I haven't posted recently (I'll have thoughts on that sometime) so I thought I'd share a little bit about this past weekend. As you may remember from last year, every now and then I like to gather some people and have an impromptu film festival. Well, since it has been a year since I last had an A24 Film Festival, we got together for the second annual A24 Film Festival.
I'm going to be as upfront about this film festival as possible- this wasn't a selection of the greatest A24 Films ... because if it was that good, I've already seen it. Instead, it was caused by the confluence of two events- first, I finally got around to watching Weapons when it was released on HBO Max (which is NOT an A24 film, but was ... A24-ish), and second? Lingering guilt that I hadn't watched The Brutalist, which is an A24 film, and I kept just ... not watching, mainly because I was like, "Uhhhhh... I don't know if I really want to invest more than three hours into this."
So the decision was made and the die was cast- watch The Brutalist, and then continue by just watching the various A24 films on HBO (Max? HBOMax? The Artist Formerly known as HBO GO? Whatevs... it's HBO) that are on the A24 channel that we hadn't seen! Which meant ... most of the best ones (and my favorites) .... weren't ones that we watched. But there was some good news and some bad news from the movies that we saw.
The good news? A24 movies are generally pretty good, and even the ones that aren't great are, at least, interesting. Also? They have a lot of 90 minute movies! Do you remember those?
The bad news? Not all of them were great. And while even the worst one (and there was a worst one) was interesting ... it wasn't very good.
Anyway, with that out of the way ... here's all the A24 movies currently streaming on HBO that ended up being a part of the lengthy film festival over the weekend .... RANKED! For once, the rules to my rankings are really easy.... it was a movie that was watched this past weekend (with the exception of The Brutalist, which was watched last weekend and was the impetus for the film festival), and they are ranked entirely by my capricious and arbitrary thoughts on how awesome the movie was. By the way, the first SEVEN MOVIES are all worth your time- they were worth my time, and even the seventh ranked film was one that I definitely loved. In fact, I'd say that only the last ranked film was a ... an actual waste of the ninety minutes we spent watching it.
Aside- I watched Beau is Afraid, A Different Man, and Opus in the past few months. If they had been eligible and had been watched, I probably would have placed Opus and Beau in the top five or so, and A Different Man right behind them. If you want to start with a film that is weird, but not too weird, Opus might be a good place to begin.
1. Good Time. Um ... this is a hard one for me. I'm not sure it's the absolute best film (see below), I'm not sure it's the most thought-provoking film ... and I don't even know that I'd say that it's better than the Safdie Brothers' followup that you can also watch on HBO (Uncut Gems) ... but it's definitely the most real film. Maybe it's because it is so New York City. If you've spent any amount of time there, you've had that experience (well, not ... THIS experience) but the tie when you start out with plan X, and the next thing you know you're going from place to place and the night bleeds to day bleeds to night and you suddenly find yourself in a completely different situation than you could have imagined when you started, and with people you didn't know when the day began.
2. Enemy. If you've only seen the Denis Villeneuve hits from Sicario until Dune: Part Two, can I recommend this movie? It's a character study (of a sort) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and ... oh, look, I don't think most people here will like this as much as I do. It's weird. It's deliberately off-putting. And if you go into it expecting some type of satisfying puzzle-box movie, you're going to be disappointed. But if you're open to eating what Denis is cooking up, it's a powerful movie that uses symbolism and imagery to truly uncover psychological conflict and turmoil.
3. The Brutalist. sigh Okay, I'm not sure what to say about this. It is a really good movie. The cinematography is gorgeous. The metaphors (including the use of an architect as the main character) are easy enough unpack, yet not so obvious that you can't give yourself a pat on the back for understanding it. The acting is top-notch. The "reveal" at the end of the film is satisfying. It's perfectly cromulent Oscar-bait (unlike, say, The Green Room) and I did not regret watching it. Just ... I dunno. I feel obligated to place the movie up here because it is a good movie (and some would say great), but I didn't really love it. Still ... the cinematography and acting alone are worth the investment of your time.
4. Y2K. This is my most difficult ranking, and maybe the most controversial. This is not a great movie. But it does not aspire to be a great movie. Instead, I will remember the question @Whizbang Dustyboots posed to me so long ago- WHY SO SERIOUS? This is a fun movie. If you happen to remember the late '90s or early '00s, it has some especially good bit, but it's just fun. There's a cameo in it that I wasn't expecting, and pretty much put a ribbon on the "OMG they went there" in the movie for me. You'll know it when you see it. Sometimes, you just want to watch a movie that knows exactly what it is, and delivers.
5. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. This is the second-most difficult ranking. This could easily be the top, or at least in the top-three, movies for me. It's a movie that was shot in Zambia, and is very culturally-specific (while also dealing with issues that are ... less so). The acting is wonderful. I loved this film. I recommend watching it, although with a slight caveat given the subject matter which I will not spoil since unveiling it is a slow simmer and the major plot point. It's really hard to say much else about it. So why isn't it a top pick for me? Well, I am glad I watched it, but I also don't see returning to it.
6. Tuesday. What if death was a .... parrot? This movie is definitely high on the magical realism, and while my opening description might not make you want to watch it, it's a beautiful and lovely film a about how we grapple with mortality and loss.
7. You Hurt My Feelings. A solid, well-acted movie that is often laugh-out loud funny about how people in relationships support each other ... and what happens when the tiny lies and illusions that support those relationships are sundered. Worth your time if you want a movie that doesn't take too much from you, but is enjoyable to watch as the characters deal with the quotidian problems of everyday life.
BIG GAP
8. BabyGirl. The good? Acting was amazing. Cinematography was pretty good. And seriously ... Nicole Kidman's performance was excellent. The bad? Everything else, really. I remember this movie getting all this hype, and then when I watched it, I was like .... this? All the hype was for this movie? It's not a bad movie. It's just ... I went in expecting a great movie, and it was ... perfectly cromulent. Maybe it was just me, but I did not get what the big deal was. I'm assuming that critics were all like, "Oh, look, big star in a movie about a taboo topic," but it was ... whatever. Not very interesting.
ANOTHER GAP
9. The Front Room. There is one great thing about this movie- the absolutely bravura and unhinged performance of Kathryn Hunter as Solange. There was absolutely nothing else in this movie that was interesting to me. It tried so hard to be relevant to different issues (I think?) but never connected any dots, and managed to just be another variation on the old horror trope of, "It's scary when a relative moves in."
MASSIVE GAP
10. The Monster. This was a movie that tried to be an elevated horror movie. It is not. I've been told that if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. So ...
BONUS SECTION! WITH HALLOWEEN COMING UP, WHAT A24 MOVIE SHOULD I WATCH?
I'm going to divide this into a question-and-answer section in order to provide you with a bespoke horror movie experience.
I want to watch the scariest scary movie.
Hereditary
I want to watch a modern slasher movie.
X / Pearl / MaXXXine (Three Films)
I want to watch a slow-burn psychological horror movie, but also I like period pieces.
The Witch
I want to watch the Wicker Man crossed with Children of the Corn, but if both those movies were good.
Midsommar
I want to watch a horror movie that reminds us that the real monsters are people.
The Green Room
I want to watch a movie that really makes me think, until I feel the existential despair that everything is meaningless.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
I want to watch something Aussie.
Talk to Me
I have a blind-date for Halloween!
Under the Skin
I'm going to be as upfront about this film festival as possible- this wasn't a selection of the greatest A24 Films ... because if it was that good, I've already seen it. Instead, it was caused by the confluence of two events- first, I finally got around to watching Weapons when it was released on HBO Max (which is NOT an A24 film, but was ... A24-ish), and second? Lingering guilt that I hadn't watched The Brutalist, which is an A24 film, and I kept just ... not watching, mainly because I was like, "Uhhhhh... I don't know if I really want to invest more than three hours into this."
So the decision was made and the die was cast- watch The Brutalist, and then continue by just watching the various A24 films on HBO (Max? HBOMax? The Artist Formerly known as HBO GO? Whatevs... it's HBO) that are on the A24 channel that we hadn't seen! Which meant ... most of the best ones (and my favorites) .... weren't ones that we watched. But there was some good news and some bad news from the movies that we saw.
The good news? A24 movies are generally pretty good, and even the ones that aren't great are, at least, interesting. Also? They have a lot of 90 minute movies! Do you remember those?
The bad news? Not all of them were great. And while even the worst one (and there was a worst one) was interesting ... it wasn't very good.
Anyway, with that out of the way ... here's all the A24 movies currently streaming on HBO that ended up being a part of the lengthy film festival over the weekend .... RANKED! For once, the rules to my rankings are really easy.... it was a movie that was watched this past weekend (with the exception of The Brutalist, which was watched last weekend and was the impetus for the film festival), and they are ranked entirely by my capricious and arbitrary thoughts on how awesome the movie was. By the way, the first SEVEN MOVIES are all worth your time- they were worth my time, and even the seventh ranked film was one that I definitely loved. In fact, I'd say that only the last ranked film was a ... an actual waste of the ninety minutes we spent watching it.
Aside- I watched Beau is Afraid, A Different Man, and Opus in the past few months. If they had been eligible and had been watched, I probably would have placed Opus and Beau in the top five or so, and A Different Man right behind them. If you want to start with a film that is weird, but not too weird, Opus might be a good place to begin.
1. Good Time. Um ... this is a hard one for me. I'm not sure it's the absolute best film (see below), I'm not sure it's the most thought-provoking film ... and I don't even know that I'd say that it's better than the Safdie Brothers' followup that you can also watch on HBO (Uncut Gems) ... but it's definitely the most real film. Maybe it's because it is so New York City. If you've spent any amount of time there, you've had that experience (well, not ... THIS experience) but the tie when you start out with plan X, and the next thing you know you're going from place to place and the night bleeds to day bleeds to night and you suddenly find yourself in a completely different situation than you could have imagined when you started, and with people you didn't know when the day began.
2. Enemy. If you've only seen the Denis Villeneuve hits from Sicario until Dune: Part Two, can I recommend this movie? It's a character study (of a sort) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and ... oh, look, I don't think most people here will like this as much as I do. It's weird. It's deliberately off-putting. And if you go into it expecting some type of satisfying puzzle-box movie, you're going to be disappointed. But if you're open to eating what Denis is cooking up, it's a powerful movie that uses symbolism and imagery to truly uncover psychological conflict and turmoil.
3. The Brutalist. sigh Okay, I'm not sure what to say about this. It is a really good movie. The cinematography is gorgeous. The metaphors (including the use of an architect as the main character) are easy enough unpack, yet not so obvious that you can't give yourself a pat on the back for understanding it. The acting is top-notch. The "reveal" at the end of the film is satisfying. It's perfectly cromulent Oscar-bait (unlike, say, The Green Room) and I did not regret watching it. Just ... I dunno. I feel obligated to place the movie up here because it is a good movie (and some would say great), but I didn't really love it. Still ... the cinematography and acting alone are worth the investment of your time.
4. Y2K. This is my most difficult ranking, and maybe the most controversial. This is not a great movie. But it does not aspire to be a great movie. Instead, I will remember the question @Whizbang Dustyboots posed to me so long ago- WHY SO SERIOUS? This is a fun movie. If you happen to remember the late '90s or early '00s, it has some especially good bit, but it's just fun. There's a cameo in it that I wasn't expecting, and pretty much put a ribbon on the "OMG they went there" in the movie for me. You'll know it when you see it. Sometimes, you just want to watch a movie that knows exactly what it is, and delivers.
5. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. This is the second-most difficult ranking. This could easily be the top, or at least in the top-three, movies for me. It's a movie that was shot in Zambia, and is very culturally-specific (while also dealing with issues that are ... less so). The acting is wonderful. I loved this film. I recommend watching it, although with a slight caveat given the subject matter which I will not spoil since unveiling it is a slow simmer and the major plot point. It's really hard to say much else about it. So why isn't it a top pick for me? Well, I am glad I watched it, but I also don't see returning to it.
6. Tuesday. What if death was a .... parrot? This movie is definitely high on the magical realism, and while my opening description might not make you want to watch it, it's a beautiful and lovely film a about how we grapple with mortality and loss.
7. You Hurt My Feelings. A solid, well-acted movie that is often laugh-out loud funny about how people in relationships support each other ... and what happens when the tiny lies and illusions that support those relationships are sundered. Worth your time if you want a movie that doesn't take too much from you, but is enjoyable to watch as the characters deal with the quotidian problems of everyday life.
BIG GAP
8. BabyGirl. The good? Acting was amazing. Cinematography was pretty good. And seriously ... Nicole Kidman's performance was excellent. The bad? Everything else, really. I remember this movie getting all this hype, and then when I watched it, I was like .... this? All the hype was for this movie? It's not a bad movie. It's just ... I went in expecting a great movie, and it was ... perfectly cromulent. Maybe it was just me, but I did not get what the big deal was. I'm assuming that critics were all like, "Oh, look, big star in a movie about a taboo topic," but it was ... whatever. Not very interesting.
ANOTHER GAP
9. The Front Room. There is one great thing about this movie- the absolutely bravura and unhinged performance of Kathryn Hunter as Solange. There was absolutely nothing else in this movie that was interesting to me. It tried so hard to be relevant to different issues (I think?) but never connected any dots, and managed to just be another variation on the old horror trope of, "It's scary when a relative moves in."
MASSIVE GAP
10. The Monster. This was a movie that tried to be an elevated horror movie. It is not. I've been told that if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing. So ...
BONUS SECTION! WITH HALLOWEEN COMING UP, WHAT A24 MOVIE SHOULD I WATCH?
I'm going to divide this into a question-and-answer section in order to provide you with a bespoke horror movie experience.
I want to watch the scariest scary movie.
Hereditary
I want to watch a modern slasher movie.
X / Pearl / MaXXXine (Three Films)
I want to watch a slow-burn psychological horror movie, but also I like period pieces.
The Witch
I want to watch the Wicker Man crossed with Children of the Corn, but if both those movies were good.
Midsommar
I want to watch a horror movie that reminds us that the real monsters are people.
The Green Room
I want to watch a movie that really makes me think, until I feel the existential despair that everything is meaningless.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
I want to watch something Aussie.
Talk to Me
I have a blind-date for Halloween!
Under the Skin
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