Pictures: Netflix
While the slate of Netflix Originals so far may have its share of critical disappointments from big-name stars (Sorry, J-Lo’s Atlas & Lindsay Lohan’s Irish Wish won’t be on this list), several films have delighted, surprised, and entertained me & their subscribers and deserve to be acknowledged. From big-time franchise blockbusters to animated family films and film festival crowd-pleasers, Netflix has shown once again that it can still provide a quality stable of original movies that will satisfy audiences worldwide.
While you can check all my weekly reviews here, let’s look at my Top 5 Netflix Original Films of 2024.
5
SCOOP
Director: Philip Martin
Cast: Billie Piper, Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Keeley Hawes
Rated: TV-14
Picture: Netflix
Based on the account provided by producer Sam McAlister and her memoir “Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews,” Scoop is the much-anticipated film adaptation of the setup & execution of the infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew in November 2019 by veteran journalist Emily Maitlis.
Directed by Primetime Emmy winner Philip Martin (Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act, The Crown) on a script from Geoff Russell & Peter Moffat, the film chooses to focus on the two remaining questions after the interview that ruined Prince Andrew’s life & career live on TV: how did Newsnight manage to secure this interview? And why on Earth had the Prince agreed to do it? Many of the answers to those questions lie with show producer Sam McAlister, a single mother who was pressured to deliver a big-ticket story in the face of layoffs and increased competition in the news space. McAlister seems to be one step ahead in working the angles from the paparazzi photographers to the private secretary for Prince Andrew himself, always knowing how to convince one side or another why they need this interview to happen.
To portray some larger-than-life figures in this modern journalistic tale, the cast features some prominent names of their own. “X-Files” legend Gillian Anderson (The Crown) brings her stately gravitas to the role of Emily Maitlis, Doctor Who & Penny Dreadful star Billie Piper goes big & bold as producer Sam McAlister, & Critic’s Choice & Primetime Emmy nominated actor Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat, The Man in the High Castle) takes on the quirky, charming, yet self-sabotaging Prince Andrew.
Scoop feels like the modern, streaming version of a film like Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, a story about a famous TV interview of a high-profile figure who seemingly didn’t need to take the interview in the first place; a story of access, all-on-the-line journalism, & the approach to getting the unthinkable to happen.
While it’s not a major value add to the real-life interview and its career fallout for Prince Andrew, the film does entertain with strong performances from Anderson, Sewell, & Piper and shines a spotlight on the methodical patience of real journalism in the clickbait/24-hour news network cycle that we live in most of the time. While many watched the interview in real-time and know it was well, Scoop still impresses with its subtle chess match construction of the event and bringing in the art of how to extract information from a guarded, high-profile subject.
Scoop is a taut journalistic drama with the pace & energy of a thriller. Focused on the women who brought the infamous interview to the screen & their motives for making it a success, the film mostly succeeds in making the story expand to more than the recent, well-known trainwreck in which the world is mostly familiar. While it may not interrogate nor dig too deep past what we know, The intense atmosphere & talent in front of and behind the camera will keep you riveted.
4
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
Director: Mark Molloy
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon
Rated: R
Picture: Netflix
30 years after the franchise’s previous installment, the Beverly Hills Cop film series is back. Netflix and comedy superstar Eddie Murphy have revived Detroit Police Detective Axel Foley and his multi-city crew to take on one more case.
Helmed by first-time feature film director Mark Molloy, with a script from Bad Boys: Ride or Die scribe Will Beall and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent‘s Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, the film centers on Foley (Murphy), still a detective chasing bad guys in the streets of Detroit, who now has to answer to a longtime friend on the force Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser reprising his role).
While he still calls Detroit his home, they still love him in Beverly Hills … well, maybe not everyone. He may have some friends in and around their police department – most notably Taggart and Rosewood (John Ashton and Judge Reinhold, of course) – but he also has one key figure in his life, his daughter Jane (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom co-star Taylour Paige), who has been estranged from him for several years.
Like all Beverly Hills Cop films, Axel makes his way to sunny California after a case puts those closest to him in danger. Axel receives a call from Rosewood notifying him that Jane has been targeted, threatened, and nearly killed by a group of masked men demanding she back off her latest court case as a lawyer for a potentially innocent cop killer. After Rosewood goes missing following a break in the case, it’s up to Foley, Jane, and BHPD detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to find him and take down those responsible for the fallen police officer’s death.
Axel F matches Murphy’s tone and effort, a lead trying to find the energy and brashness of his former self but mostly settling for layups instead of windmill jams. It’s filled with nostalgic call-backs and older actors coming out of the woodwork, which, besides Murphy’s facade, are the things that make this film feel like part of the franchise and not just a generic cop movie that they slapped a brand name on.
The cast is deep with many strong, familiar actors that are both old and new to the franchise. The chemistry between Murphy, Paige, and Gordon-Levitt is quite enjoyable at times and makes for some of the more compelling moments in the film; And Judge Reinhold seems amped up to be back in the fold after a 7 year hiatus, which makes the ending especially have more zip. While generic, Kevin Bacon also seems to pop when he enters the fray and delights in being duplicitous in nature.
The film also has plenty of action. Multiple shootouts, car chases, and even a helicopter chase give fans a reason to crank up the home stereo. They even go mini Jason Bourne with a meter maid buggy chase down a flight of stairs, but make it BHC by blasting “The Neutron Dance” while doing it.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a big-budget karaoke version of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise that flexes its muscles with snow plow gun fights, low-flying helicopter chases, and a deep, notable cast. Murphy can’t dial up the Foley of old that often, and the movie plays more on nostalgia than edginess or working-class snark. Still, the film is engaging enough to satiate audiences looking for a simple good time at home.
3
Ultraman: Rising
Directors: Shannon Tindle & John Aoshima
Cast: Christopher Sean, Tamilyn Tomita, Gedde Watanabe
Rated: PG
Picture: Netflix
From Netflix Animation & Tsuburaya Productions in conjunction with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Ultraman: Rising is the latest in a long line of Ultraman projects dating back to the 1960s TV Show Ultra Q, which pioneered the Kyodai Hero or Giant Hero subgenre and helped bring the kaiju genre to audiences all over the world.
After bringing Ultraman to its platform with an anime-style TV series that ran for three seasons starting in 2019, Netflix has now made the franchise into an English-language computer-animated film with a new set of characters.
Co-directed by Lost Ollie creator Shannon Tindle & veteran animator John Aoshima (Maya and the Three, Kubo and the Two Strings), Ultraman: Rising focuses on the Sato family: Professor Sato, his wife Emiko, and their son Ken.
After Emiko has gone missing and Professor Sato can no longer perform his duties as Ultraman in his elder state, Ken moves his all-star baseball career from Los Angeles back to his native Japan in order to take over the family business while still playing for the Giants.
During a battle with the kaiju Gigatron, Ken as Ultraman recovers a package that the monster was trying to retrieve from the Kaiju Defense Force. To his surprise, Ken finds the package to contain the newborn kaiju offspring of Gigatron.
Compelled to raise the young monster in the absence of her presumed dead parent, Ken has to find the right balance between his baseball career, his role as Ultraman, and his new parental responsibilities. However, he will be put to the ultimate test as outside forces will stop at nothing to obtain the Kaiju child and eliminate Ultraman.
The film premiered at the Annecy Festival in France to a largely positive reception, and I can definitely see why. Its unique story, which focuses on life balance and family, elevates the traditional Kaiju and Kyodai hero form while still appealing to more traditional fans of the franchise.
At its heart, Ultraman: Rising is about growing up and giving yourself over to something bigger than your own ambitions; a strong, relatable message blended in well with a backdrop of modern Japanese cultural touchstones like baseball (shoutout to Godzilla himself, Hideki Matsui), technology, & family traditions. Some might struggle to engage with raising a Kaiju monster and dealing with the everyday challenges of parenting a baby if they came for a non-stop action story, but the film pays off in a big way with a more emotionally motivated final act that brings all of main characters together to duke it out and protect what matters most.
Ultraman: Rising is a surprising animated hit for Netflix, Tsuburaya, and its talented creators. A family film that tugs at the heartstrings while serving its intended audience with beautiful optics and impactful fight theatrics. One of the strongest Netflix films of the year, animated or otherwise.
2
Orion and the Dark
Director: Sean Charmatz
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett, Colin Hanks Rated: TV-Y7
Picture: Dreamworks Animation
Produced by Dreamworks Animation, Orion and the Dark marks the feature film directorial debut for veteran storyboard artist Sean Charmatz (Trolls, The Angry Birds Movies, SpongeBob Squarepants) based on a script from legendary writer/director Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
Based on the children’s book of the same name by Emma Yarlett, the story centers around young schoolboy Orion, who lives every day in constant irrational fear. He’s scared of tons of things: bees, dogs, the ocean, cell phone waves, murderous gutter clowns, and even falling off a cliff. But of all his fears, the thing he’s most afraid of is what he confronts on a nightly basis: the Dark. So when the literal embodiment of his worst fear pays him a visit, the Dark whisk Orion away on a roller coaster ride around the world to prove there is nothing to be afraid of in the night. As the unlikely pair grows closer, Orion must decide if he can learn to accept the unknown – to stop letting fear control his life and finally embrace the joy of living.
Featuring an intense cast of voice talent, the film stars Critics’ Choice Award winner Jacob Tremblay (Luca, The Little Mermaid) as young Orion. Tremblay previously voiced Elmer Elevator for Netflix’s original animated film My Father’s Dragon back in 2022. Alongside Tremblay, the film also stars Cobra Kai’s Paul Walter Hauser as Dark, Oscar nominee Angela Bassett as Sweet Dreams, MadTV’s Ike Barinholtz as Light, What We Do In The Shadows standout Natasia Demetriou as Sleep, Bridgerton’s Golda Rosheuvel as Unexplained Noises, German Filmmaker & Voice God Werner Herzog, Fall of the House of Usher’s Carla Gugino as Orion’s Mom, and Roswell’s Colin Hanks as Adult Orion.
While the big names in the cast might bring the adults to the party, the success of this film belongs to the creative subject matter and the always uniquely creative writing of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. Picking up the mantle from seminal Pixar films like Inside Out & Finding Nemo, Orion and the Dark focuses on children who are plagued by the emotions that control them every day. In an educational world that increasingly focuses on social-emotional learning in the classroom at early ages, this story feels in touch with its audience in an impactful way – an audience that is not only the children who face adolescent anxiety but the adults who not only help their children cope with these issues, but also grew up in a generation that most likely didn’t have the support to help with their own anxieties from youth and into adulthood.
The safe hands of Kaufman, words not many would think to write if you’ve watched the outlandishly brilliant yet audacious films Kaufman has written over the years, guide us through generations of genetic predisposition to anxiety with a layered story told by a father through the prism of his younger self to his daughter who is facing the same issue of fearing the dark at bedtime. The construction of the script switches around from a narrated introduction to the world of Young Orion to an evolving bedtime from a father to daughter; one that the Father allows the daughter to help shape and mold as the movie progresses. The lessons of the story are imparted by the young and old alike, rallying around the notions of acknowledging & embracing fear while learning to not let those fears get in the way of living your life. Who knows? You may miss out on a new experience, a new love, or a new best friend.
While the life lessons are important, and the acknowledgment of adolescent mental health is paramount, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how funny, sweet, & satisfying the film can be over its impressively tight 90-minute runtime. With lines like “Fun is just a word people made up to make danger sound more appealing,” even the anxious musings of a young child will make you laugh on a deeper level. The addition of the “Night Entities” – Insomnia, Quiet, Sleep, Sweet Dreams, & Unexplained Noises – to the story (not part of the original children’s book) give the older audiences a chance to take laugh at the things that keep them up at night while adding a layer of adventure & relationship building to the 24-hour excursion for Orion and the Dark. Also, if you don’t get a chuckle from hearing Werner Herzog narrate the films of The Dark, we can’t be friends. It is unquestionably amusing.
Orion and the Dark is another win for Netflix’s Original animated movies. With a brilliant script boldly constructed as one part bedtime story and one part coping mechanisms for anxiety disorders, the film feels present with our modern society and in touch with the emotions of a more sensitive culture. Inside Out 2 addressed anxiety as a follow-up to its fresh take on the feelings of dramatic change back in 2015, but don’t let this film get past you right now. Charlie Kaufman & first-time feature film director Sean Charmatz combine to make an entertaining ride that should be shown in schools.
1
Hit Man
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, Evan Holtzman, Retta Rated: R
Picture: Netflix
Acquired by Netflix after a strong debut on the 2023 film festival circuit, Hit Man strikes at the perfect time for burgeoning leading man Glen Powell. After taking to the skies with Tom Cruise in 2022’s blockbuster smash Top Gun: Maverick, Powell’s stock has continued to rise in the past two years with his roles in the Korean War film Devotion and, of course, his major breakout role opposite Sydney Sweeney in the romantic comedy Anyone But You.
The latter film really connected with audiences as it took in nearly 220 million dollars at the worldwide box office and became a staple of the Netflix Top 10 upon its streaming release on the platform. With a major summer theatrical release in Twisters coming in mid-July, Powell drops a crime-based comedy in Hit Man to satisfy his audience who seemingly just can’t get enough.
Co-written by Powell along with the prolific, Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, School of Rock), the film adapts the 2001 Texas Monthly magazine article of the same name by Skip Hollandsworth that profiled the real-life story of Houston-based college professor Gary Johnson, a man who posed as a professional killer and worked with the local police department to take down his would-be clients.
In this iteration of the story, the setting has changed to New Orleans as philosophy professor Gary (Powell) helps out as part of the technical staff on sting operations for the local police. However, when the regular undercover officer Jasper (Austin Amelio) doesn’t show up, Gary is called upon to step in and pose as a prominent hitman in the area to arrest those trying to hire him.
Using his philosophy background and experience with law enforcement, Gary discovers that not only does he have the skills to pull it off, but he also has the talent and know-how to theatrically match the expectations of his “clients,” often with costumes, makeup, and accents.
However, while undercover as the charming, composed, yet deadly hitman “Ron”, Gary encounters Maddy (6 Underground’s Adria Arjona), a woman seeking to escape from her abusive relationship with her husband Ray (Evan Holtzman); empathizing with her story and developing feelings for her, Gary advises her to seek out better options instead of taking her down and the two soon become romantically involved.
Just as their courtship starts to blossom truly, the police inform Gary that Maddy’s soon-to-be ex-husband Ray has been found dead, and Maddy is the prime suspect. Torn between his obligation to his police colleagues and his love for Maddy, Gary must find out the truth and do what he thinks is right.
While the movie is not flawless in its plot construction or pace, not a soul who came for its stars or the resurgence of the crime comedy genre will care. Powell and Arjona ooze sex appeal and lead a charm offensive that would take down the ‘85 Bears defense. The film comfortably blends wish fulfillment, meditations on identity, and exposing the underbelly of society in a package of silliness, raw magnetism, and charisma.
While Powell & Arjona steal the show, it has to be stated that this is an odd choice that strangely works for co-writer/director Richard Linklater. Delighting in character-driven sight gags with an undeniable star at the center of the frame hasn’t really been seen much from Linklater since unleashing Jack Black on us in full force with School of Rock almost 2 decades ago. One could definitely imagine that the more sophisticated & thought-provoking moral/philosophical themes added to a more straightforward genre could be the added flavor of an artist who made the “Before” trilogy & Boyhood.
Hit Man is a surefire win for Powell, Linklater, & Netflix. Laughs, sex appeal, a little philosophical debate, & a darkly playful moral quandary make the film intriguing all the way through. While the ending may feel a bit too breezy or divisive considering the subject matter, the talented cast & creators will help you smile through the potential unease. It’s Powell & Arjona at their absolute best with Linklater doing his most entertaining work since Everybody Wants Some!.
Honorable Mentions
- A FAMILY AFFAIR
- SPACEMAN
- THE KITCHEN
- SHIRLEY
- SOCIETY OF THE SNOW (Counted as a 2023 Release despite its Netflix debut in early January)
What’s been your favorite new movie of 2024? Let us know in the comments.