MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Hollywood was not expecting much from 2024 at the box office, after six months of strike-delayed openings, but by summer, things were looking up, with "Inside Out 2" spreading the...
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AMY POEHLER: (As Joy) Joy, coming to you live in Riley's mind.
KELLY: "Deadpool & Wolverine," "Wicked" and "Moana 2" all followed, and by year's end, movie theaters were crowded again. Also crowded, our critic Bob Mondello's 10 best list - it positively overflows.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Money matters in Hollywood - keeps the studios churning - but artists taking chances matters more when we're talking quality. So any year with as many big swings as this one has to be counted a success. No swing bigger than Brady Corbet's 3 1/2-hour epic "The Brutalist," about a Jewish architect, his gentile patron...
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GUY PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.) When dogs get sick, they often bite the hand of those who fed them...
MONDELLO: ...And a building that breaks them both.
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PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.) ...Until someone mercifully puts them down.
MONDELLO: Massive, monumental, urgent, and a surprisingly brisk watch, "The Brutalist" doesn't just look at how its characters navigate prejudice in the 1940s and '50s - it exposes cracks in the very foundation of the American dream.
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ADRIEN BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) They do not want us here.
FELICITY JONES: (As Erzsebet Toth) Who do you mean?
BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) The people here. They do not want us here.
MONDELLO: The architect, a concentration camp survivor in "The Brutalist," came to America from Hungary after World War II. In "A Real Pain," Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin head the other way - to Poland, decades later, on what someone calls a Holocaust tour. The dramedy has its wrenching moments but is mostly as light on its feet as its heroes when they find themselves without train tickets.
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KIERAN CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) We stay moving. We stay light. We stay agile. If the conductor's going to come through taking tickets, we tell him we're going to the bathroom.
JESSE EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) The bathroom. OK.
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) He gets to the back of the train, he's going to start heading towards the front, looking for stragglers.
EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) Sorry - we're the stragglers?
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) Yeah. By the time he gets to the front, the train is going to be in the station, and we're home free.
EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) This is so stupid. Tickets are probably, like, 12 bucks.
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) It's the principle of the thing. We shouldn't have to pay for train tickets in Poland. This is our country.
EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) No, it's not. It was our country. They kicked us out 'cause they thought were cheap.
MONDELLO: The immigrant experience also figures in the comedy "Anora," about Ani, a New York City sex worker who negotiates with the goofy son of Russian oligarchs for one full week together.
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MIKEY MADISON: (As Ani) Fifteen - cash upfront.
MARK EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) Deal.
MONDELLO: She's surprised a couple of days later when he says...
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EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) If I get married to an American, I wouldn't have to go back to Russia.
MADISON: (As Ani, laughter).
MONDELLO: ...And follows up...
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EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) Will you marry me?
MADISON: (As Ani) Seriously?
EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) Seriously.
MONDELLO: ...And she says...
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MADISON: (As Ani) Three carats.
EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) What about four?
MONDELLO: When his folks fly in from Russia, her Cinderella moment proves short-lived. "Anora" is filmmaker Sean Baker's take on a fractured fairy tale, and the creator of "Los Espookys," Julio Torres, has his own sweetly quirky take on immigration in his satirical art world comedy "Problemista."
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LAITH NAKLI: (As Khalil) You have a month to find someone to cosign your visa. And if you don't, you have to leave the U.S.
JULIO TORRES: (As Alejandro) I started freelancing for this lady.
TILDA SWINTON: (As Elizabeth) Oh, El Salvador. Pupusas.
TORRES: (As Alejandro) Yes.
SWINTON: (As Elizabeth) And those nuns they killed in the '80s.
TORRES: (As Alejandro) Right.
NAKLI: (As Khalil) You think this lady can sponsor you?
TORRES: (As Alejandro) I mean, we'll see.
NAKLI: (As Khalil) We'll see.
MONDELLO: A fish out of water in "Problemista"...
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MONDELLO: ...A cat in water in "Flow," the year's most adventurous animated film. Wordless and gorgeous, it sends critters that look hand-drawn scurrying through a photo-realistic forest, fleeing a wall of water.
That's five of my top 10. The next two are adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winners. August Wilson's play "The Piano Lesson," about an upright piano carved with the history of an enslaved family, brought to the screen with humor, warmth and heartbreak...
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SAMUEL L JACKSON: (As Doaker) Berniece ain't going to sell that piano 'cause her daddy died over it.
MONDELLO: ...And "Nickel Boys," adapted from Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel about two teens trying to survive a racist Jim Crow-era reform school.
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ETHAN HERISSE: (As Elwood) It's not like the old days. We can stand up for ourselves.
BRANDON WILSON: (As Turner) And it barely works out there. What do you think it's going to do in here?
HERISSE: (As Elwood) You say that 'cause you got no one out there sticking up for you.
MONDELLO: RaMell Ross filmed "Nickel Boys" entirely from the two main characters' points of view - that is, we see what each of them sees, and in those moments, we don't see them. For moviegoers brought up reading emotions in onscreen faces, that's disorienting, but it's also an effective way to make an audience walk a mile in a character's shoes. Another literary adaptation feels like a film possessed.
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SIMON MCBURNEY: (As Knock) He is coming.
MONDELLO: A ravishing, feverish "Nosferatu" from the mind of Robert Eggers.
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NICHOLAS HOULT: (As Thomas Hutter) There is a devil in this world, and I have met him.
MONDELLO: With deep shadows, plagues of rodents and suffocating atmospherics, "Nosferatu" claims Bram Stoker's vampire tale for a new era.
The last two of my top 10 are thrillers rooted firmly in reality. The first follows an ABC sports crew that was the only news organization with cameras on the scene when terrorists struck the 1972 Munich Olympics. The logistics of how they went live globally in a pre-digital age make for riveting cinema in the film "September 5."
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JOHN MAGARO: (As Geoffrey Mason) There's a hostage situation going on right now in the Olympic Village.
SOLOMON MOUSLEY: (As Roone's Assistant) ABC wants news to take over.
BENJAMIN WALKER: (As Peter) You're sports. You're in way over your head.
PETER SARSGAARD: (As Roone) We are the only people capable of following it live. This is our story, and we're keeping it.
MONDELLO: And "The Seed Of The Sacred Fig" is an Iranian thriller that almost didn't see the light of day. Forced to shoot in secret, its director blended social media footage of real street violence in Tehran with a story of a family in turmoil to create a searing metaphor for a nation coming apart. Given the constraints, "Sacred Fig's" tension and thrills are near miraculous.
That's 10, but I've still got some time, so I think I'll just keep going. On a press tour, Zendaya kept referring to "Challengers" - her tennis-is-really-sex film - as "Codependency, The Movie." And she wasn't wrong, but it's hard to imagine that particular love triangle having more sizzle.
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ZENDAYA: (As Tashi Donaldson) Come here.
MIKE FAIST: (As Art Donaldson) Which one of us?
MONDELLO: There was also the surprisingly resonant mushroom-trip-that-lets-you-meet-your-older-self comedy, "My Old Ass."
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MAISY STELLA: (As Elliott Labrant) Can we kiss?
AUBREY PLAZA: (As Older Elliott) No.
STELLA: (As Elliott Labrant) What? Can I least touch my old ass?
PLAZA: (As Older Elliott) Oh, my God. You need to be locked up.
MONDELLO: For older audiences, the geriatric mission-not-quite-impossible that June Squibb's 93-year-old title character embarks on in "Thelma" was a hoot.
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RICHARD ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) Why are we stopping at Mona's?
JUNE SQUIBB: (As Thelma) To get a gun.
ROUNDTREE: (As Ben) Do you even know how to use it?
SQUIBB: (As Thelma) How hard can it be? Idiots use them all the time.
MONDELLO: It was also a good year for international films, from India's warmly feminist "All We Imagine As Light," about three kindred spirits in Mumbai...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, non-English language spoken).
MONDELLO: ...To the trans gangster musical thriller...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Emilia Perez.
MONDELLO: ..."Emilia Perez" - arguably the most genre-defying mainstream movie in a while.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Bingo.
MONDELLO: Also a musical, a biopic about the Irish language rap group Kneecap, in which the controversial rappers play themselves, to sometimes comic effect.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Do I look like I want to read subtitles?
MONDELLO: And I kind of can't believe I'm saying this, but a few big-budget sequels were at once watchable and worthy. A grandly epic "Dune: Part 2"...
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REBECCA FERGUSON: (As Lady Jessica) We gave them something to hope for.
TIMOTHEE CHALAMET: (As Paul Atreides, shouting) That's not hope.
(As Paul Atreides) May thy knife chip and shatter.
MONDELLO: ...An unnecessary but ferociously entertaining "Gladiator II"...
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PAUL MESCAL: (As Lucius, shouting ) This is about survival. Come on.
MONDELLO: ...And "Inside Out 2" from Pixar, that adults were able to claim as their own.
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MAYA HAWKE: (As Anxiety) Hello. I'm Anxiety. Where can I put myself?
MONDELLO: And while we're unpacking emotions, I should mention one more international film. It traffics in concepts 13-year-old Riley won't get to for a while yet - justice, vengeance, mercy, forgiveness. Timely, yes? And ageless - a ravishing new version of the 19th century romantic classic...
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PIERRE NINEY: (As Edmond Dantes) Le Comte de Monte-Cristo.
MONDELLO: If I'm counting right, that's a second 10. Not bad for a year hampered by strikes and all but written-off back in January. Without all that baggage, just imagine what 2025 could be like. I'm Bob Mondello.
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