This Week in Cinema, I Learned…Dec 22-31 2024
Written by Cameron Geiser
Welcome to This Week in Cinema, a yearlong film criticism project wherein I will be watching a new film that I haven't seen every single day.
Welcome to the final article of This Week in Cinema. Every day of 2024 I watched a movie and then tried to string together a lesson from each week’s titles. Every month had a distinct theme, with the exception of June and July, which were both simply categorized under the banner of Summer movies. In that time I watched Three Hundred and Seventy-Three films, somehow extra films made their way into my watchlist that weren’t always cataloged here. Those films were often extra ones that I wanted to catch like Lisa Frankenstein, The Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes, and Videodrome to name a few. The first film I watched in 2024 was Mel Brooks’ Life Stinks, a dramatic comedy about a Billionaire attempting to live life on the streets without a penny to his name for thirty days so he can obtain the rights to the downturned district he’d call home in that time- in order to bulldoze it for his own greedy purposes mind you. He has a change of heart, sees the error of his ways, and even falls in love. It was a decent way to start the year off, but especially because I knew it would contrast quite well with the film that I knew I wanted to end the cinematic year with from the beginning. That would be the Bill Nighy starring remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru with the *very* English film, Living.
The whole point of this year-long endeavor to be awash in Cinema, besides the distraction from a tumultuous Election here in America that has proven to be even more disastrous than expected, it was all to better know my favorite medium of artistic expression more thoroughly. Cinema is the ultimate form of Art in my opinion because it combines so many trades, skills, and areas of study. Frankly, it is the culmination of all that is Art. Performance, composition, writing, editing, choreography, lighting, singing, musical scores, highly detailed and curated images, and the ability to twist reality to your story’s highest needs. Cinema is a dream, and it cannot be outdone within the world of artistic expression. It is one of humanity’s greatest creations and it should be treasured. I know that these ideals don’t always hit the mark. The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot for example isn’t exactly the peak of artistic potential. Not all films can move you deeply. When they do however, as with The Great Dictator, Ace in The Hole, Malcolm X, Perfect Days, Pyaasa, or Madadayo- it can be otherworldly and ethereal. In short, it can be pure Magic.
So, what did I learn? As it turns out, I learned a whole hell of a lot. I learned to love Jean-luc Godard, a filmmaker that I found pretentious before 2024. Though I still don’t care for Breathless or Alphaville. Tout va Bien, Pierrot le Fou, and Weekend have convinced me that I wrote him off far too easily and that I need to see more of his work. Though admittedly I still prefer François Truffaut. I learned that there’s always another level of comedic opportunity you can aim for because of Mel Brooks. In particular I found his comedies High Anxiety, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It to be so laugh out loud funny that they can put you in cosmic wheezing fits of strained laughter that make you question reality afterwards. I also learned that while fear may be subjective, much like comedy, the best Horror films are the ones that toy with deep unsettling fears. The films, Lost Highway, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Ring (1998), Sinister, and the Terrifier franchise have all left me with that tingly uneasy sensation even months later.
Critical Scores aside there is a subset of films that I saw in 2024 that will live rent free in my head until I die. These films made me pump my fist in the air, gave me a shot of adrenaline, and had me gasping for air from the sheer audacity of madcap artistry I was witnessing on screen. The following list is composed of the films that were most memorable for me throughout the year. These are the films I will likely watch many, many, more times going forward as I sincerely loved each and every one. They are; Hard Boiled, Friday Foster, The Heroic Trio, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Joe Versus The Volcano, Written on The Wind, Highlander, Little Shop of Horrors (Director’s Cut), Sorcerer, Bumblebee, The Last Stop in Yuma County, Hundreds of Beavers, American Fiction, The Towering Inferno, Giant, Orson Welles’ Othello, Legend, His Girl Friday, Army of Darkness, An American Werewolf in London, 48 Hrs, and Les Misérables.
There is, of course, the inverse of that notion. The films I saw that were the biggest letdowns, the most crass, or least interesting films I saw in 2024. These are the films that I will never ever watch again, due to pure disgust, moral indignation, or just out of pure spite. They are; Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Videodrome, Wagons East, Cadillac Man, Holmes and Watson, The Longest Yard (1974), Vacation (2015), Civil War (2024), The Sacrifice, The Zero Theorem, Anomalisa, The first Terrifier, The Birds, Blue Jasmine, Four Christmases, Reindeer Games, and Dear Santa.
However, listed below are the final films of the year. Four of the Ten films are Christmas films while the last Six aren’t entirely Holiday-coded. I say that because the new adaptation of Nosferatu definitely isn’t what you would call a traditional Christmas film- but it does take place around the Holidays and a few Christmas Trees can be seen sprinkled into the film’s production. The only other film of the remainder that can even be remotely considered Holiday-themed is Carry-On as it’s an airport based thriller that takes place during the Holiday seasonal rush. The rest of the films chosen were mostly movies that I simply wanted to watch either from earlier in the year that I had missed, or that were currently showing and I just wanted to watch them and enjoy the end of my 2024. Hopefully you find something worth watching in this last group of films, however if none catch your eye, the ones I heaped praise upon earlier in this article should suffice. Thanks for joining me on this incredible journey into Cinema, it was certainly worth the effort on my end. Go watch some movies!
December 22nd
Remember The Night (1940)
3/5
I originally added this film to the list of Christmas titles because of the double billing of Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray as the leads, mostly because they would later work together in the perfect Noir film from Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity. Remember The Night is a completely serviceable Christmas movie, but it never ascends further than watchable Holiday fodder. While the pacing can occasionally stutter, the performances are fine and the hum-drum plotting of two New York City socialites, both originally Hoosiers, returning home for the Holidays chugs right along. Except that Lee (Stanwyck) is a Jewel Thief caught by assistant D.A. John (MacMurray) who allowed her to go home for Christmas since he was traveling back home himself. They obviously fall in love and end up returning home for the courtroom drama scenes that wind the film down, and it’s all hunky-dory. It’s all a bit predictable and while there are charming scenes that stand out from time to time, the film ends up being “fine”, and nothing more. It’s certainly charming and entertaining, but I should have known not to bring any expectations from the later, and greater, Double Indemnity going into Remember The Night.
December 23rd
The Shop Around The Corner (1940)
4/5
I’ll be honest with you, while I know I enjoyed my time with The Shop Around The Corner, I had entirely forgotten what the film was about other than being a somewhat generic Christmas tale surrounding two characters that fell in love despite the odds. The odds, as it turns out, were that they actually despised each other in their day to day lives as coworkers, but they had both begun writing anonymous letters through a service in town and unexpectedly began falling in love. The leads, played by James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, each turn in entertaining and charming performances. The concept at the core of the film offers enough to merit this as a decent Christmas film, with good direction from Ernst Lubitsch behind the solid performances and quality writing, this one was indeed good. I blame my memory loss of the plot more on the sheer number of film storylines and characters being crammed into my headspace late last year than anything the film actually did. The Shop Around The Corner is certainly a watchable Christmas film.
December 24th
Bad Santa (2003)
3/5
I had heard of Bad Santa and its sequel ages ago but never really got around to it. What I didn’t realise about the film however was that it’s basically just a heist movie that takes place during the Christmas season. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Willie, a drunk criminal that can barely keep it together. Every Holiday season he works a Christmas Con with Marcus (Tony Cox), a little person, where they gain access to different shopping Malls as a Santa and Elf duo then rob the place blind by Christmas. I believe it was Rotten Tomatoes that described the film as “Gloriously rude and gleefully offensive” and that pretty much hits the mark with this one. Billy Bob Thornton’s titular Bad Santa can be painfully cringeworthy to watch for large chunks of the runtime, but he’s balanced out by Tony Cox’s foul-mouthed Marcus who superbly verbally destroys Willie on numerous occasions. It’s delightful. Also, Bernie Mac stars as the head of mall security who’s suspicious of the two at every turn and that raises the film a bit higher in status in my opinion. Bad Santa earns its fair share of laughs, but it’s nothing too remarkable at the end of the day.
December 25th
Violent Night (2022)
3.5/5
Violent Night was my final rewatch selection for the year. Truthfully it is also the last real Christmas movie of the year as well. With the Hollywood pitch of, “What if Home Alone, but also Die Hard… with Santa as the main character?” Violent Night sounds like it could have been a total disaster, but it turned out to be quite the bloody charming surprise. David Harbour’s disillusioned Santa Claus having his Christmas Spirit rekindled by Trudy (Leah Brady), the child of a sickeningly wealthy family whose too busy backstabbing each other for their money, was exactly the sort of eat-the-rich vibes I wanted out of this action holiday instant classic. It’s a simple premise executed with style and flair, and a little self awareness that goes a long way. I highly recommend this one, it’s a lot of fun!
December 26th
Nosferatu (2024)
4/5
Robert Eggers is one of the most fascinating American filmmakers to watch these days. He has a very distinct style, and he’s always trying something new with each new film. With Nosferatu being his first adaptation, we got to see what he brings to an existing framework, especially with such a well known film that was itself a riff on Bram Stoker’s Dracula Novel. Out of Egger’s four films thus far, this is my third favorite but that’s just because I absolutely adored The Lighthouse and The Witch, and The Northman isn’t bad either, it’s simply my least favorite of the four. Anyways, for this adaptation the titular Vampire is tweaked for historical accuracy and given a mustache. However he’s also formed a psychic pseudo-sexual relationship with Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), an empath who in her loneliness psychically reached out to the void for companionship.
What she found instead was something far worse than loneliness, what found her was Obsession; in its corporeal form. Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok was something unexpected. I did not expect greatness in this casting and yet here I am having watched greatness on screen. What the actor did with regard to voicework is extremely commendable and fascinating- Skarsgård did indeed disappear into the role perfectly. The whole cast was excellent to be clear. Lily-Rose Depp turned in a grotesquely perfect and spellbinding role as Ellen, the young woman plagued by Orlok’s encroaching presence. Nicholas Hoult’s turn as the Harker of this version of Dracula was also pitch perfect in his sheer terror of the confounding situation he’s found himself in as his wife repeatedly convulses, possessed by Evil. Willem Dafoe, Aaron-Taylor Johnson, and Ralph Ineson all perform their roles exquisitely. I’d also be leaving this short review unduly incomplete if I didn’t take time to mention the cinematography, and night filming in particular, which is pure Cinema, and I don’t take that term lightly. It’s definitely worth a watch, and technically the film does take place during the Holiday season, so, there’s that.
December 27th
The Wild Robot (2024)
3.5/5
I was impressed with The Wild Robot. Having seen a trailer early on I really did not expect much out of this one other than being a generically entertaining and charming kids movie. Its art style is more painterly than I initially anticipated and that’s good and all but what really got me was the world building and a refusal to paint animals as Disney creatures that would never harm a fly. No, not here. The Wild Robot does not shy away from the basic fact that animals are violent by nature, they do eat each other to survive after all. So, in a futuristic world- far from all society- a robot, Roz (Lupita Nyong'o), is accidentally lost en route to a human enclave and lands on an island devoid of Human life where nature roams free. There’s some entertaining stuff with Roz misunderstanding animal life and taking the time to learn animal language, but the real story begins when she saves an egg from the clutches of a hungry Fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal).
The egg hatches and imprints on Roz as its mother. Given that Roz knows nothing of motherhood and cannot handle the situation- Fink steps in to help, first by promising not to kill Brightbill (Kit Connor) as he is eventually named. The remainder of the film is devoted to the training of Brightbill so he can depart from the Island and fly south for the winter when the time comes. It’s all delightfully charming stuff, and once the credits rolled I was gobsmacked to see all of the big names involved in this one. I did not realize that this film was brimming with a stacked cast including the likes of Bill Nighy, Mark Hamill, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, and Catherine O'Hara. If it weren’t for the superbly crafted artistry of Flow, this would have been a shoe-in for the Animation Oscar.
December 28th
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (2024)
3.5/5
Finally, this third entry in the Sonic The Hedgehog film series nails the proper tone and balance between Video Game antics and the trite family values of Sonic’s Human foster family. While the second Sonic film was on the right track by giving more screen time to the animated superheroics of Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) and the evil shenanigans of Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik- this third film ramps up that trajectory making nearly the whole film center on the fantastic rather than the mundane. The plot centers on the introduction of Shadow The Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves) and Ivo Robotnik’s grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik who’s also played by Jim Carrey in a creative choice of pure genius. As it turns out, adding more Jim Carrey and a new role perfectly cast by Keanu Reeves was the exact right choice for this one, and the fact that the plotting stays fairly on course when concerned with the games’ story background was a nice development too. Puns, physical gags, and zany energy abound in this latest entry of the video game adaptation and personally I had a lot of fun with this one. Here’s hoping they continue to forge ahead allowing Jim Carrey to improvise as often as possible.
December 29th
Dìdi (2024)
3.5/5
As someone that was a teenager in the mid to late 2000’s, Dìdi was a nostalgic trip down memory lane. With all of its references to that time through early social media, the beginnings of YouTube, Skateboarding as a rite of passage, and Chat Rooms full of punky angst- this film does a good job of bringing you back to an era when the start of the uncertainty dive really began. When I say “The Uncertainty Dive” what I mean is the true downturn of daily American life when things were beginning to feel unglued and we didn’t know what would happen next. Call it the 9/11 effect or what have you, but this was an era when bold proclamations without real critical thinking skills being employed really began with terrifying speed. (Certainly nothing like today’s world of insanity, no, certainly not. Obviously. Why would you ever even think such a thing?) However what Dìdi did quite well aside from this was its intimate scale of storytelling. This story feels relatable and immediately true to life through the exploration of Chris Wang’s (Izaac Wang) last summer before High School. Between making the transition from MySpace to Facebook and learning how to love your parents, writer-director Sean Wang turns in a competent and charming 21st century coming-of-age story with Dìdi.
December 30th
Carry-On (2024)
2/5
In the beginning of December I heard a lot of praise for the new Netflix Thriller Carry-On. Despite it being somewhat Christmas oriented, I didn’t have too much interest in it. Eventually curiosity got the better of me though and I decided to give it a shot. I’m probably in the minority with this film but I found it to be utterly frustrating. This is a cat-and-mouse premise between TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) and the mysterious traveller played by Jason Bateman that plays out in a Major Airport on Christmas Eve. Jason Bateman’s comically inept antagonist needs to get a bag through TSA and he chooses Ethan as his target, thinking the agent would easily fold under the pressure. To his credit, Ethan attempts to stand up to the terrorist plot. However the way things unfold often felt forced, shoehorned in, and blatantly clunky. Egerton’s character Ethan never really connected or felt like an active protagonist, in fact it felt like the opposite. Things were just happening around and to Ethan, he felt void of willpower.
For me, the film has a lot going for it in concept and theory, but it’s in the execution where everything falls apart. Bateman is chewing up the scenery and generally having fun with the role but he feels miscast here, never quite menacing enough to match the intensity of the role and scenario. Likewise for Egerton who feels muted here when the character could have taken more action, more initiative. Throughout the film I never felt the urgency of the moment the way the film wanted me to, and the script just felt mechanical, illogical, and flat out weak when it comes to characterization. On top of it all the “solution” to the film’s antagonist felt more convenient than clever and by the time the credits rolled I almost felt like the internet had gaslit me into watching this one. Carry-On wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, in this subgenre of Christmas Action, Die Hard still remains supreme.
December 31st
Living (2022)
4.5/5
Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru was a film that I first watched in my mid-twenties and this was the film that cemented Kurosawa as a creative genius in my mind. I hadn’t yet seen Rashomon, Seven Samurai, or Ran (my favorite Kurosawa film), I’d only seen his Samurai films Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and Throne of Blood (an adaptation of Macbeth) initially. At this point in my journey of critical analysis of Cinema I consider Akira Kurosawa to be the greatest filmmaker of the twentieth century. So, having said all that, when one of the Japanese legend’s finest films is getting adapted, I pay attention. Which has generated in me more than a passing interest in Spike Lee’s upcoming adaptation of Kurosawa’s High and Low coming out later this year with Denzel Washingtion called Highest 2 Lowest. Anyways, Living’s writer-director Oliver Hermanus had a lot to live up to as Ikiru is one of the finest dramas about the meaning of life and what you make of it ever put to film.
I can happily report that Hermanus may have swapped nationalities of the lead character from Japan to Britain but it is essentially the same story, even down to almost all of the same exact story beats. When an older gentleman, ordained in the world of business, finds that he doesn’t have long to live he must decide what to do with his remaining time left on this earth. This notion makes him question his actions, question his life, and what to do about it going forward. What does it all mean? How do you value a life as one that was well lived or one spent on things, experiences, and ideas that may end up feeling, or ultimately being, rather vacuous and vapid? While the filmmaking is satisfactorily similar to Ikiru in tone and meaning, I only wish the filmmaking itself was a bit more inventive. It is a small gripe as Living mirrors its subject matter in the same mould of mild-mannered movements and lighting as of Williams (Bill Nighy) himself. Living is a very well made adaptation of one of the best films ever crafted, and that’s saying something!
End-of-Project Information
January: Arthouse Catch-Up + Wintertime Joy
February: Black Cinema; films made by and starring African Americans
March: Mish-Mash March
April: Pure Genre
May: Kung-Fu & Comedies
June: Summer Bonanza!
July: Even More Summer Bonanza!
August: Masters of Cinema
September: Surreal/Fantasy
October: Horror
November: Awards/Prestige Films
December: Christmas Movies
First Movie Covered: Life Stinks
Last Movie Covered: Living
Total Amount of Films Seen in 2024: 373
[Editor’s Note] Films Fatale congratulates Cameron Geiser on what sounds like a productive, prolific, and invigorating 2024. As This Week in Cinema has drawn to a close, we appreciate his dedication and passion to both this project and cinema as a medium.
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.