Who needs to go on a rollercoaster when all you had to do was survive 2024?
There have been movies that have blown me away, Denis Villeneuve deserves a special mention, and there’s been some painful flops that left me scratching my head; Megalopolis and Joker: Folie À Deux pushing the boundaries, in my opinion, without success.
Then there’s the body horror of, Substance, and the not quite making it to my list, Longlegs, Heretic, Better Man and Monkey Man that are worth a watch. And then there’s Wicked Part I that I enjoyed in spite of myself.
But when it comes to recommendations, I’ve compiled a Top 5 List that had me smiling, crying, shaking with hands in front of face to mouth agape at the spectacle that is the best cinema of 2024.
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor and Stephanie Hsu, with Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames.
‘Funny how life works.’
Opening on a dark and stormy beach, otters sniffing the sand discover a crashed robot.
Meet, ready-to-receive-my-first-task ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o).
A ROZZUM AKA Roz always completes its task, just ask.
The Wild Robot analyses life through the lens of a robot’s eyes that has all sorts of fun and weird and wonderful moments including physical mimicry of Roz running around trying to find instruction from a bunch of wild beasts that are terrified of it.
Eventually, Roz the robot saves a goose egg from a conniving fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). And watching the egg hatch, as nature instructs, the gosling imprints on the robot.
Roz, now has a task (along with the help of Fink): to raise a gosling, later named Brightbill (Kit Connor), so he’s ready to migrate before winter sets in.
There’s so much to love about this movie, the critters all adorable, not one character out of place.
There’s the family of possums where all the young possums are taught to play dead (well, possum), each explaining the type of death therefore undoing the subterfuge because, ‘dead things don’t have to explain they’re dead.’
When I saw the premise of the film I thought it was a strange idea having a robot in the forest and at best would be cheesy, but the story leans into the pre-programmed robot that can’t feel anything contrasted with the wildlife that are in constant fear of being eaten.
The film doesn’t shy away from the reality of nature, instinct a different type of programming designed to keep animals fed or to flee to stay alive.
Afterall, ‘Death’s proximity makes life burn all the more brighter.’
Then there’s Brightbill that adopts Roz as his mother, snuggling up to the unfeeling metal, that brightens pink lights as a mechanical response to love.
It’s sweet seeing this robot become an unlikely mother with all the difficulty that goes with the ‘crushing obligation.’
There’s a real, flying the nest storyline that plucks the heartstrings but then there’s so much more to the story as Roz shows the forest creatures that kindness is a survival skill.
And that overriding programming can ultimately lead to a better survival.
This is a genuinely funny and heartwarming film that’s good fun for all ages.
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Who needs to go on a rollercoaster when all you had to do was survive 2024?