Vintage Sand

Now that Adrien Brody has finally wrapped up his acceptance speech, we can bring you Episode 59 of Vintage Sand. And since it’s March, and the Oscars just passed, we’re right on time with our annual year-end review, which we call 2024: The Year of the Brutal. As seems to be the case over the last few years, we came away from the year in film with mixed feelings. The interesting thing is that we did not seem to agree on any of the major films of the year. Mike and I liked "Anora" a lot, and John did not. We also both liked "Emilia Pérez", which John actively disliked. John and I liked Garland’s "Civil War", which Mike didn’t like at all. John liked "The Brutalist", and Mike and I were underwhelmed. I was alone in loving both "Nosferatu" and "The Substance". Mike and John liked "Conclave" and "A Complete Unknown", both of which I found kind of conventional despite outstanding performances. And so on. It makes it difficult to come to a consensus on the year, but it makes, as you will hear, for an excellent epis