by Jacob Jones Greetings all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! Well, it’s finally that time: time to reveal our Top 10 Movies of 2024. It’s been a long and often uneven journey. We weren’t always able to review everything we liked, but we made a concerted effort to focus on what we loved as much as we possibly could. We also didn’t get to see absolutely everything we’d hoped to get to before the release of this list, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with 2024 movies once this list is public; there’s still a good deal to catch up on, and still a lot of quality cinema left to discover as we charge headlong into 2025. 2024 was a tough year for movies in some respects, with the SAG and WGA strikes affecting much of the intended release slate through the calendar year, forcing studios to delay major projects, films to shift release dates back, then forward, then back again, and generally gutting the summer release slate for tentpole projects, leaving a few films like Longlegs, Inside Out 2, Twisters, and Deadpool & Wolverine to hoist theaters aloft on their own shoulders and keep things moving as best they could (unintentionally allowing studios like A24 to fumble hard with release plans for otherwise immense awards-season undertakings like the botched rollout of Sing Sing). But if anything stays consistent in the big, beautiful world of cinema, it’s that nothing is certain, including the future. As we’re thrust into a new era in U.S. politics, Hollywood seems more poised than ever to become a target of the Trump machine, a machine that hates and fears stories that stand up for, celebrate, and acknowledge all different kinds of people while examining what makes humanity turn on itself in the way it has now and excavating how such vitriol and gleeful evil can propel itself to power. Who knows where movies will be four years from now, if indeed this nightmare is to end at that time? And who knows if movies will even be permitted to exist in the same way? In any case, we had 2024, and hopefully, later down the line, we’ll have those years of movies to look back on too. A few notes before we begin. These are not full reviews of the films included; for those films for which we did full reviews, we will link them next to the titles so as to make them easier to find. Secondly, these are not selections for what we believe are the objective ten “best” films of the year – no one can watch literally every single film released in a calendar year to accurately make that kind of judgement, no matter how objective they attempt to be – but rather a list of our ten favorites overall, ranked according to a blend of overall quality and personal taste. If readers would keep those two things in mind, they might understand why certain films which frequently appear on other Top 10 lists do not make appearances here. And now, it’s time. Here, at last, are our Top 10 Movies of 2024! 10. A Different Man Aaron Schimberg’s black-as-night comedy about self-image and insecurity is one of 2024’s most unconventionally entertaining movie experiences. Featuring Sebastian Stan as a man living with a facial deformity, the film turns after he gets a highly experimental surgery, leading him to look like…well, like Sebastian Stan. The face removing sequence in the film is one of the year’s most immediately memorable and genuinely upsetting moments as the audience is forced to sit with it as though a monster is being created rather than “defeated.” The real kicker comes in with the introduction of Adam Pearson to the film, who (both in the film and in real life) possesses the same facial deformity as Stan’s character, but whose life seems entirely driven by the upside of all he’s still able to do. Schimberg’s script and astute direction allow the film to walk an impossible tightrope, never veering into outright comedy but never letting go of its sense of humor about the whole situation. Stan and Pearson both are excellent in their parts, perfectly pairing off each other as Pearson’s charm only seems to drive Stan’s insecurity and deep-seated need for people to like him no matter what he looks like. The first of a few different A24 films on this list, it’s another in a long line of interesting projects for the studio, and a siren call to anyone unaware of Aaron Schimberg to keep a sharp eye out for whatever he does next. 9. Nosferatu Robert Eggers has become one of the great auteurs in movies, a director with a command of craft and dedication to authenticity in period storytelling not often found even through the storytelling medium’s centuries of existence, so when it was announced that he would direct a remake of the classic Nosferatu story, I stayed my mind’s reflexive disappointment that he wouldn’t be doing something original this time around, and allowed myself to look forward to his take on the material. While I don’t ultimately think it is his best work to date, however (that still belongs to The Lighthouse), it is by far his largest project with the most stunning attention to craft that I’ve seen in a film in quite some time. Eggers is not typically a jump-scare enthusiast, but the one time he utilizes the trick in Nosferatu is unexpectedly terrifying, and the implications of the titular character’s mission are not only gross but deeply uncomfortable. Where the film finds its great strength beyond crafts, though, is in the performances of Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult, particularly Depp, whose work in the film should – in any just world – immediately thrust her into the Best Actress conversation. Depp’s performance doesn’t simply underscore the idea of women’s sexual desires in this time period being understood as manifestation of disease but accentuates it with a performance at once attracted to Count Orlok’s power and terrified by that same attraction. And speaking of Orlok, Bill Skarsgård is entirely unrecognizable as the iconic vampire, in both sight and sound. The makeup team did remarkable work, but credit should be given to Skarsgård as well for his terrific voice work. I’m sure there will be thing I notice and re-examine upon the home release of the film, especially in relation to the 1922 original, but for the time being, I can’t think of a better period horror film in recent memory than this. 8. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat The only documentary to make it onto this Top 10, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a remarkable combination of sound and image to tell a story many of 2024’s films aren’t bold enough to tell in such explicit terms. The film focuses on the political machinations of The film focuses on the 1961 assassination of Congolese civil rights leader Patrice Lumumba and all the political machinations that led to it, including and especially the involvement of the CIA in recruiting Black American musicians to infiltrate Lumumba’s inner circle. While the film itself can be overwhelming at first blush, throwing information at the viewer left and right to the point where one occasionally has to pause and rewind just to re-orient themselves in the narrative (if one even has that ability), the sheer level of editing and archival collecting it must have taken to put the whole thing together could land it on this list by itself. As it happens, it’s also incredibly engaging on a narrative level, and a wildly fascinating look into a seldom-discussed yet critical turning point in world events. 7. The Substance The fact that a hard-genre body horror film from the director of Revenge is openly competing for above-the-line Oscars is an amazing indication of just how far the Academy has come the last several years in its embrace of different kinds of storytelling, and Coralie Fargeat’s fast and furious rage-fest against the beauty standards women are held to as they age is more than worthy of whatever nominations AMPAS gives it come Thursday morning. Demi Moore turns in her best performance to date as Elizabeth Sparkle, able to meaningfully connect her own career having done many parts centering on her own body, and bringing all the fury of having dealt with casting directors, costumers, producers, executives, and gross men in positions of immense power to the fore. Meanwhile, Margaret Qualley ascends to superstardom as Sue, cementing herself as an essential actress to watch in whatever she chooses to do, and playing a perfectly self-involved foil to Elizabeth’s self-loathing. Beyond all of that, though, this is a body horror movie, and the second the viewer thinks they’ve seen a relatively tame effect, the film rachets up the makeup by a thousand, somehow topping itself scene after scene, though never getting more disgusting than Dennis Quaid loudly and messily eating shrimp at a lunch table. The makeup work in this movie is on a whole other level, with its wild third act serving as a both a capstone to the film’s ideas and a hard swerve into genre territory. If Coralie Fargeat is nominated for Best Director, it will be a historic moment for genre horror in movie history. Full Review Here 6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Following up an action movie as perfect and unexpectedly masterful as Mad Max: Fury Road would be an impossible task for any other director, so credit given where credit is due; Furiosa may not be as perfect a film as Fury Road was on the whole, but it’s also aiming for something quite different, an epic revenge odyssey spread across decades which is much more character-focused than plot based. Magnificently directed by George Miller, the film is yet another example of how no one in the world understands the Mad Max universe, or indeed the balls it takes to really do this kind of action filmmaking, quite like he does. At 79 years old, Miller is directing sequences like the War Rig chase and the Bullet Farm escape better than even the most skilled people could at less than half his age, and to witness someone so in command of their craft that a nearly three-hour revenge odyssey remains as engaging as this one does is a privilege it’s a shame more people didn’t opt into when the film was in theaters. Anya-Taylor Joy shines as the film’s titular character, able to communicate so much in her face without speaking a word, but it’s Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus who ends up stealing the show in the actor’s finest performance to date, and the final showdown between the two will go down as one of the best endings in all of action filmmaking. Full Review Here 5. Challengers Between this and at the risk of spoiling our number four selection, there was seldom a better time to be a movie fan than this past spring, especially for those with particular admiration for Tom Holland’s new fiancée. Luca Guadagnino’s steamy sports drama starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist as a trio embroiled in a lust triangle in which tennis plays the central cog on which it all turns is not simply the sexiest movie of the year by far, but also the only one without an outright sex scene in its entire runtime. Guadagnino understands the raw excitement of desire better than just about any director working today, and is able to use his skill to thrill his audience by turning the very idea of love and connection into its own tennis match, culminating the whole thing in what is easily the best ending in movies from the whole past year. Almost everyone in this movie is giving career-best performances, and are directed at the perfect pitch for the story being told as Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ best score since The Social Network blares across the speakers. Zendaya and Mike Faist both turn in some of their best work yet as Tashi Duncan and Art Donaldson respectively, but it’s Josh O’Connor’s Patrick Zweig who ends up stealing the show as the devious little shit-heel throwing a wrench into what would otherwise be a normal, healthy relationship dynamic. Between all of that and a crackling script chock-full of great dialogue (“you have a better shot with a handgun in your mouth” is an all-timer) and fully realized characters, it’s no wonder Challengers was easily one of the best movie theater experiences of 2024. If only the Academy felt the same way. Full Review Here 4. Dune: Part Two I’m already planning to crash out if the Academy refuses to recognize Denis Villeneuve’s efforts in directing once again, and the growing likelihood of Villeneuve being passed over – despite making an even better movie than he did with the first Dune – in favor of someone like Jacques Audiard makes it all the more infuriating that AMPAS wouldn’t consider Dune: Part Two one of year’s greatest directorial acheivements; after all, it’s not like some of them haven’t seen the movie or finished it, right?...Right?! In any case, Villeneuve’s second half adaptation of Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi novel (which I’m currently reading) is a masterful step up from where Part One left off, increasing the world-building, the story stakes, the character depth, and the level of artistry to such a degree that the film joins the conversation easily as one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made. Villeneuve’s understanding of the source material is second to none, and there are more than a few action sequences in this film that made my jaw drop in the theater for how masterfully they were handled. But it’s not only the sound, the VFX, the costuming, the makeup, the editing, the cinematography, and Hans Zimmer’s new score that are improved upon from the last film; the expansions made to Chani's character in adapting the book only serve to further enhance the compelling story, which acts as a warning against the idea of charismatic leaders who would sooner burn the world down than bypass a chance at revenge (now where have we encountered that before?). The entire ensemble is giving it everything they’ve got, including and especially Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson, who turn in even better performances here with more interesting stuff to do, but no one outsteps Austin Butler’s magnificent introduction as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, and once he’s on screen, almost every actor finds it difficult to match his freak no matter how good they are, try as Javier Bardem’s deceptively funny Stilgar might. To say much more would be spoiling the film for those who haven’t caught up to it somehow despite its $714 million gross at the box office, but in the shortest terms I can think to put it in, this is essential viewing for all sci-fi, movie, and Denis Villeneuve fans. 3. I Saw the TV Glow Now more than ever, it’s important that trans kids and trans people are seen, heard, and loved by those around them, and the first step in making sure all of those things happen is by recognizing the dysphoria that comes with questioning one’s sexual identity as a queer person in an environment where such things are frowned upon. Jane Schoenbrun’s masterful excavation of that dysphoria is what gives I Saw the TV Glow its power, especially as it relates to trans youth, as we’re shown what burying ourselves out of fear ultimately leads to. The ending of the film in the “Fun Zone” is one of the year’s most outright heartbreaking, shattering with intention the idea that one can truly live not being their full selves without ultimately suffocating themselves in the process. Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine are fantastic in this gorgeous-looking film with frames that will stop your heart, and while I wouldn’t necessarily call it an especially “scary” watch in the traditional or even indie sense, it belongs every bit to the horror genre for the queer community as The Substance or Nosferatu would for those outside of it. Looking at the whole of movies in 2024, there’s still nothing out there quite like this, and I hope sincerely that every person struggling with their sexual or gender identities gets a chance to see this film and feel as though they are not only understood, but cared for. Full Review Here 2. Sing Sing A24’s botched rollout of Sing Sing is the stuff of legend amongst cinephiles, as the film was meant to have a nationwide release over the summer following its TIFF premiere in 2023, which got turned into a limited release as the eventual nationwide date of August 2 only saw the film play a select number of theaters before a planned re-release to only 500 theaters on January 17. Suffice it to say, let’s hope those Academy screenings went off like gangbusters, because the lack of transparency around releasing the film to a wide audience that would have loved to actually get a chance to see it may have just cost it some key awards nominations, including Best Picture, if the PGA ten is anything to trust in that regard. (Amazon’s botched rollout of Nickel Boys is in the same boat.) Regardless of rollout though, Sing Sing is still one of the three best movies released at all in 2024, a film that revels in the fact that humanity needs art in order to be human, and to remind ourselves how we're all capable of dignity. Greg Kwedar’s drama about incarcerated persons at the Sing Sing correctional facility participating in an acting program for rehabilitation is the year’s most soulful and deeply felt film of the entire year, a film that revels in the fact that humanity needs art in order to be human, while art needs a human component to make it come to life, and to remind ourselves how we're all capable of royal dignity. It’s a miraculous achievement for everyone involved, especially those incarcerated who played themselves in the film. Colman Domingo turns in his best work to date, and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin is the acting discovery of the year, immediately ingratiating himself to the audience as the supporting performance of 2024. If and when you do get a chance to see this film in theaters, I would urge you to go immediately; you don’t want to miss how special this one is. Full Review Here 1. The Brutalist While it does seem the AI controversy for which the film received enormous backlash was blown way out of proportion, and despite my having put it at #1 when I was first drafting this ranking, I found myself struggling to justify keeping The Brutalist in this spot in the wake of such news. But then, I considered how I felt when I first saw the film all the way back in December, before anyone knew any of this, and well before director Brady Corbet had to set the record straight on the film’s minimalistic and (it would appear) quite industry-wide use of the tools at their disposal. For my own reasons, I find I cannot deny that experience, and the sheer power with which the film overtook my every waking thought for the week afterwards. The Brutalist remains, to put it bluntly, a monumental achievement of a film, an entirely new cinematic language in itself, harkening back to the epics of old like The Godfather or the ones of yester-year like There Will Be Blood, while simultaneously charting its own unique path forward, all to the sounds of Daniel Blumberg’s immediately iconic score, the best parts of which can all be found in the overture of the film. The epic three-and-a-half hour runtime – punctuated smartly by a 15-minute intermission – flies by in the viewing, and by the time it’s all over, one realizes that they’ve not felt a minute pass that didn’t absolutely need to be there. Personally, I love an epic that knows to embrace its length, rather than fear how many sales it will lose for lack of showtimes, and Brady Corbet is clearly not shy about how expansive his vision for the film – gorgeously shot by director of photography Lol Crawley on VistaVision – needed to be in order to tell this story. Adrien Brody turns in his best performance in the better part of twenty years as László Tóth, a Hungarian architect fleeing Europe post-WWII to come find a better life in America, only to discover that the mythical promise of the American dream is built by rich men on the backs of other people’s work, while Guy Pearce’s Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. is not simply one of 2024’s most despicable characters, but maybe Pearce’s best ever. Special attention must be paid, too, to Felicity Jones as Erzsebet, who doesn’t really show up until the second half, but afterwards becomes the humanitarian focal point as László begins to slowly erode before our eyes. Even Joe Alwyn – while never matching these three – turns in great work here under Corbet’s direction, and while some may find his character a bit exaggerated, I never saw that exaggeration as anything but intentional on behalf of the character himself. There will be a lot to say about The Brutalist in the coming months leading up to the Oscars on March 2 (much of it bad-faith complaints rather than actual criticism, such is the way of film twitter), so I won’t spend too long on it here, but if I could urge readers one point of caution: do not let your first time seeing this be at home on your couch. Different viewing experiences can alter one’s perception of just about any movie, but to fully feel the power of certain films, they need to be experienced on the biggest screen with the best possible sound, and this is one of those films. As I did at my first viewing, I could sit in the corner of the front row again, and still feel amazed at what I was seeing and hearing, such is the sheer power and might of it all, which is just one of so many reasons why The Brutalist is my favorite movie of 2024. Full Review Here And those are our picks for the Top 10 Best Movies of 2024! What movies did you like best this year? Anything you’d recommend we catch up on? Let us know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading! - The Friendly Film Fan Honorable Mentions:
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