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.
- Flipside
- Sometimes I Think About Dying
- Challengers
8:
- Hundreds of Beavers
- Flow
- Riddle of Fire
- Good One
- How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
- Dune: Part Two
- Conclave
- The Dead Don't Hurt
- Knox Goes Away
- Hard Truths
- Nickel Boys
- Heretic
- The Fall Guy
- Hit Man
- Touch
- Nosferatu
- Thelma
- Wolfs
- Daddio
- Brats*
- Afraid
7:
- Ghostlight
- Janet Planet
- Snack Shack
- Evil Does Not Exist
- The American Society of Magical Negroes
- Dìdi (弟弟)
- Anora
- A Real Pain
- The Room Next Door
- The Beekeeper
- The Beast
- Problemista
- Daaaaaalí!
- Jim Henson Idea Man*
- Drive-Away Dolls
- Meanwhile on Earth
- The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
- The Instigators
- Rob Peace
- Juror #2
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig
- Slingshot
- My Old Ass
- The Outrun
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Wicked Little Letters
- Self Reliance*
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Saturday Night
- Blitz
- Piece by Piece
- The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
- I.S.S.
- The Piano Lesson
- Firebrand
- Strange Darling
- Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
- Inside Out 2
- Tuesday
- Skincare
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Here
- Babes
- Seeking Mavis Beacon
- Stormy*
- Alien: Romulus
- Y2K
- Kiss the Future
6:
- Elevation
- Lisa Frankenstein
- Civil War
- Trap
- Out of Darkness
- 1992
- The Watchers
- The Last Showgirl
- Unfrosted*
- The Order
- Wildcat
- Coup!
- Young Woman and the Sea
- National Anthem
- Blink Twice
- A Quiet Place: Day One
- Borderlands
- Notice to Quit
- Babygirl
- I Used to Be Funny
- The End We Start From
- Majority Rules
- Abigail
- Cuckoo
- Joker: Folie à Deux
- His Three Daughters
- The Critic
- Between the Temples
- Wicked
- The Peasants
- The Killer's Game
- Kill
- Longlegs
- Rumours
- The Fabulous Four
- Smile 2
- Goodrich
- Gladiator II
- We Live in Time
- Queer
- Lee
- Madame Web
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
- Tarot
5:
- The Bikeriders
- Sing Sing
- Love Lies Bleeding
- Boy Kills World
- Kneecap
- Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
- The Substance
- Kraven the Hunter
- Monkey Man
- I Saw the TV Glow
- The Book of Clarence
- The Apprentice
- The Crow
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
- The Return
- Twisters
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
4:
- Kinds of Kindness
- It Ends with Us
- The End
- Nightbitch
3:
- The Wild Robot
- Emilia Pérez
- Megalopolis
- Venom: The Last Dance
2:
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
9:
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!