by JB
Screenings, scenes, shots, performances, and lines of dialogue from a most... interesting moviegoing year.
1. Boy, does Wyatt Russell look and act just like his Daddy Kurt, Nightswim.
2. Falling asleep one night, reading the Wikipedia, my eyes must have crossed. I thought for a moment that Tina Fey had written The Beekeeper.
3. I kept seeing the poster for Hundreds of Beavers on the Social Medias, and I thought it was a fake movie somebody just made up.
4. What movies used to be, Dune Part Two.
5. Patrick gave me such a detailed rundown of Argylle that I feel like I HAVE seen it, and so I never NEED to see it. Not EVER.
6. Margaret Qualley portrays the secret child of Raising Arizona’s Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, Drive-Away Dolls.
7. Pedro Pascal, cameo of the year, Drive-Away Dolls.
8. Creepy Ed Harris, Love Lies Bleeding.
9. YOU could write a better legacy sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
10. Especially terrifying if you went to Catholic school for eight years, Immaculate. (Oh! So that’s what the nuns were doing during kindergarten nap time!)
11. Low-budget Dastmalchian is best Dastmalchian, Late Night with The Devil.
12. YOU could write a better legacy sequel, Godzilla ❤️ Kong: The New Empire.
13. Subtle and affecting, Civil War.
14. Big, stupid, and fun, The Fall Guy.
15. Nauseating. Unfrosted.
16. A very pregnant Michelle Buteau crawls down a hospital corridor and moans, “I don’t want this to be my journey.” Babes.
17. Nasty, forlorn, and fraught, the situation at hand goes from bad to worse. THIS IS MY WHEELHOUSE! Last Stop in Yuma County.
18. What movies used to be, Horizon, an American Saga, Part One.
19. I saw Longlegs in October, and never realized a major character was played by Nicolas Cage. Now, that’s either his BRAVURA ACTING or my ENCROACHING SENILITY.
20. YOU could write a better legacy sequel, Twisters.
22. Opened my pores, Skincare.
23. It actually ends with a Blake Lively lawsuit, It Ends with Us.
24. A deep meditation on legacy sequels? All I know is, YOU could have written a better one, Alien: Romulus.
25. I didn’t like sitting through this the first time, Reagan.
27. WENT THERE, The Substance.
28. You can’t ice skate at Rockefeller Center in October, Saturday Night.
29. Let’s get down to the real nitty gritty, Hold Your Breath.
30. Mikey Madison gets a part worthy of her talent, Anora.
31. Would make a great double feature with Immaculate, Conclave.
32. Somehow, this fell through the cracks on our “Underrated” podcast: great work from writer/director Azazel Jacobs and actors Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters.
33. Who the hell is this FOR? Red One.
34. Full of sound and fury and signifying nothing, Nosferatu.
35. What movies used to be, Juror #2.
36. Hours of my life that I will never get back: Madame Web, Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, Godzilla XXX Kong: The New Empire, Unfrosted, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F., Twisters, Trap, Blink Twice, Reagan, Saturday Night, and Conclave.
37. Thanks to turning over a new leaf this year, I felt no compulsion whatsoever to see Mean Girls, Argylle, Lisa Frankenstein, Bob Marley; One Love, The First Omen, Sasquatch Sunset, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, IF, Back to Black, Fly Me to the Moon, Harold and the Purple Crayon, It Ends with Us, The Crow, The 4:30 Movie, Megalopolis, Joker: Folie a Deux, Red One, Wicked, Gladiator II, Moana 2, and Mufasa: The Lion King. Sigh.
38. Thanks to the Secret Screenings at my local Cinemark, I got to see The Bikeriders, The Instigators, My Old Ass, Your Monster, and The Order days early in a real, honest-to-goodness movie theater for only five bucks. Thank you, Cinemark.
39. Thanks to the Flashback Tuesday Screenings at my local Regency theater, I got to see To Kill a Mockingbird, Blade Runner, Cry Baby, A League of their Own, North By Northwest, All the President’s Men, Dazed and Confused, Grease, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Jumanji, A Hard Day’s Night, The Shining, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Heavy Metal, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in a real, honest-to-goodness movie theater. Thank you, Regency.
40. Thanks to Beyond Fest and the American Cinematheque, I got to see Hush: The Shush Cut, Ed Wood, and Lake Mungo in a real, honest-to-goodness, movie palace: the famed Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Thanks, Beyond Fest.
What screenings/moments in the theater were special to you this year? Comment below.
Too bad you didn't like Godzilla, i had a ton of fun with it. The hollow-er earth cracks me up, it's so silly
ReplyDeleteThough i will agree with Ghostbusters. I'm not as harsh as you with the previous one, but this new one made me want to rip my eyes out.
Lisa Frankenstein is no top ten movie but it’s 101 fun minutes of a John Hughes take on the classic tale. Katheryn Newton is consistently excellent in horror comedies and Liza Soberano is great too.
ReplyDeleteAgreed that Lisa Frankenstein is worth a watch. I also enjoyed the Bob Marley movie quite a bit, and Gladiator 2 can be fun if you're in the mood to turn off your brain and just watch some cool swordfights.
ReplyDeleteThere were many nights (probably not as much as previous years) at drive-ins during 2024. Seeing a double bill of The Substance and Terrifier 3 at Shankweiler's (Allentown, PA) was an interesting experience. It was my eighth drive-in season going to Lehighton, PA, for the Mahoning Drive-In Theater. The 2006 Grindhouse package was a memorable night there. For the 75th anniversary of the Mahoning, there was a screening of the first film that ever played there, the 1948 musical April Showers. Though not a film to everyone's tastes, it was special to be sitting on the lot watching the same thing an audience did in 1949. I also got a great view of the northern lights there during the fall.
ReplyDeleteThere were not as many in-door screenings for the year. Furiosa on the big screen was fun at the mall multiplex theater. All of my other theater experiences were at the local independent theater. I saw Poor Things, The Fall Guy, the original Halloween, and Leprechaun there.
The original Halloween is GREAT in a real theater with a real audience!
ReplyDelete