It's been a while between drinks (Madame Web I think) but we're back and firing with a BIG FAT ZERO out of ten for this well loved and warmly received remake of the overrated but hugely influential original. Here, FKA Twigs (with apparently BOTOX in both her face AND emotions), plays a talentless aspiring musician, with model looks, who hangs around in rich people's apartments >cough whilst Machine Gun Kelly falls in love with her. If you can imagine how insufferable spending time with...

Nepo baby and first time director, Zoe Kravitz, takes on what's becoming quite a trope lately - rich people on an island behaving badly, in one of 2024's IT horror movies. Despite some strong ideas thematically, compared to the likes of Infinity Pool or The Menu or even Knives Out 2, it's nearer the back of the pack.

The honorable Sam Shepherd returns with his raviest Floating Points album yet, and probably the years best electronic release.

Auteur of the moment, Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos shuns his recent foray into Hollywood royalty (The Favorite/Poor Things) with a return to the punishing uncomfortable art-house of The Killing of the Sacred Deer. For nearly three uncompromising hours, across three deliberately bleak and obtuse stories. It feels like either an attack or a challenge on the viewer but Jessie Plemons is a career best twice.

Their 18th studio album unexpectedly turns the unfortunately thrilling second act of Nick Cave into the maximalist, away from the brilliant abstract, avant experimentalism of Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen. There's plenty to adore in Cave's battle with the God's, though the heavyweight first half of the album is more compelling than the more resigned and conventionally composed second half.

We are all of us blessed to have lived in the same time as the deity Nicolas Cage, bathed in his magnificence. Now no longer viewed as an A list actor who went off the boil, his modern filmography contains numerous low key classics. My ten favorite Cage films from the last twenty years.

Director Jeremy Saulnier continues his strong run of idiosyncratic films, with this inspired take on one of cinemas most overused tropes, the mysterious (and tough) stranger, walks into a small town and comes into conflict with the authorities. With top notch casting and writing, it may get to the same place as nearly every one of these post First Blood films, but the journey there is a hell of a lot more interesting, if long.

And in an era where music festivals are dying, featuring rote pop acts as headliners, with no musicians and backing tracks, how the Oasis reunion could save music, by bringing back the band.

In the first banner year for the rap album in a decade, another great album. This time with a wild foray into Death Metal and Death Grips, from one of the biggest mavericks in underground Hip hop.

The White Stripes supremo drops his most exciting solo project yet and it feels perfectly timed. With the Oasis reunion in full swing, this fabulous album, harking back to the heady early garage rock days of his most famous band could not be more on point.

What's most startling about this low-rent big-budget Mission Impossible rip-off is how vastly superior the panned Gal Gadot movie, Heart of Stone, is in every way.

Arguably the year's It horror movie was far closer to upper mid-tier than I'd hoped. It's well crafted and has a strong mood, but is relatively insubstantial and has a lacklustre lead. Though a mad-cap Nicolas Cage (barely in the movie) makes you wish for a Pearl like origin story.

My simping for star Mia Goth reached insufferable heights with the one-two punch of Pearl and Infinity Pool, where I claimed she was this era's Bridget Bardot, but a much better actor. Sadly this third in the X film trilogy is by far the weakest and the biggest let down of the year, next to Civil War. At least Mia is photographed exceptionally well and is as electric onscreen as always. But such a great premise is totally wasted by unexpectedly tepid delivery. Please don't be wasting Mia like...

Given the high praise afforded this latest reboot, I can't help but feel let down. It's not really any better than the 2014 tornado/Twister movie, Into the Storm - in fact I can't say the tornado effects are any more impressive. Plus it often plays like a Nicholas Sparks romance movie. It is scarier than its two predecessors though, and we get a couple of charismatic leads in Glen - man of the moment - Powell, and Daisy Edgar-Jones, who has been a stand out in anything she's been in, and has...

The second excellent album from a Californian modern/alt-pop artist who gets nowhere near the respect or acclaim she deserves, and is far more thrilling and individualistic than most of her more lauded peers.

The full title of the compilation of the year - and an essential own and analogous to the classic Nigeria 70 collection, broke my computer it's so long. It's also the perfect reflection of this awesome psych-funk-soul-rock-RnB music. Congo Funk! - Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa​/​Brazzaville 1969​-​1982) (Analog Africa No. 38)

My biggest gripe in recent years, is one of the worst ever eras of music critics, clamming so many mid-tier female solo pop/rnb & rap albums are masterpieces. Witness my most overrated album from last year, from Caroline Polachek. Or anything by Beyonce. So here we are with this years anointed album of the year. All I can say is that I am always fair.

The esteemed post-rock(?) trio are three decades in and with increasing gaps between albums - a whopping twelve years this time between drinks. There latest is a unexpected balm for anxious times, near true ambient music in its way of sucking negative emotions out of you and replacing them with more meditative and positive energy.

Doug Liman is a massively underappreciated and endlessly malleable director - from Swingers to The Bourne Identity to Edge of Tomorrow to Road House. Given the cast he gets is near perfect for this kind of sub-Tarantino crime film, that makes this a let down on nearly every level. Just about passable. Casey Affleck is great though.

I did not have esteemed auteur director, Richard Linklater, swerving into Rom-coms i my 2024 bingo. Other than being a tiny bit superficial and slight, this film is an utter blast. Very funny and with two of the most engaging leads of the year. Glen Powell excels as the titular fake hit man (based on a very real person) and for fans of Triple Frontier, finally Hollywood seems to be catching on to the gorgeous, electric presence of Adria Arjona. Think Grosse Point Blank more than Pretty Woman.

The relentless reboot and remake cycle reaches the once unthinkable - lets re-do Beverly Hills Cop. Though the electric magic of the original is missing, it's powered across the line by a star missing from our screens (other than in donkey form) for far too long, Eddie Murphy is completely undiminished, possibly due to witchcraft.