Dear Friends,

It has been quite the year for film releases. It is good to take stock of what we have ingested over the last year, as it has both implicit and explicit impact on our thoughts and memories. AMC’s A-List is one of the best deals available to the general public. This year, for just $240, I was able to see 110 movies at AMC. Although it is my intention to write a review after every film I see, my writing career, which surprisingly has taken off this year, did not allow for it this year. I regret that I only wrote a review for every three movies I saw. I hope to improve on that number this year.

Some posters on this site have complained that 2024 was a substandard year. I disagree. It was as average a movie year as any I can remember. This year’s average numerical rating was 5.03. The year was heavy on good (6-7/10) films, with 40/110 attaining that number. It was light on top with no 10/10 movies (only five such movies have ever been made in my opinion) and only two 9/10 movies.

Some of these movies may have been released in 2023. However, if I saw it in the theater in 2024, I have included it here. Several re-released movies, like Star Wars Phantom Menace and Interstellar are not included, not that either would have won any awards had they been released this past year.

As is tradition, here are the Annual TulaneLSU Movie Awards nominees and winners for 2024. There is no set number of nominees. If it is great, he/she/it is included.

Best Film:
Daddio
Transformers One
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
Didi

Best Actor:
Sean Penn, Daddio
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Izaac Wang, Didi
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

Best Actress:
Demi Moore, The Substance
Cristiana Dell'Anna, Cabrini
Dakota Johnson, Daddio
Florence Pugh, We Live in Time

Best Animated/CGI Film:
Transformers One
Mufasa
The Wild Robot
Flow
Inside Out 2

Best Score:
The Brutalist
Conclave
Wicked
Horizon: American Saga 1

Best Christian film:
Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Cabrini

Best Comedy:
Sasquatch Sunset
Am I Racist?
Your Monster
Wicked Little Letters

Best Horror:
Alien: Romulus
Nosferatu
The Heretic
The Substance

And here are the final ratings of each movie I saw in the theater in 2024.

10/10
None

9/10 (2)
Daddio
Transformers One

8/10 (10)
Chandu Champion
A Real Pain
The Brutalist
Conclave
Wildcat
Didi
Origin
American Fiction
We Grown Now
A Complete Unknown

7/10 (22)
Ezra
The Taste of Things
The Substance
Inside Out 2
Kind of Kindness
Monkey Man
Wicked Little Letters
The Apprentice
Better Man
Wicked
Flow
We Live in Time
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Twisters
Freud’s Last Session
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Mufasa: The Lion King
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
One Life
Cabrini
The Blue Angels

6/10 (19)
The Wild Robot
The Fall Guy
Sasquatch Sunset
The Bikeriders
The Boys in the Boat
Migration
Anora
Kalki 2898
Monster Summer
Nosferatu
My Penguin Friend
Afraid
Alien Romulus
Furiosa Mad Max
Am I Racist?
Speak No Evil
Your Monster
Gladiator II
Thelma

5/10 (13)
Heretic
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Dune 2
Horizon
Fly Me to the Moon
Reagan
Civil War
Bob Marley: One Love
Ferrari
Bonhoeffer. Pastor. Spy. Assassin.
Kung Fu Panda 4
Bad Boys: Ride or Die

4/10 (7)
The Watchers
Nightswim
Never Let Go
Poor Things
Abigail
Godzilla vs Kong
Quiet Place Day One

3/10 (23)
Saturday Night
Despicable Me 4
Harold and the Purple Crayon
It Ends With Us
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
The Exorcism
Venom: Last Dance
Joker: Folie a Deux
Y2K
Smile 2
The Beekeeper
Dandelion
Challengers
Madame Web
Caddo Lake
Argylle
The Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim
Moanna 2
Absolution
The Idea of You
Piece by Piece
I.S.S.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

2/10 (12)
Mean Girls (remake)
Tuesday
Kraven the Hunter
Garfield
Blink Twice
Blue Lock
IF
Trap
Here
Red One
Babygirl
Megalopolis

1/10 (2)
Trolls Band Together
Wolverine vs Deadpool

Yours,
TulaneLSU

This post was edited on 1/4/25 at 5:58 am

6 ...

Report Post

Posted by sqerty

Member since May 2022

8152 posts

Posted on 1/3/25 at 9:10 pm to TulaneLSU

My faith in future good movies never falters, Hope springs eternal.

2024 was weak. A few good flicks can't erase over a hundred duds. Of course, this is my opinion and to each his own. I look forward to your upcoming reviews and cheers to an upswing in the narrative craft dept.

My only request is to include some foreign cinema now and again. There's a whole world out there besides us.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by DR93Berlin

Member since Jul 2020

1557 posts

Posted on 1/3/25 at 9:18 pm to TulaneLSU

quote:
110 movies at AMC

What’s that in sodium levels?

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by lsutigersFTW

Lafayette

Member since Jun 2008

7814 posts

Posted on 1/4/25 at 6:06 am to TulaneLSU

American Fiction was a 2023 release, not 2024. As was Aquaman

This post was edited on 1/4/25 at 6:08 am

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by TulaneLSU

Member since Aug 2003

Member since Dec 2007

13616 posts

Posted on 1/4/25 at 6:11 am to sqerty

Friend,

If you are in touch with the leadership at AMC would you please request more foreign films? I enjoyed several Indian films this year, and welcome good movies with positive themes, inquisitive angles, and confounding dilemmas no matter their source. Here’s to seeing you have a movies review thread this year.

Let us hope more people return to theaters this year. Home televisions are isolating and usually filled with dross like mindless sitcoms and sports. Watching films on the big screen with strangers and no distractions of hearth encourages thought. I argue that it the only edifying way to watch moving pictures.

The last time my sodium level was checked it was 135.

Please read the above inclusion criteria for this list.

Yours,
TulaneLSU

This post was edited on 1/4/25 at 6:12 am

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by mauser

Orange Beach

Member since Nov 2008

26161 posts

Posted on 1/4/25 at 3:03 pm to TulaneLSU

I look forward to seeing Daddio

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by jlovel7

NOT Louisiana

Member since Aug 2014

23885 posts

Posted on 1/4/25 at 9:15 pm to TulaneLSU

quote:
1/10 (2) Trolls Band Together Wolverine vs Deadpool

This got me.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by Dalosaqy

I can't quite re

Member since Dec 2007

13253 posts

Posted on 1/5/25 at 2:28 am to TulaneLSU

Inclusive and insightful genre distinctions. Bravo!

I especially concur with your disdain for the utterly pointless Poor Things and pun-stained abomination, Wolverine vs.Deadpool.

Conversely, I found Conclave and The Taste of Things deserving of higher accolades --both remarkably delicious in their humane, yet near opposite depictions of love, beauty, and good.

Cheers, sir.

This post was edited on 1/5/25 at 2:30 am

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by TulaneLSU

Member since Aug 2003

Member since Dec 2007

13616 posts

Posted on 1/5/25 at 10:11 pm to Dalosaqy

Friend,

It appears we have similar taste. I hope to read your reviews this year.

The Golden Globe winners were announced tonight. It is a real shame that Daddio and Transformers did not get a single nomination. The brother of the guy that played Kevin in Home Alone was deserving of the supporting male award in A Real Pain. I inadvertently left him off the list of best actor. Both he and Eisenberg were phenomenal. The two of them as well as Sean Penn in Daddio had performances of a lifetime.

Here are the Golden Globe winners from tonight:

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

"Wicked"
"Alien: Romulus"
"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice"
"Deadpool & Wolverine"
"Gladiator II"
"Inside Out 2"
"Twisters"
"The Wild Robot"

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

"El Mal," by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard (from "Emilia Pérez")
"Beautiful That Way," by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li and Andrew Wyatt (from "The Last Showgirl")
"Compress/Repress," by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross & Luca Guadagnino (from "Challengers")
"Forbidden Road," by Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler & Sacha Skarbek ("Better Man")
"Kiss The Sky," by Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack & Ali Tamposi (from "The Wild Robot")
"Mi Camino," by Clément Ducol and Camille (from "Emilia Pérez")

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, "Challengers”
Volker Bertelmann, "Conclave"
Daniel Blumberg, "The Brutalist"
Kris Bowers, "The Wild Robot"
Clément Ducol, Camille, "Emilia Pérez"
Hans Zimmer, "Dune: Part Two"

Best Director — Motion Picture

Brady Corbet, "The Brutalist"
Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez"
Sean Baker, "Anora"
Edward Berger, "Conclave"
Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"
Payal Kapadia, "All We Imagine as Light"

Best Motion Picture — Animated

"Flow"
"Inside Out 2"
"Memoir of a Snail"
"Moana 2"
"Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl"
"The Wild Robot"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Sebastian Stan, "A Different Man"
Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain"
Hugh Grant, "Heretic"
Gabriel LaBelle, "Saturday Night"
Jesse Plemons, "Kinds of Kindness"
Glen Powell, "Hit Man"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Demi Moore, "Substance"
Amy Adams, "Night*****"
Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked"
Karla Sofía Gascón, "Emilia Pérez"
Zendaya, "Challengers"
Mikey Madison, "Anora"

Best Motion Picture — Non-English Language

"Emilia Pérez"
"All We Imagine as Light"
"The Girl with the Needle"
"I'm Still Here"
"The Seed of the Sacred Fig"
"Vermiglio"

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

Peter Straughan, "Conclave"
Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez"
Sean Baker, "Anora"
Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, "The Brutalist"
Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain"
Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain"
Yura Borisov, "Anora"
Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown"
Guy Pearce, "The Brutalist"
Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice"
Denzel Washington, "Gladiator II"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez"
Ariana Grande, "Wicked"
Selena Gomez, "Emilia Pérez"
Felicity Jones, "The Brutalist"
Margaret Qualley, "The Substance"
Isabella Rossellini, "Conclave"

Yours,
TulaneLSU

This post was edited on 1/5/25 at 10:12 pm

Page 1