The world of cinema was a complicated one in the year of 2024. Studios were feeling the aftermath of the multiple strikes that transpired throughout 2023, with less films to release/promote in the fiscal year. From my point of view I’d categorize it as a year with a lot of decent movies, but very few I found to be truly special. Even in what I find to be a down year I still ended up witnessing two 5 star masterpieces. With that let’s jump into what I found to be the best movies the year of 2024 had to offer!

Honorable Mentions:

• Flow
• The Wild Robot
• My Old Ass
• Hit Man

#10. A Complete Unknown

A Complete Unknown actually fails my rule for if a biopic is necessary; if it weren’t true would it still be an interesting story? The answer in this case is absolutely not, but in one of the exceptions to the rule the music of Bob Dylan and the conviction of the actors playing the characters sucks you right in. It’s absolutely hokey when about 8 different scenes in the movie show people gobsmacked listening to a new Dylan song for the first time; but it absolutely makes sense! That’s how I imagine people reacted back then! They’re amazing! Timmy is phenomenal as Bob, and may end up winning an Oscar, but Monica Barbaro steals the show for me as Joan Baez. Nobody does these kinds of films better than James Mangold.

#9. Conclave

Never in a million years did I think a movie entirely about Cardinal Priests talking to each other in rooms for 2 hours would rip this hard. Add Conclave to the list of great dudes talking in rooms pictures. The big twist I don’t feel entirely lands but the journey to get there was a thrill. Score and cinematography were top notch along with all the performances. Ralph Fiennes at a certain point I was confident would win the best actor prize. He absolutely deserves the legacy it’s time win, but it’s looking like it’ll need to be another year.

#8. Civil War

A24’s first foray into larger budget spectacles still retains the company’s values towards story telling in Alex Garland’s powerful and shocking Civil War. Kirsten Dunst continues her renaissance while teaming up with new it girl Cailee Spaeny in a bleak adventure during a…well……..civil war. The marketing heavily implied this movie would explore today’s real world political environment, but the final product is not interested in that at all. This is purely about the dangerous objective life of being a war zone photographer, and Garland pulls no punches. This one will hit you straight in the chest.

#7. Longlegs

Like so many others I was suckered by Neon’s fantastic marketing for Longlegs presenting it as the most terrifying film in decades. I literally got goosebumps whenever the teaser trailer would play. The movie I actually saw was not very scary at all; however, a deep evil and dread caried throughout and gave us one of the best serial killer thrillers I’ve seen in ages. I’m very interested to see the output of Osgood Perkins moving forward, he made a killer splash here. P.S. where’s the awards campaign for Nicolas Cage?!?!

#6. The Substance

2024 was a pretty decent year for horror and The Substance ended up being my favorite of the bunch. Of all the sub-genre’s within horror, body horror is not one of my favorites. But this movie had me invested from the opening seconds with a committed powerhouse performance from the legendary Demi Moore. In a year where Ozempic was all the craze, what impeccable timing to get a bitchin original horror movie tackling the worlds obsession with beauty and reliance on drugs. If Demi ends up winning the Oscar for this it’ll be my favorite moment in years.

#5. Challengers

It’s a real shame we rarely get any cinematic adventures that revolve around the sport of tennis. In comes Luca Guadagnino with Challengers, an artful and soapy look at what drives perfection in our greatest athletes, with a sexy twist! Zendaya proves why she’s one of the biggest names on the planet as she meticulously rules these boys on and off the court with ease. Inventive camera tricks and arguably the best score of the year from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross make this a pulse pounding must watch. Holds up well on rewatches too!

#4. Wicked

I’m a big time musical dweeb and I’ve been on the record for a solid 16 years or so that Wicked would never work as a feature film. I was truly astounded at how abysmally wrong I was. I loved every single minute, of which there are many, of this movie. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande took these iconic songs and characters and elevated them to new heights for the big screen. I’ve been a fan of Jon M. Chu’s for many years and I’m so happy to see his Spielbergian tendencies finally delivered for him in the biggest way. It’s not a perfect movie, the CGI animals look noticeably bad and much has been said about the flat lighting. I have to be honest, I was too busy glowing over the extraordinary sets and performances to focus too much on that. I’m embarrassed to admit this but Wicked was 1 of 2 movies I cried during in 2024. (the other being My Old Ass)

#3. Anora

Sean Baker continues his cinematic journeys about sex workers with his biggest entry yet in Anora. A star making turn for Mikey Madison, Anora tells the story of a stripper who elopes with the immature son of a Russian gangster, and the hijinks that ensues when the family wants to get their marriage annulled. The film is so many things in one nearly perfect package: funny, sexy, sad, manic, hopeful, crushing. I can’t wait to see what everyone involved does next and I hope the film gets recognized in some way during the awards season.

#2. The Brutalist

Brady Corbet’s new American masterpiece The Brutalist may very well be my favorite film of the year. In the interest of avoiding recency bias (I just went to see this yesterday) I’m putting it at #2. That being said, I don’t think I witnessed anything more artful and mind blowing in 2024. Once you see the film, the title makes a lot more sense as it applies to so many different layers of what this epic tale touches on. What does it mean to be an artist in a reach for perfection while the world is tearing you down? Corbet draws not so subtle analogies between Adrian Brody’s immigrant architect in post war America with himself. I hope Brody wins the gold.

It’s been talked about a lot that this extraordinary film was made for only $10 million despite looking like it cost over $100 million. The use of Vista Vision technology really works here taking this very long intimate look of characters across decades on a large scale. This one will be living in my head for a long time.

#1. Dune: Part 2

The Brutalist and Dune: Part 2 are obviously the two 5 star films I alluded to at the start of this article. Either one deserves to be #1 on this list and they couldn’t be more different from each other in every single way. I ultimately went with Dune: Part 2 because it’s held up incredibly well on multiple watches and covers all 4 quadrants, telling an epic/entertaining story while also being top notch at every technical level.

Denis Villeneuve completes his masterful adaptation of Herbert’s seminal novel on a grandiose scale. The changes he made from novel to film were meaningful and allowed other characters to shine and the art to be front and center. It’s not easy to captivate an audience asking the important question: “What if our hero turns out to be space Hitler?” By god did he and his team do it though! With Paul’s third act speech, even knowing it was coming, I had goosebumps and fought the urge to slam my arm up in the air. This is blockbuster excellence on the highest scale from acting, cinematography, score, visual effects, direction the list goes on. May THY knife chip and shatter.