10. Longlegs
Maika Monroe stars as FBI agent Lee Harker, on the trail of Nicholas Cage’s deranged serial killer in Osgood Perkins occult chiller.
Socially awkward but with an uncanny gift for reading a crime scene, Harker discovers she may have a personal connection to the shadowy ‘Longlegs’ (Cage in ultra-creepy form) a suspected killer implicated in a series of mass murders going back decades.
With an outstandingly weird turn from Cage, Longlegs is a thoroughly unnerving horror that will play on your mind for weeks after seeing it.
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9. Challengers
Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s follow up to the excellent ‘Bones and All’ is a sumptuous love triangle / tennis drama led by Zendaya, who stars alongside Josh O’Conner and Mike Faist as Tashi, a former tennis star turned coach to her husband Art (Faist). Superbly intertwining multiple timelines, the film follows the trio’s tangled relationship as it swings back and forth, very much like the game they all love.
Guadagnino’s finest film to date, Challengers is an intoxicating exploration of competitive sport, jealousy and desire.
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8. American Fiction
Nominated for 5 Oscar’s, this impressive debut from writer / director Cord Jefferson, sees Jeffrey Wright as an African-American author fed up with his peers pandering to white America’s appetite for Black trauma. When his mocking response novel deliberately filled with cynical cliches becomes an overnight hit, he’s reluctantly forced to embrace the success.
With great performances throughout, and interweaving a thread of family melodrama, the film cleverly walks the line between heartfelt and absurdist satire.
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7. Civil War
When their authoritarian president dissolves the FBI and announces he’s staying on for an unprecedented third term, the American states of Texas and California form an alliance and go to war with their own. Alex Garlands latest, which has a worrying air of plausibility about it, is told from the viewpoint of Kirsten Dunst’s jaded war photographer Lee Smith as she documents the conflict alongside Cailee Spaeny’s young photojournalist Jessie.
A visceral, thoroughly immersive experience that explores the horrors of war and the impact it has on those who report on it.
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6. The Fall Guy
Directed by former stuntman David Leitch and loosely based on the 80’s TV show, Ryan Reynolds and Emily Blunt star in this ridiculously entertaining action-comedy. Reynolds is the titular fall guy Colt Seavers, who fresh off a near career ending injury, is tasked with tracking down a missing movie star, while maintaining his day job on his ex-girlfriend’s debut film. Exciting, legitimately funny and a touching celebration of the stunt profession.
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5. Dune – Part Two
Denis Villeneuve completes his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic novel with this sequel to the 2021 first part. Timothée Chalamet returns as Paul Atreides, uniting with Zendaya’s Chani and her Fremen people to seek vengeance against the villainous Harkonnen’s who destroyed his family. Austin Butler, meanwhile, is a welcome new addition to the cast as Paul’s nemesis Feyd-Rautha. Soundtracked by an astounding Hans Zimmer score, Villeneuve again makes the dense source material and deep mythology accessible to a wider audience. A wonderful Sci-Fi epic full of awe & spectacle from a master filmmaker.
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4. The Substance
When celebrity television fitness coach Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) turns 50, she is cruelly discarded by the network, forcing her to experiment with a black market drug in order to preserve her youth. The cell-replicating substance creates a temporary younger version of herself (in the form of Margaret Quaker) but comes with severe side effects should the rules not be followed to the letter. Writer – Director Coralie Fargeat takes clear inspiration from the work of David Cronenberg with some spectacular and insanely entertaining body horror.
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3. The Bikeriders
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols, and starring Tom Hardy, Austin Butler and Jodie Comer, The Bikeriders charts the history of a midwestern motorcycle club over the course of a decade, as it transitions from a friendly group of likeminded enthusiasts into a violent criminal enterprise.
This is a bit of a slow burn, but if you’re patient with it, you’ll discover an immersive and wonderfully soulful character drama with terrific performances.
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2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Returning to the world of Mad Max, to tell the origin tale of Charlize Theron’s character Furiosa, first seen in 2015’s acclaimed Fury Road, Australian director George Miller delivers another high-octane assault to the senses.
Anya Taylor-Joy takes on the title role, while Chris Hemsworth is her nemesis, the power-hungry warlord and brilliantly named Dementus.
An action-packed monster of a film and a remarkable achievement from the veteran filmmaker.
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1. Poor Things
Featuring a magnificent Oscar winning performance from Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos’s eccentric gem follows Stone’s Bella Baxter and her evolution after she is brought back to life, Frankenstein style, by Willem Dafoe’s unorthodox scientist Godwin (or God for short). Impatient to see the world, she embarks on a whirlwind adventure across the continents with Mark Ruffallo’s slick but sleazy lawyer. Poor Things is a fabulous feast of oddness. Unpredictable, Shocking and riotously funny, this is Lanthimos at the peak of his powers
Paul Steward
31/12/24
X @grittster