Thursday, February 13, 2025

List: Brendan Cassidy’s Top 10 Movies of 2024

It’s possible that 2022 and 2023 spoiled us with event films like Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, and of course the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, all of which gave their respective years a cultural touchstone to remember them by. The year 2024 didn’t have anything even remotely resembling that, and as we’ve seen over the last several weeks, the awards race has been all over the place. Has this made 2024 a weaker year in film? Well, on one hand it certainly wasn’t as consistent. But on the other hand, that lack of consistency has given 2024 something that recent movie years haven’t really had – a lack of consensus. The year has done a great job spotlighting vast differences in opinions among critics and audiences, and if anything, that has made 2024 a more intriguing film year to dissect. This year highlighted the “little engines that could”, specifically up-and-coming indie filmmakers who all found new and exciting ways to challenge the form. I’ll take that over any “event film” any day of the week.

Let’s celebrate those who made 2024 worth talking about. Hopefully you also listen to Episode 619 for a more in depth (ahem, 7-hour) analysis, but for those who need less suspense in their lives, here are my Top 10 Movies of 2024.


RELATED: Brendan’s Top 10 Movies of 2021


10. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies


Pat Boonnitipat’s feature debut from Thailand is the most egregiously manipulative movie of the year, and it knows it. To achieve this level of emotional trickery without sacrificing sincerity is no easy feat, and should be just as heavily praised as those that sidestep saccharinity. This is a sweet and often very funny movie about familial connection and inheritance, featuring a pitch perfect performance from Usha “Taew” Seamkhum, who makes her acting debut here at 78 years old.

9. Hundreds of Beavers


Many films this year attempted to challenge the form, but Hundreds of Beavers is the one that had the most fun doing it. Mike Cheslik’s feature debut functions like a live action Looney Tunes episode (the references to the Acme Corporation are a dead giveaway) in the style of a 1930s silent comedy, but through some very clever comedic timing and editing, the film proves that it’s not just pastiche. Despite its visual familiarities, there’s a newness to Hundreds of Beavers that feels sincere and loving, functioning like a reinvention of a classic form of comedy. It also helps that it’s funny as hell.

8. The First Omen


With Disney now exploring the back catalog of their newly acquired 20th Century Studios (with movies like Prey, Alien: Romulus, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), it’s here where they seem to be most comfortable letting their filmmakers really cook (low risk, high reward, I guess). Case in point The First Omen, which is too good to believe it stems from that same Disney umbrella. Arkasha Stevenson’s directorial debut is a confident, artful, and truly frightening depiction of the church using fear as a weapon to increase attendance (no joke), featuring a lead performance from Nell Tiger Free that should be getting massive awards consideration. Until its final coda, you might have forgotten you were watching a prequel to The Omen all along. Click here to listen to our full review.

7. Rebel Ridge


Jeremy Saulnier’s latest has been described as First Blood meets Michael Clayton (by Saulnier himself), and it’s an apt description for what is at its core an ‘80s genre film made with contemporary sophistication. Rebel Ridge is a film that slowly reveals itself the more you think about it, as its notions on small town corruption and how bigotry stems from desperation have sneaky staying power. But taken simply on the service, it’s thrilling entertainment, featuring a star-making performance from Aaron Pierre. If Pierre doesn’t become the next big thing, we may have failed as a human race. Click here to listen to our full review.

6. Red Rooms


It’s hard to believe a movie like Red Rooms even exists, and it has become even more frighteningly relevant today in light of recent events. This French Canadian thriller from Pascal Plante may seem like a conventional courtroom murder mystery at the onset, but as it progresses, it instead taps into a growing culture of murder groupies and cosplayers, rooted in this contemporary (almost celebratory) obsession that many have with true crime. While not the most literal “horror” movie of the year, it may be the year’s evilest movie, featuring a lead performance from Juliette Gariépy that should garner Hannibal Lecter levels of comparison. I may never listen to an episode of Crime Junkie ever again. Click here to listen to our full review.

5. Nickel Boys


Much has already been said regarding RaMell Ross’ direction in Nickel Boys, but it’s worth emphasizing as much as possible. Based on the 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead (inspired by the historic Dozier School), Nickel Boys depicts the Nickel Academy reform school’s abuse of black children in Jim Crow era Tallahassee, utilizing one of the most unique and effective forms of first person perspective shifting to ever grace the screen. It is a one of a kind experience, the purest definition of what it means to “put yourself in their shoes”, all fronted by a central friendship between its two subjects (Elwood and Turner) that is genuinely moving. We may be looking at a new trendsetter here. Click here to listen to our full review.

4. Close Your Eyes


One of the most celebrated Spanish filmmakers makes his triumphant return 30 years later with arguably the year’s most reflective film. On its own, Close Your Eyes functions as a deeply moving mystery about the tie between cinema and memory, but when you consider it through the lens of director Victor Erice, the film becomes even more thoughtful and heartbreaking, how growing old and being forgotten might be the thing we fear the most. The bookends to this film (and its clever sleight of hand) rank among the best of anything I witnessed in 2024.

3. Anora

The ending to Sean Baker’s latest should be studied, as it makes for a compelling thesis about what happens to a film when it outright sticks the landing. Anora is not Baker’s best or most thoughtful film (I would certainly rank The Florida Project and Red Rocket above it), but it might be the film from this year that has aged the most gracefully, given how successfully it concludes. In its final 20 minutes, Baker transforms Anora from “raunchy sex-comedy-thriller” to a thoughtful exploration of workers at the mercy of the almighty dollar, coupled by a cathartic exchange between Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov that I won’t soon forget. It may not be the movie of the year, but its ending might be the scene of the year, and that has to account for something. Click here to listen to our full review.

2. All We Imagine As Light

It’s astounding that All We Imagine As Light is a narrative feature debut. Payal Kapadia’s work might be the most confident display of direction this year, a film so precise you would think she had been making movies for decades. All We Imagine As Light is one of the most remarkable contemporary films about urban life and its cultural restrictions, how a place that’s more populated and opportunistic can actually be a lonely hindrance. This is especially true for Prabha, played beautifully by Kani Kusruti, and those final scenes tying all the film’s central characters together are among the most magical moments of the year. It also features the greatest performance of all time from a rice cooker. Click here to listen to our full review.

1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga


It’s a shame hardly anyone went to see George Miller’s return to the Wasteland, because Furiosa is a pretty special movie. It’s a film that challenges blockbuster and franchise expectations, and kudos to George Miller for shifting gears into something this solemn, grief-stricken, and regretful. Furiosa is the epic power ballad of a heavy metal franchise (if Fury Road was “Enter Sandman”, then this is “Nothing Else Matters”), sharing similarities with the likes of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven as a tale of vengeance corrupting the soul, all crystallizing in a surprisingly artful and psychological way that pays tribute to the legends of Miller’s Australian homeland. I cannot recall the last time a franchise epic felt this mythic and spiritual, and it just may be the most spiritually charged film of 2024. Hot take or not, I can see a world where this becomes my favorite George Miller film. Click here to listen to our full review.

Honorable Mentions that round out my Top 20:
11) A Different Man
12) Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
13) Queer
14) Juror #2
15) The Substance
16) Evil Does Not Exist
17) Hit Man
18) Love Lies Bleeding
19) Sometimes I Think About Dying
20) Challengers

Let us know what you think. Do you agree or disagree? We’d like to know why. Leave a comment in the comment section below or tweet us @InSessionFilm.

To hear us discuss our InSession Film Awards and our Top 10 Best Movies of 2023, subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud or you can listen below.

Download MP3
InSession Film Podcast – Episode 567 (Part 1)
InSession Film Podcast – Episode 567 (Part 2)

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