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The Only Movies I Saw in Theatre in 2024

Grace Stevens

Hello! This post has been sitting in my personal blog drafts for a month now, so I thought I'd finally post it. The sad truth is... I only saw two movies in a theatre last year. I watched other things but just wasn't as excited about them as I was for these. Like last year, I've been way too invested in the Oscars, but I honestly haven't seen too many of the nominees. I have a looong 2024 watch list: Wicked, The Substance, Anora, Nosferatu, I'm Still Here... The two movies I did see have a strange similarity. They are by directors who recently made well-known movies, but these projects were met with less attention and acclaim. These directors are Luca Guadagnino and Yorgos Lanthimos.


The Other Luca Guadagnino Film

You know Challengers, right? Everyone and their mother has seen Challengers (maybe that's an exaggeration, I just know a lot of people who saw it). I started watching it a while ago and am still only halfway done, though I plan to finish it eventually. Do you know what movie I did see all the way through? That's right. The one that flew mostly under the radar: Queer. I'm not a Luca Guadagnino fan or anything, but he is a director whose films I've been wanting to check out (Challengers, Bones and All, Call Me by Your Name).


This is my first Luca Guadagnino film (or second if you count the first half of Challengers), so what did I think of my introduction to him? I thought Queer was great. It was cute but also sad and really quirky. I tried to avoid information besides trailers before watching it so had no clue about the plot. I knew it was sometime in the 1900s (1950s) in Mexico (Mexico City). I also learned it was adapted from William S. Burrough's novel of the same name, which I've never read, but is semi-autobiographical. So knowing the movie had to take some creative liberties with an apparently unfinished book, it's good. I really liked how reality blended with the unreal, like how fiction blended with biography in the book. It was cool to connect the pieces and try to figure the story out.


The main thing I took away from this romance movie was the age gap between the main character, Lee, and Allerton, who he crushes on. I find the director's takes on age gaps a little sus. He doesn't see Call Me by Your Name or Queer as age gap love stories since "they're basically equals" and "well, the older guy acts young." Anyway, the reason I care so much is because I'm planning on using Guadagnino's films for a section of my senior thesis about media with age gaps. Lee is portrayed in a charming naive sort of way, where you can tell the director doesn't want you to think he's preying on young men. I think it is still a good romance movie and still wanted to see the characters end up together.


What about the the ending? I don't want to spoil anything but will give the crumb that they don't end up together. I was surprised because I thought the movie would have a happy ending and cried while watching it. I thought it was interesting how the ending was still emotionally poignant to me, even though it was abstract, and I had no clue what was going on. I liked a lot of the artsy aspects of the film, especially a long sequence where Lee falls through the sky like a meteor to signify a time jump. I think the film's abstract aspects make it what it is, even though they aren't always the best. It felt like watching a dream, and I really appreciate movies or writing that can portray that, partially because I want to do the same. All in all, I thought Queer was a fantastic film.

(Credited to IMDb from Queer trailer)
(Credited to IMDb from Queer trailer)

The Other Yorgos Lanthimos Film

I feel like Kinds of Kindness kind of flew under the radar. Yes, Poor Things came out last year, but I feel like the comparison of Challengers to Queer and Poor Things to Kinds of Kindness is close enough. I assumed with all the popularity and praise for Poor Things that there'd be more attention on Lanthimos's next project, but I was wrong. It didn't help that Kinds of Kindness looked smaller and more abstract, being an anthology of three stories with loose connections instead of one cohesive narrative.

But what did I think of it? I personally loved it, controversially probably more than Poor Things. It was right up my alley. It was unsettling, confusing, and dreamlike. The three different narratives did throw me off a little, though. By the time I understood the first one we were already jumping into the second. I really had to work to understand how everything was connected. The first story was about a man who lets his boss dictate every aspect of his life, the second was about a policeman who thinks his wife is too different after going missing, and the third involved a cult member looking for a woman who can revive the dead. Besides the whole concept of the movie being confusing, the individual stories are insane in their own right. They're fun and unique, but there's a lot to wrap your head around.

I'll briefly talk about the individual stories. I think the first one is my favorite. It has some queer undertones: is the man is only listening to his boss because he wants to be successful, or is he in love? It also portrays the realities of a toxic relationship well and doing things you don't want to for the person you love (which is found in all the stories, but I feel it is done best here). The second story has more ambiguity but is still good. It's left in the air whether the policaman is right, and his wife was replaced with an alien, or if he is just going insane. I lean towards the latter because he was portrayed as extremely paranoid and abusive. The third story was probably my least favorite but not bad. I liked the concept, which was a sex cult that only allowed members that were pure, but thought it was a little on the nose. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the journey to find the woman, as it was a little boring. I loved the ending, though. It's definitely not a perfect movie, such as being three hours long and having some graphic scenes that didn't need to be there. Besides my gripes, I really liked Kinds of Kindness and its absurbity.

(Credited to IMDb from Kinds of Kindness trailer)
(Credited to IMDb from Kinds of Kindness trailer)

Conclusion

I love both of these movies. They are both artsy fartsy, so I can see how they aren't everyone's cup of tea. After seeing them, it makes sense why they weren't as recognized as Challengers or Poor Things, while still good. Queer and Kinds of Kindness have a lot of through lines, like being dreamlike and showing different displays of love from wild to grounded. I like Kinds of Kindess a little more, only because I enjoy black comedies more than romantic dramas. At the same time, I took away and gained more from Queer. Either way, my favorite thing is that they both required me to think deeply about things like interpretations, themes, and criticisms. I used to just watch mainstream movies to turn my brain off to, but lately I like to watch more things I can analyze like an English paper. Anyway, enough from me. I've been Grace, and I'll see you next time!




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