Top 10 Films of 2024
In what has seemingly become an annual tradition, here’s where I write about how the film industry continues to recuperate from fill in the blank. Through 2022, movies felt the direct impact of COVID-19. Just when it seemed the ship had righted itself, the actors’ and writers’ strikes of 2023 threw the train back off its tracks. (We’re taking all modes of transportation.) Though the strikes resolved in late 2023, their effects rippled through 2024 resulting in a release schedule that was, at times, barren as the Arrakis desert. As always, the movies prevailed. Last year saw fewer releases from the old guard – the master filmmakers – but that provided an opportunity for new voices – or voices new to general audiences – to emerge.
10.) HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS
“Hundreds of Beavers” – about a 19th century applejack salesman (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) who must kill a bunch of beavers, hundreds of them in fact, to win the hand of a merchant’s daughter (Olivia Graves) – has the title of an adult film, the poster of a ‘70s comedy, the aesthetics of a silent movie, the anarchistic humor of “Looney Tunes,” and the structure of a video game. Director and co-writer Mike Cheslik’s film is a triumph of pursuing a vision. It’s gleefully low budget, with the beavers themselves represented by performers in mascot-style costumes. And it’s unrelenting in its use of clever gags and set pieces. Does it go a little saggy in the mid-section? Sure! (Don’t we all?) But if I told you that a 108-minute modern “silent” movie – there are sound effects – with adults running around in beaver costumes could only stand to lose a couple minutes from its second act, I think you’d be pretty damn impressed. I certainly was.
9.) NOSFERATU
Robert Eggers’s “Nosferatu,” the third on-screen iteration of this story, finds Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) pleading with her husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), not to pursue a lucrative commission. He’s been tasked to close the deal on a manor that’s being bought by Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgård). You know the rest – calamity, twisted romance, and bloodletting run rampant. This film has a malicious wit. See: Simon McBurney’s character, Knock, barely able to contain his laugh as he sends Thomas off to his doom. Eggers has been criticized for not bringing anything new to the Nosferatu mythos – as if immaculate craft and Jarin Blaschke’s intoxicating cinematography aren’t enough – but that criticism doesn’t hold water. This is a sibling film to his first feature, “The Witch,” which was also about a repressed young woman turning to darker forces. Ellen’s obsession with the Count – we have a new Scream Queen in Depp – is made all the more eye-popping by his decrepit appearance. Orlock, with his decaying skin and phlegmy breathing, looks and sounds like he’s got more than one foot in the grave. Bill Skarsgård is such a treasure! Between Pennywise and Orlock, this guy has taken on two iconic horror roles and made them his own.
8.) DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
Production assistant Angela (Ilinca Manolache) drives around Bucharest, interviewing employees injured on the job for a multinational corporation’s workplace safety video. Intermittently, she uses a spazzy face filter – is there any other kind? – and uploads profanity-laden, xenophobic videos to TikTok. (Though it’s never clear, we infer she does this less out of conviction and more for clicks.) “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” runs 163 minutes – a long time for any movie, let alone one that’s going for laughs. Yet it works! The film is punk rock! It’s a scrappy fire breather with an effortless performance from Manolache. History is filled with troubling times, but “Do Not Expect Too Much” taps into our current malaise with such specificity. Romanian writer/director Radu Jude manages to cook workplace alienation and the daily grind, the war in Ukraine, social media toxicity – among other topics du jour – into a bitter stew. I laughed my ass off, in part because the alternative is screaming into the void.
7.) FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
This supremely satisfying prequel traces the life of Furiosa (Alyla Browne in early scenes and later Anya Taylor-Joy) through an infamous post-apocalyptic wasteland. “Furiosa” somehow manages to feel of a piece with “Mad Max: Fury Road” while also being unafraid to carve its own path. Director/co-writer George Miller swaps his adrenaline-fueled chase picture for an elegiac western about the cost of revenge. The mid-film raid on a war rig is scarcely less thrilling than anything in the 2016 movie, and yet it’s a fraction as percussive in its editing and sound design. Just an overall different vibe with this one. I love the look of this thing. It’s been called phantasmagorical, and that’s spot on. I don’t think a scene goes by that doesn’t have at least one mythic shot. (Myth is very much on Miller’s mind, and it’s explicit in some of the dialogue). Chris Hemsworth gives a career-best performance as Dementus, a crazed war lord who repeatedly crosses paths with Furiosa. He brings the bluster and menace, and even a bit of pathos, while Taylor-Joy’s eyes burn a hole through the screen.
6.) CHALLENGERS
The best sports movies are always about something other than the game itself. In “Challengers,” Tashi (Zendaya), a former tennis star, gets her husband, Art (Mike Faust), into a challenger event where he’ll face Patrick (Josh O’Connor), Art’s former best friend and Tashi’s ex. The highbrow in me would say this is about power dynamics. The lowbrow would say it’s about foreplay and sex, baby! Both my high- and lowbrow selves were immensely pleased with this compulsively watchable film that is, in some respects, a throwback to old school Hollywood – a star vehicle with a bunch of attractive people hurling verbal barbs and tennis balls at each other. (There’s even a shot of a tennis audience that’s lifted from Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train.”) I thought of “All About Eve” more than once, but maybe pre-Code Hollywood is more appropriate, because this movie is horny! It’s as though director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes saw all the think pieces about how films aren’t sexy anymore and said “hold our churros!” The performances from Zendaya, Faist, and O’Conner in particular are sensational. The movie also gives us another banger score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, whose repetitive electronic sounds tease out the characters’ pent up desires.
5.) NICKEL BOYS
Adapted from the novel by Colson Whitehead, “Nickel Boys” follows two young Black men, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), during their time at an oppressive reform school in the Jim Crow-era South. Director and co-writer RaMell Ross envisions the film from the first person, with nearly every shot representing the gaze of either Elwood or Turner. The effect is completely arresting, placing us in these characters’ shoes. Looks of scorn – like from the staff of the school – or looks of affection – as with Elwood’s grandmother, Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, a performance that exudes warmth) – are deeply personal and affecting. As devastating as this movie can be, Ross and cinematographer Jomo Fray find beauty in the everyday: an encouraging smile, Christmas tinsel drifting through the air, or the way sunlight mingles with leaves. Ross makes room for poeticism too, with digressions that go as far as outer space. It can be difficult to tell where the music, from composers Alex Somers and Scott Alario, ends and the work of the sound team begins – the effect is otherworldly, sometimes disquieting. It can feel like you’re watching a horror movie, and at times, you are.
4.) THE BRUTALIST
“The Brutalist” would be an embodiment of the old saying, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”…except, look at that, they just did! It’s an original story with grand scope, and it’s for adults. This sprawling movie – three and a half hours with an intermission – follows a Hungarian-Jewish architect, László (Adrien Brody), as he comes to America after World War II. He’ll later be joined by his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). László settles in Pennsylvania where he’s commissioned to build a community center for wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). Brady Corbet – the director and co-writer – suffuses the movie with a lot of big ideas: the American dream vs. the American nightmare, the immigrant experience, the artist’s relationship to the financier, etc. Not all of them are subtly conveyed – László’s arrival in New York Harbor features a memorably upside down shot of the Statue of Liberty. It’s a striking image, but not exactly a nuanced one. Performances are excellent across the board, especially Brody who carries the considerable runtime on his shoulders. Big props to the below-the-line artists too. I loved Daniel Blumberg’s brassy score and Lol Crawley’s moody cinematography (see: László’s cousin’s face in shadow during a tense exchange). And despite the length, editor Dávid Jancsó keeps things moving.
3.) PERFECT DAYS
“Perfect Days” is a film that demands and imparts stillness. About a toilet cleaner in Tokyo named Hirayama (Koji Yakusho), it’s a movie of repetition. I appreciate how director and co-writer Wim Wenders, along with the deliberate cuts of editors Clémentine Decremps and Toni Froschhammer, not only establish Hirayama’s routine but trust us to catch its subtle variations. It’s a small example, but every morning he wakes at dawn to get ready for work, except one morning he wakes up and the sun is fully out. Ah, this must be his day off. And Koji Yakusho! Do you know how good an actor you have to be to be this nonverbal and this “passive” and hold an audience for two hours? (I hesitate to use the word “passive,” because Hirayama is constantly doing something, just not big and grandiose gestures.) Yakusho gives a remarkable performance. There’s a family conflict interlude that’s the closest this comes to meat and potatoes drama. It arrives late in the film, but it’s illustrative of the story’s larger theme: being content. This is a movie that’ll steady your breathing.
2.) DUNE: PART TWO
“Dune: Part Two” is an adaptation of the second half of Frank Herbert’s novel. Being pursued by House Harkonnen, Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), find shelter with the Fremen, a population native to the desert planet, Arrakis. There’s friction within the community as some believe that the two – both endowed with special abilities – embody a prophecy about a mother and son who will bring peace to the planet. Others don’t buy it, including Chani (Zendaya). This movie is a response to critics who felt “Part One” had too much setup and too little payoff. Directed and co-written by Denis Villeneuve, “Part Two” is filled with incident, immense scale, and menace. Few modern filmmakers know how to use the canvas of a big screen like Villeneuve. See: Paul riding a sandworm. And the menace – from Hans Zimmer’s score to the movie’s provocative themes about fundamentalism and what happens to those who wield power. A friend wrote during the theatrical release, “for a film so otherworldly, it sure feels like a glimpse into the more sinister futures we might soon choose for ourselves. A fever dreamscape of our own doom.” Hard to argue with that.
1.) ANORA
Writer/director Sean Baker has made a career out of telling stories about people who don’t often get their own stories – and certainly not ones with Baker’s empathy. “Anora” is a film about a sex worker (Mikey Madison in the titular role) who marries the son of a Russian oligarch named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn). When Vanya’s parents find out, hijinks ensue as they ask some goons to locate the couple and get the marriage annulled. “Anora” is ecstatically cinematic – it starts as a Cinderella-style story before transitioning into an urban odyssey that’s equal parts thrilling and absurd, then it ends in a place that’s all too human. The sequence with Anora going mano a mano with the Russian goons, and holding her own before she’s ultimately bound and gagged, is a sidesplitter. Nearly flawless in its pacing, the movie features Baker’s trademark verve and an absolutely livewire performance from Brooklyn-accented Mikey Madison. She practically owns the film, though Yura Borisov is great as one of the Russian thugs, offering a stoic and subtly sensitive foil to Madison’s exuberance. A film this exhilarating, hilarious, and tragic is why I go to the movies.
Lastly, some honorable mentions: “Flow,” “Look Back,” “A Real Pain,” “Sing Sing,” “The Substance,” “Wicked,” and “The Wild Robot.”
What were your top films of 2024?
