a bit too black and white (in this case in both a literal and metaphorical sense.) Even so, it’s very entertaining and has its heart in the right place.

Juror #2 (US) 3.4 In some ways this is a standard Hollywood courtroom drama. The acting is a bit too conventional to be fully believable. But Clint Eastwood is especially good at exposing difficult moral dilemmas, such as the competing duties to family and the broader society. In that respect, it’s similar to earlier Eastwood films like Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby---no easy answers. And almost any film with Toni Colette is worth seeing.

Fremont (US/Afghan, Mubi) 3.2 A minimalist dry comedy in the style of Kaurismaki. This one’s about an Afghan immigrant living in California who writes fortune cookie messages.

Sometimes I Think About Dying (US, Mubi) 3.2 A bit similar to Fremont. I didn’t find the primary characters to be particularly believable, although that’s not always a deal breaker.

A Complete Unknown (US) 3.0 Billed as a Dylan biopic, it seems more like a Joan Baez film. Not because it’s about her, rather it seems like the sort of Dylan biopic that Baez would have directed. Too straightforward, too paint by numbers. (At least that seemed to be Dylan’s view of Baez’s artistic talent.) Timothee Chalamet’s performance is too one dimensional—not enough of the wit, charm and sparkle in the eye that you see in old videos of Dylan. Yes, he could be a jerk, but he was much more than that. And Chalamet is nowhere near as good a singer as Dylan was at that time, but who is? If you wish to check out the real Dylan, watch a Youtube of his 1965 San Francisco press conference. It’s more interesting than this film.

There was lots of inside stuff of interest only to Dylan fans like me, such as Al Kooper opting to play the organ. And censoring “play it f*****g loud”—in an R-rated film? Really? This won’t bring him any new fans. The audience (mostly old people) applauded at the end---which depressed me. I felt like they were the sort of people that would have booed him in 1965. (Now I’m being a Dylanesque jerk.) Interesting to see Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home followed up with this film title. What’s next? “Like a Rolling Stone”?

[After I wrote this, I saw that Tyler Cowen liked Chalamet’s singing. Given that he has far better taste in music, take my review with a grain of salt.]

Anora (US) 3.0 This one got good reviews (the FT gave it 5 stars), so perhaps I’m just too old for this kind of thing. The middle portion was often pretty funny, but the film seemed way too long, especially given the formulaic story. The “surprise” ending was clearly telegraphed less than halfway through the film. Younger viewers who haven’t seen lots of similar films may like it more.

Older films:

So Long, My Son (China, 2019, Mubi) 3.8 This near-perfect film reminded me of one of those epic Taiwanese family dramas. It is surprisingly critical of China’s one child policy, given the current political environment in China. (Perhaps Xi thought it would reflect more negatively on Deng.) A warning to non-Chinese viewers; due to the frequent shifts forward and backward in time you need to play close attention (or have a Chinese wife to explain things.) With its more than three-hour length and gut-wrenching emotion, it’s not exactly light entertainment. Excellent cinematography.

Gilda (US, 1946, CC, which means Criterion Channel) 3.8 The second time through I noticed how much this was influenced by Casablanca (more in terms of content than mood.) Notorious also came out in 1946, and also involved a woman torn between two men in South America, with a Nazi angle. Great screenplay and some very good supporting actors. Rita Hayworth has one of the greatest one-word lines in cinema history: Me?

The House That Jack Built (US, 2018, Mubi) 3.7 Lars von Trier is an exceptionally talented director. I just wish he’d apply his talents to more appealing topics.

La Prisonnière (France, 1968, CC) 3.6 In some ways the film now seems both a bit dated and a bit derivative. (Pretty much all films that depict mental illness seem dated after a while.) But Clouzot’s a very good director and skillfully made films about voyeurism are generally pretty engrossing. The psychedelic sequence at the end (from the same year as 2001) would have greatly impressed audiences at the time, and still holds up well. The film was made at a time when the film industry was evolving at a very rapid pace. Even after almost 60 years, you can date 1960s films almost to the year they were made. Is that true of 90s films? I don’t know; to me everything after the 1980s seems sort of the same.

Le Petit Soldat (France, 1963, CC) 3.5 Godard’s camera falls in love with Anna Karina in her first film (as did Godard himself). Thankfully, scenes of torture were much less graphic in the 1960s than today. Some nice B&W cinematography.

Vanilla Sky (US, 2001) 3.5 As I watched this film, I sensed the director had to be roughly my age. There is no other possible way that someone could have such similar taste in pop culture. (It turns out that Crowe is 22 months younger than me.) As a work of art I’ve probably overrated this one. It’s not a Michelin-starred meal; it’s a box full of various tasty chocolates. Appealing pop songs, appealing film posters, appealing album covers, appealing friends, appealing faces. The film aims to please, and it does.

I’m not good at figuring out mysteries. I was probably one of the few viewers that understood the scene walking down the street in Greenwich Village was a 1963 Dylan album cover but missed the implication.

Murder By Contract (US, 1957, CC) 3.4 You can see why Scorsese praised this engrossing noir; it clearly influenced films such as Taxi Driver. Vince Edwards is excellent, as are some of the bit roles, such as the call girl.

Sanshiro Sugata (Japan, 1943, CC) 3.4 In Kurasawa’s first film you can already see some of the technique for which he later became famous. Unfortunately, this film was severely censored by Japanese officials. (Perhaps because it was seen as having some sort of implication for Japan’s war effort?)

Carnival of Souls (US, 1962, CC) 3.4 I’ve either underrated or overrated this cult classic, which I first saw more than 40 years ago. It ranges from cheesy 50s-style horror shocks to fascinating architectural shots that might be out of an Antonioni film. The director was clearly influenced by Hitchcock’s Psycho. When I was young, my friends and I were fascinated by old ruins like the building that is the actual star of this film.

A Ship to India (Sweden, 1947, CC) 3.4 A good but not great early Bergman film.

Sincere Heart (Japan, 1953, CC) 3.4 As you’d expect from a film entitled Sincere Heart, many will find this to be too simple and sentimental. The acting lacks subtlety, almost like what you see in a silent film. And yet there is a purity of vision in some of the images that makes the film quite moving. As with the film Titanic, it is likely to be underrated by intellectuals.

Nightfall (US, 1956, CC) 3.2 Worth watching for fans of 50s noirs.

Audition (Japan, 1999, CC) 3.2 This film is hard for me to rate. It is skillfully made (Tarantino loves it), but I increasingly detest scenes of torture, especially when long and drawn out. Sorry if that’s a spoiler, but I wanted to warn the faint of heart. Some reviewers called it “feminist”. Umm . . . no.

Strange Fascination (US, 1952, CC) 3.2 I liked this a bit more than the typical film about a refined gentleman who falls in love with a lower-class woman and has his life ruined. To begin with, it’s less misogynist than is typical of this sort of film. As the film proceeds, we see that the characters are more complex than they appear at first glance. It doesn’t insult your intelligence.

You and Me (US, 1938, CC) 3.1 Fritz Lang directed a pale imitation of a Lubistch romcom.

Time Without Pity (UK, 1957, CC) 3.1 This Joseph Losey film combines the classic theme of a desperate attempt to clear a man scheduled to be executed the next day, with the classic theme of an alcoholic trying to stay sober, and a few other classic themes, perhaps a few too many. When film noir becomes self-consciously artsy it losses some of its appeal. Watching this, you can sense that the death penalty is on the way out (with the final UK execution occurring in 1964.)

Stolen Desire (Japan, 1958, CC) 3.0 Imamura’s first film already exhibits his earthy style. Unfortunately, that’s about all it offers, as the story is rather uninteresting.

Ginza Cosmetics (Japan, 1951, CC) 3.0 As in many Naruse films, women must suffer due to the flaws of men. Unfortunately, the story isn’t interesting enough to hold our interest. Far below his best work.

Working Girls (US, 1931, CC) 2.7 Bland pre-code romcom about two working girls in NYC. The only interest is its depiction of the class structure of the US at the beginning of the Depression.

The Sniper (US, 1952, CC) 2.6 Noirs are often a bit dumb, but this one goes way over the line. I watch these so that you don’t have to.

PS. My forecast for 2025? I forecast that 12 months from today, all of the other high profile 2025 forecasts that you read will have been wrong, or at least will have missed the truly interesting events that actually unfold. Call it the Efficient History Hypothesis.