Kraven the Hunter 2024
J.C. Chandor's entry in Sony's dying Spider-Man universe. Sean couldn't feel Chandor's point of view in it at all and skipped a full review.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Rankings · Interview
Best Picture Power Rankings and the Winners and Losers of Movies in 2024. Plus: ‘Superman’ Is Here.
December 20, 2024/ 128 min/ Sean Fennessey · Joanna Robinson
Sean Fennessey opens solo on whether 2024 was a good year for movies and the first 'Superman' trailer, then Joanna Robinson joins to hand out the winners and losers of the movie year and re-rank the Best Picture field. Sean closes with an interview with 'Nickel Boys' director RaMell Ross.
83 films across 6 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Was 2024 a good year for movies?Sean's opening monologue
Mufasa: The Lion King 2024
Barry Jenkins applying his deep-focus close-ups to digital lions. Sean found it fascinating to watch but another mystifying live-action Disney remake; he's seen 16 of the 21 and rates none of them good.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim 2024
The new animated Tolkien film, part of the week's IP slate Sean chose not to devote time to.
Inside Out 2 2024
Part of the case that movies are back: it exploded at the box office.
Wicked 2024
Soared, another data point for a healthier-than-feared box office year.
It Ends with Us 2024
One of only three non-sequel/prequel titles in the top 20 domestic grossers, alongside 'The Wild Robot' and 'If.'
The Wild Robot 2024
One of the year's rare original hits inside the top 20.
If 2024
The third original in the domestic top 20.
Rebel Ridge 2024
Cited as a rock-solid genre movie that streamers picked up: a Netflix release rather than a theatrical one.
Carry-On 2024
Netflix genre programming filling the gap left by theaters.
It's What's Inside 2024
Another Netflix pickup Sean celebrates but wishes had played in theaters.
The ‘Superman’ trailerSean and Joanna on the first look at James Gunn's DC reboot
Superman 2025
The first teaser. Sean is all in: liked the color grading, the John Williams theme, David Corenswet's un-muscle-bound build, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois. Joanna is more skeptical of Gunn's tonal fit but loved Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor and the bloodied-in-the-snow shot. Both read Gunn as secretly a sap.
The winners and losers of the 2024 movie yearwith Joanna Robinson
Deadpool & Wolverine 2024
Sean's biggest winner is Ryan Reynolds, who engineered a billion-dollar movie at a low point for superheroes. Basically a MADtv sketch, but it kept the seat warm for a whole wing of Hollywood.
Wicked 2024
The power-couple pick: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, whose much-mocked press tour turned into a friendship story that sold the movie to the world.
The Substance 2024
Comeback of the year, Demi Moore, who hadn't headlined a studio movie in nearly 20 years and committed fully to a very strange film. Also a studio-of-the-year data point: Universal backed it but pawned distribution to MUBI. Margaret Qualley got famous off it too.
The Bikeriders 2024
Part of Sean's case for Universal as studio of the year, targeting a range of demographics.
Twisters 2024
A Universal hit and, later, a legacy-sequel loser: a shadow remake of the 1996 original. Sean was a true believer but found Lee Isaac Chung uninterested in doing anything beat-for-beat new.
The Fall Guy 2024
Joanna's favorite of the Universal slate, part of the studio's filmmaker- and audience-friendly year.
Dune: Part Two 2024
The bookend, with 'A Complete Unknown,' that makes Timothée Chalamet the movie star of the year. Villeneuve's choice to center Zendaya's Chani was a major adaptation improvement.
A Complete Unknown 2024
Chalamet as Bob Dylan, James Mangold directing: the other half of his movie-star-of-the-year case and a genuine Best Actor threat. Also anchors the year's musical-biopic run.
Wonka 2023
Cited as proof Chalamet can even carry a kids' musical, part of a deliberately eclectic CV.
Bob Marley: One Love 2024
A big early-2024 hit and part of the musician-biopic wave that made musicals the genre winner.
Better Man 2024
Michael Gracey's Robbie Williams biopic, with Williams played by a CGI monkey. Sean liked it more than 'The Greatest Showman': half stupid and boring, half exhilarating; the Take That street-dance number rocks.
Emilia Pérez 2024
Another 2024 musical, and a shortlist juggernaut Sean expects to land 11 Oscar nominations.
Mean Girls 2024
The musical remake, part of the year's strong showing for musicals.
Challengers 2024
Zendaya's minting as a movie star beyond Mary Jane: a non-franchise turn Sean thinks will stay in the conversation for years.
Hit Man 2023
Part of Glen Powell's riser case: a huge streaming hit that put him in the Golden Globe conversation.
Anyone but You 2023
Carried over from the prior year to fuel the Glen Powell box-office-star narrative.
Alien: Romulus 2024
Cailee Spaeny's riser year alongside 'Civil War': a franchise film and an exciting filmmaker at once. Also lands as a legacy tweener with great sequences and baffling choices.
Civil War 2024
The other half of Spaeny's rise, an Alex Garland film that made money.
Terrifier 3 2024
Indie story of the year: Damien Leone's decade-in-the-making slasher opened at No. 1 and has studio horror shook looking for the next one. Sean prefers 'Terrifier 2.'
In a Violent Nature 2024
An IFC/Shudder film whose theatrical run did far better than expected.
Late Night with the Devil 2024
Another Shudder theatrical overperformer, minting David Dastmalchian as a leading man.
Longlegs 2024
Neon marketed the hell out of it to drive huge interest in a movie most people were mixed on.
A Real Pain 2024
Headline title in Joanna's more-impactful-than-usual Sundance year; Kieran Culkin is about to win an Oscar for it, though it didn't do the commercial business a decade ago it might have.
A Different Man 2024
A Sundance title still hanging around the awards conversation.
Dìdi 2024
Part of the standout Sundance slate.
Will & Harper 2024
The Sundance documentary that landed on the doc shortlist.
I Saw the TV Glow 2024
Burbling in some awards circles; Sean tags it as your-favorite-filmmaker's-favorite-filmmaker, the movie he expects young directors to cite in 10 years.
Kneecap 2024
Among the Sundance titles that made the most of a wide-open release calendar.
Between the Temples 2024
Another entry from the strong Sundance class.
Sugarcane 2024
One of the Sundance documentaries carrying onto the Oscar doc shortlist.
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat 2024
A Sundance-premiered documentary on the shortlist.
The Brutalist 2024
Joanna's alt comeback pick, Adrien Brody as a bona fide leading man: captivating in nearly all of it, his body arced like architecture. Youngest-ever Best Actor once, now up against Chalamet, who'd be the youngest if he wins.
Venom: The Last Dance 2024
One of the year's superhero losers; Joanna calls it a narrative disaster even though she wants to love a Venom movie.
Madame Web 2024
Among Sean's worst times at the movies this year, part of Sony's collapsing Spider-Man universe.
Morbius 2022
Sean rates it perhaps worse than 'Kraven' and 'Madame Web' combined.
Argylle 2024
Part of Apple's terrible movie year: one of the most baffling things Sean has encountered.
Fly Me to the Moon 2024
Not embarrassing, just a perfectly fine movie with two real movie stars dumped in mid-July: a symptom of Apple's movie problem.
Wolfs 2024
The Apple Clooney-Pitt movie that made Sean and the hosts wonder why talented people's time was being wasted.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024
Legacy-sequel loser: a big hit but a mediocre movie with a bad script, even with Tim Burton back on practical effects.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 2024
The exception in the legacy-sequel pile: both agree it's good (a 7/10 for Sean) but it wildly underperformed.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die 2024
A debatable legacy sequel that nonetheless made good money.
Gladiator II 2024
Disappointing creatively but chugging toward profitability over the holidays; the CGI 'abominations' get a mention under digital monkeys.
The biggest movies of 2024Joanna's Trial by Content Q-score top 10, best-first
No. 1
Dune: Part Two 2024
No. 1: box office plus cultural stickiness, the year's clearest event movie.
No. 5
Deadpool & Wolverine 2024
No. 5: Sean argues its seat-warming importance is under-weighted by the algorithm.
Best Picture Power RankingsSean and Joanna's updated top 10, best-first (Blitz and The Substance dropped off the prior list)
No. 2
Conclave 2024
No. 2: the consensus second-place, a ranked-ballot favorite even if not the streaming icon Sean expected.
No. 3
Wicked 2024
No. 3: Joanna's pick could win if it gets a screenplay nod; the Jon Chu directing question holds it back.
No. 4
The Brutalist 2024
No. 4: divisive; nearly blanked at the Spirit Awards, but the great-man craft-and-scale story the Academy still rewards.
No. 6
Sing Sing 2024
No. 6: way up, with Clarence Maclin, Colman Domingo, and its screenplay all in the conversation.
No. 8
A Complete Unknown 2024
No. 8: a traditional Best Picture type, lifted by Chalamet's Best Actor surge.
No. 10
Nickel Boys 2024
No. 10: the movie Amazon/MGM is pushing hardest and the pick Sean makes as a throw to his RaMell Ross interview.
RaMell Ross on ‘Nickel Boys’the 'Hale County' director on his first scripted feature
RaMell Ross on
Nickel Boys 2024
Ross's first scripted feature, adapting Colson Whitehead. Shot in what the set called 'sentient perspective' (the camera as an organ, not POV), using narrow lenses and shallow focus to mimic the attention of consciousness. Half of festival audiences said they'd never seen anything like it; the other half said the same and didn't get it. The Chickie Peep bar scene, a 15-20 minute oner with Craig Tate, is the film's centerpiece; it ends on an Ethiopian jazz record Ross couldn't shake.
RaMell Ross on
Hale County This Morning, This Evening 2018
Ross's acclaimed documentary and the proof of concept for his observational-logic camera; the team finished it in obscurity expecting it to sit on a library shelf, then it broke through at Sundance behind 'Cameraperson.'
RaMell Ross on
The Tree of Life 2011
Ross's lodestar. Dede Gardner producing it is why he took the Plan B meeting at all: he figured if she could make that, maybe she could protect 'Nickel Boys.'
RaMell Ross on
Cameraperson 2016
Kirsten Johnson's documentary, placed in Sundance's New Frontier the year before 'Hale County'; Ross traces the lineage of risk-taking programming that made room for his film.
RaMell Ross on
La Jetée 1962
Ross's last-great-thing pick: Chris Marker's 30-minute film he rewatches monthly, a clear influence on his form.
RaMell Ross on
Fight Club 1999
One of the commercial classics Ross grew up on before he turned the camera on himself.
RaMell Ross on
The Shawshank Redemption 1994
The other hardcore classic Ross cites from before his self-interested, spiritual turn toward filmmaking.
RaMell Ross on
Lady in the Lake 1947
Named alongside 'Enter the Void' as the first-person 'action cam' approach Ross wants to distinguish 'Nickel Boys' from.
RaMell Ross on
Enter the Void 2009
Gaspar Noé's film, cited as POV/GoPro-style cinema, the opposite of the sentient perspective Ross was after.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Also in the Best Picture conversation September 5The Room Next DoorThe Seed of the Sacred FigAll We Imagine as LightNosferatuBlitz
Franchise and comeback comps in passing Spider-Man: No Way HomeThe BeekeeperMoana 2Red OneAnother Simple FavorTaylor Swift: The Eras TourAbigail
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Agatha All AlongThe AcolyteDune: ProphecyCreature CommandosHouse of the DragonThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of PowerSkeleton CrewThe PenguinFalloutThe Last of UsA Knight of the Seven KingdomsSeveranceDaredevil: Born AgainSecret InvasionWandaVisionSiloBad MonkeySugarThe StudioEuphoriaMaid
Podcasts The TownTrial by ContentHouse of RThe Midnight Boys
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