Best movies of 2024

[dougo]

I've been procrastinating posting my end-of-year movies list, but the Oscar nominations drop tomorrow morning so now's a good time! Like last year, I plan to post an updated list after the Oscars, because I still have a bunch of 2024 releases on my to-watch list.

I saw almost all of these in the theater; the ones I saw streaming online are marked with an asterisk below. (Technically I saw Majority Rules on a DVD player in the Somerville Public Library but it was a pretty crowded room so I'm calling that a "theater"!) I've separated them into buckets based on what rating I gave them on a 1-10 scale, and they're sorted from best to worst inside those buckets. I'm wondering if I need to start recording fractional ratings, because it was hard to remember enough details to fully rank the 48 movies that I rated a 7! So, take the precise relative rankings in this list with a grain of salt.

My number one favorite movie is a documentary, which I'm fairly sure has never happened before. Flipside is an unassuming doc about an unassuming run-down indie record store in New Jersey, but, much like Chris Wilcha's previous documentary The Target Shoots First (from 1999), it's also part autobiography, part sociological critique, and part psychoanalysis, with many fun tangents and surprising cameos. To quote DOC NYC, it's "the existential Gen-X movie we didn’t know we wanted."

I'm too tired to write up my other faves right now, but feel free to ask in a comment if you want me to expound on anything. Or just go stream it! I try to watch most movies without knowing anything about them (other than whatever it was that made me curious to see it: a director or actor I like, say, or its appearance on someone else's favorites list); it can lead to some fun surprises, and I recommend trying it out.

9:

1. Flipside
2. Sometimes I Think About Dying
3. Challengers

   8:

4. Hundreds of Beavers
5. Flow
6. Riddle of Fire
7. Good One
8. How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
9. Dune: Part Two
10. Conclave
11. The Dead Don't Hurt
12. Knox Goes Away
13. Hard Truths
14. Nickel Boys
15. Heretic
16. The Fall Guy
17. Hit Man
18. Touch
19. Nosferatu
20. Thelma
    
21. Wolfs
22. Daddio
23. Brats*
24. Afraid

    7:

25. Ghostlight
26. Janet Planet
27. Snack Shack
28. Evil Does Not Exist
29. The American Society of Magical Negroes
30. Dìdi (弟弟)
31. Anora
32. A Real Pain
33. The Room Next Door
34. The Beekeeper
35. The Beast
36. Problemista
37. Daaaaaalí!
38. Jim Henson Idea Man*
39. Drive-Away Dolls
40. Meanwhile on Earth
41. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
42. The Instigators
43. Rob Peace
44. Juror #2
45. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
46. Slingshot
47. My Old Ass
48. The Outrun
49. The Count of Monte Cristo
50. Wicked Little Letters
51. Self Reliance*
52. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
53. Saturday Night
54. Blitz
55. Piece by Piece
56. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
57. I.S.S.
58. The Piano Lesson
59. Firebrand
60. Strange Darling
61. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
62. Inside Out 2
63. Tuesday
64. Skincare
65. Deadpool & Wolverine
66. Here
67. Babes
68. Seeking Mavis Beacon
69. Stormy*
70. Alien: Romulus
71. Y2K
72. Kiss the Future

    6:

73. Elevation
74. Lisa Frankenstein
75. Civil War
76. Trap
77. Out of Darkness
78. 1992
79. The Watchers
80. The Last Showgirl
81. Unfrosted*
82. The Order
83. Wildcat
84. Coup!
85. Young Woman and the Sea
86. National Anthem
87. Blink Twice
88. A Quiet Place: Day One
89. Borderlands
90. Notice to Quit
91. Babygirl
92. I Used to Be Funny
93. The End We Start From
94. Majority Rules
95. Abigail
96. Cuckoo
97. Joker: Folie à Deux
98. His Three Daughters
99. The Critic
100. Between the Temples
101. Wicked
102. The Peasants
103. The Killer's Game
104. Kill
105. Longlegs
106. Rumours
107. The Fabulous Four
108. Smile 2
109. Goodrich
110. Gladiator II
111. We Live in Time
112. Queer
113. Lee
114. Madame Web
115. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
116. Tarot

     5:

117. The Bikeriders
118. Sing Sing
119. Love Lies Bleeding
120. Boy Kills World
121. Kneecap
122. Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
123. The Substance
124. Kraven the Hunter
125. Monkey Man
126. I Saw the TV Glow
127. The Book of Clarence
128. The Apprentice
129. The Crow
130. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
131. The Return
132. Twisters
133. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

     4:

134. Kinds of Kindness
135. It Ends with Us
136. The End
137. Nightbitch

     3:

138. The Wild Robot
139. Emilia Pérez
140. Megalopolis
141. Venom: The Last Dance

     2:

142. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Here's my current list of 2024 releases I plan to see in theaters soon:

The Brutalist
All We Imagine As Light
A Complete Unknown
September 5
I'm Still Here
Better Man

And a selection of other 2024 releases I hope to catch up with:

A Different Man
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
Aggro Dr1ft
Backspot
Butterfly in the Sky
Coup de Chance
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Dogman
Ennio
Eno
First Omen
French Girl
God & Country
Green Border
Immaculate
Je Suis Auto
Late Night with the Devil
Melomaniac
My Dead Friend Zoe
Poolman
Rebel Ridge
Red Rooms
Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus
Sacramento
Sasquatch Sunset
Scoop
Small Things Like These
Spermworld
Stress Positions
Sugarcane
The Killer (John Woo remake)
The Last Stop in Yuma County
The Monk and the Gun
The People's Joker
Trust (Confidenza)
Winner

Let me know what else I missed!