By Arun Kapil
Voilà Arun with a View’s annual list, for the 15th straight year (up a couple of days late, into the new year), of movies seen that opened theatrically in 2024 in France or the United States (for the 2023 list, go here).
I saw plenty of movies as usual, over half of which I gave 3.5 stars (good) and above on the Allociné scale, but, generally speaking, did not find 2024 to be an exceptional year for cinema.
I am, however, in a minority on this and on both sides of the pond, with, e.g., culture critics in highbrow US publications I look at proclaiming the year to have been an excellent one for movies (though I will note that most of the movies in their “best of” lists have not yet opened in France). And here in France, there’s been a lot of patriotic chest-thumping about 2024 having been the best year for French cinema since 2008, which may be the case for box office receipts but may or may not be when it comes to movies worth seeing. And if French cinema did well, it was …
