Movie Roundup! — October and November 2024

In this post-SAG-AFTRA strike year, there’s been much conversation about the lack of major awards contenders by major filmmakers. Certainly one can argue that the movie-going public was spoiled last year: excellent movies like “Oppenheimer” were another nod in a great filmmaker’s belt; works like “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Zone of Interest” were genuine masterpieces; entries like “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Past Lives” were incredible movies from young directors. All of these were Best Picture-nominated, and so our gauge may be off for what we should realistically expect in a given year.

That’s not to say this year’s been dormant. In fact, for those keeping up with new releases, there’s been a wide range of great new movies to check out. Here’s a quick roundup of worthwhile new releases from October and early November of this year.

The contenders: “Anora,” “Emilia Perez,” “Conclave,” “A Real Pain”

At the time of this writing, it looks like “Anora” is going to be the major hit of the year. The latest from Sean Baker, a director uniquely capable of capturing distinctive locales in American life, “Anora” tells the story of a Russian-American “dancer” (ahem) who starts a relationship with the son of a Russian oligarch. Think “Pretty Woman” meets “After Hours”: a wildly entertaining and well-acted allegory for late-stage capitalism, how a mistaken notion of American socioeconomic fluidity misleads and deceives those outside of power. It doesn’t hurt that it is simultaneously one of the funniest and most devastating movies of the year. Mikey Madison, who plays the titular role, is 25 years old; that would make her one of the youngest Best Actress-winning performers in Academy history. Hypothetically, of course.

If “Anora” sounds too grimy for your liking, maybe some religion will do you good. “Conclave” may not be your refuge, though. A pope has died, and the mysterious process of voting for the next one must begin. Ralph Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, the dean of the college who is tasked with officiating the process. Alongside Fiennes is a murderers’ row of talented supporting performers, including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. Sergio Castellitto and Carlos Diehz, performers I was unfamiliar with, are standouts as other cardinals. Movies about religion imply a certain degree of self-importance and, sometimes, pretension, but the silly and twisty nature of “Conclave” pushes back that description. Edward Berger, director of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” a dour World War One film from two years ago, brings none of that film’s desperation and seriousness here. If you like great actors acting greatly, this should be up your alley.

“Emilia Perez,” Netflix’s major offering for the season from famed French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, tells the story of a cartel leader in Mexico who undergoes a gender transition surgery and decides to turn her fortune to a better cause. It is also a musical. You may wonder how that possibly works. The short answer? It doesn’t, at all. It’s one of the most unique trainwrecks in recent years, which makes its Oscar viability utterly baffling. I’d argue it’s good that big swings like this exist, but that does not mean “Emilia Perez” is itself a worthwhile feature. 

And then there’s “A Real Pain,” the Jesse Eisenberg-directed vehicle starring himself and Kieran Culkin. I’m not sure if “not for me” is the way to describe it. (Jews spending a week in Poland, visiting their grandparents’ hometown and the horrific remains of the concentration camps, is quite literally exactly for me.) Although the film works well as a representation of generational trauma, it is strange tonally and altogether uneven. It’s well-meaning and worthwhile a watch if it sounds interesting to you, but I’d say you can walk, not run, to the nearest theater.

The genre features: “Heretic,” “We Live in Time,” “Saturday Night”

Imagine the endlessly endearing Hugh Grant, well-known for his bumbling British charm. Now imagine that he kidnaps two Mormon missionaries and forces them to grapple with their faith through a twisted, violent experiment. This subversion of expectations is the crux of “Heretic,” directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The A24 logo may push you to think this is a certain type of “conscious” horror movie; yet it’s much more in line with a typical October crowd-pleaser than, say, “The Witch.”

Two more features with big names sprinkled across: “We Live in Time,” another A24 offering, is an aggressively wonderful and deeply moving love story starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh, two of the generation’s most gifted young performers. Garfield in particular is utterly kinetic in “Time;” his character’s predicament demands an ability to convey aching sensitivity, and Garfield’s eyes carry more of that than anyone else around. If you need to emotionally recover from “Time,” “Saturday Night,” the latest from Jason Reitman, chronicling the ninety minutes preceding the first episode of SNL, has a wildly long cast list of budding (and current) stars, and is completely electric from its first frame until its last.

The wild-cards: “Megalopolis,” “Queer”

And now, shifting to the more polarizing offerings of the year. Francis Ford Coppola, the director of a handful of the greatest movies of all time, returns with his decades-in-the-making “Megalopolis,” which features Adam Driver as the architect of a futuristic city. Much like “Emilia Perez,” a significant portion of this doesn’t work at all, but I couldn’t help but feel excited about the sheer audacity of the film, as Coppola crafts images together on screen that I had never seen before. “Queer,” the second movie this year from Luca Guadagnino following “Challengers,” is significantly better. I got a chance to see this one a bit early at the New York Film Festival, and was anticipating another picture in the mold of “Call Me By Your Name.” Yet this Daniel Craig vehicle is more in conversation with the surrealist works of David Lynch than that modern masterpiece. As far as big swings go, “Queer” is one of the more rewarding efforts of the year.

Photo Caption: A movie theater

Photo Credit: Pixabay