2024 in film

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.