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Song of the Day #6,066: ‘Nocturne No. 2 in E-Flat, Op. 9, No. 2’ – Tzvi Erez

Continuing my look at notable 2024 films, today I’m covering the Dramas.

A few of these nearly cracked my top ten, including writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain. The fact that this movie might have just as easily fallen into the Comedy category is a testament to his excellent screenplay, which is alternately hilarious and touching.

A Real Pain follows two cousins who were once very close but have become estranged as their lives moved in different directions. They reunite to visit their recently deceased grandmother’s childhood home during a Holocaust tour through Poland. Eisenberg’s David is painfully reserved while Kieran Culkin’s Benji is an unpredictable extrovert.

The film gets a lot of mileage out of exploring the way these two personality types frustrate and reward each other. This is a lovely character study and a real feather in the cap of Eisenberg as a filmmaker.

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Song of the Day #6,065: ‘Thelma’s Theme’ – Nick Chuba

Before I get to my top ten movies of 2024, I want to acknowledge some of the other worthwhile films I saw last year. I watched more than a hundred 2024 movies, and over the rest of the week I will mention the ones in the 11-50 slots on my ranked list.

I’ll also single out the titles that had a real shot at the top ten but didn’t quite make the cut.

To cover so many titles, I’m splitting things up by genre, starting today with Comedy.

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Song of the Day #6,064: ‘Harper and Will Go West’ – Kristen Wiig

Today I’m offering up one more ‘If I ran the Oscars’ post, identifying some nominations in below the line categories I wish had made the cut.

In each of the five categories I’ve chosen, I will also identify the actual nominee I would drop to allow room for my substitution.

I’ll start with Best Original Song, a category that almost always ignores the year’s best songs and instead focuses on Best Picture contenders plus the latest lazy effort by Diane Warren.

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Song of the Day #6,063: ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” – The Righteous Brothers

It’s nice when Throwback Weekends unearth a bona fide classic that has somehow not appeared on the blog through more than 6,000 posts.

Such is the case with the song that topped the charts the week of Feb, 9, 1965: The Righteous Brothers’ ‘You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.’ This was the song’s second, and last, week at #1 as part of a 16-week stint on the Hot 100.

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Song of the Day #6,062: ‘Melody of Love’ – Billy Vaughn

Throwing back to the week of February 8, 1954, we find the usual host of repeats atop the singles chart.

At #1 was ‘Sincerely‘ by the McGuire Sisters, followed by ‘Hearts of Stone‘ by the Fontane Sister. Then came ‘Let Me Go, Lover‘ by Joan Weber, and ‘Mister Sandman‘ by The Chordettes. The ladies were absolutely crushing it!

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