I write this post every year to acknowledge some of the movies that I've made a conscious decision to skip watching. In some cases there's a reason, and in some cases there's just a lack of enthusiasm. I've got very strong completionist tendencies, so I hope writing about some of these films this way will help me put any lingering doubts to rest. So, here are eight films that didn't make the cut this year. I reserve the right to revisit and reverse my viewing choices in the future. However, I still haven't watched anything from last year's list.
It's Never Over Jeff Buckley - I generally like music documentaries, but I've found that I have little interest in the ones about musical artists where I'm not familiar with their music. Jeff Buckley is an obscure singer-songwriter who put out one album and gained a cult following. I'm sure the documentary about him is very good, but I'm also sure that I'm not likely to get much out of it.
Ballad of a Small Player - Edward Berger directs a gambling film starring Colin Farrell, in scruffy loser mode, set in Macau. A few critics I like are adamant that this is a hidden gem, but I remain wary. "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave" were respectable, but I didn't particularly enjoy either. What really sank this one for me, though, were the totally unimpressed reactions this got at Toronto and Telluride early in the season.
The Assessment - I generally watch every weird, high-concept science-fiction and speculative fiction film I hear about. "The Assessment" is supposed to be about a future world where couples have to pass an interview to have a child. However, this is just an excuse for a movie where Alicia Vikander gets to screw with Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel for two hours. Once I saw the trailer, which looked insufferable, I dropped it in spite of positive reviews.
Magazine Dreams - This one had Oscar buzz when it originally premiered at Sundance back in 2023, but the allegations against Jonathan Majors quashed them. After changing distributors, the film finally got a very limited release this year, and reviews were very positive, but this was never the kind of film that I was going to enjoy, due to the punishing subject matter. Once it was out of contention for the major awards, I took the excuse to ignore it.
Good Boy - I like the concept. I get the concept. However, watching an entire movie of a poor dog in danger from supernatural forces struck me as an experience I had absolutely no interest in having. This was also a tiny production made for $70,000, helmed by a relative newcomer, so I wasn't keen on having to deal with shoestring aesthetics on top of everything else. I'm glad people enjoyed this, but I'm also very sure about my decision to keep my distance.
Eleanor the Great - This is Scarlett Johansson's directing debut, starring June Squibb as a newcomer to New York who is accidentally mistaken for a Holocaust survivor. The situation snowballs into a learning experience for everyone involved, and the trailer didn't do anything to convince me that the movie was any better than its tiresome plot. The critical response was fine, but everything about "Eleanor" comes across as too contrived for me to take.
Christy - Sydney Sweeney plays a female boxer who deals with domestic abuse. I promise that I steered clear of all the culture war uproar around the film, and I'm avoiding it simply because this is a female-led awards hopeful that doesn't have much going for it except a lead performance that hasn't really made any waves. I skip a lot of similar films like the Daniel Day Lewis starrer "Anemone," and I don't feel too bad about skipping this one too.
Keeper - I'm a fan of Tatiana Maslany, but I've given Osgood Perkins enough chances. After "The Monkey," I need a break from his brand of horror for a while. And there were more than enough excellent horror films this year to keep me occupied.
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