Best of 2024: What Made My Year

It has been the better part of a decade since I was sufficiently dialed into new stuff that I could make convincing lists of the best movies of the year, the best television shows, and so forth. Instead, here’s a list of what made my year good, some of it new, some of it old.

Ripley on Netflix: It wouldn’t be possible to outdo Anthony Minghella’s jazzy, sumptuous, sun-soaked 1999 version of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, so Steven Zaillian completely reimagined every single character, the mood, the look, the music, the themes. Nonetheless, it’s somehow still Highsmith’s story. One of the decade’s great triumphs of adaptation.

Merely & Malibu’s Essential Mixtape: The pretensions of ambient music are softened by the goofiness of new age in this absolutely beautiful snooze fest.

Trust by Domenico Starnone: I was hooked after I heard the premise: boyfriend and girlfriend don’t want to get married, but they do want to be deeply indebted to one another, so they tell one another about the absolute worst thing they’ve ever done. Then break up a few days later.

Easy Does It by Julie London: For the first time in five years, my top Wrapped artist wasn’t Harold Budd, but Julie London. This 1968 record has a blue, gin-soaked tone that typifies my favorite Julie London recordings.

Black Magenta by D.S. & Durga: The only 2024 release I picked up this year: “City at night in bold colorful fumes—pineapple glow, magenta dianthus, iris twilight, tobacco, and black amber. Pair with loud music.”

Laughter in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov: I picked this up at the Mall of America while marooned in Minneapolis after the Delta Meltdown last summer. This is Nabokov’s most readable book, and his most horrifying.

The Princess on HBO: While I’m an unapologetic Lady Di fan, this 2022 documentary is so elegantly assembled, it might win over a few who are generally indifferent to celebrities.

Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker: I’ve loved Pulp since I was sixteen. This memoir from Jarvis Cocker was delightful, humane, and I was regularly surprised by how much of his childhood seemed like my own.

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh: I love a novel that ends very, very, very, very far from what you’re initially expecting.

Baby Reindeer on Netflix: I got Magnolia vibes.

Adarra in Richmond, Virginia: Richmond’s best restaurant, which I only discovered four months before moving. Of the three times I ate there, nothing was less than perfect.