What’s happening with films today? Every time you hear the previous “folks don’t wish to go to film theaters anymore” line, it appears a Moana 2 reveals as much as knock these naysayers again down of their seats (reclining theater seats, most likely), as that Disney sequel has already crossed the $700 million mark in simply its third week of launch. No, persons are nonetheless going to the flicks…
That mentioned, the varieties of films which can be being made – and launched theatrically at the very least, versus going straight to streaming or digital – have positively modified. It’s nothing new to say that the extra mid-budgeted movies like straight dramas or comedies have a tougher time getting display screen time within the present theatrical panorama, since, effectively, Moana 2 might be taking on all of these screens. And showtimes.
So in terms of the IGN Award for Best Movie, we wish to shine a light-weight on a bunch of several types of movies not simply because we, the employees, get pleasure from a wide range of genres and varieties of films, but in addition as a result of we all know you, the IGN viewers, really feel the identical method. So for each large Denis Villeneuve sci-fi saga that we’re into, there’s a smallish horror film the place a easy injection can change your life for the higher (or it it the more serious?). For each Sean Baker “indie” that’s wowed us, there’s a vastly trendy remake of, say, a silent horror traditional that has additionally wowed us in a very completely different method.
And so it goes. The IGN Award for Best Movie is often not going to match up with what the Oscars or, yuck, the Golden Globes decide. But we don’t need it to. And you don’t need it to. And man, Count Orlok positively doesn’t need it to. So all that mentioned, let’s dive in our faves of the yr 2024!
Honorable Mentions
Of course, there are at all times these films that simply virtually made our high group, however obtained edged out within the remaining voting amongst our employees. That consists of writer-director Alex Garland’s Civil War, a gut-punch of a movie starring Kirsten Dunst as a photojournalist documenting the bloodshed ensuing from a contemporary American Civil War. Even as she takes the younger photographer Cailee Spaeny below her wing, Dunst’s character finds herself on the heart of a consequential second for this pretend but in addition all-too-real United States.
Also starring Spaeny and likewise amongst our honorable mentions is Alien: Romulus, a surprisingly robust return to the roots of the Alien franchise after the aspect journeys of OG director Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. With Romulus, director Fede Álvarez manages to mainline the whole lot we cherished in regards to the good Alien films, in addition to a number of the unhealthy ones, and largely will get away with out the movie feeling like a fan-service retread. Another acquainted IP – as a result of sure, that’s what these items are – that was close to the highest of our picks was Wicked, or Wicked: Part 1, actually. The Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-starring adaptation managed to convincingly channel the beloved stage musical but in addition the ebook on which its primarily based.
And then there have been the straight-up horror movies like Longlegs, filmmaker Osgood Perkins’ creepy riff on Silence of the Lambs that includes a Teddy Perkins-esque Nicolas Cage that you just gained’t quickly neglect, and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) remakes the 102-year-old German Expressionist traditional with Bill Skarsgård now taking part in the dreaded Count Orlok. The movie most likely would’ve ranked larger on this listing if not for the truth that it’s not out till Dec. 25 and never sufficient of our employees had seen it by the point voting had closed.
Runner-Up: Anora
Writer-director Sean Baker has made a reputation for himself with movies like Red Rocket and The Florida Project, and Anora continues the development with the story of the title character (performed by Mikey Madison in a career-rocketing efficiency). Anora is a stripper and intercourse employee dwelling in Brooklyn who’s employed by Mark Eydelshteyn’s Vanya, the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch. Despite the transactional nature of their preliminary assembly, the younger couple get married – a lot to the chagrin of Vanya’s dad and mom, and resulting in an try and get the wedding anulled. Anora is alternately humorous and emotional, with Baker as soon as once more exploring the world of the downtrodden with a eager eye that’s solely amplified by terrific peformances throughout the board. As Lex Briscuso put it in her evaluation for IGN, the movie “serves up its lead character’s purity of coronary heart on a silver platter, exhibiting us what it means to be let down simply when the world appears so stuffed with chance.”
Runner-Up: The Substance
Filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is the type of film that takes you by your lapels (you do put on lapels, don’t you?) and shakes you up and down saying LOOK AT WHAT WE’RE DOING HERE ISN’T IT GROSS AND ALSO AMAZING!? And the factor is, it type of is more often than not. Gross and wonderful, that’s. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading Hollywood star who regardless of being, effectively, Demi Moore, is fired from her health present as a result of she’s growing old like all human beings are likely to do. Enter the Substance of the title, which as soon as injected into Elisabeth ends in an erupting Margaret Qualley – actually – a youthful, extra TV-ready model of Elisabeth (as a result of, clearly, younger). Sue, because the youthful lady calls herself, slowly however certainly winds up in a battle for pores and skin time with Elisabeth, since just one can stay practical at a time whereas the opposite’s physique should go dormant. As the scenario turns into untenable for each, the Cronenbergian physique horror actually kicks in, and also you gotta see the place all of it goes in the long run earlier than you notice that perhaps we’re a part of the issue right here. Our authentic IGN evaluation put it this manner: “The Substance indicts movie star tradition’s obsession with youth and sweetness in a sick, twisted, and squirm-inducing parable.”
Runner-Up: Challengers
Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria) truly had two movies out this yr, with the Daniel-Craig starring Queer additionally of observe. But Challengers, with its intense tennis story of ardour on and off the courtroom, is the one to rank excessive amongst our employees. Zendaya stars as a former tennis star who, years earlier, was injured and compelled to turn out to be the coach to the person who finally turns into her husband (Mike Faist). But when a former pal/lover (Josh O’Connor) re-enters their lives, a tennis match between the 2 males turns into a lot, far more than that. Guadagnino tells his movie’s story over a 13-year time interval, weaving out and in of not simply its personal chronology but in addition the sophisticated motivations and interpersonal dynamics of the three lead characters. The performances are as spectacular because the tennis play (and the “you’re a tennis ball” pictures that Guadagnino finally phases!), all culminating in a “what simply occurred? I believe I like what simply occurred” ending. As Siddhant Adlakha mentioned in his IGN evaluation, “Challengers builds the relationships between its main tennis trio in thrilling and exacting methods. Enhanced by layered bodily performances … the consequence is without doubt one of the sexiest and most electrical dramas of 2024.”
Winner: Dune: Part Two
Did somebody name for a sandworm? Well, it has arrived.
Denis Villeneuve has managed to do what many filmmakers earlier than him tried and failed, and that in fact is to take Frank Herbert’s dense science-fiction traditional and switch it right into a film sequence that persons are truly into. Nay, not only a film sequence, Dune is now a legit franchise, with the prequel TV sequence Dune: Prophecy at present airing on HBO Max and a 3rd movie assured. Certainly, casting vastly widespread and charismatic younger actors like Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya (she’s on our listing once more!) was one of many keys to Dune after which Dune: Part Two’s success, however Villeneuve’s specific ability at wrangling outsized sci-fi ideas – to not point out an enormous scope from setting to solid to visuals and extra – needs to be, and do forgive me for this, in comparison with Paul Atreides managing to climb that sandworm and simply get all the way down to enterprise. The man simply has it. That Villeneuve has additionally recontextualized facets of Herbert’s story, significantly in how this chapter ends and the place it leaves Chalamet’s Paul and Zendaya’s Chani, solely makes it all of the extra intriguing of a sequence. Like Tom Jorgensen mentioned in his IGN evaluation of the movie, “that includes completely staggering visuals, Dune: Part Two is an arresting, transportive center entry in Denis Villeneuve’s difficult sci-fi saga.”
So these are our greatest films of 2024, however what are your picks? Let’s focus on within the feedback!
