2024 is starting to feel pretty behind thanks to the unquantifiable and uninterrupted erosion of time. We make a mental list of our wishes and goals we have for the immediate future and the cinephile in ourselves makes another one selecting their favorite movies based on the beautiful power of subjectivity. Nonetheless, I dare to say that what I want to highlight in this article is the most important aspect for those seventh art's lovers and I will do so with a simple question:
What teachings or lessons have these titles we cherish the most from last year given us?
On the one hand, I personally think it was a pretty positive year for cinema, the horror genre caught me by surprise many times. On the other hand, obviously nothing changed regarding box office performance since three out of the four highest-grossing titles are animated movies and the other one belongs to the Marvel Universe. But despite everything, I still believe that this may change some day. I got carried away by the most minimal but shocking stories and still value creativity over redundancy. For the most "critical" eye, nothing changed.
From the eye of a filmmaker wannabe, I learned that it's time for Hollywood to give absolute creativity to authors as it did with Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two, that every time you think your movie won't work, you can sacrifice to the maximum as Dev Patel did with his spectacular and thrilling Monkey Man, that incorporating a churro to a scene can make it much cooler as it happened with Luca Guadagnino's Challengers and that even though Dennis Quaid had the worst agent, he can be a great actor as he proved it in the few minutes he appeared as the disgusting TV producer in The Substance.
1. THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY
“Life sometimes is nonsense… and we have to accept that.”
Who would have said that the unknown debut of an unfamiliar filmmaker would make me reconsider how we analyze weird situations we might experience? In this neo-western, everything seems pretty controlled regarding its narrative, presenting a story in which the sum of small decisions—and some coincidences—triggers one of the most impressive shootings of the last few years. Nonetheless, it's exactly from this subtle and precise tension building that director Francis Galluppi presents a nonsense pretty similar to reality. The ending—with no desire to spoil—makes me ask: why do we make so much effort to escape destiny when it seems to already have plans for us?
2. CIVIL WAR
“The best self-criticism is the one exposed from the outside.”
The rhetoric of North American speeches that expose the most obscure, vicious and selfish sides of the United States as a country are usually seen from a distance. At least, that's what I learned in 2024 with my favorite subject: cinema. Acclaimed Alex Garland's not-quite-dystopian work presents an extremely broken North America where the states of Texas and California rebel against the government. Just like Coralie Fargeat later exposed the horrors insecurity inflicts in The Substance or Ali Abbasi portrayed the banality of cooperative evil with The Apprentice, Garland presented the biggest work of his career only to slap the Yankees in the face and teach them some lessons.
3. ROBOT DREAMS
“Happiness is only real when shared.”
I shamelessly mention Into the Wild's most iconic quote just to remind myself of this mantra I live by with grace and a smile every day when I see my partner entering our apartment after work. As the solitary person I am, I carefully—sometimes too carefully—choose who are those people I select to interact with. In this animated masterpiece, a dog with pretty similar characteristics to mine deciphers the meaning of absolute happiness when he buys a robot friend. What does this mean? Several months after watching it, I ask myself this question, to which I can't find an answer and I sincerely don't pretend to find one. After all, happiness isn't something we can buy but rather is found when we meet the right person to share it with.
4. HERETIC
“I only believe what I see.”
I have never been a person who believes in the divine. I don't like to give it a shape nor show devotion to imaginary figures I can't see. I'm someone who doesn't believe in things unless I see them, simple as that. I know there's a huge part of humanity that needs to place their faith and transform their own insecurities onto the belief that someone else will solve everything for them, but that's not me. In Heretic, we witness an interesting "battle" between two Mormon missionaries that innocently want to raise their voices and a candidate willing to join their religious community who defies all the girl's beliefs by making them weird questions, establishing a dark "game" in which the word "believe" ends up meaning everything. Actually, before watching Heretic, I have always had the strong belief—pun intended—that I can only decide if something is real if I see it first.
5. JUROR #2
“You always gotta have a lawyer friend.”
I don't want this to sound funny, but it's true. What would have happened if the protagonist of Clint Eastwood's latest great movie would have opted for reason, but without legal counselling? The moral dilemma presented would probably have never been the same and we would have never been able to enjoy this great movie. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can happen to anyone, that's why I enjoy the universality of this work so much: Justin Kemp glanced at his phone while driving through a rainy road at night, he thought he had hit a deer, but, a year later, he gets called for jury duty in a crime with similar characteristics to what happened to him that same night. Luckily, Kiefer Sutherland is there to bring him to his senses about the consequences he would have faced if he had turned himself in to the police. Unluckily, there's also a prosecutor like Toni Collette.
Posted on FEBRUARY 3, 2024, 01:42 AM | UTC-GMT -3
If you liked this article remember to give it a 👉 LIKE, put it in your FAVORITES, COMMENT 🗣️ , and FOLLOW ME for more movie and series content 📽
View replies 1