Best Movies of 2024

by
Photo caption: Mark Eydelshteyn and Mikey Madison in ANORA. Courtesy of NEON.

Every year, I keep a running list of the best movies I’ve seen this year.  By the end of the year, I usually end up with a Top Ten and another 5-15 mentions. Here are my Best Movies of 2023 and  Best Movies of 2022 lists. To get on my year-end list, a movie has to be one that thrills me while I’m watching it and one that I’m still thinking about a couple of days later.

When I wrote my year’s end post last December 31, I had already seen the best two films, Oppenheimer and Anatomy of a Fall. Today, I still haven’t seen many of the films I expect to contend for this list, including The Room Next Door, The Brutalist, Hard Truths, All We Imagine as Light and Hard Truths. Pretty sure most of those will end up high on my list when I finalize it in a couple months. Sean Baker’s Anora is brilliant film, but I expect it to be surpassed on my list by one or some of the upcoming releases.

I HAVE seen 126 2024 films so far. BTW that 126 total for 2024 doesn’t include the 105 festival submissions that I’ve screened (those will be 2025 films) nor the 104 movies from earlier years that I watched this year.

Monica Barbaro and Timothee Chalamet in A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

Here’s the entire list of the best of 2024:

  • Anora: human spirit vs the oligarchs. In theaters.
  • A Complete Unknown: a genius and his time. In theaters.
  • The Bikeriders: they ride, drink and fight, and yet we care. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • Hit Man: who knew self-invention could be so fun? Netflix.
  • Challengers: three people and their desire. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • La Chimera: six genres for the price of one.  Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • In the Summers: they mature, he evolves. Amazon.
  • The Substance: the thinking woman’s Faust, if you can take the body horror. MUBI (free), Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Ghostlight: a family saves itself, in iambic pentameter. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango (included).
  • The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed: is she going to be a loser? Amazon, AppleTV, Hulu.
  • Sweetheart Deal: a triumph of cinéma vérité. In arthouse theaters.
  • Love Lies Bleeding: obsessions and impulses collide. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
  • I Saw the TV Glow: brimming with originality. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Jodie Comer and Austin Butler in THE BIKERIDERS. Courtesy of Focus Features.
Bill Faist, Zendaya and Josh O’Connor in CHALLENGERS. Courtesy of MGM.