Best of 2024, #5: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Mad Max: Fury Road is a great film, but perhaps overpraised. This sequel is not quite as good, and certainly much messier, but it was bizarrely under-praised, getting none of the previous film’s Oscar attention and not showing up on any Top 10 lists I’ve seen.

Like the previous film, this movie is insanely intense, and gave me my biggest thrills of the year. Unfortunately, like every other sequel in the past five years, this is overlong. Most Mad Max movies take place over a 24 hour period and have simple plots, but this one sprawls over 15 years or so, with a very complicated flashback/flashforward structure. It’s the most ambitious movie in the series and I applaud that ambition, but I did miss the simple stories of the previous four movies.

Just to add: This movie lost a ton of money at the box office, and I always have mixed feelings when that happens. On the one hand, if filmmakers make a good movie, I wish them all the best, and I know what a bummer it is for them to not have that rewarded. On the other hand, as much as I liked this movie, I would be just as glad to see them create new IP and not go back to the same well so often, and if movies bombing is what it takes, then okay. (I do want more James Bond movies though. I hope they don’t stop making those because the last one tanked.)

Rulebook Casefile: Exchange Objects

I don’t want to get into what all happens with the peaches in this movie, because that would involve spoilers, and I’m hoping more of you will see the movie with my recommendation, but suffice it to say that the use of peaches in this movie perfectly exemplifies my rule about putting objects in their hands and then having those objects multiply in meaning as they’re exchanged from hand to hand.