Previous Articles in the Series
The 50 Best Films of 2024 in the UK: 50-41
40 – Paul & Paulette Take a Bath
We’re resuming our rundown of the 50 best films of 2024 in the UK with Paul & Paulette Take a Bath. Paul & Paulette Take a Bath is the debut film by director Jethro Massey, and debuted at the Venice Film Festival. It is a quirky, albeit surprisingly dark romcom in the vein of Zack Braff’s Garden State. Paul is an aspiring American photographer living in Paris. While photographing tourists at the Place de la Concorde, Paul notices a beautiful young woman kneeling. It turns out this young woman is Paulette, who has an obsession with recreating famous and grizzly deaths. In this instance, she is recreating the execution of Marie Antoinette. Paulette’s obsession stems from a desire to connect emotionally with the wider world. The pair then strike up a friendship that verges on the romantic, before embarking on a road trip across Europe to visit Paulette’s parents in Salzburg.
I had the opportunity to see Paul & Paulette Take a Bath in November at the Belfast Film Festival. As an avid fan of the sadly forgotten indie romcom genre, I approached the screening with curiosity. And for the most part, I left my local cinema satisfied by the movie. While it is a divisive movie, Paul & Paulette Take a Bath is nonetheless a welcome addition to the genre. One criticism of the film is that Paulette conforms to the trope of the manic pixie dream girl. Despite this criticism, I think the film’s themes are brilliantly handled. Focusing on millennials and Gen Z’s increasing desire for human connection in a digital age is a particularly inspired choice. And on this basis, Jethro Massey is a director whose career I shall keenly pay attention to going forward.
39 – The Sweet East
UK cinemas witnessed the release of a plethora of quirky and divisive films this past summer. One such film was The Sweet East. Described as a satirical take on modern American life, The Sweet East is an at times baffling movie. The film opens with high school student Lilian (Talia Ryder), accidentally getting embroiled in a gun attack on a Washington D.C. pizzeria. For the next ninety minutes, audiences embark on a phantasmagorical Alice In Wonderland-style journey across the United States. On this adventure, Talia meets a colourful cast of characters including a neo-Nazi professor, as well as a famous actor (played by Jason Elordi).
As you can probably tell from the above paragraph, it is nigh on impossible to explain The Sweet East to readers. Rather it is a film best experienced in all its trippy glory. It is also a film that requires viewers to simply go along with the experience. Some audiences may struggle with its lack of a coherent thorough narrative. However, for those willing to stick with The Sweet East, they’ll find a bizarre, albeit enjoyable slice of Americana.
38 – Kinds of Kindness
Released almost four months after their success at the 2024 Oscars, director Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone returned to cinemas with Kinds of Kindness. A three-part fable – sometimes referred to as a triptych – Kinds of Kindness saw Yorgos Lanthimos abandon some of the quirky stylistic choices of both The Favourite and Poor Things. The Greek director instead returned to the more macabre tone of some of his earlier movies such as The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Viewers are taken on a nearly three-hour exploration of humanity at both its best and its worst, with Yorgos asking us all to question: what is kindness?
With its trio of unrelated yet thematically connected stories, Kinds of Kindness is a dense movie. And no doubt it requires multiple rewatches for the viewer to appreciate the message Yorgos Lanthimos is trying to convey. Sadly its lengthy runtime and at times uncomfortable scenes mean many people may struggle to even make it through one viewing. This is unfortunate as the cast of Kinds of Kindness, especially Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, are all fantastic in their roles.
37 – Sasquatch Sunset
In a year that has been a strong one for quirky comedies, Sasquatch Sunset is perhaps the quirkiest one of them all. Directed by Nathan and David Zellner, Sasquatch Sunset is an absurdist comedy-drama focusing on a tribe of Sasquatches living in the wolds of California. This tribe of sasquatches is played by actors, including Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough, in full prosthetics. They are in the process of migrating along the west coast of the United States. Along the way, our family of sasquatches encounter several natural and deadly obstacles.
Like The Sweet East, Sasquatch Sunset is a film that will divide audiences’ opinions. Its lack of a clear narrative will confound some viewers, as will its reliance on crude slapstick humour. However, I felt the lack of dialogue and reliance on physical comedy actually enhanced the appeal of Sasquatch Sunset to me. Ultimately, one’s enjoyment of the movie likely depends on your willingness to go along for the ride.
36 – Joy
Financially backed by Netflix, Joy had its world premiere at the London Film Festival in October of this year. Joy is a period drama that tells the true story of the scientists who pioneered IVF. The films start in 1968 with the hiring of nurse Jean Purdey (Thomasin McKenzie) by Dr. Robert Edwards (James Norton). Jean is initially hired to work as a lab technician for Dr. Edwards. This starts a decade-long fight by Purdey and Edwards, alongside surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighey) to pioneer IVF. Along the way, the trio faces numerous obstacles, including opposition from Christian churches and politicians.
At first glance, it is incredibly easy to dismiss Joy as merely another cosy, period drama designed to appeal to viewers who enjoy Sunday dramas like Call The Midwife. And that criticism is somewhat justified. But Joy is also a film that is able to exceed viewers’ expectations based on the strengths of its three lead performances. Thomasin McKenzie in particular is utterly brilliant as Jean Purdy. Jean faces a personal struggle between her religious beliefs as a devout Christian, and also her desire to see women struggling to conceive achieve their goal. Thomasin brings warmth and relatability to the role, and you can feel her personal struggle. By the time Joy reached its conclusion, I found myself fully invested in the success of Purdey, Edwards, and Steptoe. I also found its ending moving, and it was hard not to shed a tear in the cinema.
35 – Blitz
Another period drama, Blitz is the latest film from critically acclaimed British director Steve McQueen. Blitz tells the story of a young boy called George (Elliot Heffernan in his film debut). George is evacuated from London during the Second World War by his mother (Saoirse Ronan) to the English countryside. However, George escapes and embarks on a dangerous journey across the city to reunite with his mother. This adventure leads to George encountering several Dickensian characters, including an air raid warden Ife (played by musician Benjamin Clementine).
Like Joy, Steve McQueen’s Blitz is very much a period film that would feel right at home airing a tea time on BBC One on a Sunday. And in many ways, Blitz feels like a modern twist on the boy’s adventure novel genre. However, what makes it so memorable is Steve McQueen’s direction. By creating a sense of scale in the larger set pieces of Blitz, he perfectly captures the chaos and danger George faces on his journey. It was also refreshing to see a World War II film set in England, told from the perspective of a person of colour.
34 – Twisters
If someone had told you in 1996 that the Bill Paxton disaster movie Twister would receive a sequel almost thirty years later, you would no doubt have laughed at such a suggestion. Yet in July of this year, Universal Pictures unleashed a sequel – Twisters – on the world. And perhaps most surprisingly, it was a very enjoyable and spectacular blockbuster.
Twisters tells the story of young tornado chaser Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones). As a teenager, Kate and her school friends attempt to test a chemical solution they believe can calm a tornado on a live twister. This experiment ends in disaster, with several of her friends killed by the tornado. Five years later, one of the survivors of the group – Javi – offers Kate a job at his startup which scans tornadoes. After some coercion, Kate takes up Javi’s job offer and resumes chasing tornadoes. This eventually puts her and Javi at odds with a competing group of tornado chasers, led by YouTuber Tyler Owens (Glen Powell).
I was pleasantly surprised by Twisters when I saw it at my local multiplex this summer. Firstly I was shocked by how much fun it is. Sure it’s littered with nonsensical technobabble to explain its somewhat simplistic plot. And its two leads – Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glenn Powell – are sadly devoid of any onscreen chemistry. But director Lee Isaac Chung has successfully delivered a summer blockbuster that goes all in on spectacle. Twister’s several tornado-based action set pieces are full of tension, which helps viewers invest emotionally in Kate and Tyler’s tornado chasing.
33 – Love Lies Bleeding
2024 has been a year where magical realism has played a key part in many films. One such movie is Love Lies Bleeding. Directed by Rose Glass and starring Kristen Stewart, Love Lies Bleeding is a romantic thriller set in the world of female bodybuilding. Kristen Stewart plays Lou, a New Mexican gym manager with a troubled past. While working out at the gym, Lou meets Jackie (Katy O’Brien). Jackie is a female bodybuilder passing through town on her way to a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas. Lou offers Jackie anabolic steroids to help enhance her training, which she reluctantly accepts. As the film progresses, Jackie’s steroid abuse causes her to have violent mood swings. This brings her and Lou into conflict with a local crime lord (Ed Harris). This crimelord also happens to be Lou’s estranged father.
Love Lies Bleeding is an incredibly stylish and modern thriller. I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the magical realism elements in the movie. Nonetheless, these scenes are beautifully shot and have a dream-like quality. In particular, the scenes showing Jackie’s body reacting to taking steroids have a visceral quality to them. In these shots, Jackie’s muscles ripple and bulge to the point of bursting. These transformation scenes feel more like something you’d expect to see in a Frankenstein-esque horror movie due to camera shots utilised by cinematographer Ben Fordesman.
Ed Harris is also brilliant here as Lou’s estranged father, Lou Sr. Harris portrays Lou Sr as an unscrupulous and slimy individual. It’s hard not to root for him to get what’s coming to him as Love Lies Bleeding plays out.
32 – The Substance
The cult hit of this past summer, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance was arguably the most memorable and divisive movie of 2024. Demi Moore plays the role of Lizzy Sparkle, a former Hollywood actress turned TV aerobics instructor. Lizzy learns on her 50th birthday that her TV show is getting cancelled. Her agent Harvey (played with scen-chewing glee by Dennis Quaid), tells her the cancellation is due to her age. Shocked by this news, Lizzy crashes her car and ends up in hospital. While recuperating, a nurse hands her a thumb drive advertising an experimental treatment known as “The Substance”. This procedure promises “a younger, more beautiful” version of yourself.
After some time, Lizzy places an order for The Substance. Upon injecting herself with the serum, her body generates a younger version of herself called Sue (Margaret Qualley). As part of this procedure, it requires that the two host bodies switch places for no longer than a week. Sue replaces Lizzy on her former TV show and becomes an overnight sensation. This success creates tension between Sue and Lizzy, as Sue increasingly wants to capitalize on her newfound success.
After watching The Substance, I felt deeply conflicted about the film. I thought the first 30-40 minutes was an utterly brilliant satire on Hollywood’s obsession with youth. This portion of the movie includes a brilliantly realized scene where Lizzy has dinner with her agent Harvey (likely named after Harvey Weinstein). The camera tightly focuses on Harvey’s face as he mercilessly rips apart the shrimp he is devouring. This scene brilliantly and effectively conveyed the idea of Hollywood execs almost being wild animals. However as the film progressed, I found its message overly repetitive, and The Substance quickly started to lose my interest. Thankfully the final half an hour of the movie goes completely off the rails, and it immediately regained my attention. While The Substance is somewhat tonally inconsistent, the fact director Coralie is willing to take risks means it is hard to be overly critical of the film.
31 – Drift
Released in March of this year. Drift stars Cynthia Erivo as Liberian refugee Jacqueline. Jacqueline is the daughter of a Liberian politician, who ends up stranded on a Greek Island. Whilst taking refuge there, she befriends an American tour guide (Alia Shawkat). We also learn through flashbacks the terrible and horrific reasons why Jacqueline is stranded on this remote island.
I felt Drift was an incredibly moving piece of cinema. Cynthia Erivo gives a wonderfully understated lead performance as Jacqueline. Erivo’s expressive face does a lot of the heavy lifting in pushing Drifts’s plot forward throughout the movie. Director Anthony Chen meanwhile creates a beautifully constructed non-linear narrative that gradually fleshes out Jacqueline’s character via flashbacks. These flashbacks help to explain some of the seemingly baffling choices that Jacquelin makes earlier in the film. I also really enjoyed the friendship between Jacqueline and American tour guide Callie.