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The 11 Most Interesting Films Seen In 2024 - at movie theaters, VOD, YouTube

 







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By Sujewa Ekanayake

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1 - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene (2023) - seen at Film Noir Cinema in 2024, director - Sujewa Ekanayake




I directed this movie and am a big fan of it. Obviously it is very interesting to me because I placed interesting ideas and images, scenes, dialogue in the movie.  Here are 2 reviewers on the movie:

"The funny, hopeful, and spirited sci-fi comedy explores concepts such as simulation theory and multiple dimensions..." 
- Jamie Toth, Cyclops At The Cinema
https://somewhatcyclops.com/cosmic-disco-detective-rene-and-the-mystery-of-immortal-time-travelers/

"Indie filmmaking at its finest, this followup to 'The Secret Society for Slow Romance' is one charming comedy."
- Bill Arceneaux, Moviegoing with Bill - https://www.moviegoing.rocks/p/cosmicdisco

From YouTube page for the movie: "Are immortal time travelers going back in time to disrupt the past? Is that a threat to our time period? The government wants to know so they hire Rene, the famous New York City private detective who uses unusual methods - including using the background sound of the universe, which sounds like disco music - to find the answers. The looming threat of secret conventional and nuclear attacks on a light bridge/time bridge above Brooklyn drive Rene to try to solve the mystery fast."


Watch full movie here, free on YouTube - https://youtu.be/W8oY9-ROuoM?si=ejYnrK1di5SP7vRi

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2 - A Traveler's Needs (2024) - seen at Film Forum NYC in 2024, director - Hong Sang-soo




From YouTube page for trailer - "A comedy of improbable encounters and unlikely language lessons, A Traveler’s Needs marks the third collaboration between Hong and Huppert (following 2012’s In Another Country and 2017’s Claire’s Camera). This time Huppert plays Iris, a woman who finds herself adrift in Seoul and without any means to make ends meet, turns to teaching French via a très peculiar method. Through a series of encounters, as we grow to know more about Iris and her situation, the mysteries of her circumstances only deepen."



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3 - Young Ali - those were the days (2024) - seen at Film Noir Cinema in 2024, director - Amir Motlagh




From website for the film - "After losing his job and divorcing his wife during the first wave of Covid, circa 2020, a middle-aged Persian man moves back home to reinvent himself, physically and mentally, by confronting his personal afflictions and
shedding his past."


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4 - 
The Hero's Journey aka My Life aka The Caleb Johnston Story (I'm Caleb) (2024) - seen on YouTube in 2024, director - Joel Haver

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(full movie above)


Video journal of a man going through several problems in the suburbs.


5 - In Front of Your Face (2022) - seen on Amazon in 2024, director - Hong Sang-soo


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From Amazon's page for the movie - "A selection of the Cannes Film Festival, Hong Sangsoo again works his magic in this tale of an aging actress played by Lee Hyeyoung, meeting with a director in Seoul to stage a comeback film. With In Front of Your Face, Hong suggests that perhaps the most important things in this life are also the most immediate."

The movie is available to rent from Amazon -  https://www.amazon.com/Front-Your-Face-Lee-Hye-yeong/dp/B0B8RNX3FY

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6 - You're Point Girl (2024) - seen on YouTube in 2024, director - Joel Haver

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(full movie is above)

A movie about a creative person in LA and her adventures involving a mansion.

YouTube page for the movie - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCH_EmuiqDY

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7 - In Our Day (2024) - seen on Apple TV on 2024, director - Hong Sang-soo

Movie has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes - unusual -https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_our_day




From Cinema Guild's page for the movie - "Sangwon (Kim Minhee), an actress recently returned to South Korea, is temporarily staying with her friend, Jungsoo (Song Sunmi), and her cat, Us. Elsewhere in the city, the aging poet Uiju (Ki Joobong) lives alone, his cat having recently passed away. On this ordinary day, each of them has a visitor: Sangwon is visited by her cousin, Jisoo (Park Miso) and Uiju, by a young actor, Jaewon (Ha Seongguk). Each of them wants to learn about a career in the arts. But they also have bigger questions."


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8 - Grass (2019) - seen on Amazon in 2024, director - Hong Sang-soo



From Cinema Guild's page for the movie - "For his 22nd feature as director, Hong delivers a delicious cinematic riddle only he could concoct. In the corner of a small café, Areum (Kim Minhee) sits typing on her laptop. At the tables around her, other customers enact the various dramas of their lives." -http://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/grass.html



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9 - Megalopolis (2024) - seen at Alpine Cinema in 2024, director - Francis Ford Coppola



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From review by Manohla Dargis - "Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” is a bursting-at-the-seams hallucination of a movie — it’s wonderfully out-there. At once a melancholic lament and futuristic fantasy, it invokes different epochs and overflows with entrancing, at times confounding images and ideas that have been playing in my head since I first saw the movie in May at the Cannes Film Festival. There, it was both warmly received and glibly dismissed, a critical divide that’s nothing new for Coppola, a restlessly experimental filmmaker with a long habit of going off-Hollywood."
Read the full review here at New York Yimes - 
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/26/movies/megalopolis-review-francis-ford-coppola.html#


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10 - Hello My Beautiful Creatures (2024) - seen on YouTube in 2024, director - Joel Haver 



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(full movie is above)

A sprawling stop-motion film about a god and his subjects.

Watch the full movie here, at YouTube -https://youtu.be/hXulDH2jwvU?si=SgTkcdYdCb8ElSG_


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11 - Chetzemoka's Curse (2000) - seen at Film Noir Cinema in 2024, director - Rick Schmidt




Film is Dogme 95 film #10.

From Kicking the Seat website - "Rick Schmidt's 2000 feature film centers on Marie (Maya Berthoud), a struggling hotel worker living in the Pacific Northwest whose ambitions and love life remain stuck in neutral. No, this isn't the setup of a cutesy rom-com; it's the doorway to a haunting portrait of damaged souls trapped within the legacy of a Native American curse (think Stephen King by way of Richard Linklater)."

Watch full movie here, on Vimeo -https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dogme10


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EXTRA

RELATED - recent interview with director Amir Motlagh: 
 
 


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LINKS RELATED TO INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE PODCAST ON YOUTUBE (paid promo, but also a podcast that I am a big fan of, was promoting prior to getting paid for it - Sujewa)

1 - Inside the Arthouse website - https://insidethearthouse.com/

2 - About Inside the Arthouse show - https://insidethearthouse.com/about/

3 - Inside the Arthouse upcoming episodes schedule - https://insidethearthouse.com/schedule/

4 - Watch page at Inside the Arthouse website, with episodes - https://insidethearthouse.com/watch/

5 - Episodes page at Inside the Arthouse - with various episodes and clips - https://insidethearthouse.com/episodes/

6 - Contact page for Inside the Arthouse - https://insidethearthouse.com/contact/

7 - Inside the Arthouse on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/insidethearthouse/

8 - Inside the Arthouse on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/insidethearthouse/

9 - Inside the Arthouse on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@insidethearthouse

10 - Inside the Arthouse on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@insidethearthouse

11 - Inside the Arthouse on Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/insidethearthouse


13 - 

Journalism on the Brink! | Director Rick Goldsmith | INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE - on YouTube


14 - Clip of perceptions of Swedish cinema - https://youtu.be/irfVjK2ml9Y?si=t-qD-7TOrnGBlEuV

15 - Paradise is Burning directing clip - https://youtu.be/NkDbHTLrAEo?si=3N03KeGlX-ws7drd

16 - Prey for Rock & Roll discussion - https://youtu.be/Z2PeyDIkfag?si=Ii5nrEMyanh868Ua

17 - Paradise is Burning full discussion - https://youtu.be/qy_Quc3y4lU?si=ePD88s_zvxVjs0Da

18 - Clip from discussion of Merchant & Ivory doc - https://youtu.be/SJ_q_9627X4?si=nzHOEmKvVyBpMnXK

19 - Another clip from Merchant & Ivory doc - https://youtu.be/MZ6u9qRuZeg?si=v4wFeTZBFuFPpze6

20 - Full episode on the Merchant & Ivory doc - https://youtu.be/1ccHRuKRjFs?si=3blAuT2Zje3GKy0v


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Christmas Eve controversial, fun discussion - 1 of the best American indie filmmakers - Amir Motlagh

Inside the Arthouse ep 2

Full Movie - SNEAK PREVIEW - Cosmic Disco Detective Rene And The Mystery Of Immortal Time Travelers

NEW - COSMIC DISCO DETECTIVE RENE (2023) - TRAILER!

The Secret Society For Slow Romance (2022) - available to rent as a new release starting January 1

Werewolf Ninja Philosopher at Vimeo VOD

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