ALISON WILLMORE'S TOP TEN
Audiences have been craving ambition, which is something that movies-caught forever between art and commerce-haven't been in a place to deliver. There are big entertainments and small personal films, but to grapple with weighty ideas on a large canvas? You have to do what Francis Ford Coppola did and pony up $120 million of your own money (something I wouldn't advise, personally). Or what Brady Corbet did with The Brutalist, creating something grand and sweeping on about $10 million. The Brutalist wasn't one of my favorites, but I admired the hell out of what Corbet set out to do with his film, which coincidentally is also about an architect trying to achieve his vision in a landscape of callous capitalism-an idea that seems to be very 2024.
1. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude's exuberant comedy is savage and insightful, a film about how we live today that's also about how nothing really changes for the average worker.
2. Hard Truths
Mike Leigh's portrait of a compulsively angry Londoner (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is shockingly resonant as a depiction of how pain can build up within you and then burst outward, strafing anyone unlucky enough to be nearby.
3. Challengers
I love that Challengers commits so thoroughly to the idea of all its romantic shenanigans being extensions of the game of tennis that it pulls off that ludicrous, perfect ending of dripping sweat, slow motion, secret grins of satisfaction, and the camera taking the POV of the goddamned ball.
4. Nickel Boys
The first-person perspective RaMell Ross employs for Nickel Boys isn't a gimmick or a self-imposed challenge but a way of cracking open a portrait of institutional abuse and survivor's guilt like nothing else.
5. The Substance
This story is from the December 16-29, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
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This story is from the December 16-29, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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THE BEST ART SHOWS OF THE YEAR
IN NOVEMBER, Sotheby's made history when it sold for a million bucks a painting made by artificial intelligence. Ai-Da, \"the first humanoid robot artist to have an artwork auctioned by a major auction house,\" created a portrait of Alan Turing that resembles nothing more than a bad Francis Bacon rip-off. Still, the auction house described the sale as \"a new frontier in the global art market.\"
THE BIGGEST PODCAST MOMENTS OF THE YEAR
A STRANGE THING happened with podcasts in 2024: The industry was repeatedly thrust into the spotlight owing to a preponderance of head-turning events and a presidential-election cycle that radically foregrounded the medium's consequential nature. To reflect this, we've carved out a list of ten big moments from the year as refracted through podcasting.
THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - BEST BOOKS
THE BEST THEATER OF THE YEAR
IT'S BEEN a year of successful straight plays, even measured by a metric at which they usually do poorly: ticket sales. Partially that's owed to Hollywood stars: Jeremy Strong, Jim Parsons, Rachel Zegler, Rachel McAdams (to my mind, the most compelling).
THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
2024 WAS one big stress test that presented artists with a choice: Face uncomfortable realities or serve distractions to the audience. Pop music turned inward while hip-hop weathered court cases and incalculable losses. Country struggled to reconcile conservative interests with a much wider base of artists. But the year's best music offered a reprieve.
THE BEST TELEVISION OF THE YEAR
IT WAS SURPRISING how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was much more mid or meh television and far fewer moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series.
THE BEST COMEDY SPECIALS OF THE YEAR
THE YEAR IN CULTURE - COMEDY SPECIALS
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR
PEOPLE LOVED Megalopolis, hated it, puzzled over it, clipped it into memes, and tried to astroturf it into a camp classic, but, most important, they cared about it even though it featured none of the qualities you'd expect of a breakthrough work in these noisy times.
A Truly Great Time
This was the year our city's new restaurants loosened up.
The Art of the Well-Stuffed Stocking
THE CHRISTMAS ENTHUSIASTS on the Strategist team gathered to discuss the oversize socks they drape on their couches and what they put inside them.
