Monthly Archives: December 2024

Best of 2024, Special Features

Ben Sears’ Top 10 Movies of 2024

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Was 2024 a bad year for movies? Not exactly. As you’ll see, I had no trouble picking my ten favorite films of the year. But for much of the year, that wasn’t the case, with many anticipated hits from celebrated filmmakers underwhelming. Call it a byproduct of last year’s strikes, or call it a simple ebb and flow after the boon of great films in 2023. Nevertheless, this is a list of films I could discuss endlessly, and which I’m excited to revisit down the road well past 2024.

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TV Reviews

Squid Game 2 – TV Review

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Squid Game 2

  • Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk
  • Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon, Lee Byung-hun, Im Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul, Lee Jin-wook
  • Seven episode season, seven episodes watched for review

Grade: B

When Squid Game first dropped on Netflix in 2021, its anti-capitalism and anti-establishment messaging hit the culture at just the right time (not that there’s ever really a bad time for those ideas). Fresh out of the pandemic and still reeling from the Trump administration and the January 6 insurrection, the show resonated outside of its South Korean origins to become an unexpected international critical and popular hit. Squid Game 2, the second season of Hwang Dong-hyuk’s show, was all but inevitable, especially given the first season’s cliffhanger ending. It can be difficult for a show to follow up on great success and elevate what came before, and while the show’s second season doesn’t always live up to its potential, it provides a number of exciting thrills and interesting characters.

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Movie Reviews

Nickel Boys Review

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Nickel Boys

  • Director: RaMell Ross
  • Writers: RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes
  • Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs

Grade: A

For 111 years after it opened in 1900, Florida’s School for Boys, nicknamed the Nickel Academy, operated officially as a reform school for troubled youths, but harbored painful secrets rooted in racism and cruelty. RaMell Ross’s film Nickel Boys, adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, tells just a fraction of the horrors that took place at the school in the Jim Crow era, but it’s also a film of staggering beauty. Through a risky creative choice, Ross has created one of the most empathetic films in recent memory, and one of the best of the year.

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Best of 2024, Special Features

Top 10 TV Shows of 2024

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How much was the best TV of 2024 affected by last year’s SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes? The answer is unclear but, as always, there was plenty of quality TV and limited series to be found on cable, network channels, and streaming. New and returning shows alike altered the landscape to show what’s possible in the medium. Some premiered with little fanfare, and some were predetermined to succeed.

2024 was my best year in recent memory for staying up to date on television and limited series. As any year, there were still some blind spots, but much less glaring ones this year. So when you don’t see shows like Industry, Nobody Wants This, Under the Bridge, The Diplomat, Pachinko, Interview With the Vampire, and Hacks, it’s not because they’re not worthy, but because I simply haven’t seen them yet. Nevertheless, here are the best TV shows of 2024:

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Movie Reviews

Mufasa: The Lion King Review

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Mufasa: The Lion King

  • Director: Barry Jenkins
  • Writers: Jeff Nathanson
  • Starring: Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Kasigo Lediga, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, Blue Ivy Carter

Grade: C-

It came as a bit of a surprise when arthouse auteur Barry Jenkins was announced as the director of Mufasa: The Lion King, the prequel to the 2019 computer animated remake of the 1994 classic. Though Disney has snagged a handful of well respected directors to helm their live-action remakes, Jenkins was a different level. Would he simply use the project as a springboard to make another passion film, or would he find a way to inject his style and humanity past the Mouse House’s tight leash? Though there are bright flashes where it feels like Jenkins prevailed, the film is ultimately plagued by a mixture of everything that’s hurt Disney in recent years.

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Movie Reviews

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3

  • Director: Jeff Fowler
  • Writers: Pat Casey & Josh Miller, and John Whittington
  • Starring: Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, Keanu Reeves, Krysten Ritter, Lee Majdoub, Natasha Rothwell

Grade: B

Having never played the SEGA games growing up, I was never gung-ho on the idea of a Sonic the Hedgehog-based film franchise. The character never caught my attention, and the live-action/cgi hybrid did even less to catch my interest. I had fun with the first two films in the franchise, but I never felt overly enthusiastic about either of them. With Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I garnered a newfound appreciation for the characters and story, and it is mostly due to Jim Carrey. 

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Best of 2024, Special Features

Trevor Stucker’s Top 10 Movies of 2024

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This has been my biggest year of new release watches in my time of review writing. From festival premieres to streaming releases, I have seen a vast number of 2024 films. Like most years, there are some films that I have yet to watch that could end up on this list. Films like The Brutalist, I’m Still Here and Babygirl are ones that I have not watched that could easily end up here. Out of the 190+ new release films I’ve seen this year, these ten stood out as my favorites of 2024.

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Movie Reviews

A Complete Unknown Review

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A Complete Unknown

  • Director: James Mangold
  • Writer: Jay Cocks, James Mangold
  • Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Edward Norton, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy

Grade: B+

I’ve personally always been softer on musical biopics compared to most. Sure, most of these movies follow the same exact formula, telling the same rise and fall narrative, that movies like Walk Hard and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story mocked relentlessly. But some movies, like Elvis or Rocketman, add some more much-needed personality to the subgenre. But more often than not, we get movies like Bohemian Rhapsody or Bob Marley: One Love, which treat their subjects as if they are literal superheroes.

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Movie Reviews

The Order Review

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The Order

  • Director: Justin Kurzel
  • Writer: Zach Baylin
  • Starring: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Alison Oliver, Jurnee Smollett, Marc Maron, Odessa Young

Grade: C+

Nicholas Hoult has been busy in 2024. With films like Juror #2, Nosferatu, and a voice role in The Garfield Movie, Hoult has proven himself to be an incredibly versatile actor during this year alone, with more massive projects on the way. With director Justin Kurzel’s The Order, Hoult displays a layer of darkness that I have yet to see in his projects, carrying the film from a forgettable crime drama to an enthralling experience. 

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