2024 locked. Fantastic year for the mooovies, with a few defining works that I’m sure I’ll be revisiting years down the line.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa undisputable MVP.

I was really moved by THE LAST SHOWGIRL. Gia Coppola frames Vegas as a transitory space, a place of connection and displacement where working class women are shaping the glitzy façade of entertainment. Pamela Anderson is absolutely radiant here, but so is Dave Bautista in an incredibly gentle outing

horrified to learn that the iconic grungy Dark Castle logo has been touched by the minimalist curse

CADDO LAKE rocks. Shame that WB dumped it on MAX without fanfare, as I’m sure the twists would have played like gangbusters in theaters.

Revisited THE KILLER (1989) tonight and man, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore, huh? All the talk about masculinity these days, but Chow’s performance here still strikes me as some of the most vulnerable acting ever captured on film. The eyes can tell everything you need to know.

for my fellow Found Footage horror enthusiasts: MARUI VIDEO (2023) is a criminally underseen creepfest with a distinct K-horror touch. hints of Koji Shiraishi and true crime, all wrapped up in this neat cursed media package.

Really didn’t expect THE LAST DANCE (破·地獄) to be such a beautifully robust treatise on the process of mourning, “breaking hell’s gate” for the living, and the uncertain future that Hongkongers will face together. Deeply compassionate film full of complex, inherently human questions.

Bawled my eyes out at LOVE IN THE BIG CITY: a film that captures the joys and pitfalls of carefree youth with such remarkable sensitivity and tenderness, yet doesn’t shy away from some of the darker aspects of Korean culture. Made me want to rewatch a few of the earlier Hong films, for some reason.