the eight best movies i watched last year

no objectivity cause mama didn't raise no bitch

i’ve been transforming, slowly but surely, into a little letterboxd goblin. between an a24 membership (ugh), having a tiny film club with the gang this winter, and trying desperately to enjoy longer pieces of media than instagram reels, i’ve started to love writing silly little jokes for very seriously starred reviews.

ik this is what it’s giving but i’m self aware okay we can laugh about it

so many movies from last year are new favorites of mine, so here’s the best ones, in the order i watched them. disclaimer: i err on the side of enjoying sad/slow movies, so if that’s not your thing you should fix your heart fr :/

all of us strangers. 2023, dir. andrew haigh

this was the first movie i watched in theaters last year and it made me cry three times in my seat and then a fourth time on the way home !! which is so out of character for me that it should honestly win an award just for that. all of us strangers has so much to say about memory, grieving, and reaching out for one another, and avoids becoming clumsy or heavy handed with its dialogue.

⁕ i think this is my favorite performance of paul mescal’s (not counting normal people)

⁕ much of the movie was filmed in the director’s childhood home, and the tenderness of that setting really carried through !!

challengers. 2024, dir. luca guadagnino

obviously this was a cultural icon last summer, but i’ve rewatched it since and it only improved with a second viewing. the soundtrack is crazy !! there aren’t too many huge celebrities in the cast !!!! toxicity is everywhere !! i dressed up as tashi duncan for halloween !!! this is the barbie movie to me you people don’t understand

⁕ if you’ve already seen this and want more (messier) bisexual throuple content, you should watch passages (2023).

⁕ not a movie fact but last year at the club a hot sapphic couple def felt me up in a craaazy way when the djs played the challengers soundtrack until one of them got mad at the other. diversity win for bisexuals ??

bones and all. 2022, dir. luca guadagnino

i already wrote about this last year, so just know that it made me absolutely psycho-baby insane.

⁕ i recently found out that it was adapted from a novel but there’s no beautiful editions of the cover ?? everyday graphic designers commit crimes against women (me)

i saw the tv glow. 2024, jane schoenbrun

this is a perfect example of storytelling so true that it can be both universal and extraordinarily specific in its meanings. i saw the tv glow is rich with weird nostalgia straight out of those “waiting outside for the school bus in early summer in 2007” memes, but it’s also a bridge to understanding the experiences of queer and trans people, and probably yourself too, whether or not you’re included in that community.

⁕ i’ve never seen another movie that recreated the powerlessness you can feel as a child so vividly !! yikes :/

⁕ this is the only way i’m interested in seeing body horror used tbh

look back. 2024, dir. kiyotaka oshiyama

i leaned back into the giddy, frustrating joy of making art last year, and this movie came at the perfect time for that. it revolves around the obsession that can overtake you as you create, and how that can bring life to your relationship with others and the world, but can also pull you into a damaging self-centered orbit. beautiful animation & a hint of time travel !! mwah chef’s kiss

⁕ minus one star because i immediately wanted to illustrate graphic novels again after watching, something i have repeatedly proven absolutely not capable of doing

perfect days. 2023, dir. wim wenders

there’s a lot of unsubtle social critique in films lately, which is fine but doesn’t capture my imagination or my heart in any way. perfect days does the polar opposite. very little happens and there’s almost no plot at all, but i can’t stop thinking about all the questions it implies—what will it mean to grow old and really give love to a place or a job or the people that flit through my life? can i survive fifty or sixty more years of digital connection to the world? if i don’t care about the mundane, aren’t i losing my life? i’m really looking forwards to rewatching this one.

⁕ the soundtrack is also incredible and got me started on a nina simone kick that has yet to release me from its clutches

the holdovers. 2023, dir. alexander payne

christmas-centered movies are often tough for me to appreciate—holidays are strange! sometimes you get to be with the people you love and sometimes you don’t, and you get boxed into a corner of reflecting on the year prior against your will. but this one is perfect. it lets you laugh and feel lonely and takes your hand and connects you to the world again. if the dead poet’s society had a december cousin with better music and healthier relationships, this is it.

⁕ i need more movies to start a) using vintage fonts and b) using them at the beginning of the film again like it’s SO sexy. the brutalist got the assignment idk about the rest of y’all

⁕ the love of black women changes the world.

waves. 2019, dir. trey edward shults

my friend described this as the lovechild of moonlight and euphoria, which i think is pretty accurate. i can’t tell if this is a perfect movie or if it just hits the right sequence of notes paralleling my own life to entrance me against any of its faults. the ribbons of black patriarchy, athletic achievements, sibling bonds, and finding love unexpectedly is set to a soundtrack so stacked i actually have no idea how they got everything cleared, let alone afforded the licensing.

⁕ genuinely makes endless sound like frank ocean wrote it for taylor russell to take a sad girl bath to. do you realize how insane that is

⁕ my one complaint is that the name is soooo boring. waves ??? girl come on you’re on like page two of google search results