A movie like Nickel Boys is hard to write about because I can’t think of any movie I have seen before that is anything it. It is a singular vision from director RaMell Ross and one of the great achievements of 2024. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s book of the same title, Nickel Boys takes place in 1962 Jim Crow-era Florida where Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) appears destined for great things. Having done great in…

  I first saw Brady Corbet’s historical epic The Brutalist back in October at the Chicago International Film Festival and I still haven’t been able to fully wrap my head around what I watched. It’s a stunning miracle of a film whose craft is only matched by its ambition. The Brutalist follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody) a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the United States in 1947. He gets a…

  2024 has been a spectacular year for horror films. There have been a slew of horror films, from hits like Smile 2 and A Quiet Place: Day One to hidden gems like Late Night with the Devil and What You Wish For to surprises like The First Omen and Longlegs. So, it caught me by genuine surprise that the best horror movie of 2024 came at the very end of the year. Robert Egger’s Nosferatu is a stunning achievement that will send shivers down your spine…

  There’s an interesting idea to Babygirl, writer/director Helena Reijn’s latest erotic thriller, about the controlling being controlled. The film follows Romy (Nicole Kidman), a high-power CEO of a tech company who starts having an affair with a recently hired intern (Harris Dickinson) despite being married with children. Kidman’s Romy is always in control, whether with the happenings in her company or her personal life and while she is good at being in control and…

  Watching Emilia Pérez felt like I was watching a movie made by five different directors, all of whom wanted to make something different. It’s part gritty crime drama, part musical, part soap opera, part love story, part social message movie. The result is an audacious yet messy film. Rita (Zoe Saldaña) is an underappreciated lawyer who just won a big case despite it being against her moral conscience. Struggling to stay passionate about her…

  Gladiator II is an epic sequel to the 2000 Best Picture winner that features stunning direction, thrilling action, and one of the best performances of the year only for it to be bogged down by an underwhelming screenplay. Sixteen years after the death of Marcus Aurelius, Rome is a city of corruption. It is now run by two psychotic emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) and the city seems to be on…

  The Fire Inside is a great sports movie because it hits all the familiar beats a good sports movie should hit. It tells an inspiring story, features exciting sports action, and is exhilarating. The central athlete and coach are the heart of the film. But it is where The Fire Inside takes the story that elevates it into a great sports drama. The Fire Inside is the true story of Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Sheilds (Ryan…

  A Complete Unknown is a good film and better than most music biographies. Director James Mangold, who also directed the excellent Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, has crafted an interesting biopic with great music and a sensational lead performance. A Complete Unknown is about folk/rock legend Bob Dylan, played here by Timothee Chalamet. The film doesn’t show his entire career as an artist but focuses on his life from 1961, when Bob first…

  I’m late to the party on Smile 2, which came out in the middle of October, but I just watched it for the first time a few days ago as it just hit streaming. A busy schedule of movies and life got in the way of me seeing this in theaters, but I’m happy I was able to check the movie out before the end of the year because Smile 2 might have shaken…