Pan and Slam

by Jason F. Koenigsberg

If the movies of 2024 were to be described in one word, it would be “whimper”. 2023 was a huge step forward in film returning to the pre-pandemic era and the final few months of 2023 were truly an exciting time with unique voices telling stories. There were new titles that were worth going to cinemas for each week. Then once 2024 rolled around, it slowed down and never really picked up. Too many competently made films that seemed orchestrated by a committee and focus groups meant to please mass audiences and not enough individual works of art. Even some of the best films of 2024 seemed as if some people had an idea about making a social commentary and were tying their best to imitate Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, or the recently deceased David Lynch. There were some diamonds in the rough that really stood out but overall 2024 as a whole felt like a massive step back from the progress made in 2023. Here are the top 10 movies from 2024.

Best Movies of 2024:

1. Nosferatu
2. Juror #2
3. Civil War
4. Heretic
5. I Saw the TV Glow
6. Treasure
7. A Real Pain
8. Saturday Night
9. The Substance
10. Dune Part 2

Ironically, the best film of the year was a remake of a story that is in the public domain and has been told hundreds of times. Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’ has inspired countless film and television adaptations. Robert Eggers’ film is the third picture to use the title Nosferatu retelling the popular tale. Notwithstanding the 1922 silent era classic from F.W. Murnau, his recent version may be the best and one of the most beautiful, haunting, and elegant vampire movies of all time. The film it will most likely be compared to for the rest of time besides the two other Nosferatu movies would be Coppola’s 1992 version of Dracula which is highly regarded but the performances from American generation-X actors and some over the top bombastic visuals were distracting from some of the positive artistic elements. Here Eggers corrects that films flaws and he composed a horror symphony with his own unique touch, impeccable performances especially from Lily-Rose Depp, and crafted one of the most luscious visions of terror ever seen on film. It should win awards in every technical category and is the best picture of 2024.

I also valued that 94 year old Clint Eastwood (that is not a typo) could direct one of the best “old-fashioned” courtroom dramas of the decade with his latest and possibly final film Juror #2. A standard legal thriller that felt like a remake of 12 Angry Men (1957) but with a twist regarding one of the jurors. It plays like a melodrama that might have been standard intelligent entertainment for adults years ago but today felt extremely unique and refreshing since they do not make movies like this anymore. Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette give award worthy performances.

Way back in April of 2024 Alex Garlard released his best film as a director with the topical and harrowing Civil War. After the results of the election this past November and the acts of the US President since his inauguration in January they make Civil War feel eerie and more prescient than we would like to believe. Hopefully this film remains a metaphor for what could happen if American democracy is not contained and does not turn into a prediction of what the United States will become.

The rest of the films on my top ten are the movies that spoke most directly to me and entertained on a cerebral level. Hugh Grant gave one of his best and most distinctive performances in a horror movie and harsh commentary on the dangers of religious zealots in Heretic. I Saw the TV Glow relied heavily on 90’s kids now being adults and their nostalgia as well as memories that haunt them as they face their own demons and mental illnesses as adults reluctant to move forward in life. It was an effective and thought provoking thriller that stayed with me long after the end credits rolled. Treasure and A Real Pain were both very personal stories about children dealing with how the Holocaust effected their ancestors and in turn define the adult main characters lives. Both films feature terrific performances from Stephen Fry and Lena Dunham in the former, and Jessie Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin in the latter. Eisenberg also wrote and directed A Real Pain and both of these films contain some of most empathetic characters from any movie this past year. Saturday Night felt like Aaron Sorkin and his screenplay for the Steve Jobs movie from 2015. The intense final hours leading up to the premiere of what would become one of the most iconic and longest running sketch comedy shows for the next half century. The performances in Saturday Night are not great because they are emotional, but they are incredible because of how well all of the actors capture these famous people they are portraying which is sometimes an even harder task. The Substance I give credit to because it goes for broke and somehow managed to crossover into the mainstream with such disgusting and graphic visuals. However, David Cronenberg and the estate of Stanley Kubrick should sue the filmmakers for plagiarism, and if I were the judge I would side with the plaintiffs. That may seem like a backhanded compliment to a film I have on my top ten of the year list but 2024 contained very few great original pictures. Denis Villeanueve’s Dune Part 2 was a solid sequel to the original and both of his Dune films are the closest audiences have to the Lord of the Rings epics so they deserves all of the praise they receive.

Now on the flip side, here are the worst movies I saw in 2024…

Worst movies of 2024:

1. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
2. Megalopolis
3. Madame Web
4. Anyone But You
5. Mean Girls

The less said about these the better and other than Megalopolis they will all probably be forgotten within the next 12 months if they have not already been forgotten already. Seriously, does anyone other than the people involved in the Mean Girls remake remember that movie less than a year later? I mention Megalopolis because it will likely be the final film from legendary director Francis Ford Coppola and it was his self-financed, decades in the making, labor of love. In a world where so many movies feel like they are directed by artificial intelligence, Megalopolis felt like one man’s vision. But it was also one of the most excruciating films I have ever sat through. It delivered exactly what I asked for but made me rethink my cinematic values and wonder if I would rather sit through a turgid innocuous crowd pleaser. The only film worse was from the same team that created Saturday Night which felt like a masterwork compared to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Once again, this movie gave me what I asked for and I learned to be careful with what I wish for. Back in 2021 when I saw Ghostbusters: Afterlife in my negative review I said that the two biggest problems were that the original ghostbuster actors were relegated to pointless cameos at the end and they took the ghostbusters out of New York City. Well, Frozen Empire gave me exactly what I wanted but the movie was so horrendous it made me with they stayed out in the midwest cornfields and that the original ghostbusters stayed retired and never put on their proton packs for either film. Ghostbusters should have always only been a one or two movie franchise. Frozen Empire solidifies that and it upset me more than any other film from 2024.