It’s been an odd year for movies, partly due to the lasting effects of labor strikes. There are very few masterpieces, and just as few disasters. Instead, 2024 featured a lot of solid 3-3.5 out of 5 star films, a healthy selection of entertaining fare that enabled the theater industry to finish the year far ahead of what many analysts had feared (box office-wise). Well, without further ado, here’s my ranked Top 20 best films of 2024 (and don’t forget to check out Carrie’s Top 10 Films of 2024 as well):
Nathan Silver’s quirky, thoughtful story of a lonesome cantor (Jason Schwartzman) connecting to his former music teacher (Carol Kane) is equal parts funny and anxious. Kane’s charming performance is the standout.
- Inside Out 2
Still full of tremendous wit, colorful ideas, and slapstick antics, Inside Out 2 effectively continued Riley’s story, with this chapter covering her transition from childhood to adolescence. Inside Out 2 also features one of the most powerful visual (and emotional) representations of anxiety ever put on film.
The idea of a prequel to the hit Quiet Place series seemed like an excuse for an easy cash-grab, but the craft and performances within an emotionally intimate story made A Quiet Place: Day One a surprisingly original thrill-ride.
This eye-opening documentary from National Geographic chronicles the legacy of trauma inflicted upon indigenous communities by the Canadian Indian residential school systems. The film follows recent investigations into the atrocities of the Indian school that operated for decades near the Sugarcane reserve, and features harrowing testimonies from a few survivors. It’s a must-see film that spotlights a dark spot of North American history that shouldn’t be dismissed or forgotten.
- Strange Darling
Strange Darling is a twisted thriller that unfolds in completely unpredictable ways. The film announces writer/director JT Mollner as a new, inventive filmmaker to watch, and catapults the careers of the film’s two stars, Willa Fitzgerald (Reacher) and Kyle Gallner (Smile). If you love grindhouse films and unconventional storytelling, Strange Darling is exactly what its title promises to deliver.
- Sing Sing
Sing Sing is a rousing drama that becomes more impressive the more you learn about its real life story. It features a superb Colman Domingo in the lead role, surrounded by an incredibly talented cast made up of formerly incarcerated members of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program (RTA).
- The Wild Robot
The Wild Robot is a beautifully animated, excellently voiced, emotionally charged story about a robot that crash-lands on an island inhabited by a variety of animals and no humans. The film leans on various themes – the challenges of parenthood, nature versus nurture, environmental devastation – to weave together a moving story of a young gosling, all while keeping family-friendly humor and visuals at the forefront.
No film in 2024 was more prescient to today’s political scene than Justin Kurzel’s The Order. The Order features a trio of standout performances by Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, and Tye Sheridan, and a handful of thrilling action set pieces. At its core, The Order is an embellished portrayal of a real-life circumstance when racist frustrations erupted in a violent manner, a type of occurrence that is far too feasible in today’s world.
- The First Omen
The First Omen is one of the few horror relaunches (Exorcist, Halloween, etc.) that exceeded expectations. Director Arkasha Stevenson impressively handles a familiar horror trope (a young woman at a mysterious nunnery) while enabling the feeling of dread to permeate through the unfolding narrative. Transitioning from horror television to horror film, Nell Tiger Free (Servant) has established herself as a formidable talent of the genre.
- Rebel Ridge
Oh boy, how about that Aaron Pierre! After watching his stoic bad-ass performance in Rebel Ridge, I’m just about ready to see him helm every action movie, maybe even a James Bond consideration? (He’s British). Rebel Ridge is a no-nonsense action thriller that lays out the setting, characters, and tensions with captivating ease.
If it hasn’t been launched already, someone needs to organize an effort to get June Squibb, now 95 years old, an Oscar nomination for her performance in Thelma. Playing an elderly woman who gets duped by a financial scam and seeks out justice herself, Squibb is funny and endearing. Thelma is the second film in 2024 about financial scams taking advantage of the elderly (see The Beekeeper in honorable mentions). The manner in which Thelma teams up with a fellow old folks’ home resident, Ben (Richard Roundtree in his final performance), while avoiding being stopped by her distressed family, imbues the film with a deeper meaning about end-of-life worth and values.
Part surrealist fable and part romantic comedy, A Different Man may be 2024’s most fascinating indie film. It features career-best performances by Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. The plot is as unpredictable as it is humorously disturbing. Transformational beauty seemed to be a popular 2024 theme (The Substance, Nightbitch, and Babygirl to an extent) but unlike the other films, A Different Man maintains a whimsical quality that keeps its statement about physical appearances deftly camouflaged under other commentary on art and obsession.
- Didi
Underseen but not underappreciated, Didi is a modern coming-of-age story steeped in personal inspiration from writer/director Sean Wang. Didi takes place in 2008 and centers around a thirteen-year-old Taiwanese American boy who traverses the pressures of family, social life, and new romantic feelings in the waning days of summer before high school begins.
When A Real Pain hits, it hits hard. Written, directed, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain foregrounds the cracked relationship between cousins Benji and David against the background of their recently deceased grandmother’s experience as a Polish Holocaust survivor. Kieran Culkin’s portrayal of Benji as an emotionally broken loner disguising his sadness under a cloak of stubborn carefree ideology is enough to earn an Oscar nomination, and likely win.
Interestingly, Civil War is dividing audiences because it does not overtly pick a political side. Directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina / Annihilation / Men), Civil War is as technically engrossing and viscerally stimulating as cinema can get. No matter your political affiliation, the characters are effective conduits for us to be thrown directly into the action. Civil War doesn’t try to explain how or why the United States became the way it depicts, or who is right or wrong along the way. Instead, Civil War is a warning shot, a glimpse of what could be, but can also be experienced as a cinematic thrill ride, all politics aside.
- Conclave
Speaking of politics and fictional worlds mirroring our own, Conclave dives into the moral maneuvering and sly politicking of elections. In the case of Conclave, for a new pope, a story based on the book by Robert Harris. Even when ridiculously contrived, Conclave is an exhilarating chamber drama filled with suspense and mystery, and propelled by Volker Bertelmann’s tense musical score. Conclave has top-notch filmmaking, production design, and acting, and could also lead to a long overdue Oscar statuette for Ralph Fiennes.
The unlikelihood of a story about a stripper going on a semi-slapstick wild goose chase after marrying the son of a Russian oligarch being a box office success and crowd-pleaser can’t be overstated. The chances of Anora now winning Best Picture, even moreso. Most of the credit must be attributed to Sean Baker, the writer and director who took this incredibly adult story and tells it in a sincere, heartwarming, yet subtly devastating way. Mikey Madison’s titular performance is sublime, while tremendous supporting work by Yura Borisov and Mark Eidelstein can’t be overlooked. Anora is turning up to be a real underdog story, both in its plot and its real world success, all of it well-deserved.
Modern classic. Monumental. Towering. Masterpiece. These are some of the words that critics and audiences, including myself, have used to describe The Brutalist, Brady Corbet’s post-World War II drama about a Hungarian architect’s struggle for success and a lasting legacy in America. Capturing the themes and imagery of the immigrant experience is no small feat, and to do it on such a grand scale with limited budget is an even more impressive achievement. The Brutalist swells with majestic imagery, emotional scope, and fully realized characters confronting their own sense of worth and pride.
Robert Eggers is four for four in my book. If you loved The Witch and/or The Lighthouse and/or The Northman, then you’ll love Nosferatu. Having previously worked as a production designer, Eggers ensures that every frame is meticulously crafted. Lily-Rose Depp gives a physical tour-de-force performance as the possessed Ellen, while Bill Skarsgard reaffirms his aptitude for creature transformations as Count Orlok. With Nosferatu, Eggers has balanced his knack for exploring ancient rituals with a popular gothic tale. The result of this fitting match is a mesmerizing horror film that manages to scare and seduce, sometimes simultaneously.
There is only one definitive five-star masterpiece this year, though a few have come close, and that is Dune: Part Two. With much of the world-building and character establishment effectively done in Dune, the sequel had the freedom to dive deeper into Dune’s religious mythology and the complex anti-hero journey at its center, while expanding its cast of memorable characters and riveting settings. The sequences on Giedi Prime, the Harkonnens’ homeworld, as well as Paul Atriedes’ first sandworm ride are awe-inspiring scenes that look and feel like nothing captured on screen before. The acting in sci-fi epics rarely get much critical attention, yet the performances in the Dune series, including Austin Butler’s ruthless Feyd-Rautha, and Timothy Chalamet’s outstanding emotional arc across Part One and Part Two as Paul Atriedes, are deserving of critical and awards praise. I can’t wait to see how Denis Villaneuve handles Dune Messiah. Denis is the true Lisan al Gaib!
Honorable mentions:
Yes, even with twenty ranked films, there were still others that nearly made the list:
Nickel Boys
Ghostlight
The Beekeeper
Hard Truths
I’m Still Here
Emelia Perez
Juror #2
Oddity
Deadpool & Wolverine
