I was lucky enough to watch 65 movies that were released in 2024. When I compiled my scores into an ordered list, it surprised me a little, but feels right in it's entirely subjective way. I expect most other people's lists would look quite different -- which is one of the things I love most about art.

Here's about what each score means to me:

5.0 - Truly rare masterpiece
4.5 - Fantastic, top-shelf, personal favorite
4.0 - Loved it
3.5 - Really liked It
3.0 - Liked It
2.5 - Okay / meh
2.0 - Didn't really like it
1.5 - Really didn't like it
1.0 - Actively disliked/annoyed by it
0.5 - Angry at it

~~TOP TEN~~

1 - Challengers (2024) - 4.5/5

Challengers is electric and kinetic and ridiculous and thumping and smashing and mean and confident. Are we still talking about tennis?

There are moments it almost starts taking itself too seriously, then some clever camera work or the fantastic Reznor/Ross score or an absurd amount of trash blowing around in a storm releases the dramatic tension enough for the pulsating style and sensuality to remain the driving heartbeat of the film.

2 - The Substance (2024) - 4.5/5

An excellent satirical film looking at the strained relationship between bodies and beauty. At a certain point, this movie goes insane, and it works. If you have the chance to watch with a group, do it.

3 - Small Things Like These (2024) - 4.5/5

A quiet, unadorned movie about empathy and strength in the face of heartless, institutional, patriarchal oppression, with an interesting and important subversion of typical portrayal of gender roles within. Indeed, this film is more important than it seems to want to be.

4 - Dune: Part Two (2024) - 4.5/5

Remarkable achievement to maintain an epic interplanetary scope along with a personal struggle to own one's destiny amid strong political, cultural, and familial influences. Awesome visuals and sounds, winning performances, and an unsettling moral through line that invokes deep questions without easy answers.

5 - Exhuma (2024) - 4.5/5

Brilliantly taps the difficulty and danger of struggling against strongholds in places deep and old, and truths that must be exhumed and rectified if there is to be any healing.

6 - The Wild Robot (2024) - 4.5/5

Gorgeous, fresh, funny, sweet, and a little daring. It's hard not to invoke Pixar for comparison, and with all due respect to Inside Out, The Wild Robot is a reminder of what Pixar used to be capable of.

7 - Chime (2024) - 4.5/5

A worthy spiritual successor to Kurosawa's Cure, Chime is an unnerving short film with unexplained acts of casual violence and a slipping grasp of what it means to be a human in the modern world. The alienation of characters from their work, their passions, and those around them, along with the rising sense that not everything we see is what we think, gives the film a feeling of an off-kilter piece of cursed media.

Kurosawa is excellent behind the camera, and is matched by the wonderful cinematography and sound design.

8 - The Apprentice (2024) - 4.5/5

It takes its time, but once this movie reveals itself, it's absolutely captivating. Full of terrific, evolving performances. Looks right and sounds right. At the heart of the film is a terrifying idea: maybe these dark sociopaths know what America really is, and the rest of us are just deluded idealists.

9 - Love Lies Bleeding (2024) - 4/5

Immediate and tactile, immersive and intense. The weight of the film grows as the lives of the main characters intertwine. A complementary marriage of surrealism and authenticity. Excellent performances. Looks and sounds fantastic.

10 - Nosferatu (2024) - 4/5

Mostly faithful, with meaningful minor tweaks. Impossible not to compare to Eggars earlier films. Nosferatu is more arresting but not as haunting as The VVitch, and more approachable but less bold than The Lighthouse. May be the sweet spot for many. Unfortunately the projector at the theater for my viewing was not bright enough to do the visuals justice. Seek out a screen that is up to the challenge.

~~THE MIDDLE~~

11 - Smile 2 (2024) - 4/5
12 - My Old Ass (2024) - 4/5
13 - The Fall Guy (2024) - 4/5
14 - Conclave (2024) - 4/5
15 - Monkey Man (2024) - 4/5
16 - Immaculate (2024) - 4/5
17 - Alien: Romulus (2024) - 4/5
18 - Oddity (2024) - 3.5/5
19 - Saturday Night (2024) - 3.5/5
20 - The First Omen (2024) - 3.5/5
21 - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) - 3.5/5
22 - Thelma (2024) - 3.5/5
23 - Longlegs (2024) - 3.5/5
24 - Rebel Ridge (2024) - 3.5/5
25 - Cuckoo (2024) - 3.5/5
26 - Civil War (2024) - 3.5/5
27 - Juror #2 (2024) - 3.5/5
28 - I Saw the TV Glow (2024) - 3.5/5
29 - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) - 3.5/5
30 - Blink Twice (2024) - 3.5/5
31 - Look Into My Eyes (2024) - 3.5/5
32 - Heretic (2024) - 3/5
33 - Milk & Serial (2024) - 3/5
34 - Frankie Freako (2024) - 3/5
35 - Abigail (2024) - 3/5
36 - Twisters (2024) - 3/5
37 - In a Violent Nature (2024) - 3/5
38 - Carry-On (2024) - 3/5
39 - Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) - 3/5
40 - Lisa Frankenstein (2024) - 3/5
41 - Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) - 3/5
42 - Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) - 3/5
43 - It's What's Inside (2024) - 3/5
44 - Transformers One (2024) - 3/5
45 - Lowlifes (2024) - 3/5
46 - Caddo Lake (2024) - 3/5
47 - Road House (2024) - 3/5
48 - Speak No Evil (2024) - 3/5
49 - The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) - 3/5
50 - Bob Marley: One Love (2024) - 3/5
51 - V/H/S/Beyond (2024) - 2.5/5
52 - A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) - 2.5/5
53 - Apartment 7A (2024) - 2.5/5
54 - MaXXXine (2024) - 2.5/5
55 - Trap (2024) - 2.5/5

~~BOTTOM TEN~~

56 - Snack Shack (2024) - 2.5/5

This movie almost works because of the chemistry and energy of the three central actors, despite the grating nature of much of their dialog. In the end it’s too long, has too many contrived dramatic moments, and fails to evoke nostalgia either for any certain time or age.

57 - Terrifier 3 (2024) - 2.5/5

Not scary or disturbing, sometimes comical, occasionally boring. I wish I was having as much fun as everyone else with these movies, but they just aren't a fit for me. There are some gross scenes, but not in a evocative way, just mildly playful gore.

58 - Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire (2024) - 2.5/5

There's something great about the audacity of putting a giant transformer-looking gauntlet on Kong's arm. Too much pseudo-spiritual weirdness in a bizarre attempt to add lore where it's not needed. Nothing makes any sense, but I guess the gung-ho attitude is appreciated.

59 - Emilia Pérez (2024) - 2.5/5

There is a lot to admire, but the film wobbles and waffles on what it’s really about until it ends up reducing itself into something shallow.

60 - Brothers (2024) - 2.5/5

A bad movie in which good actors can't find their characters but still somehow manage to keep things just watchable enough to get the audience through it.

61 - Salem's Lot (2024) - 2/5

The things the film does well are completely overshadowed by clunky writing, acting, and editing.

62 - Azrael (2024) - 2/5

A little too opaque without payoff. It's choices in storytelling make it withholding, likely with the intent of keeping it simple. Instead it ends up tedious and uninteresting. Even the monsters seem bored.

63 - Wolfs (2024) - 2/5

There might be a movie somewhere in this Clooney and Pitt bromance, but one would need a high tolerance for their flirty banter to bother sifting it out.

64 - MadS (2024) - 1/5

Obviously a lot of careful planning and teamwork goes into making a one shot film, but the end product here is excruciating to watch, and not in a good way. It’s tempting to nitpick some of the style and story choices, but those aren’t what makes this movie an unbearable wreck of unlikeable characters screaming and running away from nowhere in particular to nowhere in particular. The visuals are constantly ugly, and the sounds are often grating.

65 - IF (2024) - 0.5/5

A cynical and heartless commercial product parading around as a heartwarming tall-tale family movie. John Krasinski and Ryan Reynolds need to do some self-reflection. This is the opposite of art and deserves contempt.

And of course, there's still a bunch of 2024 releases that I look forward to watching in the future. Happy to hear any recs for features I missed.

Previous Years

2023 - 2022

This is now my third year doing something like this, and I really enjoyed talking to people last year about where my movies fell versus where they felt things needed to land. There were definitely a few criticisms last year that I'd like to clear up beforehand:

• I do view myself as a "typical moviegoer" and don't see myself as a cinephile at all.

• My wife and I tend to go during the weekends at daytime hours, it's just our preference, which does limit us sometimes with movies that aren't as popular and are in their 3rd-4th week of a run.

• There are a lot of movies we'd like to see but don't get around to just because a smaller release happens during a time where we're very busy and don't get to the theater for a few weeks.

• Many of you were critical of the fact that I often took small naps during movies - It never bothered me, but I did find out that I was vitamin D deficient early this year, and taking vitamins has helped out a lot

• This list does include movies from 2023 that I either saw at the beginning of 2024, or we saw in 2023 after releasing my list last year.

A Quick Note on Categories:

Other than "Favorite of the Year" I don't particularly have other categories ranked top to bottom in terms of favorite. There are movies in the "Enjoyed it, but Probably Wouldn't Watch Again" category that I liked better than movies in the "Enjoyed it and Would Watch Again" category, but I prefer fun and more relaxed movies for multiple viewings.

Favorite of the Year [Ranked in Order]

• My Old Ass: I expected to like this one, as a comedy. . .But I came out of the theater with tears in my eyes. Yea sure it's about a drug induced romp [on the surface], but as I get older I feel this one really spoke to me on a deeper level.

• We Live in Time: I don't know if I'll ever watch it again. It doesn't strike me as the type of movie that I am going to want to watch a second time, just because of the subject nature and how deeply sad it is. . .But it moved me pretty significantly as is the second time I've ever found myself crying at a movie theater.

• Lisa Frankenstein: I was surprised to learn some people really hated this one, because I think it was the perfect amount of fun. . and weird. . .and campy.

I Enjoyed it and Would Watch Again

• Deadpool & Wolverine: It's just a fun love letter of a movie, right? I don't go to a Deadpool movie expecting everything to make sense. I just want a good old fashioned 4th wall breaking bromance, and this movie delivers.

• Saturday Night: The movie has a very frenetic energy to it and didn't give me a lot of breathing room to process different things going on, which is something that I typically don't enjoy. For some reason [maybe it's the fact that I do watch SNL and kind of have that expectation anyway] it just works, and I'd probably want to watch it again to see what nuances I might pick up on.

• Inside Out 2: Inside Out 2 does a far better job [in my opinion] of being a fun Disney sequel than Moana 2 does. I think I'd need to watch both entries of this franchise back to back to really decide which one I like better.

• Heretic: I don't know if I ever thought I'd see Hugh Grant in a horror movie like this. It hits all the notes that I expect from the genre, but I really liked the Book of Mormon x Horror vibe, and the almost chess like mentality his villain hits throughout the entire movie.

• Fly Me to the Moon: We live in a time where people just make shit up, so even though this takes place before the moon landing, it still sort of felt topical. . .Except it's also a very funny comedy.

• Speak No Evil: I'm writing this after writing a few other similar thoughts further down the list - Once again, another movie that feels totally ruined by the trailers. . Why do they keep doing this to us? Except it honestly doesn't even matter. The movie just works. . I'd watch it 10 more times just to see if I pick up on anything in the background.

Enjoyed Far More Than I Expected

• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: I saw and enjoyed the first remake but have become disillusioned by the movies with each passing sequel. I really didn't think this would be very interesting, but was happily very surprised.

• Civil War: Given the political climate of The United States around the time that this started to promo/release, I was very nervous as to this one having a bullshit political agenda [for either side]. Given that it did not, and took steps to really make sure the audience couldn't try to pull an agenda out of it, I was able to fully enjoy the romp.

• Gladiator II: I'm getting sick of these 20 years later sequels and really had very low expectations for the movie. I don't think it's the amazing film my wife thinks that it is, but I was definitely. . .Entertained.

• Trap: I was really annoyed by the trailers for this movie, which seemingly gives away "the big reveal" and ruins the entire thing - Except they pull back that curtain very early in the movie, and it's a non issue. Really enjoyed this way more than I expected to.

• The Fall Guy: This is one of those movies I went into ready to be annoyed, because I had seen promos for it way too many times and was just sick of seeing that stupid trailer over and over again. I just had zero expectations going in and was pleasantly surprised. At the time of this blurb I think I've seen it 3 times, which is unusual for me.

• Wicked: Coming off the heels of Mean Girls. . And Dear Even Hanson. . And pretty much all modern Broadway movies, I had almost no expectations at all for this one. I love Broadway, and was ready to nap my way through it. . .Though Wicked definitely proved me wrong, that you can do a musical correctly.

• The Iron Claw: If you told me I'd ever feel bad for a jacked up Zac Efron I would have laughed at you, and yet here we are. The only thing that stops this from being a top contender for me is that technically it came out last year, though I saw it after that list.

• Alien: Romulus: I know I'll be crucified for saying this, but I've never seen a full Alien movie all the way through. It just wasn't ever my thing, though we both really enjoyed it. I have since wanted to make my way through a chronological of the entire series, though have found myself lacking time to get around to it.

• I Saw The TV Glow: This is a movie that I didn't expect very much from, other than having a weird nostalgia feel to it. I really enjoyed most of it, but as it started to get really trippy towards the end it lost me.

• Twisters: On the list of movies that I ever thought would get a sequel this far down the road? I mean Twister seems like an easy enough candidate with a very generic premise, but I never really imagined it would happen. . .And yet it works. . .It works because it's no more a sequel of Twister than any generic disaster movie is [not] a sequel to another generic disaster movie of the same disaster. . . Does that even make sense? I don't know, but it was fun.

Enjoyed it, but Probably Wouldn't Watch Again

• Here: The movie is just different, unlike anything I've ever seen before. I don't know if the gimmick is worth a second viewing, but it captivated me on the first one.

• Red One: Generic holiday action romp, we've been getting a bunch of these in the last few years. Glad I saw it, don't regret the time spent. . .Might get 2-3 minutes of my time if I'm ever flipping through channels and it happens to be on.

• A Real Pain: If I wasn't limiting myself to 3 movies in "Favorites of the Year," this would probably be number 4. . Though The ambiguity of the ending feels pointless [there really isn't much to think about in that regard].

• Arthur the King: This is probably the first movie that has ever made me legitimately cry. I walked out of the theater nearly bawling. I give it props for that, but I have no desire to subject myself to it again.

• American Fiction: I'd say the first 2 acts of the movie are almost perfect, but I really didn't care for the way they did the ending in multiple paths. Like. . I got it from an author perspective, but I just don't feel like it worked.

• Challengers: I think my wife has probably seen this 5 times since it came out. I don't know if I can watch it again. Its a slower moving film, which isn't really my thing - I enjoyed it, I liked it a lot actually, but I don't think I'll be returning to the couch to see it again.

• Babes: It's funny in the same way all of those comedies about a very specific situation being dramatized for comedy are funny. The movie works because its a premise that I haven't seen before. But I don't think the magic will work a second time.

• Dune: Part Two: Look, both Dune movies are very good. . And yea I've read the source material, but they're also very long and slow. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't need to watch it again.

• The Bikeriders: I'll be honest - I write these things at the end of the year, because I want to focus on the feelings of my experience, and not really the plot itself. . .And while I remember enjoying it, I also remember thinking it was very long; but other than that I couldn't give you much else.

• Blink Twice: Blink Twice covers some rough themes that people don't typically want to think about, but the movie works as a crazy drug induced thriller. There's a decent revenge payoff, and I go home happy.

• Bob Marley: One Love: No idea how accurate the movie is, but it's a fun ride.

• Sonic The Hedgehog 3: It's cute, just like the first 2. The story is pretty basic but I appreciate it's the type of movie that is made for kids, but the writers didn't forget that Sonic is a 90s icon, and that its older fans would be watching it too.

The Mediocre Movie I Expected it to be

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: It hits a lot of the notes you need a sequel like this to hit, but I also felt like everything was reductive and surface level. We went with the in-laws, who loved it, but I didn't think it was that great.

• Venom: The Last Dance: Just like Venom 1 and 2 it has its moments - I'm not sure if 2 or 3 is the weaker movie, and I almost certainly will never watch it again, but I don't regret the time. . Or the laughs.

• It Ends with Us: I might be biased because my wife dragged me to this on the same weekend I dragged her to Borderlands, which maybe artificially props up my feelings of it - But I didn't totally hate it.

• A Quiet Place: Day One: Is Day One necessary? Probably not. But I think it's definitely a better entry into this mythos than the sequel was.

• Monkey Man: Indian John Wick. . .It's decent, but nothing I haven't seen before.

• Longlegs: The movie isn't scary, and it's not really much of a thriller, but it certainly is creepy and Nicholas Cage has always played the weirdo card really well. . .Or that's just who he is.

• Abigail: It's just fun - There's nothing special about it - The reveal in the end isn't anything interesting, hell the ending itself is confusing with all the back and forth. But there are vampire ballerina kids, and that's just the kind of silliness we need sometimes.

Expected More and Left Disappointed

• MaXXXine: Two years ago X was one of my top movies of the year. And even Pearl with all of its Wizard of Oz whimsy felt like a pretty strong movie. It's not that MaXXXine is a bad movie, I just expected more than a semi-generic horror/thriller. It felt as though the movie itself was written to be its own thing and the X mythos was just tacked onto it before shooting.

• IF: I don't really know what I was expecting with this one. . .But I always sort of hoped it would be some kind of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends x Ryan Reynolds movie. It sort of just felt like too much was going on, and not enough was going on. . All at the same time.

• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: Afterlife may have been really reductive of previous Ghostbusters movies, but it was enjoyable and fun. Frozen Empire was just flat the entire time and at 2h4m it felt about 45 minutes longer than necessary.

• The Book of Clarence: I can't quite tell if this movie just wasn't for my particular audience, or if it just wasn't very good. But it felt very long and confusing the entire way through.

• Imaginary: Generic gimmick horror movie is generic gimmick horror movie. Nothing special, move along.

• The Watchers: I don't know why I expected more, that's stupid of me. I don't actually hate The Watchers, but I do think the whole ending is kind of stupid.

• Y2K: I wasn't expecting a masterpiece with this one, but I thought it would be a fun nostalgia trip. I do think the first 20-30 minutes are super solid, but once we start getting into the "AI takes over the world" problem the whole thing sort of just falls apart, and none of the payoff feels earned.

• Moana 2: The original is a true favorite of mine, but this one feels like it's exclusively for the kids. And that's totally fine, just wasn't for me.

Didn't Expect Much, and Got What I Expected

• The Crow: I've actually never seen the original The Crow [I know] but I typically don't expect much from remakes/reimaginings anyway. There were parts that I "didn't hate" but overall it fell flat for me.

• Mean Girls: Mean Girls, the Broadway Show, is really good. This entire movie felt flat with a lot of the songs pushed into more monotone registers to makeup for hiring talent that didn't have very high vocal range. . Other than Renee Rapp. I also felt like a lot of the nods to the original movie were done in an "ok fine we have to" way, instead of honoring the source material.

• The Front Room: I didn't expect much. . Actually I don't know what I was expecting. . .Certainly it wasn't a seemingly ancient woman shitting herself constantly. It felt like The Front Room kept building to something that never paid off.

• Immaculate: Sydney Sweeny starring in "i'm hot, oh but also I'm a nun that fucked up." The movie has no substance to it and I was grateful when it was over. The only thing saving it from Worst of the Year is just how bad some of those movies are.

Worst of the Year

• Night Swim: I liked the premise of this one and really wanted to like it, but it just felt like it was missing pretty much everything a good horror movie needs.

• Madame Web: This movie doesn't deserve my thoughts or punctuation

• Borderlands: I didn't expect Borderlands to be a good movie at all - It's one of my favorite game franchises and I had no hope that Hollywood wouldn't screw it up, but I was at least hoping for something that made sense and might hit the "so bad it's good" point. The movie is just bad, and oddly the one casting choice everyone thought made no sense [Kevin Hart] is the one casting choice that I felt actually worked.

• Argylle: This may be the worst movie I've ever seen, and I used to make a point to watch some of the worst movies [as reviewed on IMDB] as a fun group activity with friends. At no point in its incoherent rambling did Argylle make any sense, and I wish it would be erased from my brain.

Note: At roughly $23/m for the AMC subscription that means I spent about $5/ticket to see each movie. My wife sometimes do buy concessions [sometimes with points, sometimes without], maybe next year I'll track that too, just to see how expensive a hobby this actually is.

Movies we will probably see in the next week:

• Mufasa

• A Complete Unknown

• Nosferatu

• Babygirl