Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
When reflecting on any year in movies, the theatrical experience rings most memorable. From driving across the border to Ohio with friends to watch No Country for Old Men in 2007, to a 35mm screening of Stalker at the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2011, with so rapt an audience I was terrified to swallow for fear it would disrupt their experience—each year holds it own special memories and 2024 was no different. There was a lively afternoon matinee of Between the Temples in which I was the youngest present by about 25 years, and a sold-out Wednesday screening of Showgirls at the Academy Museum with Elizabeth Berkley in person. But judging from reactions on X.com, I’m not alone in my favorite 2024 theatrical screening being witnessing Interstellar in 70mm IMAX. This emotional experience led me to making spectacle cinema a firm priority in 2025. Thankfully, a new Mission Impossible and Avatar are coming to satiate this desire. 2024 was full of spectacle cinema across all budget ranges as even the indies possessed a level of narrative scope that I can get behind, whether Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, with its giant ensemble cast or Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, with its decades-spanning narrative. 2025 has flashy titles on the horizon with new Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson and (hopefully) Terrence Malick, and 2024 by comparison was largely a quantity year with a wealth of titles I strongly enjoyed, a selection of which are cataloged below.
Honorable Mentions: The Brutalist, Challengers, Evil Does Not Exist, Furiosa, Last Summer, Red Rooms
10. Smile 2 (Parker Finn)
Smile was an honorable mention back in 2022 and Smile 2 maintains that film’s relentless mean spirit while scaling everything up considerably. Naomi Scott excels as Skye Riley, a narcissistic pop icon struggling with addiction, and Parker Finn puts her through a ringer that would make Lars von Trier proud.
9. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Merlin Crossingham, Nick Park)
A late addition, I went full Wallace & Gromit over Christmas break rewatching the four shorts and feature in anticipation of only the duo’s second feature outing since introduced flying to the moon in 1989’s “A Grand Day Out.” Move over Count Orlok, Feathers McGraw is the true villain of 2024.
8. Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
Annie Baker’s directorial debut carries a strong sense of place for the northeast in the 1990s, as captured on beautiful 35mm by Maria von Hausswolff. In zen-like states after catching it at Telluride, a friend and I went back to our respective condos for long naps–it’s that kinda movie.
7. Between the Temples (Nathan Silver)
Although driven by Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane’s chemistry, it’s the peripheral characters who make the movie for me, from Keith Poulson in a Kirk from Gilmore Girls-esque gag or a greasy spoon owner whose “I could use a second sink” in response to kosher law, kills me every time.
6. Good One (India Donaldson)
Lily Collias is a revelation in her first role, more than holding her own opposite James Le Gros and Danny McCarthy. Good One reminds just how powerful subtle performances can become when projected on the big screen.
5. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point (Tyler Taormina)
Through three features, Tyler Taormina has sought to capture the ineffable, looking at how an empty living room or snowy parking lot might make audiences feel when lit and framed just so. Also a musician, he understands that film works best when stitched together rhythmically rather than logically.
4. The End (Joshua Oppenheimer)
It’s exhilarating to exist in the world that Oppenheimer and team craft. Runtime be damned; I could’ve stayed inside this bunker for longer. I caught this at my favorite Telluride venue, the Chuck Jones, after being among the first to see The Act of Killing 12 years prior. Full review.
3. A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)
Jam-packed with ideas, A Different Man never presses any theme too strongly, allowing them to percolate on the edge of the frame, lingering well after the credits roll. The Oswald/Edward dynamic recalls the similarly-titled A Real Pain, but A Different Man is the more thoughtful and rewarding picture.
2. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood)
Unflashy direction drives this throwback thriller with its mind on lifelong Eastwood preoccupations of authority, justice and redemption, and how they all intertwine in the great project that is America. Juror #2 stands out as the best late-career Eastwood, from an era with its fair share of gems. Full review.
1. AGGRO DR1FT (Harmony Korine)
With beautiful infrared cinematography, catchy score, and tight runtime, AGGRO DR1FT is a remarkably accessible art film. I caught this at NYFF, seated behind a teenager who kept discreetly snapping screen stills with his phone (I don’t begrudge him) and later at the sceney L.A. strip club premiere.