Best and Worst 2024 Movie Superlatives

Yank down those calendars, folks - 2025 is coming at us fast! But before the ball drops, heralding in the new year, along with January's fresh batch of Oscar contenders finally going wide, now's the perfect time to take a step back and reflect. 2024 was a strange year, which was appropriately mirrored in a lot of the movies that came out! From the ultra-violent Terrifier 3 being #1 at the box office, becoming the first unrated film to do so, to Dune Part II's suggestive popcorn bucket design - you truly could not predict where things were headed. We also said RIP to legends like Quincy Jones, Terri Garr, Tony Todd, Maggie Smith, Gena Rowlands, Shelley Duvall, Donald Sutherland, and Roger Corman, to name a few. 

When you step back, you realize, there's a lifetime in a year! So my pre-Top Ten annual tradition is to honor those films that stood out from the rest of the pack. The ones that seared themselves into my brain and wouldn't let go, whether it was because of an unbelievable performance, a goosebump-inducing music score, or cinematography that you'd want to frame on your wall. I hope you enjoy my personal batch of superlatives for 2024!

BEST ACTRESS - Demi Moore, The Substance

Demi Moore made a comeback in a BIG way this year with the body horror masterpiece The Substance. In a role that perhaps hits close to home as a former box office queen of movies like Ghost, she plays a fading celebrity, Elisabeth Sparkle, who turns to, let's say, extreme measures to preserve her youthful beauty. Unflinching, intense, and transformative (literally), her next-level performance bears it all. I will be pulling for her to get a well-deserved Oscar nomination - and in a perfect world, a WIN!

Predicting the 95th Academy Awards - Every Category!

The time has come - Oscar season! Where the "best" in movies come to duke it out to win a little statue of a naked gold man. While pitting wildly different artistic expressions against each other like a sporting event is inherently ridiculous, it's always fun to bet on the winners, and discover new movies based on the nominations! So if you want some predictions from a freak who has seen every nominated film, look no further!

BEST PICTURE

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Fabelmans

TAR

Top Gun: Maverick

Triangle of Sadness

Women Talking

I Predict: Everything Everywhere All at Once

Kung fu-multiverse-family dramedy-mind bender Everything Everywhere All at Once is the juggernaut to beat this year. While the BAFTA Award (the British equivalent to the Academy Awards) went to the German WWI epic All Quiet on the Western Front, Everything Everywhere took the top prize at the Critics' Choice Awards, the Directors Guild, the Producers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. With the most amount of nominations and precursor wins, I can't conceive of any other film taking it down!

Top Ten 2023 Oscar Snubs

They can't all be winners - but sometimes not getting a nomination can feel almost like a personal insult! Here are what I consider the biggest, most upsetting snubs at this year's Oscars.

10. The Northman snubbed in all categories, including Production Design

I don't know what happened, but Robert Eggers' excellent Viking epic The Northman came and went earlier this year, unable to drum up any support this awards season. This Shakespearean tale of revenge brought the brutal Nordic world of the late 800s to life with some amazingly-crafted sets and costumes, and I was hoping to see it at least sneak in MAYBE this one category. Unfortunately, this movie will have to find its audience some other way!

Best and Worst 2022 Superlatives

It's that time of year again, to unveil my superlatives for the year of 2022! It's been a wild year for film - from box office records being broken, to Will Smith's shocking Oscar moment, Warner Brothers cleaning house (even scrapping the nearly complete Batgirl), teenagers in suits seeing Minions en masse with the "Gentleminion" challenge, and Johnny Depp's trial keeping the tabloids reeling. This was an important year for film in many ways, but this is the time where I want to focus on the best movies had to offer! 14 categories awarding the best - and worst - superlatives of 2022; enjoy!

BEST ACTOR - Brendan Fraser, The Whale

The Whale was my #1 most anticipated movie of 2022, and a large part of that had to do with Brendan Fraser making a comeback. After some personal issues took him away from the spotlight for a number of years, Darren Aronofsky gave The Mummy star the role of a lifetime - earning him a well-deserved 6-minute tear-filled standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. Playing a 400-pound, regret-filled gay father stuck inside his apartment, Fraser takes a role that could have been either simply misery porn or the cringe of the century and creates a truly transcendent performance unlike anything I've ever seen. While online reactions have been very divisive over the film, I personally found it to be one of the most moving portraits humanity I've ever seen.

Top Ten 2022 Oscar Snubs

Five nominees per category - they all can't be winners! Every year people don't make the cut, but that doesn't mean the snubs don't hurt! The following are what I personally consider the biggest, most annoying snubs of this year's Oscar race:

10. Kathryn Hunter Supporting Actress Snub for The Tragedy of Macbeth

In what might rank as THE best depiction of the witches from the classic Shakespeare play, for my money Kathryn Hunter was the standout performance in Joel Coen's reimagining of the endlessly revamped tragedy. I would argue that her genuinely terrifying performance, complete with contortions, was more memorable than ANY of the nominees in the Best Supporting Actress

Most Anticipated Movies of 2022

10. The Batman
Director: Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn/War of the Planet of the Apes)
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, Jeremy Irons, Jeffery Wright, Andy Serkis, Zoe Kravitz, John Turturro

Although we've been over-saturated with superhero movies and shows for the past 10+ years, I am still excited to see Robert Pattinson take on the Dark Knight. He more than proved himself with his manic performance in the Safdie Brothers' Good Time, and Ari Aster's twisted The Lighthouse, so I trust he'll deliver. I worry it might be too overstuffed with villains, but since Batman is my favorite superhero, I can't help but geek out at the prospect of Paul Dano as The Riddler, or Colin Farrell pulling off The Penguin. Plus, Matt Reeves has done a fantastic job bringing a unique vision to effects-heavy action films lately, so I'm hoping for the best!

Release Date: March 4, 2022

TOP TEN Movies of 2021!

2021 - such a weird year for movies! Theaters continued to struggle as HBO offered films on streaming the same day of release, but also, somehow Spider-Man managed to make a billion dollars. Celebrity deaths like Norm Macdonald and Michael K. Williams hit hard. The Golden Globes aren't being televised, and Oscar season is super short since last year they had an extended deadline for COVID. Crazy times! All that being said though, if you dug around for gems there were plenty of amazing movies to watch this year. 

So here it is, my official "Top Ten" movies of 2021!

10. Raya and the Last Dragon

Directed By: Don Hall & Carlos López Estrada

Written By: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Kiel Murray, Adele Lim, Paul Briggs, Dean Wellins, Qui Nguyen & John Ripa

Awkwardly released in March, when theaters were open but moviegoers were still unsure about returning, Raya and the Last Dragon was unfairly left behind before it could really find its audience. But this fantasy epic ranks among the Studio's best films with a stunningly realized world, along with fun, heartfelt characters.