Dear friend,
this was the week that ended 2024 and started 2025, and as it clearly shows, I spent half of it trying to catch up with the best-rated films of the ending year, and the second half in ‘whatever’ mode.
Nosferatu, written and directed by Robert Eggers, from the Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and Henrik Galeen’s 1922 script for Nosferatu, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐
I was really looking forward to this film, despite not always agreeing with Eggers’ flavour of darkness. Unfortunately, I was hoping for something similar to The Witch, but for me, this turned out to be an excruciating experience in the vein of The Lighthouse.
It felt totally superfluous to me. I’d rather rewatch Murnau’s ‘original’ or Herzog’s remake, anytime. I felt no ‘desire’ in Lily-Rose Depp’s waiting for the count, just desperation, so I really have reservations about what the ending’s message is.
Also, Willem Dafoe’s acting felt like it was catapulted in from a different film: I understand the fact it is ‘by design’ that he brings a different tone from the stern seriousness of everybody else, but still, I found it jarring.

Drive-Away Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen, co-written with Tricia Cooke, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐½
The ‘solo’ debut for Ethan Coen was a silly film, but I also had a lot of fun, thanks to over-the-top acting and accents, and an outrageous MacGuffin. Also, a fun turn for Margaret Qualley, who didn’t have the most laugh-filled year.

Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders, co-written with Takuma Takasaki, Japan, 2023 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The perfect film for New Year’s Eve: a role model for the appreciation of small things and a simple life; it’s also fitting, for my personal year in films, to end with a smiling Kōji Yakusho, after everything I put him through by watching the movies he made with Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Monster/怪物, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, written by Yuji Sakamoto, Japan, 2023 - ⭐⭐⭐½
Another J-non-horror, I wasn’t as in love with this story as most of the reviewers. The thing is, despite (mostly) everything being made clear in the third act, the events in the second one were still painful, and this filled me with sadness. I loved how the mother’s character kept trying to make her son laugh, it was such a natural relationship.

Milk & Serial, written and directed by Curry Barker, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐
Everybody on the Internet (and beyond) seems to like this hour-long film, available for free on YouTube.I don’t enjoy criticising anybody’s passion work, and it’s certainly true that I wouldn’t ever be able to do anything like that, but still, I can’t ignore how amateurish it is, on any level. I can understand not being able to hire professional actors, but my biggest problem is with the screenplay, which I think (but what do I know?) is the part that should be least affected by budget constraints. I’ve heard the plot praised for its unpredictability, but for me, it’s just ideas thrown together with no refinement. At some point, it felt like it was just the word ‘prank’ repeated over and over.
Creating such a film is definitely an accomplishment, and being an amateur is not a fault, on the contrary. But what puzzles me is the praise this is receiving.

Avengers: Infinity War, directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, written by Stephen McFeely, Christopher Markus, US, 2018 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well, apparently I had not rewatched Infinity War in four years, and a spoiler special on the Empire Podcast convinced me that revisiting it could be a good ‘closing ceremony’ for my New Year holidays. And it was, almost in a nostalgic way for the good times when the MCU was telling one big story, as opposed to a couple of dozen, mostly disappointing, ones.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, directed by Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham, written by Mark Burton and Nick Park (Story), United Kingdom, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐½
It’s not easy to watch classic Wallace & Gromit on this side of the Channel, so I can’t compare this latest film with The Wrong Trousers, nor do I have a great fondness towards Feathers McGraw. That said, the duo is always fun, though this adventure was a bit too stretched, across eighty minutes, compared to the simple story it’s telling. English people saying ‘me’ instead of ‘my’ always makes me laugh and brings me back to good times.

Wolfs, written and directed by Jon Watts, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐
Since Apple was kind enough to open its original Apple TV+ content to everyone for the weekend, I looked at the list of ‘original’ films, and I found absolutely nothing I was interested in and that I had not yet seen in a cinema.
So I chose what, on paper, seemed to be the funniest film, even though I didn’t remember rave reviews from any outlet, and regardless of the controversy about Jon Watts thinking it would be released theatrically, and Apple enforcing a different release strategy once the film was ready.
I think I know why they decided to keep it for the small screen only: the selling point of the movie should be the playful banter between its two very charismatic lead actors, but they are confined to symmetric roles of anti-social professionals who don’t trust each other, so they don’t really speak to each other. And all those who were upset at Marvel for ’taking away’ from the director the responsibility for the action sequences in No Way Home should take a look at the climax of the action in this film, a fifteen-minute chase sequence in which two middle-aged men in a car can’t catch a younger guy walking around in his socks and underwear.
Watts is clearly more effective when writing dialogue for young-ish people, although the character in question speaks exactly like Peter Parker and Ned Leeds would, so maybe he doesn’t have a wide range of writing ‘voices’.