“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos; the materials must in the first place be afforded; it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.” - Mary Shelley in her Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein
I've only just now realised that three of the films on my list are about the transformative power of art, and six (maybe eight?) of them consider, to varying degrees, the fruits of creativity. I'm sure that says something about me and what I like, want and need at this time. Or maybe these were simply the movies I enjoyed the most in 2024.
The Holdovers (Alexander Payne)
Inexplicably released in the UK in January and thus spectacularly failing to capitalise on the fact that this is destined to become an annual Christmas rewatch, nestling in the rotation somewhere between It’s a Wonderful Life and Die Hard. People love to say “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore!”, but this is manifest proof that Alexander Payne demonstrably does.
I Saw The TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
Outsider art about outsiders and art and making a place for yourself in the world by making your own world. Elliptical, enigmatic, affecting, lingering and with absolutely no easy answers.
It’s What’s Inside (Greg Jardin)
A wickedly smart and witty body-swap horror thriller that could so easily drown in it's own convoluted contortions, but is so pristinely constructed that you never lose track of what is happening and to whom. It’s on Netflix and it absolutely deserves your time and attention.
Kill (Nikhil Nagesh Bhat)
A deeply satisfying bone-cracking Bollywood riff on John Wick on a superfast express train.
Kneecap (Rich Peppiatt)
Profane, profound and very, very funny. There’s a lot of staticky noise around Kneecap right now. Dial that noise down, watch this and make up your own mind.
La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)
Josh O'Connor rocks a dishevelled look somewhere between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Lieutenant Columbo amidst the rot, decay and magical realism of 1980s Tuscany.
Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Kicked off the moviegoing year with this inventive sex-positive fairytale carnival of carnality. (I was considerably more lukewarm on Lanthimos’ second film of the year, the quirksome / irksome Kinds of Kindness, which really stretched my patience).
Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger)
A robot and a dog, love and friendship, loneliness and longing, dancing and skateboarding, all soundtracked in the warm embrace and infectious groove of Earth, Wind and Fire’s September in a sublime queer-coded animated paean to 1980s New York.
Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar)
This one has really stuck with me. A deepy empathetic look at how artistic expression and creativity can illuminate even the darkest places. Beautiful.
The Substance (Coralie Fargeat)
You can’t escape from yourself.
Close But No Cigar
Abigail (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin / Tyler Gillett)
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
Late Night with the Devil (Cameron Cairnes / Colin Cairnes)
MaXXXine (Ti West)
Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier)
Strange Darling (JT Mollner)
Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick)
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