The Films of 2024

[aox]

The Director's Cut of Napoleon is a revelation. It's a completely different movie that focuses on his relationship with Josephine. Everything in the theatrical cut (e.g. battles/campaigns) is asides. How Ridley Scott doesn't have final cut at this point is a complete mystery to me. I hated the theatrical cut.

[Toland's Mitchell]

The Director's Cut of Napoleon is a revelation. It's a completely different movie that focuses on his relationship with Josephine. Everything in the theatrical cut (e.g. battles/campaigns) is asides. How Ridley Scott doesn't have final cut at this point is a complete mystery to me. I hated the theatrical cut.

After a middling reaction to the theatrical Napoleon, I haven't visited the longer cut. But that's good to hear. It's the first I've heard anyone say the extended cut is a huge improvement. More of Josephine is what I wanted, so now I'm looking forward to seeing it someday. Anyway, I don't particularly like the pattern throughout Scott's career that theatrical cuts miss important content, only to be salvaged later by an extended cut. It's a mystery to me as well. It is worth noting that he said a month ago Gladiator 2 would not receive a extended cut, but three weeks later, after its release, he said he's considering it. Perhaps it was a response to critics' complaints? In any case, Gladiator 2 could seriously use a re-edit. As it is, I was casually entertained, but nothing else. One can only hope deleted scenes elevate this mess, if they're ever released.

[The Curious Sofa]

I read John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling the Undead, his follow-up to Let the Right One In, when it came out in English, and found it turgid, uneventful and anticlimactic, so I almost passed on the film. While it is about as faithful an adaptation as you can get, it works far better than the book. The film is also slow and, by the standards of zombie fiction, lacking in incident, but Thea Hvistendahl is a far better filmmaker than John Ajvide Lindqvist is a writer, and she creates an atmosphere of melancholy dread that builds and builds, eventually reaching a satisfying climax. Much like Robin Campillo's Les Revenants/They Came Back, the horror lies less in the carnage perpetrated by the undead and more in the emotions their return evokes in their families and loved ones. Great cinematography and score, top-notch performances (starring Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie from The Worst Person in the World) and make-up: the sight of that undead child, as pitiful as it is terrifying, will haunt me for a while.

[Mr Sausage]

It was one of my favourites of the year. It definitely leans harder into zombies-as-metaphor than zombies-as-monster, and makes for a cold, pained movie on grief and loss. It’s probably heavier on atmosphere and emotion than on significance, but it worked for me. There were scenes in that were just heartbreaking (especially involving the old woman who’d lost her life partner), and others that were devastating (the mother’s impulsive decision after seeing her child in the apartment).

Between this and A Different Man, this has been a great year for Renate Reinsve. She gives two very different, equally excellent performances.