Matt at the Movies: The Matties!
Matt hands out Hollywood superlatives left and right as he looks back on the year in film, and forward to awards season.
The 2025 Golden Globe nominations are out, which means awards season has officially begun! Let’s dive a little deeper into the nomination before we talk about “The Matties,” our year-end list of superlatives.
Should you use these nominations to make your Oscar predictions? Maybe not, as the Golden Globe Foundation - the successor organization to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - is one of the more bizarre organizations in entertainment. Despite the rebranding and the dissolution of the notoriously corrupt HFPA, reviews of the most recent awards ceremony were … not great.
Old debates still continue at the Globes. There’s still the question of what constitutes a “comedy,” and whether or not some studios commit category fraud (particularly in the supporting categories). One small difference from the HFPA Golden Globes Foundation this year is the inclusion of six nominees in each category (up from five). The more the merrier!
This we have some fun choices to comb over. There are few surprises in the Best Motion Picture categories (“Drama” and “Musical or Comedy”), with an excellent mix of acclaimed and crowd-pleasing selections. I was happy to see one of my favorites (Challengers) given the nod, albeit … as a Musical or Comedy?
We’ll see if Wicked can dominate, or if the most nominated film of the night, the Palme d’Or winner Emilia Pérez, can take home the prize. All We Imagine as Light, now playing at The Independent Picture House, has had plenty of acclaim but must also Emilia Pérez for Best Foreign Language Film.
Pamela Anderson and Kate Winslet had somewhat surprising nominations, as did Globes favorite Amy Adams for Nightbitch. I was excited to see Jesse Plemons rewarded for a great 2024 season and his off-the-wall, three part role in Kinds of Kindness. Anora, The Substance (a completely bonkers satire), Conclave, and The Brutalist (still yet to see) all received five or more nominations.
It was surprising to see Dennis Villeneuve miss out on a Best Director nomination as Dune: Part Two was both a crowd favorite and technically innovative. The Best Actress & Supporting Actress categories were completely stacked, while the men’s side felt quite light in the Musical or Comedy category.
While we won’t know the winners until Sunday, January 5th at 8:00 PM ET (watch live on CBS or Paramount+), one thing I do know is we will be treated to completely inappropriate but hilarious jokes from our host Nikki Glazer, who is one of comedy’s brightest stars.
Enough of Tinseltown’s awards - on to The Matties!
2024’s Cinematic Superlatives: The Matties!
2024 in film was a rollercoaster. A wonderful two week stretch hit mid-April with Civil War and Challengers back-to-back. Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine dominated a lackluster summer slate. As the industry continued to feel the ripple effects of labor disputes and work stoppages, finding a tentpole was like finding water in the Sahara.
Your mileage may vary, but there was a two month stretch where I could not find a quality film worth the price of admission.
Things really started heating up over the past month, and Thanksgiving weekend was the highest grossing five day total ever with over $420 million from Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II.
As we move into the final month of “Oscar Bait” films, I have found something new to watch or catch up on each day. There is no shortage of great stories hitting the theaters in the next few weeks including: The Brutalist (Dec. 20), Babygirl (Dec. 25), Nosferatu (Dec. 25), A Complete Unknown (Dec. 25), The Room Next Door (Dec. 25), Den of Thieves: Pantera (Jan. 10), September 5 (Jan. 17), and I’m Still Here (Jan. 17). Fill yourself up on popcorn, recliner seats, and Sour Patch Kids and enjoy a solid finish for 2024 that extends into the new year.
In the meantime, enjoy our superlatives - The Matties!
Note: While I’ve seen a lot of films this year (64 as of this writing), “The Matties” only include films I’ve seen.
Hollywood Event of the Year
Runners up: Young Hollywood stars making the next step, Taylor Sheridan dominating streaming TV, sequels continuing to set record numbers at the box office.
Winner: Music & Musical-based Films
If you have read any of my previous pieces you know this is not my preferred genre. The movie-going public clearly does not share this sentiment as we were treated to an excellent roster of musical movies that were both critically and commercially successful in 2024.
Wonka, Mean Girls, Wicked, Moana 2, and Emilia Pérez have hit the theaters and we still have the musical biopic A Complete Unknown and Mufasa: The Lion King coming up in the next few weeks. These films have cleared $2 billion in ticket sales with no signs of slowing down over the holiday break. Even smaller indie films like Kneecap, which focuses on the Irish rap scene, were a total delight.
Will Hollywood continue this trend (and keep Lin-Manuel Miranda employed) or is this a flash in the pan?
Flop of the Year
Runners up: Joker: Folie à Deux, Megalopolis, Borderlands, The Fall Guy
Winner: Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
Kevin Costner bet big on what would have been the first in a multi-chapter American west film series, shelling out a reported fifty million of his own money to finance. Now it’s pretty clear it’s going to be the only film in the series.
Unlike Francis Ford Coppola, who sold off part of his wine estate to make his passion project Megalopolis, Costner bet the huge success of Yellowstone made future film success a no brainer. His three hour film with a $100 million budget returned less than $40 million, and was placed on streamers after just a few weeks. Costner has to ask himself if it was worth it to make another Waterworld, but with his own savings this time.
Surprise of the Year
Runners up: Inside Out 2 (Record breaking box office), Deadpool & Wolverine (full summer blockbuster hit), A Quiet Place: Day One (series keeps churning out quality films that make profits), Alien: Romulus (second highest box office of the franchise)
Winner: The Substance
Production company Mubi struck gold - or a similar substance - with its first full scale theatrical release. The satirical body horror from French director Coralie Fargeat won Best Screenplay at Cannes this year. Demi Moore, headlining her first film in two decades, shines as an aging actress turned fitness guru reminiscent of Jane Fonda. She is contacted about a new de-aging alternative called “The Substance” that will allow her to stay forever young.
Margaret Qualley plays her younger doppelganger as she decides to take the reins of her own life. The film takes shots at ageism, sexual politics, Hollywood, and double standards that are both hypersexual and full on body gore. The last thirty minutes are absolutely bonkers.
This film grossed $56 million worldwide off a $17.5 million budget and was nominated for five Golden Globes. Be warned: this film is not for the faint of heart.
Indie Film of the Year
Runners up: Dìdi, Evil Does Not Exist, A Different Man, I Saw the TV Glow, Snack Shack, The Green Border, Flow
Winner: Anora.
The story of a young sex worker trying to achieve the American dream of marrying into a billionaire oligarch's Russian family? Not exactly your typical date night or family film, but it’s fantastic. Director Sean Baker made his most ambitious film yet; equal parts dramatic, sexy, and hilarious particularly with Mikey Madison as Anora “bonding” with her Russian kidnappers.
Madison stole the film, and is a frontrunner to take home Best Actress at the Academy Awards this season. Read our review here!
Scene of the Year
Runners up: Alien: Romulus (acid in zero gravity), The Wild Robot (learning to fly montage), Emilia Pérez (Gala dance sequence), Dune: Part Two (Fremen final attack)
Winners: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga & Civil War
I don’t often do ties, but two sequences stood out for me this year. The first was from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a fifteen-minute scene that took seventy-eight days to film. As Praetorian Jack leads the war rig from Gas Town, a faction of Dementus’ gang, led by Octoboss, leads a full-on assault on the newly created war rig. The practical and CGI effects were stellar and when the floating tentacles of Octoboss’s flying descend upon the rig we see one of the best shots of the year.
The second selection was the most unsettling scene of the year, which came from Alex Garland’s Civil War. As the battlefield reporters make their way from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. they are intercepted at a small town where they meet a rogue kill squad covering up the bodies of their enemies.
Jesse Plemons questions the group (who he fully intends to kill) by inquiring about their ethnic and national status. “What kind of American are you?” is haunting and has you gripping your chair as you wonder about the fate of the group of wartime journalists.
While many feel the film as a whole doesn’t work, this scene is nothing but spectacular with the dread and anxiety it causes watching in real time.
Experience of the Year
Runners up: Green Border, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Conclave, A Real Pain, Gladiator II
Winner: Challengers
I love just about everything Luca Guadagnino has put out, and I’m very excited for Queer to hit theaters soon. He plays with relationships, sexuality, music, and great editing to make us feel like we’re in the film emotionally.
In Challengers, he has perfectly cast Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor to create a triad where each member needs the other two in their lives to be complete. This relationship between the characters goes through highs and lows as they move through life and love in the professional tennis scene. There are laughs, intense conversations, and ultimately a final match climax that you feel in your body as the Trent Reznor/Atticus Finch soundtrack pulses with each heartbeat.
It was the most fun I’ve had at the movies all year and I hope Guadagnino keeps playing with these themes throughout his career.
Actor of the Year
Runners up: Zendaya (Dune: Part Two & Challengers), Sebastian Stan (A Different Man & The Apprentice), Glen Powell (Hit Man & Twisters), Cailee Spaeny (Civil War & Alien: Romulus), Joseph Quinn (A Quiet Place: Day One & Gladiator II), Nicholas Hoult (Juror #2, The Order, Nosferatu)
Winner: Timothée Chalamet
Timothée Chalamet is rounding out quite a year with his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Wonka hit at the beginning of the year and was a box office smash, collecting over $600 million. He followed that success with the much anticipated Dune: Part Two, where he ascended to the top of the A-List and brought in another $700 million.
He has shown a more mature side to his acting as a true leading man of Hollywood. The sky's the limit for Chalamet as he can play to all audiences for both big studio paydays and awards glory.
Thanks again for reading Y’all Weekly and another edition of The Matties. It’s such a pleasure to write about these amazing stories and get to experience it with the readers.
Remember there are a lot of great films coming out in the next few weeks so enjoy the holidays, hit up the Independent Picture House, and explore some amazing films into the new year.
See you next time at Matt at the Movies!