97th Academy Awards?!

Poster art for each of the eight Best Picture nominees
(Channel 6 Action News)

Did you see any good movies last year? 2024 was no Barbenheimer, but I still got to see a lot of cool, powerful stuff. The best thing about great art is sharing it with others! I love how movies allow others to share stories and perspectives in a succinct, potent, and accessible form. Stories from anyone, made for anyone!

The Academy Awards are one of my favorite times of the year- I mean, the Academy is pretty self-inflated and you can never be quite sure whether the choices they make will stand the test of time, but it’s a great opportunity to celebrate movies and talk all about what did or didn’t deserve praise and attention. This time around, I’m not terribly interested in diving deep into all the nominees; There are some neat movies in play, some interesting award season narratives... I’m hopeful for many unexpected twists during this year's ceremony. Instead, I'm way more interested in sharing some recommendations along with hearing from you about what I missed out on. I saw a ton of movies this past year, but here are a small handful that I think are easy to suggest. Have you heard of any of these movies? What did you think about them?

A scene from Flow where the main character sits perched at the edge of a boat, looking over their shoulder as they float down a waterway towards surrounded by structures.
(IMDb) 

Flow: Ethereal animated animals

“A solitary cat, displaced by a great flood, finds refuge on a boat with various species and must navigate the challenges of adapting to a transformed world together.” 1hr 25min. Available to rent, or stream via Max.

Honestly, I’ve never been much of an animal guy- but this movie totally captivated me. It reminded me of some of my favorite video games like Shadow of the Colossus or The Witness, where the dialog is minimal and the setting is totally immersive. Even more impressive, the movie is made by a pretty small Latvian-lead team who were all fairly new to filmmaking. No human characters, no dialog, minimal budget, minimal experience… It’s nothing short of an amazing feat. It also fetched two nominations at the Oscars this year: Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film! I don’t have high hopes that it will walk away with any wins, but as far as I’m concerned it’s one of the best movies of the year.

A group of men wearing prison uniforms sit in a circle of chairs inside a multipurpose room.
(IMDb)

Sing Sing: A powerful peek inside

“Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.” 1hr 47min. Available to rent.

This movie is all about the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program that started at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where inmates produce and perform plays for the prison population. It stars several of the program’s alumni (along with the very famous Colman Domingo), which is one of the most powerful aspects of the movie- but that’s not the only thing that makes it great. It’s such a focused experience, centered around our characters and a slice of their time in the program– never venturing outside the facility or exploring their past. It’s such an expertly crafted movie that had me glued to the screen during its entire runtime. And look at that, it’s also nominated for a few Oscars: Best Actor for Colman Domingo, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song (though I don’t think it has a chance at winning any of them). It's very affecting, and not in the miserable way that some movies about incarceration can be. Simply terrific.

Two excited characters in casual clothes being wed by an officiator while a fourth person takes a photo.
(IMDb)

Anora: A deftly-layered farce

“Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.” 2hr 19min. Available to rent.

This movie is one of the Best Picture favorites this year, and for good reason. Director Sean Baker has produced a string of unlikely indie hits which each showcase his prowess for fusing comedy and drama, showcasing marginalized people without exploiting them. They aren’t dreary and they aren’t uplifting; they’re thoughtful, engaging, and damn good movie making. Anora is a fun romp with a terrific cast, traipsing across New York in search of a immature trust fund baby- Lots of Uncut Gems energy, if that tickles your fancy. There’s certainly plenty of sex and nudity, so it’s not for the faint of heart! But if that doesn’t scare you away, it’s a great roller coaster ride of a movie- Hilarious, captivating, and memorable.

Several men are positioned facing a brightly-lit control panel and several televisions in an otherwise dark room.
(IMDb)

September 5: A riveting pensive drama

“During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.” 1hr 35min. Available to rent, or stream via Paramount+.

Unlike a lot of these other movies that I’ve mentioned, I like to think that this one has wide appeal: It’s a quick, focused, exciting thriller with a feverish pace and pensive themes. I didn’t live through this event so maybe I’d feel differently if I had a more personal relationship with this tragedy, but on the whole I liked how smart this movie was- The camera stays focused on the behind-the-scenes production of the broadcast and stops short of proclaiming any sort of universal truth about journalism. It's a good script, which I guess is why it’s nominated for Best Original Screenplay this year. Seems like the kind of movie to put on when visiting your parents! That's not denigrating, is it?

A robot in the forest stares intently at a tiny duckling beind held in the palm of its hand while lights beam out all around it.
(IMDb)

The Wild Robot: This year’s animated tearjerker

“After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island’s animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.” 1hr 42min. Available to rent, or stream via Peacock Premium.

Ya know, it used to be Pixar’s duty to give us a heart-piercing story about family for us to cry over year after year- And while I liked Inside Out 2 from earlier this year, it didn’t exactly change the game. Instead, DreamWorks rose to the occasion this time around with their adaptation of The Wild Robot, a series of chapter books for kids starting in 2016. Sporting an all-star ensemble (Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Catherine O’Hara, Mark Hamill) along with a gorgeous watercolor art style, writer-director Chris Sanders (known for helming Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon) gives us one of DreamWorks’s best movies in years- a fitting celebration and send-off for 30 years of DreamWorks Animation as they wind down in-house production this year.

Seriously, I'm not kidding. Have you heard of any of these movies? Seen any of them? I could go on and on about everything I saw last year, but I want to know what you think. What was your favorite movie from 2024? I think mine was Daughters, a documentary about the Date With Dad Weekend held at the Richmond City Justice Center. You can watch it on Netflix, but a heavy documentary like that isn't as easy to recommend as some of the other movies I wanted to share with you. If you're really curious, check out my totally arbitrary ranking of the 50+ movies I saw from last year- just be sure to spark up an argument with me if you give it a glance.

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