Another year of motion pictures, another year of light flickering in the darkness and keeping us warm. Some great cinematic voices emerged (to me at least) in 2024. Here are 25 films that rocked me the most.
(Letterboxd version of this list here).
GOOD ONE, India Donaldson
This is my favorite film of 2024. The writing, performances, photography, music, all the elements meld in such an effortless and nuanced fashion (and it's extremely funny). Bowled me over.
Here’s the rest of my top 25, in a very loose order that changes every time I look at it:
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, Matthew Rankin
ANORA, Sean Baker
HARD TRUTHS, Mike Leigh
RED ROOMS, Pascal Plante
THE BRUTALIST, Brady Corbet
FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA, George Miller
KNEECAP, Rich Peppiatt
THE APPRENTICE, Ali Abbasi
A DIFFERENT MAN, Aaron Schimberg
THE SUBSTANCE, Coralie Fargeat
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD, Radu Jude
LAST SUMMER, Catherine Breillat
CHALLENGERS, Luca Guadagnino
CONCLAVE, Edward Berger
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, James Mangold
THELMA, Josh Margolin
I’M STILL HERE, Walter Salles
THE HYPNOSIS, Ernst de Geer
LOVE LIES BLEEDING, Rose Glass
JANET PLANET, Annie Baker
LA CHIMERA, Alice Rohrwacher
BIRD, Andrea Arnold
THE BEAST, Bertrand Bonello
LOOK INTO MY EYES, Lana Wilson
I also enjoyed:
Abigail, Alien: Romulus, Armand, Babygirl, Between the Temples, The Bikeriders, Chime, Coreys, Cuckoo, Dìdi (弟弟), Dogleg, Drive-Away Dolls, Emilia Perez, Evil Does Not Exist, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Femme, The First Omen, Flipside, Flow, Gasoline Rainbow, Ghostlight, The Girl with the Needle, Hit Man, It's Not Me, Kinds of Kindness, The Last Year of Darkness, Late Night with the Devil, The Line, Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Maria, MaXXXine, Megalopolis, My First Film, Nightbitch, Oddity, The Order, The People's Joker, Problemista, Queer, Rap World, A Real Pain, Rebel Ridge, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Sing Sing, Speak No Evil, Strange Darling, Sugarcane, The Taste of Mango, Trap, Will & Harper, Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos
And I’m eager to eventually see:
Aggro Drift, All We Imagine as Light, Better Man, Blitz, The Breaking Ice, Caught by the Tides, Close Your Eyes, Cloud, Dune: Part Two, The End, Eno, Free Time, Green Border, His Three Daughters, The Last Showgirl, Matt and Mara, Memoir of a Snail, Nickel Boys, No Other Land, The Outrun, Riddle of Fire, Santosh, Saturn Return, Seeking Mavis Beacon, September 5, Skincare, Soundtrack to a Coup d'État, Twisters, Union, Vermiglio
