My Top 5 Films of 2024
5.
Twisters 2024
“Nature's masterpiece.”
If you feel it, chase it”
“You don't face your fears you ride them”
All right, I'll just say it, Twisters is an exhilarating experience. It is one of the most well orchestrated summer blockbusters that I have seen in years. Yet, it is also a film that never forgets the vehicles of utter power and destruction that it illustrates on-screen.
Perhaps that is the film's strength: it is able, in a real tangible way, to convey these acts of God with respect and reverence for their awesome power. It does this, without losing, for one second the thrill and wonder of the chase.
Twisters is a roller coaster ride in the best sense of the phrase. It has heart, meaning and poignancy in every inch of its special effects filled plunge, into the thrills and difficulties of storm chasing. On that note it is a movie that uses all of the available filmic and auditory tools to the greatest effect. At least to my ears Twisters is an exhilarating and respectful auditory experience
An experience that reaches deep into the adrenaline that comes from witnessing the perfect storm. That seems to be key for director Lee Isaac Chung and his whole team. As they offer us a glimpse into one of nature's most dangerous, yet striking masterpieces.
Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images
I found Twisters to be exhilaratingly entertaining, meaningful and visually and auditorily enthralling. I hope in some way you do too.
Twisters is available to stream on NBC Peacock with a subscription. It is also available to buy on any digital video streaming service. It is available physically on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD disc
4.
My Old Ass
“He's like this weird mix of being so lovable that I just want to protect him, and being so basic, and I want to punch him and his weirdly symmetrical face.”
“No more boat rides with Chad, promise?“
“It was really nice to meet you…Chad.”
-My Old Ass
Time, time is short. Memory, memory is what keeps us going. As we travel through the twists and turns of life we often misjudge the importance of our future and discredit the impact of our past. In the end, we fail to see either in the proper light. Our future and past become tinged with regret. Regret for what we could have done better and for what we should be doing now. It is an endless cycle unless....We learn from our past, and begin to appreciate our new future.
My Old Ass is an irreverent, unique and insightfully humorous tolling of the bells. The film frequently entreats us to be aware of the time we have, and it wonderfully illustrates how that awareness reverberates in every moment of our lives. This is a comedy built on the power of relationships and the meaning that emanates from those connections. My Old Ass strives to delight, but it also takes us on a journey through the human heart, and the walls we put up to protect ourselves from pain.
Love is a difficult thing, it hurts, but it also heals and reminds us who we long to be. Love gives us life and calls us to that struggle, because there is deep meaning in the lives that we are given. For sure, it may be a life filled with sorrow though, isn't it so often true that the greatest of sorrows arise from the greatest of loves? Director Megan Park and her team grant us something special here. My Old Ass reminds us that love motivates life, and life comes from love. Wherever that life may lead.
Rated R for language throughout, drug use, sexual material, and brief non-graphic nudity (swimming scene)
I found My Old Ass to be very entertaining, delightfully charming and deeply meaningful. I hope in some way you do too.
My Old Ass is available to stream On Amazon Prime Video with a subscription.
3.
Out Of My Mind
“I know the name of her condition doctor, but a person is so much more than a diagnosis on a chart.”
“She's the one with the true intelligence.”
“But there's nobody else like me, it's like I live in a cage with no door and no key.”
-Sharon M Draper,
Out of My Mind
There are so many things that you don't know until you know them, so many life events that affect you in ways that you do not expect. When it comes to disability this is doubly true. We are often not given the opportunity to experience life as we know we can. Now, I am certainly not pointing fingers here, though the need for experience is a necessary part of the disability conversation. That is why Disney's adaptation of Sharon M Draper's Out of My Mind is such a delightful and heartfelt journey through youth. A journey to be known, and seen for who we are and who we long to be.
This film meaningfully depicts disability, not as a detriment to life, but as a vehicle for understanding. Both film and novel are welcome reminders that you may have challenges, but those challenges do not determine who you are inside. Melody's Cerebral Palsy does not separate her from others. It calls her to show others that her difference does not define her in the ways they think it does. In fact, her disability allows her to excel in many ways that her fifth-grade peers can not comprehend. Melody's deeper awareness of her inner life, her thought processes, allows her to more intently focus on the world around her. Consequently, she is able to take in more information and process it to a better degree than her classmates. Silence is Melody's superpower. It is the place where she finds her strength, and her ability to succeed where others believe she will fail.
Out of My Mind Is a charm filled delight of a film that throws open the doors of disability and welcomes all in. It is a film well aware of the stigmas associated with disability, and it challenges those misconceptions with honesty and wit. I would like to thank director Amber Sealey and her team, as well as author Sharon M Draper for enthusiastically debunking the myths surrounding Cerebral Palsy.
I may not have difficulty communicating as Melody does, but I do know what it feels like to be defined by a wheelchair and Cerebral Palsy. I think Melody's story is a great vantage point for younger audiences (middle school age and up) to see into the world of disability. Hopefully, it allows them to realize that, just because you are confined to a wheelchair or have difficulty communicating it does not mean you have nothing to say.
Rated PG for strong thematic elements
I found both the film and novel of Out Of My Mind to be extraordinarily insightful, meaningful and entertaining. I hope in some way you do too.
Out Of My Mind is available To Stream on Disney Plus with a subscription.
Dune 2021 and 2024
“Dreams are messages from the deep.”
“Power over spice is power over all.”
-Dune, Part 1 and Part 2
“Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”
-C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Religion is a sign of an oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
-Karl Marx, from a critique on Hegel's Philosophy of Right
Very rarely do we get films that evoke such a sense of wonder and mystery as Dune. Director Denis Villeneuve etches his passion for this Frank Herbert sci-fi rosetta stone Into our ocular nerves with depth and richness. Dune enthralls, bringing to mind the large-scale biblical epics of the 1950s and '60s. Its vistas are vast. and its people emblematic of long forgotten races. These films are a snapshot of the popular conception of antiquity housed in a marvelously unique take on the cosmos, and the planets that are spread throughout its stars.
Biblical allusions intermingle with the sweeping sands of Arrakis with ease and fluidity. Though, as always these mirages are not as they appear. They are counterpoints to emphasize Dune’s richly layered political structure. A politic born out of the religious extremism found at its core. Dune takes the idea of a religious messiah and turns it on its head, using it as a weapon of supplication rather than a means of salvation or freedom. This move however, is not a parlor trick, a pulling over of the eyes solely to subvert your expectations. Instead, it's a narrative conclusion. A natural outgrowth of the film's line of questioning.
Though Dune never stays in a mode of polemics. It is far less an argument against religion and faith, than it is a deeply engaged narrative exploration of C.S Lewis's classic messiah trilemma, liar, lunatic, or Lord. Dune is a religious thought experiment that is more interested in asking questions than in tearing down belief systems. Perhaps paradoxically it's depth is what keeps it from devolving into anti-religious sentiment. The world of Dune is as broken and fractured as our own. Yet, it breathes with lungs all its own. Its cultures are dense and rich, its peoples lively, and at the same time deeply flawed. So, its use of faith as a vehicle for conflict, sadly comes across as natural, if not inevitable. Add to this the Marxian view of religion as an opioid of the masses and you have a potent mixture of religious extremism and political manipulation.
Dune is a striking testament to the power of faith and its horrific ability to be misused and misunderstood. Director Denis Villeneuve and his team open our eyes to the mesmerizing intoxication of Dune. Asking us the question: liar, lunatic or Lord? Whatever the answer, these films are a journey well worth taking.
Dune Part 1: Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some disturbing images and suggestive material
Dune Part 2: Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language.
I found Denis Villeneuve's two-part adaptation of Dune to be thought-provoking, visually enthralling and thematically rich. I hope in some way you do too.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
“Well.. I fear I don't matter.”
“I remember thinking, if only… if only I wasn't handicapped.”
“You proved us wrong.”
I do not want to sound hyperbolic. However, when a film like this comes along it is extremely difficult for me not to be as uplifted as I am right now. This film is a privileged glimpse into a world far too easily overlooked. A world trapped within a failing body, but ignited by a vibrant mind and an exuberant heart. It is a film worth every moment of your time and attention. If you watch anything that I have suggested on this blog, have it be this documentary. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is an extraordinary story, about a remarkable young man. Our limitations do not define us. We define our limitations.
If this documentary affects you in a meaningful way, please consider donating to the Ablegamers Foundation. And no, this is not an ad for the Ablegamers Foundation. This is just me asking:
https://ablegamers.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw-JG5BhBZEiwAt7JR61NdvRntFGVMedQVxuiMLii2hCf6Ec9rxeeHzbm590fYXk5haZoCqRoCCQ4QAvD_BwE
Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.
I found the Remarkable Life of Ibelin to be extraordinarily motivating, meaningful and moving. I hope in some way you do too.
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