The Resurgence of Small Films
In a post-COVID world, audiences seem to have a big appetite for a buffet of films. We go into 2024 leaving behind a year of numerous quality films. Let’s see what 2024 has to offer.
This year film audiences had a melange of films to choose from. There was something for everyone. The genres that seemed to do the best at the box office were video game adaptations and evergreen horror. The Super Mario Bros. Movie had a domestic gross of $574,934,330, while Five Nights at Freddy's amassed $137,251,390. They were both family-friendly. A surprise horror hit was Danny and Michael Philippou's Talk to Me, which had a shoestring budget of $4.6 million and grossed $46.1 domestically. M3gan, Evil Dead Rise, and Scream VI also turned a profit at the theater.
The 1990s was a landmark decade for indie film and contained an embarrassment of riches as far as quality indie movies. Trainspotting, Dazed and Confused, Love Jones, Good Will Hunting, The Blair Witch Project. These are just a few from a long list of notable indie movies from the 90s. Indie films are associated with being produced outside of the Hollywood studio system and usually have a small to moderate budget. These films showed a variety of life experiences from a diverse array of filmmakers and are a litmus test for today’s indie, humanistic tales.
Michel Franco's Memory is a raw depiction of a couple bonding on the most basic level - need. Jessica Chastain is Sylvia, a woman so consumed by her job as a social worker that she's forgotten what having a social life is like. Peter Sarsgaard is Saul, a youngish man in the early stages of dementia. They do not allow the reality of their situation to eclipse their love. While their romance isn’t practical, particularly according to Saul’s family, Sylvia and Saul haven’t been inculcated into the belief that a mental/physical impairment means life has to end. This slice-of-life story is both heartbreaking and motivating. It's currently in theaters.
Matt Johnson's BlackBerry is a brash telling of how the BlackBerry phone, the first smartphone, skyrocketed in sales only to plummet to an early tech grave. It's bombastic capitalism meets greed meets subterfuge. Jay Baruchel is Mike, a man with great ideas who doesn’t know how to sell them. The whole cast is great but Glenn Howerton is a stand out as Jim, the ruthless, would eat-his-own-young pitchman. Whenever he’s on the screen, his presence is like a wolf entering the henhouse. The film is currently available to stream on AMC+ or Amazon Prime Premium.
With her first feature film, A.V. Rockwell knocks it out of the park with A Thousand and One. A gritty urban drama starring Teyana Taylor, it's already won numerous awards. Taylor is a wonder as Inez, a villain and hero wrapped in the cloak of desperation and living by a survival of the fittest mantra. Rockwell films New York as an urban jungle and emotional prison for Inez and those she affects. It's available on Amazon Prime.
The Taste of Things is a French film starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel. The premise is simple. Chef Eugenie is under the tutelage of gourmand Dodin Bouffant for twenty years and during that time a romance starts to blossom between them. There is barely any dialogue for the first few minutes. The focus is on the beauty of the food and the love they have for making it. The care they take in preparing the meals underscores the deep affection they have for each other.
Based on Marcel Rouff's novel, the film is a lovely poem to life. This isn't Binoche's first time in a film where love revolves around food. In the delectable Chocolat (2000), which co-starred Johnny Depp, the Lasse Hallstrom film also placed emphasis on food connected to life, love, and rebellion. Ahn Hung Tran’s The Taste of Things courts the delicate balance between food and art, love and isolation. Cinematographer Jonathan Ricquebourg gives the film an earthy, warm look, capturing the emotions of the characters in every frame. This is one film where the environment is assuredly keenly linked to the characters. The film is currently playing in limited release in theaters and will open wide February 9, 2024.
These small, intimate films reflect our humanity starkly. While big-budget superhero films promote the fantastic, these films give us something we can relate to on a realistic, germane level. Other films of note this year are Zone of Interest, You Hurt My Feelings, Private Lives, and Showing Up. In a post-COVID world, audiences seem to have a big appetite for a buffet of films. We go into 2024 leaving behind a year of numerous quality films. Let’s see what 2024 has to offer.
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Sonya Alexander started off her career training to be a talent agent. She eventually realized she was meant to be on the creative end and has been writing ever since. As a freelance writer she’s written screenplays, covered film, television, music and video games and done academic writing. She’s also been a script reader for over twenty years. She's a member of the African American Film Critics Association and currently resides in Los Angeles.
