2024

WWII-Era “Blitz”Handsomely Produced But Aimless

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Wow, what a missed opportunity! Writer/director Steve McQueen’s promised epic Blitz (C) contains many stunning crafts, lush cinematography and powerful sound but is largely hollow at the center with generally passive primary characters not given much to do. With a WWII backdrop of air raids in 1940 England, a mother (Saoirse Ronan) and her biracial son (Elliot Heffernan) are separated, and a variety of Dickensian episodes take place as collective hopes of them being reunited are protracted. Ronan has rarely had such a minor performance, with little set-up to earn all the feels. The script does newcomer Heffernan little favors, a shame since his is a POV rarely described in history nor depicted on film. Harris Dickinson appears briefly with little to do; thankfully another supporting actor Benjamin Clementine gets some tender moments as a kindly Nigerian law enforcement officer mentoring the lost child. An opening sequence of fire hoses tangled like dueling snakes and a mid-movie moment with disaster in a nightclub seem to portend a stronger narrative impact, but most of the film simply feels old-fashioned and rote. There are near-musical numbers with little lift and a flood that looks like it was filmed in the bygone Catastrophe Canyon of Disney parks. This glimpse into history doesn’t live up to the creativity or vision from McQueen’s previous works or build on the template of Hope & Glory or Empire of the Sun; it’s a rare misstep from the auteur, lacking intended immersion and emotion.

2024

“A Different Man” Thinks It’s More Interesting Than It Is

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This is another one of a trend of “miracle drug movies” with unseemly side effects, although writer/director Aaron Schimberg doesn’t ground his dark comedy in either the realm of the realistic or the fantastical in enough doses to keep his audience completely on the hook. The resultant movie, A Different Man (C), is full of interesting ideas, but the characters’ intentions have to shape shift to bend to the whims of his thesis. Sebastian Stan plays an actor with a deformed face caused by neurofibromatosis, and when he is treated to a cure giving him the matinee idol looks he craves, he inexplicably auditions for a part in a play loosely based on his own life pre-surgery. Renate Reinsve is the non-judgmental woman in his life who becomes playwright about his life; and soon another deformed man played by Adam Pearson enters the scene and further complicates their lives. It’s the kind of off-kilter meta satire Charlie Kaufman could fully commit to; alas, here the rug keeps getting pulled out, and the second and third acts become more tedious and preposterous. All three primary actors are committed to their roles and turn in interesting performances, even when asked to bend to the will of an untenable story. The music by Umberto Smerilli is a lovely complement to the tone and a standout, along with the make-up work. Ultimately the film’s potential as high comedy, searing drama or even a happy medium remains largely unfulfilled. 

2024

“Nickel Boys” a Stylish Lens on Historical Horrors

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Tropes become tone poems and trauma gets a newly underscored point of view in a lyrical and gorgeously lensed screen epic based on a popular novel. RaMell Ross, acclaimed documentarian and now director and co-adapter of Nickel Boys (B), puts his camera at the center of his historical drama, and what is intended to place viewers in the shoes of his protagonists succeeds most of the time in creating breakthroughs of empathy while sometimes projecting a scholarly distance from its subject. The story follows two African American boys, Elwood and Turner (Ethan Cole Sharp and Brandon Wilson) who are sent to an abusive reform school called the Nickel Academy in 1960s Florida. The POV style means the audience is a stand-in for the boys, with immersive angles directed downward, action propelling forward and characters such as Elwood’s grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) and the school administrator (Hamish Linklater) talking directly to camera. It’s mostly a clever approach but also shortchanges the central duo of performances from getting their full power with few glimpses of their faces. Ross layers found footage and other cut-ins to provide additional context and instruction, and this flagging technique sometimes distracts the film from its urgency. Overall his bold approach leaps ahead of more conventional narrative features such as The Inspection, but the experiment isn’t as wholly successful as the on-screen alchemy of Origin or Moonlight.

2024

“Flow” is a “Cat”-ivating Animated Spectacular

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The Latvian movie Flow (A) aka Straume) is an animated antidote and companion piece to Mad Max: Fury Road featuring assorted characters with survival on the mind careening on caravans toward a shared destiny. The characters in this human- and dialogue-free family adventure are all animals on a journey escaping an overpowering flood, and Gints Zilbalodis — director, co-writer, co-producer and co-musician — commandeers a master-class menagerie about navigating a world in crisis and the power of found family. The film follows a solitary animal named Cat who must find refuge and collaborate with other species on a boat after the deluge devastates their forest home. As the animals sail, often by boat, through mystical, overflowed landscapes, they overcome dangers while adapting to a transformed ecosystem. The beauty, scope and expression in this indie represent some of the most lovely animated work to ever reach the screen. The central feline is an utterly engaging protagonist, with each curious glance, curled nap, arched back, meow, yawn, hiss, leap or lurch amazingly authentic. Despite cats not loving water, this one becomes an avid fisherman to feed friends. The lavish world-building and thoughtfulness in rendering the ragtag ruffians including the resilient black cat, an organized ring-tailed lemur, a majestic secretarybird, a curious capybara and a spunky yellow Labrador demonstrate bountiful talent. Zilbalodis and team have crafted forces of nature including rushing torrents of water and flourishes of beauty including nature and man-made environments such as submerged cities with exquisite attention to detail. The filmmakers blend techniques of traditional cinema and open-world video games to create an immersive and dreamlike story. This gorgeous allegory takes viewers to a literal and metaphorical higher ground for greater empathy with lessons to impart for all ages. With a very quick running time of 85 minutes, be sure to stay for the brief post-credit sequence.

2024

Nicole Kidman is Phenomenal as “Babygirl”

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Nicole Kidman famously made a pledge to work frequently with female directors, and the erotic drama Babygirl (B+), helmed by Helena Reijn, demonstrates exactly why such collaboration is so potent. From the first frame to the stirring conclusion, this movie successfully explores the long-simmering carnal desires of a powerful woman. As a CEO who becomes embroiled in an extramarital age gap relationship with one of her company interns (Harris Dickinson), Kidman is dynamite, showcasing vigor and vulnerability in intriguing doses. The movie is fascinating in its portrait of sexual and power dynamics, with many elements shocking and surprising. Amidst the foreboding and forbidden, there’s also fun and flirtation; and for children of the ’80s there are excellent montages set to INXS and George Michael tunes. Reijn leaves room for Dickinson to make distinct choices in his role-reversed portrayal; he’s fairly mesmerizing in his part. Only Antonio Banderas playing the oblivious husband strikes some curious notes, and there are also a few beats at the end of sequences when our heroine darts a silent soliloquy with her eyes that remove her from the realism. Despite the playful title or the perceived promise of conventional thrills, this is a serious film about the importance of female sexuality: frank, raw and insightful.

2024

“Juror #2” a Taut, Thoughtful and Tortured Deliberators Department

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Director Clint Eastwood, career action star turned elder statesman of the thinking person’s dramatic film, returns to the scene of the crime — and punishment — in the sturdy and somber Georgia-set procedural Juror #2 (A-). Nicholas Hoult plays a novelist and expectant father serving as a juror in a prominent murder trial and finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma capable of swaying the verdict and potentially convicting or freeing the accused killer. Hoult is fantastic in the nuanced role, relatable and believable in service of a somewhat far-fetched premise. Many of the tropes of courtroom thrillers are present in the story but presented with multiple points of view as the scales of justice prove to be complex forms of measurement. Eastwood artfully and efficiently dispatches the story with wonderful performances all around, including Toni Collette as a showy district attorney, Gabriel Basso as the accused and J.K. Simmons as a wily colleague in the fraught deliberations. The movie quietly observes and subtly exposes vulnerabilities of the justice system and hearkens back to the director’s other Savannah-set feature Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It’s an excellent companion piece to some of his best and most thoughtful morality plays such as Million Dollar Baby, Sully, Unforgiven, American Sniper and The Hereafter. It is old-fashioned on the surface but resonates splendidly in modern times and is highly recommended fare for adults and thoughtful teens who want to see (along with other films like Conclave and The Brutalist) what it used to look like in Hollywood’s heyday to craft and consume a deft and deliberate drama.

2024

TSA Thriller “Carry-On” Gifts Taron Egerton a Christmas Eve Crisis of Confidence

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The square-jawed protagonist of a new Yuletide actioner is equal parts dubious and daring, and he’s definitely in danger. Director Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry-On (B-) puts substantial decision-making on the shoulders of a humble LAX TSA agent played with aplomb by Taron Egerton, whose character is mid at adulting even as his pregnant girlfriend (Sofia Carson) shares he’s on the brink of zaddy-hood. But when an earpiece emitting the somber, sinister and sus voice of Jason Bateman comes through the conveyor belt tray with very specific instructions, it’s Nick of Time slash Die Harder vibes for our reluctant hero rizzing to the occasion to outwit terrorists commandeering a prominent plane on a Christmas Eve crash course with destiny. Meanwhile in what at first occupies a completely distinct tonal universe, Danielle Deadwyler is doing the most as the LAPD agent connecting a series of homeland homicides with the action afoot at the airport. Things get more interesting when hunty gets stunty. The film flashes some creative communications and surveillance graphics and waves some wondrous wands once the plot finally progresses into full cat and mouse-dom. It’s familiar stuff, to be sure, and it’s not quite as funny or fleet of foot as Egerton’s committed central everyman performance or American accent. It also feels Bateman’s screen time is so slight, he may as well have been contracted via Cameo for his flash of a part. Overall, expect a slightly better than average good time out of this thriller with just enough EQ in the eggnoggin to please those gathered for the holidays.

2024

Investing in Krypto: James Gunn Unleashes Inspired “Superman” Teaser Trailer

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The captivating sneak preview for the July 2025 Superman features new Man of Steel/Clark Kent played by David Corenswet (photographed here by Silver Screen Capture at a movie event in Georgia, where he filmed much of the feature at Trilith Studios) as a more relatable superhero, flanked by superdog Krypto, a convenient device for shaggy, scrappy soliloquies opposite a spirit daemon. After helming his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, James Gunn has proven a master of wisecracking companions, colorful antiheroes and faithful storytelling rooted in comic book origins. There’s imagery of the defeated protagonist regaining his mojo opposite a cavalcade of domestic and galactic villains wrecking havoc. There are snippets of Smallville, the Fortress of Solitude, Metropolis, The Daily Planet and much more and shots of an intriguing ensemble ranging from Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane) to Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor). Also memorable is John Murphy’s electronic homage to the notes of the iconic John Williams anthem. Check out the teaser trailer right here.

2024

2024’s “Nosferatu” is Pretty as a Connect-the-Dots Dracula Picture

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Oh, another bite at the Dracula story! Nosferatu (B-), the remake of the 1922 German classic directed in 2024 by Robert Eggers, chronicles the obsessive 1838 story between the Transylvanian thirst trap (Bill Skarsgard) and a haunted damsel (Lily-Rose Depp) in a picturesque pageant of dread and horror across Europe. There’s lots of slow-burn mood setting and stunning Jarin Blaschke cinematography in this crafts cavalcade. Baroque production design, exquisite costuming and creative makeup effects aside, though, there’s very little added to this tale as old as time. Eggers, so incredibly innovative in most of his works, has a sixth sense for this sort of story but doesn’t fully bring his fully unhinged and twisted sensibility to this affair. What he delivers is a perfectly preserved revival and rendition but not a new definitive one. The camera loves Depp, and there are a few fun scares. It’s just a little low stakes.

2024

Southeastern Film Critics Association Top 10 Films of 2024 Include “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “Challengers,” “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance”

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Southeastern Film Critics Association

The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) has named Sean Baker’s Anora as best picture of the year. SEFCA’s 89 members (including this reviewer!) located across nine Southeastern states named the following to its top films of 2024.

  1. Anora
  2. The Brutalist
  3. Conclave
  4. Dune Part 2
  5. Challengers
  6. Nickel Boys
  7. Sing Sing
  8. Wicked (Part 1)
  9. The Substance
  10. A Complete Unknown

Runner-up to SEFCA’s top ten and 11th overall was the film I Saw the TV Glow.

The dark comic romcom Anora was clearly a favorite, with Sean Baker winning best original screenplay and breakout performer Mikey Madison snagging best actress for the fierce title role. The epic immigrant saga The Brutalist carried home the most awards including Brady Corbet for best director and Adrian Brody and Guy Pearce for best actor and supporting actor, respectively.

Colman Domingo was runner-up for best actor for the uplifting prison-set drama Sing Sing, and Demi Moore runner-up for best actress for the body horror film about aging in Hollywood, The Substance. Kieran Culkin was runner-up for best supporting actor for the dark comedy A Real Pain about mismatched cousins on a trauma tourism expedition.

Best supporting actress winner is Ariana Grande as the singing and dancing “good witch” of Wicked with runner-up Zoe Saldana as a singing and dancing lawyer in the unconventional musical Emilia Perez.

This critics’ body awarded the Vatican-set Conclave best ensemble with Sing Sing as runner-up. Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold were runners-up for best original screenplay. Sean Baker was runner-up for best director for Anora.

Best adapted screenplay was Peter Straughan for Conclave with runners-up RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes for the historic drama Nickel Boys.

Best documentary was Sugarcane chronicling the disappearances of Native American children with Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story as runner-up. The Wild Robot won best animated feature with Flow as runner-up. Best foreign language film was the French production Emilia Perez with runner-up The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a political thriller from Iran.

Best cinematography was Greg Fraser for the sci-fi extravaganza Dune Part 2 with runner-up Jarin Blaschke for gothic vampire film Nosferatu. Best score went to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the tennis threesome dramedy Challengers with runner-up Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist.

Learn more about the SEFCA here.

2024

Weak Story, Drab Production of Bob Dylan Biopic Keeps Subject “A Complete Unknown”

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Bob Dylan is lit — literature, in fact, to those lauding this iconic poet laureate of the folk music scene. But James Mangold’s moribund biopic A Complete Unknown (C) gives scant clues about what inspires and motivates the musician and man of mystery. What we are left with in a reverential but otherwise by-the-books look at the artist as a young man in 1960s New York is a very lived-in imitation by Timothée Chalamet in terms of voice and vibe. The talented actor capably inhabits the role of the rebel but not the cause: Watershed events ranging from violent global uprising to civil rights upheaval to high-profile assassinations are simply static on TV and radio snippets, and there’s nary a connection to why the troubadour is tuning into the pulse of any of this for inspiration. A few tepid love affairs (with squandered actresses Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez), some minor conflict with festival organizers (including a sunny Ed Norton as Pete Seeger) and a petulant penchant for not playing what his crowds want to hear comprising most of the film’s run time. Oddly for the same director as Walk the Line, Mangold casts Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, a spiritual guardian of Dylan’s transition from eclectic to electric. And there’s an unnecessary framing device offering little extra clarity. Some of the movie’s music sequences contain verve, but the whole enterprise is strangely one-note save the uncanny authenticity of the central performance. The film’s seeming thesis of not giving in to expectations is thwarted by never being all that grounded in any rules in the first place. Nothing dusty or gusty is blowing in the blustery wind of this interpretation. Instead of this feckless non-origin story, consider watching Martin Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home.

2024

The Atlanta Film Critics Circle Announces 2024 Award Winners

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Now in its eighth year, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle has announced its awards for top cinematic achievements in 2024.

The 38 voting members of the AFCC chose director Sean Baker’s Anora, the winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or, as its top film of the year. The sweet and sinister modern fairy tale, which also won Best Original Screenplay, features a breakout performance from Mikey Madison as Ani, a Brighton Beach stripper who falls for the son of a Russian oligarch. Madison is also the AFCC’s Best Lead Actress and Best Breakthrough Performer for her complex portrait of a woman equal parts fragile and bullet-proof. “I think most of the credit is due to the character of Ani and Mikey Madison’s performance. From moment one, you care so deeply about Ani and what happens to her. You want to go with her on this journey, no matter what happens,” said AFCC member Sammie Purcell, associate editor of Rough Draft Atlanta.

This year’s top films were a fascinatingly diverse mix, ranging from a clever spin on the Wizard of Oz in Wicked, to a tennis love triangle with heart-pounding matches in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, one of two films by the Italian director this year along with Queer. In a stunning, expertly crafted opus that never loses your interest despite its three-and-a-half-hour length, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist follows a Hungarian Jewish refugee from Germany’s concentration camps to what initially seems to be an American promised land. Corbet won Best Director for his self-assured, acclaimed epic portrait of the rigors of immigration and creativity. Adrien Brody also won the AFCC’s Best Actor Award for his doleful turn in the film as the tortured, mercurial architect contending with the maddening whims of his benefactor.

“This year, our critics seemed to gravitate to smaller budget labors of love,” said AFCC advisory board member Hannah Lodge. “Films like Anora, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, and I Saw the TV Glow remind us that cost doesn’t correlate with worth.”

Despite the diversity of films, AFCC member Spencer Perry, editor and critic at ComicBook.com, saw some common ground in the AFCC’s selections. “Something that feels distinct across all of our top 10 films is the idea of legacy. Be it Vanya’s parents in Anora, the rivalry between Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson in Challengers, picking a new pope in Conclave, a galactic empire facing war in Dune: Part Two, or even a single robot learning to choose its own destiny in The Wild Robot, all of these films are wrestling with what someone can be or should be, either in their own eyes or in everyone else’s.”

Number three on the AFCC’s top 10 films, screenwriter RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes’s adaptation of novelist Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Nickel Boys, about two Black boys trying to survive a brutal Florida reform school, won Best Adapted Screenplay as well as Best Cinematography.

Perry was also delighted to see the atmospheric, but perhaps lesser seen coming-of-age fantasy I Saw the TV Glow make the AFCC’s top 10 list.

“Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine both deliver amazing work in a movie that is as haunting as it is personal,” said Perry of director Jane Schoenbrun’s moody feature. “I’m so thrilled that collectively we were able to recognize I Saw the TV Glow, a movie that at its core is about finding community despite your own feelings of internal isolation.” 

Member of AFCC’s advisory board Jason Evans noted how close many of the awards were this year, with Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) beating out Colman Domingo in Sing Sing by just one point. “The number of places and categories that were decided by only one or maybe two points is stunning,” said Evans, “a sign of the quality of the films and work this year,” and an indicator of “how competitive this awards season is likely to be.”

The AFCC inaugurated Best Voice Performance and Best Dog awards this year. In a near sweep, the canine star of Deadpool & Wolverine, Peggy, was the AFCC’s top dog. The British pugese, who previously captured an award as Britain’s ugliest dog, has turned her runt of the litter status into Hollywood stardom this year.

Lupita Nyong’o won the AFCC’s first ever Best Voice Performance for her work as an intelligent robot Roz in The Wild Robot, who finds an escape from loneliness in the company of the wild animals that inhabit a desert island, including a gosling with whom she forms a special bond.

“Voiceover acting is so often overlooked, but it’s such a key part of animated films. Lupita Nyong’o brought something really special to The Wild Robot. In animation, voice acting isn’t just about delivering lines — it’s about bringing the character to life,” said AFCC member and entertainment journalist Tatyana Arrington. “It’s a huge part of what makes animated films work, and I really think it deserves more recognition.”

Jesse Nussman, AFCC advisory board member, said he hopes studios are taking note of the vision driving this year’s award winners. 

“What strikes me about many of the films that took home multiple awards — Anora, Nickel Boys, The Brutalist — is their specificity. They’re the work of filmmakers who feel unburdened by marketplace demands or fears of alienating their audiences,” he said. “Hollywood, if you’re listening? We want more.”

Complete AFCC Award List

BEST FILM: 

Anora                       

TOP 10 FILMS (ranked):              

1. Anora

2. Challengers

3. Nickel Boys

4. The Brutalist

5. Conclave

6. Dune: Part Two

7. Sing Sing

8. Wicked: Part One

9. The Wild Robot

10. I Saw the TV Glow  

BEST LEAD ACTOR:

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

BEST LEAD ACTRESS:

Mikey Madison, Anora                     

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain                  

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Ariana Grande, Wicked               

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST:

Sing Sing                                 

BEST DIRECTOR:

Brady Corbet, The Brutalist                            

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:                               

Sean Baker, Anora             

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:     

RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys  

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

Sugarcane                                     

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE:

Kneecap (Ireland)               

BEST ANIMATED FILM:

The Wild Robot   

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Nickel Boys        

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers         

BEST STUNT WORK:

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga                                      

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMER:

Mikey Madison, Anora                  

BEST FIRST FEATURE FILM: 

Josh Margolin, Thelma             

BEST VOICE PERFORMANCE:

Lupita Nyong’o, The Wild Robot


BEST DOG:

Peggy as Dogpool, Deadpool & Wolverine

About the AFCC

Co-founded by longtime Atlanta film critics Felicia Feaster and Michael Clark in 2017, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle is an attempt to fill a void in the local film community, and in the representation of Atlanta’s media on the national stage. The AFCC is supported by its Advisory Board and longtime critics Jason Evans, Will Leitch, Hannah Lodge, Michael McKinney, Jesse Nussman, Kyle Pinion, and Josh Sewell.

Composed of a dynamic mix of 38 Atlanta-based critics working in newspaper, magazine, and online journalism, the AFCC’s mission is to establish a national presence for a film critics group in Atlanta and to foster a vibrant film culture in Atlanta, already home to an exploding film industry production presence.

Members (critics living in and/or currently writing for global, national, regional and/or Atlanta metro area outlets) of AFCC voted on December 8 for the group’s annual awards.