Weekly Digest
Watch List Digest 1/3/25
Lots of WaPo reviews, lots of Dylan, and the 20 best movies of 2024.
What to Watch
My two latest reviews for the WaPo. One of the films is very, very good. The other one is just the best movie of 2024.
Best of the Year
"Nickel Boys" leads the Watch List's annual honor roll of entertainments and provocations.
Good Movies 📽
Some further thoughts on "A Complete Unknown, a broadside against nasty commenters, and a review of "The Tree of the Sacred Fig"
What to Watch
New reviews of James Mangold's Bob Dylan bio-pic, Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu" and "Babygirl"
Ty's Movie Club
On Thursday December 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the West Newton Cinema, join us for a screening and discussion of Jim Jarmusch's beatific 2016 film.
Best of the Year
Some larger thoughts on the state of movies 2024 and one version of a Top 10, plus reviews of "All We Imagine as Light" and "The End."
What to Watch
New films on VOD include "Kneecap," "Maria," Sugarcane," and more.
Awards 🏆
The annual awards season kicks in with the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations and the Boston critics' awards.
What to Watch
An eccentric new Christmas classic from a young director to watch. Plus: reviews of "Hard Truths," "Nightbitch," "Flow" and "Queer."
A guide to movies in theaters and on demand, plus pop culture observations, from a film critic with 40 years in the business.
A haunting, ambiguous debut from a young filmmaker to watch.
Suggestions for what to watch on demand once the bird has been reduced to a carcass; plus, reviews of "Flow" and "Maria"
Reviews for the two big new movies of Thanksgiving week. One sings, the other ... doesn't.
In which I escape bleak reality by offering you a supercut of Tom Verlaine guitar solos.
A charming, absurdist tale of Manhattan l'amour and lust, written, directed by and starring John Turturro.
Mini-reviews of 13 movies in theaters and on demand -- plus "Anora" revisited.
The 2011 movie of that name, yes, but also in general. Reviews of “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story," "Blitz," "The Piano Lesson," and four movies for the times to come.
Welcome to Trump 2.0. He really means it this time.
Plus, for paid subscribers, my WaPo reviews of "Anora," "Emilia Pérez" and Clint Eastwood's "Juror #2"
Self-care, people! Also: Farewell to Teri Garr, and a political endorsement from the Boston Society of Film Critics
*even if The Washington Post won't.
If you can't get to the new Ralph Fiennes drama opening in theaters this weekend, try streaming one of the actor's most challenging performances.