Top 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2024

by Jacob Jones​

​Hello, all, and welcome back to The Friendly Film Fan! As we rapidly approach the day upon which I will unveil my Top 10 Movies of 2024, I wanted to make sure I gave a special shout to some of the year’s more underrated films. While it wasn’t the strongest overall year for movies, there were plenty of them to celebrate, and a particular few that seemed to get passed over, whether by awards bodies or by critics – including myself – who perhaps don’t recognize their full value beyond the potential they provide for the filmmakers to improve with future projects. As is the case with every year, I haven’t seen everything that might qualify for placement on this list, so for those of you hoping to see things like Sasquatch Sunset or Snack Shack amongst the mentions may end up, this may be a disappointing journey; nevertheless, I do hope that the presence of these titles might prompt some of you to finally check them out or inspire you to give them a second look. After all, art is about constant evaluation and re-evaluation; maybe a few of these will mean something different to you now than they did when you first saw them! In either case, whether you’ve seen these films or not, I’m of the mind that perhaps they deserve a little more love than they’ve been given. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Most Underrated Movies of 2024!

​10. Nightbitch
 
Marielle Heller’s part genre, part drama tale of a woman being driven so crazy by motherhood that she things she’s turning into a dog may not sound like the basis for a successful project, and in some senses, that might be true – the harder genre bits don’t work as well when paired with the other half of the film, and a few of its supporting elements lack enough cohesion or development to really justify their inclusions – but on the whole, Nightbitch is far better than its marketing would lead one to believe. Amy Adams’ committed performance is among her best work to date, and could certainly be counted as her best in several years, to the point where I wondered considerably if she had a legitimate shot at a SAG nomination. The film itself also deals with the trials of early motherhood and raising a (way-too-well-behaved) toddler in a way that a lot of other films about the subject can’t seem to parse, at least not with the nuance this carries.

​9. Juror #2
 
We are in serious danger of forgetting just how good a director Clint Eastwood can be when films like Juror #2 are unceremoniously released to only 50 theaters and then shuttered off to streaming as a Max Original (I will never forgive David Zaslav for that). The film is imperfect, absolutely, but it’s still a far better film than anything with this much hockiness and sincere faith in the American justice system has any right to be. This is one of Eastwood’s best movies in years, and it’s unfortunate to think that it very well could be his last. I go back and forth on whether the ending is good or not, but it’s everything before – including Nicholas Hoult’s incredible leading performance – that makes the film so consistently engaging and worth spending time on. The scene in the garage in particular is among my favorite acting moments in all of 2024, and Hoult nails every subtle expression required in that sequence to both make you empathize with him and believe him a coward, with no clear lean toward either end. If you haven’t checked this one out yet, I’d highly recommend giving it a shot.

​8. Cuckoo
 
Sometimes all one needs is a deeply weird, odd-feeling horror movie to remind you that the genre can still surprise you with just how strange it can still be, and Tillman Singer’s Cuckoo is exactly the right kind of odd-ball horror that the genre needs to stay interesting. The film may not succeed at every turn, but the always-engaging Hunter Schafer holds it all together with a central performance essentially confirming what anyone who’s seen her act before already knew: she has real star power, capably carrying the film largely on her own shoulders. Of course, it helps that she has Dan Stevens to play off of, who looks like he’s having the time of his life getting to sink his teeth into such a weird, off-putting character. The thing that makes Cuckoo so underrated, though, is that even when it misses amongst all the shots it takes, the miss leads to somewhere interesting, a new avenue to explore or idea to consider. Even if the whole thing doesn’t ultimately land the plane, at least it’s a memorable flight.

​7. Transformers One
 
Shame, shame, shame on all organizations and awards groups with animation categories that passed by the far better than it had any right to be Transformers One. While I won’t contend that it would’ve actually stood a chance at winning the category for any awards body or critics group, it being left off the list for almost all of them – even the Globes, who had six slots available – is completely unjustifiable. Josh Cooley’s origin story for the iconic rivalry of Optimus Prime and Megatron isn’t just far from the disaster its trailers made it look like, it’s actually a genuinely heartfelt story of betrayal, division, and what it looks like when the truth is more than meets the eye. The voice performances from Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry carry some beautiful animation over the finish line, and the film’s final moments deserve to be answered by a sequel that unfortunately is unlikely to ever occur. This one deserves a lot more respect.

​6. The Apprentice
 
Trying to unpack the enigma of Donald Trump would be an impossible task even for the most seasoned of filmmakers. How do you even begin to understand someone so notoriously buffoonish that he wants to take over Canada, rename the gulf of Mexico, and keeps Elon Musk of all people close to the chest? How do you interrogate the character of someone so cartoonishly evil that he inspired a whole mob of people to attempt an insurrection after he lost his initial attempt at a second term as President? Well, as hard as he tries to convince us otherwise, Trump is a human being, and all human beings come from somewhere. Whether circumstantially or deliberately, he is the way he is for a reason. Ali Abbasi's biopic about Trump’s early life – and chiefly regarding his relationship with Roy Cohn, pitched here as the man who essentially created the Trump we know – doesn’t simply probe these uncomfortable questions, but refuses to give clear answers to them. It really is one of the most accomplished studies of a somewhat unknowable individual. It really is one of the most accomplished studies of a somewhat unknowable individual to come out in recent years, and major credit should go to star Sebastian Stan for keeping this movie in the cultural conversation regardless of how difficult the questions is asks are to face. Between Stan and co-star Jeremy Strong, there should be two guaranteed Oscar nominations, and all those publicists that refused to pair their stars with Stan for Variety’s Actors on Actors series should feel a deep shame in avoiding the elephant in the room – the exact opposite of what the best art does.

​5. Between the Temples
 
Starring Jason Schwartzman as a cantor in the midst of a crisis of faith whose former grade school music teacher approaches him to inquire about having her own Bat Mitzvah, Between the Temples is just as crazy, funny, discomforting, charming, strange, and deeply endearing as its plot can manage to allow. The chemistry between Schwartzman and his co-star Carol Kane is off the charts, the latter of the two absolutely radiating a bouncy energy that perfectly compliments Schwartzman’s trepidation around just about everything he does. The film also features some of the year’s most daring filmmaking moments, and resolves in a way that both enriches itself and leaves viewers to wonder: where do these characters even go from here?

​4. Thelma
 
No, this is not the International Feature contender from 2017 directed by Joachim Trier; this Thelma is hoping to steal Tom Cruise’s stunt crown and become the new Queen of Stunts. At 93 years old, June Squibb – whom most readers would probably know from her work in the film Nebraska – does all her own stunts in one of the year’s sweetest films with a sincere sense of humor about itself. Thelma is an absolute joy, boasting not only one of my favorite lead performances of the year from Squibb, but one of the most underrated supporting turns as well from the late Richard Roundtree in what would turn out to be his final part. Almost every joke lands, and any movie that joins Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, and Fred Hechinger together to make up the family taking care of June Squibb deserves not only a lot more respect, but a lot more attention.

​3. Wicked Little Letters
 
It came out relatively early in the year, so one could be forgiven for forgetting that it even released this year at all, but Wicked Little Letters – which had its U.S. release in March – is one of 2024’s most charmingly naughty tales. Starring Jessie Buckley as a woman accused of writing a series of heinous letters in a pious community, and Olivia Colman as the letters’ recipient, the film is a great deal of fun, especially in the back and forth between its leading stars. Give two of the U.K.’s best actresses working today a shot at a small-time script, and they’ll milk it for all its worth. The film is streaming on Netflix for those inclined to take a watch.

​2. Strange Darling
 
One of the things that excites me most as I grow as a critic and branch out through all different kinds of filmmaking is the discovery of a new voice I hadn’t yet known. That’s exactly what happened when I saw Strange Darling, a new horror film from J.T. Mollner that feels like the director – along with cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi, who shot the gorgeous-looking movie on 35mm film – emerging as a new voice in the horror space, and an exciting one to discover at that. Of course, it helps that scream king Kyle Gallner is involved to offer the project the notoriety it needs to get it off the ground, but its Willa Fitzgerald’s multi-layered lead performance that ended up taking me completely by surprise. Even in seeing the trailers for the film, I had no idea where it was supposed to go, and if you think you might wanna take a chance on it, I’d recommend – at the risk of spoiling an element of the plot – that you go in as blind as possible. The next film on the list might be more underrated overall, but this by far was my favorite surprise of the year.

1. Daddio 
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Over the summer, in June, a little movie released nationwide called Daddio. It wasn’t a large release, and in fact I didn’t get to see it until much later, but I couldn’t believe how few people were talking about it. Dakota Johnson stars as a woman coming back home from a family visit, with Sean Penn giving his best performance in years as her cab driver. The whole movie, right up to its ending, takes place inside this New York taxi cab, a simple conversation between two people that becomes far deeper and more meaningful than any conversation between a cab driver and passenger has any right to be, let alone a conversation that lasts almost 90 minutes. Both characters unveil layers to themselves throughout that surprise in small ways, and yet we know both of them completely from minute one; they’re fully realized, but never fully evolved. Frankly, there’s not a lot else to say about Daddio because there’s not much to the filmmaking itself, but if readers are looking for a good, solid bottle movie that won’t eat at their time and will leave them feeling good at the end of the day, I can’t think of a more underrated film experience from 2024 than this one.

And those are my picks for the Top 10 Most Underrated Movies of the 2024! What movies did you think were undervalued this year? Let me know in the comments section below, and thanks for reading!
 
- The Friendly Film Fan

​Honorable Mentions:

• Abigail
• The Bikeriders
• Boy Kills World
• Good One
• Kneecap
• Monkey Man
• My Old Ass
• Seeking Mavis Beacon
• Trap
• Union
• We Live in Time