WEEKEND SPECIAL: THE TOP 50 MOVIES OF 2024

And A Follow-up On Presidents Who Murder

The basic premise of this site, for those just catching up, is that I am discussing the more interesting movies that were released during my incarceration, which lasted from the fourth quarter of 2014 (on a day when I had plans to see the second “Sin City”) until the early months of 2023 (when I moved out of a halfway house). Movies I couldn't watch in prison, movies for adults, movies that meant something.

Yes, I have been bingeing movies of that era to discuss on this site. This time period gives this substack AT LEAST two more years of material if I maintain my pace. I can't wait to dip into the weeds with y'all to talk about some really obscure stuff, and to keep finding new and informative topics about the criminal justice system. We need to change the system, we need to move towards decarceration. But we can't do that until we change how we think about incarceration and criminal justice. I hope I can do my part.

That being said, I ALSO still watch new movies! A lot of them! I'm not a movie critic, and I work a full time job, so I've missed a few here and there. But I have got this list of fifty movies from 2024, and these are fifty movies I think I could see a second and even third time because of the light they shine, because of the truth they tell, and because they are definitively of this chaotic era in which we live.

Some of these movies are quite dark. But ultimately I gravitate towards hope, towards the human experience. That doesn't always mean good vibes. It sometimes speaks to a complexity of the human experience, our capacity to be great to each other, or even to be awful to each other. The worst sin we can commit is to be predictable, to ignore our capacity for moral dimensions.

I found myself, this year, gravitating towards a variety of different movies, but particularly those about the LGBTQ experience. I have no real firsthand experience of this world, and yet to me the prevalence of these themes in several great movies this year speak to an overall unlocking of contemporary storytelling. A new way of thinking about love, conflict and confusion cinematically. I do think that failure to embrace the LGBTQ community is a failure of empathy, yes. But it's also a refusal to be a storyteller, and a refusal of the gifts of storytelling. Because what is more dynamic within a story than those that see a bridge that cannot or shouldn't be crossed, a bridge that is dismissed or even degraded by the terminally incurious? If we can, we cross that bridge, and if we can't, we build that bridge. And if we have no interest in being on that bridge, we can still assist in the construction. That's storytelling.

Briefly, a notice:

Movies I did not see: Gladiator 2, Wicked, Kneecap, Last Summer, The Brutalist, All We Imagine As Light, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, The End, Nickel Boys, The Room Next Door, Nosferatu, Caught By The Tides, Bird, Hard Truths, Good One, Daaaaali!, Dream Team, Memoir Of A Snail, The Beast, Ghostlight, Last Stop In Yuma Country, Close Your Eyes. Yeah, that's probably a lot of good movies, and I'm sorry I missed them, and I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting.

Well-Loved Movies That Did Very Little For Me: The Substance, Dune Part Two, Conclave, Anora, Juror #2, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Kinds Of Kindness. Perhaps I have no taste?

I'm not even mentioning the dozens of other movies, foreign and American, that I saw this year. I just don't have anything interesting to say about “Deadpool and Wolverine”. I mean, I definitely have a lot to say about “Deadpool and Wolverine”, like, enough to fill a book. But we're not doing that today, that’s way more trivial. I had a lot of lonely years in prison. I've got a lot to say about a lot of movies you definitely don't wanna hear.

(I'm going by AMERICAN release dates, because I'm not a professional, I'm JUST A GUY, OK??)

50.) Blitz — There's a lot that does not work about Steve McQueen's Apple-funded WWII epic. But for every moment that doesn't connect about this inscrutable child at the center of the narrative or Saoirse Ronan's mother character that feels inconsistently sidelined, there's a shot or sequence of devastating scope, one that emphasizes both the wide scale violence of the war but also the intimate cost of the violence between men. A beautiful film that begins massive and gradually, tragically shrinks until we have to ask if survival is enough of a reward. Stream it on Apple TV.

49.) Lousy Carter — Bob Byington's latest tale of a middlebrow suburban loser visits the world of academia, where national treasure David Krumholtz brings us the hapless, self-sabotaging title character as a theoretical has-been on the verge of becoming a permanent never-was. Byington's menagerie of screw ups gladly welcomes one more. I've only discovered him post-prison and he's already one of my favorite in a shrinking pool of great comedy directors. Stream it on Hulu.

48.) How To Have Sex — This frank youth-run-wild import isn't some fun time-killer but in fact a painfully-straightforward story of the pain and regret that comes from a society that advertises sex-positivity despite the lingering specter of the patriarchy. This is the reading I endorse, but the movie's strength is that the pokerfaced execution could spark a totally different reading from other viewers. However one interprets the film, it certainly helps form a knot in your stomach. Stream it on Mubi.

47.) Emilia Perez — Every five minutes of this chaotic and unforgettable movie feels as if it could spin off into an entirely different film. Viewers have spun this into a negative, but the movie is a runaway jalopy of ideas, many of which only obliquely address the transness at the center of the narrative (or do so in the abstract). I was particularly taken with the idea of naming the nameless at the bottom of piles of bodies created by the title character, a powerful interrogation of power, identity and criminal justice. We all want to put a face on the sea of victims of crime, but how do we best do that when we have all been compromised? I continue to wrestle with this movie (and, to be fair, it's whack-ass songs). Stream it on Netflix.

46.) The Killer's Game — A methodically-pleasurable b-action/comedy that delivers like cheap neighborhood pizza. Dave Bautista proves himself as a tender romantic lead through ornately-choreographed brawls, and a collection of legends of low-rent action cinema like Scott Adkins, Terry Crews and Marko Zaror get to showcase both their skills in a fight and with a punchline. With Ben Kingsley giving a genuinely sweet performance in a movie that has as many good vibes as any movie with exploding heads can manage. Rent it.

45.) Dad And Stepdad — The spirit of “Step Brothers” is alive in this profoundly dumb indie. One teenage boy still figuring out his identity and understanding his hormones, stuck between the two manchildren trying to permanently earn the title of “Dad”. Also, everyone is played by a middle-aged man. There is a conversation here about a “sexy fox” that might be the most I laughed for several minutes all year. Stream it on Mubi.

44.) Mayhem! — Xavier Gans, a veteran of the French New Extremity movement, stretches his genre muscles with this uniquely-textured martial arts movie. Revenge is the necessary trapping of the genre, but the spark that's lit is an aggressively eccentric chase-and-kill narrative where each of the film's many brawls have distinct visuals, vibes and bloody, bloody retribution. Stream it on Hulu.

43.) Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person — A “Harold And Maude”-inspired rom-com where Maude is an eternally-teenaged goth who drinks blood, this is one of the year's more -inspired horror mashups. Funny but in a gentle, teasing manner, this adventurously-lit slice of arthouse-gothmope is a consistently pleasurable low-key experience. Stream it on Mubi and free on Kanopy.

42.) Molli And Max In The Future — A Woody Allen-inspired intergalactic future romance sounds, frankly, awful. But this kicky little confection, starring a game Zosia Mamet and a charming Aristotle Athari (a megatalent cruelly dropped from “Saturday Night Live” after one contentious season), is a movie that could conceivably coast on its chatty, believable dialogue. But the bulk of the laughs come from the imaginatively-odd universe-building that creates an outlandish tomorrow that nonetheless seems believable. Look out for the futuristic Trump stand-in, probably the best of any mock-Trumps in any movie this year. Stream it on Amazon, or free on Hoopla.

41.) Asphalt City — Dumb, reactionary macho poetry that nonetheless looks great and hits hard. EMT's in 1980’s New York, both Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan give strong performances as the bitter, conservative vet and the idealistic rookie trying to avoid falling into the void. Michael Pitt shows up to bring a sleazy authenticity to a metal headed fellow emergency worker, and by that point, you're either onboard with the piercing toxic masculinity, or you're rolling your eyes at a movie that distractingly employs Mike Tyson in a serious role as a Professional Voice Of Authority. Stream it on Hulu.

40.) I Used To Be Funny — I tend to be a mark for movies about comedy, as you'll see on a coming week. This festival gem, which Netflix purchased before burying it within the algorithm, is more specifically about how men and women are generally funny for different reasons. Rachel Sennott gives a potent performance as a woman who illustrates the problems when female comedians are considered “confessional” and how that is received compared to the same approach by a male. Stream it on Netflix.

39.) Sometimes I Think About Dying — I came out of prison and was surprised by the amount of sad, creepy hate Daisy Ridley received for being in the “Star Wars” films. Can't say I blame her for turning around and taking part in this miniscule indie where she plays a nondescript and depressed cubicle drone in the Middle of Nowhere, USA. This is a movie that never once betrays its emotional reality, as Ridley slowly starts branching out of her hovel, only to find a coworker eager to pull her out himself, to her chagrin. Stream it for free on Kanopy.

38.) The Secret Art Of Human Flight — Somewhere between the dramedy grounding of a Mike White script and a Terry Gilliam reverie, this Tic-Tac-shaped trifle follows a man who tries to process his widower's grief by dedicating himself to the possibility he may take flight. The idea is initially twee, but the excellent Paul Raci appears as a guru who has the requisite wisdom to either be a visionary, a con man, or perhaps both. Stream it on Amazon.

37.) Handling The Undead — Every time zombies begin to feel passè, a movie like this comes along to remind you why they resonate so deeply with viewers. Not a conventional entry in this genre, this French picture focuses instead on the cost paid by those who watch their family members become flesh eaters, and how they carry on in the hopes an incurable condition can somehow be vanquished with science, love, or some combination of the two. The rare film to recognize the sheer horror of just holding on. Stream it on Hulu.

36.) Civil War — Alex Garland's bleak political parable doesn't provide a simple tonic for a divided society. Instead, the movie reminds us of the inescapable endgame of such tribalism. “Civil War" means nothing until you take it apart from the bottom up, sitting with that nihilistic ending and understanding what gets you to that point. This is a movie that should flash across an American's eyes not unlike the moral awakening in the third act of the infamous documentary “The Act Of Killing”. Stream it on Max.

35.) Exhibiting Forgiveness — At times a bit heavy handed (the origins of the title are something of an eye roller), this remains one of the year's most emotionally affecting movies. The narrative asks us to understand the circumstances we could never experience in wondering, who gets to ask for forgiveness, and who should we forgive? It wouldn't land as hard without the work of Andre Holland, fast becoming one of the industry's most thoughtful and complex actors.

34.) Sasquatch Sunset — A provocation, yes, but a gentle and curious one. Sasquatches, they're just like us - driven entirely by their private parts, and eternally confused as to how they can fit in society. It doesn't feel as if life is complete until we all learn what Werner Herzog thinks of this. Stream it for free on Kanopy.

33.) Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In — An action extravaganza. This Hong Kong epic takes a ground-level approach to a long-standing grudge, one that pits men against each other in the tightest quarters that allow physics-defying martial arts, and some that don't. The claustrophobic settings somehow don't limit any of the creativity of the stint team, here responsible for the most purely enjoyable fisticuffs of the year. Stream it on Amazon.

32, 31.) The First Omen, Smile 2 — Two female-forward horror franchise extensions that somehow provide the best-case scenarios for, respectively, an ersatz prequel and a cash-in follow-up. The oddly timely “First Omen” turns bodily autonomy into a battleground for the future of the church and the birth of the antichrist. Not one minute of this movie features the administrative villains voice concerns about our heroine. The lead in “Smile 2” has much more autonomy though it doesn't matter as she attempts to pry herself from a nightmare imprisonment of guilt and self-hatred. It's a story that would stand alone (particularly with the gargantuan work by Naomi Scott) even before you factor in some of the wildest stylistic choices of any studio film this year to create a visual nightmare that spills off the screen at a shockingly steady clip. Stream “The First Omen” on Hulu and “Smile 2” on Paramount Plus.

30.) National Anthem — Maybe this was a collection of classy sex fantasies for the adventurously lusty, but so what? This hazy reverie follows a sexually-uncertain day laborer (Charlie Plummer) who falls in with gay and transgender inhabitants of a forward-thinking ranch far off the grid. The empathetic but sensual portrayal of transgender love arouses certain feelings yes. But this is primarily a tender story about an aimless young man who finally discovers there is a utopia for him out there that doesn't ask him for more than what a taciturn young man can give. Stream it for free on Kanopy and Hoopla.

29.) Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell — Slow cinema at its slowest, but also it's most quietly perceptive. A young man heads back home to Vietnam to retrace his steps. But is he filling in the blanks of his present and future, or clinging to the nostalgia of yesterday? A gorgeous, patient movie that proves the idea we find no-strings-attached closure by revisiting yesterday. Stream it for free on Kanopy.

28.) Coup! - Peter Sarsgaard is hysterical in this period comedy that gleefully challenges your biases and expectations. It is a hundred years ago during a flu epidemic that has sheltered millions in place. Locked down with a persnickety millionaire who insists on vegetarian meals for his family, a bitter chef engages in house invasion psychological warfare under the premise his presence is pivotal to the family's immediate needs. One of the year's most mischievously political films. Stream it on Hulu.

27.) Hundreds Of Beavers — Unadulterated gibberish from minute one, this proudly ridiculous silent movie presents a crossbreeding of Guy Maddin and sidescroller video games. The movie, which follows an elaborate Looney Tunes battle between an overzealous human and many, many men in beaver suits, is a tad overlong, but not enough to try your patience, particularly considering the pile of prestige movies this year that were over 140 goddamned minutes. Stream it for free on Kanopy and Hoopla.

26.) The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed — Joanna Arnow presents the gutsiest directorial debut this year, starring as a self-destructive, self-deprecating writer stuck in a loveless, incident-free S&M relationship with an older man. The unforgiving camera gazes into the broken spirit of yet another success-free New York City resident in a movie that seems to nudge the noxious mumblecore genre into a more confessional, confrontational direction reminiscent of a hornier Cassavetes. Stream it on Hulu.

25.) Queer — Living up to its title in every way, this moody companion piece to David Cronenberg's similarly meta “Naked Lunch” luridly follows the internal quest of a gay lush (Daniel Craig), wasting away in Mexico, to seek conquests in order to reach a higher consciousness. Maddening and opaque, it is a massive film of small rewards, not counting a ground-shaking performance by Craig who finally finds the macho vulnerability of “Layer Cake” lost to him in the Bond years.

24.) Problemista — We need to protect the precious Julio Torres at all costs. The comedian and humorist directs himself as an option-free immigrant in America attempting to satisfying the many whims of a hysterical boss (Tilda Swinton, dialing up to a higher level) in order to stay in the country. “Problemista” is like all Torres' work in that it supposes there is a world of chaos just out of our eyesight that eats the dreams of the most precocious of us to mine fuel for the capitalist machine. If quicker recommend his HBO show this year, “Fantomas”, but it's a thrill that there are two such Torres projects worth exploring. Stream it on Max.

23.) The Shadow Strays — In a good year for action, few movies were as recklessly entertaining as “The Shadow Strays”, nevermind as blood splattered. One of the simpler storylines pushed by Timo Tjahjanto, this brutal gorefest concerns the problems when a well-compensated killer decides to maneuver free of her murderous obligation. Tjahjanto has done this sort of thing before. It's a miracle he keeps finding new veins and arteries to burst during the most vicious hand-to-hand combat you've ever seen. Stream it on Netflix.

22.) Orion And The Dark — The latest Charlie Kaufman screenplay ended up being a children's film on Netflix, which is to say it was a mythical creature some heard about and no one ever saw. In truth, this narratively-challenging fare about a child overcoming paralyzing fear probably requires more viewings than a single childless guy like myself is ready to afford it. Still, in spite of marginally decent animation and a voice performance by Paul Walter Hauser that sounds strongly like discount Seth Rogen, this is a fascinating, complex recounting of whether a man can process his own long-standing failure to conquer his fears, through the prism of the industry's most talented and least-confident voices. Stream it on Netflix.

21.) Riddle Of Fire — A delight from minute one until the end, this charming low-fi children's adventure pits a team of unwashed ragamuffins against what appears to be a small crime syndicate run by a witch. This movie is a reckless amount of fun, powered by the authenticity of these child actors who grant the movie an improvisational feel even if each step the narrative takes is a proud dash into a quest. And any movie using the main theme of “Cannibal Holocaust”, particularly in such a sweet manner, earns endless gratitude. Stream it on Mubi.

20.) Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World — A loopy look into the life of a gig worker proves dizzying. In addition to her chaperoning passengers to their destination, she employs a filter to obtain social media followers as “Bobita”, a male chauvinist Andrew Tate acolyte fishing for followers to monetize her numbers. Additionally, the film focuses on an unsafe working condition where a corporation refused to admit culpability, using methods seen in the video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues” to CYA and avoid accountability. All this, plus layered Romanian film critique and an appearance by Uwe Boll! The most playful and provocative anti-capitalist screed of the year, during a period where such commentators seem absolutely terrified. Stream it on Mubi.

19.) Janet Planet — A low-key no budget charmer about the chasm separating a semi-transient lost-at-sea (Julianne Nicholson, always indispensable) and her angry prepubescent daughter resentful of being along for the ride for her mother's self-actualization. A bitterly funny tragedy of a little girl robbed of her chance at childhood, forced to spend it instead with “interesting” adults. A movie that ends on a hard-won, near-sincere grin for the ages. Stream it on Max.

18.) La Chimera — There are sequences just filthy with ideas in this moody but rich tale of gypsy grave robbers and the antiquities hawk (Josh O'Connor) stuck picking through their morality to find great treasure. But fans of the film (there are considerable - they kept “La Chimera” playing at the IFC Center in NYC for more than half the year) can understand that it is another of the most rewarding indies - a movie that begins with a suggestion weighing an imperceptibly great weight, gaining in substance until a final reel resolution of that suggestion that forces your air to gather in your throat for what feels like an eternity within terrestrial seconds. Stream it for free on Kanopy.

17.) Didi — A painful and perceptive story about a young Asian American preteen figuring out his identity in the early 00's. This is a movie that pays close attention to period signifiers in order to present a young boy who sees himself a changing element within a changing world, and who briefly (or permanently?) finds himself inorganically resorting to his angrier and more banal impulses. What do you do when you find out you've chosen to be the jerk when you don't even know what that means? Sometimes tough, but a movie that understands asking, “Do you want to eat?” can sometimes be the most loving gesture a parent can make. Stream it on Peacock.

16.) His Three Daughters — A modest one and a half location indie, this drama features three powerful actresses — Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne — being able to explore, bend and mutate familiar characters and otherwise-pedestrian character-based group dynamics. The film shows what appears to be it's cards early, letting you fall into a false sense of comfort as each conversation takes the audience to surprising, previously unexplored locations. With the most generous heartfelt ending of the year. Stream it on Netflix.

15.) Rebel Ridge — Frankly I was surprised at myself for how loudly I hooted and hollered at one moment about a half hour into this thriller — if you know, you know. A star performance by Aaron Pierre lifts this knotty suspense thriller that cannily refuses to gin up the evil in a group of small town racist cops, instead damning the police with their own crooked policies. The fight against crooked authority can be fueled by resentment, but it can also be an attack fueled by knowledge of the actual rules and regulations that crooked jerks and their henchmen seem determined to break as they move to fascism. A must watch for anyone who wants to avoid being a cop's sucka. Stream it on Netflix.

14.) Sing Sing — For my own interests, I hoped this would be the most prominent American movie of the year to foreground the issue of mass incarceration. That may very well be the case, and for that, I have my reservations. What remains is something more heady, dynamic. This is the history of people being stolen, taken, and fighting back against order, decor and nature utilized by their captors to make the case of what happens to us when we perform for each other, not the guards. It's about the idea of absolution, the idea that when people ask for it, hear them, however they choose to say it.

13.) Flow — Every meticulous, painterly visual in this hypnotic movie manages to gesture to a world on the screen that was never going to be fairly explained. Each of those sequences capture the mystery of the piece, our kitty hero observing an evolving (or devolving) world, flooded and abandoned forever. The picture is a vibe moreso than a fully formed tale, a study in empathy more than a flat narrative. And yet each shot has more dread, and more hope, than the entirety of any mass-produced spectacle flooding the multiplex this week or next.

12.) The People's Joker — Vera Drew's pop collage exploration of her sexual coming of age is captured amongst the backdrop of a superhero filled Gotham City that nonetheless is fueled by Big Corporate Sketch Comedy. To truly appreciate this movie, you need a deep respect for the Joel Schumacher “Batman” films, an understanding of the backstage antagonism of the “Saturday Night Live” ecosystem, and an understanding of transgender identity dynamics. Since I still proudly own “Batman And Robin” and “SNL” is my favorite show (with reservations similar to those of Ms. Drew), I fulfill two of those qualifications, and it remains one of the year's best. I suspect it's still true even if you can't tell the difference between Val Kilmer and Michael Keaton's Batmen (George Clooney is the Batman that's always bobbing his head and, for some reason, friend-zoning Elle MacPhereson)(I have borderline religious thoughts on the Schumacher Batman movies, for the record). Stream it on Mubi.

11.) The Beekeeper — Sometimes, a dumb piece of crap just speaks to our times. Jason Statham is in some disappointing movies, but he never disappoints, and he certainly isn't a letdown as Adam Clay, badass “Beekeeper” who lights up a trail of revenge when a non-familial auntie (Phyllis Rashad) is ripped off by online phishing scammers. “The Beekeeper” benefits from a marketplace who refuses to acknowledge that internet scammers and spammers are the real world villains of all of us, but also a marketplace that acknowledges that Jason Statham is our Ass-Kicker In Chief, and so it spins a narrative that takes him into the (bipartisan, sinisterly) Oval Office just to “protect the hive”. If you're gonna pour a movie out of a bottle, which Hollywood does weekly, make it this one.

Admission: I may be biased considering that, for my first birthday not in custody since 2014, I rented out an entire movie theater so my good friends and I could watch this alone (and stand and cheer when someone says, “to bee or not to bee” and is answered with, “TO BEE!” Stream it on Amazon.

10.) She Is Conann — The most unlikely of fantasy epics, this unique (and rather talky!) tale of Conan The Barbarian as a woman accomplishes a great deal upon only its First Act. Not only does it recontextualize the ancient narrative of Conan as birthed as a woman, with all its magic and majesty and wanton bloodshed, providing an epic tale of brute force victory — it also forges forward with a new myth, one that emphasizes the strength of a woman in following the mayhem with union and tactical camaraderie, removing the male insecurities inherent in several creation myths. And for what it's worth, every single shot in this movie is a different version of insane. Stream it for free on Kanopy.

9.) A Different Man — Aaron Schimberg, a filmmaker I've dutifully followed through the years, enters the mainstream with this ersatz comedy of manners. Upon undergoing major facial reconstructive surgery, a man emerges looking studly and new, opting so cruelly to supplant his old identity than onlookers think the once sensitive unassuming man is dead. Finding out a play about his past self is in the works, he auditions under the secret impression no one can play him but himself. And of course a banal, ugly sense of jealousy descends when he is supplanted in the play by another man with facial deformities. Schimberg's comedy deftly asks questions of identity and moral decency, furthering his interest in beauty and how we interpret the surface of physical appearances.

8.) About Dry Grasses — Look, am I gonna pretend to you I was ever looking forward to watching a three hour (plus!) movie from Turkey of all places with as parodic a foreign film title as this? The might as well have titled it Boring Foreign Crap You Won't Understand For Far Too Long.

And yet, Nuri Bilge Ceylan is here with another banger. This is a genuinely fascinating movie about a teacher in occupied Anatolia trying to follow the rules under the thumb of others when he faces a Kafka-esque accusation involving misconduct with a student. What unfurls is a portrait of Life During Wartime, fueled by an intense third act discussion revolving around the unevenly distributed prices certain people pay under occupation. If you wish movies at any point addressed the politics of our time, this is appointment viewing. Stream it free on Kanopy.

7.) Red Rooms — The year's most sinister suspense thriller finds a killer in cuffs before the First Act even begins. A young model with a lonely life finds herself drawn to a splashy trial where a man is accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering young women on camera and disseminating the videos. She corresponds with others but never truly communicates with them, and so we never truly learn what it is upsets her, involves her, excites her about these deaths and this man. This is a portrait of quiet, polite radicalization, how online obsessions driven by nihilism can swallow up the most normal or unassuming of us (and in this case, even the most outwardly attractive). But it's also a white knuckle endurance test as you wonder how far this woman will take her own fascinations. Rent it.

6.) A Real Pain — There's a moment halfway through this movie where Jesse Eisenberg apologizes profusely to his fellow dinner mates as Kiernan Culkin storms off following yet another passive aggressive explosion. His long winded apology, forcing itself out of him in fits and starts, becomes a confessional about his own insecurities. Without interruption, he's soon buckling emotionally as he begins to feel the size of the weight he is carrying, as everyone nervously averts their eyes and slumps in their chairs. In aggregate, all of “A Real Pain” is that moment, and it is everyone.

5.) I Saw The TV Glow — A fictional show, “The Pink Opaque”, proves to be the skeleton key for a couple of teenagers learning to embrace who they really are. “I Saw The TV Glow” seems highly indebted to coming-of-age narratives, except in this case the otherwise highly-ignored idea is universal - what if you refused the step you have to take to recognize who you are, and who you're destined to become? “I Saw The TV Glow” has strong LGBTQ parallels, though it's tale is the constant everyday struggles of suburbia, rows of little boxes holding muffled screams about what could have been. Stream it on Max.

4.) Between The Temples — The year's funniest, freest movie is about the ungainly union between Jason Schwartzman as the saddest of the sad sack cantors and Carol Kane as the lapsed Jewish woman with the golden heart. The movie naughtily pivots towards and away the pleasingly conventional notion of two lost people finding each other. And then, in glorious fashion, it's ending is spiked by a self-immolation of good intentions and terrible execution, utterly tanking what seemed like a happy medium for all of the film's bighearted characters. I feel as if I'm still at that dinner table sometimes, hiding my eyes. Stream it on Netflix.

3.) Love Lies Bleeding — The year's most romantic film is maybe the most tactile, certainly the most scatological. Small town, sick drugs, hot lust and dead bodies collide into a movie dripping with sweat and oozing blood (all types!), two star-crossed lovers making enough wrong choices to begin a series of myths, one of which we may be watching. Every year we need a reminder that, in our desires, in our avarice, in our lack of self-control, we are gross, and it is beautiful. Stream it on Max.

2.) Challengers — I do not care for tennis. I have no feelings about Zendaya, I think Mike Faist seems neutered here (probably the point) and Josh O'Connor is Arthur the Aardvark. And as soon as Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross began lying their beats over the match coverage in this film, I locked in and was propelled through the year's most exciting movie. At the heart of this perhaps anti-romance movie is that this is about what it means to cheat, to be a cheat. What happens when you make the decision to cheat with a lover, either cheat on your lover or entice someone to cheat on their lover? “Challengers” makes it seem as if the latter accomplishment is like Thanos acquiring an Infinity Stone. Now that you've done so, how far do you intend to go, and what will it tell you about yourself? In that respect, this is one of the great movies about sports, but the sport ain't tennis. Stream it on Amazon.

1.) Robot Dreams — I caught this movie on a whim this spring upon its American release. I did not expect to be so shattered as to still be collecting the pieces. The basic story follows an anthropomorphic dog in an animal world who, with no friends or lovers, acquires a robot to be his best friend. Companionship is a dream, until reality intervenes. For reasons I won't disclose here, they end up apart, both seeking new relationships, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing. In the back of their minds, both wonder what it would mean to reunite. This is a movie about loneliness, and how there can be no quick fix, no permanent solution. Maybe you can learn more about yourself and look inward to see you deserve your own love. Maybe you can find someone who finds you a delight, someone who considers you important. I sat there in the theater as a middle aged man, alone in the world, living by myself, isolated in an empty theater, wearing a social stigma of being damaged. I cried like my soul had begun to leak, from the first few moments onwards, and I didn't even truly understand why. No movie in 2024 touched me this deeply, this intensely. Stream it on Hulu.

An update: President Joe Biden recently did his part to try to empty Death Row as I had hoped, commuting thirty seven sentences from the death penalty to life on parole, the very least he could do. The absolute very least he could do, with no regard for justice or rehabilitation, but it's more than nothing.

Three men remain on Death Row. One is Dylann Roof, a white man who marched into a southern church to kill nine Black parishioners with the intention, as per his manifesto, to start a race war. I can tell you a part of me, the ugliest part, said that it was okay that he would die. We all must work hard to remind ourselves that murder is not justice. Sometimes it’s not an easy reminder.

Uninterested in this reminder is Donald Trump, who registered his disappointment on social media regarding the fact these men could not be murdered for the state. Donald Trump, who begged out of military service because of non-existent bone spurs, is openly boasting of all the men he will kill, not only the remaining three people on Death Row, but scores of others under new charges and new utilization of a supercharged death penalty for any crime he seems unpleasant.

Do not forget - President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are murderers. One of them does it out of a twisted and juvenile sense of justice, and he seems to not exactly relish the principle, believing it is a necessary evil. And one of them is ecstatic about the idea of equating protection with the practice of murder. It's important to remember these varying degrees. And it's also important to remember that it is still murder, whether you hide behind the Presidency like a coward or not.