Today’s Genre-ary was an Academy Award winner from 2016. Amy is the story of British singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse.
I knew only a little bit of Amy Winehouse. I am unfamiliar with her music, but I did know of her death in 2011 and I had heard of this documentary from A24 when it was making the rounds in 2015.
Constructed by home movies, archival footage and personal interviews, Amy paints a picture of a remarkably talented woman who struggled with the traps of fame and the dangers of excess that, at times, went hand and hand with it.
Watching this tragedy unfold in this documentary, I was struck with the idea that Amy Winehouse never truly knew who she was or that she was always afraid of the truth and she spent plenty of time running from it by the drug use or the alcohol. It seemed as if there were two powerful men in her life whom she adored, her father Mitch and her husband Blake Fielder, and both of them appeared to take advantage of her celebrity. The scenes of her father bringing a camera crew to an island hideaway with Amy was repulsive.
Amy never felt comfortable as a celebrity. The constant imagery of her moving through a pool of paparazzi with cameras clicking away is one of the enduring depiction of this doc.
Another is the amazing strength of Amy’s voice and her songwriting skills. The doc had all kinds of performances from recordings over her career with lyrics to the songs written on screen allowing the song to speak as much as the sadness surrounding much of her existance.
You know you’re something special when you can have legendry singer Tony Bennett end the documentary with the quote, “She was one of the truest jazz singers I ever heard. To me, she should be treated like Ella Fitzgerald, like Billie Holliday. She had the complete gift.”
As a fan of the old Universal Monster movies, I was looking forward to the next one to be remade by Blumhouse. When Blumhouse had done The Invisible Man back just before the pandemic, it was such an enjoyable film and offered some great new ideas for the topic.
Wolf Man did not have a lot of new ideas. It was basically what you would expect.
According to IMDB, “A family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal, but as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.“
Positives: The film looked great. I enjoyed the visuals of the Wolf Man and I approved of how they kept the original creatures reasonably hidden for most of the first act or so of the film. The transformation, which was slow and took its time, was very effective.
The stress-level of the film was building as the transformation happened. You never was sure what was going to happen as the family tried to stay alive.
Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott did a nice job with their roles of married couple Charlotte and Blake. I was impressed with the young actress, Matilda Firth, who played thier daughter Ginger. Her terrified ractions were very solid and worked for the film.
The problem is that this story is so very thin and did not have anything more to it. None of the characters were sufficiently developed, with only Blake having any basic depth to him. The story was so simple that it left me wishing there was more to it.
I do think that this movie has technical aspects that are worth seeing and if you go into it not expecting too much, this is a passable monster movie. Unfortunately, Wolf Man does not reach the heights, especially story-wise, that some of the previous werewolf films do.
Eddie Fox, is a seven foot six inch beast. He was twenty six years old and still living in his dad’s basement. He had been practicing baseball since he was five years old, and part of his dream had finally come true. He made it to pro baseball. He was an outfielder so he doesn’t make money yet. He needed to support his dad and try to make him proud of his son again. With his mom bills piling up especially with the bills that his mom had put on them, this was his darkest time. He felt as if he had died or was going to die.
He had been trying to make them pick him for first base. That was his other part of his dream. He had not been able to practice much because of his mom. So the first day of baseball Coach Brian said that Eddie was in the outfield. Then the dad said unencouraging things. It went like this.
“Eddie, you are outfield,” said Coach Brian.
“Of course you are. You always are. How did I have this big of a failure,” said dad.
Then in the outfield he met his soon to be best friend, Blake. He is 4 foot 9 inches and he is 24 years old. He had already accomplished his dream of being a catcher. Eventually a ball got hit toward him, and it did not end so well.
“I got it, I got it,” said Eddie. Cluck! “That is not good. What are my teammates and especially my dad?”
Then his practice is over and Blake went over and talked to Eddie.
“Hey if you would have put your glove up higher and tilted it more to the side you would have caught it,” said Blake.
“Thanks for the tips and looking out for me, that is the first thing anyone nice has done for me,” said Eddie.
“What do you mean by that,” said Blake.
“Well my dad thinks I am a failure, disappointment, and did I mention a failure. My mom died in a car accident and the last thing she said to him was something like you were a failure and you will never be a pro baseball player,” said Eddie.
“That is pretty rough. Dad died from cancer when I was little and my mom has been the best mom I could have ever asked for,” said Blake.
Then after they were done talking Coach Brian pulled him to the side. That did not go too well for Eddie.
“Eddie, if you keep playing like this, I am going to have to kick you off the team,” said Coach Brian.
“Coach Brian you know how much I need this,” said Eddie.
“I know but the team would be better off if you were just gone. Unless somehow you improve in a month. It will be hard for you to improve because you are bad at baseball,” said Coach Brian.
“Can’t you see that I am trying, I have been trying since I was five years old. Trying to make everyone proud of me but it seems that no one cares about me except for one person, Blake,” said Eddie.
Eddie walked away wiping his tears from his face with Blake slowly recognizing and coming to comfort him. Then Eddie thought of what his dad said, what his coach said, and what his mom said before the car accident. He never forgot what she said.
“You are such a failure,” said Mom.
That is when his dad saw him. It was brutal to watch for Blake. Blake saw exactly how his dad treated him. Blake then knew that his dad thought Eddie was a nobody. So did everyone else except for him. Blake felt so bad for him. For a second when Eddie’s dad looked at Blake and then back at Eddie he thought that he was going to kill the kid. Then all of a sudden Eddie’s dad raised his arm ready to strike him. Right as he was about to, Coach Brian caught his hand and punched Eddie’s dad right in the nose, breaking it.
“Thank you so much Coach Brian. You don’t know how much that meant to me. But now when he wakes up and comes to our house he is going to kill me.” said Eddie.
Then Blake ran over.
“He won’t because you are going to stay with me for a while,” said Blake.
“Are you sure you don’t have to,” said Eddie.
“Like you said earlier he would kill you,” said Blake.
“Okay, I will as long as it is not too much trouble for you mom,” said Eddie
“I think she will understand,” said Blake.
So Eddie started living with Blake and his mom. It turned out that Blake lived right by a baseball field so they practiced every morning. Eventually in a month he had practiced fives hours a day. Eventually, they both became really good at baseball.Then came the final day before Coach Brian said he could not do that. He ended up impressing Coach Brian so much that he got put on second base. Eventually, the next month he got put on first base. He was also making money now. A lot of it too. Then his dad came three months later.
“Son, I am so proud of you. Do you think you could give me some cash,” said Dad.
“What do you mean? My entire life you said I was a disappointment or a failure. Now since you did not need me when I was at my lowest then I do not need you now,” said Eddie.
So in the end Eddie realized that he did not need his dad in the end because all he wanted was money. He also paid off all of the debt and with the rest of his money he spent on more important things. Something that matters to him like Blake. So Eddie also treated Blake with all the nice things in the world like watches, TVs, cars, boats, a house, and he gave them ten thousand dollars. Eddie was really proud of himself. Blake and Eddie were having so much fun at their fun job that they loved so much. From that day on they lived the happiest they had ever been.
I have not been a fan of Will Ferrell. He has some movies that I absolutely hate. Yet, this Netflix documentary may just make me want to reconsider that opinion.
Will Ferrell and his friend of thirty years, Harper Steele, went on a buddy road trip across America. The hook? Harper Steele had just completed gender transition and was out as a trans woman.
Ferrell met Steele when Farrell joined SNL and they quickly became close friends. When they decided to take this trip across the country, Harper had given Will the right to ask any question about the transition. The openness of the friendship and the kind, sensitive manner in which they spoke to one another gave a real insight into the friendship they had built over the years.
Seeing how Will was protective and, at times, fearful for Harper was so sweet. The places that they traveled to were shown on the doc and the people that they came across spoke with respect and kindness.
But how many actually meant it? They came across the governor of Indiana, Eric Holcomb, at a basketball game and Holcomb dropped his rhetoric to get a picture with Ferrell. Holcomb has been an outspoken anti-trans proponent, passing severe anti-trans laws in his state.
When Farrell, dressed as Sherlock Holmes, took Steele to a steak house in Texas, the crowd at the restaurant was pretty taken aback. The social media response to the dinner was off the charts, with a ton of hatred spewing across the platforms. Of course, these people were all taking their outrage and vitriol to the safety of the internet where they can post their hatred with a certain amount of anonymousness.
However, much of the doc played against the caricature of the ignorant American and showed people who were very supportive and kind. Will Farrell was amazing with Harper, supporting her and treating her with such respect and acceptance that you could see how intimate and special their years long friendship had become.
The film was not just a powerful doc, but it was hilarious as well. Some of the scenes were just outright funny, which I guess you should expect with two funny people at the front of the film.
Will & Harper was a really enjoyable film that showed the power of friendship, the humor of a buddy road trip and the capacity of dialogue and communication.
Den of Thieves: Pantera is the first, actual, film from 2025. I had never watched the first film and, this being a sequel, I was a little concerned about that fact.
And truthfully, I could never get into this flick. I do believe the fact that I had not seen 2018’s Den of Thieves was a big reason I could never build any connection to the film. I disliked the characters, I thought the story, with a few exceptions, was dull and boring, and I just was peeking at the time through much of the first half of the movie wishing it would get over.
I could care less about the robbery that they were setting up, but I will say that the execution of the robbery itself was my favorite part of the film. Outside of that 20 minutes or so, I really found this to be an excruciating watch.
Without spoiling it, there were no less than two… TWO… Deus ex machina endings for this movie, and I hated both twists… SO MUCH!
According to IMDB, “Butler returns as Big Nick (Gerard Butler), this time on the hunt in Europe for Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) who is embroiled in the dangerous world of diamond thieves and the infamous Panther mafia as they plot a massive heist of the world’s biggest diamond exchange“
I thought both Butler and Jackson Jr. were fine with their characters. i just did not care about either one. There was a scene early in the film where Nick gets drunk/stoned etc. and I thought that was so ridiculous that it completely derailed the film for me. I was having enough issues getting into the story so something like this knocked it down even more.
As I said, the actual robbery had some good tension to it, although it was very difficult to swallow. I was more able to give the leeway here because the set up to the theft was so much better than the rest of the movie. Sadly, the post robbery stuff had me rolling my eyes (including a moment that seemed to go from night to day in an instant).
I don’t know if my opinions would be different if I had seen Den of Thieves before going to the sequel, but I did not, so I can only judge this on what they gave me, and what they gave me was substandard in my thought.
2.2 stars
Edit: I went back and looked at my other reviews and I actually did see Den of Thieves in 2018. I gave it a 2.3 star rating. It shows you how memorable that first film was for me.
Some of the movies that I missed from 2024, specifically a lot of the Oscar worthy ones, come out in limited release in one year, such as 2024 and then go wide in the following year, 2025. Recently, I have been holding off watching those films until the June Swoon, but there are some that I will watch immediately. September 5, next week, will be one that I will see in the theaters because I am really looking forward to it. I went to one of these films today. It was called Better Man and it was a weird biopic of British pop star Robbie Williams.
To be honest, I did not know much of anything about Robbie Williams going into the movie. I think I had heard about the boy band he was in, Take That, but that is about all. With my limited knowledge, I learned a lot about the pop star.
Like, for example, he was a talking, singing monkey.
It is an interesting choice by the film creators to make Robbie, the character, a CGI monkey, voiced by Jonno Davies and the film is narrated by Williams himself. None of the other characters referenced him being a monkey so it is clear that this is the way the character sees himself and the others were just seeing the human version.
The story follows the rise and fall of Robbie Williams. The biopic does not sugar coat the life that Williams led. It showed his drug use, his suicidal thoughts, and struggles in his career.
I will say that I think the conclusion of this movie was completely emotional. I was tearing up through the whole scene and I just loved it.
Steve Pemberton does a great job as Robbie’s father, a major factor in the life of his son, both negatively and positively.
This was a really great biopic about a person who I did not know much about. I was thoroughly entertained throughout the film. It was a creative film that took the musical biopic in a different way.
This documentary covers the life of EYG Hall of Famer Gene Wilder, one of the great comedic actors of all time. Wilder was the star of a multitude of amazing movies including Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Stir Crazy, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory along others.
I love Gene Wilder. Willy Wonka and Young Frankenstein are two of my all time favorite films and so I was interested in seeing this life
The film touches on his youth, but spends most of the time with his career and adult years. The background of the filming of The Producers and the other movie that followed was really great.
We had comments about the different movies and the genius of Gene Wilder from Mel Brooks, Alan Alda, Carol Kane, Harry Connick Jr., Eric McCormack, Ben Mankiewicz, daughter of Richard Pryor- Rain and Mike Medavoy.
The film spoke about Gene’s love and marriage with Gilda Radner as well as his discovery of his second wife Karen during research for the film See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Karen was a real emotional beat in the last section of the doc. As she was giving her first person POV of Wilder’s Alzheimer’s Disease, it was heartbreaking and I found myself with tears in my eyes.
Gene Wilder was such a kind and loving person and that comes across in this movie. We got much of this doc in Gene Wilder’s own voice. He did much of the narration of the film and it brought us even closer to this icon.
One of the most well known documentaries of the past 25 years is on the agenda for the Genre-ary DailyView today: the Oscar-winning doc An Inconvenient Truth featuring a presentation by former Vice-President Al Gore.
The term ‘Global Warming’ is no longer used because the opposition forces have jumped on the semantics of the term, pointing to terribly low temperatures that have happened. The term these days is ‘climate change,’ which, as I said, is just semantics.
The science Al Gore presented in this doc is very compelling and hard to argue against. Contrarians might claim this is meant to be a political presentation, but it does not feel that way to me. Gore speaks about misconceptions during the film and how opponents try to build on doubt, and this feels more accurate.
Al Gore is undeniably an engaging speaker on this topic. He has always been presented as being stoic and stuffy, and, while one can see some of that in this doc, he showed himself knowledgeable and effective in providing info on this topic in compelling ways.
I thought the moments where they connected parts of Gore’s life, whether that be his presidential run, his sister’s death to lung cancer or the near death of his son, were very strong parts of the film that were then tied neatly back into the film’s overall narrative.
As a movie, this is a thoroughly entertaining work, but its relevance in the world today is undeniable unless there are motivating circumstances that prevent you from accepting the dangers that climate change can bring. Gore quotes Upton Sinclair in the film who said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
I am happy to have finally watched this two-time Oscar winning film (it also won for Best Song) and I wish people would stop looking at this through the spyglass of politics.
Day two of the 2025 Genre-ary brought me to Disney + and a film about a magician by the name of the Amazing Jonathan, a documentary that started off as a story about a magician who was diagnoses with a heart condition that gave him one year to live, but ended up in a much different direction that included a deep internal conflict for the documentarian Ben Berman.
The Amazing Jonathan had been diagnoses with a heart condition and he told an audience that he had one year to live. When Ben Berman approached him, that was three years prior and Amazing Jonathan was going back out for a five-show tour.
However, the doc was not as much about Amazing Jonathan as it was about Ben Berman himself and trying to discover exactly was going on. He found out that there were other people working on a documentary about Jonathan, people whom Jonathan had also given permission to. During the doc, we discover three other documentaries in progress besides Berman’s.
As Berman filmed, he began to question what was real and what was being made up by the magician as an illusion or a prank.
Some may say not to turn the camera back on the documentarian, but I feel as if this film does it in a very effective manner. I was more compelled by the story about the making of this documentary than I was about the story of this dying magician. For a good chunk of the film, I saw Amazing Jonathan almost as the antagonist of the doc, which is crazy. I did like how this documentary brought the conflict to a close at the end. It felt like redemption for the film character Amazing Jonathan.
I see some hate for this documentary online, but I thought this was a fascinating tale of the creation of a doc featuring a magician and the documentarian and their intertwining story. I watched this on Disney +, but it was released officially on Hulu.
And here it is. The Top 30 Best Films of 2024 according to EYG. Again, as I said with the Worst Movies list, this is my opinion and if I have left off a film you love or you hate one of my choices, that is okay. You have the right to your own opinion. Make your own list.
I do think that this year has had a lot of films that have been in the middle. A bunch of movies that I was excited about turned out to be fine, just not great. I did have thirty films on this list and I did have to cut a few to get to that number.
Once again, the star ratings are not the end all in this list. I use the star ratings to get a general idea, but film opinions can change over time and this is my list as of now. For an example of how things could change, two years ago Wakanda Forever was my #1 film of the year, but now I wish I had made Matilda the Musical my #1 instead. It ended at #2, but if I were to do that list again, Matilda would be on top.
Anyway… here is the Top 30
EYG’s Top 30 Best Movies of 2024
#30. Nightbitch. I saw this movie last night. I had no idea that it was available and I spotted it on Disney +. It was legit a surprise to see it there and it kicked out Skincare from this list. I thought I was finished with 2024 movies, and here it made the Top 30.
#29. Rebel Ridge. A Netflix film featured a thinking-man’s Rambo like character played by Aaron Pierre taking on the crooked sheriff played by Don Johnson. I liked this approach to an action film.
#28. Emilia Perez. The first musical on the list and a film featuring a ton of great performances from Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón. Another one available on Netflix.
#27. Kill. A violent, Indian Hindi-language film set on a train. It was brutal. It was vicious. It was exciting and filled with action. Worth every minute.
#26. Society of the Snow. Another version of the story of a rugby team that had crashed in the Andes and had to go to great lengths to survive the cold and brutal environment of the mountains. There is an avalanche that was astonishing.
#25. Civil War. Almost too realistic, this movie was difficult to watch at times. There was some real excitement involved here too as the cast does a solid job of showing the uncertainty of the world around them.
#24. Woman of the Hour. This is the true story of a serial killer who went on the Dating Game. Anna Kendrick excels as the woman who had to pick between the available bachelors unknowing that one of them is a real killer.
#23. We Live in Time. Emotional story told through amazing chemistry of Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh. This is a tragedy and a love story all wrapped into one. Two powerful performances carry this through.
#22. A Quiet Place: Day One. The prequel to the successful franchise was one of those that succeeded when it should not have. Lupita Nyong’o took the place as the film’s protagonist and does a great job detailing the first arrival of the aliens.
#21. A Real Pain. Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed and starred in this passion project seeing cousins Jesse and Kieron Culkin go on a Holocaust tour after their beloved grandmother died. A very emotional movie.
#20. Fly Me to the Moon. Channing Tatum and Scarlet Johansson star in a romantic comedy featuring the potential moon landing and how the government wanted to fake the landing to beat the Russians. I liked how this movie blended the reality and the conspiracy theory into a narrative that worked.
#19. Didi. Izaac Wang starred as Didi in this coming of age story. Zhang Li Hua, who played Didi’s grandmother stole every scene she was in. The film shows how social media can cause troubles for youth. This film is filled with angst and emotion and was a great showcase for the young actor.
#18. Strange Darling. One of the most original movies of the year. I actually loved how this movie told its narrative in an unorganized fashion, jumping around through chapters of the story. It allowed the filmmakers to create a different mind about what was going on. It shows you what you can do with story structure.
#17. Conclave. The process of choosing a new Pope is shrouded in secrecy, so why not make a mystery out of it? This has a bunch of sensational performances from Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini and Carlos Diehz.
#16. Saturday Night. Live from New York… it’s Saturday Night! I had no idea how close it came to having those iconic words never uttered on TV. This movie is all about the first ever SNL show and the series of crises that nearly kept it off the air. Great performances.
#15. Anora. Just when you think you know how this film is going to go, the movie takes a swerve and you do not see it coming. Brilliant work from Mikey Madison as Anora and Mark Eydelshteyn as Vanya.
#14. The Fall Guy. One of the films this year that did not do well at the box office, but was extremely entertaining. Ryan Gosling was exceptional as the stunt man who gets injured and loses the girl and his confidence. Based on the early ’80s TV show, this was a lot of fun with sensational stunts (of course).
#13. The Last Stop in Yuma County. A small time film that surprised me with how fantastic it was. Brutal and violent, this movie saw some great interactions between actors and a truly shocking conclusion.
#12. Heretic. Another awesome film with an actor playing against type. I never would have seen Hugh Grant in this lead role, but he carries it off beautifully. Some of the best dialogue written in a horror/thriller this year.
#11. Dune: Part Two. I really thought this would wind up in the top ten, but it came just short. It had sensational special effects and some great performances in the continuation of the Dune story. One of two great performances of the year for Timothée Chalamet.
#10. Abigail. This was one that I thought would be higher on the list, which speaks well of the movies ahead of it. I loved this action/horror film and I just wish that they had been able to keep the secret that Abigail was a vampire secret. I understand why they thought they couldn’t but I can’t imagine what the moment would have been if I hadn’t known Alisha Weir was the antagonist. Oh well, still loved it.
#9. A Complete Unknown. The second Timothée Chalamet movie that featured a great performance. Chalamet played the icon Bob Dylan and he lost himself inside the singer/songwriter. Chalamet also did his own singing and guitar playing. This was a great movie.
#8. Late Night with the Devil. This film was on the top of this list early in the year and it stayed in the top ten. Another way to use the found footage subgenre for an original film. David Dastmalchian is great as a late night host that was having some surprising supernatural events.
#7. Alien: Romulus. I found this highly entertaining and filled with suspense and tension. The Alien franchise had not had a great movie in awhile. This is easily the best Alien movie since Aliens at least.
#6. The Wild Robot. Animation had a great year too as this original film was filled with emotion as the robot Roz finds and help raise a baby goose. The movie is beautiful and provides a sensational message.
#5. Transformers One. I never would have guessed that this movie would be number five on my Top 30 list, but it was so great. I did not think making Optimus and Megatron friends when they were younger was needed, yet it turned out to be just about perfect. This was full of action and goosebump moments. Excellent film.
#4. Inside Out 2. This is the third of the run of animated movies and I loved it. It may be a better overall story than the first one with a better use of characters. There is no villain in this movie. It is just emotions that may not take you in the right way. It was also the highest grossing film of 2024 at almost $1.7 billion.
#3. Wicked. This took a big risk and it paid off handsomely. Wicked Part One was engaging, hugely entertaining and filled with great music and amazing performances. The Some people doubted that they could adapt the Broadway musical into a successful movie, but those people had to eat their words.
#2. Nosferatu. Dark, brooding and violent. Nosferatu placed the character of Count Orlok into the basic story of Count Dracula and it created some of the best mood of the year. Robert Eggers gave us one of the best horror movies of the year.
#1. Deadpool and Wolverine. This was probably destined to be on the top of this list. Seeing Deadpool and Wolverine in an MCU movie together was awesome, as was the list of cameos that came along with them. This was a love letter to the FOX Marvel movies. One of the funniest movies of the year with amazing Deadpool action and emotional Logan moments. This reached every expectation I ever had.
So there it is. The Top 30 films of 2024. Happy New Year to everyone.
We are up to the big year-end movie lists, and we start off with the Top 20 Worst Films of the Year. Of course, it would be a little more accurate for me to call this My Least Favorite Films because that is what it is. Film is subjective and what I think is the worst movie, you may love. That’s fine. You have the right to your opinion.
I have all the respect in the world for the movie makers but everybody has their failures. Even the films that I hate have my respect for their efforts. Some times effort just is not enough.
I should specify as well that the star ratings that I give when I review the movies through the year are basically used as a guide. This is not place in direct order via the star ratings. Plus, movie opinions can change over time.
This was the oddest Worst Film list of all time because literally, I was considering seven movies as the #1 Worst Film of 2024. I have never had that many films in real consideration.
2024 EYG Top 20 Worst Films of the Year
#20. Venom: The Last Dance. The final of the Venom trilogy is not a very good movie. It has a lot of silliness and a waste of Knull as a villain.
#19. Monster Summer. An eighties type of monster film with Mel Gibson that is just not very good. Mel Gibson really did not fit with this movie.
#18. Afraid. AI taking over one house at a time. Killer Alexa? This is a stupid movie and John Cho has been in much better movies that are similar to this one.
#17. Trap. M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film is so full of dumb plots as a serial killer takes his daughter to a concert. The cops set up a sting operation at the concert. There are so many things that make no sense in this movie that it stretches credibility.
#16. Joker: Folie a Deux. What a step down from the first Joker. And I did not love that first film. This “musical” was such a waste of potential. This sequel seems to take a crap on the first movie too, throwing away most everything that was done well in the first one.
#15. Imaginary. There have been a ton of bad horror movies this year. This is one of them. Chauncy the Teddy Bear is causing trouble for the little kid. Terrible and not memorable.
#14. Immaculate. Sydney Sweeney did not have a good year in my opinion. She was a nun here going into an Italian convent. I did not like this one at all and it was not easy to watch, but not in the good way.
#13. The Exorcism. Russell Crowe also did not have the best year. Here, he is an actor playing a priest, dealing with an exorcism on set of a horror movie. I found this to be repetitive and boring.
#12. The Watchers. Another failed horror film. A bizarre situation that makes little sense and these characters are so unlikable that I want them to be gotten. M. Night’s daughter directed this mess.
#11. Lisa Frankenstein. I was looking forward to this comedy, but it was not funny, mean-spirited and had characters that I disliked. Cruel writing and a lack of humor does not make this worth seeing. It was quite a disappointment.
#10. The Strangers Ch. 1. Why did we need this movie? The original Strangers was a decent movie. This was just a wasted prequel with stupid characters and jump scares. And that ending…
#9. Night Swim. Here is the first film I watched in 2024. It was such a stupid movie about a haunted pool. A haunted pool? Yup. That’s what I said.
#8. The Crow. Another movie that has no reason to exist. This is such a bad idea and, what was even worse was, it was boring. The Crow did not need a reboot. This was a horrendous choice.
#7. Tarot. We are starting off with the seven films in competition for the worst film of the year. Tarot obviously deals with the deck of tarot and terrible characters that I couldn’t care less about. Completely forgettable.
#6. Kraven the Hunter. The most recent of the Sony Spider-Man without Spider-Man movies include a great cast in a terrible movie. Kraven is one of the greatest Spidey villains, but this is one of the worst super hero movies in years (although there may be a worse one upcoming).
#5. Borderline. I would have thought this was going to end up much higher than five, which tells you about the films ahead of it. Another great cast, including Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis, but no story, horrible dialogue and such a flop of an adaptation. Eli Roth directed this mess.
#4. Kinds of Kindness. I had a guy on X call me names because I hated this movie. I’m sorry dude, but at least it is not my least favorite movie of the year. I found the three basic stories that made up the film to be pretentious, obnoxious and misogynistic. I hated this film.
#3. Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver. I hated the first film of this series from Zack Snyder even more than Part One and I did not think that was possible. It was dull, boring and filled with characters whom I disliked. And I do not want to wait for the Director’s cut.
#2. Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2. Last year’s worst movie was this film’s first in the franchise. There was some chatter that this one was supposed to be better. Spoiler alert…it wasn’t. Although this is only the second worst film of the year, so I guess it could be considered a little better.
#1. Madame Web. Here it is… the film that survived the gauntlet of the horrible movies. This one took a C-level (more likely D level) Spider-Man character and put her in a film with horrible writing, horrible special effects, horrible villain, horrible ADR.. I could go on. Madame Web was a ridiculous film and even film star Dakota Johnson was putting it down before it had been released. Madame Web is the worst movie of this year.
I thought I was done with new movies in 2024. I was working on the year in review stuff, organizing the best and worst lists when I decided to go to Disney + and see if anything was there. I couldn’t believe what I saw as the movie Nightbitch starring Amy Adams was available to stream. I did not expect Nightbitch on Disney + (it was through the Hulu subscription) so I decided I could watch another movie in 2024.
I am glad I did because I enjoyed the movie very much. It was a weird, unlikely story using dogs as a metaphor for motherhood and the struggles that it brings.
I saw Amy Adams with six nipples.
So that happened.
According to IMDB, Nightbitch is the story of “A woman (Amy Adams), thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog.“
Scoot McNairy played Adams’ unobservant husband and their relationship was at the center of the existential crisis Adams was going through. She was finding that she was losing herself in her attempt to be the wife and mother, including sacrificing her art to stay at home. The burden of motherhood weighed on her and her life became more and more out of control. Adams could only find release by transforming into a dog and running around the neighborhood.
Amy Adams does a great job in the lead role. I had no idea that the title of the film was intended to be literal. Although I believe that the whole dog stuff is really just in Adams’s head and that she was just doing these things. How much of this was actually happening and how much was an unreliable narrator in Adams’s character telling us what is happening?
I liked this movie a lot. I was surprised to see it at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes and even lower with the audience score. It does have a female lead and a message of struggles that the woman goes through so maybe it is one of those films that has been dropped down because of the anti-woke crowd who can’t stand a movie from the POV of a woman. I don’t know, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Previous Winners: James McAvoy (Split), Denzel Washington (Fences), Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), Michael Keaton (Birdman), Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Ryan Gosling (Drive), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Joaquin Phoenix (Joker), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick…Boom), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
We are up to Best Actor, which in EYG land means we are giving out The Strangelove, in honor, of course, of EYG Hall of Famer, Peter Sellers.
Honorable Mentions: Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice), John David Washington (Piano Lessons), Glen Powell (Hit Man), Justice Smith (I Saw the TV Glow), Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling), Channing Tatum (Fly Me to the Moon)
#10. Gabriel LaBelle (Saturday Night)
#9. Bill Skarsgård (Nosferatu)
#8. Sebastian Stan (A Different Man)
#7. Nicholas Hoult (Nosferatu)
#6. Andrew Garfield (We Live in Time)
#5. David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil)
#4. Ray Fiennes (Conclave)
#3. Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool & Wolverine)
#2. Hugh Grant (Heretic)
#1. Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown)
Timothée Chalamet was masterful as Bob Dylan, with his voice and his singing. He also played the guitar. An overall amazing performance. Hugh Grant played opposite his type in the awesome horror flick Heretic. Ryan Reynolds is now in the MCU with his brazen performance as Deadpool. Ray Fiennes is always awesome and Conclave is no exception. David Dastmalchian is perfect in his found footage horror film Late Night with the Devil. Andrew Garfield is a former winner of this award and is back with Florence Pugh in We Live in Time. Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgård came out of Nosferatu. Sebastian Stan made this list and in honorable mention. Gabriel LaBelle played Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night!
The Joker/Hannibal Lecter/Mister Miyagi Award for Best Supporting Actor
Previous Winners:Patrick Stewart (Logan), Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals), Sylvester Stallone (Creed), Edward Norton (Birdman), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained), Andy Serkis (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Richard Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Robert Downey Jr (Avengers: Endgame), Sasha Baron Cohen (Trial of the Chicago 7), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Ke Huy Quen (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
I have a much larger list of supporting actors than I did for the actresses, but I am sticking with a list of Top Ten. I will add a Honorable Mention for this category.
Honorable Mention: Samuel L. Jackson (Piano Lessons), Jeff Goldblum (Wicked), Paul Bettany (Here), and Richard Roundtree (Thelma).
#10. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nosferatu)
#9. JK Simmons (Saturday Night)
#8. Stanley Tucci (Conclave)
#7. Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown)
#6. Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)
#5. Cory Michael Smith (Saturday Night)
#4. Boyd Holbrook (A Complete Unknown)
#3. Chris Hemsworth (Furiosa)
#2. Hugh Jackman (Deadpool & Wolverine)
#1. Mark Eydelshteyn (Anora)
Mark Eydelshteyn does a remarkable job in Anora. The first half of the movie, you love him, root for him and relate with him. The second half of the movie, you hate him. He completely turns away any goodwill you had for him, and he doesn’t really change his character. It is a great performance. Hugh Jackman does not get award respect but he is excellent as Logan in Deadpool & Wolverine. He has some emotional scenes that give you specifics on the character that only Jackman can deliver. Saturday Night has a couple of actors here, including Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase and JK Simmons as Milton Berle. A Complete Unknown as a couple of real life characters too with Johnny Cash, as brought to life by Boyd Holbrook and Edward Norton’s Pete Seeger. Aaron Taylor-Johnson does not get anything for Kraven the Hunter, but he showed what a great actor he is in Nosferatu. Kieran Culkin has been excellent for a long time, and his role in A Real Pain is one of his most complex yet. Stanley Tucci brings some great work in Conclave too.
The Hermione Granger/Furiosa/Rita Moreno Award for Best Supporting Actress
Previous Winners:Dafne Keene (Logan), Tilda Swinton (Dr. Strange), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Emma Stone (Birdman), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle), Sally Field (Lincoln), Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses), Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit), Margo Martindale (Blow the Man Down), Rita Moreno (West Side Story), Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)
Supporting Actress is up first among the acting awards here at EYG Year in Review. This is the top ten recipients for Best Supporting Actress. Honestly, a bunch of these potential Oscar roles are from movies that I have yet to see, so they will not appear on my list. Maybe the June Swoon will be really good this year.
#10. Isabella Rossellini, Conclave.
#9. Joan Chen, Didi.
#8. Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
#7. Karla Sofia Gascon, Emilia Perez.
#6. Zendaya, Dune: Part Two
#5. Emma Corrin, Nosferatu
#4. Danielle Deadwyler, Piano Lessons
#3. Selena Gomez, Emilia Perez
#2. Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez
#1. Ariana Grande, Wicked
Ariana Grande was a revelation in Wicked. No one expected her to steal the movie, but she nearly did in almost every scene she was in. Of course, her voice was amazing as she blasted out her songs. The trio of actresses from Emilia Perez were powerful in the film and all of them made a spot on this list. Danielle Deadwyler is showing herself to be a master actor as she gives tremendous performances every time.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 