Moana 2 – with 3 on the Way (2024)

I'm sorry to report, but Moana 2 is not good. The plot is deeply confused and it borders on utterly nonsensical. The animation keeps changing, too, which is weird. Whenever the characters are wet they look like they’ve been animated completely differently (maybe this is a technology thing; maybe it is a skill thing; but what it looks like is that Disney just didn't invest quite enough money into Moana 2). 

There also just some truly insane sequences involving typical gross-out humor with nasty fluids (kids love these kinds of jokes for some reason), weird theatrical animated sequences that I didn’t understand at all (there’s a strangely surreal musical number in which Maui cheers Moana up, and they are in a completely different world for some reason), and there are animate coconuts who seem evil but are good and know a great deal about poisons? I have no idea. At one point I leaned over to my companion and asked What is happening? 

This thing moves along with the logic of an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants or maybe I mean a Minions sequel. Much worse: the songs are forgettable. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Lin-Manuel Miranda. Does this mean I'm going to actually enjoy Mufasa: the Lion King? 

Wicked: Part I (2024)

Wicked: Part I is successful on all fronts. The first time Cynthia Erivo sang in this I let out a little cheer.

It’s so nice to hear a Hollywood musical sung well (Michelle Yeoh excepted—who gave her this part?)! This is something I complain about nearly every time I see a Hollywood musical (The Prom is one of the most egregious recent outings in this vein). But Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sing very well, and it's just so good to hear a song in a movie well sung. In fact, I also liked that this movie never pretends not to be a musical like some Rob Marshall piece of junk or the truly absurd Color Purple from last year. This movie starts us off with a musical number and never lets up. It knows what it is and it sets us up to get it quickly

Wicked: Part I also looks great, it’s choreographed well, Paul Tazewell’s costumes are gorgeous, and it’s quite funny. The whole thing just works. To be honest, I didn’t even really notice that this movie is as long as it is (I only got slightly bored when we were being welcomed to Oz by Emerald City street theatre and the cameos from Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth kept going); this movie really moves very well, and it's almost always visually interesting.

But also... this is Wicked. For me, this means that there's really a rather hard ceiling on how good it could actually be. It's a series of winking in-jokes that were cutesy in Gregory Maguire's original novel and which I've always found really trite in the Stephen Schwartz musical. I'm also just, like, not a teenage girl. And I recognize that this film isn't really aimed at me. It is to John Chu's credit that his film doesn't try to be more than that. It leans into its material and does that to its absolute best. This is precisely what he should have done. And that more or less means it's only ever going to be middlebrow. (I might as well tell you that last year I ranked Wonka very similarly to how I rank Wicked this year.)

PS. Stacy Wolf was right about Wicked, and it’s very easy to see why it’s so available for lesbian and other queer identifications.

Gladiator II (2024)

Gladiator II doesn’t quite work in all the ways it wants to, but it works in a lot of those ways. This is a big, soulless spectacle in the vein of Ridley Scott’s most recent outing, Napoleon, but to be generous, Gladiator II is much much better than last year’s Ridley Scott film. Still, this thing is big and nonsensical and soulless, and one even has trouble figuring out who to root for. 

Gladiator II's ostensible protagonist, Hanno, tells us very little about what he wants, and so although we admire him, he is hard to love. There's also Pedro Pascal's general something-or-other, but he's not a character who makes much sense, actually. He strains credibility in that he's a ruthlessly bloody general working in the service of Rome who seems to have no ambition except to do the right thing. The film’s most compelling character is Denzel Washington’s Macrinus, and even when he’s behaving very badly, it’s difficult to turn on someone so charismatic. Perhaps this makes me more of an ancient Roman than a morally upstanding US American in 2024, but I would vote with Macrinus. He knows what he’s doing and he played the game well. 

There is more to say about Macrinus (who was a real emperor of Rome after he murdered emperor Caracalla). Denzel ate. He chewed. He feasted on this part. He’s a pleasure to watch. My companion thought Paul Mescal lacked charisma, but I don’t know. I thought he was fine. I blame Ridley Scott. The whole thing feels sort of bland and generic (and, frankly, if I remember correctly from 24 years ago, I think that was mostly true of Gladiator itself). Gladiator II is epic, though, and I enjoyed most of it. I like it when people quote Virgil and Cicero and Seneca. And it's fun to watch muscled dudes play with swords and fight wild animals. For me this was better than the critics said it was. I was not bored.

I have more to say. I’ll believe lots of things: gladiators riding rhinoceroses wearing bespoke saddles, fine; gladiators fighting starving baboons, fine. But sharks? Sharks??? In a naumachia? How? You’re telling me they caught a half dozen sharks from the ocean without injuring them and transported them from the sea (in what vessel?) and then let them loose in the Roman Coliseum after flooding it? I do not believe it.

Anora (2024)

Anora is easily Sean Baker’s best film. This is very funny; the editing is great. the performances are excellent, and the physical comedy is top-notch. Best of all, Baker sticks the landing. He’s terrible with endings, but this one works very well. Anora ends with empathy and care. 

Still, I kind of can't believe this won the Palme d'Or. This is a filmmaker who almost uniformly shows contempt for his characters, despite coaxing brilliant performances out of his actors. And yet, I was stunned by this film’s last few moments. They don’t make the movie into something great or anything like that—it's a rather silly farce with a stellar ending—but I was still stunned; I didn’t know Baker had it in him. 

It's worth saying, too, that the supporting performance by Mark Eydelshteyn is wonderful.

Bird (2024)

My good friend Dayne once said to me that an Andrea Arnold movie looks the way it feels—it’s one of the hallmarks of her brilliant filmmaking, and this statement characterizes Bird through and through. 

This movie is about feeling alone even when you’re not physically alone; it’s about trying to fit in, trying to make a way in the world. And Bird is also about the world, by which I mean the greater-than-human world of birds, dogs, horses, snakes, toads, and the way our human lives intertwine with theirs. And this is a film about magic and love and needing other people. 

Goddammit this is a great movie.