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It’s the non-awaited Afterword Film Of The Year poll

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I’ve enjoyed so many excellent films this year that I was very surprised to find that I’ve only seen two of The Guardian’s top 50 list, Heretic (number 49) and Kidnapped (number 17). I enjoyed Heretic. I thought Hugh Grant was great and the theological discussions were fun, but like practically every horror thriller ever it got a bit silly towards the end. I thought Kidnapped shed light on an interesting true story but was a boring film. The other 48 I haven’t seen (I’ve read the book of The Nickel Boys and wasn’t particularly impressed).
My best of the year? I’d have to give my favourites a second viewing to decide, but A Different Man is the one I’m most keen to rewatch.

How about you? Your film of 2024? The one you’d be most keen to rewatch? Which of The Guardian’s choices have you seen and what did you think?

Please note that unlike the Album poll, this poll will not be curated, no spreadsheets will be involved, it might not even get read.

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  3. I was confused reading that Guardian list because I was sure it wasn’t the same as the one I read yesterday. And it seemed to have several films not even released here yet. Then I realised it was a list of films released in the US. Here’s their UK list

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/dec/19/the-50-best-films-of-2024-in-the-uk

    I’ve seen about 6 of these and very much looking forward to seeing All We Imagine is Light tomorrow. Emilia Perez is a hoot; so too Poor Things. Zone of Interest was superb as was All of Us Strangers. The Holdovers is destined to be added to the list of classic bittersweet Christmas films; so too Small Things Like These.

    Like @Gary I feel I’ve seen plenty more than are in this list but can’t recall them all. One standout was The Subsance a film which on paper I’d expect to hate but loved, even if it got very silly towards the end.

    • Ah yes, I’ve seen a couple more on that list. Zone Of Interest was indeed superb. The Holdovers I didn’t like, mostly because the school “kid” looked even older than the pupils in Please Sir. I enjoyed The Substance a lot, thought Demi Moore was great. A bit silly, as you say, but good fun.

  4. My favourites of the year were all 2023 films that thanks to the magic of release schedules only made it to the UK this year. So I’m counting them, and ya boo sucks if you disagree

    The Holdovers
    god knows what the marketing people were on when they decided to release this instant Christmas classic in January over here. Alexander Payne’s tale of boys left at an exclusive boarding school over Christmas and the unwilling teacher assigned to look after them evokes the 70s brilliantly, and is that rare thing, a nice heartwarming film that even this cynical old curmudgeon fell for.

    Perfect Days
    Man cleans toilets in Tokyo for two hours. It’s wonderful.

    Godzilla Minus One
    Very likely the best Godzilla movie ever, watched it three times this year and I reckon I’ll squeeze in another viewing before the end of 2024.

    Honourable mention for Alien Romulus. It’s definitely flawed but still the third best Alien movie, albeit with an enormous drop-off after the first two. I think of it as The Force Awakens of the saga, a reboot of a beloved series that had lost its way with divisive prequels. It doesn’t have an original idea in it’s head, but it accomplishes the tasks of reminding people why they liked the franchise in the first place and clearing the decks for something new – if the next Alien movie is the equivalent of The Last Jedi I’ll be very happy.

    • If we’re allowed to pick three plus an honourable mention (not yet confirmed, though personally I’m all in favour) I’d choose:
      A Different Man, Blink Twice and Smile 2 with an honourable mention for Rebel Ridge

      I imagine most readers will already have memorised my reviews from the Blogger Takeovers.

    • With you on Godzilla Minus One – if you told me beforehand that it centred on human relationships rather than the the monster, I may well have given it a pass. However, that would have been a big mistake. It is well acted and the characters are relatable with the story motoring along well. You notice that things that tend to happen in Hollywood movies don’t happen here and it’s all the better for it. You see plenty of the monster, but she is only part of the story.

    • Perfect Days – I loved that film. On the one hand almost nothing happens, but the point is how you can find joy in small things. Subtlety for once had the chance to shine. I found it strangely moving. I saw it at Tideswell Community Hall as my wife and I are members of the village cinema club. There is culture to be had out in the sticks.

  5. For probably only the second time since I was about 6 I haven’t seen a single new film in the cinema this year. No. of reasons for that, but I will try to do better next year

    * Did see a couple of Hitchcock re-releases in the summer

  6. My favourite film I saw this year was from 2023 but I only heard of it once when I saw it in a 2 for £15 sale at HMV last month.

    Robot Dreams – a lonely dog living in 80s New York buys a robot to be his best friend. Wonderful animated feature, no dialogue, great use of songs and music, and an ending that stays with you.

    The other title I got in the offer was The Quiet Girl, a 2022 film. An Irish language drama where a young girl, neglected by her parents and siblings is sent for the summer to live with distant relatives. Another film with an emotional ending.

    That was quite the week of films in this house.

  7. In no particular order:

    Rebel ridge
    Conclave
    My Old Ass
    Challengers
    Hundreds of beavers
    Godzilla Minus One
    Love Lies Bleeding
    The Holdovers
    The Zone Of Interest
    All Of Us Strangers
    The Substance

    Some really memorable days at the movies this year. A packed house reduced to tears of laughter by Hundreds of Beavers; the shock and awe of The Substance; The Conclave’s depiction of the high order of Vatican priests as a bunch of messy bitches who love drama, and – perhaps my favourite – Challengers and Love Lies Bleeding screened back to back for an unbeatable combination of high camp and body horror.

    Very much looking forward to the next couple of weeks as well: hotly anticipating A Real Pain, a Complete Unknown, We Live In Time, Nosferatu, and The Brutalist.

  8. At the more mass-market end, I very much enjoyed Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. From the very beginning it feels like an upbeat, confident and very silly romp. Like Alan Partridge, Keaton is now the perfect age to play the character.

    At the other end, I enjoyed the NZ film We Were Dangerous – about three delinquent schoolgirls in the 1950s sent off to a remote island by the Government. Taika Waititi exec produces but other than that, the cast was not known to me. The three girls at the centre of the story are bound to pop up in the future.

  9. I saw a whopping fifteen of the fifty… the benefit of living near a wonderful cinema.

    Certainly Perfect Days and Robot Dreams should be in that Top 50, and Bird and Paddington in Peru for that matter.
    I especially liked Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, The Outrun, Hundreds of Beavers and Crossing.
    All Of Us Strangers too, but film of the year? I don’t think so.

    For that… Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and The Zone of Interest battle it out for second place, with my no. 1 being La Chimera.

  10. I’ve only been to the cinema twice this year and both suggested by my friend Fearghal at times when I was not drinking. Both films were around 2½ hours long and full of nudity and “riding”, as we say in Ireland. They were Poor Things which was interesting and entertaining but a bit too pantomimey for my taste especially Mark Rufallo. The second was Anora, a modern tale of a lap dancer who marries an idiot son of a wealthy Russian gangster. It’s funny and well made but quite odd. I’m still not sure what to make of it.

    Still that’s two cinema visits more than last year.

  11. Always struggling to find new and unannoying on the telly, so used the Graun list. Most were still pay to view, but Viggo Mortenson’s The Dead Don’t Hurt was a glorious slow burn. Wits were needed initially, for the time-hopping, without any of the 6 years earlier/later signposting. Became apparent soon enough. Good film.

  12. My favourite recent discovery vis-a-vis cinema is the YouTube channel Impression Blend. I think the woman who presents it has great taste, gives smart, spoiler-free reviews and, best of all, her various ‘Top 10’ videos are packed full of really interesting recommendations. Her video ‘Top 10 MOST UNDERRATED Movies of 2024’ starts off with The Last Stop In Yuma County. I watched it on her recommendation and, as with nearly all the films I’ve watched on her recommendation, I’m very glad I did. Excellent film. But my computer’s internet reckons it was released in 2023. (Lots of love for Hundreds of Beavers above, though my computer’s internet reckons that was released in 2022.)

    • Nic work @gary. Impression Blend looks vey promising.

      Of coeurse I needed to know more about champion of underdog films.
      It’s all here on her website.

      “Impression Blend a YouTube channel and a blog, created by Marianna Neal, who is dedicated to exploring great storytelling in film, television series, and books. Marianna grew up in Kiev, Ukraine, discovering her love for film by means of an eclectic selection of Tarkovsky, sci-fi and horror classics, blockbusters of the 90s, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. After moving to Chicago in her late teens, she eventually began sharing her passion for cinema and literature online through blogging and social media, which ended up leading her to uploading her first YouTube video. Many reviews later, Marianna officially became a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic in 2018, and is determined to use her voice to help bring attention to films from around the world, highlighting human experiences of all backgrounds. She particularly enjoys helping her viewers and readers discover overlooked films, opening them up to amazing stories they may not have considered before.”

      Here’s her Instagram page,

      https://www.instagram.com/impressionblend

  13. Saw All We Imagine As Light today and it has rocketed to the top of my chart. It’s slow, not a lot happens, but somehow it totally takes you into its world. Just beautiful.

  14. Here’s my list, collated for something else I do:

    My Top 25 Of 2024
    1 Strange Darling
    2 The Beast
    3 Poor Things
    4 Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger
    5 The Wild Robot
    6 Anora
    7 About Dry Grasses
    8 The Bikeriders
    9 Emilia Pérez
    10 Hoard
    11 In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon
    12 Rebel Ridge
    13 Blitz
    14 I Saw The TV Glow
    15 Chuck Chuck Baby
    16 Flow
    17 Love Lies Bleeding
    18 My Favourite Cake
    19 Late Night With The Devil
    20 Small Things Like These
    21 Didi
    22 Inside Out 2
    23 Heretic
    24 A Real Pain
    25 Bring Them Down

    The Holdovers would have been number one, but I saw it in 2023 (so it was my no.1 last year). Robot Dreams and The Zone Of Interest would also have featured highly, but again I saw them in 2023.

    Also Recommended from 2024
    All Of Us Strangers
    All We Imagine As Light
    American Fiction
    The Apprentice
    Beatles ’64
    Blink Twice
    Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
    Close Your Eyes
    The Commandant’s Shadow
    Conclave
    The Count Of Monte Cristo
    The Dead Don’t Hurt
    The Delinquents
    Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World
    Endurance
    Faye
    Girls Will Be Girls
    Gladiator II
    Green Border
    High & Low – John Galliano
    Hit Man
    Io Capitano
    The Iron Claw
    It Ends With Us
    Kensuke’s Kingdom
    Kill
    Kinds Of Kindness
    Longlegs
    MaXXXine
    Occupied City
    On Becoming A Guinea Fowl
    Perfect Days
    Red Rooms
    Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
    Sing Sing
    Society Of The Snow
    Speak No Evil
    The Substance
    Touch
    Twisters
    Woman Of The Hour
    You’ll Never Find Me

    My Favourite Reissue Of 2024
    The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (1964)

    My Worst 10 of 2024
    1 Sasquatch Sunset
    2 Nightbitch
    3 Megalopolis
    4 Queer
    5 Drive-Away Dolls
    6 Timestalker
    7 Dahomey
    8 Between The Temples
    9 A Quiet Place: Day One
    10 All You Need Is Death

    Haven’t Seen (from the Guardian Top 50 of 2024)
    8 Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat
    19 Kidnapped
    24 The Goldman Case
    26 Black Box Diaries
    27 Disco Boy
    31 Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point
    36 Opponent
    38 There’s Still Tomorrow
    41 No Other Land
    42 Hundreds Of Beavers
    44 A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things
    45 Wicked
    US1 The Brutalist
    US2 Nickel Boys
    US6 The Seed Of The Sacred Fig
    US11 A Complete Unknown
    US16 September 5
    US24 The Girl With The Needle
    US32 Good One
    US45 Exhibiting Forgiveness
    US47 The Feeling That The Time for Doing Something Has Passed

        • That’s true, @KDH. I work as a volunteer at our local, non-profit community cinema, Bio Reflexen, and that has certainly boosted my knowledge.

          https://reflexen.nu/

          Here’s a story, full of the spirit of Xmas. Carina, our projectionist has just been in Gothenburg working for all of Xmas Eve at the Haga Cinema.

          https://hagabion.se/

          To provide a place to go to for all those who don’t have family and friends to spend Xmas with, they show films all day, free of charge.

          Here’s the program. As you’ll see most of the films are in languages other than English and Swedish. Looking through the list, I see that ten of them have been screened at Reflexen. And very good they were too!

          Program för Julafton på Hagabion 2024

          Dörrarna öppnas kl 10.30
          ‘
          Kl 10.45: Perfect Days, Wim Wenders, Japan 2023, japanska (sv text), 2.05 h

          Kl 10.45: Smak av björnbär, Elene Naveriani, Georgien 2023, georgiska (sv text), 1.50 h
          Kl 11.15: Kalles klätterträd, Peter Cohen & Olof Landström, Sverige 1975, svenska (sv text), 0.40 h
          Kl 12.15: Vem är vem?, Stina Wirsén & Linda Hambäck, Sverige 2024, svenska (sv text), 0.32 h
          Kl 13.00: Robot Dreams, Pablo Berger, Spanien 2023, utan tal, 1.43 h
          Kl 13.15: Det finns alltid en morgondag, Paola Cortellesi, Italien 2023, italienska (sv text), 1.58 h
          Kl 13.15: Tatami, Zar Amir & Guy Nattiv, Georgien 2023, engelska/persiska (sv text), 1.44 h
          Kl 15.15: Havets sång, Tomm Moore, Irland 2014, svenska (dubbat, sv text), 1.34 h
          Kl 15.30: Vägen till ingenstans, Johan Palmgren, Sverige 2024, svenska (sv text), 1.16 h
          Kl 15.30: Banel & Adama, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Senegal 2023, pular/peul (sv text), 1.27 h
          Kl 17.00: En liten bit av kakan, B. Sanaeeha & M. Moghadam, Iran 2024, persiska (sv text), 1.37 h
          Kl 17.15: Sirocco och vindarnas rike, B. Chieux, Frankrike 2023, svenska (dubbat, sv text), 1.20 h
          Kl 17.30: Dahomey, Mati Diop, Frankrike/Benin 2024, engelska/franska/fon (sv text), 1.08 h
          Kl 18.45: Sommar utan vår, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkiet 2023, turkiska (sv text), 3.17 h
          Kl 19.00: Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton, T. Danielsson & P. Åhlin, Sverige 1975, svenska, 0.24 h
          Kl 19.45: Ett hjärta är alltid rött, Balsam Hellström, Sverige 2024, svenska (eng text), 1.45 h
          Kl 19.45: Goodbye Julia, Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan 2023, arabiska (sv text), 2.00 h
          Hela dagen bjuder vi på alkoholfri glögg, pepparkakor och godis! När sista filmerna startat i
          salongerna plockar vi undan serveringen och börjar städa lokalen.

          Filmerna visas i samarbete med Folkets Bio, Lucky Dogs, Njutafilms, Noble, NonStop,
          PennFilm & Marlon Productions och TriArt. Stort tack även till Hagabions Café!”

          If this had happened in Stockholm, I’d have loved tom be a volunteer.

          • The theme song to Kalles Klätterträd was one of the obligatory sing-alongs at drunken parties in my early/mid 80s misspent youth! 😀
            Including the huge sigh (which made us break down into uncontrollable giggles).

            Groovy tune by the one and only Jojje Wadenius!

            • Brilliant story @Locust! I’d never have imagined that song would be perfect for drunken singalongs

              Well, if we are going to listen to Jojje, we must have this song. Here he is singing Mitt Lilla Barn at the Tellus Cinema. How serendipitous! That’s where Carina, our projectionist, works when she’s not at Reflexen.

              • That album, a collaboration with the beloved author Barbro Lindgren, was a big deal for generations of kids.
                It then begat this Swedish hip-hop classic; Ken Ring – Eld och djupa vatten, which samples the chorus!

                This had a big impact on the hip-hop scene at the time.

                • Listening to it again after all these years I’m struck by the difference in hip-hop then and now. The first twenty years or so of Swedish rap, the lyrics were giving positive messages about avoiding criminality and making something better with your life – nowadays most rappers ARE criminals and are rapping about weapons, money, drugs and killing enemies!
                  The beats may be sick, but the lyrics are depressing.

                    • Well, I’m sure there are exceptions (and I’ve more or less stopped listening to hip-hop, but every now and then I’ll see some YT video of the most streamed hits and they’re always the way I described them above).
                      And the ones you read about in the papers always seem to be in prison, being let out to go pick up an award at P3 Guld or something… 😉

                    • I asked him @Locust and he agrees with you!

                      But here’s Yasin, one of the artists he played in the car this summer, who sounds very decent to me.

                      But as you say: there are always exceptions.

                    • Well, but Yasin (as I understand it) did go to jail for a while, I think, and there are still rumours about him being involved somehow in the shooting of Einár. That’s what I read, anyway. I think he’s a talented rapper, and he seems to be laying low now after becoming a parent, but he hasn’t been squeeky clean the whole time – I can’t say what his lyrics are like, because I haven’t listened that deeply to them (especially not his newer stuff).

    • I’ve only seen five of your recommendations, but I’d definitely chuck out Bikeriders and American Fiction (both boring!) to make room for A Different Man and Smile 2. I’d also take A Quiet Place: Day One off the “worst” list – although it’s a pretty mediocre film I’d have to make space for Gladiator 2, which I thought was just awful. Epic sets with hundreds of extras and lashings of CGI all combined to make me feel complete indifference towards its characters.

      • A Different Man was bubbling under my bubbling under list – Adam Pearson was terrific. Didn’t like Smile 2 at all, bar the “dance” scene, which I thought was suitably creepy. Quite enjoyed Gladiator II at the time, but it has had no resonance for me. I think A Quiet Place: Day One was just such a disappointment after the first two.

  16. I suddenly realised that I hadn’t mentioned any films I enjoyed during the year.

    Working as a volunteer at an independent cinema which does not usually show mainstream blockbusters and also being a member of their local film club means I see a lot of world cinema. And I am forced outside of my personal comfort zone.

    Many of my favourite films of 2024 did not at first glance sound terribly appealing: domestic violence, pedophilia, lovesick Iranian pensioners…

    It’s not the story you tell, but the way that you tell it.

    First out, a film recommended by @Gary.

    There’s still tomorrow

    Who would have thought that a film about domestic violence could be so hilarious and so uplifting? Paola Cortelessi wrote, directed played the lead role in this wonderful portrait of family life in Rome after the end of WW2. The black and white photography, the acting, the soundtrack: every detail is perfect.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21800162/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_there%27s%2520still%2520tomorr

    Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

    A documentary about an Estonian women’s sauna club. I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy this. I feared it would be gimmicky and full of gratuitous nudity. Well, there were certainly many clothes involved. The sauna seems to have the same importance as a hub of social activity in Estonia as it does in Finland. Here the smoke sauna, a little hut in the forest by the side of a lake, served as a safe place where these women could tell stories from their lives. And what moving tales they had to tell.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23640230/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_1_in_0_q_smoke%2520sauna

    Love according to Dalva

    Girlhood interrupted. This Belgian film starts dramatically with a police raid on the home of man who has been sexually abusing his 12 year old daughter, Dalva. She is taken into care, distraught and unable to believe that her dad has done anything wrong. Through the help of the staff and the friendship of the other kids, she finds her way back to being a normal young person. An under-stated story, full of warmth and humour

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19768016/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_love%2520accord

    Goodbye Julia
    There are not many films made in Sudan and so Goodbye Julia’s portrait of life in Khartoum just before South Sudan became independent is a fascinating picture of life in a city I know little about. And an interesting history lesson.

    The story of the “friendship” between middle-class Muslim housewife/singer and a working class, Christian widow from South Sudan. Fine performances by the two leads: Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak.

    I also enjoyed the music.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14330672/?ref_=fn_all_ttl_1

    Eiman Yousif and her family now live as refugees in Cairo where she studies music.

    My Favourite Cake
    To our great surprise, 89 people turned up at Reflexen to see this wonderful, gentle, low-key, Iranian rom com about two pensioners in modern Tehran.
    Everyone I’ve spoken to who has seen it, has spoken very warmly about it.
    Kitchen-sink realism Iranian style. Life as a pensioner for those who remember life before the revolution. It’s not a fist-shaking political film., but the authorities didn’t like it anyway.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31015278/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_myfavourite%2520cake

    Now a couple of films for children and young people
    Kiddo
    For a week every April, schoolkids all over Sweden get the chance to see (in cinemas in Stockholm or on-line for the rest of the country) films from all over the world as part of the Stockholm Film Festival Junior. That’s how I got to see this quirky Dutch road movie about a mother and daughter on the run. It’s never been released in Sweden.
    It’s very amusing and very moving about a totally dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22498452/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_KIddo

    Sirocco and the kingdom of the Winds
    I was very keen to see this French animated children’s film as it was produced by some of the same team that made the wonderful A Cat in Paris.
    It did not disappoint. Visually stunning, it’s the story of two sisters who find the portal to the world of their favourite book. If you enjoy the films of Studio Ghibli, you will love this.

    Finally a few more mainstream movies
    Kneecap

    A biopic about the extremely successful Belfast rap band who sing in Irish which is one of my feelgood films of the year. A tale told with enormous panache. The band play “themselves” but these are glorious, exaggerated, cartoon versions of themselves. Bursting at the seams with one-liners. And with an important message about the importance of fighting for your native language.
    I didn’t just enjoy obscure non-Anglophone films. Top marks also for

    Deadpool and Wolverine

    Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

    Poor things

    May December

    All of us Strangers

  17. The following comment has absolutely nothing to do with this thread or with 2024 so my insincerest apologies to its host and its many readers, but while we’re on the subject of films: last night I happened to watch a fab 2010 film I’d never heard of before, called Perfect Sense and starring Ewan (yes, of course he gets his dick out at some point) McGregor and Eva Green. The two leads had good chemistry and it was very well directed by one David Mackenzie. Due to its marketing, I most likely dismissed it out of hand years ago as a soppy romance not worth watching, but it’s actually about a global pandemic that robs people of their senses. First to go is smell, natch. When that’s gone, worldwide, people aren’t too bothered. But then goes taste, and that’s a right bummer for the food industry. But best of all is when hearing goes and everyone in the world goes deaf. That was totally spiffing! I enjoyed that thoroughly. Sadly for humanity, everything then got a bit darker, figuratively and literally, with the next bit. A very recommended film, film fans.

  18. From this point on, for me, @Gary, the Scottish actor will always be “Ewan (yes, of course he gets his dick out at some point) McGregor.

    You got me scurrying to IMDB who categorise it as “steamy romance”

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1439572/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_perfect%2520sense

    The director, David Mackenzie, has a variety of rather different films to his name including quirky comedy, Hallam Foe (set in Edinburgh) and Hell and High Water (a bank robber drama set in West Texas).

    .”

  19. Quite a few I’ve enjoyed this year.

    Blitz
    Small Things Like These
    Endurance – documentary about the search for Shackleton’s ship, now reading the book
    The Outrun
    The Critic
    Thelma
    Heart of an Oak
    Wilding – documentary about the Knepp Estate rewilding project
    Wicked Little Letters
    American Fiction
    The Zone of Interest
    One Life

    I missed Perfect Days but it’s showing again at my cinema of choice over the holidays so am going to try and see that along with Conclave which is getting good reviews.

    Also a shout out to Portishead’s Live at Roseland NYC which got a screening at the time of the rerelease of the CD. Great to see and hear the film on a big screen.

  20. I am not a cinephile or indeed much of a movie watcher, so I’ll not be posting a list of my own.

    But here’s an interesting set of lists from my librarian friend (of Polish descent, if that matters).
    —————————————–
    1. Top ten (well, 12) major big-budget releases I really enjoyed:
    Heretic
    The Substance
    Wicked Pt 1
    Poor Things
    Gladiator 2
    Dune 2
    Deadpool & Wolverine
    The Beekeeper
    Quiet Place: Day One
    Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
    Paddington in Peru
    Civil War

    2. Top ten (12) smaller films I really enjoyed:
    All Of Us Strangers
    The Dead Don’t Hurt
    Love Lies Bleeding
    Zone of Interest
    The Holdovers
    Speak No Evil
    Wicked Little Letters
    Kneecap
    Blink Twice
    Abigail
    Maxxxine
    Count of Monte Cristo (by the same French team who made the Three Musketeers last year)

    3. Ten (12) major releases which I enjoyed, but which didn’t live up to my expectations and I have significant reservations about, despite some terrific performances in some cases, but I’ll probably watch if they ever randomly show up on TV::
    Conclave
    Furiosa
    Joker Folie a Deux
    Argylle
    Fall Guy
    Alien Romulus
    Kraven The Hunter
    Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
    The Crow
    Venom: The Last Dance
    Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
    Godzilla x Kong

    4. Utter failures, I want my time and money back:
    Megalopolis
    Borderlands
    Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
    Trap
    Longlegs

    5. Finally, these are some films I’ve not been able to see yet but about which I’ve heard good things and I’m waiting for the chance to catch:
    Queer
    The Outrun
    Small Things Like These
    Green Border
    Babygirl
    Little Death
    Ricky Stanicky
    Blitz
    La Chimera
    Anora
    The Critic

    • You can tell your friend @Muke_H that their list is top notch. I specially like the different catehorisations. Very well thought out.

      My choices were mostly smaller films.

      • Can’t be “top notch” cos it’s got Gladiator 2 in it. Ugh! As if the CGI monkeys weren’t ridiculous enough, Ridley Scott also filled the Colosseum with water and added some sharks! In the Colosseum! Absolutely the worst film I’ve seen since Napoleon.

        • Though when the Colosseum was opened it was flooded and a mock naval battle took place, though I think Scott may have jumped the shark by adding sharks.

          Just to add I’ve not seen the film and thanks to your timely warning @Gary I won’t.

        • Try and see the bigger picture, Gary! Think of all the unemployed sharks in Hollywood who’ve been having a lean time since the gory days of Sharknado. What if Ridley was a little imaginative and easy going with historical accuracy.

          Cinephiles all love a Meg-tastiic skarky party, so let’s not get snarky.

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