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| Feels like this maniac is running most of our control panels right now. |
These are stressful times. Not just at the box office, where it's panic 24/7 - either because of the latest flop or because the "wrong" movie (a sequel, usually) broke through, suggesting we can kiss originality goodbye or whatever. It's also the upcoming U.S. presidential election, where the fate of democracy will lie in the hands of one of two very old white men (where there's a clearly superior choice whose win still wouldn't reassure me too much*). It's also work. And the heat. And the state of the world. And the fact that I'm just not drinking enough water.
So when I tell you I have bounced off of 2024's biggest titles, largely due to how they skew a little too thematically close to the bombastic internal and external conflicts of our world (I'm talking about the year's top two commercial successes, Inside Out 2 and Dune: Part 2... But, inexplicably, not Civil War?) and have spent a great deal of my downtime building an audio/visual pillow fort around myself out of semi-niche feel-good entertainment like Taskmaster and Eurovision and the Savannah Bananas, I need you to know that things aren't normal. I'm still seeing a lot of movies (as my Letterboxd can attest), but I don't always have the bandwidth to deal with the larger spectacles (Sorry Godzilla x Ghostbusters: The [Insert Adjective Here] Empire) or the emotionally resonant second chapters. That won't necessarily be clear from my picks for the best (so far) of the year. But stick with me. I'll try to put my madness into words. And be a little more cheery. (Apologies again, it's probably the dehydration.)
