FILMS WORTH SEEING
The best film seen by What’s Worth Seeing in 2024 was unquestionably the latest quirky and disturbing fantasy from Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things – our only film of the year.
Another film that contested the Oscars, Alexander Payne’s school holidays comedy drama The Holdovers was among the better films that we reviewed during 2024.
But one of the unexpected gems of the year was the Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man, in which the star was depicted as a chimpanzee. How they managed to pull-off such a heart-warming film about a self-important megastar – portrayed as a primate – was one of the greatest cinematic feats of the year.
Other films that are worth a look, include the biopic of Sir Nicholas Winton, whose efforts to save Jewish children from the Nazis during the Second World War was depicted in One Life. Another Holocaust film, The Zone of Interest, a drama told from the point of view of a death camp commander was chilling for its cold portrayal of evil as normal.
While it’s arguably preferable to give shout-outs to original works, our other highlights of 2024 were sequels – of sorts – with Dune Part Two, Inside Out 2, Gladiator II and Despicable Me 4 all worth seeing.
FILMS NOT WORTH SEEING
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
The Beast
Joker: Folie a Deux
Argylle
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Kinds of Kindness
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
TV WORTH SEEING
ITV’s drama Mr Bates vs the Post Office won awards but, more significantly, had legal implications, driving the government to speed up the payment of compensation to the wronged sub-postmasters, even leading to a knighthood for the prime campaigner, Alan Bates, depicted here by Toby Jones.
David Mitchell’s new crime-fighting comedy-drama Ludwig was among the TV highlights, along with the latest Aardman animation, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
It was also fun to watch the return of Jim Howick’s hapless former Olympian struggling with family life in season two of Here We Go.
TV NOT WORTH SEEING
The latest Netflix adaptation of a Harlan Coben novel, Fool Me Once, was a disappointment, while season 2 of Suspect very much lived down to the low expectations of the first.