What a strange time to be alive.
Why yes, I DID do a best of the year film project for 2024! Alas, this has been a strange season. Sorry for the delay.
I started working on the data last fall, so this project has been a slow burn. And – a good reminder. That there are so many stories worth telling and experiencing… so many ways to widen our understanding of each other and our shared world. The freedom to tell and experience all our stories – to laugh at them and cry because of them and discuss them and disagree with them and argue about them – is sacred and I don’t take it for granted now as I used to.
So in the interest of keeping your own mind expanding and your own perspective broadening, take a moment to add a few gems from last year to your watchlist. The 100 most important films to know about from 2024 – the ones that shaped our dialogue and culture the most – are below.
(It’s all data-based, I include hundreds of films in the assessment – blah blah blah, the details are here in the list on Letterboxd if you’re a nerd like me.)
To the list!
Lovable goof Will Ferrell and his longtime friend (and former head writer for SNL) go on a road trip after her gender transition at age 61. He asks questions, the way friends do, and provides a kind of celebrity cover for her as she does so many things for the first time as her true self. Lots of things about this film struck me deep in my heart – Harper’s everyday kind of courage, the unexpected kindness of strangers, Will’s sometimes-awkwardness as he adjusts to new dynamics between them – but what stood out the most was how strong and resilient friendship is, and how uncompromisingly essential it is to a thriving life. One of the year’s standout heartwarmers! Team Midnight recommended.
Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) had a big year in 2024, with two films in the top 100. The lesser known (and later released) Queer stars Daniel Craig as an American ex-pat running loose and lonely in Mexico City in the 1950s. Based on the William S. Burroughs novel, Guadagnino’s film is thick with melancholy, tenderness and longing – and the intimacy with which he films bodies is absolutely unmatched. Lingers with you like dried sweat.
Adorable grandma/grandson relationships were kind of a little trend in 2024 cinema, and How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies is the global cinema tearjerker version. One of the Letterboxd community’s favorite films of the year. I hadn’t heard of this one, but it’s on my watchlist now! Apparently it’s a delight and a real sob-fest.
In her debut feature, director Arkasha Stevenson leaves it all on the field! The First Omen goes harder than it has any right to. It is in no way subtle, but horror movie lovers will eat it up.
A Chilean “descent into hell” Western – The Settlers would make a harrowing double feature with Ravenous or Killers of the Flower Moon.
More like “it starts with us”, right? Geez, with all the lawsuits and accusations flying around – who even remembers this was a movie anymore?
Set in a remote Himalayan village, a teenager’s romantic awakening stirs up her mother’s own lost adolescence in Shuchi Talati’s feature film debut, a breakout moment for a promising new filmmaker.
Andrea Arnold makes cinematic realism electric. Her last film, American Honey, is one of my favorites of recent years, and Bird has a similar heartbeat. Intimate and alive, Arnold’s observation of her characters is spacious, raw, and generous. Great performances from all the leads, including everybody’s favorite little Irish creeper, Barry Keoghan. Top of my watchlist!
Check out that quality rating. Oof! Brutal! Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel earns the dubious honor of being the worst film in the top 100. Congratulations?
Exploring the knot of teenage friendship, sexual pressure, young women’s unformed language around desire, young men’s confusion about what constitutes consent, and the ways spring break-esque bacchanalia that should be fun for young women can so quickly become otherwise. Reading the reviews made me think about how it’s so hard to explain, even now, the hyper-vigilance I could never surrender in situations that should’ve been “fun” in my youth, and how heavy that was to carry. Lead actor Mia McKenna-Bruce’s breakout performance is a big one, and it is still a quiet little revolution to experience a story like this told by a female filmmaker.
Mattoe Garrone (Gomorrah) nods to Homer as he applies a cinematic epic filter to a grim tale of two boys’ migration from Dakar to Sicily; the first of a few international migration sagas on this year’s list.
This Brazilian documentary about the changing face of cinema in Recife (a city on the eastern coast of Brazil) that is only streaming on the Criterion Channel is maybe only for movie nerds. But they seem to love it!
The poster really says it all. And that’s not a dig – I definitely watched this movie. As did everyone.
The popularity of Carry-On really surprised me though. Who saw this? Apparently everyone did, which is unbelievable to me! Is Jason Bateman convincing as an airport terrorist? I just can’t picture it.
Squeaking into the top 10 best horror movies released last year, Smile 2 isn’t groundbreaking or “interesting,” but it is some reliable no-rules jumpscare fun.
A suspenseful serial killer time-warp with great performances and style, Strange Darling is super solid – but just fell short of getting really noticed last year. It’s worth looking up if you missed it!
A profoundly inspiring and personal documentary, Black Box Diaries chronicles Japanese journalist Shiori Ito’s fight for justice in the outdated, patriarchal Japanese legal system after being raped by a highly influential and well-connected man. Ito puts it all on the line and films her own journey enduring the hatred of the public, the discouragement of her family, and battling with her own will to continue through an excruciating public evisceration. Her courage draws into sharp focus what is actually on the line for so many people who are targets of patriarchal violence. Essential 2024 viewing, and one of the best social issues films of the year.
The BEST horror movie of 2024, Exhuma may be masquerading as a typical ghost/possession story, but it has a lot more going on. I wish I knew what that was! But I haven’t seen it yet, so I can’t even tell you! Let’s all go watch it and report back.
I hope that enough of American democracy exists in a few years to ensure us the creative and political freedom to be able to watch this movie, and – ideally – look back on it as an interesting artifact from a troubling historical moment from which we emerged largely intact. And not the other way, where mentioning this movie exists is considered a thought crime and Sebastian Stan is rotting away in Guantanamo Bay.
A delicate, tender family drama about an everyman Dad, drifting in the murky territory of unprocessed pain, who secretly takes on a role in a local theater production of Romeo & Juliet. And about his daughter who finds out, doesn’t get it, and decides to join the cast too. Sweet, funny, heartfelt, healing – definitely a tearjerker – and beautifully made. Sign me up for anything that involves Shakespeare and family catharsis.
Golden years Hugh Grant is so much fun. Come for the sardonic remarks, stay for the meowing and Radiohead tunes! Ninth best horror movie of 2024.
A tense, cold, meticulous depiction of true crime voyeaurism in the digital age, and the creepiness of our tendency to click on that link that will show us the thing we absolutely should not see–all wrapped up in a tight, stylish thriller. Nightcrawler, but ladies.
A time-traveling science fiction romance, Lea Seydoux and George MacKay (who are both SO good in this) star as two intertwined souls in Bertrand Bonello’s strange and sweeping epic that nestles itself into a movie family with Cloud Atlas, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Equals, Orlando – even Interstellar. Love that transcends time, the inextricable bond of love and pain, the paradox of risk, the unique nature of humanness… although occasionally ponderous and philosophical, The Beast manages to pose a whole lot of interesting questions orbiting these themes while staying centered on the protagonist’s unfolding experience of memories from her past lives. Sexy and funny and tense and a total gut-punch, The Beast is strongly recommended by Team Midnight. Seek it out!
Romances in which sexy, middle-aged women get entangled with young men was the strongest cinematic trend of 2024. Nicole Kidman did TWO all on her own! What a time to be alive.
Of the five films in this micro-genre released this year, The Idea of You was first, and though not the top #1 best of the group, it is the most heartwarming. Anne Hathaway has never been more winsome and Nicholas Galatzine is working those pouty lips to the max. Their chemistry is off the charts – and the film lets itself get pretty steamy (for a mainstream release), which I loved! Although the transgressive undertone is probably what makes this film stand out from your average romance, the film overall is sweet and optimistic. Recommended!
PS: Directed by Michael Showalter, AKA Coop from Wet Hot American Summer.
Emerging force Aaron Pierre stars as one handsome, mysterious non-lethal takedown tactical genius who takes on the entire corrupt police department of a small American town. Jeremy Saulnier’s latest may not be as brutal as Blue Ruin or Green Room, but the script is smart and the action is tight.
The best film in the “sexy, middle-aged women get entangled with young men” 2024 micro-genre, Babygirl is a character study – about a trapped, despairing woman moving through a moment of profound personal transformation and self-acceptance – masquerading as an erotic thriller. It felt radical and kind of revolutionary to see a woman’s sexual pleasure and the complexity of her desires so compassionately and honestly examined outside of arthouse cinema. Nicole Kidman is absolutely feral beneath her placid surface – she’s truly great in this.
What a bummer that the film may be suffering somewhat from over-sensationalization (ala Magic Mike) – it is so much more interesting that the blushing, giggling crowd appears to notice.
For the curious: the other three films in this micro-genre didn’t make the top 100, but check them out if this is your thing: Last Summer (the French one), A Family Affair (the screwball one), and Lonely Planet (the one that is trying to be deep).
I love this review from Letterboxd user, Rod O’Callaghan: “My buddy John bringing me to Cannes was a godsend. Here I am, a small town Dad from Texas, Top Gun Maverick was the last film I went out to see. A three hour Turkish slow as snail flick is the last thing I’d ever stumble into. And guess what… it was beautiful! The power of art. Palme D’Or incoming.”
A gorgeous frontier epic with intricate writing, compelling characters, and Mads Mikkelsen… think PTA’s There Will Be Blood meets Terrance Malick’s The New World. One of the best under-the radar films of the year!
Based on the acclaimed one-shot manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, this compact film – with a runtime of less than 60 minutes – packs an emotional wallop, managing to sneak itself straight into your smooshy heart and make a real mess in there. Although most of the film’s enthusiasts are either familiar with the manga or are devoted animators themselves, the film centers on themes universal to all creative people (according to Letterboxd reviewer Joe Bro): “Why we do what we do. Why we love who we love. Why we keep waking up every day. Why it matters.” With the highest possible rating for quality, this little anime is one of the best films of 2024.
Smart, funny, irreverent next-gen rallying cry for freedom and fun and honesty and facing the brokenness of the world. The three guys who make up the titular Irish rap group play themselves in the film, and I kinda can’t believe they’re such good actors, and that a biopic about music-makers who are currently releasing music somehow escapes being too cloying or precious about its own legacy. The film feels alive, like an extension of their initial scream. Team Midnight strongly recommended.
Following a group of 4 families involved in a unique father-daughter dance for girls with incarcerated Dads (an organization founded by Angela Patton, one of the film’s Directors), Daughters is heartfelt, distressing, joyful and unflinching about humans’ inherent need for one another and the collateral damage of the U.S. prison system. David Ehrlich writes: “This film is founded upon a self-evident idea that it reaffirms with heart-wrenching honesty at every turn: Allowing families to remain intact even when they’re separated behind bars isn’t some kind of charity. It’s actually a necessary step toward ending the same cycle of crime and punishment that our prisons do everything in their power to keep in place.“
If you’re brave and your tear ducts are strong, pair this film with Sing Sing. And then change your life and become an activist dedicated to dismantling the U.S. incarceration system.
2024 was the year of Nicholas Hoult! That guy was everywhere, including as the star of this pretty ok Clint Eastwood courtroom drama. My favorite story about this film comes from Letterboxd reviewer zoe rose bryant:
“halfway through my mom goes ‘wait should we have started with the first one?’ and I was like ‘what are you talking about’ and she says ‘juror #1?’ and my sister goes ‘mom it’s called juror #2 because HE’S juror #2’ and my mom says ‘i know but who’s juror #1’ and I was like ‘I don’t think it matters’ and she was like ‘well it might.’“
Here are a couple clues for you: Dahomey is the name of a historical place, not a guy (like I had assumed). Also, this film is told in part from the perspective of a historical artifact on its journey home. And it is directed by Mati Diop, director of the 2019 banger, Atlantics. Sounds wild!
Agnieszka Holland, one of Poland’s most prominent, prolific, and respected filmmakers, put it all on the line and incinerated her relationship with her home country by making this brutal drama about migrants seeking refuge in the E.U. who get caught in the border and political standoff between Belarus and Poland. Condemned by the Polish right as propaganda, Green Border is unflinching, steadfast realism, relentless in its intent to honestly depict the horrors refugee families experience. One of the most important films of the moment–so it follows that it is quite difficult to watch.
A subversive John Wick-meets-The Raid genre film about karmic revenge against unbridled greed, Dev Patel’s debut feature is the 5th best action film of 2024. Sure, it could’ve been trimmed down a little bit, but Patel is great to watch, the visual style and fight choreography are solid, and the integration of Indian imagery and mythology gives the narrative real punch.
I do love you, Timothee – and I bet that playing Bob Dylan was awesome and super challenging, and I respect your acting and singing chops – but I still don’t think we needed the Bob Dylan version of Walk the Line. We already have Walk the Line, and I gotta say – Johnny Cash’s lifelong forbidden love and addiction drama works with this format so much better than Bob Dylan’s prismatic, mysterious intellectual poet thing. If you love Bob Dylan, you should watch I’m Not There (2007, dir. Todd Haynes) instead.
But hey – if you love Timothee, watch A Complete Unknown! Let’s just not be confused about what we’re doing.
The best comedy of 2024, Lost Ladies is a mistaken identity Bollywood caper about two women whose paths get switched accidentally on a train, and the way the ensuing adventure shapes the rest of their lives. Heartwarming, sincere, empowering, feel-good musical comedy gold!
Sebastian Stan! What a year it’s been for the Winter Soldier, starring in two of the most provocative films of the year. A Different Man is a Charlie Kaufman-esque surreal psychological thriller about an aspiring actor with an extreme facial deformity who stumbles into a miracle cure and comes out of it looking like Upper East Side bad boy, Carter Baizen. But when he meets another actor with the same deformity he recently cured in himself, the spiral begins! It sounds like a wild ride.
Packed with ideas and wildly entertaining, Romanian hero Radu Jude’s latest masterwork is an exhilarating evisceration of the absurdity of modern life, and one of the 10 best comedies of 2024. Its “Subterranean Homesick Blues” reference might be the best Bob Dylan moment in film from the past year, which… zing! Stings a bit, doesn’t it Mangold?
An intimate, emotionally incandescent slice of life film about a family in Mexico preparing for a birthday party for their beloved patriarch, as experienced by a 7-year-old girl.
This is one of at least three films last year (that I know of) that features a scene in which a young teenager is practicing kissing on their hands. Which may be minor, but seems notable! And cute! Did you ever do that? I think I probably did, I thought about kissing a lot.
One of the 5 best comedies to come out in 2024, the most popular review of this film on Letterboxd just says: “i pray my homies win the battles they dont tell me about“. And for a film about a 13 year old boy having experiences with skateboarding and girls and learning to appreciate his single Mom, that’s a lovely thought to send out into the world. Me too.
This movie is in love with Grandmothers. It made me miss mine! Thelma follows the titular hero as she seeks revenge against fraudsters who target the elderly while grappling with her diminishing independence. To brilliant effect, Margolin packages Thelma as an action comedy, and it’s super effective! This was one of the most hilarious, suspenseful experiences I had with a movie last year. Plus, the last 5 minutes are quite moving… I definitely cried. Strongly recommended by Team Midnight!
An epic, lavish adaptation of a fantastic novel: what more do you want? This is just a good time!
Was anyone aware they were still making these? Seriously, who saw this? A lot of people, apparently. I had no idea it existed.
I feel like one of the best choices involved in the entire creative process for Gladiator 2 was the poster designer’s decision to prominently feature Paul Mescal’s thighs in the marketing campaign. Look at those haunches! They’re glorious!!
Ooooh….. Ryan Gosling.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was one of my favorite films of 2022. His latest is similarly patient and mesmerizing, though its fixations seem to be less connected to its wonderful cast of earth-bound characters than they are about the inevitable fallout of the massive system of global capitalism. “This will kill us” saturates the atmosphere of the beautiful, serene film – whether through the slow trickle of poisoned water or the quick flash of violence from a wild world, cornered and desperate.
This is possibly the goofiest, most imaginative film of the year, and it is definitely the goofiest, most imaginative film of the year made on a meager $150K budget. Hundreds of Beavers is very committed to its gag, riffing on it again and again, in more and more creative and ridiculous ways. If that gag makes you laugh, then this may be your favorite film of last year! If not, well – maybe it’s not for you.
A melodrama that probably has more in common with a telenovela than The Florida Project – I think it’s a mistake to try to read more social realism into this film than its form makes room for. It’s a big broad sweep, preoccupied by the existential questions of Shakespearean tragedies or Greek dramas: is it possible to be a good person in a corrupt world? Can a person ever change? What is the cost to pay the Gods if you want a new life?
I’m a fan of Audiard’s other films. In Rust and Bone, A Prophet, or Dheepan, for example, he creates tremendously realized characters (in very different socio-cultural contexts), and then uses his little kick of cinema fantastique (a la Baz Luhrmann) to make them more powerful and to pull us into an experience of the world that is larger than life. In Emilia Perez, Audiard starts in fantastique-mode, essentially replacing all that character development with musical numbers–an idea which, in theory, I love. But it doesn’t quite work. The characters are a little too obtuse for the songs to effectively punch up an emotional connection – with the exception, perhaps, of Zoe Saldana’s red suit tabletop dance.
And: Audiard uses gender transition as a metaphor for radically reimagining your life and starting fresh, so the film isn’t really concerned with the reality of the experience of a trans person (at least, that is my interpretation). Which–I guess, it doesn’t HAVE to be. Art can do what it wants. But because of everything at stake for trans people in this cultural moment, it feels clumsy and tone-deaf at best–regressive at worst–to center a film as culturally significant as Emilia Perez on gender-transition-as-metaphor. The shallowness of its portrayal leaves an aftertaste.
Zoe Saldana is truly amazing though. It’s a wild experience. I’m glad I watched it.
Fair warning: this film will DEFINITELY make you hungry. Even the poster makes me salivate! Be prepared. Also, Juliette Binoche is just unstoppable, right? Year over year, finding new ways to be the sensual-ist.
La Chimera is a very special film. Strange and funny, mysterious, romantic, and alive–the film feels both like a crystal-clear remnant of a past now lost to us, and pleasantly dislocated from time. Which is poetic, as the protagonist’s special gift (and curse) is stirring up the past. My favorite breakout actor of last year, Josh O’Connor, plays a persistently haunted, mystically gifted, consistently unscrupulous bandit archeologist in a dirty white linen suit, who disturbs graves long-forgotten in Italy’s countryside and steals their treasures, along with his crew of ridiculous ne’er-do-wells. One of my favorite films of the year, La Chimera casts a spell. Strongly recommended by Team Midnight. Give it a try!
Three of last year’s best films are animated! All three of them are not about humans and will make you cry. On the surface, Robot Dreams is about a friendship between a dog and a robot; beneath the surface, it’s about loneliness, courage, loss, connection, grief, and hope… in other words: a good, healthy workout for your heart. Be brave and bust out the kleenex. You can do this! Hurts so good!
A sticky, sweaty, propulsive, flourescent-lit, bug-eating, super-injected, larger-than-life, bloody lesbian makeout party. I loved it! Kristen Stewart can do anything!
This movie wants to be Hereditary so bad, but Perkins can’t Aster. Only Aster can Aster. It was very popular, though, and snuck into the 10 best horror films of 2024 at #8.
Turns out that blending demon possession with 70s TV makes for pulpy, atmospheric Halloween movie fun. Late Night with the Devil is the 5th best horror film of 2024. Recommended!
First – but certainly not last – appearance of 2024’s hunk of the year: Glen Powell! Let’s hear it for Glen!
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – a thriller about an Irani officer and the growing tension between himself and his wife and daughters – was filmed in Tehran in secret (often Rasoulof was miles away from the crew, making decisions via assistants so as not to arouse attention from the authorities) and incorporates documentary cellphone footage of the Woman Life Freedom protests (and violence) happening in real time at the filmmakers’ doorsteps. Rasoulof fled the country on foot and smuggled this film out of the country, for goodness sake. It isn’t perfect, but it is really important: its very existence in our public dialogue is heroic.
If you’re craving another mediocre Alien movie, boy is this the film for you!
A reviewer I follow described Flow as “a lovely little poem about adapting to the unexpected struggles of life, and how none of us can do that alone.” The story is simple, but the protagonists are a group of non-anthropomorphized animals on a life raft (aww) and the animation is breathtaking. Prepare yourself for an intense emotional investment in this cat.
Hirokazu Kore-eda (After Life, Shoplifters, Broker) is bringing it again, this time in a new form. Drawing conceptual inspiration from Kurasawa’s Rashomon and structural cues from Christopher Nolan, Kore-eda’s small, empathetic human melodrama unfolds like an onion, each layer revealing more of what actually happened and forcing us to notice the assumptions we made along the way. The tenderness with which Kore-eda insists that it is our connections to one another that make – and keep – us human is sorrowful but remains rooted in joy. A softspoken knockout of 2024, bump Monster up on your watchlist.
When the first images and trailers for this movie came out, my reaction was something like “UGH. NO. WHY? NO ONE NEEDS THIS.” And then I saw it and generally, I liked it… and as it turns out, my regard has grown over time. I still disagree with the marketing campaign (though you can’t argue with the results), it borrows heavily from Children of Men (though for inspiration, you could certainly do worse than a modern classic dystopian masterpiece), and at some point the film kinds of runs out of ideas so it goes for flash and shock value. BUT – it has some really interesting things to say about the absolutely essential but morally dissonant role of journalists in the midst of civil violence, and just about violence in general. Kirsten Dunst is great as always. Jesse Plemons’ cameo will haunt me forever.
If this movie is for you, you’ve probably already seen it, right? It’s a stupid, goofy good time packed with references and cameos and soy banter for teenage edgelords. Enjoy! If you want.
The story of the Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crash and survival in the peaks of the Andes in 1972 is one of the most intense real-life dramas of our time. Bayona’s film, which dropped on Netflix in early January of last year, is based on the book of the same name by Pablo Vierci, who grew up with many of the crash survivors. It is also a technical wonder, with beautiful writing, cinematography, and fierce performances. Although I had never heard of it, apparently lots of people saw it. Were you any of those people? If not, check it out!
Coleman Domingo leads an outstanding ensemble in this little miracle of a film that draws into sharp focus the liberating power of art and connection. For Shakespeare lovers, this funny and empathic film pairs beautifully with Ghostlight. For activists or those who need a fire lit under it, pair with Daughters. For everyone else, just add it to your watchlist and get ready for Hamlet’s soliloquies, which remain as potent and powerful as ever to cut to the heart of things.
“It’s hard to pin down exactly what it is about this that makes my heart feel so open toward it — the rawness of the humanity rendered, the unabashed and fearless grasping for love lost and found, the generational tension, the sincerity of spirit, the diligence of labor (both personal and professional), the blissful naïveté.
The transportive visual style — hues of green and blue and red. Darkness and shadows and, most importantly, light. The faces drawing in and out of focus. Realness in stark contrast with dreaminess. The music. The sound. The heartbeat of a city. The tranquility of nature. The freshness of tone and the timelessness of the story.
Can’t imagine what has my heart so open to this!”
All We Imagine As Light inspires many people to write poetically about its mysterious power… this review from Letterboxd reviewer Bobby Wagner is just one example of many.
Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun continues the dystopian identity crisis she began with her debut, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, in her 2nd feature. Neon-soaked, screen-centered nostalgia twists into an inescapable menace in an atmospheric techno-horror film that bowled over critics, many of whom ranked this film as one of the year’s best on their end of year lists. It did not bowl over Justin, who wasn’t that into it.
Richard Linklater is back with a kind-of true story based on a newspaper article starring co-producer and co-writer, the ever-delightful Mr. Handsome Glen Powell. Hit Man doesn’t hold a candle to Linklater’s best work, but it is a delightful, snappy, fun, romantic joy-ride of a film, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. Recommended!
While it’s hard to parse out where concept ends and narrative begins in Inside Out 2, and I do think it’s impossible for anything produced by a corporate juggernaut like Pixar to be entirely unconflicted in its interests, I feel we could all use a lesson on feeling our feelings. So I’m for it!
“When the heavenly gods created human beings, they kept everlasting life for themselves and gave us death. So, Gilgamesh, accept your fate. Each day, wash your head, bathe your body, and wear clothes that are sparkling fresh. Fill your stomach with tasty food. Play, sing, dance, and be happy both day and night. Delight in the pleasures that your love brings you, and cherish the little child who holds your hand. Make every day of your life a feast of rejoicing! This is the task that the gods have set before all human beings. This is the life you should seek, for this is the best life a mortal can hope to achieve.” – The Epic of Gilgamesh and (probably) Wim Wenders, director of Perfect Days.
Before his debut as Director of American Fiction, Cord Jefferson was a journalist-turned-TV writer, leading the charge on HBO’s excellent Watchmen series and doing some work on The Good Place and Station Eleven among others. And you can tell. American Fiction is a social satire that revolves around writers’ turmoil, particularly the turmoil of a writer who is also a Black man living in America. We haven’t had a good satire in awhile! It’s fun to see one–plus Jeffrey Wright is such a delight.
Robert Eggers’ latest just got squeezed out of the top 10, which I find kind of perversely satisfying. I mean, if you’re going to be an overly serious and precise auteur, how do you get away with a REMAKE of one of the most iconic and regularly re-made films of all time while (not only) not addressing, but arguably amplifying the anti-semitism that underlies the whole Dracula mythology!? Get it together, Robert Eggers! Pull your head out of Werner Herzog’s ass.
For all my sassiness, I enjoyed Nosferatu well enough, although I will claim that I consider myself somewhat of a vampire media expert and I don’t think Eggers did quite enough with this to justify its existence. In other news, 2024 was a big year for both Bill Skarsgaard (Boy Kills World, The Crow) and Nicolas Hoult (Juror #2, The Order). Let’s hear it for ’em!
A thriller about choosing the next Pope starring Ralph Fiennes. These guys dress like wizards and scheme like Georgina Sparks in season 1 of Gossip Girl. What’s not to love?
A Real Pain is the story of two cousins taking a Jewish heritage tour of Poland – while struggling to manage the pain of 21st century life – while carrying forward the legacy of the darkest crimes of the 20th – in very different ways. But it is also the culmination of a journey these two characters have been on in Jesse Eisenberg’s head for more than 10 years, moving through different stories and taking new forms – from plays, to a short story, and finally in this film. How beautiful that they are perfectly cast and brought to life in this moving, humble, complicated film that was celebrated by many critics as one of the best of last year.
The most important animated film of 2024 is one of the year’s best. I honestly can’t get through the trailer for this movie without crying – I don’t know HOW I’m going to handle a full feature-length film. But people do it! Somehow!
This horny, soapy, love triangle, Italian disco dream – about tennis of all things – was one of my personal faves of 2024. And I know almost nothing about tennis–claiming I like tennis is a STRETCH. But Josh O’Connor and Zendaya in a trash cyclone of lust? Zendaya reminding Mike Faist that she is not, in fact, Jesus? Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist suggestively chomping a churro? That deliciously pulsating score?… All are some of my new favorite things!
The plot synopsis for Sean Baker’s (Red Rocket, The Florida Project) Oscars-sweeper reads like a rehash of Pretty Woman, but this magical, gorgeous film is a little miracle in the ways it resists predictability. Sensitively tuned to the innate humor in the way people are, wholly overwhelmed by the aesthetic beauty of the world, its heart pumps with optimism yet it does not turn away from the heartbreak and cruelty of reality. Both soft and badass – probably because Mikey Madison brings it so hard. Team Midnight strongly recommended.
The desert was a hot scene for 2024 epics in cinema! Furiosa was pretty fun. Honestly, it really bothered me that Anya Taylor-Joy didn’t actually shave her head for the part. Furiosa’s shaved head is so iconic – and the buzz cut prosthetic just wasn’t convincing. (Apparently she wanted to, but the non-chronological shooting schedule made it tricky. But I digress.) Chris Hemsworth is great in this as a gross, sadistic doofus! The action scenes were suspenseful and beautifully choreographed without feeling like a rehash of Fury Road. The film was much more ponderous and interesting than I expected, and the character and history development were great.
Unfortunately, though, Anya Taylor-Joy is just NOT Charlize Theron – and all the movie magic in the world just can’t bridge the gap in gravitas between those two for me. I enjoyed it though!
There is nothing subtle or understated about The Substance, which is part of its charm. Beyond heavy-handed, it unrelentingly rubs your face in its commentary, from the excessively erotic sparkly pink gyrating butts to the puss-filled orifices and the blood-soaked onlookers, this film just smears it all over your face while it yells “YOU LOVE THIS! LOOK AT YOU LOVING THIS, YOU SICKO!”
And it’s hard not to have a good time with a movie like that.
This is one of those cuspy end of the year films that was celebrated a lot last year, but actually didn’t screen in most places in until January 2024 (much like The Brutalist will be on next year’s list). So it’s a 2024 film to me, here in the flyover states. And it’s a great one. Life-defining loss and the tantalizing shimmer of new love commingle in a film experience that feels like a poem that hits you hard: anchored in deep truth yet just outside of the experience of real life. Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy are all extraordinary. Strongly recommended!
Although the Nazis have long been a Hollywood obsession, movies about them are more important now than they have ever been. How could regular people go along just living their lives while such atrocities are being committed against human beings like them in the next country? The next town? A mile down the road? Over the fence?
As ICE hauls people away, tax dollars fund the construction of new prison camps in El Salvador, and the President makes allusions to sending “homegrowns” to reside there, we should all be on alert. And learning as much as we can from the past, especially about the ways regular people chose to take action against tyranny – or not – and the consequences of those choices.
Ariana Grande is a delight, but Cynthia Erivo absolutely burns it down in this cotton candy-colored musical theater nerd nostalgia fest. A child of Jonathan Larson’s Rent-era, I wasn’t in the ideal age group to obsess about Wicked during its initial surge into superstardom. But even I know “Defying Gravity” – and Erivo’s voice will just crack your chest in half.
Also, the impact Jonathan Bailey has on every person he encounters on film – as well as all audience members – really should be studied. I’m telling you: the twinkle in his eye could fuel the next evolution in human consciousness. Keep it up, Bailey – we’re going to need you!
I’m so thrilled that this movie was awesome. The first installment knocked my socks off and I’ve since read the book and have been waiting in eager anticipation for this to come out… and it is extraordinary!
Dune Part Two crushed the 2024 metrics, taking the top spot in multiple metrics in every category – a feat not accomplished by any film since I’ve been doing this. Overflowing with star power (Chalamet and Zendaya are both at the top of their game), the best visuals and sound design available (in technology, craft, and artistry), grown from the vision of one of our generation’s most impactful big-budget auteurs – and all that money and mastery stacked on what is arguably the best sci-fi novel in existence.
It’s a classic, it will stand the test of time, it’s a big deal and we were all here for it. Desert power!
Midnight Movie Train 