MY FAVOURITE MOVIE MEMORIES OF 2024

No one needs me to rattle off my version of the same lists you’ve read plenty of lately. Most of us critics kind of agree on the ‘Year’s Best’ - Anora...tick; Emilia Perez…tick; Conclave…tick; A Real Pain…tick; Challengers…tick. There are films that were exactly as great as we had every right to expect them to be, like Dune: Part II (which I loved) or Wicked (which I really loved), and others that I adored for the feel-good vibes they brought, like Saturday Night (great entertainment) and My Old Ass (the year’s best coming-of-age narrative).

So instead, I’ll just reflect on my favourite movie memories of 2024, and encourage you to do the same in the comments below. You can see a more official Top 20 on my Letterboxd page. For now, enjoy the cinema moments that I enjoyed this year… 

MARGARET QUALLEY MOVIES: Andie’s daughter continues to build a rep as Hollywood’s most fearless, fascinating screen presence with three films that allowed her to shine. First to drop was her ensemble turn in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness (>Poor Things, imho); next, a great comedic spin opposite Geraldine Viswanathan in Ethan Coen’s wildly under-valued Drive-Away Dolls; and, above all else, the sex-bomb physicality and body-horror bonhomie of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. Demi will get the Academy’s attention come nomination season, but the year’s best horror film was every bit the two-hander it needed to be to work. 

NICHOLAS HOULT MOVIES: At 35, Nicholas Hoult ought NOT be referred to as, “The kid from About A Boy”, although the impact of his film debut aged 11 opposite Hugh Grant continues to resonate with the industry. In 2024, Hoult fleshed out some of his most memorable characters. He descended into an existential madness thanks to Bill Skarsgård’s nightmarish Count Orlock in Robert Eggar’s Nosferatu; unearthed a three-dimensional lead character in Clint Eastwood’s enjoyably pulpy courtroom drama, Juror #2; and, above all else, crafted the year’s most chilling villain - steely-eyed white supremacist ‘Bob Matthews’ in Aussie director Justin Kurzel’s midwest-Nazi expose, The Order.  

LOS ANGELES, JUNE 1-7: Travelling with my dream gal, we launched ourselves into a week of film nerd indulgence. Barely off the plane for two hours, we were in the lush red seats of the A.M.P.A.S. Museum’s David Geffen Theatre for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, screened in 70mm. Then, back again the next night, for a rare showing of 2002’s Real Women Have Curves, with director Patricia Cardosa present. The American Cinematheque was ‘celebrating’ its annual Bleak Week program, so we settled in for the 1979 family-murder drama Natural Enemies, with director Jeff Kanew on panel at the Los Feliz Theatre. Then, the centrepiece evening: A24’s premiere of their 40th Anniversary remaster of Jonathon Demme’s concert film Stop Making Sense at the Pantages Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard - the very theatre where the Talking Heads classic was filmed. Add in location visits to sites from La La Land, Blade Runner and Miracle Mile, and…well, I think about that week every day.      

JOKER: FOLIE DE DEUX: 2019’s Joker (which I did not like at all) earned a billion dollars for Warner Bros and the right for star Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips to do whatever they wanted with the sequel. But…a musical romance?!? Critics ripped it apart, audiences stayed away, and Warners were left licking the financial wounds that only a $250million flop leave behind. I dodged it during its brief theatrical run, though curiosity got the better of me (I like Lady Gaga, sue me!) so I rented it when it hit iTunes. The verdict? It’s the kind of grand folly that we rarely see the likes of nowadays but, I kid you not…I LOVED IT! It is a brilliant anti-anti-hero film that addresses the mental miasma of Arthur Fleck, focussed through the same pop-culture lens that drove him, his followers, and both the admirers and detractors of the first film’s nihilism, mad in the first place. 

THE MIGHT OF FACTUAL FILMMAKING: Real world events proved every bit as horrific, bewildering, captivating and humanistic as anything Hollywood creatives could conjure in 2024. Perhaps that is why factual filmmakers produced such profoundly special films as No Other Land, the first-person camcorder chronicle of Israel’s campaign of terror against Palestinian villagers; Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters, in which the missing daughters of a Tunisian woman’s family are replaced by outspoken actresses; Dan Reed’s Stopping the Steal, a celebration of the strength of character it took for a handful of individuals to say ‘No’ to dictator-wannabe Donald Trump; and, the heartbreaking, soul-enriching journey of a superstar comedian and his transgender buddy in Will & Harper. Mix in 2023 holdovers Occupied City, Anselm and Israelism, and real life made for the year’s best filmgoing.

REBEL RIDGE, JOY and WOMAN OF THE HOUR: Is Netflix still the No. 1 home viewing platform? Was it ever? My Screen Watching podcast co-host and Always Be Watching boss Dan Barrett is Australia’s best arbiter of that stuff, so over to him. I do know that Jeremy Saulnier’s Rebel Ridge, a hard-edged thriller about small town prejudice and corruption (like First Blood? Yeah, a bit) featuring a voluminous heroic turn by Aaron Pierre and a great villain in Don Johnson, and Woman of the Hour, a based-in-fact serial killer psycho-drama that announced its star Anna Kendrick as a directing force, were the best films to drop on any streaming service this year. Add in Aussie director Ben Taylor’s deeply affecting true-life drama Joy, featuring Thomasin McKenzie as the woman who helped forge IVF science, and it’s well played in 2024, Netflix.

HEROINES OF HORROR: Regular Screen-Space readers know that the horror genre generally gets a stand-alone mention in our end-of-year wrap. In 2024, many of the high-profile shockers that impressed featured great performances by actresses - Naomi Scott in the hit sequel Smile 2; it-girl Sydney Sweeney in the religious shocker Immaculate; scream queen Maika Monroe (opposite a next-level Nicholas Cage) in Longlegs; a mesmerising Nell Tiger Free in The First Omen; Cailee Spaeny in Alien: Romulus; Melissa Barrera in the Beauty and The Beast riff, Your Monster; and, Screen-Space favourite Renate Reinsve in the unique zombie drama, Handling the Undead. Under-the-radar gems included In a Violent Nature, Red Room and V/H/S Beyond. And horror’s greatest against-type casting feat in 2024? Hugh Grant’s chilling psychopath in Heretic.