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.
Each year offers some important movie-going lessons, and 2024 was no exception. Buy tickets early when taking kids to see Wicked. Never count out Mike Leigh, George Miller, or Clint Eastwood. Bow to Francis Ford Coppola, whether you enjoy Megalopolis or not. Start reappreciating Demi Moore and Nicole Kidman. Stop watching Alien: Romulus before the ending.
And, of course, choose your Uber driver carefully; on my way to my first screening at September’s Toronto International Film Festival, mine raced through a stop sign, got pulled over, and made me miss the one press screening of The Brutalist. (I’m still stewing over that.)
Now, to my list of 2024 favorites; read on to see if I eventually caught up with Brady Corbet’s film. (No thanks to you, speedy Uber driver and Toronto Police Service.)
Honorable mentions: A Different Man, His Three Daughters, Megalopolis, Nosferatu, The Substance
10. Bird (Andrea Arnold)
Something funny happened to me after seeing Andrea Arnold’s Bird at TIFF. The story of a tough 12-year-old (Nykiya Adams), her scheming father (Barry Keoghan), and a strange visitor known as Bird (Franz Rogowski) struck me as the strangest film I saw at TIFF. It was also one of the most memorable, and I must acknowledge its novel use of music from two of my favorite bands, the Verve (“Lucky Man”) and Blur (“The Universal”)––as well as a “dad music” joke that hit way too close to home. Weeks later I was still pondering this one, and considered that a good sign. Watching it a second time months later, I was struck by Arnold’s impressively authentic world-building, the film’s initially jarring elements of fantasy, and the lived-in performances of the entire cast. Bird is Arnold’s finest film to date.
9. Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
What an assured debut film Janet Planet was for acclaimed playwright Annie Baker. It is the most original look at childhood since Petite Maman, but Baker also has much to say about parenthood. What is most impressive is the film’s ability to nail the small yet significant details that make up every day of being a parent and a child. It is quite rare to identify equally with an 11-year-old and her mother. Janet also has the most knowing, joyful closing shot of any film released in 2024.
8. Challengers (Luca Guadagnino)
Funny, sexy, and emotionally engaging, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers was an incredibly pleasant surprise. How often do we see memorable sports films these days, to say nothing of successful romantic comedies? Challengers fits both categories, but it is also a high-stakes drama, one full of surprises. With a strong script by Justin Kuritzkes and a trio of phenomenal performances, this is one to be rewatched and savored in the years to come.
7. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello)
Léa Seydoux has the chance to play one character during three different eras in The Beast, and responds by making each one complex and compelling in very different ways. Bertrand Bonello’s epic adaptation of Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle is haunting and difficult, culminating in a Seydoux scream for the ages. Bonello is at the top of his game here, and for the director of House of Tolerance, Saint Laurent, and Nocturama, that’s saying something.
6. Anora (Sean Baker)
Like Anatomy of a Fall, Titane, and Parasite, Sean Baker’s Anora is a Palme d’Or winner that lives up to the international hype. Mikey Madison is unforgettable, Yura Borisov enigmatic, and the humor legitimately superb. There is never a moment in which one has a firm sense of where the film is heading, right down to its final scene. Also, there is Toros (Karren Karagulian). Hard to top Toros. Plus, you’ll never hear Take That the same way again.
5. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
While Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga earned less than its predecessor, Mad Max: Fury Road, at the box office, it was as creatively satisfying as the film that preceded it. There should be little hesitation in calling Fury Road one of the greatest action films of all time (if not the greatest), and that makes it all the more impressive that director George Miller had it in him to make Furiosa even more epic. Against all odds, he succeeded in crafting a wholly original and wildly engaging new Mad Max entry. The performance from Anya Taylor-Joy is every bit the equal of Charlize Theron’s work in Fury Road, and Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke are not far behind. Furiosa also contains at least three all-timer action sequences: the intense opening featuring Charlee Fraser as Furiosa’s badass mother; the Octoboss assault on the War Rig; and Furiosa and Praetorian Jack’s heartbreaking attack on Gastown. Admit it––you can see those sequences in your head as you read this. What an achievement! And what a journey, both for the audience and for Furiosa herself.
4. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
What a massive achievement director Brady Corbet and co-writer Mona Fastvold have pulled off with The Brutalist. I was left thrilled, frustrated, exhausted, and exhilarated by this widescreen story of the vampiric relationship between patron and artist (this is just one of many threads). The acting––most notably from Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, and Isaach de Bankolé––is sublime, and the score from Daniel Blumberg is a modern classic. And while Corbet’s direction and the film’s overall design is remarkable, I find myself returning to the metaphor-laden screenplay by Crobet and Fastvold. Even the missteps (and there are a few, mainly in the film’s second part) arguably enhance the experience. It all culminates in an epilogue that is vivid and unsettling. Here is a festival favorite that more than lives up to the hype, and a work of artistic brilliance unlike any other in recent American cinema.
3. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader were among the many voices raving about Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, and those filmmakers know something about spellbinding cinema. Allegorical, fantastical, sad––I Saw the TV Glow is a film with an ending that is shattering and genuinely upsetting. I’m not sure I’ll ever forget the sight and sound of Owen utterly alone and screaming into the void. And I am certain I’ll never stop pondering (and flashing back to) The Pink Opaque. How lucky we are to be alive when Schoenbrun is creating art.
2. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
Colson Whitehead’s novel The Nickel Boys is one of the great novels of the 2010s. RaMell Ross and co-writer Joslyn Barnes have managed to adapt a very complex book into a deeply emotional, appropriately upsetting experience. Ross, who also directed, utilizes a first-person point-of-view approach that is both bold and highly effective. It results in a marvelously moving, groundbreaking creation. Indeed, it is the most immersive and structurally innovative film of 2024. Nickel Boys will leave you shaken.
1. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
The latest from legendary British filmmaker Mike Leigh stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman whose intense anger––at her family, the people she sees during her errands, and the world itself––is both hysterically funny and devastatingly sad. Hard Truths might be the first truly great film to deal with the lingering impact of COVID on our collective consciousness. While the pandemic is only mentioned in passing, the air of malaise, discontent, and simmering rage that many felt (and still feel) is evident in every frame of Hard Truths. Leigh’s filmography is so strong and so full of masterpieces (Life Is Sweet, Naked, Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy) that ranking Truths among his works is tricky. But that can be pondered down the road. For now, Hard Truths must be acknowledged as 2024’s greatest and most emotionally impactful film.