Here are my favourite books and movies that I read and watched throughout 2024.
It wasn't quite the stellar year for books as previous years: few of those books that make you want to recommend and/or buy them for all your friends. In subconscious compensation, perhaps, I reread a few classics (e.g. True Grit, Solaris), and I'm almost finished my second read of War and Peace.
Books
Films
Recent releases
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20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernovm, 2023) †
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All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022)
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Anora (Sean Baker, 2024)
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La Chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, 2023)
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Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Radu Jude, 2023)
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Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2023) †
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Godland (Hlynur Pálmason, 2022)
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The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Benjamin Ree, 2024)
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R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, 2022)
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Robot Dreams (Pablo Berger, 2023)
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The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer, 2023)
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Good One (India Donaldson, 2024)
† Seen at a 2023 festival.
Disappointments this year included Blitz (Steve McQueen), Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass), The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar) and Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard), whilst the worst new film this year was likely The Substance (Coralie Fargeat), followed by Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola), Unfrosted (Jerry Seinfeld) and Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips).
Older releases
ie. Films released before 2023, and not including rewatches from previous years.
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Angel (Ernst Lubitsch, 1937)
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Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
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The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
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Gaslight (Thorold Dickinson, 1940)
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Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962)
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Make Way for Tomorrow (Leo McCarey, 1937)
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Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
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Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986)
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Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960)
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Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
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Squid and the Whale (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
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Xala (Ousmane Sembène, 1975)
Distinctly unenjoyable watches included The Island of Dr. Moreau (John Frankenheimer, 1996), Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2006), Any Given Sunday (Oliver Stone, 1999) & The Hairdresser’s Husband (Patrice Leconte, 19990).
On the other hand, unforgettable cinema experiences this year included big-screen rewatches of Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972), Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982), Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) and Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988).