Favorite Films of 2024, Part Two
Feature Edition of my Favorite Films List from the Past Year
2024 was an amazing year, friends…so here it is — the films I loved the most and want to whole-heartedly recommend to you. There were so many gems this year it was insane, as the crazy length of this post attests. So much that I had to separate feature-length documentaries (in my Part One post) and narrative fictional features this time.
I’ll start with Honorable Mentions (films I like a lot and feel are worth seeing) and then dive into the top 20-or-so I love the most. I must admit, the ascending ranking here is very loose and could shift around a lot or almost to a moot point, depending on my mood or how things hit me upon a closer look (plus there may be other gems I missed or haven’t seen yet). 2024 also gave such a variety of great stuff, it makes the head hurt too much to decide if this horror film is better than this animated film, or this comedy, or whatever. All things considered, my top favorites are the ones which stuck with me the most and get the most points for cinematic excellence or strike a nerve with me personally.
(Film titles link to trailers, if you’re into seeing trailers first.)
Honorable Mentions
DAMSEL - Millie Bobby Brown as a dragon slayer is a good idea to begin with. As a film, I’ve seen stranger things and it doesn’t quite go up to 11, but clever twists and turns come together well enough for this dark fantasy that’s actually dreadfully dark and scary, with a dragon that looks and sounds great. Fun and epic girl power.
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA - I don’t really understand these movies nor do I find them emotionally resonant, but they look frickin’ sweet.
AMANDA - Weird, angsty, quirky, and Italian. Stealing horses and random dancing. A bit dry and aimless but I’m here for the strangeness and connections to FREMONT, one of my favorite films from 2023.
THE BIKERIDERS - Strong performances and atmosphere in this one with a Scorcese vibe which has been surprisingly ignored for awards season so far. It’s a great little sleeper film.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE - Fan service, but good enough to serve this fan with some happiness. While its preceding film had such a thin plot they had to essentially copy/paste the original, this one has too much plot — but that doesn’t prevent it from being a lot of fun.
ALIEN: ROMULUS - I liked this a lot and wanted to like it more, as the good things about it are pretty great, but the poor decision to deep-fake a certain character from the ashes (see what I did there?) keeps this from being a perfect organism.
STOPMOTION - very icky-creepy-bloody nightmare fuel — a bit convoluted but effective, twisted and visually stunning. Elevated horror at its most animated.
THE WILD ROBOT - Fast & frantic with big emotional studio animation swooshes and cliches, but delightful and gorgeous to behold. I’m glad there’s a modern film like this for families to enjoy but I like the book better.
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS - Very well directed, edited, and performed throughout. Amazing, beautiful work also ignored by awards season so far.
THE SUBSTANCE - This movie hates the world while loving a certain kind of cinema (particularly Cronenberg, Lynch and Kubrick). Not for everyone, but not easily forgotten due to its extreme levels of holy crap bonkers.
THE FIRST OMEN - Uneven but effectively scary and creepy in a ‘70s arthouse horror kind of way — extremely chilling stuff with some terrifying imagery.
WOMAN OF THE HOUR - Very impressive directorial debut by Anna Kendrick, with clever camerawork, great ‘70s production design, effective suspense and dread through the whole thing. Tragic and chilling.
ABIGAIL - A bloody good time at the movies with a killer ballerina vampire — and damn — So. Much. Blood.
LISA FRANKENSTEIN - Really fun, absurdist & twisted ‘80s goth comedy, like WEIRD SCIENCE directed by Tim Burton.
THELMA - Many laughs in this one, and not always the film I expected based on the trailer. It’s a mix of comedy action thriller with some poignant reflections on parenting, aging, anxiety, grieving, love and grace.
STARVE ACRE - When British folk horror I’ve never heard of starring Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith shows up on Kanopy, my curiosity is piqued. Incredibly slow burn in the British countryside with echoes of HEREDITARY, ENYS MEN, HELLRAISER and ROSEMARY’S BABY starring an effectively-realized animatronic hare. The soundtrack for this one in particular is haunting and heightens the mood to riveting levels. A bit muted but still has an aura of dread that chills the bones.
WICKED LITTLE LETTERS - Great cast and a dark delight with grains of truthiness -- an English-Irish symphony of linguistic saltiness and intrigue, and another reason to be a season ticket holder for the comedic brashness of "Wild Rose" Jessie Buckley. Fantastic and even a little chilling by the end.
THE TASTE OF THINGS - This film will make you hungry! A slow, meditative and beautiful poetic gem on the love of cooking, the cooking of love, and gorgeous shots of sunlight entering kitchens.
DIDI - For Your Consideration: best coming-of-age film for 2024, best companion film to EIGHTH GRADE, best supporting actress for Joan Chen (also ignored by awards season), and best cameo by a dead squirrel. A very impressive feature debut by director Sean Wang, with a few choice shots lit and composed like beautiful paintings.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING - again, not for everyone but another insane romp that will stay with you for its off-the-charts Lynch vibes and violent, diabolical levels of holy crap bonkers.
My Top Favorites
A REAL PAIN - Directed by Jesse Eisenberg
This is an amazing, beautiful movie — short, sweet, and resonant with incredible performances by its two leads Eisenberg + Culkin and how they play off each other through its organic & impressive screenplay. 2024 is turning out to be a great year for on-screen dual main characters working through a turbulent but loving friendship (Colman Domingo + Clarence Maclin in SING SING, Ariana Grande + Cynthia Erivo in WICKED, Will & Harper in…well, WILL & HARPER…) And I didn’t even recognize Jennifer Grey until the ending credits rolled!
SATURDAY NIGHT - Directed by Jason Reitman
No business like show business, and this captures the vast wasteland of sleazy ‘70s cutthroat TV culture stench like a dime bag. The original SNL cast and the ambience around that whole era is one of my absolute favorite things in the world of pop culture, so I had strong & heavy anticipation for this one. If you enjoy the journey without nit-picking the history (some things didn’t happen and other things did, just not on the first night), it’s a sincere and touching love letter to the show and lifts the heart by the end of it. The casting is nearly perfect, with the glaring exception of Nicolas Braun’s Jim Henson (whose personality and demeanor were pretty off) and Andy Kaufman (whose voice was not high enough) — but everyone else nails their counterparts well. Chevy, Danny and Belushi in particular are fantastic, and Gilda (rightly so) is the beating heart in the middle of the madness. All things considered, the musical score and screenplay work well together for a good & joyful ride.
INSIDE OUT 2 - Directed by Kelsey Mann
This was an extremely pleasant breath of fresh air, as animated sequels from the big studios are usually hit-and-miss and more often miss. It also should be noted that the original INSIDE OUT is probably my favorite Pixar film, so naturally I was hopeful and nervous for this one. But this showed that given the right chemistry, they can still weave wonder with a sequel in the same way TOY STORY 2 and 3 didn’t merely copy/paste or reverse-engineer its original, but enhanced it into a deeper, fuller story. Though less funny and weird than the original, this still has clever chuckles and inventive wordplay ideas — but most importantly a golden nugget of truthiness about anxiety & comparison literally being the thief of joy. A most excellent trip full of love that brings the magic back.
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON - Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize
I was torn on whether to treat this as a 2023 or 2024 release, as it had festival showings and its official limited theatrical release in Canada in 2023 — and I live in Canada. But 2024 is when it became widely available worldwide, so there. This French-Canadian gem combines elements of all my top favorite vampire films into a quirky horror-comedy I hope more people seek out to watch. Rising star Sara Montpetit (of another well-made & tragic ghost story called FALCON LAKE) carries the film as the most adorable goth teen vamp to grace screens in years. I’m a sucker for a good vampire movie (and for vampire puns).
THE VOURDALAK - Directed by Adrien Beau
While on the subject of vampires (and spoiler alert, there will be more later), there is also this weird little gem. Take the atmosphere of anything by Robert Eggers, mix with Neil Jordan’s COMPANY OF WOLVES, throw in a little BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, and let Ari Aster come up with a jaw-dropping gross & disturbing finale (yeah, brace yourself for this. It’s messed up.) — and then make it all in French — you get LE VOURDALAK. It’s a dark folk tale. It’s community theatre. It’s a puppet show. It’s not something you’ll forget, that’s for sure. A chilling and demented nugget of hilarious & creepy vampiric wonderment. This is what true elevated horror comedies should aspire to: soggy chewing, cross-dressers, bloody puppets, dancing, and good old fashioned witchcraft.
HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS - Directed by Mike Cheslik
Nothing can prepare you for the madness of this movie. It’s a silent film. It’s a video game. It’s a nightmare. It’s a cocktail of Looney Tunes, Monty Python and the opening credits for YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON TELEVISION. There are literally hundreds of beavers. Though it may drag and wear on you at times, there’s always a slapstick gag, projectile, or dead animal carcass to snap things back into action for a good chuckle — but stick with it for the climactic finale. The last 30 minutes or so is a visually stunning, frightening, and terrifyingly beautiful cacophony of demented & unhinged insanity, the most hilarious trial scene I’ve seen in years, and it gets funnier with each re-watch. And if you like this one, you also need to relish the absurd dialogue and subtle surrealist humor of its makers’ predecessor LAKE MICHIGAN MONSTER, extremely quotable and insane in its literary weirdness.
WILDCAT - Directed by Ethan Hawke
Hawke the herald angels sing.
I’m only marginally familiar with Flannery O’Connor and totally unfamiliar with her stories, so I can’t count myself as an authority to know anything about how faithful this film serves as a bio-pic or even as a poetic reflection of her life. All I know is I found it captivating, impressed with the performances and moved by its strangeness — and even more so upon a second viewing. It’s an incredible passion project by father-daughter team Ethan and Maya Hawke, and becomes even more fascinating when you learn more about how it developed. Ethan Hawke and his various interviews & TED talks on creativity have opened a well of inspiration for me, and I love how his mind works.
Bookmark this video here for an amazing in-depth conversation with the Hawkes about all things Wildcat and art & faith in general. It’s one of the greatest interviews I’ve watched/listened to this year.
JANET PLANET - Directed by Annie Baker
An A24 slow burn that loves people, sucks you into their loneliness and turns it into poetry. When it’s a noisy world, this film is great for when you need something quiet -- a soundscape of birdsong and the silence of people's faces. I can't explain why this film moves me so deeply. I suppose I relate to its textures, the light and dark of the cottage in the woods, and how it feels and sounds. I also love the giant puppet performance art.
FLOW - Directed by Gints Zilbalodis
You need to see this with large picture and sound. It’s an outstanding achievement for the animated realms, particularly for the fact that it’s made in open source Blender software and still creates an immersive & believable world. Some truly heavenly visions grace this wordless film that thankfully doesn’t rely on wise-cracking celebrity voices or crass humor to entertain its audience. Instead it respects their intelligence enough to weave a life-affirming narrative that’s not so much a “story” as it is a “journey.”
I liked THE WILD ROBOT well enough for what it was, but it may have been more heartfelt, emotionally engaging and closer to the spirit of the book if it had taken the approach that this film does. A real missed opportunity there, and a “show don’t tell” lesson to be learned. I trust that my admiration for FLOW will only increase over time with each visit.
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL - Directed by Colin & Cameron Cairnes
This movie is absolutely bonkers and insane, one of the best horror films of the year, and one I can’t shake or stop thinking about. I was initially drawn to the concept, and the more its spell unraveled I found it more profound and riveting. The 1970s production design and performances are irresistible, and the whole vibe builds into a crescendo of epic tragedy that’s amusing but mostly intensely frightening. The kinds of horror films I am most drawn to are the ones that are about something, rather than merely a body count or cheap thrills. This one encompasses Matthew 16:26 — For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL shows in full frame why selling your soul for anything, especially fame, is a really, really bad idea.
WICKED - Directed by Jon Chu
Given my dual-personality for visceral & violent indie horror films and big budget epic spectacle (within reason), I’m also a sucker for a good musical. I’m a good witch and a bad witch.
I enjoyed Wicked on stage in Vancouver when it toured here in 2011, so I was equally delighted to see it on screen. Adapting a stage-musical to a screen-musical and vice versa is always a delicate dance and hard to pull off. The interplay between players and audience and how emotions are triggered in each situation are like night and day. There will always be comparisons because it’s two different mediums, and suspension of disbelief works differently in each. So it’s hard to split hairs fairly here, especially when it’s only Act One of the full story — but in this case the songs and imagery are iconic and the perfectly-cast Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo nail everything so well, and the mostly-practical in-camera production is impressive to behold. The climactic performance of Defying Gravity, especially on a big theatre screen & sound, had me in tears. There’s also a silent dance sequence in the ballroom between the two characters -- allowing for close-ups, symbolic editing, and nuances you can't as easily replicate on stage -- which is one cinematic moment in particular raising this half of the adaptation to something special.
DUNE: PART 2 - Directed by Denis Villenueve
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.
Seeing this in the theatre as an advanced IMAX screening was a moral imperative — the sound is incredible, and quite possibly the greatest visual effects I’ve ever seen. The power & awe of the worm riding sequences are gob-smacking moments of big screen transcendence — and the dark vicious world of Geidi Prime has never been realized so ferociously. Building brilliantly upon Part 1, it’s a terrifying descent into the folly of war and its consequences — and this time, without weirding modules. It speaks in high volume the grasping of head over heart, corruption over conscience, and power over grace. Justice for Chani too — she deserves better.
I SAW THE TV GLOW - Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
Dark, weird and spooky, heartbreaking and horrific — my kind of vibe with Lynchian twists and a sonically transcendent soundtrack. I love the themes it explores, whether you read it as a poetic metaphor for the trans experience, body horror without the blood, a meditation on ‘90s pop culture nostalgia, or all of the above. It gets under your skin and it’s like watching someone else’s nightmare and then wondering if it’s your own. I look forward to whatever Schoenbrun has up their sleeve next.
SING SING - Directed by Greg Kwedar
Amazing grace and the healing power of art lift the heart with this powerful film. Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin deserve all the award season praise they are in line for, and their performances moved & devastated me. Repeat viewings of this important story pay off in spades, for it’s truly divine and beautiful work.
ANORA - Directed by Sean Baker
Sean Baker is one of the best American filmmakers out there right now, and I’m always anticipating the next chapter in his filmography. His work is always a brilliant mix of humor, grittiness, and the unbelievable tragedy of human train wrecks you don’t dare look away from. ANORA is his best film since THE FLORIDA PROJECT — an exhilarating powerhouse of a movie with an empathetic lens on the excess of the world, and the very real people who live and work where the wild things are -- this time with such laugh-out-loud hilarity and relentless energy. Mikey Madison is a force of nature, and the entire film is absolutely riveting. The final scene will leave you stunned into silence.
GOOD ONE - Directed by India Donaldson
This movie wrecked me, especially as a big dumb male and father of a daughter. I find the spell it casts hard to describe, except that you need to see it. All men need to see it. Another reviewer put it well, that it’s a small movie but it weighs a ton. And so can words. There is one line in this whole film that changes its whole trajectory, and from that moment to the end you feel the silence, weight, and uncomfortable pressure it leaves on its central heroine (17-year-old Sam, played by newcomer Lily Collias). The film is even more powerful and devastating on the second watch when you know what’s coming — and all the editing, mise en scene and color choices reveal so much more. Give Collias all the awards for breakthrough performance— especially in that final shot. Sign me up for director India Donaldson’s next project.
2024 has been a poignant and significant year for women’s voices in film, and GOOD ONE is the best of them all. I’m here for it.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL - Directed by Adam Elliot
My favorite animated film of the year. Everything in this movie is made by human hands. An absolute work of art, sorrow and humanity all told by clay animation puppets.
Leave the kids at home though — it may be animated but this is dark & raunchy R-rated stuff, but it’s a signpost to the truth that no matter how we are made, who we love or how we love, we have infinite value in the eyes of the universe.
See my previous post for more on this film and the chance I got to meet & interview the director back in November.
ODDITY - Directed by Damian McCarthy
There was a lot of buzz this year around LONGLEGS being the scariest movie of the year. I didn’t find that to be the case at all, as it wasn’t even good, or scary. Then there was talk about SMILE 2 being better & scarier than the original. It was scary, but stupid. Then there was HERETIC, which was just unbelievably stupid.
Let me spare you the trouble…the scariest movie of 2024 is an Irish obscurity called ODDITY. I was skeptical going in, as I had been underwhelmed by the director’s previous feature CAVEAT. But this time….
Holy Freakin’ Moses.
I’ve seen enough scary movies to not be affected by jump scares because most of the time they are staged so predictably, it’s not really much of a shock when they happen. But this time there was a moment I jumped so hard and cried out to Jesus.
It’s a clever who-done-it, spooky psychological thriller and straight-on ghostly horror film to haunt you and taunt you. And most importantly, it has a moral compass. Even better upon re-watch.
NOSFERATU - Directed by Robert Eggers
No one mourns the wicked.
This was my most-anticipated film of the year, as I’m a season ticket holder for Robert Eggers and have seen all of his films on a theatre screen (with the exception of THE VVITCH which I’ve only watched at home). There is nobody making films today who creates things with the same attention to detail, historical accuracy, and immersive world-building mixed with weirdness and visceral energy. His films are not merely pretty (or ugly) to look at — they transport you into their settings through time and space.
For this re-visioning of the 1922 silent classic NOSFERATU, Eggers pulls out the stops for his own symphony of horror, dread, and vicious gory terror --- the film is deep, dark, and not merely a vessel for jump scares or murders, even though it has plenty of them. But the real stand-out star here is Lily-Rose Depp (yes, it’s Johnny Depp’s daughter), who seems like she was born to literally play the hell out of this role.
While ODDITY might be stiff competition in terms of its originality, for my money Eggers’ NOSFERATU is the best straight-up horror film of the year. It combines the best echoes of previous DRACULA-adaptations with elements of all my top favorite horror films (including the slow burns, spookiness and ambience of HALLOWEEN and ELM STREET and the vicious graphic ferocity of THE EXORCIST) and mixes it all with old-world grittiness, gothic sensibilities and a delicious screenplay into a dramatic, moving, and horrifying experience.
And yes, it's literally a Christmas movie.
—
As for my personal favorite film of 2024? It’s a double-feature tie.
RIDDLE OF FIRE - Directed by Weston Razooli + GASOLINE RAINBOW - Directed by Bill & Turner Ross
These films are joined at the hip and I see the latter as a spiritual sequel to the former, for the fact that they each explore similar themes of adventure, friendship and coming of age — first through the eyes of children and then through the eyes of young adults. They are different chapters in the journey of life:
one where anything seems possible and life is like a fairy tale or video game with enemies to outsmart & defeat.
another where the fairy tale of life has been shattered, mentors have let you down, and the future is uncertain & scary.
Whether it’s RIDDLE’s child cast or RAINBOW’s teen cast, both ensembles are from broken homes or single-parent families, and both films together suggest an arc with a missing chapter in the middle, the trajectory of adventurous childhood to entering the adult world to fend for yourself. When life grows more layers and becomes more complicated. When you realize you’re naked and forced to leave the garden. It’s that loss of innocence and scales falling off the eyes in the second act that doesn’t need to be told, because you and I have been there ourselves and can imagine it all too well. The only thing that kept you and me alive through it was sticking with your tribe, the family that finds you rather than births you, and the brothers or sisters you choose rather than share blood with.
In both films it’s a band of holy fools — a circle of friendship — that answers the call to adventure. In both films a soundtrack of ethereal melodies and pop music needle drops scores the journey. In both films I feel more joyful and hopeful than I did two hours earlier, even if they are rough around the edges and maybe a little blessed but cursed in their filmmaking. They’ve given me the most joy and wonder this year, and I’m grateful for them.
I’ve written dedicated posts about both films earlier this year, so for much deeper dives into why I find these films special, check out these links…
Thanks for reading, friends! I would love to discuss and hear more about which films meant something to you in 2024.
Want my posts about film, books and music sent to your email?