Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya in Dune: Part Two.
This year, there isn’t any sort of coherent theme in my picks for the best films of the year. If anything, I suppose you could say most of them make political statements in their own unique ways, and yes, that seems appropriate for a year like 2024. Speaking of political statements, I’d like to give a shout-out to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, which I would have included on last year’s list had I seen it in time. I considered putting it on this list, but I felt that wouldn’t be fair to this year’s strong crop. I also want to address why Sean Baker’s widely-praised Best Picture contender Anora is not on my list. Although I like the film broadly and think sections of it are brilliant, I’m still conflicted on it overall. However, if Mikey Madison does end up winning the Oscar for Best Actress, I think it would be very well-deserved. With that being said, here are my selections for the best films of 2024.
10. Cuckoo (directed by Tilman Singer, rated R)
The setting definitely becomes a character in writer-director Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo. Hunter Schafer is nervy and unforgettable as Gretchen, a teenager reluctantly whisked away to the German Alps with her father, stepmother, and half-sister. She discovers strange and sinister happenings at the resort her father is hired to help expand, and even the folks who seem to understand her angst aren’t always as helpful as they appear. To say Cuckoo is a strange film would be the understatement of the century. Somehow, Schafer, Singer, and Dan Stevens as the eccentrically villainous Herr König make all the various pieces fit. This art-horror experiment ultimately speaks to generational divides and the power dynamics they create, exacerbated by a lack of communication and differing values.
9. Sing Sing (directed by Greg Kwedar, rated R)
Another experiment which pays off beautifully, Sing Sing is based on a real rehabilitative theatre program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. The incomparable Colman Domingo is purely triumphant as the sensitive and caring John “Divine G” Whitfield, who mentors Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, a formerly incarcerated actor playing a version of himself. Other formerly incarcerated actors round out the cast, but Maclin is stunning, eventually becoming the beating heart of the film. He initially walks into the room like everyone is his enemy, but by the end of the film, he becomes just as much a hero as John. It’s a blessedly humanist take on the American prison system, and how much better it could be if we took the first step in seeing all men and women as deserving of compassion and empathy.
8. Tuesday (directed by Daina O. Pusić, rated R)
I guess at this point you could say experimental films are a sub-theme in this list, because Tuesday is definitely not your typical take on grief. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives the performance of a lifetime as Zora, a mother pre-grieving the expected loss of her cancer-stricken daughter, Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). When Death (voice of Arinzé Kene) arrives in the form of a size-shifting, talking Macaw parrot, Zora basically goes through the five stages of grief as she tries to navigate how best to care for her daughter when both of them have already received confirmation of the inevitable from the bird himself. If this sounds like a combination of too dark and too weird for your liking, it probably will be. But as someone who has lost several loved ones in his young life already, I found it utterly relatable and often cathartically devastating. Louis-Dreyfus portrays Zora’s burden with such realistic confusion, grounding the film’s fantastical elements in some of the most emotionally truthful moments of this or any film year.
7. All We Imagine As Light (directed by Payal Kapadia, not rated)
It must be a sign that the Golden Globes are changing for the better that they nominated Payal Kapadia for Best Director for her gently masterful All We Imagine As Light. Here’s hoping the Oscars recognize this film as well, despite their hopelessly antiquated system of having committees from each country select the one film from said country which gets to be considered for Best International Feature. In this case, the all-male Indian committee didn’t go for All We Imagine, and it’s not hard to imagine why. Light follows three female nurses in Mumbai as they navigate their love lives and other aspirations. Kapadia’s portrait of the city she calls home is breathtaking in its ability to both celebrate and interrogate its culture. By the time lead character Prabha (Kani Kusruti) quietly makes a decision purely for her own happiness, we’ve been trained to see the subtle ways in which these women are put down in their society, so the small victory feels louder than any spoken words.
6. Queer (directed by Luca Guadagnino, rated R)
I’m glad Luca Guadagnino had a mainstream hit with Challengers earlier this year, but Queer was much more my speed. An adaptation of the William S. Boroughs novel of the same name by Challengers screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, Queer finds both Guadagnino and star Daniel Craig in top form. Craig sheds his Bond persona completely as William Lee, a gay American expat living in Mexico City among other gay American expats in the 1950s. When he meets who he thinks is the love of his life, his psyche unravels in a way only Guadagnino could illustrate. This is a luxurious, even languorous film at times, but if you can adjust to its rhythms, its emotional undercurrents will likely stop you in your tracks. It’s a character study which nearly studies us as an audience, and it combines Guadagnino’s off-the-wall visual prowess with some moments of jaw-dropping classic-Hollywood production. It’s old and new all at once, and that makes it feel timeless.
5. The Piano Lesson (directed by Malcolm Washington, rated PG-13)
A Washington family affair (Denzel produced, his sons direct and star respectively), this August Wilson adaptation is definitely my favorite yet of any of the Wilson screen adaptations. Malcolm Washington’s emphasis on the folk-horror elements of the play had me entranced from beginning to end. It doesn’t hurt that cinematographer Mike Gioulakis brings the swirling camera technique he pioneered on It Follows, which makes the family argument at the center of the film appropriately dizzying. Siblings Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) and Willie (John David Washington) disagree on what to do with a piano which has a rich history from before their ancestors were freed from slavery. Deadwyler is phenomenal here; you can see the conflict in Berniece’s eyes with every bit of mounting tension between her and her brother. The entire ensemble is excellent, as is Washington’s direction, which leaves us as haunted as any drama could.
4. I Saw the TV Glow (directed by Jane Schoenbrun, rated PG-13)
Although I Saw the TV Glow features heavy allegory for the transgender experience, you don’t have to be anywhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum to enjoy it. However, I think it’s beautiful to see the reaction of catharsis this movie has received from the trans community at large. It’s a bold, risky vision of isolated adolescence and the often scary path to acceptance. Every risk writer-director Jane Schoenbrun takes here pays off. The allegory is delivered through a fictional television show called “The Pink Opaque” (think Are You Afraid of the Dark?), and two misfit teens who love the show. For them, the show feels more real than real life, which makes perfect sense when you see how the world around them treats its outcasts. Justice Smith as Owen and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Maddy are both appropriately awkward as the horror elements build up over time and force them out of their shells somewhat, but it’s Lundy-Paine who wows us with an impassioned plea delivered over a projected star map. The whole film feels like a eulogy for all those who never found their social tribe. But, as it directly tells us, there is still time.
3. Nosferatu (directed by Robert Eggers, rated R)
I really struggled with the placement of the top three films on my list this year because they are all bona fide epics, just in different genres. Writer-director Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu might be the grandest-in-scope horror film ever made. With an ensemble only rivaled by the #1 film on my list, Eggers reinvents the classic vampire tale with inspired dialogue, powerful drama, and his trademark talent for period pieces. As the foreboding Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) approaches the sleepy German town where most of the film takes place, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), the object of his desire, experiences a plague of mania before the rest of the town experiences a plague of their own. Depp is a revelation, hitting the considerable amount of notes she must hit with commitment, verve, and passion every step of the way. When Ellen has to become the story’s hero, seeing her rise to the occasion is just as exciting as anything else in the film, which is really saying something. I can’t wait for more horror fans to see this one for themselves. Eggers has proven he is hands-down the best director working in the genre today.
2. The Brutalist (directed by Brady Corbet, rated R)
The Brutalist is as epic as dramas come. Brady Corbet’s magnum opus is a thoughtful turning-on-the-ear of many typical tropes of immigrant stories we often see in the movies. Adrien Brody gives the single best performance of the year as László Tóth, a fictional Hungarian-born Jewish architect who is separated from his family during the Holocaust. When he stumbles into working for wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), he’s eventually reunited with his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy). Their new family life is not what László had pictured for so many lonely years, nor is the project he works on for Harrison, a project teased so rapturously before the intermission (the film runs well over three hours) and then brought into question nearly every minute after we sit back down. Pearce is phenomenal as well, as client and architect duke it out with each other over a great many things. In the end, both men have their entire reputations riding on this one building, and the story fittingly escalates to Erzsébet speaking some much-needed truth to their folly.
1. Dune: Part Two (directed by Denis Villeneuve, rated PG-13)
I feel a bit odd about putting two of the longest mainstream films of the year at my top two spots, because I’m not a fan of how 2-and-a-half hours has become the new 90 minutes. However, it’s pretty easy to tell when a film has earned a longer runtime, and master science-fiction storyteller Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two unquestionably earned it. At his best, Villeneuve has a knack for smoothing out stories that should feel more headache-inducing. In this case, getting to the juiciest parts of Frank Herbert’s original Dune novel, he somehow makes all the complicated world-building flow like spice under the hot Arrakis sun. This includes many things he didn’t get to in this film’s predecessor, such as the palace intrigue of Emperor Shadam IV (Christoper Walken) and his daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), as well as the sadistic Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler). Of course, the heart of the film outside of all its mind-blowing spectacle is the relationship between Duke Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his Fremen (Arrakis native) lover Chani (Zendaya) as Paul attempts to simultaneously avenge his father and bring peace to Arrakis. The stroke of genius at the script level is how Villeneuve and his writing partner Jon Spaihts expanded Chani’s role and incorporated some of the character’s arc from later books to give the story the political heft Herbert had always intended with the first book. Zendaya plays that role brilliantly, and both the writing and the performance perfectly set up the now eagerly-anticipated Dune: Messiah. Long live the fighters.
Honorable Mentions
Hundreds of Beavers
Chicken for Linda!
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Sometimes I Think About Dying
Kinds of Kindness
Ghostlight
The Apprentice | George Napper
