The best films of 2024
20 of the finest films I saw all year.
2024 was a doozy for films. I saw over 300 releases in theaters, mostly new ones, and another 70 titles on streaming. To whittle that down to anything resembling a top 20 was difficult, to say the least, which is why this list might change over time and isn't definitive. Instead, treat it as a primer of the 20 movies that I enjoyed so much that, even months later, I can't stop thinking about them.
Without further ado, the top 20:
Nosferatu
I'm a huge fan of Robert Eggers and how he handles folk horror. His latest, Nosferatu, is probably his best work to date. It's a staggering feat of recontextualizing old myths into something new while capturing a sense of past worlds and histories that may have never existed.
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Conclave
I stated in my review that Conclave could have easily gone so wrong with the wrong filmmakers at the helm. After three viewings, that feels all the more true. This delicately handled chamber drama about the selection of the new pope constantly flirts with melodrama and camp, yet never succumbs to easy temptation. Instead, it's a mature, richly woven tapestry of fate, power, and uncertainty in a world built on definitive hierarchy. A masterclass in acting, it features some of the best performances in any film released last year.
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Civil War
Released early in 2024, Civil War nearly vanished under the wave of fantastic releases later in the year. Luckily, this intense and brutally unflinching depiction of America destroying itself wouldn't go away. Instead, it has only become more prescient and terrifying as the year has marched on. Many were upset about its refusal to explain itself, yet Civil War is a better film because it doesn't provide easy answers. None of the main characters are good people, but they're not monsters, either. Instead, they're shades of grey in an increasingly divided world, attempting to capture a moment of truth in the only way they know how.
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Hit Man
This cheery, demented, and ridiculously sexy comedy brightened my summer like no other film this year. It's silly and implausible, yet driven by two leading performances so steamy and talented that it doesn't matter. I'm a huge fan of Richard Linklater, who once again proves he's a cinematic chameleon, capable of moving from one genre to the next like nobody else.
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The Bikeriders
Jeff Nichols is a great American poet, and The Bikeriders is a fascinating snippet of American culture at a turning point in history. Audiences were torn by the disparate narrative that hops around between years and decades, yet I couldn't help but love this mosaic of small lives looking for redemption on the backs of custom-built motorcycles.
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Longlegs
It was a great year for horror, and Longlegs leads the pack as a smart, unnerving, and thoroughly menacing piece of Satanic thrills. Maika Monroe is riveting as the troubled FBI agent hunting for a serial killer, and Nicolas Cage delivers an all-time great performance as the eponymous Longlegs. This is another terrifying story that refuses to explain itself any further, and its delights are as deep as the scares. I nearly had a panic attack in the theater and loved every minute of it.
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Anora
I was initially left cold by Anora because it adamantly refuses to follow the traditional beats of both drama and romantic comedy. But the further I get from my first viewing, the more I adore the hard truths and unsentimental love that Anora has to offer. Led by a towering performance from Mikey Madison, this is a great and complicated film about sex, love, empowerment, and hierarchy masquerading as a goofball romp. It sneaks in with a wry smile and proceeds to settle somewhere in your heart.
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Kneecap
This Irish delight came out of nowhere and immediately took its spot as one of the funniest and most charming films of the year. Part biopic, part music film, part piss-take, Kneecap is everything that tedious rock'n'roll movies like A Complete Unknown want to be, but aren't. It's like hanging out with rowdy drinking buddies who always have the best stories.
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Twilight of Warriors: Walled In
One of the big Cannes delights, Twilight of Warriors is an explosive mix of urban fantasy, kung-fu epic, and historic drama. Set in the walled city of Kowloon, it charts the lives of the downtrodden and misfortunate as they set to create a new reality for themselves on the outskirts of society. It goes completely off the rails by the end, but it's also so charming that it doesn't matter. This is one of the most fun theatergoing experiences of the year.
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Emilia Perez
The film that shook my world to its core. I walked in completely blind and two hours later came out proclaiming Emilia Perez a miracle. Six screenings and almost a year later, that still stands. This audacious, life-affirming, heartfelt, heartbreaking, devastating, and immaculate film about identity, forgiveness, love, and family remains a highlight of the year.
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Eight Postcards from Utopia
This found footage documentary baffled and excited me to such a degree that I couldn't stop thinking about it for a full week after my initial viewing. Comprised of advertisements from an almost three-decade period of Romanian history, Eight Postcards from Utopia is a startling glimpse into the hopes and dreams of an entire nation, told through the voices of crass commercialism.
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Furiosa
George Miller's epic prequel to Fury Road and smart expansion of the Mad Max mythology is still a high-octane thrill I continue to revisit. It's not the same spectacle as Fury Road, but its best moments soar. Anya Taylor-Joy is hugely impressive as Furiosa, and Chris Hemsworth delivers a career-best performance as Dementus, the hapless overlord destined to face her wrath. Post-apocalypse fantasy rarely gets as good as this.
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Ellis Park
Another London Film Festival surprise, this tender documentary about the life and career of musician Mick Garris and his work with a wildlife foundation touched me deeply. It's like peering across a distant gulf to find others struggling with the same thoughts, and realizing that no matter how it feels, you are not alone, and there are people in this world full of great compassion and kindness.
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Here
Others are calling Here one of the worst films of the year. I couldn't disagree more. In time, I believe it will find drastic reappraisal as people get over the admittedly uneven visual effects. Beyond the technical aspects, Here is an impressive feat of dramatic engineering that thoroughly understands the assignment of adapting Richard McGuire's momentous graphic novel to a film. The result is a heartbreaking tale of little lives lost in the current of endless time, and I loved every second of it.
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Heretic
Funny, terrifying, insightful, and demented. Heretic is all these things and more, and it's a thrill every time I see it. Led by a marvelous Hugh Grant effectively playing an even more unhinged version of Richard Dawkins, Heretic is the kind of low-budget chamber piece that could easily become a one-trick pony. Instead, the result is so smart and full of surprises that it rewards repeat views in ways that most horror films rarely achieve.
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Monkey Man
Dev Patel is the real deal. He's a fantastic leading man and a smart writer, and now he's proven himself as one of the most exciting voices in action cinema. Monkey Man is a tough-as-nails thriller set in Mumbai, where the Kid (Patel) seeks vengeance against the man who murdered his mother years ago. The hypnotic tale is full of left-turns and unexpected twists on common genre tropes, but it's never better than in the action, where Patel and his fantastic cast deliver some of the biggest thrills this side of Hong Kong cinema.
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Dune Part Two
2024 felt like such a long year that it's insane to think Dune Part Two came out just 12 months ago. In any other year, it would be the big picture all others skirt around, yet that's not the world we live in anymore. Instead, Dune came and went to critical appraise, but little fanfare elsewhere. This is a shame since Denis Villeneuve's fantastic adaptation is a smart, daring epic that treats its audience like adults even as it delivers a big popcorn spectacle.
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Horizon: An American Saga
Unfairly maligned and dismissed to the point that its second chapter only saw a brief premiere in Venice before disappearing entirely, Horizon is a labor of love worthy of reappraisal. Spanning years in the lives of settlers in the American West, Kevin Costner's ambitious tale of disparate fates is grand, sprawling, complex, and often frustrating. But it's also a stunningly beautiful and smartly composed epoch that shows how much Costner has grown as a filmmaker. We've come far from the reductive days of cowboys and Indians, and Horizon is a bright spark in the world of neo-Westerns that refuses to return to the old ways.
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Rebel Ridge
Jeremy Saulnier's uncompromising Rambo-adjacent thriller was a gut punch when it arrived on Netflix in September, and it continues to impress months down the line. This neo-Western might appear traditional on the surface, but bubbling beneath it is a blisteringly smart condemnation of a broken society where the rule of law serves only the ruthless.
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The Substance
The film that had the audience howling at Cannes. The Substance isn't subtle, but it's smart, funny, and brutally incisive in its satire about our society and our dated views on aging. Demi Moore stuns in the lead role, and there's a lot to love in any horror film that can wring out laughs from squeamish body horror while also delivering a heartfelt message about loving yourself, no matter who you are.
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