Each year we do a Top 10 list for our awards show, and it’s some of the most fun we have on the podcast. This year was very exciting to me because it didn’t have a cultural-defining moment like 2023 or any other previous year. You could argue that Dune: Part Two held that spot with how audiences reacted, even bringing their own sandworms to the theaters. But I’m not entirely sure how much it moved the zeitgeist needle comparatively. Most of what we saw from mainstream Hollywood was middling and uneven.
However, the cinematic landscape still had an abundance of riches. This is particularly true in regards to animated film, documentaries, American indie and International film – which was dominant. If anything, the year will be defined by innovative and resourceful filmmaking. Young filmmakers brought something to the table this year that is potentially game-changing. I do wonder if we’ll look back at 2024 decades from now as some sort of pivot point for modern cinema. And what’s really interesting is that it’s from names that the general public won’t recognize. No Spielberg. No Nolan. No Scorsese. No Fincher. 2024 was the year of young, ambitious, provocative filmmakers looking to make a difference. With perhaps an exception or two.
We do encourage you to listen to Episode 619 to hear more about our picks, but as we do every year, listed here (after the jump) are my Top 10 Movies of 2024.
10. The Wild Robot
There is clearly a lot of love for The Wild Robot across the board, but how many people would be willing to put it up against the likes of The Boy and the Heron or Across the Spider-Verse? Because that’s exactly where I’m at with this film. It’s one of the best animated films of the decade and one of the most poignant of 2024. There’s something about Chris Sanders’ writing that’s so magical here. The idea of Roz realizing that her programming has to change to take on the responsibility of being a parent is really powerful. Her dynamic with Brightbill is really endearing and charming to boot. Culminating in a sequence utterly obliterated me when The Wild Robot suddenly transformers into Midnight Special. The migration scene isn’t just the best of this film, it’s one of the best of the year, heightened by a rousing score from Kris Bowers (my pick for Best Original Score btw). Words can barely articulate its emotionally affect, but that’s the beauty of animation. It does all the work and it’s utterly beautiful. Roz urgently running up the mountainside to see Brightbill one last time is a moment I will soon not forget. Click here to listen to our full review.
9. Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve is one of my guys. Not sure how he convinced a studio to let him make, not one, but two large-scale Dune movies when the original bombed so hard. Yet here we are, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. As was the case with its predecessor, Part Two is an incredibly immersive and transportive experience. Continuing its dusty and arenaceous aesthetic, the cinematography and production design is out of this world. The remarkable scope of the film is what makes cinema a unique form of art. But beyond its bombastic qualities, it’s a riveting cautionary tale for messianic worship and blind followership. The nuances of religion and its fanatical dualities are equally as striking. All heightened by an electric cast who are all terrific. Not to mention another great score from Hans Zimmer, who deserves an apology from The Academy. Click here to listen to our full review.
8. Evil Does Not Exist
Evil Does Not Exist is one of the best overlooked movies of 2024, even by critics and cinephiles. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest may not be for everyone, but it’s 100% my jam. It is slow and methodical. It isn’t interested in pandering or hand-holding. It’s exquisitely crafted. The camera isn’t afraid to linger and simply observe. The score is excellent, edited to coexist with the film’s dramatic pauses. The performances are immaculate. Yet, for all of its technical merit, where Evil Does Not Exist really thrives is with its magic trick. The film somehow operates with this entrancing, redolent realism with how it weaves a modern-day landscape and conflict that’s easily attainable. Yet, at the same time, it plays out as an eco-fable, all the way down to invoking Little Red Riding Hood as young Hana frolics in the forest. As the film crystalizes, it is clearly working as some sort of cautionary tale or parable about the intrusion of corporate greed against natural beauty. But I love how deeply grounded and pragmatic it is from moment to moment. There’s something about that duality here that is magical. Click here to listen to our full review.
7. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude’s Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World is the most dense and complex film of the year. It intertwines social and political dramas of the past, as the film shifts from a 1980s Romanian drama about a female taxi driver to the modern day where Angela (our lead character) drives around Bucharest visiting the exact same places, just with a different context. That on its own terms is impressive. The parallels between the two timelines is absolutely striking. But that’s just scratching the surface because it also wrestles with corporate greed and the tendency of capitalism to blame injuries of workers on the workers themselves. It’s about the Romanian government selling itself to Europe. It’s about racism and toxic masculinity (and how the film uses TikTok as a literal filter for that idea is absolutely hysterical). There’s a Uwe Boll cameo that had me on the floor. There is commentary about filmmaking itself. Hell, it’s even about bad roads and dangerous intersections in Romania. There is no way it should all work, and yet it does. Because ultimately it’s a movie about how it’s a miracle that we’re able to get through the day as it is. The world is too f***ed up. The fact we make it though is an achievement.
6. I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun is a Best Director nominee for me at the InSession Film Awards. For good reason. Their work here is astounding. The use of neon hues and smoke is visually entrancing. The use of the camera, particularly with how it lingers at times, is incredibly inspired filmmaking. Every shot in I Saw the TV Glow is thoughtfully designed to heighten or further bring clarity to the emotions of these characters. Not to mention the creation of “The Pink Opaque” – this amalgamation of Nick At Night and Buffy the Vampire Slayer – is straight out of the 1990s. Perhaps what I admired most, however, is how those redolent images compliment the film’s themes. I was viscerally moved by the storytelling and its meditation on the role art plays as both a tool for self-discovery and something that can trap us. As a trans allegory, it is deeply poignant and stirring. Justice Smith with one of the very best surprise performances of the year. Truly, truly incredible what he does here. Those final moments at the birthday party are chillingly melancholic. Click here to listen to our full review.
5. Red Rooms
Red Rooms is one of the most disturbing, yet thought-provoking and bold serial killer films we’ve seen in a long time. Horror comes in many forms, but there’s something about the sadistic torture and brutality at the core of Red Rooms, that is then used as a cypher for obsessive behavior, that I find immensely more unsettling than the gore and violence itself. We actually never see graphic violence in the film, a ploy that’s very effective as the film examines the polarity between fantastical desires to be involved and the consequences of anonymity. Eventually, that duality crumbles and there comes a moment Kelly-Anne (our lead character) removes the mask of anonymity. What plays out is *the* scene of 2024 as she makes a very deliberate choice in the courtroom. It’s shocking. It’s spine-tingling. Truly one of the most evil actions we’ve seen from any character in film. Click here to listen to our full review.
4. Furiosa
Furiosa is not at all what I expected and that’s why George Miller rules. It is the inverse to Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that is structured around its spectacle but infuses moments of poetry throughout its chaos. Whereas Furiosa is structured around its parable and infuses moments of spectacle in-between its beautiful moments of symbolism. Miller isn’t interested in regurgitating the same formula, despite the insane success of Fury Road, and I love how Furiosa bares its heart and rage in an attempt to find hope in a wasteland of grief. It’s why I could care less that we learn nothing new about this world or Furiosa herself. When the film is this beautiful and poetic, that’s the last thing on my mind. Miller’s work as a writer (my winner for Best Adapted Screenplay – totally underrated) and director is arresting, but I cannot say enough great things about this cast. Alyla Browne and Chris Hemsworth are especially striking. Hemsworth might give a career best performance here. Click here to listen to our full review.
3. The Brutalist
The Brutalist is intellectually stimulating. Bet you haven’t heard that one before. Seriously, though, this film is the literal definition of “they don’t make movies like this anymore.” It’s a large-scale epic that’s reminiscent of the scope and excess of the New Hollywood Era. Everything is grand in presentation; the cinematography, the setting, the architecture, the performances, the score. It’s all gloriously imposing and redolent. Anchored by two images that define the film, The Brutalist is a brazen look at America’s hollow DNA. The Statue of Liberty in the opening scene. A cross in the closing scene (before the coda). Both of these objects in frame are upside down, a scathing reminder of the lie that is the American Dream and the vacuous theology that preaches it. The conviction of the film is palpable, and its parallels to filmmaking itself will only make it hilarious when it wins Best Picture at the Oscars. Click here to listen to our full review.
2. All We Imagine As Light
All We Imagine As Light is my winner for Best International Film of 2024. I loved this film with every fiber of my being, leaving me with an immense euphoric feeling as the end credits rolled. Payal Kapadia isn’t just one of the best directors of the year, but she is my pick for Best Movie Discovery. Her work here is nothing short of sublime. Everything is wonderfully internalized and reflective. It’s emotionally very stirring. The cinematography is exuberant. The score and soundtrack is vibrant. Yet, for all of its evocative craft, its thematic fervor is equally as radiant with how it uses light and nocturnal aesthetics to grapple with loneliness and geographical dislocation. The story may take place in Mumbai, a massive city that is always awake, but our characters find themselves lonely, uncertain and disconnected. And there’s something about them yearning for life in the nocturnal light that deeply moved me. Light in the darkness becomes this magical space for longing and memory. The way all of that concludes in those final scenes is everything Nicole Kidman talks about in her AMC ad. It’s why we go to the movies. It’s beautiful and stirring. Kani Kusruti, you deserved more this awards season. Click here to listen to our full review.
1. Nickel Boys
Nickel Boys is a game-changer. Perhaps in the ways that 2001: A Space Odyssey became a pivot point in the history of cinema, that may be Nickel Boy‘s story as well. Time will tell, but perhaps that’s what will define 2024 in film. The filmmaking here from RaMell Ross, in collaboration with cinematographer Jomo Fray, is simply among the most intuitive and creative filmmaking we’ve seen this century. There have been other attempts at POV, but none as graceful or assiduous as Nickel Boys. The POV isn’t a gimmick. It’s a brilliant way to expose how an abusive system gives you perspective, a viewpoint that shifts as your worldview evolves dramatically. The alternating viewpoints offer up a subjective and objective observation on what’s really happening at this reform school with these characters, and the results are devastating. Not only does it deconstruct decades of film language, but it gives the film a very unique pathos as we get just a small glimpse of what it’s like to see the world through Black eyes. Click here to listen to our full review.
To round out my Top 20, here is the rest of my list:
11) A Different Man
12) Janet Planet
13) Sing Sing
14) The Beast
15) Anora
16) Close Your Eyes
17) Queer
18) No Other Land
19) A Real Pain
20) Ghostlight
Because it was such a deep year, and I felt so compelled, I compiled a full Top 50 on Letterboxd.
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.
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