These are the best new films I have seen in 2024.
Some are 2023 movies but I saw them as soon as I could due to being in Aberdeen Scotland.
These are in no particular order.
The Holdovers (2023)
Directed by Alexander Payne and starring Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph & Dominic Sessa.
I adored this film when I saw it in the cinema on Sunday the 28th of January 2024 and as soon as it was released on 4K UHD I bought it and I fully intend to watch it every year as a seasonal tradition.
A wonderful story beautifully told by everyone involved. Payne not only crafted a flawless period piece with the film’s production design he took it a stage further, you feel you are actually watching a movie shot in the late 1960’s. The film is a total triumph.
Poor Things (2023)
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe & Ramy Youssef.
An adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name. Where Lanthimos’ adaptation does remove the story from its setting in Scotland it does wonderfully deliver Gray’s postmodern feminist retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This film looks amazing and is disturbing, laugh-out-loud funny and deeply thought-provoking simultaneously. The film features some truly outstanding performances but Emma Stone is mind-bogglingly amazing as the protagonist Bella Baxter while she develops throughout the film.
I love this film. I deeply respect Yorgos Lanthimos and his truly unique voice in contemporary cinema.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stellan Skarsgård, Léa Seydoux & Charlotte Rampling.
I am a fan of Villeneuve’s work and I loved Dune: Part One this did not disappoint I want to buy both on 4K UHD and watch them back to back.
Star Wars for grownups!
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Directed by Rose Glass, Starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O'Brian, Anna Baryshnikov
& Ed Harris.
I adored the film “Saint Maud” which was the debut film of the director Rose Glass and with this second offering, she knocked my socks off! The film is a seedy, Lynchian crime thriller with the perfect balance of Neo-Noir and “WTF!”
It's just so good!!
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Directed by Shawn Levy, Starring Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman & Emma Corrin.
Crass, foul, tasteless and deeply funny!
This film wonderfully avoids all the trappings of being the third instalment of a franchise by just being nuts!!
This film is not for everyone, but it made me laugh, and I feel it rewarded me for watching so many movies based on Marvel IPs over the last 25 years.
Wicked Little Letters (2023)
Directed by Thea Sharrock, Starring Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman, Anjana Vasan &
Timothy Spall.
Another foul-mouthed outing.
This film is funny and littered with wonderful performances, it is also quaint and wonderfully evokes the great post-war comedies that came from Ealing Studios in England, Where in 1949 they openly mined serial killing for comedy gold in “Kind Hearts and Coronets” but they would have been unable to make a film that dealt with foul language!
I confess I will watch anything with Jessie Buckley in it she is wonderful.
I highly recommend this if you can handle quaint English period pieces and foul language.
Godzilla Minus One* (2023)
Written and Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, Starring Ryunosuke Kamiki,
Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada & Godzilla.
I couldn’t get to see this during its limited and brief theatrical release in Aberdeen but I did eventually see it on Netflix.
A fantastic monster movie that reclaims one of cinema's most iconic creations from the increasingly “Marvelesque” franchise from Warner Brothers for an outing much more in keeping with Godzilla’s routes as an allegory for the dangers of nuclear weapons and the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Substance (2024)
Written & Directed by Coralie Fargeat, Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley & Dennis Quaid.
This film justified a month of MUBI membership alone!
A truly wonderful pitch-black satirical body-horror from french filmmaker Coralie Fargeat. The film lampoons the cultural obsession with age and looks and the lengths people go to to try to look younger for longer and even though the film is most definitely a body horror the most horrific thing in the film are the creepy middle aged men.
This film has cult classic written all over it!
In true modern fashion the film is a little long... but that is what cinema is like now.
So many films have come out this year that I have not been able to see due to my mental and physical health so I have a lot to catch on streaming in the coming months.
Click on the link at the bottom of the page to learn about The Belmont Community Cinema Project.
