A24 : The best movie company around

Hey everyone, I've been waiting to read the Secondes' articles, but since I know they're on their commenting spree I'm posting an article now to gain attention hihi

So growing up I haven't really paid attentions to movies I watched, so I didn't really have any sort of cinematic culture : I probably knew some famous actors' names, or recognised some faces in movies, but overall I liked watching movies without really being interested in the bigger picture of who, why, etc. In the recent years (more like, last year), I realised how terrible my movie culture was, and I felt it was something I lacked in my everyday-life, so since I really enjoyed watching movies I decided to educate myself.
I started watching classics, but also low-key 'indie' stuff that wasn't really famous, and I really paid attention to the actors, the directors and their craft. Very recently, I also started to take a look at who produced movies, and who distributed them, all thanks to A24. Basically, I realised that a lot of movies I had watched and loved were distributed by this fairly recent and unknown company that is A24. Since them, I often find myself on their Wikipedia page scrolling through the list of movies they distributed, and choosing from it the ones I'm going to watch. I'm currently watching The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and it's amazing so far, I really recommend it!

Something that's very important to me in movies, aside from the story line and the actors' performances, is cinematography. For those who don't know what that is, it's basically the visuals of a movie, so the colours, the light etc. To me, great cinematography is what sets the difference between films I find great and films I find absolutely amazing, which is probably why Christopher Nolan is my favourite director.
Anyways, the defining feature of an A24 movie is its brilliant cinematography, and how frames alone convey emotional weight and tell a story. The movies often have very original story lines, most of the time including some sort of struggle and/or minorities. Their films almost always attach more importance to the characters and the relationships between them than to the actual story (which is something I thoroughly enjoy, getting to understand a character's mind and way of thinking and reacting to situations, but that's starting to sound like my personal statement so I'll stop there). They also often get famous actors and put them in more 'indie' films, which I really like because you see them really exploring their characters and not really having any pressure to do whatever they want.

I haven't seen every A24 movie yet, by lack of time and because there's like A LOT, but I already know they're all great and I'll watch them as soon as I can. So I'm gonna make a list of the ones I really like, and hopefully you'll feel like watching them too. Some of these are quite popular, so you might know them. If you do please comment your opinion, I'd really like to have debates or discussions about them!

• Lady Bird, 2017. This is the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig, who is not only a great woman but also a great director as this movie proved! (She has a new movie coming out pretty soon called Little Women which stars Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep and Saoirse Ronan, it seems great and you guys should definitely go see its trailer). This movie is a coming-of-age story of Christine 'Lady Bird', a teenager living in Sacramento that hates her city and wants to experience life more. We follow her through her experiences, mistakes and rocky relationships, especially with her mother. I saw this movie while everyone was asleep on the plane to Canada and let me tell you, I ugly-cried so much it was unreal. This movie is amazing and Saoirse Ronan does a greaaat job in it too!

• (the trailer shows a lot so if you wanna watch the film without knowing too much don't click on the link) Room, 2015 (not be confused with The Room because that's well... you'll see). This is not a happy movie, that's for sure. It tells the story of Joy (played by Brie Larson) and her 5 year old son Jack living in a sort of shed they call Room. They've been put there by Jack's father who refuses to ever let them out. Jack was born in this shed, and he thus doesn't know anything about the outside world. At one point, they manage to escape. I'm not going to say more but this is an amazing movie like!!!! Go see it. Pls. (the whole film is FOR FREE on Youtube, but it's in french:/)

• The Disaster Artist, 2017. This is a sort-of biopic on the mystery man Tommy Wiseau, the actor, director, producer and writer of the 2003 movie The Room, often described as the worst movie ever made. I have yet to see The Disaster Artist, but I have seen The Room and it's so weird and hilarious that I can't wait to see this movie about its creation. I just know it stars Dave Franco and James Franco.

• Moonlight, 2016. This movie follows the black and gay main character Chiron through 3 phases of his life (childhood, adolescence and adulthood) and the things he experiences, like his mother's drug addiction, bullying or the discovery of his sexuality. It's super beautiful, emotional and very realistic, and you get the feeling the amount of people that went through very similar stuff must be huge. It also won the Oscar for best picture in 2017 which I'm super happy about because it totally deserved it.

• 20th Century Women, 2016. It takes place in the late 70s and is about a woman struggling to raise her teenage son, and thus asking two girls who rent a room in her house to help her. One of them, Abbie (played by Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig) teaches him feminism and makes him discover mostly punk music. The other, Julie, is a teenager just like him, and he's in love with her. We follow their life together and all of their different struggles. It's a very beautiful movie, might be my favourite out of all the ones I've talked about.

So yeah, those were 5 of the 99 films they've put out so far, with many more scheduled for this year and the next. I left out many other films I love that they produced, such as Locke or Mid90s, but yeah I still talked plenty. I hope this'll inspire some of you to watch the films I've talked about because they're amazing!!

- Sibyllx