2024 has been the biggest (not the best) movie year for me to date. I’ve seen 136 new releases from this year. I covered multiple festivals and attended NYFF as accredited press for the first time ever. Regardless of the overall quality of the movies released this year, 2024 will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s important to note that last year’s strikes had a major impact on the release schedule this year (Challengers being released this year instead of last, for instance) and several productions were delayed which has caused what many believe to be a sparse year for cinema. Despite the odds, we still had some bangers.
10. Trap
“Why are so many people pretending to love Trap?” Look, say what you want about me on the internet but I am not pretending. My thoughts have been documented on the site when the movie came out. I was hooting and hollering the whole way through this film, and I am M. Night Shyamalan’s target audience. Josh Hartnett delivers an amazing performance and the first two-thirds are undeniable. Give this one and all of Shyamalan’s work a revisit and find the joy and wonder he brings to filmmaking.
9. The First Omen
It takes a lot to freak me out in a horror movie, and Arakasha Stevenson’s debut film The First Omen was a once in a blue moon theater experience for me. Her direction is incredibly inventive and actually made me care about a prequel to a B-tier horror franchise in which I’ve seen no other entries. Nell Tiger Free has one of the year’s breakout performances as Sister Margaret and it’s entirely on her and Stevenson’s efforts that this movie is successful. I genuinely couldn’t believe some of the things I was seeing in the theater and it got me excited about both of their careers going forward.
8. Nickel Boys
Speaking of inventive direction and filmmaking, good Lord. RaMell Ross’s adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel is the most breathtaking film I have seen all year. It’s hard to think of a more impressive narrative feature debut in recent memory, and his commitment to the unique perspectives throughout the film is the boldest choice in cinema of the past decade. Not only is the movie impressive on a technical level, but the story it tells is incredibly important and yet another reminder of the rampant racism and abuse that has plagued America since before it even began. In a just world, Ross would run away with the Best Director award at every awards show.
7. Juror #2
It’s been a hell of a year for Nicholas Hoult, with three solid outputs displaying his range and taste. Perhaps another of his films shows up later on this list. Hoult, with help from J.K. Simmons and Toni Collette, carries Clint Eastwood’s potential final film about justice, personal responsibility, and the woes of the legal system. It’s absurdly exciting that Eastwood can still make something this engaging and thought-provoking well into his nineties, especially considering some of the duds he has put out in the last few years. Juror #2 puts a twist on the Lumet classic 12 Angry Men and is well worth seeking out after Warner Brothers tanked its theater run this fall.
6. Nosferatu
Robert Eggers simply does not miss. His attention to detail and vision make anything he does worth seeing. Nosferatu is a welcome “return to form” after he went slightly commercial with The Northman in 2022. His smaller scale here works perfectly with his loyal team of craftspeople, who are so in sync that it’s hard to find a flaw in the filmmaking. Eggers gets great performances from Nicholas Hoult, Willem Defoe, Aaron Taylor-Jonhson, Bill Skarsgard, and the surprisingly impressive Lily Rose-Depp. I’m excited to see this on the biggest screen possible in the coming days to hone in on my thoughts, but it still left an impression upon the first watch.
5. Sing Sing
I seem to be one of the thirty-seven lucky American citizens who have been able to see Sing Sing this year after A24’s curious and confusing rollout. This was probably the most emotional I got in a theater this year, and it’s hard to overstate how wonderful Sing Sing is. The story behind the movie and the fact that most of the actors are previously incarcerated and spent time in the prison and program portrayed in the film is mindblowing to me, and I still think about it months later. You won’t regret it if you can support this in a theater once A24 makes the final awards push in the coming weeks.
4. Hit Man
Richard Linklater’s Hit Man was the first 2024 release I saw as part of last year’s NYFF, and it has stayed near the top of my list ever since. Glen Powell and Adria Arjona have amazing chemistry and it somehow compresses three different movies into one without screwing it up. I love anything Linklater puts in front of me but this one has felt like the most impressive of his work over the past few years, capturing charisma and humor in a way that just stays with you. It’s a shame this didn’t get a theater run, and I am forever grateful for the opportunity to see it in one.
3. Challengers
Challengers has surprisingly become the more successful and more potent of Luca Guadagnino’s two releases this year, with Queer proving to be a bit more weird than some expected. The latter’s more serious subject matter was thought to position it in more awards standing than Challengers, but folks underestimated just how fun Challengers would turn out to be. Its three main stars, led by Zendaya, are amazing together and the frenetic pace and score make this a one-of-a-kind filmgoing experience. The most fun I had at the cinema this year was all three times I saw Challengers on the big screen and it’s not even close.
2. The Brutalist
It’s astounding that this film even exists, especially given that approximately 95% of Brady Corbet’s budget went to the 70mm film reels needed to shoot a three-plus hour epic*. From the moment the triumphant score began I knew I was in for something special with The Brutalist and it doesn’t disappoint. Corbet produces career-best performances from Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce, and somehow makes a film of this length breeze by. In a world dominated by sequels and franchises, original filmmaking is alive and well in the hands of some wonderful young directors like Corbet.
*Please note this is a joke stat and not factual.
1. Dune: Part Two
I know, it’s pretty boring to have a franchise sequel as the best movie of the year. In my defense, it’s hard to argue against a director at the top of his game who has brought together one of the most stacked casts imaginable to adapt the unadaptable. Part One was just the set-up, and Denis Villeneuve pulled off the follow-through. The action set pieces, Timothee Chalamet’s surprisingly commanding performance, and all the technical filmmaking are unimpeachable. I think about this movie and Part One just about every day, whether it be a scene or a beautiful Greig Fraser shot. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films will go down as some of the highest achievements in mainstream filmmaking and will continue to age like fine wine.
