Sometime late in 2023 I got really into capsule reviews, and even bought a copy of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. I think there’s a lot of artistry to writing such succinct reviews, and a lot of fun to be had in reading them. So throughout all of 2024, for (almost) every movie I watched, I wrote a little review. Most of these are not movies that came out in 2024, they’re just the ones I watched that year.
Special favorites are rubricated (red.) I didn’t use any kind of star rating system, but the last line of each review is basically a rating. Reviews are arranged in order of viewing, with the most recently viewed movie at the top. My favorite movie of the year was Heaven’s Gate. My least favorite was Four Feathers.
NOSFERATU (2024). A woman is tormented by horny vampire nightmares. Her husband is called to Transylvania to broker a real estate deal with a Count. Guess who the Count is.
Thick-as-blood atmosphere, great performances, decadent stylings. Ending felt a little pat, but story is otherwise well paced and constructed.
It’s great.
DOG DAY AFTERNOON. A bank robbery is going very well until the robbers find the vault empty. Having to improvise to scrape up more cash, they soon find the bank besieged by dozens of cops and hundreds of onlookers, trapping them inside with a dozen hostages.
Another great Sidney Lumet movie where people with opposing views are stuck in a room all day and get very sweaty. Stellar performances from Pacino as the irresistibly charismatic bank robber and Cazale as his quiet, lethal accomplice. And from the whole damn cast—it’s all great.
All time classic.
MEDIUM COOL. Picaresque film following a Chicago TV cameraman in 1968 leading up to the Democratic National Convention. Mixes real documentary footage and scripted scenes fairly seamlessly. Stupid climactic sequence and stupid ending, but all in all the movie has a lively, authentic feel.
It’s medium cool.
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE. Coming of age film about two brothers whose parents are getting divorced. Father is a formerly great novelist, mother is a rising literary star. These people all have problems and frequently behave horribly and insufferably and my god is it funny.
It’s the filet of Noah Baumbach.
LONGLEGS. A serial killer whose victims all kill themselves/each other. Actually it’s the devil.
A-grade execution of a D-grade story. The devil magic renders any twists arbitrary, makes the Nic Cage character not that scary because he can be as dangerous or as weak as the plot needs him to be.
Great cinematography, long shots slow-building tension. There’s probably a killer short film in here somewhere.
It’s fine.
Francis Bass 