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This is my 10 BEST FILM 2024 year-end roundup. We will start with the #10 and work are way up.
This roundup will be a fun and a great way to catch up on movie viewing during the holidays.
Part 1 this week and Part 2 next, enjoy.
#10 Sing Sing (****)
It’s refreshing when a film shows answers to the most confounding social issues. The Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Ossining, New York, found a unique way to rehabilitate inmates. It encouraged them to act in plays and express their feelings in their Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program. In this behind bars and based-on-fact drama, theater director and mentor John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo, Rustin) writes many of his troupe’s plays. Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, a former prison yard bully, becomes a gifted, sensitive thespian. The real Maclin plays himself—and is excellent. Greg Kwedar’s sensitive direction and a compelling script (Clint Bentley, Brent Buell and Kwedar) prophesize and the message is that no one is beyond redemption.
#9 Saturday Night (***½)
It’s crazy! One hour and 40 minutes of controlled chaos is displayed during the reenacted buildup to the first Saturday Night Live show on Oct. 11th, 1975. Wow. Mayhem starts and doesn’t end until showtime. Some of America’s most iconic comedians and comic actors are portrayed by a talented young cast who understands the assignment: Be funny. Slather on the satire. Make ‘em laugh. Skillfully directed by Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and ingeniously cowritten by Reitman and Gil Kenan. Legends like Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner and Garrett Morris are played respectively by Gabriel La Belle, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt and Lamorne Morris. Funny as hell. The best comedy of 2024.
#8 Sugarcane (****)
It’s a day of reckoning. Time to hold people accountable. Graves are found around St. Josephs Mission, a residential school once run by priests from the Catholic Church starting back in the 1930s. The facility in British Columbia, Canada had a killing field. This investigative doc, by co-directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave Noisecat, digs deep. Noisecat has a special interest, as his dad went to St. Joseph’s. Interviews with ex-students, who are elders now, detail mindboggling emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Reflections and accountability bring healing. America’s Indigenous people expose crimes, testify and control their own narrative. Unlike Killers of the Flower Moon. Breaks your heart then lifts it up.
#7 The Piano Lesson (***½)
This legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson is alive and well. In 1936 Pittsburgh, a prized ancestral heirloom, a 137-year-old upright piano, is fought over by a brother (John David Washington) and sister (Danielle Deadwyler, Till). Their divergent opinions of how it should be revered and used cause a firestorm. Malcolm Washington, in his feature film debut, directs the actors, story and production like a pro. His adaptation is cinematic, not just a filmed play. Emotions explode. The virtue of heritage is canonized. Actors Ray Fisher, Corey Hawkins, Michael Potts Skylar Aleece Smith and Sam Jackson shine bright. Erie horror elements add a haunting dimension. Malcolm is a griot. Wilson would be proud.
#6 KNo Other Land (****)
It’s a calling. Risking your life to document human tragedy is an assignment the heavens would only give the stalwart. Palestinian writer/director Basel Adra, Israeli journalist and co-writer/director Yuval Abraham, Israeli cinematographer/editor/director Rachel Szor and Palestinian photographer/filmmaker Hamdan Ballal are game. They, especially Basel and Yuval, chronicle the largest forced land transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. A deadly years-long encroachment that allows Israeli soldiers to bulldoze Palestinian homes and schools. The community of Masafer Yatta is being forced into a nomadic life. It’s all in the cinéma vérité footage shot and compiled by a brave Palestinian/Israeli film collective.
