20 BEST FILM PERFORMANCES OF 2024

Although 2024 may have been a mediocre year for films, the best film performances of the year listed below were outstanding and deserve recognition.

I include some under-the-radar work that you won't find on many other Year-End Lists. You'll see a few box-office bombs, a couple of ultra-low-budget experiments, and a substantial number of horror. In fact, some of these performances - particularly by women - were in horror, which made me very happy, given it's my favorite genre.

I didn't write anything specific about each. Instead, I picked out a clip from each film to whet your appetite for the entire performance.

If you'd like to see what else I've written about many of these actors (especially through my capsule movie reviews) just click on the actor's names. You can find out where to watch each film by clicking on the name of the film, too.

What were YOUR favorite performances last year? Email me at nick@nickdigilio.com and let me know!

20 BEST FILM PERFORMANCES OF 2024

in order of preference

1) MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE in "HARD TRUTHS"

2) TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET in "A COMPLETE UNKNOWN"

3) NAOMI SCOTT in "SMILE 2"

4) NELL TIGER FREE in "THE FIRST OMEN"

5) JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS in "TUESDAY"

6) CHRIS HEMSWORTH in "FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA"

7) KATHRYN HUNTER in "THE FRONT ROOM"

8) SEAN PENN & DAKOTA JOHNSON in "DADDIO"

9) KIERAN CULKIN in "A REAL PAIN"

10) JESSE PLEMONS in "CIVIL WAR"

11) SEBASTIAN STAN in "A DIFFERENT MAN"

12) JEREMY STRONG in "THE APPRENTICE"

13) HUGH GRANT in "HERETIC"

14) REBECCA FERGUSON in "DUNE: PART TWO"

15) DANIEL CRAIG in "QUEER"

16) ZENDAYA in "CHALLENGERS"

17) LILY-ROSE DEPP in "NOSFERATU"

18) BRYAN TYREE HENRY in "THE FIRE INSIDE"

19) CILLIAN MURPHY in "SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE"

20) DAVID JONSSON in "ALIEN: ROMULUS"

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GOLDEN GLOBES 2025: A Recap and Review

Awards Season officially kicked off with the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards, which took place this past Sunday night.

The Globes are widely considered a joke because the Hollywood Foreign Press has such a moronic reputation, and the awards have been given to some questionable winners in the past.

Because of past controversy, the HFP nearly disbanded a few years back, and the awards were almost completely canceled. But they made some huge alterations in the organization, and they are back now in all of their dumbass glory.

Julie and I had a watch party with some friends, and I hosted a live interactive chat on Patreon during the whole ceremony. 

We had a blast, even though a local outage meant no Wi-Fi internet in Julie's apartment. We had to rig up a "hot spot" with a cell phone and watch the damn thing on a laptop during our -first-ever- LIVE chat on Patreon. FUN!. Oh yes, wonderful technology.

Watching on a latop because TECHNOLOGY

Anyway, let's get to my thoughts and some of the results.

Nikki Glaser, one of the funniest comedians working today, hosted for the first time and knocked it out of the park. Within two minutes, she completely erased any memory of Jo Koy and his disastrous hosting job last year. Her monologue was hilarious. It mixed insults (which she is known for) and political commentary with the usual jokes about showbiz, movies, and TV.

Most of her jokes hit their mark perfectly, even though some celebrities weren't pleased—especially the always pissed-off and hilarious Harrison Ford, whose bit as a presenter with Anthony Mackie was a riot.

My favorite part of Glaser's monologue was the bit where she imitated Adam Sandler saying Timothee Chalamet's name and then got Sandler to join in.

The telecast was loaded with the usual mixture of fun, boredom, obnoxiousness, and cliches that you expect from a stupid awards show, along with some technical gaffes.

Overall, there were some memorable moments.

I loved, loved, LOVED that Glaser gave a nice, much-deserved shout-out to the servers and bartenders on site and that craft services got more gratitude mentions in speeches than ever before (thanks to Colin Farrell starting that trend). Absolutely terrific!

Many of the presenters were quite good, but I most enjoyed Seth Rogen and Catherine O'Hara's X-rated Canadian interplay. It went far too long, but it was funny as hell, and as it went on and on, it just got more absurd, uncomfortable, and hilarious.

As far as the winners go, I predicted many of them, and there were only a few surprises, like Fernanda Torres's win for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for "I'm Still Here," which was easily the biggest shocker of the night.

The speeches ranged from completely idiotic (Jon Chu endlessly accepting the absurd and meaningless Box Office Award for "Wicked" is at the top of that list), to hilarious (Ali Wong), to sincere and charming (Colin Farrell), to much too long (pretty much every other speech of the night).

Most of the TV awards went to "Shogun" and "Hacks," as expected, with very few surprises on that side. On the movie side, awards went to Demi Moore for "The Substance," who gave an impassioned speech that was better than anything she did in that Goddamn movie.

In a huge and delightful surprise, the great and incredibly underrated Sebastian Stan won for his magnificent work in "A Different Man" and gave a terrific speech.

But "The Brutalist" took the big awards Sunday night, almost guaranteeing that it will be a frontrunner for some major prizes at the Oscars, which is not only disappointing but also kind of troubling.

It is a ridiculously over-praised piece of pretentious nonsense that starts out mediocre and slowly becomes unwatchable by the time it reaches its 2nd hour (when there are still another 105 endless minutes to go).

I was hoping that people would see through this movie's flimsy facade and acknowledge the sheer emptiness underneath, but nope. This thing is probably going to win Best Picture at the Oscars.

Even more disappointing is that Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Globe over Chalamet (who is so much better than Brody that it shouldn't even be a contest), which means Brody will probably take the big prize in March. Ridiculous.

Adrien Brody's dumbass, inexplicable brooch was much more interesting than anything he said during his endless speech... so it was a welcome distraction.

But the most irritating speeches and moments of the night belonged to Brady Corbet, the once unbearably obnoxious actor and now unbearably obnoxious writer/director, who took the stage twice to accept undeserving awards for "The Brutalist."

His speeches were longwinded, annoying, pompous, and self-serving (precisely like his film). He rambled on and on about how he represents filmmakers who have been shafted, that he had to fight to make his film, that he bravely wants directors to have the final cut, etc., blah, blah, blah.

Corbet mentioned how he fought to shoot his film on 70mm and how he battled for the long running time and the intermission, making some attempt to prove what a hero he is when, in fact, he just came off as a loudmouth with an enormous ego who wants to be thanked for blessing us with his lousy movie.

Me during Brady Corbet's endlessly annoying, ego-maniacal, self-congratulatory speeches.

It's the worst kind of egomaniacal pandering from an awards stage that you can imagine. It's further proof that just because some directors (like Corbet and similar blowhard Christopher Nolan) use the best equipment, shoot on film, and insist on movie theater experiences for their movies, does NOT automatically make them visionaries or good filmmakers because, guess what? They are not.

OK, rant over.

The show still went about 15 minutes over, even though it had no musical numbers, special tributes, or lifetime achievement award presentations. There wasn't even an "In Memoriam" segment to push the running time along. It just went long because of people like Corbet and Chu babbling on endlessly and a few wacky bits (none of them Glaser's) that went on too long.

This year's Golden Globes presentation was exactly what I expected: a dumb awards show with highlights, lowlights, and everything else in between.

A fun night with good food, great company, Golden Globes Bingo, a couple of cool dogs, and more.

We had fun watching it, making fun of it, and especially hosting the LIVE chat on Patreon. We will do this for every award show this season, leading up to the granddaddy of them all: The Academy Awards on March 2nd.

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CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS: 10-11-24

The Film Critic pants are out of the closet, and I have them on! It's time for some capsule (short) movie reviews on three New Releases for the week of Friday, October 11, 2024.

1) TERRIFIER 3

The idiotic Art The Clown kills more people in the awful sequel "Terrifier 3."

The third installment of this inexplicably popular gore/horror series created by the talent-free Damien Leone is more of the same. And by "same," I mean "shit." 

The irritatingly stupid Art The Clown is back, and this time, the twist is that he's wearing a Santa costume while silently murdering everything in his boring, derivative path.

Here's the deal, these movies suck. They absolutely suck. There is nothing redeemable or entertaining about any of them. Except for the piles of blood, gore, and latex makeup thrown across the screen in spectacularly unimaginative fashion, which passes for entertainment, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, happens in these stupid-ass movies.

This third chapter is more of the exact repetitive bunkum: non-existent story, horrific acting (my God, do these actors stink!), terrible writing, laughable technical work, and direction that is so dull and inept that the whole incompetent enterprise barely even qualifies as a frigging movie.

I hate this movie as I've hated every other worthless "Terrifier" movie. It's not because I'm offended by the content or think it's too gory, disturbing, or incursive. I couldn't care less that children get murdered in this thing, or that deaths go on for several minutes, or that every type of taboo is attempting to be broken. Nope, none of that bothers me or upsets me.

It's actually the opposite of upsetting. These movies are excruciatingly dull, even when the brutal and drawn-out kills are happening. During the mayhem, I spend more time yawning than being frightened, shocked, or repulsed, which is actually more offensive than feeling assaulted.

Look, I've been a horror fan my whole life, and I've seen everything you can possibly see within the genre, and I know my shit... trust me, I'm a horror expert. If you think you know more about horror than I do, you don't, and the meatheads responsible for this dreck certainly don't. This series is junk. Complete fucking junk.

I don't have room here, but I could list at least 75 movies with more scares, better gore, more imaginative kills, and better use of practical disgusting makeup effects than seen in this movie. I could also list about 100 films that have a better villain/killer and more interesting main characters, not to mention little things like, you know, a story and structure of any kind.

My film critic friend and colleague Steve Prokopy correctly compares these "Terrifier" movies to porno flicks, meaning that back in the day, you would fast-forward through the "plot" and "acting" of a porn video to get to the good stuff: the screwing. Well, in the case of these killer-clown movies, the screwing scenes are actually murder scenes, and they are absolute libido killers.

The thing that I find the most depressing is that a lot of fans of the genre love this crap, and that baffles me. You horror fans should know better, seriously, you should. The fact that scary movie lovers are falling for this garbage makes me very sad. Come on, Tribe, you're all better than this, and Leone and his talentless crew know it.

If you like these movies, good for you, have fun. I'll just be over here feeling very embarrassed for you. - Zero Stars

2) THE APPRENTICE

Written by Gabriel Sherman and directed by Ali Abbasi, this unauthorized drama tells the story of how a young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) started his real-estate business in New York during the 1970s and 80s while trying to break free of the controlling shadow of his father (Martin Donovan). He receives teaching and help from infamous lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and the rest, as they say, is history.

This is a difficult film to review because of what is happening in the real world right now. As I write this, the subject of this film is currently threatening democracy and humankind. It's also impossible for me to review this movie without bias because I truly despise the person whose story is being told here.

Having said that, it's also very clear that the filmmakers, cast, and crew of this project completely share my opinion of this man. They made this movie as a warning and a cautionary tale. This is a specific tale about how an insignificant and insecure man is transformed into a dangerous and contemptible monster, and on that level, it works brilliantly.

This kind of expose has been done many times before, and the script isn't anything we haven't seen before. What sets it apart is Abbasi's stylish direction, which captures that specific time and place beautifully, and the phenomenal performances by the really outstanding cast.

Stan continues to be one of my favorite actors and is a true chameleon who is unrecognizable from film to film while doing some of the most original and detailed work in movies today. He is outstanding as Trump, wisely staying away from the exaggerated mannerisms and quirks that many impersonators do and creating a complex, layered portrait of evil.

The supporting cast is also terrific. Donovan is completely unrecognizable (seriously, I had no idea it was him until the final credits) as he dives deep into his character. At the same time, Maria Bakalova shines as Trump's first wife, Ivana, and Charlie Carrick is outstanding as Trump's brother, Freddy, all terrific performances.

But the film is all but stolen by Strong, who not only looks and sounds EXACTLY like Roy Cohn, he also captures the evil, relentless nature of this despicable human being while also showcasing the brazen relentlessness that carried him through his career and life which AIDS shortened.

The scenes between Stan and Strong are a masterclass of acting, and Abbasi handles these scenes brilliantly as he builds to the moment when Trump becomes the master, and Cohn becomes the student. Any movie that makes Roy Cohn look reasonably innocent and Trump look horrifyingly guilty has some balls.

Moments early in the movie don't quite work, and some repeated scenes in which everyone around Trump insists that he'd do well in politics seem loaded with forced irony. Still, overall, this is a very entertaining and smartly made film that I enjoyed even when I was wincing at the thought of the main character having any power in the real world. - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

3) PIECE BY PIECE

Snapped right before the Press Screening of "Piece by Piece" began. A fun crowd had a fun time.

This documentary about singer/songwriter and record producer Pharrell Williams could be more original in content, but it is incredibly original in its execution. Williams' life story is told with LEGO bricks in crazy animation.

The film's core is a standard, ego-stroking, by-the-numbers account of a rich musician's life, but the LEGO style makes it undeniably entertaining and endlessly charming.

The director here is Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville ("20 Feet From Stardom," "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"), who does a remarkable job of taking Pharrell's LEGO idea and beautifully executing it.

The film rises above its standard VH1-Behind-The-Music-like content by creating a fanciful world in which music comes to colorful life, and beats are real creatures that must be nurtured. A place where standard documentary stories about growing up and working are peppered with LEGO world escapades and hilariously whimsical asides that couldn't possibly work in live-action.

It's also hilarious to see the LEGO versions of superstars such as Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, and, especially, Snoop Dogg do the "talking head" thing that you see in all the documents while looking like LEGOs. It's funny, funny stuff.

Not everything works (I could have done without Oprah appearing in this), and there is a bit of self-importance that seeps to the surface of Williams' persona that is sometimes annoying. Still, overall, this is a very entertaining bit of fluff, and I thoroughly recommend it.

I am curious as to how the public will receive this movie. It's not really for kids because it's very talky and loaded with music that came out 20 years ago, and it might be too silly for adults or hardcore music fans. It will be interesting to see how this does at the box office, but hey, I'm a fan. - ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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