Top Ten Movies of 2024
2024 wasn't as top-heavy as some years, but there was a wide variety of good movies. Here's a look back at my favorites from those movies I was lucky enough to view this year. Despite my best efforts there will always be some not included here if access was limited, the film wasn't released in time for review before the end of 2024, the film wasn't made available for awards consideration, or I simply ran out of time. Likely some of those other films you'll see reviews for later in 2025 but they are not in consideration here. Here then, is my list of the best movies of 2024.
10. The beauty and the horror
Dune: Part Two returns us to the desert continuing the journey of Paul (Timothée Chalamet), his growing relationship with Chani (Zendaya), and, after fighting it, finally embracing his destiny as the Muad’Dib. Great stuff all around from cast and crew as Denis Villeneuve continues the Dune epic. If not for an unfortunate sequence that takes far, far too long on the Harkonnen homeworld the film might have ranked even higher on the list. Read the full review. Currently available on home video and streaming.
9. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
Maria is a well-crafted film in all aspects built entirely around the performance of Angelina Jolie as renown opera singer Maria Callas in the final days of her life fighting demons, drug addiction, ghosts from her past, and the loss of her once great voice. Read the full review. Currently streaming on Netflix.
8. Transitions
One of the more divisive films of the year, and one with the widest gap between audiences and critics, I Saw the TV Glow explores fandom, coming of age, and an understanding of self in Jane Schoenbrun's allegory of transitioning. It's a film experience that needs to be seen to be understood. Read the full review. Currently available on home video and streaming.
7. The future is now
One of the year's more pleasant surprises, My Old Ass stars Maisy Stella as a young woman in the final days before leaving for college who meets her older self (played by Aubrey Plaza) who offers her advice, some of which turns out to be hard for her to follow. Far more than the quirky comedy it was marketed as, director/screenwriter Megan Park's script has an awful lot of heart and, like I Saw the TV Glow deals with hard decisions at critical moments that can change your life forever. Read the full review. Currently available on home video and streaming.
6. We record so other people ask
Released early in the year, Alex Garland's tale of war-correspondents telling the story of a war-ravaged United States in a dystopian near-future may not be a fun movie, but it is a memorable and moving one with some terrific cinematography while offering a cautionary tale of the cost of war. Read the full review. Currently available on home video and streaming.
5. Let him who is without sin
Other than some issues with how the film ends, it's hard to find fault with Conclave which offers terrific performances across the board as a host of cardinals led by Ralph Fiennes sequester themselves to elect a new pope only for unlikely candidates to rise to the top, secrets to be revealed, and truths to be untangled. Read the full review. Currently in theaters.
4. Rabbit Season? Duck Season? Beaver Season!
You would be hard pressed to find a more unusual move than Hundreds of Beavers. The concept may wane at points, but what amounts to a live-action cartoon of never-ending buffoonish stunts involving a would-be fur-trapper (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) taking on people in beaver suits is one hell of a good time. Read the full review. Currently available on home video and streaming.
3. The Times They Are A-Changin'
If anyone had any doubt, Timothée Chalamet is a star. While great in Dune: Part Two, his role as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown is where he truly shines. And he's not alone as we get memorable performances across the board from Edward Norton, Boyd Holbrook, Elle Fanning, and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez. Rarely are biopics this good, and the music is simply terrific. Read the full review. Currently in theaters.
2. Pretty Woman
Anora rocketed to the top of this list immediately after I saw it and stayed there for quite some time before being beaten out at the end of the year. Writer/director Sean Baker's film is crazy good (with an emphasis on both words). And at the heart of this bonkers movie we get amazing performances from both Mikey Madison and Yura Borisov as a pair of people brought together under insane conditions. Read the full review. Currently available on streaming.
1. The Best Movie of 2024
I spent most of the year in search of an obvious choice to top this list and, on a cold morning in mid-December, in an almost empty movie theater, I found it in Flow. Writer/director Gints Zilbalodis' animated journey of animal survival after a flood is a movie to fall in love with over and over again and, in my humble opinion, without doubt, the best film of 2024. Read the full review. Still playing in select theaters and available on streaming.
