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Directors Pick Favorite Films of 2024: Christopher Nolan Praises ‘Gladiator 2,’ Barry Jenkins on ‘Nickel Boys’ and More
Christopher Nolan, Michael Mann, Barry Jenkins and more on their favorite movies of the year.
It is clear from every frame that McQueen and his collaborators have taken meticulous care re-creating London during the Blitz, from the realism of Adam Stockhausen’s stunning sets and Jacqueline Durran’s exquisite costumes, to the inquisitive cinematography from Yorick Le Saux, finding transcendent beauty amidst the desperate chaos. But Robert has been dreaming of this movie for the better part of his life, and while it may seem that what he’s wrought from those dreams is cold and grim, I found that the film runs hot with a very particular strain of delight: the sort that comes from inviting audiences to peer deeper into the shadows; from promising something awful and delivering something far worse; from orchestrating gouts of blood, gore and Jungian subtext; from capturing the perfectly calibrated gleam in Willem Dafoe’s eyes as he declares that Count Orlok must be vanquished before “the crow of the cock”; from actually writing lines like “the crow of the cock” and knowing that Dafoe is going to be the one delivering them! From Jharrel’s amazingly personal and physically demanding performance to the excellent work of Jennifer Lopez as his harried mother, Judy Robles, Bobby Cannavale and power-through-understating presence of Don Cheadle as coach Shawn Charles.
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