As we entered the fall movie season; I had already rated six films my highest rating of four stars. I wasn’t sure if I was overrating things, but as the months went by, I knew my choices were clear, as so many of the films that were released earlier in the year were staying with me. There was no obvious first choice; I thought Evil Does Not Exist had a strong chance, and I had high hopes for Sean Baker’s Anora as it walked away with the prestigious Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Then I saw Anora at the New York Film Festival in October. It was everything I expected and beyond. In 2010 I had made an award-winning short film titled The Spirit of Isabel that played in numerous film festivals, and it even aired on Shorts TV over the years. My short was also about a sex worker trying to find hope in a dire economy. I was influenced by Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. Watching Baker’s Anora assured me that it’s refreshing to see an independent filmmaker share similar sensibilities and tastes, who was able to pull off the resources to make a modern-day Nights of Cabiria. While many say it’s like a modern Pretty Woman, which holds some truth. Baker’s vision is gritty, and it never hits a false note. It has pure human vulnerabilities and a superlative performance by Mikey Madison that is pure perfection. Anora is the big winner of 2024, as are many of these other great films and beyond.
Courtesy Neon
1. Anora (dir. Sean Baker)
Sean Baker’s Anora is the film I responded to the strongest this year. It’s quite an emotional journey, as Baker carries on with its neo-realist portraits of sex workers in crisis, and it’s one of his funniest, saddest, and most dramatically satisfying films of his filmmaking career. It plays out like a modern version of Pretty Woman with influences of Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria. It’s about a sex worker named Ani (Mikey Madison) who falls for one of her clients. But this is far grittier, honest, and more emotionally raw. Pretty Woman was charming but obsessed with status and fortune; it played out like a modern Cinderella or romantic fantasy. Baker’s dizzying film, on the other hand, deconstructs these tropes and subverts the romantic fairy tale into a portrait of class and economic misfortune. Told from the perspective of a stripper and told with no- judgment like his previous films, Baker’s film is empathetic and joyful, moving and disheartening, with impressive tonal shifts that bounce between romantic comedy and dramatic character study. Mikey Madison is heart-stopping as the title character, you feel her emotional weight in each moment, especially the brilliant final scene that is indeed comparable with Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria.
A24 Films
2. The Brutalist (dir. Brady Corbet)
In Brady Corbet’s third feature, The Brutalist, which is gaining large acclaim, is a sweeping chronicle of the immigrant experience. The narrative is told through the perspective of a Jewish Holocaust survivor named László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who emigrates to America in the final days of WW2. He worked as an architect in Europe and Hungary before the war. He possessed a unique style, yet he struggled to locate the necessary resources or connections. As he awaits the long arrival of his wife, Erzsébet Tóth (Felicity Jones), and Zsófia (Raffidy Cassidy), László’s mute, orphaned teenage niece. At its core, The Brutalist is a vast, sweeping American epic. Corbet isn’t interested in covering familiar ground with familiar beats. There is a singular vision that unfolds with a prologue and two chapters of engrossing storytelling with a 15-minute intermission that feels refreshing. The human drama absorbs in equal measures due to the impressive writing, directing, and first-rate performances across the board. Moreover, it’s immensely satisfying to see a film about the immigrant experience. It’s also a film about troubled friendship that grows, evolves, and sadly regressing due to conquest and power. This is Brody at his most vulnerable, and you can sense Brody, along with the rest of the cast, bringing a strong connection to the work. That is a testament to Corbet’s directing style and immense skill. At just age 36, with now three features under his belt, Corbet is proving to be a great director that will hopefully continue to make films of this caliber again. It’s a euphoric experience, a colossal American masterpiece that will forever haunt me due to its visual grandeur, themes, and vastitude. The Brutalist is great news for the future of American cinema.
Courtesy Janus Films
3. Evil Does Not Exist (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
While the set-up sounds like a heavy-handed movie about capitalism running the environment, the film becomes a lot wiser in its themes and execution. However, as the film unravels, it begins to unfold like a parable, almost like a folk tale with Shakespearian sensibilities. The film’s lead is played by acting newcomer Hitoshi Omika, who actually used to be an AD on Hamaguchi’s previous films. In the film, he plays Takumi, a widowed father who raises his young daughter Hana in the village. In the distance, we hear gunfire and its hot spot for deer hunters, as the vicinity is populated with various deer and buck with a deer trail and vast field. Takumi makes his living by being a jack-of-all-trades guy. He is able to support himself and his daughter by selling chopped wood, and he gathers fresh water in gallon containers for the local wet noodle restaurants. His duties often go over schedule, which leads to him getting sidetracked from picking Hana up from school, who ends up just walking home from school most of the time. Thematically and visually, there are shades of Akira Kurosawa in this film, especially Dersu Uzala, which examines the decay of nature, humankind, and the euphony that connects them. Until the climax, which includes an epilogue involving nature and trees. The themes are metaphorically and deliberately subjective—at times perplexing—with imagery thematically connecting themes of what’s truly evil isn’t in humans, but in systems such as capitalism that leads to consumption, commerce, and greed. Illuminating and artful, Evil Does Not Exist examines how nature is always vulnerable due to these systems.
Courtesy Janus Films
4. The Beast (dir. Bertrand Bonello)
Both art-house and high-minded sci-fi aficionados will find common ground for watching the thought-provoking and ambitious The Beast. loose adaptation of Henry Jame’s The Best in the Jungle, starring French actress Léa Seydoux who continues to prove she’s an actress of great emotional range and versatility (especially coming off a remarkable supporting performance in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two), while British actor George MacKay (1917) also delivers a fascinating performance of many layers. The film is about two people who keep falling in love with each other during three courses of time. Permeated with much of the same atmosphere and visual style as Nocturama, but considerably even more surrealist and far more emotionally resonating, Bertrand Bonello’s latest film will certainly be a niche treasure, one that could take years to be fully appreciated, but it’s obvious it’s going to continue to make a return in remembrance due to how fascinating the experience is. The Beast has the tone of a fever dream, one that juxtaposes both the past and the future. An audacious piece of cinema that will certainly be celebrated as a highlight in Bonello’s filmmaking career. It’s fascinating, bizarre, and unsettling—one that makes you think of our modern demoralization, where you constantly feel impending doom lurking in the aura of the film. It’s a film about many things, and most importantly, how technology has shaped an era of alienation and narcissism while the future remains uncertain and so much of the past is mysterious. One thing most of humankind is concerned about is how technology can soon replace it, as Bonello envisions a futuristic world with a very high unemployment rate where even companionship and friendship are replaced with artificial intelligence.
Courtesy Mubi
5. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (dir. Radu Jude)
Nearly 20 years after the Romania New Wave took international cinema by storm with such titles as The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, and 12:08 East of Bucharest, Romanian provocateur Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn) carries on Romania’s new wave satirical traditions with Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. A highly amusing, artful, playful, innovative, and sharply satirical romp that sizzles with many brilliant ideas on the issues facing modern-day Romania. The film’s style is breathtaking and overflows with a great deal of piquancy. Just as he did with Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn, Jude’s latest film is very Godardian in its experimental approach. It’s jittery, fragmented, and filled with various aesthetics, textures, and tones. The film’s narrative unravels with many ideas and unfolds with many interruptions, and we see Jude experiment with the power of the image as we see film stock from an older Romanian film that’s juxtaposed with the narrative in this film that is shot in grainy black and white. Jude also utilizes other images in the film that consist of zoom screens, 4K/8K cameras, and he even live streams TikTok videos that all highlight the plight and degradation of modern Romania. A country that rose out of draconian communism nearly 35 years ago only to find its citizens still in despair from being overworked and underpaid as corporations profit off human misery.
Courtesy Searchlight Pictures
6. A Real Pain (dir. Jesse Eisenberg)
There are many actors that pivot towards directing, and often they have an uphill battle; some succeed more than others, and whether or not critics and audiences approve of their works will remain uncertain. Yet very few go onto auteur, highly renowned status, but you can think of the greats throughout time like Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Greta Gerwig, and Clint Eastwood, to name just a few. Now comes the Jesse Eisenberg sophomore-directed feature film, A Real Pain. An original screenplay by Eisenberg where he delivers a brilliant comic drama that is remarkable on so many levels. Eisenberg has proved he is a full-fledged talent, with a brilliant use of character depth, sharp humor, pathos, and pacing. A film that recalls the work of Alexander Payne, Woody Allen, and Noah Baumbach in which he has worked with Allen and Baumbach before. Like those icons, Eisenberg merges the joy with the melancholy, and the result is a very thoughtful film about grief, emotional mourning, depression, anxiety, and familial bonding.
Courtesy MGM/Amazon
7. Challengers (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
Luca Guadagnino pivots away from horror films back to romantic dramas that brought him such great notoriety in his earlier work, depicting characters experiencing forbidden love and desire in isolated, summer settings. These themes carry through again in Challengers. Unfolding a non-linear narrative that shifts between 2006 and 2019, this elegant and riveting three-character chamber piece is a portrait about the passion and intimacy between a trio of professional tennis players. Both sensual and undeniably compelling, Guadagnino’s 8th feature is a must-see and another mesmerizing one at it. The film’s first act is a Challengers tennis tournament finals match where the two finalists, Art Donaldson (Make Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), were once best friends but now turned rivals. The film’s structure, written by Justin Kratzke’s (Husband to Past Lives) writer/director Celine Song, actually bounces back and forth from the past to the present as if it were a tennis game. The structure is certainly influenced by The Social Network, and Guadagnino has certainly constructed this film that echoes the greatness of that film as well. With many sexual dynamics and nuances being revealed in between, The crutch between their rivalry is Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a renowned and top-ranked tennis player that both men have desires for. For all its multi-layered love triangle, the film ends up becoming a formally bold examination of broken spirits that intensely pull themselves back together for the love of the sport and even each other. You will be swept away by the energy, passion, tennis play, and love triangle of this film. It’s nice to see mainstream cinema still feel this alive that released back in April still thriving into the new year.
Courtesy Sony Pictures Classic
8. The Room Next Door (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Almodovar’s finest since Talk to Her didn’t quite generate the awards buzz as I hoped, but that’s okay as I anticipate this film holding strong shelf life in the Almodovar oeuvre in the years to come. The result, as told by Almodovar in his first American film, who wrote the adapted screenplay from a Sigrid Nunez novel, is a moving portrait of the human spirit, friendship, and mortality. The film also serves as a metaphor about the uncertainties of our modern world. You can see Almodovar channel his inner Ingmar Bergman here, and the outcome is luminous. Having indie queens Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton is a dream team that’s long past due. Their onscreen exchanges are radiant as you anticipate. Almodovar’s film runs deep. It has a sense of catharsis about friendship and mortality, and it never feels force as two close friends dealing with death and the difficult challenges of the next phase. It’s a strong relief that Almodovar holds great confidence in foreign soil with American characters just as he does in his homeland of Spain.
Courtesy Kino Lorber
9. The Old Oak (dir. Ken Loach)
Possibly the most essential and compassionate film the great Ken Loach has ever made. This swan song of a film for Loach is an empathetic portrait of dignity and a genuine odyssey of a small Irish community bartender who opens up his tavern for community lunches for the community so people can get acquainted with one another. Sadly, narrow-mindless occurs as some of the bar patrons hold some prejudice towards the Muslim immigrants. The film is far from a lecture though due to just how genuine Loach is. As he gets older and sees the world slipping, he offers solutions on the power of community, loving thy neighbor, and how we can coexist. The most rewarding aspect is just how powerfully moving it is as it avoids sentimental cliches. It’s sharply executed in its writing and execution as Loach offers one affecting scene after another. The film pulls you in with its deep humanism. As the world continues to carry out bigotry and xenophobia with deplorable election results, a film like The Old Oak is a kind reminder that artists aren’t giving up for their cinematic quest for human decency.
Courtesy Janus Films
10. About Dry Grasses (dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan continues his grandiose creative momentum with his latest art-house dramatic epic, About Dry Grasses. With his 2014 Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep (which made my top ten list in 2014) and his 2018 masterpiece The Wild Pear Tree (which made my top 10 list in 2019), Ceylan continues to prove himself as an impeccable craftsman and storyteller with extraordinary writing skills and a continuing interest in the human condition. His follow-up to The Wild Pear Tree is certainly a companion piece about Turkish despotism and feeling trapped in a hopeless society. In a more democratic- republic where the local town is under the residue of military checkpoints, Ceylan is vigilant with his condemnation of Turkish society, and he has a deep understanding of how society can’t function if it’s not democratically united. Ceylan’s latest framework is assured, though it might sound exhausting with its 195-minute running time, but it’s a rewarding film thanks to its first-rate performances and sharply scripted dialogue exchanges.
Runners-Up/Alternative Top 10 (In Alphabetical order)
Courtesy Slideshow/Mubi/Janus FIlms
All We Imagine as Light (dir. Payal Kapadia)
A visually sublime and richly intimate exploration of womanhood and friendship in India, and an impressive sophomore feature by Payal Kapadia. All We Imagine as Light is both elliptical and humanistic, one in which Kapadia beautifully explores her character’s psyche and their setting. If anything, her work is starting to recollect the work of Satyajit Ray.T he film follows three nurses in Mumbai: Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) in which each woman is left with some sort of uncertainty on their standard of living as they struggle with their own personal crisis when it comes to love and relationships as well. The result is quite woozy and liberating. At the end, this film is an artful slice-of-life movie that shows the power of excursion and friendship.
Courtesy Apple+ Films
Blitz (dir. Steve McQueen)
Though Blitz takes place during Blitzkrieg and in London, this marks the first narrative feature filmed in Steve McQueen’s hometown of London (though his anthology Amazon Prime television series Small Axe also takes place in London). Sadly, McQueen’s latest didn’t necessarily reach the acclaim and failed to satisfy modern film buffs, critics, and audiences the way his previous films Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave have, but Blitz has enough moments of greatness that should still appease its audience. As the film unfolds, you may ponder why we need another war film. And as you watch Blitz, it will draw reminders of our current state of just how much death and dysfunction of war are sadly still going due to reckless governments and failed foreign policies. Blitz is an empathetic reminder of the urgency of relevant storytelling and the significant impact the power of cinema holds in chronicling films about such fortitude.
Courtesy Warner Bros.
Dune: Part Two (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
Denis Villeneuve also succeeds in allowing Dune: Part Two to feel like it stands on its own, and it is inevitable that this franchise will hold a timeless quality to it like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. However, the revisit quality remains uncertain due to just how high-minded and serious the material is. Regardless of its fate, this is a towering piece of cinema, a distinguished entry into the sci-fi genre, and a defining technical achievement as well.
Courtesy Netflix
Emilia Perez (dir. Jacques Audiard)
Emilia Perez is a gritty musical in the vein of Sergio Leone, a fearless fever dream in the spirit of Nicholas Refn’s Too Old To Die Young meets the work of Baz Luhrman. It is the 10th feature film in the career of French filmmaker Jacques Audiard. Like his other films—Read My Lips (2002), The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), A Prophet (2009), and The Sister’s Brother (2018), to name a few—it’s a genre film that combines elements of a neo-Spaghetti western, a musical, and the gritty crime genre. It’s also about gender identity, redemption, transcendence, and self-healing.
The film begins what appears to be a crime drama. A sharp attorney, Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldaña), who often goes against her own conscience, argues the death of a celebrity’s wife as a suicide. She wins the case, but she ends up receiving an anonymous phone call where she is hauled off by a group of goons that end up taking her to see a powerful cartel kingpin named Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), who expresses her desire to covertly undergo gender affirming surgery, where she can be the person she was truly born to be as her new alias is the title character of Emilia Perez. Under hew new identity, Emilia Perez ends up becoming a journey about transcendence and redemption. The result is an explosive and introspective one.
Courtesy Warner Bros.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (dir. George Miller)
George Miller’s Furiosa is perhaps even more epic than Fury Road and its most involving Mad Max film yet. Using massive set pieces and bravura technique, he continues his dystopian vision of feudalism with a commanding confidence that the action impresses on an even grander scale than before simply because of the exposition and the way the narrative builds up with such great tension. Out of all his Mad Max films, this one feels more like a Spaghetti Western and is a sustained act of craftsmanship. At its core, the film is a conventional revenge saga about the origins of our titular title character and lead from Fury Road, played this time to great impact by Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa. We see Furiosa as a child who gets kidnapped by vicious warlords that murder her mother, yet she escapes and becomes a warrior to seek revenge on warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), who is the vicious leader of the Biker Horde that abducted Furiosa and rules Gastown. Furiosa is an awe-inspiring experience. Miller knows how to electrify an audience. The final showdown between Furiosa and Dementus is every bit as astonishing as Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Courtesy MGM/Amazon Studios
Nickel Boys (dir. RaMell Ross)
A harrowing, unsettling chronicle by documentary-turned-narrative filmmaker RaMell Ross (Hale County This Morning, This Evening), Nickel Boys is a highly engaging adaptation of the highly acclaimed 2019 novel by novelist Colson Whitehead. The film is based on Dozier School, an abusive reform school deep in the Jim Crowe state of Florida that operated well over 100 years and forced children to box each other for money, in which there were many unrecorded deaths of the children whose remains were found in the late 20th century. In the film, the film follows two teenagers whose pursuits of college are shattered once they are sentenced to Dozier, which in the film is referred to as Nickel Academy. The two teens—Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson)—hold courage and remain hopeful, as their friendship builds them to a journey of hope and survival. Ross’s visual style is innovative, recalling the first-person viewpoint technical aspects of Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void. Yet, it never feels gimmicky, as the film is structured in a first-person viewpoint of both characters in equal measure, in which the middle section frames them in 2 shots. The writing is also very personal, which gives the story its immediacy. In an age of democratic uncertainty and irrationality, RaMell Ross refuses to stand back and allows cinema to shed light on injustices and devastated abuses that are sadly whitewashed by our media and institutions.
Courtesy Focus Features/Universal
Nosferatu (dir. Robert Eggers)
A richly stylistic film where filmmaker Robert Eggers excels in its mood, atmosphere, performances, effects, and brooding vision with his Nosferatu adapted remake. While Lily-Rose Depp’s performance could be deemed inconsistent due to the demanding role that must have been emotionally draining, she holds her weight in many other moments with intense emotions and passion. Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe are perfectly cast, and Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) is indeed terrifying as he’s staged and lit in bulky, chilling nocturnal silhouettes by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. The shots and craftsmanship are expertly mounted as well, with so many expressionistic wide shots, master shots, and 2 shots that showcases Egger’s commonalities of period periods that consist of alienated characters confined to a devouring world of impending dread and inevitable terror. Ultimately, Egger’s was tailored to make a modern retelling of the classic German Expressionist silent film written by Henrik Galeen and directed by F. W. Murnau. I also highly recommend Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre which serves as both a remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu and an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. While the vampire genre has certainly run its course, Eggers brings a ferocity to the material that’s just as beguiling as the more notable entries to the genre. Eggers has now crafted 4 straight highly successful films in a row now with The Witch (2016), The Lighthouse (2019), The Northman (2022), and now Nosferatu film will be revered for ages the same as Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire and Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stroker’s Dracula are still today by modern film buffs
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Courtesy A24 Films
Queer (dir. Luca Guadagnino)
The second film to be released this year by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Challengers), and there was no so surprise that he impresses once again with Queer. The film’s lead, Daniel Craig is mesmerizing. It helps that Craig is playing an alter-ego version of William S. Burroughs and that Guadagnino has re-teamed with Challengers fellow screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes. A film about alienation, addiction, longing, love, and redemption is all in the forefront in this exceptional adaptation. Craig’s masterful performance in Queer is powerful and career-defining as it’s filled with fearlessness and melancholy. It’s quite remarkable that Guadagnino has pulled off two extraordinary pieces of cinema in the same year.
Courtesy Oscilloscope Laboratories
Sometimes I Think About Dying (dir. Rachel Lambert)
Fittingly for a film with such an explicit title about someone who indeed thinks about death, there is something wonderous about the human interactions that are on display most of the time. Sometimes I Think About Dying delivers rare vulnerabilities with optimism, with Daisy Ridley showing just how skilled of an actress she is when she’s not playing a Jedi or appearing in other big-budget studio films. Also serving as a co-producer for such a Sundance gem of a movie, it’s obvious she is drawn into characters that capture both the essence and challenges of the human experience. It’s a slice-of-life movie for the lonely and timid; let’s hope she participates and stars in more genuine films like this.
Courtesy Mubi
The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat)
The most shocking film of 2024 was one that quickly took social media and the internet by storm. It opened with a lot of buzz about how gonzo crazy it was, and it was the sophomore film by Coralie Fargeat, who made a splash with genre film buffs and critics in 2018 with Revenge. It was billed as Demi Moore’s comeback role, and Fargeat won Best Screenplay at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Now, streaming on Mubi after a very successful theatrical run, the film has now built a strong reputation and has made an endless amount of top 10 lists and has been embraced by critics, horror aficionados, and cinephiles. The film has an ultra-hyperreal style, with shots inspired by Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock that has the tone of a Terry Gilliam film, and Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. The horror on display is comparable to the body horror of Brian Yuzna. The film’s setting is Los Angeles, which feels like a fever dream nightmare that is fueled with rampant misogyny, shallowness, and narcissism. The film’s protagonist, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), plays a meta role as a once-celebrated actress who now hosts a workout show for a major TV/streaming channel. Once she eavesdrops on her producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) in the men’s bathroom that he plans on replacing her due to her age. Elizabeth ends up being aided by a mysterious laboratory that offers her a way to transform into her younger self, Sue (Margaret Qualley). Of course, the substance liquid goes awry as the old and new self-begin bodies begin to collide and the body begins to devour itself. It’s a film I responded to strongly with its themes on body image, societal standards on beauty, aging, and the vileness of show business and society. Even though the film grows exhausting and overly disgusting in the third act, it’s a daring act of filmmaking that will forever stay with me.
Honorable Mention (In Alphabetical order)
Between the Temples (d. Nathan Silver)
Close Your Eyes (d. Victor Erice)
A Complete Unknown (d. James Mangold)
Flow (Gints Zilbalodis)
Hard Truths (d. Mike Leigh)
His Three Daughters (d. Azazel Jacobs)
Hit Man (d. Richard Linklater)
I Saw the TV Glow (d. Jane Schoenbrun)
I’m Still Here (d. Walter Selles)
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (d. Pham Tien An)
Maria (d. Pablo Larrain)
National Anthem (d. Luke Gilford)
Robot Dreams (d. Pablo Berger)
Sing Sing (d. Greg Kwedar)
Strange Darling (d. J.T. Mollner)
The Wild Robot (d. Chris Sanders)
Best Documentaries of 2024
1. Daughters (d. Angela Patton and Natalie Rae)
2. The Other Land (d. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor)
3. Soundtrack to a Coup d’état (d. Johan Grimonprez)
4. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus (d. Neo Sora)
5. Dahomey (d. Mati Diop)
6. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (d. Ian Bonhôte
Peter Ettedgui
**Don’t worry!! Caught by the Tides (d. Jia Zhangke), Grand Tour (d. Miguel Gomes), The Shrouders (d. David Cronenberg) will be in consideration in the 2025 list.
I still need to see so many of these! Great list, my friend. Super solid. I’ve only given one 5 star so far and that was for “Dune: Part 2”. Hoping to give more though! Baby docs I need to see still too.
Many docs*
Good list! I’ve seen a few of these films and I agree with your reviews. Thanks for posting this!
Anora is definitely on my top movies to watch of 2024.
Honestly, I haven’t seen any of these films yet. Been extremely busy lately. However, I like this list of films for two reasons. One, I like the the diversity of this list.
Two, i read a couple about these films on this list, and I believe there’s a huge change coming on how films are portrayed and how they can change the culture of cinema.
I believe it’s going to be like how it was in the 90’s
Great list Robert. Challengers was just different and beautiful at the same time. Queer is going to win an Oscar.
I am way behind this year. Hope to catch up by Awards Season. But of the films I have seen on the list, I totally agree on.
Boy I have a lot of movies to see!
Love Robert’s end of the year list – it’s my roadmap for films to watch in the new year!
Robert, the bottom line is that this is a masterful presentation. Your enthusiasm over the past year has been staggering. I am a huge fan of your Numbers 1,2,5 and 10 especially. I would have Hard Truths, Flow and Nickel Boys in the top 10, but we can’t be completely in accord. You did cite them either in your second-tier list or in Honorable Mention. I didnt care for Queer or Nosferatu, but there are a few on my own yet-to-be-published list, that you are not a huge fan of. Your presentation is as good as any out there!
Good list. Your lists are always well thought out.
Great List that includes the Alternative Yop Ten. My three favorites are Dune Part 2, Furiosa : A Mad Max Saga, and Nosferatu!!
A solid list. Waiting for The Brutalist.
This is a strong list. I’m pleased “Close Your Eyes” made a mention, even if it’s too low. Here is mine:
1. The Brutalist
2. The Beast
3. Close Your Eyes
4. Hard Truths
5. Anora
6. Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
7. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
8. Evil Does Not Exist
9. Nickel Boys
10. A Real Pain
Runners-Up
Between the Temples
Challengers
Dune 2
Furiosa
Hit Man
A lot on the list I’ve not seen. I’m going to see the brutalist though on 24th January when it opens here in the UK.
I’ve not really done a top 10 myself. It’s been a good year for cinema but personally It’s been hellish for me.
My list, in no particular order:
The Substance
His Three Daughters
Lisa Frankenstein
Kinds Of Kindness
Anora
Kneecap
The Outrun
In A Violent Nature
Wicked
Love Lies Bleeding
Absolutely loved Challengers and finding out what they did to make this movie was incredible.
just saw Wicked have to say in my top 10 with how they made the movie, maybe could have cut down about 20 minutes but kept you interested all the way and looking forward to part 2!!
Robert, one of the many things I look forward to at the end of the year is your top films listing. I always make a point of watching every film that you recommend. Thank you.
To be honest, I have seen none of these movies but I will certainly put them on my “To See” List
Still need to see a lot of these. Great list!
A fine and thought-provoking list as always! I haven’t finalized my list but we will surely overlap (as usual) on many — Anora, The Beast, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, Close Your Eyes, Flow, National Anthem, The Old Oak, La Chimera, All We Imagine as Light, Hit Man.
I was not so thrilled with Nosferatu, and was kind of disapppointed in The Brutalist, which I find to be narratively and characteristically a bit of a mess. I was expecting something more adventurous, to reflect the scope of the story and the nature of the man it depicts, but I found it to be largely conventional narratively and cinematically. And the ending was disappointing on several levels.
Some films I loved that are not on your list — Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Vermiglio, Kidnapped: The Abduction of Ergardo Mortara, Ghostlight, Crossing, Small Things Like These, and A Quiet Place: Day One.
Choosing the Right Online Tool
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