2024 in review

I started doing a summary of my year in movie-watching last year, and I quite liked the experience. So here I'll summarize again some of the data analysis stuff for my movie-watching in 2024, as well as look into the films I watched that I loved the most. It makes me reminisce about all these great films and the wonder of it all.

2024 was the 10th year since I decided to take watching films "more seriously" (I call it my serious hobby), which amounted to log, rate, and (when I have the energy for it) write a bit about each time I see a film. After a couple slow years (~60 film watches/year, although already above however many I was watching before), I saw 198 films in 2017, and ever since have been averaging ~165 films/year, with a minimum of 142 in 2021 and a maximum of 204 in 2023. I am really happy with how this whole project took shape, because I've fallen in love with cinema in these 10 years in a way I did not anticipate. I certainly liked films before, but now I love them absolutely. They bring me so much joy, and there is always so much to discover.

Following up on 2023, 2024 was again a strong year for movie-watching for me: 189 films watched (includes rewatches), behind only 2023 and 2017, and 65 in movie theaters, behind only 2023. There were not that many great films from 2024 that I could see last year, but still there was no shortage of amazing films, as I'm ever catching up with old great ones.

The Journey ⋅ Highlights ⋅ Miscellaneous ⋅ Best Old Films First Watched in 2024 ⋅ Best New Films First Watched in 2024

The Journey

The overview of my movie watching in 2024 is summarized in the plot^[0] below. The green bars are for films watched in a cinema. In the X axis by the names of the months are the number of watched films in that month, with the max and min months in bold.

I was in the US in January and in between vacation and work I did not get to see many films in comparison with my regular Januaries^[1], but at least I got to see several films in a cinema that would only open in Brazil a few months later.

I came back to Brazil in February and picked up the pace from the second semestre of 2023. In February and March I watched a lot of films, averaging over 5 films per week, and went a lot to the cinema^[2]. With work picking up and the year wearing on me I regressed to the mean for the next three months, with ~3.5 films per week, but still ended up the first half of 2024 with an average exactly of 4 films per week, which is the number I have in mind of how many films I'd like to see weekly on average. By June I had gone 42 times to a cinema, which put me on track to have 2024 as the year in which I'd go the cinema the most (2023 has the recond of 70 times).

The journey was about to get harder though. We had a strike at UFMG for two months that ended in June, and coming back from it everything was rushed and the teaching got very intense, specially because I had to juggle it around work trips that always happen in July, when I'm not supposed to be teaching. The odd week in this period was Week 27, when I was in Nancy/FR for work and managed to see many films in my beloved Cameo Cinema.

Only in late August things eased up, when I finally took a vacation. I saw lots of films and went lots of times to the cinema. As in a similar bounce back in 2023, I was helped also by a series ran by the Cine Humberto Mauro in Belo Horizonte, this one dedicated to Wuxia films, which I love.

Differently from 2023 though, I could not sustain the momentum. A very busy working period started in September, with a particularly complicated teaching semester, lots of travel^[3], and getting sick a few times. October was particularly hard in that regard. In November I bounced back some, but the clearest signal to me that I was struggling filmwise was that from mid-September to early December I saw only 3 films in a cinema (but two are among my 2024 favorites), less than I saw in the second week of December alone.

The year wrapped with a lot of travel and less movies watched, but I took advantage of a week home in mid-December to catch-up on films that were in theaters and on a Kiarostami-Ray-Yang series at Cine Humberto Mauro^[4]. Despite the ups and downs, it's been wonderful. Here are all the films I saw in 2024.

Highlights

Note: The cards below have the date relative to that watch of the respective film, where I was then, and the rating I gave to that watch^[5]. The circled arrows say that watch was a rewatch. In grey there are tags for things like if I saw the movie in a cinema, if I cried, if I dozed-off, etc.

Perfect Days saves the day

I loved Perfect Days when I first saw it, specially how it encapsulated a sense of living in the present and seeing value in the beauty of everyday life. I spent the whole week thinking about the film, specially as I went through some tough days where staying in the moment proved elusive. I went to rewatch the film almost as a cry for help, and it delivered. Much like Mia Farrow in The Purple Rose of Cairo, I caught myself smiling despite myself as the film started. It was a beautiful thing.

Rewatching Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon

Much like in 2023, I got to rewatch in a cinema my two favorite films of a previous year: Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer, my favorite and second-favorite films of 2023. This was by chance, because Oppenheimer was running again (on IMAX!) because of its anticipated Oscar success, I assume, and Killers of the Flower Moon probably because somebody at Cinemark wanted to make me happy (actually it was also because Cinemark was doing some sort of Oscar "Best Picture nominations" series). It was my fourth time for Killers and fifth for Oppenheimer seeing them in all their prowess. It was glorious.

Once Upon a Time in the West in a cinema

Those close-ups on Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda on a big screen are the stuff of heaven. It was my first time seeing this masterpiece in a cinema, and I just loved it. Cine Humberto Mauro often does these one-off screenings of classics outside larger thematic series and it's a great opportunity if not to see some films for the first time but at least for the first time to see them as they were meant to be seen (or at least in a approximation of, since it's digital projection...).

70s extravaganza

Cine Humberto Mauro announced a Coppola series (probably because Megalopolis was gonna be coming out later in the year^[6]) and the first four films were: The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now. Tantalizing! There should have been lines around the block. In reality the screenings were far from full and it was pretty chill. I caught only the first three (loved much more The Godfather this time around, realized I was actually seeing Part II for the first time, and loved The Conversation more this time also, after spending a year thinking about it) and right after watched Sorcerer for the first time, in a Friedkin series at the Criterion Channel. Liked it a lot! It was a lot of 70s cinema in a short burst and I was all in for it.

French cinemas

My dive into this serious hobby started when I was living in Nancy/FR, as I did my PhD. The Cameo Cinema was a big part of this, with its very diverse programming and focus on cinema itself (it's the only commercial movie theater I've seen that forbids food and beverages; I wish they were all like this). I spent two weeks in Nancy in late June/early July for work and I managed to go to Cameo several times (and once in Paris on the way back), including to see Kinds of Kindness, which I was looking forward to a lot (it was a great ride), and Paris, Texas, which I had never seen. I had been back to Cameo in 2023 after many years away (I left Nancy in 2017), but it was just the one time and felt kinda rushed. This time it felt much better. I miss it already.

Wuxia!

The Wuxia series at Cine Humberto Mauro came right when I most needed it to rekindle my moviewatching drive, as I was heading into vacation. Specially as it was slated to end with Hero, one of my favorite films and that I had not seen in ten years. I ended up not seeing as many films as I wanted in the series because of work but still caught a lot of kung-fu and had the most amazing finish possible (the first film I rated 10 in 2024). But most importantly it was reinvigorating and kickstarted my return to form for watching filminhos.

Stop Making Sense in IMAX

A truly religious experience. I did not think it was possible for a film to impact me the way this one did. Cinema really is everything. And by far the greatest IMAX experience I ever had. It only ran here for a week so I rushed to see it again a few days later. Unbelievable stuff.

December renaissance: Secrets & Lies

After the very slow three month stretch in Sep-Nov, I picked up momentum in November, but I was still going very little to cinemas and seeing few films that truly excited me. Then I watched Secrets & Lies and all my faith in Cinema was restored (lol, as if I had lost it). It is just so magical, so reinvigorating to watch an absolute masterpiece, the kind of film that transcends every barrier we think we can surmount. It carried me to the end.

Miscellaneous

• With my very strong second semester of 2023 (4.83 films per week) and strong first semester of 2024 (4.00 films per week), I had my highest average of films per week in a twelve month period (4.44) and of course the highest total (231). The previous highest was also from July to June, of 2018 to 2019: 4.01 films per week to a total of 209. There is a big difference in the number of films seen in a cinema in the period though: 88 for this new high, 46 in the previous one. A testament that nowadays I go much more to the cinema, which makes me very happy.

  In a calendar year the highest numbers are all from 2023 (3.91 films per week to a total of 204), and going 70 times to a cinema. Much like in tennis^[7], way harder to do something in the confines of a calendar year than through a 12 month period!

• In 2024 I wanted to improve on Brazilian films and on films directed by women. Had only a marginal improvement in the former (from 9 to 12) and actually got worse in the latter (from 24 to 18). The goal continues for 2025...
• I had the feeling this had been a less eclectic year for me, country-wise, and indeed: I saw films from 20 different countries this year, versus 24 in 2023. Moreover, while my rate of US films was similar to 2023's (59% vs 58%), I also saw a bunch of films from the UK (8.5%, vs 2.5% in 2023), which feels a bit like US films... so almost 70% of anglophone films, which is similar to the historic rate of US films that I've been trying to reduce.
• There were 35 2-films days in 2024 (vs 39 in 2023) and five 3-films days. Second year in a row with above-average 2-films days (~30), but for 3-films days it seems 2023 was just an outlier (11 such days, while the average is about 3). For some fun, I had five 2-cinema days and one 3-cinema day in 2024 (which was 2024-12-14). That was way ahead of most previous years. I had only a single 3-cinema day before (2019-01-04), and five 2-cinema days in 2017, 3 in in 2018, 1 in 2019, 3 in 2020 and none in 2021^[8], 2 in 2022, and 7 (!!) in 2023.
• I saw 32 films while traveling in 2024, second only to 40 in 2017^[9]. And 10 films in planes, tied with 2018. I fly and travel more nowadays than before, but I've been watching less films in planes and while away from home.
• Comprehensive lists:
  • New films (past three years) first watched: 63 (previous year: 69)
  • New films (past three years) rewatched: 15 (previous year: 15)
  • Old films (up to 2021) first watch: 69 (previous year: 80)
  • Old films (up to 2021) rewatched: 42 (previous year: 40)

Best old (until 2021) films first watched in 2024

I like compiling the list of my favorite first watches of older films because there is so much I'm still catching up with and it can be so cathartic to discover these films.

As I mentioned above, nothing was more impactful than seeing Stop Making Sense for the first time. Watching Secrets & Lies was a tremendous experience, reenergizing my love for this art form. I was mesmerized by Brief Encounter, finally almodóvarizado by Hable con ella. Overwhelmed by the tragedy of Ônibus 174. Provoked in such a magistral way by the audacity of Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi in Close-Up and The Mirror. I was lost to myself in the spell cast by the other films, all led by men sort of trying to escape from themselves, realizing they cannot, and facing the consequences.

The list with the cards for the movies is available here.

Best new (from 2022) films first watched in 2024

Note: In 2023 I tried to pretend I could do here a "best of the year" list, but it's silly to do this if you are not somebody who goes to movie festivals worldwide and/or has access to advance copies of films (besides not caring to wait to see the films in a movie theater if they are only gonna open in the following year). As I'm not such a person, I only settle on a "best of the year" list well into the first semester of the following year... Of the twelve films in my Best of 2023 list three have changed through 2024, and it may change still since there are 2023 films I still want to see. It's an evolving thing. For 2024, given how thin the field has been so far, I expect (hope!) for an even bigger change, so for the purposes of this review I'll do what makes more sense: the "best new films first watched in 2024". It is also more useful because then I can highlight films I'd have potentially added to "best of" lists of previous years (like Showing Up, from 2022).

A surprising challenge for putting together this list was mixing in the ranking the films from 2024 with those from 2022 and 2023, since I'm only used to do this for the films of a given calendar year. This is further complicated by the fact that there were few films from 2024 that I managed to see in 2024 that were actually impressive. There is one spectacular film, one truly great, and three more that are very, very, very good (all in this list). Beyond that there are many good films, some even very good, but none at the level that I'm used to including in my "Best of" lists for a given year. Through the next couple months there are several hyped 2024 films that are gonna open in Brazil and I'll finally catch up to. But still it's clear that 2024 is gonna be below 2023 by a large margin (in fairness, 2023 was a very strong year).

The list with the cards for the movies is available here. Below is the list in decreasing order with a few words. I put in 15 films rather the usual 12 so I could highligh more cool films.

1. Evil Does Not Exist (2023, JP)

I had been looking forward to see Hamaguchi's follow up to Drive My Car, my favorite film of 2021, for a long time (it opened in festivals in 2023...), and it was quite interesting to see how he went for a different register with Evil Does Not Exist. It did not hit me as hard as his favorites, but I still liked it a lot. It has such a gentleness to it, a deliberate pace. And it is so gorgeous. It does have its flaws, but it is a very powerful film.

2. La passion de Dodin Bouffant (2023, FR)

Another 2023 film I was very curious to see, given the hype, Binoche, and the subject (I love food and find professional cooking fascinating). I might have liked the film less than I thought I would, but it was still so nice to see and experience it. It hit me hard, specially the way the love between Dodin and Eugénie is depicted, how it revolves around a power struggle, yes, but also as a shared life based on upmost confidence in one another. The tragic beauty of the ending devastated me.

3. Ferrari (2023, US)

I've been slowly exploring Mann's filmography in the last years, and increasingly liking how he constructs his films and centers them around these tormented men who live in a surreal world where everything is heightened and they must prevail through sheer will. Ferrari is no different, and this is all masterfully embodied by a fearsome Adam Driver. Moreover, the car racing is visceral and scary. I saw the film twice and liked it even more the second time around (impressions here and here). Ah, this terrible joy.

4. Falcon Lake (2022, CA)

A film that only got into my radar because it almost topped Mike D'Angelo's Best of 2022 list. I was fascinated by its depiction of young love/friendship, how they intertwine in so familiar but still unique ways. The film also has a few exceptionally constructed scenes that take your breath away, all in service of an increasingly heartbreaking narrative that ends up leaving you torn apart.

5. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, US)

I remember seeing a lot of praise for this film a few years ago when it premiered, but since I had not seen the first I kinda ignored it. Decided to give it a chance during a long flight and was overwhelmed by its exhilarating action, carefully constructed narrative, irresistible voice acting, and surprisingly tender and sincere emotional core. If not for some long, relatively mundane stretches, it would be a masterpiece.

6. All of Us Strangers (2023, GB)

I was expecting to be impressed by Paul Mescal, given how much I loved him in Aftersun, but Andrew Scott was a revelation (I only remembered him from Sherlock). He carries the film with an openness that had me completely surrendered. The film itself also works marvelously, despite its narrative flaws, and how it portrays its themes is beautiful, touching, evocative. The ending is so singular, bold and inspiring. I saw the film twice a few months apart and it floored me both times (impressions here and here).

7. Kinds of Kindness (2024, GB)

Finally a 2024 film (although the later the better to show up in this list...). I love Yorgos Lanthimos so much. As I had heard this was a return to "strangeness" after his relatively more conventional (!) The Favourite and, specially, Poor Things, I was pumped. The film delivers. It covers the horror of control, which is so welcome, in an absurd, outrageous, hilarious, mesmerizing way. It kind eluded me the first time I think because of its anthology structure throwing me off a bit, but the second time it worked wonderfully. One has to atune properly to its humor. Also, what a joy to see these actors! They are given so much room and such crazy characters, taking full advantage of it.

8. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024, US)

On an off for the past ten years I would check the rumors that Miller was doing another Mad Max film centered on Furiosa. I was kinda surprised when I learned that indeed it was gonna happen and it would come out in 2024, so I went all hyped to see it when it finally opened. In a sense I was disappointed, because Fury Road is what it is^[10], but I still loved this film quite a bit. Not only for its action but also for its characters and the depiction of their pain. But mostly for Tom Burke and his gaze. Saw it twice in IMAX and it was glorious (impressions here and here).

9. The Zone of Interest (2023, GB)

Belatedly made by Best of 2023 list. Incredible film. Ominous, harrowing, accusatory. Shot in a way that seems mundane, but that lingers. May have the most effective credits rolling ever. Impressions here and here.

10. Showing Up (2022, US)

A jewel of a film. It can feel innocuous, but to me the unassuming narrative depicts how hard it is to simply show up, to muster the courage, the energy, the abandon to do what you set out to. Nothing overt, but present nonetheless. I really loved it. And I am all in in the Kelly Reichardt train to wherever she wanna go.

11. Ainda Estou Aqui (2024, BR)

A masterful film with an incandescent lead performance that I'm glad it is being widely celebrated. I left the cinema shattered. Surviving is never easy. And the pain shown here, perfectly set up by the amazingly constructed life this family had... it's tough to handle. Moreover, surreal how this film becomes more timely by the minute given the world we live in right now.

12. Past Lives (2023, US)

Another late addition to my best of 2023. The pain for what never was is unbearable. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo ripped my heart apart. Celine Song is merciless, crafting a devastating ending amplifying it all.

13. The Substance (2024, GB)

I don't know, this film just appeals to me too much. The hyper-stylized reality, the super-sharp editing, the overwhelming sound, the outrageous narrative. All work wonders for me. It only falters in losing some momentum in the second half and in failing to create a more incisive emotional connection. I was ready to forgive it all after that insane final stretch though. Left me completely bewildered. Coralie Fargeat is 2/2 and I can't wait for her next film.

14. Perfect Days (2023, JP)

As I wrote in the highlights, a quietly powerful film to the point of being my lifeline in a moment of need. It was my introduction to Wim Wenders and now I'm going through his filmography, but so far nothing nearly as effective (although Paris, Texas was quite something). I'll be thinking of Koji Yakusho's smile for a long time. And every time I look to the sunlight through the trees, I remember Hirayama, and I try to ground myself.

This is the last addition to the list from the films released in the first trimester of 2024, which had a third of the titles here.

15. Challengers (2024, US)

My favorite film from 2024, which I suspect will continue to be the case when all is said and done^[11]. Guadagnino creates an irresistible film full of sound and fury, signifying everything. An all encompassing experince that had me completely overwhelmed, again and again. The soundtrack is bonkers, and used to such an effect in the film, in this perfect marriage of sound and image^[12]. Otherwordly.

And that's it. As I feared last year, it was harder for me to put this together than in 2023 (January is almost over), so for next year I will start before January... but anyway, again I quite liked doing it and I am glad I have it written so I can better remember in the future how was my 2024 in filminhos. For 2025, I hope there will be many great films (more than in 2024... which I think is gonna be the case given all the things I'm already hyped for) and that I'll continue to be able to manage this lovely hobby!