In 2009 I learned about my friend's habit of logging every movie he watched into an annual list. Starting mid-year, I took up this task and recorded every feature-length film I viewed. Not long after that, I was introduced to Steven Soderbergh's "media diet," which inspired me to expand my list and include novels and TV series. In addition are the stats on most-viewed directors, as well as my lists for top releases of the year, top new discoveries, and least favorite overall.
Only full viewings are included.
KEY:
Asterisk*: Repeat viewings
Bold: TV series (season)
Underline: books
Italics: completed feature screenplay drafts
2024 Media Diet
January
*1. Last of the Mohicans (Mann, 1992)
2. How to Have Sex (Walker, 2023)
*3. Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
4. Saltburn (Fennell, 2023)
5. Far From Heaven (Haynes, 2002)
6. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Choyning Dorji, 2019)
7. Lorenzo’s Oil (Miller, 1992)
Succession SE:1 (Armstrong, 2018)
8. Peggy Sue Got Married (Ford Coppola, 1986)
*9. A Scanner Darkly (Linklater, 2006)
10. Hester Street (Micklin Silver, 1975)
11. After Hours (Scorsese, 1985)
*12. Eraserhead (Lynch, 1977)
13. Sexy Beast (Glazer, 2000)
14. The Player (Altman, 1992)
*15. Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook, 2005)
16. True Stories (Byrne, 1986)
Succession SE2 (Armstrong, 2019)
17. Deep Cover (Duke, 1992)
18. Gosford Park (Altman, 2001)
19. L’Atalante (Vigo, 1934)
February
20. Cookie’s Fortune (Altman, 1999)
*21. Kung Fu Hustle (Chow, 2004)
22. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Thien An Pham, 2023)
23. California Split (Altman, 1974)
24. Wanda (Loden, 1970)
Succession SE3 (Armstrong, 2020)
25. The Piano (Campion, 1993)
*26. Dial M For Murder (Hitchcock, 1954)
27. Fallen Leaves (Kaurismäki, 2023)
28. Daughters of Dust (Dash, 1991)
29. News From Home (Akerman, 1976)
30. Perfect Days (Wenders, 2023)
31. The Bohemian Life (Kaurismäki, 1992)
March
32. One Fine Morning (Handsen-Løve, 2023)
33. The Zone of Interest (Glazer, 2023)
34. Dune: Part Two (Villeneuve, 2024)
35. Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Kaurismäki, 1989)
36. The Man Without A Past (Kaurismäki, 2002)
*37. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
38. American Mary (Soska, 2012)
Succession SE4 (Armstrong, 2021)
39. The Gods Must Be Crazy (Uys, 1980)
40. The American Society of Magical Negroes (Libii, 2024)
41. The Black Cauldron (Berman, 1985)
*42. The Mothman Prophecies (Pellington, 2002)
Pontypool Changes Everything
43. Little Fugitive (Ashley, 1953)
44. Obsession (De Palma, 1976)
45. River’s Edge (Hunter, 1986)
April
*46. The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)
47. Man Behind the Sun (Tun-Fei Mou, 1988)
48. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Wingard, 2024)
49. About Dry Grasses (Bilge Ceylan, 2023)
50. One With the Whale (Chelkowski, 2023)
51. Coup! (Schuman, 2023)
52. Every Little Thing (Aitken, 2024)
53. The Universal Theory (Kröger, 2023)
54. Sleep (Jason Yu, 2023)
55. The Monk and the Gun (Pawo Choyning Dorji, 2023)
56. The Gullspång Miracle (Fredriksson, 2023)
57. Red Rooms (Plante, 2023)
*58. Pontypool (McDonald, 2008)
59. Southern Comfort (Hill, 1981)
60. Monkey Man (Patel, 2024)
*61. Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966)
62. SLC Punk (Merendino, 1998)
63. Sweet Dreams (Sendijarevic, 2023)
64. Wherever You Are, There You Go (Brandt, 2024)
65. Unfaithfully Yours (Sturges, 1948)
66. Thieves’ Highway (Dassin, 1948)
67. The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (Ritt, 1965)
68. Boudu Saved From Drowning (Renoir, 1932)
69. Happiness (Varda, 1965)
70. Drylongso (Smith, 1998)
71. Danton (Wajda, 1983)
May
72. Under the Volcano (Huston, 1984)
73. The Glass Menagerie (Harvey, 1973)
*74. Hobo With A Shotgun (Eisener, 2011)
75. The Lovers (Malle, 1958)
76. Muriel (Resnais, 1963)
77. Aggro Dr1ft (Korine, 2024)
*78. Freaks (Browning, 1932)
*79. Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)
80. La Pointe Courte (Varda, 1955)
81. Seven Beauties (Wertmüller, 1975)
82. I Saw the TV Glow (Schoenbrun, 2024)
*83. Possessor (Cronenberg, 2020)
*84. Mad Mad (Miller, 1979)
*85. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (Miller, 1981)
86. Nightbreed (Barker, 1990)
*87. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Miller, 1985)
88. Swept Away (Wertmüller, 1974)
June
89. Vengeance Is Mine (Imamura, 1979)
*90. Meet the Feebles (Jackson, 1989)
91. The Truth (Clouzot, 1960)
92. Shadows in Paradise (Kaurismäki, 1986)
93. Sounder (Ritt, 1972)
94. Young Törless (Schlöndorff, 1966)
95. Before the Rain (Manchevski, 1994)
96. Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (Sion Sono, 2013)
97. Ariel (Kaurismäki, 1988)
98. Willow (Manchevski, 2021)
99. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Miller, 2024)
*100. The Vanishing (Sluizer, 1988)
101. The Match Factory Girl (Kaurismäki, 1990)
102. The Grifters (Frears, 1990)
103. Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (Kaurismäki, 1994)
104. A Goofy Movie (Lima, 1995)
105. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Kasdan, 2007)
July
106. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Almodóvar, 1988)
Cabal (Clive Barker, 1988)
107. Civil War (Garland, 2024)
108. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Kenan, 2024)
109. Something Wild (Garfein, 1961)
110. Exotica (Egoyan, 1994)
August
111. Longlegs (Perkins, 2024)
112. Calm With Horses (Rowland, 2019)
113. Cinderella Man (Howard, 2005)
114. Monkeybone (Selick, 2001)
115. The Verdict (Lumet, 1982)
116. Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda, 1964)
117. Late Night with the Devil (Cairnes, 2023)
118. Madadayo (Akira Kurosawa, 1993)
119. A Quiet Place: Day One (Sarnoski, 2024)
120. Passion (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2008)
121. Happy Hour (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2015)
122. Blink Twice (Kravitz, 2024)
September
123. Alien: Romulus (Alvarez, 2024)
124. Afire (Petzold, 2023)
125. Topkapi (Dassin, 1964)
126. The State I Am In (Petzold, 2000)
127. Challengers (Guadagnino, 2024)
128. Rebel Ridge (Saulnier, 2024)
October
129. Cold Water (Assayas, 1994)
130. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Burton, 2024)
131. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (Chappelle, 1995)
132. Men in Black II (Sonnenfeld, 2002)
*133. An American Werewolf in London (Landis, 1981)
134. All Hallows’ Eve (Leone, 2013)
135. Men in Black 3 (Sonnenfeld, 2012)
136. Evil Dead Rise (Cronin, 2023)
Station Eleven (Somerville, 2022)
137. Return of the Fly (Bernds, 1959)
*138. Prince of Darkness (Carpenter, 1987)
139. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines (Anderson Beer, 2023)
140. Skinamarink (Edward Ball, 2023)
141. The Curse of Frankenstein (Fischer, 1957)
142. The Hole in the Ground (Cronin, 2019)
143. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Øvredal, 2019)
144. The Sicilian Clan (Verneuil, 1969)
145. The Fly 2 (Walas, 1989)
146. Talk to Me (Philippou, 2022)
147. Censor (Bailey-Bond, 2021)
*148. Detention (Kahn, 2011)
149. Killer Sofa (Rao, 2019)
150. Scream (Gillett, 2022)
151. Scream VI (Gillett, 2022)
152. Wolfen (Wadleigh, 1981)
*153. Cat People (Tourneur, 1942)
154. The Curse of the Cat People (Wise, 1944)
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami, 1985)
155. Cat People (Shrader, 1982)
156. Hocus Pocus 2 (Fletcher, 2022)
157. Escape Room (Robitel, 2019)
*158. Graveyard Shift (Singleton, 1990)
159. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (Minder, 1998)
*160. Blade (Norrington, 1998)
November
161. Halloween: Resurrection (Rosenthal, 2002)
*162. House by the Cemetery (Fulci, 1981)
163. Eureka (Alonso, 2023)
*164. Blade Runner (Scott, 1982)
165. Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024)
166. The Loneliest Planet (Loktev, 2011)
167. Twisters (Lee Isaac Chung, 2024)
168. Heretic (Beck, 2024)
169. Bikini Moon (Manchevski, 2017)
170. The Substance (Fargeat, 2024)
171. Humor Me (Hoffman, 2017)
*172. Moana (Clements, 2016)
*173. The Muppet Christmas Carol (Henson, 1992)
December
174. Corpo Celeste (Rohrwacher, 2011)
175. Gladiator 2 (Scott, 2024)
176. Conclave (Berger, 2024)
177. Anora (Baker, 2024)
178. Wild Indian (Mitchell Corbine Jr., 2021)
179. Megalopolis (Coppola, 2024)
*180. Batman Returns (Burton, 1992)
181. The Order (Kurzel, 2024)
*182. Fail Safe (Lumet, 1964)
183. Green Border (Holland, 2024)
184. All of Us Strangers (Haigh, 2023)
185. Flow (Zilbalodis, 2024)
186. Nosferatu (Eggers, 2024)
187. Away (Zilbalodis, 2019)
188. Juror #2 (Eastwood, 2024)
189. Didi (Wang, 2024)
FIVE FAVORITE NEW RELEASES (in alphabetical order)
Anora - Spoken in the slang and savagery of modern America, streetwise intensity hijacks a fairy tale love story into crippling reality.
Conclave - A cinematic exploration of the rhythmic procedures and philosophies inside a landscape so otherworldly and yet so anchored to humanity.
Flow - Using completely immersive cinematography to journey across a fantastical world, this wordless ensemble of CGI animals expresses and acts with refreshing personality and inspiring wisdom.
I Saw the TV Glow - A melodramatic fever dream for 90's fandom, this coming-of-age time capsule dissects our approach to identity and the comforts we find along the path of concealing it.
Red Rooms - A gut-punching glimpse at modern exhibitionism and its depraved impact on an individual psyche as well as an entire society within a digital void.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
One with the Whale
Rebel Ridge
All of Us Strangers
Blink Twice
Challengers
FIVE FAVORITE NON-NEW RELEASES (in alphabetical order)
Before the Rain - A poetic fable depicting the diverse lands and passions that propel populations into an endless cycle of love, hope, and violence.
Leningrad Cowboys Go America - Unique beat of deadpan comedy with memorable art design to match the intoxicating music.
Little Fugitive - The joys and abyss of youthful imagination run wild on endless streets of emotional resonance and reconciliation.
Seven Beauties - Criminal society juxtaposes the inhumanity of war in a vibrant confrontation of family honor and political execution.
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - Gorgeous contrast and grim philosophies embody complex pawns loyal to a brutal game of suspense and sacrifice.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Afire
Away
Corpo Celeste
Fallen Leaves
Green Border
Skinamarink
Wild Indian
FIVE LEAST-FAVORITE FILMS (in alphabetical order)
All Hallows’ Eve - A sloppy assortment of directionless gore and random gimmicks.
Killer Sofa - A minimal story with no characters or content to justify its length.
Megalopolis - This outlandish presentation is only ever seen in fake, joke-movies that exist to be ridiculed within other movies.
The Hole in the Ground - Tropes and inconsistent scenarios fail to build to an ending pulled from a hat.
STATS:
Movies: 189
Books: 2
TV shows/seasons: 5
Most viewed directors:
Aki Kaurismäki: 8
Robert Altman: 4
Milcho Manchevski: 3
If anyone can find a typo/misspelling, please report for credit.
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