The Starlight Journal

My month of doing practically nothing but obsessing over Dune began with, believe it or not, my first watch of Denis Villeneuve’s first trip to Arrakis. Acting as both an excellent setup for the grander scale of the sequel, as well as an exceptional standalone film in its own right, Denis over the years has continuously crafted nothing but epic science-fiction stories of the highest quality. From Arrival, to Blade Runner 2049, to Dune, there’s nothing but all-time bests in the genre that fills up Denis’ filmography. I simply do not think it’s possible for him to make a bad film, and this was just the start for me…

I am now over a month removed from my first viewing of Dune: Part Two. I have gushed loads about how much I adore this film, some of which was thought out and coherent, some, well, wasn’t. What I’ll leave it at is this.

This is the greatest science-fiction film ever made.

Back in October of 2017, after seeing Blade Runner 2049, I believed Denis had directed what I believed to be the best science-fiction film ever made. Now in March 2024, I think he topped himself. After two viewings in IMAX, all I can think of even more than a month later is how much I want to find time to see it again. Masterful filmmaking to the highest degree.

Read my “review” of the film here!

Didn’t take long for a second viewing of this masterpiece. Even just a few days removed from my first watch, I was still completely in awe of how some scenes were even shot, let alone brought to screen in such a way. The Sandworm riding scene, as well as the Harkonnen colosseum scene where we are introduced to Feyd-Rautha (all of it. The whole sequence) are some of the greatest sequences I have even seen put to film. How Paul’s arc is portrayed, acting as both the protagonist and antagonist of the story at the same time, is masterful storytelling, as is Timothee Chalamet’s career-best performance. When a film is approaching three hours in length and yet after two viewings you still want to make time for a third watch in a month, you know you’ve seen something truly special. The real question for me now is if this will still be atop my Best of 2024 list come December. Because I honestly don’t know how this can be topped this year.

Long live the fighters.

With the Academy Awards landing on the weekend of this watch, Anatomy of a Fall was the last film I needed to watch that was nominated for Best Picture, and what a strong way to finish up my watch of this year’s nominees. It felt like it had been a long time since our last great courtroom drama, a genre we used to multiple great ones every few years that has started to dry up. Anatomy of a Fall immediately landed itself in the conversation of some of the best of its genre in the last few decades. While a bit lengthy, I personally would’ve trimmed 20-30 minutes off its runtime, the film stayed with me. Did she do it? Is she innocent? I honestly, a month later, still haven’t come to that conclusion myself.

Before I talk about the film itself, let me take some time to praise just how great the marketing campaign for Immaculate has been. From the screenings filled with actual nuns, to promo videos of Sydney Sweeney reading from the Bible, to the $6.66 tickets discount promotion, this has been the best marketing for a 2024 release to me by a country mile. Immaculate as a movie has a lot working for it. It’s a quick, snappy watch (feeling short even for its sub-90 minute runtime), it has a truly great performance from Sydney Sweeney, and a really strong third act that goes as full-on batshit and blasphemous as one can get with its narrative. Yet, what prevents it from being more than just a solid horror film is how the first two acts as presented. They just feel like window dressings, a means to an end to get to the third act of the story which is what they really wanted to do when they came up with this script. With that said, Sydney Sweeney continues to impress me with her versality as both an actress and a creator. She may be the new “it girl” in Hollywood right now, but I think it’s earned by just how much talent and passion is clearly there in just about everything she does.

Violent Pulpy Lesbians Commit Crimes: The Movie

This was just such an enjoyable film to watch. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian have great chemistry from the get-go, and the supporting cast is filled to the brim with stars that seamlessly mold into their characters right off the bat (why yes that is Dave Franco as a rattail sporting abusive spouse, and he instantly gives off just the worst vibes imaginable from his first line). The 80s aesthetic and setting add to the surreal wackiness of a lot of the film, which also leads to some truly great scenes that tackle steroid abuse from the perspective of the user. Some of the best cinematography and editing of the year in those moments. Strangely enough though, I felt like for most of my watch I was thinking there was a missing piece to the movie that would’ve put it over the edge into a truly great film, and yet once they did add an extra layer to the film near the end, it crossed the line to being too surreal for the story they were telling, at least for me. Despite the last ten minutes not working for me, it was still a very good film with one hell of a cast that I hope finally puts Katy O’Brian on the map as an absolute star in the making.