Downsizing

Top 10 films of 2024

Matthew S. DillonLeave a comment

Every year my friend Derek and I rate out favourite films for the previous 12 months or thereabouts. It’s a way of keeping track of what both of us have seen, and of helping to ensure that neither of us misses out on something we shouldn’t: a neglected gem, perhaps, or maybe a film that has been deceptively marketed. A movie that belongs in this last category might be Downsizing, which was released in 2017, and which I recall giving short shrift at the time. In fact, it’s an excellent movie. Highly original, moving, funny, and quietly captivating, if such a thing can be said to exist.

In the past, with the exception of the pandemic years, D and I had no way of rating films we’d seen that were not strictly released in the previously calendar year. Not that you need to bother rating the films you see, of course. You can watch a movie, enjoy it or not, and that’s that. But if you are going to do the exercise, you might as well apply some rigour. And some of the best films I saw in the previous 12 months were not released for the first time in 2024. Chinatown, Two-Lane Blacktop and Aftersun join Downsizing in this category.

Our deadline for including films for consideration is the Australia Day long weekend. I should note that I hadn’t seen Rebel Ridge or Perfect Days by then, checking them out after I saw them on D’s list. So here are 10 films (well, actually it’s 11, and could easily have been 12) that I enjoyed watching in 2024 for the first time. Not all of them are from 2024, and the list is in alphabetical order.

Aftersun
In this dreamy yet riveting coming-of-age drama, Sophie (Frankie Corio) recalls a time in the 1990s when as a young girl on the verge of teendom, she went on a final summer holiday to a fading Turkish resort with her separated and troubled father Calum (Paul Mescal), and the moments and memories that unfold.

A Complete Unknown
In the early 1960s, a 19-year-old mumbling Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in New York and becomes a compelling voice in popular music in this evocative, moving and rousing biopic. That he was kind of a love-rat, and pen pals with Johnny Cash are just some of the nuggets we discover.

Chinatown
Only a few years after his wife Sharon Tate was murdered by the Manson Family, Roman Polanski returned to the US to direct this gorgeous pean to 1930s Los Angeles. Red herrings and confusion abound in this detective caper in which Jake Gittes (a young, handsome Jack Nicholson) is tasked with (of course) tracking down a missing husband. Water rights and incest are involved. Even though it was made 50 years ago, with its themes of corruption and the futility of good intentions, Chinatown is undoubtedly a film for our time.

Conclave
Much mystery and intrigue surround the election of a new pope in this well-crafted tense thriller boasting compelling performances from Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini.

Downsizing
As a way of dealing with climate change in the near future, scientists hit upon a formula for reducing humans down to the size of Ken and Barbie dolls. Surprisingly engaging and moving, with standout performances from Matt Damon and Christoph Walz, who is hilarious as an annoying upstairs neighbour.

Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve not only made sense of Frank Herbert’s labyrinthine space saga in a way that David Lynch could not, he crafted it in a way that is spectacular, visceral and exciting.

Fast Charlie
No doubt Pierce Brosnan is getting too long in the tooth to play an over-the-hill trigger man (the titular Charlie), but I have a soft spot for Elmore Leonardesque crime stories. This one set in Missouri is a hoot, with Morena Baccarin bringing a certain something to the part of a sexy taxidermist.

Monsieur Blake at Your Service
In this ridiculously contrived feel-good French dramedy, John Malkovich plays a wealthy businessman mistaken for a servant when he returns to the small hotel where many years before he honeymooned with his now-departed wife. Of course, maintaining the façade is the only way he’ll be permitted to stay.

The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan
Swash, buckle and derring-do are on full display in this big-budget adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic. En garde!

Two-Lane Blacktop
Originally made in 1971, this self-styled almost homemade film from Monte Hellman is both unique and influential. There isn’t much of a plot: two young guys known only as the Driver (James Taylor) and the Mechanic (Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys) engage in a bet with an older dork, GTO (Warren Oates), who they keep encountering out on the road, tooling around in their two-door 1955 Chevy. Both car and film are stripped down to the basics.

Wolfs
Brad Pitt and George Clooney play slightly amended versions of their Oceans personas in this shoot ‘em up. Both are “fixers” (perhaps in reference to Harvey Keitel’s Mr Wolf character in Pulp Fiction – surely inspired by Victor the Cleaner from La Femme Nikita) who are accidentally – or is it an accident? – called in to clean up the same job.

Honourable mentions
A Real Pain, The Fall Guy, Lee, Perfect Days, Rebel Ridge

10 decent films you may not have seen

Matthew S. Dillon2 Comments

Movies come and go pretty quickly these days. If you don’t slow down, you might miss a neglected gem. Here are a few enjoyable flicks to get you through the holiday season and beyond.

All the Old Knives (SBS On Demand)
Based on a book of the same name by Olen Steinhauer, the set-up for this classy and compelling espionage thriller is a reunion dinner between former colleagues and lovers, CIA agents Henry (Chris Pine) and Celia (Thandiwe Newton). Henry has been dispatched to find out exactly what happened when both he and Celia were stationed in Vienna in 2012, when a terrorist aeroplane hijacking went tragically wrong. Considerable intrigue, a stellar cast and plenty of cloak-and-dagger shenanigans combine in this complex espionage tale.

Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar (Various platforms)
What did scriptwriters and actors Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo do as a follow-up to Bridesmaids? Would you believe a kooky but sweet and funny – the word “zany” may well apply – spy spoof comedy/musical that has the clueless titular characters attempting to foil an evil genius’ (also played by Wiig) fiendish plot to destroy a seaside Miami holiday community?

Columbus (SBS On Demand)
Sometimes a town can be a character in a film, and one that is as important as its human counterparts. In this case, the eponymous Indiana city is home to some architectural gems, a collection of mid-century marvels that draws visitors from all over the world. Jin (John Cho) is stuck there while he waits to see whether his father, a renowned Korean architect, emerges from a coma. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), who is passionate about design, but whose life is on hold while she supports her drug-addicted mother. In his directorial debut, (he also wrote the script) Kanogoda delivers a film that is quietly absorbing, intelligent and moving.

Downsizing (Various platforms)
Set in the near future, this dramedy starring Matt Damon depicts a time when some people – either through concern for the planet or to embrace a higher standard of living – take the option to shrink down to the size of dolls and move to smaller (of course) communities purpose-built for the new little strata of society. I misjudged this Oscar-winning film when it first came out, or perhaps it was confusingly marketed. Either way, I thought it was going to be an Innerspace-like broad comedy. Gulliver in the world of the giants, perhaps. There is, however, a lot more going on in this moving, nuanced and thought-provoking film.

Haywire (SBS On Demand)
This slick espionage actioner has all the hallmarks of a successful Steven Soderbergh outing: clever editing, rat-a-tat dialogue, cool David Holmes soundtrack and some nifty action scenes. At the centre of the story is the take-no-BS black ops agent Mallory Kane (Gina Carano), who works out when an operation goes awry that her boss and former boyfriend Kenneth (Ewan MacGregor) may not have her best interest at heart. Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and the late, great Bill Paxton feature in the cast.

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? (Kanopy)
Made at a time (2010) when the green building movement was just beginning to get a foothold, this documentary explores the incredible life and extraordinary achievements of architect Norman Foster. Though born, literally, on the wrong side of the tracks, through talent and will (and the encouragement of those who recognised his gift and determination), Foster went from a dead-end Manchester job to the prestigious Yale Architecture School, and then on to design some of the world’s most striking structures, including London’s Gherkin building and Millenium Bridge.

The Lake House (SBS On Demand)
In the 1990s Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves starred in a fantastically visceral action movie called Speed. Then in the early 2000s they reunited for this, a whimsical fantasy romance set in Chicago whose elements include a magic letterbox. She’s a doctor, he’s an architect, but a gap in the space-time continuum is keeping them apart.

Set it Up (Netflix)
Glenn Powell, he of Hangman (Top Gun Maverick) renown, has carved quite a niche of late in romantic comedies, which may or may not be experiencing some sort of revival. In this one from 2018, Charlie (Powell) and Harper (Zoey Deutch) are assistants to horrendously demanding bosses. After meeting one evening during a food delivery snafu, they hatch a plan to play matchmaker to their superiors and thus free up their own professional and personal lives.

3 Days to Kill (YouTube Movies)
Talk about “high concept”. In this action/thriller directed by McG (Charlies Angels) and scripted by the legendary Luc Besson (Leon the Professional, The Fifth Element), Kevin Costner plays a dying ex-CIA agent, who is given access to experimental treatment for his illness in exchange for the use of his particular set of skills. So, it’s Crank meets Taken, with a bit of The Da Vinci Code (there’s a creepy albino henchman) thrown in too. Thoroughly derivative, but also rather enjoyable when undemanding action is called for.

Under the Silver Lake (SBS On Demand)
Can a film be at once meandering and compelling, gripping and baffling, wondered film critics about this 2018 cult sleeper. It sure can. The plot: Sam (Andrew Garfield) becomes besotted with his neighbour Sarah (Riley Keogh) who disappears overnight, almost without a trace. Sam follows a down-the-rabbit-hole/through-the-looking-glass path of conspiracy theories, backwards-played records, concealed maps, hobo-coded messages, obscure hidden signs and underground “vibes” to … well, to all sorts of odd goings-on in a usually unseen LA. One description of this movie has it as a “surrealist neo-noir black comedy thriller”. That just about nails it. There is also a menacing undertone.