Over at Liberties: my top 20 films of 2024.
Tis the season for end-of-year lists. I tend to switch them up, depending on the outlet, because I don’t get attached to my lists. But those are the stand-outs.
(Thanks to Liberties: this has been a great year because I’d been feeling a bit stagnant in my career. Hence, the newsletter. More long-form pieces. And then, from out of the sky, I am offered a column at Liberties magazine, alongside contributors like Fouad Ajami, Mary Gaitskill, etc. Idols. I feel lucky to have it and lucky I am given leeway to basically write what I want.)
Thank you so much for stopping by. If you like what I do, and if you feel inclined to support my work, here’s a link to my Venmo account. And I’ve launched a Substack, Sheila Variations 2.0, if you’d like to subscribe.
Oh, the moment I read the words Secrets & Lies, my mind went back to the film and the impact I felt when I saw it. So many things there! The daughter looking quietly for her biological mom, the brother photographing families, each with a lie, the way the mother called everyone “sweeeetheart”, the way she remembers who the father must have been…
The back garden, ah!
Clary – I know! I remember the impact on me too – it was such an amazing film and (I think?) my introduction to Mike Leigh. and then when I heard about how he works – improvising with the cast, creating the project together – I was even more in love with it.