TMW #8: Review of the Year Part 2
Continuing our countdown of 2024’s best movies. Plus: thoughts on this year’s chorus line of musical biopics, Robot Dreams director Pablo Berger interviewed and a Tolkien quiz
Morning film fans,
Only a couple of weeks now until the big day! We’re referring, of course, to the reveal of The Movie Wingman’s best film of 2024. Today we continue our Top 20 countdown with numbers 15-11, featuring vandals, wrestlers and another adorable robot (albeit mild rather than wild this time). Are any of your faves on this stretch of the list? Let us know in the comments below. And if you missed numbers 20-16, you can find them here.
We’ve also got an exclusive interview with Robot Dreams writer/director Pablo Berger (talking Spielberg, Oscars and competing with Miyazaki) and a look-back at the flurry of musical biopics that were on-song (or not…) in 2024.
Our paywall is now in place, so you’ll need to upgrade to a full membership to unwrap all the goodies we’re offering in today’s newsletter. And if you’re enjoying the Wingman experience, please share, hit the like button and fire off a comment or two.
We’ll be back on Friday with reviews of this week’s big releases, including Kraven the Hunter, Queer and The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (check out the Tolkien quiz below!)...
Have a great week,
Matthew (Matt and Jordan)
Review of the Year Part 2
15. The Bikeriders
Set in 1960s Chicago, Jeff Nichols’ riff on Danny Lyon’s photobook favours mood and moment over plotting. Kathy (Jodie Comer, with a spiky, on-point accent) narrates what story there is, as she tries to wrest her husband Benny (Austin Butler) from motorcycle gang the Vandals and its charismatic leader, Johnny (Tom Hardy, consciously channelling Brando). There’s a mob-drama dimension to what unfolds from there, and Goodfellas comparisons are hard to avoid as you’re seduced by this dangerous new world operating by its own code and populated by a characterful ensemble. The conjuring of an era is evocative, and the rattle of engines, creak of leathers and intoxicating fumes provide an almost 4DX experience. (MM)
STANDOUT SCENE: Johnny offers Benny the Vandals’ leadership in an exchange that throbs with more than one kind of tension.
Available to buy and rent digitally and on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD
14. Robot Dreams
Artificial intelligence meets the emotional kind in Pablo Berger’s (2012’s Blancanieves) deceptively simple, profoundly mature insta-classic animation. Honouring the wordless whimsy of Sara Varon’s graphic novel, it boasts the most expressive canine this side of Gromit in Dog, a connection-starved New Yorker who meets (or rather makes) his perfect match in Robot. A blissful beach summer gives way to a hard winter of loss and yearning, yet the film’s all-ages accessibility abides in its dreamy interludes, teeming detail and the zootropolitan charm of its extended menagerie. Earning Berger an Oscar nom, it’s a glittering start to his toon career. (ML)
STANDOUT SCENE: The final together-but-separate boogie to Earth, Wind and Fire’s ‘September’. Unforgettable.
Available on DVD, Blu-ray, MUBI and to buy and rent digitally
13. I Saw the TV Glow
Identity and nostalgia are key ingredients in this woozy cocktail from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun. At the centre is fictional TV show The Pink Opaque (think Buffy with a hint of The Mighty Boosh) that high-schoolers Owen and the slightly older Maddy bond over with their obsessive fandom. Over the years, Owen (Ian Foreman and later Justice Smith) and Maddy’s (Brigette Lundy-Paine) relationship with the show evolves disturbingly. Schoenbrun has spoken of the film’s themes being analogous to their gender transition, but there’s no straightforward metaphor here; instead you have to submit to its unique wavelength, disorienting colour palette, blurring of reality/fiction and general Lynchian vibes. It verges on horror, but the scariest thing is the thought of suppressing your truth. Superb title, too. (MM)
STANDOUT SCENE: You know when you revisit a show from your youth on streaming and it's not how you remembered it?
Available to buy and rent digitally
12. A Different Man
Sebastian Stan’s other 2024 leading role may have seized the headlines - for obvious reasons - but A Different Man is the standout performance and the better film. The best Charlie Kaufman movie that Charlie Kaufman had nothing to do with, it’s the story of Edward, an aspirant actor with Neurofibromatosis who undergoes a revolutionary procedure to reverse his condition. But when he loses out on a coveted role based on his own life to Oswald (Adam Pearson), a charismatic Brit who seems to thrive despite also living with the very same condition, Edward starts to lose the thread of his own identity. A smart take on modern beauty standards, disability and what makes us who we are, writer/director Aaron Schimberg’s precision control of a surrealist tone is one of this oddball film’s many strengths. Also features the non-Deadpool cameo of the year. (JF)
STANDOUT SCENE: Opening night doesn’t go to plan as Edward attempts to upstage Oswald, with unpredictably dire consequences.
Currently awaiting a digital and home-ent release in the UK
11. The Iron Claw
Like the wrestling move for which it’s named, Sean Durkin’s sporting biopic grips hard and leaves a lasting mark. The real-life story of the Von Erichs - a family of pro-wrestlers beset by an uncommon amount of bad luck and tragedy - is handled with rare grace and sensitivity by the Martha Marcy May Marlene writer/director. Durkin steers clear of mawkish melodrama - and despite the big-haired, small-pants 80s setting, keeps kitsch at bay, too. Holt McCallany powerslams as domineering dad Jack, but king of the ring is a career-best Zac Efron, buffed-up, dialled-down and desperately grappling with fear and expectation as second son Kevin. (ML)
STANDOUT SCENE: A heartrending reunion sees Durkin swaps gritty realism for the magical kind.
Available on DVD, Blu-ray, 4K, Prime Video and to rent and buy digitally
Interview: Robot Dreams writer/director Pablo Berger
Wingman speaks to the filmmaker behind our highest-ranked animation of 2024
How would you sum up your year?
As an amazing rollercoaster ride. Having the film released all over the world - that’s a dream come true for any director. The final territory was Japan; it couldn’t have been a better cherry on the top of this amazing cake than to have a successful release in Japan, which is, you know, the country of animation.
Which neatly leads to the subject of being in competition with Miyazaki [The Boy and The Heron] at this year’s Oscars…
He is the master and I am the apprentice! This is my first animated film, so it was a gift just to be one of the nominees. And you know, if you have to lose against someone, you could do far worse than Hayao Miyazaki.
What were the highlights of your Oscars experience?
Well, there was getting the nomination itself - on YouTube you can see the moment when we received the news, which is very fun to watch. Then there was the Nominees Luncheon, where I was in the queue for the photo call and looked behind me to see Steven Spielberg, whom I had a chat and a photo with. That was a big moment because the first film that really made me think about what a director actually does was Jaws.
And the Oscars ceremony… well, when you see a musical on Broadway you think, ‘Wow, that was a big show.’ And this was like 10 musicals in one. Everything’s so well-rehearsed, plus you can see Martin Scorsese just a few seats away!
What have been some of the most memorable reactions to Robot Dreams?
I’ve had lots of parents and grandparents telling me, this is the first time I’ve taken my child to the movies, or this is the first time my kid has really connected with a film. And that makes me very, very happy. I mean, as with Sara Varon’s [original] graphic novel, the film’s point of view is adult, but it’s also child-friendly. So for very young kids it’s like Teletubbies; they get kind of hypnotised by the music and the animals.
The trouble starts when the kids watching are eight, nine, 10, 11… They’re really used to happy endings, not one that is closer to reality. I remember after a screening at a festival in Germany, people were clapping and saying nice things, but then one dad said, “You’ve made my daughter cry; this is not a children’s film!” And I told him I had to disagree, that this film really gives you the opportunity to talk about relationships, about losing a loved one, moving to a different city… I like the idea that this is a film for children, for teenagers, for cinephiles. It’s like the old days, when films were films. It’s only in recent times that we’ve had to give them labels.
You mentioned Sara… what sort of feedback have you had from her?
My relationship with her has been amazing, right from the start. The graphic novel and the film share the same structure and feeling, but they’re ultimately very different. And when I first explained to her what I wanted to do, she gave me carte blanche. She wasn’t involved in the production at all; it probably would have been difficult for me to consult someone every step of the way because I’ve always had complete control of my films. But she loved the script, she was in tears after the screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and she came with us to the Oscars. And all the time we’re sending each other reviews and fan art from all over the world.
It’s impossible now to hear ‘September’ without thinking of the film. What does that song mean to you?
Every time I make a film I always like to include my favourite songs. And that’s one I’ve been dancing to since the late 70s, early 80s. The song isn’t, of course, in the book, but the story covers a year, month by month, starting in September. I needed a song for when [Dog and Robot] go rollerskating, something upbeat, so I went for that one. But later on I realised the song had to be not just in one scene but throughout the whole film. It’s like ‘As Time Goes By’ in Casablanca; everybody has their own song.
The only drawback was that, as you can imagine, being one of the most popular songs of all time also makes it one of the most expensive songs of all time! But it was worth it.
Given the film’s success, do you think you will work in animation again?
Yes, yes, definitely. It’s like being a painter and having access to a new colour. The only limit story-wise with animation is your imagination, whereas in live-action the budget always feels like some form of censorship. My last film, Abracadabra [2017] cost about a million euros. In Robot Dreams there’s a homage to Busby Berkeley musicals with hundreds of tap dancers, which you couldn’t have done on a European budget. Same with the sledge chase with the anteaters… if we’d done that in live action it would’ve been like a James Bond movie. There are certain stories that work better in live-action, and I enjoy working with actors. I don’t know what my next movie will be, but I must say, I knew there was an animation director inside of me! (ML)
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