This time of the year is always hard for me as someone who writes about film for a living. Publications all over the country start releasing their best-of lists featuring the top movies and shows they discovered over the past 12 months. Because I don’t live in Los Angeles, New York or another large market, I don’t get to see a lot of the big releases before they open in the rest of the country. By the time we get to the end of the year, a lot of the big award contenders haven’t opened near me, so I have to build a list without having watched everything buzzworthy.
Luckily, this year was another remarkable year for cinema, so I’m still happy with the ones I did see. Still, by January or February, this list might be completely different, but that’s OK. How we view art changes constantly, and when we make these lists, it’s not so much a marker of what movies are objectively better than others, but a look at the people we were at this specific time in history and the art that was shaping our social moment.
We also had another pretty powerful year for television, with the streaming services dominating the landscape once again. Season three of “The Bear” might have been its weakest season so far, but that still makes it better than most shows out there. Netflix’s adaptation of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is sumptuous and gorgeous, finding the soul of the novel and expanding it in ways both surprising and inevitable. “Shgun” was intense and epic, yet also managed to be fun and exciting in ways a lot of shows forget to be. Nothing felt dragged out; instead, it moved like a sword through grass. “Black Doves” and “Slow Horses” were both handily the best spy shows on television, proving once again that the U.K. has that genre on lock.
For me, my two favorite shows I watched all year were Max’s “The Penguin,” which basically set “The Sopranos” in the world of Batman (more fun than it sounds), and “Say Nothing,” Hulu’s uncompromising and electric limited series set in Belfast during the Troubles. If “Say Nothing” was a movie, it would be my favorite film of the year, hands down.
Films I haven’t seen yet that might have made this list: “The Brutalist,” “A Real Pain,” “All We Imagine as Light,” “Nickel Boys,” “Hard Truths,” “I’m Still Here,” “Nosferatu,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Green Border,” “No Other Land,” “Emilia Pérez,” “My Old Ass,” “The Room Next Door,” “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” “Close Your Eyes” and “Babygirl.”
The worst movies I saw in 2024 (in no particular order) are: “The Crow,” “Kraven the Hunter,” “Madame Web,” “Borderlands,” “Founders Day,” “Subservience,” “Unfrosted,” “Latency,” “Poolman” and “Trigger Warning.”
The scariest movie of the year was a 45-minute short called “Chime,” directed by horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Most underrated comedy: “Hundreds of Beavers” for its 120 minutes of pure slapstick imagination. Most underrated drama: “Tuesday” for reminding the world that Julia Louis-Dreyfus is an incredible performer, no matter the genre. Most overrated: “Longlegs” really bummed me out because I love Nic Cage and Oz Perkins but, even though the vibe is immaculate, the story felt undercooked, and the film was nowhere near as scary as I had hoped. Best prequel: “The First Omen” is a classy, very well-crafted horror film on its own, but also adds colors and shades to the 1976 original that make it a better movie in retrospect. Best martial arts movie: “Monkey Man” — Dev Patel should be our next James Bond. Period.
Here are my top 15 movies of the year:
15: “Inside Out 2”
Any animated movie that tries to teach children how to deal with low self-worth and anxiety is a classic in my book.
14: “Strange Darling”
A fractured cat-and-mouse chase told non-chronologically, featuring an all-time great performance by Willa Fitzgerald and gorgeous, grimy cinematography from Giovanni Ribisi. Insane.
13: “The Outrun”
Saoirse Ronan has long been an actress of limitless depth and empathy, but her turn as an alcoholic rediscovering herself on the Orkney Islands while searching for a rare bird was an absolutely soaring achievement.
12: “Rebel Ridge”
With an instant movie star performance from Aaron Pierre, the film turns what could have been a dull retread of “First Blood” into an action-packed, blisteringly angry social commentary about police corruption and the power of family.
11: “Sing Sing”
A prison movie that treats the bars like walls to a human soul more than the outside world that refuses to wallow in po-faced pity and instead fills every frame with hope.
10: “Anora”
A drama that’s simultaneously a meet-cute romantic comedy and a deeply humane unpacking of the toll sex work can take on a soul.
9: “Challengers”
Sexy, fun and genuinely surprising, this is not just the best movie I’ve ever seen about tennis, but it beautifully carries the best love triangle since “The Notebook.”
8: “The Substance”
Deliriously disgusting body horror held in check by a boldly fearless script acting as a primal scream for a new kind of feminism that protects all women. Genuinely stunning.
7: “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World”
A pitch-black Hungarian comedy that takes the piss out of late-stage capitalism while spitting in the face of the corporations that grind the working class to death. Both hilarious and devastating.
6: “Queer”
Takes the drug-addled loneliness of “Naked Lunch” and plops it down in 1950s Mexico City with seminal work from Daniel Craig and a scene-stealing Jason Schwartzman.
5: “Ghostlight”
A truly exceptional work of humanity that ruminates on the healing power of artistic expression with grace, beauty and breathtaking empathy. Remarkable.
4: “Conclave”
Who knew a bunch of old men voting for a new pope would feel like a glossy Hollywood thriller? Ralph Fiennes gives career-best work here and that’s saying something.
3: “I Saw the TV Glow”
Still a movie I think about at least once a day. This dark, dreamlike fairy tale breaks open a young man’s lonely spirit and searches for ways to help him heal. Every viewing of this changes what I think it means.
2: “The Beast”
A three-hour-long, French mind-bender that only makes sense in your dreams. Bertrand Bonello is a master filmmaker, and this might be his best film yet.
1: “His Three Daughters”
Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen play three estranged sisters who reconnect in their father’s small NYC apartment to take care of him during his final days. Perfect in every way and deals with grief so honestly that I found myself crying without really knowing why.
Honorable mentions: “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell,” “Janet Planet,” “Evil Does Not Exist,” “Wicked,” “Flow,” “Thelma,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “National Anthem,” “La Chimera,” “Bird,” “Oddity,” “Dahomey,” “A Different Man,” “Dune: Part 2.”
What were some of your favorite films of the year? Let me know! Thank you once again for letting me write about movies for you. It’s an honor.
This article appears in Source Weekly December 26, 2024.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
