We did know this would be the case to be fair, but hoooo boy it was a tough opening to the year for movies. It’s been a good while since I’ve started a fresh year with so few options on the near horizon outside of the previous year’s American film schedule off-cuts. For a while there it looked like Dune Part II was the only actual 2024 film worth anticipating, and I might have hit the ten-movie mark around June or something.
Luckily, a couple of odd streaming releases caught my attention when friends recommended them, and then around late April the various layered impacts of last year’s Hollywood strikes began to ease off, and suddenly a flurry of intriguing stuff began to hit our big screens. So we just make the customary April slot for the year’s first ten way-too-brief cinematic summaries, and it’s been a surprising amount of fun getting there. Here we go:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Next Goal Wins
“Not Taika’s best, but underdog sport stories are easy wins.”
Ferrari
“Disappoints Angry Adam Driver fans, thrills Angry Penelope Cruz fans.”
The Beekeeper
“Great action, super–cheesy dialogue, hateable villains, really can’t complain.”
Spaceman
“Extremely melancholy and awful for arachnophobes, but the cast delivers.”
This Is Me… Now
“Does this count? Does it? I’m counting it. Absolutely wild.”
Argylle
“Twists and leads are fun, but scenes consistently look atrocious.”
Dune Part II
“Absolutely, unmistakably worth waiting three weeks for an IMAX ticket.”
Monkey Man
“Watch this if you think The Raid wasn’t bloody enough.”
Civil War
“Ignore trailers; it’s actually a disturbingly gorgeous photography road movie.”
The Fall Guy
Vagrant Rant 