Five months after Alec Baldwin found his involuntary manslaughter dropped in the accidental shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, he has received word that the appeal has been withdrawn. This move finally clears Baldwin of any intended charges, which could be yet another push to put him in good graces.
There had been a movement from special prosecutor Kari Morrissey to ensure that Alec Baldwin faced charges in the tragic death of Hutchins, just as Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of manslaughter. Responding to both her point to withdraw and the inevitable result of the action, Morrisey stated, “This has always been about seeking justice for Halyna Hutchins. We regret that Mr. Baldwin will not be held accountable for the role he played in the death of Halyna Hutchins and as we withdraw the appeal, we do so with the hope that the outstanding lawsuits bring some measure of justice to the family of Halyna Hutchins.”
In their own statement, Alec Baldwin’s own lawyers said, “Today’s decision to dismiss the appeal is the final vindication of what Alec Baldwin and his attorneys have said from the beginning — this was an unspeakable tragedy but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. The rule of law remains intact in New Mexico.”
Alec Baldwin had recently teased that he would be continuing his own fight in the defense of his name and reputation. And while civil lawsuits are still on the table, this is a huge hurdle for Baldwin, although we still fully expect him to continue to press for more details in his favor to emerge as time goes on.
The appeal withdrawal comes at a perfect time for Alec Baldwin, who recently popped up on Saturday Night Live and has a reality series for TLC coming next year, along with a couple of yet-to-be-released movies. And while Rust’s eventual release will most certainly be a hot topic and have Hutchins’ death and the subsequent trials looming over it, this announcement does put Baldwin in a better position.
Do you think the appeal withdrawal will do anything for Alec Baldwin or will it always hover over his reputation?
Five months after Alec Baldwin found his involuntary manslaughter dropped in the accidental shooting death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, he has received word that the appeal has been withdrawn. This move finally clears Baldwin of any intended charges, which could be yet another push to put him in good graces.
There had been a movement from special prosecutor Kari Morrissey to ensure that Alec Baldwin faced charges in the tragic death of Hutchins, just as Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of manslaughter. Responding to both her point to withdraw and the inevitable result of the action, Morrisey stated, “This has always been about seeking justice for Halyna Hutchins. We regret that Mr. Baldwin will not be held accountable for the role he played in the death of Halyna Hutchins and as we withdraw the appeal, we do so with the hope that the outstanding lawsuits bring some measure of justice to the family of Halyna Hutchins.”
In their own statement, Alec Baldwin’s own lawyers said, “Today’s decision to dismiss the appeal is the final vindication of what Alec Baldwin and his attorneys have said from the beginning — this was an unspeakable tragedy but Alec Baldwin committed no crime. The rule of law remains intact in New Mexico.”
Alec Baldwin had recently teased that he would be continuing his own fight in the defense of his name and reputation. And while civil lawsuits are still on the table, this is a huge hurdle for Baldwin, although we still fully expect him to continue to press for more details in his favor to emerge as time goes on.
The appeal withdrawal comes at a perfect time for Alec Baldwin, who recently popped up on Saturday Night Live and has a reality series for TLC coming next year, along with a couple of yet-to-be-released movies. And while Rust’s eventual release will most certainly be a hot topic and have Hutchins’ death and the subsequent trials looming over it, this announcement does put Baldwin in a better position.
Do you think the appeal withdrawal will do anything for Alec Baldwin or will it always hover over his reputation?
Wow! Another year down. It feels like 2024 went by in a flash, and also feels like I spent half my life slowly trudging through this mostly awful year filled with a lot of bad news.
Wow! Another year down. It feels like 2024 went by in a flash, and also feels like I spent half my life slowly trudging through this mostly awful year filled with a lot of bad news.
A Christmas film that’s about as ingrained into our pop culture as much as It’s a Wonderful Lifeis the Chris Columbus classic Home Alone. But he was previously involved in another huge holiday film before his 1990 smash hit. He was the writer of the 1984 Joe Dante Christmas horror comedy Gremlins. And with the trifecta of creative minds like Columbus, Dante and executive producer Steven Spielberg at the helm, audiences were treated to an incredibly original, wacky and sometimes scary family film. It’s time to remember the three rules cause it’s Gremlins on this episode of Revisited.
Gremlins is one of those movies where it’s a simple straightforward story that gives the impression that there’s a ton of lore behind it but it isn’t truly necessary to explore, like Terminator or Alien, and it would be hard to explain anyway when you sit and think about it. The three rules of the Mogwai don’t logically add up. If you’re not supposed to get them wet, are their eyes and mouths dry? What about snow? What if the dog licks it? How long after midnight are you clear to feed them again? Is there a time limit? It’s variables like these that they actually parody in the second film.
The beauty of it is it doesn’t even matter. It’s all vague mysticism. It’s all fantasy logic. The charm of Gremlins is it’s a Steven Spielberg story of wonder that devolves into chaos and the fun of it all is just to see how much things these creatures can wreck. It starts intriguingly enough with a travelling inventor in Chinatown. He’s attempting to sell his new invention to an old shopkeep when something catches his attention. All we hear are the adorable high-pitched murmurs of a little critter and only see a blurry silhouette. The inventor is spellbound and wants to buy it, but the elderly shopkeeper, Mr. Wing, refuses and cryptically warns against it. His grandson sells the critter behind his back and tells the inventor three rules that are incredibly important for owning the critter: keep him out of bright light, especially sunlight that’s fatal to him. Don’t get them wet and don’t ever feed him after midnight. Right off the bat, you’re thinking, “Why?” “What happens?”
The other fun of it all and the suspense comes from discovering what happens. It’s like when you learn that the xenomorph’s blood is acidic in the original Alien and how the facehugger uses a host to hatch a baby. Enter Kingston Falls — the fictional small town that might look somewhat familiar. That’s because in a year the town set of Kingston Falls will be repurposed into Hill Valley in a little film called Back to the Future. We get a small preview of our town folk who may or may not get terrorized later on. Then, we meet our protagonist, Billy Peltzer, played by Zach Galligan. He’s seen trying to get his car running but to no avail. This starts the running motif of the movie series, but more on that later.
When we get to the bank, we meet the only person to rival Gizmo’s cuteness in this movie — Phoebe Cates playing Kate. Even though these two aren’t explicitly in school, Billy and Kate have a kind of tension of high schoolers who have crushes on each other. Kate’s even got that edgy cutter thing going on. “While everybody else is opening up their presents, they’re opening up their wrists.” Let’s see dialogue like that make it into a family film now.
Anyway, here we’re introduced to the evil human villain with the Ebenezer Scrooge-type character of Mrs. Deagle, who can shock the elderly simply by not being courteous. We’re also shortly introduced to the minor villain character who was supposed to be Mrs. Deagle’s silent partner in a deleted subplot. Judge Reinhold makes an appearance as a slight antagonist to Billy in this film and this would be a good summer for Judge as he would also co-star in another big hit — a little film called Beverly Hills Cop. When Billy finally gets home, we learn that he’s the son of the inventor from the prologue and we finally get to see what the creature was that he purchased.
It’s a good time to note that the trailers and TV spots for the film back in ‘84 kept the image of the gremlins relatively secret, only teasing bits and pieces of them. Even the poster barely showed what the appearance of Gizmo was. There wasn’t even an acknowledgment of the Mogwai creature being present before the gremlins show up so audiences were truly kept in the dark about what they were about to see. Was it the gremlin itself? Was it something else? What will this ugly creature look like?
The movie slyly surprises viewers with the cutest thing ever. Gizmo was unlike anything ever seen before. Those big old eyes. That adorable smile and cute little noises he makes, thanks to the voice talents of comedian Howie Mandel, who used the voice tones of his character from Bobby’s World. Billy’s inventor dad reveals he gave him the name Gizmo and here’s where the motif starts to take shape. Throughout the movie, Billy’s dad’s invention seemed to work for only a few seconds before going completely off the rails. Actually, both movies have running gags of technology and machinery malfunctioning and going haywire. This is because the origins of the gremlin folklore were popularized by pilots in World War II. The legend was that any kind of technical malfunction you had in your plane was caused by gremlins in your system. This is something Billy’s neighbor, Mr. Futterman, is constantly paranoid about.
Billy loves his new pet immediately, and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t? When he shows it off to a buddy, Pete, played by a young Corey Feldman, he attempts to hold Gizmo but accidentally knocks over a jar of soaking paint brushes, which spills the water onto him and now we see what happens when they get wet. As a bunch of new Mogwai sprout from Gizmo, you’d think the more furry creatures, the merrier. However, this new batch has a bad attitude and a much more chaotic energy to them. One night they tricked Billy into feeding them after midnight. Gizmo is equally unaware, but still opposed to it. I would be too. How could Billy just feed them a huge full plate of drumsticks? That was probably for a holiday party or something! Now we see what happens when they’re fed after midnight. Once the cocoons hatch and the gremlins escape, all bets are off and Kingston Falls would never be the same.
Gremlins, although written by Chris Columbus, was originally intended as a hard R-rated horror movie The gremlins were less playful and more vicious. At one point in the movie, Billy’s mom fights off the gremlins as she’s the first to encounter them. In Columbus’ first version, she actually gets killed with the gremlins chopping off her head and having it roll down the stairs. He also talks about a scene he wrote where the gremlins popping up at a McDonald’s, eat all the people, but leave the food.
It was when the script came across Steven Spielberg’s office at Amblin that it began to change. He bought the script and met with Columbus. Spielberg wanted to make the movie more audience friendly so it was brought down from a horror film to a hard-edged family film. What sealed the hook was Spielberg’s idea that Gizmo should not transform with the rest of the Mogwai. In fact, Gizmo was originally intended to be the head gremlin.
Spielberg would hire Joe Dante off the strength of his previous films, The Howling, and ironically, the Jaws clone, Piranha. Dante was a fresh face from the Roger Corman School of filmmaking and an absolute fan of the Looney Tunes. This is where the movie gets its maniacal edge with the gremlins out in full force. They’re beings with no discernible goal. They’re not explicitly killer animals or eating out of hunger. They just love to cause trouble and sport a healthy resentment to humans. They’re the embodiment of chaos and act without inhibition and they are constantly laughing that the madness they’re unleashing with no regard for human safety.
One of the highlights is the extended sequence where Billy’s mom discovers then fights off the gremlins. She takes out nearly every one of them at first. She catches one in a blender, straight up stabs one multiple times (it even lives long enough to suffer), then the part that every kid loved — she shuts one in the microwave and blows it up. By the way, this film is rated PG. It was this movie, this scene, that gave the ratings board the call to place a medium rating in between PG and R.
Additionally, there was an extremely dark story that Kate tells about her dad dying horrifically on Christmas that made her hate the holiday. This scene was also brilliantly parodied in the sequel with the strange Lincoln’s birthday speech. These scenes, coupled with the sacrifice scene in Temple of Doom where a man gets his still-beating heart ripped out, had parents up in arms about what passed for age-appropriate content and thus, thanks to Steven Spielberg, we have the PG-13 rating, where most blockbusters now reside.
The special effects for this movie was done by Chris Walas. Walas worked on Piranha with Dante and would go on to become a creature designer for Return of the Jedi right before this. So, when Dante needed someone to figure out how to make these creatures come to life, this was his go-to guy. Ironically, they malfunctioned all the time. According to Zach Galligan, it could take up to eight hours to repair a small mechanism of the puppets.
The crew especially had disdain for the small Gizmo puppet. There was a bigger one they used for close-ups, which they could fit more wires and parts in. But the small actual-sized one malfunctioned all the time with such a small shell and so many wires and parts crammed into it so it could have the range of movement and expressions. In fact, whenever the tiny Gizmo had to act opposite his co-stars, there could be as many as 15 crew members just off camera that ran the puppet. Joe Dante has said that the torturing Gizmo scenes were a big stress release for the crew since they hated the puppet so much.
Despite being a huge hit upon release with a $12 million weekend and growing its numbers in the subsequent week, the film actually never made it to number one. This is because the movie had the misfortune of opening opposite Ghostbusters in the same weekend on June 8. The movie would be one of the biggest hits of ‘84 with $148 million worldwide, and as you can guess, there was a ton of merchandise. Even Gremlin cereal, and if you were a big hit with kids, you had your own cereal.
1990 finally saw the sequel released with Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Joe Dante returns but the creature effects were now done by Hollywood Legend Rick Baker. The puppeteering technology advanced and they were able to do so much more. And they did much more. The gremlins had more distinct individual characteristics to them and Gizmo is even cuter than before. Thankfully a sequel without the creative team hasn’t been released, however there has been an animated prequel streaming on Max, which explores more of the backstory of the Mogwai.
In the future Gremlins is not a plotholeless movie but it doesn’t aim to be. It is incredibly solid in plot structure and it has that Steven Spielberg wonder and excitement with a harder-edged horror tone to it and flawlessly rode that line between family friendly and horrific chaos. And isn’t that what Christmas is about?
In a lot of ways, 2024 was a worse year for the video game industry than 2023. And that’s really depressing to think about considering how bad 2023 was for game developers and the media covering the industry. Still, even a shitty year can have nice moments and wonderful surprises.
In a lot of ways, 2024 was a worse year for the video game industry than 2023. And that’s really depressing to think about considering how bad 2023 was for game developers and the media covering the industry. Still, even a shitty year can have nice moments and wonderful surprises.
At Little White Lies, we don’t believe there’s such a thing as a “bad year” for cinema in terms of the work produced. Working under the pressure of an industry still recovering from political and social turmoil in the face of society that seems increasingly hostile to art, we’re heartened to see so many artists still managing to create truly great cinema. After much deliberation within the team, we’ve put together our list of 30 great films that came out of this year.
The list runs from 1 February 2024 to 31 January 2025 (to account a little bit for some early US releases) so it’s not an exact science – there are plenty of personal favourites which got left off too. But we hope you’ll take the time to seek out of all of these wonderful films. Let us know your favourites over on Bluesky.
30. Green Border
Dir. Agnieszka Holland
Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland has proven with her many diverse endeavours over the years that she can successfully try her hand at any type of film or TV series – but Green Border is a film which should be counted among her most personal and most nuanced to date. That this harrowing tale of refugees stranded between the borders of Belarus and Poland would emerge in a year where such stories are rife in our newspapers adds a haunting resonance to its story, and it’s one told by a director who clearly has decades of hard emotional experience under her belt. David Jenkins
Of the films that Steve McQueen made in 2024, we think that the first one – Occupied City – pips his lavish period drama, Blitz, to a spot in our top 30 ranking. The former sees the filmmaker deliver a coldly forensic study of how evil settles its roots in a community, adapted from a book written by his partner, Bianca Stigter, called Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940–1945. It’s a film of breathtaking formal rigour and, like some of McQueen’s best gallery work, an attempt to reflect scale through the sheer breadth of collected detail. DJ
“We all know Kerry’s my favourite,” Fritz Von Erich tells his sons as they sit around the breakfast table. “Then Kev, then David, then Mike. But the rankings can always change.” It seems so ludicrous as to be comical – a father nakedly pitting his children against one another over bacon and eggs – but Sean Durkin’s sports drama is ever so sincere, relaying the story of a wrestling dynasty founded by a single-minded abusive parent and subject to notable tragedies throughout their lives. With an impeccable casting comprising Holt McCallany as Fritz and Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White and Harris Dickinson as his sons, it’s a bruising story of fraternity and masculinity that cuts down to the bone. Hannah Strong
There’s always the desire to dash for the exits when you see that a film actor has crossed the Rubicon and chosen to try their hand at writing and directing. Yet with Blink Twice, Zoë Kravitz proved herself to be something of a natural, with her inspired, witty and no-punch-pulling thrilled about a wide-eyed waitress (Naomi Ackie) who is spirited away to a paradise island by a dashing tech bro (Channing Tatum) where the good time party vibe is soon interrupted by all manner of unspeakable activities. It’s one of the year’s most brilliantly edited films (a high compliment!) and we can’t wait to see what Kravitz has up her sleeves next. DJ
If Luna Carmoon’s Hoard (see Number 16) was a film that piqued our sense of smell, Tran Anh Hung’s account of fictional early 20th century French gourmand Dodin-Bouffant was one that sent paroxisms of pleasure directly to our tastebuds. This is Tik-Tok food porn elevated to the level of high art, with the careful production of mouth-watering pleasures wrapped around a lilting romance between Benoît Magimel mercurial Dodin, and his chef/lover Eugénie (Juliette Binoche). DJ
When a director makes two films in the space of a year, you assume it’ll be a classic case of “one for them, one for me”. Yet Kinds of Kindness – like Poor Things before it – is a work that feels like it was snuck in through the back door by its director Yorgos Lanthimos, a trio of surreal, saucy, doom-laden tales about false profits and how the sub/dom dichotomy relates to so much more in life than just sex. DJ
One of the most vital releases of 2024, not least because its plea for peaceable dialogue and for humanity to look beyond the synthetic constructs of borders and race managed to rub a lot of awful people up the wrong way. An ad hoc collaboration between Palestinian videographer Basel Adra and Israeli director Yuval Abraham, No Other Land offers a critique of Israel’s aggressive expansionism into the west bank before conflict officially broke out, and is just a deeply emotional paean to collaboration, documentation and resistance. DJ
Cocaine, shagging, and a cameo from Jerry Adams – the eponymous rap trio from Belfast caused quite a stir this year with their meta music biopic, blurring the lines between fiction and reality with raucous results. Putting the Irish language front and centre and raging against the machine of British imperialism, they sent the tabloid press into a sputtering tailspin and gained legions of new fans the world over. Brits Out indeed. HS
For many years critics and audiences alike have mourned the loss of eroticism in mainstream cinema – weep no more, cinema lovers, as Halina Reijn, Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson are here to change all that with their sexually charged dramedy about a high-flying CEO who embarks on an affair with her much younger colleague. Reijn’s refreshingly candid approach to sex on screen sees her capture the messy, funny often awkward side of intimacy, and with Kidman on top form, it’s a romp in the truest sense of the word. HS
After giving birth to her first child, filmmaker and musician Elizabeth Sankey experienced severe post-portum depression and was treated in a specialist mother and baby psychiatric unit. She recounts her experience in this moving documentary, which draws connections between the historical treatment of women in culture and healthcare and fictional depictions of witches. Unfailingly candid about a subject many are either unable or unwilling to confront, Witches is a tender, inventive film that takes on a devastating issue with appropriate care. HS
He may be 94 years young, but Clint Eastwood proves with his latest, Juror #2, that he has very much still got game as a director of rich genre fare. It was dumped haphazardly into US cinemas, but found a loyal following quickly among critics when they saw that beyond the slick courtroom thriller façade was a sophisticated and ambiguous study on the limits of the law when it comes to adjudication on the complex, irrational and absurd actions of human beings. DJ
While I’ll be shot in the face at close range with a vintage modified sawn-off for saying this, I’ll say it anyway: Furiosa > Fury Road. Not by much, but by a meaningful margin. George Miller’s action prequel charts the origin story of one-armed rage queen and sharp-shooter, as she’s plucked from paradise as a youngling and then set off on a grandiose revenge mission thereafter. Anya Taylor-Joy slinks into the role of the double-hard road warrior, while Tom Burke is superb as her supercool helpmeet, Pretorian Jack. DJ
It feels like there’s less and less space in the industry for filmmakers to take a creative roll of the dice and make a film which doesn’t adhere to tried and tested norms. Alice Lowe’s second feature is even more of a marvel in that sense, as she writes, directs and stars in this time-skipping tale of unrequited love through the ages that employs a bold structural gambit and is packed to the gills with humour and insight. This preceptive study on the microscopically thin line between romance and stalking dismantles cinematic norms while building a beautifully wonky and lovable edifice of its own. DJ
Olefactory cinema par excellence, debut writer/director Luna Carmoon whacks it out of the park with this stinky, slimy, sexy urban drama about writing bodies and rubbish piles in working class suburbia. Saura Lightfoot Leon and Joseph Quinn astonish as the tactile would-be lovers, while Haley Squires is superb as the single-mother trash hoarder whose obsessions and kinks rub off on her impressionable daughter. Roll on feature number two! DJ
Luca Guadagnino had a busy 2024, with Challengers and Queer premiering six months apart. His second collaboration with Justin Kuritzkes, the latter adapted William S. Burroughs’ novella of the same name, with the author’s fictionalised stand-in down and out in Mexico City, trying – and often failing – to woo an ethereal ex-serviceman who he can’t quite pin down. Featuring Daniel Craig’s best work in years and a star-making turn from Drew Starkey, it’s another swooning entry into the Guadagnino Desire Canon, and we couldn’t be happier about it. HS
People talking in rooms never sounds like a very fun time on paper, but Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan has come to the point in his career he can make this very spartan dramatic set-up feel like high art. A disgruntled, pompous country school teacher has his haughty perceptions challenged by pupils and colleagues, leading to a sardonic, but sincerely philosophical study which drills into the question of professional purpose and what we’re really meant to spend our time doing while on this little rock. DJ
On the bench for over 30 years following the release of 1992’s sublime documentary about art and creativity, The Quince Tree Sun, Spanish filmmaker Victor Erice finally returns with a laconic old school marvel which combines the loose structure of a cosy mystery (a filmmaker trying to discover the whereabouts of a colleague who went missing), with a deep, fascinating and breathtaking inquiry into how cinema can be a very real part of our collective memory. DJ
As assured a sophomore feature as you’re ever likely to see, Schoenbrun’s haunting Bildungsroman pays tribute to the pivotal influence pop culture can have on us in our youth, providing portals to other worlds and helping us discover who we are. Beyond being a loving tribute to their own influences – notably Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Schoenbrun’s film is an expression of hope, reassuring trans and queer viewers that it’s never too late to become your authentic self, and that repression only leads to heartbreak in the end. HS
Play this in a double feature with Eastwood’s Juror #2! Deceptively featherlight caper in with Actual Real Movie Star #1 Glen Powell goes full chameleon mode as Gary Johnson, a doofus collage philosophy professor who moonlights as a fake assassin for the local police constabulary in order to lure in potential marks. And it turns out that his toughest assignment… was love. Linklater keeps things fast and frisky, and everything leads up towards a single scene that forever justifies the existence and application of smart phones. DJ
Deserved Golden Bear winner at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, Mati Diop’s stunning, medium-length essay feature searches for a definition of the term “national treasure” and what it means that 26 purloined treasures are being returned to their home nation of Benin France. Diop presents a multiplicity of voices and interpretations on this situation, opening out both a discussion on the problem of western museums being packed to the rafters with plunder from colonial times. DJ
All the ingredients were there in Zambian-Welsh filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s 2017 debut feature, I Am Not a Witch, and frankly it’s something of a travesty that we had to wait seven long years for a follow-up. But when this new one arrived, it expanded on that promise in new and exciting ways, telling of ritualised cycles of abuse within an extended family and one woman’s surreal and stifled attempts to hold the abusers to account. DJ
There’s a high chance you blinked and missed the scintillating and confident debut feature from lauded playwright Annie Baker when it whisked through UK cinemas, but we wanted to give this wonderful film, about a disquieting mother-daughter relationship in an American rural setting, the dues it so obviously deserves. In its quiet, rigorously observational mode, it served as extension to Baker’s stage work, but also tipped its hat to the transcendental masters of yore such as Ozu and Antonioni. DJ
I’ll admit: I was something of an Andrea Arnold agnostic ahead of Bird. It definitely wasn’t an intense dislike, more that I swayed to the extremes of love (Wuthering Heights, Cow) and hate (American Honey). This new one represents everything she does well, but with an added twist, cutting the spiky social realism through with a sprinkle of fairy dust in the form of a lovable loner played by Franz Rogowski, who helps save young Bailey (newcomer Nykiya Adams) from all manner of social and familial hazards. Gorgeous, moving stuff. DJ
The film that launched a thousand memes, our favourite Italian provocateur teamed up with YouTube legend (and Mr. Celine Song) Justin Kuritzkes for this cheeky, sporty take on Jules et Jim. Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist are the power-hungry tennis pros who enter each others’ orbit as teens and find themselves butting heads on and off the court across their adult lives – it’s a spiky, sexy, sweaty dramedy about negotiating the rules of desire, and the killer score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross certainly gets the blood pumping too. HS
Nearly 30 years after they collaborated on Secrets & Lies, Mike Leigh and Marianne Jean-Baptiste reunite – and aren’t we lucky, because the result is the finest British film of the year. Jean-Baptiste gives an incendiary performance as Pansy Deacon, a hard-faced woman with an acid tongue who spends every waking moment picking fights, gamely matched by The Bill’s own Michele Austin as her long-suffering sister Chantelle. It’s a moving, tragic, at times extremely funny portrait of a single family’s complex dynamics, delivered as only Mike Leigh knows how, with no triumphant catharsis or easy reconciliations. HS
Having impressed with her experimental debut The Night of Knowing Nothing, the Indian filmmaker opted to expand her horizons with a Mumbai-set city symphony which revolves around the lives of three melancholic women of different generations. The film is singularly interested in the emotions and the interior worlds of these women, yet it’s also richly political in its focus on caste, gentrification and anti-Muslim sentiment in modern India. The year’s best ending. DJ
La Chimera was Alice Rohrwacher’s “I can do pretty much anything now” movie, a piece of work that from some angles looks completely shapeless and meandering, and from others elegantly structured and purposeful. Josh O’Connor (in his second top 10 appearance) stars as a linen-suited rogue who hangs out with a gang of charismatic tomb raiders who travel the Italian landscape in search of antiquities and more. Rohrwacher’s sincere interest in history and archaeology soon gives way to matters existential, and the story shifts to examine more romantic concerns. DJ
We didn’t get around to giving this one its dues in our 2023 list, even though that’s when it premiered, so we can only echo the many hundreds – if not thousands – of people who have lauded Jonathan Glazer’s singular exploration into the ambient qualities of the Holocaust, and the banality of evil at its most aggressively banal. Like RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys, it’s a film which reframes and recontextualises atrocity through subjective human experience, and once seen it is very much never forgotten. DJ
Brady Corbet’s long-in-the-oven VistaVision spectacular channels the look, feel and scope of classic-era Hollywood epics in telling the tale of a fictional émigré architect (magnificently essayed by Adrien Brody) who strives to find both work and an artistic outlet (and perhaps even both at the same time) in the mighty landscapes of America. It’s a knotty, mysterious picture that begs for interpretation, and that sound you can hear in the background is PT Anderson watching his back. DJ
As if our entire issue wasn’t enough of a testament to how much we admire RaMell Ross’s fiction debut, let us say a few more words. It was clear back when Hale County This Morning, This Evening premiered that RaMell Ross was an extraordinarily gifted filmmaker, and his fiction debut sees him turn his photographic eye to Coulson Whitehead’s eponymous novel with astounding grace and empathy. In less skilled hands the project might have been mawkish or exploitative; under Ross, it is tender and immersive, quite literally allowing us to see the horror of the Nickel Academy through Elwood Curtis’s eyes. With Ethan Herisse, Brandon Turner and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor delivering a trio of heavyweight performances and Ross’s entire creative team working at the top of their game, it represents a towering achievement in cinematic storytelling and provides a slither of hope that the victims of the real-life reform schools of the American south will finally see justice. HS
After the massive success of Terrifier 3, David Howard Thornton is tackling another twisted clown with Jokers Wild, an upcoming horror short from Busted Knuckle Productions. We’ve got a handful of images featuring Thornton as the iconic DC villain, which you can check out below!
Thornton certainly looks the part thanks to some lovely makeup by Tatjana Bluchel, who previously worked with the Terrifier star on The Mean One.
The synopsis for Jokers Wild reads: “The Joker has finally captured Robin. Will the Dark Knight be able to save him in time, or will The Joker enact his most gruesome joke to date?” In addition to David Howard Thornton on The Joker, the short also stars Joel Leblanc as Robin and Hunter G. Williams as Batman. Jokers Wild was written and directed by Aaron W. Bennett, who also produced alongside Hunter G. Williams and Vanessa Leigh.
This isn’t the first time Thornton has stepped into the shoes of the Clown Prince of Crime; he also played the character in several episodes of the Nightwing: Escalation web series. The Joker happens to be one of Thornton’s favourites, and he recently revealed his desire to play the character for DC Studios. “The Joker is my favorite villain of all time, and that’s a character I would love to play myself one day,” Thornton told GamesRadar in October. “So hopefully someone like James Gunn gives me the opportunity to tackle that character because I would like to do a lot of fun things with him.“
As for Terrifier 3, our own Tyler Nichols was a big fan of the blood-soaked sequel, calling it the best of the franchise so far. “The entire opening sequence is ridiculously impressive. It’s pretty much what you would expect from a slasher but it ramps things up so quickly and heads firmly into: ‘Did they just do that?’ territory,” Nichols wrote. “It’s one of many iconic scenes that puts shocking kills at the forefront but makes sure not to skimp on the tension. There are great shots that fully utilize the Christmas atmosphere. The acting is much better this time around, with nearly everyone that returns improving their performances.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
The Dexter universe is growing larger by the second. Dexter: Original Sin is currently telling the origins of the young serial killer, but another prequel series could soon follow. Deadline reports that a prequel series revolving around the Trinity Killer (played by John Lithgow in the original series) is still “in development” at Paramount+.
The Trinity Killer prequel series was actually reported to be in condition in early 2023, but it’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about it. Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips and Dexter writer/producer Scott Reynolds will serve as co-creators and executive producers of the Trinity Killer prequel series. Phillips even revealed that John Lithgow has agreed to come back and provide the inner voice of his younger self, much in the same way Michael C. Hall is doing for Dexter: Original Sin.
“We wrote the entire Trinity Killer series. At the moment, it is on the back burner,” Phillips said. “John Lithgow has agreed to be the voice of his younger self the way Michael Hall is doing for [Original Sin]. There’s that and we’re doing another show with Michael C. Hall, [Resurrection]… We were writing that while shooting Original Sin, so that’s fairly busy. We begin shooting [Resurrection] in January and it will air in June 2025.“
It doesn’t sound like the Trinity Killer prequel is a big priority at the moment, but if Dexter: Original Sin and Dexter: Resurrection can keep the franchise momentum going, we’ll probably see it on our screens. John Lithgow was featured in the fourth season of the original Dexter series and is regarded as one of the show’s best villains. He also made a very brief appearance in the revival series Dexter: New Blood.
The official synopsis for Dexter: Original Sin reads: “Set in 1991 Miami, Dexter: Original Sin follows Dexter (Gibson) as he transitions from student to avenging serial killer. When his bloodthirsty urges can’t be ignored any longer, Dexter must learn to channel his inner darkness. With the guidance of his father, Harry (Christian Slater), he adopts a Code designed to help him find and kill people who deserve to be eliminated from society without getting on law enforcement’s radar. This is a particular challenge for young Dexter as he begins a forensics internship at the Miami Metro Police Department.” The series also stars Patrick Dempsey, Molly Brown, James Martinez, Christina Milian, Alex Shimizu, and Reno Wilson, with Sarah Michelle Gellar appearing as a special guest star. You can check out a review from our own Alex Maidy right here.
Would you like to see a Trinity Killer prequel series?
