TMW #14: The Quiz of the Year, Turkeys of '24 and The Movie Wingman's Under the Radar Gems
Test your knowledge, count down the worst films of the year and discover our hidden gems
Happy New Year’s Eve, film fans,
Welcome to the final edition of The Movie Wingman of 2024. Following our Top 20 films countdown (recaps here: 20-16, 15-11, 10-6, 5-1), we’re ending the year by testing your knowledge of 2024’s movies - have you been watching closely?
And hopefully you haven’t gorged on too much turkey this week, as we’ve got 10 more for you: we couldn’t wrap our Review of the Year content without counting down our list of the year’s stinkers. But get through that and we’ve also got a few recommendations for you, highlighting the hidden gems that might’ve flown under your radar this year.
For this week, both editions of The Movie Wingman will be paywall-free, so you can read the whole lot, even if you’re not a paying member. We really appreciate the support so far, and if you are able to give us a boost going into 2025 by taking up a paid subscription, or liking, sharing and commenting, we’d be eternally grateful.
The Wingman chat is open too, so feel free to drop us a comment there, and let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see more or less of over the coming year. And we’ll be back in your inbox again on Friday with our regular review round-up.
Wishing you all the best for the year ahead,
Matt (Jordan and Matthew)
The Wingman Quiz: The Movies of 2024
In which film would you find Duncan Wedderburn, Max McCandles, and Godwin ‘God’ Baxter?
Paul Walter Hauser voiced two conceptual animated characters in 2024. Name them.
Special-ops assassin Adam Clay (Jason Statham) lives a quiet life doing what occupation?
Which musical features the songs ‘Apex Predator’, ‘Sexy’ and ‘Revenge Party’?
Which film had supporting roles for comedians Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt and James Acaster?
‘A young American nun joins an Italian convent where she’s unwittingly impregnated with a demonic baby.’ Which two 2024 films fit this synopsis?
What’s the full name of Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in Road House?
Esther Rantzen features in a crucial dramatic moment in which biographical drama?
Which film is loosely inspired by the Hindu deity Hanuman?
What is Agent Argylle’s first name, as revealed in a post-credit scene?
Which divisive sci-fi prequel received a 25th-anniversary re-release in May?
What makes Brad Pitt’s character ‘Keith’ unique among the imaginary friends in John Krasinski’s IF?
An American film won the Palme d’Or for the first time in 13 years at the Cannes Film Festival in May - what was it? (And a bonus point if you can name the film that won in 2011.)
Which legendary filmmaker narrates the Powell and Pressburger doc Made in England?
Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watched has a slightly different title in the US - what is it?
Inside Out 2 is the highest-grossing film of the year - how much did it make (to the nearest $100m)?
Name the author of the famed photobook that The Bikeriders is based on.
The documentary Eno is the first generative feature film. How many possible versions are there estimated to be? a) 52 million b) 52 billion c) 52 quintillion
What is the name of the fictional TV show that the characters spend their adolescence obsessed with in I Saw the TV Glow?
At the age of 93, June Squibb became this year’s most unlikely action star. What is her eponymous character called?
What are the respective surnames of Elphaba and G(a)linda in Wicked?
Complete the title: In Restless Dreams: The Music of ___ ___
The Wild Robot is based on a novel by which author?
True or false? Emilia Pérez is the most-nominated film in the history of the Golden Globes.
What’s the name of the talk show hosted by Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?
What role does first-time actor Sherry play in Gladiator II?
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is set how many years before the original LotR trilogy?
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl marks Feathers McGraw’s first appearance since which classic short?
Name the ‘companion album’ by Lady Gaga inspired by Joker: Folie a Deux.
Which veteran auteur released their first full-length English-language feature in October?
Answers at the end of the newsletter…
The Turkeys of 2024
Our pluck of 2024’s worst movies…
10. IF
With its big, galumphing mascot-beast, ailing-parent subplot and benign, conflict-free vibe, John Krasinski’s well-meaning family fantasy could be compared with My Neighbour Totoro… IF only it wasn’t such a mopey, illogical slog.
9. Megalopolis
We can’t fault the ambition and decades-long commitment to getting it made, but Francis Ford Coppola’s self-financed folly is cartoonishly inept. At least we got a good Adam Driver meme out of it.
8. The Garfield Movie
This animated reboot of Jim Davis’ beloved comic strip achieved the impossible - making the Bill Murray Garfield movies seem not that bad. Go-to voiceover guy Chris Pratt was fine; the bigger problems came from sidelining Jon Arbuckle for an absentee criminal cat-father and turning the notoriously lazy orange moggie into an action star. Mondays ain’t got nothing on this.
7. Red One
Proof that you can’t put tinsel on a turd, this Christmas/action movie hybrid had no clear audience. Too cynical and violent for anyone in the mood for festive cheer, too lame for anyone over eight looking for an action fix. Get Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans on the naughty list.
6. The Union
“Just call me the Jersey James Bond,” says Marky Mark Wahlberg in this laughable streaming stinker about blue-collar spies based in London’s BT Tower. Just switch it off, instead.
5. Argylle
Is ‘Elly Conway’ a real person? Is she actually… Taylor Swift?? Alas, the discourse surrounding Matthew Vaughn’s spy caper proved far more intriguing than the film itself, an OTT but thoroughly underwhelming attempt to kickstart a new Kingsman-adjacent franchise. More ‘meh’ than meta.
4. Borderlands
The year’s biggest blockbuster dud was Eli Roth’s beleaguered video game adap. Ace cast (Cate Blanchett, Jack Black, Jamie Lee Curtis) wasted on a load of old claptrap.
3. The Crow
Ever wondered what it feels like to live forever but still feel pain, á la Bill Skarsgård’s Eric Draven? The Crow’s 111 minutes do a pretty good job of replicating the experience. (Re)watch the original instead.
2. Madame Web
Well, you didn’t need to be clairvoyant to see this one coming. Still, after the THE trailer moment of 2023 (inexplicably cut from the final film), it disappointed that this wasn’t the camp classic it could’ve been, rather a botched bore that was super-coy about superpowers (but hellbent on selling you Pepsi).
1. Poolman
A film so bad it has to be seen to be believed, all involved must be grateful that so few people actually did see this utter misfire. If success has many fathers, it’s hard to see Poolman as anything other than Chris Pine’s cursed offspring, given that he directed, co-wrote, produced and starred. A painfully unfunny Big Lebowski imitator that also unwisely invokes the memory of Chinatown, the biggest mystery here is how Pine roped in so many talented co-stars (Annette Bening, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny DeVito) for such a dud. The Dude would absolutely not abide.
The Movie Wingman’s Hidden Gems
The team’s personal faves that flew under the radar…
Spy X Family Code: White
Compared with the heights of 2022 (Belle) and 2023 (Suzume), my anime ardour felt less sated this year… but I still had a fine time with this big-screen action-comedy spin-off. Like many a film based on an ongoing telly series, it goes large while barely advancing the core plot. But with its brilliantly silly set-up (tracking down a special cake recipe is somehow key to averting east-west armageddon) and running gags sustained with marathon-like energy, this is quintessential Family fun. (Matthew Leyland)
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
This poignant doc failed to place in the Wingman top 20 – I can only assume that’s because the streams of tears conjured by its mere thought caused my fellow voters to mistype. It’s the story of Mats Steen - a Norwegian World of Warcraft player who died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. Thought to have spent his final years isolated and housebound, upon his death Mats’ parents discover that their son lived a rich and fulfilling second life in Azeroth, which is recreated using animation and digital records of Mats’ thousands of in-game interactions. Scooped up by Netflix after its Sundance premiere, it’s a sincerely moving testament to Steen’s resilience and the unique power of video games like WoW to build disparate communities. Make sure you’re well-hydrated before you watch. (Jordan Farley)
Strange Darling
Writer/director JT Mollner’s formally daring thriller is a tricky one to recommend because it really is best enjoyed cold, so if you haven’t heard of it yet, you’ll ideally read nothing more and simply take a leap of faith on what Stephen King called ‘a clever masterpiece’. But, if you do need a brief primer, the opening text crawl tells us we’re about to see the dramatisation of a serial killer’s final spree. What follows are six non-linear chapters, beginning with ‘the Demon’ (Kyle Gallner) chasing down ‘the Lady’ (Willa Fitzgerald), through which you’ll gradually learn more about how the characters ended up here. Gallner and Fitzgerald are fantastic, carrying much of the film as a two-hander, and the plotting is so structurally clever as to actually warrant early Tarantino comparisons. Fun fact: Giovanni Ribisi turned cinematographer to shoot this one - on grainy 35mm, no less. (Matt Maytum)
Quiz Answers
Poor Things
Dark (Orion and the Dark) and Embarrassment (Inside Out 2)
Beekeeper (The Beekeeper)
Mean Girls
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Immaculate and The First Omen
Elwood Dalton
One Life
Monkey Man
Aubrey
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
He’s invisible and silent
Anora (Bonus point: The Tree of Life)
Martin Scorsese
The Watchers
$1.7bn
Danny Lyon
c) 52 quintillion(!)
The Pink Opaque
Thelma
Thropp, Upland
Paul Simon
Peter Brown
False - it’s the second-most-nominated (after Nashville)
Ghost House
Dundas the monkey
183
The Wrong Trousers
Harlequin
Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door)