It’s that time of year, movie lovers! When we begin to enact our New Year’s resolutions and try to get rid of those holiday pounds, I know it’s time to drop my choices for the best (and worst) movies of the previous year.
I’ll give you the same disclaimer I have to give each year: living in Saskatchewan, I don’t always get to see everything inside of that calendar year. Some of the best foreign and independent movies trickle in as the new year moves forward. So the list may be missing some important films. And conversely, there are a couple of movies on this list that were technically released in 2023, though they didn’t go wide until 2024 (and major outlets are counting them as 2024 as well). So, I’ve included them on my list for this year instead of last year.
This article is my Top 10 of 2024.
Read #11 to #30 of 2024 here.
Read the Top 6 Worst Movies of 2024 here.
Read Dave Scaddan’s Top 20 Albums of 2024 here.
Now, grab your popcorn, pour a drink, and strap yourself in! I hope you agree, disagree, or discover something you hadn’t heard of. It wasn’t a mind-blowing year for movies, but there were still a lot of great films released. That Top 5 is pretty solid.
10 The People’s Joker
The People’s Joker is a lo-fi, punk rock, DIY, bonkers movie that reimagines the origin of DC Comics’ Joker through a highly personal, trans and queer lens. Created by Vera Drew, it follows an aspiring clown grappling with gender identity and self-acceptance in a society obsessed with binaries. It could perhaps have moved a little faster, but that’s a mild criticism of a smart, funny, creative, meta film. Its cheap DIY aesthetic is harnessed to become something so much bigger; a dreamlike atmosphere that’s cartoonish, like the books, shows, and movies that it references. The People’s Joker is truly a one-of-a-kind celebration of outsider art and queer resilience.
9 Strange Darling
Strange Darling is a tight, mean little thriller — Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Tarantino (especially in its non-linear storytelling). It looks pretty stellar, with a beautiful colour palate of violent blood red and life-affirming foliage green (oddly, its DP was actor Giovanni Ribisi). Directed by JT Mollner, the film unfolds over a single day, exploring the volatile dynamics between a killer and their prey with razor-sharp suspense and darkly twisted charm. What sets Strange Darling apart is its nasty unpredictability, juxtaposed with a human approach to psychological horror, delving into the thin line between love, obsession, and violence. It’s a bold, genre-bending ride that keeps you guessing until the very end.
As a side note, I’m not sure if the lead female character is a feminist anti-hero or a deeply misogynist trope, but if you’re watching exploitation films asking questions like that, you’re probably watching the wrong movie.
8 A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed, and co-starred in this comedic drama, alongside Kieran Culkin. It’s about cousins who take a trip to Poland to see some Jewish history as well as the place their recently passed grandmother once lived. This is a movie about our trauma; it asks smart questions about what pain means individually, how it affects others, and how it compares to large-scale human suffering. The two leads are amazing. Eisenberg is playing his nebbish self, but Culkin as the foil, is someone you want to hug and strangle at the same time. It’s not only a sad and moving film, but also an uplifting and often hilarious one.
7 Saturday Night
I tell ya, I wasn’t expecting much when I went to see this. It was getting somewhat mediocre advance reviews. But sometimes lowered expectations set you up for something great. Is Saturday Night the next Citizen Kane? Hell, no. And yet, it was one of the most fun times I had at the cinema all year. (Here is my full review).
Saturday Night is a comedy-drama directed by Jason Reitman that delves into the wild 90 minutes leading up to the very first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975. The film features Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, and an ensemble cast portraying the original SNL members, writers, and crew, including Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, and Dylan O’Brien. It’s not perfect — sometimes it feels like a bunch of compressed anecdotes and there’s a lot packed in — not all of it works. But the story moves quickly and tells a compelling and funny story about the cultural institution. Granted, I’ve grown up with Saturday Night Live so I’m squarely in the demo for this movie, but I left the theatre with a big grin on my face. Notorious a-hole Chevy Chase told Reitman that he should, “be embarrassed,” of the movie, but I think that for at least the last 20 years, Chase should be embarrassed to be Chevy Chase.
6 The Substance
You can read my full review to really unpack this one, but The Substance is so bonkers that it took me a day or so to decide if I loved it or hated it. It’s a body horror from director Coralie Fargeat, with Demi Moore as a fading celebrity who uses a mysterious drug to recapture her youth, in the form of Margaret Qualley. The film has some good messages about societal pressure on women’s bodies and aging, though it tends to clumsily hit us over the head with those themes. I’d also say that while it’s incredibly well-directed, it’s not doing anything we haven’t seen before. However, it does successfully repackage some of its art and exploitation film influences to create something that simply has to be seen. It won’t be for everyone, but if you’ve got the guts, go ahead and challenge yourself. Whether you love it or not, I guarantee you’ll feel something. And that’s what good film is all about.
5 Challengers
Challengers is a fun, stylish romp through the (apparently) sexy world of tennis, directed by Luca Guadagnino. It’s brilliantly constructed, volleying themes of love, rivalry, ambition, and of course, tennis balls, back and forth. The film follows Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy turned coach, who reignites old passions and tensions when her husband, Art (Mike Faist), faces her former lover and rival, Patrick (Josh O’Connor), in a high-stakes tennis tournament. Sometimes it gets a bit campy, on-the-nose, and a couple of time jumps are jarring (and potentially unnecessary). It also wears out its welcome a bit in terms of length. However, it’s engrossing, thrilling, and sexy.
4 Anora
My, how I love Sean Baker. Two of my favourite movies of the 21st century so far are Tangerine and The Florida Project. Red Rocket was okay, but I was looking for a bit of redemption for Baker here — and I found it in Anora. It’s a poignant and visually arresting film, exploring identity, survival, and human connection. The film centers on Ani (Mikey Madison), a stripper with dreams of escape, and Ivan (Mark Eidelstein), a reckless oligarch’s son whose chaotic lifestyle draws Ani into a dangerous but captivating world. With Baker’s signature mix of raw authenticity and tender storytelling, Anora is both a visceral portrait of marginalized lives and a deeply personal story of hope and resilience. Grounded by nuanced performances and an immersive sense of place, the film captivates with its emotional depth and social commentary. You’ve done it again, sir. In a slightly different year, this could be #1. I’m sure it will top many best of lists.
3 All of Us Strangers
Technically, All of Us Strangers dropped in 2023 in limited release. But it went wide in 2024, so I’m counting it. You can’t stop me. Here is my original review.
The film is a haunting drama from Andrew Haigh. I loved his HBO show, Looking, which was like a gay Sex and the City set in San Fran. All of Us Strangers blends the supernatural with an intimate exploration of love, loss, and identity. The film follows Adam (Andrew Scott, aka Hot Priest from Fleabag), a lonely writer who unexpectedly reconnects with the ghostly presence of his deceased parents. Around that time, he also begins a relationship with a new man (Paul Mescal). It’s like a gay Solaris. It’s low key and melancholy, but also filled with love and hope. There are a number of scenes that are exceptionally written and the performances are stunning as well. Wow, the scene where Jamie Bell (Adam’s father) expresses that he wishes he had done things differently with his son is probably the most beautiful scene in any film this year. I’m a fan of Haigh, and this is his best work yet.
2 Dune Part Two
Since high school, I’ve loved the Frank Herbert Dune books. I even love the hard-to-sell, 1984 David Lynch version of the film (and I don’t mind the 2000s Syfy made for TV version). But Denis Villeneuve has done a masterful job of bringing this world to life again. Here’s my original review.
Picking up where the first film left off, Dune Part Two follows Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he embraces his destiny and leads a fierce revolt against the oppressive forces of House Harkonnen and the Emperor. With breathtaking visuals, intricate political intrigue, and intense character development, the movie delves deeper into the struggle for control of the desert planet Arrakis, where power, religion, and ecology collide. The film expands the saga’s scope, exploring themes of leadership, revenge, and prophecy with unmatched grandeur and emotional depth, cementing it as one of the most ambitious sci-fi epics of our time. The sleeper has awakened.
1 The Zone of Interest
Wowza. The banality of evil, indeed. At times, The Zone of Interest feels like it could be a straightforward drama about people making a life for themselves when things are complicated by the breadwinner being transferred for work. However, just as you almost begin to forget where you are and root for the family, the film reminds you of the horror that hangs in the air around them, that they not only happily live under — but have themselves engineered.
Directed by Jonathan Glazer, the story follows a Nazi officer and his family in their idyllic life, living just outside the gates of Auschwitz. The film has a precise and formal mise en scene, yet also has a documentary feel at times. It’s hard to talk about The Zone of Interest without mentioning the sound design. We rarely see the horror first hand in the film, like you do in say, Schindler’s List. But your ears — and then your imagination, the most powerful tool in film — fill in the details for you in a harrowing theatre of the mind.
There are some intense and fascinating themes and details. It does that thing where you almost feel like nothing is happening — you’re just watching some family go about their life. And then you realize that this stark, minimal approach is forcing you to confront uncomfortable truths about denial, guilt, and the human capacity for cruelty.
While it may be a story that happened about 80 years ago, it somehow, terrifyingly, feels incredibly relevant today. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Sorry to stick you with a number one that ain’t a good time Friday Night movie. But it’s a ground-breaking film that needs to be seen and one of the best movies of the 21st century so far.
Read #11 to #30 of 2024 here.
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