CFTCA Digest: December 2024 - Cascadian Film and Television Critics Association

Welcome to CFTCA’s monthly digest for December 2024, a roundup of recent reviews, features, interviews, and more by CTFCA critics.

Film Reviews

Nosferatu | Reviewed by Marta Djordjevic | Read the full review

“Set aside the fear of the unknown and plunge into the darkness. Stay a while, won’t you? Release what is suppressed and glide through shadowed doorways in a haunting danse macabre, waltzing and writhing across decrepit landscapes. Bathe me in this atmosphere; Robert Eggers has finally gifted us his vision of Nosferatu.”

Find more of Marta’s reviews on her Letterboxd.

No Other Land | Reviewed by Eric Zhu | Read the full review

“No Other Land has been winning major awards at festivals around the globe, but the film is still without a US distributor for transparently political reasons. No Other Land is a response to the feelings of helplessness that have intensified in the Western world since the beginning of the Israel’s genocidal campaign. This struggle has been ongoing for generations, and resistance is a lifelong project.”

Find more of Eric’s writing on The Insert.

A Complete Unknown | Reviewed by Darren Zakus | Read the full review

“A Complete Unknown is an electrifying music biopic exploring Bob Dylan’s career up to the moment he famously went electric, featuring an outstanding cast led by a masterful performance from Timothée Chalamet and brilliant direction from James Mangold, making for one of the year’s best films.”

Find more of Darren’s work on Movie Scene Canada.

The Brutalist | Reviewed by Taylor Baker | Read the full review

“The Brutalist, more than any other 2024 release, reminds one of the impact musical composition can have on a film. It shows us, or reminds us, of the power, the awe, the bleakness, the desperation, the loneliness, the triumph, and the hope we each have and have yet to experience within ourselves. In Daniel Blumberg’s second at-bat creating a film score, he conjures a well of music that speaks to the soul of our central character, performed expertly by Adrien Brody.”

Find more of Taylor’s reviews on Drink in the Movies.

Armand | Reviewed by Michael Clawson | Read the full review

“Uncovering shades of its characters’ personal lives little by little, the film treats them each like a puzzle whose pieces are steadily being filled in. Not only does this approach fall short in humanizing the characters, but with scene lengths that run way past their expiration time, it’s also quite boring.”

Find more of Michael’s reviews on Drink in the Movies.

Retrospectives

A24 – Retrospective: The Witch | Listen to the Episode

On the latest installment of Contra Zoom Pod’s A24 retrospective, Dakota Arsenault is joined by Ethan Simmie, the host of ⁠The Movie Draft Podcast⁠ and ⁠24 Minutes of A24, for a discussion of Robert Egger’s 2015 debut, The Witch.

Find more of episodes of the podcast on the Contra Zoom Pod website.