One of our favorite traditions in best-of-the-year festivities is a lineup that tends to find a more interesting path than any guilds or critics groups. The wonderfully eccentric John Waters, whose tastes always includes a mix of the unexpected and underseen, hasn’t let us down with his top 10 films of 2024.
Published at Vulture, where one should click over to read thoughts on each, his top 10 is led by Rose Glass’ neo-noir Love Lies Bleeding. Other selections include Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Joker: Folie à Deux (“a love story I can relate to”), and Trương Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam, which will arrive next year. Waters also notes the latest from Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, and Guy Maddin nearly made the cut.
Check out the list below, along with our reviews where available. Waters has also released a pair of Christmas songs this year to get you in the holiday mood, which one can stream below.
1. Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
2. Queer (Luca Guadagnino)
3. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet)
4. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh)
5. Messy (Alexi Wasser)
6. Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips)
7. Femme (Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping)
8. Emilia Pérez (Jacques Audiard)
9. Babygirl (Halina Reijn)
10. Viet and Nam (Trương Minh Quý)