My Top 5 Movies of 2024

If I'm being honest, most of the year 2024 in film was fairly weak. That said, it really couldn't have closed out on a stronger note. So with that in mind, let's take a look at my favorite films to come out in the past year.

Honorable Mentions
Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez)
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Adam Wingard)
The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders)

#5

Turtles All the Way Down
(Hannah Marks)

This movie about a girl suffering from an extremely debilitating case of OCD definitely struck home with me. It was an unnervingly realistic depiction of the condition, and the various ways it can obstruct your life. This one made me pretty emotional watching it.

#4

Heavier Trip
(Juuso Laatio, Jukka Vidgren)

I only even heard about this movie because it features recurring appearances from the band Babymetal throughout the film. I'm glad I gave it a chance because of that, though, because it wound up being an incredibly charming film, and one of the most genuinely hilarious movies I've seen in years. And speaking of Babymetal...

#3

Babymetal Legend - 43 The Movie
(Hiroya Brian Nakano)

The first Babymetal movie gave me a WTF reaction upon first viewing, which is a more than fitting reaction for this band. I love film analysis, and I love that a concert movie of all things was able to spur on an analysis of the film from me. It may not have been what I was expecting going into it, but I wound up loving it for what it is.

#2

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
(Jeff Fowler)

Who would've ever thought that Sonic the Hedgehog would make for a perfect film trilogy? Each new entry has been even better than the last, and that holds true for this latest entry in the series, too. I've said it before, but these movies are an absolute love letter to the franchise and the fans, and this movie goes even bigger in that regard and has some of the most satisfying crowd pleasing moments of the series thus far.

#1

Flow
(Gints Zilbalodis)

One of the most unique films that I've seen in years is also by far the year's best. An epic fantasy following a common house cat and the various other animals it encounters on its voyage, this film is an absolute treasure, and is an especially rewarding one to revisit over and over again. Operating without a single line of dialogue uttered throughout, this film is a true master class in visual storytelling, and a movie that'll take you on a thrilling and emotional journey as we travel along with this lively cast of creatures.

(And, spoiler alert, it'll absolutely be making an appearance on my upcoming list of the Top Movies of the Decade so far, as we approach the halfway point of the '20s. So stay tuned for that!)

Babymetal Legend - 43 The Movie - Movie Review

This past week, I managed to make it out to both of the screenings of the first Babymetal movie that were playing in my town. And in this review, I would like to discuss this movie in two parts, looking first at my thoughts from my initial viewing, and then from my second screening after some reflection.

On first viewing, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I was pretty disappointed. I thought the editing throughout the film was chaotic, to the point that it was disorienting and made it hard to really appreciate the choreography on stage. It was less like their usual live releases, and more like some of their live music videos that they post on their youtube channel, which have a tendency to go a bit overboard with the editing and on-screen effects sometimes. And I was also confused as to why they chose a show in a smaller venue to showcase for their first movie. You would think that for the big screen, they would choose one of their bigger arena spectacles, but they went with something smaller and more akin to one of their standard headline shows to feature instead.

After leaving the theater, I was left asking, why would they release the first Babymetal movie in such a manner? Why not go all out and go big, and why not clean up the editing a bit, to make everything on the stage all the clearer to see? And I sincerely gave these questions some thought, because I was trying to figure out what they were going for with this release, since it was seemingly the exact opposite of what one might expect from such a movie.

And then it hit me. A typical movie theater, even at their biggest, is still no bigger than a smaller or midsize venue, not unlike the type that Babymetal usually performs in. So maybe the thinking here was that, rather than look at the screen size to display one of their bigger shows, they were instead looking at the size of the theater, and trying to recreate the feeling of being in a venue of that size and seeing a performance live right in front of you.

This theory also works in regards to the film's editing, too. With as chaotic as the editing was, I wonder if this wasn't their attempt to try and recreate the chaotic nature of being in the pit at one of their shows. Getting pushed around, fighting for a better view, and sometimes even watching parts of the show through either the lens of your cell phone camera, or the phone of someone else in front of you, signified by the occasional cuts to cell phone footage throughout the feature.

So I went into the movie a second time with this idea in mind. Rather than go in expecting something that it's not, I went in accepting it for what it is, and trying to embrace what I feel they were trying to go for here. And doing so definitely made for a much more enjoyable experience. I found on second viewing I was able to immerse myself in the show far better, and I could appreciate what they were going for this time around. Babymetal is a band that's always finding ways to subvert expectations, and this was just their latest take at doing just that.

The show itself was almost a greatest hits showcase, and really a perfect set from start to finish, featuring classics from all of their albums to date. And while the use of on-screen effects could at times be hit or miss, I particularly loved how they played Monochrome in black and white (and if I'm being honest, it did make me almost wish for a full black and white version of the concert, not unlike how some movies these days get rereleased in black and white). I was left dancing in my seat on multiple occasions, and really just vibing to the music like I was right there watching it live and in person.

This night also saw a special performance of the song Metali, where a bunch of ceremonial drummers came out and performed the song along with the band, adding in some new chants along with it, and it definitely made for a cool moment.

All in all, my thoughts on this movie really did run the gamut. I started off disappointed by what I felt going in was surely a disappointment-proof movie for me, but after some thought, consideration, and a second chance, I completely turned around on the film and wound up loving it for what it was, as opposed to what I expected it to be. As a film, I'm not sure if this is a movie that would win people over who aren't already fans of the band, but I do feel like there's something here to enjoy for people who are fans, which is who this movie was definitely put together for.