The newly released films I see in 2024 will appear here. I now include films seen in the cinema and new releases watched via streaming at home, as that’s the future for film releases post-pandemic. The text reviews beneath each film are what I said on social media about each one.
2024 Total: 22. (Seen in cinema: 13. Seen via home streaming: 9.)
The 2023 page is here. It links to the previous year, and so do the others, going back to 2015 when I started the One Film Per Week cinema thing.
November 2024
🖥️ via Rental on AppleTV Store.
Well, Radical is as good as all the things I’d heard. I can see why it won the Festival Favourite award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
It’s based on a true story about a teacher moving to teach 6th grade in a school in Mexico in a town with extreme poverty, crime gangs, and corruption by local government officials.
He uses unconventional teaching techniques and, in the process, moves the students from the lowest scores in standard tests to the top tier. Definitely watch it.
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
Small Things Like These is a faithful adaptation of the novella on which it’s based. Including the faults I had with the book.
It’s a story about a good person doing the right thing in the face of peer pressure to look the other way when people in authority are being awful. It’s a timely tale for the obvious reasons.
It’s not as good as The Quiet Girl film, which is based on another novella by the same author. But few things are.
October 2024
🖥️ via Amazon Prime on AppleTV.
Small independent films are nearly always better than huge, well-financed studio films, in my not-so-humble opinion. We can’t let the small film industry die.
This paean for independent films was triggered by the 2020 film Spinster, which is superb.
Música is the best film I’ve watched this year. It’s weird, in a good way, and it’s very funny.
The lead, Rudy Mancuso, has musical synaesthesia, and the film is semi-biographical about his life in the multiethnic Ironbound region of Newark, New Jersey. His Brazilian mother, Maria Mancuso, plays his fictional mother in the film. Superbly. The rest of the lead cast are excellent – Camila Mendes, Francesca Reale, J.B. Smoove. The latter is very funny. I loved it.
🖥️ via Amazon Prime on AppleTV.
The Idea of You inverts the common age difference trope that we’ve seen in many films. In this case though, the older person in the relationship is a woman, and the younger person is a twenty-something member of a famous boy band. It’s he who initiates and perpetuates the relationship.
The film is a rom-com on the surface, but it also addresses the hypocrisy that we see when an older woman has a relationship with a younger man when society mostly doesn’t bat an eye when an older man has a relationship with a younger woman. I liked it.
August 2024
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
It Ends With Us is a multi-generational drama about domestic abuse intertwined with two core romances—one current and one initially told in teenage flashbacks.
I liked it a lot. Some will inevitably say it isn’t forceful enough about domestic abuse. I’d say it makes the point without abuse porn.
The cast are superb. Jenny Slate steals it for me. An excellent comedic performance in a drama. It looks great. Autumnal New England colours.
July 2024
🎥 in Omniplex MAXX Dundonald.
Despicable Me 4 is okay. It’s very derivative. There are a lot of scenes that call back to the original The Incredibles film. Plus a lot of other films in that ilk.
I enjoyed it. But it’s not a classic. It is well worth 90 minutes of your time and worth a cinema trip.
🖥️ via Amazon Prime on AppleTV.
I enjoyed Space Cadet. It has a good message about chasing your dreams and never giving up. Even if you end up not where you thought but somewhere adjacent.
It’s not trying to be something other than a fun comedy. I liked it. It’s like The Big Bang Theory merged with Legally Blonde.
If you liked either of those or other shows that have a positive message about liking science stuff (Geek Girl perhaps), then Space Cadet is 111 minutes well spent.
June 2024
🎥 in Omniplex MAXX Dundonald.
Inside Out 2 is a good film. But it’s not as good as the first one. Few films are. The sequel deals with the angst of being a young teen. As it’s about this difficult age, it’s not as simple to depict the emotional experience inside Riley’s head.
The new emotional characters are well drawn, and their interactions and conflict with the original emotions drive the story forward. As does the ramifications of that emotional conflict on Riley’s interactions with friends and family. See it.
May 2024
🎥 in Omniplex MAXX Dundonald.
The Fall Guy film is very silly, but it’s entertainingly silly. It’s also a homage to stunt teams and mentions the lack of an Oscar for stunt work, something that has to be addressed soon.
The script is a bit janky in the first act, but it settles down. Emily Blunt is outstanding. A scene where she directs on the beach is fantastic, and the chemistry between her and Ryan Gosling sparkles.
The stunt work is top-notch. The music choices are good. Some over-the-top acting. Recommended.
April 2024
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
Challengers is worth seeing in the cinema. Or at least in 4K when it streams. You need high resolution to see the literal dripping sweat during the tennis scenes. The cinematography is superb — especially the on-court shots where the ball is hit straight back towards the camera. I jumped a few times! The story is about a ruptured friendship due to sexual attraction and egos. Zendaya is superb in it. As are 2 male leads. Music fab. It’s a bit long. A rating point dropped for the ending.
March 2024
🎥 in Omniplex Cinema Dundonald.
I may have been predisposed to liking Drive Away Dolls given it stars three actors who were separately in films I’ve loved over the last few years: Geraldine Viswanathan (Blockers, The Broken Heart’s Club), Margaret Qualley (My New York Year), and Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart, Lady Bird).
I wasn’t disappointed. It’s colourful, fast-talking, via Qualley and Feldstein’s characters – Viswanathan brings a more subdued performance that balances things out. It has a ridiculous premise (based on true events, remarkably) and is a fun car trip/slow chase caper. With cartoon violence and a lot of lesbian action. I LOL’d a lot. Many critics have been sniffy about it. Not me. I loved it and have preordered it on the Apple Store.
Interestingly, two older viewers in the screening I was at left after about 20 minutes. Probably the lesbian action!
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
Soul is wonderful on the big screen. I’ve seen it before via Disney+ when it got a pandemic streaming release.
But the sound in the cinema coming from all directions is superb. I loved it. I rated it 8 after home viewing in 2022. I’m upping that to 9/10 after seeing it in the cinema. You should go while you have the chance. It’s on Disney+ if you can’t.
I’d forgotten Graham Norton voices one of the main characters (third billing). He’s fantastic for the character in question.
🎥 in Omniplex MAXX Dundonald.
As I watched Dune Part Two, I had an increasingly sinking feeling. Oh no. What have they done? Changing things when adapting a book is expected. Different mediums need different approaches. But the changes need to make sense. Things I think are core to Dune are missing from Part Two. New things added don’t work as well. I won’t list anything here due to spoilers. I’ll maybe blog about it in a few weeks. Maybe not. It certainly looks great, and I rated it 6/10 for that. Not for characters and story. You should see it, but be prepared if you know the book. You might get that sinking feeling too. I had a second viewing pre-booked. I didn’t go. So disappointing.
February 2024
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
I was the only person at the Friday afternoon screening of Perfect Days in Omniplex Dundonald. Which is both great for me as the film has quietness at its core, but also a shame as it’s a bloody marvellous film that more people need to see.
It’s a character study of a few days/weeks in the life of a quiet and focused Tokyo man with a somewhat regimented routine. I loved it. Kôji Yakusho is superb in the dialogue-sparse lead role. Highly recommended. It’s on my 2024 favs list via the 9/10 rating.
🖥️ via Netflix on AppleTV.
Past Lives is worth watching. It’s a tale about a girl & a boy whose friendship is ripped apart when they are 12 due to the girls family emigrating. They reconnect 12 years later online, & then 12 years later in New York where the woman is living with her husband.
A lot of the “action” happens with silences with time for your thoughts to play out. In one scene at the end I was thinking “Don’t do it!” I think most people have the “what might have” thoughts that are teased out in this film.
🖥️ via Amazon Prime on AppleTV.
Upgraded is good. It’s like The Devil Wears Prada and Absolutely Fabulous had a fling, and the result of their boozy night in London got a job in the Art auction business. The film is funny with well above the required number of laughs for a comedy, and the romance stuff isn’t too sentimental. The cast looks like they are having a lot of fun, including Anthony Head, of Buffy fame, who is camping it up in his role. I liked it a lot.
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
American Fiction is okay. I was expecting more, given the buzz. I liked the basic family drama aspects of the film more than the satire about the largely white literary establishment pandering to Black authors writing about “real” Black experiences. Real in quotes because the stories are not real but are stereotypical pastiches.
From a craft point of view, the film is good. The performances are great. As is the script, cinematography, and music.
🎥 in Omniplex Dundonald.
If you’ve been following my film reviews for #OneFilmPerWeek, and have a handle on the types of films I like, you won’t be surprised to learn that I liked Anyone But You. A lot.
It has tropes aplenty, but it’s funny enough to clear the comedy bar. On the romance front, you can guess who ends up with whom about halfway through. It’s a fun way to spend 1.75 hours. The ending has enough cheese to use up a years supply of crackers but doesn’t drag the whole thing down. Recommended.
January 2024
🎥 in Omniplex Dunonald.
The Holdovers is okay. It’s not the masterpiece I was expecting, given Oscar chatter about the performances of Paul Giamatti & Da’Vine Joy Randolph. They’re good performances, but not in a film that I’ll rewatch multiple times in the future.
It’s a dialogue-driven story about three very different people from different worlds and with various life experiences getting to know each other when circumstances thrust them together over Christmas in a New England boarding school. Catch it on VOD.
🖥️ via Apple Store on AppleTV.
James Blunt: One Brit Wonder is a fantastic documentary. It’s a nice companion to his recent book, which is on my favourite books of 2024 list already. The documentary is the first film this year to get a rating that means it’ll be on the list of my favourite films in December. You should watch it.
🖥️ via Amazon Prime Video on AppleTV.
I liked Role Play. It’s a decent story that’s been done many times. But this is a good addition. There is a definite Hanna vibe from the storyline, settings, and music. Kaley Cuoco is good in the action role. I’m smiling watching the credits. That’s a good indicator. Worth 100 minutes of your time if you have Prime.