Before we send 2024 packing, it’d be good karma to acknowledge some offbeat screen experiences don’t fit a typical best-of-the-year list. And we’ll also get to the worst movies of the year, guaranteed to undo that karma in a flash. So. Goodbye, year. And hats off to Chicago’s cinema workers, archivists, educators, theater managers, projectionists — and to all venues offering real butter on popcorn that didn’t come out of a bag and doesn’t taste like something that fell out of an Amazon packing envelope.
Favorite never-again screening experience of 2024: “The Art of the Benshi” at Gene Siskel Film Center, April 16-17.
After Dark: Starring Olivia DeJonge as one unlucky babysitter, this seasonal home invasion from 2016 combines holiday magic with the winking cruelty of “Funny Games.”