Although my wife and I had a few free movie passes, it took us a while to find reasons to visit the cinema - 2024 just wasn't a great year for titles that were good enough to draw us out. In fact, when we did go to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes I was extremely irritated that two people in the row in front of me repeatedly pulled out their phones throughout the entire running time of the movie; movies are expensive, yet viewers don't seem too engaged, I guess?
That makes the best cinema experience of 2024 Furiosa, directed by George Miller. I reviewed the movie here and while I enjoyed it, it does suffer in comparison to Mad Max: Fury Road and unfortunately constantly wants the audience to compare the two films.
We also went to see Gladiator II directed by Ridley Scott, which was kind of trashy and dumb but we did have a good time with it (also, no one was checking their phones!).
From older films, I watched It's in the Bag (1945) directed by Richard Wallace, a Fred Allen movie. I've never been that interested in Allen's comedy but this was a very witty film with terrific dialogue and fun interactions between Allen and a multitude of guest stars (including Jack Benny himself!).
Another older one I checked out was No Man of Her Own (1950) directed by Mitchell Leisen, an adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's terrific crime novel I Married a Dead Man, with Barbara Stanwyck in the lead role as a woman who allows a grieving family to believe she's a dead man's fiancee.
In more recent films, I enjoyed the courtroom drama The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (2023) directed by William Friedkin. I reviewed the film (with some other movies) in this post.
My wife and I also checked out Les Miserables (2012) directed by Tom Hooper, which is the first time I've ever actually experienced the musical version of Victor Hugo's novel, having previously read the book and watched two non-musical film adaptations.
And I checked out some very good documentaries too - Helvetica (2007) directed by Gary Hustwit is easily the best documentary I've seen about design (a subject dear to my wife). The Line King (1996) directed by Susan W. Dryfoos is a documentary about artist Al Hirschfeld and was a very good biographical picture. I also enjoyed the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind (2019) directed by Ira Steven Behr and the biography film Jim Henson: Idea Man (2024) directed by Ron Howard.
2024 was also the year that directorNorman Jewison passed away.
Tomorrow: 2024 in television.
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