Films in 2024: June

The year feels like it’s flying by, as we’re now halfway through 2024. At the moment, I’ve been rewatching more movies than watching ones I haven’t seen before this year, though the tally between the two is pretty close. And that’s reflected in viewing habits for June; among the films I enjoyed revisiting were My Man Godfrey screened in 35mm at the Vista, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? screened by Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and a couple of screenings from American Cinematheque’s annual Bleak Week series: Merrily We Go to Hell and Testament, the latter of which featured a Q&A with filmmaker Lynne Littman. The other Bleak Week screening I attended was a first-time watch of Ingmar Bergman’s The Touch, which was followed by a Q&A with star Elliott Gould. Outside of Bleak Week, a few other memorable AC screenings I went to include Local Hero and Quiz Show both screened in 35mm, with the latter including a Q&A with actor Rob Morrow, and Charlie Kaufman at the Egyptian for a day of films written by him, with a couple of surprise guests joining him for Q&As: Adaptation. with director Spike Jonze, Being John Malkovich with actress Catherine Keener, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Speaking of surprises, another memorable event was what was advertised as a double feature of X and Pearl in 35mm with filmmaker Ti West at the Vista. But at the end of the Q&A following the screening of X, he along with moderator and actress Lily Collins revealed we’d be the first public audience to see the final entry in his horror trilogy, MaXXXine! I was also fortunate to attend a couple of other advance screenings in the form of red carpet premieres with the stars and filmmakers: the Netflix movie A Family Affair and The Bikeriders, though in the latter’s case, I had already seen it at last year’s AFI Fest, but I couldn’t pass up seeing the star-studded cast. And finally, a major highlight of the month and just a wonderfully surreal life moment for me was seeing Stop Making Sense at the Pantages, the very same theater it was filmed in 40 years ago, and with Talking Heads there in person! It was truly a transportive experience. Before wrapping up this past exciting month, I’d also like to mention one last event I went to, which isn’t a screening but is movie adjacent: the centennial celebration of Henry Mancini at the Hollywood Bowl. It was wonderful to hear some memorable tunes from one of my favorite composers played live and loud at the iconic venue. Anyway, here’s a look at all the movies I watched in June…