Director Oliver Stone has offered his praise — and criticisms — for some of the most popular movies of 2024.

We don’t necessarily think of Oliver Stone as one who simply accepts everything that’s in front of him. But Oliver Stone spent the last part of 2024 catching up on some movies, all of which are major Oscar contenders – and all of which he had some high praise for.

Oliver Stone took to social media just ahead of the new year to let followers in on which movies he recently watched. One which many are predicting will actually take home Best Picture is Wicked, in which Stone admitted he had no idea who the actresses were going in but loved their performances. “Wow! I never saw the stage play or followed the coverage, but I just purely loved the sensuality and intelligence of the movie. I didn’t know these two actresses, but what a surprise to find both their performances so fresh and different…” He, too, praised its director for managing such a feat within today’s studio system. “@jonmchu is a helluva filmmaker and is working with challenging material in this prequel that turns everything in #TheWizardofOz upside down. All the more amazing that he pulled it off with a Hollywood studio.”

Oliver Stone also caught A Complete Unknown, a territory of movies he’s vaguely familiar with, having directed The Doors. “#BobDylan’s generation should be happy; they seem to have gotten it right. #TimotheeChalamet, who’s always adorable and sensitive, here displays a strength I’ve not seen before.” Stone would also praise Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton.

And while he was a little bit harder on The Brutalist, saying it starts to fall apart in its second half, a gripe he had with Anora but would still liken director Sean Baker to the Coen and Safdie Brothers. We won’t spoil everything Oliver Stone had to say about some of 2024’s most acclaimed movies; instead we urge you to check out his honest critiques of them.

In summation of his end of 2024 journey through the movies, Oliver Stone wrote: “When I see movies like these, I really want to go back into my 30s and make movies again. They give me the urge and break all the rules that prevented us back then, all the “nos” we faced. This is a whole new era. Except for “Wicked,” I don’t think any one of these films would’ve been initiated or even distributed by any Hollywood entity in previous years. That’s why movies will continue to appeal worldwide. They challenge, they generate and regenerate new ideas constantly with new techniques. But within all of this, let’s not lose sight of the worth in the older films. Too many of them have been forgotten. Instead of castigating Hollywood, we should admire it as a treasure museum to a century of our collective history, and now maybe a second century.” Sadly for Stone, Megalopolis won’t be on the awards circuit this year…

What do you think of Oliver Stone’s musings on some of 2024’s most acclaimed movies? Do you agree or disagree overall?