The nominees for the 2024 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week, and today we announce the award winners. The Oscars were also announced recently, and the discourse has produced the usual unhinged complaints about snubs and relatability and other bitter recriminations. As with many things, the Oscars has had a weird few years in this post-pandemic era. Hosting woes, The Slap™, and ever present controversy has taken a toll, but it’s still fun if you don’t take it too seriously. Speaking of which, it’s about time to get to my silly little awards. I realize this is happening about a month or two later than most publications’ year end roundups, but I’m not a critic with access to screeners and don’t attend every film festival, so I’m still catching up with a lot of 2024 movies. Anywho, that’s enough preamble, let’s get to the fireworks:
Best Villain/Badass: Dementus, played by Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Hemsworth’s weirdly articulate but incompetent hippy-esque wasteland villain is the type of character you love to hate, and he meets a suitably “epic” end (as he memorably asks).
Strong competition for this award from David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in Terrifier 3, who has really refined the character over the past decade and does excellent work, even if this particular entry in the series is not as good as the previous (and if the ever-nebulous mythology driving the series has sorta implied a greater evil at work). Bill Skarsgård was also apparently up to the task of portraying another Horror icon in Nosferatu, to pretty good effect. To a lesser extent, I also thought Frederik de Schinkel (more like de Stinkel, amirite?), played by Simon Bennebjerg in The Promised Land was among the better hate-able villains of the year. Nicolas Cage’s Longlegs is certainly… memorable, and Josh Hartnett’s performance in Cooper in Trap almost makes you root for the guy. I described this as a moderate year for villainy, but narrowing the nominee shortlist down to an even shorter list and then settling on a winner was surprisingly challenging. Maybe it was a good year for villainy after all (certainly a much better year than last year).
Best Hero/Badass: Adam Clay, played by Jason Statham in The Beekeeper. Statham has been playing this sort of righteous action hero for decades at this point, and yet something about this particular take on his own persona somehow feels like the perfect distillation of the archetype that he’s spent a career honing.
Plenty of competition, including Chris Hemsworth’s heroic foe in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, played well by Anya Taylor Joy, as well as Hemsworth’s brother Liam in the underseen and underrated Land of Bad. Henry Cavill does admirable work in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, but part of his badassery is smeared across his assembled team of badasses (I easily could have nominated Alan Ritchson from the same movie, for example). Dev Patel surprisingly established himself as an action hero in Monkey Man (it’s just a shame that the story for that movie is a bit of a mess). Lakshya Lalwani represents the Indian contingent (a growing demographic in these Hero/Villain awards in recent years) for his lead role in Kill. We’ll say more about Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge below, and Aurora Ribero does great work in Timo Tjahjanto’s The Shadow Strays. Solid year for heroism, with a long shortlist, but Statham is the pretty clear winner.
Best Comedic Performance: Glen Powell in Hit Man. Probably not a conventional choice here, but bear with me. I just keep thinking of the short scene where Powell is sorta in a Tilda Swinton getup and I can’t stop laughing at that (there’s probably a dozen similar moments in the movie as well). And it’s not like comedy is a thriving genre these days, though there were a few other notable performances. Ryland Brickson Cole Tews is probably the most interesting of all the nominees for his work in Hundreds of Beavers; a silent performance with lots of physical comedy, it’s certainly impressive and probably should be a co-winner or something, but this praise will be enough (and Hundreds of Beavers will get more love elsewhere). John Cena in Ricky Stanicky and Jerry Seinfeld in Unfrosted represent the direct-to-streaming contingent, and both are pretty strong (Cena and Stanicky being the more surprisingly strong effort). Cory Michael Smith in Saturday Night was fantastic, but a small part of the movie and his nomination represents one of the big challenges with this category, which is targeted towards singular performances, which makes things tricky because a lot of comedies rely on an ensemble. In the end, I really wanted to give Powell and Hit Man some love.
Breakthrough Performance: Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge. This should have been a real star-making performance, the undisputed arrival of a new mega-star, but it’s a Netflix movie so it’s largely disappeared into the ether. Still, it’s a fantastic performance and worth seeking out. Margaret Qualley was certainly busy in 2024, with Drive-Away Dolls, The Substance, and Kinds of Kindness, and she’s great in all of them (for different reasons too). David Jonsson was great in Alien: Romulus, but he’s hampered by two serious problems: 1. He’s saddled with one of the worst franchise callbacks in cinema history and while he tries his best, he can’t overcome the hideousness of the line (I don’t think anyone could, but it’s still jarring) and 2. I actually already nominated Jonsson last year for his work in Rye Lane and totally forgot about it (a distinct performance too)! Lily-Rose Depp certainly gives it her all in Nosferatu, and it’s a huge leap in quality from some of her previous work (largely due to quality of material, but still). Bren Foster has arrived on the DTV action scene with Life After Fighting and the fact that he’s also a director should help as well. In the end, this was Pierre’s year, and I’m really curious to see what he does next.
Most Visually Stunning: Nosferatu. Absolutely gorgeous movie. I complain a lot about modern horror movies’ tendency to rely on overly dark cinematography where you can barely see what’s on screen, but Robert Eggers perfectly balances the darkness on screen with contrast and focus in a way that is far more legible (and yes, visually stunning) than the movies I tend to complain about.
One of the interesting things about the way this category has evolved over time is that there is much less in the way of special effects spectacle, and much more in the way of simple but great photography. Indeed, I don’t think it’s an accident that a large proportion of the nominees are captured on photochemical film rather than pure digital (but not all! You can have good cinematography in digital!) I think both Dune: Part Two and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga are worthy contenders (and, as you’ll see in the next two awards below, these three films are basically in the running for all three awards and are basically neck and neck in the standings – you could probably interchange these three films in these three awards).
Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: Dune: Part Two. I’m not especially a fan of the way modern blockbusters have been split into two half-movies, but these Dune movies seem to be an exception. As mentioned above, this movie could easily have also taken Most Visually Stunning (the sequence on Giedi Prime is particularly striking) or the next award for best sequel, but I’m trying to spread the love. There actually is another nominee that I included in the nominations, but thought better of when it came time to give the award. I suppose Civil War is technically an alternate history (a sub-genre of science fiction) and it’s certainly speculative, but while it’s a fantastic movie, it’s probably not quite right for this award (don’t worry, it’ll show up on the top 10). Of course, Nosferatu and Furiosa are also interchangeable here. Otherwise, there’s a long list of nominees that are worth checking out, though several are not for everyone (i.e. some of the more experimental horror can be a bit grueling – in a good way if you like that sort of thing, but still).
Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. It’s basically impossible to follow up Mad Max: Fury Road, but George Miller somehow managed to craft something that has just enough similarities (and at least one exceptional action set-piece) while still carving out an identity of its own in a surprisingly satisfying way. Everyone knows I’m not a huge fan of movies that generally fit this category, but this year was better than most (it probably helps that it was an overall weird year). The aforementioned Dune and Nosferatu are both eminently qualified here, and as already mentioned, are basically interchangeable. Special callout to The Fall Guy, which is just a boatload of fun that, if box office is to be believed, most of you didn’t see.
Biggest Disappointment: Argylle. I don’t really know why this disappointed me so, so much, but it’s just so bad and I really did have high hopes. It’s probably due to the talent involved, both in front of and behind the camera. Monkey Man is far from a bad movie, it’s actually pretty decent, but my expectations were probably just too high. I didn’t really know what to think of Megalopolis, but I love Coppola, admire the attempt, and wanted to see his gamble payoff… but it pretty emphatically didn’t. Thankfully the nominee list is relatively short… it could probably be longer, but it’s not a category I like to dwell on, so let’s not do that, eh?
Best Action Sequences: The Shadow Strays. Timo Tjahjanto’s action chops are well established by this point, and this movie hits that same relentless, bloodthirsty note that makes his movies so distinctive. Plenty of solid competition here as well. The Fall Guy gets credit for all the real stuntwork, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has one exceptional action set-piece that rivals its predecessor (which is really saying something), Land of Bad is underseen and underappreciated, and Kill represents a somewhat more grounded approach to Indian action than I’m used to… The DTV contingent also provides a healthy dose of action as well, with One More Shot and Life After Fighting taking top marks there. Finally, a quick shout out to John Woo’s The Killer, a remake that can’t really even begin to compete with the original, but is still worthwhile.
Best Plot Twist/Surprise: First Time Caller. Probably the most obscure 2024 movie that I’ve seen, but it’s well worth seeking out. As per usual, just knowing this movie qualifies for the category represents something of a spoiler, but I will give you two quick tidbits here: 1. This is a movie primarily set in one location, an “edgy” internet podcaster/broadcaster’s home studio and 2. Don’t let the “edgy” part of the guy’s schtick get to you. Once the story proper kicks in, that won’t matter much. I don’t want to say too much about the competition due to the spoilerific nature of the category, but I will say that Juror #2 has plenty of twists and turns spread throughout and Caddo Lake did a pretty good job pulling the rug out in that Science Fictional way that I’m always a sucker for…
Best High Concept Film: Hundreds of Beavers. This movie is basically a live action Looney Tunes cartoon, a Raimiesque diy extravaganza (complete with the way Raimi can balance a slightly darker tone with silly slapstick), it’s the sort of thing that reminds you of lots of other things… but which carves out an identity of its own, such that you really can’t think of anything else like it.
Plenty of other high concepts that were pretty neat this year. I’m always a sucker for the single take action flick like One More Shot. In a Violent Nature is certainly not for everyone, but it’s pretty rare to find a traditional slasher that actually does something new and innovative with the concept. The aforementioned First Time Caller deserves a bigger audience (it’s on Tubi, give it a shot!) The Last Stop in Yuma County harkens back to the post-Pulp Fiction 90s era of nonlinear storytelling. M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap has such a goofy premise that I can’t help but love it. Azrael‘s mostly dialogue-free approach is always an admirable strategy. A pretty good year for high concepts!
2024’s 2023 Movie of the Year: RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop. I did a pretty good job catching up with movies last year, so the pickens were somewhat slim for this award, and indeed, RoboDoc is one of those movies where you could debate whether or not it’s more of a TV show or something. Still, It’s a pretty great, exhaustive look at an amazing movie. Shout outs to The Channel, especially for fans of Heat imitations (seriously, it follows all the beats) and Sniper: G.R.I.T. – Global Response & Intelligence Team, which is an action film series that somehow managed to hit their stride only upon their, like, 8th entry in the series and is still going strong (another coming this year, and I’m actually quite looking forward to it).
Congratulations to all the 2024 Kaedrin Movie Award winners! And stay tuned, for next week, the awards get arbitrary!