THE BEST FILMS OF 2024, updated again

Everyone can google IMDB and Metacritic, in about a second, or Variety or Den of Geek or Sight and Sound, and find other lists of the best movies of 2024. Here are 18 out of 20ish I will post eventually, though the final ones may only come in a few months, since in the UK many of the releases are due later in the year (or I have yet to see the movies). Of the films I expect may appear later, some you will have heard of - A Complete Unknown, and The Nickel Boys.

Still - each of these 18 listed below is already on many end of year lists, and is, in their own right, a very good or great movie. At least five of the films listed below have a good chance of winning the Oscar for Best Picture in a few months (their list is ten films long) - an asterix indicates the four I currently believe have the best shot.

*ANORA - heartachingly sad, side-splittingly funny, sometimes scary, often sexy, it's uniquely potent

A REAL PAIN - some will find it slight, but this Holocaust tour/buddy film has heart and soul and wit

BLITZ - a beautifully filmed revisionist take on the Blitz Spirit by Steve McQueen

CHALLENGERS - a witty, erotic highly stylised play on the tennis as love theme

CIVIL WAR - Jesse Plemons steals the show as a MAGA-like madman

*CONCLAVE - Ralph Fiennes never better in a clever Christie-adjacent thriller with big twist ending

DUNE 2 - I still prefer Lynch's mad version, but this was epic smart filmmaking

*EMILIA PEREZ - potentially offensive, but with great songs and acting; maverick

FLOW - one of the most stirring and beautiful animation films ever made; truly great work

HERETIC - maybe best-acted horror film since SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, and theologically smart

JUROR #2 - a bit stodgy at first, but its final moments leave an indelible powerful point

MEGALOPOLIS - deeply-flawed work of late style genius from eccentric director worth seeing

MY OLD ASS - Plaza charms in this sweet, very low-key coming of age comedy

REBEL RIDGE - a star was born in this startlingly fresh take on an old plot

SING SING - Colman Domingo's acting makes this prison drama profoundly moving

*THE BRUTALIST - A brilliant American epic as great as THERE WILL BE BLOOD; a masterpiece

THE SUBSTANCE - visually stunning, powerfully feminist body horror

WICKED, PART ONE - As good an adaptation as fans could wish for, and thought-provoking too

Comments

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

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